What Your Digital Content is Missing and What it Could Cost You

If a company writes a blog post and no one reads it, does it really exist? In the digital age, the amount of content your company produces for websites, blogs and social media are not nearly as important as the impact it creates in terms of views, traffic and shares. The degree to which your content has an impact will depend on a number of factors including its relevance, its originality and whether or not it is compelling for your target audience. If your blog traffic is stagnant and your social media blasts aren’t making the rounds online, what might your content be missing? Here are a few elements you need to keep in mind to create impactful content. Ensure It’s Relevant and Timely Simply put, content needs to be relevant for your target audience and be available at the right time. For example, the last thing people probably want to read about in May is a deal on shovels or tips on how to prepare for winter. People are probably more concerned about planting their garden or planning their summer vacations and you likely won’t get many readers, traffic or sales from your winter-themed posts. Make sure to do research and determine what specifically your users are interested in at different times of year and where they are looking for that information so you can be ready with the right content at the right time in the right place. The Long and Short of it There is much debate as to the optimal length for online content. Some will tell you to never go over 500 words while others strongly support the need for extensive and detailed content. But the truth is, you need a mixture of both. Make it Sharable If you are hoping to get your content shared amongst your audience, there are a few things to consider when developing this content. These include a compelling title, the type of content you choose, the way it is organized, where and when you publish, images and calls-to-action. You can find more information on these topics here. However, if you are not designing your content strategy to fit your specific audience, none of these things will help increase the reach of your content. If you give your audience what they want, they will end up doing to leg work for you. Be Emotional People need to be intrigued and entertained. Fractl explains that while an emotional response to your content is a good thing, some emotions are better then others at encouraging your audience to share. The top five shareable content emotions are amusement, interest, surprise, happiness and delight. Take advantage of these findings and bump up your audience’s interest and willingness to share. What Bad Content Could Cost You When you ignore these valuable lessons you may be missing out on more than just entertaining your audience. Having less engaging content means you will: Be less likely to have content shared on social media Have decreased online visibility Have lower brand awareness Have reduced sales Companies and marketers who miss these details and concepts in their digital content are less likely to have their content read and less likely to have it shared on social media. Take the time to get to know your audience and figure out what content they would be most interested in reading. Those who can do this well will be rewarded with more online visibility and brand awareness, which can translate into increased sales.

The Treaty of Kanagawa Opened Japan to Trade

The Treaty of Kanagawa Opened Japan to Trade The Treaty of Kanagawa was an 1854 agreement between the United States of America and the government of Japan. In what became known as the opening of Japan, the two countries agreed to engage in limited trade and to agree to the safe return of American sailors who had become shipwrecked in Japanese waters. The treaty was accepted by the Japanese after a squadron of American warships anchored in the mouth of Tokyo Bay on July 8, 1853. Japan has been a closed society with very little contact with the rest of the world for 200 years, and there was an expectation that the Japanese Emperor would not be receptive to American overtures. However, friendly relations between the two nations were established. The approach to Japan is sometimes viewed as an international aspect of Manifest Destiny. The expansion toward the West meant that the United States was becoming a power in the Pacific Ocean. American political leaders believed their mission in the world was to expand American markets into Asia. The treaty was the first modern treaty Japan negotiated with a western nation. While it was limited in scope, it did open Japan to trade with the west for the first time. The treaty led to other treaties, so it sparked enduring changes for Japanese society. Background of the Treaty of Kanagawa After some very tentative dealings with Japan, the administration of President Millard Fillmore dispatched a trusted naval officer, Commodore Matthew C. Perry, to Japan to attempt to gain entry to Japanese markets. Along with the potential for commerce, the United States sought to use Japanese ports in a limited manner. The American whaling fleet had been sailing farther into the Pacific Ocean, and it would be advantageous to be able to visit Japanese ports to load supplies, food, and fresh water. The Japanese had firmly resisted visits from American whalers. Perry arrived at Edo Bay on July 8, 1853, carrying a letter from President Fillmore requesting friendship and free trade. The Japanese were not receptive, and Perry said he would return in one year with more ships. The Japanese leadership, the Shogunate, faced a dilemma. If they agreed to the American offer, other nations would no doubt follow and seek relations with them, undermining the isolationism they sought. On the other hand, if they rejected Commodore Perrys offer, the American promise to return with a larger and modern military force seemed to be a serious threat. Perry had impressed the Japanese by arriving with four steam-powered warships which had been painted black. The ships appeared modern and formidable. The Signing of the Treaty Before leaving on the mission to Japan, Perry had read any books he could find on Japan. The diplomatic way in which he handled matters seemed to make things go more smoothly than otherwise might have been expected. By arriving and delivering a letter, and then sailing away to return months later, the Japanese leaders felt they were not being overly pressured. And when Perry arrived back in Tokyo the following year, in February 1854, leading a squadron of American ships. The Japanese were fairly receptive, and negotiations began between Perry and representatives from Japan.. Perry brought along gifts for the Japanese to provide  some idea of what American was like, He presented them with a small working model of a steam locomotive, a barrel of whiskey, some examples of modern American farming tools, and a book by the naturalist John James Audubon, Birds and Quadrupeds of America. After weeks of negotiation, the Treaty of Kanagawa was signed on March 31, 1854. The treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate as well as by the Japanese government. The trade between the two nations was still quite limited, as only certain Japanese ports were open to American ships. However, the hard line Japan had taken about shipwrecked American sailors had been relaxed.  And American ships in the western Pacific would be able to call on Japanese ports to obtain food, water, and other supplies. American ships began mapping the waters around Japan in 1858, a scientific effort which was viewed as having great importance to American merchant sailors. Overall, the treaty was seen by Americans as a sign of progress. As word of the treaty spread, European nations began approaching Japan with similar requests, and within a few years more than a dozen other nations had negotiated treaties with Japan. In 1858 the United States, during the administration of President James Buchanan, sent a diplomat, Townsend Harris, to negotiate a more comprehensive treaty. Japanese ambassadors traveled to the United States, and they became a sensation wherever they traveled. The isolation of Japan had essentially ended, though factions within the country debated just how westernized Japanese society should become. Sources: Shogun Iesada Signs the Convention of Kanagawa.  Global Events:  Milestone Events Throughout History, edited by Jennifer Stock, vol. 2: Asia and Oceania, Gale, 2014, pp. 301-304.   Munson, Todd S. Japan, Opening of.  Encyclopedia of Western Colonialism since 1450, edited by Thomas Benjamin, vol. 2, Macmillan Reference USA, 2007, pp. 667-669. Matthew Calbraith Perry.  Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed., vol. 12, Gale, 2004, pp. 237-239.

Read articals and answer in discussion Assignment

Read articals and answer in discussion - Assignment Example Information Systems have the capacity to distinguish the performance of an organization from another. There are areas of information technology that have not been explored and fully exhausted. For example, the area of data mining, artificial intelligence and robotics, decision support system and system automation. In the dynamic business world, there are newly emerging needs of information technology that continues to raise the new needs of information System solutions. For example, the present business world requires real time systems such as mobile applications. The demand for new data communication methodologies is continuously rising and their efficiencies place organizations in different ranks (Dychà © 10). The third rule for IT management is right. IT managers should place more emphasis on the vulnerability as opposed to the opportunities that it offers. There reason for this is that IT already has a guarantee of opportunities, so there is no need of wasting efforts searching for them. Secondly, Information Technology faces unpredictable threats that can be extremely costly. IT systems should be able to take care of information within an organization and guard them from external malicious attacks. There is especially an emerging trend of cyber crime threat against Information System Solutions. This is what should worry an organization. In fact, for as long as the system is exposed to vulnerability, even the opportunities do not serve any purpose to the organization. Information Systems Risk management is an essential function that an organization cannot do without unless it is planning to remain at risk of attacks. The management of an organization must therefore have a method of iden tifying possible risks, their causes and possible controls to put in place to regulate the exposure of sensitive data to external entities. There should be a continuous review of the risks to identify the most critical dangers that the

Environmental Policies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Environmental Policies - Essay Example The degree to which each or any of these policies will shape the law will depend on the extent of environmental damages in a particular area. Even so, sustainable development appears to be the most common policy driver among nation states with respect to environmental laws. Sustainable development not only responds to current needs, but also seeks to ensure that the needs of subsequent generations are not compromised in the process (UK Government 2010). There are a number of policies within the main sustainable development policy for protecting the environment against the incidents of air and water pollution. With respect to air pollution, sustainable development begins with national regulation of industrial conduct, this is tempered by reference to local controls of smoke, smog and nuisance as well as international controls that seek to safeguard against damages to the global climate. Cumulatively, these policies take into account the competing interests of the right to enjoyment of one’s property and the welfare and interests of society as a whole. In other words protection of the environment against air pollution must take into account that the owner of land has the right to enjoy the use of it. As Sir John Byles stated in Hole v Barlow [1858], the law permits the â€Å"reasonable use of a lawful trade in a convenient and proper place† (Hole v Barlow 1858). This right does not end simply because an individual might â€Å"suffer annoyance from its being carried on† (Hole v Barlow 1858). Sir John Byles’ observation of the law relative to air pollution therefore reflects a policy grounded in sustainable development. If the land is used reasonably, simply annoyance from others as a result of the use of the land does not substantiate environmental concerns with respect to air pollution. The case of St. Helen’s Smelting Co. v Tipping [1865] offers more insight into how sustainable development policies drive environmental protecti on laws. In this case the House of Lords distinguished between interfering with enjoyment of the property in question and physical damages. In order to permit interference in the use of land, that use of the land must be shown to be unreasonable. However, if there is actual physical damages, there can be sanction irrespective of how the land is used (St. Helen’s Smelting Co. v Tipping 1865). The right to make a claim for redress can only rest with an actual victim (Lopez Ostra v Spain 1995). Therefore air pollution resulting from the work carried out by a factory will only be actionable by a victim who suffers harm as a result of the manner in which the factory operates and releases pollutants in the air. The common air we breathe however, is regulated by policies seeking to prevent and control the threat of disease and the contamination of the air. The Clean Air Act 1956 not only demonstrates this degree of control and prevention, but also demonstrates the significance of su stainable development policies. In this regard, the Clean Air Act 1956 and now the Clean Air Act 1993 seeks to control toxic emissions in the air, provides for furnace designs, the height and design of chimneys and designates the smoke control zones (Clean Air Act 1993). It therefore follows that the Clean Air Act 1993, by statutorily controlling emissions, and smoke emissions via furnace and chimney designs and by designating smoke zones, attempts to ensure that the air is used reasonably. The idea is to ensure that the current needs are met without compromising the needs of future generations under the auspices of sustainable development policies. Other statutory provisions designed to meet current needs and

Jubilee Essay Example for Free

Jubilee Essay â€Å"Jubilee† is a narrative written by Margaret Walker and was first published in 1966. The writer, instructor as well as intellectual was born in 1915 and is best recognized for her civil war narrative Jubilee as well as for her influential anthology of poems concerning ethnic assertion. Walker’s narrative is one of the initial tales to present the African-American’s nineteenth century experience within the South from a feminine as well as a black’s perspective. The narrative won the Houghton Mifflins Literary Fellowship Award, and is a fictionalized explanation of the life of Margaret Duggans Ware Brown, Walker’s great-grandmother who was born in Dawson in Terrell state as a slave and lived during reconstruction inside South West Georgia. The narrative is based on tales Walker’s maternal grandmother narrated to her. (Walker. M, 1999) The seriously celebrated historical narrative/long fiction centers on the story of Vyry, a bi-racial slave in the Civil War in America and deals with a number of subjects like racism, freedom, slaves or slavery, Civil war, women, christianity, reconstruction, African- Americans among other major themes. The narrative is set in Georgia and afterward in diverse sections of Alabama during the mid-1800s prior to, during, as well as following the civil war. The following is an explanation of the setting in place and time, the manner in which the author takes the reader there, the major characters, the history studied from the narrative, what the reader can study concerning civil war, slavery and reconstruction, whether the author views slavery as paternalistic or autocratic as well as what the narrative states concerning why reconstruction was not successful.

Mardi Gras :: essays research papers

The smell of stale beer in the air, loud music everywhere, people shouting and laughing having a good ‘ole time is what carnival, better known as Mashumani is like in Guyana. When it’s Mardi Gras in New Orleans, however, broken beads and trash are all over the ground, and everywhere one looks he/she sees someone taking off some type of clothing for some beads. Unlike in New Orleans people in Guyana know how to have fun with out taking off their clothes.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I am a native of Guyana, South America, and this is my first time observing Mardi Gras in person. I had heard of the things people do for the objects and trinkets that the masked riders throw off the floats, which is a major aspect that distinguishes Mardi Gras in New Orleans from carnival in Guyana. Guyanese people do not take off their clothes for a string of pearl, or a coconut. Carnival in Guyana is a one-day event, celebrating Guyana’s independence from the British. On this day people dress in bright colorful costumes and dance in the street. I remember the first time I went to the carnival. I was about seven years old when my mom took the whole family to watch the parades. I saw the brightly colored costumes, as well as everyone’s body and face covered with glitter. I heard the sweet sounds of the steelband playing and people everywhere dancing in the street. The smell of sweat was in the air as everyone bunched up together to see the floats in all their brilliant glory. I can also recall the taste of sweet syrup as I licked it off the snowcone I was eating. Mardi Gras in New Orleans, however, was a whole new experience for me. On Fat Tuesday I woke up early so I could go to Canal and St Charles Street to watch the parades. The smell of trash filled the air. Thousands of people everywhere. Broken beads, empty beer cups, and cans littered the ground. Some people had many colorful beads around their necks. People were laughing and dancing to the beats of the school bands as they passed along. When the floats got into view, I heard women saying, â€Å"throw me something mister,† and I saw them lifting up their shirts and showing their breasts for pearls, beads, a coconut, or a spear. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I witnessed women and even men showing their goods for some colorful beads.

Challenges and Opportunities for Entrepreneurs and Business Owners Essay

Rick Suttle Rick Suttle has been writing professionally since 2009, publishing health and business articles on various websites. He has worked in corporate marketing research and as a copywriter. Suttle has a Bachelor of Science in marketing from Miami University and a Master of Business Administration from California Coast University. Business owners often face challenges with financing their companies. Business owners face many challenges when running companies. Competition can be stiff in any industry. Thus, you must find time to keep track of what key competitors are doing. Consumer preferences can also change over time, so you must fully understand what products and features your customers want. You also will face other key challenges with regard to capital, employees and planning. 1. Financing the Business * Owners are faced with the challenge of financing their businesses — both when starting out and during growth phases. Sole proprietors sometimes use savings or investment accounts to start businesses. However, financing your own business can be risky. Make sure you have money for your living expenses when financing your business, as it may take months to earn a profit. It is often difficult to get a bank loan. All banks will check your credit before giving you a loan, so get copies of your credit report and make sure it is accurate; errors can negatively impact your credit score. You also can apply for a loan through the SBA (Small Business Administration). However, the SBA often charges higher interest rates, the Microsoft Business website notes. 2. Building Profits * It can take time to build profits in a business, whether you are using direct sales or advertising to grow your business. You will need reinvest a large portion of your profits into additional advertising. Companies that use advertising build profits by gradually increasing advertising expenditures each month. For example, you may need to spend $500 to make $1,500, a 300 percent return on your advertising investment. Assuming you can average similar returns, you may decide to invest the entire $1,000 profit to make $3,000. Keep in contact with your customers. Try to get repeat sales as often as you can, which also will help you increase profits. 3. Finding Qualified Employees * Small business owners will have the challenge of finding qualified employees. Larger companies usually offer higher salaries and better health benefits than smaller ones, so you may need to find employees who recognize the inherent benefits of working for smaller companies. For example, employees can move up more quickly in a smaller organization. Another option is offering some type of profit sharing. With a solid product concept and business plan, some job applicants will recognize the monetary benefits of profit sharing. 4. Time Management * A smaller but still important challenge for business owners is time management. Small business owners often need to multitask as they have fewer employees to perform routine tasks. The key to mastering time management is prioritizing your tasks each day. Complete the tasks that are most crucial to building profits. For example, go to the meeting with a customer and work on your sales budget afterward. Challenges of Business Owners | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/info_7847252_challenges-business-owners.html#ixzz2HY0QNYtL Common Challenges Entrepreneurs Face and How to Overcome Them * 5 Most Common Challenges Entrepreneurs Face and How to Overcome Them * My Personal Challenges as an Entrepreneur and How I Overcame Them†¦ * Armed for Battle: An Army of Entrepreneurs Book Review * How Far Are You Willing to Go for Your Dreams? * Brenda Rivas: How She Used Her Unhappiness in Her Corporate America Job to Propel Her to Start Her Own Business 1. Negative Mindset The battle always starts in the mind! Our own fears, excuses, and just basically any thing that paralyzes us from moving forward to our destiny is cultivated in our mind. Feelings of inadequacy such as â€Å"I don’t know if I can do this† or â€Å"I am not qualified enough to start this happen† – these are often thoughts that entrepreneurs deal with. This can often come from our own low self-esteem, lack of support, or our upbringing. How to Overcome: a. Do not entertain the thoughts. Remember that whatever you focus on gets magnified. If you pay no attention to it, it will not linger. But for as long as you are nursing it, it will grow in your head and eventually overtake you! b. Surround yourself with positive people. Birds of same feathers flock together is a popular saying but it is true. If you hang with negative people who criticize other people and put them down and do pity party, then before long, you will find yourself like one. See why it’s important to surround yourself with positive people. c. Empower yourself by reading inspirational articles, success stories, great books, movies and anything that will encourage you and motivate you. Attend seminars and workshops if you can! 2. Overwhelming Feelings There is always a huge learning curve when you first start a business. Although you may have lots of experience in the corporate world in your field, it’s totally different when you’re the captain of your own ship. Now, you have to be the boss, the marketer, the secretary, the customer service person, the shipper, and the list goes on! But these overwhelming feelings surely do not only come to starting entrepreneurs. Some experienced and successful entrepreneurs tend to feel overwhelmed at times too so don’t be discouraged. How to Overcome: a. Take short breaks in between your tasks. I find that taking 2 or 3 minute break away from my computer helps. b. Pace yourself. Create a to-do list and make sure that you only put whatever you can handle within a realistic time frame on any given day. c. Outsource some of your tasks. If you’re growing too quick, hire a virtual assistant or a local person who doesn’t mind coming over to your home office to help you out with some tasks. d. Make sure to set aside two days off. A business is a business, however, this time it is yours and you have the flexibility to create your own hours and set your days off without any problem. It is ideal to have a couple of days off or more if you can afford it to avoid possible quick burn out. e. If you’re suffering from information overload, 3. Lack of Support Some entrepreneurs have been blessed to have supportive husbands, family, children, and friends. Some of this support group have the ability to help make the entrepreneur’s business grow but some could only offer moral support†¦which, hey, it’s more than you could ask for! While some of us are blessed like that, others lack both moral and business support. How to Overcome: a. Network with your local business organizations and find people that have the same vision and goal as you do. b. Find a virtual group of people in Social Media that support and promote each other. (Shameless Plugging: Yes, this is what The Entrepreneur Chic Social Club is all about! Details coming soon! *Wink wink*) c. Invest in a mentor or a business coach. 4. Growing a Business The challenge in growing a business mostly lies in the lack of financial resources. Let’s face it, money begets money. If you have the money, it’s easier to put your product out there in hundreds of thousands of people just like the bigger brands, the Fortune 500 companies. You see them on TV, radio, billboards, social media, and sometimes maybe in your inbox! Unfortunately, for most small business and starting entrepreneurs, this is not the case. You have to work hard to make money so you can use that to make more money! How ironic, isn’t it? But that’s where the challenge is! I really do believe that this area of having your own business teaches you a lot about persistence and creates such an experience for you that molds you as a business person. How to Overcome: a. Be patient. Growing a business takes time. The level of effort that you put in is directly equivalent to the level of result you’re going to get but do not expect an overnight result. It’s like planting a seed, it takes time to become a tree. b. Learn as much as you could about marketing (including social marketing) for as long as your brain can handle without overloading it! c. Research on ways you can acquire funding. Be creative! (perhaps you can do your own fundraising technique) See if you might be qualified for a small business loan. 5. Feelings of Wanting to Give Up Because a business takes time to grow and it usually takes a lot of effort to make it work, feelings of wanting to give up do come sometimes, especially when you’re not seeing the results that you want when you want it. Perhaps your funds are already starting to get depleted or you’re getting physically and mentally drained. How to Overcome: a. Do not entertain the thought. b. If you’re not seeing any results, evaluate your product, service, target market, and your marketing strategies. Perhaps your product isn’t the right one for the group of people that you’re presenting it to. Maybe it needs to have a lot of improvement in its presentation/packaging or price. c. Take some time off. Sometimes stepping away gives you a better perspective of where things are at and ideas flow better when your mind is rested. http://www.entrepreneurchic.com/5-most-common-challenges-entrepreneurs-face-and-how-to-overcome-them/ 5 Types of Business Opportunities for Entrepreneurs Are you a restless entrepreneur? Are you the type of person who wants to go into business to be your own boss and succeed through your own decision making? Many people feel the call to become an entrepreneur, but are not sure what type of business to start. There are many entrepreneur opportunities you could choose. Here is a brief look at different types of business opportunities available: Buy a Franchise Many entrepreneurs like to have a business going full speed right off the bat. Rather than spending time reinventing the proverbial wheel, an entrepreneur will buy a franchise opportunity. A franchise is an existing business with a solid business plan and process already in place. An entrepreneur can operate a new business under a recognized business name and receive support from the franchise headquarters with marketing, promotional materials, new business products or services, etc. Good examples of popular franchises are McDonalds and Subway restaurants, home cleaning businesses, Dollar Store, or fitness centers. Distributorship or Dealership Another place to find business opportunity leads is with distributorships and dealerships. A distributor is a person or business that has an agreement to sell products or services produced by another company. Think of an Amway distributor or Avon distributor as a good example. A dealer is much like a distributor, but more focused on one product. An auto dealership may sell only Hondas, or an insurance agent might be considered a ‘dealer’ in life insurance. Network Marketing While an Avon lady might be considered a ‘distributor,’ there is much more to this type of business opportunity. In addition to distributing the products or services offered by the parent company, a network marketer also strives to recruit other distributors. By creating a â€Å"network† of distributors, a person can earn considerable income through residual commissions made from the distributors working under them. This entrepreneur opportunity is also known as Multilevel Marketing. Licensing You might also find entrepreneur opportunities through licensing. Licensing is where you can be creative and invent products, but use the name brand, icon, or trademark of a widely recognized business. Think of Disney products. An inventor may come up with a great idea for a child’s toy that would become a big seller if the famous Mickey Mouse was associated with the product. By obtaining a license from Disney, the inventor could produce his product and profits would be shared by both parties. Filling a Niche While pre-made or other types of business opportunities can be lucrative through a parent or franchise company already enjoying great success, entrepreneur opportunities also exist for a person to simply find a consumer need and discover a way to solve it. Perhaps you are a new mother who finds a need for a baby product not on the market, and therefore, you create and distribute one of your own. Or you are a specialist who finds that other businesses will pay for your consultation and expertise in improving a business function. Any entrepreneur who wants to make a business of his or her own has many types of business opportunities to explore. Find the one right for you and enjoy the success you can build on your own. At the beginning of each year, there is always a little buzz about what will be the next new big ticket. The world is supposed to end in 2012, so I hope you’ll buy 50 pair of underwear, six months’ worth of food rations and about 500 gallons of water. I hope you will make those purchases, not because I think the world is going to end, but because I’m starting an underwear-manufacturing company, a food-rations-supply firm and a water-supply business. Each of these businesses will be hot in the new year as hysteria kicks into overdrive in 2012. Don’t believe me? Flash back to Y2K. Businesses spent around $500 billion to save themselves from impending doom. But nothing happened. Not even a little Y2K postmortem belch. Nothing happened, except that vendors in 1999 pulled in a cool half trillion! So if you’re looking for the next hot opportunity for entrepreneurs in 2012, keep these five areas in mind. 1. Elderly consumers Because people are living longer these days, a flood of products and services will be designed to cater to the older crowd. Businesses will introduce not-so-obvious services. New retirement villages will spring up and new services that cater to the elderly, such as chair lifts for getting into airplane seats. 2. Domestic purchasing With Europe on shaky financial ground, expect businesses to do more domestic purchasing. There is volatility ahead, so if you are based in the U.S. and have competitors overseas, you may have an advantage in 2012. It’s safer to purchase domestically, where buyers perceive more stability, even if it is more costly. 3. Mobile purchasing If you are familiar with Square, you know that this is just the beginning. In 2012, we will see a big surge in payments made with smartphones. Entrepreneurs who have not optimized their websites and their businesses for smartphone transactions are giving money away. In fact, the research firm Emarketer says that smartphone transactions are expected to exceed $6.5 billion by 2015. That’s a lot of coin. 4. Genetic DNA sequencing It’s not the sequencing itself that entrepreneurs need to jump on, but keeping it under $1,000. Technological advancements continue at mind-blowing speed. As Moore’s Law predicts, every 18 months technology doubles in performance and cuts the cost in half. In 2012, we should see genetic decoding available for $1,000 or less. That price point would make it available to the average person. Most people would have the means to determine their genetic propensity to problems, and to take immediate action to live longer and healthier. This will create a boom in DNA-sequencing services and related health care services. Jump on it now, before it becomes another Walmart offering, like flu shots are now. 5. World ending Not. My biggest, boldest prediction is that the world will not end in December 2012 (even though the Mayan calendar shows that it will). But that doesn’t mean there won’t be big opportunities to profit from the hype that will build. It could represent millions, or even billions, in revenue. People spent nearly $1 billion preparing for Y2K to hit, and nothing happened. We are creatures of habit and will likely do the same for 2012. So, if you believe the Mayan calendar may not be accurate about the world ending in 2012, consider ways to profit from these areas. They should be lucrative and provide plenty of opportunity. Besides, the Mayan calendar also predicted that the Kim Kardashian marriage would last more than 12 months, and it was wrong about that, too!