#Biggest Benefits of Using Index-Based Pricing

[costitright]

Tackling Raw Material Cost Fluctuations | Benefits of Index-Based Pricing - CostItRight

Learn how to manage raw material cost fluctuations effectively with index-based pricing strategies. Discover the biggest benefits of using index-based pricing and avoid common mistakes when handling price fluctuations in manufacturing. Stay ahead in the market by optimizing your pricing approach today.

[govindhtech]

IonQ Acquires Lightsynq to Advance Quantum Networking

Quantum computing and networking giant IonQ acquired Boston startup Lightsynq Technologies. IonQ's quantum computing and quantum internet roadmaps should benefit from this strategy. Completed on May 30, 2025, and disclosed in an SEC filing on June 2, 2025. Lightsynq's advanced photonic connection and quantum memory technology should help IonQ build scalable, fault-tolerant quantum systems and a quantum internet.

Quantum leap significance

IonQ, a leading networking and quantum computing company, provides high-performance technologies to solve the world's most demanding commercial and academic problems. Their 36 algorithmic qubit IonQ Forte and Forte Enterprise quantum computers are cutting-edge. IonQ makes its systems available through all major cloud providers, boosting quantum computing's influence. The company was named to Forbes' 2025 Most Successful Mid-Cap Companies and Newsweek's 2025 Excellence Index 1000 for its innovative technology and rapid expansion.

Read Introduction To Quantum Gravity: Challenges & Emerging Ideas.

Boston-based Lightsynq Technologies, Inc. was founded by former Harvard University quantum memory experts and AWS Centre for Quantum Networking executives. Co-founders Drs. David Levonian (CPO), Bart Machielse (CTO), and Mihir Bhaskar (CEO). Lightsynq specialises on photonic interconnects and quantum memory.

Interestingly, its founders created the first quantum memory that may grow quantum networks, which are needed to link quantum devices and form a Quantum Internet. Lightsynq uses this breakthrough technology to develop the best quantum interconnects in the world to connect quantum computers at high speeds and overcome the bottleneck of single-system scalability. Their specialisation is designing a cutting-edge photonic connection architecture for multi-nodal, high-fidelity qubit operations.

Financial and Acquisition Mechanisms

The acquisition was funded solely by IonQ common stock, 12,377,433 of which were issued. Certain Lightsynq shares and stock options need key personnel to stay with the company to vest. A registration rights agreement was negotiated to allow Lightsynq shareholders to register their shares for future resale, but the issuance was made under private offering exemptions, therefore public registration was not required.

In the purchase, IonQ acquired Lightsynq's impressive portfolio of over 20 technical patents and patent applications in quantum memory and connectivity technologies. IonQ's growing quantum intellectual property position is boosted by this addition. Based on IonQ's market price of $39.81 as of June 3, 2025, the discussion history estimated the worth of these shares at $492.7 million. Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati advised IonQ and Goodwin Procter LLP advised Lightsynq.

Strategic Importance and Transformation

IonQ made a strategic move by buying Lightsynq to address some of the biggest obstacles to quantum networking and computing:

Scaling Fault-Tolerant Systems: The acquisition will help IonQ develop scalable, fault-tolerant quantum devices. Lightsynq's photonic connection technology offers high-fidelity, multi-nodal qubit operations and modularity, enabling quantum computer scaling. This integration should allow IonQ to increase their quantum systems from tens of thousands to millions of qubits.

IonQ devices will “network at speed and scale, laying the foundation for distributed quantum computing,” With their efforts, remarked Dr. Mihir Bhaskar. He said that their photonic interconnects will “boost connection speeds” in IonQ's QPUs and provide “long term market-leading scale and power” in quantum computing as they advance towards “data-center-scale quantum computers.” IonQ CEO Niccolo de Masi said Lightsynq's technology matches IonQ's goal of scaling quantum processing power using photonic interconnects.

Developing the Quantum Internet: Lightsynq's quantum memory and repeater technology improve IonQ's trapped-ion quantum computing method and quantum networking capabilities. Niccolo de Masi said this acquisition “accelerates our development timeline to fault tolerant quantum computers and long distance networking capabilities.”

Dr. Bhaskar said Lightsynq's connectivity technology will be “critical for IonQ to build the quantum internet,” allowing clients in banking, telecommunications, aerospace, and defence to access new applications.

Integration of IonQ's trapped-ion quantum computers with Lightsynq's photonic connectivity technology is expected to immediately address some of quantum computing's biggest engineering challenges. Scaling quantum systems while maintaining fault tolerance, coherence, and connectivity is difficult. If this integration works, IonQ may have a “structural advantage in building large-scale, distributed quantum systems”.

IonQ's broader strategy

This acquisition supports IonQ's goal of technical leadership in networking and quantum computing. IonQ made several strategic moves to boost its quantum networking visibility. The first US public quantum networking and computing hub will be in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the recently announced cooperative creation of a new quantum computing innovation centre with the Electric Power Board (EPB). IonQ has acquired quantum networking leaders Qubitekk and ID Quantique in addition to securing networking contracts with U.S. defence and intelligence agencies like the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS).

Future outlook and key factors

With the instant acquisition of Lightsynq, IonQ may actively explore quantum communication and computation. Even though financial projections for this transaction have not been released, the strategic implications demonstrate IonQ's commitment to leading the quantum industry into a new era of scalable and networked quantum devices.

Note that this content includes future remarks. Since they involve expectations and assumptions, these forecasts are dangerous and vague. The acceptance of IonQ's technology roadmap, shifts in competitive industries, the success of their solutions, and their ability to attract and retain top personnel may cause these forecasts to differ dramatically. IonQ cannot guarantee its aims and has no plans to change them.

[zebublogz]

India’s Commodity Play: Strategic Reserves and Their Market Impact

In today’s global economic environment, where supply chain disruptions, geopolitical tensions, and inflation dominate headlines, India’s commodity strategy is gaining more importance than ever. One of the key tools in this strategy is the use of strategic reserves a long-term play that’s shaping not just policy, but market sentiment and pricing across sectors.

 What Are Strategic Reserves?

Strategic reserves are government-stockpiled quantities of essential commodities such as crude oil, food grains, and even rare earth minerals. These reserves act as buffers during emergencies—be it war, pandemics, or market volatility.

India, through institutions like the Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd. (ISPRL) and the Food Corporation of India (FCI), has created strong inventory systems for oil and food grains to stabilize both prices and public confidence during uncertain times.

 Market Implications of Strategic Reserves

Strategic reserves aren’t just safety nets they actively influence commodity pricing and investor behavior. Here's how:

Price Stabilization: When prices soar, strategic release of reserves can cool the market. For example, the Indian government releasing wheat or rice from FCI stocks helps contain food inflation.

Import Dynamics: With reserves in place, India can leverage global commodity cycles, importing when prices dip and holding off when they rise.

Investor Sentiment: The presence of strong reserves can lower volatility, boost investor confidence, and help stabilize sectors like FMCG, oil & gas, and infrastructure.

This plays a critical role for both institutional and retail investors, especially those using platforms like Zebu, where real-time updates and expert research guide smarter decision-making in volatile markets.

 Strategic Reserves in Oil: India’s Energy Buffer

India, being the third-largest consumer of crude oil, is especially vulnerable to global oil shocks. To combat this, India’s strategic petroleum reserves currently hold over 5 million metric tons of crude—enough to cover several days of national consumption.

This ensures:

National energy security

Better negotiation leverage with global suppliers

Less panic-driven volatility in the domestic energy market

Through Zebu’s commodity market tools, investors can track how these reserves influence oil prices and make informed entries and exits in energy-related stocks and futures.

 Agriculture and Food Reserves

Food inflation is one of the biggest pain points for Indian households. India's buffer stocks of grains are managed meticulously to avoid shortages and hoarding. These reserves not only ensure food security but also have a huge impact on:

FMCG sector margins

Consumer Price Index (CPI)

Rural purchasing power

For traders on Zebu’s platform, this offers opportunities to spot trends in agri-based stocks, fertilizer companies, and commodity futures.

 The Zebu Edge

With Zebu’s market insight tools, investors can:

Track government commodity reserve actions

Receive expert commentary on price trends

Identify sectors likely to benefit from reserve releases

Explore educational content on commodities trading and investing

Whether you're trading commodities or investing in related sectors, understanding strategic reserves gives you a crucial market edge one that Zebu helps you leverage with clarity and confidence.

Conclusion

India’s strategic commodity reserves are more than just storage—they’re instruments of economic power, price control, and national stability. As global markets continue to face uncertainty, these reserves will play a vital role in shaping India’s commodity pricing, investment climate, and market resilience.

With tools and research from Zebu, investors can stay ahead of the curve and make well-informed decisions, whether trading commodities, futures, or sectoral equities.

 Disclaimer

This blog is published by Zebu for educational and informational purposes only. The content shared does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any securities or commodities. Market conditions and government policies can change, impacting outcomes differently. All investments involve risk. Readers are encouraged to do their own research or consult with a certified financial advisor before making investment decisions. Zebu is not liable for any financial losses based on this content.

[universal424]

Get the Best Crypto Trading Signals with a Proven 99% Accuracy

One of the biggest financial activities that can be incredibly lucrative is trading in cryptocurrencies, yet it also has its features and drawbacks. The only way to be accurate is to make informed decisions, which is why it is advisable to visit the Best Crypto Trading Signals with 99% Accuracy. These signals offer exact and practical information on the prices of the cryptos, allowing traders to trade on them with a lot of ease and confidence in this volatile market.

What Are Crypto Trading Signals?

Crypto trading signals are also known as trade suggestions or alerts and represent the total strategies that traders use in executing their trades. These signals have their bases on other forms of market analysis and can often be useful additions to a trader’s decision making. Here’s a closer look at how these signals are generated:

Types of Analysis Used in Crypto Trading Signals

Technical Analysis: This involves analysing data that contain historical price data and trading volumes for instance in order to understand the trends prevailing in the market. Some of these important ones are Moving Averages, RSI (Relative Strength Index), MACD (Moving Average Convergence Divergence).

Fundamental Analysis: This method determines the worth – value of a specific crytocurrency based on internal characteristics that includes the technical support for the particular coin, the team behind the cryptocoin, the market and usage.

Sentiment Analysis: It uses these platforms to study the trend and sentiments of social media, news articles, and forums to determine trends and hype about cryptocurrency.

Algorithmic Indicators: Machine learning and complex calculus help to predict the movements or trends in the market with the help of huge amount of files information.

The Power of Accuracy in Crypto Trading Signals

It is pertinent to remember that trading signals need to be very accurate, especially when it comes to locating potential trading signals. The Best Crypto Trading Signals with 99% accuracy signals can enhance the trading results in terms of entry, stop loss & take profit level that we provide. Here are some key benefits:

Benefits of High-Accuracy Trading Signals

Informed Decision-Making: High accuracy of the signals allows trusting the recommendations and, thereby providing higher rates of confidence while making decisions.

Risk Mitigation: It also uses signals to reduce probable losses by providing you with the right information as to which trades you should stay clear of.

Efficiency: These signals reduce the time spent doing a personal analysis of the market, hence saving you time.

Consistent Profits: Sustaining an accuracy of 99% means there is a high likelihood of determining the kind of profits one is likely to earn in the long run, thereby increasing one's chances of embracing trading as a permanent business activity.

Key Features of the Best Crypto Trading Signals

Having listed and explained what crypto trading signals are, it’s important to know that to get the most out of them, one should select only the best ones. The Best Crypto Trading Signals with 99% accuracy share several important features:

Always consider signals from providers that have previous work history record that include accurate and successful recommendations.

It’s important to be able to check and potentially overturn a signal if needed – that’s why the general methodology and analysis behind the signals has to be transparent enough, so one would be able to know the basis for a specific recommendation.

These signals are usually provided in a real-time basis such that one can be the necessary actions on the information provided.

Technical, fundamental, and sentiment analysis can be considered time-tested signals providing a balanced outlook on the market.

It should be very easy to understand for a lay man and should also be easy for the more professional trader to follow since the signal is being provided by the platform.

How to Effectively Use Crypto Trading Signals

However, earning more by following the Best Crypto Trading Signals with 99% accuracy requires extra understanding and execution. Here’s how you can integrate these signals into your trading strategy: Here’s how you can integrate these signals into your trading strategy:

Select a Reputable Source: Select an Opt for a signal-providing company that is reputable as well as credible in terms of its performance.

Understand the Signals: To employ this method, you should generally know how the signals are displayed as well as the rationale behind them.

Implement a Strategy: Integrate the signals into a tight washed-out trade plan: define your when and where of getting in and out.

Monitor Performance: Check on the effectiveness of the signals from time to time and change your approach with regards to the ever-changing market conditions.

Conclusion

Everyone understands that the sphere of trading cryptocurrencies is constantly changing and opening the opportunity to have the Best Crypto Trading Signals with 99% accuracy undoubtedly can contribute to your success. These sorts of signals are helpful in presenting the needed clarity and precision for the attainment of required precision in the execution of business, in a market that is full of risks and the needed consistency in attaining profitability. 

As you shall see, the concept of a trading signal is one of the most vital aspects of trading that can help you optimize your trading strategy just in case you have been applying a rather speculative one up to the present date.

For the epitome of trading services, you cannot make a better choice than using the Best Crypto Trading Signals. Hub with precision and start the great opportunity of crypto working in the vigorous and wealthy marketplace.

[hardynwa]

Economists decry high production costs as inflation hits 22.79%

Nigeria’s headline inflation rate rose for the sixth consecutive time to 22.79 per cent in June 2023, the data released on Monday by the National Bureau of Statistics revealed. The inflation rate in Africa’s biggest economy rose to a new 17-year high of 22.79 per cent in June 2023 from 22.41 per cent in the previous month. The NBS report read, “In June 2023, the headline inflation rate rose to 22.79 per cent relative to May 2023 headline inflation rate, which was 22.41 per cent. Looking at the movement, the June 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.38 percentage points when compared to May 2023 headline inflation rate. “On a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 4.19 percentage points higher compared to the rate recorded in June 2022, which was 18.60 per cent. “This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in June 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., June 2022).” It noted that food and non-alcoholic beverages (11.81 per cent) led the list of items that contributed to the rising inflation figure. Economists had, however, said inflation needed to be tackled holistically. A former President and Chairman of Council, Institute of Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Prof Segun Ajibola, said Nigeria’s surging inflation needed to be curbed holistically. Ajibola, who is also a professor of economics at Babcock University, said, “The fundamental problems are still with us. We have to face the issues squarely to address the problem of inflation. “It requires a holistic approach. So many things have to be harmonised and so many things have to be tackled. Especially things that push costs of production and those that affect agriculture.” Partner and Chief Economist at KPMG Nigeria, Dr Yemi Kale, recently said the net benefits of the subsidy removal were positive, but noted that there would be disruptions arising from a direct increase in energy prices, inflation rate, and transportation fares. He said, “This disruption has an indirect impact on the increase in food prices and consumer demand. This is so because their purchasing power is weakened; consumer demand also shrinks unless the government provides some kind of relief to cushion the effect. “In addition, households would begin to cut their expenditures, leading to businesses recording decreases in demand amid rising costs of operation increases. This is particularly going to affect the Micro-Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, and this would eventually birth lay-offs, hence increasing unemployment rate and insecurities.” KPMG Nigeria said the removal of fuel subsidies in Nigeria could lead to a significant rise in the country’s inflation rate, potentially reaching 30 per cent in June 2023. A report by KPMG said the removal, whether implemented entirely or partially, would cause a temporary inflationary surge. The NBS, on its Twitter page, noted that the impact of the fuel subsidy removal and unification of exchange rates had yet to reflect on the country’s headline inflation, which justified the marginal increase. “The June Consumer Price Index numbers may not fully capture the impact of the fuel subsidy removal and the unification of the exchange rate. “This is because the data collection for computing the rate for the reference month typically stops around the middle of the month, meaning that the June numbers only reflect approximately two weeks of the policy impact on consumer prices. “The full effect of the policy as relates to prices can, therefore, not be reflected in June only, but also in subsequent months, based on actual prices collected in market outlets across the country.” Read the full article

[victoriansword]

British Military Swords Bibliography

The internet is a great place to learn about a topic, but in the field of antique swords it is still no substitute for a few good books. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list. 

Swords of the British Army: The Regulation Patterns, 1788-1914 by Brian Robson

This is considered to be the "Bible" of British military swords, and rightfully so. This in-depth look at regulation British swords (originally published in 1975, and revised in 1997) is the most recent attempt to provide a comprehensive study of all of the official patterns of swords. Robson is careful to address the errors and misconceptions present in previous titles on the subject (e.g. Sword, Lance, & Bayonet by Charles ffoulkes and E.C. Hopkinson, British Military Swords by John Wilkinson-Latham). The book's chapters are divided by sword types (cavalry troopers' swords, cavalry officers' swords, infantry officers' swords, corps swords, Scottish swords, etc.) which discuss the documentation for each pattern including the design and review of the patterns, period accounts and opinions of the various patterns, etc. At this point in time, Swords of the British Army (simply "Robson" to collectors) is unsurpassed and is a must-read for anyone interested in British military swords. It is important to note that this book only covers army swords, not naval or RAF swords. 

The British Cavalry Sword 1788 – 1912: Some New Perspectives by Richard Dellar

Richard Dellar seeks to build upon, expand, and in some cases, to correct the work of Brian Robson, but with a focus on cavalry swords rather than all swords of the British Army. The contents are arranged in chronological order, from the earliest patterns and variations to the most recent, and are followed by a number of vignettes which explore such topics as swords with specific provenances, sword makers, and sword decoration. The book features beautiful full color photographs, which is rare to find in books on this subject. This book is essential reading for collectors and scholars of British military swords. There is a short companion volume (2019) for this book that is also excellent.

Swords and Blades of the American Revolution by George C. Neumann

Although this book is nearly 50 years old (1973), nobody has tackled the subject in such a comprehensive way since its publication. The scope of the book is fantastic, as it covers American and European swords from about 1650 to 1790. One of the great strengths of this book are the hundreds of black and white photos of bayonets, swords, polearms, and knives (along with descriptions and measurements), and fantastic line drawings of scabbards, belts, and soldiers.  

British Military Swords by John Wilkinson-Latham

This book, the second major study of British military swords, is unfortunately not much use to one who is new to British swords. There are enough errors in the text so as to leave one thoroughly misinformed on a number of sword patterns and their periods of use. The book does contain photos of swords and Wilkinson design sketches not found in other books, making it a useful visual reference (but with Robson as the final authority on the specifics).

British Military Swords, 1786-1912, The Regulation Patterns: An Illustrated Price Guide for Collectors by Harvey J.S. Withers

This book is an excellent visual reference and depicts multiple examples of each pattern (as there was often variation in patterns from maker to maker). It is well-organized and provides some interesting information on sword making in Britain  a brief history of Wilkinson, lists of various regiments, examples of government blade marks, a breakdown of Wilkinson sword serial numbers by year, and more. I would recommend reading Robson's and Dellar’s books first, but if that is not possible this one is good enough so as to not be too misleading (indeed much of the information is based on Robson's research). Remember that this is not intended to be an academic book, but a collector's reference. 

Swords and Sword Makers of England and Scotland by Richard Bezdek

This book does not offer any new revelations on swords themselves. Instead the book focuses on sword makers and retailers in England and Scotland. In this regard the book is quite good--the index of makers and dates of activity can help in dating swords. The author relied on private collectors for the visual reference section, which has mixed results. First the good; many swords that may never be seen by the public (due to being privately owned) are available for perusal. However, there is no uniformity to the photos as each collector supplied their own photos. This means no standard backgrounds (professional white backgrounds for some, carpet for others), and poor image quality (bad lighting, focus, etc.). There are numerous errors in describing some of the swords. Again, read Robson and Dellar before relying on the visual reference section.

The British Cavalry Sword by Charles Martyn

The book is actually a collection of photographs of different sword hilts (not blades, sadly), with descriptions of each and career histories of some of their owners. There are some quite rare and desirable examples illustrated; however, the writer appears to be out of touch with much modern thinking on the history of certain patterns, and there are a couple of basic errors in identification. To cap it off, the black-and-white photographs are quite poor quality, which is a shame, as some of the swords are really very nice and I'm sure would benefit from good color treatment. 

Wilkinson Sword Patterns and Blade Rubs - Including Index and Details, 1844-1954 by Robert Wilkinson-Latham

This is a book filled with minutiae and may be of limited interest. The first section of the book is basically an annotated scrapbook of Wilkinson designs including etchings, special patterns (both proposed and realized), and other design sketches. The general format is that the left-hand page is illustrated with an image or several images, and the right-hand has notes and commentary on the images.This section is essential for anyone interested in the evolution of Victorian officers' swords, design minutiae, and the individual tastes of officers of both the British and Indian armies. The next section is an index of specific design orders including special patterns, presentation swords, special equipment (remember that Wilkinson was an outfitter and could provide an officer's entire kit), etc., along with the year purchased and sometimes the name of the buyer.  The biggest weakness of the book is the image quality. It is mostly good enough, but some images are fuzzy or too small.

[seriousbusinessforhumans]

NEW DELHI (IDN) – On February 6, protesters blocked roads at an estimated 10,000 spots across India as part of the ongoing movement against the new farm laws enacted by the national government last year. For over two months, the most populous democracy in the world has witnessed what is being called one of the biggest protests in human history.

Hundreds of thousands of farmers have been rallying against three new laws that have thrown open the agriculture sector to private players. Protesters feel the legislation will allow a corporate takeover of crop production and trading, which would eventually impact their earnings and land ownership.

The movement has overcome regional, religious, gender and ideological differences to build pressure. Leftist farm unions, religious organisations and traditional caste-based brotherhoods called khaps, which make pronouncements on social issues, are working in tandem through resolute sit-ins and an aggressive boycott of politicians.

India’s right-wing government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, pushed the laws through the parliament in September 2020, despite lacking a majority in the upper house and agriculture being in the jurisdiction of state governments. The protest is a response to the lack of respect for parliamentary democracy and federalism, but its main focus is the pervasive corporate influence on governance.

After limits on corporate contributions were removed and allowed to be made anonymously, 8.2 billion dollars was spent on Indian parliamentary elections in 2019, which exceeded how much was spent on the U.S. election in 2016 by 26 per cent. Most of this money came from corporations and the BJP was the primary recipient.

Farm crisis is the fuel

Farmers are a large electoral block in India, with half the population being engaged in agriculture. No political party can afford to offend them publicly even though policymakers have done little to increase farm incomes and address their indebtedness. Around 300,000 farmers died by suicide between 1995 and 2013, mostly due to financial stress. In 2019, another 10,281 farmers took their lives.

Indian farms are mostly family-owned, and the land is a source of subsistence for millions. Around 86 per cent of farmers, however, till less than five acres while the other 14 per cent, mostly upper castes, own over half of the country’s 388 million acres of arable land.

Farmers in a few north Indian states were able to consolidate their holdings through increased incomes with the introduction of irrigation, modern seeds, fertilisers, machines, market infrastructure and guaranteed price support from the government during the Green Revolution in the 1960s.

But rising input costs and climate crisis have adversely impacted the profits there as well. In Punjab, the most agriculturally-developed state, for instance, the input costs of electric motors, labour, fertiliser and fuel rose by 100 to 290 per cent from 2000 to 2013, but the support price of wheat and rice rose by only 122 to 137 per cent in the same period, according to a government report. Heavy use of chemicals, mono-cropping and farm mechanisation have damaged the soil, affecting productivity and forcing farmers into debt.

Strength and strategy

Punjab saw widespread protests as soon as the laws were enacted. Farmers occupied railway tracks and toll plazas on major roads besides corporate-owned thermal plants, gas stations and shopping malls. Scores of subscribers left Jio, the telecom service owned by the top Indian businessman perceived to be close to Prime Minister Modi.

Farm unions also held regular sit-ins in front of the houses of prominent political leaders forcing an important regional party to leave the national government alliance. Several state leaders of the ruling party resigned from their posts as well. Similar scenes played out in the neighbouring state of Haryana, where leaders were publicly shamed and the helicopter of the elected head of the government was prevented from landing for a public meeting after farmers dug up the helipad area.

In November, thousands of farmers drove their tractor trolleys towards the national capital as they played protest songs by celebrity singers. Stocked with rations, clothing, water and wood for months, they braved tear gas shells and water cannons used by the police along the way. Powerful tractors pushed heavy transport vehicles, concrete slabs and barbed wires that the administration had placed en route out of their way.

Open libraries and medical camps were set up and volunteers offered their skills, ranging from tailoring to tutoring children. Besides speeches by the farm leaders, cultural performances, film screenings and wrestling bouts became a regular feature. More farmers poured in with each passing day.

“These occupations are not just a reaction of wronged citizens who have set out to reform the Indian parliament or assert dissent. Rather, they form an important stage in a still-unfolding narrative of militant anti-capitalist struggle,” wrote Aditya Bahl, a doctoral scholar at the John Hopkins University who is archiving the peasants’ revolts that took place in Punjab in the 1960s and ’70s.

The Indian Supreme Court suspended the implementation of laws and formed a four-member expert committee on Jan. 13 to look into the issue. Farmers have, however, refused to meet the committee members, alleging that many of them have already written or spoken in favour of the laws.

The protests are not only targeting domestic companies and political figures. Farmers have also burnt effigies of Uncle Sam, the World Trade Organisation and IMF, signifying the influence of global trade over domestic agricultural policies. Developed countries have been pressuring India for last three decades to open up its agriculture sector to multinational players by slashing subsidies and reducing public procurement and distribution of food grains to the poor.

Protesters are also seeking a legal right to sell their produce at a guaranteed price. The Indian government usually declares a minimum support price on various crops based on the costs of their production, but only a fraction of the produce is procured at that rate. In the absence of government procurement facilities in their areas, most farmers have to settle for a lower price offered by private traders. A law would make it mandatory for private players to buy the produce at a declared price.

“If Indian farmers are able to get the law on guaranteed price passed through their current agitation, they will become a role model for farmers across the world living under heavy debts,” Sharma continued. “India should put its foot down at the WTO and create much-needed disruption in the world food trade policy for the benefit of the global agriculture sector.”

The movement grows

The BJP-led national government has faced numerous protests over the last six years of its rule..... The country has dropped 26 places in the Democracy Index’s global ranking since 2014 due to “erosion of civil liberties.”

This is the first time peasants have been galvanised in such large numbers against the government. The government has already held 11 rounds of negotiations with farmers’ representatives and offered to suspend the laws for one and a half years on Jan. 20. But farmers are not budging from their demand of the complete repeal of the laws and legal cover for the selling of their crops at a guaranteed price.

On January 26, which marks India’s Republic Day, 19 out of 28 states witnessed protests against the farm laws.

In Delhi, however, a plan to organise a farmers’ tractor march parallel to the official Republic Day function, went awry. A group of protesters clashed with police at multiple spots and stormed the iconic Red Fort, a traditional seat of power for the Mughals, where the colonial British and independent India’s prime ministers have also raised their flags.

The protesters unfurled banners of the farm unions and Sikhs – one of the minority religious groups and the most prominent face of the protests. Mainstream media and ruling party supporters used the opportunity to blame the movement for desecration and religious terrorism. Security forces charged sleeping farmers with batons at one location, filed cases against movement leaders, allowed opponents to pelt campaigners with stones, arrested journalists and shut down the Internet.

The attacks, therefore, ended up lifting the flagging morale of the farmers and helped the movement gain even more supporters, who shunned the government and media narrative. Massive community gatherings of khaps were organised at multiple places over the next few days, extending their support to the protests and issuing a boycott call for the BJP and its political allies.

Mending fault lines

The movement has also been able to overcome regional and gender divisions, and is trying to address caste divides.

The states of Haryana and Punjab are often at loggerheads on the issue of sharing of river waters. Haryana was carved out of Punjab on linguistic lines in 1966, but most of the rivers flow through the current Punjab state. Haryana has been seeking a greater amount of water for use by its farmers, while Punjab’s farmers oppose the demand, citing reduced water flow in the rivers over the years. The current protests have united farmers for a common cause, helping them understand each other even though opponents have made attempts revive the water issue.

Women have also been participating in the protests in large numbers. They are either occupying roads on Delhi’s borders or managing homes and farms in the absence of men, while taking part in protest marches in villages.

“Earlier, we were able to rally only 8,000-10,000 women for a protest. Today that number has swelled to 25,000-30,000, as they recognised the threats posed by the new laws to the livelihoods of their families,” said Harinder Bindu, who leads the women’s wing of the largest farm union in Punjab. “For many women, this is the first time they are participating in a protest, which is a big change because they were earlier confined to household work. Men are getting used to seeing women participate and recognising the value they bring to a movement.”

“When women members participate in sit-ins, men manage the house. I feel this movement will bring greater focus on women’s issues within the farming community – one of which is the need to support the widows of farmers who died by suicide due to financial constraints.”

In Punjab, less than four per cent of private farmland belongs to Dalits, the lowest caste in the traditional social hierarchy of India, even though they constitute 32 per cent of the state’s population. They often earn their livelihoods through farm work or daily wage labour. Even though Dalits have a legal right to till village common land, attempts to assert that right often lead to violent clashes with upper-caste landlords who want to keep it for themselves. Dalits are waging similar battles across India. Researchers recorded 31 land conflicts involving 92,000 Dalits in 2019. A few of the farmers’ unions have supported and raised funds for Dalit agitations in the past.

The movement is gradually encompassing other rural issues beyond the farm laws. In the state of Maharashtra, for instance, thousands of tribal people travelled to the capital Mumbai on Jan. 23 to extend support to the farmers. They also asserted their own long pending demand for land titles under the Forest Rights Act, which recognises traditional rights of scheduled tribes and other forest dwellers on the use of land and other forest resources.

* Manu Moudgil is an independent journalist based in India. He tweets at @manumoudgil.The original version of this article was published on Waging Nonviolence under the title ‘India’s farmers’ protests are about more than reform – they are resisting the corporate takeover of agriculture’.

[jerrymononela]

JERRY MONONELA – What is Stock Markets

Share Trading Basics

 Introduction:

Owning shares is one of the greatest tools to wealth creation you can find. Shares, apart from owning fixed property,

should form the cornerstone of any investment portfolio. You do however need a firm understanding of the stock market

basics before dipping your toes (and your money) into the sea of opportunity which is the stock market.

It is like having a business but not having to show up at work.

The interest of the average Joe has grown exponentially in the last couple of years. This can be attributed to the flow

(mostly freely accessible ) of information on economic affairs and stock specific

news. What was once a toy of the wealthy has now turned into the vehicle of choice for wealth creation. Technological

advances has put the opportunity of trading the stock markets at your fingertips wherever you might be.

 What are shares?

A share is simply what it’s name suggests - you share in the ownership of a company. It represents a claim on the

company’s assets and earnings. It is sometimes called stock, equity or shares but they all mean the same thing.

Holding a company’s shares means that you are one of the many owners (shareholders) of a company and have claim to

everything it owns. This claim is usually very small but you are entitled to your portion and hold your voting rights.

Shares were held in certificate form but electronically held shares have become the norm. All South African shares are

held by a CSDP (Central Securities Deposit Participant) in electronic format.

This makes it far easier to trade the shares at the click of a mouse button. Share certificates had to be taken to the broker and then to the transfer secretaries which made it and arduous task.

Being a shareholder does not give you title to the day-to-day running of the business. Your extent to which you have a say

in the company is limited to one vote per share at annual meetings where you vote for the board of directors. Being a

shareholder of South African Breweries does not entitle you to walking into their plant in Rosslyn and helping yourself to

a couple of beers or calling the Chief Executive Officer to share your ideas on how they should run the company.

Large institutional shareholders have the biggest say in the appointment of management and they have to increase the value of the company for shareholders.

Profits are shared in the form of dividends. Your claim on the assets is only relevant should the company go bankrupt.

An important feature of owning shares is your limited liability should the company not be able to pay it’s debt. No matter

what happens, the maximum value you can lose is the value of your investment in that company. Your personal assets are never under threat should the company go bankrupt.

 Company Funding- Debt vs. Equity.

Companies raise capital by debt financing (loan from the bank or issuing a bond) or equity financing ( selling part by issuing shares.

Issuing stock is advantageous as the company does not have to pay back the money or make interest payments along the way. The first issue of stock by a private company is called the initial public offering (IPO).

When you buy a debt investment such as a bond , you are guaranteed a return of your capital along with interest payments. By buying an equity investment you you assume the risk of the company not being successful. If the company goes bang you only get paid after the banks and the bond holders have been paid. Shareholders earn a lot if the company is successful but stand to lose their entire investment should the company fail.

There are no guarantees when it comes to individual stocks. Some companies pay dividends , but others may not. There is no obligation to pay dividends. You make money by the appreciation of the stock price.

Although risk might sound negative , there is a bright side. Taking on risk demands higher returns. That is why shares outperform bonds or bank savings.

 Types of shares.

There are two types of shares: common stock and preferred stock.

Common stock

When people talk about shares they usually refer to this type. Common shares represent ownership in a company and a claim (dividends) on a portion of the profits. Investors get one vote per share to elect board members who oversee the major decisions made by management. Common shares hold the biggest risk as the holders of this asset class will not

receive money until the creditors, bondholders and preferred shareholders are paid.

Preferred stock

Investors in preferred shares are normally guaranteed a fixed dividend but without the same voting rights of common shares. These shares are also callable and this means the company can buy back these shares at any time and for any

reason (mostly at a premium).

Different classes of stock

Companies can customize different classes of shares in any way they wish so as to give the voting power to a different group. One group may have 10 votes per share while another class will have one vote per share. Normally Class A or Class B stock etc.

How are shares traded?

Shares are traded on exchanges. Some exchanges are physical trading floors where traders seem to be running around

waving and speaking sign language in addition to loud screaming. This looks crazy but is actually quite orderly. The other type of exchange is virtual, composed of a network of computers where trades are executed electronically. This form of

trading is far more transparent than floor trading. The JSE closed it’s open outcry floor in 1997 and everything is now traded through a network of computers linking the exchange to the JSE’s virtual trading pits.

Exchanges facilitate the exchange of securities between buyers and sellers, reducing the risks of investment. There is a

primary market where shares are created (by means of an Initial Public Offering) while in the secondary market , investors trade previously-issued securities without the involvement of the issuing-companies.

The Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

About the Main Board

In 1886, the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand led to a boom in mining and financial companies and a stock exchange was soon needed. And so began the Johannesburg Stock Exchange’s Main Board.

The JSE holds a treasured position as one of the top 20 exchanges in the world in terms of market capitalisation. The majority of this market capitalisation is based on the companies listed on the Main Board and the JSE’s top 40 stocks are also listed here.

These stocks are highly regarded by both local and international investors.

The Main Board houses the same sectors grouped according to the London Stock Exchanges XXXX. Dual listings are actively encouraged and are possible on all boards of the JSE.

A list of all Main Board companies can be found here.

Listing benefits Access to capital for growth: listing gives you the opportunity to raise capital to fund acquisitions as well as growth.

Boost your profile: listing generally heightens your company’s public profile with customers, suppliers, the media and investors. As a result more business opportunities become available to you.

Create value and liquidity for shareholders: because your company’s value is independently assessed, shareholders can realise their investment, liquidity is stimulated and your shareholder base may be broadened.

A listing allows you to facilitate broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE) deals, a prerequisite to effective corporate citizenship in South Africa.

You may offer share incentives to employees to encourage commitment and improve the quality of recruits.

Why the JSE?

The JSE is well positioned to help you leverage your listing to its maximum. In addition to the benefits above, listing on the JSE allows you to:

Enjoy local analyst coverage as well as high media interest.

Attract international investors who are easily able to trade in JSE-listed shares without any restrictions.

Trade your shares securely and efficiently on JSE TradElect™, the London Stock Exchange’s trading system.

Be eligible for inclusion in the FTSE/JSE Africa Index Series, thus creating additional exposure for your company both locally and internationally.

Marketing your business to investors with the assistance of the JSE Business Development team.

·         Dual listings

·         Dual listings brochure

 company on the JSE gives you the opportunity to:

Tap into local knowledge, skills and interest.

Use your listing as a springboard into the rest of Africa.

Access deep pools of capital relative to other African markets.

Use your shares as local currency for transactions.

Increase and diversify your company’s pool of liquidity

Facilitate compliance with South African government charters on broad-based black economic empowerment.

Is listing for you?

The decision to list your company needs to be made once you have realistically assessed your company, its management, resources, stage of development, long-term strategy, goals and future prospects. You would also need to consider the timing of a listing in terms of market conditions and where your business is at that point in time.

There are many specific requirements that you need to meet which are in the JSE Listing Requirements. These can be accessed on their website. We have three markets on which you could list: the Main Board, the Africa Board and the

Alternative Exchange (AltX). The decision to list on either market depends on factors like the size of your company, your funding requirements and what you would like to achieve with your listing. Listing may be just what you need to take your business to the next level. A typical main board listing requires 300 different shareholders with a spread of at least 20% and a 3 year proven profit before tax of R 8 million Rand.

What makes Share prices change?

Share prices change everyday compliments of market forces of supply and demand. Participants have different perceptions of a company’s potential earnings and are therefor prepared to pay different prices for a share. If more people want to buy a share(demand) than sell it (supply), then the price moves up. Understanding supply and demand is easy. What makes trading stock difficult is understanding what makes people like a certain share and dislike another.

Every investor has his own ideas and strategies. Some are just outright punters.

The price of a share is determined by what investors perceive it to be worth. The value of a company is it’s market capitalization which is simply calculated by share price multiplied by the amount of stock in free float. Matters are complicated by the price of a share which reflects the growth that investors expect in the future.

The most important factor in valuating a company is it’s earnings. Earnings are the profit a company makes. Without profit it can’t survive. Companies are required to report their earnings and the market watches these reports to determine future value. If the earnings surprise share prices jump and conversly when they dissapoint the stock prices fall.

Sentiment is a very important driver of price as was evident in the dotcom bubble. Tech companies saw their valuations shoot through the roof despite them not making a cent yet. These valuations did not hold and their values shrunk to a

fraction of the highest prices they achieved. There are numerous variables that influence price and investors are developing more and more to determine valuations. You might have heard of like price/ earnings ratio, while others have obscure names like Chaikin oscillator or moving average convergence divergence. So why do prices change? Nobody really knows but we know for certain that they are volatile and that creates opportunity. At the most fundamental level , supply and demand in the market determines share price.

- price times numberof shares in free float is the value of the company. Comparing just the price is meaningless.

- earnings affects investor’s valuation but other indicators are also used to predict the price.

- there are many theories that explain share price movement. There is however no one theory that can explain

everything.

Buying Shares

How do you buy and sell shares. You luckily don’t have to go into a trading pit and yell your order. There are two main

ways to purchase shares.

Using a broker

There are two types of brokers : full-service who supposedly offer expert advise and charge higher fees and discount brokers who execute without any add-ons.

With the advent of the internet trading platform most brokerage houses have changed to the latter. Anyone can now afford to invest in the market.

DRIPs

Dividend reinvestment plans allow investors to purchase stock directly from the company by reinvesting their dividends.

How to read a share quote

Any financial newspaper should have the following tables giving you share price info:

This clip was taken from US newspaper so quoted in Dollar but SA shares are quoted in SA cents per share.

Columns 1 & 2: 52-Week High and Low - These are the highest and lowest prices at which a stock has traded over the previous 52 weeks (one year). This typically does not include the previous day's trading.

Column 3: Company Name & Type of Stock - This column lists the name of the company. If there are no special symbols or letters following the name, it is common shares. Different symbols imply different classes of shares. For example, "pf" means the shares are prefs.

Column 4: Ticker Symbol - This is the unique alphabetic name which identifies the stock. If you watch financial TV, you have seen the ticker tape move across the screen at the bottom, quoting the latest prices alongside this symbol. If you are looking for stock quotes online, you always search for a company by the ticker symbol. If you don't know what a particular company's ticker is you can search for it at http://www.jse.co.za/How-To-List-A-Company/Main-Board/Main-Board-Listed-companies.aspx

Column 5: Dividend Per Share - This indicates the annual dividend payment per share. If this space is blank, the company does not currently pay out dividends.

Column 6: Dividend Yield - The percentage return on the dividend. Calculated as annual dividends per share divided by price per share.

Column 7: Price/Earnings Ratio - This is calculated by dividing the current stock price by earnings per share from the last four quarters. For more detail on how to interpret this, see the P/E Ratio explanation in later chapters.

Column 8: Trading Volume - This figure shows the total number of shares traded for the day, listed in thousands. To get the actual number traded, add "000" to the end of the number listed.

Column 9 & 10: Day High and Low - This indicates the price range at which the stock has traded at throughout the day.

In other words, these are the maximum and the minimum prices that people have paid for the stock.

Column 11: Close - The close is the last trading price recorded when the market closed on the day. If the closing price is up or down more than 5% than the previous day's close, the entire listing for that stock is bold-faced. Keep in mind, you are not guaranteed to get this price if you buy the stock the next day because the price is constantly changing (even after

the exchange is closed for the day). The close is merely an indicator of past performance and except in extreme circumstances serves as a ballpark of what you should expect to pay.

Column 12: Net Change - This is the cents value change in the stock price from the previous day's closing price. When you hear about a stock being "up for the day," it means the net change was positive.

You can also get stock quotes (delayed) from websites like www.jse.co.za or www.moneyweb.co.za

A bid is the price someone is prepared to pay and the offer(ask) price the price at which someone is prepared to sell.

When these two meet they transact and a deal is created.

Bulls and bears.

A bull market is when everything in the economy is great, people are finding jobs, gross domestic product (GDP) is growing and share prices are in a rising trend. Picking shares to buy in a bull trend is relatively easy as most go higher.

These strong bulls mostly lead to overvalued stocks which is dangerous to the investor. Greed invariably feeds the bulls to just keep on paying any price. If a person is always optimistic about share prices risign they are called bullish or a bull.

A bear market is the opposite of a bull market. Times when the economy is bad and recession looming are refered to as bear markets. A person with a pessimistic point of view or belief that stock prices will come down rapidly is refered to as bearish or a bear.

Chickens are what the name implies: a person who is so risk averse that they don’t commit any money to the market and rather invest in money-market instruments.

Pigs are highrisk takers and by on hot tips etc. fueled by their greed. Proffesional traders love pigs as it is often from their losses that bulls and bears reap their rewards (profits).

There are numerous styles of trading or personalities affording everyone opportunity to make money. Bulls and bears are in constant battle with pigs adding to volatility. The trick is NOT to invest in any instrument you do not fully understand.

If you don’t do your homework you will get hurt and lose money!!

Summary

- Having shares in a company give you claim on the assets and earnings as well as voting rights.

- Share are equity , bonds are debt. Bondholders are guarenteed a return whereas shareholders take on risk of the company not being succesful therefor requiring a higher return on their capital.

- You can lose all your money in shares. You can also make lots if you pick the right share.

- There are two types : common and preference shares and companies may create different share classes.

- stock markets are the places where buyers and sellers meet to exchange shares.

- The JSE is the major stock exchange in Africa

- Share price fluctuate due to the forces of supply and demand. Most important factor influencing price is earnings

- There is no hard and fast way to determine or explain price movement

- To buy shares use a broker or DRIPs

- Stock quotes and tables are easy to read - don’t be afraid of all the detail

- Bulls make money, bears make money but greedy pigs get slaughtered.

[freehawaii]

TEACHING TOURISTS THE REAL HAWAI`I

New York Times - February 4, 2020

Demonstrators waving Hawaiian flags march outside Iolani Palace, marking the anniversary of the overthrow of Hawaii by the government of the United States.Credit...Marco Garcia for The New York Times

Locals in O`ahu know that the best way to get from Waikiki’s crowded beaches to the cool North Shore is to drive along the island’s eastern coast. The road is framed by mountains, ocean and greenery so lush and beautiful, it’s hard to focus the eye on one place for too long, for fear of missing the next scenic attraction.

On a recent trip along the route, something else stood out: the upside down Hawaiian flags flying at almost every stop.

The flag, which has the union jack in the bottom left corner, instead of the usual top left, hung in storefronts in Waikiki and was printed on T-shirts in Waimanalo, it was stuck on the bumpers of passing cars in Kailua and flying from the backs of trucks in Kahuku and other towns on the North Shore.

The flag has become a symbol of solidarity among Hawaiians who oppose the construction of a large new telescope on Mauna Kea, on the island of Hawai`i. Mauna Kea, at 32,000 feet from seafloor to summit, and with 13,796 feet above sea level, is one of the best places in the northern hemisphere, if not the world, to observe the cosmos, experts say. The telescope’s proponents say that it will bring hundreds of jobs to the island and advance humanity’s study of space.

But it has faced fierce resistance from some native Hawaiians for whom Mauna Kea is sacred ground and a place of roots, and their allies. Opponents of the telescope say they are tired of having their land taken for purposes that benefit others and for the often elusive promise of jobs that fail to deliver in terms of numbers or a living wage.

Kyle Kajihiro, left, and Terrilee Keko'olani, who offer alternative, educational tours of Oahu, outside Iolani Palace.Credit...Marco Garcia for The New York Times

“The struggle at Mauna Kea right now is one of the biggest issues that has realigned many cultural political relationships in Hawai`i,” said Kyle Kajihiro, an activist and lecturer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. “It’s really quite an amazing emergence of Hawaiian activism of cultural awareness.”

The battle over the telescope has revealed fissures that have long existed in Hawai`i, a place that is all but synonymous with tourism — the most-popular destination for honeymoons in the United States and a bucket-list perennial. The fight has inspired actions around the islands, all relating to how land is used and who benefits from it.

The spirit of protest is most visible in O`ahu, where in Kahuku demonstrators have spent the last several months fighting the construction of eight wind turbines, each standing at 568 feet — taller than the tallest skyscraper in Honolulu. Protesters say the turbines will have adverse long term health effects on the population. The company building them says there is no evidence to support those claims and promises to bring jobs to the area. More than 160 people have been arrested there.

In southeast O`ahu, in September, 28 people were arrested trying to block the building of a park and recreation center in Waimanalo, a largely agricultural town. The developers behind the center say it will bring jobs and create a new community space, but opponents fear it will be a magnet for tourists and will destroy the forest and beach used by locals.

In Honolulu, in May, Hilton employees protested, demanding a better contract and job protections. In July, hotel employees went on strike to protest what they said were low wages and the firing of 45 workers by Diamond Resorts, an operator of multiple properties in the United States and Europe. The company said it would turn one of its hotels into a timeshare resort, which requires fewer workers than a traditional hotel.

“We value our dedicated team members at The Modern Honolulu and we were pleased to reach a contract agreement that includes a significant pay increase,” a spokesman for Diamond said. “We are continuing our planned efforts to convert the property into a world-class vacation ownership resort.”

Most people in Hawai`i, especially in the tourism industry work more than one job to barely get by, said Bryant de Venecia, communications organizer for the workers’ union, Unite Here Local 5, which represents resort workers.

“Mauna Kea has lit a fire for Hawaiians who are tired of watching their land, resources and work be used at the expense of their well-being,” he said.

Hawai`i is the most expensive state to live in, according to the 2018 Annual Average Cost of Living Index by the Council for Community and Economic Research. Groceries, for example, cost more than 60 percent the national average.

“People are tired of being decorative — Hawaiians as well as people who live in Hawai`i,” said Maile Meyer, who owns Nā Mea Hawai’i, a bookstore in Honolulu that sells products from smaller local makers. “You’re seeing a phenomenon of natives gathering again and completely finding our way back to each other as part of the solution.

Demonstrators gather to block a road at the base of Mauna Kea, on the island of Hawa`ii, to protest the construction of a giant telescope.Credit...Caleb Jones/Associated Press

Jobs Aren’t Enough

A common thread between these protests is that they are being led by locals. They say that since Europeans first arrived in the 18th century, Hawaiian land has been taken and misused by non-Hawaiians, and often to the detriment of Hawaiians and their traditions. The endeavors that have sparked these recent protests all promise jobs, just as tourism and defense have in the past.

But perhaps for the first time in recent Hawaiian history, natives and locals are saying the quality of these jobs is not good enough.

“We’re having to move away from quantity to quality,” said Laurien Baird Hokuli`i Helfrich-Nuss, the founder of Conscious Concepts, a company that works with local organizations on sustainable tourism initiatives. “Now that local people are getting more agency, they are learning more, going into a more curious space of saying ‘It’s great that this company is providing jobs, but what kind of jobs are they? Are they good jobs? Are they paying a livable wage?”

Tourism is the biggest driver of Hawai`i’s economy, accounting for 21 percent of jobs. Nearly 10 million people visited the state in 2018 and in 2019, guest arrivals were expected to surpass that number, hitting a record high. And although more people are visiting Hawai`i, they are spending less there.

Locals say that resorts are often owned and run by non-Hawaiians, with Hawaiian people employed in the lower-paying service jobs, and that development often benefits outsiders at the expense of native and local well-being.

“There historically hasn’t been enough consideration for how tourism and tourists can contribute to making life sustainable and really livable for the locals who serve them here,” Mr. de Venecia said.

More Than A “Play Land”

The feeling of escape — of fleeing to a nearby paradise with stunning beaches and luxurious resorts — has long been Hawai`i’s appeal to the traveling public. While the hottest trends in travel now are the search for authenticity and ways to experience local life, many people who visit Hawaii are looking to get away from daily life. They come to sit on the beach and drink a matai without thinking about much else. Their interaction with local culture is often limited to watching a hula show at the hotel luau.

“We realized a lot of folks who would visit us who would normally have more consciousness about history and social justice concerns seem to turn off that part of their brain when they think about Hawai`i,” Mr. Kajihiro, the activist and lecturer, said, adding that people treat the islands as a “play land.”

But this decision to turn off their brains is hurting Hawai`i and Hawaiians, he said. While working for the American Friends Service Committee, the Quaker peace and justice organization, Mr. Kajihiro and his colleague Terrilee Keko`olani studied the environmental and social effects of colonization, militarization and overdevelopment of Hawai`i. They learned that tourism was one of the industries with some of the most damaging effects on O`ahu, he said, citing overcrowding, a higher cost of living and higher prices for goods.

The pair began offering alternative tours of the island, which they call DeTours, in 2004 and have seen increased interest in recent years. Their work was included in the recently published Duke University Press book “DeTours: A Decolonial Guide to Hawai`i,” a collection of essays, interviews and family histories about ethical and contextualized tourism in the islands.

The tours are given to groups of people who want to learn about Hawai`i from the perspective of local Hawaiians. They include a deep history on the ways military life is hidden across the island. During a typical tour, guests go to `Iolani Palace, the Hawaiian royal residence, then to Chinatown and some of the old neighborhoods where new immigrants to Hawai`i traditionally settled. The next stop is usually Fort Shafter, the headquarters of the United States Army Pacific; then Camp Smith, but the main part of the tour is Ke Awalau o Pu`uloa — Pearl Harbor.Continue reading the main sto   

During a DeTours of Pearl Harbor, Mr. Kajihiro pauses in the “Oa`hu court” between the Pearl Harbor galleries and the museum and asks guests to look at the placards in the hallway. At the placard that says, “The Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown in 1893,” he explains that this one sentence has been controversial with the United States government because it acknowledges the government-backed overthrow of Queen Lili`uokolani, which unsettles American claims to Hawai`i. In the museum’s Attack Gallery, Mr. Kajihiro points to a small image of the Hono`uli`uli internment camp where Japanese people were held during World War II and uses it as a jumping-off point for a conversation about immigration and civil rights.

“People already come here with so many images and ideas about what Hawai`i is that it’s really hard for them to see something different, so that’s why we started calling our work ‘DeTours,” Mr. Kajihiro said. “To swerve off the path that most people are going to see or understand and consume and shake it up by raising some more critical perspectives and introducing a lot of historical facts that are not so pleasant.”

  New Type Of Tourism

The DeTours team is part of a movement looking to change what tourism means in Hawai`i. Ms. Nuss, of Conscious Concepts, is originally from O`ahu and returned in 2009 after working in hospitality in the Caribbean, New York, Miami and other places on the United States mainland. 

“I came home seeing something happening in Hawai`i that I didn’t see when I left,” she said. “My generation was stepping into their leadership roles and doing it differently, reconnecting for a movement back to the land.”

But she quickly realized that what many companies were doing didn’t align with her vision for supporting tourism while ensuring the well-being of overworked Hawaiians.

In 2015, Ms. Nuss created her company to find ways to support Hawaiian businesses function sustainably while also remaining a key part of the most important sector in O`ahu — tourism. Ms. Nuss has worked with farms, artists and nonprofit organizations to change their offerings so they can appeal to tourists, while still benefiting Hawaiians. A farm hoping to attract tourists to volunteer might turn to her to figure out the best ways to reach them. She described her work with as “consciously creating experiences for travelers and opportunities for locals.”

“I had a realization about how our tourism industry is presently run, which is coming from the commodification of culture,” she said. “I realized what was happening in my communities and the value systems that were driving it were contradictory to the form of tourism that I was being a part of.

”Continue reading the main stTo give tourists a more authentic experience of “the real Hawai`i,” the artists Roxy and Matt Ortiz, invite them into their studio in the Kaka`ako district of Honolulu. The couple is known for their elaborate murals of fanciful tree houses, which they create under the name Wooden Wave.

“When people come see us work, it gives them a totally different way to experience Hawai`i,” Ms. Ortiz said. “And it’s a fun way for us to give tourists a different experience than they usually see in those brochures.”

In these studio visits, guests can see the couple’s work in progress, but also learn about ahupua`a, the ancient system of land division, in which the island was separated into slices, each slice running from the top of the local mountain to the shore. During the visit, Mr. Ortiz explains that each ahupua’a included forest area up high and a cultivated area below, and depending on the politics and economy of each ahupua`a, its size was different from another.

Mr. Ortiz said that even the slightest opportunity for tourists to think about how water and land have always worked together and why they hold importance to Hawaiians can encourage them to be more thoughtful when interacting with locals and the land and sea while visiting.

“When people have some of the history and context they can appreciate the art more and they can experience the island in a more meaningful way,” he said.

Visitors can stay at Kahumana Organic Farm to get outside the luxury resort experience.Credit...Marco Garcia for The New York Times

Another way tourists can learn about the land and engage with locals is by visiting a local farm like Kahumana Farm in Waianae on the west side of O`ahu.Continue reading the main stor 

In November, Chloe Anderson, a therapist and teacher in California, visited the farm and stayed for four of her six days on O`ahu. There she shared a room with others, did yoga, learned about the produce grown and cooked on the farm and generally felt like she got a more meaningful experience than she would have at a luxury resort, removed from daily Hawaiian life.

“We had like three or four different activities we would do every day,” she said. “But so many things were based off the farm and at the farm. We still had the experience of being a tourist in Hawai`i and going on hikes and beach excursions, but also of experiencing something more.”

Some business owners are committed to staying in the tourism sector, and are trying to be as environmentally friendly as possible.

Shane Hiroshi Gibler pilots the Royal Hawaiian Catamaran, for a sunset cruise off Honolulu. Credit...Marco Garcia for The New York Times

“I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect that people just won’t work in the main industry there is and I don’t think Hawaiians want to stop tourism altogether, but we are all working to find ways of doing it responsibly and thoughtfully,” said Shane Hiroshi Gibler, who co-owns Royal Hawaiian Catamaran, which is based in Honolulu and offers snorkel tours, sunset cruises and private charters.

On Mr. Gibler’s boat, guests are asked not to bring any plastic and recycling is available aboard. Mr. Gibler educates guests an education about fishing, food and the importance of the ocean and the land to Hawaiians. The Royal Catamaran team regularly gathers people to clean up the shoreline and has been working with the Surfrider Foundation to remove ghost nets — fishing nets that have been lost or left behind by fishing boats — from reefs or the ocean.

The idea, one echoed by Mr. Kajihiro, is to encourage tourists to think about how they can leave their resort, even for one day of their trip, and contribute to the place they are visiting.ontinue reading the main stor 

“The point is to make folks more responsible when they come here and to interrogate this notion that Hawai`i is somehow a place for them,” Mr. Kajihiro said. “If you are thinking about coming here, ask yourself: Who are you in relation to this place? Are you bringing something that will be of value to the host, the people who live here? What will be your impact and your legacy be?”

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES & STUDIES, May 24 2020

Welcome to my latest summary of recent ecommerce news, resources & studies including search, analytics, content marketing, social media & Etsy! This covers articles I came across since the early May report, although some may be older than that. Due to a need to get my taxes filed, and a continued busy jewellery business, I don’t expect to be able to do another update for a few weeks. You can follow me on Twitter for important breaking news, though! 

Have any topics you would like to see me cover in more detail? Drop me a line here on Tumblr, or email me through my website.

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

Small businesses can survive the pandemic and beyond, if they learn to provide what customers are now looking for. From desks to 3-D printed face shields, to including toilet paper on your takeout menu, to moving online, acting quickly has given these businesses hope. ABC also did a piece on this topic. [text & video; mentions Etsy & masks] Here’s another article discussing adapting to pandemic ecommerce “new normal”, with interviews with staff from Etsy, TechStyle and Zulily.

Ecommerce is about to get way more competitive (it probably is already), & arguably the retailers who will succeed are the ones who already put plans in action, including advertising plans. (mentions Shopify, Google Shopping & Etsy.)

Facebook and Instagram will now have “Facebook Shops”, which are free to set up. Sounds like it will be a slow rollout, though. Many take this as direct competition for marketplace sites such as Etsy, but it will probably also have a large impact on small website builder sites such as Indiemade. 

ETSY NEWS 

Etsy’s first quarter for 2020 was good, but April was astonishing by any standards; I covered it all here. 

Etsy Payments will soon be available to sellers in Turkey, Malaysia, & Mexico. This will likely be welcome news to sellers in Turkey in particular, who haven’t had an easy way to accept payment for Etsy orders since PayPal left Turkey a few years back. It looks like this move will be optional at the moment for those 3 countries, unlike those of us who are forced to use EP if it is available in our countries. 

Etsy gave some listing credits and ad credits to shops who had substantially lower than normal sales in late March through April; the credits don’t kick in until July, though. 

Etsy is beta-testing a new listing video tool. You can join here; if you want more info first, here are some details. Note that the videos must be quite short, and will not include sound. 

Etsy is still getting some good traction from the face mask initiative: “I would argue they were just in the right place at the right time," says Kodali. "When you think of who is able to consolidate the power of a million sewers in the country, the only answer is Etsy."  However, they are also getting some criticism for masks taking forever to arrive, if at all. The slow customer support is also annoying many of these new customers that the CEO was so happy to attract, with little to no response from Etsy. 

The Wall Street Journal did a well-received article on people buying food (mostly baked goods) on Etsy [paywall]. Other sources have picked it up, although some are a bit skeptical about safety. 

More trend info directly from Etsy: first, summer at-home ideas with Dayna Isom Johnson [podcast links with transcript]. It also covers what to do for socially-distanced celebrations. “[P]eople are taking what they would typically do for a birthday, but then doing it virtually. So many people love paint night parties and I've actually seen quite a few paint kits that Etsy sellers are creating. It’s a wonderful way to celebrate your birthday and still have that experience of expressing your creativity and having fun with your friends, but just through a screen.” Also, “tie-dye is blazing hot right now.”

Second, craft supply sellers get their own trend article for a change. Supply searches close to doubled in April, with “346% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for “diy”. Many buyers are making their own masks with supplies from Etsy; “2,089% YoY increase in searches on Etsy for “elastic”. Do read the whole article if you want to spin your shop in this direction, as there is a lot of good info included. 

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Google pushed out a core algorithm update starting May 4, which finished rolling out on May 18. It seems fairly large, maybe the biggest in some time, and may have hit more areas than other recent core updates. They did take some criticism for releasing it during a pandemic. Possible targets aren’t agreed on yet by the people tracking it, but could include cryptocurrency, travel, real estate, health, tech, finance & dating. Or maybe we shouldn’t rush to pick winners & losers so quickly? News media changes may be affected by the regular algorithm reaction to people reading a lot more news these days, and some ecommerce companies had a boom that could affect their rankings. This article discusses Etsy among other companies, who might have benefitted from the update. [I’m not sure on the Etsy complaints, as I have been seeing multiple links for some searches for well over a year now.]

Link building is generally the hardest part of Google SEO, in part because you aren’t allowed to do any of the obvious things that might get you easy links. Anyone confused about the rules & the benefits should check out this guide for 2020. 

While you can learn a lot from general SEO guides, if you have a Shopify site, this guide provides some specific SEO tips. 

LinkedIn managed to de-index itself from Google on May 6, at least for the United States. Here’s one theory. Well-paid webmasters for major internet companies can still screw up, it turns out. 

(CONTENT) MARKETING & SOCIAL MEDIA (includes blogging & emails) 

If you are one of those organized marketers who plans their campaigns ahead of time, here are 5 content marketing ideas for June. 

With so many people not working as much as usual, this might be a good time to start a podcast. Gizmodo has compiled instructions on doing it cheaply.  

The best time to send an email depends on the purpose of the email. For example, “General site traffic emails have always been most effective mid-week — mid-morning or mid-afternoon. Mondays and Fridays tend not to perform as well” while “A general awareness campaign can be sent almost any time to be effective.”

Refreshing your evergreen content can be more productive than producing new content. That has some really good ideas for many types of businesses produce

Facebook bought Giphy, and while it will still be available to people without Facebook-owned accounts, it will be integrated directly with Instagram. 

Instagram is testing new fonts in its Stories feature. 

Twitter is enabling users to see how many people quoted a tweet, but so far only on IOS. They also have a new test where you control who can reply to your tweets. 

LinkedIn is rolling out both video events and polls, but maybe it is too late to get a big bump from either change? 

ONLINE ADVERTISING (SEARCH ENGINES, SOCIAL MEDIA, & OTHERS) 

Online advertising can be expensive; here are some stats on the cost of various search engine ad clicks as well as a bit on social media. 

Google Merchant accounts now let you compare your prices to other sites and also look at trends in clicks. 

Here is a good brief overview of the new free Google Shopping listings, including the 3 main reasons the author believes Google made this change. Here is another much longer overview, with screenshots for those not in the US, and info on how to set this up for your website. The PayPal integration is now available. 

Online advertising clicks seem to be bouncing back from the worst of the pandemic, according to several sources, including this one. It is still far too early to tell if this will last, however. 

YouTube has re-conceived its premium ad program, now called YouTube Select.  

If you have ads that slow down people’s computers or drain batteries by being too “resource-heavy”, note that Chrome is going to begin blocking those in August. “Chrome will filter ads based on the following thresholds: 4MB of network data or 15 seconds of CPU usage in any 30 second period, or 60 seconds of total CPU usage.”

STATS, DATA, OTHER TRACKING 

Seeing all hits to one page in Google Analytics is a lot easier if you exclude the URL query parameters (but note that sometimes they are useful, such as for various pages on Etsy.) If you like the idea of filtering your GA results in general, here is another tutorial on that. 

If you want to do A/B testing on your website, here is a fairly straightforward introduction to Google Optimize, which is free to use. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS 

Many online companies had a good first quarter despite the pandemic, including Shopify, which beat income estimates and saw its stock rise 5% after its first quarter report. “New stores created on the company’s online platform jumped 62% between March 13 and April 24 as many brick-and-mortar businesses migrated online.”

Shopify rolled out software that allows its users to more easily do curbside pickup orders. “...Shopify was already in the process of redesigning its POS before the coronavirus, but decided to accelerate the development of a few new features, namely fulfilling curbside pick-up orders and home delivery. Shopify said that by the end of April, 26% of its merchants with a brick-and-mortar presence were offering local delivery or buy online, pickup in-store, compared to 2% in February.”

Rolling out for the US first, Shopify is also getting into financial products, offering a new debit card which you can use to receive your sales income on the same day you earn it. Shopify Balance can be described as “a merchant account with no fees and no minimum balances.” It’s also setting up an instalment plan feature for customers. 

Also new with Shopify: a Pinterest app for turning all your products into shoppable pins. 

An Amazon VP quit - very publicly - over the company firing several whistleblowers and labour organizers. “Amazon declined to comment.” The company is taking heat for those issues as well as poor management of and information about how many employees have tested positive at various warehouses. Several employees are known to have died of COVID-19 so far. 

Amazon has extended its order performance suspension exceptions for the pandemic to May 31. Which is a good thing, because it seems that buyers are leaving more bad feedback than ever before [soft paywall] “More than 11 percent of reviews left for sellers in the past 30 days are negative. That’s nearly twice the level of frustration vented by shoppers regarding Amazon’s third-party sellers during the holidays, when customer anxieties spike over not getting presents on time”. eBay extended some seller protection changes until July 19. [note: if you sell on these platforms outside of the US, lease check for your own country’s rules, as some of them are different.]

Amazon Handmade sellers from the US got a boost from a new local makers page and the accompanying blog post. [I was unable to find any similar promotions for other countries; seems like a missed opportunity]

Buyers in Canada and the US are trying to get class-action lawsuits certified against Amazon for their policy preventing/discouraging its vendors from offering lower prices elsewhere. This article includes the US class action complaint paperwork. 

If you are wondering about Prime Day, Amazon is apparently going to try for September, but there is no official announcement yet. 

eBay will be changing the fee structure for sellers using managed payments, including charging one fee on the entire transaction instead of separate commission & processing fees. 

USPS, complaining of deficits and being pressured by Trump, is reportedly reviewing its package delivery contracts with large companies such as Amazon. “According to the Washington Post, over the last few weeks the USPS has been seeking bids from consulting firms to reexamine what the agency charges companies like Amazon, UPS, and FedEx. Contracts are generally reviewed on a yearly basis, and analysts have repeated warned that suddenly raising package prices that drastically would cause more bad than good, not just for the USPS or Amazon, but for small businesses and individuals too.”

Square has created an easy online checkout option that works without being connected to a website/shop. (US only)

BUSINESS & CONSUMER STUDIES, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

Google has introduced a new Trends-like tool that covers recent top product searches by the amount of growth. Yes, it is free!

Gen Z wants to see “fun and exciting advertising” during the pandemic, because they are bored. They are apparently not really fond of “things are different now” ads. Also: “A survey taken seven weeks ago indicated that younger consumers were more likely than older adults to say they wanted to see purpose-driven advertising that showed how companies were helping others.” Actually, Gen Z isn’t alone in wanting something different from commercials right now 

Consumers want to see companies taking positive action and supporting their employees during the pandemic - and claim they will remember who did a good job, so they know who to support with purchases. 

Not surprisingly, mobile usage is up during the day time since the pandemic was declared, and people are also staying online later during the week. Web browser usage is up, and more serious news and information is getting attention. 

There will likely be many more bankruptcies as the effects of COVID-19 ripple through the economy, but some businesses don’t have enough cash flow to go bankrupt. [text & video]

Canadian retail sales were down 10% in March compared to 2019, but many things went up, including general merchandise stores (6.4%) and online retailers (40%). Note that the online numbers didn’t include sales made from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca and delivered in Canada, so ecommerce was actually higher than that. In the US, March retail sales were down 8.7%, but April looks like it turned around for many ecommerce sites. 

MISCELLANEOUS 

So-called “cookie walls” are not enough to comply with the EU’s privacy laws. “[I]n order for consent to be legally valid under Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) there are specific standards to meet: It must be clear and informed, specific and freely given.  Hence cookie walls that demand ‘consent’ as the price for getting inside the club are not only an oxymoron but run into a legal brick wall.”

Website layouts (and even other elements) are starting to look like each other more & more.

[calorieworkouts]

15 Tips on How to Lose that Muffin Top

There are lots of suggestions on exactly how to shed your muffin top however they are all based around the same principle, in order to shed the roll of fat around your waistline that is escaping over the top of your denims or trousers you need to drop weight. The method to shed weight is to melt even more calories than you consume and to do this you need to exercise and look at what you eat.

I have provided a couple of suggestions that might help you, they vary from what training to do to just how to remain motivated.

First of all you need to recognize that you can not identify lower fat removal, if you want to lose your muffin leading after that by following these suggestions you will however the fat might come off of various other areas of your body. It all depends upon just how your body shops its fat, often the initial place fat goes is the last location it comes off of. No quantity of problems or planks is going to obtain rid of just the fat round your stomach, all you will certainly be doing is reinforcing the muscular tissues which are hidden by the fat, once you lose the fat you will see the difficult job you put in.

1.Keep a Food Journal

Work out the number of calories you are taking in. Everyday for a week write down what you consume as well as consume, right down the exact quantity you eat and drink too ie. If you have 1 chocolate chip biscuit and 1 oatmeal biscuit after that compose that down don't just compose 2 biscuits as each will certainly have a various amount of calories. At the end of the week include everything up as well as split it by 7 as well as you will certainly have your daily standard calorie intake. You might be surprised by the distinction in what you assumed you were eating as well as what you are in fact eating.

Compare that to the estimated ordinary daily calorie requirement which is 2000 for females as well as 2500 for males, this is just a price quote and will certainly depend upon your age, weight, height, body composition and also degrees of activity.

If you are consuming much more calories than you need after that these will be become fat. To shed 1lb of fat in 1 week you require to burn 3500 calories, that's 500 calories per day.

2. Don't just stop eating

Reduce your calories and you will reduce weight, but do not simply dramatically lower your calorie intake as this will have the opposite end result of what you desire as your body will certainly enter into malnourishment mode as well as will store every little thing you place in it as it will not understand when it will certainly next get the gas it requires. You need to ensure you have a healthy well balanced diet plan so that your body obtains whatever it needs to operate appropriately and also be efficient at burning that fat off.

3. Exercise

You knew that was going to be there really did not you. Cardio is the very best method to lose fat but don't simply jog long and steady for 60mins. Press harder do interval training for 25mins, alternating in between 1 min high strength - really push yourself after that do 1 min moderate intensity however 1 minutes high strength, maintain rotating until you have finished your exercise session. Interval training is a recognized approach of melting fat faster and quicker.

4. Weight training

Build muscle and also shed fat even when you are refraining anything. Increased muscular tissue mass means boosted metabolism so it can operate at melting that fat also when you are loosening up. Plus once you have lost the muffin top you will certainly be entrusted nice toned and also strong muscle mass from exercising with those weights. A combination of cardio as well as weight training will certainly have you blowing up away that fat a great deal faster than cardio alone.

5. Melt more calories throughout your regular day

There are different methods you can aid burn those calories. At the office, if you have stairways then take them, not the elevator. Can you cycle or stroll to function? If you take public transportation after that leave a quit previously and also stroll the rest of the way. Required to talk with someone in the workplace, go and see them rather of making use of the telephone. Relax far from your desk, go for a short brisk walk.

6. Intermittent Fasting (IF)

IF is when you quick for a collection quantity of time, this could be 24 hrs or 16 hrs. If you quickly for 1 day two times a week you will certainly be taking in 30% much less calories which will certainly cause weight management. This is not a diet plan as well as due to the fact that you are routinely consuming on your non rapid days and also in between the rapid days your metabolic rate wont reduce, this only occurs if your are fasting or limiting your calories for extensive periods of time such as days and weeks, due to the fact that you are just not eating 2 days each week as well as not on successive days this will not happen.

7. Drink water

Water itself will not assist you drop weight but if you consume alcohol a glass before a dish it will certainly make you feel fuller quicker and also because of this you will certainly consume less food. Sometime when we are dehydrated we blunder the signs as feeling hungry. Drinking water is also key to keeping your body functioning properly.

8. The biggest tip of them all is Action

Yes activity is what is going to obtain you losing that weight, as quickly as you comprise your mind you intend to lose weight as well as remove that muffin leading after that you have to action it, obtain the round rolling. Make an objective and afterwards function to achieve it, there is no very easy means to drop weight, it originates from putting in the time and also initiative.

9. Inspiration

Sometimes the best means to encourage individuals are to see images of others that have accomplished their objective and shed weight, Look online for photos of individuals who have figures you would like, make sure you choose a healthy and balanced realistic individual. Don't fail to remember that a great deal of versions and stars are photo shopped for publications and also image shoots. Select a person who is comparable in age, height as well as frame dimension as on your own, as if you are 5ft2 and also mid twenties don't choose a photo of a 6ft 18 years of age model, it is unrealistic and also will only leave you really feeling disappointed. There are great deals of real individuals that show their before and after photo, considering these program you it is possible. Take your very own picture so you can check out the development you make as your body begins to alter the method it looks when you begin to eat health and wellness as well as exercise.

10. Ditch those scales

Don' t reply on the ranges to show you just how much you have progressed. Take body dimensions as muscle evaluates greater than fat (well not truly but muscles is denser than fat so 1 pound of lean muscle will use up a lot smaller sized space on your body than 1lb of fat) so if you are getting muscle mass and losing fat there could not be as much modification on the ranges and this could lead to you obtaining de inspired. With dimensions you will see your body form is transforming as those cm/inches come off.

11. Join a class

Try spinning or circuit training. These tasks will obtain you melting fat quick, they have actually the included benefit of having other individuals there to help motivate you as well as press you further than you might push on your own if you are working out alone.

12. Find an exercise buddy

If there are two of you that have the exact same goals after that you can assist to motivate each various other, it is more challenging to say no to going running if another person is depending on you to select them.

13. Snack on low GI foods.

Low glycemic index foods will leave you really feeling fuller for longer so you wont be getting to for those sugary deals with to provide you an increase of energy.

14. Beware just how much juice you drink

I know a few of you favor drinking juice to water yet fruit juices can be high in calories and will not be assisting you remove that muffin top. Enjoy out for any soda beverages as these are extremely high in sugar and can be quiting you fro losing those pounds.

15. Reward yourself

When you have actually gotten to among your objectives eg lost cms/inches or lbs then award on your own. It is ALRIGHT to have a chocolate bar or a pair of biscuits etc yet only in moderation and as a treat not as an everyday staple in your diet plan. If you attain your primary goal buy on your own a new item of apparel. It is great to have your major goal and afterwards smaller sized objectives so that you can keep yourself inspired For example your primary goal may be to shed 10lbs, a smaller goal will be a tipping rock to achieving your main goal so could be an objective to visit the gym 3 days a week and so on.

Just a number of other points I would love to add.

1lb to 2lbs weekly is a healthy as well as practical quantity of weight to lose so don't be disheartened if you do not see big decrease in numbers like on the TV show The Most significant Loser.

Fat cells never ever disappear, they can either diminish or they can increase in number so if you do not stay up to date with a healthy and balanced and also balanced diet plan there is a chance that you can place the fat right back on really easily, it will certainly simply go straight to the currently existing cells as well as they will certainly expand as well as if you place on even more weight than before after that brand-new fat cells will be formed. This is the why when you wish to drop weight it is better attained through an adjustment in way of living and also not crash diet regimens which are unhealthy and also see individuals place the weight back on again as quickly as they quit the diet.

[englishchinesetranslations]

Even though the cryptocurrency industry is not new to ups and downs, 2019 has turned out to be the year with the most surprising reveals. The long-lasting bear market of 2018 moved market analysts to call it the year of regulatory reckoning, leaving many jurisdictions uncertain about how to treat cryptocurrencies.

However, 2019 also turned out to be the year of the comeback, as big tech giants like Facebook moved from banning crypto to embracing it.

Escalating global events such as the trade war between the United States and China have shifted investors’ point of view on the utility of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but there is still a lot to be done even as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission continues to turn down every other Bitcoin ETF proposal.

As the year comes to a close, here is a look at the companies, individuals and various crypto projects that managed to come out on top in 2019, as well as those that failed to mark the year as a positive in their books.

The winners

Bitcoin’s double growth

This year, Bitcoin and the entire blockchain and cryptocurrency industry celebrated its tenth anniversary as proof of the resilience of Satoshi Nakamoto’s creation. However, at the beginning of 2019, the cryptocurrency industry was just recovering from the so-called crypto winter of 2018.

Fortunately, Bitcoin kicked off the year with a bullish trend that resulted in an approximate price increase of 11% higher by the end of the first quarter. Anthony Pompliano, the co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital asset management firm, shared his view with Cointelegraph:

“Bitcoin’s price is up significantly in 2019 [as there are] more buyers than sellers on a net basis this year.”

As the trading volume and market capitalization increased throughout the second quarter of the year, Bitcoin led the market with a 165% gain as its price surged from $4,103 to $10,888. Furthermore, Bitcoin’s market dominance increased from 54.6% to 65%.

Among the reasons that have promoted Bitcoin’s continued growth despite a struggling market is the view that the digital currency can act as a hedge in the wake of increasing global uncertainty. This year, the U.S.–China trade war saw most investors look to Bitcoin and gold as hedges. Pompliano also told Cointelegraph that there were other contributing factors:

“The biggest moments probably revolve around the announcement of Libra and the subsequent reactions, both positive and negative, from various folks across the traditional and cryptocurrency markets.”

However, it was not all sunshine for Bitcoin in 2019. Over the third quarter of the year, a bearish outlook emerged as Bitcoin’s price decreased significantly as 100 billion in market capitalization was lost. Fortunately, even as the market struggled to gain ground against the bears, Bitcoin not only closed the quarter with the least amount of loss but also increased its market dominance by 5.4%. Ultimately, of all cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin’s performance has been the best so far.

Compared to assets from other markets, Bitcoin’s performance throughout the year is still far from tenuous. For instance, even though gold is regarded as a reliable store of value, its price has only increased by 17% since January. Even the S&P 500 Index, although with an excellent performance of +21%, is still dwarfed by Bitcoin’s growth throughout the year. Beyond price, Bobby Lee, CEO of the Ballet crypto wallet, told Cointelegraph that Bitcoin has benefited from several major technological developments:

“2019 was a great year for Bitcoin bulls because of the advances in the open-source ecosystem. Lightning Network is increasing Bitcoin’s transaction capacity, wallets with built-in, user-friendly features (Wasabi, Samourai) are improving privacy.”

Gods Unchained’s rise to popularity

According to reports, Gods Unchained, a blockchain-based virtual card game built on Ethereum, emerged as one of the highest-grossing and most popular blockchain games in 2019. This came about after the platform completely sold out its Genesis Card Pack to the tune of about $6.2 million. This came about after Blizzard, the creators of Hearthstone (a digital trading card game) banned Hearthstone player Chung Ng Wai (also known as Blitzchung) for expressing support for the Hong Kong protests. The Hearthstone game developer also stripped Blitzchung of his winnings.

In addition to the backlash received from the gaming community, Blizzard’s actions were criticized in a tweet by Gods Unchained that claimed Blizzard “care[s] about money more than freedom.” Gods Unchained also promised to compensate Blitzchung for his lost winnings while offering him an invitation to their $500,000 tournament.

Related: Blizzard Bans Hearthstone Player, Blockchain Comes to Rescue

The tweet by Gods Unchained was retweeted over 10,000 times, and Google searches for the game have since surged. Unlike Hearthstone, Gods Unchained is decentralized and uses blockchain to ensure that players truly own in-game items and have the freedom to trade them at will.

In a move to give online game players long-term incentives, James Ferguson, CEO of Gods Unchained said that the game is “leveling up the outdated practices of the gaming industry.”

Coinbase’s continued expansion

In the past, Coinbase maintained a reputation for employing a rather selective strategy for adding coins to its exchange. As one of the big league exchanges in the crypto space, Coinbase is also known for having significantly fewer large-scale hacks. In a year that saw other major exchanges like Binance fall victim to large scale security breaches, leading to the loss of thousands of Bitcoin, Coinbase stands out as a reliable and safe platform.

However, the company was heavily scrutinized by Twitter users this year over its acquisition of Neutrino, a startup that collects cryptocurrency transactional data using the blockchain. For most Twitter users, this move seems to facilitate the exchange’s spying on its customers.

However, Coinbase’s move to acquire Neutrino is, according to a Coinbase blog post, part of its goal to support all assets while complying with applicable laws. In addition to acquiring Neutrino, Coinbase has doubled the number of listed cryptocurrencies on its exchange since 2018. Coinbase’s aggressive listing approach has seen the addition of coins such as Dash, Cosmos and Waves, to mention just a few.

The company has almost constantly been making news throughout the year, from making acquisitions to denying them, as well as securing multiple patents along the way. Meanwhile, Coinbases’s Visa debit card solution has also seen exponential growth this year, now available for use in even more countries.

In May 2019, the company also expanded its reach to more than 100 countries while making its USDC stable coin — previously only available in the U.S. — available in 85 of those supported countries. In comparison, Coinbase was only available in about 32 countries last year. Its aggressive expansion appears to be in direct competition to other global players like Binance.

Binance ventures further

Ask any market analyst and they will admit that initial exchange offerings have grown into a big business in 2019. Reports have revealed a high demand for IEOs right from Q1 2019 to Q3, not to mention the fact that they collectively raised over $1.5 billion in the first half of 2019 alone. Unlike initial coin offerings, the biggest determining factor for a successful IEO is the availability of liquidity, and what better way to access liquidity than launching an IEO on a popular exchange.

That is why Binance and its native cryptocurrency BNB have had one of the best years yet. As one of the biggest marketplaces for digital assets, Binance enjoys a significant share of the trading volume. The exchange’s performance has been so exceptional that the Binance Coin has gained value by 150% over the year. When taking everything into account and considering year-on-year growth, Binance Coin has even slightly outperformed Bitcoin.

Also, Binance expanded its reach with the launch of a fully independent U.S. arm of its trading platform. Despite heavy regulatory pressure that keeps the Binance exchange in the U.S. from operating in states such as New York, the company’s partnership with BAM, a registered money service in the U.S., has so far given the exchange some leeway.

The losers

Facebook’s uncertain Libra launch in 2020

Facebook’s announcement of its Libra cryptocurrency has been one of the major events of 2019. However, on the unveiling of Libra as a stablecoin backed by a select number of national currencies, U.S. lawmakers reacted with skepticism, summoning Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to multiple hearings.

Related: What Is Libra? Breaking Down Facebook’s New Digital Currency

At its core, Libra is a stablecoin backed by real money and lets users buy, sell and send money at nearly zero fees across borders. According to the project’s white paper, Libra’s overall mission is “to enable a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that empowers millions of people.”

Libra’s white paper further claims that it will use “a new decentralized blockchain, a low volatility cryptocurrency, and a smart contract platform” to empower about 1.7 billion unbanked people. This will be achieved through the use of Facebook’s WhatsApp, Messenger and Calibra, which is a digital wallet designed for Libra users.

Despite Libra’s ambitious plan to empower the unbanked, the Libra project has not only come under heavy scrutiny from lawmakers but also faced internal problems of its own. While sharing his thoughts with Cointelegraph, Ballet wallet’s Lee expressed optimism about Libra, saying that although “legislators and regulators in the United States and Europe understand that non-government currencies are a threat to their power, government opposition will diminish over time.” Lee further explained:

“Governments will change their stance because they will come to understand that they can’t control or stop Bitcoin, and they will prefer to have their citizens use centralized corporate coins that can easily be regulated, monitored, and pegged to fiat currency.”

Despite Libra’s ambitious plan to empower the unbaked, the Libra project has not only come under heavy scrutiny from lawmakers but also faced internal problems of its own.

The U.S. Congress has asked Facebook to pause further development of the Libra projects, and cynics now believe that the project will not get out of the starting blocks without the government’s approval. Multiple European countries have also spoken out against the proposed cryptocurrency, while China announced that it will soon launch its own stablecoin, a national central bank digital currency, likely as a retaliatory measure. Furthermore, in the wake of increased scrutiny from government regulators, some of Libra’s high profile backers like Visa, eBay, MasterCard and PayPal have abandoned the project.

A rocky year for Circle

In October 2018, Circle, a cryptocurrency firm based in Boston and backed by Goldman Sachs teamed up with Coinbase to launch the Centre consortium. Counting on its reputation as one of the most well-funded crypto startups, the two companies aimed to help accelerate adoption of cryptocurrencies. Through the Centre consortium, Coinbase and Circle would increase liquidity to the crypto industry through the issue of a stable coin called the USD Coin.

In July this year, Coinbase and Circle broadened participation into their consortium in a move that will allow other financial entities interested in the project to issue the USD Coin. In the announcement, the Centre network mentioned that “a natural next step is to imagine a new global digital currency” that would include a basket of tokens backed by a variety of stablecoins. Simply put, Centre’s plan is to go with a Facebook-like approach to create a global currency.

However, Circle has had a rocky experience throughout 2019. Even though the USD Coin has received a positive reception, with Centre claiming that the stablecoin has been used to clear on-chain transfers worth over $11 billion, Circle closed its mobile app, reduced its fundraising goal by 40%, and laid off 10% of its staff between May and June this year. Just recently, the company let go of 10 more of its employees, citing efforts to streamline its services.

The latest news of layoffs from Circle comes after the recent transition of the company’s co-founder Sean Neville from his position as CEO to a seat at the company’s board of directors. However, a representative of Circle has denied any connections between the recent layoffs and Sean’s transition, telling Cointelegraph that:

“None of this is related to Sean transitioning out of the co-CEO role. Sean will continue to serve on Circle’s board.”

Craig Wright’s court battles

When Australian-born technologist Craig Wright claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto back in 2015, most people in the crypto community were skeptical and thought nothing of it.

Most people expected that the Satoshi Nakamoto impersonator would have scurried back into obscurity by now. However, Wright and his claims have continued to headline the news throughout 2019. Wright claims that he invented Bitcoin a decade ago and mined over 1 million BTC along with his late business partner Dave Kleiman. After Kleiman’s death in 2013, Wright claims that he put the mined Bitcoin in the “Tulip Trust.”

However, the Australian entrepreneur and computer scientist was sued by Kleiman’s estate in 2018 for allegedly stealing up to 1 million Bitcoin. In the past, it is said that Wright and Kleiman worked together on mining and developing Bitcoin. According to Kleiman’s family, Wright stole between 550,000 to 1 million Bitcoin — worth about $10 billion.

The ongoing case led to Magistrate Judge Bruce’s ruling that ordered Wright to turn over half of his Bitcoin holdings and intellectual property from before 2014 to Kleiman’s estate, presuming he is indeed Nakamoto. On Oct. 31, the trials re-emerged after Wright pulled out of the settlement agreement to forfeit half his Bitcoin and intellectual property.

In addition to his court battles, Wright was scrutinized by the crypto community after presenting what was considered forged documents as evidence of him being Nakamoto in another case of Wright against Peter McCormack. Wright’s case against McCormack is based on the fact that McCormack’s repeated statement that Wright is not Satoshi is harmful to Wright’s reputation. Most recently, Wright presented another document that allegedly proves how he came up with the Satoshi Nakamoto pseudonym.

Bitcoin ETF’s continual rejection by the SEC

Even though U.S. regulators have always left a window for the possibility of approving Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in the future, up until now, every single attempt to license a Bitcoin ETF has been met with failure. In October this year, an ETF proposal filed by Bitwise Asset Management in conjunction with NYSE Arca was rejected by the Securities and Exchange Commission for failing to meet legal requirements that prevent illicit market manipulation.

In fact, all Bitcoin ETF proposals presented to the SEC have been rejected on concerns about fraudulent activities and market manipulation. One of the main criteria for approving an ETF is establishing the underlying market of a new commodity-based ETF.

Related: The SEC Does Not Want Crypto ETFs — What Will It Take to Get Approval?

If the underlying market is resistant to manipulation, regulators can give the ETF the go-ahead. Given the complexities of the Bitcoin market, it seems approval from the SEC is unlikely. Despite the earlier rejection of Bitwise’s application, the SEC later announced that it would review Bitwise’s proposal once again.

While speaking to Cointelegraph on the realistic timeline of the first Bitcoin ETF approval, Charles Lu, the CEO of the Findora fintech toolkit provider said, “For a Bitcoin ETF proposal to gain SEC approval, the sponsor will need to prove that real price discovery is happening as opposed to market manipulations.” In Lu’s opinion, this will not happen anywhere soon, since the SEC would require “surveillance sharing agreements” with the big exchanges.

2019 and 2020

Overall, the crypto industry has shown some significant growth over the past year. Although volatile, Bitcoin is showing significant signs of growth. More institutional investors are looking into the industry to find more ways to invest as well. Even though there is a downtrend in market cap and trading volumes, prominent traders believe that a turn of fate might just be around the corner, especially for Bitcoin holders.

Out of all the winners and losers of 2019, perhaps Facebook Libra is one that stands to be most impactful in 2020. For most onlookers, it will be interesting to see whether Facebook’s Libra project will turn a new leaf and launch successfully in 2020. If it does, there is a high likelihood that big changes will take place throughout the entire industry.

[fluentfunds]

How to Invest in Dividend Stocks

Well-established and large companies that have a history of dividing their earnings among their shareholders or, more simply, companies that pay out dividends on a regular basis are known as dividend stocks.

Buying dividend stocks proves to be a great choice for many investors because they give a regular income and are quite easy to invest in. The good thing about dividend stocks is that some companies keep on increasing the payouts on a quarterly or yearly basis, which allows investors to build up a nice, stable cash stream for themselves.

Compared to growth stocks, dividend stocks are less volatile, which means they will make your portfolio diverse with low risk. In this article, we will be discussing how you can effectively use your money to invest in dividend stocks, so keep on reading.

There are two main ways through which you can invest in dividend stocks. One is through ETFs (exchange-traded funds), and the other one is through buying individual dividend stocks.

Exchange-Traded Funds

Dividend ETFs offer you a simple and effective way to get exposure to a certain type of investment niche, which is a regularly paying dividend stock in this case.

Dividend ETFs consist of various dividend stocks, which will give you a lot of diversity. This means more safety for your investment. Even if there is a cut in the dividends of some of the fund’s stocks, the overall effect would still remain low. If you are smart enough, you would already know that looking for a safe payout should be anyone’s top priority when making any dividend investment.

Now, we will get into the details of how to actually buy dividend ETFs.

Finding Diverse Dividend ETFs

You can search for dividend ETFs on your broker’s website. Low-cost funds are usually the safest option, which consist of dividend stocks taken from the S&P 500 stock index. This index offers a wide variety of some of the top American companies.

Make sure that you go ahead with a commission-free option so that you do not have to pay a commission every time you buy or sell the ETF.

Analyzing

It is important to make sure that the ETF you choose invests in stocks and not bonds. There are some other things to check too, like the dividend yield. A dividend yield is basically the amount the company pays out on a yearly basis in dividends in contrast to its share price. It’s usually shown as a percentage and the higher it is, the better.

One other thing to analyze is the return period. Usually, anything high is good, but 5 years is a good average. The expense ratio should be considered as well, which is an annual fee that has to be paid out from your investment. The best expense ratio is anywhere below 0.50%. The lower it is, the better.

Stock size also matters a lot when it comes to dividend ETFs. You have a choice of investing in large, medium or small companies. Since larger companies tend to be safer as compared to the risky small ones, it is best if you invest in the big companies.

Buying the ETF

Buying the ETF is pretty simple. Just like you would use an online broker to buy a stock, for ETFs, you have to do exactly the same.

Advantages of Buying ETFs

For individual investors, the biggest and most attractive advantage of buying an ETF is that you just have to buy a single ETF and don’t have to keep in check with many companies. However, if you are going to use the individual dividend approach, that is something you would have to do. In this case, you just have to buy the ETF and keep on adding money to it on a regular basis.

Individual Dividend Stocks

Compared to an ETF, building a portfolio from individual stocks is quite tough and time-consuming, which makes it quite complex. On the bright side, the ability to choose individual stocks based on your liking gives you greater flexibility and allows you to find higher dividends as compared to an ETF.

Like any other decision, you will have to evaluate and analyze the organization, see how safe the dividend is and decide how much you want to buy. Let’s look into how you can actually buy the dividend stock.

Finding a Dividend Stock

There are several financial websites where you can find stocks that pay dividends. You can also check out your broker’s website for dividend-paying stocks.

Analyzing the Company

This is one of the most crucial steps in the buying process. You will need to study and understand the company’s financial statements and other records before making the decision. You need to make sure you choose a company that is reliable and able to sustain and maintain its dividends for the years to come.

Analyzing the Dividend’s Safety

Determining the payout ratio is another important step. The payout ratio is basically the percentage of income that the company pays in the form of dividends. Lower is better in this case because it shows that the dividend is safer and the growth will be faster.

Deciding How Much You Want to Buy

Buying individual stocks means you need diversity, so you will have to decide what percentage of the portfolio goes into each stock. You can equally divide among all stocks; for example, you can put 5% of your portfolio in each stock if you are buying 20 stocks.

Assessing the risk is key here. You should buy fewer riskier ones and more safer stocks.

Safety is key, so when you are buying a dividend, make sure that you don’t jump into buying the high yielding ones because that might not benefit you. The dividend’s safety is more important than the yield.

Advantages of Buying Individual Dividend Stocks

If you like the challenge of choosing and studying reliable stocks and combining them to form a good portfolio, you should go with individual rather than ETF stocks. The former can give you a much higher yield and safety if chosen with the right technique and knowledge.

Conclusion

By investing in the right dividend stocks, you have the opportunity of enjoying a passive stream of income. Invest wisely!

source http://fluentfunds.com/how-to-invest-in-dividend-stocks/

[kinhnghiemsovn]

Amazon vs. Google: Decoding the World's Largest E-commerce Search Engine

Posted by Lorna_Franklin

A lot of people forget that Amazon is a search engine, let alone the largest search engine for e-commerce. With 54 percent of product searches now taking place on Amazon, it’s time to take it seriously as the world’s largest search engine for e-commerce. In fact, if we exclude YouTube as part of Google, Amazon is technically the second largest search engine in the world.

As real estate on Google becomes increasingly difficult to maintain, moving beyond a website-centric e-commerce strategy is a no brainer. With 54% of shoppers choosing to shop on e-commerce marketplaces, it’s no surprise that online marketplaces are the number one most important digital marketing channel in the US, according to a 2018 study by the Digital Marketing Institute. While marketplaces like Etsy and Walmart are growing fast, Amazon maintains its dominance of e-commerce market share owning 47 percent of online sales, and 5 percent of all retail sales in the US.

Considering that there are currently over 500 million products listed on Amazon.com, and more than two-thirds of clicks happen on the first page of Amazon’s search results—selling products on Amazon is no longer as easy as "set it and forget it." 

Enter the power of SEO.

When we think of SEO, many of us are aware of the basics of how Google’s algorithm works, but not many of us are up to speed with SEO on Amazon. Before we delve into Amazon’s algorithm, it’s important to note how Google and Amazon’s starkly different business models are key to what drives their algorithms and ultimately how we approach SEO on the two platforms.

The academic vs. The stockbroker

Google was born in 1998 through a Ph.D. project by Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin. It was the first search engine of its kind designed to crawl and index the web more efficiently than any existing systems at the time.

Google was built on a foundation of scientific research and academia, with a mission to;

“Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” — Google

Now, answering 5.6 billion queries every day, Google’s mission is becoming increasingly difficult — which is why their algorithm is designed as the most complex search engine in the world, continuously refined through hundreds of updates every year.

In contrast to Brin and Page, Jeff Bezos began his career on Wall Street in a series of jobs before starting Amazon in 1994 after reading that the web was growing at 2,300 percent. Determined to take advantage of this, he made a list of the top products most likely to sell online and settled with books because of their low cost and high demand. Amazon was built on a revenue model, with a mission to:

“Be the Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices.” — Amazon

Amazon doesn’t have searcher intent issues

When it comes to SEO, the contrasting business models of these two companies lead the search engines to ask very different questions in order to deliver the right results to the user.

On one hand, we have Google who asks the question:

“What results most accurately answer the searcher’s query?”

Amazon, on the other hand, wants to know:

“What product is the searcher most likely to buy?”

On Amazon, people aren’t asking questions, they’re searching for products—and what’s more, they’re ready to buy. So, while Google is busy honing an algorithm that aims to understand the nuances of human language, Amazon’s search engine serves one purpose—to understand searches just enough to rank products based on their propensity to sell.

With this in mind, working to increase organic rankings on Amazon becomes a lot less daunting.

Amazon’s A9 algorithm: The secret ingredient

Amazon may dominate e-commerce search, but many people haven’t heard of the A9 algorithm. Which might seem unusual, but the reason Amazon isn’t keen on pushing their algorithm through the lens of a large scale search engine is simply that Amazon isn’t in the business of search.

Amazon’s business model is a well-oiled revenue-driving machine — designed first and foremost to sell as many products as possible through its online platform. While Amazon’s advertising platform is growing rapidly, and AWS continues as their fastest-growing revenue source — Amazon still makes a large portion of revenue through goods sold through the marketplace.

With this in mind, the secret ingredient behind Amazon’s A9 algorithm is, in fact: Sales Velocity

What is sales velocity, you ask? It’s essentially the speed and volume at which your products sell on Amazon’s marketplace.

There are lots of factors which Amazon SEO’s refer to as "direct" and "indirect" ranking factors, but ultimately every single one of them ties back to sales velocity in some way.

At Wolfgang Digital, we approach SEO on Google based on three core pillars — Technology, Relevance, and Authority.

Evidently, Google’s ranking pillars are all based on optimizing a website in order to drive click through on the SERP.

On the other hand, Amazon’s core ranking pillars are tied back to driving revenue through sales velocity — Conversion Rate, Keyword Relevance and of course, Customer Satisfaction.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at the key factors behind each of these pillars, and what you can optimize to increase your chances of ranking on Amazon’s coveted first page.

Conversion rate

Conversion rates on Amazon have a direct impact on where your product will rank because this tells Amazon’s algorithm which products are most likely to sell like hotcakes once they hit the first page.

Of all variables to monitor as an Amazon marketer, working to increase conversion rates is your golden ticket to higher organic rankings.

Optimize pricing

Amazon’s algorithm is designed to predict which products are most likely to convert. This is why the price has such a huge impact on where your products rank in search results. If you add a new product to Amazon at a cheaper price than the average competitor, your product is inclined to soar to the top-ranking results, at least until it gathers enough sales history to determine the actual sales performance.

Even if you’re confident that you have a supplier advantage, it’s worth checking your top-selling products and optimizing pricing where possible. If you have a lot of products, repricing software is a great way to automate pricing adjustments based on the competition while still maintaining your margins.

However, Amazon knows that price isn’t the only factor that drives sales, which is why Amazon’s first page isn’t simply an ordered list of items priced low to high. See the below Amazon UK search results for “lavender essential oil:”

Excluding the sponsored ads, we can still see that not all of the cheap products are ranked high and the more expensive ones lower down the page. So, if you’ve always maintained the idea that selling on Amazon is a race to the bottom on price, read on my friends.

Create listings that sell

As we discussed earlier, Amazon is no longer a “set it and forget” platform, which is why you should treat each of your product listings as you would a product page on your website. Creating listings that convert takes time, which is why not many sellers do it well, so it’s an essential tactic to steal conversions from the competition.

Title

Make your titles user-friendly, include the most important keywords at the front, and provide just enough information to entice clicks. Gone are the days of keyword stuffing titles on Amazon, in fact, it may even hinder your rankings by reducing clicks and therefore conversions.

Bullet points

These are the first thing your customer sees, so make sure to highlight the best features of your product using a succinct sentence in language designed to convert.

Improve the power of your bullet points by including information that your top competitors don’t provide. A great way to do this is to analyze the “answered questions” for some of your top competitors.

Do you see any trending questions that you could answer in your bullet points to help shorten the buyer journey and drive conversions to your product?

Product descriptions

Given that over 50 percent of Amazon shoppers said they always read the full description when they are considering purchasing a product, a well-written product description can have a huge impact on conversions.

Your description is likely to be the last thing a customer will read before they choose to buy your product over a competitor, so give these your time and care, reiterating points made in your bullet points and highlighting any other key features or benefits likely to push conversions over the line.

Taking advantage of A+ content for some of your best selling products is a great way to craft a visually engaging description, like this example from Safavieh.

Of course, A+ content requires additional design costs which may not be feasible for everyone. If you opt for text-only descriptions, make sure your content is easy to read while still highlighting the best features of your product.

For an in-depth breakdown on creating a beautifully crafted Amazon listing, I highly recommend this post from Startup Bros.

AB test images

Images are incredibly powerful when it comes to increasing conversions, so if you haven’t tried split testing different image versions on Amazon, you could be pleasantly surprised. One of the most popular tools for Amazon AB testing is Splitly — it’s really simple to use, and affordable with plans starting at $47 per month.

Depending on your product type, it may be worth investing the time into taking your own pictures rather than using the generic supplier provided images. Images that tend to have the biggest impact on conversions are the feature images (the one you see in search results) and close up images, so try testing a few different versions to see which has the biggest impact.

Amazon sponsored ads

The best thing about Amazon SEO is that your performance on other marketing channels can help support your organic performance.

Unlike on Google, where advertising has no impact on organic rankings, if your product performs well on Amazon ads, it may help boost organic rankings. This is because if a product is selling through ads, Amazon’s algorithm may see this as a product that users should also see organically.

A well-executed ad campaign is particularly important for new products, in order to boost their sales velocity in the beginning and build up the sales history needed to rank better organically.

External traffic

External traffic involves driving traffic from social media, email, or other sources to your Amazon products.

While external sources of traffic are a great way to gain more brand exposure and increase customer reach, a well-executed external traffic strategy also impacts your organic rankings because of its role in increasing sales and driving up conversion rates.

Before you start driving traffic straight to your Amazon listing, you may want to consider using a landing page tool like Landing Cube in order to protect your conversion rate as much as possible.

With a landing page tool, you drive traffic to a landing page where customers get a special offer code to use on your product listing page—this way, you only drive traffic which is guaranteed to convert.

Keyword relevance

A9 still relies heavily on keyword matching to determine the relevance of a product to searcher’s query, which is why this is a core pillar of Amazon SEO.

While your title, bullet points, and descriptions are essential for converting customers, if you don’t include the relevant keywords, your chances of driving traffic to convert are slim to none.

Every single keyword incorporated in your Amazon listing will impact your rankings, so it’s important to deploy a strategic approach.

Steps for targeting the right keywords on Amazon:

Brainstorm as many search terms you think someone would use to find your product.

Analyze 3–5 competitors with the most reviews to identify their target keywords.

Validate the top keywords for your product using an Amazon keyword tool such as Magnet, Ahrefs, or Keywordtool.io.

Download the keyword lists into Excel, and filter out any duplicate or irrelevant keywords. 

Prioritize search terms with the highest search volume, bearing in mind that broad terms will be harder to rank for. Depending on the competition, it may make more sense to focus on lower volume terms with lower competition—but this can always be tested later on.

Once you have refined the keywords you want to rank for, here are some things to remember:

Include your most important keywords at the start of the title, after your brand name.

Use long-tail terms and synonyms throughout your bullets points and descriptions.

Use your backend search terms wisely — these are a great place for including some common misspellings, different measurement versions e.g. metric or imperial, color shades and descriptive terms.

Most importantly — don’t repeat keywords. If you’ve included a search term once in your listing i.e. the title, you don’t need to include it in your backend search terms. Repeating a keyword, or keyword stuffing will not improve your rankings.

Customer satisfaction

Account health

Part of Amazon’s mission statement is “to be the Earth’s most customer-centric company.” This relentless focus on the customer is what drives Amazon’s astounding customer retention, with 85 percent of Prime shoppers visiting the marketplace at least once a week and 56% of non-Prime members reporting the same. A focus on the customer is at the core of Amazon’s success, which is why stringent customer satisfaction metrics are a key component to selling on Amazon.

Your account health metrics are the bread and butter of your success as an Amazon seller, which is why they’re part of Amazon’s core ranking algorithm. Customer experience is so important to Amazon that, if you fail to meet the minimum performance requirements, you risk getting suspended as a seller—and they take no prisoners.

On the other hand, if you are meeting your minimum requirements but other sellers are performing better than you by exceeding theirs, they could be at a ranking advantage. 

Customer reviews

Customer reviews are one of the most important Amazon ranking factors — not only do they tell Amazon how customers feel about your product, but they are one of the most impactful conversion factors in e-commerce. Almost 95 percent of online shoppers read reviews before buying a product, and over 60 percent of Amazon customers say they wouldn’t purchase a product with less than 4.5 stars.

On Amazon, reviews help to drive both conversion rate and keyword relevance, particularly for long-tail terms. In short, they’re very important.

Increasing reviews for your key products on Amazon was historically a lot easier, through acquiring incentivized reviews. However, in 2018, Amazon banned sellers from incentivizing reviews which makes it even more difficult to actively build reviews, especially for new products.

Tips for building positive reviews on Amazon:

Maintain consistent communication throughout the purchase process using Amazon email marketing software. Following up to thank someone for their order and notify when the order if fulfilled, creates a seamless buying experience which leaves customers more likely to give a positive review.

Adding branded package inserts to thank customers for their purchase makes the buying experience personal, differentiating you as a brand rather than a nameless Amazon seller. Including a friendly reminder to leave a review in a nice delivery note will have better response rates than the generic email they receive from Amazon.

Providing upfront returns information without a customer having to ask for it shows customers you are confident in the quality of your product. If a customer isn’t happy with your product, adding fuel to the fire with a clunky or difficult returns process is more likely to result in negative reviews through sheer frustration.

Follow up with helpful content related to your products such as instructions, decor inspiration, or recipe ideas, including a polite reminder to provide a review in exchange.

And of course, deliver an amazing customer experience from start to finish.

Key takeaways for improving Amazon SEO

As a marketer well versed in the world of Google, venturing onto Amazon can seem like a culture shock — but mastering the basic principles of Amazon SEO could be the difference between getting lost in a sea of competitors and driving a successful Amazon business.

Focus on driving sales velocity through increasing conversion rate, improving keyword relevance, nailing customer satisfaction and actively building reviews.

Craft product listings for customers first, search engines second.

Don’t neglect product descriptions in the belief that no one reads them—over 50% of Amazon shoppers report reading the full description before buying a product.

Keywords carry a lot of weight. If you don’t include a keyword in your listing, your chances of ranking for it are slim.

Images are powerful. Take your own photos instead of using generic supplier images and be sure to test, test, and test.

Actively build positive reviews by delivering an amazing customer experience.

Invest in PPC and driving external traffic to support organic performance, especially for new products.

What other SEO tips or tactics do you apply on Amazon? Tell me in the comments below!

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

[presssorg]

AP FACT CHECK: No sign of Trump-Mexico deal on farm goods

AP FACT CHECK: No sign of Trump-Mexico deal on farm goods WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is bragging about a new deal with Mexico that provides for “large” sales of U.S. farm goods, but it doesn’t appear to exist. In weekend tweets, he announced in all capital letters that he had won the agreement to benefit America’s “great patriot farmers,” and that U.S. sales would begin “immediately.” There isn’t any sign of that happening, however. Mexican officials denied that anything on agriculture was included in the deal on border security reached Friday to avert Trump’s threatened tariffs. Trump also unfairly placed responsibility on Mexico for the entire U.S. drug problem, even though many of the known drug deaths have nothing to do with the country. The statements came in a week where the apportioning of credit and blame often went awry in Trump’s remarks. He hailed pristine air quality that isn’t, wrongly insisted that the U.S. was paying “close to 100%” of NATO and told Puerto Ricans they should love him because he got them hurricane aid that he’s actually been complaining about for months. In the Democratic presidential campaign, meantime, Trump was accused of breaking a gun-control promise that in reality he kept. A look at recent claims and reality: MEXICO DEAL TRUMP: “MEXICO HAS AGREED TO IMMEDIATELY BEGIN BUYING LARGE QUANTITIES OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCT FROM OUR GREAT PATRIOT FARMERS!” — tweet Saturday, retweeted Sunday. THE FACTS: There’s no evidence that Mexico agreed to “large” purchases of agricultural products from the U.S. as part of the deal to avoid tariffs. Nor did the White House provide any details to show such a deal exists. The joint declaration between the U.S. and Mexico released by the State Department late Friday makes no mention of agriculture. Officials from Mexico deny an agreement was reached on farm goods as part of the talks. “Everything that was negotiated was in the joint statement,” said a Mexican official familiar with the discussions who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. When Mexico’s ambassador to the United States, Martha Barcena, was asked repeatedly Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation” whether there was a new agricultural deal, she demurred, saying such trade between both countries should increase over time. She referenced instead the potential impact of the separate United States-Mexico-Canada trade deal, which has yet to be approved by Congress. “Is trade on agricultural products going to grow? Yes, it is going to grow, and it is going to grow without tariffs and with USMCA ratification,” Barcena said. According to the office of the United States Trade Representative, Mexico bought $20 billion in U.S. agricultural goods last year, making it the United States’ second-largest ag export market.   —— TRUMP: “Look, I’m dealing with Mexico right now. They send in $500 billion worth of drugs, they kill 100,000 people, they ruin a million families every year if you look at that. That’s really an invasion without the guns. … 100,000 people are killed, dead every year, from what comes through our southern border. They shouldn’t be allowing people to come through their country from Central, from Honduras and Guatemala, El Salvador.” — Fox News interview Thursday. THE FACTS: Trump is inflating the death toll from drug overdoses — more than 70,200 in 2017 — and wrongly blaming all the known deaths on Mexico. Tens of thousands of those deaths have nothing to do with Mexico or Central America. They are from legally made prescription opioids, fentanyl laboratories in China or other sources of international drug smuggling and illicit manufacturing in the U.S. More than 17,000 of the deaths in 2017, for example, were from prescription opioids alone. Mexico is indeed a significant conduit in the drug trade — it’s a leading source of heroin, for example — but it is hardly the only one. —— DISASTER AID TRUMP, on signing a relief bill for multiple U.S. disasters: “Puerto Rico should love President Trump. Without me, they would have been shut out!” — tweet Thursday. THE FACTS: That’s not likely. The $19.1 billion disaster aid bill, passed by the House on Monday and signed into law by Trump on Thursday, ordinarily would have been approved by Congress months ago. But Trump injected himself into the debate, demanding that money for hurricane-rebuilding efforts that was sought by Puerto Rico’s elected officials, Republicans and Democrats both, be kept out. Trump frequently inflated the amount of aid that Puerto Rico had obtained in previous bills and feuded with the island’s Democratic officials. Congressional Democrats held firm in demanding that Puerto Rico, a territory whose 3 million people are U.S. citizens, be helped by the measure. The legislation ultimately included more money for Puerto Rico, about $1.4 billion, than Democrats originally sought. The relief measure delivers money to states in the South suffering from last fall’s hurricanes, Midwestern states deluged with springtime floods and fire-ravaged rural California, among others. —— NATO TRUMP: “We were paying so much. I think we were really paying close to 100% of NATO. So we were paying to protect all of these European nations. And it’s just not fair.” — interview Thursday with Fox News. THE FACTS: It’s not true that the U.S. was paying “close to 100%” of the price of protecting Europe. NATO does have a shared budget to which each member makes contributions based on the size of its economy. The United States, with the biggest economy, pays the biggest share, about 22%. Four European members — Germany, France, Britain and Italy — combined pay nearly 44% of the total. The money, about $3 billion, runs NATO’s headquarters and covers certain other civilian and military costs. Defending Europe involves far more than that fund. The primary cost of doing so would come from each member country’s military budget, as the alliance operates under a mutual defence treaty. The U.S. is the largest military spender but others in the alliance obviously have armed forces, too. The notion that almost all costs would fall to the U.S. is false. In fact, NATO’s Article 5, calling for allies to act if one is attacked, has only been invoked once, and it was on behalf of the U.S., after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. —— CLIMATE CHANGE TRUMP, asked if he believes in climate change: “I believe that there’s a change in weather, and I think it changes both ways.” — interview with Piers Morgan that broadcast Tuesday. THE FACTS: Trump is once again conflating weather and climate, suggesting that global warming can’t be happening if it gets cold outside. But weather is like mood, which changes daily. Climate is like personality, which is long term. The data show Trump also is wrong in that there is a clear one-way warming trend. Earth is considerably warmer than it was 30 years ago and especially 100 years ago. So far in this decade, there have been 301,292 daily heat records set in the contiguous United States, compared with only 141,892 daily cold records set, according to retired Weather Channel meteorologist Guy Walton’s analysis of government temperature records. That’s more than two heat records broken for every cold record, a ratio that is the largest of any decade since these types of records started in the 1920s. According to Walton’s analysis, each decade since the 1970s has had a higher hot record-to-cold record ratio than the decade before it. And that’s just the extreme weather. When it comes to global average temperature, April was the 412th consecutive warmer month than the 20th century average, according to records kept by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The last five years — 2014 to 2018 — have been the five hottest years on record globally, according to those records. Nine of the 10 hottest years on record have been in the past 15 years with records going back to 1880. The White House in November produced the National Climate Assessment by scientists from 13 Trump administration agencies and outside scientists. “Climate change is transforming where and how we live and presents growing challenges to human health and quality of life, the economy, and the natural systems that support us,” the report said. —— TRUMP: “We have the cleanest air in the world in the United States, and it’s gotten better since I’m president. We have the cleanest water. It’s crystal clean and I always say I want crystal clean water and air. … We’re setting records environmentally.” — remarks Wednesday with Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. THE FACTS: The U.S. does not have the cleanest air, and it hasn’t gotten better under the Trump administration. U.S. drinking water is among the best by one leading measure. Trump’s own Environmental Protection Agency data show that in 2017, among 35 major U.S. cities, there were 729 cases of “unhealthy days for ozone and fine particle pollution.” That’s up 22% from 2014 and the worst year since 2012. The Obama administration, in fact, set records for the fewest air polluted days, in 2016. In 2017, after Trump took office, the number of bad air days per metropolitan area went up 20%. The State of Global Air 2019 report by the Health Effects Institute rated the U.S. as having the eighth cleanest air for particle pollution — which kills 85,000 Americans each year — behind Canada, Scandinavian countries and others. The U.S. ranks poorly on smog pollution, which kills 24,000 Americans per year. On a scale from the cleanest to the dirtiest, the U.S. is at 123 out of 195 countries measured. On water, Yale University’s global Environmental Performance Index finds 10 countries tied for the cleanest drinking water, the U.S. among them. On environmental quality overall, the U.S. was 27th, behind a variety of European countries, Canada, Japan, Australia and more. Switzerland was No. 1. —— GILLIBRAND ON GUN CONTROL SEN. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND, Democratic presidential candidate, on Trump: “Remember after the shooting in Las Vegas, he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, we are going to ban the bump stocks’? Did he ban the bump stocks? No, because the NRA came crashing down and said, ‘Don’t you dare do any restrictions on our guns around this country.”‘– Fox News town hall on June 2. THE FACTS: Not true. Trump kept his promise. A nationwide ban took effect in March on bump stocks, the attachment used by the gunman in the 2017 Las Vegas massacre to make his weapons fire rapidly like machine-guns. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives outlawed the attachments at Trump’s direction after the shootings killed more than 50 people in the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. It is the only major gun restriction imposed by the federal government in the past few years. The Trump administration’s move was an about-face for the bureau. In 2010, under the Obama administration, it found that the devices were legal. But under the Trump administration, officials revisited that determination and found it incorrect. After the Las Vegas shootings, the National Rifle Association initially said “devices designed to allow semi-automatic rifles to function like fully-automatic rifles should be subject to additional regulations.” After the bureau’s ruling banning the devices, however, the gun lobby called it “disappointing” and said it should have provided amnesty for gun owners who already have bump stocks. The government estimates that more than 500,000 bump stocks were sold after they were made legal in 2010. —— VETERANS TRUMP, on the late Sen. John McCain: “I was not a fan. I didn’t like what he did with health care. I didn’t like how he handled the veterans. Because I got them Choice. He was always unable. He was on committees and could have done it.” — interview Tuesday with Morgan. THE FACTS: Not so. McCain did, in fact, get the Veterans Choice program passed in Congress. Trump repeatedly claims falsely that he was the first president in decades to get such a private-sector health program passed. But what Trump actually got done was an expansion of the Choice program achieved by McCain and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the main lawmakers who advanced the legislation signed by President Barack Obama. McCain, an Arizona Republican, co-sponsored the legislation following a 2014 scandal at the VA medical centre in Phoenix, where some veterans died while waiting months for medical appointments. Trump signed the law expanding the program in June 2018. It is named after three veterans who were lawmakers — McCain, Daniel K. Akaka and Samuel R. Johnson. After helping to pass the program, McCain fought to expand it even more in his last months before dying of brain cancer in August. The original Choice program allowed veterans to see doctors outside the Department of Veterans Affairs system if they must wait more than 30 days for an appointment or drive more than 40 miles (65 kilometres) to a VA facility. Under the expansion, which took effect Thursday, veterans are to have that option for a private doctor if their VA wait is only 20 days (28 for specialty care) or their drive is only 30 minutes. Still, the VA says it does not expect a major increase in veterans seeking care outside the VA under Trump’s expanded program, partly because wait times in the private sector are now typically longer than at VA. —— LONDON PROTESTS TRUMP: “I kept hearing that there would be ‘massive’ rallies against me in the UK, but it was quite the opposite. The big crowds, which the Corrupt Media hates to show, were those that gathered in support of the USA and me.” — tweet Wednesday. TRUMP: “I heard that there were protests. I said: ‘Where are the protests? I don’t see any protests.’ I did see a small protest today when I came, very small, so a lot of it is fake news, I hate to say. …And I didn’t see the protesters until just a little while ago and it was a very, very small group of people.” — news conference Tuesday with British Prime Minister Theresa May. THE FACTS: The protests over Trump’s visit were more than just “very, very small,” and some were hard to miss. Thousands of protesters crowded London’s government district, chanting as he met May nearby. While police erected barricades to stop protesters from marching past the gates of Downing Street, they could be heard as Trump and May emerged from the prime minister’s official residence to pose for photos before their news conference. The protests included a giant Trump baby balloon and a robotic likeness of Trump sitting on a golden toilet, reciting familiar Trump phrases like “No collusion” and “You are fake news.” —— BREXIT TRUMP, referring to how he stood at his Scottish golf resort, Turnberry, on the eve of the Brexit referendum and predicted the British would vote to leave the European Union: “I really predicted what was going to happen. Some of you remember that prediction. It was a strong prediction, made at a certain location, on a development we were opening the day before it happened.” — news conference Tuesday. THE FACTS: He often tells this false story. Trump did not predict Brexit the day before the vote. Three months before the vote, he did predict accurately that Britain would vote to leave the EU. The day after the 2016 vote — not the day before — he predicted from his Scottish resort that the EU would collapse because of Britain’s withdrawal. That remains to be seen. —— TRANSGENDER TROOPS TRUMP, explaining his ban on transgender troops in the military: “In the military, you’re not allowed to take any drugs …People were going in and then asking for the operation, and the operation is $200,000, $250,000, and getting the operation, the recovery period is long, and they have to take large amounts of drugs after that …You can’t do that.” — interview Tuesday with Morgan. THE FACTS: Trump has offered no substantiation for the assertion that transgender military members represent tremendous medical costs and disruption. A Rand Corp. study found otherwise. Nor does the military bar troops from using prescription drugs. Rand estimates that out of about 1.3 million active-duty military personnel, 2,450 are transgender. Only a subset would seek transition-related care, such as hormone therapy and sex-reassignment surgery. Based on private insurance data, the study estimates a minimal increase in costs from such care for the active-duty armed forces — no more than 0.13%, or $8.4 million annually. As for disruption, members representing less than 0.1% of the total force would seek transition-related care that could affect their deployments, the study says. —— Associated Press writers Peter Orsi and Christopher Sherman in Mexico City, Seth Borenstein, Andrew Taylor, Matthew Perrone and Darlene Superville in Washington, Lisa Marie Pane in Boise, Idaho, Nicky Forster in New York, and Jill Lawless and Kevin Freking in London contributed to this report. —— Find AP Fact Checks at http://apne.ws/2kbx8bd Follow https://twitter.com/APFactCheck EDITOR’S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures Published at Mon, 10 Jun 2019 04:43:05 +0000 Read the full article

[ethicsustinvest]

PODCAST: Top US ESG Companies, Solar Power Breakthrough, Investing Tip

Top 100 US ESG companies for 2019 by CR Magazine. Profitably invest in harmony with your spiritual or religious ideals. Solar power breakthrough—but investing in solar has its perils. A valuable investing tip that really works. Confused who’s best, Uber or Lyft? An analyst compares them. Vanguard launches actively managed ESD ETF. And more.

PODCAST: Top US ESG Companies, Solar Power Breakthrough, Investing Tip

Transcript & Links May 26, 2019

Hello, Ron Robins here. Welcome to my podcast Ethical & Sustainable Investing News to Profit By! for May 26, 2019. Presented by Investing for the Soul. investingforthesoul.com is your site for vital global ethical and sustainable investment resources.

Now to this podcast. And for any terms that are unfamiliar to you, simply Google them!

Also, you can find a full transcript, live links and often bonus material at my podcast page located at investingforthesoul.com/podcasts

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The first item to discuss is CR Magazine's 100 Best Corporate Citizens of 2019! CR Magazine reviewed 1,000 US companies for their ESG practices. Robbie Lock, a writer for 3BL Association, commenting on the research results wrote that “Owens Corning tops the ranking, followed by Intel, General Mills, Campbell Soup and HP Inc… Twenty-seven companies are new to the ranking in 2019 including Allstate, Delta Airlines and Mondelez International. Biggest gainers include Ball Corp., CBRE, Ford and Xylem, Inc.”

Mr. Lock provides further clarification as to how CR Magazine obtains the rankings. Quoting him again, he says, ”The 100 Best Corporate Citizens ranking uses 134 total corporate disclosure and performance factors in seven categories: climate change, employee relations, environment, finance, governance, human rights, and stakeholders and society.”

Also, that the, “There is no fee for companies to be assessed. To compile this ranking, information is obtained from publicly available resources only, rather than questionnaires or company submissions. Companies have the option to verify data collected for the ranking at no cost.” Close quote.

I like the idea that companies don’t pay to be included in the research and the data compiled is from publicly available sources.

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The 100 Best Corporate Citizens demonstrate various degrees of above average corporate ethics, and ethics is a central theme for those wanting to apply their spiritual or religious beliefs to investing. If you’re interested in applying spiritual or religious values to investing, Meredith Jones just published in MarketWatch a post that could be of interest to you. It’s titled, “Opinion: When your faith guides your investing decisions, can you still beat the stock market?” And she says the answer can be yes.

Ms. Jones reviews the leading ETFs and mutual funds for investors interested in Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian-Bible related ethics and principles.

For Catholics, she likes the Global X S&P 500 Catholic Values ETF, LKCM Aquinas Catholic Equity Fund, and the Ave Maria group of funds.

For those of Jewish persuasion, she says there’s only one for now and that’s the AMIDEX35 Israel Mutual Fund which invests in Israeli companies.

For Muslims, there’s the Imam Fund IMANX the Amana group of funds and ETFs listed on the London Stock Exchange including iShares MSCI World Islamic ETF ISWD and the iShares MSCI USA Islamic ETF ISUS.

And under the umbrella of Christian-Bible offerings, Ms. Jones reviews the Timothy Plan and Guidestone family of funds.

For links to these funds go to my podcast page for this edition at investingforthesoul.com/podcasts.

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In my last podcast, I introduced the research of Tim Nash at Corporate Knights. Well, he’s produced another research report that compares the pros and cons of investing in Uber or Lyft. You can read his full post under the title of Tim Nash’s sustainable stock showdown: Uber vs. Lyft.

Personally, I’m not keen on either company because I believe competition—not just between them but also other entrants including potentially motor vehicle manufacturers themselves—will force them to keep user prices low which will continue to severely restrict profits. Also, their environmental benefits are overplayed as I mentioned in my podcast of April 12.

Anyhow, this is what Mr. Nash says in conclusion, “I’d put Lyft ahead by a headlight in this week’s Sustainability Stock Showdown, but anyone that’s interested in investing in either stock should be ready to fasten their seat belts and brace for a bumpy ride.”

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One big area that I know might interest you is renewable energy. I have several items of news and information that I want to share with you concerning investing in this area.

The first thing you should know is that developments in new products are almost overwhelming. This industry has numerous innovative players and it’s very difficult to know who will eventually be a leader. Sure, you can buy renewable energy ETFs—and a good read on what to buy is an article that appeared recently on Nasdaq, titled, 5 Clean Energy ETFs to Buy for 2019.

But if you’re interested in individual companies, here’s what I’ve seen in the past two weeks.

The New York Times ran an excellent piece reviewing a Danish company called Orsted. They produce massive offshore wind turbines whose energy costs are rapidly declining while already being highly competitive with new natural-gas fired plants.

In solar power, there’s been a tremendous breakthrough in producing new solar panels that appear to be 20-25% more efficient than the best existing panels. A paper outlining the breakthrough appeared in ScienceDaily under the title, Breakthrough in new material to harness solar power. Who will manufacture, market and install such panels wasn’t mentioned.

Incidentally, these panels do have a downside—they contain some lead. I’m sure testing in rainy and humid environments will be needed and manufacturing processes and end-of-life disposal policies will be needed too, considering that most countries will want assurance about the safe removal of lead.

I did a detailed study on solar panel manufacturers a few years ago and discovered that the manufacturing processes themselves can be highly toxic. Furthermore, most countries had no end-of-life policies in place to deal with the safe disposal of the toxic components of solar panels—and that is deeply concerning!

It’s possible that the companies engaged in the manufacturing, marketing and installation of solar panels could at some point be hit with levies or fines in dealing with these issues.

At the time of my research, I was most impressed with SunPower and its environmental efforts.

So, one thing you might want to find out before investing in solar panel manufacturers is how they perform environmentally. A great resource for this is the Solar Power Scorecard produced by the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition. However, their last scorecard is a little dated and I’m hoping to see their new one soon.

Incidentally, Fox Business just reported on the huge growth of solar panel installation in the US in a post, titled, 2 Million U.S. Solar Installations Are Just the Start.

By the way, a tip for checking how investment analysts rate solar companies—or any companies for that matter—is simply to type into Google Search the name of the company followed by Reuters—the name of the media company—after it. Click search and then click the search item that says the company name and the text Reuters quote. Reuters will then bring-up a research report. Click on analysts in the links bar and you can see how analysts rate the stock of the company you’re researching.

By getting the information on how analysts rate the companies you’re interested in can be terrifically helpful in deciding which companies to invest in. It saves you a lot of time and effort. And this is exactly the kind of tip and help you get in my DIY Ethical-Sustainable Investing Pays Tutorial! This tutorial will be the most worthwhile 1-hour you’ll ever spend getting help with your investments!

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Some other exciting new developments that might interest you are the following.

Vanguard, one of the world’s largest fund companies, has launched its first actively managed ESG ETF, called the Global ESG Select Stock Fund (ticker VEIGX). It will officially begin trading on June 4. This is big as ETFs are mostly ‘passively’ managed, that is they pick a group of stocks typically based on an index, whereas active management means selling and buying different stocks as the managers see fit. In recent years passive investing has usually outperformed active investing. However, who knows what the future will bring.

Also, S&P Dow Jones, who have had ESG indices for many years is launching something new. They are launching ESG global indexes based on core regional and country benchmarks. What is especially interesting is that these indexes, and quoting their press release, provide “a return profile that's consistent with mainstream benchmarks that have been widely followed for years.”

As an aside, what you can do, where possible, is to review the indexes that interest you and see what companies are included in them. You can often get useful ideas for new companies to look at!

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So, these are my top news stories and tips for ethical and sustainable investors over the past two weeks.

Again, to get all the links or to read the transcript of this podcast and sometimes get additional information too, please go to investingforthesoul.com/podcasts and look for this edition.

And be sure to click the like and subscribe buttons in iTunes or wherever you listen to this podcast. That way you can help promote not only this podcast but ethical and sustainable investing globally.

And remember, I’m here to help you grow in your investment success—and investing in opportunities that reflect your personal values!

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the content of this podcast or anything else investment related. I can’t say I’ll have all the answers for you and some answers I can’t give due to licensing restrictions. But where I can help I will.

Now, a big thank you for listening—and please click the share buttons to share this podcast with your friends and family.

Come again! My next podcast is scheduled for June 7. Bye for now!

Check out this episode!