63 conversion tips from Conversion Conference London

Posted by Gareth Davies on 05 December 2011

Over two days in London’s Business Design Center, some of the world’s foremost consultants and speakers on conversion rate optimization gathered for the first major event of its kind in the UK. Gareth Davies was on hand to cover the event and he took away 63 top conversion tips.

Mobile

1) Optimize your site speed because speed is critical for mobile pages. A mobile shopper will not wait 15 seconds like a standard site user. Streamline your mobile pages to around 50k in file size as a maximum where possible.
Amy Africa, AmyAfrica.com

2) Navigation determines about 40-60% of the success of a standard website, but on mobile websites this figure increases to around 65-90%.
Amy Africa

3) You should really only have one goal for a mobile page, and that should be either to get the user’s email address, or
their telephone number.
Amy Africa

4) Track where your users are coming from. They will behave differently depending on which referrer got them there. If
someone comes to your website from Twitter, there may be a zero chance they will convert to a sale on mobile. However Twitter traffic can convert well on the phone, so the aim should be to squeeze their phone number.
Amy Africa

5) Mobilize your design, don't miniaturize! You can’t just reduce the size of content from your main website and squish
things smaller. Design your forms and checkout so they can work well on mobile and make important call to action buttons big.
Amy Africa

SEO and conversions

6) The battle to convert people on a website into buyers starts with getting coverage, and this is SEO’s job.
Richard Baxter, SEOGadget.co.uk

7) Google has added to its freshness algo. Some queries (searches) are deemed to deserve fresh results. Check to see if Google is showing fresh listings for key phrases relevant to your product and service. If so can you do something that is time specific to get listed?
Richard Baxter

8) There are three major ways to increase conversion with SEO:
i. Increase the relevancy of keywords.
ii. Get more visits.
iii. Attract users at multiple stages of the buying cycle.
Patrick Altoft, Branded3.com

9) Create landing pages for your SEO campaign and assign multiple keywords to them so that you can implement a
manageable link building campaign to a limited number of pages. Whilst the pages may be few in number they can often target lots of keywords. For one Branded3 client, seven landing pages covered 95% of the keywords that could bring search volume.
Patrick Altoft

10) If you build lots of inbound links with exactly the same anchor text then it could mean your links get devalued. Vary the anchor text in your inbound links to target a wider variation of keywords.
Patrick Altoft

11) 2011 has been the year of brands. The Google Panda update has resulted in lots of price comparison sites losing 90% of their traffic and the big brands have been ‘hoovering up’ people's lost traffic.
Patrick Altoft

Psychology and persuasion

12) Most websites don’t have a massive traffic problem, however every website in the world has a conversion problem.
Bryan Eisenberg, Bryaneisenberg.com
13) When it comes to marketing and conversions there is a 92:1 ratio where companies spend $92 to bring customers to their website, but only $1 to convert them.
Bryan Eisenberg

14) "I know that half my ad dollars are wasted, I just don't know which half."
John Wanamaker

15) If you’re a marketer and you are too focused on the sexiness of advertising and you are not focusing on conversions, then you have a problem.
Bryan Eisenberg

16) The headline on a page is very important when it comes to conversion, as too are the headines on forms that your users fill up. Removing ‘company’ as a field can increase conversions on form submissions by 20%.
Bryan Eisenberg

17) Ask yourself: is the page relevant? Does it show value and is the user confident to take action?
Bryan Eisenberg

18) Tell the truth, but make the truth fascinating.
David Ogilvy

19) Changing the wording on a button from ‘Learn more’ to ‘Help me choose’ resulted in millions of dollars in uplift for Dell.
Bryan Eisenberg

20) Your current sales situation can be emblematic of the media you are using and the channels you are implementing.
Rory Sutherland, Ogilvy.com

21) We like to think a major effect needs a major input, but this is not always true. Trivial things can have massive effects.
Rory Sutherland

22) A minor irritation in the now can affect consumers more in their decision making process than the long term consequence of the action.
Rory Sutherland

23) Many sales are based on the buzz people get from buying itself. Women’s shoes are a good example of this and if there had to be a wait of 48 hours before purchasing shoes, the shoe industry would virtually collapse.
Rory Sutherland

24) The lost science of Praxeology is an old name for behavioral economics. It is the study of human action and decision-making.
Rory Sutherland

Video and rich media

25) Showing people’s faces in visual design and especially their eyes can be effective and engaging online. This is because our natural reaction is to look into people’s eyes.
Scott Harmes, google.com/doubleclick

26) Virgin have seen a 30% uplift in bookings for premium and first class flights by using video on their website.
Susan Hallam, Hallaminternet.com

28) The Marks & Spencer online ‘TV’ campaign produced ‘how to’ type videos that are not obvious adverts. The content helped M&S create a ‘back story’ that gives away tips before showing the viewer items featured in the video that they can then buy.
Susan Hallam

29) With Marks & Spencer TV, the company created around 500 videos. The result was a 23% increase in basket value on the shopping website.
Susan Hallam

30) Prudential have been able to increase email open rates by 15% with their live pension surgery video feed which featured money expert Alvin Hall.
Susan Hallam

Commerce

31) Help website conversions by providing transparency, trust and confidence. In addition to this show visitors your key value proposition (USP).
Paul Rouke, Prwd.co.uk

32) Understand what your users are looking for and provide images to support this.
Paul Rouke

33) Use social proof. Make customer ratings prominent. Consider placing them under page headlines or product titles.
Paul Rouke

34) Try and show supporting information such as, delivery, returns and detailed product information in a way that can keep users on the page. Many top UK eCommerce sites are adopting a tabbed system, which can effectively achieve this.
Paul Rouke

35) Mine your analytics package and get to know it intimately
Stephen Pavlovich, Conversionfactory.com

36) Look at the sales funnel in Google Analytics. Find out what pages visitors are entering the site from. Find out what percentage arrive on the home page and then consider what sales messages are being shown on your home page.
Stephen Pavlovich

37) Not all browsers convert at a similar rate. Internet Explorer in particular can convert badly due to the way it renders some web pages. Check your analytics to see if your website has serious conversion problems with specific browsers and then look to fix them.
Stephen Pavlovich

38) Talk to visitors and customers to find out what is stopping them from buying from you. Survey them and ask them a simple question like: "What is the one thing that nearly stopped you from buying from us?"
Stephen Pavlovich

39) When design teams are working on web page designs, make sure they show you how it looks at 1024 x 768 resolution and that it still works well.
Michael Summers, Trueaction.com

40) Pop up windows from grid pages or section pages don’t tend to work that well. Make sure grid pages are easy to use and scan.
Michael Summers

41) Remember that the eye works faster than the UI.
Michael Summers

42) When it comes to using websites, users often don’t understand as much as we assume they do.
Michael Summers

43) Image zoom is not always useful and can have negative effects on usability. Instead use good stills.
Michael Summers

44) Don't ask people to sign up before the checkout process. All checkouts should be guest checkouts.
Michael Summers

45) Creating an account when shopping online creates stress. It’s a painful interruption to the shopping process. Removing the sign-in for one client increased sales by $2m in two months.
Michael Summers

46) The feeling of time passing fast is something you want on a website. Use progress bars for the checkout process because when people are waiting or an event in the future, and they don’t know when it will occur, it feels longer to them.
Jim Hudson, Paypal.com

PPC and landing pages

47) Repeat the search phrase in the headline, expand the keywords with benefits, have customer ratings and use site links.
Kai Radanitsch, www.Landingpageguru.de

48) Lay out text content with a skim, scan, read approach.
Kai Radanitsch

49) Establish your primary and secondary goal. A primary goal is usually for a site visitor to buy, a secondary goal can be for them to share the page or product on Facebook.
Kai Radanitsch

50) Keep social requests and social calls to action to the thank-you page. Your customers will be most receptive there.
Kai Radanitsch

51) Don't just think keywords and landing pages, think people and personas.
Guy Levine, Returnondigital.co.uk

52) When you have identified the personas of the people who buy from you, it's possible to use images of people who represent them to create a channel to segment users on the website.
Guy Levine

53) Be efficient. Do big tests first and then undertake the smaller tests second. So make a drastic change first, and pick the best converting page to make subtle changes to.
Guy Levine

54) With a PPC campaign you want a tight correlation between keyword and ad copy.
Guy Levine

55) A/B testing can work better for smaller websites than complex multi-variant testing.
Guy Levine

56) In some sectors in the UK, green call to action buttons can out perform red buttons.
Guy Levine

57) Three key things to convey on a website are: We are the experts; this is why you should buy from us; then please buy from us.
Guy Levine

Email newsletters

58) It’s a common mistake that the first transactional email a customer receives isn’t usually part of the marketing process. In addition to this it’s a good opportunity to encourage customers to add your email to a safe senders list, cross-promote or mention up and coming event or sales.
John Ekmann

59) When people give their email but do not necessarily buy from you, use a series of welcome emails. This can include a welcome, then a reminder if they haven’t purchased. This can be followed by things like a free shipping offer, and a reminder of that offer too.
John Ekmann

60) Two major things that can cause problems with email conversions are lame subject lines and non-persuasive copy.
John Ekmann

61) Be specific with your subject lines where possible. Avoid vague and meaningless copy.
John Ekmann

62) Newsletters should be fresh, and contain news. Avoid repeating the same layout and subject lines in your newsletters.
John Ekmann

63) Don’t ignore what your email looks like in a user's inbox preview pane. Use alt tags for images that may not show, and ensure that there are text links to back up image links.
John Ekmann

You can read more great conversion rate tips in our quick-start guide to conversion rate optimization. And please share your own conversion tips below, including any you picked up from Conversion Conference London.

Courtesy: http://www.wordtracker.com

How to find a unique baby name

Spelling
Changing the spelling of common names can make your child’s name unique. For example, if you are thinking about “Dominic,” name your child “Dominique” or “Dominick.” If you give it proper consideration, you can come up with a unique spelling for each name out there. Try changing the “c” to “k” and many more.

Mix names
There are parents who like to combine names and come up with something really unique for their child. This is very common for the eldest and the youngest child. There are parents who combine their names to create a brand new one of a kind name. Just make sure that the name you come up with is not funny or ridiculous.

Punctuations
Putting punctuations in your child’s name will definitely make it unique. You may use a dash for compound names like Rose-Joy or Jon-Rey. You may also add apostrophe on some names to make it more unique. For example, you can name your child J’anet.

Last Names
You may use the last names of important and significant people as your child’s first name. For example, Smith and Jones are family names that may be cooler as a first name.

Backwards
There are certain words that have great meaning or have great impact on your life that may sound great if spelled backwards. You can use this to name your child. For example, “Esor” may sound great. This is the reverse of the word “rose.” You can check out the dictionary and look for a word that may sound cool as a name if spelled backwards.

From the Globe
There are a lot of countries that are named after kings and conquerors. This means, these countries may also sound cool as a name. You can look at the globe and look for a country that may sound great as your child’s name. Maybe you want your child to become a traveler someday, or maybe you want your child to be a conqueror as well, then you can get a country’s name and use it as your child’s name.

The Stars
Popular actors and actresses are idolized by many parents. There are certain celebrities that have names that may sound unique for your child. You can use the names of these stars to name your child. But you can also literally use the names of the starts. There are a lot of star constellations out there and you can use one of these constellations to name your child. For example, you can use Orion, Aries and other Zodiac signs in the stars to name your child.

Sound
Make sure the name you give your child sounds good. You say the prospected name of your child repeatedly to make sure it sounds good. There are certain names that may lead to a funny nickname. This is something that you must avoid.

Meaning
Make sure the meaning of the name you give your child is great. Even if it is unique, it may have an ugly meaning and you child will be carrying this name until he or she grows up. This includes the origin of the name of your baby like what language it is and from what country.

Database
You may collect a searchable baby names database to do some research on baby names' meanings and origin before you pick a sweet baby name.

Generate Backlinks from Social Bookmarking Sites to Improve your Search Engine Ranking

World Wide Web is full of social networking sites. Social Bookmarking on these sites can help generate backlinks to your website and contents. It can also drive a lot of traffic to your sites. Here are the steps to get you started.

• Choose a couple of popular social bookmarking sites
• Create an account on each of those sites using your email address
• Compile a list of your content pages carefully optimized
• Submit to all of the selected social bookmarking sites

The key step here is to have your list of pages optimized for the keywords and phrases. There are free tools on the web to do some keyword researches. Wordtracker and similar may be very costly for most of the startup webmasters. However, Google Adwords keyword tool is free if you have a Google Adwords account. Google Adwords is usually meant for advertisers. But any webmaster can be potentially a Google Adwords customer at some point in time. So you may want to create an Adwords account to do some keyword researches as well. (I hope Google won\'t mind at this piece of advice and it is not against Google\'s policy.)

Your content pages must be optimized for keywords you find potentially effective for you. Effective keywords for you are those that have a balance between query frequency and competitions. The keywords that are used more frequent for searching and those results in less number of competitive entries are most effective. The places where you should try to optimize with your content relevant effective keywords and phrases are:

• The Title of Bookmark
• Description
• Tags and
• URL of your page

The steps above to get you started is that simple. Over the period you will start seeing your pages appearing in Google for the keywords you used to post. And some of your visitors are also coming from the URL bookmarked. But that is not end of the game.Just that you have now bookmarked some of your content pages to some of the popular social bookmarking sites will not bring you overnight success in terms of backlinks, search engine rankings, visitors and so on. Because there is another dimension to this Game, that is still missing. And that is being Social!There is nothing social about bookmarking your sites by yourself. Unless users of those social bookmarking sites also bookmark your sites, in other words like your sites and make your links popular, there is little chance to see any success. Social networking sites have their own ranking algorithm based on which they show your links to their users. More popular your links are more visible your link will be to the community and this phenomena will accelerate the growth of your popularity as time passes and Google and other search engines will also start respecting your links and rank you well in their search engine result pages.Therefore you need visibility and exposure in order to be popular. And you should be popular in order to be visible. This is really a chicken and egg problem.We have a solution to that problem.

We can help you get the seeds of popularity you need to become visible. eBusinessGems services for social bookmarking submission will help you obtain hundreds of votes/likes/bookmarks for your URL from across the globe and from many of the popular social networking sites. Your sites will be professionally bookmarked by many of our partner users across the globe which will help you to gain necessary thrust of becoming 'social'.

Avail one of the bookmarking services like 1000 Manual Bookmarkings on Social Media and Networking Sites or you may kick start with 100 Manual Bookmarkings on Social Media and Networking Sites and help break the invisibility-inertia for your URLs – gain the popularity and grow quickly.About the Author

Author is an eBusinessGems.com professional. eBusinessGems provides readymade databases for dynamic web content and related services. http://www.eBusinessGems.com

1000 Manual Bookmarkings on Social Media and Networking Sites

Promote your business using social media marketing. Bookmarking on social networking sites can be an effective tool for promoting your business and driving in social media as well as search engine traffics.

eBusinessGems will bookmark your sites 1000 times on the following top social bookmarking sites: del.icio.us, digg, diigo, reddit, stumbleupon, facebook, twitter. The bookmarking will be manually done by couple of 100s of social networking users across the globe. No automation or script will be used. That is guaranteed. That means you will have your site or pages bookmarked by hundreds of different social media users from every corner of the world. Keeping in mind that search engines may not like mass bookmarking in a short time span, They will manage the whole task in a
span of 7 to 15 days so that the bookmarks stands out natural to both search engines and visitors. You can submit at most 10 urls of pages or sites with this service.

Low blood pressure herbals

Low blood pressure herbals are believed to normalize blood pressure by nourishing the internal organs responsible for the condition.

Low BP herbals at a glance

Hypotension is related to weakness of the digestive fire, poor blood circulation, congestion & stagnation and with reducing the blood flow.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) – improve overall body system & normalize blood pressure.
Cinnamon (cinnamoumum zeylanicum) – improve peripheral circulation and normalize blood pressure.
Ginger (Zingiber officinale) – improves digestive fire and thus normalizes blood pressure.
Pepper (Piper nigrum) – energizing herb that brought back normal blood pressure.
Cardamom (Eletteria cardamomum) – general herbal tonic, normalizes blood pressure caused by low vital energy.
Hawthorn Berry - opens the coronary arteries and improves blood circulation.
Ashwagandha - rejuvenating tonic and take care of adrenal gland (responsible for fight and fright situations).
Indian spikenard (Nardostachys Jatamansi) - good cardiac stimulant, helpful for heart palpitaion.
Ginkgo biloba - improves blood circulation and in-turn normalizes blood pressure.
Garlic - useful for malnutrition related low blood pressure.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) as low blood pressure natural herbal

Turmeric is a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family. Turmeric is known as Indian saffron, because it can be used as an alternative to the far more expensive saffron spice. Turmeric contains up to 5% essential oils and up to 5% curcumin, a polyphenol. Curcumin is the active substance of turmeric.

Most of the cases of low blood pressure are due to digestion system problem. This low blood pressure herbal turmeric is an appetizer, digestive stimulant, treats gastro-intestinal system and normalizes metabolism. It improves over all body system that in-turn normalizes blood pressure. New evidence suggests turmeric is a potent antioxidant that can prevent many diseases.

Turmeric is an anti-inflammatory agent, it can strengthen cartilage & bone structure, a best treatment for gastrointestinal discomfort associated with irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive disorders. Traditionally it is taken in warm milk at night before bedtime.

Turmeric is considered to be beneficial for Alzheimer's disease, cancer, arthritis, and other clinical disorders.

Curcumin is the major chemical constituent of turmeric, responsible for many medicinal benefits. Turmeric has anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritic, anti-hepatotoxic (liver protective) and anti-allergic properties. It is also considered as a blood purifier, wound healer, body toxin remover, abdominal worm destroyer and a wind-repellent agent.

Several studies confirm that turmeric has an anti-cancer role, increase immunity by improvising natural anti-oxidant properties of the body. Traditional medicinal system additionally it can be beneficial in many other health conditions like anaemia, jaundice, obesity, urino-genital tract diseases, heartburn (dyspepsia), stomach pain, diarrhea, intestinal gas, stomach bloating, inflammatory bowel disease, appetite loss, jaundice, liver problems, gallbladder disorders, headaches, bronchitis, colds, lung infections, fibromyalgia, leprosy, fever, menstrual problems, cancer, depression, Alzheimer’s disease, water retention, worms, kidney problems, familial adenomatous polyposis, ulcerative colitis, colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, hypercholesteremia, atherosclerosis, pancreatitis, psoriasis, chronic anterior uveitis and arthritis.

Turmeric is known to be a uterine stimulant, which can encourage menstrual flow. Pregnant women and lactating mothers need to be careful when taking turmeric to avoid any harm to the baby.

Cinnamon (cinnamoumum zeylanicum) as low bp herb

Cinnamon is a spice from the inner bark of the trees genus Cinnamomum, used in both sweet and savoury foods. Its flavor is due to an aromatic essential oil of 0.5% to 1%, cinnamic aldehyde or cinnamaldehyde (about 60 % of the bark oil).

Cinnamon is the most widely used "warming" herbs that aid in circulation and digestion. Cinnamon raises vitality, warms the system, stimulates all the vital functions of the body, counteracts congestion, improves digestion, relieves abdominal spasms and aids in peripheral circulation, thus normalize low blood pressure.

In Traditional Chinese medicine, cinnamon is used for colds, flatulence, nausea, diarrhea, and painful menstrual periods. It's also believed to improve energy, vitality, and circulation and be particularly useful for people who tend to feel hot in their upper body with cold feet.

In Ayurveda, cinnamon is used as a remedy for diabetes, indigestion, and colds, and it is preferrably recommended for people with the kapha Ayurvedic type.

Many clinical studies suggest that cinnamon may have a normalizing effect on blood sugar and cholesterol levels, making it especially beneficial for people with diabetes type 2 and high cholesterol.

Cinnamon is an excellent source of manganese, dietary fiber, iron and calcium.

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) as hypotension natural herbal

Ginger is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as a medicine, or spice. Ginger was classified as a stimulant and carminative.

Ginger has wide range of benefits such as nausea, digestive problems, circulation and arthritis. Nausea caused during pregnancy or by travel (motion sickness) can be alleviating by the use of ginger root. Ginger can able to calm an upset stomach, promote bile flow, aid digestion, dyspepsia, gastroparesis, constipation, diarrhea, colic. Stomach cramps (menstrual cramp) can be eased by ginger roots. Circulation problems such as migraine, low blood pressure can also be improved. Ginger supports a healthy cardiovascular system by making platelets less sticky which in turn reduces circulatory problems. Ginger is also beneficial for headache, pain, inflammation, cold and flu.

Ginger is not safe for people suffering from gallstones as it promotes the production of bile. Ginger may also have arthritis pain reliever, blood thinning and cholesterol lowering properties that may be used for treating heart disease.

Pepper (Piper nigrum) as hypotension herb

Black pepper is a flowering vine of the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, which is dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The pepper fruit called peppercorn when dried, is approximately 5 mm (0.20 in) in diameter.

Pepper is used to treat colic, constipation, diarrhea, flatulence, heartburn, loss of appetite and nausea. It is a stimulating, warming and energizing herb.

Black pepper has the ability to stimulate the taste buds (receptors for taste - located on the upper surface of the tongue, soft palate, upper esophagus and epiglottis), instruct the stomach to increase hydrochloric acid secretion which aids in digestion.
Black Pepper also has anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial and anti-oxidant properties. It promotes absorption of several micronutrients in the body such as coenzyme Q-10, beta-carotene and EGCG (a powerful anti-oxidant).

Black Pepper can be beneficial to treat illness such as gas, constipation, diarrhea, appetite loss, earache, gangrene, heart disease, hernia, hoarseness, indigestion, insect bites, insomnia, joint pain, liver problems, lung disease, oral abscesses, sunburn, tooth decay, and toothaches.

Cardamom (Eletteria cardamomum) low BP herbal

Cardamom refers to several plants of the genera Elettaria and Amomum in the ginger family. They are recognized by their small seed pod, triangular cross-section and spindle-shaped, with a thin outer shell and small black seeds. Cardamom is used as flavorings in both food and drink, as cooking spices and as a medicine.

Cardamom can brings relief from digestive problems, abdominal gas, debility and general herbal tonic.
Green cardamom is used to treat infections in teeth and gums, throat troubles, lungs congestion, pulmonary tuberculosis and eyelids inflammation. It can also been used to break up kidney stones and gall stones, and was reportedly used as an antidote for both snake and scorpion venom.

Hawthorn Berry (Crataegus) low BP natural herb

Crataegus is commonly known as hawthorn, mayflower or thornapple, is a large genus of shrubs and trees in the rose family.

Hawthorn opens the coronary arteries and improves blood flow. Hawthorn berry for hypotension reduces artery hardening and strengthens heart muscle making it more effective in delivering blood to the body.

Hawthorn (Crataegus species) has been used to treat circulatory disorders and respiratory illnesses. Traditionally, the berries were used to treat heart problems ranging from irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, chest pain, hardening of the arteries, and heart failure. Today, the leaves and flowers are used medicinally, and there is good evidence that hawthorn can treat mild-to-moderate heart failure.
Hawthorn has been used in traditional medicine as a digestive aid, believed to strengthen cardiovascular function and mild sedative in promotion of sleep.

Active ingredients found in hawthorn include tannins, flavonoids (such as vitexin, rutin, quercetin, and hyperoside), oligomeric proanthocyanidins (OPCs, such as epicatechin, procyanidin, and particularly procyanidin B-2), flavone-C, triterpene acids (such ursolic acid, oleanolic acid, and crataegolic acid), and phenolic acids (such as caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid, and related phenolcarboxylic acids).

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera) hypotension natural herbal

Ashwagandha also known as Indian ginseng is the Solanaceae or nightshade plant family.
Ashwagandha has been used as a sedative, a diuretic, a rejuvenating tonic, an anti-inflammatory agent, aphrodisiac and an immune booster. It is especially beneficial in stress related disorders such as arthritis, hypertension, hypotension, diabetes, general debility, etc. It has also shown impressive results when used as stimulants for the immune system. It is considered as an adaptogen that stimulates the immune system and improves the memory.

Some of the Traditional uses of ashwagandha are: chronic fatigue, dehydration, bone weakness, muscle weakness and tension, loose teeth, thirst, impotency, premature ageing, emaciation, debility, constipation, senility, rheumatism, nervous exhaustion, memory loss, neurodegenerative disorders, spermatorrhoea.
Ashwagandha is also useful for general debility, hypertension, hypotension, impotence, Sexual debility, nervine debility, bone weakness, Stress, energy deficiency, anxiety, constipation, low immunity, muscular weakness, low body stamina, low vital fluids, semen, physical weakness and Insomnia.

Jatamansi or Indian spikenard hypotension herb

Nardostachys jatamansi (also called as Indian Spikenard, Indian Valerian) is native to the Himalayas. It is a rhizome bearing plant preferably at high altitudes (3,000 to 5,000 m).

Jatamansi is a good cardiac stimulant, and hence useful in treating palpitation of the heart. Low blood pressure research has established that it helps in the treatment of low blood pressure, nervousness and intermittent pulse.

The rhizomes of the plant are used as a bitter tonic, stimulant, antispasmodic, and to treat hysteria, convulsions, and epilepsy. The root has been medically used to treat insomnia, blood circulatory, and mental disorders. Jatamansi is useful to combat the effects of daily stress and enhance the body's ability to sleep well.

Charaka (ayurvedic text) recommends it for insomnia, mental instability and to enhance memory.

Ginkgo biloba for low blood pressure

Ginkgo biloba also spelled gingko and known as the Maidenhair Tree, is a unique species of tree with no close living relatives. The tree is widely cultivated and introduced, since an early period in human history, and has various uses as a food and traditional medicine.

Extracts of Ginkgo leaves contain flavonoid glycosides and terpenoids (ginkgolides, bilobalides) and have been used pharmaceutically. Ginkgo supplements are usually taken in the range of 40–200 mg per day. Recently, careful clinical trials have shown Ginkgo to be effective in treating dementia[30] but not preventing the onset of Alzheimer's Disease in normal people.

Ginkgo is believed to have nootropic properties, and is mainly used as memory and concentration enhancer, and anti-vertigo agent. According to some studies, Ginkgo can significantly improve attention in healthy individuals. In one such study, the effect was almost immediate and reaches its peak in 2.5 hours after the intake.
Ginkgo side effects and cautions include: possible increased risk of bleeding, gastrointestinal discomfort, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, headaches, dizziness, heart palpitations, and restlessness. If any side effects are experienced, consumption should be stopped immediately.

Garlic for low blood pressure

Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. It has been used throughout its history for both culinary and medicinal purposes.
Garlic possesses antibacterial, antiviral, and antifungal activity. Garlic is also considered to help prevent heart disease (including atherosclerosis), high cholesterol, blood pressure irregularities and cancer. Garlic is used to prevent certain types of cancer (stomach and colon cancers), this is confirmed by the data that the countries where garlic is consumed in higher amounts, have been found to have a lower prevalence of cancer.

Garlic is useful as a remedy for infections (chest problems), digestive disorders, and fungal infections such as thrush.

Low blood pressure natural herbal treatment procedureThe above herbs are effective for hypotension without any side effects. But don’t give up your low blood pressure medicines! Take the above herbs along with it, till the normal blood pressure is achieved. Then slowly reduce the dosage and discard modern medications.

Are Low blood pressure natural herbs safe?

Remember that natural herbals are medicines, thus herbals too has some side effects. Natural herbs can also interact with other medicines. It is best to avoid or get registered herbal practitioners advice before taking herbals, if the treatment is for pregnant women, breast-feeding mother, child or older people.

Source: http://healthy-ojas.com/lowbp/hypotension-natural-herbal.html

What Factors Make a Site Vulnerable to Google Panda Update?

Google like to keep these things secret but the two engineers at the heart of Panda, Matt Cutts and Amit Singhal, gave us some strong clues in an interview with Wired.

Cutts and Singhal revealed their process which I’ll summarize as:

• Conduct qualitative research (that’s speaking with individuals and not a big questionnaire) to find out which of a sample of sites they considered to be low quality and why.

• Use the results to define low quality sites with the factors that Google can measure. This gives Google a mathematical definition of low quality.

If we start here, we can think of a number of factors that Google might be able to measure to define low quality, including:

• A high % of duplicate content. This might apply to a page, a site or both. If it’s a site measure then that might contribute to each page’s evaluation.

• A low amount of original content on a page or site.

• A high % (or number) of pages with a low amount of original content.

• A high amount of inappropriate (they don’t match the search queries a page does well for) adverts, especially high on the page.

• Page content (and page title tag) not matching the search queries a page does well for.

• Unnatural language on a page including heavy-handed on-page SEO (‘over-optimization’ to use a common oxymoron). Eg unnatural overuse of a word on a page.

• High bounce rate on page or site.

• Low visit times on page or site.

• Low % of users returning to a site.

• Low clickthrough % from Google’s results pages (for page or site).

• High % of boilerplate content (the same on every page).

• Low or no quality inbound links to a page or site (by count or %).

• Low or no mentions or links to a page or site in social media and from other sites.

If any of these factors is relevant to Panda, it is unlikely that they will be so on their own.

Multiple factors will likley be required to get ‘Panda points’ (and points do not mean prizes in this game). Panda points will be added up. Cross a threshold (the Panda Line) and all the pages on your site seem to be affected. This includes quality original pages being ranked well below useless scraper sites that have stolen your content.

Google have said that “low quality content on part of a site can impact a site’s ranking as a whole.”

It's important to define the difference between an algo change and a penalty.

A penalty must be served if it has a time limit and lifted if it is to be removed.

An algo change exists and its results will continue until it is changed, your site changes (or your site gets whitelisted).

Panda is an algo change but no ordinary one. It's an algo change that works like a penalty because if your site crosses the Panda Line then the whole site is affected, quality pages too.

Panda is penalty by algo.

Thanks to Franz Enzenhofer for pointing out a misreading in an earlier version of this article of Matt Cutts use of the word 'block' in the Wired interview.

10 Tips to Be Effective at Marketing on Twitter

In this post Salwa M has put together this list of tips for Marketers wanting to use Twitter. Follow Salwa at @screationz.

Twitter is one of the newest social media websites on the internet,
giving bloggers and other internet users a completely new way to
communicate with one another. Twitter is all about micro blogging, or
communicating through small, quick spurts of content. Anyone who knows
how to benefit from regular blogging formats can also find advantages in
using Twitter, which offers the same benefits of blogging but in a
quicker and more bite sized format. Here are ten tips for effectively
marketing on twitter.

1 – First and foremost, you need to know the difference between
posting often and spamming. You do not want to spam Twitter. Instead,
you are going to want to post meaningful, relevant and readable content
that your subscribers are going to look forward to. Spamming is the
ultimate mistake that many twitter marketers end up making early on in
their marketing endeavors. Twitter is a social network, not a medium for
spamming, and if you overwhelm your readers with spam, no one will stop
by anymore. It may be tempting to spam, but you will never benefit from
it, so do not waste your time.

2 – Know what you intend to promote when you start posting on
Twitter. This is absolutely paramount when it comes to understanding how
to get the most out of twitter marketing in order to drive business to
your website or your door. If you know your product well, and you
understand what it is going to take to market it, then you are already a
step ahead of everyone else, and this is a really good place for you to
be.

3 – It is vital that you know what kind of information you need to
put out there, both when you’re writing your own Tweets and when you are
responding to the messages of others. When you have a planned out
routine for how you will communicate with other businesses online, you
will be more successful with Twitter and those who you communicate with
on the service.

4 – One of the greatest boosts to your Twitter marketing endeavor
will be to learn how to communicate effectively on Twitter. You can use
twitter as a medium for conversation, but only if you know how to
communicate effectively with those who are reading your Twitter feed.

5 – In order to get the most out of your Twitter marketing endeavor,
it is vital that you learn how to participate in the community,
communicating properly in the process. Twitter is largely a community
based social networking site, so while you may be blogging on the site
for your own business purposes, you will not get anywhere unless you are
willing to participate in the conversation, communicating with other
businesses, consumers and other individuals as well to get the word out
about your business and to share something of yourself with the rest of
the community.

6 – Make the most out of your account. Create a profile page with a
picture and some information about your company. This allows the people
who are reading your Twitter feed to get to know you better, which is
what social networking sites like Twitter are really all about. The more
your readers are able to get to know you, the more likely they will
return time and time again to see what you are writing about.

7 – Have a plan going in, if you want to get the most out of your
Twitter endeavor. Do some research and get to know what Twitter is
really all about before you start posting on your own. Devise a basic
outline for posting, and once you have a good solid plan you can get
started. The better planned out your endeavor is, the more you will be
able to benefit from marketing your business, product or service through
Twitter.

8 – Avoid over promoting your product. While you can and should post
about your product or service in your twitter posts, do not make this
the sole focus of your Twitter account. Post all kinds of relevant
information about your company, your products, the industry and anything
else that is relevant, rather than overwhelming your readers with posts
on a single topic. If you’re selling a product and using Twitter to
accomplish it, your readers will expect some marketing and product
promotion, but you must take absolute care not to overwhelm them with it
if you want your readers to continue following your Twitter feed.

9 – Facilitate conversation! Nobody said Twitter had to be all about
sharing information; you can also facilitate conversation by asking
questions. Take polls, ask thoughtful questions and come up with other
unique ways to get your readers to respond to you in order to better
market yourself on Twitter. Conversation is an important part of
marketing your company through Twitter, so get your readers talking by
asking smart questions in search of smart answers.

10 – Follow relevant Twitter feeds. When you “follow” a new Twitter
feed, the owner of that feed is notified. By notifying Twitter feed
authors that you’re reading them, you are cluing them in to your
existence, which will build traffic for your own marketing campaign as
well.

Follow these ten basic strategies for improving your marketing effort
on Twitter and you will notice a big difference in how much traffic
Twitter can bring to your business. Marketing on Twitter is not
difficult, but there are some basic rules that you need to follow if you
want to be successful in such an endeavor. Whether you are selling a
product or a service, or just trying to gain attention for your web
presence, Twitter is an advantageous way to attract interest in who you
are and what your company is all about.

Courtesy: http://www.twitip.com/10-tips-to-be-effective-at-marketing-on-twitter/

Submission, One Very Important Key to Search Engine Optimization

Website Submission,

So now you have a wonderful website, blog or an article. You put in
all of this effort, work and time into your creation, but you’re not
getting any kind of response. You scratch your head in confusion and ask
yourself, what’s going on over here? Unfortunately websites don’t get
rated or judged by good looks and the time people put into them. This is
not a Beauty contest or Star Search. It’s going to require more work
than just another pretty website. This is where SEO “Search Engine
Optimization” comes into play.

Search Engine Submission.

One very important piece of the pie of SEO is website submission.
That is submitting your website to the major search engines “Google,
Yahoo, and MSN” Just don’t forget that these are the Big Boys when it
comes to search engines. When it comes to search engines, I know of over
125 of them. It’s just like handing out business cards. Would you be
better off leaving a card at the front desk of the Mall or is it better
to walk into each individual store and give them your card? The bottom
line is the more you present your business the more traffic you’re going
to get.

Google Submit.

Submitting to Google is a great start. Google is the King of the
internet world as of right now. If you can get your website ranked #1 on
Google, most likely this will follow on the other top search engines,
and if you’re not on the top you won’t be far behind. Nevertheless, just
like at the mall you want to get exposure at all of the search engines.
The more exposure the greater the traffic, the greater the traffic the
greater the success of your website. Now you can stop scratching your head and focus on your next success.

The SEO pie.

Again this is only one piece of the SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
pie. I encourage you to go to the link below and find out how to make
this pie complete. In this link you will also find the URLs (Web
addresses) necessary to submit your website to all of the search
engines. I thank you for reading my page and wish you the greatest of
success.

Here is the link for more SEO advice JosephDiego’s Blog for SEO Success

Courtesy: JosephDiego Diamante

Your Code is Not Self Documenting

There is this movement that people should try to write
a self documenting code. Such code doesn’t require any
comments, because it is obvious what it does. While that
might be true, it’s not the whole truth.

Imagine the following code

<code>def backup
  backup_database()
  backup_repositories()
  backup_emails()
  push_backups_to_s3()
end
</code>

At a first glance, it is obvious what the code does.
But what happens when you need to extend it? You actually
didn’t remove the complexity itself by writing such code, you
just moved it somewhere else.

Everyone who wants to work with the particular
code still has to go to the definition of each method and check
many, many things:

• does it check parameters?
• does it throw any exceptions?
• does the implementation look like I expected?

if there are tests available, it’s also a good idea to look
at the tests and see how the method is supposed to be used.

Imagine working with a framework which didn’t have any documentation.
Every time you would try to do something, you would have
to look through the source code, understand it correctly
and figure out how it should work.

But we prefer to just look at some guide or docs instead, don’t we?
Then why don’t we write documentation for our own code?

It hurts

Yes, writing a lot of documentation can actually start to hurt you.
Not to mention that you’re going to have to maintain it, like you maintain
the tests you write (oh yes, you should be writing tests).

You absolutely have to keep the documentation updated, because when
you don’t, you can end up with stuff like

<code># this method doesn't throw any exceptions<br />def foo(bar)<br />  raise KabOoOom unless bar.empty?<br />  # ...<br />end<br /></code>

Being able to trust your documentation is very important,
because if people don’t trust it, why have should they have it at all?

But I don’t have the time for this

You don’t have the time to write one sentence to each method you
write? Do you really think that you’re that busy? How about the time
you save other people while they’re reading through your code?Keeping the documentation up to date also takes time, but is that
even comparable to the time you spend on the code itself? Almost all
programmers type fast, say 400+ characters per minute. So how long
does it take to write one two lines of simple text explaining your
code? 15 seconds maybe?

If you’re not able to explain what the code does in around two lines,
you probably have a design problem. I’m not saying that you should
never write more or less, it’s all about good judgment. But try to
put yourself in the feet of the person reading it. Would he be able
to use the code after reading your docs?

Quantitative Investing & the Marketplace

The past 30 years have seen a profound transformation in the world's financial markets fueled by the globalization of markets and the dramatic advances in computer and telecommunication technology. As a result, there has been a proliferation in the types and complexity of securities; witness the explosive growth in the derivative and asset-backed securities markets. Among the other features of the changing nature of the financial landscape is the flood of new money into the securities markets as a result of the growth in pension funds, 401(K)s, IRA's etc. and the movement of control of investment funds from the individual to the institutional money manager.

Paralleling the remarkable transformation of the financial markets has been the development of what is called by some the "new science of finance," an evolving interdisciplinary approach combining financial research, statistics and other mathematical disciplines, physics, computer science, biology, behavioral and cognitive science.

Some of the early quantitative methods included the successful identification by Yale mathematics professor Benoit Mandelbrot of patterns in cotton prices in the 1960s. From this and subsequent investigations, Mandelbrot developed the theory of fractals, which applies to such divergent phenomena as turbulence in liquids, the structure of plants, and the behavior of markets.

By the 1980s, there was mounting evidence that predictive systems could be built and successfully deployed:

    * Work by Mandelbrot and others demonstrated fractal patterns in financial markets. Patterns were found and exploited governing the volatility of foreign exchange markets. It was found, for example, that volatility was dependent in part on who was participating in the market at a given time. For instance, volatility dropped during the time that Asian traders went to lunch and increased when New York and London were both trading.

    * Robert Engle found that volatility was not random but that periods of high and low volatility last longer than the traditional random models had predicted. Engle discovered "clustered" models of volatility that had predictive value.

    * In a 1990 study, Andrew Lo and C.A. Mackinlay found that a positive return in weekly stock indices were positively correlated with positive returns during the following week.

    * In a 1991 study by the Santa Fe Institute, which put popular technical analysis techniques to a rigorous test using 90 years of data from the Dow Jones Index, it was found that both the moving average rule and trading-range break rule worked quite well.

These and other developments increased the interest in quantitative methods. Today, predictive financial models are being developed using a variety of techniques, including fuzzy logic, neural nets, genetic algorithms, Markov models, fractal methods, and clustering techniques. Neural nets have been used by Citibank, Credit Suisse, Advanced Investment Technology (owned by State Street Global Advisors), Nikko Securities, Normura Securities, Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, Shearson Lehman Hutton, and Fidelity Management & Research.

First Quadrant, which manages over 27 billion dollars in assets (including $2.2 billion in long-term strategies), is using genetic algorithms for research purposes in a variety of their financial services. The Renaissance Technologies hedge fund, run by mathematician James Simons, although a relatively small fund (about $2 billion), has reported a 20% annual return for the past ten years using all quant methods. Another fund run by the "Prediction Company," which uses nonlinear time series methods developed by former physicists from Los Alamos, has also had very positive results.

The biggest contemporary impact of quant methods is as a tool used in combination with human decision making. The International Association of Financial Engineers, the leading professional association for the growing field of financial engineering, conducted a study of the usage of quantitative techniques in financial firms. The survey was sent to 200 of the largest investment banks, broker/dealers, insurance companies, and other financial institutions around the world. The focus of the study was the importance of the role of quantitative techniques and the use of mathematics talent in implementing financial management techniques. Of the 50 respondents, 40% reported a heavy dependence on quantitative methods and 75% cited a moderate or higher dependence. 76% of the respondents noted that the proportion of quantitative professionals in their firm has increased over the past 15 years with 71% expecting that the proportion will continue to increase. Another indication of the increasing excitement and potential surrounding quantitative methods is that a large proportion of the doctorate graduates in theoretical physics from universities like Harvard and Stanford are going into financial research.

There are a number of trends indicating that quantitative methods will be of enormous importance in the years ahead:

    * The rapidly increasing availability of online financial information, which is necessary to train self-organizing methods such as genetic algorithms and neural nets, is growing very rapidly.

    * Patterns in financial trading data representing arbitrage opportunities are often too subtle for human analysts to detect, but very powerful statistical techniques (combined with application of significant computer processing) can detect these patterns and develop strategies for exploiting them.

    * Computational power is growing exponentially, which is another important ingredient for complexity theory methods. There is also growing availability of dedicated parallel devices for neural net connection calculations and genetic algorithms.

    * Advances in quantitative techniques are leveraged by the enormous size of the market, now estimated at over $20 trillion. According to Thomson Financial, of the $20.9 trillion of total market capitalization in 1997, $12 trillion was controlled by institutional money managers, and, in a recent publication, Instinet Corporation (a subsidiary of Reuters Group PLC) states that the value of all holdings in the U.S. "increased from $849.9 billion in 1969 to $14.6 trillion in 1998."

    * The four largest U.S. institutional investors: Fidelity ($695 billion under management), Barclays ($615 billion under management), Merrill Lynch ($501 billion under management) and State Street ($490 billion under management) account for $2.3 trillion or over 15% of total securities in the U.S. These firms are in highly competitive environments; their clients are able to track their performance and move their funds readily to the best performers. Being able to gain even a slight advantage by obtaining superior technology when leveraged by the large sums under management would have very significant value. Fidelity, in its own description of itself, states that, "this year alone, Fidelity will invest $500 million dollars in hardware, software, and systems that enable us not only to analyze and research virtually all the world's markets, but to provide customers with the most up-to-the-minute information they need to help them make sound financial decisions." As huge amounts of investment are at stake, we believe that these firms are prepared to move quickly to maintain and increase market share.

Examples of quant funds include the following: In 1997, D.E. Shaw & Co., using quantitative methods, accounted for up to 5% of the trading on the NYSE; as of mid-1998, the quant firm BNP/Cooper Neff Advisors accounts for 4 to 6 percent of the total on the NYSE and 6 to 10 percent of the volume of a number of European exchanges volume; First Quant's managed assets grew from $11 billion in 1997 to $27 billion in the final quarter of 1998; and, according to Andrew W. Lo "as much as 20% of hedge funds, which control some $295 billion, are quantitatively oriented."

Quant funds are making significant inroads into the institutional investor community. In a 1998 Wall Street Research report, Ashton Technology Group, Inc. states that quant funds (along with index funds) represent the fastest growing institutional investor groups. Industry observers estimate that quant funds control approximately 5% of the $20 trillion in the market, and are growing rapidly. Goldman Sachs was reported to have purchased a quant technology company for $600 million.

Source: http://www.fatkat.com/market.html

Concerns Regarding Early Fetal Development

The development of a baby is quite an intricate journey. From the moment that the egg and sperm meet, a baby is beginning the developmental process. This early part of development lays the foundation for a healthy pregnancy and the birth of a healthy baby. Unfortunately, because these early weeks involve such a complex process, things can go wrong and ultimately end in a pregnancy loss. If a possible complication in early pregnancy is suspected, your health care provider will use a combination of blood tests and ultrasound tests to make a clear diagnosis. A blood test can be used to monitor hCG levels and progesterone levels. Ultrasounds can be used to visually see what development is taking place in the uterus and to measure the progress.

It is common to have many questions about what this early development truly involves and what is to be expected. We have gathered information from different sources in order to provide the best guidelines of what normal early fetal development looks like. However, just as every woman is different, every pregnancy develops differently. This information should be used as a general guide for healthy pregnancy development, although development may vary due to the mother’s health or a miscalculation of ovulation. Gestational age is the age of the pregnancy from the last normal menstrual period (LMP), and fetal
age is the actual age of the growing baby. Most references to pregnancy are usually in gestational age rather than fetal age development, but we have included both so that it is clear what stage development is at.

Week 1 & 2 Gestational Age - (Conception)

At this stage, the menstrual period has just ended and your body is getting ready for ovulation. For most women, ovulation takes place about 11 - 21 days from the first day of the last menstrual period. During intercourse, several hundred million sperm are released in the vagina. Sperm will travel through the cervix and into the fallopian tubes. When conception takes place, the sperm will penetrate an egg and create a single set of 46 chromosomes called a zygote - the basis for a new human being. The fertilized egg, called a morula, spends a couple of days traveling through the fallopian tube toward the uterus and dividing into cells (this dividing process is where many chromosomal abnormalities occur). The morula becomes a blastocyst and will eventually end up in the
uterus. Anywhere from day 6 - 12 after conception, the blastocyst will imbed into the uterine lining and begin the embryonic stage.

Weeks 3-4 - Gestational Age (Fetal Age 2 weeks)

Development
The earliest change that can be seen through a vaginal ultrasound at this time will be the “decidual reaction” which is the thickening of the endometrium. The endometrium lining thickens as the blastocyst burrows into it. This cannot always be detected by ultrasound—sometimes it may take a special eye or very good equipment to see this “reaction” in the endometrium lining.

*A key fact to remember when using ultrasounds is that a transvaginal ultrasound can detect development in the uterus about a week earlier than a transabdominal ultrasound.

Hormones
hCG: Once implantation occurs,the pregnancy hormone Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) will develop and begin to rise. This hormone will signal that you are pregnant on a pregnancy test. hCG can be detected through two different types of blood tests or through a urine test. A quantitative blood test measures the exact amount of hCG in the blood, and a qualitative hCG blood test gives a simple yes or no answer to whether you are pregnant or not.

Doctors will often use the quantitative test if they are closely monitoring the development of a pregnancy. After implantation occurs, the hormone will begin to rise and should increase every 48-72 hours for the next several weeks.

Progesterone: The follicle from which the egg was released is called the corpus luteum. It will release progesterone that helps thicken and prepare the uterine lining for implantation. The corpus luteum will produce progesterone for about 12-16 days (the luteal phase of your cycle.) When the egg is fertilized, the corpus luteum will continue to produce progesterone for the developing pregnancy until the placenta takes over around week 10. Progesterone is the hormone that helps maintain the pregnancy until birth. Sometimes, the failure of the corpus luteum to adequately support the pregnancy with progesterone can result in an early pregnancy loss. Progesterone inhibits immune responses, decreases prostaglandins, and prevents the onset of uterine contractions.


Week 5 - Gestational Age (Fetal age 3 weeks)

Development
The gestational sac is often the first thing that most transvaginal ultrasounds can detect at about 5 weeks. This is seen before a recognizable embryo can be seen. Within this week, at about week 5 ½ to the beginning of the 6th week, a yolk sac can be seen inside the gestational sac. The yolk sac will be the earliest source of nutrients for the developing fetus.

Hormones
Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) levels can have quite a bit of variance at this point. Anything from 18 - 7,340 mIU/ml is considered normal at 5 weeks. Once the levels have reached at least 2000, some type of development is expected to be seen in the uterus using high resolution vaginal ultrasound. If using a transabdominal ultrasound, some type of development should be seen when the hCG level has reached 3600 mIU/ml. Although development may be seen earlier, these levels provide a guide of when something is expected to be seen.

Progesterone levels also can have quite a variance at this stage of pregnancy. They can range from 9-47ng/ml in the first trimester, with an average of 12-20ng/ml in the first 5-6 weeks of pregnancy.

With both hCG levels and progesterone levels, it is not the single value that can predict a healthy pregnancy outcome. It is more important to evaluate two different values to see if the numbers are increasing. Levels of hCG should be increasing by at least 60 % every 2-3 days, but ideally doubling every 48-72 hours. Progesterone levels rise much differently than hCG levels, with an average of 1-3ng/ml every couple days until they reach their peak for that trimester. In situations when there is a concern of an ectopic pregnancy or miscarriage, hCG levels will often start out normal, but will not show a significant increase or will stop rising all together, and progesterone levels will be low from the beginning.


Week 6 - Gestational Age (Fetal age 4 weeks)

5 ½ to 6 ½ weeks is usually a very good time to detect either a fetal pole or even a fetal heart beat by vaginal ultrasound. The fetal pole is the first visible sign of a developing embryo. This pole structure actually has some curve to it with the embryo’s head at one end and what looks like a tail at the other end. The fetal pole now allows for crown to rump measurements (CRL) to be taken, so that pregnancy dating can be a bit more accurate. The fetal pole
may be seen at a crown-rump length (CRL) of 2-4mm, and the heartbeat may be seen as a regular flutter when the CRL has reached 5mm.

If a vaginal ultrasound is done and no fetal pole or cardiac activity is seen, another ultrasound scan should be done in 3-7 days. Due to the fact that pregnancy dating can be wrong, it would be much too early at this point to make a clear diagnosis on the outcome of the pregnancy.

Week 7 - Gestational Age (Fetal Age 5 weeks)

Generally from 6 ½ -7 weeks is the time when a heartbeat can be detected and viability can be assessed. A normal heartbeat at 6-7 weeks would be 90-110 beats per minute. The presence of an embryonic heartbeat is an assuring sign of the health of the pregnancy. Once a heartbeat is detected, the chance of the pregnancy continuing ranges from 70-90% dependent on what type of ultrasound is used. If the embryo is less than 5mm CRL, it is possible for it to be healthy without showing a heartbeat, though a follow up scan in 5-7 days should show cardiac activity.

If your doctor is concerned about miscarriage, blighted ovum, or ectopic pregnancy, the gestational sac and fetal pole (if visible) will be measured to determine what type of development should be seen. The guideline is that if the gestational sac measures >16-18mm with no fetal pole or the fetal pole measures 5mm with no heartbeat (by vaginal ultrasound), then a diagnosis of miscarriage or blighted ovum is made. If the fetal pole is too small to take an accurate measurement, then a repeat scan should be done in 3-5 days. If there is absence of a fetal pole, then further testing should be done to rule out the possibility of an ectopic pregnancy.

Week 8 & 9 - Gestational Age (Fetal Age 6-7 weeks)

By this point in the pregnancy, everything that is present in an adult human is present in the developing embryo. The embryo has reached the end of the embryonic stage and now enters the fetal stage. A strong fetal heartbeat should be detectable by ultrasound, with a heartbeat of 140-170 bpm by the 9th week. If a strong heartbeat is not detected at this point, another ultrasound scan may be done to verify the viability of the fetus. If a pregnancy has been diagnosed as non-viable, most physicians will give the choice of waiting to see if the body will miscarry naturally (pending no other health issues) or to have a Dilation & Curettage (D&C) procedure. About 50% of women do not undergo a D&C procedure when an early pregnancy loss has occurred.

Hormones
The hCG levels will peak at about 8-12 weeks of pregnancy and then will decline, remaining at lower levels throughout the remainder of the pregnancy. If the levels are questionable, an ultrasound scan should be used to diagnose the pregnancy outcome. Ultrasound findings are much more accurate at diagnosing pregnancy viability after 5-6 weeks gestation than hCG levels are.

Guideline to hCG levels during pregnancy:
hCG levels in weeks from LMP (gestational age)* :

    * 3 weeks LMP: 5 - 50 mIU/ml
    * 4 weeks LMP: 5 - 426 mIU/ml
    * 5 weeks LMP: 18 - 7,340 mIU/ml
    * 6 weeks LMP: 1,080 - 56,500 mIU/ml
    * 7 - 8 weeks LMP: 7,650 - 229,000 mIU/ml
    * 9 - 12 weeks LMP: 25,700 - 288,000 mIU/ml
    * 13 - 16 weeks LMP: 13,300 - 254,000 mIU/ml
    * 17 - 24 weeks LMP: 4,060 - 165,400 mIU/ml
    * 25 - 40 weeks LMP: 3,640 - 117,000 mIU/ml
    * Non-pregnant females: <5.0 mIU/ml
    * Postmenopausal: <9.5 mIU/ml


Guideline to Progesterone levels during pregnancy:

• 1-28 ng/ml Mid Luteal Phase (Average is over 10 for un-medicated cycles and over 15 with medication use)
• 9-47 ng/ml First trimester
• 17-146 ng/ml Second Trimester
• 49-300 ng/ml Third Trimester


*There are many averages for progesterone levels. These charts are a very broad guideline—speak with your health care professional for more specific guidelines for you.

**Remember - These numbers are just a GUIDELINE -- every woman’s hormone level can rise differently. It is not necessarily the level that matters but rather the change in the level.

Courtesy: http://www.americanpregnancy.org/pregnancycomplications/earlyfetaldevelopment.htm

When is the Forex Market Open?

Though the forex market is open 24 hours a day, there are specific times when the market is faster moving, and it's easier to make money. There are three main time zones for trading New York, London and Tokyo. Two sessions are usually always overlapping. In terms of Eastern Standard Time, New York is open from 9am to 5 pm, London is open from 3 am to 12 pm, and Tokyo is open from 7pm to 4 am. So, naturally, the busiest times in the market are from 3 to 4am, and then from 8am to 12 pm, because two markets are overlapping. And, since London overlaps with both Tokyo and New York at some point, it usually has the busiest session.

What is the Best Time to Trade?

The middle of the week is also usually the busiest time in terms of trading. Tuesday and Wednesday shows much more movement and activity than the beginning or end of the week. Friday is generally the slowest day, when things calm down as soon as the London session closes. Sundays and Holidays are generally dead as well, and it's unadvised to do lots of trading then.

Most Active Currency Pairs

London Session (3am to 12pm ET)

• GBP/CHF - average range 145 pips
• GBP/JPY - average range 140 pips
• USD/CHF - average range 115 pips
• GBP/USD - average range 110 pips
• USD/CAD - average range 90 pips
• EUR/USD - average range 80 pips
• USD/JPY - average range 75 pips

New York Session (9am to 5pm ET)

• GBP/CHF - average range 130 pips
• GBP/JPY - average range120 pips
• USD/CHF- average range 110 pips
• GBP/USD - average range 90 pips
• USD/CAD - average range 80 pips
• EUR/USD - average range 75 pips

Tokyo Session ( 7pm to 4am ET)

• GBP/JPY - average range 110 pips
• GBP/CHF - average range 90 pips
• USD/JPY - average range 75 pips
• USD/CHF - average range 65 pips
• GBP/USD - average range 60 pips
• AUD/JPY - average range 55 pips

Most Watched Economic Releases In the Forex Market

The most popular economic indicators in the forex market have the ability to cause swings of several hundred pips in either direction if they come out at numbers that are different than what is expected. This is what makes trading during news an exciting and popular, albeit risky strategy.

For most, these releases come out at 8:30am ET (1:30pm GMT) although members of the press have it at 8:00am ET under security lockdown.

1. The Jobs Report aka Non-Farm Payrolls aka NFP

Published on the first Friday of each month with the data from the previous month, it is the single most important statistic on the health of the US economy. To keep up with population growth we need to add 125,000 jobs a month to keep, so if the numbers come in under that, the news is often treated as bad news. The market often prices in estimations before the number is released so traders often look for huge swings from what it is expected as well as major revisions of the previous month.

Publish date: First Friday of every month at 8:30 am
Revisions: Previous two months are revised which can be a major market mover. The NFP benchmark changes every 10 years
Reporting Agency: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Labor (U.S.)
Release: NFP Release Data

2. CPI aka Consumer Price Index

Measures the change in the value of a group of goods and services against the value of the US dollar. CPI is broken up into two main categories the core-CPI and non-core CPI. Core CPI, which is more watched than non-core CPI excludes food and fuel prices as they can vary dramatically from month to month.

Inflation is incredibly important for the forex markets for several reasons. Most fundamentally, it is the cost of holding US dollars. If anyone holds US dollars for a year and intends to spend that money on goods and services within the US, and the CPI showed an inflation rate of 4%, then they effectively have lost 4% of the value of their dollar holdings. It is a lagging indicator, but is one of the most important for the forex markets.

Publish date: Monthly around the 20th, for the previous month's data

3 . Consumer Confidence Index aka CCI

CCI is published once a month and for the most part, a leading indicator. It is huge survey of roughly 5,000 American consumers that the Fed uses it to gauge where the economy is headed. Since consumer spending makes 50% of most economies, and roughly two-thirds of the American economy, it is a major indicator.

Publish date: 10:00 AM (EST); monthly, last Tuesday of the reporting month
Revisions: Only minor, not really market moving
Reporting Agency: Conference Board
Release: CCI Release

4. Gross Domestic Product aka GDP

The GDP numbers are released in three phases. It is a lagging statistic. First the advance numbers come out, then the preliminary numbers, and thirdly, the final numbers. The advance number comes out on the last day of each quarter. GDP growth rates are, for the most part, the rate that the economy has been growing.

The bigger the number, the bigger the better for the US dollar. That being said, like the jobs report, market reaction is usually based on how the numbers stack up against the predictions.

Formula:
C = private consumption
I = private investment
G = government expenditure
IM = imports of goods and services

GDP = C + I + G + (EX - IM)

5. Trade Balances

The government publishes numbers concerning the trade balances with most every country. They are lagging indicators. In the classical version of currency markets, this would be the only thing that changes the value of currencies. The more a country exports, the more demand there is for its currency. The more it imports from a country, the more demand there is for that country's currency.

Notice all of these statistics are US data. Other currency zones have their own corollary data that often is quite important to individual currency pairs. However, it is almost always only the US data that affects every all of the majors.

6. Rate FOMC

Eight times per year the US Federal Open Market Committee or FOMC for short meets to discuss US monetary policy. Here they set the borrowing rate in an attempt to affect price levels to help maintain economic growth and keep inflation within acceptable levels.

A rise interest rates typically is seen as good for the US dollar where a drop in interest rates is typically seen as negative for the USD.

Publish date: 8 times per year at 2pm ET
Reporting Agency: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Release: FOMC Release Data

Source: http://www.onlineforextrading.com/learn-trading/popular-economic-indicators

How Non Farm Payrolls (NFP) News Affects Forex Market

Introduction to Non-Farm Payrolls

A classic example how how the forex market is moved can be found in the non-farm payroll (NFP) numbers published each month by the US government. The NFP number is a seasonally-adjusted estimate of the number of non-farm jobs that were added (or lost) during the previous month.  They are more reliable than the weekly jobs numbers for a variety of technical reasons that aren't important to us here.  There are several other ways of estimating changes in employment levels, but the monthly NFP numbers are seen as by far the most reliable.

Deciphering the Numbers

An increase in jobs suggests the economy is growing, which means that, all things being equal, there will be more demand for dollars.  Investors, for instance, who were thinking of buying US assets will feel more comfortable doing so. The NFP will usually show an increase in jobs.  It is estimated that the economy needs to create about 125,000 new jobs a month in order to keep pace with population growth and immigration.  So, even though it may seem like a good thing the economy produced, say, 85,000 new jobs last month, it is entirely possible that that result will actually push the unemployment level up .1%.

Because the NFP numbers are watched so closely, they take on a disproportionate influence.  This is an important concept to keep in mind.  If no one was watching, slight departures in the report from what was predicted would have relatively little effect on the economy, and thus on the forex markets.  However, the numbers are read by forex traders like a diviner reads tea leaves to predict the future.

So, if the numbers come in higher than predicted, everyone knows that people are going to be scrambling to buy dollars.  Let's say it was expected the NFP numbers were expected to be +200,000.  In the days leading up to the release of the report, the markets will have priced in something close to that expected change.  But then the numbers come in at +350,000 – anything above 300,000 is seen as truly strong growth.  At that point, the traders that had already bought US dollars will make a whole lot of money, as everyone else rushes to catch up.
Because the US economy is so important to global economic health, big changes in the NFP are often looked upon as a harbinger for the rest of the world's economy.  If the numbers are really bad, for instance, investors from all over the world may retreat to gold or other commodities that provide safe havens in times of turmoil.

Source: http://www.onlineforextrading.com/learn-trading/nfp-impacts-forex