Babymaize's blog

2011-10-29T15:20:00.001-07:00

Endless

2011-09-05T12:11:00.000-07:00

Mobile Analytics: Tracking Click-to-Call Mobile Ad Campaigns

2011-08-23T10:30:00.000-07:00

from http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/mobile-analytics-tracking-click-to-call-mobile-ad-campaigns/

Just when you thought you were finally getting more comfortable with website analytics and the metrics you report, here comes the massive explosion of mobile data!

At one level it is the normal impressions and clicks data, but on another level we are getting new data and metrics we normally don't use. We are going to have fun doing cool stuff, learning new things.

I have been spending some time with the Mobile Ads team at Google to try and understand what is innovative about mobile (oh my god so much!) and what implications are on measurement (loads!).

In this blog post I want to talk about just one specific ad unit, the Search / Display click-to-call ad, and how it is cool, useful, and immensely measureable in sexy ways.

Couple of quick caveats:

1. Click-to-Call ads are available in 223 countries, but Call Metrics (more on this below) is still in limited release, in the US only, so some of you might not have access to it. This will change over time.

2. Some of the screens and setup stuff might change as the product evolves, from what you see below. It should only get better.

3. My blog has a very finite width. so in many places I've cropped the reports to make them more clear for you. Please don't worry if when you use the tool you don't see exactly what you see below. On any tab in AdWords just click on the button called Columns and then click on Customize Columns. You can now add and remove metrics and prettify things!

Getting back to our narrative. . . here is how a Click-to-Call ad looks like on your mobile phone (or my Nexus S):

See the phone number? How cool is that! I can press a button and boom (!) reservation.

Actually, sidebar here, just look at how incredible that ad is. There is a little "Places Marker" telling me exactly how far the location is from me (2.2 miles). There is a phone number, and if I click on the name of the location (Palo Alto) I get this. . .

I can actually see exactly where the location is, I can see exactly where I am (the blue dot on the Googleplex) and I can decide if I want to rent from that location. Oh, and I can click on that map and it gives me driving directions to the location!

All this usefulness from an ad! I know!

Ending sidebar here, but this is why I think mobile advertising is so cool. No more crappy irrelevant distracting ads, rather, ads as useful info snacks served based on the signals available from your mobile device by advertisers who are clever enough to use all options in the advertising platform.

Okay back to our story.

From a measurement perspective we have four things we can analyze.

We can measure the number of clicks on the headline (Budget Car Rental) which leads the user to Budget's website (which does not have mobile friendly landing pages, boo!).

We can also measure the number of clicks on site links, if there are any in the ad.

We can measure the number of clicks on the phone number, which takes the user on their iPhone / BlackBerry / Android phone into the phone's dialer. Like so. . .

We can also measure the number of phone calls that were placed to Budget, using, in this case, the Google Call Metrics feature.

In order to collect the data, we have to follow a simple step during the ad creation process for our mobile Click-to-Call ad.

It is pretty easy to to create new mobile (search or display) ads in your AdWords account. It is easier still to create these ads for your existing campaigns.

Simply go into your account, choose the campaign, click on the Ad Extensions tab, then in the View menu click on the Phone Extensions (Okay okay that does not sound easy. Trust me it is not too bad). You'll get to this screen. . .

Here are the simple steps:

1. Type in the phone number where you want the call to go (your company/IVR number).

2. You can choose to only make the advertisement be a click to call ad, in which case the headline (in our case Budget Car Rental) won't be clickable.

3. Check on the Call Metrics radio button. Google will automatically create a Google Voice number that will be displayed on the ad. The awesome part is that we get the sweet, sweet nectar of call tracking data for our calls! : )

4. You also have an option to have the Google Voice number be a toll-free number or a specific area code. Choose as appropriate.

You can stop now, or go and tweak a few key things.

You can go into the normal AdWords options and choose where to run your ads. Google Search (and Search Partners, or not), the Display Network (across all pages or just relevant pages and managed audiences) etc. And of course your budget, position etc.

You can also choose the targeting options for your ads, some of which look like this:

All mobile devices, or just certain ones. All carriers or just some.

In my case I also choose for the mobile ads not to be shown in states where I don't have a business presence by availing myself of the options under the Settings tab:

Hit "Save" and you are on your way to a great mobile ad strategy (don't forget my booing of any advertiser that does not have mobile specific landing pages. Do this or watch your bounce rates soar like an Eagle!).

Ads are out, now it's time to let the beautiful Ms. Accountability do her thing. Measure!

There are three levels of data you can get about your mobile campaigns.

1. You Do Nothing: No tags of sites + No encoding URLs with campaigns parameters.

All you do is follow the steps above, allocate budget and you go on your merry way. You'll still get some data about the performance of your campaigns.

The best place to start is to go to the Campaigns tab in AdWords and in the drop down for Segment choose Click Type. This is what you'll see:

Here is a brief explanation of the main metrics you are looking at. . .

1. This column will list all the campaigns you are running at the moment.

2. The Clicks column shows you all the clicks on your ad (30). It breaks them down by clicks on the Headline (23) and on the Phone Call link (7). If you have Site Links in your ads, clicks on those links would be shown in a separate row (helping you understand their value – almost always super awesome btw) .

3. The Impressions column shows the number of times your ads in that campaign were shown.

Notice that the total impressions was 1,623 but for the row with Phone Calls the number is only 1,354. This means that your mobile ad was shown on platforms that did not have a capability to make calls, like the iPod Touch, iPad, Xoom and other such devices. In those cases AdWords will automatically not show the phone number.

4. Finally the number you really want to know: CPC. Cost Per Click. $10.88 for the headline click and $8.33 for Phone Call. Don't feel bad for this advertiser; every conversion for them has an economic value of over $3,000.

With this report, and not additional tagging etc., you still get enough information to understand if the Mobile Ads are performing well for you. Right within AdWords you can compare them to your other campaigns and understand key metrics like CTR (click-through rate) and CPC. That allows you to get some sense for performance.

But you can drill down a bit more. Here's the keyword report for a mobile ads campaign:

We are looking at the same metrics as we did above, but now we have granular detail related to Impressions, Clicks / Phone Calls, Avg. CPC. Having this detail by keyword is obviously a boon. We can dump the losers and feed the winners.

But if you are me, you are loving the analysis so far, but still wondering, where is the mobile part of mobile?

To get to that — sweet automatically provided call data — you need to go through one more step and turn on those metrics. Click on the button called Columns and then click on Customize Columns. You'll see:

Just choose the Call Metrics radio button and, for your mobile ads campaigns where in the very first step you choose to use Google Voice for tracking, you'll get these new metrics:

Calls, Missed Calls, Received Calls, Call Duration, Average Call duration. . .

How amazing is this!

We are used to analyzing clicks and bounces and conversions. Now we get to analyze something we never could easily (phone call data), and we can use metrics like Call Duration and Received Calls etc.

[You'll notice I am not showing Total Call Duration metric in the report. I have not yet figured out why this is not a useless metric. I am open to having my mind changed.]

In this specific case I am selling health insurance policies. I know from my call center data analytics that if people stay on the phone for more than 3 minutes then there is a very high chance of conversion. Using that as context, I can place preliminary judgment on how well or badly my mobile campaigns are doing.

When people search on mobile phones their proximity to transaction is really high, hence it is not unusual for the Average Call Duration to be positively inclined as above.

Additionally analyze the efficiency of your campaigns by using metrics like Clicks and Impressions and Cost Per Click and all that delicious stuff.

Having fun?

And remember you got all this without any additional tagging or IT gal/guy begging or other such additional torture!

If that is what you can accomplish by just buying some Mobile Ads and starting to experiment if they work for you. . . are you willing to do just a tiny amount of extra work to rock even harder?

I am glad you said yes! Here's what you can expect . . .

2. You Do Something: Tag the conversion page + Auto-tag campaigns URLs.

You've purchased Mobile Ads for smart phones (yes, yes I know there are non-smart phones but honestly all the valuable. . . okay discussion for another time), and you are ready to get deeper insights into the ROI of your campaigns.

Implement AdWords Conversion Tracking.

All you would need to do is to place a few lines of JavaScript code on your conversion page. This can be a "thank you" page after an ecommerce transaction or a lead submission. It can be a "download successful" page, it can be "watched a video" page. Anything really, that you've decided adds value to your business.

You get to choose how much data and of what type the tag collects. Please see the Setup Guide in the above link.

Once you have conversion tracking implemented (remember you just tag one page) then you'll be able to create this type of report in AdWords:

Here are some interesting things to look for. . .

1. Status is always nice to look at. : ) It is prudent to investigate what you might be leaving on the table if the limitation is budget.

2. The segment I've applied on this report is Device. Earlier we had used Click Type. You can see key metrics (Impressions, CTR, CPC) for your campaigns that are being served both on the Desktop and Mobile phones. Analyze this carefully.

3. With conversion tracking the sweetness you get is the last part. Conversions, Cost Per Conversion and Conversion Rate. Now you are more optimally placed to judge if your mobile campaigns are delivering not just traffic but also business outcomes.

4. You see zeros for the Mobile Devices, in this case, as there were either no conversions using the Mobile ad links or the conversions happened on the phone. Remember AdWords still would not know about that.

You should work with your call center IVR (Interactive Voice Response) team to ensure these mobile ads campaigns are being tracked separately and accurately.

You can obviously look at this report by using the Segment Click Type and see conversion data for Desktop clicks AND Mobile headline clicks that lead to your mobile site (with the assumption that you've implemented conversion tracking there).

Let me share a unique example of where this conversion data can be very useful.

In this report we are analyzing the actual ad copy and its performance.

In a mobile context, notice the ad is exactly the same except for the third line. In the first ad the line is "Call Now For A Free Quote!" and in the second ad the line is "All Covered! Apply Now."

You can see that my second call to action did not get any mobile phone calls, though it did pretty well getting headline clicks.

In this unique case it might give me a clue that for my mobile ads I should be using a more direct call to action and order people to click on the phone number!

A simple A/B test if you will, with success measured by clicks and conversions. When you run your campaigns, this might be a great way to try different ad copy to see which works best. [For the true Analysis Ninjas amongst you, there is always AdWords Campaign Experiments!]

Okay click data analysis of mobile ads? Check. Call data analysis? Check. Conversion data analysis to ensure we are not wasting money? Check.

Let's really get dirty, and really start having some fun. Some pain, lots and lots of gain!

3. You Do Everything: Tag the website pages + Auto-tag campaigns URLs.

For you to truly commit to holding your mobile advertising campaigns, and your website, accountable you'll have to tag your entire website and ensure that your campaign clicks are trackable.

You can do this with Omniture or WebTrends or CoreMetrics or Yahoo! Web Analytics.

If you advertise using Google AdWords and use Google Analytics this becomes a bit easier because it's the hugest pain in the rear to ensure clean and consistent tagging of your search campaigns. When you link GA account with your AdWords account, your campaigns are auto-tagged, and data accuracy et. al. improves enormously. You also get a few magical things like Search Funnels to truly understand upper funnel behavior.

Weigh the pros and cons and decide what works for you. What I want to emphasize is that you should want, passionately, to do this type of deeper analysis.

If you have implemented web analytics JavaScript tags on your website, then just log into your Advanced Segmentation module, create a segment for your Mobile Ads or AdWords clicks via Mobile Devices, and you are in business!

Here's my segment and the key data I looked at:

Let's walk through the highlights. . . .

1. The most important thing you'll do is use the on the fly segmentation capability to isolate your mobile campaigns. The Ninjas will instantly recognize that I am applying the segment to a custom report I've created. (Standard reports booo!)

2. I am okay with Clicks but I like Visits better. Yes, they are not the same thing.

3. The magnificent thing about going through the tagging effort is that you can now track behavioral metrics for your mobile ad visitors. How many had been on the site before? What is the bounce rate of your campaigns? How deep was the engagement?

4. The truly, really pretty, most magnificent thing is that you can move beyond the slavery of macro conversions! Not everyone who visits via a mobile campaign has to buy a pony. I can now easily measure micro conversions.

In my case, this translates to how many people truly "engaged" with the content and how many of them became "loyalists."

In your case, you could track the macro "the one thing I care about" conversion AND you could also track other goals people accomplish on your websites. Watch your videos, download the university application form, open a new account, comment on your site, send you referrals, etc.

Love it?

I am sure you do. Who said mobile ads had to be faith based initiatives?

Oh most definitely do the boring part of your job, the part that our HiPPOs love the most. . . report on the mobile ads conversion rate in context of the site conversion rate (yea! look how well you are doing!) and. . .

Report what matters the most; revenue and economic value. Again the above graph looks great. Make sure the Management team knows how hard the Mobile Search Ads team has been doing so they can get credit for their performance.

Before I completely run out of excitement I do want to share one last final word of advice: Pull all the performance data together into one place.

With Mobile Click-to-Call ads conversion are happening online and offline. Go to your IVR team or your corporate data warehouse team or the best person, and get the data for the revenue and conversions for the phone calls.

Then crack open our much beloved Microsoft Excel (or your favorite replacement) and create this little starting point by merging together data from Google AdWords, Google Analytics and your Call Center system:

Here is one single cohesive view of your performance, regardless of whether the conversion happened onsite or offsite. We live in a non-line world; make sure your analysis reflects that.

As the note above indicates, Ninjas don't stop at "lame" metrics like ROI. They compute Gross Profit by accounting for Cost of Goods Sold (COGS). And the few, the brave, the awesomest will compute Net Profit!

: )

I've had fun writing this post. I think that mobile presents a unique opportunity. After all what other ad medium is there in the world where you can literally "own the entire shelf" instantly. . .

. . . I just typed car and I wanted car insurance and all I see is Geico. How delightful is that for them! And not so for their competitors. : )

I also had fun because of how smart and sophisticated we can be about measurement and ensuring value for our customers and our business. Accountability is the new black!

Ok, its your turn now.

Have you tried Mobile Click to Call ads? Have you done any mobile advertising? How are you measuring success of your campaigns? Do you have a favorite metric for this medium? What do you wish you could measure on mobile that you can't?

Please share your feedback, tips, best practices, critique via comments.

Thanks.

2011-06-20T14:07:00.001-07:00

心里有爱，看到的就是美好；心里有恨，看到的就是丑陋。

雪儿轶事123

2011-03-23T13:59:00.000-07:00

雪儿喜欢花，她便把花花采下来，开始是些小野花，爸爸妈妈也就由她去了，后来发展到家里的茶花，马蹄莲。。。。
后来终于殃及学校的小花草。
爸爸妈妈决定给雪儿上一堂爱护花草的课，以阻止更多的花草受到殃及。
妈妈说：花花草草跟我们人类一样，也是有生命的。你把他们摘掉，他们就会很痛，而且慢慢的会死掉的，吧啦叭啦。。。
妈妈讲的吐沫星乱发，雪儿聚精会神的听着，等妈妈完成了自己认为非常煽情的教育后，雪儿说：’可是他们的眼睛，嘴巴在哪里呢？

妈妈（）××&……%￥#@。。。。倒地，吐血。。。

New kindle

2010-10-19T11:27:00.001-07:00

New kindle with low price!!

Amazon gift card 5% bouns

2010-10-13T10:14:00.001-07:00

什么是机会

2010-10-11T16:53:00.001-07:00

机会就是你已经拥有的东西中有价值的部分

old saying

2010-08-24T11:06:00.000-07:00

人常说要一天不安宁就去待客；要一年不安宁就去盖房；要一生不安宁就去找情人的。

2010-07-29T17:12:00.001-07:00

Introducing 30% Off Diapers & Wipes with Subscribe & Save
For a limited time, your readers can save 30% off select diapers and wipes sold by Amazon.com by signing up for Subscribe & Save delivery. This includes the standard 15% Subscribe & Save discount plus a limited-time offer of an additional 15% discount which applies to all orders shipped during the promotional period. Plus, readers get FREE Two-Day shipping on all diapers and wipes sold by Amazon.com. Shopping for baby just got easier!

Subscribe & Save offers free shipping on items you routinely use--and it keeps them coming every one, two, three, or six months. Plus, there's no commitment. You can change your delivery schedule or cancel at any time. See details.

How about shoes?

2010-07-27T12:48:00.001-07:00

ebook vs. physical book

2010-06-22T13:54:00.000-07:00

Word of warning: Owning an ebook is more comparable to renting it. It can be taken away from you in number of ways:

- Amazon or other authority can delete it from your Kindle without your knowledge/permission.
- No power to run it.
- Device breaks down/gets lost and no way to replace it.

There are still compelling reasons for keeping a physical collection of your favorite books.

成年人一天需要多少热量?

2010-04-27T16:10:00.000-07:00

成年人一天需要多少热量? (source:http://www.shoumm.com/2001605.htm#1)

一、热量的作用
热量来自于碳水化合物，脂肪，蛋白质
碳水化合物产生热能 = 4 千卡/克
蛋白质产生热量 = 4 千卡/克
脂肪产生热量 = 9 千卡/克。

二、热量的单位
千卡 Kilocalorie，千焦耳
1 千卡 = 4.184 千焦耳
1 千卡：是能使出1毫升水上升摄氏1度的热量。

三、成人每日需要热量
成人每日需要的热量 =
人体基础代谢的需要的基本热量 + 体力活动所需要的热量 + 消化食物所需要的热量。

消化食物所需要的热量 =10% x （人体基础代谢的需要的最低热量 +体力活动所需要的热量）

成人每日需要的热量 = 1.1 x (人体基础代谢的需要的最低基本热量 +体力活动所需要的热量 )

成人每日需要的热量
男性： 9250- 10090 千焦耳
女性： 7980 - 8820 千焦耳
注意：每日由食物提供的热量应不少于己于 5000千焦耳- 7500 千焦耳这是维持人体正常生命活动的最少的能量

人体基础代谢的需要基本热量简单算法
女子：基本热量（千卡）= 体重(斤） x 9
男子：基本热量（千卡）= 体重(斤） x 10

人体基础代谢的需要的基本热量精确算法千卡
女子
年龄公式
18- 30 岁 14。6 x 体重（公斤） + 450
31- 60 岁 8。6 x 体重（公斤） + 830
60岁以上 10。4 x 体重（公斤） + 600

男子
18- 30 岁 15。2 x 体重（公斤）+ 680
31- 60 岁 11.5 x 体重（公斤） + 830
60岁以上 13.4 x 体重（公斤） + 490

小和大，多和少

2010-04-23T11:40:00.000-07:00

总理说过：Mitbbs.com

一个很小的问题，乘以13亿，都会变成一个大问题;Mitbbs.com

一个很大的总量，除以13亿，都会变成一个小数目。Mitbbs.com

现在我们要说：Mitbbs.com

一点很小的善心，乘以13亿，都会变成爱的海洋;Mitbbs.com

一个很大的困难，除以13亿，都会变得微不足道。M

Restricted Stock Units (RSU) Sales and Tax Reporting

2010-04-07T11:57:00.000-07:00

Restricted Stock Units (RSU) Sales and Tax Reporting

http://thefinancebuff.com/2008/04/rsu-sell-to-cover-deconstructed.html

RSU stands for Restricted Stock Units. It’s the new form of stock-based compensation that has gained popularity after the employers are required to expense employee stock options. The biggest difference between RSUs and employee stock options is that RSUs are taxed at the time of vesting while stock options are usually taxed at the time of option exercise. The employer is required to withhold taxes as soon as the RSUs become vested.

In a previous post, Restricted Stock Units (RSU) Tax Withholding Choices, I wrote about what I chose among the three tax withholding choices — same day sale, sell to cover, and cash transfer — and why. This time I’m writing about how to account for taxes on the tax return, especially if you use tax software like TurboTax or TaxCut.

I’m going to use this simple example:

Suppose you had 100 RSUs vested on October 31, 2007. The closing price of the stock on that day is $50, and the tax withholding rate is 40%.

Regardless of which choice you made for tax withholding — some employers don’t give you a choice and sell to cover is your only option — your employer will include on your W-2 as wages the total value of the vested RSUs. In our example, it’s $50 * 100 = $5,000. They will also withhold the same amount of taxes regardless of your choice. In this example it’s $5,000 * 40% = $2,000. How you account for taxes on your tax return for the rest will depend on your tax withholding choice.

1. Same Day Sale. If you make this choice, you sell everything. Let’s say on the day after the vesting date the shares are sold at $50.10 per share, less a $20 commission and $1 SEC fee. You total proceeds before tax withholding is $50.10 * 100 – $20 – $1 = $4,989. The employer withholds $2,000. You are left with $2,989. At tax time, you will receive a 1099-B from your broker listing the stock sale proceed of $4,989. You enter in TurboTax or TaxCut, or on Schedule D of Form 1040:

Description: 100 shares XYZ, Inc.
Net Proceeds: 4,989
Date of Sale: 11/01/2007
Cost Basis: 5,000
Date Acquired: 10/31/2007

Your cost basis is the amount your employer included on your W-2, which is the closing price on the vesting date times the number of shares vested. In this example, you will show a short-term loss of $11 on your tax return because of the brokerage commission and the SEC fee. The income and the associated tax withholdings are already included on your W-2. Use those numbers as-is.

2. Sell to Cover. [Update on April 9, 2008: I wrote a follow-up post RSU Sell To Cover Deconstructed to clarify this option. Jump ahead to that post if you'd like.] If you make this choice, or if you don’t have a choice, your employer sells just enough shares to cover the tax withholding. Using the same numbers as in same day sale, they sell 41 shares. The SEC fee is a bit less, say $0.40. You receive from the sale $50.10 * 41 – $20 – $0.40 = $2,033.70. The employer takes away $2,000 for tax withholding. You are left with $33.70 in cash and the remaining 59 shares. At tax time, you will receive a 1099-B from your broker listing the stock sale proceed of $2,033.70. You enter in TurboTax, TaxCut, or on Schedule D of Form 1040:

Description: 41 shares XYZ, Inc.
Net Proceeds: 2,033.70
Date of Sale: 11/01/2007
Cost Basis: 2,050
Date Acquired: 10/31/2007

Once again, your cost basis for the shares you sold is the amount your employer included on your W-2 for those shares, which is the closing price on the vesting date times the number of shares you sold for tax withholding ($50 * 41 = $2,050). After the sale, you show a short-term loss of $2,050 – $2,033.70 = $16.30 because of the brokerage commission and the SEC fee. Again, the income and the associated tax withholdings are already included on your W-2, and you just use those numbers as-is.

For the remaining 59 shares, you keep a cost basis of $50 per share ($50 * 59 = $2,950). You have to remember this number until you sell the remaining shares. Whenever you sell them, you enter in TurboTax, TaxCut, or on Schedule D of Form 1040:

Description: 59 shares XYZ, Inc.
Net Proceeds: whatever you sell them for, copy from 1099-B
Date of Sale: your date of sale
Cost Basis: 2,950
Date Acquired: 10/31/2007

You will show a short-term or long-term gain or loss for these remaining shares depending on your date of sale and the sale price.

3. Cash Transfer. If you make this choice, you give your employer cash for the tax withholding and keep all the shares. You can sell the shares either immediately or keep them for however long you like. The tax accounting is the same as if you bought the shares at the closing price on the vesting date. Whenever you sell them, you enter in TurboTax, TaxCut, or on Schedule D of Form 1040:

Description: 100 shares XYZ, Inc.
Net Proceeds: whatever you sell them for, copy from 1099-B
Date of Sale: your date of sale
Cost Basis: 5,000
Date Acquired: 10/31/2007

You will show a short-term or long-term gain or loss for these shares depending on your date of sale and the sale price. The income from RSU vesting and the associated tax withholdings are already included on your W-2, and you just use those numbers as-is.

That’s all. Hope this is helpful to someone looking for info on the tax treatment and implications of RSU sales.

RSU Sell To Cover Deconstructed

2010-04-07T11:56:00.001-07:00

RSU Sell To Cover Deconstructed

April 9, 2008 by TFB
(http://thefinancebuff.com/2008/04/rsu-sell-to-cover-deconstructed.html)

Ever since I wrote Restricted Stock Units (RSU) Sales and Tax Reporting, I received many questions. They all relate to sell-to-cover, which is the default, and often the only option people have for their restricted stock units (RSU). I must have not been crystal clear in my previous post. Otherwise I would not have received so many questions. I thought of a better way to explain it. So hopefully it is clear this time. For background on RSUs and tax withholding, please also read my previous post Restricted Stock Units (RSU) Tax Withholding Choices.

Let’s use this hypothetical example.

100 RSUs vested on 4/20/2007. The closing price on the vesting date is $50 per share. The company sold 40 shares for taxes. You received 60 shares. Without the RSUs, your W-2 income for the year would’ve been $60,000, with $8,000 withheld for various taxes (federal, state, social security, medicare).

This transaction can be deconstructed into 5 steps as follows.

1. The company gives you a cash bonus. In our example, the bonus is $5,000, which is the closing price on the vesting date ($50) times the number of RSUs vested (100). The company adds this cash bonus to your W-2. If your W-2 income without the RSUs is $60,000, your W-2 income with RSUs now becomes $65,000. After the end of the year, they will issue you a W-2 showing $65,000 in box 1.

2. You use the cash bonus to buy shares. $5,000 bonus buys 100 shares at $50 a share. Buying shares by itself does not trigger any taxes. Your cost basis in these 100 shares is $50 a share, for a total of $5,000.

3. The company sells some shares on your behalf. In our example, they sell 40 shares on your behalf. You must report sales of stocks on Form 1040 Schedule D. There can be a few variations here.

3a. The company does not use a broker. The shares are sold on the vesting date at the same closing price. You report on your Schedule D:

Description	40 Shares XYZ Corp.
Date Acquired	4/20/2007
Date Sold	4/20/2007
Sales Price	$2,000
Cost Basis	$2,000
Gain or Loss	$0

3b. The company uses a broker. The shares are sold on the next day after vesting at a different price. Suppose the sale price is $50.60 and the broker’s commission is $20. The net proceeds of the sale is $50.60 * 40 – $20 = $2,004. You report on your Schedule D:

Description	40 Shares XYZ Corp.
Date Acquired	4/20/2007
Date Sold	4/21/2007
Sales Price	$2,004
Cost Basis	$2,000
Gain or Loss	$4

If the shares are sold at a lower price, you show a loss instead of a gain. The loss can offset capital gains elsewhere. After that, it can offset up to $3,000 of your ordinary income. If you still have more losses, the remainder is carried over to the next year, offsetting any gains you have next year and up to $3,000 of your ordinary income again next year.

4. You hand over the money from the stock sale to your employer. Your employer remits the money to the federal and state tax authorities. They add the taxes paid to the withholding numbers on your W-2. If your tax withholdings without RSUs would’ve been $8,000, your tax withholdings with RSUs now become $10,000. After the year end, the W-2 you receive from your employer shows $65,000 of income (step 1) and $10,000 in withholdings.

5. Finally, your employer gives you the remaining shares. You bought 100 shares in step 2. They sold 40 shares on your behalf in step 3. You have 60 shares left.

Now, when you file your tax return,

Enter the income and taxes paid from your W-2 as-is. The RSU related income and tax withholdings are already included on your W-2. You don’t have to do anything else with them. Do not add more income. Do not add more taxes paid.
Report the stock sale on Schedule D as shown in step 3. If the company does not use a broker and sells the shares at the same price as the closing price on the vesting date, you should have a zero gain/loss for that sale. Others might have a small gain or loss depending on the sale price and brokerage commission if any.

Your cost basis in the remaining shares stays at $50 a share. In our example it’s $50 * 60 = $3,000 in total. Whenever you sell these shares, you have to remember this cost basis. If you sell them for more than $50 a share, you have a capital gain. If you sell them for less than $50 a share, you have a capital loss. You will report the gain or loss in the year you sell these remaining shares. The gain/loss will be a short-term gain/loss or a long-term gain/loss depending on your holding period after the vesting date.

I hope this post addresses all the questions. If you break up the RSU vesting and sale this way, it’s not that complicated.

Tax Reporting for Qualifying Dispositions of ESPP Shares

2010-02-08T13:36:00.000-08:00

FW from http://www.fairmark.com/execcomp/espp/qualifying.htm
By Kaye A. Thomas

Reporting compensation income and capital gain or loss for a qualifying disposition of ESPP shares.

If you hold shares from an employee stock purchase plan long enough to avoid a disqualifying disposition, you still may have to report some or all of your profit as compensation income when you sell or otherwise dispose of the shares. If you have additional profit beyond the amount reported as compensation income, it is reported as capital gain. This page explains how to report these events.

Preliminary explanation

These rules impose reporting requirements on a disposition of ESPP shares that occurs after you have held the shares long enough to avoid a disqualifying disposition. Unlike the rules for incentive stock options, these rules may require some or all of your profit to be reported as compensation income even after you've satisfied the holding period requirement. The amount of compensation income is calculated differently than for a disqualifying disposition, using the lesser of two numbers. Strangely, it is possible (although unusual) for the amount of compensation income to be larger for a qualifying disposition than it is for a disqualifying disposition.

The law on this issue is poorly written and causes plenty of confusion among the companies that maintain these plans, the individual participants and their tax preparers. Even the IRS is confused about this rule: they state it incorrectly in Publication 525. The description here is based on the rule as it appears in the tax law, specifically section 423(c) of the Internal Revenue Code.

What you need

Income from a qualifying disposition of ESPP stock may or may not appear on Form W-2, so that is one item you need. If you sold the shares (instead of making a different kind of disposition, such as a gift), you should also have Form 1099-B, which reports your proceeds from the sale. In addition, you need two pieces of information:

The discount allowed on the stock, determined as of the beginning of the offering period (even though your purchase occurred at the end of the offering period), and
Your profit as of the date you disposed of the shares.

Discount allowed

If the first item above is zero, you don't have to report any compensation income on a qualifying sale of the shares. If the company provides a discount, you have to determine the dollar amount as of the beginning of the offering period. You may need help from the company to come up with this number, because it isn't always easy to determine the amount.

Example: Your company provides a 15% discount on ESPP shares. During an offering period you contribute $850 and acquire 25 shares having a value of $40 per share (total of $1,000) as of the end of the offering period.

This is not enough information to determine the dollar amount of the discount as of the beginning of the offering period. The shares might have been trading at $36 (total of $900) at the beginning of the offering period, and in that case the number we're looking for would be $135 (15% of $900). It doesn't matter that your actual discount ended up being $150.

Profit

Your profit as of the date of disposition is the difference between the value of the shares on that date and the amount you paid to buy them. If your disposition was a sale, use the sale proceeds as the value. If the disposition was a gift, or occurred as a result of the death of the employee holding the shares, determine the value of the shares based on the average of the high and low trading prices for the day of disposition.

If you sold shares that were acquired on multiple occasions, you'll need this information for each block of shares you acquired.

Step 1: Calculate compensation income

Your compensation income from ESPP shares in a qualifying disposition is the lesser of the two amounts described above. If the company provides no discount on the shares, the compensation income is zero. Likewise, in a qualifying disposition, if you have no profit as of the date of disposition, you don't report any compensation income. This is a significant difference from a disqualifying disposition, where you generally have to report compensation income even if you do not have a profit.

Step 2: Check your W-2

The compensation income from a qualifying disposition may be reflected on Form W-2 received from the company maintaining the plan. That doesn't always happen, so you should check your W-2. It may be difficult to isolate this amount because it is not listed separately. One clue would be to compare the number in box 1 (your total wages) with the number in box 3 (social security wages), because this income should appear in box 1 but not in box 3. If you're uncertain about whether the company included this amount in your wages reported on form W-2 you should clarify this with the payroll department.

Step 3: Report your compensation income

If the compensation income from your qualifying disposition was included in the wages reported on Form W-2, simply report the number from your W-2 on your tax return the way you normally do. If it was not included on your W-2, add the ESPP compensation to the wages on your Form W-2 and report the total as wages on your tax return.

Some people worry that they need to attach an explanation if the number for wages on Form 1040 doesn't match the number on the attached Form W-2. That isn't necessary here because the number you're reporting is greater than the number on Form W-2.

Step 4: Calculate your basis

Next you need to calculate your basis for the shares. This is the amount you paid for the shares, increased by the amount of compensation income reported. If your qualifying disposition was a gift, you should provide this basis information to the recipient of the gift. If the disposition was a sale, proceed to Step 5.

Step 5: Report the sale of the shares

Report the sale of the shares on Schedule D, using the sales proceeds reported on Form 1099-B and the basis calculated in Step 4. You had to hold the shares more than a year (and perhaps longer) to have a qualifying disposition, so your gain or loss is long-term.

厨房装修需要遵循的七条原则 zt

2010-02-02T13:15:00.000-08:00

宜忌一
宜：一般的厨房工作流程会在洗涤后进行加工，然后烹饪，因此最好将水池与灶台设计在同一流程线上，并且二者之间的功能区域用一块直通的台面连接起来作为操作台，这样操作者在烹饪中能避免不必要的转身，也不用走很多冤枉路，在U型厨房中可以将二者设置在同一长边上，形成I字型流程；或将一方设计在长边上，另一方设计在要邻的短边上，形成L型流程，而在岛型厨房中，可以将水池与灶台共同设置在岛上，并穿插有操作台面，靠墙的橱柜可以作为储物空间及操作空间。
忌：水池与灶台不在同一操作台面上或距离太远。如在U型威望厨房中，将水池与灶台分别置在U型的两个长边上，或在岛型厨房中，一方沿墙而放，另一方则放在岛型工作台上，热锅、清洗后的蔬菜、刚煮熟的面条必须经常在水池与灶台之间挪动，锅里的水因此会滴落在二者之间的地板上，从而增加不必要的劳动，多次反复转身也会让操作者感到很疲劳。
宜忌二
宜：人在双肘弯曲操作时两肘之间宽度在550CM左右，水池或灶台至墙面至少要保留 40CM的侧面距离，才能有足够空间让操作者自如地工作，这段自由空间可以用台面连接起来，成为便利有用的工作平台。水池的下面最好放置洗碗机和垃圾筒，而灶台下面放置烤箱，这种搭配会带给使用者更多的便利。
忌：水池或灶台被安放在厨房的角落里。有些厨房的格局设计很不合理，烟道采用墙垛的形式。燃气管道预留在烟道附近，很多人想当然地将灶台紧贴烟道墙安放，这样操作者的胳膊肘会在炒菜时经常磕到墙壁上，否则只能伸长胳膊操作或放弃使用贴墙灶眼烹炒食物。水池贴墙安放也会带来同样的麻烦。
宜忌三
忌：习惯中餐的家庭将灶台设置在岛型工作台上。岛型设计越来越多地被应用于开放式厨房中，悬挂式烟机的流畅线条，也使得将灶台设计在岛上比其他格局更摩登、现代。如果你的厨房只是一种展示，这种格局会让你心满意足。然而在烹制中餐时，菜入油锅的一刹那以及煎炒烹炸的过程中，锅里的油烟会四处飞溅，每餐下来，岛型工作台上甚至附近地面都很油腻。
宜：对于中国人来讲岛型工作台最好作为操作台，准备、调理每餐的食物。工作台上方可以用来码放大的锅以及悬挂漂亮的炊具，这样也能起到装饰作用。如果一定要将烹调区设计在岛上，建议你只在这里烧水、煲汤，做一些不会有很多油烟的食品，而在阳台或其他区域再安放一个大火力灶眼用来烹制中餐，这样虽然看上去麻烦些，却更为实际。
宜忌四
宜：厨房台面应尽可能根据不同的工作区域设计不同的高度，如洗涤区，位置较高时会比较舒适，水池可以调高5CM；而有些台面位置较低时会更好，如果使用者很喜欢做面点，那么常用来制作面点的操作台可以将高度降低10CM。为了使烹饪时能看到炒锅里的菜，灶台也可以略有降低。但是在橱柜的设计中也不能过分追求高低变化，特别是在较小的厨房中，过多的变化会影响整体的美观，给人杂乱无章的视觉效果。
忌：操作台采用同样的高度。现在多数家庭的所有操作台面都采用统一高度，即80CM左右，或根据主要操作者的身高略有调整。但就厨房中的每项工作来说，并非这一高度都非常舒适。
宜忌五
宜：灶台的位置应靠近外墙，这样便于安装烟机和其他排烟系统。窗前的位置最好留给调理台，因为这部分工作会花费最多的时间，抬头看着窗外的美景，吹吹和煦的暖风，能让操作者有份好心情。
忌：灶台位置靠近门或窗户。有些人为传菜方便将灶台设置在离门很近的位置，开关门时风很容易将炉灶吹灭，而且油烟也容易飘进餐厅；而有些人为了油烟能尽快散去，将灶台设置在窗户下，这同样也是非常危险的。
宜忌六
宜：为了取用方便，最常用的物品应该放在70CM～185CM之间，这段区域被称为舒适存储区，人要拿取这个区域以上的物品，就要抬起脚跟。有的人为了使吊柜打开门时不磕到头部，将吊柜安在较高的位置，这是很不可取的。吊柜的最佳距地面高度为145CM，为了在开启时使用方便，可将柜门设计为向上折叠的汽压门，吊柜的进深也不能过大，40CM最合适，而底柜最好采用大抽屉柜的形式，即使是最下层的物品拉开抽屉就能随手可及，免去蹲下身向里面够东西的麻烦。
忌：吊柜、底柜采用对开门的形式。有些人为了追求橱柜在形式上的规整或降低成本，吊柜、底柜都采用对开门的形式，但这会给使用者带来诸多不便。如吊柜门在侧开时操作者要拿取旁边操作区的物品稍不留意就会撞到头部；而存放在底柜下层的物品必须要蹲下身才能拿到，很不方便。
宜忌七
宜：在许多家庭中，厨房不再只是主妇炒菜做饭的地方，它是家庭成员活动的中心。当橱柜采用同一宽度一字排列时，即使大家一起动手做饭，你也会发现人们只能面对操作台讲话。如果将橱柜改为M型格局，两个人就能面对面讲话，交流更方便。在空间不允许的时候，你最好加宽操作台，一是为了能加大散热面积，更主要的是你会体验到凸出来的灶台反而动线更流畅，加宽的设计让烹饪没有丝毫局促感。
忌：多数家庭认为只要空间格局允许地柜理所当然要采用同一宽度，这样厨房线条简洁明了，视觉上更为规整，而且操作中身体平行移动，能少走很多弯路。地柜错落有致的形式在他们看来是由于厨房格局的不规矩或为了躲避管线造成的。

精辟归总

2009-09-27T16:30:00.001-07:00

外遇把女人都变成了侦探，把男人都变成了发明家。

爱情还是有保质期的。我的爱情只是过了保质期。

婚姻是什么？婚姻不是一种共同生活的合作关系。婚姻是爱情的结晶；爱一个人，相信
一个人，以至于愿意许以一生的承诺，愿意用一生的时间来理解、来包容、来付出。婚
姻最重要的是要让彼此都觉得幸福。一方轻松愉快、一方怨恨满怀，这种婚姻是不健康
的。

酸辣汤制作方法

2009-08-24T12:50:00.000-07:00

老抽，酱油，蚝油，白醋，高汤，辣椒粉，淀粉（没有高汤可以用鸡精代替）

木耳，豆腐，猪肉丝，笋丝，蘑菇，马蹄片，鸡蛋
方法
高汤一锅，加入酱油，老抽，蚝油，白醋，辣椒粉，盐，烧开之后，放入调好的淀粉，浓稠比例
自己掌握，然后撒入鸡蛋，形成漂亮的蛋花。待用。

另一边水煮木耳，豆腐，猪肉丝，蘑菇，马蹄片，八分熟之后，捞出来，沥干，然后加
入高汤中，
然后小火半个小时即可。
关火后，放入白胡椒粉和黑胡椒粉少许哦，比例是一比一。

Buy from amazon

2009-08-06T12:06:00.001-07:00

I am happy today

2009-05-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

Today is Friday.
I create a link from my blog to eBay by ePN tool.
I finish my work on time and in a good shape.

Anything else??.....

Click on eBay's logo and see what happen. :)