Petrol prices hit US consumer mood

Figures from the US have shown that consumer optimism fell in May under the weight of higher petrol prices and rising mortgage interest rates.

Earlier, the US government offered some positive news on the economy as the US trade deficit narrowed unexpectedly in March based on a surge in export demand - but rising import prices kept alive jitters about inflation. The figures sent Wall Street shares even lower after a heavy sell-off on Thursday.

The University of Michigan's sentiment survey slumped to 79 in May from April's final 87.4, far below Wall Street forecasts for a reading of 86.1.

The Michigan reading was the lowest since 1993, excluding a one-month plunge in October in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

The report was consistent with ideas on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve will end its almost two-year run of interest rate increases in June to brace for a slowdown in economic growth.

Earlier, the Commerce Department said record high export demand pushed the US trade deficit down to $62 billion in March, its lowest since August and a second straight month of narrowing.

Exports, including those to China, climbed to new highs - suggesting a weaker dollar is having the desired effect of boosting demand for American-made goods. Wall Street analysts had expected the gap to widen to about $67 billion on the back of higher oil import volumes.

Still, the overall U.S. trade deficit for the first quarter of 2006 was $196.2 billion, on track to exceed last year's record of $723.6 billion. The politically sensitive trade gap with China - which hit a record $202 billion in 2005 - widened in March to $15.6 billion. US exports to China were a record $5 billion, while imports from that country were $20.5 billion.

The Labor Department reported that the cost of imported petroleum jumped 11.5% in April, the biggest gain since March 2005. The increase boosted overall US import prices by an unexpectedly sharp 2.1% in April.

Ahead of the figures, the euro pushed past $1.29 against the dollar, though it fell back slightly to $1.2880 on Friday evening.

Google's Gmail inspires imaginative 'hacks'

A number of ingenious uses for Google's capacious free email service Gmail have surfaced since the service’s launch.

Gmail was created by the web search company Google in April 2004 amid much excitement as every user is promised an unprecedented gigabyte of storage space for messages. Google encourages users to keep all their old messages and automatically searches these to determine what kind of web advertisements might interest users.

But Gmail's copious storage space has inspired a number of programmers to come up with completely novel ways of using the service.

These include a "weblog" or online message board that uses Gmail to store postings and a desktop file system that plugs straight into the Gmail system.

These projects were largely started for fun, but might perhaps provide a glimpse of new features that Google could eventually add to the service for itself, according to some observers.

"The great thing about web applications is that people can extend them, and there's a real community out there to do it," says William Crawford, a programmer and author for the computer publisher O'Reilly. "A lot of people will just do it because it's fun, or to make their lives easier, or both. That's why programmers are such interesting people to hang around with."

Independent community

Crawford adds that Google would do well to encourage this creativity. "Having an independent developer community is a great way to gather creative ideas cheaply," he says.

A number of simple and reusable tools for interacting with Gmail, written in different programming languages, sprang up on the internet within months of the service's launch.

Jonathan Hernandez, a Mexican programmer, took advantage of one such "library", built for the scripting language PHP, to turn his Gmail account into a fully functional online diary or "blog". Sending an email to his account automatically posts a message to the blog, called Gallina.

Introduction to Domain Names

Domain names are basically pointers that direct visitors to a server, or a set of specific servers. You can think of a domain name as a license plate in relation to a car -- the license plate is purchased, but it isn't attached to the car yet. When it is attached, you can find a certain car by using the license plate number.

Every computer that is on the internet is assigned a number by their Internet Service Provider (ISP). This number is referred to as an "IP Address" and is a string of numbers. The IP address for Bravenet.com is 65.39.176.100. If we did not have domain names you would have to know the IP address of every single website that you wanted to visit.

Domain names are organized into levels. These levels can go as far as you would like to add them, although "Top Level Domain" (TLD), "Domain", and "Sub Domain" are the most commonly used. Below is an exampleof how the domain name www.bravenet.com is broken into levels.

www. bravenet. com

• Blue = Sub Domain (aka Third Level)
• Red = Domain (aka Second Level)
• Green = Top Level Domain

Every domain name must be assigned a set of "Name Servers". Name servers tell computers around the world what IP address a certain domain name is pointing to. If you do not assign the proper name servers to your domain name, computers will not know where to find the server that hosts your website.

If you purchase a domain name with your hosting provider, then the name servers for your domain name will probably be set automatically. If you purchase a domain name from one company and purchase hosting from another company, you will more than likely have to modify the name servers for your domain.

You're now ready to be a proud owner of a domain name! Click here to get a domain name for as low as $8.95 a year!

Get Going on Ebay 2

In closing here is a list of tips on how to sell your products:

• Always provide a picture (would you buy something you hadn't seen?).
• Take the time to take a GOOD picture from appropriate angles and with good lighting.
• Seek out tutorials on how to present information for sales and advertising.
• Use text formatting to grab the user's eye -bold titles, smaller sub titles and then details. This creates a hierarchy of information on the page that is easy to follow. People read titles first.
• Invest time and energy in writing an effective sales pitch and titles.
• Avoid using too much text. A user can only take so much in before they make a decision as to whether they will stay or move on.
• A text heavy page is a drag to read and most people on the internet will leave it behind.
• If you can, back-up your products with a website. Having a website is one step loser to having the brick and mortar space that people trust. In other words it adds to your credibility.
• Always answer your customers emails in a friendly and timely fashion but try to keep it short so you don't get overwhelmed. Your customers can comment on you as a seller for other customers to see so practice good communication and honesty.

Get Going on Ebay 1

E-bay does most of the technological stuff for you but they can't help you compete with the millions of other sellers who huddle under their mantle. E-bay will send traffic your way and keep your advertising costs down but if you don't have a good worm on the end of your line chances are you won't catch anything.

If you are new to E-bay how are you going to compete with those seasoned veterans who have hunkered down over a market niche and are equipped to defend it? The answer is the same one that you will hear for many online projects whose final goal is to make money. Quality of CONTENT.

Selling online at E-bay is a retail business just like any brick and mortar establishment. You need to have a business plan and most importantly a marketing strategy. On top of planning your strategy you need to have an abundance of enthusiasm for what you are doing and what you are selling. Know your product and relay that information to your users with gusto. You are a salesperson and must think like one.

Where do you fit into the E-bay community and what category shall you list your self under? This is important and you may be a part of more groups than you would initially think. Spend time brainstorming on who would be interested in your product -write a list. In addition write a list of interests and qualities that these people may possess.

You should be able to cover a bit more ground than you first thought. Always consider how many other auctions are listed in a category because this is a reflection of how much activity is ongoing in that area. The more active that category is, the more people are being driven there. Don't post in categories that aren't very active.

A very important part of listing auctions on E-bay is staying organized and keeping good records. Record EVERYTHING, item number, url, listing date, price, category, status, auction winner, shipping address, billing address -all dates and transactions. Protect yourself by keeping good records.

Accepting Credit Cards Online

Customers visiting your site like the online purchase protection offered through credit card companies and will be much more likely to purchase your product or service using their credit card, than purchasing through other means like money orders or personal checks.

Merchants prefer credit card purchases too, since the payment is immediate and usually does not require clearance through a bank or other financial institution.

Until recently, though, setting up an online credit card processing system was prohibitively complicated and expensive for most web entrepreneurs. At one time each Merchant had to secure a Merchant Account with an authorized financial agent, purchase special software to process credit cards, and so on.

Setting up a business with credit card processing has become infinitely easier now with online processing companies like PayPal, StormPay, Moneybank and 2checkOut providing simple and easy payment processing services that anyone with an email address can access and setup on their website.

You can even get extended payment processing options like full featured shopping carts that you can add to your site, through many of these service providers. What used to take many thousands of dollars, and months of preparation, to do now takes little more than a few minutes of your time to accomplish.

However, these providers do levy a small fee (usually on a per-transaction basis) and may also have additional service fees depending on the number of transactions you generate or the overall amount of money charged through their system.

While the ease and convenience of these systems is very attractive to the average new web entrepreneur with a limited budget, it is important to make sure you read the User Agreements carefully so that you are always aware of any service charges or conditions that may occur in your account. Nobody wants unexpected surprises!

If you are careful and stay informed about your providers services, this can be a very easy and profitable way to provide credit card processing to your customers on your website!

This are the most popular programs which provide users to use credit cards:

http://www.paypal.com
http://www.alertpay.com
http://www.stormpay.com

Introduction to MySQL

Summary : This article will teach you what MySQL is, what it is used for, and how to use it yourself.

MySQL is an open source Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) based around the Structured Query Language (SQL). In short, MySQL is software that allows you to manage your databases.

Great, but what is a database? In this case, a database is a table of information stored on a server. When you have a table in your MySQL database, you can use PHP to pull that information from the database to your website, which would then make your website dynamic!

We have a MySQL server running for those of you with paid hosting accounts. There are a few ways that you can access and use your MySQL server.

We have phpMyAdmin installed for our members. phpMyAdmin is an interface that resembles a website that you can use to administrate your databases. It might seem confusing at first, but once you've had a look through our MySQL articles and tutorials, you will have a better understanding of what means what.

As the name implies, MySQL servers are based off of the Structured Query Language and you use queries to create, delete, and alter your databases and tables.