"If you have ten thousand regulations you
destroy all respect for the law."
- Winston Churchill

Traffic Lessons From India

By Michael Masterson

"Oh m'god," Paula shouted. "Watch out for the cow!"

"The man's a professional," Rob said. "Let him do his job.

Rob was right. Without braking, our driver deftly maneuvered the van around the cow and between a rickshaw and two motorcycles. Our guide continued talking calmly as the driver raced the vehicle through the immensely crowded boulevard from our hotel to the old city of Jaipur.

If you have never driven down a crowded street in India, you can't really understand the capacity of people to solve problems for themselves.

Take traffic, for instance.

In the U.S., we keep traffic moving and safe with a combination of technology (traffic lights, radar, etc.) and law enforcement. It seems to work reasonably well - except on busy thoroughfares. And when it doesn't work, we attempt to fix it by adding more technology (computerized traffic scanners) and regulations. (According to a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures, nearly 1,500 new traffic laws were debated by lawmakers in 2006. Almost 200 became law, involving subjects such as aggressive and distracted driving, speed limits, and pedestrian safety.)

In India, they do things very differently. In the two cities I have visited so far, Udaipur and Jaipur, I haven't seen a single traffic light. Not even a stop sign. If they have rules, there are very few of them. And any rules that may exist are routinely ignored.

For example, this afternoon there were all of the following moving objects on the road we were using: cars, vans, trucks, and buses; rickshaws, bicycles, motorcycles, and oxcarts; plus horses, cows, bulls, camels, elephants, and thousands of pedestrians. All of them moving at their own pace without any regard to the indicated lanes. (Yes, there were very faint lane demarcations on the pavement.) Some were moving lethargically (the cows, in particular). Some were moving with a purpose. And some, like the van we were riding in, were whipping along at what seemed to be a reckless speed. Most were going in one direction, but some were crossing the flow. And some were moving against it.

"This is sheer insanity," Paula said. "But it works!"

The road was a ribbon of madness, to paraphrase Alfred Noyes, yet the traffic kept moving. A thousand near collisions were narrowly avoided as we sped along, yet none occurred. And nobody seemed the least bit flustered.

I have reported on this phenomenon before in ETR - when I was writing from Rome. But the chaos of Italy's roads pales compared to India's, if only because there are so few camels, cows, and elephants on them.

What is remarkable is not the chaos but how well traffic works in India. My guidebook says that traffic accidents are a problem in this country. But if that is so, I haven't seen it. What I see is an amazingly proficient system of getting from here to there - at your own pace and in your own way, without traffic lights or cops or any appearance of regulation.

How can that be?

There is only one possible answer: People (and animals) here are much better at avoiding accidents. Without vehicular permits or driving schools, Indians know how to get around without getting hit. They are adept at cutting in and out of traffic, accelerating quickly, and stopping on a dime. They are much more aware of the danger around them, because they have to be.

In the Western world, we expect others to follow the rules, and this allows us to relax our guard. We crank up the iPod and talk on our cellphone and don't worry so much about traffic. When other people violate the rules or ignore the technology that is designed to protect us, we are surprised by it. And then we have problems. Fender benders. Chain collisions. Cursing. Shouting. Road rage.

"In India, we don't get excited if we have an accident," our guide explained. "It doesn't happen very often, but when it does everyone is polite. We take our bumps and move along."

There is a school of thought that says the best government is that which governs least. In theory, I believe that to be true. In practice, I sometimes have trouble with the concept. When I hear news of some terrible thing that has happened - high school children shooting each other, for example - my first instinct is to pass a law. But my experience here in India demonstrates how unnecessary that may be.

Human life is so complex. Even more complex than city traffic. Believing that we can prescribe order with laws and technology is a sort of arrogance. Sometimes it's better to let people figure things out on their own.

This idea may seem loony to you, sitting as you are in a modern city. But there is science behind it. Studies have shown that animals as unintelligent as ants can devise enormously complex systems for navigation and commerce by simply doing, on a collective basis, what each particular ant wants to do on its own. As Bill Bonner always says to me when I suggest some new rule to settle some business problem: "Why don't we do nothing and see if they can figure out a solution on their own?"

And they usually do.

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, the Internet’s most popular health, wealth, and success e-zine. For a complimentary subscription, visit earlytorise.com.

Labels: India, lassez faire, traffic regulations

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By Glenn Murray | Advertising
Copywriter, Website
Copywriter, Article PR Specialist *

The Center for the Digital Future today released its results for the fifth year of their project, Surveying the Digital Future. And what interesting results they are! More people are using the Internet for more things, more often, but even though it's their most important source of information, they don't trust much of what they read. The big question for every commercial website owner is, "Do they trust YOU?"

This article discusses the Center's findings, and provides some key information about how to make sure your site is one of the trusted ones.

The Statistics

78.6% of Americans use the Internet, and most of them would rather give up TV or their cell phone than their Internet. What's more, it's the most important source of information for more than half of users. But there's a catch. Internet users are now older (with consistent growth among older users) and wiser (the average user has been online for more than 5 years). So for the fourth year running, the number of people who trust only about half of what they read on the Internet is growing. Importantly, however, they DO trust their favorite websites... In fact, 81.3% of users believe the information they read on the sites they regularly visit.

In plain English, this means that if you can keep your visitors coming back, they'll trust what you tell them. And with credibility under your belt, selling is SIGNIFICANTLY easier, no matter what your product or service.

So the real question for online businesses is, "How do I keep 'em coming back?" And the answer is... QUALITY article PR and QUALITY content.

Quality article PR brings visitors to your site

Write helpful, informative articles and let other webmasters publish them for free, in return for a link to your website. It's that simple! Quality article PR increases your search engine ranking and visitor traffic by increasing your link popularity (see How to Top Google with Article PR). Just as importantly, it gives you a lot of qualified referral traffic - visitors who are already loyal because you've given them something for nothing. Because your article is published on numerous (tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands) of sites, people from all around the world read it. If they like what they read, they click on your link in the author bio at the bottom of the article, and voila!, you have a visitor who's already impressed.

TIP: For a list of approximately 250 article submission sites and article distribution lists, as well as some useful tips and templates, please visit Article PR.

Quality content keeps 'em coming back

Of course, bringing in visitors is one thing; turning them into repeat visitors is another thing completely. To keep your visitors coming back, the content on your site needs to be great. And by "great", I mean helpful, informative, unique, and well written. Generally speaking, people won't come back just because you have something to sell them. But they will come back if you have something to TELL them. By providing helpful information to your readers - information that isn't so accessible anywhere else on the Net - you're on the path to turning a visitor into a customer. (Don't forget, this is the underlying premise of newspapers, magazines, radio, and TV.)

Quality is the key!

The most important thing to remember - whether you're writing articles or web content - is that it absolutely, positively has to be high quality. Quality, quality, QUALITY! I can't stress that enough. It's the quality - not the quantity - of your articles and content that really turns heads. Yes, it's true that content is king. Yes, your web content can lead to a high ranking, but only if it's good. Only then will other sites link to yours. And yes, article PR can give you a high ranking, but only if it's good. Only then will other webmasters believe it will help their visitors and decide to publish it (giving you the link in the author bio).

In other words, content may be king, but there's content and there's CONTENT. Contrary to popular belief, content will only significantly contribute to a high search engine ranking if it's high quality. Likewise, content will only turn visitors into customers if it's high quality. So to bring visitors to your website and to keep them coming back, to make your website one the trusted ones, make sure you write articles and web content which is helpful, informative, unique, and well written.

Happy writing!

* Glenn Murray is an advertising copywriter, website copywriter, SEO copywriter, and article submission and article PR specialist. He heads copywriting studio, Divine Write, and is a director of article PR company, Article PR. He can be contacted on Sydney +612 4334 6222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit http://www.DivineWrite.com or http://www.ArticlePR.com for further details, a FREE SEO eBook, or more FREE reprint articles.

 

Need a newsletter
article or press
release written professionally? Call
Glenn in Sydney Australia on +612 4334 6222
or email glenn@divinewrite.com
for a creative advertising
copywriter,
website copywriter,
or
SEO copywriter.

Labels: article publishing

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The Plug-In Profits Site (PIPS) is not only an excellent package for people seeking a legitimate way to work from home on the Internet, but it has a superb team running the show in the background.

Stone Evans has put together some excellent marketing materials, such as the amazing 400-day Internet marketing tips "how to" reports, a comprehensive series of downloadable "newbie training videos", and the highly detailed yet easy to navigate 30 Day Success Internet marketing course; a strong lead capture page.

In the meantime, Dustin Cannon has spent much of the last few months revamping and upgrading the PIPS Advertising Co-op. The co-op has now evolved into a complete marketing package for PIPS affiliates who opt into it. Not only have the advertising campaigns been getting better, but the range of other resources has now expanded to include a promotional video that can be personalized to include your own URL and business name, 30 articles per month for you to modify and use to promote your business, plus an article submission service run by Cris Gittins which blasts your finished articles to numerous article submission sites all over the Internet.

In short, Home business entrepreneurs now have a total and all inclusive marketing and advertising solution at BizOppMarketing.com.

Earlier today Yahoo! News ran an article about the PIPS Advertising Co-op which is expected to drive a lot of traffic to the co-op site:

The New Plug-In Profit Site Advertising Co-op Gives Home Business Entrepreneurs A Total All Inclusive Automated Advertising And Internet Marketing Solution

"Research shows most business entrepreneurs are wasting more time than ever on menial tasks such as working with their advertising campaigns. Although large corporations are able to hire advertising execs to do these tasks, the average home business entrepreneur cannot afford to hire out for a similar position. With time equally profits, there is a real need from home business entrepreneurs to find a way to manage their advertising, without spending loads of time on that specific area of their business."

[more]

To check out what a Plug-in Profits member's website looks like, click here.

David Hurley
Grasp-The-Nettle.com

Labels: Dustin Cannon, home business internet marketing, internet business, PIPS, plug-in profits, Stone Evans, work from home

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I was browsing on my favourite "free classifieds" site, Adlandpro last night when I came across this ad:

50 GUARANTEED PAID SIGNUPS
You're GUARANTEED 50 PAID Signups!! In 90 Days or Less Details Here!!
http://www.smllc.tv/index.htm
ORDER NOW AND SAVE $100.00

Click on the ad and you come to a fairly amateurish looking site with a photo at the top of a woman wearing a rather cheesy grin on her clock. The site makes several offers, but the one in the classified ad costs $425...

It seems too good to be true, doesn't it... Well, if is SEEMS too good to be true then it ALMOST CERTAINLY IS too good to be true.

Consider.

The best performance for signing up paid affiliates that I know of was achieved by Daegan Smith, who grew his Success University organization by 625 affiliates in just 90 days. After six months his group had grown to 2,000 affiliates.

Other top affiliate marketers such as Ewen Chia and Stone Evans regularly recruit over fifty paid up affiliates to Empowerism each month (Ewen recruited 147 affiliates in September alone).

These guys are the best in the field, yet none of them offers any of his affiliates "50 guaranteed paid sign ups for $425". Then along comes a website with the claim to be able to do that for EVERYBODY who signs up. What if 100 mugs pay $425 each? Are we really to believe that the people behind this dodgy looking website can produce 5,000 paid up members in three months? What if even more people paid up - 500, say... would they really be able to "guarantee" 25,000 paid up members in 90 days? It is crazy.

It is a classic "get rich by doing nothing (apart from paying us)" scam.

Here is what I did to check out the site...

Firstly, the URL looks dodgy, doesn't it? The domain suffix ".tv" refers to the Polynesian micro state of Tuvalu but conjures up images of online porno and amateur youtube film-makers. Surely a website offering a genuine service would go with ".com" rather than ".tv".

Secondly, there are no names on the home page of smllc.tv. When I searched in the testimonials all I discovered was that the cheesy faced bird at the top of the page might be called "Lisa".

The only place I found a real name was when I clicked on ORDER HERE NOW.

Apparently a chap who calls himself "thomas wheeler" would like me to send him $425 via westernunion.com. It would appear that "he" can give a name and the vaguest of locations:

Saint Louis
Missouri -
USA

Thirdly, a whole page of the website is dedicated to explaining why they can't use Paypal. Here we discover that Lisa is "Lisa Thomas" and her accomplice is someone called "Jon". Of course, the non-use of Paypal would have nothing to do with the fact that Paypal require that you give them a verifiable street address, would it?

Going back to the main listings page I discovered that some of the other traffic generating services have Paypal "Buy Now" buttons for you to click. However, they are just window dressing. Presumably the idea is that Paypal buttons will impress the gullible visitor who will also swallow the "explanation" about why he can't send $425 via Paypal for his 50 paid up affiliates...

When you press a Paypal button you get this message from Paypal:

This recipient is currently unable to receive money.

Fourthly, in the left hand column there is a list of dodgy affiliate schemes. Not all the links work. One told me the referrer's name was neither Lisa, nor Jon, nor thomas, but "Paul Fowell".

I am not claiming to be an expert web detective or anything like that, but here's what I did to check up on smllc.tv away from their site.

FIRST STOP - GOOGLE.COM!!

This is easy. I simply pasted smllc.tv into Google's search field and out came the following info...

smllc.tv are scams | iGotGot.com
I know a friend who had put in 250 $ for signups and did not get any signups in the past 3 months nor will they reply . If you have had any deals with them ...
www.igotgot.com/node/79 - 14k - Cached - Similar pages

GetPaidSignups.com Anyone know them?
I was scammed by a website service at www.smllc.tv for the amount of $230 and ... After my bad experience with smllc.tv I found a link somewhere to this new ...
www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=31715 - 32k - Cached - Similar pages

Tazmania Advertising is a Very good company!
I have not tried them out because I tried smllc.tv instead and lost my $575.00. Now I have quite all internet business/affiliate programs I was in because I ...
www.scam.com/showthread.php?p=450594 - 127k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.scam.com ]

Business for Sale in the Glasgow Area - Sun Local UK,
... their web address http://www.smllc.tv/index.htm and by the 30th August guess what no sign ups and when you try to contact them no response, so all my. ...
glasgow.local.thesun.co.uk/sale/business/sale/ - 239k - Cached - Similar pages

I didn't even have to qualify my search by adding the word "scam" to my search terms!

"Who Is" Search...

The name and other details of a webmaster on an otherwise annonymous site can usually be found by looking up the URL on

who.godaddy.com.

However, when I ran a search for smllc.tv it turned out that the site is registered by a proxy company called domainsbyproxy.com which is designed to protect privacy - and conveniently conceal the "private" details of website that is masquerading as a public company.

Once you send smllc.tv your cash, the only contact you have with them is the email address that they kindly supply and apparantly do not respond to.

So now, who wants "50 guaranteed" paying affiliates for only $450" from "Lisa" and her no-Paypal play pals?

David Hurley
Grasp-The-Nettle.com

Labels: internet scam, smllc.tv, website checking

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Do you have a business, affiliate programme, website, hobby or charity you want to promote?

If so, you should think about getting yourself a Squidoo lense - or several! Squidoo.com is a website which allows you to build "lenses" about whatever grabs you, whether it's the history of the decline and fall of the Ottoman Empire, your photo collection of various types of leaf mould, or your pet cat in a hat.

So far I've built four lenses and got two more in the pipeline. Some Squidooers have hundreds of lenses set up. Yes, it can be addictive!

Lenses are free. You can earn money from them - and donate it to your charity, or, since charity begins at home, you can donate it to yourself!

Lenses are a great way to generate traffic for your main website and they take just a few minutes to build.

Check out my latest lens.

A typical Squidoo lens URL looks like this:

http://www.squidoo.com/ebay-certified-dropshippers/

Just recently, however, Squidoo launched a new project which allows you to make up your own URL using a superlative ("best"... "sexiest"... "cutest"... "wittiest"...) plus your chosen keywords, like this:

http://best.home-business-opportunity.ever.com.

These unique URLs are free, fun, and powerful - they are also very popular, so if you want to grab one for yourself and set up a free Squidoo lens, just grasp the nettle and grab one today at Squidoo!

David Hurley
Grasp-The-Nettle.com

Labels: best ever, free website promotion, lens, squidoo

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One of my other websites and blogs is dedicated to book reviews that are exactly 100 words long - reviews that get to the heart of things in just a few words. That at least is the ideal the site aspires to. The latest book review is of Stephen Covey's 7 Habits which I've been reading lately. It is a book that every Internet entrepreneur should read so I'm posting the review here too.

"One of the greatest habits you can develop is to learn and internalize the wisdom of Stephen Covey. He lives what he says and this book can help you live, permanently, in the 'winner's Circle.'"
Denis Waitley,
author of The Psychology of Winning

Stephen Covey's bestseller discusses how to integrate seven basic principles of effective living into your basic character to improve your performance from the inside out. The principles are: Be proactive; begin with the end in Mind; put first things first; think win-win; seek first to understand; synergize; sharpen the saw. Covey uses a computing metaphor to emphasise that "you are the programmer" of your own thoughts. By setting a mission statement, goals and roles for yourself, and seeking greater interdependence, you will, he argues, become a more effective person.

Key Quotations

• Between stimulus and response, man has the freedom to choose.
  
• Our behaviour is a function of our decisions, not our conditions.
  
• ...you simply can't think efficiency with people. You think effectiveness with people, efficiency with things.

David Hurley

Grasp-The-Nettle.com
100-Word-Book-Reviews.com

Labels: 7 Habits, goal setting, self improvement, self-help, Stephen Covey

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