The continual rise in the online sales in the last one decade has prompt nearly every entrepreneur to create and maintain an e-commerce store. Many even do not have a physical store at all and are making a good fortune in the e-commerce business. In the wake of this e-commerce boom, many platforms have registered a tremendous presence owing to their jaw-dropping features of which only one name Magento has captivated e-commerce merchants worldwide. It leads the market share with an approximate 30% of all e-commerce websites over the web, which speaks volume about its credibility among the online merchants.

Shopify and Woocommerce are the other ones, which are now preferred over a plethora of available e-commerce platforms like OpenCart, ZenCart, X-Cart, Prestashop, OsCommerce, and NopCommerce. If you are also an entrepreneur thinking of setting up an e-store, it is best to hire a professional Magento development service, but first, it is wise to know why it has emerged as the preferred choice of e-commerce merchants.

Top Features of Magento That Are Drool Worthy

The topmost features that you must know before going to set up an e-store and that have offered Magento an edge over others are the following ones:

Exceptional security – Due to cyber security threats, nothing is more important than creating an online store where shoppers can purchase without any apprehensions. The payment bridge of Magento is exceptionally secure with a PA-DSS certification. This enables online merchants for efficiently achieving high standards of PCI Security Council without spending a fortune. It also allows strong encryption of its electronic data by AES-256 and strong hashing.

Easy search engine optimization – Magento e-commerce development is on the rise as it is search engine friendly, which is vital to ensure a good visibility of your online store. It supports URL’s that are friendly to major search engines and meta information inclusion for products, different categories as well as content pages for more search engine friendliness. You can also integrate a nice blog or can add social media buttons for easy sharing which is crucial for successful SEO.

Favor responsive design – With a substantial number of online users accessing an e-commerce website via their mobile devices, it makes sense to go for responsive design. Magento greatly facilitates the same by creating an e-store, which is optimized to run perfectly regardless of any device of any screen size. With Magento, the maintenance cost of a responsive e-store is also comparatively low. One can also find a large number of attractive responsive themes for Magento e-commerce websites over the web.

Breezy product browsing – Magento facilitates display of multiple images per product with a zoom-in feature. You can also enjoy multi-tier pricing, a view of grouped products and availability in stock effortlessly. Visitors can also add products from the site to a wish list and share products with their Facebook friends, which eventually lead to more conversion rate.

Multi-vendor marketplace – You can easily turn a Magento store into a multi-vendor marketplace like amazon.com by using any of the available extensions or modules over the web. This means one can sell their various products from a single store. Many of these are also absolutely free that without any price tag!

Seamless integration with apps – The API web service of Magento allows you to integrate your Magento store easily with a variety of business apps like QuickBooks Online, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, and much more. This makes your e-commerce business more streamlined and ensure better returns.

Apart from the above-mentioned features, some of the other good features that make it ideal to set up an e-commerce website are its various promotional tools, easy site management, catalog browsing, one-page checkout, international support for taxation, and much more.

Why Magento Is Considered Better Than Shopify?

Magento has certain advantages over another popular e-commerce platform like Shopify. While Magento is open-sourced i.e. free for use by anyone, the later is a paid one. Here, it is essential to note that the enterprise edition of Magento is not free. However, most e-commerce merchants opt for free version as it has bright features. Moreover, by hiring the services of an e-commerce solution provider company, one can have all the functionalities. The paid themes in Magento are also quite good and available at an unbelievable cost of 1 dollar only while for Shopify themes, you need to dole out at least 80 dollars. You can also have a built-in multi-lingual support for your website, which is possible to achieve in Shopify only with the help of third-party apps.

In the wake of all these facts, it is evident that you should go for Magento Development service for getting your dream e-commerce website in a hassle-free manner. For more details, please do not hesitate to contact Elsner Technologies Private Limited by placing a call at +1 607 524 4040.

In a global television commercial just launched (10 June 2005), Ronald McDonald energetically rides a bike. He deftly shoots hoops with basketball megastar Yao Ming. He even snowboards like a pro.

It’s enough to make you choke on your super-sized Big Mac meal. Yes, McDonald’s “Chief Happiness Officer” now has a new title: “Amabassador of Balanced Lifestyles”.

But he won’t be giving up his old job.

The McDonald’s-owned website, GoActive.com, explains how Ronald juggles the two titles. “As McDonald’s Chief Happiness Officer, Ronald McDonald is involved with anything and everything that makes people happy. He wants the best for everyone.”

And it seems that when it comes to what’s best for everyone, fatty junk fare (described by GoActive as “tasty, wholesome food”) is just not enough any more. In a stunning revelation, the site tells us that we now also need “physical activity that seems like play” and “robust good health”.

Enter Ronald in his new, ambassadorial role … “Ronald believes in an active, balanced lifestyle. He lives one himeself. And he is the ambassador of active, blanced lifestyles for everyone.”

So just what does this new diplomatic status entail? GoActive,com explains that Ronald considers physical activity a “critical component of the energy balance equation”.

Wow, Ronald’s starting to speak like an ambassador already! We ordinary folk would have said something low-brow like, “If you’re going to eat fattening, junk food, you’d better try to burn it off with some exercise”.

Like any good diplomat, Ronald’s pretty vague about how he’s going to achieve this goal, promising to work “with the people of McDonald’s in various ways to help parents and children identify realistic, fun ways to incorporate fitness and exercise into their daily lives.”

If Ronald’s sounding ambassadorial, his boss, McDonald’s Chief Executive Officer Jim Skinner, sounded positively Presidential when he announced his company’s “It’s what I eat and what I do … I’m lovin’ it” campaign.

“We will use our size and strength to set an example,” he told the media. The campaign includes television adverts, new packaging, an updated Web site and a fresh series a videos featuring Ambassador Ronald teaching children how to eat well and stay active.

And like a true diplomat, Ronald will soon get to demostrate just how multi-lingual he is. The new commercial airs first in the United States and will soon be broadcast in Canada, Germany, Italy, Portugal, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Uruguay, Chile and Argentina.

And that’s only the beginning. The TV spots will be followed later this year with a series of “Go Active with Ronald McDonald” interactive community shows across the US and in other countries.

Active he may be, but it’s obvious even Ronald will need some help in this historic mission. Tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, hockey player Wayne Gretzky and speed skater Bonnie Blair are among the sporting luminaries McDonald’s has pressed into service.

CEO Skinner has declined to put a price tag on the mission, but perhaps the TV networks and sports stars will get with the public-spiritedness of the campaign and donate their services gratis.

Of course, the company is adamant that none of this has anything to do with all those unfairly-critical articles in the media, alarmist books like Fast Food Nation, and muck-raking documetaries like Super Size Me. Nor, its insists, has it anything to do with recent court actions in which money-grabbing litigants have won millions of dollars in settlements.

On the contrary, we’re told, the latest campaign is just a natural evolution of previous efforts on Ronald’s part to teach children how to keep safe, like fastening seat belts and wearing bicycle helmets – both very important things for kids to know, so we’ll understand if Ronald forgot to warn them not to eat unhealthy food like burgers and fries.

“This is just another way we’re communicating with our customers on the importance of energy balance,” company spokesperson Lisa Howard said.

Hey, there’s that “energy balance” term again.

Sounds like Lisa’s been getting some lessons in diplomat-speak from Uncle Ronald!

In Egypt what would be considered a road hazard anywhere else in the world is probably the road. Outside of Cairo there are few defined spaces for traffic and pedestrians. Even where there are pavements people, cars and animals share equal access.

Most visitors suspect leaving the sanctuary of their hotels risks being flown home in a box. But as Egyptian street life is gloriously vibrant it seems a shame to miss out when all that's needed is a little local knowledge.

Walk like an Egyptian: This is easier than you might think. Wear shoes with traction and keep looking over your shoulder to check what's going on behind, even when walking on what appears to be a 'safe' side of the road. There isn't one. Pot holes without safety barriers regularly appear overnight, so glancing down sometimes helps to prevent unwanted tumbles.

Jay walking: Is entirely legal, encouraged even. Nonetheless if you can avoid crossing the streets, do – you'll live longer. If you must cross then run as fast as you can in a zigzag fashion while keeping a constant watch on anything that's moving or could possibly move. Never assume someone will stop for you. They won't. For really busy areas it's better to find a place where locals are already crossing and tailgate them as nonchalantly as possible. Suspected stalkers are as unwelcome in Egypt as they are elsewhere.

Remember there's another way to cope with this. One can either hop on a local mini-bus or take a taxi.

Mini-Bus: Multitudes of honking mini-buses careening to a stop in front of pedestrians will take you anywhere along fixed routes within towns and cities extremely cheaply. By cheap, I mean never pay more than 1/2 LE (Egyptian pounds). Ignore any attempts at bargaining. Buses are small and often crowded, so getting in and out can reveal more flesh than is considered suitable and can lead to unwelcome attentions. Modest attire is therefore to be recommended.

Taxis: Collective service taxis are one of the best features of Egyptian transport. They operate on a wide variety of flexible routes and are faster than buses. Taxis can be used for individual trips or shared with others. Prices for all trips, including intercity, must be agreed in advance. On the downside is the often maniacal driving at high speed.

Alternatively, if you have a death wish, you can hire a car.

Car rentals: A number of international companies operate in Egypt. To hire a car you need a valid international driving license, be at least 25 years of age and possess nerves of steel.

Rules of the Road: There are none. But still it's important to have your facts straight before attempting to pilot anything on wheels. For instance driving is done by constantly blasting horns and flashing headlights – a method known locally as 'The Egyptian Brake Pedal'.

Honking: Is done to signal intentions and warnings when, for example, anything is blocking the road, something looks like it might, something isn't and at traffic lights regardless of color. Drivers toot when pulling out, pulling in, stopping, moving, bored or when saying hello.

Lights: Indicators are reserved for use solely at night and then only to alert any following traffic of road bends ahead. In darkness headlights are flashed intermittently to oncoming traffic to alert them of their presence rather than used continuously. Saves on the battery apparently.

It's wise never to assume any human or animal has seen you – honk that horn and flash those lights even if it's just to be friendly!

Lane Markings: Are purely decorative. Drivers drive on which ever side of the road appeals, which is generally on your side. The intentions of another road-user should never be taken for granted as there's a good chance he hasn't decided yet and, even if has, he'll almost certainly change his mind again.

Overtaking: Cars, buses, carts and trucks will make every effort to overtake and undertake other vehicles even in what appears to be an impossibly tight space, as this gives them the right of way. Anyone who tries cutting in from behind is ignored as they're liable for collisions.

Collisions: If you do have an accident, immediately go on the offensive and offer to pay for repairs. The alternative is being screamed at until you're deaf and you'll still end up paying. If the local police happen to be around, standard procedure is to chuck everyone in prison regardless of fault and, believe me, you'll still end up paying.

Speeding: Strangely speed limits are rigidly enforced in Egypt. Although you wouldn't think so from the way Egyptians drive. Even minor infringements can result in confiscation of one's driving license. Getting it returned is an expensive, protracted and laborious business with no guarantee of success even if one hands over wads of hard cash ie. dollars or euros.

Security: One safety feature you can always count on while cruising the Egyptian highways and byways is the road block. To some they seem like an unnecessary hindrance and the endless waiting to be judged friend or foe interminable. Be patient and remember the longer you wait, the longer you live.

Cultural tip for better appreciating the above: The Islamic religion is a critical component in Egyptian life. Therefore, this is a fatalistic culture and one's destiny is believed to be firmly in the hands of God. Since nothing can be done about this, there tends to be an acceptance of the status quo. In other words, the answer to everything is subject to 'Insha'allah' (God willing) and a copy of the Koran is a standard extra in all forms of transportation. On the upside, this fatalism means that it's rare to meet an Egyptian who's not smiling.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Getting to Egypt: Alitalia, KLM and Air France all fly to Egypt for approximately EUR300 return or less. However, holiday packages generally work out cheaper than booking flights and accommodation independently. Budget Travel, for example, will fly you to Luxor, luxury coach you to a 5 star hotel and feed you breakfast for around EUR540 per week. If you disappear as I did – resorts not being my thing – they will even come looking for you.

Getting around Egypt: Egyptian public transport is amazingly efficient and inexpensive.

Bus: Inter-city buses are the cheapest way to travel around the country. A ticket from Hurghada to Cairo costs as little as 60 LE per person, one way. In the Red Sea area you will find two main operators – The Upper Egypt Bus Company serves the Red Sea Governorate towns, from Hurghada to Safaga, El Quseir and Marsa Alam, also linking these towns to the Nile valley and Cairo. The Canal Zone and Sinai are served by the East Delta Bus Company. Both companies offer air-conditioned buses and on the longer routes they also have on-board toilets. Schedules change frequently, so it's better to check personally at the bus terminals.

Rail: Slightly more expensive is the extensive railway network controlled by Egyptian State Railways. The network has a high standard of service and covers the whole country, connecting all the main cities. Tickets can be bought at the station but, as with all matters in Egypt, some patience is required to actually complete the purchase. Take along your student card, if you have one, as I'm told it may give up to a 33% reduction on fares. Personally I doubt this but then I've never had the patience to try. Visit http://www.egyptrail.gov.eg for more information.

If you want to take advantage of the overnight train services then it's necessary to book one week in advance through a travel agent or through Abela Egypt. For more information visit http://www.sleepingtrains.com .

Planes: For those with money or little time to spare Egypt Air flies daily between Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel and Hurghada. Being a nervous flyer I always appreciated the traditional communal prayers led by the pilot while on board ie. 'bismillahir rahmanir rahim' (in the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most kind) to assist take-off and on successfully landing 'al-Hámdu lil-láah' (by God's mercy) we made it. All of which reminds one just how truly miraculous aviation travel really is. For information on timetables and fares visit http://www.egyptair.com.eg/english/ .

Health & Safety: Adrenaline rush is addictive so proceed with all due caution. Still, no vaccinations are required for tourists arriving from Europe. Pharmacists in the major towns are knowledgeable and are usually tri-lingual.

Employers and managers are often thrust into the spotlight when asked to lead an interview process for their organization, with little training or guidance. Getting the right person on board to your organization, in the right position, at the right time, is one of the most strategic business decisions today.

The cost to an employer for a position’s turnover can be the equivalent of a year and a half of salary. This takes into account recruitment costs, lost productivity, training and other on-boarding expenses. As a result, it is important to get the right fit for the position the first time.

Keep in mind the following tips when you approach your next interviewing process – these ideas could literally save you thousands of dollars:

1. Give thought to the interviewing process and develop a consistent process for all candidates :

In order to ensure the best “fit” for your organization, make sure that each candidate is being measured the same way. What this means practically, is that every candidate should be asked the same questions, and should go through the exact same steps. This is important not just for selection, but also to ensure consistency, which could be challenged in the legal environment.

2. Be aware of legislation:

Every country has different legislation which will impact the interviewing process. Here in Canada, employers need to be aware of the impact of the Canadian Human Rights Codes and questions that may be prohibited under it. Not being aware of the legislative framework you are operating within can be a very costly mistake. Ensure that all staff involved in the selection process (from recruitment advertising, to the application, interview and selection process) are aware of any prohibited grounds.

3. What really are the KSAs (the Knowledge, Skills and Abilities) you need to hire for?

KSA stands for knowledge, skills and abilities. When putting together a job description and the recruitment process focus in on the KSAs required for that position. Knowledge includes the technical knowledge and information a candidate needs to have in order to perform the job (for example, knowledge of marketing principles) . Skills are the hard and soft skills required to perform a position (for example, keyboarding or multi-lingual). Abilities are demonstrated observable competencies(for example, the ability to thrive in stressful environments, or to meet tight deadlines).

In HR we talk a lot about KSAs and job specifications for good reason. How many times have you attended an interview when the questions and the interviewing process really didn’t look at what was required for the position? In addition to legal issues, it is important to really hone in on the KSAs required for any post. The KSAs will play an important role in your recruitment, selection, compensation, performance management (appraisal), and training and development processes.

4. Group Decisions are better than Individual Decisions:

It is more and more common today, and is a best practice, to hold panel interviews. Panel interviews involve two or more interviewers speaking with each candidate. Research continues to show that group decisions are better than individual decisions for many reasons including the fact that our own personal biases do not play as dominant a role.

When holding a panel interview process, ensure that all panel members are briefed on the process, the position you are hiring for, as well as best practices of interviewing. It is often helpful to build time at the start of the interviewing schedule for a 15-30 minute meeting between the members of the panel at the start of the interviewing process to discuss what it will look like — who will ask the questions, when and how. An interviewing kit can be developed for panel members a week or so before the interview, giving them some time to review it prior to the interviews. The interviewing kit can include the resumes of the shortlisted candidates, the interview questions, interview scoring information and any other information.

5. Block time in between candidates:

Block time in between candidates for interviewers to complete their notes, and also to synthesize the group’s feedback or recommendations. If you are holding 6-8 hours of interviewing back to back, it is natural to have each candidate start to look like each other. By blocking time in between interviews you can summarize your findings and then move on, returning to your summaries for each candidate at the end of the day or the end of the interview process.

When undertaking a panel interview, make sure that all panelists are comfortable and knowledgeable about the process and measurement (for example, if you are using any sort of matrix to measure). Also ensure that all panelists are on the same page (for example, that one rating of 5 is consistent with what others rating of 5 looks like). It can be helpful to provide some specific examples of what behavior would be considered a 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 (if using a 5 point scale).

6. Avoid closed questions:

Wherever possible, avoid the use of closed questions, as well as leading questions. Closed questions are those questions when used would elicit a yes/no response. For example, “Have you had supervisory experience before?”. Look to rephrase this to “Please describe your previous supervisory experience” or better yet “What are the lessons you have learned from your previous supervisory experience?”. Notice how the second question gets even deeper than the first?

7. Be clear on next steps:

A common pitfall with interviewing is a lack of clarity regarding the next steps for the process. Will there be a second interview? When can the candidate expect to hear from the panel? Be as specific as possible regarding when the candidate can expect to hear back from the company. Remember, impressions are everything, and interviews can be a public relations opportunity. Even if the candidate is not chosen, what message are you sending by the communication you are sending on next steps?

8. Interviews are a two way process:

Remember that interviews are the chance for you to check out the candidate and for the candidate to check out your company. Often strong candidates may leave an interview realizing that they do not want to work for the company they have just interviewed with. What is the image of the company you are portraying through the interview process? Does this match your corporate values, culture and ways of working? If not, what changes do you need to make?

Interviewing is often referred to as an art. What can you do today to enhance your interviewing process and skills?

Copyright 2007 – Jennifer Britton. All Rights Reserved.

Everyone needs to eat. It is a simple fact and has made many entrepreneurs successful in restaurant businesses. There are Vietnamese restaurants throughout the country. Even though this sophisticated cuisine remains largely unknown to the general public. Most popular dish is Pho and is a secret of success in this most popular, challenging, colorful, savory, and time-honored dishes.

Vietnamese cuisine, in general, reflects the influence of a multitude of cultures and histories of the country. China ruled over Vietnam for over 1000 years until A.D 900, but the Vietnamese retain their cooking culture rather than assimilate the Chinese style, leading to a distinctly different cuisine. Mongolian invasions of Vietnam during the thirteenth century also left a lasting imprint on variations of Vietnamese dishes. Then the French arrived, gaining control of the country in the 1887 incorporating Vietnam into the French empire (1887-1954). The Japanese would occupy Viet Nam during World War II.

Contacts with Vietnam’s Southeast Asian neighbors are Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand and all including Vietnam had been under the cultural influence of Indian, Indonesian, Dutch, and Portuguese. Vietnamese cuisine remains original and distinctive from others with its unique characteristics like using fish sauce (nuoc mam), or always having fresh herbs and vegetables to put in soups or as a side dish.

Pho, also called Pho Hanoi or Pho Bac, is one of the most popular northern specialty dishes. Pho is made with beef, chicken or seafood, but I prefer beef. I will share a recipe below. Pho is a typical comfort food that most people order when they go to Vietnamese restaurants. In fact, Pho is a street vendor’s food in Vietnam and can be eaten at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and anytime in between with many different sizes. Hearty, fortified noodle soup is a wake-up call for early morning, with multiple textures of hot broth, fresh ingredients, tender beef slices, chewy rice noodles, and crunchy bean sprouts. These items demonstrate the uniqueness all in one bowl.

Beef Pho (can make with chicken also) is made with the spiced beef stock, poured over fresh rice noodles and paper-thin slices of raw beef in a bowl. It is hauntingly fragrant and lightly spicy with cinnamon, star anise, fresh ginger, fennel, and nutmeg. A side platter full of fresh basil, cilantro (long, saw-leaf herb), fresh mung bean sprouts, onions, chilies peppers, lime juice, get put together with all the other Pho ingredients at the table when it’s time to eat. These go on top and added while serving as accompaniment and garnish the soup as desired.

Better yet, this is a soup made to order, put together as you wish and hastily consumed with both hands. Let the eating begin, with chopsticks in one hand and a soup spoon in the other. The long noodles are lifted out releasing the steam, and it is proper to slurp, a natural reaction to eating this hot soup. The slurping helps to cool the noodles just enough to make it possible to swallow them. Together with the noodles, the pieces of meat or seafood are plucked from the broth and dipped into the Hoisin and Sriracha sauce. This sauce is served side by side in a small dipping bowl.

Homemade Pho is the best, but it requires a lot of time to prepare with a lot of ingredients. All the time and energy invested will result in tremendous amounts of flavorful. Techniques for cooking Pho may vary from chef to chef. It seems the authentic recipes are never written but taught inside the family and to the children by letting them help in the family kitchen, and this is how I learned. Giving a recipe is a very personal gesture of friendship and respect in the Vietnamese culture, and I hope you will enjoy trying it one day. Here is my recipe. It makes 4-6 servings.

Beef Pho:

To make spiced beef stock: Begin with 3 pounds of oxtails and or other beef bones and flank steak. I prefer to clean them first, then put them in a large stockpot, cover with water and bring to a boil over high heat. After it has reached a bowl, drain off the water and proceed cooking the stock by covering Cover the bones with 10-14 cups of fresh water, add a little salt, and the list of ingredients below then bring to a boil again.

One big piece of fresh ginger root: sliced and crushed

One medium onion

One tablespoon salt

Five whole star anises

Two cinnamon sticks

Four whole cloves

Two whole nutmegs

One piece rock sugar or 1 tablespoon sugar

Two teaspoons fennel seeds

Add the crushed fresh gingers, onion, anise, cinnamon sticks, nutmegs, cloves, sugar to the pot. Put the fennels seeds in a tea ball and add to the stock.

When the broth comes to a boil the second time, reduce the heat to low and simmer for about 2-3 hours, skimming occasionally. Then strain, and you have a good flavoring stock to use.

1 pound of Vietnamese flat rice noodle (fresh or dried is your choice)

1 pound beef, preferably the eye of round or beef rib-eye that you cut into paper-thin slices

Accompaniments:

Lime wedges

Fresh mung bean sprouts

Sprigs of coriander (cilantro)

Thai basil leaves (not to be confused with sweet basil)

Chopped fresh chives or scallions

Cilantro

Fish sauce (nuoc mam)

Hot fresh chilis, thinly sliced

Hoisin sauce

Chili or Sriracha sauce

To serve:

Bring the Beef Stock to a boil while preparing the rice noodles.

To cook the rice noodles: In a large bowl, cover the rice noodles with water and soak until pliable about 30 minutes. Drain. Put a large handful of noodles (enough for one serving per bowl) in a strainer and dip in the boiling water, swirl noodles with chopsticks about 20 seconds until noodles are tender but firm (never overcook the noodles). Shake the noodles dry and put them into a soup bowl. Place raw beef slices on the top of noodles and ladle the boiling beef broth over the noodles and beef slices. Top with chopped scallions and cilantro.

Serve hot with accompaniments.

Pho has made most Vietnamese restaurants very successful, and you can find it on their menu as a chef’s specialty. This signature soup has enticed many cultures to try and enjoy one of the different foods offered in Asian countries and around the world.

Pho, not just for dinner anymore!

The hotel industry has seen tremendous growth in the past few years as millions of hotel properties are now offering their guests online bookings. Online hotel reservations have become a very popular method for booking hotel rooms as travelers from around the world can make room reservations from the comfort of their home. There are primarily two ways in which one can make an online booking, namely – Online Travel Agencies (OTA’s) and Booking Directly with Hotels.

OTA’s provide travelers with a wide of range of accommodation options, allowing them to make an informed decision by comparing prices and facilities of different hotels. Some of the popular OTA’s include Expedia, Travelocity, MakeMyTrip, etc. OTA’s provide pictures of hotels and rooms, information on prices and deals, reviews of travelers, etc making it a lot easier for people to make bookings.

However, even though having a presence on OTA’s can be quite beneficial; you cannot ignore the importance of booking directly on hotel websites. Direct Hotel Bookings attract frequent, loyal leisure and unmanaged business travelers, who focus on schedules, and convenience. Hotel websites cater to this audience with more personalization and loyalty, whereas OTA’s appeal to different types of travelers like infrequent, leisure travelers who take very few trips a year and are more price-sensitive.

A recent survey taken in 2008 says that only 39% of online travel sales are made through online travel agencies (OTA’s), whereas the remaining 61% are made directly at hotel websites. Clearly, the percentage of travelers making online bookings via OTA’s is less than half compared to bookings made directly at hotel websites.

An increasing number of hotels now have their own websites with a booking engine attached to their website to permit people to book rooms in real time. This way hoteliers can market their hotels directly to their guests through their websites.

 Listed below are some of the benefits of Direct Hotel Bookings: 

• Increase in profits by eliminating fees of 20-30% charged by intermediary sales channels
• Control of room rates and increase in number of reservations from own website
• Manage entire customer experience from shopping, reservation, and post-stay follow up
• Provide a comprehensive offer of options including restaurants, gyms, spas and other amenities
• Offer guests with more hotel images, videos and a full description of the hotel property
• Offer better rates and pricing with no additional booking fees
• Provide confidence to travelers that the reservation will not be lost between a sales intermediary and the hotel

One big reason why majority of the customers are using hotel sites to make their reservations is because hotels have significantly improved their websites providing better navigation, design and content. With a comprehensive online booking engine integrated to your hotel website that provides real time, multi-lingual and multi-currency solution, wide range of payment options, and high security standards you can provide utmost ease of booking, influencing customers’ decision making, ultimately reinforcing loyalty.

There are many Forex brokers to choose from when trading currencies online – and choosing the right one is essential, if you’re going to maximize your FX trading profits.

This article is all about choosing the best broker to help you trade online – and help you achieve currency-trading success.

Firstly, you need to understand the following:

A Forex broker is there to help you place orders and give you a good service when doing so.

Many novice traders however choose a broker assisted account – and then expect their broker to help them make money!

You shouldn’t use a broker-assisted account.

To succeed in FX trading you need to understand that you alone are responsible for your trading success, and no one else.

Now you have your FOREX trading system / trading plan, it’s time to choose a broker. Here are some tips to help you:

Spreads Offered

Spreads can be very competitive and you need them to be. Transaction costs mount up – especially if you are trading frequently.

The tighter the spread, the more profits you will make.

Today, many brokers offer spreads as tight as 3 – 5 pips – and this is what you should look for.

Deposit Online

Look for a broker who will take online payments to your Forex account – and make sure the payment method is secure.

This is a great facility for funding your account quickly – and getting your trading profits back into your bank account!

Guaranteed Stop Loss Protection

The leverage is one of the main reasons that people are attracted to currency trading, as it increases the profit potential dramatically.

Of course, leverage is a double-edged sword – and where there are high rewards, there is high risk.

Many traders are nervous of trading with the potential to lose more than their initial deposit. With this in mind many Forex brokers now offer guaranteed stops and negative balance protection.

This is a sensible service to utilize when you first venture into trading, as it gives peace of mind for a small fee.

Leverage Offered

The leverage brokers will give you varies dramatically from broker to broker.

You should look at a broker who will grant you at least 200:1, as it will maximize your potential profits.

In fact, many brokers will give you leverage of up to 400:1.

Other Charges

Your only transaction cost should be the currency spread – you should not pay other commissions.

Always make sure that the currency spread is the only fee you’re charged, and that you don’t pay any extra brokerage commissions.

Investment Amounts

Today, currency trading is not just the preserve of wealthy individuals and banks – anyone can get involved, as deposits are affordable to all investors.

You can open a trading account online with as little as $100.00 – this means that novice traders who want to start out with a small amount can do so.

Trading Platform

If you are trading online, you will go through a Forex trading platform – and you should look at this closely when looking to trade with a broker.

You want ease of use and reliability – but also check that the broker provides assistance and support.

FOREX Trading Education

While you should always make your own investment decisions, it’s nice to get free trading tools such as:

· FREE trading guides

· Forex training seminars

· Trading news

· Trading recommendations

· Forex trading systems

· Trading books

These can be useful when you first start to learn Forex trading, and you are developing your own Forex trading strategy.

Choose Your Broker Wisely

When choosing a Forex broker you have a lot of choice, and the above tips will help you choose a broker that will be a valuable partner in your quest for profits from online Forex trading.

When I start working with students in the college admissions process, at the very first meeting I ask parents to identify a series of nouns, adjectives, adjective phrases, or even little stories (just positive ones please!) that will help me know who their son or daughter is. Very purposely, I don’t ask students for their contributions, because most kids don’t want to have anything to do with blowing their own horns.

MESSAGES YOU WANT COLLEGES TO GET ABOUT YOU

What I tell the family is that this exercise is just the beginning of the process to help their student come up with “messages” that he or she wants colleges to get about him or her. Clear, sharp images should leap out as the student completes applications, writes essays and goes through interviews. Usually, one parent takes the lead, shouting out a rapid-fire list of words. A father might say of his son, “Brilliant, tough as nails in sports, hard-working, and a team player.” Then the other parent chimes in with his or her chosen adjectives. A mother might say, “Caring, respectful, everybody loves him, a wonderful son.” Yes, mothers and dads often have quite different things to say about their kids. All the while, I’m writing down what they say, sometimes asking for clarification or elaboration. If a parent gets stuck, I will say, “What has your son (or daughter) been like since he (she) was a little boy (girl)?” That usually brings forth a whole new set of fresh descriptions. Recently, a number of parents have asked me to provide them with a list of words that will help them jump start their message list process. Here is a list of 140 words and adjective phrases that have been collected over a number of years: 140

GREAT WORDS AND ADJECTIVE PHRASES TO DESCRIBE WHO YOU ARE

A: Academic, an acquirer of knowledge, adaptable, adventurous, affected by the plight of others, analytical, animal-lover, animated, articulate, artistic, assertive, athletic

B: Balanced, bright, brilliant, has a good business sense

C: Can do anything, caring, good with children, the class clown, devoted to community service, compassionate, competent, concerned about others, confident, conscientious, considerate, courageous, creative, curious

D: Deep, dependable, detail-oriented, determined, disciplined, down-to-earth, people are drawn to her, driven

E: Good with the elderly, empathetic, enthusiastic, ethical, exceptional

F. Fitness-oriented, flexible, focused, a foodie, doesn’t suffer fools, friendly, fun (or funny)

G: Generous, genuine, never gives up, goes beyond what is expected, good natured, grounded

H: Happy, hard-working, health-oriented, helpful, honest, humble, good sense of humor

I: Imaginative, independent, inspirational, great intellect, intelligent, involved

J: Joyful

K: Kind

L: A leader, a fast learner, logical, loyal friend

M: Mature, mechanical (can fix anything), encyclopedic memory, modest, moral, motivated, multi-cultural, multi-lingual, musical

N: Nice

O: An “old soul,” one of a kind, opinion maker, optimistic, organized, original, outdoorsy, outgoing, his or her own person

P: Passionate, patient, persistent, poised, polite, popular, positive, a problem solver

Q: Very quick, quietly confident, a quiet leader

R: A reader, refreshing, reliable, a researcher, resilient, resourceful, respected, respectful

S: Scholarly, self-directed, self-motivated, self-starter, sensitive, science-oriented, sincere, sparkling, spiritual, a sponge for ideas, stands out from the crowd, studious, superb, supportive of others

T: Talented, has good taste, team-player, a techy, loves to travel and explore, trustworthy

U: Unique, unpretentious, upfront

W: Willing to step up, acerbic wit, work until you die kind of person, a beautiful writer

If you are a parent (or student), take a look at the words above and circle any that apply to your child (or you). If other words or adjective phrases pop into your head, add them to the list. If you end up with more than 20-25 adjectives, you should probably go back and select no more than 15 or so to hone in on.

MANY USES FOR WORD DESCRIPTIONS

There are many uses for word descriptions. For example, the USC application usually asks for “…three words that describe you.” Last year’s Stanford application asked, “What five words best describe you?” And as noted above, as applicants decide what they are going to say on the applications–especially in the essays–it’s useful to keep in mind what you want the colleges to “get” about you as they read your words. Some counselors and teachers like to receive lists of words that describe student applicants to help them know what to say in their respective School Reports and Teacher Evaluation Forms/Letters of Recommendation. Finally, based on my many years of writing about confidence and competence, I also tell students that knowing who you are is a first step in becoming a confident, effective adult person.

Copyright (c) 2010 Marjorie Hansen Shaevitz.

Many years ago, I read the story of the turtles in the book “Market Wizards”. I was fascinated to read how the legendary trader Richard Dennis, trained a group of novice traders in just 14 days – and how these novices later became trading legends themselves.

Now we have a book written by one of the turtles themselves. “The Way of the Turtle” by Curtis M. Faith. This turtle and author made $30 million for Dennis – and now shares his insight of the turtle experiment and its achievements

The Bet

In 1983, Richard Dennis had a bet with his long-time friend William Eckhardt. They had a friendly dispute on whether traders were born, or could be taught to be successful. Dennis thought they could be taught, but Eckhardt thought they couldn’t.

The turtle experiment took place – and Dennis won. The turtles achieved a collective compound rate of return of over 80%. This group of 23 traders had never traded before, yet were taught to trade a system in just 14 days.

“Way of the Turtle” reveals the reasons for their success, and covers such areas as:

. The system rules and methodology

. Why, even though they used the same method, some Turtles were more successful than the others were.

. How to expand the rules that the Turtles used – in order to find core strategies that work for any tradable market.

. How to apply the Turtle methods to your own trading strategy.

. Ways to diversify your trading risk

The “Way of the Turtle is a good book – being easy, and fun to read. The book throws up one key fact that all forex traders should note in their forex education: Simple trading systems can provide a trading edge, but it’s psychologically difficult for most traders to follow these systems and take advantage of the edge the system can provide. This is clearly shown by the fact the Turtle’s results varied (despite the fact they all were taught the same methodology).

There’s also a discussion on the difficulty of executing a system that has a few big winning trades, in order to achieve an overall positive return on investment.

If you learn one key fact from the book, it’s that learning a successful trading system is not enough. You need the mental discipline to execute the system correctly – in order to maximize your returns.

I’ve always found the experiment an inspiration, and I’m sure other traders who read this book will come away thinking, “they did it – so it’s possible!”

It’s possible to become a successful trader if you gain the right knowledge – but you also need courage and discipline, in order to execute the knowledge correctly.

You may not be as successful as the turtles were – but the book will point you in the right direction, to achieving currency-trading success. The book does this by highlighting some key areas you need to apply in your own forex trading strategy, in order to become a successful currency trader.

“Way of the Turtle” is well worth buying – and you should consider it to be an essential read, and part of your forex education.

For a country as big as India and with a population that is just as large (it is the second most populous country in the world), it is no surprise that the spoken languages are just as varied and as large.

For anyone who wants to learn an Indian language, the undertaking is bound to be daunting because of the additional task of learning the particular script form of that language.

National And State Languages

Trying to learn all of them would certainly take more than a lifetime or two. Consider this fact – till date, the country has 15 national languages recognized by the Constitution. Within this multitude of languages, there are over 1,600 dialects on record, so far.

In addition to these, there are 18 languages recognized by the Indian constitution as state languages. These state languages are used in schools and in official transactions within their respective states.

They are Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada (Kanarese), Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Meithei (Manipuri), Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.

The citizens of the former Indian states (and now independent countries – Pakistan and Bangladesh) speak Urdu and Bengali, respectively.

Official And Working Languages

Today, Hindi is recognized as India’s official language. It is spoken by about 20% of the population, especially in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. However, taking into consideration the number of languages spoken all over the country, English is the official working language.

No single common language is spoken on the Indian subcontinent, except Hindi and English, which are the co-official national languages of India. Both languages are used as lingua franca all over these linguistic regions.

For many educated Indians, English is virtually their first language. Most Indians, however, are multi-lingual and it is only their second language.

Hindi And Urdu

Hindi and Urdu are actually slightly different dialects of the same language. Their main difference lies in their vocabulary roots, scripts and religious backgrounds.

The Hindi vocabulary mainly comes from Sanskrit. It is written in Devanagari (a script form) and spoken mainly by Hindus. Hindi itself has two major varieties: western and eastern Hindi. Both are spoken by more than 400 million people.

Urdu has words with Persian and Arabic origins, and written in the Persian-Arabic script. Urdu is spoken by Muslims in India and in Pakistan.

All the Indian languages belong themselves to two major linguistic families: the Indo-European and Dravidian groups. The others come from Austro-Asiatic and Tibeto-Burman groups and other small isolated languages.

The Indo-Aryan group (part of the Indo-European family) is spoken by about 74% of the population. The Dravidian is spoken by around 24%.

Bengali

Another major language is Bengali. It is spoken by almost the entire population of Bangladesh, and in West Bengal state. Bengali was the language of the Nobel Prize winning Indian poet, Rabindranath Tagore.

Like Hindi, Bengali is also descended from Sanskrit and has the most extensive literature of any modern Indian language. It has around 200 million speakers and developed as a language in the 13th century.

Punjabi

Punjabi is spoken in the Punjab region which covers parts of northeastern India and western Pakistan. It is often referred to as the language of the gurus, the founders of the Sikh religion and is similar to the Hindi language. The secret teachings of Sikhism are in Punjabi.

To summarise, these are the major languages in use in India. Each one has a number of speakers that run into millions – some of them, more than the population of an average-sized country.

Learning an Indian language is an intimidating but satisfying task, considering that each language has a culture that is as rich as any country’s.