Dr. Çetiner’s Blogs (Dr. Beytullah Gültekin Çetiner)

Don’t Be Fooled When You Shop For New Cell Phones. When You Buy The Latest Mobile Phone, Make Sure It’s Really New.

So you’re thinking of buying the latest mobile phone and your friend says ‘Why not get a used cell phone? It’s cheaper and just as good!’ Now that isn’t quite accurate. It may be true that you can get a fairly new second-hand cell phone at a cheaper price, but the question remains, why would you want to?

In the past, new cell phones used to be much more expensive and it was probably better to get a used mobile phone because of the price. But these days, it’s quite different. New cell phones are more reasonably priced and they come with great cell phone plans that you don’t want to miss out on. Obviously, you won’t be able to enjoy these offers when you buy a used phone.

It’s also true that you can still get some of the latest mobile phones when you buy them second-hand. But why would you want to buy a reconditioned phone? It may look like a new cell phone but you wouldn’t know if it has ever been broken or if any of its parts have been removed or replaced. If you’re shopping for the newest cell phones in the market, then you might as well get a brand new phone. The only reason you might want to get a used phone is because the mobile phone model that you’re interested in is either out-of-date or out of stock.

Honestly, if you’re looking to buy a new cell phone, then you might as well head to the store and get the latest mobile phone on offer. At the very least, you know that it’s new out of the box, and there is a negligible risk of your new cell phone breaking down for no apparent reason.

AdSense may be one of the fastest and easiest ways to monetize traffic to your web site whether you have products or services for sale or you simply provide free content to your visitors.

Simply stated, Google AdSense enables website operators to place some code on their site that connects to Google’s ad server content database and pulls keyword-relevant advertising onto the web pages. The webmaster gets paid a percentage of the fee that Google receives from the advertiser every time a visitor clicks on an ad. There is no charge for the webmaster to participate in AdSense. All costs are covered by the advertiser who participates in the AdSense sister program called AdWords.

Google’s sends out digital ‘robots’ which use proprietary algorithms to parse the host web page and analyze the content in an effort to determine what keywords are relevant. It reports its findings back to Google’s ad server which then serves ads matching those keywords. Given that the entire process is automated, the ‘ad robots’ do a pretty good job of getting the advertising content right most of the time.

The History of Google AdSense

Google AdSense has its roots in the old ‘Google Content-Targeted Advertising’ program which they introduced back in March of 2003. Although this program was similar in concept to AdSense, there was no automated way of participating. Each webmaster negotiated a deal directly with Google, and websites that served less than 20 million page views per month were not welcome to participate.

As Google grew, they began to see how much money they were leaving on the table by excluding the smaller sites, which greatly outnumbered the sites serving over 20 million hits that were willing to serve other people’s ads. Their answer to that problem was AdSense which has no minimum traffic requirements and is open to all sites meeting Google’s content and decency requirements.

How much can you make running Google AdSense?

The answer to that question depends upon three factors:

1. How much traffic your site draws
2. How many visitors click on your ads
3. How much those ads pay per generated click

With some ads paying as much as $5 or more, it’s possible that you can generate a serious income with AdSense. There are relatively well documented cases of some people earning as much as $500 per DAY and more. Numbers like that are rare exceptions however. Even so, there is no reason why you can’t earn somewhere around $1,000 per month, or more, once you get the hang of it.

How to get started using Google AdSense

Make a visit to Google’s AdSense Site (https://www.google.com/adsense/) and sign up. Make sure that you read their Acceptable Use Policy and that you follow their content requirements. Google has their own ‘AdSense Police’ who will have no problem booting you out of the program if you fail to walk the line.

Using Google AdSense on your site is like collecting free money. There’s no reason not to do it and potentially thousands of dollars worth of reasons to do it.

Everyone who has kept a personal blog knows that writing is a therapeutic process that helps integrate seemingly unconnected life events. Some believe the process works because the physical act of writing (using your hand-eye coordination) occupies your left brain, leaving your right brain free to access emotions, intuit connections, and create new insights.

How else can blogging help?

• Blogging reduces stress by getting ‘monkey mind’ thoughts out of your head. Mind chatter is a powerful stressor, stressor is a powerful health-buster, and blogging the chatter is a proven chatter-buster.
• Writing about problems gives your right brain food for creative problem-solving. It’s amazing what happens when the creative part of your nature starts working on a problem’you’ll soon find solutions bubbling up from your subconscious.
• Keeping a daily diary is one of the best techniques for discovering patterns, particularly those that are self-defeating. For example, a diary kept over the course of several months will clearly show any reoccurring difficulties like overeating, stress eating, poor (but similar) choices in relationships.
• Want to better know yourself? Blog. Writing can help clarify your thoughts, your emotions, and your reactions to certain people or situations. In addition, as you read back through past blogs, you’ll have ample evidence of the things that make you happy and those that are distressful.
• Blogging can help clarify events, problems, or options. When you’re beset with a mind full of fuzzy, disconnected thoughts flitting here and there, writing about the event or issue will help bring focus and clarity. It will also help you decide on which action to take, or option to choose.

The upkeep of your vehicle can be quite an expense - from initial purchase to insurance to maintenance. And sometimes we get the sinking feeling that every time we need a car repair, we are going to get taken for a ride. Actually there are some ways to make sure you don’t get a raw deal when dealing with a local body shop.

• How about some preventative medicine? Keep your gas tank filled. This will help you avoid the gas line freezing up in cold weather (not a recommendation for Saudi Arabia). Also, driving on ‘fumes’ allows little pieces of dirt at the bottom of your gas tank to run through the fuel lines with the last drops of gas. This debris clogs up the fuel filter and can cause carburetor damage as well.
• After you get recommendations for honest mechanics, call around to check out the prices for certain jobs. It’s always smart to get a second opinion.
• Sometimes a problem with your car’s electrical system results from a simple blown fuse. Check to see if you have any blown fuses before investing in a tow truck!
• Keep track of how much oil your car uses. A sudden change in oil consumption means you need to see a technician.
• Save your brakes by having your brake fluid changed every 45,000 kilometers.
• Check your tire pressure once a month. This simple maintenance check can add up savings at the gas pump!
• Stop and go traffic causes excess wear and tear on your vehicle. Go ahead and give your car a nice twenty minute ride at 90 kilometer per hour on the highway every couple weeks if you ‘major’ in short trips.
• Before you purchase from a dealer, ask about the dealer’s return policy, get it in writing and read it carefully. Dealers are not required by law to give used car buyers a three-day right to cancel.
• Find the ways for driving cost effectively and efficiently. (Do not drive too fast or in traffic times)
• Each 8 kph you drive over 90 kph is like paying an additional 4 halalah ($0.02) per liter for gas.
• In most cases, using cruise control on the highway will save gas.
• Replacing a clogged air filter can improve your car’s gas mileage by as much as 10 percent. This isn’t going to cost you an arm or leg either.
• Do your homework when buying a car after a rainy season. I know many people whose cars were stuck in water flood and useless last year during Hajj (2005). Remember the heavy rain. Many vehicles that have been damaged by floods were sold in the market. Be a little concerned if the carpet looks too new, and check carefully for signs of rust.
• When you consider all the ways you can save money on your current vehicle, you might be persuaded to put away the extra each month for a new car down the road!

According to new research in 2006;

“The iProspect Search Engine User Behavior Study” reveals that 62% of search engine users click on a search result within the first page of results, and a full 90% of users click on a result within the first three pages of search results. These figures were just 48% and 81%, respectively, in 2002.

The findings of this search engine marketing study are significant, both in terms of the behavior of the search engine user community today, as well as user trends over the last four years. Search engine marketers should take note of these findings and the implications to their businesses that are detailed within the study.

Other high-level findings include:

• 36% of search engine users believe that the companies whose websites are returned at the top of the search results are the top brands in their field. This represents a modest increase over the 2002 figure of 33%, but still reinforces the increasing importance search can have on brand lift.
• 41% of search engine users who continue their search when not finding what they seek, will change engines or change their search term if they don’t find what they seek on the first page of search results. This figure was 28% in 2002.
• Additionally, fully 88% of search engine users who continue their search when not finding what they seek, will change engines or change their search term if they don’t find what they seek on the first three pages of search results. This figure was 78% in 2002.
• 82% of search engine users re-launch an unsuccessful search using the same search engine as they used for their initial search, but add more keywords to refine the subsequent search. This figure was just 68% in 2002.