What are CPM, CPC, CPA, CPE, etc in online advertising

You might have noticed that my blog currently serves ads from Google Adsense and Innity Performance Network.

If you are familiar with online advertising, you should know about CPM, CPC, CPA, CPE, etc. If you are new to it, you might wonder what are these jargons about.

Well, they actually refer to the model in which you will be paid for ads running on your website or blog.

• CPM - Cost Per Mille or Cost Per Thousand Impressions. This is the easiest model to generate earnings, as every time the ads appear to a visitor to your site, you will get an amount of money. The rate is at 1,000 ad served. If your site produces less than 1,000 impressions for the ad, you will get a proportion of it. Google Adsense reports the estimated CPM rate you receive based on your earnings with Effective CPM (eCPM).
• CPC - Cost Per Click. You'll generate earnings when your visitors click on the ads displayed on your site.
• CPA - Cost Per Acquisition. You will be paid for leads generated on your site (e.g. product trial sign up, submission of survey, etc.)
• CPE - Cost Per Engagement. You will be paid for engagements generated by visitors from your site. Engagement is defined when a user response to the ad through the act of experiencing the features of the ad format. These features include advergames, videos or even social sharing.

Currently, you can get CPM and CPC ads from Google Adsense, while Innity Performance Network supports more models including CPM, CPC, CPA and CPE.

The rule of thumb: No matter what the revenue model is, visitor traffic is the key for you to get some earnings from online advertising.

Shareholders dividend under the single tier tax system (STS)

Malaysia has introduced single tier tax system (STS) in Budget 2008 to replace the existing imputation tax system with effect from year of assessment 2008. This has brought major impact to the treatment of dividend paid to the shareholders.

You might have noticed that some of the companies already giving out dividends under the new STS, although they have a 6 year transitional grace period until 31 December 2013 to fully convert from imputation to STS.

Under this STS, corporate income is taxed at corporate level and is a final tax. No tax is being deducted from dividend paid, credited or distributed to shareholders. As a result, there will be no Section 110 tax credits deduction for any dividend paid under STS to individual tax payers.

While this has negative impact to lower income individual shareholders whose top income tax bracket is less than the statutory company tax rate, as they no longer eligible to claim for a Section 110 tax credits refund under the new STS, there are several benefits of moving forward from imputation tax system to single tier tax system:

• The company is able to reduce administration cost as there is no need to maintain Section 108 balances anymore.
• Individual tax payer no need to bother about dividend income and Section 110 declaration for dividends received under STS.
• High income bracket individuals need not pay tax on the differential between his marginal tax rate and the company tax rate.
• Companies with capital gains and non taxable accounting profits are able to declare dividends without any constraint. This might bring higher dividend yields to shareholders.
• Companies with huge Section 108 balances may pay special dividends during the transitional period.

Meanwhile, if you still receive dividend warrant that shows a gross dividend amount, tax deducted from the dividend and net dividend paid out, it means that the company has opted to continue using its section 108 tax credits balance to pay franked dividends to shareholders under the transitional period before 2014. And the normal procedure of declaring gross dividend income and deducting back the Section 110 tax credits in your income tax assessment BE/B Form still applicable.

My Takada ISB-889 Air Master 4-in-1 air cooler

The weather during this Chinese New Year time is freaking hot, and it is so uncomfortable to stay indoor without air-cond, not to mention sleeping in the hot night with only ceiling fan blowing at the maximum speed.

Therefore, I decided to hunt for an air cooler to be used in my hometown.

There are 2 brands of air cooler selling at Tesco for RM2xx, namely Takada and Global, but it seems that others have also hunted for the same thing like me, and they've run out of stock.

Finally, managed to buy a Takada ISB-889 Air Master 4-in-1 air cooler at the cost of RM3xx in Parkson. The size of this unit is bigger than the air coolers sold in Tesco, with a stronger blower and larger water tank. Functionality wise is the same though.

Its so-called 4-in-1 functions are:

• Cooler - with water and ice box
• Purifier - with its filter and ozone release
• Ionizer - with its oxygen bar releasing negative ion
• Humidifier - damping with water curtain

It comes with 2 ice boxes which need to be refrigerated before use and can last for 4 hours. I purchased an additional larger ice box which can last for 8 hours for night use. One of its beauty is that it consumes very low electricity, at 70W only.

Although not comparable with air-cond, this air cooler functions pretty well in keeping the room cool, and now we can sleep comfortably at night.