How Does Google Make Money? The Most Expensive Keywords in AdWords

How does Google make its money? On the heels of Google's blow-out Q2 2011 earnings announcement last week, we wanted to find out the most expensive keywords - what keywords demand the highest costs per click and are most competitive in terms of high search volume.
Since the vast majority of Google's profits come from AdWords advertising, these high CPC keyword categories are responsible for a large part of Google's profits. The results of our research are illustrated in an infographic of the most expensive keywords. (Click the image to enlarge the google adwords keywords infographic.)

Table of Contents:

• Google CPC
• Expensive Keywords
• Bidding Tips
• Bid Info

The 20 most expensive keywords categories with the highest search volume (i.e. the most used keywords) and highest costs per click, thereby netting Google the most money, are:

1. Insurance (example keywords in this category include "buy car insurance online" and "auto insurance price quotes")
2. Loans (example keywords include "consolidate graduate student loans" and "cheapest homeowner loans")
3. Mortgage (example keywords include “refinanced second mortgages” and “remortgage with bad credit”)
4. Attorney (example keywords include “personal injury attorney” and “dui defense attorney”)
5. Credit (example keywords include “home equity line of credit” and “bad credit home buyer”)
6. Lawyer ("personal  injury lawyer," "criminal defense lawyer)
7. Donate ("car donation centers," "donating a used car")
8. Degree ("criminal justice degrees online," "psychology bachelors degree online")
9. Hosting ("hosting ms exchange," "managed web hosting solution")
10. Claim ("personal injury claim," "accident claims no win no fee")
11. Conference Call ("best conference call service," "conference calls toll free")
12. Trading ("cheap online trading," "stock trades online")
13. Software ("crm software programs," "help desk software cheap")
14. Recovery ("raid server data recovery," "hard drive recovery laptop")
15. Transfer ("zero apr balance transfer," "credit card balance transfer zero interest")
16. Gas/Electricity ("business electricity price comparison," "switch gas and electricity suppliers")
17. Classes ("criminal justice online classes," "online classes business administration")
18. Rehab ("alcohol rehab centers," "crack rehab centers")
19. Treatment ("mesothelioma treatment options," "drug treatment centers")
20. Cord Blood ("cordblood bank," "store umbilical cord blood")

We found that that 97% of Google's revenue comes from advertising on Google sites. In the last four quarters alone (Q3 2010-Q2 2011), Google brought in $32.2 billion in total advertising revenue.

Google CPC: Google's Highest Cost Per Click Keywords

Google AdWords is a dynamic, auction-based marketplace where advertisers bid on keywords to compete for top ad placement. The minimum bid per keyword is 5 cents, but this research shows that in highly competitive categories, Google can make up to $50 per click from PPC keyword bids. Despite a diversified product portfolio, advertising on Google sites accounts for the vast majority of its billions in annual revenue.
The google adword keyword categories with the highest volumes and costs represent businesses with very high lifetime customer value – in other words, these industries can afford to pay a lot to acquire a new customer. These most expensive keywords comprise businesses such as lawsuits, mortgage applications, and server hosting. Some high-volume keyword categories have lower CPCs because advertisers have slimmer margins to expend on PPC advertising.

The Most Expensive Keywords: Survey Methodology

We compiled data from our own trillion-keyword database and the Google Keyword Tool to determine the top 10,000 most expensive English-language keywords over a 90-day period. This keyword list was then organized into categories by theme, such as "Insurance." The largest keyword categories were determined by weighting the number of keywords within each category, as well as the estimated monthly search volume and average cost per click for each keyword.

Tips for Bidding in a Super-Competitive, Expensive Google Adword Key word Niche

If you or your client are struggling to compete in a high-volume, high-CPC keyword category such as the most expensive keywords identified in this study, the PPC best practices are the same as always, except of course, the stakes are 1000x higher if you’re paying on average $50 per click vs. $0.05 per click. Here are a few tips to consider:

• Quality Score: High Quality Scores can help lower your average Google CPC. Tools like the Keyword Niche Finder and Keyword Grouper to break up larger keyword lists into smaller, more targeted lists which will enable you to write more targeted ad text and landing pages which should help improve relevancy and Quality Score.
• Be Specific: Target specific, 3-5 word keywords. Use a keyword tool to generate specific keyword ideas, and use keyword match types to ensure you’re only paying for keywords that are very specific to your business.
• Use Negative Keywords: Use a negative keyword tool to help figure out what kinds of words you’re likely to be matched against and weed out keywords that aren’t relevant to your business.
• Be Relevant
• Landing Page Optimization: The average conversion rate for just about anything on AdWords is around 2%. But we often see landing pages converting at the 20% or even 30% range. The key to landing page optimization is to keep trying out different types of offers and testing how people respond to them.
• Grade Your AdWords Account For Free: Use the AdWords Grader to get a free, instant audit of your AdWords Account to see how your AdWords account stacks up to the competition.

More AdWords PPC Keyword Bid Info

Visit the "Where's Google Making Its Money?" infographic for the full list of the top 20 most expensive Google CPC keyword categories and to embed the graphic on your own site.
Update (July 22, 2011): Check out the follow-up article to this study: Where's Mesothelioma, What Is Cord Blood & Other FAQs About Our Most Expensive Keywords Study.
Update (July 27, 2011): Click here to download a PDF version of this infographic.

             

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Best Screenshot Apps for Android

The two-button combo for screenshots is easy but what if our smartphone has a fragile lock or volume button, we wouldn’t want the buttons to break, would we? Along with that, we sometimes need editing tools for doodling, arrows, boxes etc.. to point out something in screenshots before we can post them on social networks. There are a number of screenshot apps on the Google Play Store that not only allow you to take screenshots with ease, they also bring some cool additional features.
We tried many apps on the Play Store and here are the best screenshot apps for Android (in no particular order):
Note: Most of the screenshot apps on Android come with various triggers to take screenshots. Not every trigger will work on all smartphones due to access or hardware limitations. 

Best Screenshot Apps for Android

Screenshot Easy

Screenshot Easy is a very popular Android app for taking screenshots with ease. The app has a very simple UI, which works well with Android’s Material Design UI guidelines. There are various triggers in the app, which lets you take a screenshot. You can choose to take a screenshot through an overlay button, which keeps floating or using a button in the notification center or by shaking your device. The app also lets you set your hardware camera button to take screenshots and that’s if your smartphone has a hardware camera button. If the app is running in the background and you take a screenshot the conventional way, it detects that and opens the screenshot in the app for your editing needs.

 

When it comes to the editing features, it lets you crop your screenshots, ZIP it or print it. You can also change existing colors in a screenshot to the one you like. There are options to show date & time on screenshots and save the images in PNG or JPG format. Other features of the app include themes, support for locale & tasker plugins. Moreover, the app is available for free on the Play Store.
Install: (Free)
Compatibility: Android 4.0 and up.

Screenshot Ultimate

Screenshot Ultimate is not the best looking Android app out there but if you want a ton of features in a screenshot app, Screenshot Ultimate won’t disappoint you. It has the most number of triggers to take a screenshot and you might find some of them to be really convoluted. You can take screenshots through an overlay button, notification bar button, shaking your device, power connect/disconnect and more. There are advanced triggers like audio trigger (blow into your device’s mic to take screenshot), interval (set time period to automatically take screenshots), cronjob (set when to take a screenshot in a specific app), proximity (put finger on proximity sensor to take screenshots), intent (tasker & locale support) and more.



Along with the various triggers, the app lets you make adjustments to your screenshots, change formats and more. There are also editing features like draw, crop, add text, rotate, mirror, effects and more. It also lets you share images directly to Imgur. The good news is Screenshot Ultimate is available for free on the Play Store.
Install: (Free)
Compatibility: Android 2.1 and up.

Screenshot Snap

While the Screenshot Snap app doesn’t really bring any intuitive methods to take a screenshot, it makes up with its diverse editing features. The app detects a screenshot being taken and loads it up on the app. You can then edit the screenshot on the go and share it quickly. You can doodle on an image with the pencil or paintbrush tool and you can also insert arrows, boxes, text and more.



The app brings you the option to save images in PNG or JPG, increase or decrease image quality. Screenshot Snap is available in a free version but it is limited when it comes to features and the ads can be a little annoying. The paid version of the app brings some cool stamps, blur tool, cloud uploading and removes ads.
Install: (Free, Paid $0.99)
Compatibility: Android 4.0 and up.

Perfect Screen Shot

Perfect Screen Shot is another cool screenshot app, which stands out due to its unique features. The app feels smooth in operation and it embodies Android’s Material Design UI, if that’s a deal breaker for you. While the app does not take screenshots for you, it detects when one is taken and opens the app with the screenshot right in front. It lets you frame your screenshots inside a device’s frame and you can edit the colors, background and more. There are various options to edit the frames and you can add glare, shadows & blur to the images. You can get frames of various devices ranging from Nexus devices such as Nexus 6P, Nexus 5X to Galaxy S6 Edge, One M9, Moto G and more.



The free “Classic” version of the app is pretty limited when it comes to the number of frames and editing features. The paid “Ultra” version brings you 3D frames, various editing options like background color, custom background images, optional blur and more.  You can also choose to edit your screenshots without a frame, if frames are not really your thing. The app also lets you import screenshots from any cloud storage services that you use like Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox etc.. To sum it up, Perfect Screen Shot is a cooler way to share screenshots and those screenshots certainly do look better inside a device frame.
Install: (Free Classic, Paid Ultra $1.99)
Compatibility: Android 4.0.3 and up.

Capture Screenshot

Capture Screenshot is very similar to Screenshot Easy but Capture Screenshot is a great screenshot app in its own right. The app is fast and is designed beautifully, so full marks to the developers on that front. It brings you various triggers like overlay button, notification shade button and shake to capture. Once you click the “Start Service” button, the app starts running in the background and detects whatever screenshots you take.



Once a screenshot is taken, Capture Screenshot lets you crop, draw, rotate, invert, add text and more. It also brings a number of filters like Boost, Grayscale, Gamma, Hue, Vignette etc.. There’s ability to save screenshots in PNG or JPG image formats. Along with that, the app brings you themes and you can choose the color you like for the app to give it a personalized look. While the free version of Capture Screenshot packs in most of the features, the “Pro” version removes ads and brings more filters.
Install (Free, Pro version $3)
Compatibility: Android 2.3 and up.

             

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Websites to Download Creative Commons Music For Free

If you’ve wondered where many of those YouTube videos get their background music from, you’ve come to the right place. Music with Creative Commons licenses are music compositions written, produced and shared by people who do not charge anything when you use their music for your own use, commercially or non-commercially.

Basically, they make the music and keep ownership and copyright of it and you get the permission to use it for your videos, film or small multimedia productions, as long as you credit the creator properly.

There are many sites out there that house music with Creative Commons licenses, sites where you can download music for free (and legally). These sites make it very easy for you to use, all you have to do is pick an audio clip you like and save it as an MP3, and there you have it, your free music download.

Jamendo

Jamendo has more than 350,000 audio files on their database, which includes music in a few different languages and from different countries. Its advanced search will help you narrow down what you’re looking for on their large database.

There is also a ‘Radio’ option where you can listen to music like on a radio channel based on genre. By registering and logging in, you can save personal favourites to your account.

Freesound

Freesound is a collaborative database for Creative Commons Licensed sounds. This database here is filled with sound effect such as ambient noises, synthesized sounds and sounds produced by musical instruments.

Browse, download and share sounds on Freesound; you can also upload your own audio clips to their database after registering for an account on the website.

ccMixter

Music on this site can be downloaded and shared with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Clips here focus on instrumental samples that are mainly used for remixes on DJ music. There is a wide variety of samples to choose from, which can be sorted by tags that describe the audio clips.

Kompoz

Kompoz is an online community that prides in collaboration between artists from all over the world. Artists post their clips on the website where anyone can download it and use it for their own productions. They can also add their own instruments or creative mix to the original clip and upload it on the website again.

As more people collaborate on the original clip and the clips after that, it will eventually become a creative collaboration of multiple musicians.

SoundCloud

SoundCloud is a very popular website where famous artists share their new tracks to the world. There is a section under Creative Commons license where you can download other people’s tracks. You can stream the available clips and it takes just a simple click to get the MP3 file without any registration.

Note that some tracks however require you to ‘Like’ their Facebook page before you can download their clips.

BeatPick

On BeatPick, you have a music player kind of interface where you can listen to any song on a list. To download any song from the website, you’ll have to register for an acoount. Most of the clips are instrumental, with very little vocal input.

The clips also come with descriptions of what it sounds like, which can be useful to match to whatever the theme your clip is.

Restorm

This is a website mostly used by indie artists who want a platform to sell their music to the public and have their works licensed under their name. You too can do the same, or download some of their free selection of music just by creating an account.

The full songs available on the website can be streamed to help you decide if you want to download it. Some of the artists also have songs in their native language not just English.

Musopen

Musopen is a website where you can find free music from individual instruments in an orchestra: violins, cellos, violas, etc as well as a combination of instruments. It caters to the genre of quieter music like classical music or jazz.. Best of all, you can also download sheet music.

You can also browse music by sorting it by composer, instrument and even the period of time the music clip resembles.

Vimeo

You might recognize Vimeo as a place only for videos, but it also offers free music which you can use as long as you give credit to the original artist. After clicking download, your download will start and a pop-up window will appear with the details of the clip’s title, artist and website.

For example, when using a music for a YouTube video, you would use those details and place it at the credits of your video or video description.

ArtistServer

ArtistServer has over 11,000 MP3 downloads by more than 10,000 artists and you can be one of those artists too when you sign up with them. They have clips of many genres for you to choose from which you can download for free.

It is also possible to preview the entire clip before making your selection and downloading it.

Audiofarm

Audiofarm has a wide selection of genres to choose from, uploaded by ordinary people who want to share their music. You can easily download any song you like by clicking the download link – no registration needed.

The full song can even be played while browsing for one that fits your needs. By registering, you can upload music for other people to download.

iBeat

If you’re a DJ or anyone else looking for some free beats and loops, iBeat has a wide database of clips which are free under Creative Commons licensing. The beats available come in a variety of genres such as rock beats, hip hop beats and even acoustic or electronic beats. No registration required.

CCTrax

CCTrax is a directory of free music. It has a database of Creative Commons license music for music lovers. Plenty of awesome sound track albums are available for free download here, like Alexander Saykov, Baumfreun, Stiver and more.

JewelBeat

On JewelBeat, you search through free background music and sound effects with keywords. These free background music clips can be used for whatever video production you are making. The audio clips here are mostly instrumental and consist of short loops. Besides the free selection, there is also a $0.99 selection that you can choose from.

Audionautix

Clips found on Audionautix are released under Creative Commons license 3.0 – you can use the audio clips available even for commercial purposes so long as you credit the Audionautix website. Clips are named to what the artist feels it should resemble; you can preview the clip by clicking it and if you like it, right click the clip and select ‘save target/link as’ to save it to your desktop.

FMA

FMA stands for Free Music Archive which has a wide selectionof high-quality, legal audio downloads. It works like a music station where you browse for clips and if you like the clip, you can add it to your music player. You also can opt to download the full clip. You can use the music player and download the clips without registering for an account.

Purple Planet

Purple planet is the creation of two people, Chris Martyn and Geoff Harvey, who let you use their music for free. You can use any of their audio clips on online videos so long as you link to their website at the description of the video. Their style of music falls under effects that accompany a horror, dramatic or mysterious scene.

Incompetech

Incompetech hosts a wide variety of royalty free music. You can browse their selection by genre or feel. "Feel" would include things like: Action, Relaxed, Intense or Humorous; you can select a combination of ‘Feels’ and it will check its database for selection matches. Clips can be played on the website and instantly downloaded as well.

Bump Foot

Bump Foot originates from Japan and focuses mostly on techno, trance beats and electronic dance music. You can download the files and use it for your own non-commercial work as long as you give attribution to them or the featured artist.

There is no way to stream music as there are only download links avalable on the site. You don’t need to register for an account to start downloading.

More

1. CASH Music – CASH Music is a non-profit organization that hosts digital tools for musicians and labels to share their music. The digital tool allows for uploads and downloads of songs and sharing is made easy.
2. Josh Woodward – This work of a single person, this site features more than 180 songs that are free for download, sharing and use. Do give this generous man attribution if you use his clips in your productions.
3. PacDV – This is a small database of free audio clips organised by mood or emotion such as: Warm, Loving, Serious or Lonely.
4. SampleSwap – SampleSwap is also a forum for other musicians. When a clip is uploaded, the floor is upon for discussion about the clip, as well as a free download.
5. DanoSongs – This is also a one-man wonder site. You get to use his wide variety of self-made clips, arranged by genre such as soundtrack, pop/rock band and even techno/electric.
6. Public Domain 4U – This website has a wide selection of genres of free music you can download. The genre leads to another website which houses the album and description of the album. You can download your tracks there without registration.
7. Orphan Songs – This website is created by Carl-Otto Johansson who is a musician who writes and records his own music. He uploads his two albums and a few tracks licensed under Creative Commons for public use.
8. Sonnyboo – To use songs from this website, you have to credit the owner and writer of the songs, Peter John Ross. The song selection he has ranges from Jazz to

             

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10 Lists to Keep If I Want to Be Successful

The human mind is truly incredible, and we should all strive towards creating a tenacious memory we can rely on. Many lucrative professions or hobbies require such a trait—actors, musicians, artists and entertainers in general do countless drills, just so the required information can be embedded in the memory with certainty. Clearly numerous doors that lead to a successful future are unlocked if one has a great memory. Although beneficial, it is not an essential ingredient within the success formula—what you lack in memory can always be compensated with diligence.

Keeping track of crucial elements in your life through list-making is still an unrivaled tactic for counterbalancing feeble recollection. By utilizing constant reminders, we can have significantly greater organization, we won’t be under the impression we have forgotten something, and we will have a clear insight into which task has a stamp of immediacy attached to it. Here are ten suggested lists that warrant implementation, in order to track achievements and nurture ambition.

1. List of Goals

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”
—Zig Ziglar

Goals and ambition is what drives us and motivates us, but we need to ask ourselves what is it that we want in order to feel truly accomplished. Your list of goals should consists of all the items that you deem are necessary to truly respect yourself. It can be financial stability, a place you can call your own, starting your family, being independent, etc. People have different criteria when it comes to goals, and this list in particular is ever-growing; it changes as you mature, but it always feels great when you cross something out of it. Without such a list, you lose direction of where your life is heading, and we all need some inner guidance to focus on—a good reason to get up in the morning.

2. List of Tasks

“Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.”
—Theodore Isaac Rubin

Tasks are actually milestones on the road to goal completion, and these lists have a tendency to become quite copious. New tasks emerge on a daily basis, regardless of whether you are an employee, a student, or a freelancer. Despite the fact that they are arduous, we always have some sense of achievement once the task is complete, or when a certain problem is solved. By avoiding to make such lists and lists of our daily tasks, they’ll simply pile up and eventually become a hindrance.

In the event you have larger tasks that need more than a day, a week or a month before they can be completed, then break those tasks into smaller daily assignments, and put them on the list as well. As long as you monitor larger tasks while completing minor daily milestones, you will have a greater grip on progression and continuous source of motivation. List and sticky notes are actually quite potent tools for increase in productivity, especially while we are working from home.

Lastly, it is worth mentioning that you should also have a list of personal tasks, or tasks you do for the sake of self-fulfillment. These are related to your personal goals, and governing passions—writing a book, painting, crafting etc. These tasks will define you and offer a much greater sense of achievement, so give it your all to create something you can be proud of.

3. List of Contacts

“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
—Aristotle

It would be delusional to assume you can make it all on your own; however, at the same time, a flawed partnership can result in disastrous outcome as well. It is extremely difficult to find compatible allies and contacts, since friends and family—in other words, people close to you—may not be the best choice for a business partner. If you want to enter into a partnership with someone, make sure the person shares the same vision. Tread lightly and try to ascertain your potential partner’s level of reliability.

Throughout life, we come across skillful, capable and talented people, whose competence might be needed in the future, depending on your line of work of course. Do not be hesitant to offer a helping hand when they are in need, since you can gain a valuable contact. The point being: make a special list of all important contacts, like reliable programmers, handymen, lawyers, etc. Remember not to only reach out when you are in need. You need to maintain a healthy and natural relationship and be there for those people if they require your assistance. Truth be told, it can be arduous to forge strong friendship bonds, but having important acquaintances and becoming an important acquaintance is very much possible.

Without such a list, you are leaving yourself vulnerable to possible future complications; moreover, make sure this list is well-kept since once you lose a contact like this one, it can be somewhat troublesome to recover such data. Just be sure you have recovery data tools at your disposal to mitigate the damage if something were to happen to your phone.

4. List of Expenses

“A wise person should have money in their head, but not in their heart.”
—Jonathan Swift

This may be a quite mundane piece of advice, yet it is very often neglected. As we all know, there are two types of expenses: those that are necessary, (bills, taxes, food) and those expenditures used for indulging some personal cravings. There is a degree of restraint that the majority of us lack in order to approach the matter with a satisfying level of prudence. To say it bluntly, we treat our wants like our needs, and necessities and primary obligations are pushed in the background. Of course, this may sound a bit exaggerated, but the truth is the pressure of a consumer’s culture eventually becomes overwhelming, resulting in a purchase we shouldn’t be able to afford at the time. This kind of behavior can be avoided by utilizing lists, and turning them into an omnipresent reminder of what is truly important.

By making lists of all the monthly expenses we are obligated to pay, we’ll have a clear overview with how much resources are there at our disposal. On the other hand, without this list filled with meticulous calculations, we are prone to believing that we have more freedom to engage in a shopping spree, ultimately causing our bills to pile up; thus, we end up a step closer to a financial suicide. Handling finances properly, or the fact that we prioritize the costs of living, is a responsibility that signifies maturity. Success is commonly measured by the amount of wealth and without adequate spending tactics, you prevent its accumulation.

5. List of Useful Tools

“If you’re the type of person who has to fulfill your dreams, you’ve got to be resourceful to make sure you can do it.”
—Vin Diesel

Today’s society vastly depends on the use of technology—we exchange information, conduct calculations, measure time, etc. This level of reliability also suggests liability. If something were to happen to our cell phone or personal computer, it would be a sizable setback that could harm our capabilities severely. As mentioned, losing contacts can truly be troublesome. It is even worse however, to have your life’s work lost and compromised.

Useful tools are not only limited to recovering damage; they also encompass tools that make your job easier. With efficiency and a greater level of competence, you are a step closer toward success. Using the right apps and tools can make up for our lack of skills in a particular area, or simply help us manage our work in a more timely manner. Keeping a list of useful tools will come in handy whenever you are faced with more common problems, like finding a good restaurant for a business dinner, driving through unfamiliar terrain, task management, learning, and there are even tools capable of helping you recover stolen property.

Even though the list is not as crucial as the ones mentioned so far, it is undeniable that having it can save you a lot of time if the need for it ever arises. The Internet is a vast sea of both useful and useless tools, and by filtering out those that are irrelevant, you won’t have to conduct countless searches when you are in need of adequate tools for problem solving.

6. List of Self Improvements

“The minute that you’re not learning I believe you’re dead.”
—Jack Nicholson

Reasonable to assume this one is unavoidable, and it always deserves to be mentioned. It is safe to assume we are all aware of our shortcomings; if not all of them at least some of them. Think about yourself, make a list of all the things you would like to improve or change, then consider how to implement those changes. Despite the fact that those who are close to you do not pressure you into changing or improving, you should always make constant endeavours to do so, for your own sake.

The list of improvements should consist of physical changes, changes spiritual in nature, abandoning bad habits etc. No one expects you to change entirely in a short time period, but making a decision to change one thing on a yearly basis is a viable resolution, quite easy to execute. The list is there simply to remind you which improvement to prioritize, and build up your confidence after each completion. Refusing to change can either result in lack of confidence and depression, or becoming an overconfident and self-absorbed person that no one will tolerate for long; both of these traits are contradictory to your quest for a successful future.

7. List of Creative Ideas

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.”
—Waldo Emerson

Throughout history, people who made the most significant impact on the world were those with a revolutionary way of thinking, those who dared to challenge the established order and alter the status quo. For an idea to be classified as creative, it needs to be new, it needs to make sense, and it needs to have some sort of use. For example, creating something to help the disabled communicate online, or simply type—that way, people who have lost their limbs could blog or become creative writers, and show the world a piece of their mind. Thus a keyboard in a form of braces could enable them to type using their tongue; however I am not an engineer, so I do not know whether something like this is possible.

Whenever a new idea comes to your mind write it down, then browse the web to see if you indeed have stumbled upon something ground-breaking. Once your list has grown, then you need to start pondering on the subject to see whether it holds closer scrutiny. Ask for a second opinion and see what you would need to realize your idea. In a majority of cases, this is how successful people are created. Rest assured that it is very possible that people won’t be impressed with your creativity as much as you are, but do not allow yourself to be discouraged—after all, perseverance has a crucial role in a career as well. Monitoring your thoughts incites productive thinking and hones your focus; it keeps our mind occupied. Letting your good ideas slide is only a wasted potential that will put your progress in a halt.

8. List of Future Plans

“The future is uncertain but the end is always near.”
―Jim Morrison

We have all heard statements like “Tomorrow is a mystery,” “Live for today,” and “You can’t affect the future.” Personally, I heavily disagree with such a point of view. Although I do agree that, in particular circumstances, making plans for the future is doing Sisyphus work, not planning it at all seems utterly mortifying. I also believe that everyone makes some sort of plan; the problem is this fear of uncertainty that thwarts our will to act.

To make your resolve more adamant, compile a list of your future plans, see what you need in order to make them come true. This one is very similar to the first list—the one with goals; the difference is, it does not have to involve your personal future. Rather, it is list of upcoming important events, important changes in law, or upcoming trends, useful software, etc. It will keep you well-informed and prepared, since staying updated and relevant are essential virtues for lucrative businessmen.

9. List of Contingency Plans

“You pray for rain, you gotta deal with the mud too. That’s a part of it.”
—Denzel Washington

Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, meaning there is nothing you can do without consequences. Every attempt to be more successful usually has a set of barriers attached to it, or risks. Even though risks are inevitable, being prepared for the aftermath is always a good and necessary thing. When you plan your business incentives, or when you plan to invest in something, make sure you compose a thorough pros and cons list, as well as a list of possible negative scenarios. In the event that positive aspects outweigh the negative ones, you can be more encouraged to proceed further.

Make an effort to be constantly prepared for the backlash of major initiatives, and contain the possible damage. The lack of contingency implies recklessness, and it was adamantly made clear how this approach contradicts advancement. Make leaps of faith only when you have no other options to explore.

10. Bucket List

“The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and for deeds left undone.”
—Harriet Beecher Stowe

Finally, learn to live for the sake of experiencing what life has to offer. It is invigorating, to say the least, and it keeps your regrets at minimum. One of the reasons why we want to be successful is to actually fulfil our dreams or complete our bucket list, to look back on our life during old age with a warm smile rather than a frown. Feel free to put even the impossible things on your bucket list, and find the next best thing using your creativity. Whenever you reach a rough patch in your life, take a look at you bucket list and see what is the most plausible thing to do in order to restore your will power and keep going.

             

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Best Free Photo Editing Software Programs

Adobe Photoshop, no doubt is the most powerful and advanced photo editingsoftware application but, not everyone is familiar with it and there are always alternatives so, here we have listed the best free photo editing software programs that fulfil the need of photo processing, but they can not be compared with Adobe Photoshop, though they are good for most of the photo editing tasks that Photoshop can do.

Here are some feature rich free photo editing software programs that are capable of making your photos look better and retouch them with cool effects.

GIMP (www.gimp.org)

GIMP is a powerful GNU based image manipulation program. It is capable of retouching photos with expert quality tools. Gimp interface is modulized into a so called docks, and allow you to stack them into tabs and keep each tool open in their own window like Adobe Photoshop. Some of the handy features Gimp packed with are fix perspective distortion, lens barrel distortion and vignetting, channel mixer, new healing tool with perspective clone tool. Gimp also support various input devices and large number of file formats and you can extend it using GIMP’s plug-ins.Gimp is available to all operating system – Windows, Mac, Linux and few other open source OS.

Paint.NET

No doubt paint.net is a award winning free image and photos editing software for Windows operating system. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects and other various powerful tools. At the online forum you can get the support and plug-ins which helps extend the features on paint.net.

Photoscape (www.photoscape.org)

Photoscape lets you enhance photos in a fun and easy way. Photoscape has some nice features with various editing options, combine multiple images, animated GIF, print photos, splitter, color picker, rename photos in batch mode, raw converter, face search to find similar faces on internetand much more. Photoscape is available only to Microsoft Windows.

PhotoPad Photo Editor (www.nchsoftware.com/photoeditor/index.html)

PhotoPad is a simple, clean and easy to use photo editor. It is bundled with some great features like photo effects such as sepia tones, grascalle, vibnette, local blur and more, filter effects, removing red-eye and blemished, create collages and photos mosaics, direct upload to Facebook or Flickr, create video slideshowsand other great features. PhotoPad is available for Windows and Mac platforms.

PhotoPlus (www.serif.com/free-photo-editing-software)

Using PhotoPlus is a simple and effective way to enhance images. It contains the tools to straighten and crop photos, repair old photos, red eye removal, smooth skin, remove unwanted objects from pictures, adjust levels curves, brightness, contrast, paint, blendand more.PhotoPlus is available for Windows operating system only.

GIMPSHOP (www.gimpshop.com)

GIMPSHOP is a great alternative to Photoshop. You can feel the Photoshop performance and features by using GIMPSHOP and it is completely free open source GNU image manipulation program. For sure you’ll be addicted to this after first use. It is packed with all the powerful tools that you can expect from an image editing software. GIMPSHOP is available for Windows and Mac operating systems.

INKSCAPE (inkscape.org)

Inkscape is a powerful open source vector graphics editor similar to Illustrator and CorelDraw. If you are missing vector support of Photoshop then for sure Inkscape is the best vector graphics software. Inkscape is available for all platforms.

 Seashore (seashore.sourceforge.net/The_Seashore_Project/Download.html)

Seashore is a basic image editor for Mac OS X only. It’s open source image editor with some basic features of gradients, textures and anti-aliasing for both text and brush strokes. However, it is not feature rich photo editor like GIMP but, fulfil the need of basic image editing.

PhotoFiltre (photofiltre.free.fr/frames_en.htm)

PhotoFiltre make it easy to edit and apply effects and filters to your photos. It is a simple, easy-to-use free photo editing software program.

Photo Pos Pro (www.photopos.com/Photo-Pos-Pro-Free-Photo-Editor.asp)

Photo Pos pro offers you most of the photo editing tools to enhance and manipulate your digital photos the way you want. You can apply various effects using different selection tools in a full screen user interface. It supports graphics tools, special effects, different selection tools, layers support, script tools, batch operations and lots more.

             

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Best Free Cloud Storage Services to Safe and Secure Your Data

Cloud storage let you access your photos, videos, documents and other important information anywhere and anytime, and also keep your data safe and secure from local hardware damages or other form of data losses you may encounter and to protect your digital data cloud storage services provides free online storage where you can easily store and share your personal files.

Cloud storage provides an easy solution to email attachments where you can just share a file or folder link with access level rather than attaching the files, you can collaborate in a group to share work, view, edit and upload files and share thoughts on group projects.

Cloud storage becoming more and more popular day by day because of safe, secure and reliable anywhere access of files, photos, videos and important documents and lots of sharing options which is a another plus point to any cloud storage.

And, to keep in view all these features we have reviewed and listed the top 5 best free cloud services for you.

  

Google Drive

Google Drive offers you a decent deal of pay as you grow and you get 15 GB of free storage. You’ll have to pay additional fee if use more than 15 GB free storage. In an easy to use interface you can even directly drag or upload folder from your local storage using Chrome browser or installing a Java-Based Folder Upload applet to upload folders from any other browser.

Installing Google Drive for PC or MAC let you easily sync files shared in your My Drive folder. Anything you edit, modify, add or remove will be reflected in your Google Drive account and vice versa.

You can change sharing settings to allow your friends and colleagues to access your uploaded files and  you can also have the option to share your files with whom you want to share with choice of access level you set by which you can share documents with your friends and colleagues without sending email attachments.

You can make any file, document or folder private, share with a link, make it public on web and set access level to any group or individual you want.

FREE STORAGE: 15 GB

FEATURES: Pay as you use in addition to free storage, Upload folders, Google Drive for MAC/PC, Auto sync, File sharing with access level, Share files with a link or make It public on Web

Dropbox

Dropbox is one of the largest cloud storage providers and offers great list of services and features.

Though there’re endless opportunities of features a cloud storage could provide but not all can be provided with the start and Dropbox still offers great list of features a cloud storage should offer. Dropbox offers 2 GB free storage which you can increase upto 16 GB with their referral program.

Dropbox works on almost all platforms; Windows, MAC, Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Linux so, it let you access your files on device you’re accessible to anywhere anytime. Auto sync feature make it feel like the whole system is just one drive whether you have a connection on not you can access files anytime becauseDropbox updates only changes to files rather than transferring the whole thing.

Inviting and sharing with friends and colleagues is the common feature in all cloud storage services and Dropbox also let you invite people to folder, share link and create photo galleries viewable to anyone you choose.

And, if by chance you accidently deleted any file or folder then you can restore your data within a month you have deleted that, because Dropbox keeps one month history of you work.

FREE STORAGE: 2 GB (initially)

FEATURES: Increase free storage upto 16 GB, Auto sync, Work offline, Folder invite, Social sharing, Backup deleted files within a month

Apple iCloud

iCloud is the cloud service provided by Apple which works with MAC, iOS devices as well as PCs. iCloud is more than just a cloud storage, you can auto sync music, pictures, contacts and other files from your MAC and iOS devices using iTunes Match.

If you’re a music lover then iCloud offers you to store and stream music right from iCloud, you can store your entire collection of photos and music in iCloud and it acts as media server for your iOS devices.

iCloud provides 5 GB of free storage in addition to it 10 GB for $20 per year, 20 GB for $40 per year and 50 GB for $100 per year.

FREE STORAGE: 5 GB

FEATURES: Available on MACs, iOS devices and PCs, Create music library from iTunes, Stream music, Attractive paid plans

Box

Box is a popular cloud storage service but unlike Google Drive where you can upload a file upto size of 1 TB Dropbox limits file size upto 5 GB and 250 MB under Personal Free plan. Instead Box provides great customer support and higher level of services for personal (Free), Business and Enterprise IT plans.

What you get in Personal Free account is 10 GB free cloud storage, quickly share large files and folders and easily embed files in your website. More on you can access your files on any device; desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet, Box is available on both iPhone and Android for on the go access to files.

Box provides an online collaboration platform where in a group anyone whom you invite can view, edit, upload, comment and assign work in a shared folder which make it easy to work on a project no matter from where you’re participating in.

An added feature in Box is their real time update system where you’ll get email notifications for everything you’re involved in at Box platform.

FREE STORAGE: 10 GB

FEATURES: Quick sharing options, Collaboration platform, Real time notofications on activities

Microsoft OneDrive (SkyDrive)

OneDrive offers you 7 GB of free space when you signup and you can get additional free 8 GB storage if you activate camera roll backup which save your photos automatically to your OneDrive and 5 GB if you refer someone to OneDrive, with asum up you get 15 GB free space for your photos, videos, documents and more.

OneDrive is available to install on Windows, MAC, Android, Windows Phone and iOS devices by which your files automatically sync to your OneDrive account.

You can view, edit and save documents in OneDrive from you Office 2013 applications and if you have not installed Office 2013 then you can still access your office documents within your browser using Office Online and collaborate in group projects with your friends and colleagues.

You can easily create word documents, excel workbooks, powerpoint presentations and more, share you photos, create slide shows, send a link to someone or embed anywhere from just one place, OneDrive.

FREE STORAGE: 7 GB (initially)

FEATURES: 8 GB additional free storage, View, edit and save OneDrive files in Office 2013, Office Online, Create Office documents online.

However these are the best cloud storage services which provides free as well paid online storage options, but there are other more or less known cloud storage providers, let us know which one you’re using and what you like or dislike about specific one by leaving a comment.

             

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