Online Stock trading is becoming more popular especially because it does have distinct benefits. For one thing, online stock trading results in lower brokerage fees since there is no middleman to deal with. You can also make transactions whenever you like, even if it is in the middle of the night. Most importantly, online stock trading gives you total control over your portfolio, so that you are fully responsible for making key decisions without unwanted interference.

While online stock trading can be a potentially lucrative proposition, it does have its drawbacks too. The key is to know how to avoid its dangers so that you can earn money while protecting your capital from significant losses. The following are some pointers you can use to avoid the pitfalls of online stock trading:

• Do your homework. After all, you can’t expect to make sound trading decisions if you have no idea of how the stock market works. While there are people who have indeed spent years understanding the complexities of the stock market, you can often get by with just some basic knowledge. There are a number of books and online sources that explain the elementary concepts you need to know.
• Look at the big picture. Online stock trading is a marathon, not a sprint.               While it can be hard to stay calm when the stocks you are investing are suffering losses, you need to remember that market fluctuations are common, and they usually stabilize in the long run (that is, of you have chosen the right companies to invest in). Thus, even if you do show a loss for a certain month, this is generally exceeded by gains in other months.
• Know how to diversify. A good stock portfolio is a mix of low-risk and high-risk investments. It can be tempting to throw all your money behind a high-paying stock but remember that you need to spread your assets around to keep it stable.
• Choose a reliable online stock trading source. This is the most important thing you need to do. Before opening an online stock trading account, make sure that you are dealing with people who can be trusted with your money—pay careful attention to their terms and conditions before entering into any agreement just to make sure that their offerings do align with your investment needs. If what they are saying sounds too wonderful to be true, it probably is.

There is no doubt at all that Facebook is addictive. Besides cool applications and connecting with friends, Facebook games make a debut as one of the most addictive features that Facebook has to offer. There are games that are simply irresistible while others are sad to say, just boring. Research indicates that at least 53 % of the current Facebook users have played a game on Facebook. Another 20 % still play Facebook games on daily basis. If these figures or rather findings are anything to go by, then it goes without saying that Facebook game developers are making a cash cow out of the games.

Facebook games can promote your fan page making it a good business tool to engage your followers. Popular applications like Rovio, Mensing and Zynga have figured out smart ways of keeping Facebook users addicted to their accounts. Their games are not just games but challenges.  Take Zynga for instance. It has more than 200 million players using the various games it has developed.

Though most of these Facebook games are free of charge, there are some that have to be paid for. For the ones that are totally free, there are still some hidden figures behind them. It has been proven by both research and Facebook statistics that the average Facebook user spends approximately $50 annually on premium upgrades. The Daily Average Users or DAU gauge is responsible for gauging the popularity of games and other Facebook applications. It has proven to be a must have tool for all game developers. They use it to find out if users like their games. Where the gauge indicates a drop in figures of users, they simply upgrade the game making it more addictive and engaging. Without DAU it would be hard to get the social media analytics right.

Below is a list of 10 most popular games on Facebook. The list was compiled by SocialDon, an expert in social media monitoring. The list is of course bound to change with new games introduced to the scene from time to time

1. Words with Friends

Developed by Zynga, Words with Friends steals the show and tops the list with a whooping figure of 7,800,00 daily users.

2. CityVille

Developed by Zynga as well, CityVille comes in second with the same figure or 7,800,000. The only difference is that Words with Friends seems to be more popular.

3. Texas HoldEm Poker

Still developed by  Zynga, Texas HoldEm poker  is third with daily average users of 7,000,000 Daily

4. Hidden Chronicles

Hidden Chronicles takes the fourth position with 6,300,000 Daily Average Users. It has also been developed by Zynga.

5. CastleVille

Closing the top 5 list is CastleVille with 6,200,000 Daily Average Users. It has also been developed by Zynga.

From the sixth Position Facebook games seem to be losing popularity with others struggling to remain in the top ten lists.

6. Bubble Witch Saga

Developed by  Zynga

Daily Average Users of 5,900,000

7. FarmVille

Developed by Zynga

Daily Average Users of 5,100,000

8. Tetris Battle

Developed by  Zynga

Daily Average Users of 4,200,000

9. Diamond Dash

Developed by Zynga

Daily Average Users of 4,100,000

10. Zynga Slingo

Developed by Zynga

Daily Average Users of 3,600,000

As already hinted, these games are free of charge but actually cost something annually on premium upgrades. The statistics are not permanent since the gaming industry is always developing. More games are bound to take the scene by storm. Some games on the list should or should not be there but figures never lie. There are people who like and play them even though they seem as boring to other users.

When Timeline was first introduced, no one thought it would turn to what it is today. As a matter of fact, there are so many Facebook users who only wish that they could go back to their old school profiles. Timeline now sucks and it does so not for a reason, but for reasons. Here are the reasons;

It’s dirty!

From a designer’s perspective, the new Facebook Timeline is not just ugly but also messy. Any time your eyes lands on a Timeline; they find it extremely hard if not difficult to decide what they can focus on. In the old school profile version, the wall was simply the centerpiece of anyone’s page. Literally speaking, it was down the center of the page and it was easy to use or read what you wanted. But with two significant columns of competing content and information in the so called Timeline, you just cannot help but feel confused.

It’s untimely

You can use the new timeline for a personal profile which is not a bad idea at all. It is great. In fact, it allows the Facebook user to share treasured pieces of his or her life from the past to the present.  However, the current Timeline for pages spotlights some user’s old posts. Some of such posts are so old dating to some years back. That does not make much sense. If the Timeline showcases what happened years back yet readers want to read what is happening now, then that is really not a good idea.

No fan engagement

Timeline is not interactive and engaging and tends to chase away fans. Fans simply want pages that are interactive and easy to follow and stay on. This cannot be said of Facebook timeline. Fan engagement is down in pages that were once very interactive with fans before timeline was introduced.   This can only be attributed to one simple mistake that left fans confused.  What was once the ‘wall’ is now ‘Recent Posts by Others’ section.  To make matters worse, it is hard to find the section as it is located abit further down the page. Your comments can therefore be easily hidden or simply downgraded. This makes it hard for fans to visit your timeline frequently. A huge difference can be seen in the old school version where everything appeared on the central wall. Fans could comment on each other posts and have a conversion through their comments. This easily created a sense of interaction and togetherness and a community could be easily born. But this is no longer happening, thanks to the new Facebook Timeline.

It’s limiting 

With Timeline, you cannot showcase your personality and what you want to express. Every Timeline seems to be identical to another apart from the cover photo. There are no options to customize the Timeline. It is just an uphill task to express your personality and true colors.

So, what Next?

Well, the answer is really simple. Create your personal website. This does not mean that you should quite Facebook.  Instead, use it to market your website.  You can create a fan page and link it to your account, something that so many people are already doing at the moment.

It is known fact that Facebook is one of the most lucrative platforms that business owners can use to target potential customers and clients. With more than 840 million active users each month, anyone would be out of his or her mind to overlook Facebook as a golden opportunity to market his or her business.  There are several ways this can be done but the most popular one is creating a page. Well, the page creating part is very easy. But the same cannot be said when it comes to promoting the page effectively. In fact, it can be very frustrating to succeed with Facebook or any other social networking site if one does not know the tips and tricks of using social networks to his or her advantage.

But have no worries at all. If others are doing it, you can also do it and even beat them at their own game. Simply follow these 7 simple but smart ways of promoting your Facebook community/brand page.

1. Personalize Your Fan Page URL

This is the first step that anyone should follow for proper promotion of his or her business Fan page. The default URL always consists of randomly generated figures or rather numbers that are extremely difficult for fans to remember.  Just be smart and save them that inconvenience by customizing the URL of your fan page and making it easy to remember. For instance if your business is related to bags, just add an eye catching adjective like ‘ trendy’ or ‘cool’ to the URL to make it sound appealing, easy to remember an most importantly, ‘in vogue’

2. Tag Famous Fan Pages:

This is one fun and easy way of making things work to your advantage. Each time you share interesting stuff and news from popular top brand Facebook fan pages on your wall, take time to tag them.  The simplest way to do this is by inserting the ‘@’ sign before you can write the name of that brand fan page. This way, your posts will appear on the page of the popular brand and fans can easily read the posts.  From there, it can be easy to redirect fans of the popular brand to your fan page.

3. Crosslink Other Social Networks

This is simply linking your Facebook fan page with other social networks like Twitter, MySpace or LinkedIn. Facebook has made things a lot easier for those who want to do this. It has provided an option link on brand pages. The options links can link twitter accounts to the Facebook fan pages meaning that your twitter followers can easily find your Facebook fan page and know more about your brand. You can also cross advertise your Facebook brand fan page on your twitter background images. Y our followers can  therefore like you or your brand on Facebook

4. Use QR Codes:

This is a long process but it actually works once you manage to nail it. QR codes are simple Quick Response Codes. They comprise of black modules that are arranged in small square patterns of a plain white background.  The codes can easily hold approximately 3,000 binary units, 7,100 characters and 4,300 alphanumeric characters.  QR codes may be too technical for newbies to understand but they are very important.  They can help you to easily connect with your followers using reader software and camera phone to online information avenues like websites, SMSs and most importantly, Facebook fan pages. The QR codes can help you to code for your fan page and easily convert your Facebook likes into just what you need; Leads. You therefore stand nothing to lose but everything to gain with QR codes.

5. Use Blog Posts to Promote the Fan Page

This is an easy tip that any blogger can follow. You probably know about it but you may have ignored the advantages it comes along with.  If you have a weblog that provides high quality content to your readers, then use your blog posts to promote your Facebook fan page. You can easily do this by soliciting top blogs that are related to your business to write posts about your business then link the posts with your Facebook fan page. As you do this, ensure that the posts linking the blogs to your Facebook fan page are of high quality and in depth.