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Not that anyone shops at Barnes and Nobles anymore but I just saw on my create space account that they have picked up a large amount of inventory to stock at select locations around the country. This is really interesting news cause 2 months ago when we hit the 30,000  copies sold mark I was approached by a publisher who told me the only way to get into traditional book stores was to invest $40,000.00 for renting the “shelf space”.  He said that these traditional book stores take zero risk now days unless they know they can make money on a book. So lol…  Not sure if they think they can make money on it or if that was just total BS. Looking for an SEO service that won’t get you banned?

Zach Galifianakis is well-known for his dry comedy, but it turns out he’s got a sweet spot. It turns out the 43-year-old comedian recently saved an older woman from homelessness. According to a New York Daily News report, Galifianakis befriended a Los Angeles-area laundrywoman named Elizabeth “Mimi” Haist nearly 20 years ago. A few years ago, when Galifianakis learned that the 87-year-old Haist had no place to call home, the Hangover star set her up with a one-bedroom apartment an has been paying her rent. Now, Galifianakis is even bringing along Haist as his date to Hollywood premieres. Haist was reportedly brought to the premieres of The Hangover Part II and The Campaign, where gawkers wondered whether the woman was Galifianakis’ grandmother. According to the Daily News report, Haist relishes the looks she gets on the red carpet and enjoys martinis at exclusive after-parties. (Image courtesy Tom Sorensen/Wikimedia Commons)

Last Wednesday, Cisco Systems (CSCO) unveiled its 3rd quarter results for the 2013 fiscal year. In a press release, the company cited quarterly sales of $12.2 billion, GAAP net income of $2.5 billion ($0.46/share), and non-GAAP net income of $2.7 billion ($0.51/share). Additionally, its non-GAAP EPS beat the $0.49 estimate by roughly 4%. CEO John Chambers was enthusiastic about the results, and he had the following to say about the company's Q3 performance: "Cisco is executing at a very high level in a slow, but steady economic environment. We are especially pleased with our ninth consecutive record revenue quarter. We are starting to see some good signs in the US and other parts of the world which is encouraging." In the five days following the announcement of results, the stock has increased by roughly 13%, and it is now valued at $23.95 as of Monday's close. (Click to enlarge)

Synopsys (NASDAQ:SNPS) will report earnings after markets close on Wednesday, May 22nd. Synopsys, Inc. supplies electronic design automation solutions to the global electronics market. The Company provides design technologies to creators of advanced integrated circuits, electronic systems, and systems on a chip. Synopsys also provides consulting services and support to its customers to streamline the overall design process and accelerate time to market. Here is your Cheat Sheet to Synopsys Earnings: Earnings Expectations: Analysts expect earnings of $0.63 per share on revenues of $496.27 million. Currently, the company’s P/E ratio stands at 27.81. Analyst Trends: Analysts have a more negative outlook for the company’s next-quarter performance. Over the past three months, the average estimate for next quarter’s earnings has fallen from a profit of $0.58 to a profit $0.57. For the current year, the average estimate is a profit of $2.4, which is better than the estimate ninety days ago. Earnings Trends: Here’s how Synopsys has been performing on an annual basis: Fiscal Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Revenue ($) in millions 1,337 1,360 1,381 1,536 1,756 Diluted EPS ($) 1.29 1.15 1.56 1.47 1.21 Next, our CHEAT SHEET investing framework asks us to drill down to the recent quarterly data: Quarter Jan. 31, 2012 Apr. 30, 2012 Jul. 31, 2012 Oct. 31, 2012 Jan. 31, 2013 Revenue ($) in millions 425.50 432.56 443.75 454.21 475.14 Diluted EPS ($) 0.39 0.14 0.50 0.1890 0.45 Past Performance: Synopsys has beat analyst estimates 2 times in the past four quarters. This is not consistent enough to get bullish yet. “E = Earnings Are Increasing Quarter-Over-Quarter” is a core component of our successful CHEAT SHEET investing framework. Don’t waste another minute – click here to discover our CHEAT SHEET stock picks now! (Company fundamentals provided by Xignite Financials. Email any earnings discrepancies to earnings [at] wallstcheatsheet.com) Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

With shares of Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) trading at around $94.72, is BIDU an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE or STAY AWAY? Let’s analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework: C = Catalyst for the Stock’s Movement Baidu is an easy winner for search in China: it’s gaining in ground in mobile, and it’s now also the largest online video platform in China. Despite Q1 margin declines, margins are still solid, and year-over-year revenue and earnings were impressive. However, revenue and earnings declines on a sequential basis. That makes the story a little more difficult to read. In these situations, it’s often better to look at the big picture. And in this case, revenue and earnings have consistently improved on an annual basis. In addition to these positives, valuation is fair. Baidu is trading at 19 times earnings while the industry average is 21 times earnings. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! On the negative side, costs have also increased. These costs have related to infrastructure, marketing, R&D, and online video platform. Looking ahead, Baidu will increase spending to improve its mobile position. Another negative is increased competition. Current competitors include Sina Corporation (NASDAQ:SINA), Sohu.com Inc. (NASDAQ:SOHU), and Qihoo 360 Technology Co. Ltd. (NYSE:QIHU). The chart below compares traffic performance. Pageview-Per-User, Time-On-Site, and Bounce Rate (one page per view) are all based on the past three months. Note: Weibo.com is owned by Sina.com, and 360.cn is owned by Qihoo.com.      Global Rank     China Rank Pageviews-Per-User     Time-On-Site     Bounce   Rate Baidu.com 5 1 -8.73% -7.00% +2.00% Sina.com 3444 658 -3.52% -7.00% +5.00% Weibo.com 27 6 -4.73% -3.00% +3.00% Sohu.com 50 10 -4.26% -2.00% +6.00% 360.cn 7 12 +4.60% +18.00% +3.00% The chart below compared fundamentals for Baidu, Sina, and Sohu. BIDU SINA SOHU Trailing P/E 19.59 125.68 29.91 Forward P/E 15.20 32.55 18.64 Profit Margin 44.21% 5.88% 7.71% ROE 44.08% 2.81% 14.13% Operating Cash Flow N/A N/A 376.06M Dividend Yield N/A N/A N/A Short Position N/A 2.60% 8.30% Let’s take a look at some more important numbers prior to forming an opinion on this stock. T = Technicals Are Mixed Baidu has performed well over three-year and one-month time frames. However, it hasn’t performed well over a one-year time frame or year-to-date. Most importantly, it has underperformed its peers for every time frame listed below. 1 Month Year-To-Date 1 Year 3 Year BIDU 9.59% -5.55% -17.90% 35.06% SINA 28.77% 18.62% 12.16% 64.15% SOHU 31.30% 33.08% 50.21% 42.21% At $94.72, Baidu is trading above its 50-day SMA, but still below its 200-day SMA. 50-Day SMA 88.57 200-Day SMA 95.03 NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! E = Equity to Debt Ratio Is Normal The debt-to-equity ratio for Baidu is weaker than the industry average of 0.10, but it still qualifies as normal. Debt-To-Equity Cash Long-Term Debt BIDU 0.40 5.39B 1.90B SINA 0.00 681.93M 0.00 SOHU 0.19 951.67M 270.50M E = Earnings Are Strong Revenue and earnings have consistently improved on an annual basis. Fiscal Year 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Revenue ($) in millions 461 652 1,171 2,248 3,580 Diluted EPS ($) 0.44 0.63 1.53 3.02 4.79 As stated earlier, year-over-year numbers are impressive, but sequential numbers are cause for concern. Quarter Mar. 31, 2012 Jun. 30, 2012 Sep. 30, 2012 Dec. 31, 2012 Mar. 31, 2013 Revenue ($) in millions 677.10 858.80 994.60 1,017 961 Diluted EPS ($) 0.85 1.24 1.37 1.28 0.95 Now let’s take a look at the next page for the Trends and Conclusion. Is this stock an OUTPERFORM, a WAIT AND SEE, or a STAY AWAY? T = Trends Might Support th

Five people died when a 10 metre (33 feet) wide sinkhole opened up at the gates of an industrial estate in Shenzhen, the southern Chinese boom town neighbouring Hong Kong, local authorities said Tuesday.The Shenzhen Longgang district government said on its verified page on Sina Weibo, China's version of Twitter, that five people had died and added that it was investigating the incident.The sinkhole formed just outside the Huamao Industrial Park in Shenzhen on Monday evening, at a time when many factory workers would have been changing shifts, according to the website of Beijing-based newspaper the Guangming Daily.The state-run Shanghai Daily newspaper said that rescuers saved one man.Reports said it was unclear how many people had fallen into the hole in total, but the search was continuing on Tuesday.Sinkholes in China are often blamed on construction works and the country's rapid pace of development.Surveillance cameras in March captured images of a security guard being swallowed by a sinkhole, also in Shenzhen.Two months ago a man was killed when his bedroom was swallowed by a eight metre (25 feet) sinkhole in Florida, in the US.Copyright (2013) AFP. All rights reserved.More...

Just one day after Yahoo announced that former Googler Marissa Mayer would be taking the reigns as the new CEO, the internet rose up with its first request: Please make Flickr awesome again. Ever since Yahoo acquired the photo-sharing service back in 2005, users have dropped off and the quality of the experience has gone down – at least according to the general consensus. The common wisdom is that Yahoo kind of screwed up Flickr, and now they’re looking to rectify that damage. At a press event in NYC, just hours after Mayer officially announced the company’s acquisition of Tumblr, Yahoo unveiled a completely revamp Flickr – complete with a fresh UI redesign and a whole hell of a lot of storage. The latter is probably the most significant news to come out of the announcement. Starting today, you now have a free terabyte of space. That’s huge. As Yahoo says, “you could take a photo every hour for forty years without filling one.” That’s approximately 873,813 4.0 megapixel photos, 436,906 8mp photos, or 218,453 16mp photos. This upgraded storage also means that you can house longer videos on Flickr – 3 minutes at 1080p per video. The interface has received a massive upgrade as well, as Flickr has done away with most of the white space on the site to give users a truly immersive photo experience. “We want Flickr to be the most amazing community and place for you to share your photos. So, we’re also revealing a beautiful new design that puts photos at the heart of your Flickr experience, where they should always be. Whether it’s a sweeping landscape or a family portrait, we want every photo to be at its most spectacular,” says Flickr’s Markus Spiering. “Your homepage is now a gateway to everything you care about, and all the photos Flickr has to offer. Our new Activity Feed combines your friends’ recent uploads with activity on your own photos, and all in a beautiful design that lets you share and interact right on the page.” The individual photo pages have been improved to highlight the image in high-res, pushing the photo information below the fold. There are also some new paid options for the service – for $49.99 a year you can get rid of all the ads on the site, and for $499.99 you can snag 2TB of storage. Flickr also unveiled a new Android app, which brings it up to speed with the iOS upgrade the service received a few months ago. “The world is going mobile, and in December we took the first big step to send Flickr wherever you go with a new and beloved iPhone app. Our brand new Android app pushes the boundaries on beauty even further. We designed it with your needs in mind: how you interact, how you share, and how you view photos when you’re on the go.” The new site is live, as is the new Android app. Check it out.

Here’s a sure sign of how far science and technology have progressed: the last two generations of Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPad will be considered “hefty” and “bulky” compared to the next generation, according to CNET. It wasn’t long ago that a computer capable of the power output of the iPad sat in a box on the floor and required a monitor about the size of a microwave — and all that would have cost you three times as much. If your biggest complaint about the last iPad generations was that it was too thick and too heavy, the upcoming iPad 5 should address those concerns. According to a report by Digitimes, the next generation should begin production around the July timeframe, and the new 9.7-inch tablet will be from 25 percent to 33 percent lighter than its predecessor, with a thinner bezel similar to the Mini variant. Is Apple now a once-in-a-decade buying opportunity? Click here to get your 24-page Ultimate Cheat Sheet to Apple’s Stock now! The 2,048×1,536 pixel-density Retina display will use thinner glass to contribute to the weight savings, courtesy of new touch-sensor technology. The backlight equipment has also been fiddled with, saving some weight and heft there, too. However, the third and fourth generation iPads actually put on mass over the the iPad 2, largely associated with the Retina display gear. NPD DisplaySearch told CNET last month that “part of the thinner/lighter design will be reducing the size of the LED backlight, partly by making the display more efficient, and partly by using more efficient LEDs.” DisplaySearch also cited the likely shift to a “a film-based touch sensor.” Digitimes is expecting monthly iPad shipments to increase to 2 million to 3 million units for the fifth generation by September, according to sources in the supply chain. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo from KGI Securities believes that Apple must issue the next iPad as soon as it can muster, in order to maintain its lead in the tablet category. Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Surface tablet nabbed 7.5 percent of the tablet market in less than six months, and with a more affordable variation on the way, the Windows-based device poses a larger threat. NEW! Discover a new stock idea each week for less than the cost of 1 trade. CLICK HERE for your Weekly Stock Cheat Sheets NOW! While Apple has historically used Spring events to reveal fresh iPads, the company has been uncharacteristically quiet this year, allowing analysts to feel around in the dark as speculations run rampant. Two prominent analysts Brian White and Gene Munster, among others, both incorrectly predicted an iPad 5 release in March or April, and now over halfway through May, no one has heard a peep. Don’t Miss: How Should Investors Feel About Stagnant Mac Sales? Read the original article from Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Popular social petition service Change.org has raised $15 million in new funding — cash that will help it further build up the “world’s largest petition platform.” Change.org provides an accessible way to enact social change and it makes it simple to create and sign petitions. The service has grown quite a bit in the last year, jumping from 6 million users in early 2012 to more than 35 million users today. More than half of Change.org’s users are outside the U.S. So far, the site’s users have won “thousands of victories.” Major wins spurred by Change.org petitions include Bank of America dropping its $5 debit card fees, Seventeen magazine committing not to Photoshop models, and having felony charges against high-school student Kiera Wilmot dropped. The new funding was led by Omidyar Network, the philanthropic investment firm created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. Change.org CEO Ben Rattray Rattray told VentureBeat that his biggest priority was finding a funding partner who deeply believed in the company’s mission. “We’re trying to show that it’s possible to build a technology company focused on social impact, and we now have the resources to hire the tech talent needed to demonstrate that at scale,” Rattray told us. “As we’ve become more successful, we’ve been approached a number of times by traditional, for-profit venture capital firms interested in investing in the company, but we are only open to investment from social investors who are prepared to support that mission. … So we specifically sought out the Omidyar Network because of its unique alignment with our empowerment mission and the ability to support our scale.” Chris Bishko, an investment partner at Omidyar Network, will join Change.org’s board. The announcement was made in conjunction with the appearance of Rattray at VentureBeat’s HealthBeat conference, where he will be speaking today about grassroots patient empowerment. More people than ever are changing the health care landscape through petitions and online activity, and Change.org is part of that. Top photo via Change.org Filed under: Deals

If you have looked at your 401(k) investment options recently, chances are you have noticed a list of funds that all have similar names with the exception of a year at the end of each. These “Target Date” funds were built as an all encompassing investment to help you plan for your retirement all in one product. These funds were allocated in a way where you would receive full diversification of both equities and fixed income, with maybe a hint of other diversifiers thrown in the mix. As you get closer to that “target date,” the fund gets more conservative. This sounds great in theory, but are you really getting the best option for your nest egg with this? All in the Family The way these mutual funds are built is by using the mutual funds in the fund family arsenal. For example, in a Fidelity Freedom Fund, you will find holdings such as Fidelity Series High Income or Fidelity Advisor Large Cap. Franklin Templeton investors will find items like Franklin Rising Dividends and Templeton Global Bond. You get the bad with the good with these “basket” funds. For every four and five-star fund you have access to, there is a dog that is limping along, dragging down your return. Apples to Apples? These funds can be very difficult to compare to each other. Investors in the 35-40 year range who are looking at a retirement age of 70, would look at a target date fund with a 2045. We looked at four different versions of these funds and have found glaring differences. First, in terms of allocation, there was a difference in equities in as much as 10%. The most aggressive was the American Funds version with 84%, of which 30% was international. Franklin Templeton and JP Morgan both came in at 78% with the first one having 28% international exposure and the second 31%. The least aggressive of the four was Fidelity at 74%. Of that, 31% was international. Looking at the fixed income side of the fund also showed a wide range of differences. While Fidelity had the least amount of equity, it pushed the envelope on the debt side with almost 70% having a credit rating of BBB or lower. Compare that to American Funds with just over 10%. The expenses of the funds varied as well. Using the A-shares, there was a difference in the Gross Expense Ratio of almost a full percent in these funds. These differences make it very difficult to compare them to each other. The Payoff? Ultimately, the big question is do these funds deliver? Take a look at the stats below (as of 4/30/2013): It may very well be that these target date funds are the only options in your retirement accounts. However, if they are not, you may be best served to look elsewhere for your investing needs. At the very least, look under the hood of these mutual funds and see how they are really doing. There are plenty of free resources out there for you to learn about these funds before you invest in them. What are your thoughts on target date funds? Leave a comment! The post Are Target Date Funds Worthy of Your Portfolio? appeared first on Money Smart Life.