Move Aside, Netflix! Dish Network To Introduce Online Movie Rentals

Some more bad news for Netflix!

Not only have they raised their prices, leaving customers VERY upset, but they've also just recently lost out on their deal with Starz, dropping their stock price by 9% last Friday.

And NOW they have new competition.

The Dish Network is looking into releasing their own movie subscription that will include online streaming as well as mail and in-store rentals, AND on-demand rentals.

Dish also owns Blockbuster, which means they would be getting existing customers as well as possibly picking up the Starz deal that was broken with Netflix.

This is some major competition for Netflix and with so many customers angry at the company for raising their prices, they could very well see another drop in user subscriptions.

Yikes!! We'd think twice about our pricing decisions if we were you, Netflix! Things aren't looking good for you…

Tags: blockbuster, competition, dish network, movie rentals, netflix, prices

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Do You Have A Social Media Marketing Plan For Your Network Marketing Business?

In the fast growing world of the internet and social media, anyone who is even looking at running a business not only needs to be online, but also needs to get a decent social media marketing plan in place. If you are running a network marketing business, it is even more critical as social media sites are where the people are at.

Just to be very clear for my fellow network marketers, a social media marketing plan does not replace the fact that you still need to get yourself in front of people and you still need to have human contact. What social media allows it a way for you to get your word out to millions and not just hundreds of people. Here are 5 things you need to do in order to get a good social media marketing plan in place.

Register For All social Media Sites

Of course you can register for just the top 2 or 3 sites out there like Facebook and Twitter, but think of all the people out there who use other sites as well. By getting your name out there on all the sites, it will quickly put your social media marketing plan into action and into many more people's hands.

Engage With People

In order for your social media marketing plan to even work, you need to engage with people. If all you do is sign up for a site and you never talk to your followers or friends, how are they going to know what you do or why you are even out there. In turn, as a network marketer, how will you find out enough information about the people you are in contact with if you aren't asking questions and sharing information. You need to make contact as soon as you request them to be part of your social community and start asking directed questions in order to obtain valuable information that may lead you to some prospective business partners. Another great way to engage with people is to share news and tips about business, but I would caution never to lead with your business as most people get turned off by others who are "pitching" business at them all the time.

Spread The Word

There are 2 ways of spreading the word. The first is helping others spread the word for your social media marketing plan and spreading the word through others sites. To do this you first must be helping others get the word out on certain things as well. It will show a loyalty and most of the time that loyalty is reciprocated and people will show that loyalty back to you. I wouldn't recommend having people use your social media sites as a free billboard for all their advertisements, but if you have made a friend out there that you would like to get to know a little better, share one of their scheduled events or something of that nature to show support. Then you can ask that person to return the favor guilt -free.

Secondly, by going viral with your social media marketing plan only means that you should have an easy system in place to get your word out to every social site easily rather than trying to post content on hundreds of sites. A great way to do this is through Ping.fm. You set it up to send out a message to all your social sites virally in seconds. It is super simple and very fast.

Video Love

Videos need to be part of your social media marketing plan...period. The reason behind this is that two of the most searched sites on the internet at Facebook and YouTube. YouTube is a video sharing site and Facebook is the most popular social media site with video sharing capabilities. People love to see people, hear their voice and see their expressions. Since it is often difficult to get that personal connection with someone through the internet, videos are a great way to add that personal touch. The rule of thumb with videos is to make them relevant, to make them short (2-5 minutes), to make them your own and to give some sort of call to action when you are using videos to market in your social media marketing plan.

Always Be Adding

The last rule in your social media marketing plan is to always be adding friends to your lists. Although some social sites have a limit to how many people you can befriend, a lot do not. If that is the case though, make sure to keep your friends list clean and periodically go through and delete those people that have been properly interviewed as a lead if they do not fit your profile for a good prospect. If you really like someone and value their feedback and information that is ok, you just don't want a list full of people who don't bring value to your business.

Remember, as a business, a social media marketing plan can be a very powerful mlm tool if used properly and can help you achieve the results you are looking for through the help of the internet.

Mark Manderville is a professional in personal branding and attraction marketing. Go to SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING plan to get the ONLY MLM TOOL you will need to drive your business to the next level using FACEBOOK and get access to my FREE webinar!.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Digital Media Player Guide Review - Western Digital WD TV Live Network - Ready HD Media Player

If you are looking for more bang for your buck then the Western Digital WD TV Live Network-ready HD Media Player WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN has some of the best features and capabilities on the market. The WD TV live is a very popular digital media player, and is highly rated by its owners for ease of use and functionality. WD TV Live added some key upgrades from the previous release from Western Digital, the WD TV. This player is network ready, provides video playback up to 1080p TrueHD and digital sound though the media player optical output or the HDMI output. One of the biggest improvements were to the menu system for selecting your media.

Western Digital WD TV Live Network-Ready HD

The WD TV Live digital media player is a media streamer that allows you to stream your video, music, and photos to your high definition TV and play your audio via your home theater system. This player does not come with an internal hard drive, but rather must be connected to a USB mass storage device or network containing your media files. The recommended storage drive is the Western Digital My Book Essential USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive (1 Terabyte -1TB Model) which will provide ample room to store lots of movies, photos, and music. As it comes from the manufacturer, the WD Live HD is a hard wired network ready media streamer. There is nothing to prevent you from going wireless also with a USB wireless dongle. A popular wireless adapter for the WD TV Live is the Linksys Range Plus Wireless USB Compact Adapter that will let you connect to your existing home or business wireless network. Either wired or wireless this digital media player has it's competition cut out for it. It is very similar to the Patriot Box Office HD and the HDX1000 Network Media Tank, but it doesn't offer the feature of adding your own internal hard drive to the media player itself. If this isn't a concern then the WD TV Live is really a fantastic media player. It offers the latest and greatest including 1080p true high definition through HDMI and Dolby Digital and DTS Encoders. Here are the goods, on the WD TV Live:

Includes HDMI 1.3 port, Supporting up to True HD 1080p

Connect external hard drives directly or connect to your network to view movies, photos, and music

USB port for USB drives

Audio formats: MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS

Video file formats: AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9

Photo formats: JPEG, GIF, TIF/TIFF, BMP, PNG

Connections: Video: HDMI v1.3 (up to 1080p), Composite Video Out; Audio: S/PDIF Optical Digital Audio, Other: 10/100 Ethernet.

Remote Control Included.

About The Author:

Mitchell Pierce invites you to please visit the Digital Media Player Guide site today to find this article, WD TV Live HD, and other articles and free information regarding digital media players as well as links to where to get great deals at Media HD Player.

(C) Copyright - Mitchell Pierce, Digital Media Player Guide - All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Oprah to Take Top Post at Her Network

Paul Beaty/Associated PressOprah Winfrey at an industry conference in June.

Oprah Winfrey stood before cable company executives at an industry conference last month and admitted that the beginning of OWN, her cable channel, was not going well, in part because she had been too focused on the end of her daytime talk show.

Now, she told them, she had “the ability to commit my full energy, feet first,” to the channel.

On Wednesday she did just that, naming herself the chief executive of OWN and effectively combining the Los Angeles-based channel with her Chicago-based production company, Harpo Studios, in an effort to reboot the channel, which has been burdened by low ratings in its first six months.

“This concept of mine, of one team, one mission and one vision is about to become a day-to-day reality,” she wrote in an e-mail message to staff members at both OWN and Harpo on Wednesday morning.

Significantly, the channel said in a news release that all of Harpo’s future television projects “will be directed exclusively to OWN.”

Erik Logan and Sheri Salata, the two presidents of Harpo Studios, will immediately become the presidents of OWN, too. Then, in the fall, Ms. Winfrey will take over as chief executive. She also will take the title of chief creative officer, which was originally held by Lisa Erspamer, one of her top lieutenants.

Ms. Winfrey will remain the chairman of OWN, which is a joint venture between Harpo and Discovery Communications. Ms. Erspamer will continue as OWN’s executive vice president of production and development.

Ms. Winfrey’s consolidation of power suggests that she will be much more involved in the day-to-day decisions for the channel, a change sought by executives at Discovery and television critics. The channel also may wind up with more programming starring Ms. Winfrey, who is contractually obligated to appear in 70 telecasts a year.

Ms. Winfrey’s new role is another sharp shift in the leadership structure at OWN, where just two months ago, Ms. Winfrey and the other members of the OWN board dismissed Christina Norman , who had led the channel before and after its debut. The board installed Peter Liguori, the chief operating officer of Discovery, as the interim chief executive, and people close to Mr. Liguori said at the time that he expected to be in the job for a year or more.

That changed last month, after Ms. Winfrey spent a long-planned vacation in Europe and Africa after the May 24 finale of “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” At the cable industry conference in Chicago on June 16, she affirmed her commitment to OWN; the next day, she participated in a marathon meeting with members of the OWN board about the direction of the channel.

By the end of the month, Ms. Winfrey decided that she should become the channel’s chief executive. The OWN board had not yet started to search for a permanent chief to replace Ms. Norman.

As the presidents of OWN, Mr. Logan and Ms. Salata — who are well known to viewers of “Season 25: Oprah Behind The Scenes,” a reality show on OWN about the making of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” — will report to Ms. Winfrey. Mr. Logan will work out of OWN’s office in Los Angeles and travel to Harpo’s Chicago office regularly; Ms. Salata will do the reverse.

“I have no doubt that we will all be in lockstep in a very short time,” Ms. Winfrey wrote to her staff on Wednesday. She added, “We are in this boat together in a very real way now. And I will put my brand and my future on the line because I know this one team — OWN/Harpo — is the boat I want to be in.”

A restart of sorts will take place for OWN on Oct. 10. On that day, a new daytime talk show hosted by Rosie O’Donnell and repackaged old episodes of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” will start being shown.

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

How to Use Social Media to Grow Your Network Marketing Business

Well you have heard it all along, probably for the past 3 years or so, that if you want to grow your Network Marketing business then Social Media is the way to go, the way of the future to grow any business. All you have to do is to get a website, get on Facebook or Twitter and "Viola!! you will make millions on the internet" and then - go lay on the beach!! Okay sounds like fun, right? But how many have done this? Well not many considering the millions attempting to get on the internet and using social media everyday. So what is everyone missing? Well from what I have learned we need to not only socialize and build trust but we also need to provide our targeted audience with some type of valuable information or what the industry refers to as valuable content. This is so key to your success and if you learn this and master this it will enable you to create and write your own ticket for the success that stands before you in the great business of Network Marketing.

So the Basic question is: What is Social Media?

Social media can be describe as the tools (media) designed to share ideas and interact with people online. The way you capitalize on this is by offering value to your targeted audience through these media outlets or tools.

The next thing to understand is: What are all the different forms of Social Media. Well you have your video content, that you would find on sites such as Youtube, Metacafe, and literally hundreds of other video sites. Then there is your written content which would be shared on blogs sites such as Better Networker, Hubpages, Squiddo and your blog, if you have one (hint). And then you have your Social Bookmarking sites, which is also a form of Social Media with sites like Digg, Delicious, and StumbleUpon. And lets not forget your Microblogging form of Social Media with sites like Twitter. Along with all of this you can also use other social media tools like Podcasting and Powerpoint Presentation to teach and share your valuable and knowledge. All these site can be used to connect with people and share valuable information so that they will choose to get to know you and do business with you.

Next you have Social Sites which are places you go to post your media and content and interact with your targeted audience. Sites such as the most popular Facebook, Myspace, Twitter,and one of the newer site Yournight. The most common element of these social media sites are the ability to create a profile, share content, comment, follow people and interact - your basis networking. All these site can be used to connect with people and share valuable information so that they will choose to get to know you and do business with you.

Some of these site are not necessary used to connect direct with people but instead are used to drive traffic to your website or blog where you can present them with more valuable information to deepen the relationship by building trust which will ultimately lead to your prospect doing business with you. Learning how to use these sites to attract your targeted audience and drive people to your website is also very important.

Another thing to note is all these site have built in exposure mechanisms. As you use these sites you will not only be building inbound links which will help you with your Search Engine Optimization(SEO) but these sites will also deliver your content to people who just happen to be visiting the site. To clarify, a person may be visiting one of these site like Hubpages to read a blog post or they may be visiting Youtube to view someone else s video content. They may also see your valuable article or video listed in the Related Content area. They can then click on your information which will engage them and may even entice them to visit your website. Your target audience is already there - all you need to do is provide them with value and they will come.

All this social media interaction will end up as a endless source of Free Leads. One thing that you may not realize is that you will experience residual return on your time invested. What I mean by this is that once the media or content is out there at these social sites that information is there forever and can be providing free leads for a day, a week, a month, and even years to come. Just from the work that you are doing today. In essence providing residual returns on your work.

If you utilize SEO and keywords optimization within your content this can lead to high rankings in the search engines and allow people to find your content through natural search within Google, Yahoo and MSM.

Using the Social Media Environment also makes it easier to network with potential partners and prospects along with their networks - which can lead to expanding your business. Networking with successful people, "make it happen people" can lead to partnering up with their influential people and networks, which will intern allow you to grow your business quicker.

Social media is also a higher leveraging way to "Presell" many people at once. Initial effort can pay off big. As you solve people needs and their problems by providing value to people for free, they will eventually want to do business with you.

The absolute best place to learn about marketing is online in the Social media arena. Pay attention, watch people who are successful and begin to network with these people. You can learn who your target audience is and what their needs are. You can then begin to provide content that will assist them and solve problems for them. Knowing who your target audience is and what your target audience wants and then give that to them will ultimately lead to your success. This can all be done for free through social media. Instead of spending tons of money on advertising and doing things like PPC to get to know your target audience you can do this through social media. Social Media forces you to ask the right questions and learn the right things about your targeted audience so that you will meet their needs and create real valuable relationship. You can do all this without advertising cost - it only takes time.

So here is the basis flow for using social media. You go to a social site, you deliver value through networking or by Broadcasting a piece of content. This will lead to either a conversation and/or sending them to your blog/website. At this point they are somewhat pre-sold. Now it may not happen on the first encounter, remember you are also establishing trust. At your blog you provide them with more value through relative content and continued networking. This can intern lead to a phone conversation or to them giving you there information through your optin form, leading to them doing business with you.

This is the basics but solid formula for making it in the social media environment. This formula will work when using Social Media to grow your Network Marketing business or any business.

Douglas Paul Alp has been working on the internet for well over 4 years, Always learning and growing his knowledge and enjoys helping new people learn how to Build Their MLM Or Online Business. If you are tired of failing in your present Company you can find out more about the systems he uses to build your MLM online

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Digital Media Player Guide Review - HD Digitech HDX 1000 Network Media Tank NMT 1080p HD Player

Price: $249.99 USD

First available to the public in July of 2009, if you have not yet heard of the HD Digitech HDX 1000 Network Media Tank then please let me introduce you to one of the best in the digital media player genre to date. There are some downsides to this player also, but the good far outweighs the bad. With a serial ATA (SATA) slot for adding an internal hard drive, and additional features like Bittorrent support, you can store your media on the device, and give your computer a bit of a breather. Couple those features with the latest video and audio processors, the HDX 1000 Network Media Tank supports video output up to 1080p and audio output of Dolby Digital TrueHD and DTS HD-HR and DTS HD-MA, be prepared to blow your family and friends away.

The HDX 1000 Network Media Tank offers both hard wired streaming network support and wireless network support (TP-LINK TL-WN821N Wireless N USB Adapter) is available as an add on for around $20 USD. The HDX 1000 gives you the ability not only play media files from your computer or external hard drive, but this digital media player also supports streaming internet video from sources such as Youtube, Veoh, and Google Video. Connectivity is a breeze with Universal Plug N Play (Upnp) and DNLA Media Server support. The DNLA support will offer additional compatibility for your Xbox and PlayStation 3. You can also hook up to the slave USB port for direct copying of your media files from your computer. View your media in up to 1080p through the HDMI 1.3a port. The HDX 1000 also supports component video out and composite video out. HD Digitech went all out with the audio processing also, by offering Dolby Digital TrueHD and DTS HD-HR and DTS HD-MA. Really top notch sound. It supports and plays almost any media files out there.

There are, like anything, some downsides to this player. The user interface, out of the box, is text based, but do not fear. There are third party plug-ins available that will help you navigate your media. YamJ Movie Jukebox is available from Google and will help you navigate through your media collection. Also there is no real instruction manual, but there is an instructional Wiki set up from NetworkedMediaTank.com.

Here is an overview of the features:

o Includes HDMI 1.3a port, Supporting up to True HD 1080p

o Includes expandable hard drive slot for future expansion for extra storage of movies, photos, and music

o Universal Plug-n-Play capability (UPnP)

o 3 USB ports for USB drives (1 is a slave USB for direct copy from PC)

o Audio formats: Dolby®/DTS(TM) encoders, MP1, MP2, MP3, WAV, WMA, WMA-Pro, AAC, LPCM 5.1/7.1, FLAC, DTS, AC3

o Video file formats: MPEG1/2/4 Elementary (M1V, M2V, M4V), MPEG1/2 PS (M2P, MPG), MPEG2 Transport Stream (TS, TP, TRP, M2T, M2TS, MTS), VOB, AVI, ASF, WMV, Matroska (MKV), MOV (H.264), MP4, RMP4

o Photo formats: JPEG, BMP, PNG, GIF

o Internet Connectivity: YouTube, Google Video, MetaCafe, VideoCast, DL.TV, Cranky Geeks, iPodcast, Radiobox, ABC News, Flickr, Picasa, RSS:Yahoo! Weather, Yahoo! Traffic alerts, Yahoo! Stock, Cinecast, Traffic Conditions. Shoutcast.

o Connections: Video: HDMI v1.3a (up to 1080p), Component Video (up to 1080p), Composite Video (All Gold Plated) Audio: Stereo Analog Audio (Gold Plated), S/PDIF Coaxial Digital Audio, Optical Digital Audio, Other: 10/100 Ethernet, Serial ATA (SATA) port.

o Remote Control Included

About The Author:

Mitchell Pierce invites you to please visit the Digital Media Player Guide site today to find this and other articles and free information regarding digital media players as well as links to where to get great deals at Digital Media Player.

(C) Copyright - Mitchell Pierce, Digital Media Player Guide - All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.