It’s no secret that smartphone usage has increased considerably over the last few years, particularly in the UK and the United States. As a direct result of the internet browsing capabilities offered by modern smartphones, more and more people are now going online on their mobiles and even making purchases directly from their handsets.

The following infographic (put together by Cashlog) demonstrates just how popular mobile payments have become, and reveals some interesting and surprising statistics. For example, by 2020 there will be an incredible 10 billion mobile-connected devices, with mobile commerce rising 4,800% between 2010 and 2015 – it even predicts that mobile internet usage will exceed desktop usage by 2014, a statistic that would have seemed nearly impossible just a few years ago.
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For guys who may be getting a little too cozy with their laptops, word comes that they may be damaging their relationships in more ways than one.

According to a recent report from the medical journal Fertility and Sterility, men who sit with a laptop on their laps may be impacting their sperm levels, something neither they nor their significant others are likely to want to hear.

The study took samples from 29 healthy male donors, and then placed a few drops of the samples beneath a laptop tied to the Internet through Wi-Fi. The Argentine researchers then hit download to see how the sperm would react.

According to the report, some four hours later, one-fourth of the sperm in close proximity to a laptop had stopped moving around, versus only 14 percent from semen samples which were kept at the same temperature a safe distance away from the computer. Nine percent of the sperm indicated DNA damage, leaving researchers to conclude that electromagnetic radiation occurring during wireless communication was an issue.

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Image via Wikipedia

Have you ever dreamed of leading a true modern age Nomad lifestyle? Do you like the thought of exploring the world leisurely without ever neglecting your work? In this day and age, there are growing legions of telecommuters who do just that. Thanks to the proliferation of on-line business models, millions of workers get to bring home the bacon while making a home for themselves anywhere in the world, provided there’s Internet access.

Are you  already part of the growing legions of Nomad workers? Or maybe you’re still dreaming of charting a new course in your life? Either way, this article will both inspire and prepare you for what’s ahead.

Lugging the office around: what will you need?

True nomads don’t lend much to obsessive planning. If you’re looking to roam the global village freely, you can just make up your rules as you go. However… for the sake of convenience, and to make sure you don’t have to sacrifice your productivity or get behind on your schedule – it’s best to be prepared.

Let’s examine the fundamentals of a fully functional office that would fit inside a rucksack.
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As we all know, Google is the powerhouse when it comes to the world of search engines. Despite the growth of Bing in the past few years, Google is still the dominant force, and the latest algorithm update released recently caused quite a stir in the SEO world. The ‘Panda’ update was meant to downgrade the power of low quality spammy sites and content farms stealing others’ content, however it ended up affecting millions of sites in both good and bad ways. Generally it has helped a lot in improving the quality of search results returned by Google, but it means that there is now a new focus for the SEO world. This update and the subsequent tweaks (upto Panda v2.4) was one of the widest reaching updates, affecting over 10% of global search queries. Here is a quick reference guide to some of the do’s and don’t of SEO since Panda was rolled out worldwide:

- Simple things
The Panda update brought about a bigger emphasis on on page elements, but some simple ones. Make sure spelling and grammar are all correct, adverts are not intrusive (better yet not there!) and your code is nice and clean (use the W3C validator to check). These are all things that should already be there on a well designed site, but are sadly lacking in many…

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With the internet constantly expanding it’s reach all over the world, e-commerce has been a booming market for several years now. With more and more of the population set to connect to the internet in the coming years, it’s a market that is only going to grow in size. Couple this with the huge increase in mobile or m-commerce and it’s still a great time to sell online.

Whether you’re converting your physical store to have online capabilities or starting out fresh with an online only store, there are several key things to consider. These are generally split into Design, Sales & Marketing and Distribution:

Design
In the ever more competitive world of online commerce, you need to make sure you have all the bases covered. If one part of the site is lacking, then it will have a drastic effect on the conversion rate. For instance, if you have an excellent website, but the ‘About Us’ page is blank, or a page goes to an error then it instantly looks unprofessional. In a world where people are generally sceptical about giving out payment details, an efficient e-commerce site need to make the customer feel safe and secure.

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Remember sometime back when I posted about why I had chosen to upgrade to CommentLuv Premium, then the amazing WordPress plugin was on sale for a limited time before it’s official launcg date, well, it’s now back on SALE!

ON SALE NOW AT A SPECIAL SALE PRICE! - Bonuses and low price until 30th Nov

CommentLuv Premium has become extremely popular since it’s original release and it’s beta testers and new owners of the MUST HAVE PLUGIN have loved it so much they just can’t help shouting about it to their fellow blogging friends.

Boosting Comments And Social Networing With CommentLuv Premium

Those that have CommentLuv Premium have noticed an increase in comments as well as some of the sharing of their blog posts since using the plugin, I myself have noticed an amazing increase, which is what we all want for our blogs.

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Ok folks you may have seen the new logo already, specially on my Twitter (@BlazingMinds), but I thought it was time to introduce you all to the new Blazing Minds logo that has been designed by TheraisaK.

Why Get A New Logo?

Since starting Blazing Minds over three years ago, I have used the same image and thought it was about time that I had my own custom logo that everyone will see and hopefully come to love.

So I got in touch with TheraisaK, who also designed the new @SlappyBear logo as well, asked her to design a logo for Blazing Minds, that kept in the spirit of the red-haired avatar that everyone was used to and the result is something that I personally think is brilliant.

I must say a big, big thanks to Theraisa for the brilliant work that she has done on not only the Blazing Minds, but also on the Slappy Bear Logo as well. I think both look far better than what I originally had
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