1) Squats
Squats are one of the best exercises you can do for your hips, butt and thighs. There are many different types of squats, including the Chair Squat pictured here. Stand with feet hip-width apart and squat, keeping back straight, abs in and knees behind your toes. Let your butt lightly touch chair and squeeze butt to stand up. Repeat for 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps and add weights for more intensity.

2) Lunge
This lunge will really challenge you since you will use the standing leg for balance. Stand with left foot resting on a paper plate. Bend the right leg while sliding the left foot back into a lunge position, keeping the right knee behind the toe, torso upright and abs in. Slowly slide left foot back to starting position and repeat 8-12 times. Switch legs and repeat on each leg for 2-3 sets.

3) Hip Extension
Feel the burn in your hamstrings and glutes with this exercise. On a step or platform, lie facedown with hips on the edge of the step, legs straight with toes resting lightly on the floor. Squeeze the glutes and hamstrings and straighten the legs until they are level with the hips. Hold for 2-3 seconds, and lower letting toes lightly touch the floor. Repeat for 2-3 sets of 8-12 repetitions

4) Outer Thigh Leg Lift
Note--there is no true 'outer thigh.' When you work your outer thigh, you're actually working your butt! This exercise can be done standing or lying on your side. While standing, simply lift the leg out to the side, a few feet off the floor. Keep hip, knee and foot in line and foot flexed. Repeat 8-12 times on each leg. For more intensity, add a 1-5 pound ankle weight

5) Deadlift
Deadlifts are great for your hamstrings, butt and lower back, but form is critical! Stand with feet hip-width apart, weight in front of thighs. Keeping back flat and abs in, tip forward from the hips and lower your torso until bar hits mid-shin. Squeeze butt to raise back up. Keep the bar close to your legs through the entire movement--don't bend the knees! Do 2-3 sets of 8-12 reps.

6) Hiking
Hiking burns tons of calories because you're typically going up steep mountains and maybe even getting into thin air, which requires lots of energy. Also, walking up an incline automatically gets your glutes more involved and, if you're wearing a backpack, you're really getting a workout. Plus, you get to see nature at its best. A 140-lb person burns about 390 calories in about an hour!

7) Biking
Riding a bike is great for your heart and it also targets almost every muscle in your hips, thighs and butt. On a stationary bike, alternate 3 minutes at 70-80 RPM with 2 minutes at 100-110 RPM for a calorie-blasting 30 minute workout. You can also try Spinning at the gym or riding outside. Gear up to really work your glutes! A 140-lb person burns 335 calories in 45 minutes.

Running
Running, like walking is accessible, easy to learn, reduces stress, helps in weight loss, and it makes you feel good. Plus, it really works your butt, especially when you add a few hills to your regular running route. Sprints are another option for folks wanting to both burn more calories and tighten up the old Behind. A 140-lb person burns 475 calories during a 45 minute jog.

9) Kickboxing
Kickboxing was a hot item back in the day, but it's still a great workout. Controlled kicks work your hips, thighs and butt while complex combinations that include punches will target your abs to make them stronger. A 140-lb woman will burn up to 500 calories with 45 minutes of kickboxing.

10) Walking
Walking is easy: you can do it anywhere, anytime with no special equipment. There's no learning curve and it's something you can incorporate all day long. If you walk up hills, you can really target your glutes and, if you pick up the intensity, you'll burn some of that extra flab off your buns! A 140-lb person burns about 300 calories an hour during a brisk walk.

Here is the new single from Akwa Ibom Ayaiya crooner Mish. Listen and enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WjcAjSizXc

Hello Nairalanders,
As you all know me, i'm a web based programmer and majors in building payment extensions for Open Sources and stuffs like that. Recently i had a web project that is to develop Eyowo payment extension for Myneriah.com which was built on Woocommercer framework. At first i thought it was gonna be straightforward as usual but along the line things became very complex. To your notice i started this project early December 2012 but concluded yesterday 2 May 2013 just to show you the extent i went.
At the course of developing the Eyowo woocommerce plugin i had some issues with receiving response data from Eyowo server. I contacted Eyowo to assist is fixing the bug but No way. AT some point i have to be in contact with their developer Titilope Asare but he is not good enough to fix the bug. At some point we have to quarrel.
Then, i contacted alot of web programmers including Dua Core but no way. Then i wrote Sean Barton an email to see if he can fix the bug but still no way.
Then i have to take the option of developing for that of Cashenvoy. At first i still got same issues that came up in that of Eyowo but i decided to get back to my desk and critically study my codes and build something better. Fortunately, things became better as i was able to fix all the major issues.
Finally the final issue that came up was the amount verification issue. I contacted Cashenvoy developer Olusegun Okin to see if he can assist in fixing the bug and to my greatest surprise we worked on it together and the system was perfect and the account was to taken to live phase same day.
Cashenvoy support for developers have always been the best to me. I don't work there oooo. I'm just a freelance developer based in Enugu Nigeria.

Indifferent: In that case any before i date any girl i must take her to "point and kill joint" to eat fish.

Buhahhahahahahhaha. Sharp guy.

1). You picked her up from the Street or Club. Maybe she was even standing in front of an uncompleted building

2). You don't know her real name or even her surname. Maybe she even told you her name is just Mary......That's all

3). She agrees to sleep with you on the first day in fact, she agrees to move into your place no questions asked

4). She never gets tired, She can pound yam, fry garri, grind pepper, go market , cooks and still sleep's with you when she's done

5). She always looks perfect, even first thing in the morning. No pimples ,her makeup looks permanent and everything is always in the right place

6). She never talks about her family and doesn't have any friend

7) Ever since you met her, your life has turned upside down but of course, your grandma in the village is the cause

All she cares about is Brazilian hair.

9). She has stopped you from eating Fish. Ever since you met her, its either chicken or meat, nothing from the sea

10). Finally, She's the perfect Girl. she doesn't ask you for anything. She doesn't care about Valentines day and you don't even know her birthday. She never gets jealous or goes through you phone.

Guys, if your babe falls in these categories, you better wake up and run for your life...please, drop your comments and let us know what you think.

I will need a core Webgl developer that can build something like this http://carvisualizer.plus360degrees.com/threejs/ . Once i confirm you can build it i will pay you $5000 for a job.

From accepting mobile payments to live Tweeting their cam shows, Bay Area sex workers have adopted the technology developed in the area for their own businesses. But it still sounds strange for them to earn $4,500 per hour. Chai!!!

Source: http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2013/04/12/t-high-tech-sex-workers-silicon-valley.cnnmoney/

Here is the source olufamous.com/2013/04/unbelievable-guy-who-sang-akwa-ibom.html?m=1

venatus25: can it be true?

Very true bro. We need to let this get to the ears of Akwa Ibom State Government.

If you have not heard the line "I want to go home,I'm from Akwa ibom,incase you don't know,Akwa Ibom Ayaiya" then you must live in mars because even God knows this song. Yes. This classic is been jammed in Europe,Asia and America as it tells and sells the love tale of home sweet home.
Well it will shock you to know that the artist who has brought so much publicity to this state internationally is homeless. I can confidently tell you that the Akwa Ibom Ayaiya sensational singer was kicked out of his apartment. The artist who now lives in his car has been going through some financial hurdles after his hit song "Akwa ibom Ayaiya" and "Every Woman is beautiful". Contrary to rumors that Mish has received loads of gifts from his beloved Akwa Ibom, a close confidant of the singer secretly revealed that the artist has been financing his career selflessly..."the rumor that Governor God'swill Akpabio gave him 50million has made his life more difficult as he has to pay double for any services he requires especially in his promotions ,most of whom have tagged the artist stingy as he doesn't share the Ayaiya Money. The Akwa ibom Ambassador has been facing serious bias from some states who are not fans of the governor an example was one state owned radio that banned the artist's song over a political issue that Akwa ibom won after a legal tussle.

You will recall that tuface received tremendous support from Governor Akpabio at his wedding last month which makes this hard to believe that this proud son is been overlooked and is homeless . Please kindly assist in posting this in frontpage to help the ailing artist. here is the url of his hit song "Akwaibom Ayaiya"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nr7xh0maAyQ . Thanks and God bless you.

Yomii: Am just passing bye. Good for him

Bros this is not fair. Pure talents should be respected.

Post deleted

If you have website you have to make sure that it is well designed, otherwise it is not going to accomplish what it is supposed to do. You do have a lot of freedom as to what you include in the design of your site but there are some basics that you do have to keep in mind.

The most important feature that you have to have when it comes to web design is that your site has to be easy for people to read. In general that means black text on a light background that is not too small or too big. If your site is not easy to read people are not going to bother trying, they will just move onto another site. You also want to make sure that things are not too cluttered and that there is a lot of white space on your page. The last thing that anybody wants to see is a big block of text when they get to your site. Break it up into relatively short paragraphs.

The other critical feature of a well designed website is that it has to be easy to navigate. Nobody wants to spend time searching your site for what they are looking for and they won't. If people can't find what they are looking for quickly and easily they will just go to another site. Make sure that you have menu that is clear and easy to follow and that your site is structured in a way that makes sense. You also want to make sure that people know where on your site they are and that there is a quick and easy way to get back to the menu.

A well designed website should also load quickly, nobody is going to sit around and wait. A few years ago Flash intros were all the rage in web design because designers thought they looked cool. In reality all they did was irritate their visitors because they had to sit and wait for them to load. Nowadays it is generally accepted that the best approach is to keep your site simple so that it loads quickly and people don't have to wait for it.

The last thing that you have to make sure of when you are designing a website is that it does what it is supposed to do. If a site is supposed to make sales than it should convert visitors into buyers, if it is supposed to get people to sign up for your mailing list it should do that. This after all is the whole point of having a website so it will have little value if it can't do what it is supposed to. There are some important factors that you have to make sure that you include in your design to make sure that this happens, a professional designer should be able to help you with them.

In order to build a website you are going to need to have web hosting. There are lots of options available for this so you will need to have a way to narrow down the choices. This is fairly easy to do if you know what is important and what isn't when it comes to hosting. Once you know this you will know exactly what to look for.

The first thing that you need to look at when you are choosing a web host is how reliable they are. The last thing that you want is for your site to be down. Every time this happens it is potentially costing you sales so you need to make sure that happens very rarely. In order to find out how reliable a host is you are going to have to do some research and see what other people who have used their service have to say about it. Do not rely solely on whatever reliability number the sales page claims that they have.

The next thing that you are going to want to think about is how much bandwidth you really need. A lot of sites will offer what they claim is some huge amount of bandwidth, in reality there is no way that they can actually deliver what they are promising. They are relying on the fact that you won't use anywhere near that much bandwidth. They are probably correct about that but you do need to be careful about dealing with companies like that. Figure out how much bandwidth you actually need and then find a hosting company that can really provide it.

At some point you are going to have issues that need to be resolved with your hosting so you are going to want to find out how good the support is. You can do this while you are investigating reliability and find out from others what their experience was like. It is also a good idea to send a few emails to their support desk and see what kind of response you get before you sign up. See how long it takes them to get back to you and how helpful they are when they do. If they are not helpful or it takes too long to get a response don't expect it to any better when you are a customer.

The last thing that you are going to want to look at is the cost of the hosting. It is rarely a good idea to go with the hosting companies that promise extremely low rates, they usually offer quite poor service. Like most things you do get what you pay for. Don't just assume that the more expensive service is better, you will need to do some research but you will probably find that the higher priced services are the better ones.

When it comes time to actually build your website you are going to have to decide if you want to build it from scratch or if you want to use a template. There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches so you will need to decide which is best for your needs.

The obvious advantage of building a website from scratch is that you can build it just the way that you want it. It also allows you to have a site that is completely unique. This offers the advantage of having a site that is perfectly designed to meet your needs and which will really stand out from all of the other sites out there. That being said there are few companies who have a need that is so unique that they can't build a site using a template, there are templates for a huge variety of designs these days.

The major downside of building a website from scratch is that it will take a lot more time, effort and money than using a template would. If you build it from scratch you are going to be doing a lot of rather tedious coding to build the site. This is not all that hard to do but it does take time and it will cost money. In addition if you build your site from scratch you will almost certainly have more bugs than you would if you had used a template. That means that you will have to spend more time testing it and fixing problems.

Using a template presents pretty much the opposite issues. It will be much easier and faster to get your site built and it will probably have fewer bugs that have to be dealt with. The downside here is that you will probably have to make some compromises when it comes to design. You can find a huge variety of templates so there will certainly be something suitable for your site. However it will not necessarily be the optimal design that you would get if you had built the site from scratch.

Ultimately the decision about whether to build from scratch is going come down to your needs and your budget. Large companies with huge budgets will usually build their site from scratch so that they can have it exactly how they want it. Most smaller companies find that using a template is a much more cost effective solution and that they get a site that is perfectly adequate for their needs. In general if you can afford it building a site from scratch is a better way to go but this is also going to depend on what you are using your site for, if you are selling products directly it will be more important than if you are just providing information.

OK… I had planned to call this article “What the heck is a Talent Manager?” but I was warned not to tell the story that led to that title, so now I have to let that go… Pissed!

Regardless of the title, today I want to ask a very fundamental question… Why are you here?

Why were you employed where you work? Why did you go to work today? Why do you manage artistes? Why are you a musician? Why… Ok, that’s enough. Let me put it this way…

Have you ever been in an exam hall and you had no idea what the answers to any of the questions were? Well, My friend, why are you in that hall?

This article isn’t about exams though. I want to share my views on the job of a talent manager. I was opportuned to learn from some of the best… some in close proximity and others from afar. People like Taiye Aliyu (Dipp, Maytronomy etc), Osagie (Kel, Wizkid, Banky W, Skales etc), Efe Omoreigbe (Tuface – Efe’s list is massive so will stop here), Sunday Are (Former Mo’hits, Omawunmi etc), Enyi Omeruah (Bez) and many others. Each individual has a different method of approach but they are effective and good at what they do. They also understand one important thing: Applying and adapting whatever it is they know or do to the demands and state of the environment they operate… Nigeria!

I am not going to tell you things you can find online if you just take your time to search on google. However, I will highlight a few things, the concept of artiste management cannot be explained in one article… invest in books and some training.

As I mentioned in The Inefficient Professionals 1 and 2, business is business. The music business is not exempted from the repercussions of unplanned, uncalculated and unstructured activities. Therefore, as it is with every business, each player needs to know his role and what is required to play that role.

What is the Artiste Manager’s role in the Nigerian music industry?

This sounds like a question that has a very simple, straightforward answer. Well, in an environment where structure is established, it may be. But in Nigeria…

- Where most artistes prefer to employ D.I.Y tactics...
- Where most companies prefer to speak to the artiste directly...
- Where artistes are less interested in label deals (Mostly because they either aren’t getting any or don’t think there is really any record label (In its real sense) in Nigeria… I wonder who gave them that idea shrugs...
- Where a manager’s job is way more than selecting a record label, or agent or publicist etc to work with...
- Where artistes have easier access to marketers on bbm etc...
- Where twitter, youtube, facebook, 4shared etc have become promotions and publicity tools that the artistes can use by themselves...
- Where the artiste pays more attention to family and friends on business matters than the manager

… I could go on for days!!!!

The role of artiste managers across the world has changed. The demands of the labels, and artistes and the final consumers have changed. The more effective and successful managers in today’s music business recognize this change and adapt to fit in.

The role of the talent manager is now more than pitching to labels or simply supervising other elements that contribute to the artistes’ success. It is now more about creating visibility and value (building equity and mind share) and developing revenue streams (Building wealth). Building equity, mindshare and wealth…

Basically, Artistes Managers are now more involved in Business Development.

Unfortunately, most managers in the industry are not prepared for this. It really boils down to understanding business concepts and understanding the essence of engaging in activities that guarantee efficiency and results. Understanding this and a change in paradigm will help us all. Go and read the first two articles.

The other issue is that most talent managers in the industry are not creating results and this makes it hard for the artiste to trust the decisions or suggestions or activities of the manager.

Also, too many people get involved in the music industry for the wrong reasons. When purpose is unknown or misunderstood, abuse is inevitable. I have had a former staff/intern ask me what the benefit of working with me was if she couldn’t get tickets to a show. I simply gave her part of her salary to go see the show or finish her research work I had asked her to do. The artistes do what they do freely because they know they are taken care of by competent hands, people who are there solely because he/she (the artiste) is there. Not people who came to watch the show. In 2009, Mohammed Kawosha, Sam Stixx, 2 chocolate City artistes and myself went for a show in Minna and due to the reception we got, we felt the need to create a new plan… one that included an exit plan. Yes, we planned the artistes’ exit from the show venue. With all hands on deck, imagine getting carried away watching the show… I will leave it there.

Also, a lot of personal assistants are delusional… I will only say this once. If your job is to run errands you are NOT a talent manager!

Moving on swiftly… So the question now is what do we do?

Get Educated… It goes beyond the classroom. Google is your friend. Take a course… Read books… Understand Business!!!

Then… Understand how the music business works. What are the different roles of the talent manager? How do royalties work? How useful are Recording Labels? And so on.

Then… Most important, understand how the Nigerian music business works. Everyone complains that the industry can’t work… Most of these people wouldn’t even know what to do if it worked properly!
A clear understanding of what should be; combined with a firm grasp on the reality of the situation on ground; mixed with the ability to adopt general concepts and apply them will create the solutions you need. The solutions we all need!

Build relationships… Learn the importance of being a “people person”. Your ability to create solutions will make you the “go-to” guy… It is your ability to maintain relationships that will keep you relevant here.

Then, the part that too many talent managers forget to worry about… ensure that the artiste is making the music that can sell on a consistent basis. All the work you are doing is useless if the audience hate the music. Do not deceive or lie to your artiste. Artistes, seek professional advice if at any point in time you feel your friends are lying to you. 9 out of 10 times, when you feel this way, you are probably right.

I will end this article with one more point… There are about 6 management roles and most artistes only get to work with about 3 in their career.

The music or artiste or talent or personal manager (the most popular) he should have a clear understanding of the industry, publishing, music licenses, publicists etc and how they all add to the development of the artiste. The more contacts the talent manager has in the industry, the better. He is the one I wrote this article for by the way.

The Business Manager primarily manages money (income and expenses) and advices the artistes on investments and saving options as well as tax obligations. Most times, Business managers are either in the form of companies or an accountant.

The Road Manager takes care of the artiste on the road. The road manager ensures everything in the contract agreed upon are provided from the hotel room to balance payment. This ensures that the artistes can focus on the show and their performance.

The Tour Manager works with road managers to coordinate activities and logistics for large tours. Sometimes the road manager is the tour manager.

The others are the production manager and the technical manager.
In Nigeria, most times 1 person does the work of three people. And the artiste gets upset when the manager cannot explain why the hotel room is rubbish.

One thing is certain, when management does its work properly, the artiste will ultimately become lazy (with a few exceptions). By lazy, I do not mean with making music because that is all he/she would have to do!

If you can’t answer the question, “Why are you here?” Then you should not be there.

These days, everyone and their aunties, uncles, brothers, sisters, stepbrothers and girlfriends are Chief Executive Officers… check Facebook and twitter!

Yea, I know that’s a weird way to start an article but if you spend two whole days looking at a blank page, anything would do.

Generally, the CEO is the person who has the power to put plans, actions and laws into effect in an organization. The CEO's job involves delegation, decision making based on financial analysis and projections, research, managing financial, material and human resources. The CEO is accountable to a board of directors or investors and in some cases both. There are many other things and more definitions online… google it!

The more time I spend time with certain business owners in the music industry as well as businesses in other industries, the more I realize how much more I need to learn. I am continually humbled by their knowledge, leadership styles and qualities and how they interact with other people.

In the last couple of years, I have sat in several meetings with a lot of CEOs of the numerous businesses both in the music industry and in other sectors like advertising and petroleum.

I was privileged to sit in a board meeting of a petroleum company once and in the meeting was the Finance Director, The Administrative Head, the engineer in-charge of new sites etc and I listened as they bombarded the CEO with information. Information about the state of the company, income, staff appraisals, proposals from vendors, projections, projects as well as needs. All the information he needed to make decisions were provided and adequately broken down. What was fascinating was the fact that he had a discussed the things his people mentioned in the meeting with me, an hour before the meeting. He had a very good idea of what he was expecting from every department and every single member of his management team.

I’m sure you would be wondering… if he knows so much about everything, why doesn't he just do it by himself, right?

I am also sure some of you are wondering if it’s a good idea to compare both industries. I’m just trying to make a point. The music industry has very peculiar challenges and concerns compared to the Oil and Gas industry. I will make my point in a bit…

In one of my meetings with a CEO of a record label in Nigeria… before I start this story, if you think I am talking to you, I probably am!

Hi!

So, I sat in a meeting with a CEO to discuss working with his artistes and label and then I started asking him questions… What type of contract do your artistes have? Who is currently responsible for their management? Why do you need me here? Do you have a budget?

Crickets

He had no answer for me. He had absolutely no idea of what he wanted to achieve and why he signed the artistes. They had no contracts with his label and no major obligation to him but yet he was ready to spend money on promoting their music and was hoping to make money.
After an awkward 10 seconds of silence, I started asking him questions about business in general. Questions about strategy, operations, planning… You know, I was making conversation…

Crickets

I got pissed. Not because I had just come to realize that I was wasting my time. I was pissed because this fellow had just returned from the “States” where he worked hard (whatever the job was), very hard to save up funds for an investment in his motherland and here he was about to throw a huge chunk of that money into a venture he knew absolutely nothing about… Unbelievable right? That’s what I thought too.

Though not all cases are this extreme, it is gradually becoming a norm that a lot of people in the music industry have gone to start their own companies without any knowledge of how the industry works or how businesses work generally. After 1 year and all their investments have been taken away, they start hating the industry and then haggling over my fees like I’m selling fish! Tsk tsk!!!
I am not excluded. I did the same thing. I had no guidance... partly because I wanted to do it alone and secondly because I had a lot I still had to learn. Now to make my point;

Unlike the CEO of the Petroleum Company who knew about the activities of each aspect of his business, which helped him create reasonable expectations and goals for his team, the clueless CEOs in the music industry do not even know why they are in the business in the first place. They do not know what to expect from the people who work for them. They just know their artistes are not getting paid from shows… or the artistes are not attending any shows. But they don’t know why.

They are also fond of asking the wrong questions. Questions like “When do we start making money?” or “When do we start getting shows” are important questions to ask but they should come after questions like “Do you think the artiste’s music will sell?” “How do we create demand?” “How do I achieve these things cost-effectively” “What exactly does your company do?”. I know… Why waste all the time asking all these questions when we can jump straight into the crux of the matter, making money?!
Unfortunately, if you cannot get answers to these questions, you would end up losing more money than you would make.

The clueless CEOs refuse to plan. But why plan? Planning is just a tedious endeavor that takes time and effort and attention to detail about how you intend to take your company to profit making status with the hard earned cash you are about to throw into the company. *Thats sarcasm*
Avoiding it just because its too much stress is Foolishness!
No one ever plans to fail and failure doesn’t just happen. Our refusal to put time and effort into finding the best ways to approach our businesses makes failure inevitable.

He, who fails to plan, plans to fail!

Another major issue is that people tend to hate the truth. When you have money to spend, there is a great chance that most of the people around you would be “Yes men/women” and ass kissers. It is extremely dangerous to get used to such an environment because the truth then becomes an insult most of the time. When I talk about finding people who are honest with you, I don’t mean rude people. I mean someone who can look at the problems critically and tell you why it hasn’t worked and provide practical solutions. Please understand also that the person, who honestly points out the problems, may not be the same person to provide the solution. Listen to people wisely and meditate on comments that suggest improvements.

Though nepotism and tribalism seem to be working in Government, It probably isn’t a good idea to apply those ideologies to your business. Look for competent hands and negotiate good deals. No one is simply going to run into your company just because… well, just because. People have bills to pay and they are increasing by the day both in costs and quantity needed. Unless your brother or aunty has a clear understanding or experience in human relations, its not a good idea to put them in charge of hiring new staff.

Documentation is a major problem in many Nigerian businesses, not just in the music business. Invoices, receipts, work sheets, expense reports, balance sheets, proposals, contracts, MOUs, and NDAs are some of the documents that help you track the commercial and operational activities of your business. These things provide information that will help you make better decisions with your money and your people.

Study/Learn… Ask Questions… Practice… Study/Learn… Ask Questions… Practice… Study/Learn… Ask Questions… Practice… Study/Learn… Ask Questions… Practice… Study/Learn… Ask Questions… Practice… Study/Learn… Ask Questions… Practice… Study/Learn… Ask Questions… Practice… Study/Learn… Ask Questions… Practice… Study/Learn… Ask Questions… Practice… Trust me, this can never be over emphasized and you should never stop doing this. Study the Industry and identify loopholes and how you can create solutions. Network with the people who have information you can use. Ask them questions to help you make informed decisions. Test your theses and practice your business models. Document your progress and review your activities before, during and after you reach your targeted milestones. Attend seminars on business strategies and leadership… they would also come in handy!

Have a Plan. The best thing about a plan is that it tells you in advance how everything you plan to do will work. What kind of skill sets you would need and how many people you would need. The plan helps you measure your progress and reminds you of your destination. The plan shows how all other elements in your business come together to help achieve your organizational goals.

I will end this by going back to the question I asked earlier… I’m sure you would be wondering… if he knows so much about everything, why doesn't he just do it by himself, right?

You see this is what is happening now in the industry. When you try to do everything yourself, it may lead to a number of things including inefficiency or a physical breakdown and sometimes both. Neither of these things is good for the business. Knowing what needs to be done helps you delegate and set goals for your team. It helps you create, in your head and on paper, realistic expectations. It helps you create alternatives or “Plan B”. A lot of people are afraid of training people because most times, those people simply just walk away. There is a valid point in this. It is a lot of work training people to be efficient and having them simply walk away… but its inevitable. Some companies simply have the financial ability to keep those kinds of people longer. Focus more on the efficiency of your business and educate your staff because you want the best for your business. Do it because you need to create some time for other aspects of the business that only you can do better. There are people who give up the position of CEO in their companies for more competent hands while they focus on what they know how to do best… things like Marketing, Concept development, investments etc.

I also believe that not everyone with money should actually be responsible for the day to day running of the business. Invest money and find people that can ensure returns on investments are made so you can continue to make money in businesses you are skilled and knowledgeable about. This way, you would have created job opportunities, increased your revenue streams and everyone would happy!

Think about it…

The purpose of the article is not to force an opinion or ideology but to encourage interactions… share your views!

Vowels aren’t really necessary in today’s digital age, are they? Twitter doesn’t think so, as it announced a new “two-tiered” service including its free model called “Twttr.” You can only tweet without vowels though. Want the vowels back? Pony up $5 a month. Seems like a pretty sweet deal to me.

Luckily, Twitter really cares about its users and will offer up the “sometimes Y” free of charge…forever. Also free are vowels in link URLs. Whew.

If you’ve seen the text messages from anyone under 25 years old, you know that vowels often get left out already. This is pretty forward-thinking of Twitter, as it attempts to monetize its older set of users who can still speak and write using a real language.

Here’s what Twitter had to say about the disruptive approach to scl ntwrkng:

We’re doing this because we believe that by eliminating vowels, we’ll encourage a more efficient and “dense” form of communication. We also see an opportunity to diversify our revenue stream.

The company had some other revenue-producing ideas up its sleeve and will introduce extra characters, past 140, for a price:

In addition to our normal suite of Promoted Products for advertisers, we are now also offering a single character extension, expanding the length of a Tweet to 141 characters, for those moments when you need just one more character to finish your thought. The price of the extra character is based on a bidding system reflecting the popularity of the character you would like to add.

All of this will be rolling out slowly to a “small percentage of users” who actually believe things that are announced on April Fool’s Day. Twitter has some advice to get yourself prepared:

We recommend that you practice using only consonants (and “y”) with the hashtag #nvwls (or if you have paid for our premium service, use #icanhasvowels).

Communicating with a web designer can be the most difficult part of the hiring process because you and the web designer don’t speak the same language when talking about the details of a website. This article explains how to get your ideas across to the web designer you want to hire.

Ok, so you’ve decided to hire a professional web designer to build your website. You spent some time looking for the right person. Eventually you found the right web designer that you believe will design the most “remarkable”, “extraordinary” website the internet community has yet seen.

So now what? Explaining to the web designer the layout design you have in your mind can be a very frustrating process. You will find that putting the “picture” in your mind into words can be a difficult task. Actually in most cases this is the biggest hurdle between you and the final outcome. No matter how talented the web designer is, if you can not communicate with him properly, in his own professional language, he will not be able to use his talent to achieve your design.

There are two possible situations you may face:

You know what content you want on the website but have no clue how to present it to the user.
You know what content you want on the website, and you have the layout in your mind, but you don’t know how to implement it.
In both cases you will need to explain your thoughts to the web designer. Although most people who read those lines are probably thinking that being in the second situation is better then being in the first situation. However, real life experience shows the opposite to be true. Giving a web designer the complete freedom of action regarding the web design based solely on the website content is usually a smart thing to do. You will find that explaining to the web designer what the nature of your website is, whether it’s a product that you want to sell or a hobby item, is much easier then trying to explain to him the temperate of the color schema or an undefined shape that you would like to have in the website header.

Actually for both of the situations, I would suggest you use the same approach, but with a minor modification to each situation. If you know of a website that has all the features you want or need and/or a site that looks the way you want your site to look, be sure to give the site’s url to the web designer. Doing so will give him some idea of want you want. You will both be looking at the same thing but will actually look at it from a different angle. Therefore, it may be better to give him more than one website as an example. The more websites you find that can express your feelings and/or needs, the easier it will be for web designers to understand your intention without you having to use a single “technical” term. Chances are that you won’t find a single website that has all of the feature you want. After all, if such a website already exists there would be no place for your new web site to be born. Use several websites to express the different features you want. Spend as much time as necessary until you find just the right websites to provide examples of your needs. Doing research at this stage will definitely save you a lot of time later trying to point the web designer in the right direction.

Although you are the one who needs to express your self to the web designer, you must learn to listen to him as well. When he uses technical terms, ask for their meaning. Do not finish any part of the conversation unless you are absolutely sure that both sides are on the same page. Remember that when a web designer speaks about the temperature of a color, he is not talking about the next day’s forecast.

Remember, you hired a professional web designer because you want a professional looking website and you couldn’t do it yourself. So, trust the web designer’s judgment when they tell you something you want won’t work or isn’t the best way to accomplish your goals. After all, you are paying them for their expertise. Don’t try to tell them how to do their job.

It is OK to require that a web designer gets your approval each step of the way so you can tell them if one of your goals isn’t being met. Also, if you really don’t like how something looks and want it changed, tell them immediately. Don’t wait until everything is done and then decide you don’t like it.

A final word about cost

You have agreed on what needs to be done and the web designer has given you a price quote. Simple modifications and bug fixes are usually included in the price. However, other major changes or outright revisions may or may not be included. Make sure the agreement states what is included, what constitutes a revision rather than a fix, and how many changes you can make after delivery without incurring additional costs.

The goal of most web designers is to create an attractive, easily accessible and functional website that will convince the visitor to do something. Creating such a website requires good graphic design, easy and intuitive site navigation, logical site layout and good web copy. The following suggestions are general web design guidelines.

Web Content

You want the visitor to see you as a knowledgeable information source and/or a reputable business. Poor grammar and spelling will immediately reduce your credibility. Remember that people use the internet to find information. Whether you are selling your own product or recommending someone else’s products, you must first provide valuable information to the visitor or they will click away and find a website that gives them what they what they want.

Cross Browser Compatibility

There are at least a hundred different browsers in use. You must design your website to work properly in the most widely used browsers. To do that you may not be able to use all of the really great special effects that are available because they may not be supported in most browsers.

Even though most web browsers are free, people do not necessary bother to upgrade to the latest versions. The average surfer may not know how to upgrade their browser or have the attitude, “If it works, don’t fix it.” Remember your visitor may have a PC, a MAC, a Linux box, a PDA or a cell phone and they all use different browsers.

Good web design requires your web pages to work in Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape, Firefox, Opera and Safari at a minimum. Validating your HTML code will help but the final test is to view your website in different browsers running on different platforms.

Graphics and Photos

Web surfers are impatient and studies show that most people will click away if a webpage takes longer than 10 seconds to load. Always optimize your photos and other graphic files to have as small a size as possible without sacrificing picture quality.

Always use the height and width attributes on the picture so the rest of the page can load while the graphic files is downloading. Use the ALT HTML tag so people with graphics turned off and those using hand held devices know what the picture is supposed to be.

Background Colors

If you use anything other than white behind text, be sure to specify link colors otherwise the user’s browser defaults will determine what color the links are which can make them unreadable.

Multimedia

Multimedia is composed of flash movies, video clips, audio clips and background music. Always use streaming media because it reduces download time. Make sure the visitor can stop and start multimedia files or in the case of flash introductions, skip them if they want. That way people with slow connections or devices that don’t support multimedia can ignore them.

Also, put any important information presented in multimedia in text as well so the visitor has access to that information without using multimedia. If a plug-in is needed to use the multimedia, always provide a link to it so the user can install it. Finally, always remember the 10-second rule for site loading when deciding to use multimedia.

Site Navigation

Site navigation should be simple and intuitive. Studies have shown if a visitor cannot access the information they want within three clicks, they will leave the site. This is called the 3-click rule. Every area of your website should be reachable within three clicks from anywhere else on the site. If you use anything other than simple text links, make sure to test your navigation in all the major browsers.

Links

Periodically test all site links to be certain that they are valid. Nothing chases a visitor off faster than broken links. There are several free online services that will periodically check your links.

Frames

Avoid using frames, since they make it difficult to bookmark individual pages on your web site and you want people to bookmark pages so they can come back.

Summary

Good Web design is a combination of common sense and good planning. Your site should be attractive and easy to use and most importantly provide the user with the information or services they want.

This is absolutely true. I'm priviledged to have worked with a few number.

Good day Nairalanders!
I have observed that we have very few good web developers in Nigeria but alot of opensource, wordpress, prestashop, joomla, template e.t.c. Users.
Here is how to know them when you are 'priviledged' to meet them.

1. Their social lives are poor
2. They love slow music or sounds
3. They are expensive
4. They dress on jeans and polo most atimes
5. They smiles less but can laugh like fools.
6. They love sharing their ideas with others on free mind.
7. They don't look for jobs.
8. They hardly shave.
9. They are good and silent critics.
10. They hadly come on facebook.
11. They are always on stack overflow
12. They have very little but powerful job references to show.

Pls add yours if any. Thanks

It should suffice to say whether bcrypt or SHA-512 (in the context of an appropriate algorithm like PBKDF2) is good enough. And the answer is yes, either algorithm is secure enough that a breach will occur through an implementation flaw, not cryptanalysis.

If you insist on knowing which is "better", SHA-512 has had in-depth reviews by NIST and others. It's good, but flaws have been recognized that, while not exploitable now, have led to the the SHA-3 competition for new hash algorithms. Also, keep in mind that the study of hash algorithms is "newer" than that of ciphers, and cryptographers are still learning about them.

Even though bcrypt as a whole hasn't had as much scrutiny as Blowfish itself, I believe that being based on a cipher with a well-understood structure gives it some inherent security that hash-based authentication lacks.

Note: bcrypt is an algorithm that uses Blowfish internally. It is not an encryption algorithm itself. It is used to irreversibly obscure passwords, just as hash functions are used to do a "one-way hash".

Cryptographic hash algorithms are designed to be impossible to reverse. In other words, given only the output of a hash function, it should take "forever" to find a message that will produce the same hash output. In fact, it should be computationally infeasible to find any two messages that produce the same hash value. Unlike a cipher, hash functions aren't parameterized with a key; the same input will always produce the same output.

If someone provides a password that hashes to the value stored in the password table, they are authenticated. In particular, because of the irreversibility of the hash function, it's assumed that the user isn't an attacker that got hold of the hash and reversed it to find a working password.

Now consider bcrypt. It uses Blowfish to encrypt a magic string, using a key "derived" from the password. Later, when a user enters a password, the key is derived again, and if the ciphertext produced by encrypting with that key matches the stored ciphertext, the user is authenticated. The ciphertext is stored in the "password" table, but the derived key is never stored.

In order to break the cryptography here, an attacker would have to recover the key from the ciphertext. This is called a "known-plaintext" attack, since the attack knows the magic string that has been encrypted, but not the key used. Blowfish has been studied extensively, and no attacks are yet known that would allow an attacker to find the key with a single known plaintext.

So, just like irreversible algorithms based cryptographic digests, bcrypt produces an irreversible output, from a password, salt, and cost factor. Its strength lies in Blowfish's resistance to known plaintext attacks, which is analogous to a "first pre-image attack" on a digest algorithm. Since it can be used in place of a hash algorithm to protect passwords, bcrypt is confusingly referred to as a "hash" algorithm itself.

Assuming that rainbow tables have been thwarted by proper use of salt, any truly irreversible function reduces the attacker to trial-and-error. And the rate that the attacker can make trials is determined by the speed of that irreversible "hash" algorithm. If a single iteration of a hash function is used, an attacker can make millions of trials per second using equipment that costs on the order of $1000, testing all passwords up to 8 characters long in a few months.

If however, the digest output is "fed back" thousands of times, it will take hundreds of years to test the same set of passwords on that hardware. Bcrypt achieves the same "key strengthening" effect by iterating inside its key derivation routine, and a proper hash-based method like PBKDF2 does the same thing; in this respect, the two methods are similar.

So, my recommendation of bcrypt stems from the assumptions 1) that a Blowfish has had a similar level of scrutiny as the SHA-2 family of hash functions, and 2) that cryptanalytic methods for ciphers are better developed than those for hash functions.

Poor company. All these conditions for 20 dollars. Ndi ara.

I have used a lot of Nigerian web host including Syskay but i think since i started using dynamix host (dynamixng.com) i have never had a downtime. I'm not a web host nor do i own a hosting company but it's good to appreciate good things, so friends on Nairaland can make good decisions while selecting a hosting for their next project.

Why should you even consider using eTransact while you can actually use Cashenvoy or other payment processors for free with even cheaper commissions. They incorporate both eTransact, Interswitch, Visa and Mastercard. Please do your research so you don't have to make a wrong investment.

JideTheBlogger: I am currently integrating voguepay into a woocommerce powered site am working on right now.

If you are having issues with the integration you may have to purchase the one i have built already. Email me at winexviv@gmail.com

Hello Nairalanders,
After so many weeks of programming and brainstorming, i have successfully build a Woocommerce payment extension for Cashenvoy and Eyowo. The url i installed it is on www.myneriah.com . If interested in my plugin kindly send me an email on winexviv@gmail.com . I will respond to you shortly.
Also, if you have any issues regarding payment plugin for any platform or wishes to develop one, kindly mail me also. Thanks

Bros why u dey hash. If you read my post post well i said i got the job ealier last year while i was broke. I'm not begging for insult or abuse rather advice on how to move ahead.

Hey guys, i'm still expecting more of you comments. Thanks

talk2me006:
Further convince them. if they still adamant, forget them and move on with ur life.dont eva allow any client to steal ur time with small fees.

Thanks for the advice.