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Most people work from their company's central location, a physical space where everyone in the given organization gathers to exchange ideas and organize their respective efforts.
However some have found ways to make money within the comfort of their own home. With the Internet, an ever-changing arena for businesses, some looking to earn money, are finding rational ways to do so.

­Some formats are best for part-time endeavors, for those looking to make a little extra money on the side; others can lead to full-time jobs and other Internet success stories.
Here's a list of the top 5 ways to make money on the Internet, in no particular order.
Selling on eBay
It is a straightforward concept which most people are hip to by now — if you have a bunch of stuff that you do not need but others want and are willing to pay extremely inflated prices for, you can auction off the items on eBay or other online auction sites. You just gather your goods, create a seller's profile and start selling.
It sounds simple at first, but it definitely takes some practice. Remember these three words, advertising, advertising, advertising. You also want to remember to set reasonable minimum bids to ensure that people will buy. Also remember to deliver the kind of customer service that will garner positive feedback ratings and to communicate with buyers to let them know that indeed you're a reliable merchant.
Blogging
If you have something to say, in general, blogging could be a profitable way to pour out your endless stream of thought. The key here, as with most other services on the Internet, is in selling advertising.
After starting up a personal blog, many writers sign up for ad services like Google AdSense, which post those familiar sponsored links that you often see at the top and on the sides of Web sites. The more times your blog readers click on those ads, the more money you make through the ad service. This works fine if you are a casual blogger, and you just might make some extra spending money. But if the blog is consistently interesting, well-written and really takes off, you may be approached by companies who want to reach your fan base with graphical advertising around the blog. Some of the more successful blogs, like I Can Has Cheezburger? and Boing Boing, have become pop-culture phenomena, and their creators have been able to quit their day jobs and blog full time because of the money which they make from
advertising.
Designing and Selling T-shirts
As you walk around most high school and college campuses, you're likely to come into contact with lots of words. Instead, they are the simple phrases or logos — most of which ironic or amusing — printed on the T-shirts on the backs of the students.
Usually, the more unique and offbeat the design is, the more desirable it is to have the T-shirt. The growth of the Internet has made it possible for vendors to sell T-shirts all over the world. In fact, sites like CafePress.com and SpreadShirt.com allow you to set up your own store, create your own designs and sell them yourself.
If it worked for Forrest Gump's friend, it can work for you.
Freelancing
Freelancing is similar in some ways to blogging. For one thing, you get to work from your own home or office most of the time. But there are a few crucial distinctions. If you are thinking about freelance writing, chances are you need to have more experience than the average blogger. Many freelance writing positions cover specialized topics for online publications and may require expert knowledge on a subject.
Writing is not the only way to make money freelancing. Anyone with graphic design or programming experience can find contract jobs that pay well and provide challenging work!
Flipping Domain Names
Based on luck, strategy and business savvy, domain name flipping can be one of the most lucrative ways to earn a living online. The term comes from the real estate trick that involves buying old, undervalued houses, fixing them up to make them more attractive and then selling them for a much higher price.
In this case, the old and outdated place is not a house, but rather a domain name — the main address for a Web page. With a little bit of searching, dedicated domain flippers locate unused, poorly maintained Web sites that have generic and recognizable identifiers and they buy them. They usually pay a few hundred or even a few thousand dollars, but after extensive updates that make the site more business and user-friendly, the domain name can fetch several times more than it was originally worth. The domain bird-cage.com, for instance, was bought for a mere $1,800 in 2005 — after a redesign two years later, the site was sold for $173,000 to a bird cage vendor.

Two years ago, Facebook began deploying a behavioral tracking service it called "Beacon," which automatically enabled the tracking of Facebook users' behavior, and shared the data with its advertising partners. It wasn't an "opt-in" service by anyone stretch of the imagination, and after Facebook took down the majority of the service, customers filed a class-action law suit against the social network.

In a proposed settlement last September, Facebook is opting to use its own money, some US $9.5 million, to establish a fund for the creation of a foundation to help make Web users more aware of their privacy rights and how they can improve their online safety.

Thanks Facebook!

It is what the law calls a "cy pres" settlement, named after an old French phrase which means, "the next best thing."
"Next best" is not quite a settlement, argues the advocacy group Public Knowledge. Why should Facebook use its own money to pay its own people to do what it should have been paying its own people to do at the get go?

The Public Citizen's official objection to the proposed settlement is as follows:

"Creating the Facebook foundation is an inappropriate cy pres-like remedy that provides no value to the class because (1) the foundation is unneeded — numerous established organizations already advocate for improved online privacy, safety and security by educating users, regulators and businesses; and (2) Facebook, whose founder and CEO questions whether privacy rights should be safeguarded, retains unwarranted influence over the proposed foundation…In essence, Facebook is paying itself money to gain a broad release of its users' legal claims and to create an unneeded foundation over which it will have significant control. It is difficult to imagine a greater abuse of the cy pres remedy."

Public Citizen is now seeking a legal award of at least US $2,500 per member of the class action, the precedent for which it claims has already been established by the Video Privacy Protection Act.

"Numerous independent, non-profit groups already exist to do precisely that,"

says Public Citizen.

"A list of such organizations, although not comprehensive, includes the Electronic Privacy Information Center ("established in 1994 to focus public attention on emerging civil liberties issues and to protect privacy, the First Amendment, and constitutional values"), the Electronic Frontier Foundation ("educates the press and public" by "defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today"), Privacy Rights Clearinghouse ("two-part mission — consumer information and consumer advocacy" with goals to "[r]aise consumers' awareness of how technology affects personal privacy, and to empower consumers to take action to control their own personal information"), the Center for Digital Democracy (addressing privacy issues while promoting "an electronic media system that fosters democratic expression and human rights"), and the World Privacy Forum ("focused on conducting in-depth research, analysis, and consumer education in the area of privacy"). In addition, the Rose Foundation's Consumer Privacy Rights Fund, created from a series of settlements in cases involving consumer privacy issues, awards grants to back privacy-related research, education, advocacy, and policy development … In addition to being well-established, these organizations have the advantage of not being controlled by Facebook."

Some want to know what exactly is Twitter good for? For some, the question goes unanswered, for others, the answer is, well, nothing really. However, if you are in the business of marketing and customer service, Twitter can be a very important tool to use.

Know this: you are wrong if you expect this micro-blogging service to be a substitute for a marketing or customer-service plans. The best way to get the most out of Twitter is to incorporate the tool into your current strategies. It can help your business, but it is not by any stretch of the imagination, a complete solution on its own.

The Dell Outlet is Dell’s online Web shop for purchasing refurbished Dell computers and electronics. By bringing its outlet site to Twitter, Dell claims to have generated $6.5 million from just its Twitter activities alone, in the last year. In addition to the value of the direct sales via tweeting, the company has also realized revenue from people who start by following a Twitter link and continue on to other pages on the Dell Web site to buy a new computer.

Keep in mind, this actual dollar value is only a fraction of Dell's multi-billion-dollar annual sales. Still, it does show that online businesses, e-commerce Web shops in particular can realize a profit and sales through creative business twittering.

Dell uses Twitter to send messages about the latest refurbished systems available in the Dell Outlet. It also tweets coupons and messages about clearance events. In February of last year, Dell started offering exclusive deals to Twitter followers in the USA. Dell's messages are tweeted out to more than 1.5 million followers on the Twitter service.

The first thing to consider, despite the Twitter media hype around Dell, is that its success did not come from using Twitter to create a new business model or sales channel. The Dell Outlet was actually already hot before it began its tweeting. The company uses a special Web shop on its Web site and e-mail marketing to promote this small part of the business, and it integrated Twitter into its strategy for higher conversions.

Also, the Dell Outlet Twitter account consistently targets the same audience and focuses only on the Dell Outlet in their tweets. There is no mention of newly launched Dell PCs or laptops or other electronics and services that you will find in other places on their Web site. The tweets are specifically targeted and they provide information that niche bargain hunters are trying to find. Dell provides links on its Twitter profile for people interested in following other Dell businesses.

The Dell Outlet Twitter account is also personalized. They have removed the business tone from their Twitter presence by displaying a real name, contact information and photo of the spokesperson responsible for the Dell Outlet on Twitter. Very clever:

Dell displays the business identity, but it places more emphasis on the person tweeting behind the corporate logo. When you bring your business in to social media it is important to present an individual face. People will naturally respond better to a person than a business social media setting.

Finally, Dell uses this Twitter account as a communication tool to respond to its Outlet customers. Followers who have purchased a deal from the Dell Outlet or those with questions about Dell coupons and deals can ask their questions via Twitter and the Dell Outlet follows up with the customer in a Twitter reply.

You can study the marketing strategies that Dell uses on Twitter and adapt them to suit your own e-commerce business.

Based on the success of corporations such as Dell, Zappos and others, you can incorporate the following strategies into your own Twitter presence.

…Do not create a new aspect of your business just to tweet about it…Tweet about your core business as it is…

…Select one person from within your business to represent the company on Twitter…Be sure that your followers know that person’s face and name…

…Keep those tweets relevant and focused…Rather than using one Twitter account for all your business tweets, create separate accounts and limit each account to one individual topic or theme…

…Be sure your tweet has value for your customers…They will not care so much about your broken office air conditioner as they will about a hot new product or deal…Good tweets are those that invite a response or retweet from your follower…

…Stay on the ball…If you customers use Twitter as the medium to initiate customer service or technical support conversations, follow up with them on Twitter…

Whether you are planning to sell something online for the first time, or are tuning up and re-launching an existing e-commerce site, drawing visitors to your website is always a huge challenge. Some traditional marketing strategies actually translate well to e-commerce, such as promoting to places where you know your customers congregate. If you have a physical store, review what has worked there and morph those activities into your online efforts.

One of the biggest hurdles in online marketing is keeping visitors on your site long enough to fill up the cart and make a purchase. At a store, they’ve already made a time investment to be there and so they are less likely to walk out. Online, however, there’s no such investment, therefore the quality of your site will make or break your online business. With a single click, potential customers can jet on you. Here are some tips for marketing an online store and some stuff to avoid:

Organization and optimization of keywords and phrases…

These are the exact search terms that people are likely to use in the real world to look for the products or services that you are selling on your website. “Optimizing” means selecting your keywords carefully and placing them strategically into every online and offline piece of marketing material that you have.

Creating awareness…
Potential customers need to know that they can buy from you online. If you have a physical location, leverage that in order to gain awareness among visitors. One effective strategy is to place signs in the windows and inside the location of your store announcing the site. You can also hand out coupon-bearing flyers and place them into every bag or box.

If you don’t have a physical location, the best way to create awareness quickly is to place pay-per-click search ads on Google, the yellow pages site serving your area, specialized sites such as Business.com and elsewhere. Other options include sending announcements via press release, email, direct mail or Twitter.

Driving traffic to your site…
Simply knowing your site exists isn’t enough – "knowing is half the battle" – only half. Try to make every page interesting and easy to navigate. Each page needs to be no more than one click away from your online store. Include something noteworthy on each page – such as a tip that can make their life a little easier.

Making it about the customer…
If your web pages are nothing but self-serving spin, people won’t want to come back. Consider creating separate pages that educate visitors on each product or service category which you cover. These kinds of features encourage visitors to stay or return to your site. Make it quick and easy for visitors to contact you with questions or comments should they need assistance.

Converting visitors to sales…
Don’t worry that visitors will resent your trying to sell them something. That is why they are there, and they know that your business has to make money in order to survive. After prospects have browsed your site, you want them to think:

“I can see that you know what you are doing and I trust you. I appreciate your help and it would feel good to buy something from you right now.”

That means you have to make it easy for them to do so. Here’s how to do it:

Make product selection simple.
Make the checkout process quick and seamless.
Be clear and upfront about the costs and choices of shipping.
Show them ways to save money.

Just about every business has some kind of dirty little secret: I call it customer attrition. Rarely can a company claim someone as a customer for life. There's always pressure from the competition and as a result, there will always be customer attrition.

Businesses do everything they can to retain their current base, but retention WILL not do it alone. Obviously it is essential for any organization to continuously grow revenue. Every business struggles to obtain the most valuable of assets: customer leads!

Generating leads is both a science and an art. Successful lead generation needs a methodical plan in the stages of conception and add that to the discipline of executing the plan effectively over time. So rare does a sales blitz work without a consistent, long-term execution.

Consistency is where most small-to-mid size firms fail in their lead-generation efforts. Smaller businesses have limited resources, and therefore, a dedicated lead-generation team is pretty much unheard of. Even in a mid-sized company, everyone from the CEO to the person who cleans the bathroom is expected to pitch in on any-and-all business efforts.

When business is booming, it is easy for the company to neglect essential lead-generation strategies for want of resources; this is because the entire staff is focused on serving current customers. This approach can be especially damaging when tough times hit — certainly witnessed recently.
With no primed funnel, customer attrition may prove fatal.

All Things Considered:

It's near impossible for a small-to-mid sized company to bear the overhead cost of dedicated lead-generation personnel. That is where lead-generation outsourcing can be the very lifeblood of a business. The concept of "micro-sourcing" is becoming ever more prevalent as a means of outsourcing small, niche programs without a commitment on the part of the business owner. This concept works very well for outsourced lead generation, where initial programs can be launched with as few as three sales agents, or scaled upward with many hundreds of agents.

An outsourced lead-generation provider can apply the methodical, consistent elbow grease which is needed to keep a successful initiative swinging. A micro-outsourcing partner will work in collaboration with a business to establish a framework for the outreach

It promises to:

develop a prospect database with specifics on the decision maker, contact information and the buying profile of a prospect…
mechanize the outreach to prospects, either through telephone, email or Web-based methods…

create a catchy sales pitch…

provide a thorough feedback source as well as a follow-up engine…

guarantee a consistent volume of contact activity…

regularly evaluate and update training to determine what is and isn't working…

and

allows for a high-touch handoff to internal sales personnel….

"Google Google Google, you're just too big"

say its rival bookworms in the electronic book industry. The former former former's bid to secure the digital rights to millions of books remains under attack.

Google is shooting at a legal settlement that would unlock to the search and ad genius, a vast electronic library.

The opposition fired its latest salvo on Thursday, the deadline for filing objections with U.S. District Judge Denny Chin in New York.

The critics contend Google's US$125 million settlement of a class action lawsuit with U.S. publishers and authors would squash the competitors and drive up prices in the budding electronic book market. Opponents also warn that the digital books will give Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) an important tool for attracting more traffic and adding upon its already commanding lead in the Internet's lucrative search and advertising market.

Google's argument is that the agreement will benefit society by making it easier to see and potentially buy hard-to-find books.

The Mountain View, Cali firm has made digital copies of more than 12 million books in just the past five years; but they cannot display most of them until copyright issues are resolved.

Judge Chin has scheduled a Feb. 18 hearing to consider whether he will grant final approval to the complex settlement that was first worked out 15 months ago, or deliver Google a blow to the chin.
Google revised the agreement last November, two months after the Department of Justice warned the original settlement probably would violate antitrust and copyright laws. The government has until Feb. 4 to file its take on the revised settlement.

The fiercest criticism of the changes, so far have come from the same foes which spearheaded the resistance. The opposing camp includes the Open Book Alliance, a group including Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon.com, as well as Consumer Watchdog, a group that fights abusive business practices.

He co-founded PayPal at age 31 and sold it to eBay four years later for $1.5 billion.
At 33 he became the first investor in Facebook.
At 42, his current age, he runs a San Francisco venture capital firm and a hedge fund, Clarium Capital.

But things haven't been easy-come-easy-go lately. As bailouts and government stimulus policies revived financial markets, this staunch libertarian bet against the rally, using his best rationalism and faith in man-kind. He lost.

As investors started pulling their money out of his fund, Clarium shrank from $7 billion in assets to about $1.5 billion. Disillusioned by the current state of the economy and its future, Thiel wasn't worrying; he was pouring money into fantastic futuristic projects as a VC and philanthropist: private space flight, ocean colonies for human habitation, indefinite life extension.

Behind both his economic skepticism and his radical utopianism – if you can call it that – is a unifying conviction. That is to revive yesterday's dreams of tomorrow, today:

"I spend a lot of my time thinking about the future. I run a hedge fund and a venture capital fund, and a lot of that is just trying to learn what’s going on in the world, trying to understand the world better."

On the fall and recovery of the stock market:

"People take it for granted that their retirement funds can earn 8.5 percent a year. That’s what their financial planners tell them. And sure, you look back over the past 100 years, the stock market has generally gone up 6 to 8 percent a year. But in a larger historical perspective, that kind of growth is exceptional. If you had done the equivalent of investing in the stock market from, say, 1000 to 1100 AD, you would not have made 8 percent a year. During the fall of the Roman Empire, you’d have been lucky to get zero. We’ve been living in a unique period of accelerating technological progress. We’ve gone from horses to cars to planes to rockets to computers to the Internet in a very short time. It’s not automatic that that continues."

If the expected economic growth does not happen?

"If it doesn’t happen, people will go bankrupt in retirement. There are systemic consequences, too. If we don’t have enough growth, we will see a powerful shift away from capitalism. There are good things and bad things about capitalism, but inequality becomes completely intolerable to society when everything’s static"

Final frontiers?

"I think we have to make those things happen. We should be looking at technologies that might lead to really big breakthroughs. As a starting point, let’s just go back to the science fiction novels of the 1950s and ’60s and try to run the past 40 years again"

On Line:

"Obviously we’ve done well online. But how much more progress is there going to be? How many big new Internet companies are there? In the ’90s we had Netscape, Yahoo, eBay, Amazon. In the past eight years there have been only two: Google and Facebook…The Internet may be culturally important, just as the automobile was culturally more important in the ’50s than the ’20s, as we got suburbia and built the Interstate Highway System. But the last successful car company started in the US was Jeep in 1941."

The question is this: Is search engine cost effective enough to increase profits for business to business marketers? The answer is this: Yes and here’s why: Everyone knows that the fastest and most efficient way to research products and pricing is on the Web.

Business to business transactions differ from other consumer transactions because the decisions require coordination between a number of different personnel before the final or actual transaction is carried out. Therefore, the process requires a period of time between researching the product and placing the order. It is not a snap decision, but an ongoing one.

A study was done by Enquiro on "The Role of Search in Business to Business Buying Decisions”. Approximately 1500 participants responding to a 40-question survey, was validated with pre-testing before implementation. When participants were asked to indicate how they would go about making a business to business purchase, 93.2% said they would research the purchase online.

When asked if they would use a search engine at some point in this task, 95.5% of participants indicated that they would.

When asked where they would start their search for information, 63.9% of participants chose a search engine over consumer review sites, e-commerce sites, manufacturer’s sites, and industry portals.

When taking budget into consideration, manufacturer’s sites and industry portals were the chosen starting place as budgets increased. However, 86.9% of participants said they would visit a search engine after visiting those sites.

The study was also rich with too many details to cover in this post, but here are some important conclusions:

Search engines play a dominant role in business to business purchases.

Search engines are utilized in the early or mid-research phase of the buying cycle.

Google is favored over other search engines.

Search engine research takes place at least one to two months before the buying decision.

Good balance between organic and paid search is necessary. Organic SEO gets over 70% of clicks.

Position is a factor, with over 60% clicking on the top 3 listings.

Most users decide which listing to click on in seconds upon scanning the page.

With all this qualified traffic originating from search engines, it is more important than ever for business to business marketers, wholesalers, and business to business exchanges to ensure their Web sites are correctly optimized for good position in search results. There is also great value in SEO/SEM as a user-friendly marketing tool.

Search engine traffic is very highly targeted. That's because potential buyers who find your business to business offerings through search engines are looking for your products and services on their own, so they are predisposed to hear your marketing message. You will not find a more qualified prospect than that. What makes search engine marketing different than other types of advertising is that it's non-intrusive and also because it is voluntary.

Going beyond other European countries, the Italian government has drafted a decree that would mandate the vetting of videos for pornographic or violent content uploaded by users onto such sites as YouTube, owned by Google, and the France-based Dailymotion, as well as blogs and online news media sites.

Google, press freedom watchdogs (raise eyebrow and think about google.cn for a second, now shrug and continue reading) and telecom providers are among those pressing for changes in the draft to stop the fast-track legislation from going into effect as early as Feb. 4.

Reporters Without Borders (NYSE: BGP) Media says the measures might force Web sites to obtain licenses to operate in Italy.

Meanwhile…

The new question for those (outside of Italy) who create and share their own Web videos is whether or not they should dump Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) Flash and other plug-in players for HTML 5, the newest version of the Web's markup language.

The picture cleared up a little for HTML 5 supporters late last week as they learned that top video sharing sites Vimeo and YouTube were going to offer their users the option of using the new standard. If users of the two Web sites have compatible browsers — a short list right now including Chrome,

ChromeFrame on Internet Explorer and Safari — they will have the ability to watch videos without plug-ins like Flash or Silverlight, as well as quicker in-video navigation and without buffering.

Vimeo spokesperson Brad Daugherty is cautious:

"Almost every thread on the Internet about HTML 5 devolves into some kind of flamewar. Please don't comment here extolling the virtues of open source or unencumbered codecs…We know, it's our job to know and that conversation has been had a million times. The simple fact is right now h.264 [a coding format] allows us the most flexibility to display on many devices and many players with the same file. When that changes, so will we."

And meanwhile…

YouTube announced this week its new movie rental strategy.

Instead of the commercial first-run features that are popular with Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) members, YouTube said this week that it will make available for streaming rental five movies from this year's and last year's Sundance Film Festivals. The price per rental is $3.99.

It appears to be just a dip into the pay-per-streaming market for the world's biggest video Web site, purchased a little over three years ago by Google (Nasdaq: GOOG).

Reads a recent post on the YouTube blog:

"While YouTube has offered an easy and economical way for filmmakers — as well as content creators of all kinds — to instantaneously connect with fans around the world, many of them have told us that the ad-supported business model doesn't always meet their distribution and monetization needs…These are early days and in the coming weeks we'll also invite a small group of partners across other industries, in addition to independent film, to participate in this new option."

Minnesota federal judge Michael Davis has reduced the fine imposed on Jammie Thomas-Rasset for illegally sharing music on the Internet from $1.92 million to $54,000.
Davis said that the original calculations to determine Thomas-Rasset's penalty, more than $83,000 per song, indeed were "monstrous and shocking."

Thomas-Rasset has made statements to the media saying she can't afford the $54,000, and that she intends to continue her appeal of the original verdict.
Davis' motion is a setback for the RIAA, which had reason to believe it was leaving this particular battlefield as the winner. The RIAA signaled about a year ago that it would cease prosecuting individuals for illegally downloading songs from the Internet without copyright holders' permission. Their approach will consist of working with Internet service providers to warn violators and then restrict their service.
The RIAA's legal strategy drew even more criticism when it became clear that its accusations were sometimes wide of the mark, not to mention aimed at minors, single parents, senior citizens and, otherwise good, college students. There was one reported case of a deceased person being accused by the RIAA of illegally infringing music. She was an 83-year-old grandmother who had allegedly traded hundreds of rock music tracks under the name "smittenedkitten." Her family said she had never even owned a computer.
Thomas-Rasset first went to trial over the matter in 2007. In that case, the jury rejected the defense arguments and found her liable for damages of $222,000. Her case was overturned when Davis concluded he had erred in instructing the jury that the record companies did not have to prove that someone actually had downloaded the music.
That decision undermined a key RIAA argument: merely making copyrighted music available online was unlawful.
In the second trial, however, Thomas-Rasset was once again found liable.
She appealed the decision, arguing in part that the penalty was excessive and out of proportion to the offense. Davis agreed.

Getting the Concept

Perhaps you've seen the occasional Forex ad on your screen,
but have not really taken the time to check out what it is and how it can bring you income.
The truth is, while it may be easy to start Forex trading, it’s not that easy to generate big profits.

The cases are often when Forex novices get frustrated and quit the market because the system seems too complicated for them.
Forex is the global 24-hour market, in which national currencies are traded.
It stands for the foreign exchange market. With a $4 trillion daily turnover, Forex is the largest and most liquid market in the world.
It is also worth saying that Forex is not a physical market like for example, the New York Stock Exchange.
The Forex market is closer to a global network of dealers, including central banks, currency speculators and other banking and financial entities.

History Lesson
The history of foreign exchange trading can be traced back to the Middle Ages when various forms of currency were converted into a single currency.
In those days, the foreign exchange markets were quite simple; currency exchanging was stable and involved almost no risk.
The volatility of the market increased greatly after WWI.
For years, the international economic system had been supported by the value and price of gold.
But that standard had many weaknesses. One of which was the so called boom-and-bust pattern.
In 1914, after the war, many nations took their currencies off the gold standard and started dictating the value of their currencies.
The Bretton Woods system also played a role in the evolution of the Forex market.
The system was established near the end of WWII, with the aim of designing a new stable economic environment.
Under the Bretton Woods Agreement, national currencies were fixed against the U.S. dollar.
The U.S. dollar in turn could be exchanged for gold at a price of $35 per ounce. As a result of the Bretton Woods Agreement, the U.S. dollar became the international reserve currency, which could be converted to gold.
The foreign exchange market as we know it today was formed in 1971, mostly due to the abandonment of the gold exchange standard by the global economic community. In 1978, the free-floating system was officially set in place, and the currencies of the industrialized nations began to move freely across the world, from country to country. In view of the fact that supply and demand is the fundamental factor of Forex trading, the free-floating system became ideal for the Forex markets.
Up until recently, foreign exchange trading was accessible only to big players, including major banks, hedge funds and other institutional traders. The advancement in online technologies accelerated the further expansion of the Forex markets throughout the globe.
Today Forex is indeed an extremely lucrative market with obvious benefits. FX comes as a profitable alternative to some more common investment schemes, such as trading stocks and bonds. With the Internet being the main means of foreign exchange trading, this investment doesn’t require much stress. The market functions 24 hours a day, so you can participate in foreign exchange trading anytime that’s convenient for you. Also, a great thing about the Forex market is its liquidity.

The Little Guy
E-commerce is exciting and beneficial on many fronts – its benevolent affect on the economy is attested to throughout the global community. Two interesting examples are China and Kenya, of all places.
Before mobile phones became the byword of Kenya’s ICT success and fiber optic technology was unheard of there, Kenyans waited for the day when e-commerce would become a reality. Frustrated e-entrepreneurs lamented over the lack of appropriate legal framework and innovations to usher the next big thing into the virtual economy.
Businesses sadly missed out on billions of shillings worth of deals in the global market, simply because of the inability to accept online payments. Picture that! We in the west should not take our online market opportunities for granted – we have been a bit spoiled.
On Tuesday a landmark development saw I&M Bank and Visa Card strike a deal that allows consumers in Kenya to buy goods from the internet in local currency using credit and debit cards. Cool!
This makes Kenya the first nation in the East African region to be pushed into the center of the world of electronic commerce. The giant leap will offer potential Kenyan e-merchants, like airline, tour and travel companies, hotels and utility service providers the opportunity to expand their sales.
E-commerce can effectively relieve recipients of online payment, the trouble of engaging offshore electronic gateways to receive money, the use of which has remained a costly affair for both businesses and individuals.
The foundations of Kenya’s e-commerce are founded in the Kenya Communications Act, passed in their Parliament more than a year ago.
The Act allows businesses to participate in e-commerce, execute electronic signatures, and recognizes the use of electronic communication as an official means of conveyance between companies and their shareholders.

The Big Guy
China has been in the game much longer than Kenya, and despite the brewhaha surrounding Google, their e-commerce continues to rock at a frenetic speed.
The China Internet Network Information Center said the number of internet users jumped 28.9% in 2009 to 384 million. That is more than the entire population of the U.S.
Chinese consumers are migrating beyond some of the free services offered by portals like Sina.com, Sohu.com and Netease.com as they begin to do more and more of their shopping online.
China's online shopping sales rose to $36.6 billion last year and one of the reasons behind the growth was that retailers were able to help consumers feel more comfortable shopping online – a major hurdle for e-merchants everywhere.
Alipay is a Chinese shopping cart system which operates similarly to PayPal. The difference is that Alipay doesn't release payment until after the buyer actually receives the item.
Alipay has become China's biggest online payment company. They process more than 1 billion yuan ($146 million) in transactions every day. Alipay recently announced that they expect to surpass PayPal's transaction volume within two years. That's quite an accomplishment!
The benefit of Taobao, Alibaba's online retailer attributed to Alipay, is like that of eBay's success at the hands of PayPal. The difference is that Taobao relies more on advertising revenue, than transaction fees.
Also note, much of China's e-commerce growth is driven by younger buyers. China Market Research Group said that users in China between the ages of 13 and 28 spend 20 hours a week online on average. This is compared with the 12 hours a week spent online by youngsters in the United States.