The tires on your car are one of the most important (and under-appreciated) safety features on your vehicle. A good set of tires can not only keep you safe, but also provide a smooth ride, enhance fuel mileage, and help keep your vehicle in good repair. Unfortunately, buying tires is not the easiest thing in the world, especially since it is something most people only do once every few years.

How to Buy Car Tires

There are so many different types of tires and one of the most important things to do before going to the tire store is to understand your tire needs. Think about how often you drive, in what type of weather you usually drive, speeds, on road or off road, etc. This article will help you better navigate the tire buying world, understand your tire needs, and decipher the multitude of codes found on the sidewalls of most tires.

Do you need new car tires?

If you go to the service shop for regular oil changes or other maintenance, then your mechanic will likely let you know when you are due for a tire change. But it’s important that you can recognize basic signs as well – just in case something happens between regular maintenance trips. There are two quick tests you can do to see if you need new tires: the penny test and the wear bar test.

Penny test. Take a penny and insert it into the tire tread. If part of President Lincoln’s head is covered, then your tires probably have enough wear left to be street legal (usually more than 1/16th of an inch). If all of his head can be seen, then you probably need new tires. Be sure to check the inner, middle and outer threads for uneven wear.

Wear bars. Many tires have wear bars in them that will show when the tread gets too low. If these are visible on your tires, then you should get new tires.

Other signs you need new tires. You will need new tires if you see breaks, tears, slashes, or dry rot in the sidewall, if your tire is punctured and cannot be repaired, or if your tires experience uneven wear (which may also be a sign of improper balancing, bad shocks, or other maintenance problems).

All season vs. Snow Tires

If you live in a temperate climate, then all-season (or all-weather) tires are most likely the best solution for your vehicle. However, all-weather tires dont grip as well on snow and ice, so you may consider purchasing snow tires if you live in an area that receives heavy snow in the winter. Snow tires are usually made with a different rubber compound that retains better flexibility in the winter and grips the road better than all-season tires, which may become hard and slick in cold weather and more likely to lose traction. If you live in a cold climate with frequent or heavy snow and ice, then it’s a great idea to invest in a set of snow tires.

It’s important to note that Anti-lock brake systems (ABS), electronic traction control, electronic four wheel drive, and other features aren’t a substitute for proper tires. These systems can be nice, but you still need to have the proper equipment on your vehicle.

Understanding Tire Ratings and Sizes

Tire ratings can be difficult to understand if you don’t know how tires are rated. What the heck is a P275/75/R15 tire anyway?

The following is a synopsis of the codes used for rating tires and how you can compare them across brads and styles.

• Tire Type. Different cars require different types of tires. P = a passenger tire, LT = light truck, etc.
• Tire Width. The width of your tires can affect traction, fuel efficiency, handling, and other factors. Width is expressed in millimeters; there are approximately 25.4 millimeters in an inch. So this example is 10.8 inches wide.
• Aspect Ratio. The aspect ratio refers to the height of the tire from the mount to the tread, expressed as a ratio to the tire width. In this example, the tire height is 75% of the width.
• Construction. The type of construction of your tire is important. R = radial construction, which is reinforced for better strength and longevity.
• Rim Diameter. The diameter refers to the wheel size. You will need to purchase tires that have the exact tire diameter as your wheel. In this example 15 = 15 inch diameter tires.

Based on this information, a P275/75/R15 tire is a Passenger tire that is 275 millimeters wide, has an aspect ratio of 75, is made of radial construction, and fits a 15 inch wheel.

What about speed ratings? Tires do have speed ratings, the which start at around 100mph and go up from there. For most day to day driving, the speed rating shouldn’t be much of an issue as the speed limits don’t go above 70-75mph in most places. If you have a sports car, or other needs then ask the dealer for more information.

Here are more ratings and where they can be found on the tire:

Uniform Tire Quality Grading

Another important set of numbers to look at is the Uniform Tire Quality Grading (UTQG) rating which is located on the inner sidewall of the tire. This is a standardized testing system to rate the relative performance in the areas of treadwear, traction, and temperature resistance. These ratings are based on control tests and requirements set by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

These ratings can help you understand how the tires you are considering purchasing compare to a control tire regarding treadwear (how long the tires should last under normal driving circumstances), traction (tested based on stopping on different surfaces), and temperature resistance (heat dissipation, buildup, etc.).

Tire Buying Tips

Balancing quality and price. You dont want to buy the cheapest tires on the floor because a lot of times you get what you pay for and youll find replacement tires will be needed before youre ready. At the same time, purchasing the most expensive tires probably isn’t necessary for most people.

Size and style. Be sure to purchase tires that are the right size and style for your vehicle. The wrong size tires can cause problems for your vehicle down the road and will lead to more expensive repairs in the future.

Where should you buy car tires?

One consideration many people don’t think about is where they should purchase their tires. All things being equal, I would buy tires from a national chain.

I like to shop locally, but this is one situation where buying from a national chain can save you a lot of money and heartache in the future. Why? Because most tires come with a warranty and you may not be able to get your warranty serviced if you are several hundred miles from the local store that sold you the tire. But it is easy to find a national chain such as Firestone, Wal-Mart, Sears, etc.

If you prefer shopping at your local store, then consider a compromise, such as buying your tires from an online company such as TireRack.com where you can get some great savings on tires, especially if you use TireRack coupon codes. The way it works with TireRack is that you purchase your tires online, and they ship them to your local store. Since Tire Rack can’t service warranties in person, they contract that out to authorized service locations. As long as your local shop is an authorized location, you can get your tires serviced there, as well as at any authorized service location when you are away from home. It’s the closest thing to a portable warranty as you will get anywhere else.

~$~

This article written by Ryan Guina. Ryan is the founder and editor of this site. He is a writer, small business owner, entrepreneur, and professional in the corporate world. He served over 6 years in the USAF and also writes about military money topics at Military Finance Network.

All content copyright Cash Money Life.

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INVESTOR RELATIONS professionals at hundreds of companies are exposing their firms to potential compliance risks because they have failed to play an active role in monitoring, managing and engaging in their companies activities on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Our research of the social media activities of almost 700 public companies has identified widespread instances of companies putting themselves at risk through practices they would almost never consider doing on their corporate websites.

These compliance issues are arising mostly because investor relations departments have taken a hands-off approach to their companies social media activities, even though investors and analysts are increasingly using these channels to keep informed about their holdings.

Tweets like this one fron an official company account are extremely risky.

In the absence of dedicated investor relations accounts on social networks, investors are turning to corporate accounts managed by inexperienced employees who are unfamiliar with the complex rules, laws and expectations that govern communications to investors.

The result is a virtual free-for-all where companies as diverse as blue-chip brand names to obscure penny stocks are behaving as if the social web is beyond the reach of securities laws.

But guidance from securities regulators is clear. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) says that all communications made by or on behalf of a company are subject to the antifraud provisions of the federal securities laws, including on Twitter and Facebook.

And the SEC also advises companies to establish controls and procedures, and to monitor company activities on the web, something that many IR departments are obviously not doing.

Linking to articles in which your stock is recommended implies endorsement of the content. Will the company be equally as willing to link to articles that say the stock is a dud?

Our research of corporate social media has identified three key compliance concerns:

• Widespread linking to and republication of third-party content, including select sell-side analyst stock targets without adequate disclaimers or explanatory language;
• Almost universal inconsistent use of disclaimers for forward-looking statements and non-GAAP financial measures; and,
• Poor synchronization of information distribution, leading to investors who follow company accounts on social networks receiving information up to several hours after its release to other channels.

To be clear, a knee-jerk prohibition against non-IR staff covering investor-related information is not an option because doing so will make companies social media activities less relevant and useful to investors.

And while adopting social media policies and implement training programs for web community managers on disclosure laws should be standard practice, they are insufficient because managing public communications in dynamic environments such as social networks is a challenge even for experienced investor relations professionals.

To help protect their companies against unnecessary risks, investor relations departments must now actively participate in their companies social media programs or establish their own IR accounts on social networks.

The same information is not posted on the company's website, so why is it fine to tweet?

3rd-party content risks

A surprising number of companies are using their Twitter and Facebook accounts to provide links to third-party content about their financial performance and prospects for their stocks. In some cases, companies are posting headlines and links to highlights from sell-side analyst research, including specific stock price targets.

Philosophically, I dont have a problem with companies providing access to useful third-party information. Making it easier for retail investors to access a range of perspectives on a company gives them more information and insight on which to base their decisions. Better informed investors are good for capital markets and for investor protection.

But there are well-established guidelines for companies to follow when they decide to refer investors to third-party commentary and information. Its one of the trickier areas of IR communications on the web. Investors must be made aware of the companys level of involvement in the creation of the third-party content, and you should explain why youre directing them to it. And companies must be prepared to provide both positive and negative content.

Strabag SE show how to properly handle analyst recommendations. Both positive and negative ratings are tweeted, while the same information is also posted on the company's website.

Social media also introduces new types of implied or explicit endorsement for third-party content. On Facebook, for example, liking a user comment or post could be construed as the company endorsing its statements. Meanwhile, the common activity of re-tweeting (forwarding) messages on Twitter could also be construed as the company endorsing a particular message.

Prohibiting links, likes and retweets is not a solution because all of these activities are vital components of successful social media engagement. IR department representatives have to be actively involved in monitoring and engaging in social media. And they need to understand how social networks function so that they can better assess their companies potential liability on an instance-specific basis.

Missing disclaimers

I have previously written at length about the challenge of using Twitter for IR where there is no room in the 140-character limit for disclaimers to accompany messages. But even on Facebook, where disclaimers can be provided with some forethought, companies typically neglect to provide them.

Frequently, company provided guidance, including point- or range-based estimates, and forward-looking statements about managements future expectations are provided on company social media accounts without accompanying cautionary language. Meanwhile, reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures are not being provided or linked to.

While Ive never thought that disclaimers are useful to investors, the fact is they are a necessary evil and vital protections for companies.

This posting on AGCO's official Facebook page plugs the company's stock and endorses $45 price target.

Poor synchronization of important news

When investors and others are invited on a corporate website to follow the company on a social network, they have an expectation that the company will keep them informed in a timely manner of important news. In some cases, companies explicitly or implicitly position their social network accounts as channels through which investors can receive timely updates.

However, many companies arent meeting their end of the bargain. Often, important news like earnings announcements is posted to company Facebook pages and Twitter streams long after it has been made available through other channels, such as PR wires or postings on the companys website. In some cases, important news isnt mentioned at all.

For a typical example, see the post I wrote in January on our Bits blog about Yahoo!s Q4 2009 earnings announcement. In that case, Yahoo! failed to inform its followers on Twitter that the companys results had been published for more than an hour after they had been posted. And when they eventually did tweet the information, they chose to link to a glowing third-party account of the results rather than to the companys release.

This sloppiness is setting companies up for trouble. If a company decides to start using Facebook and Twitter for its news, then it has an obligation to make sure that news is distributed to those channels in a timely manner.

Tweets like this one are common. However, sell ratings or downgrades are rarely treated the same way.

Regulations are no excuse to ignore social media & compliance

Ironically, investor relations departments often invoke regulatory burdens as the main reason that they avoid getting involved in, or even monitoring, their companies social media activities. But that is mostly little more than a convenient cover for IR departments aversion to engaging with main street retail investors, financial advisors and smaller institutions.

Regulation FD, which governs selective disclosure, is most often cited as a reason for IR departments to avoid social media. But the fact is, social media is mostly public so any material non-public information that is inadvertently disclosed on Facebook or Twitter is much less non-public than the same information disclosed in a private setting, such as in a phone call with an analyst or in a private group or one-on-one meeting with management. Companies can also take steps to ensure that their activities on one network are syndicated to followers on other networks and to their corporate websites.

By failing to get involved in their companies social media activities — and using regulation as a convenient cover — investor relations departments have left their companies exposed to regulatory sanction and shareholder litigation.

In short, they are not doing the jobs they were hired to do.

Backlinks from Google plays a big role when we think of getting high rankings for our blog in search engines especially Google or we want to get high page rank for our blogs. The same thing applies to websites as well. So to gain maximum benefit from your backlinking effort, try to get backlinks from high page rank websites and dont forget to include your main keyword that you want to get high rankings for as part of your anchor text (text linking to your website). Suppose, I want to bring SFM blog top rankings for making money online keyword on Google, so I would focus on getting links for my blog home page from high PR blogs using the making money online keyword (or using some related keywords on some occasions).

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Google backlinks checker

Now lets talk about how to check backlinks for a website on Google. I know of two ways to check backlinks in Google.

Using link command

This method can be used to check backlinks for any website available on internet. So to check backlinks for Scopeformoney.com, I have to go to google.com and type:
link:http://www.scopeformoney.com

So this way, we can get backlinks for any website in Google. If you want to check your website backlinks on Google, just replace my blog URL with your blog or website URL. The same command applies for internal pages as well. When I tried link command for SFM blog, Google is showing 236 results against my blog. So Google is showing 236 backlinks to SFM. The only downside to this method is that, it does not include all links counted by Google; you can take it as a sample of kind of websites linking to a particular domain.

Using Google Webmaster Tools

This method will show you total backlinks to your website home page and internal pages considered by Google. But the only downside to this method is that, you can use this method to check backlinks for a website or blog on Google which you own. So to check backlinks, login into webmasters tool account, click on the website you want to check backlinks in Google. Under Your site on the web menu, click on Links to your site, here you will see total link count, website urls linking to your website home page and internal pages as shown below:

Google webmaster tool is showing 2,638 backlinks to ScopeforMoney.com home page. This way, we can check backlinks to our website home page and internal pages and which URLs are actually linking to our website pages. Here is the screenshot of the websites that are linking to SFM home as per Google Webmaster tool:

And if dont have created a Google webmaster tool account for your website, create now which will take few minutes only to activate.

Checking yahoo backlinks

Another thing you can do is use Yahoo Site Explorer and check any website link there. But the only downside to this method is that, Yahoo consider all links whether they are nofollow or dofollow. But in Google case, only dofollow links are considered as backlinks for a website in general. So checking links for a website can create some kind of confusion on some occasions.

Do you know any other way to check Google Backlinks for a website with details like URLs list that are linking to your website, please share in the comments section below.

Google Backlinks for SFM

Now lets talk about backlinks for ScopeForMoney blog from Google. Google webmaster tool is showing 2,638 links against SFM. Generally getting links from websites having Good page rank in your niche will help in generating for seo and Google friendly links. So how I generate this amount of links for my make money online blog, lets share it with you:

Links in blogroll

I created a list of high PR and popular blogs that deals with money making, seo, affiliate marketing, blogging, and social media kind of topics. I send invitations to them and ask them if they are interested in doing blogroll exchange with my blog. Once some of them are ready for blogroll link sharing, its just about adding links for each other on our blogs in blogroll, footer section or within content if we are aiming at getting links within posts. Blogroll gives good amount of links to my blog because links in blogroll generally remains available throughout the website.

Guest Posting

Writing guest posts on other blogs has also given good amount of links from Google to my blog. I so far have written 30-35 guest posts on other blogs in my niche. If you also interested in getting some good backlinks for your blog in Google, dont forget to submit your guest post to 50 blogs that allows guest blogging.

Ezine Publishing

I have been able to generate some quick backlinks for my blog in Google by submitting some articles on Ezine publishing directories. I used ti submit my articles to EzineArticles, GoArticles, ArticleBase, ArticleDashboard and AmericanChronicle.com. I keep 2-3 backlinks to my blog home page and internal pages in the signature section while submitting my articles to these Ezine publishing websites.

Discussion Forums

Working as an expert in discussion forums related to my blog niche has also helped me a lot. I have been very active on DPForum, SitePoint, WebProWorld and V7N discussion forums.

Blog Commenting

Commenting on other blogs solves lots of my motives like bringing traffic to my blog, brand building, getting more comments on my blog and most importantly getting links for my blogs. I have created a list of Dofollow blogs where our links will be actually counted and thus will help us in getting higher search engine rankings and page rank for our blogs. But when you leave comments on other blogs, never try to spam them, give some valuable feedback, suggestion or leave your questions if you have any about the topic being covered.

Internal linking

Linking pages within a website also plays a big role for building lots of authority links and rankings on Google. So I used to link to my other posts whenever they fix in naturally. Another thing I have done is added a Related Post plugin on SFM, I have some related posts to a post if some related posts exists. This way as well, I have been able to interlink my blog pages.

Using Social Bookmarking Networks

I used to submit some of posts from my blog on top Social Bookmarking websites where Im currently active. Submitting my content on these networks gives me some instant traffic and backlinks for my blog pages in search engines including Google.

Using Blog Directories

When I started SFM blog, I submitted it to lots of blog directories. We have to enter our blog details like Title, URL, Description, Keywords etc with most of blog directories. I have created a list of Top 10 Blog Directories, where you can submit your blog for building some quality backlinks for your blog.

These were some of ways that really works for me in generating lots of backlinks in Google. Would you be interested in sharing how you are building backlinks for your blog or website, just share in the comments section below?

Related posts:

1. Checking Google Backlinks in Yahoo
2. Boost backlinks by Sponsoring theme
3. Google webmaster tool benefits for webmasters