webmasterworld.com/social_media/4172147.htm

Here's a recipe you can use to get traffic and leads from twitter "on demand".
The beauty is that every day there are new people who are interested in what you have to sell, say, whatever.

1) Create a twitter account with a keyword rich name, e.g: widgetguy

2) Make your 'face' picture something that people actually want to look at

3) Edit your profile so it contains some compelling info

4) Add a custom background (including your phone # email, if appropriate)
Screen capture programs like Screen Grab Pro are a quick and easy way to make a custom background based off of your website.

5) Make a couple of tweets relevant to widgets, etc

6) Go to search.twitter.com and search for widgets
What are people talking about?

7) Identify tweets that scream - help me!
Examples: "Does anyone have widget recommendations?", "Gah, this 'widgetcompetitorproduct' stinks!", "Oh man, i'm so sick of 'problem that widget solves'"

8 ) Refine your search so that you are mostly pulling the kinds of tweets you want to reply to.

9) Reply to those tweets (click the little reply), let them know how you can help them, also follow them.
You don't have to be 'friends' with them for people to see this reply.
Examples: "Sounds like you're looking for a new widget, check this out [bit.ly...] etc.
You might want to experiment with just starting up a conversation, posting a link to a landing page, etc.

10) Convert them to a sale.
The best thing you can do is have some way to track conversions - so if you have a landing page make sure you're tracking where the click came from.

I'm sure this is old hat to a lot of the veterans here but it seems like a lot of people are looking for ways to grow Social Media traffic ... so here is just one of them! Also, remember that there are tools out there to help you automate some of the drudgery involved. Just make sure to learn exactly how they work first so you don't end up putting your virtual foot in your mouth.

Just been on a long walk with my dog and I wondered, will my dog be more tired because he has to move twice as many legs or will he be less tired because he has less relative weight to move on each leg?

Obviously ignoring the fact I can take much longer strides etc Anyone got any idea?

As covered it's going to depend on a lot of personal factors rather than a general blanket answer

- Have you both been slept and ate well, and are not suffering any illnesses
- Whether you and the dog have all your legs & arms.
- How much the dog is 'pissing about'. I had a border collie, and walking six miles for me would be probably double for him.
- The dog may have 4 legs and consume more energy that way, but if you're a bit of a podger then you're heart's going to have to work harder.

At the end of the day, if you didn't have to carry your dog home, you were probably 'more' tired, or neither of you were very tired at all. It was your decision to finish the walk halfway into it... unless the dog had a say. He seems to have made it back with you so one can only assume you were fecking knackered or the dog is disappointed with its short walk.

Giving people in the basic tax bracket £200 a year? Is this going to make much of a difference to anyone, especially when VAT goes up to 20%? Its like saying heres £200 ready for when your yearly expenses go up at least double that.

Probably no good for money in back pockets, but it's intended to save the govt some money as people were claiming family credits/other claims while still paying tax.

It'll take some people out of that loop. Sounds sensible.

The threshold will seem tiny in 10 years time though.

http://www.measuringworth.com/calculators/ppoweruk/result.php?use[]=CPI&use[]=NOMINALEARN&year_late=1995&typeamount=1000&amount=1000&year_source=1995&year_result=2005
In 2005, £1,000.00 from 1995 is worth
   £1,290.00   using the retail price index.
   £1,510.00   using average earnings.

So in 10 years time that 15 grand will seem like 7.5/10K in today's money. Which is minimum wage.

If there is a moral imperative to pay it back, why does it have built in obsolescence?

If you can live 25 years (30 in Scotland) on under 15K a year (consider 15k in inflation terms in 10 years).... I think university/you failed enough that they 'let you off'.

The idea behind it all is.... you get a degree, you earn higher than average, you pay the cash back ! Somehow within all that your contribution to society is made.



Also.... it's hard to compare to students of 30 years ago. They'd wear clothes made out of arse hair and quite happily live on tinned food all year.

[unearned income in excess of £2,000]

Confused about your query on the taxable income, you say to double check this (even though he phoned the SLC) then reiterate that gambling has nothing to do with tax, and add that online self assessment asks you questions to recalculate student loan repayments - all of which just adds to the evidence that it is all based on the tax system and taxable income.

I say double-check because although there are exceptions made for gambling income, i.e. it's tax free because of the tight margins generally involved... it's not like the government are really into the idea of a good % of people finding a way not to pay their debt back.

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@educ/documents/digitalasset/dg_173548.pdf

Why might I need to pay more in this way?
Additional liability under SA can arise if:
• you have more than one employment because the
annual threshold will have been applied by each
employer when making Student Loan deductions
• all of your relevant earnings were not taken into
account by an employer
• you have other income: such as self-employed profits
and or unearned income in excess of £2,000.

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/cslmanual/cslm16035.htm

Is unearned income always taken into account in computing Student Loan repayments?

Unearned income may be taken into account in computing loan repayments only if

    * The amount of unearned income exceeds the threshold, currently £2,000
    And
    * The borrower receives an SA return

So yeah... if you manage to stay in a job that earns less than 15K a year and don't have any reason to run a company... looks like you could get away with it   I think the SLC could still ask you to pony up if they suspect you're earning a living wage though.

I think I'd rather just pay £30-£40/year in interest.

1% of 19k is £190

taxable income

I'd double check on this. Even though gambling isn't subject to tax... I must admit though, I've never seen a question about gambling/poker winnings on a self-assessment tax return. I do my tax return online and it asks questions to calculate any student loan repayments required.

Also bear in mind if you have kids and are into the idea of them inheriting something... the debt will have to be deducted.

It'd be worthwhile putting 1k lump sums to knock the debt down... while you can. Interest rates could easily be 10% in 5 years time

// I take the bit about inheriting back. Apparently if you don't pay the debt within 30-40 years...get very ill or  you happen to keel over and die, the debt is wiped.

Fitness...

Click to see full-size image.

Hopefully the authorities invariably get involved, so there is a definitive answer to anyone who is financially involved or merely observing what's happened here.

p.s. hadn't saw a link to this yet, but the story made some news.
http://uk.pokernews.com/news/2010/06/uk-pokernews-roundup-mitchell-wsop-neil-blatchly-scandal.htm-5774.htm

Whoever's from here that wrote that piece should know there's no C in pretense

Regarding the "odd" bets at <1.10 for large amounts (that looked like laundering)

Also, the fact that not all the funds he was given were placed into his 'account'

If he was actually siphoning off from his staking account for the large amounts shown, he (or someone else) would need a similar large amount to match the bets. If it was him, I'd imagine (heresay I know) that the other half was put into his personal/other account to match the unusual bets.

Because...if you're going to lay a cricketer for several grand, the person matching the bet will need some decent cash in the 'other' account to take advantage.

Just something to bear in mind if a) He was moving money between betfair accounts and b) Why not all money was deposited into the 'staking' account.

p.s. betfair know exactly who bets on what and when, IP addresses logged. When fraud is involved, ISP's can be contacted. Unless it was a very shrewed (and technical) operation... betfair can easily discover whether movement of money between accounts was deliberate, at least, outside a court of law.

The only reliable indicator(s) are going to be
a) His bank account, failing that
b) List of people who 'donated' money

Since people wanted to remain anonymous I think you'll be hard pressed to discover the true amount. If police did investigate and reviewed his bank account, they'd not likely disclose the amount until it was in court.

RE: betfair refunds, no chance imo

besides, it looks like he lost a lot of money in a short space of time, so he was probably on a discount rate at < 5%

At least one thing I've gained from all this is that I do not want to be part of the blonde 'community'

I think that's what some would be unhappy about too. It's not just the money, but the distrust that is bred from situations like this. It appears there's only one person who has let people down here, other than those feeling a bit mugged.

Summary: most trades were lies, now all the money is gone (or washed)... and he will now apologise in a rather nicely presented private message. nice!

Other threads:
http://www.irishpokerboards.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4438
http://voyageinpoker.com/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1276933662/8