The Cast Iron Park Bench

It’s no secret that using a job site sign can be an effective way to market your company’s services to neighborhood homeowners. But most job sign marketing isn’t done as effectively as it could be. Here are four tips for getting the most out of your job sign marketing:

Do It. Most home improvement contractors post a sign when they’ve got them, when they remember, or when working on a really nice project. This defeats the whole purpose. Every job, no matter how big or how small should get a job sign. Consistently displaying your company’s sign, like all forms of marketing, brings in higher returns and helps to create brand awareness. Create a system that ensures your signs are getting out (and coming back) when they should.

Make Sure Your Job Sign Has A “Take-One” Box. Do you know what a take-one box is? Maybe you’ve seen them on real estate “for sale” signs. A take-one box is just a simple container, attached to your job sign that allows you to provide written promotional material to interested neighbors. Sometimes they’re called “info tubes.” You can insert a flyer, letter, brochure, business card, reference list or any other promotional piece you want in the tube. Then, interested neighbors driving by, walking the dog, or taking junior out for a stroll can stop and instantly get your marketing piece. This provides an immediate, non-threatening method for getting your marketing material into a prospect’s hands. Do neighbors really stop and take the info out of the box? They do. Most neighbors are very curious about what’s going on in their neighborhood. You’ll find your take-one box will empty quickly so be prepared to refresh the box often. Info tubes and take-one boxes are available at most sign stores and home improvement centers.

Make the sign visible to traffic from both sides of the street. This usually means using a double-sided sign. This increases the cost, but it’s worth it. You’ll get drive-by visibility from both directions of traffic.

Make sure your sign is clean, bright, and easy to read. Make the phone number clearly visible and include a call to action. If you want them to call you, then make sure you say so. Put a Web site address on there, too. That way, potential customers won’t have to call and feel any sales pressure. Remember to keep the signage short and simple; people often can only glance as they drive by. It’s good to keep the logo/colors consistent here, too. Whatever the customer sees on a sign should be echoed in your letterhead, Web site – all your “frontage.”

Don’t be afraid to invest a few bucks in good, quality signs. When done properly job sign marketing provides an impressive return on investment.

Have one of our marketing consultants contact you in getting you the most inexpensive and lead generating solution with your next job sign.

Tyrell MacGregor is Managing Director of FootBridge Media, a Referral Marketing Company that specializes in client newsletter templates and home improvement marketing solutions for home improvement contractors. Visit them at http://www.footbridgemedia.com

STEP 1.

The first step in breaking old habits is deciding what new
habits you want to create with your life energy. Start asking
yourself these questions:

* What do you want your life to look like?

* What habits do you need to eliminate?

* What positive habits do you need to develop to make your
life look like you want it to look?

These desires must be realistic and obtainable. What is your
intuition telling you about what you should be doing?

Listening to your intuition is one of the most intelligent
things you can ever do with your life energy. Your intuition
always guides you in the direction that is perfect for you. It
is that small voice that is not affected by egos, past
failures, or other people?s opinions. It is your inner guiding
light.

In your journal, keep notes on what your intuition tells you
about the strategies and the resources that might empower you.

STEP 2.

Crystallize your thinking. Determine what specific goals
you want to achieve.

What habits are you letting go?
What habits are you creating in place of the old ones?

Your goals need to be specific, measurable, and realistic.

To do this you’ll have to avoid nebulous thinking, such as “I
want to lose weight.” What does that really mean? For your
subconscious mind to be able to serve you it must receive very
specific directions.

STEP 3.

Develop a sincere desire for the things you want.

Desire is the starting point for all achievement. It’s the
greatest motivator of every human action.

Frequently, your mind is more motivated by pictures and
visualization than it is with words and written exercises. The
right side of your brain is where your creativity comes from,
and it thrives on pictures. Many times the right side of your
brain takes precedence over the left side, which thrives on
words. In the past, you may have just written words down to
reach your goals. Add this new dimension to your process.

Draw, cut out pictures, or take photographs of what you want
in life. Put pictures up on your refrigerator, your bathroom
mirror, or any place that will remind your subconscious mind
of your desires to reinforce your goal.

Every thought you have uses electrical energy to imprint a new
picture in your subconscious mind. The efforts of your
subconscious mind are to match the pictures in your mind with
reality.

The more you deliberately plant pictures of what you want, the
faster you will attract it into your life. It’s very important
that you allow yourself to fantasize about what you want in
your life – let your imagination run wild!

To achieve what it is you want in life, you must think about
it. There are no limits except those we put on ourselves. This
is your life and you will be cheating yourself if you don’t go
for what you want! You must feel your success before you can
manifest it in reality.

STEP 4.

Develop a plan for achieving your goal, and a deadline for its
attainment. The difference between a “wish” and a “goal” is
that the goal is written down. Once you have a clear picture
of what you want in life, your subconscious and conscious mind
can work together to achieve it.

When you prioritize and focus you can literally see what you
want; this gives you the power of concentration. Deliberate
concentration is like a laser beam – it can cut through any
obstacles in your path.

STEP 5.

Distinguish between goals and activities. A goal is the specific
end result you want to manifest in your life. Activities are those
things you do to achieve your goals.

Use the skill of awareness, and remember the goal. Don’t get
stuck in the activities.

STEP 6.

Create deadlines for your goals.
Without deadlines your brain doesn’t have a clear picture of
what you want created. Deadlines have a magical way of
motivating us to produce results.

First write your *one-year* goals on paper, then write down
all the activities you will have to do to reach each goal.

Start by asking yourself what is the very first activity I
must do to get started on this goal? Then write down each
following activity that will take you closer to the one year
goal.

STEP 7.

Break down the activities for each goal into 3 month groups

Ask yourself “What are the activities I must do in the first
three months to achieve my goal?” Write those down.

Then think about the activities you’ll need to follow up in
the following three months. By breaking down the goals into
manageable, bite-size pieces, you’ll feel more in control.

The secret is that this divide-and-conquer approach keeps
achieving your goals from becoming overwhelmingly complicated.

STEP 8.

Make YOUR goals YOURS.

Time for a reality check. Don’t set a goal for yourself that
your spouse (or anyone else for that matter) wants for you.

Please revise your current goals to ensure they REALLY meet
YOUR needs, not someone else’s desires for you. You will never
be successful achieving goals that are not motivated by your
own desires.

Moreover, don’t compare your goals with other people’s goals -
you’ll always come up short. The reality is that we usually
compare our worst traits with someone else’s best traits and
we can never win that way.

Let’s recap these 8 goal setting steps…

* Step 1. Set realistic and obtainable habits you want to
create with your life energy.

* Step 2. Crystallize your thinking. Determine what *specific*
goals you want to achieve.

* Step 3. Develop a sincere desire for the things you want.

* Step 4. Develop a plan for achieving your goal, and a
deadline for its attainment.

* Step 5. Distinguish between goals and activities.

* Step 6. Create deadlines for your goals.

STEP 9.

Write your goals as if they have already occurred.

Try writing, “I now weigh ______” not
“I want to weigh ______”.

This helps your subconscious mind to see the end result.

STEP 10.

Develop confidence in yourself and your abilities.

Stay “sold on yourself”. Here are some techniques you can
use…

* Listen to motivational CDs and tapes daily in your car or
while commuting.

* Do your declarations daily, and control your self-talk.

* Tackle every activity without giving any recognition to the
possibility of defeat.

* Focus on your strengths instead of your weaknesses.

* Recognize and honor your personal point of power found in
this moment.

* Develop a determination to follow through on your goals
regardless of obstacles, circumstances, or criticism.

STEP 11.

Review your goals monthly.

The first day of the month is the perfect time to set up a
ritual goal-reviewing. This should be the time that you can be
honest with yourself on what goals you are really committed to
and how you can improve your strategies. You must also be
honest with yourself on what goals are only paper dreams if
you aren’t really going to pay the price to achieve them.

STEP 12.

Have PERSISTENCE.

Persistence is the real key to successful goal achievement.
Don’t allow yourself to become distracted with excuses about
why things can’t be done. Excuses are the enemies of goal
achievement.

Instead of going through years of trial and error, you can have
the secrets handed to you on a silver platter.

It’s packed with hundreds of incredible techniques and concepts
to bust even the worst habits, and it contains over 179 full
minutes of digitally recorded material, plus a 52 page workbook.

If you’d like to take advantage of the time, effort, energy, and money
that I’ve invested to get in my hands the rights to show you how to break

your bad habits in less than 21 days, as I do.

I highly recommend that you check out the world class PROVEN Habit
Busting System Coaching Program by America ’s most highly-esteemed
and sought after human potential speakers, Lee Milteer.

Go and check it out!

About The Author:

John Socratous is an Internet Marketer and Researcher. He strongly believe that the difference between ‘failure’ and ’success’ it depends on our habits. Therefore, our habits have more power than our desires. After long negotiations with Lee Milteer’s team he finally got the legal rights to help others to achieve their goals by promoting her proven system ‘Habit Busting Secrets’.

Lee is one of THE most highly esteemed and sought after human potential speakers and productivity coaches around — in her 21-Day Proven Habit Busting System, she will take you step-by-step and help you lose bad habits for good!

For more info: http://www.overcomebadhabits.com

The history of the theater is a long and illustrious one. We’re not going to bore you with the historical time line of what show came out when and who stared in it. You can get that info just about anywhere. What we’d like to do in this review of one of the most wonderful forms of entertainment is touch on some of the greatest moments and how they have forever changed how we look at the world of entertainment itself. The theater has had a great impact on our lives and the many things we do in our lives. Let’s face it, there is just nothing like seeing performers right up there on stage, live, right before your eyes. If you think that’s an overstatement then you’ve obviously never been to the theater.

You can go all the way back to the mid 1950s when a young girl by the name of Julie Andrews made her debut in the London production of “My Fair Lady”, a play based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion. Her electrifying performance as Eliza Doolittle, the poor Cockney gal who couldn’t speak proper English if her life depended on it, made her a household name overnight and began a career that would span over 40 years until she sadly lost her voice due to serious throat problems.

Looking for something a little more recent? How about the very first legitimate musical of the 1960s to feature nudity? We are of course talking about the 1969 production of “Hair”. This was a play that literally changed pop music altogether. Never in the history of Broadway has one play had as many hit pop records as “Hair”. This play featured such great hits as “Hair”, “Easy To Be Hard”, “Good Morning Starshine” and the number 1 song of 1969, “Aquarius”. Because of the great music in this play, careers for “Three Dog Night”, “The 5th Dimension”, “The Cowsills” and “Oliver” were launched into orbit. Talk about an impact on the music world.

Then of course there was the amazing rock opera of the Who, “Tommy”. This play was an epic of a musical masterpiece itself and not only put the Who firmly on the map as future rock and roll hall of famers, but also set the stage for a number of recording stars to capitalize on the success of “Tommy” itself. As great as the Who’s version of “Pinball Wizard” was, who could ever forget the late 70s remake by Elton John? Tommy will always be one of the greatest moments in theater history ever.

But if you want a single defining moment in theater history that chilled an entire world and put a single man on the map as a living legend, one need go no farther than Michael Crawford’s haunting rendition of “Music Of The Night” from “Phantom Of The Opera”. This is said to be one of the greatest musical performances of all time. And rightly so. To this day it has been said that nobody played this part like Crawford.

These few examples only scratch the surface of a form of entertainment that has captivated and mesmerized us for many years and will no doubt continue to do so for many more years to come.

Michael Russell

Your Independent guide to Entertainment

Bond together both of man’s supreme quests and you will display a mania we customarily know as a sportsbook betting website. Can you think of anything that could be more inventive? If you imagine a mix of fanatics applauding a favorite lineup, and constantly wagers will be pinned down besides the tumult. Aspiring to get their share of the exhilaration, bystanders will customarily endeavor to envisage who will win the approaching struggle. This all eventually turns into a fun little struggle known as sportsbook betting website.

Think you can’t win at casino sports gambling bet ? Think again! Learn all the tricks here.

Yes, it may seem habit forming, but in fact wagering sportsbooks is really solely an amusement and of forging bonds with friends. Here, you can bet a a minor amount of kitty and all the same enjoy yourself. Also, read on for sundry recommendations to get you started wagering sportsbooks.

In order to place that bet, you will probably want to go to a sportsbook betting website, which is a place that receives sportsbook betting website. In the United States, you’ll find four states to do wagering sportsbooks legitimately, but semi-legally you can go for it practically anywhere if you locate a bookie and you are of age. Amongst the sports events you can choose to wager on are pro & college league basketball plus college football, professional baseball, professional hockey, & bets on both horse and dog racing. Visitors can choose to wager on the overall score of a competition, on what round a given party will be vanquished, and even if a given tossed coin in a competition will come down heads or tails.

The betting establishment count on mere numbers to help you arrive at a conclusion which lineup you trust will win. First, you’ll see spread, in other words point leverage assigned to a losing club presumed to go down by a defined number points. This describes the betting establishment’s routine of offering fifty-fifty lays for a Sports Book. For instance, a client may choose to bet on a contestant presumed to go down and and all the same make money on that wager if the club is beaten by a defined number of points.

There’ll be numerous different varieties of wagers: straight bets, where you merely choose the side you guess is most likely to win or go under, teaser lays,parlays i.e. combined bets on multiple games including, too, over/unders, the straight bets being the most typical in wagering sportsbooks.

Why not run a test or two, and enjoy the excitement at one go? But make sure that you won’t get ripped away and expend your complete retirement pension on a bee! Otherwise you will probably be caught lamenting it for the rest of your life!

LAS VEGAS (EVP News Desk) – In April the online poker room Everest Poker took 200 amateur poker players to Vienna, Austria for the final of their Live the Dream poker promotions

The purpose of the excursion was to pick ten online players to become Everest Poker brand ambassadors for an entire year. As brand ambassadors, the players would get free buy-ins to play in the most prestigious – and toughest – poker tournaments in the world.

In early July, during the first round side events at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the biggest poker tournament in the world, Team Everest Poker players are apparently making a huge first impression.

So far three of the 13-person team have been “in the money” in the poker side events, which means they finished above the cut and qualified for a share of the tournament purse. Preliminary success in these side events bodes well for Team Everest, which is making its first attempt ever at the main event grand prize pot of $8 million. The final table for the main event is scheduled for later this year.

Leading the Everest pack was Finnish player Voitto “Random Eyes” Rintalla, who made the final table of Event 52. Rintala was eventually knocked out early into the final round of event 52, but was able to secure a $57,000 prize for his 9th place finish overall. Rintala, who is actually a rock star in his native Finland when he isn’t playing poker, is fast becoming known on the pro poker circuit as a capable opponent and his eerie trademark contact lenses.

Other Everest Poker members making a splash at the WSOP this month include Augusto Cavazzini, a Venezuelan who qualified for the WSOP in an online poker tournament for just $3.30. He walked away from Event 49 with a cool $17,530. Dutchman Daan “Krul” Slutter cashed out for $8,855 in Event 48.

Representing France was Otto Richard, who finished 35th in Event 41, and banked $4,687 for his efforts.

Many believe we should use modern technology to prevent International Terrorists from disruption our transportation system. Most do not feel this idea is so radical as a matter of fact I myself have been thinking here and so have consultants interviewed in the media. We recently had attacks in London on “the Tube”, a day after the city won the rights to host the 2012 Olympics and during the G-8 Summit, which appeared to be a political statement as well. So this is obviously the dirty deeds of International Terrorists. So if we had better surveillance and some sort of real language voice recognition system and scanning tools for all electronic communication, we might have prevented it?

In the United States two large attacks have been prevented. Now the International Terrorists have plots to take out the NY Subway. So if we have the technology to use to prevent these things then that would be nice wouldn’t it? Problem is only with privacy and we know from history we cannot trust those humans in charge of the information. We know that the FBI has leaked sensitive information to foreign spies and we have those amongst us who will use the information in the wrong way. But could we have enough sensors which are not monitored or collect information other than is necessary and only convey that information by warning? With SmartDust, networked sensors, MEMS, etc. we can do even better in the “all seeing eye” concept than ever thought. We have technology now to put a VLA scenario on the moon or on high altitude balloons to listen to every world conversation and even of bandwidth ability to collect it wirelessly and store the daily terabytes of information. I am not against collection of the data in itself only the use of it, as you are also worried about. For instance if someone murders someone or abducts a child or something like this, then the information needs to be passed on right? Some say no? But if it could be used in a positive way, then most Americans would not have a problem with it.

Problem is to total control it offers would be misused by man. Your idea is similar to that of many Sci-Fi writers. You should read: Time’s Eye by Arthur C Clarke. There are other
issues, which are a factor too. For instance remember Presidential Candidate from NH who had an emotional outburst of high energy during the election? Then they made a mockery of that on all the TV Stations? Well, someone in the crowd could have a Brain Wave manipulation device and cause such emotional outbursts anytime they wanted, then record it and alleviate the risk of competition from such a person in political endeavors at any level. School Board, Professors, Politicians, etc. You see? We are there now and since we are, we know humans are already abusing it. I am sure of it. After all if a group of guys wanted many women, they would go to where women are and cause them to be in a mood for extra curricular activities. We are currently using these abilities in the military, so this is available now.

America, we need to make some choices as all this technology is now available and deployable and some is being deployed, so think on this.

“Lance Winslow” – Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Once you are comfortable with working online, you should buy a domain name for your site or sites. Domain name registration, if you do it right, is one of the key components of having your site rate high in the search engines. The right domain name is memorable, and can get your site to rank higher than other names. The wrong domain name won’t do you any good at all.

The Basics of Domain Name Registration

The first thing you have to do is come up with a good domain name for registration. Don’t even think about a one-word domain name; they’re all gone at this point. Instead, come up with dual-word combos. If you’re putting together a professional site, try your name before anything else.

Don’t get fancy with spelling when selecting your domain name registration, or use 2s and 8s to represent their sounds. You can try the number 1; that sometimes works. You can also try the names of products you offer, or a description of your site content offerings: Romanceforgirls, popcornpalace, fluffykittens. Memorable is always better; short and memorable is best, but very difficult to accomplish.

Come up with a couple of dozen names that will do for your site, and test them on a registry. Don’t buy a domain name for which the .com extension is gone, but you have access to the .net or .info. These domain names are not by any means as valuable as the .com. If you pick up the .com, though, and you expect the site to be lucrative or have a lot of competition, it’s not a bad idea to pick up the other extensions as well. Domain name registration is NOT expensive, and if you register in bulk you can get an even better price.

The .UK Extension

This doesn’t mean you should avoid anything but .com. If you have a business in the United Kingdom, you have access to the .uk domain name set, which UK customers are likely to look at before anything else for UK-specific businesses.

If you anticipate most of your business will come from British customers who are aware your business is in Britain, the .uk extension may be a better choice than the .com; and if your customers are unhappy with Internic’s control of Internet domain registration or they are very pro-Britain, the .uk extension is certainly a better choice.

If you’re fortunate enough to find both extensions for your domain open, and if you run a British company, it doesn’t cost much to buy them both, and you definitely should.

It also gives your online presence an immediate “identity” geographically which can be crucial in building online relationships- where trust is a key component. By being a .UK domain, you are very likely to gain UK clients.

The .UK domains market is one of the fastest growing and lucrative registration areas on the internet.

Tips for Domain Name Registration

Have a website ready to plunk into your domain as soon as you buy it, and submit it immediately to the search engines. The search engines take time to index new sites and your domain name registration is only as valuable as the search engines make it.

You can also have more than one domain name pointing at a single site. If you’ve bought multiple extensions for your domain name (as in the previously-suggested .com/.uk combination), you can set up your site under one domain name and then direct traffic from the others to the main site. This is called web traffic forwarding and has been around for years. It may be as simple as parking your domain name on a server and putting a line of code on the page, or as complex as going through another website to use their online web forwarding services.

When you do register a domain and start building traffic to it, go out and renew for multiple years before your renewal is due. It is surprisingly easy to forget to register your domain name on time, and if someone else sneaks in and registers it, you’ve just lost a ton of work on that domain.

By making your domain name memorable, you will help other webmasters remember your site easily when building anchor texts in their links- a crucial component of SEO.

Final tip: don’t just think about price when looking for a domain registration company- also think about quality of service. While you shouldn’t be paying over the odds, it really is better to be safe than sorry and go with the more established registrars. Then you can have peace of mind that should any problems arise, you will be well looked after.

Adrian Lawrence is the webmaster for www.discountdomainsuk.com a leading Domain Registration Service

Photorefractive keratectomy (PRK) is a laser eye surgery procedure that is carried out with the key intent to correct a patient’s vision. PRK permanently changes the shape of the frontal corneal tissue using an excimer laser, which is a high-precision ultraviolet chemical laser. The outer layer of the cornea (epithelium) is removed, and then a small amount of the corneal tissue is burnt off using the laser. Such an ablation renders the desired shape to the cornea and allows for optimal refraction.

PRK is a technologically advanced surgical procedure. For instance, a computer system tracks the eye position around 4,000 times per second, redirecting laser pulses for precise ablation. As mentioned above, the epithelium is removed prior to ablation. This does not hamper the patient’s vision, since the epithelium is a soft and regenerating layer, which is capable of completely replacing itself within a matter of days. However, the deeper layers, once burnt off, will remain that way because they possess limited regenerative capability. This theory is the cornerstone of the Photorefractive keratectomy surgical procedure.

PRK differs from LASIK in a way that the epithelium is removed in PRK and allowed to regenerate. On the other hand, LASIK does not involve epithelium removal. Instead it consists of cutting a flap in the cornea in order to make the desired incisions. Compared to LASIK, a patient who has undergone PRK experiences more pain and recovery is slow. However, both procedures are similar in the respect that they make use of a laser.

Photorefractive keratectomy is a viable procedure, but it does have possible complications. Apart from slow recovery and pain, the patient may experience glares and halos. As in any refractive surgery, there is a possibility of over- or under-correction. Eye surgeons typically perform PRK on one eye at a time, in order to gauge the results of the procedure and ensure its efficacy.

In a majority of cases, PRK has proven to be a safe and efficacious procedure to correct myopia. However, since the procedure is irreversible, it is recommended that the patient consults an eye doctor instead of jumping on a conclusion.

You will find the Directory of LASIK Surgeons useful. Nicola Kennedy publishes articles and reports and provides news, views and information about alternatives to LASIK eye surgery at Your Lasik Information.

Copyright www.Your-LASIK.info All rights reserved. This article may be reprinted in full so long as the resource box and the live links are included intact.

The launch of the US Oil Fund (ticker: USO) gave investors an easy way to invest in the hottest commodity of the day: oil. Still reeling from the post-Katrina boom that has kept gas prices over $2.00 a gallon, investors bought over five million shares in the ETF’s first day.

The concept is an easy sell: it’s a fund that invests in oil contracts with the purpose of mirroring the value of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light, sweet crude oil at a ratio of one barrel contract per share. One share, one barrel.

Easy, right?

Riiiiiiiight…

The Well-Known Risks of Commodities

Everyone knows about the risks of investing in commodities, but it is worth repeating the main points.

Commodities prices fluctuate quickly and widely. An announcement from any OPEC country could send oil prices up or down 10% within minutes. With every word spoken by the prime minister of Iran oil pushes upward.

Oil investments are also subject to operational risks: environmental hazards such as oil spills, leaks, fires and discharges of toxic chemicals.

This is not rational long-term investing. This is short-term, profit-taking trading, and it should be treated as such.

Commodities have long been considered a hedge against market fluctuations, not a primary holding. Now they are suddenly an investment strategy. Any commodity — oil, gold, pork bellies — should be considered a hedge against a bond or equity market downturn.

Like gold and other commodities, oil futures have enjoyed a long bull market in the post 9-11 world, but commodities and hard assets tend toward modest gains over the long term. And they are all subject to sudden, harsh corrections.

Specific Risks of the Oil ETF (USOF)

Though any commodity investment involves certain general risks, the US OIL Fund (USOF) ETF has specific risks that make it particularly unstable.

1. Price Risk – This is the risk that the NAV of the fund will not equal the price of WTI light, sweet crude, as the fund intends. The fund’s prospectus outlines three reasons why this could happen:

2. Market Risk – The trading price per share of the ETF may not correlate with the value of the NAV, which is calculated by dividing the total value of the fund’s assets by the number of shares. The ETF, then, could trade at a premium (more than the underlying assets are worth) or a discount (less than the value of the underlying assets).
3. Management Risk – The NAV may not match the value of the benchmark oil contract. The underlying assets of the fund, then, could stray from the value of the contracts the fund trades.
4. Futures Arbitrage Risk – The price of the benchmark does not closely correlate with the price of WTI light, sweet crude. In this case, futures contracts may differ in price from the underlying asset (barrels).

   Any one of these risks would be enough to make USOF a questionable investment, but there’s more…

5. Strategy Risk – Rather than profit from speculative short-term futures trading, the USOF tries to track the price of the underlying assets (oil), using futures contracts. This is all to be carried out by the General Partner (manager), Victoria Bay Asset Management, described in the prospectus as “lean staffed,” which “relies heavily on key personnel to manage trading.” As the prospectus notes, “there is no assurance that the General Partner will successfully implement this investment strategy.” Like stocks, futures contracts can be over- or undervalued with respect to their underlying assets. Further, the fund can be manipulated by short-term trading tactics (i.e. short selling). This fund’s reliance on a “lean-staffed” manager which does not actively manage the fund’s assets, but rather attempts to track an index price, does not bode well for the fund.

Legal Risks
Aside from the organizational risks, the USOF has two outstanding legal claims to contend with.

1. NYMEX – The New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) is the exchange through which WTI light, sweet crude is traded. As the publisher of the price of that asset, NYMEX is challenging USOF’s use of the price as a benchmark. NYMEX is seeking a licensing agreement with the fund, or threatening legal action to prevent the fund from using it as a benchmark. According to the prospectus, “USOF is unable to determine what the outcome from this matter will be…This may adversely affect USOF’s ability to achieve its investment objective.”

2. Goldman Sachs – One of the world’s largest investment banks, Goldman Sachs, has two patents pending which may be infringed upon by the fund’s methodology. Both patents define a means for creating a pooled fund that trades futures contracts and issues the equity interest of the fund to investors through publicly traded shares. Should the patents be granted, USOF may be held liable for patent infringement, if it were to “operate as currently contemplated after the patents were issued.” If either of these patants is granted, the fund may be liable for royalties, which would come from the fund’s assets.

These are complicated matters for attorneys in the specialized areas of Intellectual Property and Finance, and this author is unqualified to make a determination as to the merits of the claims made. As investors, however, we are all qualified to say, “nope, too much risk for me.” Pure oil contracts are less risky than this fund. Should USOF be held liable for either of these claims, any damages or royalties will be taken directly from the fund’s investors, which could negatively affect performance by 4-5 basis points (0.4%-0.5% annually, which can negate any positive performance or exacerbate the losses of a hedging investment).

Conflicts of Interest

The fund makes no bones about it: a whole section of its prospectus is entitled, “The General Partner Has Conflicts of Interest.” The management of this fund has other investment interests that may be of more importance (to them) than this fund. “For example,” it states, “a conflict may arise because the General Partner and its principal and affiliates may trade for themselves.”

Essentially, this is an open invitation for the management to prioritize their own holdings (and holdings they have a vested interest in) over the USOF holdings.

Better Options Abound

Usually there are better options around, no matter what you’re looking at. But when it comes to USOF, there are few worse options.

The management has not proven itself as a consistent performer. The underlying commodity is near an all-time high. The strategy is subject to pending legal decisions.

There are better options in mutual funds that specialize in commodities producers. And even these funds should not comprise more than 5% of an individual’s portfolio.

If you still feel the need to invest in the “pure oil play” that’s getting all the press these days, please read The Prospectus before investing.

B. Patrick Regan is a freelance writer and a staff writer at StocksAndMutualFunds.com. He had no vested interest in any securities discussed in this article at the time of publication.

Establishing a good FICO credit score isn’t all that difficult; all you have to do is pay your bills on time. But if you have a bad credit score from a history of not paying your bills promptly, repairing your score and building it up to a level where you can get competitive loan rates can take time. It can take several years of paying your bills on time to build up your score and it can take seven years to wipe out a judgment or a bankruptcy from your credit report. Most consumers, understandably, would rather not wait that long and there is not shortage of companies that promise to repair credit quickly.

Several companies are offering dramatic increases in credit scores of up to 200 points in as little as 60 days using something known as “seasoned credit.” The concept is simple – if you are added to the credit account of someone with good credit as a cosigner, that good credit will add to your own credit score. What these companies do, for fees ranging up to $5000, is arrange to add your name as a cosigner to the accounts of willing participants who have good credit of their own.

Adding a cosigner to an account isn’t illegal; husbands and wives add each other to their own accounts all the time. What is illegal about this scheme is that it is a deliberate effort to manipulate credit reports and credit scores. If it is done for purposes of qualifying for a loan for which the borrower otherwise wouldn’t qualify, such as for a mortgage, it constitutes fraud.

In addition to the questionable legality of the practice, there are some other reasons why this sort of credit “repair” should not be attempted. The idea of having someone else’s credit rub off on you works both ways. Customers of these companies have no idea whose accounts their names are being attached to, and if those customers stop paying their bills, then their credit score will go down along with yours. None of this is under your control; you are stuck with whomever they stick you with. Since these companies advertise that once your score increases, you can become part of their “good credit network”, it only stands to reason that you may have your name attached to that of a person who only recently had a bad payment history, too.

Increasing your credit score by 200 or more points in 60 days’ time sounds like a great idea. But the risks of paying someone thousands of dollars to do it for you are great. It is better to build your credit the old fashioned way by taking your time.

©Copyright 2006 by Retro Marketing. Charles Essmeier is the owner of Retro Marketing, a firm devoted to informational Websites, including End-Your-Debt.com, a site devoted to debt consolidation, credit counseling, payday loans and personal bankruptcy.