5 Legitimate Ways to Make Money Online

Working from home and making money online has been described as the next great American gold rush. As millions of people find themselves out of a job or underemployed, more and more of them are turning to the internet to supplement their income. If you're looking for ways to make a few bucks from the comfort of your own home then you've probably already seen a web site advertising fast cash with just a few clicks of your mouse.

I suggest you be wary of sites that make outlandish claims and promise riches with little or no work. Be especially careful around sites that require you to pay a fee before they reveal their secret money-making methods to you. It does not necessarily mean you're about to be ripped off but it should sound the alarm of a potential scam.

If you're looking for legitimate ways to make money from home on the internet here are 5 suggestions you can get started with right away:

1. Become a virtual assistant. As a virtual assistant you may be required to write up documents, prepare mailings and invoices, follow up with clients by email or phone, make travel arrangements, and more. There are lots of busy professionals and business owners who could use a VA to assist with daily tasks and they are willing to pay for your skills.

2. Open an eBay store. Most eBay sellers start out by auctioning off old stuff from around their house that they no longer want. But if you find a profitable niche you can go one step further. Find a supplier where you can buy goods cheap and sell them on the internet for a profit.

3. If you speak a second language you can make extra money translating documents. You can translate digital documents, hard copies, or a combination of the two.

4. Transcription services are always in demand. This is where you would receive an audio file or a cd containing a speech, seminar, or interview. Your job would be to listen to the audio and type it up into a readable format. You'll need to have a good ear and fast typing fingers to excel at this one.

5. Become a ghostwriter. There are lots of businesses and individuals that need content created for their web sites, blogs, newsletters, pamphlets, etc. If you have decent writing skills and can work on a deadline you can offer your writing services to them. Quality writers can make a nice living online.

Effective Article Distribution

Using effective article distribution can extend the reach of your message and increase your audience. Once you've uploaded your article to an article submission site or service, do not stop there. Here are some ideas on how to get noticed in more places.

BUILD A PRESENTATION

Take the material in your article and turn it into a presentation in PowerPoint or Keynote (Mac). Use your sub headings as titles on each slide. Turn your paragraphs into bullet points or numbered lists. Add some relevant images and graphics, and voila! You now have a different version of your content.

POST TO CONTENT SITES

Your audience looks for information in different places. Some people do not always just type something in the Google search field. They revisit certain sites because they value the content that they find there.

After have created a presentation, try posting it on sites like SlideShare or Squidoo. You will have to create an account, in order to upload your material, and if you keep posting useful content, you will start to get ranked and noticed by users of those online communities.

CREATE A VIDEO

Another option for your article is to use it as part of your video marketing strategy. You do not have to create anything new. Just take your slide presentation and turn it into a video. Both Mac and PC presentation software have voice-over capabilities. You essentially, just run through the presentation as if you were talking to a room full of people and click through each slide.

At the end, you share or export the presentation file, so that it turns into a video format that can then be played back as a mini-movie.

SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO

Now that you have a video, you need to submit it also. You can use sites like TubeMogul or Traffic Geyser to send your video to several different sites that like to take videos.

These sites will send your file to YouTube, plus Vimeo, Veoh, and many more video distribution services.

SOCIALIZE YOUR LINKS

Now that you've got your article link, a presentation link, and video links, it's time to share them on your social networks. Spread out your news over several days and at different times of days. And, always use different language in your posts, so you do not look like your spamming.

By multipurposing your article in different formats, and on a variety of sites, you will reach a much wider audience. Ideally your search rankings go up along the way, and more business comes flowing through your door, or, website.

Nissan's Penchant for CVT

In the ever competitive world of the auto industry, car manufactures are always looking for ways to improve the performance of their vehicles. The recent trend is to produce fuel efficient vehicles as the public demand for these vehicles increases.

Forced by increasing prices of gasoline and increasing awareness of the global warming thereat, consumers have turned away from larger vehicles such as pickups and sport utility vehicles. In order to meet the demand of consumers, car manufacturers have been developing technologies to make their vehicle more fuel efficient. In Europe, the trend is to develop cleaner diesel engines since diesel fuel is cheaper than gasoline. In the United States, hybrid electric cars are more popular with Toyota and Honda hybrids leading the way. For Nissan though, they choose to exploit the use of continuously variable transmissions (CVT) which has proved to have the capability to reduce fuel consumption.

The continuously variable transmission or CVT is originally conceptualized by the artist Leonardo da Vinci in the 1940's. Although the CVT was conceptualized as early as that, it was not until 1886 that the first patent for the CVT was filed. After years of development, the continuous variable transmission eventually became popular in the auto industry, thanks to the efforts of Nissan in developing their own CVT.

The first Nissan auto model to be equipped with a CVT is the Nissan March introduced in 1992. The said model was sourced from fellow Japanese car brand Subaru. After some years, Nissan completed the CVT with a torque converter to increase its efficiency. One of the advantages of the CVT over conventional manual and automatic transmissions is that it maximizes the torque produced by the engine.

It is known that CVTs provide an infinite number of gear ratios within a finite range. This means that the engine's output can be harnessed efficiently with limited waste of power. This, on the other hand, translates to less fuel consumed by the engine to drive a vehicle.

Currently, there are already eleven Nissan models offered with the continuously variable transmission. These auto models are marketed throughout the world. One of the Nissan models equipped with the CVT is the Nissan Altima which is a mid-size sedan and this has replaced the Stanza in Nissan's lineup in 1993. The Altima is initially marketed as a compact car until 2001 but in 2002, it was upgraded to become a mid-size car.

Another Nissan auto model to be equipped with the CVT is the Nissan Cube. The Nissan Cube is a mini multi-purpose vehicle that is sold only in the Japanese market. This fuel efficient boxy car was first introduced in 1998 and bears a resemblance to the Chevy Aveo, Honda Fit, and the Scion xB.

The best selling Nissan Maxima is also equipped with a CVT. The Maxima is a mid-size executive car which competes with modes such as the Honda Accord, Toyota Camry, Hyundai Sonata, Chevrolet Impala and the Ford Five Hundred. Its CVT is reported to perform better than vehicles equipped with a manual transmission using Centerforce clutch components.

The Nissan Micra, the supermini car produced by the Japanese car company, is another car model fitted with a CVT. The Micra is known as the Nissan March in the Japanese market. The first March / Micra were first introduced in 1982. The current March / Micra models represent the third generation of the car.

The near-luxury midsize crossover sport utility vehicle Nissan Murano is also offered with a CVT. It was initially slotted at the top of Nissan's lineup in the United States auto market before the arrival of the Armada. The said crossover SUV equipped with a CVT is first introduced in 2003 and is frequently labeled as the "Maxima of SUVs".

Another Nissan auto model to be equipped with a CVT is the Nissan Primera which is marketed as a compact family sedan in the European auto market. The Primera will be discontinued this year though.

Another Nissan model to be equipped with a CVT is the QASHQAI known in the US auto market as the Nissan Rouge, Nissan Dualis in Japan and Nissan CCUV in China. Other Nissan car models offered with the CVT are the Nissan Sentra, Serena, Skyline, and Versa / Tiida.

This wide range of Nissan vehicle provided with CVTs are part of the company's Green Program, the goal of which is to promote the use of CVTs to reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

Money Saving Tips Everyone Should Learn

Today, it is not enough for a person to just earn an income but he also needs to learn how to save money. Without the knowledge on how to save money, for sure, he will not have anything left for the rainy days in his life. No matter how low or how high his income is, anyone should learn how to save money. Thank goodness, because of the advent of the internet, it is very much easier and more convenient for someone to learn some money saving tips right in the comforts of his own home. With these tips on how to save money, for sure, he and his family will not have any problem in living through life.

So, what are the basic money saving tips that everyone should need to learn? One of the most practical ways to save money is to stash away, at least, ten to twenty percent of his total earnings. For instance, if he is earning $ 1,000 every month, he should deposit ten percent of that, which is $ 100, on his bank account and totally forget all about it. In other words, the best ways to save money is to open up a bank account.

There are other people who just do not transact with banks if they want to save money. Some people will open up investment on IRA or the Individual Retirement Account. This is for people who have been employed and wants to have additional money when they retire so they can continue in enjoying their lives to the fullest. Others would also opt to buy life insurance so that on the end of his paying period, he can received the insured money from a life insurance company and can then enjoy his life even before he retires. If something happens to him, his family will have a secured and better financial future.

There are still many other money saving tips that anyone can learn. These tips can be found anywhere even on the internet and fortunately, there are now lots of different websites that feature these tips on how to save money for the rainy days. It is also good that if a person has some kind of talent, he can try to turn that talent into his own money-making machine. That way, he can save the money that he earned from his money-making talents while he can spend his salary from his day job to buy the things that his family needs and wants.

Technical Writing - Definition of Brainstorming

Good tech writers brings more to the table than the ability to create documents that fulfill the client's objective. Very often, the writer is part of a team that develops concepts and whole campaigns. The writer is expected to take an active role in the process.

One opportunity for participation is being in a brainstorming session . Some people confuse a brainstorming session with a bull session when people sit around and say whatever comes to mind. There are big differences between the two. The biggest difference is that brainstorming is intended to produce valuable ideas. It's not a time for expressing random thoughts and telling stories.

A brainstorming session is a group of people who are involved with or interested in a specific topic. They gather to present ideas and - most importantly - to build on the ideas of others in the session. The value of the exchange is that ideas generate other ideas. Directions that none of the participants thought of individually became clear when the input of many people is stimulated and enlarged upon by the discussion. The objective of a brainstorming session is to develop a few, workable ideas that can be turned into the basis for dealing with a situation or going forward with a project.

Unlike a bull session, a brainstorming session has a structure and clear rules. They both have to be understood and followed by everyone. If there's any doubt that they're not understood by all the participants, they should either be presented either orally or as a handout before the session starts. Then, they must be enforced during the session. It's a free-form brain dump, but it has structure and rules.

The structure

· Brainstorming sessions work well with five to ten participants. Too few and there's not enough input. Too many and there's not enough time for everyone to participate.

· There should be a stipulated time limit for the session. Small groups can often accomplish a lot in an hour or so. Even with large groups, though, three hours is pretty much the upper limit.

· One person is designated as facilitator . The facilitator states the purpose of the session and sets up the guidelines. It's also this person's responsibility to keep the session moving along on time and on track.

· One person is designed the scribe . It's this person's responsibility to capture all the ideas and write them down.

· The facilitator and scribe are both part of the discussion.

The rules

1. Quantity, not quality, of ideas is the aim; as many ideas as possible from all participants.
2. Ideas should be short and simple enough to be easily understood and written down.
3. Everyone must have an equal opportunity to express ideas.
4. No judgment or criticism is ever made about an individual who expresses an idea.
5. No idea is rejected regardless of how silly or far out it may seem.
6. No idea is criticized during the session, not even by looks, groans, or laughs.
7. Ideas are not discussed as they're generated.
8. All ideas are written down on a surface everyone can see.
9. Different ideas, no matter how similar, are written down.
10. Only ideas on the stated topic for the session are allowed.

After the session, ideas that are similar can be resolved into one idea, and then they can be ranked by preference. The pros and cons of the top ideas can be discussed until the most workable ideas are settled on