Is Cash Flow One Word or Two?

This is an issue that I recently came across when writing up the finances for a report. I was in charge of discounted cash flows so I needed to figure out whether it was "cash flow" or "cashflow". There appeared to be no simple definitive answer so I decided to write one. My conclusion is:

Although both are used cash flow is much more commonly used and so should be used.  

Tellingly performing a Google search for "cashflow" gives results that all use "cash flow" with the exception of brand names. 

Results obtained from searching "cashflow". I'm logged into two Google accounts which is why I have to use incognito (before you start accusing me of anything)

Furthermore when I took a look at the annual reports of a few companies such as Drax Plc, Lancashire Holdings Ltd and Standard Chartered Plc they all use cash flow. Hence I would say that if you use cash flow you are in good company. 

I guess this is a matter of prescriptive (how it should be) vs descriptive grammar (how it is actually understood). If we take a descriptive approach its clear that cash flow is the one that is best used.  If you stick with "cash flow" in your reports you should be fine. If you are challenged on it just quote some of the references I've given you. 

WebAnswers: A Great Concept Ruined. Though Legit, You Won't Earn Much

To be honest WebAnswers is an ingenious concept. Basically you ask and answer questions and then you get to share in the revenue of the site. This model worked so well for so long but its really gone down hill fast. I'm no longer recommending the site.

Since this is a blog and most people can't be bothered to read a long series of paragraphs ranting,  I will give you a top 6 list of the reasons that WebAnswers is broken.

The Problem with WebAnwers

1. People don't award best answers. So you've done your research. You've worked really hard and crafted the best answer to the question that you can. Google agrees and pushes the page up the rankings so it gets a ton of traffic. However, the author (often a bot) doesn't bother to award the question to you (or anyone at all) so you will earn very little revenue from your question. 
2. The questions are awful. When you look down the list of questions most of them are junk questions created by bots. The questions they ask are not going to be searched for so you won't make very much answering them. You will not get awarded a "best answer" and all of your earnings will be indirect (i.e. just through participation). 
3. Google probably looks down on WebAnswers. If you want to rank well on Google then you need to create compelling, high quality content. However, the bot generated questions (with exceptionally bad grammar) are pulling the site down. 
4. Lack of transparency on quality score. The detail given about how the quality score works is very thin. In order to tell exactly what you should be doing you need to be told. For example if a question needs three sentences to answer perfectly will I get hit by a penalty for a short answer? If I answer a question with lots of jargon or weird words will I be hit for bad spelling? 
5. All the best people have left. Many, many of the most active people on the site "the brains" are no where to be seen. Many have deserted the site which is not a good sign. 
6. Your earnings only last a year. Once a question is over a year old you will not get any revenue from it. Hence you cannot earn any recurring income from Answerers. You must be active at all times answering stupid bot questions to keep up your earnings. 

I really hope they can turn WebAnswers around. In order to do this they need to get rid of the bots completely. That includes deleting all of their questions. Furthermore, they need to extend the life of the best answers to last indefinitely. Until these changes are made I will not be writing there any more. 

List of Companies that Pay A Quarterly Dividend

A quarterly dividend is very nice especially for income seeking investors. Receiving a quarterly dividend can provide a kind of "float" for future investments. You can pool your latest dividend with capital so that your expenses are a smaller percentage of your investment.

However, you should not choose an investment simply because it pays a quarterly dividend. You need more than that to go on.

Note: companies may change dividend payments at their will and can move between indexes. This list may not always be 100% accurate so do your own research too. 

Companies List 

FTSE 100 

• BP Plc (BP.)
• Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) 
• Land Securities Group (LAND)
• Unilever (ULVR)
• British Land Co (BLND)
• Carnival (CCL)
• GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK)
• Barclays Plc (BARC)

FTSE 250 

• F&C Commercial Property Trust Ltd (FCPT)
• City of London Investment Trust (CTY)
• Merchants Trust (MRCH)

Small Cap 

• Schroders Real Estate Investment Trust (SREI)
• XP Power Ltd (XPP)
• JPM Claverhouse Investment Trust (JCH)
• British Assets Trust (BSET)
• Picton Property Income Ltd (PCTN)
• Schroder Income Growth Fund (SCF)
• BlackRock North American (BRNA)

Other and AIM 

• Banco Santander (BNC)
• Premier Energy & Water Trust (PEW) 
• M Winkworth Plc (WINK)
• Assura Group Ltd (AGR)
• Duet Real Estate Finance (DREF)
• Hendersons International Income Trust (HINT)
• DCG Iris Ltd (IRIS)

US Companies 

• Chevron Corporation (CVX)
• Mondelez International (MDLZ)
• Exxon Mobil Corporation (XOM)
• Pepsico (PEP)
• The Coca Cola Company (KO) 

However, simply paying a quarterly dividend is not enough to make investment decisions.  For more advice you should see the Best FTSE 100 Shares to Buy.

Common Pub Quiz and Quiz Show Questions: Tips to Improve Your Trivia

Overused Tricky or Trick Questions

• When given a question you have to really look at every word individually and you may have to think outside the box. For example: who was the first person to step foot on Australia? It certainly was not Captain Cook it was obviously an Aboriginal.   
• The capital city of Australia is Canberra and is located in Australian Capital Territory (ATC). The capital of Luxembourg is Luxembourg City
• What is the only object visible from space/the moon? This is a very bad question. The correct answer is probably none. Often the correct answer given is the Great Wall of China despite the fact you can’t see it. If you don’t believe me, believe NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/workinginspace/great_wall.html
•    In Only Fools and Horses the car used is not a Reliant Robin it is a Reliant Regal Supervan
• The World’s largest desert is Antarctica. A desert is not defined as being hot it is a region that gets very little rain (precipitation). When was the last time you heard it rained in Antarctica
• The only person who can drive on British roads without a licence plate is the Queen.

Celebrity Names

• Paul McCartney’s middle name is Paul; his first name is James. 
• Ray Charles last name is Robinson. Also, he was married twice and had 12 children with nine women.
•  John Denver’s real name is Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.
• The Popes “pope” name is not his real name. For example Pope Benedict is really Joseph Ratzinger and John Paul II was Karol Józef Wojtyła.
• Celebrities often shorten their names to make them easier to remember (and often less forign). For example Fred Astaire was Frederick Austerlitz

Series to Watch or be Aware of:

When it comes to TV it is not possible to have watched everything. Instead it is worth focusing on a small number of highly popular shows which still retain a loyal following.

•          Roy Clarke sitcoms: Last of the Summer Wine, Open all Hours and Keeping Up Appearances.
•          One Foot in the Grave
•         Only Fools and Horses
•         The Two Ronnie’s
•          Morecombe and Wise
•          The Good Life
•          MASH
•          Star Trek
•         Cheers
•          Seinfeld
•          The Cosby Show

Films to be aware of 

You can estimate the popularity of a film (the more popular the more likely questions will be) is to go to IMDB most voted and the Top 250.  

•        Gone With the Wind
•       Singin’ in the Rain
•         The Shawshank Redemption
•          The Godfather
•          Pulp Fiction
•          Lord of the Rings
•          Star Wars
•          Monty Python
•          It’s a Wonderful Life
•          Apocalypse Now

Books to Read

•         Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare. There is always a Shakespeare question. Just read or see the most famous ones: Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, Twelfth Night and Julius Caesar.
•          The Great Gatsby
•          A Tale of Two Cities
•          Harry Potter
•          The Lord of the Rings
•          The Catcher in the Rye
•          To Kill a Mockingbird
•          Nineteen Eight-four and Animal Farm
•          Catch-22
•          The Iliad and The Odyssey

10 Thing You Should Never Do With Adsense

Google Adsense is the main revenue source for most internet writers, bloggers and webmasters so getting banned is a very big deal. You do not want this to happen to you so I've collected ten things you must never do which, by not doing them, will keep you on good terms with Google.

1. The Golden Rule: don't click your own ads ever or do anything backhanded to encourage others to. Google is very very good at detecting this and you will be banned and probably loose all the money you made not just the few bad clicks worth. You can prevent bad clicks by downloading the Google Publisher Toolbar which turns the mouse into a big red cross when you mouse over your own ads.

2. Never show more than 3 ad units.

3. Don't put links or images near your ad units as this is deceptive. Accidental clicks are no use to advertisers so really you are just wasting their money. Think of yourself as an employee, Google as middle management and the advertisers as the executives. Google is trying to please those at the top and if there unhappy with you Google is going to come down on you like a ton of bricks.

4. Don't put ads on empty sites: build up content before putting up ads. Advertisers want valuable targeted traffic and are willing to put up good CPC for it  but only if you take the time to create a site/blog which has real value to it's visitors.

5. Don't discuss your Adsense earnings with others or post details online. Most importantly don't share details about CPC.       

6. Don't forget to include a privacy policy. Google requires you to disclose that they use a tracking cookie. If you are publishing on an adsense sharing site make sure they have this privacy policy.

7. Don't put ads on sites with adult content, violence, drugs content, guns or hate speech. Google requires sites to be "family safe"

8. Don't disguise ads - always make it clear to the user what is images, content, links etc and what is ads.

9. Don't alter the adsense code in any way. If you need to resize the ads or change the colours you need to create another ad unit in the adsense interface.

10. Don't ignore user generated content - you are responsible for it.

More information can be found at <a href=" http://support.google.com/adsense/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=checklist.cs&tab=1187443 ">the Adsense Academy</a>