posted from https://www.dumblittleman.com/why-you-should-ignore-your-horoscope/

Do you read horoscopes? If so, you could be wasting not just your time but your precious brain cells, too. Come on, do you really believe that half a billion people in the world are going to have the same day/week/month?

Your horoscope isn’t exactly personalized. It applies to a twelfth of the world’s population. Horoscope writers use a lot of tricks to make you believe what they’ve said.

Here are some of the most common ones:

We Believe A Personality Analysis – Even If It Doesn’t Really Apply To Us

A famous experiment was carried out in 1948 by the psychologist Bertram R. Forer. He gave his students a personality test and gave them the exact same “results” which he’d assembled from horoscopes:

“You have a need for other people to like and admire you, and yet you tend to be critical of yourself. While you have some personality weaknesses you are generally able to compensate for them. You have considerable unused capacity that you have not turned to your advantage. Disciplined and self-controlled on the outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure on the inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You also pride yourself as an independent thinker; and do not accept others’ statements without satisfactory proof. But you have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, and sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, and reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be rather unrealistic.”

The students were asked to rate the personality profile’s accuracy from 1 to 5, with 5 being the most accurate rating. Guess what?

The average rating was 4.26- despite the fact that every single student had received exactly the same rating. This has been dubbed the Forer effect and it’s been borne out by study after study ever since 1948.

So, if you have one of those key rings that tells you your personality based on your star sign or name, ignore it.

We Give Too Much Importance To Co-incidences

You might be reading this and thinking “but, my horoscope has come true on several occasions!”

Well, I’m afraid that’s just an example of subjective validation. It means that you pick up on co-incidences and assign them an incorrect meaning. This particularly happens when it’s something that has personal meaning to you or when you want it to be more than a co-incidence.

Think of it this way:

Have you ever had that experience when the phone rings, you think “It’ll be John” and it is? Spooky, huh? But what about all the times when you think “It’ll be John” but it wasn’t?

You probably forgot all about those.

Horoscopes Use Vague Statements and Generalizations

Here are a few statements taken from typical horoscopes-all from the Daily Mail newspaper:

• There will be ups and downs financially with nothing going quite to plan.
• But if you can give yourself space to ponder, you may be able to answer one or two questions which have been bothering you recently. Nothing superficial will really help so you will need to focus and get right down to the nitty gritty.
• You won’t suffer fools or slow coaches gladly and will express yourself firmly but forcefully at times. Just don’t go a step too far since you may want support when you get into a muddle towards mid month.

Notice anything in common?

These statements could apply to anyone:

Aren’t everyone’s finances up and down, especially during current times?

DLM readers probably know that getting to the heart of tricky questions in life involves focusing and pondering, not just looking for a quick fix. This is good advice, but why on earth would it only apply to one particular star sign?

Do any of us suffer fools and slow coaches gladly? And don’t we all get into a muddle on a regular basis? “Towards mid month” is vague enough to cover at least a ten or twelve day period, too.

The Big Reason You Shouldn’t Place Your Trust In Horoscopes

 

Even if you’re a horo-sceptic like me, imagine for a moment that you do believe every word of a horoscope or personality profile. You could end up hugely limiting yourself because of it.

For example, if your horoscope warns of money problems ahead, you might get anxious or even use it as an excuse to spend unnecessarily, thinking that hard times are inevitable.

One of the horoscopes I looked at included the line: “You’ll occupy yourself happily spending money on all manner of frivolities since you reckon you need pampering.”

Now, how many of us have the self-discipline not to use this as an excuse to think “Yes, my horoscope is right. I should buy that new CD/shirt/game even though I want to pay off my loans”.

You could be subconsciously sabotaging yourself because you believe in a nonsense personality profile.

Perhaps, you think you’re an impetuous and sometimes angry person, because of your star sign. This is preventing you from dealing with your hot-headed nature (which might be half-imagined anyway). Or maybe you think that you’re shy, because your star sign’s always told you so and you’ve never made an effort to overcome this.

None of us are “stuck” with our foibles. We can all improve ourselves, break bad habits, and establish good ones. Instead of reading horoscopes, find some truly worthwhile reading (Dumb Little Man is a great place to start – and the blogs linked to in the Blender) that can actually help you improve your life.

What do you think about horoscopes? Whether you agree with me completely or think I’m an idiot, let me know your views in the comments!

See Also: How to Control Your Luck

The post Why You Should Ignore Your Horoscope appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

posted from https://wealthygorilla.com/colin-firth-net-worth/

Introduction  Colin Firth is an English actor who has received an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, two BAFTA Awards, and three Screen Actors Guild Awards.  As of 2019, Colin Firth’s net worth is roughly $25 Million dollars.   Early Life Colin Andrew Firth was born on the 10th of September, 1960, in England. Firth […]

The post Colin Firth Net Worth appeared first on Wealthy Gorilla.

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“Understanding is love’s other name. If you don’t understand you can’t love.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

I recently attended a weekend workshop, and there was a man in the group who always had a strange look on his face whenever we had to look for a partner to work with. I noticed that some people avoided him, like they didn’t want to work with him. Perhaps it was the vibe he gave off because of the way he looked at people.

At some point later in the weekend I sat with him. It was hard to put my finger on it, but there was something about him that did feel a little strange, and I could see that other people were put off by him.

After the weekend had finished, we happened to be sitting next to each other and started talking, which somehow led to him telling me that he is almost completely blind. With his contact lenses in he can see okay, but the low light of the room made it very hard for him to make out faces.

In that moment I understood. That was why he gave off a weird vibe—because he was having trouble seeing. The “look” he gave was simply a result of him trying to see and ultimately connect with someone.

The internal label I’d given him of “strange” dissolved in an instant, and in that same moment I felt an opening in my heart. It was an unconditional level of understanding that brought with it a sense of peace and connection.

Understanding and Letting Go

We often get frustrated or angry with the people around us, projecting our emotions and frustrations onto them when we don’t understand them. The moment we understand, it can change our whole attitude, creating a space of opening.

Imagine you’re driving your car, and the car in front of you starts slowing down. You don’t know why they’re slowing down, so you get frustrated and possibly impatient. Maybe you start verbalizing your frustration, or perhaps you even honk your horn in an effort to release some of your tension.

Then you see an elderly woman crossing the road, moving very slowly.

In that moment your frustration softens, because you now understand why the driver in front of you was slowing down. They saw something you didn’t.

We can take understanding in this example even further. You also understand the woman moving slowly. Perhaps you have a mother or grandmother who moves slowly, or you realize that one day, as you age, this could be you, and you’d appreciate drivers slowing down for you. Or maybe you’re young but injured.

Understanding creates a mental shift enabling us to replace reactive emotions and disconnection with compassion and connection.

Understanding Is a State of Mind

Understanding is more than something we do, as in trying to understand someone else’s perspective or how they feel. Yes, this is part of it, but understanding is also a state of mind that we can cultivate. Just like joy, enthusiasm, sadness, or frustration are states of mind that govern the way we experience life.

When we feel joyous, we think, act, and respond to life in a certain way—joyfully. When we feel frustrated, we think, act, and react to life in a different way—finding reasons to justify our frustration everywhere.

Understanding is a state of mind that makes us feel more peaceful, compassionate, and connected, creating an attitude of “us” as opposed to a “me vs. you” mentality.

When we proactively nurture an understanding mindset, we approach people with openness—even if they’re difficult—because we’re committed to always looking beneath the surface instead of making judgments and assumptions.

We may not always know why someone acts the way they do. But an attitude of understanding does not actually require us to know the exact details of other people’s story.

Understanding at its deepest level is just like love—an unconditional understanding of another’s humanness. We don’t have to know their story, but we can appreciate they’re going through the human experience, just like us.

Cultivating an Attitude of Understanding

There are various ways to cultivate understanding in your life, but I’d love to share a reflective exercise here to help you understand and connect more deeply to yourself and humanity.

Think of a time when you lost it. A situation when you got angry or frustrated. Maybe a family member did something that really upset you, or maybe someone undermined you at work. The reason why does not matter here; you’re not trying to justify it, and you’re definitely not judging it as right or wrong.

When you have that memory in mind, just feel it. Feel the sensations in your body—the intensity, the heat, or the thoughts and emotions that come with it. If it’s uncomfortable, that’s okay.

Don’t try and change it. Just feel it.

As you feel it, notice that in that moment you were unable to maintain peace inside yourself.

We can’t be at peace inside while reacting with anger.

I’m not suggesting there should be a suppression of anger in any way. This is about recognizing the truth of what’s happening inside us when we react with anger. When it happens unconsciously there’s nothing we can do about it—the result being we act mindlessly. But when we consciously pay attention, we deepen our self-awareness, and this gives us the opportunity to choose how we act.

I had an experience at a coffee shop where I was returning my drink because they’d made the wrong one. When I told the woman at the cashier they’d made the wrong order she was quite rude, and told me bluntly, “That’s what you ordered!”

It caught me by surprise. Her attitude made me feel like I was being accused of something I didn’t do. I could feel myself getting angry and ready to defend myself.

I felt a wave of intensity come up inside me.

As I was about to react and get into an argument with her, there was a moment where instead of feeling my anger, I could feel she was stressed. Something was bothering her, even before our interaction. I don’t know what it was, but it was enough for me to pause, reflect, and understand that we often don’t know what’s causing someone to act the way they do. We can never know what’s happened in their lives just before we began interacting with them.

There are so many different reasons why someone might be stressed or upset—an argument or breakup, chronic back pain, the death of a loved one, or inability to pay their mortgage to name a few possible explanations.

That moment of understanding her human nature allowed me to let go of my reaction. I’d taken her reaction personally, and it put me in a state of “you vs. me” where I was ready to fight to defend myself. And I would have felt quite justified in doing so because I felt falsely accused. But if I had, it would’ve just been me reacting to her reaction, and we likely would have ended up in an argument.

Reaction versus reaction = conflict.

The world is already so full of conflict. If we want to create more peace in the world, we have to choose not to take things personally and instead respond with understanding, compassion, connection, and peace.

I’m not suggesting it’s easy, but I believe moments like these offer an opportunity to live from our heart when a natural reaction is conflict.

For me, in this case, the shift to understanding opened my heart and created a sense of peace and connection to the woman.

She must have felt it on some level, because without me pushing back at her with my own reaction, she also softened. Something dropped, and she simply asked the barista to make me a new beverage.

Whatever was bothering her before was still there, but I could feel she wasn’t projecting it outward onto me.

A moment of understanding can change everything.

The World Needs More Love (Understanding)

We often judge or complain about other people’s actions, but if we can pause and be honest with ourselves, we’ll realize we often do something of a similar nature ourselves.

Everyone has different life stories and traumas that condition their unique personality, but we all experience moments when we’re unable to maintain peace inside, so even though we may not know someone’s exact story, we’re still capable of understanding.

Instead of wasting our energy judging or complaining about others, we can put ourselves in their shoes and understand that we struggle with similar emotional challenges. This allows us to be more present and compassionate, cultivate deeper self-awareness, and connect on a human level.

Imagine a world where more people chose understanding and truth rather than reaction and conflict.

But ultimately imagining it is not enough; it’s a good start, but we need to act. We need to live and engage life from our heart.

“Understanding is love’s other name…”

“Understanding is an avenue into love. It’s also an expression of love in action. When we enter into understanding we are entering into love… and “When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.” ~Jimi Hendrix

What kind of a world do you want to live in?

Will you choose understanding instead of reaction today?

Get in the conversation! Click here to leave a comment on the site.

The post Understanding Is Love (and the World Needs More Love) appeared first on Tiny Buddha.

posted from https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/3-foolproof-ways-you-can-win-in-the-online-space/

Lets take a second and remind ourselves how revolutionary the Internet is… we can buy a $200 plane ticket, fly 18 hours away to a new place, and still have the connection to people back home (and around the world), as if we never left! But to experience this revolution, we first need to show up.

Showing up is 90% of the battle. If we show up, we can connect with others, express ourselves, share information, create memories, and incubate ideas. We can share laughter, spread joy, and transfer energy. If you’re nodding your head in agreement, you are already on your way to understanding how you can WIN in the online space.

In this Influencers Exposed Podcast episode, Joel breaks down three foolproof ways you can win in the online space…ways that aren’t talked about as much but should be.

1. Embrace your vision as unique and authentic: There is only one you

You and your friend can walk into a bar with all variables the same (same outfit, intention, knowledge), but experience something completely different. Why? Because you’re two different people. It’s as simple as that.

The beauty of authenticity (a potentially cliché word that many might not thing they embody) is that your perspectives, your life experiences, and your emotions are the reasons why you and your friend will walk out of that bar having two completely different stories to tell.

Joel elaborates on this concept in the episode, sharing how this perspective has been a huge proponent as to how he gets over impostor syndrome while consistently sharing online. So the next time you want to post about something but already saw someone else talk about it, remember how your delivery and perspective of that information is unique and authentic to YOU. It will resonate with those who will most likely turn into followers and friends.

2. Shift from comparison to curiosity: Find the inspiration and greatness within others

Lets bring ourselves back to our childhood years where we questioned everything, asking, “Why?” so many times that our parents had no choice but to keep coming up with answers until we got tired. Well, fast forward to our adult years, why don’t we approach social media and those that are successful in our areas of interest in the same curious manner?

Instead of looking through your feed and comparing where they are, what they have, what they’re doing, or how happy they look compared to your current situation, Joel shares the question he asks himself to turn the tables.

“Where is the inspiration and greatness within them that I can find in myself? If I learn those things, would I be able to get to my vision sooner?”

I challenge you to ask yourself these questions next time you feel less than or unhappy while consuming someone’s content. You might just evolve from comparison to curiosity. Scarcity mindset to abundant mindset. Unhappy state of being to joyful and empowered state of being. You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

3. Zero-structure sharing: Stop forcing it and just do it when it feels right

Oh the beauty and satisfaction in a cohesive feed. You know what I’m talking about… you go to someone’s profile (on Instagram) and the Lightroom presets are on point, every third picture is a quote, followed by a nice picture and vulnerable caption, and then another picture with an informative caption. It’s visually appealing, and your OCD is satisfied. But just like with anything else in this world, after a while, doing the same thing gets old, boring and uninspiring.

Joel shared his experience with this exact social media strategy and how it led to his current  ‘zero-structure sharing’ approach. He realized that his vulnerable captions were becoming a burden because they had to be scheduled, therefore feeling forced and less authentic. Since one of his core values in delivering content to his audience is to remain genuine and transparent, he broke the pattern.

The result? When inspiration or a moment of vulnerability struck, he would post about it. Whether it was three times a week or once every other week, Joel elaborated how much more effective this was through the feedback of his followers. Not only did this zero-structure sharing make Joel feel more in alignment with his message, but his followers and community benefited from it immensely as well!

Posting on a certain topic when it feels right is the most authentic and vulnerable we can get. It’s a bonus that it is most effective for others as well.

Listen to the full episode at the top of this article to hear even more from Joel about how you can kick-start your self-development journey, along with perspectives he never talked about until now.

If you enjoyed this episode and blog post or if you have anything to add, please leave a comment below!

RESOURCES:

Connect with Joel:

Instagram- @iamjoelbrown

Website- iamjoelbrown.com

Monthly Mindset Mentorship Program: mindstrongalliance.com

Connect with Alexis:

Instagram- @alexisquiterio

EPISODE LINK:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/influencers-exposed-podcast/id1469424090?i=1000448471071

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The post Six First Income Streams Recommended for Bloggers appeared first on ProBlogger.

This post is based on episode 198 of the ProBlogger podcast.

If you’ve been blogging for a while but haven’t started monetizing your blog, you might be wondering what income stream you should add first.

This can be a sticking point, whether you’re a new blogger or have been blogging for a while.

There’s no one “perfect” income stream to start with (though I’ll be making a recommendation at the end of this post about the one that suits most blogs).

What you pick will depend on your topic, your audience, and more.

Different Factors Affecting the Income Stream You Choose

Your Topic: Some income streams suit certain topics better than others. For instance, bloggers writing about spirituality or politics often find advertising doesn’t work so well.

What Your Readers Want: Your reader’s intent matters too. If they’re on your site because they want information, it might make sense to sell them an information product. If they’re on your site to connect with others, they might instead be willing to subscribe to a membership community.

Your Audience Size: As your blog grows, so will your income from most income streams. Some income streams won’t really work at all with a small audience, particularly Google AdSense.

Your Readers’ Location: If you have a lot of local readers, that can lead to specific opportunities such as selling advertising to local readers. If your audience is global, something like Amazon’s affiliate program might work well for you.

The Source of Your Traffic: Some types of traffic monetize differently from others. For instance, traffic from search engines can be a good fit for Google AdSense, but traffic from social media might convert well into affiliate product sales. Email works really well if you’re selling a product.

Six Different Income Streams You Could Try

#1: Amazon’s Affiliate Program

Amazon’s affiliate program is called “Amazon Associates”, and it attracts some mixed feelings from bloggers. (If you’re not sure what an affiliate program is, we’ll be coming to that in a moment.)

One issue with Amazon Associates is it’s simply not available for some people. Amazon won’t let you join if you’re in certain states due to tax laws. And Amazon isn’t available at all in some parts of the world.

But most of the complaints I hear are that Amazon’s commission isn’t very high (it’s normally 4%, though it can be higher on certain products) and that the affiliate cookie only lasts for 24 hours.

Personally, I find the Amazon Associates program works well for me, particularly on Digital Photography School.

There are a number of reasons for this:

• We have a very US-based audience that knows, likes and trusts Amazon.
• Some of the products we promote are high-value ones (e.g. $2,000 cameras). And even 4% commission on those quickly adds up.
• Amazon will give you a cut of everything a person someone buys within 24 hours of following your link. I often get commissions from people buying books, cosmetics, jewellery, and even nappies (diapers).
• Amazon’s links are easy to integrate into a blog, and they provide a number of tools and widgets you can use.
• Amazon is really well optimised for holidays such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, so you can promote special deals at these times.

While Amazon won’t be a perfect fit for every blog, it’s a good first option as you can be up and running with Amazon affiliate links in just a few minutes.

Further Reading:

The Ultimate Guide to Making Money with the Amazon Affiliate Program

How I Made over $500,000 With the Amazon Affiliate Program (podcast episode)

#2: Other Affiliate Programs

Being an “affiliate” for a product means you recommend it to your readers and get a commission each time someone buys that product. You’ll get an “affiliate link” to the product with a special tracking code so your commission can be correctly credited to you.

There are a huge number of affiliate programs out there, and you can promote almost anything. For instance, my wife Vanessa has a style fashion blog where she promotes a number of different physical products. She also writes about books and recommends those using affiliate links to Australian stores (as most of her readers are Australian).

Some online stores have their own affiliate program, but many will use an affiliate network such as Commission Junction, Commission Factory, ShareASale or LinkShare. These work well for bloggers, as your commission from several different stores can be pooled together into one payout (so long as they’re all on the same network).

If your topic isn’t a good fit for physical products, you can promote virtual products that are often information based such as ebooks, ecourses or membership sites. Some of these will pay quite a high commission, with 50% considered normal.

You can also promote software products. On ProBlogger, for instance, we recommend hosting options, tools, landing page sites, plugins, WordPress themes, and so on.

Many of those affiliate networks will have software products, too. Other good options here are the networks Clickbank and E-junkie.

Whatever you’re promoting, make sure it’s a product that’s on topic and matches what your readers want to buy. You should also be sure it’s high-quality and something you’re happy to be associated with through your recommendation.

Further Reading:

My Tips for Making Money As a Blogger Through Affiliate Marketing (podcast episode)

How to Use Affiliate Programs to Boost Your Income Stream

#3: Join an Advertising Network

I see a lot of bloggers start out this way, particularly those who’ve already built a bit of an audience. Advertising doesn’t work well if your audience is very small, as you won’t get more than a few cents from it.

One popular option is Google’s AdSense network. Some bloggers don’t like it because they find they don’t make much money for it. My experience is that you need a lot of traffic, and it works best with US audiences.

Another good network to try is Mediavine. There are some restrictions on who can join based on your traffic and niche. But the bloggers I know who got accepted say they do a lot better from it than from AdSense.

Mediavine doesn’t represent some categories (e.g. politics and religion), and your blog should fit into one of these areas: food, parenting, DIY, health, fitness, fashion, travel, crafts, education, entertainment.

You’ll need to have 25,000 “sessions” (visits to your site) each month as measured by Google Analytics. If you have less, you might not get accepted.

Further Reading:

AdSense Turns 10 Years Old: Why I’m Grateful for it!

How I Diversified My Blogging Income Beyond Having All My Eggs in the AdSense Basket

#4: Sponsorship

This is a slightly different type of advertising where you find a brand that’s willing to work with you directly, cutting out the “middle man” of an advertising network. Again, you’ll need some traffic for this to work.

There are a variety of ways you could sell sponsorship. For instance, you might offer:

• A banner ad on your blog
• A sponsored post (written by you or the sponsor)
• A sponsored giveaway or competition on your blog

With Digital Photography School, we often offer sponsors a “bundle” of different things – perhaps a banner ad on the blog and in the newsletter, some social media promotion and a competition.

Further Reading:

Partnering With Brands Theme Week: Advertising 101

One Screenshot You Must Include When Pitching a Sponsored Post

#5: Creating Products

Up to this point, the methods I’ve shared are all about promoting other people’s products – either as an affiliate or by working with them as an advertiser or sponsor. These methods all involve sending people away from your site to buy someone else’s product.

That works well, especially when you’re starting out. But another option is to create your own product that you sell through your blog.

This takes quite a lot of work, particularly if you’re going to sell a physical product that needs to be designed and manufactured. Even a virtual product such as an ebook takes time to create.

My first product was an ebook, which included some previously published posts along with some extra material. It took me three or four months to create it and get it ready to sell.

Selling your own product works best if you’ve got an engaged audience rather than a lot of fleeting traffic from search engines. Ideally, you want to get your readers onto an email list, because email is a great way to sell products.

If you’ve already built up an audience, and your readers are engaged and interested, a product could be a great first income stream. You can include your readers in the development of the product. They could even help fund it through a site such as Kickstarter.

Further Reading:

9 Key Ingredients for Creating the Perfect Sales Page

Creating a Product Library for Your Blog (podcast episode)

#6: Selling Your Services

The final income stream you might try when you first monetize is selling your services. This could be linked to an existing business (e.g. if you’re an accountant, a lawyer, or a child behaviour therapist), or you could start providing a new service that relates to your blog.

One avenue many bloggers go down is to freelance on related topics. For instance, if you’ve got a fashion blog, you could write copy for fashion site. If you’ve got a parenting blog, you might be able to land a column with a parenting magazine.

When I did a recent survey of about 100 full-time bloggers, I found more than half of them offered freelancing services such as writing, consulting, and coaching. So that’s another option to consider when you’re starting to monetize.

Further Reading:

How to Earn Extra Money Freelancing While Starting a Blog

10 Tips to Help You Land a Job as a Freelance Blogger

Which Income Stream Should You Try First?

The options we’ve been through are:

• Amazon’s affiliate program
• Other affiliate programs
• Advertising networks
• Sponsorship
• Creating a product
• Providing a service

Any of these could make a great first income stream for your blog. But if you’re not sure which one to choose, I suggest going for affiliate marketing (either with Amazon or with another brand).

Affiliate marketing has a very low barrier to entry. Many programs will approve you instantly. You can get links straight away to put into your blog posts.

While you might not make a lot of money from affiliate marketing in the early days, you’ll learn a lot. You’ll see which products your audience are interested in buying. You’ll discover whether they prefer physical or virtual products, or whether they’re more likely to buy high-priced or low-priced ones. This can help you work out what type of product you might want to create.

Affiliate marketing can also help you to figure out which brands might become sponsors for your blog. For instance, if you find jewellery does well on your blog, you might reach out to some jewellery stores or manufacturers.

A Couple of Important Things to Remember

Remember, making money from blogging takes time. It’s not a get-rich-quick scheme. Most bloggers have more than one income stream, particularly if they’re blogging full-time. Many will also have tried some things that didn’t work for them.

So if the first income stream you try doesn’t work for you, hang in there and keep experimenting.

And while some bloggers talk about “passive income”, making money from your blog isn’t really passive. You’ll spend time building your audience, creating a product or building relationships, and so on.

So by all means experiment with income streams. But don’t do it at the expense of other important things, such as creating great content, engaging with your audience, and promoting your blog.

Image credit: lucas Favre

The post Six First Income Streams Recommended for Bloggers appeared first on ProBlogger.

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You're reading Protecting business Information, originally posted on Pick the Brain | Motivation and Self Improvement. If you're enjoying this, please visit our site for more inspirational articles.

Introduction

With the rapid growing of technology and information, protecting customer and business has become increasing important because hackers today target a lot of business from small to large size hoping to gain information about either the customer or the business so that they can sell the information and make a profit, this can, in turn, hurt the business and its reputation because the customer will no longer have trust in the business and will leave the business to do business somewhere else. On top of that, the company that got compromised will also have to pay law suite money when going to court.

Protecting Business

It is simply not enough to rely on technology and services alone to protect business data because when it comes to information security, security is a process and not a technology. Technology can only help to protect the data but like all technology, it is only as good as the person show designed it. The IT specialist will have to innovate new idea and new ways to protect their business data and infrastructure. New product is always being invented to help IT professionals protect their organization data and one of them is called the Dell EMC Integrated Data Protection Appliance which according to Robb D. this device “is a pre-integrated appliance that is said to be simple to deploy” and it was designed to support a wide range of network and application including both physical and virtual platform. “It also supports multiple hypervisors and can extend to the public, private and hybrid cloud for long-term retention”. (June 2, 2017). Although relying on appliance to protect business data is a good idea, user must remember that one technology is not good enough to keep the data safe, the user must create other strategies to harden the network and service such as using the latest encryption technology and make sure the algorithm it provides is AES or advanced encryption standard which is the strongest encryption right now for any technology to encrypt network traffic.

Protecting Data at Rest

Protecting data at rest is another important strategy for securing data for any organization with information technology, and dealing with threat intelligence. While traffic moving through the network can be encrypted using Virtual Private Network, Firewall, and other appliance, it is also important to use encryption software to encrypt data at rest because when data that is stored on a hard drive or at a destination unencrypted, the hackers can use malware and other malicious software to copy and steal data. If the data is encrypted while it is sitting on a server or a hard drive, even if the hacker can make a copy of the data, it would still be very hard for the attacker to decrypt the data. One of the best encryption used by many small businesses and large enterprise today is the PGP or pretty good privacy algorithm and Symantec has developed a software that uses the PGP algorithm to help user encrypt their data stored on the server. If the business wants to save money and still want to use the PGP algorithm to protect their data, they can use a software called OpenPGP which is an opensource tool that works similar to Symantec that provides the same security and the best part about OpenPGP is that it is completely free to use for anyone. Anyone can take the source code, edit the software based on their business needs and compile the software to run with their system. According to OpenPGP “OpenPGP is the most widely used email encryption standard. It is defined by the OpenPGP Working Group of the Internet Engineering Task Force as a Proposed Standard in RFC4880” so using this will provide the same security measure and will meet government compliance for protecting corporate data.

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