• Embedded Music – If you want to expose the world to your new favorite song, post a link to it so that your readers can choose to listen to it or skip it at their leisure. Few things are as off-putting to readers as being accosted with loud music the moment your landing page loads.
• Your Address – It should go without saying, but even blogs that are password protected can be hacked. Never post your home or work address on your blog, unless the blog exists solely for professional reasons and is a promotional tool to drive traffic to your business. Even then, make sure that you only post your office address or, if you work from home, a secure post office box address.
• Identifying Photographs – In the same respect, you shouldn’t post pictures of your neighborhood, house or place of work. What may seem like an innocent picture of your front yard can actually be an identifying photograph tipping off your location for criminals and others with less than noble intentions.
• Animated, Busy Backgrounds – The cute fireflies or flashing fireworks that look so cool to you can be incredibly distracting to people trying to read your content.
• The Name of Your Small Town – If you live in a major metropolitan area, vague references to living in New York City or Los Angeles shouldn’t be too much of a personal-information giveaway. If you’re living in a small town and operating a personal blog with no function as a professional marketing tool, however, you don’t want to share the name of your community online.
• Help for Identity Thieves – Posting a photo of your driver’s license or other information that could potentially be stolen is a no-brainer, but it’s not unheard of for less tech-savvy bloggers to post things on their blogs that lead to identity theft.
• Details About Your Upcoming Vacation – No matter how excited you are about your upcoming vacation, it’s best to save the gloating until you return home. Posting that you’re about to be away from home for an extended period of time, especially if you’ve been less than cautious about sharing clues that could lead nefarious readers to your home address, is just inviting someone to rob you while you’re away.
• Your Professional Grievances – Blowing off some steam by sharing exactly what you think about your boss or a particularly problematic client might make you feel better in the long run, but it can quickly come back to haunt you if your blog is discovered by a colleague or competitor.
• Furious Rants – Everyone gets angry from time to time, and few things relieve the pressure as well as a long-winded, expletive-filled rant. The problem with posting those rants on your blog is that not only does no one else want to read them, but they also make you seem like a dangerously angry person.
• Obnoxious Self-Promotion – If your blog is a professional marketing tool, you’ll want to make sure that it functions as such. Including blatant, over-the-top self-praise can actually have the opposite effect, though. Make sure that your self-promotion is subtle, honest and to the point.
• Pictures of Your Children – Running a parenting blog is a popular and often lucrative enterprise for moms and dads, but sharing pictures of your kids to the entire world may expose them to people that you’d rather not be seeing them.
• Kids’ Names and Ages – It’s not difficult for a truly determined person to piece together enough information to pose a threat if you’re overly open when it comes to what you share online. Many parent bloggers use code names for their kids, and are vague about little ones’ exact ages.
• Real Names of Unwitting “Stars” – When you want to discuss something that’s upset you or paints another in a negative light, the last thing you want to do is include their real name. In an age where everyone is encouraged to run their names through search engines to keep tabs on their virtual reputations, such candor can easily lead to trouble in real life.
• The Name of Kids’ Schools – Events at your kids’ schools or issues regarding the school system can be great blog fodder, but you never want to share the names of kids’ schools. Paired with other information you may have let slip, those names can make it easier for determined readers to track you down.
• Plagiarized Content – If you didn’t write it or don’t have permission to share it, don’t repost it; especially if you’re doing so in a manner that makes it seem like your own work.
• Copyrighted Materials – There’s a very real war going on regarding intellectual property in the new frontier that is the Internet. Unless you’d like to become a figure in these battles, it’s best not to share download links or host material if you don’t own its copyright.
• Links to Personal Social Networking Pages – Professional bloggers may want to link to their social networking pages set up specifically for that purpose, but you should never link to your personal pages. Adding just one of your readers can lead to major leaks of personal information, as people tend to be less cautious about what they share on social media when they have privacy settings in place.
• Sensitive Professional Information – If you know a trade secret of the company that employs you, or even if you just want to talk about the working environment, be sure that you’re cautious about what you share. Most employers today have social networking and Internet policies in place governing what can and cannot be shared without reprisal, and you don’t want to find yourself unemployed in real life because you blabbed too eagerly on your blog.
• Password Hints – Your mother’s maiden name, the mascot of your high school, the name of your pet or the year your father was born can seem like fairly innocuous information to share in the course of a personal narrative, but those facts are often the password-reset links for financial and email sites. Don’t share anything that could potentially be a hint that would help someone either guess or reset your password.
• False or Questionably True Statements About Other People – The court system doesn’t care if you were angry when you posted a blog entry or how well you thought it was hidden. If you print or share damaging information about someone that later proves to be false, you could face libel charges.

1. BuyVia – If you are looking for a tech-savvy gift, then BuyVia is the best free comparison app for you. You can get price comparisons via alerts for local and national stores. You can also scan barcodes to compare prices and make sure you’re getting the best deals available. The app is packed with useful information like product descriptions, reviews and product recommendations.
2. RedLaser – This app zeros in on the best deals from stores all across the nation, both physical and online. You can have items delivered or pick them up from the store, depending on availability. RedLaser also provides a number of other great features, including the ability to check out library books and a barcode reader that checks food products for allergy information.
3. Amazon Price Check – Instantly compare prices from stores with those of Amazon merchants with this free app. Amazon Price Check uses barcodes, pictures, voice and text search to enable you to find the exact or closest product match. You can share your finds to Facebook and Twitter, as well as purchase products using the app via the Amazon website.
4. Decide Shopping & Price Predictor – Decide scores help you purchase recommended products from thousands of shopping sites and storefronts. If prices drop within two weeks of your purchase, Decide will pay you the difference, ensuring that you get the guaranteed lowest price. The app also provides product reviews, ratings and customer experience, helping you to make informed shopping choices.
5. ShopSavvy – This clever app not only scans standard barcodes to bring you the best price comparisons, it scans EAN and QR formats, too. ShopSavvy allows you to search prices from across the United States and Europe. Shoppers can buy online, directly from the app or locate products in any of the listed stores with the aid of a “blue dot” indicator. If you’re having trouble finding a store, this free app provides directions and contact details to help you get there so you’re always getting the best price.
6. ShopAdvisor – With ShopAdvisor, you can check pricing history to see if you’re getting the best deal available. The app provides advice on all kinds of products, with anytime access and alerts to keep you informed on all the latest deals. If you want to find the cheapest deals and discounts in your area, ShopAdvisor will provide real-time, up-to-date information on product deals as they become available.
7. PriceGrabber – With PriceGrabber, you have access to hundreds of online merchants, brick-and-mortar stores and restaurants. Use the “Gift Shaker” to find random gifts that are from the lowest prices available on a range of products. If you’re not ready to buy, keep a record of your favorites for later purchase. PriceGrabber sorts products by price, rating or popularity, and allows you to set prices so you can receive alerts when a product meets your price. The app is free, and is available for the iPhone from the App Store.
8. Google Shopper – Using Google’s powerful search engine technology, this free app searches thousands of sources to find the best deals for a chosen product. Google Shopper can search by cover art, barcode, voice and text. The user receives reviews, product specifications and much more to help make purchases that offer the best savings.
9. Milo – Another free price comparison app from the App store, Milo lets you check a map of nearby stores, and gives you information on deals and product availability. Milo includes a barcode scanner for easy product search and price comparison, and you can pay for items via the app using your iPhone.
10. Smoopa – Scan barcodes and instantly compare prices with major retail and online merchants with Smoopa. Smoopa is a free app that uses intelligent marketing by gathering user contributed data to build a powerful and real-time database of product pricing. As a community driven app, Smoopa encourages user participation in its programs by offering rewards and discounts on a large range of products.

1. The Card – The Card is a fast and innovative way to share your business details on the move with minimal fuss for only $0.99. All you need is the recipient’s email address and you can send a detailed business card, while at the same time syncing that person to your network list. The app supports geolocation data and the universal .vcf format.
2. Card Munch – Business Card Reader – This clever app allows you to scan business cards and then convert them into editable business contacts in your iPhone. Card Munch is an app developed in partnership with LinkedIn, so you can view connections in common, work history and much more, as well as add the card owner as a connection. The app is free and is a must have tool for networking in any business situation.
3. Contxts – There are three ways you can share your business details with Contxts – text message, email and bump technology. Contxts is ideal for sharing contact details with any phone directly to and from your iPhone. The app is free, and not only makes networking easier, but brings it into the increasingly paperless 21^st century, too.
4. LinkedIn – There are more than 200 million users on LinkedIn, which means that you are more than likely to meet some great LinkedIn connections on one of the world’s largest professional networking websites with this great app. Share and add connections directly from the app and discover mutual connections to expand your network. The free LinkedIn app also keeps you up to speed on the latest business and financial news, meaning you will always have something to talk about at business events.
5. CamCard Free – This app scans business cards and allows the user to set up tailored contact groups with ease. CamCard also provides the ability to add a number of text, graphic, video, audio or file formats, which creates a totally unique profile for your business. This free app instantly translates your business card to over 200 languages, meaning you can connect on a global scale in a global economy.
6. Square Register – Take your business on the road and gain valuable new customers with Square Register, the free credit payment app. The free app allows you to accept Square Register gift cards, create loyalty schemes for business connections, and provide text, email and printed receipts. There is also access to a number of in-app features, such as full sales reports and a built-in checkout function. If you’re attending a convention in a professional enrichment capacity and also as a merchant, this app will be indispensable.
7. WorldCard Contacts– With this app you can combine the power of a business card reader, geolocation and contact organizer to create location based connection lists. There is one downside to this app, however: it doesn’t have a built-in OCR converter, which means that business cards are stored as image only.
8. How to Network – Before you attend your next business meeting or event, make a point of adding this free app to your iPhone device. How to Network includes over 20 videos from branding experts, a range of articles written by business professionals and texts written by expert lawyers. Topics covered are: Best Networking Practices, Connecting at a Conference, Online Networking, Social Media and Becoming a Connector.
9. Junos Pulse – This app enables access to secure connectivity over SSL VPN to corporate applications, which means you can bring your business with you wherever you go. This free app is ideal for networking, as it allows you to show potential connections what your business is all about, rather than just telling them about it.
10. Salesforce Chatter – Never miss another opportunity to gain new leads or business connections by using Salesforce Chatter to access all your sales data in one place. You can create opportunities, assign tasks remotely to your employees and showcase documents and links directly from your handset. The app creators, salesforce.com, are constantly adding new features with every release, so snap up this app from the iTunes store while it’s still free.

Establish Credibility

Before you start describing your earning potential or making a networking pitch, you’ll need to offer some bit of information that speaks to your credibility as an opening gambit. The first few seconds of your elevator speech should be used to share information that lends some credibility to your claims. For instance, start the conversation by explaining what you’ve done in the past to earn a reputation as a successful entrepreneur or businessperson. That way, you’ll set yourself apart as a professional that actually delivers on your claims, rather than one that’s filled with great ideas but has no practical knowledge about how to make those ideas a reality.

Stay Focused

It’s easy to become flustered when you’re trying to sum up your entire professional persona in less time than the average commercial break, but allowing yourself to be distracted from your objective can clutter your speech with extraneous verbiage that only serves to detract from the image you’re trying to convey. You might not want to memorize your elevator speech entirely in order to avoid it sounding forced, but having a basic script that you work from can prevent the rambling and loss of focus that often accompanies an on-the-spot explanation of your professional role and value.

Avoid Industry Jargon

You may have such an innate understanding of what you do that acronyms and industry jargon flows as freely as a fluent second language, but that doesn’t mean that the person listening to you has that same knowledge. Resorting to acronyms and abbreviations might reduce the amount of time it takes to make your speech, but you’ll likely spend more time trying to translate for an unindoctrinated listener. Make sure that you work out an elevator speech that’s concise and to the point, but one that doesn’t presuppose a certain level of familiarity with your particular corner of the professional world. Ideally, your elevator speech should be as easy for someone who’s never worked a day within your industry to understand as it is for someone working on the same project.

Hit the High Points

You don’t have to leave the listener with an in-depth understanding of your job, you just need to make sure that they have the basic idea before you part ways. Short and sweet is the angle you’re looking for, so just include the highlights of your professional experience or job description in an elevator speech. Cramming extraneous information into a short explanation can actually make it more difficult for your listener to figure out what you do, so don’t try to make your listener an expert on the subject. More in-depth explanations should be offered when further information is requested, rather than heaped on your listener from the outset of the conversation.

Offer Specific Examples

In order to help your listener understand what you do and how it matters on a professional level, you should offer a specific example or two of how actions you’ve taken on a professional level have affected the outcome of a situation or made a difference. In order to put your short explanation into perspective, your listener will need to be able to apply that explanation to real-life situations.

Crafting an effective elevator speech may take a bit of time and effort, but it will pay off in spades in the long run. From marketing yourself in networking settings to simply offering a reasonable, concise explanation of your job title in social settings, the ability to quickly and accurately describe your professional life is a valuable one.

1. Pediatric SymptomMD – This app helps take some of the stress away when the decision at hand is one regarding your child’s health. The processes of over 10,000 pediatric clinics are combined to bring you the best treatment and action advice. Find detailed information on everything from minor scratches to serious medical concerns with this $2.99 iPhone app.
2. VectorVest Mobile – For traders who want up to the minute data on markets, this free app will help make important investment decisions much simpler. You can monitor time-critical markets, as well as create multiple watch-lists to keep your portfolio options organized. There is no additional cost for using extended services with this app, either.
3. Savings & Annuity Evaluator Pro – No matter what you are saving for, this app gives you the tools you need to put your money to work for you. The app is free and provides real-life scenarios that allow you to predict your savings, tax and interest on your investments. Scenarios are completely customizable to your income, deadlines and target savings amounts.
4. Power Stoplight Mobile – Whether you are trying to save money or the environment, this app is a must-have iPhone accessory. This free smart app gathers information from the grid, letting you know how to best utilize your electricity according to peak and off-peak periods. If you have wind or solar generated power, the app can return real-time information to help you manage your usage, too.
5. Bankrate Mortgage Calculator & Mortgage Rates – Keep up to date with the latest mortgage rates using this free app from BankRate. You can determine the best deals for you by adjusting loan amount, interest rate and mortgage term in order to return matching deals. The app also includes links to helpful mortgage related resources and articles.
6. What’s on TV? – If you’re having a relaxing day in front of the TV but can’t decide what to watch, this free app will help. You can quickly find guides for your favorite channels, TV shows and movies. The app also allows you to create custom lists and reminders, so you don’t have to remember what’s on or when your selections will air.
7. All About Cars from Howcast – Don’t despair if you’re not an expert on cars, this $1.99 app will help you with all your vehicular decisions. All About Cars includes over 130 videos, tips and how-tos on everything from do-it-yourself car repairs, insider dealership tips and driving school expertise. So the next time you go shopping for a new car, make sure you have this app from Howcast on your side.
8. Dinner Spinner – If you find yourself constantly running out of ideas for dinner, try this fun and innovative free app. There are hundreds of predefined recipes to choose from. You can shake your iPhone for a surprise recipe. Or, you can add your favorite ingredients to find recipes that are sure to match your taste.
9. Tinyview – This mobile and social shopping app allows you to scan both bar and QR codes, returning a vast amount of related data on products from any store. As the app acts as a central hub, it eliminates the need to have separate apps for each of your favorite stores. You can compare purchases with friends, read reviews and find the places where other users in your area are getting the best deals. The app is easy to navigate, with multiple options including search, category and trending to suit every shopper’s needs.
10. EventBrite – This free app makes finding something to do in your area a breeze. You can search for events, concerts, festivals and tickets directly from your iPhone. With EventBrite you can purchase tickets through one simple process, and when you’re done, share the event with your friends to gather a crowd. If you organize events in your area, no matter what the size, you can use this app to sell tickets and help promote your event to the local community.

1. “Sweet Dreams are Made of Seven Nation Army” – The Eurythmics’ “Sweet Dreams” and the indie styling of the White Stripes’ Seven Nation Army may not seem like a logical combination at first blush, but this seamless mash-up brings the best of two eerie worlds together. As an added bonus, the perfectly edited video is almost as impressive as the song itself.
2. “Let It Be, No Cry” – Few piano pieces are as instantly recognizable as the optimistic, wistful Beatles hit “Let It Be.” Combining the melody of a song celebrating such an idealistic world view with the plaintive, lovelorn world-weariness of Bob Marley’s “No Woman, No Cry” is a stroke of genius.
3. “Careless Rebel” – The hard-rocking sounds of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” make the mournful lyrics of Wham!’s “Careless Whisper” come to life in a song that’s unrepentant about its adoration for the excess of the Eighties.
4. “Stayin’ Alive in the Wall” – “Stayin’ Alive” was the unofficial theme song of the carefree disco era, which makes the seamless integration with Pink Floyd’s moody classic seem even more unsettling. Play “Stayin’ Alive in the Wall” when you’re looking for a way to blow the minds of everyone on the dance floor.
5. “Never Want You Back” – One thing that Taylor Swift and the Jackson Five have in common is that their music is pure pop perfection. Listening to the flawless blend of “I Want You Back” with Swift’s ode to empowered breakups “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” might be a nod to shameless pop, but it’s a great one.
6. “Something About the Fire” – Pairing two acts at the top of their respective game is no mean feat, but it’s accomplished perfectly here. French electronica power couple Daft Punk’s classic “Something About Us” is mashed up with Grammy darling Adele’s runaway hit “Set Fire to the Rain,” resulting in a combination that’s unexpectedly perfect.
7. “Call Me a Hole” – Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor’s angry send-up of materialism and greed combined with the vapid, chart-topping “Call Me, Maybe” by Canadian pop princess Carly Rae Jepsen might have angered a few hardcore fans and Reznor himself, but the rest of the music world sat up and took notice when the remix went viral in 2013.
8. “Never Gonna Give Your Teen Spirit Up” – Most Internet memes have a fairly short shelf-life, but Rickrolling has enjoyed a startling longevity. The original Rickrolling consisted of a bait-and-switch, in which Internet users were tricked into clicking on a link leading to Rick Astley’s 1987 hit “Never Gonna Give You Up.” When a Frankfurt, Germany-based DJ mashed the song up with the Song That Started Grunge, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit,” he created what is perhaps the most clever Rickroll in history.
9. “Daniel Versus the Cure” – There weren’t many bands that crafted moody, Eighties rock quite like the Cure, which is why the combination of their song “A Forest” with “Daniel” by Bat For Lashes is such a perfect marriage. The songs are so similar in tone and mood that it’s hard to separate one from the other after you’ve heard the mash-up, a definite compliment to relative newcomer Bat For Lashes.
10. “Just Can’t Get Enough Paparazzi” – Depeche Mode was certainly among the forerunners of the electronic music, which is why the mash-up of their hit “Just Can’t Get Enough” with shock-electronic goddess Lady Gaga’s anthem for celebrity stalkers everywhere, “Paparazzi” was nothing short of fabulous.

Tech-savvy musicians with a basic understanding of digital sound programs are limited by nothing aside from their imagination, though getting the hang of crafting the perfect mash-up is initially a challenge. With a few good ideas and plenty of perseverance, you may find your own mash-up masterpieces on a few “Best Of” lists!

1. Expenditure – This is the perfect app for the globe-traveling professional or business owner. Expenditure has an easy-to-use interface, which lets you enter transactions with a few taps of the screen and will even automatically convert transactions in foreign currencies. You can also create tailored categories, which let you file your transactions in a way that is compatible with your expenses formats, most of which are compatible with the more popular spreadsheet applications for easy conversion.
2. Expense Manager Free – For a free housekeeping app, Expense Manager is incredibly versatile and can easily be used for small business expenses. You can set up your monthly spending budget and break your spending down to cash, check and credit card. This is also a great app for tracking regularly repeating transactions. The auto fill feature allows you to pre-populate template fields from previous transaction entries, too.
3. Expensify – Using incredibly intelligent synchronization, Expensify takes all the data from transactions through your credit cards and bank accounts in order to keep a real-time record of your expenses. You can even use the app to scan cash receipts, using your iPhone camera as a scanner. This is a great way to create expense accounts on the go and have them delivered to anyone with an email address using the Expensify interface.
4. FreshBooks Cloud Accounting – Take your business expense tracking to a whole new level with this cloud platform app. All your data is stored and backed-up on cloud servers, so you can access it when and where you need to. You can use this free app to automatically see how your expenses stack up against your budget, send invoices anywhere in the world and get paid, categorize your expense by taking photos of your receipts and track your project times using an interactive calendar.
5. ProOnGo Expense Tracker – Like many of the other expense trackers, ProOnGo Expense Tracker lets you document your transactions simply by scanning receipts with your camera. You can track your time by client, mileage by GPS and download credit card transactions. The app is free from the iTunes store and is compatible with most book keeping applications, allowing you to transfer your reports with ease.
6. Receipts Pro – The fully customizable features of Receipts Pro is where you get your value for the cost incurred to buy the app. The app costs $4.99, but there is a feature-light version available free of charge. There are over seven different customizable field types available, as well as intelligent group management for clients, travel, business, etc.
7. Toshl Finance Expense Tracker – Don’t let the simple interface for this free app fool you; Toshl Finance is packed full of all the features you would expect from an expense tracker. You can set up categories, provide instructions for budgeting plans and access your information from the Toshl website, even if you don’t have your phone with you.
8. MultiCash – Expenses and Income – This expense tracker is like a virtual office on your iPhone. Familiar features are available, such as a currency converter, financial calculator, budgeting, tracking and repeat transaction memory. MultiCash costs $2.99 and is ideal for business travelers who need to allow others to access their expenses on demand.
9. MoneyTron – Expense Tracker – MoneyTron is a simple, free app that allows you to track your business expenses without hassle. The interface is designed to allow easy entry of data and quick access to important daily, weekly and monthly budgeting information. This app provides a number of graphs and reports for tracking expenses and transactions, which you can tailor to your needs.
10. Saver – One word comes up time and time again in reviews for this app – “beautiful.” Saver is all about simplicity and ease of access. Large buttons, most used categories and built-in tags are all available to make tracking your expenses quick and simple. The app costs $4.99; however, it’s worth the cost since it consistently receives top reviews on the iTunes store.

1. When it comes to drink preferences, both iPhone and Android users prefer water when given the choice of beverages – more than 50% for both groups, in fact. Water was followed up by beer for Android users at 18.1% and Wine for iPhone users at 17.3%.
2. When it comes to snack preferences, both iPhone and Android users prefer sweet snacks to savory. Chocolate, anyone?
3. Wondering about pets? Both iPhone and Android users prefer dogs to cats. In fact, more than 70% of users in both groups prefer Fido over Felix as their best friend.
4. Who reins Pop King? Both iPhone and Android users identified Michael Jackson as their favorite pop star. Second choice? Elvis!
5. If forced to give up something for a week, both Android and iPhone would rather give up sex than their phones.
6. And when it comes to their love lives, what hurts more? A broken heart or a broken phone?  Both iPhone and Android users put real love first and agreed that a broken heart hurts more than a broken phone
7. But when it comes to breaking hearts, both iPhone and Android users claim to have broken more hearts than phones.
8. And if you think one group of users loves their phone more than others, you’re mistaken.  Both iPhone and Android users’ state they would consider themselves to be in love with their phone, however more than 75% of iPhone users reported being in love with their phones, compared to about half of Android users.

Wondering what Android and iPhone users don’t have in common? Their love lives. The Gazelle survey showed that Android users were more likely to play the field with both their choice of phone and choice of dates. The survey also found that Android users are less committed to both their significant others and their phones.

So if you’ve been thinking about making a big phone switch, don’t let the stereotypes associated with typical users sway you. Survey says, you’ll have more in common with your new peers than you may think.

1. The Nigerian Scam – Also known as a 419 scam, Nigerian scams offer targets a portion of the email sender’s inheritance in exchange for help claiming the money from a foreign government. Early versions of this email usually cited Nigeria as the country where the money was supposedly held, but updated versions may claim a variety of African nations.
2. Lottery Scams – The first red flag that a lottery win notification is fraudulent is the fact that you haven’t been playing the lottery, but email notifications can be convincing and the promise of a big reward enticing. If you haven’t played any lotteries or entered any contests, you should regard any email claims that you’ve won one as dubious.
3. Convincing Fakes of Official Entities – An email that appears to be from a reputable payment processing service or your bank explaining that your account has been compromised is a popular phishing scam, largely because it tends to work. Don’t click on any redirecting links within an email and never give out your account number or password. When in doubt, contact your bank directly.
4. Item for Sale Scams – Selling an item on an auction site or online classified site can open the floodgates for messages and emails, some of which have fraudulent aims. Anyone asking if they can overpay you for an item in exchange for a wire transfer or cashier’s check seems fishy because it is; in most cases, the check or payment method will prove to be fraudulent, leaving you bereft of your goods and holding the bag on a bad debt.
5. Employment Scams – In a particularly despicable turn, employment scams are becoming more and more popular as an increasing number of Americans find themselves without a job. Employment ads and websites created by these hucksters may seem legitimate, but they’re actually sophisticated ways of collecting your personal information for floods of spam email or even identity theft.
6. Disaster Relief Scams – Preying upon the inherent desire to help your fellow man, messages soliciting donations for a natural disaster in some tiny, obscure, developing nation is a lucrative business for scammers.
7. Travel Scams – Sometimes you’re forced to sit through a presentation about timeshares, but sometimes your information is collected for marketing mail and identity theft. Be wary of any email claiming that you’ve won a free vacation.
8. Get-Rich-Quick Scams – The idea of building an empire by stuffing envelopes or selling a nutritional supplement isn’t a new one, but the scope and reach of the Internet has created a flood of get-rich-quick scams preying on people’s hopes of hitting it rich.
9. Sweetheart Scams – A person who pretends to be someone they’re not in an online relationship is called a “catfish.” Catfish may simply be seeking attention and validation, but most are playing a part in order to get as much money as possible out of an unsuspecting mark before mysteriously dying or staging a dramatic breakup scene.
10. Prime Bank Note Scams – Con artists offering “bank guarantees” that they can purchase at a bargain and sell for top dollar take a fortune from their unsuspecting victims. To make their claims seem even more attractive, these scammers claim that their “guarantees” are issued by “prime banks,” hence the name.
11. Letter of Credit Scams – The only legitimate letters of credit are issued by banks directly to a recipient for international trade agreement and payment guarantees. Anyone offering a “letter of credit” investment opportunity will probably try to sell you the Golden Gate Bridge if you show an interest.
12. Goods Not as Listed Scams – Relatively mild in the scheme of things, goods-not-as-purchased schemes generally happen on unregulated classified ads sites or auction sites that openly condone trade in pirated goods. After remitting payment, you will almost always receive some sort of package. In most cases, the goods are completely different than they were described and you have no recourse for regaining your money.
13. Rogue Anti-Virus Software Scams – The idea that your computer has been infected by a virus is a scary one; after all, what if you lose all of your precious pictures, videos and important documents? Scammers know that most people will fall victim to these cons out of fear of losing their files, so they create convincing anti-virus alerts that require you to pay an activation fee to remove a virus that doesn’t even exist.
14. Survey Scams – The best case scenario for those who fall victim to a survey scam is that they waste their time and get a few spam emails. More elaborate scams will take your personal information for marketing and identity theft purposes, even though you think you’re just participating in legitimate market research.
15. Something for Nothing Scams – You’ve probably heard the old adage about things that are too good to be true, and it definitely holds water on the Internet. Anyone offering you fame, fortune and riches simply for being you is almost certainly trying to scam you somehow.

1. Ctrl + A – When you need to select the entire body of a document, using the ctrl+A command will allow you to do so instantly. No scrolling to find the home point and dragging to the end to select all of the text.
2. Alt + Tab – The need to quickly cycle through all your open applications can strike at any time, which is where this keyboard hack comes in handy. Without removing your hands from the keyboard to fumble with a mouse or touchpad, you can make quick work of looking through additional resources.
3. Ctrl + F – Finding a particular keyword in a sea of text can be like searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Rather than wasting valuable time sifting through pages of text, simply use the ctrl+F shortcut to locate every occurrence of a particular word within the selected document.
4. Ctrl + X – Cutting text from one source to paste in another doesn’t have to require a series of clicks to navigate through an edit function window. This shortcut instantly cuts the text, leaving it ready for you to paste wherever it’s needed.
5. Alt + Arrow – When you’re searching the Internet for resources or research purposes, you don’t have to navigate back and forward with the mouse. Hitting the alt key, along with either the left or right arrow, will take you where you need to go.
6. Alt + Spacebar – If you need to maximize, minimize or close a window without removing your hands from the keyboard, the menu is opened for you without the aid of the mouse when you use the alt+spacebar shortcut.
7. Ctrl + Z – We all make mistakes from time to time. When you need to quickly undo the last action in a document, ctrl+Z is a much more efficient use of your time than navigating through several layers of the menu to accomplish the same task.
8. Ctrl + Y – It’s easy to get carried away with the Undo function, especially after you’ve discovered the best way to do it quickly and efficiently. When you’ve been a bit overzealous with your newfound skill, hitting the ctrl+Y keys can restore an accidental undo.
9. Alt + Esc – Quickly jumping from one program to the next without reaching for the mouse is as easy as alt+esc!
10. Ctrl + End – You can lean on the down arrow key until your cursor finds its way to the bottom of a document or scroll through pages with your mouse or touchpad to get to your destination. If neither of those options is speedy enough, you can also press the ctrl and end keys simultaneously.
11. Ctrl + Shift + Arrow – Selecting one word surrounded by myriad other characters doesn’t have to require careful mouse work. Just position your cursor in a nearby position, and press this combination of keys using the appropriate directional arrow.
12. Alt + F4 – When you need to close the top open window, you can look for the small “x” and click on it with your mouse, or you can use this shortcut to do it immediately.
13. Ctrl + B – Adding emphasis to text by using a bold face is a great way to make a particular word or phrase stand out. Selecting the word or phrase you want to emphasize and then using this shortcut immediately casts the type in bold face.
14. Ctrl + C – If you’re working on multiple projects with similar aims or are simply using more than one program to complete a single project, you’ll probably need to copy and paste at some point. This shortcut allows you to copy selected text quickly and easily.
15. F7 – When you’ve dedicated hours to a project in hopes of turning out a perfect product, you’ll want to make sure that you run the spellcheck function to catch any spelling errors that could spoil your efforts. Most programs have a dedicated button on the toolbar for ease of use, but you can also hit the F7 key as an extra-quick shortcut.