I had a site – Poker School, just for the fun. Now I am going to fill it with articles and posts in games, chaos and probability theories. So watch this new Poker space and it doesn’t matter if you like the game of Poker or not. Ideas will be interesting and unusual – this is a promise.

Related posts:

1. England vs Germany

Well, this is not as easy task as one could think. Google Adsense attracts not only big advertisers but big publishers. Meanwhile being a big company has it’s drawbacks. Also in a world without competition provider starts to dictate: You can’t do this, you can’t do that, you should do only things only this way…” Not nice…

First time I’ve discovered a Big Company Syndrome of Adsense when I needed to contact their support with some small issue. I’ve got an automated reply referring me to their FAQ and Forum… Nice, as if I haven’t checked them beforehand… OK, I have figured out everything myself, just by tweaking some settings but hey, today I have received another email asking to rate the quality of support! What support? OK, let’s leave it…

But from here we can draw Rule No.1: You are pretty safe using Adsense until you run into problems. Support level… hmmm… what support?

Here we go, finding the alternative. First of all forget these networks using links (you have probably noticed double-underlines somewhere else). It doesn’t look good, it’s intrusive, it’s often irrelevant.

After checking few PPC networks I got my eye on Chitika. Their ads look unobtrusive and actually small picture next to the link sort of looks right. You can see Chitika example at the bottom of this page and to sign-up click the image below.

My first impression was not bad at all, quick approval, easy to use dashboard, PayPal option. So I have decided to replace Adsense for this blog by Chitika.

Now let’s do usual pros and cons:

Adsense:
PROS: Well established, lot’s of advertisers, good rates, good content matching, many ad block types, very common look
CONS: virtually no support, very limited payment options, no PayPal, long confirmation-authentication process, very common look

Chitika:
PROS: Quick approval, PayPal option, simple setup and actually a human support
CONS: Less UK ads than Adsense, less ad block options, average content matching.

Conclusion: Adsense is still more powerful, but why not give other networks a try. And if selecting Adsense alternative then Chitika looks good enough.

Related posts:

1. Netklix as an Adsense Alternative
2. Adsense Optimizing
3. Affiliate Marketing – Amazon vs Affiliate Window

The question I had this time was personal, I am not going to discuss it in my blog but help and support provided by Steve Pound was quick and straight to the point (as usual).

I think my political decision to vote for Steve Pound second time in a row during recent elections was amongst the best political decisions I took.

Related posts:

1. Re-Elect Steve Pound
2. Few words about politics or something I never wrote before

And the next England fixture with Germany is even more interesting. In this case none of the teams has the “altitude” advantage. So we are both Europeans, even neighbours in some sense. This makes the game England vs Germany one one the most interesting in the World Cup 2010.

Can I make a prediction here? Difficult one… But I somehow have a gut feeling that it wouldn’t be over in 90 minutes and might go into penalties. In in this case it’s simply becoming a lottery. Well, this much of an tip.

Well, my favourite bookie – Paddy Power has another special offer in place for this particular game.

Apart from very generous bet a tenner get 20 free, they are also offering a full refund on 1st/last goalscorer, correct score and scorecast singles if the England-Germany game ends 0-0 in 90 minutes. I’ve already placed my bet (I’ll keep it a secret though ) What do you think the outcome would be? Click below and get a 20 quid free bet.

Related posts:

1. England vs Algeria
2. Who will Win the World Cup?

But I have to! Who was playing for England? Impersonators? The names we know and respect in domestic games were still there but players. Are they now using “field doubles”?

You know what, with the level of commercialisation in English football, I am not surprised. May be they were looking for future team-mates and letting them play so they can see the level. This is just not right. I know that Germany has lost but, honest, it doesn’t make me feel any better.

Now a bit of a surprise for my readers, so they understand what I mean by commercialisation. Do you know, that if I want to put in my blog that, for example, Chelsea plays Everton tomorrow at 16:00 (disclaimer! this is fictitious entry!) than I have to PAY thousands of pounds in license fee! Just think! I cant even say on the net that I am going to watch a game tomorrow and mention time because it’s a fixture and to put a fixture you need a license.

May be this is the reason… at least one of them.

OK, we are now facing the mighty Slovenia (2 millions population, something like Ealing, no disrespect, I am really surprised with their achievement), the group leader. I hope it wouldn’t be another bitter post though.

Thank Paddy Power for the refund! I like their “Bore War” option. As they said: “As the England v Algeria match finished 0 – 0, Paddy Power will refund all losing 1st /last goalscorer, correct score & scorecast singles on the match”

Related posts:

1. England vs Germany
2. Who will Win the World Cup?

Now first but the most important statement: I don’t support ANY party. The reason is simple; I strongly believe (see my posts on economics) that the politics is simply a subset of the economy. Therefore I would never trust any politician that claims he would be able to do “Global changes…”. I don’t believe that any party or government could protect all people from powerful banks, companies, lenders, etc. If any of these entities would raise their eyebrows and say: “Bad Government! Naughty Government!”, then ANY Government would start wagging it’s tail and looking guilty. Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem – everything is pretty much predefined, full stop.

But I am going to vote, not for a party and not for manifestos. I am going to vote for an individual. And honest, I don’t care to what party he belongs as far as I know him as a man of honour. I am talking about Steve Pound, our Ealing MP. I know Steve Pound for quite some time and he always left an impression of an honest man. Last year I had to ask Steve to help me and he did it, straight away. Without redirecting me to his secretaries, without giving standard replies. He just went and did much more than I’ve asked for. And he gets my respect, fully.

I don’t know my Conservative Candidate, I don’t know my Lib Dem Candidate, they might run campaigns and walk the streets of Ealing – I don’t know them. But I know Steve Pound, I know that I can accidentally bump into Steve on our street and have a nice chat, I know that when I email him I get a reply from him, sometimes within just half an hour. I know that if Steve Pound disagrees with “big politics” he would not keep quiet and would speak out. I know that Steve cares about his constituency. All the above knowledge is enough for me to go and vote for re-electing Steve Pound.

This is what I think about politics: global things are impossible to change – objective laws of development would not allow it. But if we have good people in the Parliament, may be we could have a bit better society and a bit better situation.

Steve Pound didn’t endorse this post, he would, most probably, disagree with some of my statements. Making this post is entirely my own decision because I want to make my contribution for our community in Ealing.

Bottom line: I am going to vote to re-elect Steve Pound, and I want all my readers from Ealing to follow. Let’s have good people in the Parliament, doesn’t matter which party they belong to.

Related posts:

1. Thanks Steve!
2. Few words about politics or something I never wrote before

OK, explaining, I am NOT an economist, I do strategic business analysis for living. No complaints so far, huh. And to some of my “very active” respondents, I decide which comments to allow or disallow or even turn them off altogether.

Now, half of the responses were about “derivatives”. And it looks like not all my readers understand important things about banks.

Banks are not simply giving credits, paying interest and safekeeping your money. This is part of banking that you as a client can see. The rest is not on the spotlight. Including Investment Banking and the derivatives market.

Again, I will oversimplify the situation but at least even my less “finically advanced” readers would understand.

Imagine that bank gives money to farmers to buy a new cow. How bank thinks, first of all cow should be somehow made very expensive (remember overinflated housing market – this is our “cow”), second cow should be somehow presented as an absolute must and essential item. Now prices go up and bank says: “This cow is now “yours”, it gives 120 litres of milk a day (complete lie, same was in real estate), so you keep 20 and give us 100 for 25 years and then even more expensive cow is yours.

The agreement is reached, then bank does a calculation 100 ltrs milk = 5 kgs butter and goes to other bank at says: “Look, we have at least 5 kgs of butter a month (complete lie, only thing they have is a cow!), we will sell it to you and you can offer it to a baker”. Second bank agrees and does the same thing with a baker:” Bla-bla-bla, 5kgs is enough for 120 cakes, you give us 100 keep 20, etc…”. Baker agrees (remember, there is no milk, no butter – just a hypothetical cow) and first derivative is created. This chain continues as third bank is approached about cakes, creating new derivative, etc., etc.

As you can see a poor cow was sold and resold under different names (milk, butter, cakes, etc.) many-many times and all banks are now happy.

Now, the initial cow gets foot and mouth disease (property market crashes) so what happens – the whole chain collapses. No milk (it wasn’t there anyway, it was just an assumption!), no butter, no cakes but… it is all been paid for from … our money.

Now, we call all this a “toxic debt” and ask the government (you!) to pay for it. Tell me, where you can see a “vital organ of the economy” that should be immediately “rescued”?

… to be continued.

Related posts:

1. The recession is over… or is it?
2. The recession is over… or is it? – Some of your Questions Answered
3. The recession is over… or is it? – Wrong but inevitable decisions

Now, let me reassure you, it’s NOT over, it even hasn’t STARTED properly yet. Am I an economist? No, I am an analyst and this type of analysis is not amongst the difficult ones.

Just briefly what happened so far. To make it simple – Banks oversold the “money” (which they haven’t had) tenfold by artificially inflating the market. At the payback time only small percentage of money was there and therefore banks went belly-up taking the remaining money with them. Of course they’ve started to scream – the vital part of the economy is disappearing, we need money (who doesn’t, huh?). The governmental machine started to work full-speed, pumping money into banks and rubbish into our ears. Like Banks are the vital organs of the economy and if they gone – the economy is gone. Banks? Vital? Don’t get me wrong, people, but WHY they are vital? In very simple terms Banks are parasites that sell your and my money to others or to us and make profit. Do you think if you have 100 pounds in the bank then it is safely stored somewhere in the vault? Nope, your 100 pounds were sold long time ago to someone else for likes of 200 pounds. Therefore if all of us come and say – give me my money that I’ve trusted you then the Bank is finished. (Northern Rock, does it ring the bell?) I am intentionally oversimplifying the overall situation, if required, I can do mathematical analysis but it would look much more complicated and, hmmm, will have worse results, trust me.

So where was I? Oh, yes, so government started to pump money in (your and my money, honest, government only has what we give to it!) and at the same time the main players and vital organs of the economy (remember – banks = parasites) – manufacturing industry – started to suffocate. Why it happened? Simple, unlike many-many years ago manufacturers are now “addicted” to the delayed finance. And this addiction is a direct result of the banking industry getting their paws on the juicy slice of the real goods sector. At the beginning how the manufacturing worked: some wealthy individual would buy a plant, machinery, raw materials, pay his employees, make goods, sell them, get profit and return his investment + (or go down, it all depends). Where is the Bank? Not in this picture, huh? That wasn’t right for banks, so they said hey, why risk only your own money, we give you some (including that 100 quid me and you put!) but then you give me back just a tiny bit more, deal?

…. To be Continued.

Related posts:

1. The recession is over or is it. (Part 2)
2. The recession is over… or is it? – The Lattice Theory
3. The recession is over… or is it? – Wrong but inevitable decisions

I am back from holiday to icy and snowy Britain.

I haven’t forgotten my tutorials, so don’t worry, everything is coming here after I get through the piles of emails received during this two weeks +.

Meanwhile please stay tuned!

Related posts:

1. Back in Action

And you know what, this advert with teeth like “Do not bleach… Teeth whitening secret discovered by local mom…”. I believe all of you have seen this rubbish; it’s too much of it and looks like substantial advertising budget is involved. I don’t mind advertising; it’s just too much of it and the adverts look too disgusting and absolutely irrelevant to the pages they are placed on.

Nevertheless, today I took a closer look at the ads (yuck!) and all this before-after teeth. Now I do know the secret! Trust me; I’ve done lots of graphics design to spot it straight away.

Here we go… The “local mom” discovered… Photoshop!

No related posts.