الإسلام: نظرة شاملة - Islam: A Comprehensive Overview

 Title: Islam: A Comprehensive Overview

العنوان: الإسلام: نظرة شاملة

English:

Islam is one of the world's major monotheistic religions, with over a billion followers globally. It originated in the 7th century CE in the Arabian Peninsula, where the Prophet Muhammad received revelations from God through the Angel Gabriel. These revelations were later compiled into the holy book of Islam, the Quran.

At the core of Islamic belief is the concept of monotheism (Tawhid), emphasizing the existence of one God, Allah, who is compassionate and merciful. Muslims believe that Muhammad is the final prophet in a long line of messengers that includes Adam, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. The teachings of Islam revolve around the Five Pillars: Shahada (faith), Salat (prayer), Zakat (charity), Sawm (fasting during Ramadan), and Hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).

Islam promotes ethical behavior, social justice, and compassion. It encourages its followers to lead a life based on morality and empathy towards others. The Quran and the Hadith (sayings and actions of Prophet Muhammad) provide guidelines for various aspects of life, including family, business, and community interactions.

Islamic culture is rich and diverse, encompassing a wide range of traditions, art forms, and architectural marvels. The geometric patterns and intricate designs found in Islamic art are renowned worldwide. Calligraphy, in particular, holds a special place, as it is often used to depict verses from the Quran.

Arabic is the sacred language of Islam, and the Quran was revealed in this language. Muslims around the world engage in daily prayers facing the holy city of Mecca, symbolizing unity and devotion to God.

Islam encourages seeking knowledge and understanding the world. The Golden Age of Islam, between the 8th and 13th centuries, witnessed significant contributions to various fields such as mathematics, medicine, philosophy, and astronomy. Scholars like Ibn Sina, Al-Razi, and Al-Kindi played pivotal roles in advancing human knowledge.

Misconceptions about Islam are common, often fueled by stereotypes and misinformation. Islamophobia is a growing concern, and it is essential to promote accurate knowledge about the religion to foster understanding and tolerance.

In conclusion, Islam is a comprehensive way of life that encompasses faith, worship, ethics, and culture. It emphasizes the importance of monotheism, compassion, and social justice. By gaining a deeper understanding of Islam, we can bridge gaps, dispel stereotypes, and promote harmony among diverse communities.

Arabic:

الإسلام هو إحدى أهم الأديان التوحيدية في العالم، بأكثر من مليار متبع حول العالم. نشأ في القرن السابع الميلادي في شبه الجزيرة العربية، حيث تلقى النبي محمد الوحي من الله عبر الملاك جبريل. تم تجميع هذه الوحي فيما بعد في الكتاب المقدس للإسلام، القرآن.

في جوهر الإيمان الإسلامي مفهوم التوحيد، حيث يُؤكد على وجود إله واحد، الله، الذي هو رحيم ومُتَرَفِّق. يعتقد المسلمون أن محمد هو النبي الأخير في سلسلة طويلة من الرسل تشمل آدم وإبراهيم وموسى وعيسى. تدور تعاليم الإسلام حول الأركان الخمسة: الشهادة (الإيمان)، والصلاة، والزكاة (التصدق)، والصوم في شهر رمضان، والحج (الحج إلى مكة).

يشجع الإسلام على السلوك الأخلاقي والعدالة الاجتماعية والرحمة. وهو يحث أتباعه على أن يعيشوا حياة تقوم على الأخلاق والتعاطف مع الآخرين. يقدم القرآن والحديث (قول وفعل النبي محمد) إرشادات لمختلف جوانب الحياة، بما في ذلك العائلة والأعمال والتفاعلات المجتمعية.

الثقافة الإسلامية غنية ومتنوعة، تشمل مجموعة متنوعة من التقاليد وأشكال الفن وعجائب الهندسة المعمارية. الأنماط الهندسية والتصاميم المعقدة التي توجد في الفن الإسلامي مشهورة عالمياً. الخط العربي يحتل مكانة خاصة، حيث يُستخدم في كثير من الأحيان لتصوير آيات من القرآن.

اللغة العربية هي اللغة المقدسة للإسلام، وتم الوحي بالقرآن بهذه اللغة. يشترك المسلمون في جميع أنحاء العالم في الصلوات اليومية وهم يواجهون مدينة مكة المكرمة، مما يرمز إلى الوحدة والتفاني لله.

الإسلام يشجع على البحث عن المعرفة وفهم العالم. العصور الذهبية للإسلام، بين القرنين الثامن والثالث عشر، شهدت مساهمات كبيرة في مجموعة متنوعة من المجالات مثل الرياضيات والطب والفلسف

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9 Best Productivity Journal and Planners To Get More Done In Less Time

9 Best Productivity Journal and Planners To Get More Done In Less Time

Productivity journals and planners are tools of a trade. There’s an art to productivity. Just like art is very personal to the artist, productivity is very personal to the person. What works for you may not work for me. This is an important distinction if you really want to get more done in less time.

Too many of us dabble in productivity hacks only to move on to the next tool or trend when it didn’t work out for us, missing the lesson of what worked and didn’t work about that tool or trend.

We put the tool on a pedestal and miss the art. It’s worshipping the paint brush rather than the process and act of painting. We miss the art of our own productivity when the tool overshadows the treasure.

As an artist, you have many brushes to choose from. You’re looking for a brush that feels best in your hand. You want a brush that doesn’t distract you from your art but partners with you to create the many things you see in your mind to create. Finding a brush like this may take some experimenting, but when you understand that the role of the brush is to bring life to your vision, it’s easier to find the right brush.

Planners are the same way. You want a planner that supports you in the creation of your vision, not one that bogs you down or steals your energy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. The 4 Building Blocks of Productivity
2. 9 Best Productivity Journal and Planners To Help You Get More Done In Less Time
3. The Bottom Line
4. More Resources to Boost Productivity

The 4 Building Blocks of Productivity

Just as important to productivity as the tool, like a paintbrush or planner, are the principles that we create inside of. For painting, this could be space, color, texture or medium. For productivity, there are 4 building blocks, that when embraced, accelerate your energy and results.

The four building blocks of productivity are desire, strategy, focus, and rhythm. When you get these right, having a productivity planner or journal provides the structure to keep you on track.

Desire

Somehow in the pursuit of all our goals, we accumulate ideas and To-Do’s we’re not actually passionate about and don’t really want to pursue. They sneak their way in and steal our focus from the things that really matter.

Underneath powerful productivity is desired. Not many little desires, but the overarching mother of desires. The desire you feel in your gut, the desire that comes from your soul, not your logic, is what you need to tap into if you want to level up your productivity.

A productivity planner is just a distraction if you’re not clear on what it’s all for. With desire, however, your productivity planner provides the guide rails to accomplish your intentions.

Strategy

Once you’re clear on your overarching desire, you need to organize your steps to get there. Let’s call this “strategy”. The strategy is like assembling a jigsaw puzzle. You must first turn over all the pieces to see patterns, colors, connections and find borders.

In business and life, we often start trying to put our “puzzle” together without turning over all the pieces. We put many items on our To-Do lists and clog our planners with things that aren’t important to the bigger picture of our puzzle.

The strategy is about taking the time to brain dump all the things in your head related to your goal and then looking for patterns and priorities. As you turn over these puzzle pieces, you’ll begin to see the more important tasks that take care of the less important tasks or make less important tasks irrelevant.

In the best selling book, The One Thing, the focusing question they teach is:

“What’s the One thing I can do, such that by doing it, everything else is easier or unnecessary?”

This is the heart of strategy and organizing what hits your planner and what doesn’t.

Focus

With your priorities identified, now you can focus on the One Thing that makes everything else easier or unnecessary. This is where your productivity planners and journals help you hold the line.

Because you’ve already turned over the puzzle pieces, you aren’t distracted by new shiny objects. If new ideas come along, and they will, you will better see how and where they fit in the big picture of your desire and strategy, allowing you to go back and focus on your One Thing.

Rhythm

The final building block of productivity is rhythm. There is a rhythm in life and work that works best for you. When you find this rhythm, time stands still, productivity is easy and your experience of work is joyful.

Some call this flow. As you hone your self-awareness about your ideal rhythm you will find yourself riding flow more often and owning your productivity.

Without these four building blocks of productivity, you’re like a painter with a paintbrush and no idea how to use it to create what’s in your heart to create. But harness these four building blocks and find yourself getting more done in less time.

9 Best Productivity Journal and Planners To Help You Get More Done In Less Time

Okay, we’ve set the table. Let’s dive into the 9 best productivity journals and planners to help you get more done in less time.

1. Google Calendar

You may already use Google Calendar for appointments, but with a couple tweaks, you can use it as a productivity planner.

Productivity assumes we have time to do the work we intend to do. So blocking time on your Google Calendar and designating it as “busy” will prevent others from filling up those spaces on your calendar. Actually using those blocks of time as you intended is up to you.

If you use a booking tool like Schedule Once or Calendly, you can integrate it with your Google Calendar. For maximum productivity and rhythm, I recommend creating a consistent “available” block of time each day for these kinds of appointments.

Google Calendar is free, web-based and to the point. If you’re a bottom line person and easily hold your priorities in your head, this may be a good solution for you.

Get the planner here!

2. The One Thing Planner

The NY Times best-selling book, The One Thing, just released their new planner. If you loved this book, you’ll love this planner.

As the founder of the world’s largest real estate company Keller Williams Realty, Gary Keller, has mastered the art of focus. The One Thing planner has its roots in industry changing productivity. If you’re out to put a dent in the universe, this may be the planner for you.

Get the planner here!

3. The Freedom Journal

Creator of one of the most prolific podcasts ever, Entrepreneur on Fire, John Lee Dumas released his productivity journal in 2016. This hard-cover journal focuses on accomplishing SMART goals in 100 days.

From their site:

“The Freedom Journal is an accountability partner that won’t let you fail. John Lee Dumas has interviewed over 2000 successful Entrepreneurs and has created a unique step-by-step process that will guide you in SETTING and ACCOMPLISHING your #1 goal in 100 days.”

Get the planner here!

4. Full Focus Planner

Michael Hyatt, author of Platform and host of the podcast “This is Your Life”, also has his own planner called the Full Focus Planner.

From the site:

“Built for a 90-day achievement cycle, the Full Focus Planner® gives you a quarter of a year’s content so you aren’t overwhelmed by planning (and tracking) 12 months at a time.”

This productivity planner includes a place for annual goals, a monthly calendar, quarterly planning, the ideal week, daily pages, a place for rituals, weekly preview, and quarterly previews. It also comes with Quickstart lessons to help you master the use of the planner.

Get the planner here!

5. Passion Planner

They call themselves the #pashfam and think of their planner as a “paper life coach”. Their formats include dated, academic and updated in hardbound journals with assorted colors. With over 600,000 users they have a track record for effective planners.

From the site:

“An appointment calendar, goal setting guide, journal, sketchbook, gratitude log & personal and work to-do lists all in one notebook.”

They have a get-one give-one program. For every Passion Planner that is bought, they will donate one to a student or someone in need.

They also provide free PDF downloads of their planners. This is a great way to test drive if their planner is right for you.

Get the planner here!

6. Desire Map Planners

If you’re looking for a more spiritually oriented planner, Danielle LaPorte, author of The Desire Map, created the Desire Map Planners. With Daily planners, Weekly planners and Updated planners you can find the right fit for you.

Behind this planner is the Desire Map Planner Program including 3 workbooks that not only support you in using the planners but guide you in your thought process about your life and intentions you’re using the planner to help you fulfill.

Get the planner here!

7. Franklin Covey Planners

The grandfather of all planners, Franklin Covey, has the most options when it comes to layouts, binders, and accessories. With over 30 years in the productivity planner business, they not only provide a ton of planner layouts, but they also have been teaching productivity and planning from the beginning.

From the site:

“Achieve what matters most with innovative, high quality planners and binders tailored to your personal style. Our paper planning system guides you to identify values, create successful habits, and track and achieve your goals.”

Get the planner here!

8. Productivity Planner

From the makers of the best selling journal backed by Tim Ferriss, “The Five Minute Journal”, comes the Productivity Planner.

Combining the Ivy Lee method which made Charles Schwab millions with the Pomodoro Technique to stay focused at the moment, the Productivity Planner is both intelligent and effective.

It allows for six months of planning, 5-day daily pages, weekly planning and weekly review, a prioritized task list, Pomodoro time tracking, and extra space for notes.

From the site:

“Do you often find yourself busy, while more important tasks get procrastinated on? The Productivity Planner helps you prioritize and accomplish the vital few tasks that make your day satisfying. Quality over quantity. Combined with the Pomodoro Technique to help you avoid distractions, the Productivity Planner assists you to get better work done in less time.”

Get the planner here!

9. Self Journal

Endorsed by Daymond John of Shark Tank, the Self Journal takes a 13-week approach and combines Monthly, Weekly and Daily planning to help you stay focused on the things that really matter.

Self Journal includes additional tools to help you produce with their Weekly Action Pad, Project Action Pad, the Sidekick pocket journal to capture your ideas on the go and their SmartMarks bookmarks that act as a notepad while you’re reading.

Get the planner here!

The Bottom Line

Your life is your art. Every day you have a chance to create something amazing. By understanding and using the four building blocks of productivity, you will set yourself up for success no matter which planner, or “paintbrush”, you choose to use.

As you experiment with different planners you will narrow which one is best for you and accelerate your path to putting a dent in the universe.

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24 Easy Ways To Make Money On The Internet

So it turns out that the internet is good for more than just porn and video games – you can make money off it too! Think of the internet as a giant country called Imaginationland. By playing your cards right, you can make some easy money online doing things you’re already doing. Here are some life hacks to start you off:

1. Website Building

If the internet is a country, then websites are like real estates. I’m hoping by now you have a general understanding that real estates are valuable in the physical world – digital real estates work the same way. By building a website, you’re creating your own plot of online “land.”

You can fill this land with whatever you want, but you have to promote it through social media (and anywhere else you can think of) for this to be successful. When you build traffic to your land, you can sell people whatever you have to offer. In order to build a website, you need a host (i.e GoDaddy), a template (i.e WordPress), and content.

The first two parts are easy to find, and content is only as difficult as you make it. You can post blogs, items for sale, pictures, videos, or whatever you want. Opening up your own website gives you the potential to make money from the avenues I’m going to mention.

2. B2B Marketing

An online business model I love is utilized by GetVoiP, an affiliate marketer based in New York. GetVoiP acts as an agent for business communication providers. They maintain updated listings of VoIP providers, including ratings, comparisons, consumer reviews, in-depth knowledge of the market and end-user trends, and expert opinions from business professionals on a variety of topics related to business consumers. By not only keeping abreast of news but providing a detailed analysis of products being offered, GetVoiP is able to generate traffic to their site and increase their clout with businesses.

The more online clout you have as a business, the more money you’ll make. If you’re known for making lasting connections (as is the case with GetVoiP above), then you’ll have no issues building your online brand. You’ll be recognized in your community and begin to build a buzz in your industry. Tracking your numbers (how many people view your site, click each ad, and make a purchase from that click) gives you the leverage to expand this part of your business, enabling you to continue building your online rep.

3. Google Adsense

If that sounds like too much technical information for you, there is an easy button – Google’s advertising platform is as simple as signing up, enabling (on Blogger) or pasting a small code on your website, and allowing the advertisements to automatically roll in. The problem with this program is that you don’t get any commissions – and you don’t get to control the ad content. This is useful for some, but power users will want something a little more robust.

4. Amazon Associates

Amazon has an Associates program for site owners and bloggers. They offer a search tool to find the right products and services from their site and a variety of ad styles to display on your site, including text-based and banner images (digital billboards) like this:

Each item purchased through your Amazon links give you a commission. It doesn’t take high volume traffic to achieve results, either. I began making money with the program when I only had 1,000 hits per month on my site. They can apply your earnings to your Amazon account balance, issue you a check, or direct deposit into your bank account. If you love Amazon, you’ll love their associate’s program. Click here for another Lifehack dedicated to Amazon Associates.

5. Rakuten Linkshare

Amazon and Google are far from your only options for online advertising. Rakuten Linkshare is a great place to search for other affiliates for your ads. Through their program, you can get customized ad links, email links, and banner ads for Starbucks, Walmart, iTunes, and a slew of other popular brands. With this program, you can also find smaller companies, regional or specialized brands, and more. I run a combination of Google, Amazon, and Rakuten’s programs, and my monthly income is approximately $150 from these programs. It’s not a lot of money, but it’s also not a lot of work for residual (it means recurring…since the ads are permanent…) income.

6. Company Referral Programs

Speaking of the benefits of permanent ads, banners and links aren’t the only ways to earn a little bit of dough off your online endeavors. By having a website, you gain the power of emailing companies to ask them for things. I have no shame in letting the yoga company whose mat I’m looking into purchasing know that I have a blog and write for yoga publications – it sometimes gets me discounts.

Other times, I gain a valuable business contact in PR, advertising, or other aspects of corporate sales. Sometimes I just get a free drink. Either way, money in and of itself is worthless. Ditch the middleman and use the internet to barter what you have and can do for what you need.

7. Klout

If you have a social media account, try out Klout. The company tracks your social media usage, determines how big and what type of audience you draw based on the subject matter of your updates and posts. Using this information, you’re qualified to receive free items, tickets, etc. Check their website often to find ways of earning free stuff by doing what you’re already doing online…boring the rest of us…

8. eBay

If you have anything you want to sell, then eBay is the place you need to seriously consider doing it first. Personally, I’m not a fan of the site because of the work it takes to build up a reputation. If you’re willing to grind through that process, you’ll be rewarded with many privileges – people have gotten rich selling books about how they got rich selling everything on eBay: Click here for a few tips from the pros.

9. Amazon

If you start getting too big for eBay or decide you want to try a different flavor, Amazon has a marketplace as well. I prefer using Amazon because I can depend on their shipping, have a Prime account, and trust their reviews (overall, not usually singularly, although occasionally that as well). Learn more about Amazon’s marketplace by clicking on this Lifehack, and delve into the marketplace.

The difference between Amazon and eBay is that eBay (though still filled with new items) is seen as a used marketplace between individual parties, whereas Amazon (which is filled with offers for new and used merchandise from the 3rd parties) is viewed as a Wal-Mart-type superstore. As a consumer, this difference leads me to use Amazon, so it only makes sense to target on my own demographic.

10. Etsy

If you’re crafty (and I mean that in more than one way, wink wink), you’ll enjoy Etsy. Handcrafted items are the bread and butter here. Plenty of people make decent side money on the site, which is basically an eBay for crafters and artists. Set up a sellers account with Etsy, and you’ll be asked to set up your virtual storefront and put up at least 5 goods for sale.

Once you have this down, you’ll be a budding Etsy entrepreneur. Provide great quality to your customers, and they’ll often return. Many people are willing to pay a premium for quality handmade designs. Etsy (like eBay and Amazon) takes a cut off the top for selling items through their site. PayPal takes another cut, and you have to be careful with taxes on all income, so be diligent while building your online business.

11. Craigslist

Craigslist is the modern equivalent of the classified ads that dominated the days of newspapers. These quick ads are easy to navigate and use, and they’re geographically linked. Whether you’re selling something or offering a service, this lifehack is a great place to start learning the intricacies of Craigslist.

Posting ads on Craigslist is technically easy, but people often have fears about posting their personal information on the site. I communicate mostly through email when doing business on Craigslist, and I’ve never run into any issues. I’ve never been ripped off, nor have I been murdered or raped for using the site. It takes common sense, so use your best judgment, but don’t assume someone is a thief just because of their preferred communication method. For an extra bonus, google “funny Craigslist ads” to see some delightful examples of guerilla and grassroots marketing.

12. Indeed

Maybe what you need is a job. It doesn’t matter which job search site you prefer using (even Craigslist) – Indeed tracks them all, and then some. You can find jobs posted on company websites, through temp agencies, and more at Indeed. If money is something you really need, Indeed is most definitely the place you want to visit to browse career opportunities.

13. Upwork

Where Indeed excels at finding job postings across the web and acting as a search crawler for employment, maybe a full-fledged career is too big of a commitment at this point in your life. Elance is a site to find freelance work of all types. I’ve used it for quick writing, editing, copywriting, resume building, and other odd jobs and temp gigs. The experience has been great.

Elance offers a wide array of technical, data entry, accounting, and other freelance and temp gigs. If you’re just looking for something short and sweet, log in, input and showcase your marketable skills, and begin searching through their job database, using any parameters you desire. Once you submit a bid, you’ll receive an acceptance or denial – you may get a few rejections, but don’t sweat it. Negotiate the terms of your bid, and get to work. You have money to make.

14. Mturk

If you’ve heard of crowdsourcing (and even if you haven’t), Amazon’s Mechanical Turk program is a great place to get involved. Much like at Elance, you input your info and skills. You then are able to search for different menial tasks ranging from identifying inappropriate web content to transcribing audio recordings to basic data entry work.

Just like at any other job, the more work you do, and the better your quality, the more opportunities you’ll have to make money. The payouts are often small, and your payment is received in Amazon credit, but Mturk is a great place to make mindless money while veg’ing on the couch watching TV.

15. LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a social media site for professionals. This isn’t a direct way to make money, but it’s a great way to connect to your current and potential peers, customers, clients, vendors, and more here. You’ll build a reputation and get in the loop on important developments in your chosen career path and/or industry. One day an old college buddy may hit you up for a dream job you never considered at the exact moment you are looking for a new vocation. Whether you like it or not, keeping your LinkedIn profile current is a great way to get surprised with new work opportunities out the blue.

16. Care.com

If you’re an experienced nanny or babysitter, Care.com is the place you want to make money. By listing yourself on the Craigslist of Childcare, you’ll broaden your reach and increase your odds of finding the right gig at the right time. You can be pickier with what kids you watch when you have the reputation and traffic to pull in more customers. Join Care.com and start making money by investing in the future of our youth.

17. ThePirateBay

I support bootlegging – I don’t see it as being immoral or unethical in any way. I used to bootleg quite a bit in my youth, and I still do on occasion today (although not yet today, in particular, I more meant “in the present”). If you want to hustle for your money, do what you must, baby. Download some software, music, movies, or other assorted digital goodness here and start slinging. It’s not an easy life, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.

18. iTunes

If you’re a musician, writer, artist, tech nerd, pundit, or can produce any type of audio, video, or text worth consuming, you may be able to sell some stuff in Apple’s flagship iTunes store. By selling your work here, you’re able to stand next to the marketing clout of big business. You can make a healthy living off the iTunes store, and there’s no better time than now. Learn more about iTunes with this lifehack.

19. Yelp!

If you have a business, you want to get listed on Yelp! You may not use the software, but some people do, and they use it religiously (and I don’t mean they’ll kill you over it). By listing your business on Yelp!, you’re putting yourself on the map. From here, you also need to start using Yelp! Write reviews of places you go. It’ll be worth it in the long run.

Soon, you’ll have a dozen or so reviews under your belt and can hire yourself out as a Yelp! reviewer. There are ethical and moral questions to doing this, but the title of this piece is “ways to make money,” not “ethical ways to make money,” and I am a former Bank of America/Countrywide employee, so what’d you expect?

20. Wikipedia

Another seemingly free site you can make money from is Wikipedia. People who say it’s easy to edit Wikipedia have clearly never tried editing Wikipedia – it’s a pain. Thankfully it’s a pain for companies as well, so many of them are willing to pay editors to assist them in the editing process. You’ll become a bounty hunter in a way, choosing your own lines to cross and keep. If editing is something you like to do, and you’re willing to put in the work it takes to learn Wikipedia’s dispute process, roll up your sleeves and try this one out.

21. Blogging

I make the bulk of my money from blogging. In addition to the advertising revenue streams mentioned above, I also receive flat-rate payments for blogging from various blogs throughout the web. I’m paid to write as a whistleblower, financial analyst, reviewer, commentator, and more. Writing for other sites builds traffic to my personal blog. The traffic for this blog gives me clout to present to advertisers.

To create your own blog, you don’t even need a web domain. You can start a completely free blog on either WordPress or Blogger. Each of these sites has its ups and downs, but you can’t beat the price. You generally want to keep blog posts between 150-500 words until you have a few dozen under your belt. Links between your blog posts encourage people to stay on your blog once they find it, increasing traffic. Once your blog is up, promote it on social media for the greatest effect.

22. Kickstarter

If you have a passion project, Kickstarter may be exactly what you need to get it off the ground. Celebs like Zach Braff and Melissa Joan Hart have used this site in attempts to fund their movie projects. Some crack dealers in Canada inspired a “crackstarter” campaign from Gawker for pictures of the Toronto mayor smoking crack with them. All you need is a dream, a goal, a budget, and a great pitch to convince people to come to the site and donate to your Kickstarter campaign. Panhandling isn’t dead – it’s gone digital…

23. Extreme Couponing

If you’ve never heard of extreme couponing, check out this lifehack on the subject. Once you’re versed on the idea, what you have to do is a bit difficult at first, but it’s a great way to both save and make money: go to hip2save.com and get a feel for the types of deals that are out there (both online and in the physical world). Once you’re comfortable with the process, start searching for the best deals in grocery, retail, and online shopping. After a month or two of extreme couponing, you’ll have enough cleaning, hygiene, and food supplies stocked up to save a noticeable amount of money. Now maybe you don’t need to make as much…?

24. Social Media

No matter what you do to make money online, promote it on your social media accounts. You have a base of people who are already interested in you and have a vested interest in your brand – why would you not want to take advantage of that? By promoting yourself and your projects on your social media accounts, you’re greatly increasing the chances of people actually giving you money in exchange for your goods and services. Stop being shy and get out there.

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Bitcoin: Overview

Bitcoin: Overview

Voiceover: Bitcoin is a new virtual currency system that's been gathering a lot of attention recently, and I thought I would do a series of videos where I really dive into the innards of bitcoin and explain how it works in detail, and my plan for this first video in this series is to describe some of those mechanics at a high level.

And then what I'll do in subsequent videos is dive a bit deeper into all of the underlying aspects that I have touched upon within this first video. And my hope is that by the end of this video series, you'll know not only what a bitcoin is, but you'll also understand the mechanics of how transactions are initiated. You'll see how verification occurs for those transactions, and you'll also learn what it means for someone to really engage in a process known as "bitcoin mining", and that may be a term that you've heard if you've had any interest in bitcoin recently.

I do want to point out, also, that the bitcoin scheme is fairly involved. It requires some time to really cover all of the relevant details, and to me the best way to really wrap your head around a scheme like bitcoin is to really suspend belief for a bit and get exposed to all of these relevant details.

Now, undoubtedly, you'll have a lot of questions along the way, but my hope is that by the end of this video series, all of the relevant stones will have been overturned and your questions will have been appropriately answered, but it might take some time to get there, and in part, that's because I'll try to describe things in a way that's sensible and that might involve leaving some details out until I can explain enough pieces of the scheme and then add in those details in as I go along so that you're not inundated with too many minor points and nuances along the way, but you get a feel for the overall system as I go through things.

With that, let me go ahead and just dive right in. First of all, I do want to point out that bitcoin has been described, really, as a decentralized currency because there's no real central bank or entity that's involved in generating or transacting bitcoins, and, in fact, what happens in the content of a bitcoin is all the transactions really require what's known as a peer-to-peer network, a network of just individual hosts that essentially collectively agree on different aspects of how the protocol is implemented and used.

Bitcoin itself is also referred to sometimes as a cryptocurrency, and by a cryptocurrency, I mean that we use a lot of cryptographic techniques in order to facilitate or to really enable bitcoin transactions to take place, and I'll do separate videos on some of these techniques, but just take it at face value right now, that it's decentralized and is a type of cryptocurrency. I also want to point out that the term "bitcoin" itself can in fact be a bit confusing, and in many ways, bitcoin transactions don't really resemble traditional coin transactions so much as they represent really entries in some type of a global ledger, and by that, I mean let's say you have a transaction taking place, and let's say the transaction is taking place within, or among two parties, and we'll call them Alice and Bob, which are traditional names that are used in many cryptographic protocols to describe the parties involved, and imagine that Alice wants to transfer, or really wants to assign, a certain number of bitcoins that she possesses over to Bob, and you can think of this transaction, really, as an entry in a ledger of some sort, and I also want to point out before proceeding that even though I've used terms like Alice and Bob, what I really mean in the context of bitcoin is not the actual identities in the physical sense, but really that Alice and Bob are identities in the bitcoin system, and these identities are just, in actual implementation, are just collections of numbers that do not have to be tied with Alice and Bob's real-world identities. In that capacity, you can think of bitcoin at any, it really is effectively being, of being pseudonyms, rather than real names, and the idea is that bitcoin really becomes more of a pseudonymous protocol, where people are addressed by their pseudonyms, and that provides some level of privacy to users that want to transact using the bitcoin system.

Now, in a transaction between Alice and Bob, what Alice will basically do is specify a few different numbers. She has to specify how many bitcoins she wants to allocate to Bob. Let's say Alice started off with 50 bitcoins of her own. She might decide that she wants to give, let's say, 30 of these bitcoins over to Bob, and let's say she wants to have some number of bitcoins returned back to her, so you have to specify, or Alice has to specify, rather, how much change she's going to get, so in this case, let's say her change is going to be 18 bitcoins for herself, and then the remaining 2 bitcoins are going to be a transaction fee, and we'll talk about what a transaction fee means a little later, and I think I'll also dive into it in future videos, but it's basically an incentive for other nodes in the bitcoin network to help Alice in essentially validating some of the details of this transaction for Bob. Now, Alice will take these transaction details and apply what's known as a digital signature to these transaction details, and a digital signature is basically the mathematical analog of a traditional signature. It really binds Alice's identity to the details of this transaction. And by Alice's identity, again, I mean her identity within the bitcoin system, and this binding is really done in a cryptographically strong way. Now, the details of this transaction once it takes place, are going to be broadcast out, so Alice is going to take these transaction details and effectively just broadcast them out to all the nodes in the peer-to-peer network that represent bitcoin nodes. Now, Bob, when he receives information about this transaction, he receives it over the peer-to-peer network.

He'll probably sandy check some part of the transaction. For example, he might check that the numbers work out correctly, that Alice, let's say, started off with 50 bitcoins and is not trying to transfer more than 50 bitcoins to him, and so on and so forth. He's going to have some mathematical assurance because of some of the cryptography involved that some of these claims are accurate, that Alice, let's say, has the bitcoins that she's claimed to possess, and that she's expressed an interest to assign those bitcoins to him, but what he won't know yet is whether Alice has really tried to transfer those same bitcoins to anyone else over the course of time or maybe just prior to that point.

the way that we handle that situation, and by the way, I should point out that this concept of Alice trying to, let's say, spend coins twice, in the context of digital cash and electronic currency systems, this concept is known as double spending, and it's something you have to worry about when you have virtual currencies because it's very easy for someone to just copy the numbers that represent this transaction and try to use them elsewhere. The way we basically handle and reduce the risk of double spending is through a specific set of nodes in this peer-to-peer network who are known as bitcoin miners. You might have heard this term bitcoin miners, and the bitcoin miners are basically specific individuals, specific nodes within this peer-to-peer network, and what they basically do is they take all of the transactions that they see, and remember, they're listening to all of these transactions, and not just Alice and Bob's, but other transactions that are taking place, and they'll take those transactions, and ultimately, they will take those transactions and will compile them into what's known as a transaction block. So it's basically a recording of all the previously unrecorded transactions.

If you think of a single transaction let's say, as a ledger item, you could think of a transaction block as representing, let's say, an entire page in a ledger book. These bitcoin miners will also include in this block, in addition to all these unrecorded transactions, they will also include in this block a special transaction that's meant just for themselves to basically reward themselves for the effort of doing this mining. Now, a transaction block will also contain an encoding of the previous transaction block, so there's going to be some level of continuity, and then Bitcoin miners will also include a specially-crafted sequence of numbers associated with these transactions, and this sequence of numbers is known as a proof of work, and it's called a proof of work because it's something that's really hard to generate, something that requires a lot of effort to do, and that kind of makes it hard for just anybody to get involved with bitcoin mining willy-nilly, but it requires that they really exhibit or exert some computational effort, basically in exchange for getting this extra reward of a payment, and also in exchange for getting this transaction fee that they're going to be promised by Alice to engage in this sort of work.

I'll talk about what proof-of-work protocols are in a separate video in more detail. Now, because each transaction block contains information about previous transactions, really what you end up having is not just a single block. You ultimately have what you can think of as a chain of transactions, and you can call this a transaction block chain. The idea is as soon as a bitcoin miner is able to construct a transaction block chain containing all these unrecorded transactions, and this proof of work, it'll broadcast the details of that chain out to all of the nodes, all of the peers on that peer-to-peer network for bitcoin. And then once the newly-broadcast chain gets kind of verified and meets the right properties, the nodes on the network are just going to go ahead and start using it, and they're going to start appending new transaction blocks to that chain.

They're going to take anything that hasn't yet been processed and start incorporating it into the transaction chain that was broadcast out by the node who came up with the proof of work correctly. Now, this transaction block chain, really what we're going to be doing in the context of bitcoin is the nodes are only going to consider the transaction block chain that reflects the greatest amount of work to generate its contents, and again, there's this proof of work that I mentioned that is used to kind of determine or identify what the, what work was involved in coming up with the transaction block chain. The one that's the longest is going to be considered sacrosanct within the bitcoin system. 

Future miners are supposed to only work off the chain that has the most work put into it. Now, what's remarkable here is that the whole process is decentralized. There is no bank or no centrally-trusted entity that was actually involved in the transaction. Hopefully this first video gave you a bit of description, a flavor, if you will, for the high-level mechanics of the bitcoin system. There are a lot of stones I have left unturned, and what I'll do in subsequent videos is start covering those details, and I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and hopefully the future videos will help answer some of those questions for you.

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