Make Money With Your Digital Camera

Is digital camera your passion? Have you been clicking away happily at everything or anything? Have you been impressed with all your photos? Consider making your digital camera and hobby into a money making opportunity. Your passion can make money for you. Give Freelance Digital Photography or Stock Photography a shot! You need no expensive photography equipment, no special printers, no special photography training or diplomas for stock photography.

What is stock photography? Your photographs are bought by a company and stored in a database. These photographs are then licensed to publishers, advertising agencies, and other companies for their use. There are a lot of people out there willing to pay for your hobby like magazines, newspaper, book publishers. Websites , the travel industry ,stock photography sites and postcard printers.

All you do need is a-

• Digital camera (minimum of 4 mega pixels) with 3X zoom.

• Access to the internet.

• A Light box. (A homemade light box tutorial here)

That's it!

You upload your digital photos to stock photo sites and you will earn money whenever someone downloads your photo by paying royalty to you. You can submit your images to more than one stock agency site and will earn with the same photographs all your lifetime. You will be allowed to sell the same photo a 'number of times'. Yes, every time a person purchases, your royalty will earn money for you.

Tips to sell photos successfully:

1. Enrol in Stock Photo Sites:

Register in a stock photography site which will act as an agent to market and sell your photo. Sign-up in at least 3 stock sites and earn from many stock sites at the same time.

2. Master your Digital Camera:

Read and understand the user manual of your camera. Try different modes and techniques with your digital cameras. Many professional photographers use simple Point and Click cameras to shoot close-up, macro photos. Set your camera to shoot the highest quality and largest size photos.

3. Learn about selling your photos:

You should research what sells and take those kinds of pictures. Learn how to sell and where to sell. Make sure you're sending in quality photos. Photographs with people are the highest selling stock photos.

Tips before sending in your photos to photo stock sites:

• Do not provide exclusive rights to anyone.

• Refer to the Terms and Conditions of the photo stock agencies.

• Get a Model Release signed from people who pose for your photos ,which is a no-objection certificate for using the photos commercially.

• All your pictures will be watermarked so no one can steal.

• Make sure that your image is original and truly copyrighted by you.

Don’t be disappointed if you are rejected in your early days due to poor quality, blur or not having commercial value. Don’t quit! Don’t give up! Keep practising! You will be successful in stock photography in no time!

Good luck and start earning!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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Top Stock Photography Sites

Your digital camera doesn't use film right? So, you can snap,click and shoot away as many pictures as you want till you get the right ones! In due course you will learn about lighting, backgrounds and staging your digital photos for better effect.

Few Pointers to be aware of before you submit your photos to photo stock sites:

• When you submit your application, you will have to submit a few sample images. Your photos will be gauged for quality.

• Shoot some sample images with bright light and preferably inside a photo light box.

• Always, always upload only the best images.

• Use relevant keywords. No matter how good your image is, if the keywords are bad, your image will not sell or be seen.

• Learn about the most in-demand image subjects and avoid wasting your time uploading the least requested photos.

The 5 top stock photography sites where you can exhibit your photography skill are:

1.Fotolia
Fotolia demand a minimum of 1600 x 1200 pixels for web use and 2272 x 1704 pixels or greater for print use. The ideal files should be at least 2000 x 3000 pixels.

2. Dreamstime

Dreamstime entail that the image be at least 3MP in size or more, it must in RGB JPG format only.

3. BigStockPhoto

They require you to take a Photographer Test after studying their Tutorial pages. If you pass you, then you can upload photos, which will be reviewed by the editors.

4. iStockPhoto

iStockPhoto stipulate that the images be in RGB JPG format and a large file. 300 dpi 5″ x 7″ is optimal. All files should be 1200 x 1600 pixels minimum - anything smaller will be automatically discarded.

5. ShutterStock

This site has a referral program that users can also earn from. Images must be at least 2.5 megapixel to be accepted. But new photographers’ minimum size is 4.0MP.

Two other great websites to consider are crestock.com and StockAndPrints.com.

When customers purchase and download your photos, you earn about 50% to 80%per photo as royalty.Payments are usually made via bank check, Paypal, and MoneyBookers.

Before submitting your photographs , improve their quality by using a good photo-editing program. You can crop. color, sharpen and so on, to tweak your images. Photoshop and Photoshop Elements are good programs for editing photos. GIMP is also a really good free software, which is compactable with both Windows and Mac.

Remember that your digital camera is a money making machine.

Good luck to your creative skill in the world of stock photography and reap in the money!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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Tutorials - Make Light Box At Home

Make your own Light Box at home! Take excellent professional photos!

How to Make A Inexpensive Light Tent by Jeffrey Bail.

Another Do-It-Yourself Light Box!

Beyond Megapixels: How to Make a Light Box and Macro Studio for Under $20


Tutorial - White Background For Photo Shooting Small Objects.




http://light-studio.blogspot.com Read more Entry>>

Create An Online Photo Album

Are you feeling guilty about not sending your photos to family and friends scattered worldwide? Just relax! Keep everyone up to date on the events happening in your life! Is it possible? Yes. Create an online photo album! They are surely one of the easiest ways to share photos.

What is an online photo album? There are photo storage websites which let you to upload, arrange, store, edit, share, print, and create personalized gifts with your digital photos . You upload your digital photos to these websites ,arrange it as in albums and send the link of this online album via email to share it with whomever you want! You can upload photos even from cell phones, web cams, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and scanners.

Are the photos sharing services free? Many are free with strings attached as well! Creating your online album maybe free, but then you will receive regular promotional e-mail from them. They also request you to order prints or other products .

There are many online photo album web site services available and basically,they all do have the same features . They-

• Let you to organize, arrange, edit, sort ,categorize and tag your photos.
• Require you to register and offer password protection to limit access to your album.
• Permit you to send a link of your photo album via email to be shared and you'll never overload anyone's inbox with attachments.
• Offer you unlimited photo storage. They even allow multiple personal albums.
• Take high resolution prints of your photos.
• Turn your favourite photos into memorable gifts like personalized coffee cups, ornaments, mugs and also print greeting cards and calendars.
• Allow you to make fancy titles, captions, comment and map the location where your shots were taken as well.
• Let you to make all or just some photos private or only viewable by friends and family.

However, you do have to choose a dependable service, as you would not want to lose your cherished memories in case the website shuts down! The most popular sites are as follows:

Windows Live Spaces- is a photo storage service from MSN.
Picasa (http://picasa.google.com)-is a service from Google.
Flickr (www.flickr.com) -is a facility of Yahoo
Kodak EasyShare (www.kodak.com)- is a feature from the photography company, Kodak. You have to make a yearly purchase to keep your account active.
Snapfish (www.snapfish.com)- is an attribute of HP and you can also mail in film for processing and they will automatically put your photos online.
.Mac (www.apple.com/dotmac/): is for Apple Macintosh computer and the iPhoto and .Mac. are so easy to share photos .
Shutterfly(www.shutterfly.com) lets you share photos online.
SmugMug (www.smugmug.com) This is a popular photo hosting site despite being a pay site. The site features no spam or ads.

Share a Family Photo Site
A really great idea is to have one online photo album for the whole family to share. The concept of the family photo site is that the family can upload photos from various computers, various places and countries and view each other's images on line. Prints and other goodies can be ordered from any of the collections.

In conclusion, Online Photo Album is a terrific way to share the events happening in your life. It is somewhat like keeping a journal, and will be a cherished souvenir for future years as well.

If you still don’t have one, go about creating one straight away and keep in touch with your family and friends!

Copyright © 2008 Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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How To Resize And Send Digital Photos By Email

Want to send digital photos by email? Yes, but sending and receiving photos as attachments are so very slow! Yes, that’s why you need to resize the photos to make uploading and downloading the photos fast and quick. How’s that?

Let’s start this from the beginning. The pictures shot by the mega pixel cameras like 5 megabyte or more have high resolution and thus your image files will naturally be large. Therefore e-mailing high resolution images which are in large files will take a much longer time. But high resolution images give sharper and clearer prints. So, what are the options? If you don't need prints, then shoot at low resolution, say 600 x 800 pixels. Most cameras let you set the image size as well and since the image files are smaller you will be able to store more of them in the camera's memory. Another option is to shoot at high resolution, then reduce the file size of the photos you want to e-mail.

You can do this a few different ways-
With Windows XP, you can easily resize or shrink the image files and e-mail them.
1.Go to My Pictures folder, open the folder which has the pictures to be emailed.
2.Select one or more photos. If you want to select additional photos ,hold down the Ctrl key and click the photos in any order you want.
3. Click E-mail this file or E-mail this folder's files in the File and Folder Tasks pane.



Next the Send Pictures via E-Mail dialog box appears. You can choose either Make all my pictures smaller or the Keep the original sizes option. And click ok to continue.

Now,windows XP opens your default e-mail program, creates a new message window, and attaches your pictures to the e-mail message. Type in the recipient's e-mail address, your message and then send the mail. That’s it! Everything quite swift! Done!

If Microsoft Office Outlook is your default e-mail program it will open a new e-mail message with your photos attached. You can shrink the size of your pictures automatically by clicking on the Attachment Options button, then select the appropriate setting.

Many digital cameras now come with photo editing and you can easily reduce file size. Once you've reduced your photos to a handy size, just attach and send.

A handy tip is to copy the original file and save the copy at the smaller size. Or else, you may overwrite it and lose your original high resolution file.

Have fun sending email attachments!

Copyright © 2008-2010 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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Share Your Digital Photos

Have you just got back from your dream holiday? Did you see the Seven Wonders of the World? Did you welcome a new baby into your family? Was there a wedding or a family get-together? Then, you must have undoubtedly taken loads and loads of pictures. With digital cameras it is possible to do so! Now, what would you like to do with all the amassed pictures? Surely you would like to share them with your family and friends? Yes, most certainly, I do! If so, what are the best ways to share your digital pictures?

Well, you can take on any one of the four methods to share your digital photoswith your loved ones:

1. Print your photos

2. Email your photos

3. Upload your photos to a website

4. Store your photos on CD and DVD

1.Printing your Photos

From the time camera had come into existence, people have made prints from their film. With digital camera also you can make prints, but you need a color printer and some quality printing paper .There is no need for film processing anymore.

There are 3 options for printing digital images-

a. You can print it in your color printer at home - inkjet printers are good enough.

b. You can submit your photos to an nline photo print website and they will take prints and deliver them at your doorstep.

c. You can visit a local photo shop who will print the pictures for you.

2. Emailing the Photos

To share the photos you can email them too. But a 10 MB of email attachment will take a long time for you to upload and for the recipient to download. So you have to resize your photos and send them by email.

3. Uploading your Photos to a Website

A good alternative to emailing photos is to upload your photos to a website and then simply email the website link to your friends or family. By this, you avoid the problem of huge email attachments. You can also set up your own web site to host your own picture gallery!

4. Storing your Photos on CD and DVD

Finally, you can save your photos in your computer and then burn them onto CDs and DVDs by using a CD burning software. Since the cds can store 650 MB and dvds 4 GB you do manage to get an incredible amount of storage space for your photo collection. But then, you do need to have a CD player or DVD player to view the photos.

Now choose whichever option is convenient for you and share it with your family and friends! Happy Sharing! :)

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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You have a blog now! Next, why not think of making money from your blog. Can I? Of course you can! What’s the investment like? Well, your financial investment is ZERO or NIL whereas you have to put in a huge investment of patience, endurance and persistence. For sure, you need good content as well to pull in the audiences to your blog. Are you game for this deal? Good, done! Now let’s go to the basics on how people make money by blogging.

The three main schemes by which beginners make money from blogging are:

1.Advertising.
2.Freelance.
3.Selling or Marketing.

Advertising – This is the best option for beginners. For this you have to register either with Google Adsense or any Affiliate Programe who will then feature their advertisements on your blog. You will be guided about putting up the ads on your blog. When your reader clicks on the ad you will get paid. Some affiliate programs pay per click, others pay if a sale is made through the click from your blog. In most cases you will hardly see any revenue for months. Like we mentioned earlier .. Patience is the keyword.

Freelance - If you are already a freelance writer, then this option will be ideal for you. You have to search around for freelance sites, blog forums and SEO communities for contracts. You will be paid per post. But then, be aware that beginners don’t get paid very well, if at all you are accepted!

Selling or Marketing – You can market products, services and opportunities on your blogs, This also takes a wee bit of time as you have to build trust first. Finally, in course of time, if you are successful this option can be very lucrative.

How to Promote Your Blog :

• You must submit your blog to all the major search engines before you can earn money.
• Send your URL to your friends and contacts to visit your blog and link to you. As the number of links to your blog increases, so will your status and rating with the search engines.
• To track your blog’s performance register with Google Analytics. This is a free tool to analyze the number and demographic data of visitors to your site.
• Paste a visit counter to check on the number of visitors to your blog.
• Use an appropriate blog name related to the theme of your blog as this will show up in search engine results.

In a nutshell, as the popularity of your blog grows, so will the traffic and ranking of the search engine increases. This in turn will impact the natural growth in your revenue from the Affiliate programs and Adsense. But, do bear in mind that there will be some sign of money trickling in only after 4-5 months of blogging.

Few essential pointers to remember for success -

• The secret to success is to invest your energy in patience, effort and hardwork.
• Stretch your interests across various revenue streams if you have to make money by blogging.

Now is this not amazing? You blog to make the blogger and writer in you happy, which attracts an audience and you make money!

There is this amazing video which tells you how to make money from blogs! See and learn from it!Happy Learning!

Copyright © 2008-2010 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

How To Make Money From Your Blog

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How To Start A Blog

So you are ready to publish your thoughts to the world! Let’s get started! It’s easy !
(You would have seen many similar tutorials like this on the internet.But then, since the basic procedure is the same , most tutorials will be alike.) Anyway,back to the tutorial!

The first and foremost ‘to do list’ is to select a service. There are many good and free services as well as services who charge a nominal fee.
Some good fee-based services are:
TypePad.com. SquareSpace.com , BlogIdentity.com.
These services usually offer a 30- to 60-day free trial .
The free services include :
Blogger.com,Wordpress.com ,LiveJournal.com, Blog-City.com, and MSN Spaces ,Xanga.com.

But the two most popular blog services are Blogger and Wordpress.Lets create a blog at Blogger.

Step 1: Sign Up at Blogger.com to Create a Blog
















Step 2: Create a Google Account in case you don’t have one.

















Step 3: Sign In with Your Google Account













Step 4: Name Your New Blog
















Step 5: Choose a Template
















Step 6: Congratulations - Your New Blog is Active!











Step 7: Write Your First Post

How to create a blog with Blogger-

A Video Tutorial

Congratulations! You have your own blog now!

HAPPY BLOGGING ! :) Read more Entry>>

Why start a blog?

Should I start a blog? Blogs are the ‘in’ thing and if you don’t have a blog ,you are not cool! Blogs are about the idiom “A penny for your thoughts”. Your thoughts can bring in the money for you. That should be a good incentive, apart from the satisfaction it brings you!

What’s a blog? It means a “web log” and it is more like writing a personal diary which gets published on the Internet for the whole world to see. Alas! So there is nothing personal about it after all! In other words, you are publishing your thoughts. Furthermore, it is not just putting your thoughts on the web but it's also about connecting with anybody who reads your work and responds

Can anyone start a blog? Most certainly YES! As long as you have something interesting to say, there will be a large number of people on the Internet who will not mind reading it. In fact they may even want to! You can write about all sorts of things – about your life, your opinions, about someone you admire, any news you found interesting, your political commentary, or links to web sites you liked - just anything as along as it is interesting. If you are a marketing expert, you can start a blog about marketing .Some professional and amateur journalists dominate a large chunk of worldwide audiences by using blogs to publish breaking news, political debates and so on. You can post photos that you would like to share as well.

Is there anything to be done before starting a blog ? Well..browse around, sniff around looking at other blogs so that you have an idea, what blogs are all about. If, you are a beginner, like me, I would recommend you not to look around too much, as you may lose the courage to start a blog when you see all those amazing, incredible, way above blogs . Decide on a theme - chew over your subject and your topic wisely. What type of topic will interest people? What sort of topic can you write about? Take your time before you take the plunge.

Now the final step! Just get started! You will understand about blogging clearly and plainly when you try it out! Yes, that’s what I did. I just started and I got the hang of it ! It’s real cool! I would suggest - start a blog to learn more about blogging!

Happy Blogging!

PS: Don’t miss the step by step instruction on starting a blog in my next post!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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SHOPPING ONLINE

Shopping!The most exhilarating word! Well, at least for many like me:) ! I am a staunch confirmed shopoholic! When I am not able to go out of the house to shop, what do I do? Shop On-line! It is the most convenient and easy way to shop and the creamy layer is..you can browse and buy from any on line store in the world and further more it is open 24 hours a day! Buying online saves time and money.

How do you shop online? It’s actually very simple! Almost everything, right from branded stuff like clothes, jewelry, shoes, bags and electronics to hand made products are available online. Even flowers, food stuff and pet food can be ordered over the net. Many retailers have websites where you can purchase their products online. The advantage of online shopping is that you can compare shops for the best price, then order and have it shipped - all this transaction takes just about a few minutes and you do not pay sales tax. Most of all you save a trip to the store!

How to Buy Online

• Though each site is a little different fro m the other, the basic transaction procedure is the same for every site.These sites have electronic catalogs which you can browse and s ubsequently add the product y ou choose to your electronic shopping cart .When you're done with the choosing, you can review the contents of your cart and delete the items you do not want.

• Your amount is then totalled .

• N ext you have to fill the form supplied by the site asking f or c ertain details like your name, e-mail address, shipping information, and credit card number .

• You can buy online using you
  r credit card or by an alternative payment option which is, setting up an account with PayPal. You transfer money electronically from your ban k account into your PayPal account, and then use it to pay the seller.

• Finally, you will be sent an e-mail with the order confirmation along with a tracking number. As a rule, you will be informed about the delivery duration time as well.

That’s it! You have purchased your item online!

Online shopping has become personalised as well , since

many sites allow you to customise your products which you want to buy. For instance, you can have your logo or personal patterns printed on your t- shirts, mugs, plates etc, you c

an order computers to your specifications, while at certain apparel sites, by using a virtual model you can "try on" clothes. This is fun! Now, many sites do have

customer service representatives with whom you can contact by e-mail or chat with in real time in case you need help. Thus online shopping has

become a friendly experience. Likewise, you can locate exactly what sort of product or store you are looking for by using the search engine. Finally, in the

event of problems with online merchants, contact concerned authorities.

Before hitting the virtual store

s, pursue certain precautions for a smooth, safe and sound shopping experience.

Ten Tips for a safe and secure shopping

1. Use only a secure Internet connection – Use an encrypted website. You can identify such a site by a lock icon in your web browser window. You can also recognize a secure server by the address beginning with https, rather than http. The “s” means the information going between your computer and the website will be securely encrypted.

2. Shop only - with well known and trusted websites or businesses. Check whether the seller is credible, by referring to a site like ResellerRatings.com, Moreover, since many retailers now offer online shopping, you will be allowed you return the products to their stores, instead of shipping it back.

3. Sites should list a physical address - not just a post office box. Check to see if it displays seals from consumer protection organizations . Another option is doing a search with Google. Enter the name of the trader along with the keyword "scam". You may get some information.

4. Be sceptical. A telephone number should be listed on the site. If it not, then opt to take your business elsewhere.

5. Protect private information- Some sites sell your private data to third parties but all trustworthy sites post a Privacy Policy. So, shop only at these sites. Don't provide unnecessary information by filling out the optional fields in the order form. It is optional, so why volunteer?

6. Never - send your credit card number by e-mail.

7. Check the shipping costs. Sometimes with the shipping cost your total purchase price can add up to more what you would pay in a retail store. So check it carefully! Some sites offer free or discounted shipping for select items and purchases over a certain amount.

8. Print - a copy of your order form for your records.

9. Review the return and refund policies. You should be aware about how to return the unwanted merchandise and whether you will receive a full refund. You should also know who would be paying for the return shipping.

10. Coupons and other discounts- Many online sites offer rebates . To obtain the discount, you enter the coupon code in the order form. It's then deducted from the total purchase price. You can save substantial amount of money!

THAT’S IT! HAPPY SHOPPING! :)

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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E-commerce

Internet and E-commerce has become a vital part and parcel of everyday modern life. By the way, what is e-commerce? E-commerce or electronic commerce is the buying and selling of products and services on the Internet and in other words, it means online transaction!

Just like the real world commerce, e-commerce consists of retail shopping, banking, auctions, real estate transactions, airline and hotel booking, movie rentals etc and in a nutshell, nearly everything and anything ! All this with just a click of your mouse and sitting in the comfort of your home!

E-commerce has many other advantages too. Like for instance,the yearly fee for an e-commerce website is insignificant compared to the exorbitant property rental for a store in a mall. Moreover, the transactions are handled by software process, and does not require sales and other managing staff – at least not till the item is ready to be packed and shipped. As a consequence, real world businesses just cannot compete with their e-commerce counterparts!

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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Sending Money Online!

Is it easy to send money fast? Of course it is! Sending money order online is safe, quick, convenient, cheap, and it can be sent to anywhere in the world. There are two methods to send online money order- by Bank and by Internet.

Online money transfer by Bank is the electronic transfer of money from one bank account to another. The recipient should also have a bank account and the money is transferred electronically within minutes direct into a bank account of the recipient. By this bank-to-bank account transfer, no actual cash is exchanged, but the electronic balances are adjusted accordingly in their respective accounts.

In the case of one not having a bank account, a cash wire transfer is possible. The money is paid at the bank and the recipient produces identification at the time of disbursement of funds. Cash wire transfers are costly and has certain limitations. During a purchase transaction a seller can provide false information to the sender of the cash wire transfer, collect the cash at the receiving end under the false ID, and vanish without delivering the merchandise.

Now,lets see what is money transfer by Internet! There are popular reliable financial providers like Western Union, PayPal, E-gold, Ikobo, Moneygram and Xoom which does not require you to have an account with them to transfer money online.

Western Union(www.westernunion.com) - has outlets worldwide and money is transferred electronically between these outlets. A person can pay the transfer fee and money at a Western Union and the recipient can collect the fund from the nearest Western Union branch within minutes. The advantage of this method is that there is no need for Internet access or bank.

Pay pal(www.paypal.com) is the world's largest online payment service which allows people from all around the world to buy and sell off the internet. All one needs is an email address. The fees for such transactions may be a percentage of the money being transferred or a fixed fee, irrespective of the amount being transferred.

Ikobo(www.iKobo.com)- is a service that allows you to send money to anyone with a Visa debit card. All you have to do is to fill up the necessary information via its online form. When Ikobo receives the necessary information, the recipient and prepaid re-loadable Visa debit card are sent and your money can be collected.

Moneygram (www.emoneygram.com) - includes Same-day service and Economy service. The Same-day service is for urgent money transfer and the economy service takes about three to five working days.

Payko (www.payko.com) - sells money order online. You can send money order via Payko with your Master or Visa credit card. The money order can be sent via regular mail, first class mail, priority mail, or express mail.

Finally, there are the nationalised Bank's International Credit and Debit cards like Visa and Mastercard ,as well as ATM cards which enable online money transfer within minutes. Whenever these cards are swiped at a retailer, wire transfer is authorised from the bank account of that card to the retailer's bank account.

Online money transfers are quick paperless transactions and furthermore, as precaution, during money transfers, details like the name of the country, bank, regional location and customer account number are facilitated by use of the IBAN that is, International Bank Account Number.

Copyright © 2008 Laila Rajaratnam. All Rights Reserved

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