Regular features from April 2004 100th Issue

The Digital Doctor - Joining the Digital Revolution

If you run a business, guesthouse, bar or simply want to share your photographs and memories with your family overseas there will come a time that you will want a website. Websites are not only restricted to corporate users, anyone can get one and getting an online presence has never been easier. This month I'll be explaining the technical sides of things regarding getting your own slice of cyber space and getting your digital data online.
The first thing you'll want to look at before going any further is a Domain name, this is where people will find you on the web for example www.mydomain.com, you can choose any name you like but its generally better to keep them shorter (for nothing else its easier to remember!) To see if what you have in mind is available got to www.netsol.com and do a check - its generally better to go for a dot com or a dot net name. A domain name will cost around 500 baht for a year, you need to renew it or risk losing it to someone else. Once you have found a name that's available you need to get it hosted. Hosting is a service that offers storage for your pages on a web server, there are many kinds of packages available from basic to corporate and they vary in the space you get, bandwidth, number of email accounts, services, and support. Basic web hosting can cost as little as 300 baht per month, there are some free web hosting services available but you will get advertising and pop-ups along with it so best usually avoided (does beg the question; is anything really free?)
So now you have your domain name and hosting package but there's just this 'under construction' page there. You need to get your website designed, this is where it gets a little trickier and you have two choices: do it yourself or pay a professional. If it's a personal website or you're proficient in graphic design and HTML then doing your own site isn't a problem (and you probably shouldn't be reading this article anyway!) If on the other hand you have no idea where to begin then paying someone to do it for you maybe the best route. Even before you decide to do this there are a few planning steps you can make:
1) Content - decide what you want on the site, how many pages etc
2) Style - decide on styles, colour schemes, fonts etc
3) Layout - have an idea how you want the site laid out and where things are placed.
It's a good idea to have this in mind before you go ahead, any good webmaster will be able to help you with these planning stages also. You should also know your target audience, if it's a local market i.e. Thailand then creating a quick loading website is essential as we all know how prehistoric and painfully slow internet connection is here. Nine out of ten internet users will not wait longer than 30 seconds for a site to load. Once the site has been designed and is online you're pretty much there. Now its time to decide if you want to take things a stage further and start promoting your new website.
Website promotion and search engine optimization are kind of grey areas, they're more of an art than a science. Naturally there are methods of optimizing your pages by using keywords and search terms but this alone won’t get you top positions in the search engines. It's an ongoing process of building reciprocal links with other websites, page optimization, search engine submission and keeping track of current search engine trends. To gain a good Google placement the most important of the processes mentioned above is inbound links; the more quality sites that will link to you the better rating you'll get. Marketing and maintaining a website must be done regularly as a poorly maintained website with static content that's never updated will not get a lot of visitors. Again you can choose to do this yourself or pay for a professional e-Marketing and maintenance strategy.
So why have a website anyway? Well the first part of an answer to this will be another question: what are your objectives? If you run a business then your primary objective must be to attract customers and make a profit. If this is the case then a website is essential, it will expose your business to countless potential customers, give you a professional edge over competition and offer current and new customers a chance to see your products and services without having to visit you personally.
If you are a personal user you may have a website to upload a photograph gallery to show family and friends abroad without having the hassle of emailing them all attachments. You can share information on your interests and hobbies or create a website to promote anything from yourself to prospective employers to where you live.
Websites are now affordable commodities for everyone and there's no limit to what you can do with one. With server side coding, online databases and flash, websites are becoming more sophisticated and moving away from the basics of text and pictures. The only limit is your imagination! If you are interested in a website, e-marketing, maintenance or have any computer or internet issues you can contact the Doc on 01-1911742, email info@digitalmetrix.net Back issues of the Digital Doctor can be found on www.digitalmetrix.net

How useful is the Dow Jones Index

Some investors, sunbathing at the pool of their Hua Hin five star hotel, are likely to buy The Financial Times or even The Nation to answer the question "How did the markets do yesterday"? You know they are not talking about the night market in town.
They just want to know how much richer or poorer they have become overnight. It would be difficult to discuss investment without discussing indices. Their main use is to monitor and measure market movement but equity and bond indices are also economic barometers. How reflective is the Dow, as the best known index of investment performance, of the overall investment market?
Most people would agree that it doesn't matter how many policies, to assist the wealthy, George Bush implements before the American elections in November, his future will be judged on where the major indices and the economy in general are performing by then.
But how useful a barometer is the Dow Jones Index? Well in reality it is woefully inadequate to reflect the widest and most representative coverage of its target market.
Did you know it contains only 30 blue chip stocks? When Charles Dow founded the index in 1884 it was the first published index. To day there are more than 4,000 indices worldwide. Back in 1884 the Dow had only 11 constituents mainly because Charles had no access to a computer or even a simple calculator.
Personally I have no idea why the index only contains 30 blue chip stocks to day but I want to try and show simply why it really fails to reflect market movement in general.
The best and simplest illustration is to look at the performance of three American indices for twelve months ending March 2001.
These three indices all fell by different amounts
Firstly the Dow with its limited coverage and blue chip focus fell 10%
The more broadly based but still large cap Standard and Poor's 500 fell 23%
The best measure of the US market is provided by the relatively unknown and comprehensive Wiltshire 5000 (which in fact contains 7,000 stocks) fell by 26%
These figures clearly show to me that the Dow fails to reflect overall market movement.
While looking back 100 years lets look at a topic which George Bush (again) made popular in the US with his relief of tax on dividends.
Switch to the UK and look at the ABN AMBRO/LBS UK equity index over 102 years. One Pound sterling invested in 1899 would have grown to Stg. 149 by 2001 if dividends had been squandered or spent. With dividends reinvested Stg One would have grown to Stg.16,112. This highlights the truth that unless indices incorporate reinvested dividends, they will have little value in measuring total return.
Another major use of the Dow and other indices is by fund managers who wish to measure their investment performance and use them as a yardstick. They charge for their services and so are expected to outperform whatever index they specialize in. If they don't their extra charges have added no value for a client who could have bought an index fund cheaper.
I recommend index funds to clients who have a comprehensive portfolio. They first appeared in the US in 1971 and now 30% of funds are indexed. In the UK 10-20%
For a one off investor, despite the lower charges than active fund management, you are guaranteed to under perform the market when charges are applied. Also you are investing in capitalization and have nowhere to go if the market collapses.
In conclusion we can say that the Dow Jones index is useful in showing the performance of the top 30 blue chips in the US but is not a factual barometer of overall fund performance.

For more information on this article or to discuss any are of personal finance
Please contact JerryMcMenamin at
jerry@swissinvestcenter.net

Travel News

THE Thai government has approved the construction of a 3.3km bridge linking Thailand and Laos across the Huang River, one of the tributaries of the Mekong River. Thailand will bear the full cost of about US$1.8 million for the bridge which will link the northeastern province of Loei, Thailand, with the province of Sainyabuli, Laos. Construction is expected to start in early 2004 and take about a year to complete. The bridge will not immediately have an international immigration checkpoint, though that is a logical next step for governments to discuss after it is opened. Loei province is home to the Phu Kradueng National Park where the government would like to resurrect a cable-car project that was mothballed two years ago because of opposition by conservationists.

ASIA’s biggest adventure park is being developed at Pak Chong in Khao Yai, north of Bangkok, and is scheduled for completion by the end of this year at a cost of US$3.25 million. Called Adventure World the park will be about 24 hectares of land which already houses Greenery Resort. It is being developed by Scenical Sport & Amusement. The project will be completed by November.

Forestry authorities are trying to have Khao Yai National Park declared as Thailand’s fifth World Heritage site in order to prevent it from being exploited for commercial development.

DUSIT Hotels & Resorts have purchased the Chiang Inn Hotel & Lodge in Chiang Mai and have closed it for complete refurbishment prior to re-opening as a luxury property later this year. The Chiang Inn is a 160-room 3-star hotel very close to the Night Bazaar and only three blocks from the group’s other Chiang Mai property, the four-star Royal Princess Chiang Mai.

MARRIOTT International’s lodging portfolio in the Asia-Pacific will grow by 19 properties through the end of 2006, with hotels in 10 countries scheduled to open.
Included are the company’s first resorts in China and Fiji, its first hotels in New Zealand and Taiwan, its first Courtyard-branded hotel in Hawaii and the expansion of its Courtyard brand in Australia.

SINGAPORE’S “low-frills” airline Valuair is targeting its fares to be between 40 and 50 per cent lower compared to what the traditional players will be offering in terms of restricted fares. Valuair’s application for an air operator’s certificate was “towards the end of the due diligence”. “It’s only a matter of formality and it should be signed off by the time the first aircraft arrives.”

SOFITEL is offering travel agents discounted room rates at more than 140 participating properties worldwide until December 31. Under the Sofitel Star Programme 2004, agents get up to 75 per cent off room rates for their personal trips at hotels in destinations including France, Germany, the US and UK, Morocco, Australia and throughout Asia. The rates include single or double occupancy, with reservations based on availability and limited to a maximum of two rooms per client. Reservation must be made in advance and agents are requested to show industry identification on check in.

THE Thai government has resolved that entertainment venues may stay open until 2am for the time being because new regulations enforcing earlier closing times are not yet legal. A source close to the government, requesting anonymity, said that until the law is changed for all venues, regardless of whether they are inside or outside entertainment zones, can stay open until 2am.
But they must follow the letter of the law rigidly, or they will be closed down, the source said, adding that the delay in announcing earlier closing times may only be a temporary one. “Once the Office of the Council of State has examined and approved the proposed regulations they will be published in the Royal Gazette and at that point will become law immediately,” he said.
It is unclear how long this process will take, and industry leaders are hoping the changes will be shelved and the 2 am closing will continue indefinitely. Many tourist nightspots take 40 per cent of their revenue between midnight and 2am.

Rotary Round-up

Khun Pansapol Penpian pictured here with his mother Rtn. Kok Korn Penpian was presented by the Crown Prince with his academic degree from Rajabhat Institute Suan Sunandha.

Dr Sopon Kamnerdsupapol (pictured left) was guest speaker at a Rotary meeting last month, he gave a very interesting talk about ways to live a healthy life. The doctor, lived for 20 years in the USA and has now taken a post at Hua Hin’s San Paulo Hospital.

The Rotaract organised a footsol competition with the municipality. Pictured right is Khun Nipol Cholawit, (amphur of Hua Hin) kicking off the tournament, which was well supported by local teams.

Piyapon Nakson dances ‘Amazing Thailand’ at Tim and Nidnoi’s wedding

Dr Narong (centre) at the opening of his new clinic

Johnny and Glenn cooking up a storm

Alison Grestenberger at the ripe old age of one!

Two celebrations in one as Duang (left) enjoys a birthday cake and Dell (centre) and Roy open their “Fairways” bar

 
Harry with Mum and sis’ above, and with all the gang at his birthday

Another birthday for Steve, this year Mum and Dad join in the celebration

Observer girl Fak (centre) hosts a birthday dinner at Chill

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