Thanks to the a volatile stock market and certificates of deposits (CDs) and money market accounts paying their lowest interest in 5 or more years, good investors are eagerly looking for other opportunities to make their money work for them and keep on earning. Many are turning to other markets, and one of the most attractive for those who can afford it can be the gold market.

Although investing in gold might not be your first idea when thinking about starting a new investment, in these precarious financial times it is actually rather steady compared with other investments. Of course its value fluctuates, but it behaves more like a currency, in smaller increments up and down, rather than going into free fall like certain stocks.

Gold is a commodity, and you can usually spot trends and jump in and out of the market more readily than you can with certain stocks. Gold has reached all-time highs consistently in the past three years, so if you can afford to enter the market, investment experts suggest holding 5 to 25% percent of your portfolio in gold.

Methods to invest in gold include actually physically purchasing gold bullion in the form of coins or bars, buying gold bullion as a member of a group of individuals who invest together in a special fund, and investing in gold equities, such as gold stocks and gold mining companies.

Let’s look at each of these in turn to see if they are a good choice for your portfolio,

GOLD BULLION
Gold bullion can actually protect you in a volatile market. If the currency of your country loses value, inflation occurs, or the country’s economy can go into decline. When you invest in gold bullion that you store yourself, you keep the gold in your own home or perhaps in your safety deposit box at your bank. You are responsible for keeping your gold secure from theft. But you will pay no monthly or yearly fees to anyone for storing your gold investment. The not so good news is you might want to obtain insurance on the gold so, in the event of theft, you won’t lose your investment. Keeping the gold secure is important to eventually profiting from your investment.
Another factor to consider when storing the gold bullion at home is liquidity issues. In the event you need cash quickly, you would have to sell your gold bullion yourself. Doing so means you have to find a buyer and make the exchange to get the cash. This process could take a few days or even longer, so it is not a practical way to tie up all of your wealth.

Another method of investing in gold bullion is purchasing gold coins. They’re easier to store and can also become worth more than their face value and gold value to coin collectors. However, selling your coins, if you need to liquidated your assests, can also take a few days and not always be that easy in terms of finding a buyer.

For those who fear the U.S. financial market is going to implode, buying gold bullion and coins might be a wise way to go. If, however, you want quick, convenient investments which do not carry such a high insurance risk and risk of being stolen, purchasing gold bullion in this way might not be the best way to invest in the gold market. However, traditional investors and those saving for a long-term financial goal at least 5 years in the future find gold a good option.

INVESTING IN GOLD AS PART OF A GROUP

This method of gold-investing is different from buying gold bullion because you don’t have to take physical possession of the gold you’ve purchased. Instead, your gold is kept in a warehouse of sorts called a “gold bank,” along with the gold purchased by the other members of your fund group. Instead of storing it in your home or a safe deposit box, you will mke your purchase and then get a receipt that states that you own “X” bullions of gold and tells you where it is being stored.

In the event you wish to sell your gold, you would let the gold bank know. They would sell your gold and send you the value of the gold at current levels, minus a small fee. If seeing is believing and you prefer to have it in your possession, you can ask the gold bank to ship your gold to you. The responsibility for storing the gold will then be yours and you will have to find a buyer and sell it on yourself just as you would with gold bullion.

INVESTING IN GOLD MINING AND GOLD EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS (ETFs)

Investing in mining and stocks which are related to the gold mining industry can be quite convenient for those who do not want to have gold bullion or gold coins sitting in their home or safe deposit box. Rather than receiving the gold physically, you will receive stock certificates.
These are easy investments you can make online or through your stock broker. Do your research on the top companies in the world and which ones are showing steady performance and a good return on investment.

Whether you put your money in gold mining or gold stocks, you will be charged a fee, but the opportunity for making more money can more than offset the cost. As with all stocks, there is a risk that the stock may lose value. However, they are also an easy investment to sell compared with coins or bullion.

Gold ETFs can be purchased through major stock exchanges in the U.S. and around the world, so if you are interested in the steadiness of gold as an investment, stocks related to the gold mining industry can be an easy way to grow your money without huge volatile swings.

Investing in gold might seem beyond your means, but with the stock exchange having lost 40% of its value in 2008 and about 25% of its value in August 2011, gold may start looking like more and more of a reasonable investment choice for you to make in these times of economic uncertainty.

Whether you opt for buying gold bullion and storing it, purchasing gold through a fund group or obtaining gold mining stocks and gold ETFs through your broker, take the time to study the market and see if any of the various choices available are right for you.

Jim Franklin is the co-author of several guides to smart investing, including Name Your Link, The Essential Guide to College Saving Plans, and A Beginner’s Guide to Buying Life Insurance.

We know times are tough at the moment and looking for a job can be extremely stressful. This free job search worksheet is designed to help you transform stress into success.

A lot of what you are going through has to do with mental attitude. What inner messages are you telling yourself as you hunt for a job. If your self-talk is negative and lacking in optimism, you could be sabotaging your own chances. On the other hand, if you are telling yourself that you’ve gone through tough times before, and came out of them just fine, you will be in a better frame of mind when it comes to looking for a new job.

Try to view this time in your life as an opportunity. You can continue along a similar path to the one you were on before you lost your job, or you now have the chance to re-invent yourself. Be adventurous and open to learning during the course of your job search and you will stand a much better chance of getting the job you desire.

As with many of the most worthwhile things in life, success depends on planning, preparation and some perspiration. Complete this worksheet to help you improve the image you are presenting, and boost your possibilities in the job market.
A-Resume Preparation
1. Update your resume using the following action verbs as appropriate: Practice, perform, complete, write, develop, design, implement, coordinate, assist, manage, represent, facilitate, ensure, supervise, advocate, conduct, prepare, serve as, educate, formulate, compose, assess.
2-Check your resume’s appearance and content for these items:
+Use bold print for job titles.
+Place all of your contact information at the top of page 1 of your resume and your name, phone number and email on any additional pages.
+Check for spelling and grammar errors. Do this on paper as well as on the computer screen. Then get at least two other people to look at it.

+Keep the resume to 2 pages if you can. If you want to show a portfolio of work, give them an URL to look at (they will be Googling you anyway, so be sure whatever information about you appears online is not damaging in some way).

Interview Preparation:
1-What personal and social skills do you have that make it easy to meet new people?
2-What personal and social skills do you feel you need to further develop to be at ease during interviews?
3-What is your networking plan to help you put feelers out to find the job of your dreams (70% of jobs are NEVER advertised but filled through networking).
4-List all temporary services in your area, complete with their addresses and phone numbers.
5-Approach each one of them with your resume. Use this as valuable interviewing practice.
6-Improve any of the skills that they might test you on in the course of their assessment of you as a temporary worker (for example, your Word and Excel skills). Practice online using free tutorials.
7-List the date and outcome of the temporary services you personally visited.
8-If they do appoint you, take advantage of any benefits available. Be sure to keep looking for work actively.
Making Ends Meet During the Job Search
1-Use quick methods of making cash to keep money coming in between jobs. Write down all the skills you have that you could charge fees to do for others (consulting work or contract work can pay well if you position yourself correctly).
2-What kind of telecommuting or outsourced tasks are you able to do?
Here are some suggestions:
Virtual assisting
Web Writing
Project Work
Coaching
Consulting
Web Design
Full-Time Online Work

3-Write down what you can do to find work in your chosen area above.

4-Consider volunteering in order to use your skills, make new contacts, gain new knowledge, and show people what you know. This is a great chance to network. Just be sure it will not affect your unemployment benefits.
5-List some places where you would consider volunteering.

Making Efficient Use of Your Time
1-Make a list of the kind of training, education or experience that you have always wanted to pursue.
2-Make a list of courses available locally that can help you achieve those goals.
3-Consider turning a hobby into a business to help make ends meet and use your time efficiently too.

There are many other things you can do to help prepare yourself for the job hunt, but going through this checklist will help you feel more optimistic and more in charge of the process.

FURTHER READING

Questions You Need to Ask on Your Next Job Interview (Business Basics)

Creating Your Personal Image Online: How to Enhance Your Career Prospects By Building an Impressive Personal Profile Online (Business Matters)

Information technology is omnipresent in the modern business world. Many people are now start to specialize in particular areas of IT. One growing area is in Information Technology Risk Management, with new and lucrative positions for those qualified in IT and interested in Information Technology Risk Management Careers.

Every day we’re asked to lend our expertise to companies large and small, from multinational corporations, to small church and community groups, to the lone individual.

All of them have one thing in common: they are all trying to achieve their dreams of making a better life for themselves and the people they know and care about through getting their message in front of the right people in order to make money online.

That’s why we’ve just launched the Affiliate Marketing Success Secrets area, creating The Affiliate Marketing Institute in order to guide people through the whole process of becoming a successful affiliate marketer.

We’ve also created a free 7-day ecourse for people who are eager to learn more about affiliate marketing, and how to get started online as an affiliate marketer.

The content in the special membership site will be some of our best material ever written on how to become a successful affiliate marketer. It will  be taken from our affiliate blog and our own ebooks and other special exclusive insider secrets.

• So if you’re eager to get started earning money online today through becoming a successful affiliate marketer, just take a moment to register for the FREE ecourse on Affiliate Marketing Success Secrets. It only take a moment, and is fast, easy, and free!

Here’s to your success as an affiliate marketer!

In this section we are going to be looking at Phase 4 of Underground Traffic Blueprints.

Module 4: Massive Traffic through PPV, CPV or pay-per-view and cost-per-view:
Jeremy and Simon have gone all “subterranean” in this underground five part series, unearthing the reasons I see many of my friends losing their shirts in the PPC and Contextual Advertising Networks.

You will find that even the people who are making profits in the networks are still leaving lots of money on the table. I believe it’s because no one has ever been able to put together such a complete blueprint on this subject, explaining all of the factors and how they relate to one another.

Other courses and video series on this subject have shoveled on the fluff, while Jeremy and Simon dig up why regular keyword research does not produce results and how once you know the real secrets, you can squeeze every ounce of value out of each penny you spend on advertising (for those of you struggling newbies who can ever even think about having a small PPC budget! let alone affording one.)

These two guys have really outdone themselves by sharing tools which I’m surprised they didn’t keep secret. It’s really the only plan I have ever seen on CPV worth considering taking the time to make scalable. So if you really want to get this course if only to brush up on what need to know about the real world of PPC and contextual advertising, then I repeat, this module alone is worth the price of the entire course.

OTHER GREAT STUFF:

There are other modules and two outstanding bonuses in this course that also make it more than worth what you are going to pay for it, less than $80 if you are one of the fact action takers who gets in at launch the way I did.

The fact is that one bonus alone is so outstanding, it will be a true game changer for the way you market on the internet. Because this new tactic works in and out, of both the cyber and brick and mortar worlds, even the “underground” insiders won’t be able to forecast its impact! This is truly integrated marketing which those of us in the know have used quietly for years to build our marketing empires, so as shocking as it will sound when you go through this bonus offering, trust me, it works.

So there you have it, the end of our review of Underground Traffic Blueprints. As I have said, the SEO and PPC modules alone are enough to make the course more than worth its while, but the fact that you get 9 more amazing modules and 2 outstanding bonuses make this a traffic building program you will want to grab now while the price is still so low.

If all this sounds like something you can really use to grow your business, then order Underground Traffic Blueprints now. Buy now

In this next section I am going to review the modules on social media.

This phase of the training SHOCKED me because it did a better job of explaining to me why you and I spend so much time on social media, better than anyone else has ever been able to do.

There is a problem you, I, and every one of the 400 million plus users on Facebook share. When you see this real problem for what it is, you will understand why so many forms of marketing in the social media arena fall short of expectations.

This section covers a whole separate social media traffic blueprint that blurs the line between business and pleasure so profitably it may be the only thing you’ll ever want to do online!

Phase 3 of Underground Traffic Blueprints

This phase is a complete blueprint to follow for crushing the competition using Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. This underground formula is devoid of any “Black Hat” tactics that will get you in trouble later on, but it does contain some of the “Gray Hat” methods that Fortune 500 hundred companies will use to bury negative press about themselves.

Some marketers are using some of this to edge out their competition. The people who know all of these underground tactics are usually the ones charging monstrous retainers to clients who want guaranteed results for their websites. So if you want to know what many top consultants know, this is it.

If you use the power of this underground search engine optimization strategy, you can dominate the search engines even when people are looking up or searching for your competitors. It is all about the keywords and you will soon be able to apply these strategies to your own site, or multiple sites, for super results.

Everything you need to accomplish search engine domination is here. How to do the research, where to find the tools and how to use them, how to make the links, where to put them.You will also be leveraging your work over and over again. One, and done, as the phrase goes. In fact, they make it so simple, you will even learn how to set up a system of to outsource this work inexpensively so that you never have to get your hands dirty on it again once you set it up (great for job creation!! for anyone who has a computer and some spare time and motivation).

Best of all, you will learn how to automate it to scale your dominance across several niches and keep yourself on top!

Just as important as what to do-this specific underground blueprint explains what not to do, so the search engines do not turn around and slap you for crossing the line! So this module is really key for anyone who has a website, and frankly, worth the full price for what I paid alone, without all the other goodies added on!

If all this sounds like something you can really use to grow your business, then order Underground Traffic Blueprints now. Buy now

Look out for Part 4 of the review, coming soon!

The Quick Blog Profit Academy has now launched. Inside the Members’ Area, you’ll get  step by step guidance on blogging (web logging), and  how it can make you profits quickly and easily if you are prepared to put in a bit of time and effort. You will also learn about the main blogging platforms and get an inside look at the wonders of WordPress. It’s more than just a blog,  it’s a content management system robust enough for even large companies to use to build money-making websites in next to no time.

The Quick Blog Profit team has also put together a 7-day ecourse to help you learn more about blogging, to see if it is the right new money-making career for you.

Learn the secrets of successful blogging quickly and easily from the experts: Quick Blog Profit Academy

Part 2 of the Review, and the Course:

The 8 Million Visitor Section is just as awesome as the first section because 8 million visitors is really the potential (or more) if you keep following the blueprints.

Unfortunately, this second section entails a little more patience than the first section, but once implemented, this blueprint teaches you everything you need to build your own traffic-driving “Hard Internet Asset” that will keep growing in real value while sending more targeted traffic to your offers every day.

This second section of Phase 1 is another “whole and complete blueprint”, this time, for setting up and filling a website that will dominate any niche you put it on. (I can’t reveal the type of site here as it wouldn’t really be fair to the guys and their customers, but trust me, this is something you will want to know more about.)

So, instead of chasing traffic around the Internet like a hungry dog, this asset will draw traffic to you, while paying dividends with every offer, and increasing its own “cashing out” value every day.

You could easily earn $200-$300 a month off this blueprint and cash out for $30,000 or more in a year if you wanted to get out of the internet business, but with the blueprints making it so easy and so fun, who would ever want to??

The next section of Phase 1 of Underground Traffic Blueprints takes a fresh look at the oldest profession on the web? “Article marketing”. This “underground look” uncovers a “different” world, that of the “extreme article market”.

The extreme article market is not what it looks like on the surface and once you get your underground, “back-stage” pass, you’ll understand why you haven’t been making the profits the gurus have been promising, and how you can win at this game.

This is a complete article marketing espionage kit, with secret codes for peeking under the hoods of article directory sites. You can then cut the strings of the puppet masters and put your articles in the money spot instead of the fluff that’s been appearing. Jeremy and Simon even expose the “grey hat strategies” you are up against so you can take appropriate action to beat them at their own game.

Finally, in this section they show you how to leverage content so that you can get high quality articles in next to no time.

If all this sounds like something you can really use to grow your business, then order Underground Traffic Blueprints now. Buy now

If you are still not sure it is right for you, look out for the next part of my in-depth review.