Bahdman_Phame is Dancehall artist who worked in a range of verbal media and  fluent in registers tailore to communicate with vastly different audiences.Phame  is amateur poet and a Dancehall Genius
However, His lyrics Delivered on a song is What you will not like to go away,without!
  .His style
   .His Maturity
   .Deep Thoughts
     We analyze these three corpora in an attempt to define the linguistic differences and similarities among other Artists globally but it seem Phame is one of a kind in his poetry, speech and  Dancehall music.
     In A close interview,Phame Disclosed that his Maturity and Deep thought are "what" makes him Different from the others.in Quote He said:
    Mah na Warrior!! Mi try stay clean and clear pun mi works,and Mighty_Rule is a Biggest thing ya all fi watch out.
   Phame has  performed couple of show which has gave him mileage.
  Shows like:
#2017mic check concert
#Amasaman homowo street carnival and many more.
     Mighty_Rule  Not to talk much about.
Is a Dancehall_music Camp,that has Built
Vibrant Artists to the Dancehall fraternity like Dylog and many more.
   Recently phame Has released a Brand new song tittled EyeRed
    In the song he made a clear signal To the main Stream artists who Pretend and forgot That they have being an underground artist Before,And after forgot to help the up and coming once.
He said
    Yh am looking forward to collaborate with. Artists like Renner
,kamelyeon, Iwan
But currently am shooting the Eye_Red  video.couple of hit tracks yet to come.
     So ya fi watch out!! Mighty_Rule
                   Jah bless!
Mighty_Rule

Who Is Your Leader??? Warning And Sings Of occult Learder

1. Absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.
2. No tolerance for questions or critical inquiry.
3. No meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget, expenses such as an independently audited financial statement.
4. Unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies and persecutions.
5. There is no legitimate reason to leave, former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil.
6. Former members often relate the same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances.
7. There are records, books, news articles, or television programs that document the abuses of the group/leader.
8. Followers feel they can never be "good enough".
9. The group/leader is always right.
10. The group/leader is the exclusive means of knowing "truth" or receiving validation, no other process of discovery is really acceptable or credible.

Ten warning signs regarding people involved in/with a potentially unsafe group/leader.

1. Extreme obsessiveness regarding the group/leader resulting in the exclusion of almost every practical consideration.
2. Individual identity, the group, the leader and/or God as distinct and separate categories of existence become increasingly blurred. Instead, in the follower's mind these identities become substantially and increasingly fused--as that person's involvement with the group/leader continues and deepens.
3. Whenever the group/leader is criticized or questioned it is characterized as "persecution".
4. Uncharacteristically stilted and seemingly programmed conversation and mannerisms, cloning of the group/leader in personal behavior.
5. Dependency upon the group/leader for problem solving, solutions, and definitions without meaningful reflective thought. A seeming inability to think independently or analyze situations without group/leader involvement.
6. Hyperactivity centered on the group/leader agenda, which seems to supercede any personal goals or individual interests.
7. A dramatic loss of spontaneity and sense of humor.
8. Increasing isolation from family and old friends unless they demonstrate an interest in the group/leader.
9. Anything the group/leader does can be justified no matter how harsh or harmful.
10. Former followers are at best-considered negative or worse evil and under bad influences. They can not be trusted and personal contact is avoided.

Ten signs of a safe group/leader.

1. A safe group/leader will answer your questions without becoming judgmental and punitive.
2. A safe group/leader will disclose information such as finances and often offer an independently audited financial statement regarding budget and expenses. Safe groups and leaders will tell you more than you want to know.
3. A safe group/leader is often democratic, sharing decision making and encouraging accountability and oversight.
4. A safe group/leader may have disgruntled former followers, but will not excommunicate and forbid others from associating with them.
5. A safe group/leader will not have a paper trail of overwhelmingly negative records, books, articles and statements about them.
6. A safe group/leader will encourage family communication, community interaction and existing friendships and not feel threatened.
7. A safe group/leader will recognize reasonable boundaries and limitations when dealing with others.
8. A safe group/leader will encourage critical thinking, individual autonomy and feelings of self-esteem.
9. A safe group/leader will admit failings and mistakes and accept constructive criticism and advice.
10. A safe group/leader will not be the only source of knowledge and learning excluding everyone else, but value dialogue and the free exchange of ideas.

Don't be naïve, develop a good BS Detector.

You can protect yourself from unsafe groups and leaders by developing a good BS detector. Check things out, know the facts and examine the evil.

Name: Anseiku FOGSOANKU popularly known as  F + F'
   He started His music career since 1999'  From his hometown Gomoa Adzientem central region:Recently his music has Dominated the areas of Kwashieman''Awoshie''mallam''Ablekuma etc.
With His hit singles:TABAABA'  MEKAWA' 'ANIMOUYAM BAAKO'.  YENSA NSHIA''.     HUNTER-MAN
F+F has collaborated with some of top Ghanaians musicians such as:
Joey Bee: The Tonga HitMaker
''Tengee: The amazing Dude
  Mr J deedew
  And many many more,
He seems To be a Treat to many of many of Ghanaian Highlife musicians,Because of his amazing skills of Delivery,
       Channel him @ F+F
And Download some of his amazing tunes at @F+FmusicPlay

I don't know your full situation but i'll explain a few reasons why people don't respect others.

...Respect usually comes to those who have self respect.

People give off non-verbal signals that are an indication that they are relatively weak and unresistant to a person walking on them. They have a body language and posture that is closed, and some people see this and choose to take advantage.

Often when one person is being disrespected there are others who will join in. If you think of school where one person cops the majority of trouble from people, and then in no time everyone is joining to harass and abuse.

Sometimes people have such a low self esteem level that they get satisfaction from disrespecting others.

There's a solution to this and if a person is being disrespected they need to be assertive. Assertiveness helps a person to stand up for themselves to offer resistance to disrespectful people. If there's no resistance then the behaviour will usually continue.
      There are multiple strategies to offer resistance such as humour, using assertive language, and setting boundaries. It's when there's no form of resistance offered that the problem usually persists.

Do not allow those things that matter the most in your life be at the mercy of activities that matter the least.
    Every day, take the time to ask yourself the question "
  Is this the best use of my Time and energy
 
      Thanks for you time on This page
Please kindly subscribe and live your comment if you fine This page Useful
                 Thank you

It is  in everyone's Dream To travel And make life Better Somewhere " 
"Sometimes""
   But it Doesn't seem so easy like we use to think,When we made our way to This cities.
  Today,Here are 5 strong Ways and steps    To survive in The city:
   
         1.Approach the right person
ii.Try get a job doing  for your daily meal
         2.Become a flies in the air
ii.Don't make too much friends
 iii  Be Ready For all Weather
        3.Think like entrepreneur
ii Spend your money wisely
        4.Don't rent an accommodation
ii.Take control of your Time
       5.Be patients
  
1.Approach the right person: In this life that we are living, everybody needs somebody for his or her daily Goals.
       Somebody needs you,as well as you looking for somebody,
But the big question always rise
    How can I find this right person.???
First Become a goal seeker,if you become focus and serious about you goals in the city,your instincts will drive you to the right person.
    When you start feeding your faith your fears begins to die.
     It may be that the first person you will meet will not be the right person,but with your strong developed faith,you shall get to the right person.
      Tell your story,ask for accomodation
The Days and time are make up of 3 things
        .The time to  work
        .The time to learn for new things
         .The Time to sleep and recycle.
ii.Try get a job doing for your Daily meal:
      There are jobs everywhere in the city,companies,factorys and individuals looking for assistants in there works,as it was stated the first note that everybody needs somebody as well as you looking for someone.
        Someone needs you.
Few Things you can do to earn some money
   .Help somebody shape their flowers
   .Take Dogs for walk
   . Become an Errand
   .Recycled Phones
  
      2.Become a flies in the air:Remmember that life is a journey,you need to have a clear mind set that where you are is not your settlement or a place you can relays on.always make step to your Goals
         ii.Don't make too much friends:
Too much of work can sometimes make you fill bored,,,life without socialization can also live you timing.
      But if you want to survive in life journey,you have to know how to manage your time very well.
      Life management is time management
       iii  Be Ready For all Weather 
In most big cities, you’re likely to experience variation in the weather, and you may notice this more than usual – mainly just because it’ll be a little different from what you’re used to. It’s essential to bring clothes that will keep you both warm and dry in winter. Basically, be sensible – if you spend a lot of time too cold, damp or heat-exposed, you’re going to end up getting sick!
        3.Think like entrepreneur: running your own business allows you to be in charge of your own destiny. It also helps you to avoid getting stuck in the “daily grind” or the “rat race”. For many people running their own business lets them have a career that is self-sustaining.
ii. Spend your money wisely:
Anywhere you turn in a city you can spend money. Clothes shops, restaurants, cafés, market stalls, charity salespeople, homeless people, coin fountains – you name it, you’ll be able to hand it your hard-earned money.
To avoid falling victim to crazed consumerism (we’ve all been there), make sure you fix a weekly budget, buy most of your food and drink from a supermarket (cook for yourself as much as possible), and try not to get tempted by all the amazing offers advertised all over town. Do keep an eye out for student discounts – but make sure you’re really getting a bargain, not just being sold something you don’t really need.
  
      4.Don't rent an accommodation:Stay away from the mindset of renting an apartment,
      The Risk level of renting an apartment in the city is too high for someone who really want to make a home "survive" in the city..
          1. It can make you feel relaxed when the journey is not yet over
          2.It can you lazy
          3.It may put pressure on you
          4.You may end up being frustrated
     Recent Poll indicate that,its almost Four Thousands Ghana Cedis (4,000gh) and at least Two Thousand five Hundred(2,500gh) To Rent an apartment in The cities of Ghana (Accra),
      "Which" can buy 70x100 plot of land
In this same "cities"
       They say a word to a wise is enough.
But if you really want to make life successful for you as individual,stay away from Renting!!!!
               ii.Take control of your Time: Time is everything,Time is life, time is money
   Know how to use you time with care
      Don't let the things that matter most to you life be at mercy that activate least to you life.
      Try keeping a log or journal for several days. Or make a chart or graph illustrating how your time is spent. Be sure to keep track of everything that's taking up your time: sleep, work, eating, chores, school, etc.
Be honest with yourself here. This will show you how best to manage your time, especially if you find yourself upset at spending so much time in one area of your life.

       5.Be patients:Remember that there is tomorrow,all can not be done as you wish
But all can be Done as you wait,
      Don't be on a rush hour,it's all a matter of time!!!!!
   
            Thank you for having your Time to learn a lesson from This page.If you find it very useful,please all we need from you is to live your comment and also subscribe To this page,So that it will motivate us to do more!.
                Thank you!!!

So why should you consider becoming an entrepreneur? There are many reasons why you should consider taking that giant step and creating your own business.
     Here are just a few of them:

1. Autonomy- running your own business allows you to be in charge of your own destiny. It also helps you to avoid getting stuck in the “daily grind” or the “rat race”. For many people running their own business lets them have a career that is self-sustaining.

2. Opportunity- Being an entrepreneur opens up a whole new world of opportunity for you. You will have the opportunity to do anything that you want in life. This means you can choose to spend your life changing the world for the better, or you can live the type of life you want. Few other career choices can offer this kind of opportunity.

3. Impact- Many people who work for other companies truly want to work hard and help that company to succeed, but few are actually able to have such an impact. When you run your own business everything you do will directly impact the company, which can be very rewarding.

4. Freedom- this is the answer most people will give if you ask them why they want to become an entrepreneur. For many people the idea of doing what they want and how they want to do is the most compelling reason to take the risk and run their own business. It is true- having freedom in life and career does make a huge difference!

5. Responsibility- when you run your own business you have the ability to be responsible to society and operate your business the way that you feel it should be run. This is especially true if you have the desire to help others or the world in general. If you work for someone else you may not be able to improve the world the way you want to, but if you are the boss you can.

6. Being your Own Boss- this is another common answer for why many people want to become entrepreneurs. If you are your own boss you can do things your way. You can make your own decisions, take your own risks and decide your own fate.

7. Time and Family- depending on your specific goals in life, becoming an entrepreneur could give you the freedom of time and allow you to spend more of it with your family.

8. Creating a Legacy- if the idea of forging a lasting legacy is important to you then few other careers give you the opportunity to do so like operating your own business.

9. Accomplishment- if you have specific goals that you would like to accomplish in your life running your own business could help you to do so.

10. Control- for a lot of business owners the sense of security that comes with the ability to control your own work is a major reason to become an entrepreneur.

What does it take to become an entrepreneur?
         There are plenty of benefits of being an entrepreneur, but it is certainly no easy task to start your own business. Successful entrepreneurs, that is to say those who are able to accomplish their goals, earn a successful living through their business and enjoy the many benefits of entrepreneurship, all have specific traits. If you are considering taking the leap and following your entrepreneurship dreams then you will want to understand what these traits are so that you can instill the same traits in yourself. This will help ensure that you are able to achieve your dreams.

Successful Entrepreneurs:

Able to manage their fear of the unknown Have a grand vision
Believe in  themselves
Are extremely flexible
Are able to defy conventional wisdom
Are willing to take risks in life

If you have these traits, or if you can teach yourself how to develop these traits within yourself, then your likelihood of becoming a successful entrepreneur will increase. In addition to these personality traits, all successful entrepreneurs possess a certain amount of skills.

Some Skills That Will Help You to Become a Successful Entrepreneur Include:

Focus- running your own business requires dealing with any number of factors on any given day. Successful business owners are able to pinpoint their focus onto accomplishing specific tasks and goals at specific times.

Resilience- it is a skill to be able to weather the various ups and downs of business without allowing them to destroy your focus. Truly successful entrepreneurs are able to continue traveling down the path of success even when the future looks bleak.

Management Skills- a successful company requires the right people and successful business owners need to know how to properly manage these people.

Long Term Vision- while it is easy to focus on what the company needs to do in the next several days or weeks to be successful, truly exceptional entrepreneurs (the ones who see real success in their business ventures) are able to plan years ahead of time.

Salesmanship- regardless of what type of company you are running, you need to be able to sell your vision to others in order to become successful. Entrepreneurs need to have great salesmanship skills whether they want to or not.

Self-reliance- this is one of the most important skills any entrepreneur can possess. It is vital for a business owner to trust that they can depend on themselves.

Self-reflection- the ability to pause, reflect and learn is a very valuable skill for the business owner. Entrepreneurs must be able to learn from their mistakes and reflect upon what they have learned in life.

Learning- the skill of earning knowledge is one that every successful business owner has. It is also a skill that they never stop developing.

To be successful in your entrepreneurial dreams you have to be able to learn from others. The best way to learn the skills of a successful business owner is to study the skills of successful entrepreneurs and then to grow those skills in yourself.

Can you clearly express your emotions in music? One of the greatest abilities you can have as a musical artist is to be able to take any idea or emotion and accurately convey it in music. On top of that, great musical creativity means you can make your listeners feel the exact musical emotions you intended them to feel with your music.

The fact is, most people do not know how to be truly creative in their guitar playing. The biggest problem is that they have a core misunderstanding about how musical creativity really works. If you struggle with this, then you probably know that this can become an increasingly frustrating experience over time.

Most people play guitar songs and melodies from great guitar players hoping that they will soak in the same musical expression abilities through time and experience. Although it is cool to play nice guitar riffs, and learn your favorite solos on guitar, doing this alone will not give you musical creativity. The reality is that copying other musicians will bring very few results on its own. There are essentially two things you need to understand in order to become highly creative and express emotions in music:

1. You have to understand the manner in which great guitar players and musicians ‘think’. More specifically, this means determining WHY they choose the specific notes and musical ideas that they do. This is something that you cannot learn if you simply copy the “notes” of your favorite songs and guitar solos. Rather than just playing the same notes as other musicians, you must spend time thinking about the musical emotions you want to express, and what specific musical choices you need to make to achieve that goal. Once you gain this level of musical creativity, you will develop your own unique sound as it relates to the ideas and emotions that come from your mind.

2. You must know how specific musical emotions can be created and expressed by making certain musical choices while composing music or playing a guitar solo. Additionally, you need to be able to make your audience understand exactly what emotions you want to express with your music, without having to say a single word. Many guitarists struggle greatly with doing this and as a result they end up limited to only playing the music of others without ever really expressing themselves through their guitar playing.

If you want to truly master musical creativity, you will need to learn how to use music theory. Unfortunately, most guitar players have one of two misconceptions about what music theory IS. Some people stay away from theory because they believe it contains unbreakable “rules” that will limit their freedom of musical expression. Other guitar players think that the purpose of music theory is only to learn abstract ideas about all the nuts and bolts that make up music.

The truth is, music theory is neither of these things. Music theory is the idea of connecting one’s thoughts, feelings, and emotions together through musical expression. It is the ability to explain WHY we feel emotions in music, and how we can continue to use musical creativity to recreate our emotions.

Change Your Mindset About MusicTheory

In order to really understand music theory, you need to first get rid of any of the current misconceptions you have about it (as described above). Once you do this, you can truly unlock your greatest potential with musical expression and creativity. The main thing to understand about music theory is that it is very useful for explaining how music makes us feel various emotions.

There are many ways to demonstrate this, and here is one example of how I teach my guitar students to become more musically creative by applying music theory. First, I have them take out a piece of paper and write down all of the thoughts, ideas, and emotions they want to convey through musical expression. Once they have done this, I ask them to try to figure out the various music theory tools that can be used to express these things. The key here is to emphasize “applying” music theory in a creative way so that you integrate the music world together with everyday thoughts and situations.

Disney Junior just keeps hitting us with the best possible news! The channel recently revealed the characters from its upcoming show Goldie and Bear, based on the famous fable "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," and now, it's been announced that a familiar face is coming to Sofia the First.

Princess Merida from Brave will make a guest star appearance on the episode entitled, "Sofia the First: The Secret Library," the very first episode of a four-parter. The ep, which debuts on Monday, October 12 on Disney Channel, follows Sofia as she unlocks a secret world and becomes the storykeeper of magical books.

Do you plan on catching Merida's appearance on the Disney Junior show? Let us know in the comments below!

So you want to sell a blog? In my first year of University I was fortunate enough to sell one of mine for $20,000.
It was then that I realized that making money online was something I really wanted to give a try because I thought it might help me avoid a real office job and try to perhaps build a business that could help those around me.
In this post I am going to show you what I did in those eight months and how you can create a blog that someone might just want to pay for.
I am going to divide this post into three sections:
1. The pre-blogging stage
2. Building a blog worth some money
3. Selling your blog
Nothing in this post is particularly insightful or new, if you know where to look. What I wanted to do though was write a post that lays out the whole process so that everything is in one place and you can continue to come back and reference it as you move forward.
The pre-blogging stage
This section is about all those little things you need to do before you start your professional blog. If you already own and run a blog then you should still read it and just see if you think it is worthwhile continuing with your current project or perhaps starting something new. Most of the time you will be able to keep doing what you are doing by just making a few little tweaks.
1. Write a blog you believe in,
or pay the price One of the things all the pro’s tell you is that you need to do something you love. I know how tacky it sounds. Every time I read it I die a little bit inside. But, to be honest, it is actually a really important thing to think about both from a self fulfillment point of view and a profit point of view. Here’s why.
Firstly, if you spend eight months working on something you don’t believe in or something that disagrees with your personal morals then you are going to end up hating yourself for wasting that precious time. Unless you really believe in the project then don’t even bother doing it because you will end up with lots of regrets later on. I, for example, would never do anything in the adult industry because I don’t believe it has a good impact on society.
Secondly, if you don’t enjoy working, writing and building the blog you will lose interest after about a month. Glen from Viper Chill talks about this a lot. The initial excitement of making a bucket load of cash wears out really fast, especially if it doesn’t go as fast as you anticipated. If you don’t enjoy writing those posts you will pay the price from a profit point of view.
2. Pick a niche with depth The next thing you need to do is pick a niche, but make sure it has depth. You need some room to move and grow and expand.
If you pick something too narrow you will find your readership doesn’t expand despite all your hard work. If you pick something too broad you will find it is far too hard to compete with the existing sites.
Let me give you an example. Let’s say you really want to do a blog about content or copy or sales writing. It would be very hard to compete with Brian Clark of Copyblogger.com as he is largely considered the authority blog on this niche. But if you had some experience with offline sales copy you might want to write a blog that is more focused on that – sign writing, brochures, TV ads, etc. You have a niche but it is not too big or too small.
3. Don’t worry about dominating the niche When I first started trying to make money from blogs I wanted to have the biggest and the best blog on that particular topic.

I was frustrated if I was ranking number four or five on Google instead of number one. But after time I realized something. You don’t need to dominate the niche entirely to make money. Sure, being number one is amazing but it isn’t a requirement. The internet is big enough for you to still be successful without being the dominating website in your niche. Remember that.
4. Have an idea about how to monetize the blog Before you start this journey you want to have a blogging strategy to work with.
Why? Because people are only going to buy your blog if it is profitable. It doesn’t matter how much traffic you get, how many great articles you have, etc. unless you make a good profit. I have seen some amazing blogs for sale that get tonnes of traffic and have some really good subscriber levels but buyers just aren’t interested in them unless they can see a way to turn a profit without much effort.
5. Get your own domain and hosting or miss out If you want to sell your blog for $20,000 you need to be on WordPress. Why?
Because it is a blogger’s dream. It let’s you add hundreds of different free plugins that change the way your site works, it is perfectly optimizable for Google and allows you to post articles with ease. I really am a little bit obsessed with it.
If you don’t use WordPress to publish your blog then you are not giving yourself the best advantage. You’ll need your own host to do this. I’ve written an article about the best WordPress host that will help make the process as simple as possible and here’s a 44-point checklist on how to start a quality blog that will give you a good set of guidelines to follow.
Building a blog worth some money
Now I want to go into the stage where you actually have a blog and are trying to gear it towards a sale in a few months. I want to go through all the things I did (and do) in order to give it the best possible chance of selling.
1. Produce a lot of valuable content The most important thing you need to do is produce content that is valuable. And you need a lot of it. The whole purpose of a blog is to help users in some way so unless your content is doing that you are going to fall short.
So what does valuable content mean? Well that is what you have to figure out for your particular site. Sometimes valuable means having a lot of articles that touch on a lot of different keywords and as such bring in large volumes of traffic that click ads. Other blogs get better results by getting subscribers to sign up and then selling them affiliate products over time. I have had websites that work both ways – it depends largely on the niche and the way you structure and run your site.
Figure out what will make your content valuable and produce it accordingly. Keep tweaking it over time as you may find that it takes a while to get into the right rhythm.
2. Have a clear call to action based around that content In marketing we have a thing called a call to action which basically means that you encourage your visitors to do something. Once you have figured out what type of valuable content you are producing you need to figure out your call to action based around that content. Let me give you an example.
Let’s say you have a blog about the latest BP oil spill disaster. You might be producing content that is all about keeping people up to date with the developments of the leak – essentially a news site. In that case you might find that the best call to action is one where you ask people to subscribe to get the latest news on the progress. You know people are interested in what is happening now (otherwise they wouldn’t be on your site) so then it follows that they will be interested in future updates. Work with that.
3. Make it super easy to subscribe, comment and navigate your blog Your blog’s content is what brings visitors to your site. The last thing you want is a crappy design sending them away. It is critically important that you have all the design elements in place so people can easily subscribe to your feeds, leave comments and navigate around all the different sections. Not doing so could cost you money.
Imagine you write a three part series on how to look after your heart. Now imagine it gets Dugg and Stumbled and starts to go viral. Thousands of people get sent to a post in that three part series. But what if you failed to show people how to navigate to the other parts in that series? You would lose a lot of readers on that initial page. That is a navigation issue –something that happens all the time.
Your design has to work with your content to get more page views, better interaction and more subscribers. Take a look at Darren Rowse’s multi-million dollar digital photography school blog – everything about the design makes you want to look further, explore different categories or buy a product from one of his affiliate links. None of it is an accident.
4. Interact with every single comment, email or forum thread I once sent Darren Rowse an email telling him that I was having problems leaving a comment on his site. I told him not to worry about it too much as it was obviously working fine for everyone else. He replied in about ten minutes telling me that every single one of his readers were important to him and then tried to problem solve the issue with me. Instant fan for life.
You need to make your blog more than just a soap box platform and more like a discussion over coffee with mates. Talk to your readers in the comments, answer emails and take the time to make it feel like you care and you are available. Why? Because one loyal reader that returns each time you post something new is far more valuable than 100 visitors who don’t interact in any way. And you have to recognize that people become loyal to other people, not to random websites.
5. Install Google Analytics on day one One thing I will talk more about later is the fact that all potential buyers who are serious about the transaction will want to look at your statistics. If you only have a few months on record then you will almost always lose the sale. This is a mistake I have actually made more than once. I get so caught up in just pumping out content that I forget to install the statistics. Here is why that is stupid.
Firstly, you need to constantly monitor your statistics to see what content, keywords and design elements are working on your website. If your bounce rate is 95% you need to start to figure out why. If 80% of your Adsense income is coming from just two successful posts don’t you think it would be a good idea to know which ones they were and optimize the crap out of them?
Secondly, if you can’t prove all of the statistic claims you make in your sale period then you won’t get a buyer. You need to have physical proof that you get a certain amount of views, rankings, clicks, etc. Syncing your blog with Adsense and Analytics is the best way to do this. Make sure you do it today if you haven’t already.
6. Spend 20% of your working time on other websites This is an extremely important point. Please read it carefully. If you have 10 hours a week to work on this blog you need to spend two of those hours on other websites leaving comments, writing guest posts and interacting in a meaningful way. This might seem like a lot but, in actual fact, it is free advertising that gets you more readers, better rankings on Google and a bigger profile in the industry you are in.
How to comment properly Make a folder in your bookmarks called “Comment Blogs” and every time you find a website in your niche bookmark it for later. Each week you should visit all those websites and leave a comment or two on their latest posts or popular posts with a related link in the URL section. Make the comment useful and helpful and always related to the content of the article. In a few weeks I will show you how to find hundreds of relevant posts to leave your helpful comments.
Make sure you sign up with Gravatar with an image that will represent you for years to come. You want people to instantly recognize the logo or picture and associate it with great comments and a good knowledge base.
How to guest post properly The best guest posts are the one’s you write an have to sit and think about whether you actually want to post it on your own website because it is so damn good. Find the top guys in your niche and email them casually about some unrelated topic. Perhaps chat to them on Twitter for a few weeks in a cool and friendly way so you can build a rapport. Finally, when you have an amazing post written, send them your idea and a bit of an excerpt. Nine times out of ten you’ll get the gig.
Make sure your bio line in that guest post is very catchy and draws people over to your website. And make sure the links you include have a good anchor text with relevant SEO keywords. I have seen my rankings for particular phrases skyrocket after doing guest posts with good links on a top website. Don’t muck it up.
None of this should have the feel of spam. You are a real person interacting on other real people’s websites. Make sure you are adding something nice that represents your own website in a good way.
7. Plan your articles around keywords and topics and then people You will often hear the big boys talk about writing for people, not search engines. And while that is a very good rule that you should abide by, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t spend a good deal of time making sure the topics you write about are keyword focused. You see, writing articles for Google is, in a way, writing for humans because Google build their search engine to help people find what they want. What I’m trying to say is you can’t do one or the other – you have to make sure your articles are written for both.
Here’s what you need to do. Brainstorm a whole bunch of topics in your niche and then get online and start researching keywords. You need to come up with a whole bunch of main keywords. You then need to come up with a dozen long tail keywords for each of your main keywords. Once you have done that, you need to turn them into interesting questions/post ideas that appeal to real readers.
For example, you might run a fashion blog about jeans. Your main keyword might be blue jeans and your long tail might be blue jeans for plus sizes. You then have to create interesting articles around those two like How to Buy Blue Jeans When Your Weight Constantly Changes as an example.
8. Develop social media accounts and leverage connections A big part of building a successful blog is building successful social media accounts. Why? Because you can then use these accounts to promote your website and drive more traffic and better interaction. It is also a big plus when it comes to sale time – buyers love to see that you have Twitter and Facebook accounts with certain amounts of followers.
Twitter
Sign up for an account under your real name if it fits with your blog’s strategy and then create a background image that sells your blog. Darren Rowse does it perfectly here. You should start by finding people in your niche and following them and some of their followers. Make sure all the people you engage are relevant to your blog. Tweet on a daily basis and reply to questions and interact with topics. Post any new article you produce on Twitter and occasionally ask for a re tweet. Again, if you provide value you will get a good response.
Make sure you install the ReTweet plugin on your blog to make it easy for people to Tweet.
Facebook
 
Facebook is becoming bigger and bigger in the blogging world as they make changes like adding a “like” button instead of “share this”. You can also now use FBML to change the look of your Fan Page to make it more unique and branded. Create a Fan Page, not a group, and develop a high res sidebar image that takes up all of the available 180px x 540px. Make sure your sidebar text has a call to action and feel free to add a fancy splash page using the FBML extension.
Don’t spam Facebook. Don’t use it as much as Twitter. You should think of it as more of a reminder that your website exists as opposed to a conversational tool like Twitter. Keep it simple by asking relevant questions about interesting topics.www.ofagh.blogspot.com

              
Dark lips might be a result of excessive dead skin on the top of your skin or excessive exposure to the sun and dehydration.
Dark lips might be a result of excessive dead skin on the top of your skin or excessive exposure to the sun and dehydration.
Our lips don’t have oil-producing glands and therefore can dehydrate quickly. It is recommended keeping yourself hydrated by consuming 8 glasses of water daily in order to maintain a healthy balance.
Moreover, never step out of the house without applying a lip balm with SPF 15+ to protect your lips from the sun rays and reduce the lips pigmentation.
In order to remove the dead skin cells form your lips and make them lighter instantly, you can prepare this natural scrub.
All you will need is brown sugar, lemon and honey. You can use almond oil as a moisturizer.
These natural ingredients will make your lips more pink, supple and smoother.
What Causes Dark Lips
– 1 teaspoon of honey – 3 small teaspoons of brown sugar – half a teaspoon lemon juice
Mix 1 teaspoon of honey (you can use either raw or regular honey) and 3 small teaspoons of brown sugar. Warm the mixture a little bit. If you have regular honey, you do not need to warm it. Raw honey is solid and it needs to be warmed.
– Stir and mix the combination till is gets smooth and nicely joint. Add more honey if you feel like you need it.
– When the mixture gets thick and nice, add lemon juice. Cut the lemon in a half and give it only one squeeze, which is probably about half a teaspoon.
      .     Then apply it on your lips.

Make Money
40 easy ways to make money quickly

On this page you'll find all the best ways to make money in your spare time whilst at university based on our own experience. We'll keep adding new ways to this page so go ahead and bookmark it. And please do share your own ideas in the comments!
Top ways to make money online and offline
No-risk matched betting

Hands down the quickest way to make a lot of money (well, without breaking the law). Lots of students have genuinely made £100s from this technique. It's completely legal, risk free, tax free, and anyone can do it.
It works by taking advantage of free bets regularly offered by betting sites through ‘matching' them at a betting exchange. Matched betting eliminates the risk (you are betting both for and against a certain outcome).
This leaves you being able to squeeze out the free bet, which can be as much as £200! Multiply this by how many betting sites there are and you can quite easily come away with a profit of a few hundred pounds.
Owen walks you through how to make your first £15 profit (using a real life example) in this gem of a guide to matched betting. If you know of any better way to make £30/hr sitting at home, please let us know!

Online surveys

Credit: Julio Marquez – Flickr.com

An increasingly popular way for students to make money is to fill out online surveys in their spare time. Research companies are always recruiting new members to answer surveys and test new products.
For a few minutes of form filling, you can make a couple of quid which is paid as cash or rewards. You can bag up to £3 ($5) for some surveys!
A few good ones to try are: Toluna, YouGov, Vivatic, MySurvey, Crowdology, Valued Opinions, IPSOS, Global Test Market, The Opinion Panel, Pinecone, OnePoll, SurveyBods, PopulusLive, Hiving, PanelBase, MintVine, Opinion Outpost, Harris Poll, Mind Mover, New Vista, iPoll.
Also sign up for Swagbucks which rewards you for surveys as well as simply surfing the web, watching videos and playing games.
Update: See our new full guide to the best paid online surveys!

Paid for searching the web

Interested in earning cash for doing what you already do online? This has to be one of the easiest methods of making money online without really any effort or change in your behavior.
This innovative idea by Qmee.com rewards you for searching in Go
ogle, Bing or Yahoo. You just install a simple add-on to your browser and when you conduct a search there may be a few sponsored results alongside your normal search.
Each Qmee result has a cash reward attached – if you are interested in it simply click on it and collect your reward.
The best thing is there is no minimum to cashout – our first one was just 72p wired to our Paypal account. You also have the option to donate it to charity.
Sign up now for free and start earning from your own searches! Click here to start.

Online market trading

The historically hard-to-break world of investing in stock markets and currencies has been cracked wide open. Today there is no need to be a fat cat or fund the yachts of Wolf of Wall Street style stock brokers. You can do it all yourself with the help of online market trading platforms.
Having spent many hours researching this new opportunity, I've been experimenting with the two biggest platforms: Plus500 and eToro.com.
Both offer free practice accounts, and Plus500 also give you a free £20 (without depositing, terms apply) for their CFD service which is worth taking up. Overall I prefer eToro with over 4.5 million users worldwide. It was recently featured in the BBC 2 documentary “Traders:
    Millions by the Minute” and the Financial Times.
One of the best things on eToro is the CopyTrader feature. This lets you literally see, follow and copy the investments of other top performing traders.
Follow George's complete guide to trading on eToro to learn more. I think $200 is a good amount to get the most out of the learning curve by trying ourf own

Grab a piece of paper and make two columns. In the left column write “Requirements” and in the right, “My Skills”. Read the job application carefully and become familiar with the requirements for this job. Next you will compare those to your skills and experiences on your resume.

In the left column write down the requirements and skills needed for the job. In the right column write down points from your resume that fit those. Having these points of interest that correlate to the job will help you provide the most important information in your cover letter quickly and effectively.

Start your letter by adding your contact information at the top. You want to make it as easy as possible for your prospective employer to contact you and know who you are. Before you begin your letter, make sure that you have the proper letterhead .

Make sure your document is aligned to the left. Include the current date, then separated by a space, add your contact information:

Name Address Phone number Email address Personal website (if you have one) LinkedIn profile

Include the company’s information. After you include your information, you need to include the name of the employer to whom you are applying for the job, his title, name of company and

address. [1]

By including the contact information of the company to which you are applying, you are showing that you have taken the time to write a specific letter or application to this company, and have done your research on the hiring manager for the position. Doing your homework puts you ahead of a majority of applications which are clearly generic cut and paste letters, and shows you are dedicated. If you don’t know the name of the hiring manager, search the company’s website to see if you can find him. Go to LinkedIn, and even search Twitter. If you can’t narrow down a specific name, see if you can find the head of the department to which you are applying. If all else fails and you have no name, it’s ok to address your cover letter to the hiring manager of the department. Example: “[Department] Hiring Manager”.

Address your letter to the person whom you are writing. To begin your letter, you want to be formal and start with a proper address. Don’t address it to “To Whomsoever it May Concern”, as this is informal, generic, and gives the impression that you haven’t researched the company.

Once again, if you don’t have the hiring manager’s name, a simple “Dear [Department] Hiring Manager” will do.

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Part Two of Three: Writing Your Letter

Write an engaging first paragraph. Employers read a lot of cover letters, and most of the time a hiring manager will scan them quickly deciding if your letter goes in the trash or the “keep” pile. Don’t bury the lead, treat your application letter

like a news article. [2]

Open with a strong, declarative statement that informs your reader that you are excited to be applying for [the position] at [company]. Be short and specific with what attracted you to the job. What is it about the company that you like? Give an example, and don’t be afraid to be a little conversational depending on how casual the company is. Show the manager that you are not only familiar with the company’s work, but that you are a good fit by writing in a similar tone to the company. For example: if you are applying to a company that writes news articles, try to embody a tone that is similar to those articles. Are they serious, do they add humor? If it’s a more formal company like a big marketing firm or financial institution, you might want to be more authoritative, but always be polite.

State where you found the position to which you are applying. Before applying, do some research and see if you know anyone at the company. It’s always better to have an in and reference, and don’t be afraid to name drop if you have the employee’s permission.

If you don’t have a contact at the company, still be sure to include where you found the application, such as via a job site, the company’s site, in a newspaper, etc.

Explain why hiring you will benefit the employer. You don’t want to tell them why getting hired will benefit you. There’s a reason this position is open, there’s a problem that needs solving. You’re here to solve it.

Look at your list of accomplishments and experience and find one or two examples that you can speak about. These should highlight why you will be great in the role. For example, if you see that the position needs someone who can lead a team and handle multiple projects at once, look at your accomplishments to see if you have any experience that solves that need. If you've led team members before, briefly speak to how your leadership skills increased productivity across multiple projects. Anytime that you can provide stats and numbers, do so. When describing why hiring you will benefit the employer, try to use stats like an increase in revenue or a cut down on costs under your leadership.

Briefly summarize your strengths, qualifications, and experience. In your second paragraph, you want to mirror the job qualifications to two or three of your abilities and experiences that show why you’re perfect for the role.

Refer to your CV or resume, and your skills section from your outline for more explanations of your qualifications and skills. Look for quick anecdotes that highlight how you’ve been able to solve issues that the company you are applying for might have based on the requirements. Include the most relevant aspects of your career. While more recent accomplishments are a good place to start, you may have done something in the past that fits perfectly to the requirements; don’t be afraid to dig deep.

Paint a picture of yourself that’s not on your resume. A hiring manager can read your CV or resume and see what you have done in your previous jobs. You want to show the hiring manager who the

person behind the accomplishments is. [3]

In one or two sentences, express how the company has impacted you personally. If you are applying to your dream job, chances are this company has somehow shaped your life. Don’t get too sappy, and keep it short. But by showing the human side of yourself with a story, you show that you’re more than just facts on a piece of paper.

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Part Three of Three: Finishing Up Your Letter

Briefly summarize why you’re the perfect candidate for the job in one sentence. Ending your letter of application on the right note is a very important part of your letter as it can help

you land the interview. [4]

When you explain how you can contribute to the company, remember that you want to put yourself in the shoes of the hiring manager. It’s about how your contributions will help the company, not how the company will help you. Ask yourself what you would be looking for in a candidate if you were hiring.

Invite the hiring manager to contact you. Inform your reader that you would love the opportunity to speak further about the position and provide your

contact info again. [5]

You can conclude your letter by thanking the hiring manager and ending with a statement like I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience. Don’t just ask the hiring manager to contact you if he feels you are a good fit. Show some confidence (without being cocky) by telling him that you look forward to speaking further.

Sign off. Signing off can seem like an afterthought, or become frustrating if you don’t know what is appropriate. Use Yours sincerely or simply “Best”.

Being too formal can hurt you here as you may come off insincere, or it may not fit the style of the rest of your letter. By saying something like “Best” or “Best wishes”, you show respect without sounding like you’re writing alove letter
.
[6] Alternatively, something like “Cheeers” may be too informal and can come off as presumptuous.

Write your name underneath. After you sign off, write your full name on the last line, and consider including a signature.

If you have set up a signature on your word processor, you can insert it under your name. Alternatively, you can print out your letter and sign your name by hand if you wish. Although with this method, you will have to scan your letter back into your computer. A signature is not always required.

This is a very emotional interview of wizkid about 5 years ago, innocently predicting his greatness,he did believe he can a make a difference in the industry and he did. Life is all about moving forward and not giving up hope.

Popular actress, Mercy Aigbe-Gentry, has shared some sizzling photos from a movie set of herself busy at work. Multi award-winning Nollywood actress and businesswoman, Mercy Aigbe-Gentry, who is currently on a movie set, has taken to her Instagram page to share some racy photos and video clips. The pretty Yoruba actress was seen in the clips trying to give oral s*x to a man. See more photos and videos below;

Ghanaian actor, John Dumelo is diversifying his portfolio and it looks like he has a special interest farming.
The actor, arguably Ghana’s most prolific in recent times, was spotted on a cassava farm.
John Dumelo Dumelo, for a while now, has taken to agricultural farming and he is not ashamed to show it off as many will see farming as a dirty job.
According to media reports, the philanthropist had earlier organised youth to help him on his farm at an area in the Manya Krobo community.
He revealed that he had start planting cassava on 3 acres of farmland, but will be expanding “to 10 acres soon”.
He shared the photos on social media with the caption, “Organized the youth this morning in the Manya Krobo community to get into agriculture. We have started with 3 acres of Cassava and hopefully will increase it to 10 by the end of the year.”
Earlier, the young actor and John Mahama-aficionado had started rearing goats after his preferred party to rule Ghana failed miserably.
John Mahama and the National Democratic Congress, who Dumelo consistently campaigned for during the buildup to the 2016 Elections lost to Nana Addo and the New Patriotic Party.

All of us
want to be strong. We want to be in control. We want to show others that we can make it in this world. Unfortunately, we all have fears too.
They may be a result of bad experiences or they may just “pop up” one day and catch us off guard.
     Fears come in all shapes and sizes. It might be a fear of heights or of an animal or bug, but whatever your fears may be, they can stop you in your tracks.
When fears attack, I often feel quite alone. No one could possibly understand how powerful the fears I face can be. It doesn’t make sense, but it is real to me. I can become embarrassed by my fears and that can lead to even more fear in my life, like a fear of rejection.
Fear is a powerful enemy, so we need a powerful ally to overcome them. The good news is that there is someone who can help you overcome your fear. His name is Jesus Christ, God’s Son. He came into the world to free us from the things that hurt us. He came to deliver those who are held captive, even when the prison is made of fears.
Finding Freedom from Fear
Jesus understands our fears.
   He provided a solution, His friendship. When we accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, He agrees to guide us through life. He offers us a Comforter, the Holy Spirit and, He helps us to overcome fear by allowing us to experience His perfect love.
“He helps us to overcome fear...”
Have you found that you feel alone when you are fearful? Jesus promises never to leave you or forsake you. 1 John 4:18 says: “No fear exists where his love is. Rather, perfect love gets rid of fear, because fear involves punishment. The person who lives in fear doesn't have perfect love.” (God’s Word Translation)
Defeating Our Fears
Because Jesus loves us, we can defeat the fears in our lives We can overcome the feelings of “No one will understand” with a sense of His love. Jesus promises that He will stick closer to us than a brother. Your fears are very real to you but they do not need to control your life. You can take back that control by allowing Jesus Christ to help you.
It begins with a simple prayer like this:
“Dear Jesus, Please forgive me for the wrong things I have done. I ask You to change me and make me whole. I need Your help to overcome fear’s hold on my life. Let Your perfect love cast out my fears! I choose to live for You. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

It is impossible to live life without experiencing brokenness.
    Whether it is feeling the pain of a broken promise, surviving a broken bone or experiencing personal failure, life takes its toll on each of us. 
      Life Breaks Us. Sometimes it is tempting to believe that life only causes pain.
Perhaps you mark life by one hurtful event after another. If the scars add up over time, you might view everything that happens in life as one more attempt to cause you pain.
The truth is that you were created for a better life than that! Jesus Christ declared that He came to give you life, abundant life!
     He loves you and knows the pain you are experiencing because he experienced brokenness and pain too.
He wept at the death of Lazarus, but He also raised him from the dead!
     He had compassion on the crowds and met their needs, offering healing, forgiveness and a fresh start.

Don't eat anything for two to three hours before sleep.
  Your body slows down when you sleep, which will prevent your body from digesting the food in your stomach properly.
            IMAGEs
You are also much less active in the evenings and at night, which means that your body is more likely to store the calories you consume late at night as fat, rather than burning them as energy. Try not to eat anything at least two to three hours before going to bed, or follow the "daylight diet", which only allows you to eat during daylight hours.
Eat healthier. There's no real secret when it comes to having a flat-tummy friendly diet — you simply need to eat more healthy foods like fruit, veg, and whole grains, and cut down on junk food, like candy, chips and fast food. Just by making this simple switch, you'll see a world of difference to your stomach. However, it's not recommended that you go cold turkey — try to ease into a healthy diet by slowly, but consistently replacing the bad with the good. Here are some simple changes you can make:
Eat lots of lean protein. Beans, nuts, and lean meat are good for you. Eat whole grains. Look for labels that say "100% whole grain" or "100% whole wheat" and not just "wheat flour." Whole grains keep you fuller longer, which can help with weight loss and getting a flat tummy. Eat low-fat dairy products. Good dairy options include milk, yogurt, and cottage cheese. Avoid products high in fat like ice cream and hard cheeses. Eat healthy fats. Not all fat is bad you know! The monounsaturated fats found in avocados, nuts, olive oil, and fish oil are actually very good for you, as are the polyunsaturated fats found in seed oils. These can help you to lose weight. Just stay away from the trans fats found in processed foods
and baked goods. [1]
Lower your sodium intake. Sodium causes your body to retain water, which causes you to look bloated —especially around your abdominal region. Whenever possible, try replacing high-sodium foods with healthier options. Switch regular table salt for kosher or sea salt, which is lower in sodium. Some foods high in sodium include soy sauce, restaurant meals, MSG, cured meats like pepperoni and salami, ham, bacon,
sauces, and snack foods. [2]
Reduce your portion sizes. Rather than eating the wrong kinds of foods, many people just eat too much of the right foods. You should eat just enough until you feel full, then stop. If you're eating regular, healthy snacks throughout the day, this shouldn't leave you feeling hungry.
One good trick is to use smaller plates when you eat meals. That way, your plate will look like it's heaped with food, but you're actually eating less than you normally would. Also try to fill at least half the plate with vegetables. Try to chew more slowly and thoroughly when you eat. Chewing your food well helps the digestion process in the stomach, leaving you feeling less bloated and gassy. You should chew every bite until it reaches
the consistency of applesauce. [3]
Take small breaks in between every bite of food when eating. The extra time will give your stomach a chance to realize that it's full, thus preventing you from over-eating. Raw and unsalted nuts and seeds are especially good snacks when eaten in moderation as they will make you feel more full. Do not eat more than a handful at a time as they can be high in calories.
Eat low-glycemic index foods. These items take longer to digest, so you feel full longer. Your body will slowly absorb the nutrients so you'll avoid any spikes or drops in your blood sugar until your next
meal. Some of the best low-GI foods are: [4]
Cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, zucchini, dark leaf lettuce, onions, pears, tomatoes, watercress, broccoli, bananas, apples, and berries are all good foods to eat.
Try to cut as much sugar from your diet as possible. Besides being full of empty calories, having less sugar in your system will help to lower your insulin levels.
Use artificial sweeteners with care. While they may help to reduce caloric intake, there is also evidence suggesting they trigger an increase in
hunger that results in weight gain. [5]
Watch out for beverages like sodas, alcohol, juices and specialty coffee drinks. These often contain high levels of sugar.
Eat a protein-rich snack between 3 and 4 p.m. According to experts, eating a protein-rich snack at the magic hour between three and four in the afternoon will boost your metabolism and balance your blood sugar.
A protein bar or shake, a handful of almonds, or pumpkin seeds, or a chunk of low-fat cheese are all good options. Having balanced blood sugars lowers the amount of insulin in your system, which is good because insulin can cause you to store fat around your
middle. [6]
Eat small, frequent meals. Replace your usual system of eating three large meals a day, with eating smaller, more regular meals. Many people make the mistake of eating nothing at all between breakfast, lunch, and dinner, especially when they are trying to lose weight.
However, this type of diet will negatively effect blood sugar levels and cause you to eat more due to hunger, thus making it harder to lose weight. Having a small, healthy snack every three to four hours and not letting yourself go hungry is a much healthier
and more effective system. [6]
Drink plenty of water. You should replace all your regular beverages with water, especially soda and sugared drinks which are full of empty calories and will cause your stomach to bloat.
Take water with you wherever you exercise or do strenuous activity and take water breaks during hot or heavy workouts. Drinking lots of water will help to flush toxins out of your system and keep your bowels moving, both of which are essential for a flat stomach. If you find regular water too boring, consider making sassy water instead. Sassy water is simply regular water infused with a number of refreshing and energizing ingredients, which help to speed up the metabolism and cut down on belly fat. Recipes vary, but many include some combination of ingredients such as orange slices, lemon slices, grated ginger, cucumber, fresh spearmint, and fresh basil. The water is left to infuse overnight —making it refreshingly "sassy" by the next morning! Pay attention to your body's signs. Your urine should be a light yellow or clear color; dark yellow with an odor could be a sign that you are dehydrated.
Cut down on alcohol. While the prospect of cutting alcohol out of your diet completely may be hard to bear, you should seriously consider cutting down. Alcohol, particularly wine and beer, is full of calories (scary fact: one 750 ml bottle of wine contains roughly 600 calories).
Alcohol consumption also releases estrogen into the system, which is undesirable, as excess estrogen causes the body to retain weight. Perhaps more importantly, alcohol stimulates appetite and causes willpower to melt away, making you much more likely to binge on all the things you've been depriving yourself of, like burgers, fries, pizza, chocolate,
and potato chips.

We guess Harry Styles is on Team Kanye?!
The One Directioner may have thrown some major shade at his ex Taylor Swift when he played his first-ever solo concert in London at Garage Club on Saturday night.
The show was a surprise gig, announced earlier in the day with only a limited amount of tickets up for grabs. During the last-minute concert, the 23-year-old performed a rather soulful cover of Kanye West's hit "Ultralight Beam," off his Life of Pablo album—and the crowd was digging it!
We wonder if Tay is? For the secret show, the former boybander looked the picture-perfect rock star, donning a silken purple Gucci suit, complete with an embroidered dragon, black button-down shirt and Roker boots. Watch Inside Harry Styles' New Relationship Harry Styles covering KANYE WEST at his first ever solo show! Ultralight Beam 7:51 PM - 13 May 2017 11,152 26,210 Howell Davies @HOWELLDAVIES Styles has been making the rounds recently to promote his self-titled first album, which dropped this weekend. The album has already made headlines with a song, "Two Ghosts," which is rumored to possibly be about his short-lived romance with T-Swizz. Oh we knew you were trouble, Harry!
When asked by BBC1's Nick Grimshaw if the song was about his former flame, who has a pretty known and pretty intense rivalry with the rapper whose song the Brit selected to perform tonight, the crooner said, "I think it's pretty self-explanatory." Sounds like a yes to us! Harry is about to begin his first solo tour, Harry Styles Live On Tour, which sold out in seconds earlier this month. The tour begins on Sept. 19 in San Francisco and will end in Tokyo, Japan on Dec. 8.

Since the emergence of the Republican Party in the Lincoln era (replacing the Whigs as one of the two major parties), every president has been a Republican or a Democrat. And only once (in 1912, when retired Republican President Theodore Roosevelt attempted a comeback and ran as a Bull Moose Progressive and came in second) has any presidential candidate other than a Dem or a Repub even finished in the top nor anywhere near second (the most successful of these, in terms of popular vote, was Ross Perot in 1992, whose 19 percent of the popular vote netted him zero electoral votes).

In no other democracy have the same two parties retained such a stranglehold. Personally, I’m not a big admirer of this ironclad duopoly. I assume most Americans don’t think about it much or about why and how multiple parties are able to thrive more in other democracies or whether this makes the politics better or worse. I probably think about it too much. There’s no perfect system.

But Sunday’s presidential election results from France, following ours of last year, got me thinking about our system — especially about the dynamic between partisanship and identity.

A changing dynamic Over the recent decades of rising partisanization in America, the degree to which Democrats and Republicans see their party affiliation as a core element of their identity is reflected in a poll question, used since the 1960s, in which Americans were asked if they would be upset if their son or daughter married someone from the “other” party. In 1960, the last year of the bland “I Like Ike” era, only 4 percent of Democrats and 5 percent of Republicans said it would bother them.

In 2008, that number increased to 20 percent of Democrats and 27 percent of Republicans, according to a poll by YouGov. By 2010, that number had leapt to 33 percent and 49 percent, respectively.

It’s an impressive trendline. While the portion of Americans who said they would be upset if their son or daughter married someone of another race or religion went steadily down over these decades, the portion of Republicans who would be upset to have a Democratic son-or-daughter-in-law went up tenfold and the Dem number went up sevenfold.

And by the way, according to research by Shanto Iyengar, director of Stanford's political communications lab, this feeling had almost nothing to do with a growing positive feeling by partisans toward their own party. It had almost everything to do with growing negative feelings toward the other party.

Consider the possibility, based on all of the above, that as a statement of their own tribalized partisan identity, more and more voters are casting a vote less in favor of their own tribe’s nominee but against the nominee of the enemy tribe.

Comparison with France Hold that thought and let’s switch to the comparison of the recent elections in France and the United States.

Early last year, more than a few Democrats relished the idea that Donald Trump might win the Republican nomination, because they believed that he would alienate so many “normal” Republicans as to be unelectable. Starting in August, the Clinton campaign ran ads, targeted at Republicans, portraying Trump as so dangerous and so despicable that even loyal Republicans had to break party ranks.

If that strategy had worked, Clinton would have won not only the popular vote but the electoral vote as well. But it didn’t work. According to exit polls, the share of self-identified Republicans who crossed over and voted for Hillary Clinton (8 percent) was the same as the share of Democrats who said they voted for Trump (8 percent).

(I know that many who voted for Trump said they didn’t like him but believed he was better than Clinton. Personally, I think the negative stories about Clinton that so offended her detractors – Benghazi, her email server blunder, etc. – pale in comparison to the scandals, lies, policy incoherence, racism, sexism, predatory business practices, etc., that might have persuaded Republicans to break ranks on Election Day.)

You can dismiss that as my bias, fine. Either way, it fits with the argument I’m making here that tribal partisan identities are very powerful, and more and more Americans feel an increasingly powerful tribal partisanship as part of their identity.)

Now to La Belle France for a moment:

No primaries For starters, their system of choosing a president is quite different from ours. No primaries. Each party has an internal mechanism of choosing a presidential candidate. In most cases, the party leader who will be the party’s presidential candidate has been the party leader for a while.

The winner this year, President-elect Emmanuel Macron, is unusual in this regard because his party, “En Marche!” is a brand new party, founded by him for the purpose of his presidential bid. Under the French system, the general election, which is the only election, is a two-stage process with all party nominees on the first-round ballot and the top two first-round finishers facing off in a second round.
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A couple of obvious points of difference with our system:

They don’t have a year’s worth of elections comparable to our primaries. Supporters of many parties have the chance to vote for their real true first choice in the first round without having to worry about the “wasted vote” argument that applies in U.S. politics, for example to the Green and Libertarian Party voters. And it is essentially guaranteed that the president-elect will have received a majority of the votes in the second and final round, which seems like a good thing for the legitimacy of the new president. Our system guarantees neither a majority nor even a plurality vote winner, and, at present, we have a president who won neither the majority nor a plurality of all votes cast.

11 candidates on ballot In France this year, 11 candidates, the nominees of 11 parties, were on the ballot in the first round. In round one, seven minor parties divided about 15 percent of the vote (but, as I mentioned above, at least their supporters could vote for them in this round without “wasting” their vote on a hopeless cause, because they would get a chance to cast a meaningful vote on the second round).

The other roughly 85 percent of the total first round vote was divided fairly evenly among the four biggest parties. Macron led the first round with just 24 percent. The vital battle for second place was quite close. The National Front’s Marine Le Pen squeaked into the finals with 21 percent, followed by François Fillon of the center-right “Republican” Party with 20 percent and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (whose socialist-leaning party La France insoumise translates as something like France Unsubmissable) at 19.5 percent.

So those four parties totaled 85 percent of the vote. By a narrow margin, Macron and Le Pen won the right to face off in the final. Everything favored Macron in the finals; he ended up actually exceeding expectations with his landslide 66-34 percent victory.

Those numbers mean that of the roughly 55 percent of voters who voted for neither of the finalists in the first round, more than three-quarters of them voted for Macron. Macron was expected to win, but his margin exceeded expectations. There may be a lot of ways to explain the result, but I want to link up with the rant at the top about the connection between partisanship and “identity.”

Republican identity In the United States, the majority of votes in the Republican primaries were cast for a candidate other than Donald Trump. Of course, in a big field (17 candidates at one point), winning less than a majority in a field of 17 isn’t an insult to Trump. But given the dynamics of this race, the radical strangeness of Trump’s policy positions, many of which combined falsehoods, incoherence, inconsistency and deviations from Republican orthodoxy, and; considering that many party activists were trying to the very end to find a way to block his nomination, it’s reasonable to assume that many Republicans, at various points during the year, were horrified by the idea of Trump representing their party or as their president.

And yet, as mentioned above, 90 percent of Republicans, many of whom had viewed him with horror a few months earlier, voted for him. Why?

In the spirit of the argument I set up at the top, I would say that some portion of the explanation is that “Republican” is part of their identity, and it’s hard to vote against your identity. And the powerful pull of your political tribal identity will supply some explanation for sticking with your tribe, for minimizing your objections to your tribe’s new chief and maximizing your objections to the chief of the “other” tribe.

France's final round: the dynamics The same thing might be true in France, but there’s the big difference: The majority of voters in the second round of the French vote were neither members of Tribe Macron nor Tribe Le Pen. Their tribes didn’t have a candidate in the final round and so were freer to take more seriously Le Pen’s disqualifying qualities, the sort-of racism, the sort-of fascism, the radical nature of her statement and policies vis-à-vis immigrants, the Euro and French participation in the European Union. Almost everyone who shared her views on those issues was already in her party and voted for her in both rounds. A relative few, who presumably liked her message but voted for someone else in the first round, switched to her in the second round.

But the “tractor beam” of partisan identity did not exert its powerful pull on those roughly 55 percent of French voters who were aligned with neither Macron’s En Marche! nor Le Pen’s National Front. Free of that incentive to ignore Le Pen’s unsavory qualities, they switched overwhelmingly to the less objectionable Macron.

By the way, that “tractor beam” reference derives from a powerful magnetic force represented in science fiction, and was also a nod to my friend Larry Jacobs, the U of M political scientist, who used the idea of a tractor beam associated with partisan identity way back in May to caution against the idea that Donald Trump was unelectable, back when the unelectability of Trump was conventional wisdom.