Making Social Sites Safer

By Wendy Tanaka, Forbes.com

Maggie didn't always feel safe on MySpace. The 17-year-old New Rochelle, N.Y., resident used to receive lewd instant messages from a man who found her on the popular social networking site.

But after making a few changes to her profile recently, Maggie, who asked us not to publish her last name, got rid of the perpetrator and reclaimed her sense of security on the site. "I blocked the person's screen name, reported him on MySpace, changed my age to 99 and made my profile private," she says.

These small, common-sense actions can make a huge difference in safety on social networks, experts say. MySpace, Facebook and other social networks advocate taking such measures and post safety guidelines on their sites. While the majority of people on social networks are safe, a few high-profile cases of sexual predators and cyberbullying, such as the Missouri teen who committed suicide in 2006 after receiving taunting comments on her MySpace page, have prompted the industry to seek more ways to keep users out of harm's way.

At the behest of 49 states and the District of Columbia, MySpace in January agreed to implement a number of new safety policies. So far, MySpace has taken several steps, including creating an online tutorial to help parents better understand social networking and adding a software tool that allows parents to determine if their teens have a MySpace profile. In May, Facebook agreed to similar measures to make its site safer.

See: "Seven Tips For Keeping Kids Safe Online"

MySpace, the world's largest social network with more than 117 million monthly users, also created a task force to develop age and identity verification technology to protect minors from inappropriate behavior and content. In February, the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School was selected to head the task force, and two dozen other companies and organizations, including Facebook, Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ), Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) and the Progress and Freedom Foundation, joined the initiative.

The task force, which is working on recommending identity verification technologies that can be used in the industry, has met twice so far. The discussions have centered on whether identity technologies can make social sites safer, or whether consumer education works best. State attorneys general believe more technological solutions are necessary, but some task force members contend that identity technologies on the market aren't adequate. And even if they were better, they likely can't prevent every unwanted incident and they could block contact between friends and relatives.

"So, if he's 16 and she's 21, they shouldn't talk? Maybe they're brother and sister," says Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation.

Thierer also says that too many checks and restrictions could turn off users and hamper advertising on social networks. "There's only so far the sites can go before undermining their business and cutting off their customer base," he says. "At some point, it becomes an annoyance for users."

Both Facebook and MySpace, however, say safety improvements should make their sites more attractive to advertisers. "It makes users loyal and advertisers want to come to our site," says Chris Kelly, chief privacy officer at Facebook.

MySpace Chief Security Officer Hemanshu Nigam agrees that advertisers like secure sites. "Every advertiser wants to make sure its brand isn't tarnished on a particular site," he says.

The focus on identity technologies makes the assumption that sexual predators are the biggest safety problems for social networks, but cyberbullying is far more common. According to a recent report in the journal Pediatrics, a third of children age 10 to 15 said they have been verbally harassed online, while half as many reported being sexually solicited.

Larry Magid, co-director of task force member ConnectSafely.org, an Internet safety site for families, says most children who get involved with sexual predators understand the situation. "It appears that kids who do get in trouble with predators are high-risk kids," he says. "In one way or another, they are seeking out this attention."

Magid and Thierer say there should be more consumer education to prevent cyberbullying and more common-sense practices to ensure greater safety on social sites. "There are no easy technical fixes for complex human behavioral problems," Thierer says. "We need to teach kids 'Netiquette.' "

Parry Aftab, a former Internet lawyer who now runs WiredSafety.org, another task force member, says it's too early to say how the task force will handle all these issues. "It's going to take us a little while to gather everything together," she says. "When you're dealing with social issues, everyone comes at it with his own perspective. The most important thing to come out of this is a reality check: this is important, this isn't. Do a lay of the land and here's where we go."

Online Social Networks are Dangerous to Freedom - Play at Your Own Risk

By Lance Winslow

Whether an online social network is designed for business networking or fun socializing there are some things you need to be aware of. These networks reward an individual for compliance of behavior acceptable to the mob. Small clicks form, which soon turn into groups of pecking order and each group moves to force their will onto the larger group. Then there are disruptors, natural leaders, influencers and followers, indeed also a few unreasonable men. There are victims and villains, referees and attackers; and your experience can take you from emotional highs to thoughts questioning your strength of character.

All of this can occur for the participant in an online social network, a fake world of one's and zero's augmenting your reality in the here and now. As you experiment with these online social networks, you will see representations of both the best and worst of humanity, under the creative auspice of a so-called: "community" of other participants just like you, most real, but a few digital apparitions.

Either way you are there by choice and you can leave by choice. However, if you leave you miss a newly created part of you. Is it an addiction, or is it an innate need that is being satisfied by the digital online social networking platform? Humans have social needs; they are social creatures, after all. Yet the other side humanity is also ever present in online social networks, as much or even more so than within a troop of chimpanzees acting out in Primate Politics. And for all this, you are still so proud of yourself for your online social networking, and that my friends is the kicker.

You give up self, to participate in a fake world, where the political correctness of the mob eventually controls your every move, always waiting for a scrap of praise, or a reward signifying that you have complied in pleasing others. These others, who in turn give you false praise or condemnation in order to propel them selves up the social hierarchy ladder; all the while somehow forgetting that none of it is real. Whether you stay or you go, you are giving up self in the social "politically correct training" that these social networks are part. This digitized virtual reality pollutes your mind, steals your freedom and turns you into nothing more than a follower of the mindless mob - To this you aspire?

Have a wonderful Blogging Day, get yourself a drink, as there is no need to thank me for making you think.

"Lance Winslow" - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/ Lance Winslow's Bio

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lance_Winslow

Social Bookmarking and the Hub of Business

By Scott Lindsay

The act of social bookmarking is becoming something more than a potential tool for online marketing.

Many entrepreneurs are finding social media sites to place business information in an informal setting.

Once you finish developing your social media site the marketing potential is just beginning.
Obviously you hold out hope that visitors will drop by your online presence, but you may want to go fishing for friends.

In some social media environments you are allowed to make a 'friend' request while other sites invite you to bookmark sites of interest.

What Does It All Mean?
If you wonder why you should care about making or accepting a friend request or participate in bookmarking let me attempt to explain the process.

When you initiate a friend request to an individual or business you are familiar with it is possible that your social media page will be listed on this secondary site. In essence when someone visits this site they also have a compelling link to your site.

On sites where bookmarking is allowed this feature is often divided a second time. In this kind of site environment visitors can see who you have bookmarked or selected as friends, but they can also see how many others have chosen to bookmark your site.

Some social media sites provide their own inner site rankings based on the popularity of a site. If your site ranks well that also provides the opportunity to have your site publicized even more.
Social bookmarking is the process of establishing a network among peers, friends, family and interested guests.

This is an important component when it comes to the already established benefits of owning a social media site. In this environment you can invite guest comments, you can receive private inner site emails from those who may have questions and you can participate in blogging. In some cases you may even be allowed to post pictures, video or audio to enhance the experience of your site and promote your online business.

Connecting Links
Links can easily be established to your primary site where you can welcome visitors to a more business-oriented experience.

The reason so many online business owners are adopting the use of social networking sites is because they can be obtained at no cost in most cases. Each of these sites can be designed to point back to your primary website. In that way they are extremely useful in the promotion and marketing of your main business site. These ancillary sites also provide a valuable backlink to your online business presence that is useful in improving potential in site rankings. For every backlink to your primary website the greater trust most search engines place in your site.

Putting It All Together
In a practical sense social bookmarking provides a trail back to your social networking site. That process opens the map so the visitor can find their way directly to your business site. The process acts as spokes in a wheel. Social media sites are the spokes that, through backlinks, lead to your hub of business, which is where you want them to end up in the first place.

Make Your Own WebsiteBuild An Ecommerce WebsiteResell Ebooks

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Lindsay

What Is The Social Anxiety Disorder Cure?

By Ray Andrew

More than 19 million people in the United States have a social anxiety disorder and any one, including celebrities, can have it. Many people don't ask for help because they are embarrassed and afraid of asking for it.

The usual symptoms are: being afraid of meeting people, afraid of talking to strangers, avoidance social activities, wanting to be alone most of the time and life seems like it's a struggle every day because they don't know who are they going to have to talk to.

However, there is a cure for the disorder. It consists of changing your thought patterns for new ones and also changing your behavior to accept social interactions. Its not always easy but it can be done, you just need professional help and cognitive treatment.

There are people that use medications as a cure for their anxiety and depression, however those are just short term remedies. If you want to really get over this mental disorder, you need to put effort in to it. You need to try to meet new people and face your fears. If are too scared to do this on your own, then is better to go with a psychotherapist who he can help you and guide you.
Famous people have had social anxiety as well. Kim Basinger had a few panic attacks due to her anxiety problem, but after getting professional help she was able to overcome it.

If you really want to have a normal social life, then you need to seek help. Drugs, alcohol and anti depressants are not going to do you any good.

If ou want to know the ultimate social anxiety treatment and how you can overcome your problem visit: Medicines for social anxiety disorder at http://www.overcomingsocialanxiety.net
You can also read about: help for Christians with social anxiety disorder

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ray_Andrew

Are Facebook & MySpace OK at Work?

Perspective: Can Social Networking Coexist with the Workplace?
By Eric J. Sinrod, Partner, Duane Morris

With Facebook and MySpace.com participation growing by leaps and bounds, social-networking sites are making their way into the workplace, too.

Is that a good thing? Not necessarily, if you ask the employers who regularly block employee access to such sites.

Indeed, a recent analysis of data submitted by thousands of Barracuda Networks' Web Filter customers finds that about half the businesses using these filters are setting up blocks to MySpace, Facebook, and other such sites. Barracuda also reported that 21 percent of the businesses it surveyed actively monitor their employees' Internet activities.

Their chief concern is the potential damage from viruses or spyware, according to Barracuda. They cited the potential drain on employee productivity as a close second. What's more, employers will tell you that bandwidth issues and potential liability exposure are also convincing reasons to restrict certain Internet access by employees.

Nevertheless, businesses may learn eventually that the types of powerful communication tools now available for personal purposes on social-networking sites can be leveraged for perfectly appropriate and advantageous business uses. In fact, a number of business professionals already are communicating with one another on LinkedIn.com, a business-oriented social-networking site.

The challenge for employers is to find a way to defend against intrusions while fostering employee productivity. They want to limit potential liability even while offering the use of the most robust communication tools possible.

Hence the dilemma.

But this dilemma, over time, likely will be resolved. Once upon a time, businesses to some extent were very worried about any sort of Web access for employees. They feared that the hired help would spend the day surfing inappropriate sites, shopping online, and otherwise wasting company time--not to mention potentially leaking proprietary company information.

However, it is a fact of business life that companies that deploy the best and most effective means of communication will succeed. Thus, over time, companies have developed business equipment and computer policies. These policies specifically delineate for employees how they should--and should not--use the company's computers, networks, and e-mail. Employees are also asked to sign documents agreeing to follow such policies.

There have been problems, of course. Not every employee who has signed such an agreement has acted in concert with the company's Internet policies. Still, there is no question that companies that have embraced the Internet have benefited over those that have ignored the changes overtaking the business world.

Social-networking sites truly do provide robust features that provide a richer means of online communications. Rather than ban employees from using the medium, managers should think ahead how to turn it to their advantage. Careful thought should be given when considering the use of any networking features that could be detrimental to an enterprise. From there, policies can be crafted on a company-by-company basis to guide employees and gain their buy-in.

Yes, legal counsel likely should be consulted along the way, too. While this imposes some costs on the front end, the profitable proof will be in the pudding. Any company built to last will recognize this is an investment in its future.

Biography
Eric J. Sinrod is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris. His focus includes information technology and intellectual-property disputes. To receive his weekly columns, send an e-mail to ejsinrod@duanemorris.com with "Subscribe" in the subject line. This column is prepared and published for informational purposes only, and it should not be construed as legal advice. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author's law firm or its individual partners.

©2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. CNET, CNET.com, and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CNET Networks, Inc. Used by permission.

Competitive Advantage - Social Engineering Defense

By Claudio Locicero

Social engineering has become, due to the advent of more intelligent and comprehensive technological security controls that guard against viruses and the like, the greatest non-technological risk to the security of personal and corporate information. Although there are as many forms of social engineering attacks as there are books on the topic of information security, the aim of this article is to provide a general overview of a few of the most common scenarios, the principles of which can be extrapolated and applied as a litmus test to other situations an employee may be exposed to.

In its strictest form, social engineering is a category of security attacks in which someone manipulates another individual, either directly or indirectly, to acquire sensitive information or unauthorized access. An attack is performed by tricking an unsuspecting individual by building, in some manner, a trust relationship. An example of social engineering is where an attacker telephones an employee then pretends to be from the IT department and asks the user to download and install a system update. Unbeknownst to the employee, this "update" is actually a Trojan horse which will open a backdoor to the computer for the attacker to gain full access to corporate network resources.

Phishing
Phishing is type of scam that often leads to theft of personal details such as passwords or credit card numbers. In one example, an attacker sends an email to an employee of a business that appears to come from a legitimate website used by that employee that requires the use of a user name and password to access his/her account. The email may ask the employee to reply with their account user name and password to update/verify account details or, more probably, ask the employee to a follow a website link to an especially created fake site which has the look and feel of the real site, but has been specifically set up for stealing personal information.
Unsuspecting individuals are then fooled into entering user names, passwords, credit card numbers, or other private and confidential personal or corporate details on this fake website. After the required information is entered the fake website will then redirect the individual to the real site and may even automatically pass the previously entered credentials to allow them seamless access. The employee would then be completely unaware that they have been compromised.

Hoaxes
Hoaxes usually fall into two categories, the first is a virus hoax and the second is an urban myth. Although not usually considered a social engineering attack by mainstream information security specialists, these need to be considered as such due to the structure of the attacks themselves and their intended purposes.

a. Virus Hoaxes
A virus hoax is an email message prank that warns readers about a supposed virus that has either already infected their computer or is about to through various means. Recipients of this type of hoax are usually tricked into downloading a file that is supposed to "fix" their computers but in actuality infects the computer with some type of Trojan or virus causing further chaos.
Additionally this type of attack may be used as a diversionary tactic by hackers if directed to a particular organization to engage their IT personnel in a flood of support calls from internal users while the hacker tries to gain access into the organization's network via alternate means.

b. Urban Myths
This is the type of hoax that inevitably wastes an individual's time by having them chase something that doesn't exist perhaps in addition to having personal information compromised.
Recipients may be informed that they can receive some type of prize for following instructions contained in an email or even warn of bad luck for not following the instructions. One such hoax promised a free pair of Nike running shoes for filling out a questionnaire which asked for personal information such as name and address then forwarding the email to ten other individuals to perpetuate the compromise of personal information.

Dumpster Diving
Dumpster diving, again not usually considered social engineering in a traditional sense, allows attackers to make use of certain societal taboos such as sifting through the garbage of others and the collective belief that no one would. This collective belief has, over the years, allowed attackers to obtain for large amounts of confidential information by sifting through corporate waste. Organizations dispose of policy manuals, meeting notes, memos, organizational charts, vacation schedules, and much more in their dumpsters. Sensitive documents should be shredded and the type of shredder used depends on how difficult a document reconstruction task should be. Corporate data can be restored from hard drives retrieved from dumpsters, thus all electronic devices should have any stored data permanently erased with tools that are available to accomplish this. This method of attack has been so harmful that many organizations now keep their waste in secured areas and utilize only bonded waste removal companies that certify waste disposal and provide chain of custody reports.

Employees have to be given the tools to understand and identify risks to corporate and personal confidential information. Organizations that provide an information security awareness program for their employees with ongoing refresher training have a competitive advantage to their business rivals that do not have such a program in place. The reason for this is because they are much less likely to face the publicity, associated embarrassment, and loss of goodwill brought on by an information security breach that exposes confidential data, consumer or otherwise.

Understanding information security risks, how it can affect your organization, and following industry standard best practices to safeguard information assets just makes good business sense.
Written by Claudio LoCicero, M.S.

Over his career he has held several technical and management positions both in the United States and overseas within the private and government sectors.

He holds a Master of Science in Information Technology with an Information Security Specialization from a university designated as a National Security Agency Certified Center of Academic Excellence for Information Assurance. He also holds numerous professional certifications such as the Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) Foundation, along with several other professional certifications from Cisco, Microsoft, and the National Security Agency (NSA).

He is an active member of the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC2), Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), Information Systems Security Association (ISSA), and the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Claudio_Locicero

Can You Cheat to Get Traffic From Social Bookmarking Websites?

By Stephanie Foster

Sites such as Digg and StumbleUpon can drive delightful amounts of traffic. If you want to have high levels of traffic driven to your site, they're one of the great ways to get it. But actually getting the traffic is difficult. So many people look for ways to cheat their way to traffic.

There are ways to do this. There are groups that will Digg, Stumble or bookmark on various other websites for you, just as you do so for other members. I won't name any here; if that's the solution for you, search them out on your own. You'll find them.

However, a lot of people really don't understand what they should be having other people submit for them. They'll put in just any old blog post and hope for traffic. But what you really want to submit are things that will get people interested in what your site has to offer. Otherwise, all you are doing is burning up bandwidth.

If you're going to do something like this, start out by using the service you're targeting. What kinds of pages tend to do well? You don't want to be copying anyone, but you can be inspired by the general topics that tend to do well.

The thing about having a group submit your site is that unless the quality is there, it won't do you a bit of good. In fact, if you aren't careful about it, you can get your account and your website banned. You can lose all your chances to make the most of social bookmarking simply by abusing it.

The key is to remember to be a genuine member, even if you have others help you get your sites up there. Share the pages you really like, not just the ones you have to share in order to get your sites submitted.

You will also want to remember that social bookmark traffic as a rule converts poorly. What you should be looking for is how to get people to subscribe to your newsletter or feed, or other ways to keep people coming back on their own, rather than just when they read about a hot topic they found through a social site.

You'll also want to remember the other benefit that you are working towards - getting other people to link to your site. While not every blogger bothers to give references when they post on a topic, the better ones will mention if something you said inspired their own comments on that same topic.

Yes, it can be considered cheating to find a group that will bookmark your site for you, but it can help to get a well-crafted page noticed when you don't have the traffic to drive it on your own. But it's a risk, and there is still no substitute for page quality. It needs to be good enough to stand on its own when other people notice it.

Stephanie Foster blogs at http://www.aspectsofhomebusiness.com/blog/ about running a successful home business. Get more tips on social bookmarking from her site.

What In The World Is Social Bookmarking and Why Should You Be Doing It?

By Gregg Hall

Social bookmarking has become an immense force both in online marketing in addition to mainstream culture. The wildly popular Social Networking site MySpace was offed to News Corp last year for $580 million in spite of having no real measurable income. The value placed on the site was from the tremendous traffic it yields and even at over a half billion was believed a bargain. YouTube sold to Google for 1.65 billion with only 20 million in revenue. These high-ticket sales just attest how fashionable and how crucial such sites are.

Okay, enough news. How does one really use these sites to make money? First of all, let me forewarn you that just like broadcasting out B.S. emails and assembling SPAM blogs or SPLOGS as they are known online, mistreating the social bookmarking services will result in getting your internet site banned by them and you will get precisely the opposite outcomes from what you are looking for. With that said, I propose you pay close attention to what I talk about in this article as well as about of the resources that I am going to propose to you.

Like many internet marketers I am forever on the lookout for new methods and methods for driving free traffic to my sites and try to cut back the use of techniques such as PPC (pay-per-click) and co-registration promotions. Whenever you can get plenty of your target keyword pages to show up in the top of the major SEs you more or less have a license to print money
without having to put out any of your own.

There are quite a few bookmarking sites out there but for the aims of employing them for online marketing we are going to concentrate on a few of the more favorites such as Del.icio.us, Furl, Digg, Spurl, and the one I genuinely love, Technorati. There are numerous automated tools that I will help you to automate the process of bookmarking your sites.

All of the leading bookmarking sites will help you to get traffic and if you have a blog you will obtain the greatest benefit by delivering constantly updating content that can then be transmitted to the directories when your blog updates. They love new and UNIQUE content.
There are software plugins you can employ that will put buttons on your blogs which make it user-friendly for someone to recommend the articles or content from your internet site or blog.
One of the other bookmarking sites that has become exceedingly popular recently is Digg. The site was started by Kevin Rose for below $1,000 and now with over 400,000 members and 200 million page views is one of the biggest news sites on the web. Just to give you an estimate of how prominent they are, their readership is nearly as massive as the New York Times.

Personally, I like to give my readers numerous options which is why I will put buttons to Del.icio.us, Digg, Furl, Reddit, Ask, Blinklist, Blogmarks, Google, Ma.gnolia, Spurl, Yahoo, and another service called Socializer that covers a lot more. This gives me a heavy coverage of all of the major sites. In addition to the buttons that I put on my blogs I will also create “tags” for Technorati and add them to my posts. These tips can help you get much more traffic to your blogs.

Gregg Hall has been a professional internet marketer since 1995 and is currently one of the top authors at EzineArticles.com. He has recently set up a new blog that reviews infoproducts, software and ebooks which includes screen capture demo videos. Stop by and join his community.

He uses the methods he writes about everyday. Learn how to automate social bookmarking and get more Info Product Reviews as well as other software and infoproducts at InfoProductPodcast.com

Targeted Social Media - Be Famous - Advance Social Media Tips

By Sean R Mize

Ever wondered why there are several people who have tons of friends in their MySpace, Friendster, Myspace and other social media sites? That is why they know how to maximize and utilize what they have. They get famous and even being dubbed to stardom by simply being friendly. And the good thing is, you can do it too! Here's how.

1. Link and link. Add as many friends as you want. Go out of the box and invite those you would like to. This is one of the best ways that you can actually earn and obtain more traffic on your own social network site by opening your site to public and make them aware that you are welcoming people to become your friends.

2. Flashy page. Put several multimedia files - chatbox, picture slides, videos and glitter words that would surely draw people into your page. These draw added attraction and attention to potential clients and targeted market.

3. Be bookmarked easily. Create a link that would enable others to bookmark your page. You can do this by being publicly bookmarked by all people who are associated with you.

4. Be interesting. Submit articles in your page, with any diverse topic you want to, using any multimedia content and you're bound to rise. Your content actually makes a big difference. It spell power to drive people to come and generate traffic on your site.

5. Use RSS feeds. Subscribe to your favorite RSS data feeds and put them on your page. If people found out that you have them, and have the same interest as yours, you will be known as a good source provider.

6. Create multiple accounts into different social media service. Do not be content with one. If you can handle it, then do it. Be a bit of everything.

7. The most famous people are those who have tried doing one thing at a time and having fun while doing it. So give it a try, have fun, and ready to climb high!

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, "Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide"

Download it free here: Secrets of Article Promotion

Sean Mize is a full time internet marketer who has written over 1574 articles in print and 11 published eBooks.

Social Security: What is it and Where is the Money?

By John Mcdonald

Social Security is a government sponsored pyramid scheme signed into law by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Actually, they ruled that way at first, until F.D.R. threatened to appoint five additional positions to the court knowing he could get his party-controlled Congress to approve the appointments because the constitution does not explicitly state how many supreme court justices there are.

The basic financial component is that the government began collecting a % of every working person's check to fund a supplemental retirement account designed to offset the way inflation was destroying elderly people's savings/fixed pensions during the great depression. At the time, there were 15 workers for every retiree and the system was set up to pay out so long as there were many more at the bottom paying to the few at the top - hence, a 'pyramid scheme.'

Today, the government collects 13% of the first $90,000 income earned - a regressive tax that hurts the working poor most - to pay a benefit for people over age 68, some people with health problems and disabilities, some who collect by lying about their situation, some lawyers, and some bureaucrats. Most of the people getting it today payed into it themselves and earned it through the legitimate guidelines, so the next few facts are extremely depressing...

The government has always run a social security surplus because of the demographics of the pyramid. Not just any surplus, a surplus that would be worth close to a hundred trillion dollars when adjusted for inflation and average market return rates. But that money is spent. In fact, it has been more than spent and there is only a nine trillion dollar debt in its place.

Within 20 years, there will only be two workers to every one recipient and the cost over the next 40 years is estimated around $70 trillion. So the people working today and paying 13% of their wages into this cannot reasonably expect the government to ever pay them back, Clinton himself even admitted it. One method of appearing to cover the deficit would be to devalue the dollar and therefor reduce the overall level of benefit received without ever having to go on record as having voted to cut social security. This seems to be the preferred method based on the last two decades of Democratic and Republican policies.

This article is written by John McDonald and originally appears at http://www.undergroundpolitics.com

6 Steps to Make More Money with Social Networks

By Sean Ray

Social networks connect all kinds of people, business, organizations, groups, etc., so they can benefit each other. The network itself is made of nodes and ties. The nodes are the individuals and the ties link them together. Everyone from widely scattered families to countries and professional groups use it. Here are 6 steps to making more money with productive social networking.

Step 1: Spreading the Word
Using social networking to advertise by word of mouth is common. You should get into networks that are comprised of the kinds of people who would buy your product or service, or who are already showing interest.

Step 2: Finding Customers
Finding the right people is critical to productive social networking. People with common interests stay together, and also spread your information to others who aren’t on the network. You can use both of these tendencies to your advantage.

Step 3: Getting to Know You
Once you have found a good social networking site and a good group to advertise to, you should participate as often as possible and keep your name in front of the others on the site.

Step 4: Friendships
Don’t think short term when thinking of social networking. If you do, why bother? You should strive to be a constant figure so you can create your productive social networking long term.

Step 5: Depend on the Other Members
You can use this networking site to get new ideas for your business just by listening to others. For example, you may not sell red widgets yet, but the idea may come to you if someone on the site claims an interest.

Step 6: Just Be a Good Businessperson
You can get all kinds of one-time customers on the internet, but keeping them is cheaper than replacing them. Strive to be good and reliable, and you will retain them easily.

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to article marketing success, ‘Your Article Writing and Promotion Guide‘

Download it free here: Internet Article Marketing

Do you want to learn how to build a massive list fast? Click here: Email List Building

Want to learn more about driving traffic like I do? Download my free traffic guide here: Traffic Generation

Sean Ray is an accomplished internet article writer, and uses articles to drive online traffic.