August 2020 – Combuteri Blog

Are Search Engines Male Or Female?

Posted August 20, 2020March 22, 2021
by Imado

Are Search Engines Male or Female – MSN & Google ?

A lot of articles discuss “how to please the search engine” , “how to get the search engine’s interest to raise your rankings…” , “search engines results” , “your articles should get search engine’s acceptance” , and more of such matters.

But as far as I know; No-one has EVER previously tried to understand the search engine’s Gender: How do they behave in their works … Do “they” behave more like a man, or more like a woman? Understand their gender can surely help us to gain a better insight into how to appeal to them – discussing web sites’ related subjects

Thinking of the most famous search engines lead us to : “MSN” ( MSN.Com ) is very clear: MSN is a man !!

Everything about MSN is straightforward: You do the right thing and you WILL BE recognized: Follow the advice of the experts and you will surely rank highly on MSN – as long as your competitors are less diligent in this respect than you. Good content, relevant titles, keyword-related metatags, well-connected pages, varied keywords & concrete text content, and be happy to get the highest rankings ( if not the 1^st ranking in your subject ). MSN search engine acts as a man… What you see is what you get !!

Is Yahoo! ( Yahoo.Com ) a man or a woman? Well, we discussed this matter in our offices before writing this article, and frankly we found it hard to decide, we feel it is a UNISEX Search Portal !! Say what !!

Sometimes Yahoo! works as straightforward as a man: do the right thing, do your work, fill your content, write good articles, clear graphics and pictures on the site, no hidden texts, and Yahoo! appreciates your work, and raises your rankings . But that is not a guarantee to grab its attention: Sometimes, Yahoo! Acts like a woman… immune to your blandishments, whatever you did , the end result isn’t as you wanted, and don’t know why ??

Google ( Google.Com ) … That is surely all woman, with womanly wiles and deeply imbued with womanly mystery!!

If you want to get the right results from Google, you need to learn the art of digital seduction. You try to optimize blog / website to rank highly when someone searches Google for a keyword, still Google search engine acts like a woman … She is always just out of reach!!

She will not reveal her secrets for even the largest bunch of e-rewards. You know that you have the best content in your category, a lot of quality links, deep pages and deeper links, concrete text blocks and articles are well-written, more of everything that is supposed to drive higher ranking than any of your competitors. In this & some other sites we operate, there are like thousands of competitive keywords, many links well-built ( in bounding & out bounding to & from the sites ) , and a lot of positive feedback on many of our sites ( this site is new frankly ) … Is this enough? Well, yes and no.

I may have the best positions on all the search engines; but whereas my positions are undisputedly dominant and a site may rank in the top 5 list in MSN search results, they are only excellent or even moderate ranking in Google searches lists. I review, very well , the keywords most people use ( with services like Answer The Public , or KwFinder site ), but I – still – don’t blow away the competing pages, like I do on the others.

Google has recognized my worth, somewhat, but she has not opened herself to me entirely !! When acting like a woman, Google has her favorites: sites which appealed to her long ago, and may not be an interest for a searching observer, can still be favored with a top position with Google.

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Google is also fickle, an example that happened to a client of me once: He has been trying to increase his page’s ranking position for a single keyword for nearly 6 months then. ( A fairly competitive category with around 36 million sites featuring this keyword). When I started my efforts I was at about ranking 85 – fair as a start. I worked with the client’s web content creators to build anchored text links with this single word into directories, into articles, into listings on other sites ( like Pinterest.Com ) .. Everywhere!! I used all “SEO” enhancing techniques …

After 3 months continuous working : I find I moved the client’s page to a respectable position: say 10^th or even 6^th or around , then the next day, or even an hour later – the page falls back to 20^th or even 25^th once.

Google – as a lady search engine – likes me, she flirts with me occasionally, she tolerates my company & sometimes, I even manage to amuse her – so my rankings get higher. But just when I think I could expect that I would start the dance with her, I am banished to the outer cluster of the e-world!!

But she still likes me; she draws me back again to her world attempting to understand her mysteries… I may gain a higher position in its pages, but why ? I would never know the merits involved. It is Google !!

Have a say , or a comment ? Say it here !!

Outsourcing – Definition & Examples

Posted August 17, 2020August 20, 2020
by Imado

Corporate needs to manage their resources to the best possible way, to get highest benefits possible.

This means considering business costs , assets available and liabilities the corporate would occur, and manage human teams as well.

But sometimes, to have some asset ( or a resource ) managed through an outside party ( external corporate or vendor ) would become cheaper and/or more efficient from managing it directly, from inside the company.

Corporates move to outsourcing when it is operating in many markets, and to better serve a certain market would hire a specialized corporate in that market to handle certain tasks , like warehousing or Call Center or even Finance Department or so on.

Corporates, also, may consider outsourcing some of its operational tasks when they can utilize certain tasks to an outside corporate , which is more specialized in handling this tasks than the original job owner.

We will talk in examples to better understand what is meant by outsourcing !!

Consider Apple , it is a gigantic corporate specializing in developing state-of-the-art technologies in certain fields, but they don’t want to waste precious resources on manufacturing – with all the hassles of manufacturing and factories , so they “outsourced” their mobiles manufacturing to a Taiwanese company named “Hon Hai Technology Group – Foxconn ” . Apple designs the mobile in details, Foxconn builds it following Apple’s standards and quality requirements , and quantities .

Foxconn, for example, builds other products that iphones ( despite they have exclusive production lines for the leading phone ) , such as Electrical cars, Sharp monitors , and others – see their web site for more info.

So, which business tasks are most outsourced ?

Outsourcing can be done for any department or task in the corporate; some corporates outsource a certain project ( that is called project outsourcing ) – where the corporate handles certain missions to another company and wait to get the results required. That is mainly famous in Creative businesses ( media agencies, market studies companies, dispatching new furniture in a new building or so , and examples add on..

“IT Affairs OUTSOURCING” is a famous outsourcing module in the current business environment is; yes it is !!

Corporates may outsource their IT issues to a more specialized company, to manage their network , build the infra structures required, build an app for them, or manage their servers or so.. You , basically, give a more specialized corporate the headaches of managing your network and maintaining it, they serve your business and others too, and would consider the latest techniques to save their reputation and businesses too , and you will pay for what you get only – as you don’t need the IT resources and staff everyday .

“Accounting & Finance” is another sector of business which is widely outsourced in the current environment.

A corporate, big or small, can outsource the payroll works, taxes management and make the budgets . It is easier, and more controllable , procedure to outsource the accounts department.

“Manufacturing” is another famous business part to be outsourced. This is especially done in the parcels companies, to build / lease factories in far-away countries where labor costs & raw materials costs are cheaper than in the original country. Major brand names have exclusive production lines solely producing them in Vietnam, China, India , Bangladesh and others.

Reading this matter, a note from InTouch studies site indicates that “… of 348 garment importers surveyed on InTouch’s website since in 2016 -61 percent said they source garments from at least one of these countries. China is still the most popular choice for garment importers at 21 percent. But Bangladesh and India tie for second place at 14 percent, while Vietnam comes in right behind at 12 percent..”

Top 10 corporates that outsource jobs

The top 10 corporates ( with a total of 170,000 jobs in approximate – 2018 figures ) , which outsource jobs to other companies are ( based on Techsunite.org studies site ) :

IBM
EDS
Dell
Cognizant
Siemens AG
General Electric
Convergys
Accenture
Computer Sciences Corp
Intel

The risks of outsourcing

But to tell as well, outsourcing isn’t a green field for corporates to gain profits without problems !! Outsourcing has major negative impacts on the corporate’s business , in summary they are :

– Employees Morals are affected

– Loss of control

– Quality issues

– Customer losing

– Security fears and issues

Let’s detail these points a little bit more:

* Employees morals are affected … They will feel threatened, since their colleagues’ jobs , or theirs, would be done by an outside company , and they would be laid off !!

* Loss of Control : The company doesn’t have control over the outsourced job as if it is done indoors. There should be extensive and close guidance and control procedures on the outsourced company . This loss of control opens the gates for the coming points

* Quality Issues: This is a major issue when corporates look for cheaper labour costs and cheaper materials , from the job owner side or the outsourcing company; especially when hiring lower-educated staff , or low-quality products that would result in an un-required end product.

* Customer Losing: When there is a lack of control with the outsourced company, and quality of the staff & the end products aren’t as expected .. The end customer will not return to this company and buy its product or service again, like a customer call center speaking in an unclear accent or even language, or the IT support doesn’t understand his duties well , customers would be frustrated and go for another vendor.

* Security fears and issues; This is important when the outsourced matter has classified information and/or tasks, like a new medicine developing, or developing a demo new racing car, or a weapon or a Military device, etc…

Should corporates outsource then ?

Well, corporate have to study their options very well , and not to think of saving extra dollars here or there only – but to think of the end-result expected, the partner ( outsourcing company ) and its abilities to handle the outsourced project expected .

Corporates need to study their targeted customer and markets segments, can it approach it directly? Or should it outsource some tasks for another company ? Should it outsource certain tasks for some time till it learns the most suitable techniques , so let’s source the business for a while?

What are the control and follow up techniques and procedures that would be taken to insure the requested results are achieved, in the way originally planned for? And

Many factors are there, and corporates should think well before outsourcing any of their business modules.

What is e-Packet?

Posted August 12, 2020March 22, 2021
by Imado

What is ePacket ?

Probably you heard the word ePacket lately… especially that it is getting famous more in the shipping world. This is a major subject to talk about.

ePacket is a program signed between USPS – US Post Service enabling shipments from the shipment’s origin country ( China & Hong Kong as a start ) to receive USPS Express service at no additional cost; that includes :

– Express delivery ( by Air or expedited land transport )

– Tracking code for the parcel ( from minute 1 to the end destination ) .

– Ability to return to sender freely.

How ePacket program works ?

Shipments, from China & Hong King as starting points, were shipped to the USA by sea and then by land transport – in the US lands – without ability to track the shipment or know its status.

This would take 1-2 months for a parcel to be delivered, if being delivered originally !! And to use the air shipping , that would be a high cost option – especially for small shipments. So came the ePacket program.

In April 2011 – USPS & China Post co-operated to solve this issue; in China’s mainland; China EMS would handle the shipment sending to USA – by air for less than 40 Lbs shipments . In USA, USPS handles the shipment through its own ( or hires a local courier ) , and delivers the parcel to its final location – quick & express delivery.

This agreement meant to increase traffic and shipments , and reduce timings, for the US customers . And China managed it very well and expanded it too.

This is a great video to review about ePacket program , and then proceed for more details..ePacket shipments – Cost Of Shipments

Normally, a shipment from China to a US-address, would cost – in Express shipping method – would reach 50 USD .

But after ePacket agreement, the shipping cost of 1 lb package from China to any address in the US is around $5.00 , that because of high volumes and easier regulations on Chinese-based shipments, and yes some shipments are a loss on USPS ( USPS handled 29 Million USD as losses from ePacket )

ePacket shipments – Sizes & Weights

China EMS ( the official post service ) ships any shipment to anywhere, but ePacket has certain regulations in its shipments and locations ( source and destination countries ) . They are :

Weight : Package’s weight should be no more than 2 kgs (4.4 lbs)
Value : Package’s value should be no more than 400 USD .
Size restrictions: Length cannot less than 14 CM, width cannot less than 11 CM. Roll diameter. Length cannot less 17 CM.
Destination is from the contracted countries only. And source country is China .

Assets VS Liabilities – Define Both !!

Posted August 9, 2020August 19, 2020
by Imado

Assets VS abilities, what is the difference between these two terms? What is related to monetizing and cash flow management , and what is a risk factor in the corporate’s operations?

These main ideas, and more , will be discussed in this article , so let’s start talking in details …Assets VS Liabilities – What is the difference between ?

The simplest definition is what is said usually in the business world : “Assets are what you own, liabilities are what you owe to other” … Simple isn’t it ?

And you should know that : The more your assets outweigh your liabilities, the stronger the financial health of your business. But if you find yourself with more liabilities than assets, you may be on the cusp of going out of business.

Examples Of Assets :

Cash in the bank and cash in the vault ( that one in the office or branches ) .
Stocks available in the warehouses, or in the shops – which didn’t pay for the stocks yet.
Office equipment and related ( computers , printers, softwares , licenses )
Real-estates, lands and buildings ( all kinds ) ,
and vehicles, cars or heavy vehicles ( and trucks ) , that the company owns – but not the owners’ property

Examples Of Liabilities

Bank debts
Bonds the corporate had issued ( a semi or full-Gov. body / or market-wide corporate can do such )
Wages and salaries that aren’t paid yet
Taxes and fees to be paid for the Gov. in certain periods
Amounts owed for the suppliers ( stock / services , etc … ) costs, money that isn’t paid yet .. They should be paid in the coming times.

What are types of assets ?

Assets can be grouped in many ways, we will consider the most famous ones here , like :

Liquidation status & Tangibility

Liquidity Status

This factor is related to the ability to turn the asset in cash; how much time and efforts this takes to be done.

Liquidating a car is harder than liquidating some computers or furniture , but easier than selling a factory or heavy machinery , for example.

Easily liquidated assets ( easily salable in less than one week ) are called Current Assets, but assets that are harder to liquidate are grouped differently, they are called The fixed assets. They are held longer in the corporate’s books, and – usually – have high values and longer times to be fully consumed.

Tangible Assets

A remarkable categorisation of the assets in the corporate, the asset’s tangibility.

A tangible asset is an asset that can be touched or felt or seen by the human eyes – have a physical body.

& intangible assets ?

But corporates have more than just “touchable” assets, they have Intangible assets. The assets that can’t be touched and are non-physical in nature. Examples include features such as “Brand-names, domain names, software or even computer databases, even customers names and emails” . These assets are believed to bring in more company value than the tangible which are subject to depreciation.

Liabilities – How to differentiate ?

A liability is the amounts owed to other parties, and obligation on the corporate to be paid . It required the corporate to give away some economical benefits to fulfill this obligation.

Current & Long term liabilities

Current obligations are obligations to be paid within 12 months from the due date . All liabilities with longer payment terms are classified as long-term. That includes bank loans, taxes, debentures amounts , and even the pension payments, etc…

Liabilities are mentioned , in the corporate’s balance sheets, in the left section

Assets vs. Liabilities: Comparison Chart

Public Finance VS Private Finance Table — Click To Enlarge

The Comparison table is courtesy of DifferenceBetween.Net ).

Have a say ? Email us your questions here.

Dividing – Economics VS Finance

* Economics science, in general, is divided in two main parts :

Micro Economics
Macro Economics

Micro-Economics : Small-scale market & interactions studies .. It studies interactions between individual markets, and focuses on specialization and supply & demand relations – between small entities and markets.

Macro-Economics : Large-scale market & interactions studies .. It is not focusing on single or small or individual markets or entities , but on large and bigger variables – national , regional or world-wide levels. Terms include such as: National income and output, GDP, Price inflation and unemployment rate in a country, region or the whole world .

Finance , generally , is divided between 2 parts:

* Public finance &

* Personal ( Private ) finance

OK, let’s get into more details .. The term “business finance” is about goods and products and the business environment related. What concerns us here is the difference between public finance & private ( personal finance ).

Public Finance

Public finance is the science’s part sector that deals with the : Allocation of resources and budgets set for the Government entities & bodies – no privates . This part is about Governmental incomes ( Taxes, Fines , customs, Fees, etc… ) , and how these allocations are sent on the public service and expenses ( salaries, infra structure building, Military affairs, civil affairs – buildings , maintenance , etc… )

Private Finance

The 2^nd part of the finance as science . It consists of two parts :

Business Finance & Personal Finance

Business Finance studies the processes and steps taken to optimise corporates & business organizations’ financial matters. It is related to acquire cash & funding allocations, fund raising, cash & credit operations, managing cash flows, managing liabilities ( debts & obligations on the corporate) , all towards the best ways to maximise the business’s set goals and targets.

Personal finance manages the process of optimizing finances of the persons, families and single humans !!

Personal finance involves financial planning for the person’s income and expenses to reach maximum benefit . That includes salaries, freelancing income, stuff selling , insurance policies ( profits and expenses ), car expenses ( installments, maintenance , all costs related ) , bank loans, mortgages , stock market investments, retirement plans, and the list goes on.

Difference between public & private finance

This table shows a summary of the differences between Public & Private finance. Source .

Going more in details, here is an explanation of the previous table ( some text quoted from the marvelous site DifferenceBetween.Net ..

Income and Expenditure Adjustments in Public and Private Finance ( Vice Versa )

Usually, each Government adjusts its income according to the expenditure budget expected for the coming period ( usually year ). The government first creates an outline for its national expenditure ( to fulfill the social comforts required ), and then plan how to get these amounts from its different income channels ( tax adjustments, fees increases and such ) …

Well, the scenario is reversed in the private sector – the management would adjust their expenses budget based on the expected income during the period – or future estimates..

Private finance involves cutting your coat according to your cloth.

1. Borrowing in Public vs. Private Finance

The government can borrow from the nation or its main institutes ( like Social Security Association, Customs Dept. or others ) . Gov. can simply go back to the people to ask for loans in whichever financial asset it has e.g. bonds.

However, an individual / corporate can’t borrow from itself, and has to go to financial corporates ( Governmental or private ones ) to meet certain conditions and get the loan required.

2. Currency ownership in Public vs. Private Finance

Nation’s currency is the government’s issue, it is – always – in charge of all aspects related to currency, from the creation, printing , distribution and monitoring of use .

No one in the private sector is allowed to create currency, this is illegal and most countries classify it as a capital offense.

3. Present vs. future Income

The public sector is more involved with future planning and making long-term decisions. Decisions that could show results in the long-term, reaching even ten years.

These investments could include building of schools, hospitals , airports, water sewage systems, roads and urbanization .

The private industry makes is financial decisions in shorter times ( based on industry too – like planes make take 10 years planning ) . Usually planning is for the coming two years.

4. Objective Difference in Public and Private Finance

The public sector’s main objective is to create social benefit, economical welfare and stability in the country. Even if that meant occurring losses in certain projects, or not making profits from some as well.

The private industry seeks to maximize profits / gains on the personal and corporate levels.

5. Coercion ( force to Get Revenue )

The government can use force to get revenue from individuals. This could involve the use of law & security forces to collect certain amounts or fight certain frauds.

The private sector however, doesn’t have this authority.

6. Ability to Make Huge and Deliberate Changes

Government bodies, and staff related to the financial sector in, can make huge decisions on income amounts without much consequences from direct controls , since the ultimate result is not about profits but has other sides.

Businesses and individuals can’t change their decisions or face severe consequences immediately as such.

7. Surplus Budget Concept

Excess income or surplus budgets is a great virtue in the private sector, this is however not the case in public finance; the government is expected to only raise what is needed for a fiscal year. Of what use would it be to have surplus budgets?

It would be much easier to offer tax reliefs to the tax-payers so as to off-set the surplus.

Want more resources to learn about finance & economics ? Check these books :

– Economics in One Lesson: The Shortest and Surest Way to Understand Basic Economics

– The Infographic Guide to Personal Finance: A Visual Reference

– Or check this well-chosen list of Finance for Beginners Books @ Amazon.Com Site

Finance As Science

Posted August 1, 2020August 19, 2020
by Imado

This article is about educating you about Personal Finance; What is it? why it is important to our lives? How to improve money management skills in your life, and more .

It is not an easy subject to handle but we will tell you everything you need to know – right here.

So, what is the personal finance as a term ?

It is “the “art” of taking the most-suitable financial ( money-related ) decisions for a person or family ; that includes incomes, budgeting, ways to spend the allocated amounts you have, investments, retirement plans and such ( Source ).

But there are some definitions that we need to explain before talking personal finance, let’s broaden our scope first and learn things like … What is finance ? What is the difference between finance and economics ? Do finance and business mean the same ?

Let’s start digging in depth .

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below are affiliate links and at no additional cost to you, I’ll earn a commission. Know that I only recommend products and services I’ve personally used and stand behind. When you use one of my affiliate links, the company compensates me, which helps me run this blog and keep all of my in-depth content free of charge for readers (like you).

Economics VS Finance

Well, Economics is a social science with a lot of theories and processes in to study, and aspects to review .

It studies the production, consumption and distribution of services or goods and all regulations and processes in between , and their effect on other aspects of people’s lives and manner.

The science of economics tries the general economy works, and how do different economies interact in the world.

The analysis of “The Science of Economics” is applied in various fields, like finance, businesses environments, universe of education, laws and regulations, Gov. institutions and bodies… and all life’s aspects.

That is good to know, now what about Finance as a science ? Well, Finance “in short” concentrates of aspects of : Saving money & lending money” … That is called Fund management science. Consider this – for example – The financial studies are interested, and coordinate the interests of the lenders and borrowers that are doing business in a certain market ( big or small) , while the study of economics is more about the study of the goods & services – which are circulating in the same market.

In short , finance is the science of studying the financial markets , and it is part of that.

Got the main idea now ? Let’s proceed to more categories.

Dividing – Economics VS Finance
* Economics , in general , is divided in two main parts :

Micro Economics
Macro Economics

Finance, generally, is divided between two parts;

– Public finance &

– Personal finance / Private Finance

Example showing public sector’s bodies & segmentation

To clear things more – and to keep your interest ; I expanded the subject further in this article

Combuteri Blog

Month: August 2020