Are you doing these 10 mistakes on Your Facebook Account?

On many occasions, we do certain things wrong, like starting many blogs and maintaining none of them, the same thing applies to our presence on Social media networks like Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, Linkedin etc. Create your presence on these networks if you can maintain that or what you can do is create your account on Facebook only and actively work on that. And in case, you are showing your business or your presence on all of social media websites and actively working on none of them, you are making a mistake. So in today’s post, I’m going to share 10 mistakes that you should avoid while working on your Facebook profile, Group or Fan page:

1. Adding People without any interest

When you are aiming at increasing the number of friends on your Facebook account, don’t start adding people at random. I would suggest adding people who are having same kind of interests like you have or should have some friends in common. And if you try adding too many people to your friends list at time, your account can be permanently removed due to this spammy activities. So think of increasing your friends list gradually.

2. Don’t have Facebook Fan Page

If you are thinking of having strong presence on Facebook for yourself or your business, then having a Fan page is must where you can do lots of interaction with your friends and fans. You can get lots of traffic to your website or blog from your Facebook Fan page if you promote it properly. You can think of running a contest or some freebies kind of activity on your Facebook page to make it more popular and to get some buzz and traffic for your website.

3. Showing content from your website only

Lots of people make the mistake of sharing contents from their websites and blogs only. I would suggest keep on sharing interesting stories from other blogs and websites you visit on regular basis the way I do on my Facebook Fan Page. By sharing interesting and knowledgeable stories from other websites and blogs, you will be providing more variety into the kind of content you provide on your Facebook profile and your fans and friends will surely love this.

4. Posting text media only

On most of the time we make the mistake of posting content in the form of text on our Facebook page, which is wrong. Apart from text, we should share content in the form of videos and pictures on Facebook page. We will be motivating and giving some interesting stuff to our Fans and friends to see our Facebook page on regular basis.

5. No Content from Fans

We need to allow contribution from other people on Facebook in the form of comments, posting interesting stories to use social networks to their fullest. So allow comments coming from your fans and also allow them to share media files they want to share on your Facebook page.

6. No engagement with Fans

Lots of people create Facebook fan page and keep on sharing whatever they like, but never reply to comments and feedbacks coming from their fans. We should reply to all comments coming from our fans and even motivate them to share their favorite stuff on your Facebook page.

7. Not using Facebook applications

Facebook offers lots of applications that we can apply on our Facebook pages to make it more interesting. If you are having a blog, why don’t start showing your content on your Facebook page under notes section by adding your blog RSS feed. Connect your Facebook account with other networks where you are active like Twitter, YouTube, Digg etc. I would suggest running a contest on your Facebook page to make it viral.

8. No Update on Facebook

Lots of people and business create their profile and pages on Facebook after seeing because their friends, competitors or other business doing it. There is nothing wrong in it, actual problem is not updating their Facebook pages even once in a month. This is a really bad habit to have. Create your Facebook page only if you are aiming at updating it once a week at least or even everyday.

9. Not Publicizing they are on Facebook

If you have created a Facebook page, why keeping it at you only. Share it with your friends. If you have a website or blog, share it their. Include it in your email signature, business cards etc. So you should publicize your Facebook page as maximum as you can to make it more popular and to get some real business and Fan page of it.

10. Starting a Facebook group instead of a Page

Lots of business makes the mistake of starting a profile or group to promote their brand instead of a Facebook page. I would suggest using Facebook page as Facebook page is much better than Facebook profile due to the following reasons:

- Facebook page URL is better than group URL

- There is no member limit for a Facebook page, but it’s limited to 5,000 for a Facebook profile

- Facebook applications available for pages and not for groups

And if you want to know more in detail about which is better Facebook Group or Facebook Page, keep on reading this.

http://www.scopeformoney.com/are-you-doing-these-10-mistakes-on-your-facebook-account

10 common spelling mistakes that haunt bloggers

Below you’ll find 10 such mistakes to get you started.

1. accept / except

INCORRECT: Please except this gift.
CORRECT: Please accept this gift.

Except, as a verb, means to exclude or leave out. As a preposition it means “with the exception of.” Accept means “to receive willingly.” For example: We visited every landmark except the Eiffel Tower. The school is accepting only those students who have had their shots; all others are excepted.

2. advice / advise

INCORRECT: He refused to take my advise.
CORRECT: He refused to take my advice.

Advise is a verb. The s has the sound of “z.” Advice is a noun. The c has the sound of “s.”

3. all right / alright

INCORRECT: He’s alright after his fall.
CORRECT: He’s all right after his fall.

Although arguments are advanced for the acceptance of the spelling, alright is still widely regarded as nonstandard. Careful writers avoid it.

4. effect / affect

INCORRECT: His death really effected me.
CORRECT: His death really affected me.

The most common use of effect is as a noun meaning “something produced by a cause.” The most common use of affect is as a transitive verb meaning “to act upon.” For example: The disease had a lasting effect on the child. The family’s lack of money affected his plans.

5. every day / everyday

INCORRECT: Dan walks the dog everyday at six p.m.
CORRECT: Dan walks the dog every day at six p.m.

Everyday is an adjective that means “daily.” Every day is a phrase that combines the adjective every with the noun day. For example: Walking the dog is an everyday occurrence. I practice the flute every day.

6. its / it’s

INCORRECT: Put the saw back in it’s place.
CORRECT: Put the saw back in its place.

It’s is a contraction that represents two words: it is. Its is a one-word third-person singular possessive adjective, like his. For example: The man lost his hat. The dog wagged its tail.

7. passed / past

INCORRECT: The car past the train.
CORRECT: The car passed the train.

Past is used as an adverb of place, or as a preposition. Passed is the past tense of the verb to pass. For example: The past few days have been hectic. The deadline has passed. He passed her the biscuits. The boys ran past the gate. As we stood in the doorway, the cat ran past.

8. quiet / quite

INCORRECT: We spent a quite evening reading.
CORRECT: We spent a quiet evening reading.

Quiet is an adjective meaning “marked by little or no activity.” Quite is an adverb meaning “to a considerable extent.” For example: The children are quite amiable today. Quiet can also be used as a noun. For example: We enjoyed the quiet by the lake. (The suffix “ness” should never be added to the abstract nouns quiet and calm.)

9. then / than

INCORRECT: I have more eggs then you.
CORRECT: I have more eggs than you.

Then is an adverb that indicates time. It can go anywhere in a sentence. For example: The man paused by the door and then entered. Then the noise started. As conjunction or preposition, than will always be followed by a noun or a pronoun. For example: I like Melville better than Hawthorne.

10. who’s / whose

INCORRECT: I don’t know who’s dog you’re talking about.
CORRECT: I don’t know whose dog you’re talking about.

Who’s is the contracted form of “who is.” Whose is the possessive adjective form of who. For example: Who’s your daddy? Whose car are we going in?

http://www.problogger.net/archives/2010/07/24/10-common-spelling-mistakes-that-haunt-bloggers

5 Health Mistakes Dog Owners Make

You want the best for your dog -- your pooch is your best friend, after all. Yet sometimes, pet owners who mean well make serious mistakes, especially when it comes to the health of their dog.

Are you on the right track to keep your dog in top shape? WebMD went to veterinarians to find out the most common health mistakes dog owners make and get their tips on how to avoid them.

Dog Health Mistake 1: Not Getting Preventive Care

Neglecting preventive health care is by far the most common mistake dog owners make, according to the veterinarians we interviewed.

"Taking your dog in to the vet for regular examinations, giving heartworm prevention, and getting your dog the appropriate vaccinations and dewormings can prevent many diseases," says Adrianne Brode, DVM, CCRP, associate medical director at the Canine Health Institute in Houston. For example, heartworm disease can be difficult to treat and ultimately fatal to dogs, but it's easily preventable.

Yearly exams help your vet catch problems early, according to Oregon veterinarian Marla J. McGeorge, DVM. Instead of coping with lengthy treatment of an advanced or chronic condition, your vet can catch issues at their beginning stages, when care may mean cure. And early care saves you money in the long run.

Although annual exams may coincide with needed vaccinations, simply getting your dog vaccinated isn't the same as a full physical exam. Among other things, a comprehensive checkup may include:

·                                 Blood work

·                                 A fecal examination for intestinal parasites

·                                 Examination of a dog’s gums, heart, lungs, teeth, eyes, and ears

Talk to your veterinarian to learn more.

Dog Health Mistake 2: Neglecting Dental Care

Neglecting regular dental care is also common, according to Shawn Messonnier, DVM, author of the Natural Health Bible for Dogs and Cats. Dogs need dental care for the same reason we do: to prevent gum disease.

As on human teeth, plaque forms on a dog's teeth after eating. If left alone, the plaque builds, causing inflammation, decay, and eventually bone and tooth loss. And while this silent war goes on in your dog's mouth, she’s probably experiencing pain you don't notice because dogs, like cats, instinctively hide pain.

Gum disease is actually five times as common in dogs as in people. But it's easy to prevent and to treat with dental care that includes:

·                                 Daily brushings

·                                 Good quality food

·                                 Regular oral X-rays, exams, and cleanings

·                                 Safe, teeth-cleaning treats and chew toys

Dog Health Mistake 3: Overfeeding

If too much love is ever a bad thing, it is when we show it to our canine companions in the form of too many tasty treats.”Rewarding and loving our dogs with food leads to obesity," Brode says. Overweight or obese dogs are at higher risk for arthritis and other orthopaedic issues, as well as other health problems. 

It can be difficult enough to balance our own diets, much less that of our dogs. So talk to your vet, who will help you select a good, high-quality food for your dog and give you tips on exercise and treats. That's right -- you don't have to stop sharing occasional goodies with your pooch, as long as 90% to 95% of your dog's diet is healthy and well balanced.

Dog Health Mistake 4: Sharing Medication

Another dangerous health mistake owners make is giving dogs human medications. "Pain medications like Advil or Tylenol can be very toxic to dogs," Brode tells WebMD. In fact, there is a host of seemingly benign human drugs that can pose grave health risks for pets.

Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen, are the most common cause of pet poisoning in small animals, according to the ASPCA. Even small doses can be toxic. Antidepressants, muscle relaxers, decongestants, vitamin D derivatives, oral diabetes treatments, and other common human drugs can all pose risks to pets, from seizures to coma to death.

Always keep medication secure -- preferably in a high, locked cabinet -- and never discard medication where pets or children can get to it. If you’re worried that your dog may have gobbled up an over-the-counter or prescription pill you dropped -- or worse, taken an entire bottle from the trash -- don't hesitate.

Dog Health Mistake 5: Delaying Critical Care

We often delay medical care for ourselves, waiting for a bump, pain, or rash to go away. So it may seem natural to do the same thing with our dog.

There's a problem with that, however: Dogs don't have the words to let us know exactly what they're feeling. Your canine companion could be in pain, sick, and even gravely ill -- and chances are you wouldn't know it because of dogs’ instinct to hide infirmity.

Don't wait to see if a health problem in your dog gets better on its own. Call your vet if your dog isn't eating or is eating less, vomiting, lethargic, has diarrhea or fever, or just doesn't seem well.

http://pets.webmd.com/features/dog-health-mistakes

5 Mistakes That Weaken Your Writing

I'll be the first to say that being a successful freelance writer requires more marketing and business savvy than writing skill. Writing beautiful, flowing prose won't make you much money unless you know how to market yourself,negotiate fee structuresand contracts, and keep your editors happy. That's why this blog usually focuses on business strategies for freelancers.

However, avoiding common writer's pitfalls certainly helps. Here are several ways in which you may be weakening your writing.

1. Incorrect word usage.
   I see this all the time in blog posts: the writer uses affect when she means effect or whether when she means weather. It's even worse when someone mixes up words that don't sound the same but share a few common letters. Guest blogger Laurie Pawlik-Kienlen wrote a piece oncommonly misused words and phrases. Grammar Girl is another good resource for grammar and usage questions.
2. Poor use of quotes.
   I used to insert lots of quotes into my articles even when it would be simpler to paraphrase the person's insights. But too many quotes can interrupt the flow of your article, so I've since learned to focus on quotes that add color. Usually the writer should summarize background material instead of directly quoting a source for every statement (though you canuse phrases like "According to Jane Smith" or "Smith says that ..." to attribute this background information). Michelle Rafter offers more insights on the correct use of quotes.
3. Lack of sentence variety.
   Are you using the same tired structure for every single sentence? Do you overwhelm the reader with too many long, detailed sentences in a row? Do you see the point I'm trying to make by using a series of rhetorical questions? I bet you do! Now I'm changing things up to show you how much more interesting that is. Although starting a sentence with a dependent clause can sound intelligent, this syntax shouldn't be used too often or it can sound repetitive. Vary your sentence structure. Throw in a short, punchy sentence to break up a series of longer ones. Use rhetorical questions sparingly.
4. Passive voice. 
   I don't agree with everything that English teachers say ("Never use sentence fragments!" "Never end a sentence with a preposition!"), but in most cases, passive voice does complicate and weaken your writing. Why say "this blog was updated by Susan" when you could say "Susan updated her blog"? Grammar Girl offers even more information on thepassive voice.
5. Over-writing. 
   Lively language can keep the reader interested, but over-using alliteration or metaphor or other devices can fall as flat as a day-old pancake at a roadside diner. If a metaphor makes sense and supports the point you're trying to make, go for it! But if you're including a clever aside or an impressive SAT word to show off, that usually detracts from your writing and obscures your message. Ditto on the adverbs and adjectives. Often you can find a more interesting verb or noun to eliminate the need for modifiers.

http://www.urbanmusewriter.com/2010/08/5-mistakes-that-weaken-your-writing.html

Top 10 Internet Marketing Mistakes You MUST Avoid!

What are the top Internet Marketing Mistakes to avoid? Internet marketing gurus can debate all day about what makes an online company so successful. Indeed, many strategies are subjective. There are, however, certain mistakes that we all agree MUST BE AVOIDED!

Instead of banging on all the time about the keys to success! I’m going to tell you how NOT to fail!

Here are the top 10 internet marketing mistakes that you must avoid at all costs:

1. Having a slow-loading website

A web page shouldn’t take anymore than a few seconds to load. If people have to wait for our content to load, they will get aggravated. You definitely don’t want anyone’s first impression of your site to be agitation. Avoid this by ensuring all your images are below 100KB. (Ideally all images totalled should be under 100kb).

Sign up to Amazon S3 and get your videos hosted under cloudfront, after you’ve converted them from large file sizes down to the smallest you can manage without affecting the quality. DO NOT have a website full of flash! It’s not flashy if all your audience sees is a buffering circle – 3 seconds and they’re gone……

2. Having a sloppy, haphazard website

Everything should be organized neatly. Your layout should have easy navigation. All of your pages should be interlinked. If somebody wants to find something on your site, they should be able to do so.

Consider creating a sitemap, not only will it help your ranking in the search engines, it will guide people around your website. Ensure you have a search function and make sure there are clear calls to action, where you want people to go, how they contact you, how they get more information etc.

Sometimes when it comes to design – less is more!

3. Don’t forget to submit your site to search engines

This one seems like a no-brainer, yet a surprisingly large number of webmasters neglect doing this. Take the time to manually submit your website to Google, Yahoo, Bing, MSN, Lycos, etc. (I didn’t do this for months – simply because I didn’t know I had to!)

Get your site out there! It’s no good happily filling it with content if no-one’s going to read it!

4. Failing to update your site or blog every single day

At the very least, you should update three or four times a week. The more original content your website has, the better its chances of ranking high in search engines. Plus, consistent updates show dedication, which will give visitors a reason to return in the future.

Look, people want some real bang for their buck these days. The key word here is VALUE! You need to constantly be giving new, up to date, fresh content to your readers. Remember the web is incredibly competitive these days and if you’ve been really canny they’ve subscribed to your RSS and have a reader of up to date content hitting their screens daily.

Now if Mr Jones is posting new interesting stuff daily and you only come up with something new once a month, it won’t be long before your feed is canned, at the very least completely ignored! This takes work!

5. Not giving Social Networking a try

For so long I tried to ignore Facebook. I didn’t understand it and I thought it was a waste of time! Did you know that facebook has over 500 million customers and over 50% of them are active on a daily basis – that’s 250,000,000 people you could be getting your message in front of! That’s phenomenal! You Tube has 2 BILLION views a day – 24 hrs worth of video is uploaded every minute.

I mean you’d be crazy not to include these in your marketing strategies! Be as creative as possible when making videos, images, content, software, etc. Create great relationships with people and have friends and fans link your content through their accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Digg, and other social bookmarking sites.

Put your videos up on YouTube and have friends give them two thumbs up! Also create a facebook fan page, it’s essential – but I’ll have to cover that in another article!

6. Spamming

There is no need to spam your site all over the internet. If it’s good, and you promote it properly, people will visit. Traffic will come inevitably if you know what you’re doing. Spamming your site and adding your URL in linkfarms could cause your site to be reported to your ISP and banned by all search engines!

If you think that popping onto high ranking blogs and adding a vague comment about nothing and including your link is good marketing, think again. The internet as I said in point 4, is all about value and content. You need to build trust and relationships to be truly successful.

7. Not building a list

Ok, so I’m back again to value and content, building relationships. Are you getting a common theme here? Your list is your business. It’s as simple as that. Without customers there is no business, so you MUST collect email addresses and build a list!

Having a list of customers is the key to success on the internet! You will be able to send out regular updates, newsletters, links to your blog, new videos you do, new information and….once they trust you and know that your main intention is to provide value and things that will help them, you can start to send promotional emails with your products or products you believe in, or create a membership site or run events, there are so many ways you can then go on to make money. But the key is the quality of your relationships with a customer database, in other words your list.

8. Choosing the wrong products to promote

This is very simple – DO NOT SELL RUBBISH PRODUCTS! Just because commission rates are high, or the graphics are fancy, if you start farming out complete tosh to your trusted list, you will soon lose all credibility and no-one will buy from you anymore.

Be selective and become known to only ever recommend products that you have used and proven their worth.

9. Not targeting your ads to the right demographics

I think maybe the title of this one should read, not knowing anything about your customers, because it’s not just about targetting your ads, it’s about targetting all of your marketing efforts, free or paid. Clearly not everybody is going to need what you’re promoting.

So make sure you’ve drilled down exactly who your customers are, sex, age, location, interests, desires, buying patterns, keywords etc. Then you can focus on ensuring you get your message directly under the right noses.

10. Failing to interact and network with others

This is HUGE! No man is an island. The power of collaboration is without doubt one of the most effective marketing strategies you can have. So, you must ACTIVELY promote your company. You need to post on forums, join social media communities, comment on blogs, send out press releases, and so forth.

Get to know consumers and other entrepreneurs. Treat consumers as individuals rather than just potential customers. Join in conversations and share tips with others. Join hands and do some marketing projects with other entrepreneurs in the same niche – 2 heads are always better than 1!

Avoid making these ten mistakes and I’m sure you will ultimately succeed at creating a fantastic internet marketing business!

http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2010/08/top-internet-marketing-mistakes/

6 Food Mistakes Parents Make

HARRIET WOROBEY, a childhood nutrition instructor, knows firsthand that children can be picky eaters, but even she was surprised by a preschooler last year who ate a mostly chocolate diet.

“Chocolate milk, chocolate chip muffins, chocolate chip pancakes — it was unbelievable,” said Ms. Worobey, director of the Rutgers UniversityNutritional Sciences Preschool in New Brunswick, N.J. “His mother just thought, ‘That’s what he wants, so that’s what I’m going to do.’ ”

While most parents haven’t resorted to the chocolate diet, they can relate to the daily challenge of finding foods that children will eat. Although obesity dominates the national discussion on childhood health, many parents are also worried that their child’s preferred diet of nuggets and noodles could lead to a nutritional deficit.

Fussiness about food is a normal part of a child’s development. Young children are naturally neophobic — they have a distrust of the new. Even the most determined parents can be cowed by a child’s resolve to eat nothing rather than try something new. As a result, parents often give in, deciding that a bowl of Cocoa Puffs or a Pop-Tart, while not ideal, must be better than no food at all.

“I think parents feel like it’s their job to just make their children eat something,” Ms. Worobey said. “But it’s really their job to serve a variety of healthy foods and get their children exposed to foods.”

A series of simple meal-time strategies can help even the pickiest eater learn to like a more varied diet. Here’s a look at six common mistakes parents make when feeding their children.

Sending children out of the kitchen With hot stoves, boiling water and sharp knives at hand, it is understandable that parents don’t want children in the kitchen when they’re making dinner. But studies suggest that involving children in meal preparation is an important first step in getting them to try new foods.

Researchers at Teachers College at Columbia Universitystudied how cooking with a child affects the child’s eating habits. In one study, nearly 600 children from kindergarten to sixth grade took part in a nutrition curriculum intended to get them to eat more vegetables and whole grains. Some children, in addition to having lessons about healthful eating, took part in cooking workshops. The researchers found that children who had cooked their own foods were more likely to eat those foods in the cafeteria, and even ask for seconds, than children who had not had the cooking class.

When children are involved in meal preparation, “they come to at least try the food,” said Isobel Contento, professor of nutrition education at Teachers College and a co-author of the study. “Kids don’t usually like radishes, but we found that if kids cut up radishes and put them in the salad, they love the radishes.”

Pressuring them to take a bite Demanding that a child eat at least one bite of everything seems reasonable, but it’s likely to backfire.

Studies show that children react negatively when parents pressure them to eat foods, even if the pressure offers a reward. In one study at Pennsylvania State University, researchers asked children to eat vegetables and drink milk, offering them stickers and television time if they did. Later in the study, the children expressed dislike for the foods they had been rewarded for eating.

“Parents say things like ‘eat your vegetables and you can watch TV,’ but we know that kind of thing doesn’t work either,” said Leann L. Birch, director of Penn State’s childhood obesity research center and a co-author of the study. “In the short run, you might be able to coerce a child to eat, but in the long run, they will be less likely to eat those foods.”

The better approach is to put the food on the table and encourage a child to try it. But don’t complain if she refuses, and don’t offer praise if she tastes it. Just ask her if she wants some more or take seconds yourself, but try to stay neutral.

Keeping ‘good stuff’ out of reach Parents worry that children will binge on treats, so they often put them out of sight or on a high shelf. But a large body of research shows that if a parent restricts a food, children just want it more.

In another Penn State study, researchers experimented to determine whether forbidden foods were more desirable. Children were seated at tables and given unlimited access to plates of apple or peach cookie bars — two foods the youngsters had rated as “just O.K.” in earlier taste tests. With another group, some bars were served on plates, while some were placed in a clear cookie jar in the middle of the table. The children were told that after 10 minutes, they could snack on cookies from the jar.

The researchers found that restricting the cookies had a profound effect: consumption more than tripled compared with when the cookies were served on plates.

Other studies show that children whose food is highly restricted at home are far more likely to binge when they have access to forbidden foods.

The lesson for parents? Don’t bring foods that you feel the need to restrict into the house. Instead, buy healthful snacks and give children free access to the food cabinets.

Dieting in front of your children Kids are tuned into their parents’ eating preferences and are far more likely to try foods if they see their mother or father eating them. A Rutgers study of parent and child food preferences found that preschoolers tended to like or reject the same fruits and vegetables their parents liked or didn’t like. And other research has shown girls are more likely to be picky eaters if their mothers don’t like vegetables.

Given this powerful effect, parents who are trying to lose weight should be aware of how their dieting habits can influence a child’s perceptions about food and healthful eating. In one study of 5-year-old girls, one child noted that dieting involved drinking chocolate milkshakes — her mother was using Slim-Fast drinks. Another child said dieting meant “you fix food but you don’t eat it.”

A 2005 report in the journal Health Psychology found that mothers who were preoccupied with their weight and eating were more likely to restrict foods for their daughters or encourage them to lose weight. Daughters of dieters were also more likely to try diets as well. The problem is, restrictive diets don’t work for most people and often lead tobinge eating and weight gain. By exposing young children to erratic dieting habits, parents may be putting them at risk for eating disorders or a lifetime of chronic dieting. “Most mothers don’t think their kids are soaking up this information, but they are,” Dr. Birch said. “They’re teaching it to their daughters even though it doesn’t work for them.”

Serving boring vegetables Calorie-counting parents often serve plain steamed vegetables, so it’s no wonder children are reluctant to eat them. Nutritionists say parents shouldn’t be afraid to dress up the vegetables. Adding a little butter, ranch dressing, cheese sauce or brown sugar to a vegetable dish can significantly improve its kid appeal. And adding a little fat to vegetables helps unlock their fat-soluble nutrients. The few extra calories you’re adding are a worthwhile tradeoff for the nutritional boost and the chance to introduce a child to a vegetable.

Giving up too soon Ms. Worobey said she has often heard parents say, “My kid would never eat that.” While it may be true right now, she noted that eating preferences often change. So parents should keep preparing a variety of healthful foods and putting them on the table, even if a child refuses to take a bite. In young children, it may take 10 or more attempts over several months to introduce a food.

Sibling dynamics and friendships can also change a child’s eating habits. Dr. Birch of Penn State noted that her first child was always willing to try new foods, but that her second child was not. “Part of it was just him defining his place in the family,” she said. By the age of 10 or 11, he didn’t want to be outdone by his sister and was far more willing to try new foods.

Susan B. Roberts, a Tufts University nutritionist and co-author of the book “Feeding Your Child for Lifelong Health,” suggested a “rule of 15” — putting a food on the table at least 15 times to see if a child will accept it. Once a food is accepted, parents should use “food bridges,” finding similarly colored or flavored foods to expand the variety of foods a child will eat. If a child likes pumpkin pie, for instance, try mashed sweet potatoes and then mashed carrots. If a child loves corn, try mixing in a few peas or carrots. Even if a child picks them out, the exposure to the new food is what counts.

“As parents, you’re going to make decisions as to what you want to serve,” Ms. Worobey said. “But then you just have to relax and realize children are different from day to day.”

http://www.nytimes.com/

Common Mistakes In Forex Trading

Have you ever thought why only 10 per cent of all Forex traders manage to reach success while the rest lose in this business? Below there is a list of most common mistakes:

- A lot of traders look just for quick cash

It is necessary to say that the Forex trading is not another money making technique that will make you a millionaire in some moments. Receiving good results from the Forex trading is quite hard task and requires a lot of patience along with absolute control.

- A lot of Forex traders are searching for perfect solution

A majority of new Forex traders try to determine which Forex trading systems are the best ones. The only answer that could be given is that there is no bets system. If you want to make good money with the Forex trading, you have to understand that this marker is ever changing one, thus it is impossible to have a perfect solution.

- Traders have lack of patience

Today Forex traders go after good practice as they cannot afford missing a good chance. However, it is necessary to understand that in the Forex market golden eggs could bring you a lot of losses. It is necessary to keep in mind that it is better to grow your money safely and steadily.

- Traders are lack of skills on managing money

One of the greatest mistakes that a lot of Forex traders make is forgetting about the risk that is associated with this type of making money. In fact, it is quite hard to understand people who get excited whenever they think how much they could win and completely forget about the fact that they could lose even more. The main rule stays that you have not to invest money that you cannot afford to lose.

- Forex traders are lack of ability to control their emotions

It is necessary to be steady in what you do and stay calm if you meet some losses. You have to understand that losses are integral part of the process in which you learn on how to win. You need to make sure that you clearly understand what is going on and stay away from repeating similar mistakes.

- A lot of new traders are lack of support and mentor

You have to remember that having a mentor could benefit you. having proper support in the first stages of your Forex trading experience could result in less mistakes and better understanding your targets.

- Traders have too high expectations

As a rule, people expect things, but this attitude is not the best one when it comes to the Forex trading. You have to bear in mind that if it would be quite easy, you would not need to read a lot of article about the Forex market.

As in every other niche of our life Forex needs some education.

Surely, you can start forex trading and get quite successful in it. However sooner or later the losses will come. This is when you might think “Why didn’t I start with a nice forex books?”

This does not imply that after reading even the greatest materials you will start closing trading positions with huge income, but this knowledge will save you from many troubles. And even if you make up your mind to get the assistance of a forex managed account service, still you will make a much wiser decision.

And some general tips – today the web technologies give you a truly unique chance to choose what you require at the best terms which are available on the market. Funny, but most of the people don’t use this opportunity. In real life it means that you must use all the tools of today to get the info that you need.

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Common mistakes made when measuring the speed of code

During times I have seen problematic ways how developers measure the speed and performance of their code. There are some easy tricks that help you make your measurements way better and accurate comparing to measurements made not so well. In this posting I will give you some hints how to get more accurate results when measuring the speed of your code.

1. Don’t use Debug configuration

This is one common problems that developers do. They forget to switch configuration to Release and therefore they are measuring the assemblies that are full of debug symbols and debugger interactions.
Code compiled without debug symbols and other debugger stuff works sometimes hundreds of times faster than Debug version of same code. On live environments you must use code compiled with Release configuration. There is no point to measure Debug code because it brings too much noise and you have no idea how debugger and other tools affect the measuring process.

2. Use Stopwatch instead of DateTime.Now

Measuring the speed of code is often done using DateTime.Now values before and after measuring. This is wrong because resulting time contains also time delays when current thread was suspended by operating system by example.
If you want better results then use Stopwatch class. This class is perfect fit for scenario like this. Here is the example.

static void MeasureCalculation()

{

    var watch = new Stopwatch();

    watch.Start();

    // do your calculations here

    watch.Stop();

    Console.WriteLine("Time: " + watch.Elapsed);

}

---

If you want to find out more about internals of Stopwatch class then please read it’s documentation from MSDN Library.

3. Measure only the code you need to measure

To get better results you have to measure only the code you need to measure and nothing else. This is not very uncommon way how some developers write their measuring code.

---

static void MeasureCalculation()

{

    var watch = new Stopwatch();

    watch.Start();

    var inputList = GetInputData();

    RandomizeInputs(inputList);

    // do your calculations here

    inputList.Clear();

    watch.Stop();

    Console.WriteLine("Time: " + watch.Elapsed);

}

---

This is wrong because with calculations we want to measure we also measure how much time it takes to load data, prepare it before calculations and clear the list with input data after measuring is done. These three activities should not be the part of measuring. Let’s write this code the way it should be.

---

static void MeasureCalculation()

{

    var inputList = GetInputData();

    RandomizeInputs(inputList);

    var watch = new Stopwatch();

    watch.Start();

    // do your calculations here

    watch.Stop();

    inputList.Clear();

    Console.WriteLine("Time: " + watch.Elapsed);

}

---

This code measures only the calculation and nothing else.

4. Turn off diagnostic messages while measuring

Before measuring we need to make sure that our code contains only the functionalities that we need to measure. Still developers forget different diagnostic messages there and we cannot be sure in measuring results anymore. Take a look at the following code.

---

static void MeasureCalculation()

{

    var inputList = GetInputData();

    RandomizeInputs(inputList);

    var watch = new Stopwatch();

    watch.Start();

    // Start calculation

    Debug.WriteLine("Initializing data for algorithm");

    // Some more line

    Logger.WriteLine("X(Y, Z)=" + z);

    watch.Stop();

    inputList.Clear();

    Console.WriteLine("Time: " + watch.Elapsed);

}

---

Well… who the hell is Logger and where it writes it’s output? Is it screen, Windows event log, ULS log, some file, database or what? It doesn’t really matter where output goes. The problem is that the output is there and we don’t need it to be there. So, let’s remove all those diagnostic and tracing messages from code we want to measure. And we are back where we were before.

---

static void MeasureCalculation()

{

    var inputList = GetInputData();

    RandomizeInputs(inputList);

    var watch = new Stopwatch();

    watch.Start();

    // Start calculation

    watch.Stop();

    inputList.Clear();

    Console.WriteLine("Time: " + watch.Elapsed);

}

---

Nice and clean code and measuring is focused only to code that does something we need to measure. Besides diagnostic messages you should remove also all other code that is not necessary in the context of code to be measured.

5. Measure more than once and calculate averages

I think you have seen something like this in office or in internet:
Q: “How long it took to run?” 
A: “On my machine it takes about 1.5 seconds to run” 
Q: “1.5 seconds… Is it average or just one run?” 
A: “Just hit F5 and read the result, that’s it”
Well, my question is – what other processes were running on same machine that possibly may affect the results? Okay, there are a lot of processes. Instead of using one measuring round we need to make more runs and take their average. Here is the example.

---

static void MeasureCalculation()

{

    var inputList = GetInputData();

    RandomizeInputs(inputList);

    var watch = new Stopwatch();

    var cycles = Math.Pow(10, 6);

    var times = 0D;

    for (var i = 0; i < cycles; i++)

    {

        watch.Reset();

        watch.Start();

        // Call calculation

        watch.Stop();

        times += watch.ElapsedMilliseconds;

    }

    inputList.Clear();

    Console.WriteLine("Time: " + (times / cycles));

}

---

This code measures quick calculation and we have no problem to make million measuring cycles. When cycles are done we calculate average time that one calculation took. If you want to analyze or process measuring results you can save them after watch is stopped. This way we don’t affect the code to be measured.

Conclusion

Measuring the speed of code is not complex task. There are common mistakes that I listed here and if you avoid these mistakes you get way better and accurate measuring results. It is also possible to use testing frameworks but I focused here on quick and simple measuring method so you get your code measured right there where it is. You don’t have to install any additional tools or spend your time setting up more complex measuring environment. As you saw – measuring the speed of code is not rocket science.




http://weblogs.asp.net/gunnarpeipman/archive/2010/09/09/