World Hydrogen Summit (WHS) 2024: Financing the Green Hydrogen Revolution

 Hydrogen has become a key investment for the worldwide energy transition. Invest International facilitates and finances green hydrogen projects in emerging markets and developing countries (EMDC), contributing to local sustainable development and supporting the energy transition in Northwest Europe. Join us in Rotterdam at the World Hydrogen Summit ‘24 to learn more about the challenges and solutions in the development and financing of these projects and opportunities for Dutch entrepreneurs.

Invest International partners with Incision for the best surgical Healthcare worldwide

Invest International announces an equity investment of €3 million in Incision, a fast-growing Dutch medical software company specializing in surgical care. Founded in Amsterdam, Incision has rapidly established an international profile for its digital support products and clinical training solutions, improving the performance and efficiency of surgical units and operating rooms (ORs).

Over €46 Million Allocated for Dutch Greenhouse Technology in Africa and Southeast Asia

Invest International has allocated over €46 million in financing to facilitate the adoption of Dutch greenhouse technology in Vietnam, Ghana, and Tunisia. The Dutch companies spearheading these projects have developed impactful initiatives aimed at promoting sustainable local food security and employment opportunities. From establishing greenhouses in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta to cultivating a tomato industry in Tunisia, these endeavors are projected to create 3,500 jobs. Dutch greenhouse technology holds significant potential for enhancing food security and employment in emerging markets, and Invest International’s financing serves to advance this cause, underscoring the Netherlands’ leadership in horticulture and greenhouse construction.

Ethiopia and the Netherlands are jointly building a cooling center to support fruit and vegetable exports

The Ethiopian government has signed an agreement with Invest International, which acts on behalf of the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, to realize the first phase of a large cooling center 70 kilometers from the capital Addis Ababa. The project, known as Cool Port Addis, is designed to facilitate the export of horticultural crops from Ethiopia in a cooled state to the port of Rotterdam and other market destinations in the ensuing years.

Collaboration with BNR: Exploring International Entrepreneurship through Inspiring Stories

Are you eager to stay ahead of the latest developments in doing international business? Look no further than BNRs program Internationaal Zakendoen. Every week, from February 5 2024 onwards at 1:10 PM, an item about International Entrepreneurship is broadcasted within the Business program.

A collaboration between BNR and Invest International. Featuring captivating narratives and invaluable insights into the realm of international business. Subsequently, you can revisit these episodes as a podcast on multiple platforms.

Invest International doubles financing for SME exports

Invest International expands the options for export financing of small transactions for Dutch SMEs and doubles the budget with €30 million to €60 million. The additional facility was presented today in the presence of the minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation Geoffrey van Leeuwen, the chairman of MKB-Nederland Jacco Vonhof and Dutch entrepreneurs that already make use of the facility. In addition to increasing the export budget, it is now also possible to finance associated working capital.

Invest International invests €5 million in The Waste Transformers to expand global operations

Invest International provides financing to The Waste Transformers, a Dutch company specializing in manufacturing and on-site installation of biogas generators. The €5 million capital injection will be used to finance The Waste Transformers’ international expansion, focusing on local processing of food waste and converting it into clean energy and natural fertilizers. The company has projects in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. The investment is part of a funding round totaling €10 million.

Meet our country representatives: Hans Docter in Vietnam

We are kicking off our series on country representatives with Hans Docter, who became our representative in Vietnam in September 2023. Find out what motivated Hans to take up this new challenge, which sectors he’s focusing on, what his day-to-day looks like and how he supports potential clients, such as Dutch SMEs.

Injective (INJ) Partners with The Graph to Enhance Open Data Accessibility

Injective (INJ)has announced its integration with The Graph’s decentralized network, leveraging Firehose and Substreams technology. This collaboration aims to provide developers worldwide with improved access to on-chain data, facilitating the scaling of decentralized applications (dApps), 

Streamlined Data, Empowered Developers

The Graph is renowned for its robust indexing and querying capabilities, enabling developers to efficiently access blockchain data necessary for application development. By integrating with The Graph’s Substreams and Substreams-powered subgraph solutions, Injective offers developers seamless access to on-chain data, setting a new standard for data accessibility and application development.

SFC Suspends Ha Po Kwan for 12 Months Over Misconduct

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has banned Ha Po Kwan from regulated activities for 12 months due to misconduct,

The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has announced a 12-month suspension of Ha Po Kwan from engaging in regulated activities. The decision came in response to allegations of misconduct, according to the SFC.

Details of the Misconduct

Ha Po Kwan, a licensed representative, was found to have breached several regulatory requirements. The SFC's investigation revealed that Kwan engaged in improper practices that violated the standards expected of licensed individuals. Specific details of the misconduct were not disclosed, but the regulatory body emphasized the seriousness of the breaches.

Regulatory Implications

The suspension highlights the SFC's commitment to maintaining high standards in Hong Kong's financial markets. This action serves as a reminder to all licensed representatives of the importance of adhering to regulatory requirements. The SFC has been increasingly vigilant in monitoring and enforcing compliance to ensure market integrity.

Industry Reactions

The financial industry has taken note of the SFC's decision, with many viewing it as a necessary step to uphold trust in the regulatory framework. This suspension is among several recent actions by the SFC aimed at curbing misconduct and promoting ethical behavior within the industry.

The SFC's stringent measures are part of a broader strategy to enhance market transparency and protect investors. Market participants are advised to stay informed about regulatory changes and ensure that their practices align with the established guidelines.

Collaboration between the Netherlands and Ivory Coast on Coastal Protection

 Netherlands and the governments of Ivory Coast, represented by Ivory Coast officials, Invest International, and the Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Liesje Schreinemacher, have initiated a project to strengthen the coastline near Abidjan. The collaboration aims to protect Ivory Coast’s coastline from flooding and erosion using sustainable, nature based solutions. To begin, a feasibility study funded by a one million euros investment will assess the best methods for coastal reinforcement. 

The subsequent implementation phase, anticipated to cost millions of euros, will safeguard Ivory Coast’s coastal regions and creates substantial opportunities for Dutch companies.

8 best affiliate marketing tools available in 2024

  Affiliate marketing tools can significantly enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your marketing efforts. Here's a roundup of some of the best tools available in 2024, both free and paid, that cater to various aspects of affiliate marketing:

1. Grammarly: This AI-powered writing assistant is essential for ensuring your content is free of grammatical, spelling, and punctuation errors. It also offers style improvements and a plagiarism checker. Grammarly's free version is quite robust, but the Premium and Business plans provide advanced features like vocabulary enhancement and full-sentence rewrites
2. Jasper AI: Formerly known as Jarvis AI, Jasper is a powerful AI tool designed to help create content quickly. It supports over 25 languages and offers more than 50 content templates, making it ideal for generating long-form articles, blog posts, and other content necessary for affiliate marketing​.
3. Frase IO: This tool combines AI content generation with advanced topic research and keyword optimization. It's perfect for creating well-researched and SEO-optimized content. While it's a bit pricey, its comprehensive document editing and SEO features make it a valuable tool for serious affiliate marketers​
4. Canva: A user-friendly graphic design tool, Canva is great for creating professional-looking graphics, affiliate banners, and social media ads. It offers a wide range of templates and a collaboration feature, making it suitable for both individuals and teams​
5. Google Search Console: An essential free tool from Google, it helps you monitor and improve your website’s organic search performance. It provides insights into which queries bring users to your site and identifies your top landing pages, aiding in optimization efforts
6. Sumo: Ideal for building an email list, Sumo allows you to install email capture forms on your site, which can help convert visitors into customers over time. It offers a free version that is quite effective for beginners​
7. Fiverr: This freelance marketplace is excellent for outsourcing various tasks such as content creation, web development, and more. It’s a valuable resource when you need to scale your affiliate marketing efforts without expanding your in-house team​
8. Affise: A comprehensive affiliate marketing platform that helps manage and optimize your marketing campaigns. It offers features like smart targeting, real-time BI tools, and fraud protection, making it suitable for scaling your affiliate network​

These tools cover a wide range of needs from content creation and graphic design to SEO optimization and email marketing, helping streamline your affiliate marketing efforts and boost your productivity.

Michael Saylor: Bitcoin is ‘succeeding… avoid the tendency to F with it’

 “Bitcoin has gotten too mature… has become too powerful to be threatened by another crypto,” Saylor says. “I think this is going to be a case of a rising tide is going to lift all boats.”

"optimist” on the latest episode of Peter McCormack’s YouTube show, “What Bitcoin Did.”

Saylor also, bluntly, cautioned against any actions that could impede the flagship cryptocurrency’s progress.

“Bitcoin is going to succeed,” Saylor said. “It’s succeeding as fast as it could reasonably succeed and we ought to try to avoid the tendency to F with it.”

He also remains convinced that Bitcoin can solve global economic challenges. It’s sound money due to its capped supply, he says, contrasting it with conventional currencies susceptible to government-driven inflation.

The 59-year-old billionaire, who reportedly owns more than 17,000 Bitcoin, posited that the cryptocurrency stands at the precipice of widespread acceptance by nation-states, financial institutions, and institutional investors.

Whether another digital asset can surpass it is highly unlikely, according to Saylor.

MBUZE IN THE MUD: AGULU COMMUNITY SENTS BEN OBI (MBUZE AGULU) PACKING TO RESTORE SANITY TO THE TOWN

 

Strips him off his traditional title as a former Agulu chieftain 

Chief. Ben Obi (Mbuze Agulu) a notorious political nuisance who has bent on attacking the Anambra State Government and also causing serious chaos in Agulu community has been stopped by the Agulu people.

Ben Obi who's political position during the immediate past Government regime was supposed to be a blessing and a great influence to the people of Agulu, rather it was a havoc on the community.

In the early hours of today, we received a communique from the leadership and all the people of Agulu Union Nigeria taking drastic actions to end rascality in the community.

An undisputed developmental decisions and resolutions from the Agulu People's Union to shut Mbuze Agulu and his cohorts down and put a stop to thier evil acts against the community.

Mr. Ben Obi and his cliques earlier this year came up with a devilish plan to demonstrate against the State Government, the President General of Agulu People's Union Nigeria and the traditional ruler of Agulu.

This was how terrorism started in most war countries and states. 

Shame on Mr. Ben Obi for choosing the path of evil!!!

This new development from Agulu People's Union Nigeria is indeed highly commendable and I urge other towns in Anambra to do so to fish out and caution evil people amongst them.

BREAKING FINANCIAL CURSES

https://fohmint.com/downloads/breaking-financial-curses/

Egusi pepper soup

 Egusi pepper soup is a delicious Nigerian soup made with melon seeds (egusi), local spices, and meat or fish. The soup is particularly common among the Niger-Deltans, although different cultures in Nigeria have their own variations. 

Ingredients

• 1.2 kg of chicken pieces
• 1 medium mackerel or any similar fish
• 2 cups of egusi (melon seeds)
• 1/2 cup dried crayfish
• 10 okra fingers, sliced
• 8-10 scotch bonnet chilies, blended
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1.5 tbsps peppersoup spice mix
• seasoning cubes
• Salt
• 
  
  
  
  

Procedure

1. Grind the egusi and crayfish; set aside.
2. Put the chicken in a pot, add 2 seasoning cubes, some salt, and onions; steam for 10 minutes.
3. Add the peppersoup mix, ground crayfish, and 1 liter of water to the pot. Cover and cook till the meat is tender.
4. Add the fish, chilies, and egusi and crayfish mixture; cook till the fish is done. You can add more water if need be.
5. Finally, add the okra and simmer for about 3 minutes. Taste for seasoning and adjust to suit your taste.
6. Turn off the heat and serve with any swallow of your choice.

How to stop Spam Emails

How to stop Spam Emails: Keywords,Tutorials,Tools,Marketing,Affiliates

How can be done to stop emails entering the spam folder?

The problem many people encounters when it comes email sending, is their email ends up in spam folder. Sometimes the recipient could not check his Spam folder. In some cases the software deletes in from the spam making it not available to the recipient. For the beginners it will discourage them from going further as they might give up that it is not working.

How can be done to stop emails entering the Spam folder?

Capitalized Email subject

The email can enter the spam folder when the subject is in Capital letters as the most of the spam email had their subject in Capital letter. This makes it possible for the spider to locate such as a spam

Provide an unsubscribe link

Every email messages that can repeat itself or to be sent several times can be offensive to the recipient and as such a case it might be regarded as spam. It might be that the recipient is not interested on the message. This is why the unsubscribe link must be provided in order to avoid the repetition of such email without the authorization of the recipient. The received might decide to stop such email coming to his email box by using the unsubscribe link to stop the email.

Set up email authentication

When an email is originated from an authenticated source it will be trusted. The email had trace back to the sender, so the sender can receive response from the receiver. The source of the email plays an important role in determining how the email will be treated. And in some cases such email can be verified if they are spam or not.

Do not send more than one attachment.

One message might be seen as a spam if it contains more than one attachment. When an email is containing more than one attachment it might likely be offensive to the receiver as such email might occupy big space when received. There are some emails that sent some attachment that contained spam emails or virus in order to deceive the receiver in this case the sever might detect this as a spam email thereby relocating it to the spam folder.

Use trusted email hosting

Some hosting company that does not always comply with the regulations of the spam prevention can be flagged and regarded as an un-trusted. Some server had be used to send several spam emails and deceptive emails. This hosting sever had not integrity with the email server so any email been sent from the server can be suspicions.

Spam tag words

Avoid words that are considered spam , such as cheap, free, limited offer, and others
Many words had reports attached to it, because it had been used several times to send a fraudulent emails, therefore using such word can land the email to spam folder.

Special server

You can use a special server such as VPS, Dedicated server. If the server is shared server it means that you have no control of what will be going out or coming in to the server. That is why it advisable to use the special server, where can be in control of some activities of the server. You can control the server in sending authentic emails. The most important thing you apply is to use a special server for your email marketing. Because email hosting usually provides extra security features for email marketing.

The subject of the email

The subject of the email is relevant to the content of the email. The subject of the email is not related to the body of the email. This is also can be regarded as a fraudulent email because the subject maybe attractive the recipient but the message will be saying a different thing from the subject. Some subject like How to become a millionaire, Free Offers etc. Some subject might be deceptive, when an email had such a word it will be regarded as a spam as well.

17 Favourite Affiliate Marketing Tools

 

Our favourite affiliate marketing tools:

1. Flippa

Flippa is essential for anyone looking to leapfrog the process of building a successful affiliate site from scratch. This site serves as a bidding marketplace for individuals to buy and sell websites (think eBay for websites). Flippa allows affiliate marketers to buy sites that have a strong backlink profile to kickstart SEO growth.

One thing to note: we recommend running a full backlink audit before purchasing a domain to ensure that the domain isn’t being inflated by black-hat SEO practices like PBNs. We’ve seen far too many affiliate marketers buy a site with a strong backlink profile, only to be penalized by a Penguin algorithm update due to the black hat link building practices of the previous site owner.

2. ShareASale

Affiliate marketing starts with building partnerships with sites in need of sales. We’ve tested out a handful of affiliate networks including CJ Affiliate and Impact. However, ShareASale is our go-to resource for affiliate partnerships.

ShareASale connects publishers to advertisers who are looking for help driving sales. Publishers can get paid per phone call, lead, or website visitor that they drive for the advertiser.

While affiliate marketers will likely see a much higher commission per sale by working directly with advertisers, ShareASale is a great starting point.

3. SEMRush

SEMRush is our go-to tool for keyword research, fixing SEO errors, and competitor analysis. Fair warning: I’ve been using this tool daily since 2012, so I’m a bit biased here.

This tool is a must-have for marketers who are looking to understand what content is driving the highest ROI for competitors, as well as analyzing on-page SEO issues.

Some of the primary things that we use SEMRush for:

• Finding top performing competitor content that we should be writing about
• Monitoring our keyword rankings on a weekly basis
• Running SEO audits to watch for website issues that could hurt our search rankings
• Monitoring press mentions 

4. Ahrefs

Ahrefs serves many of the same functions as SEMRush (keyword research, on-page audits, competitive content analysis, etc). However, Ahrefs places much more emphasis on backlinks than on-page SEO.

Ahrefs provides marketers with in-depth insights about new and lost backlinks, sites that are linking to broken pages on your website, and competitor backlink growth.

Some of the primary things that we use Ahrefs for are:

• Reviewing new and lost backlinks to our site
• Reviewing competitor link profiles to find new link building opportunities
• Finding sites that are linking to broken pages on our site (and then 301’ing those pages to another relevant page)
• Finding top-performing competitor content to identify new content ideas for your site

Ahrefs and SEMRush are two of our team’s favorite SEO tools. However, investing in both services isn’t realistic for most business owners.

We recommend Ahrefs for those who are competing with much larger sites. We recommend SEMRush for those who are already the industry leader, or very close to it (more about this in our SEO FAQs). To add to this, both offer a free trial of their service for those that want to compare the two.

P.S. Read how we use these two tools in our keyword research. 

5. Yoast SEO

This is the first SEO plugin that we add to any site that we work on. Yoast SEO provides advanced SEO functionality to every page, including:

• Title tag & meta description customization
• Canonical link customization
• Sitemap creation and customization
• Meta robots customization

This is a free tool. But the paid version offers 24/7 support, as well as an advanced redirect manager. This redirect manager allows you to redirect broken pages or 410 pages that you want to be removed from search results.

Looking for help managing content marketing and SEO? Learn about our content marketing services to see how we would help you to scale.

6. Grammarly

Grammarly is a must-have for those who are regularly publishing content on their affiliate site. In short, Grammarly is your average spell-checker on steroids.

Not only does Grammarly point out spelling errors. It also identifies grammatical errors such as incorrect word and comma usage.

Our team uses the free version of this tool. However, the paid version offers much more comprehensive content review features.

P.S. We recommend downloading the desktop app as well as the browser extension.

7. Duplichecker

For those working with a content team to help produce content, we recommend running each article through a plagiarism checker like Duplichecker.

Yeah, I know, it sucks to feel the need to do this, especially as you start to trust your content team more and more. However, even an accidental case of plagiarism could result in serious legal issues.

We run every article that our team produces through this tool.

8. Hemingway

Hemingway is another remarkable content review tool. Based off of the writing of Ernest Hemingway, the Hemingway app helps you to simplify your writing.

Simplify your writing, you say?

Yep, because nobody cares about the fact that you know what “nudiustertian” means (and they have zero interest in going to the dictionary to look it up).

Your readers want insights. Not the fluff that you toss in to make you sound smarter.

Hemingway helps you to simplify complex sentences. It also points out adverbs and complex words that you can replace with simpler ones.

9. Sumo

Driving visitors to your site is good. Turning them into customers is better.

Most website visitors won’t be ready to pull out their credit card the first time that they reach your site.

So how do you get money from these visitors? You sell to them when they’re ready to buy.

The most successful affiliate marketers understand that the best way to scale is to build their email list. This allows them to drive repeat visitors back to their site to buy products over time.

Sumo offers an easy way to install email capture forms on your site (and they even offer a free version of their service).

10. Google AdSense

Earning money per referral is great, but why stop there? Google AdSense offers a second revenue stream as you continue to scale.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with AdSense, here’s how it works:

AdSense allows you to set up ad blocks throughout your site that other sites can pay to use. You can select payment per ad on your site in a handful of different manners:

1. CPM (cost per thousand impressions) – get paid a flat fee per thousand website pageviews to a given ad. Rates can range from $1-$3, and go much higher for niche categories.
2. CPC (cost per click) – get paid for every ad click on your site. Rates will vary from one industry to the next. However, $1/click and a 1% click-through rate (CTR) is a safe benchmark to work with to estimate expected earnings.

11. AdThrive

Getting money from AdSense is cool and all, but it’s tough to build a successful online business when you’re only making a few dollars in ads per 1,000 website visitors.

AdThrive works with your team to optimize your ads for improved performance. How do they do it? They take a deep look at your analytics to understand the advertisers who will see the best performance on your site. As a result, you can expect far higher CTRs on your ads, which will help you to generate more revenue.

12. WPEngine

For those lacking a strong IT/dev background, WPEngine is a premium hosting option that provides plenty of extra benefits.

Pricing is more expensive than other popular hosting providers like GoDaddy and HostGator. However, WPEngine provides the following features in addition to hosting:

• Regularly scheduled website backups (so you can revert to an older version of your site if something goes wrong)
• A free SSL certificate for each site that you set up on their hosting plan
• Browser caching for improved site speed
• Advanced website security protection

---

Looking for a more affordable solution? Here’s the piecemeal solution that you can use to replace WPEngine:

1. GoDaddy for website hosting
2. BackupBuddy for recurring site backups
3. W3 Total Cache for browser caching (NOTE: this plugin isn’t updated regularly, so make sure it’s compatible with your version of WordPress before installing)
4. SSLs.com for affordable (yet effective) SSL certificates
5. iThemes Security for advanced website security

---

13. Last Modified Timestamp

One of our most effective methods to enhance search rankings are content revamps. Content revamps consist of updating old site content to drive enhanced rankings.

Unfortunately, one default WordPress feature can bog down the impact of content revamps: timestamps.

The above image comes from one piece of content that we revamped in early 2018. However, the published timestamp that appears in search results makes it seem like we wrote this 2018 guide in 2016.

As you may have guessed, this confused searchers.

Until we uncovered Last Modified Timestamp. This plugin changes the publish date to the last modified date in search results.

14. Shortcodes Ultimate

We’re firm believers that readability is the number one factor that separates a good blog from a great blog post.

Shortcodes Ultimate is our secret weapon for enhancing the readability of blog articles. This tool helps site owners add custom designs to their blog content to bring their articles to the next level.

You can see a full list of their design features here.

15. WP-PostRatings

A page’s CTR in search engine results pages plays a huge role in search rankings. One of our most effective methods for boosting CTR is to add a rating system to blog articles.

So how does this help click-through rate?

We incorporate that rating into our meta data. Now, that ordinary blog appears like this:

Now put yourself in the shoes of a searcher. Are you going to click on a standard listing when you could click this Bad Larry? I don’t think so.

Those with a strong technical background can do this through schema markup. For everyone else, WP-PostRatings makes adding the rating system far easier.

16. PB SEO Friendly Images

It’s no secret that adding alt text to each image is a pain in the ass. PB SEO Friendly Images takes this burden off of your plate by adding alt text to every image on your site.

Our go-to option is to set alt text for any images to populate based on the image file name (see below). However, this plugin offers a handful of other options as well.

17. TinyPNG

Bounce rates increase by 50% for every extra 2 seconds that your site takes to load. In other words, slow sites lose money.

Ok, that’s cool, but how do I go about improving my site speed?

Short answer: image compression.

Image compression is one of the most effective ways to improve site speed. Image compression removes excess pixels from images to reduce image file sizes. The best image compression tools do this without sacrificing image quality.

We’ve tested out a dozen image compression tools and TinyPNG is our favorite. You can also download the WordPress plugin here.

Three tactics to start Affiliate Marketing successfully

Three tactics to start Affiliate Marketing successfully

If you wish to have to be an affiliate marketer and make fortunes out of the Internet, chances are you'll practice the following three most simple and very best tactics to start out an efficient affiliate marketing online program.

1. Identify
The first is to identify a selected thing you are interested in or so that you won’t be bored and compelled to increase your affiliate website in a while.    

Affiliate marketing works effectively for the merchant and the affiliate. To the first, he gains opportunities to advertise his products to a larger market, which increases his chances to earn. The more affiliate websites or hard-working affiliates he gets, the more sales he can expect. By getting affiliates to market his products and services, he is saving himself time, effort and money in looking for possible markets and customers.

Next is to look for good paying merchants and merchandise or products and services comparable for your passion and create now a web site. In choosing the goods, you should also believe their conversion charge.

Affiliate advertising and marketing works effectively for the service provider and the associate. To first, he gains opportunities to advertise his products to a bigger market, which will increase his probabilities to earn. The more affiliate internet sites or hard-working associates he will get, the more gross sales he can expect.

5 Ways to Exercise Without Equipment