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How To Manage Social Media | Content for Reprint

Author: Martie McCabe | Total views: 70 Comments: 0
Word Count: 828 Date:

Website marketing can work wonders for your reputation. It has become essential that you have a successful online promotion strategy in place for your business. Now is the time to get into it. This article will give you help on how you should begin online marketing.

Evaluate your website on a regular basis by asking for constructive feedback. This is very important to your business, as your perception of your prices and your site's appearance might differ from the customer's opinion. Ask peers, family members and your potential clients for feedback. Seek advice and opinions and act on valid opinions and suggestions.

Design an all-inclusive website with an emphasis on fresh, relevant content. Your priority should be to pass as much knowledge as you can to consumers about your products. Don't pad or fluff; stick to stating the essential data that the customer needs to know.

Direct marketing through top social media agencies,can be an effective part of you Website marketing plan. Contact customers by fax, phone, or email and tell them about your specials and services. You may find their contact information in the phone book or online, but it's even better if they have trusted you with their numbers so they will not feel like you are spamming them.

If you want your customers to trust you, back up any claims with actual proof. You can talk a good game about your product, but sharing a video or photo that provides proof that you're selling a solution goes a long way. This illustrates why you need to sell any products you have used if possible.

One important suggestion for marketing on the Internet is to adjust the content, as well as content delivery, to have your customers be under the impression they have complete control. This is an effective marketing strategy. Make it clear from the beginning that participation is voluntary and you will be seen as much more credible.

Making and uploading a viral video and including tags in your video will aid in your internet marketing success. Make sure to link to your site in the video description. This can help boost the number of visitors on your site regularly.

You should include a chat section for customers on your social media website. This will make people feel like they are part of a group, not just a customer. People enjoy being part of groups and clubs so treating them as if they are part of a select group will keep them coming back to your site.

If you issue a news release, it might drum up some internet business. If you have the ability to write press releases which are crisp and have clarity, there are numerous online sources available which will publish and release the material to markets in your niche. You can boost your presence in this way.

Even if you plan to outsource your email marketing, you should know the basic methods behind Internet promotion. You should be able to master the necessary tools in no time. This type of experience will be extremely useful for you throughout the entire life cycle of your products and services.

It is essential that you find the right places to advertise your business online. You can't sell baseball cards to someone that wants to buy old Star Wars toys. People will look for what they need in areas that offer exactly what it is that they are looking for. So, in short, be thoughtful of the places that people interested in your business would be looking online before choosing where to advertise.

Try using words like "simple" and 'easy" in your marketing strategy. People are hesitant to order from sites if the process is too complicated. It is a beneficial way to boost business.

Lure new customers to visit your site by offering them an incentive, such as a free product or service. This makes for savvy Affiliate marketing, because your free product acts as a persuasive advertisement for the materials you're actually trying to sell. You can use your ad campaign to detail your customers about the contest.

Here is a tip for website marketing! Customers should never have to hunt to find what you're selling. This is where you sell the product. The customer should know right away what you're selling on your landing page. If they have to look around on your site for the information they want, they will likely leave more quickly.

Your eyes should be open as to how you can market your business through the internet. There are many different ways you can approach this. You can also learn a lot about how to make this work for your business. By using this advice, you will be successful at Online marketing in no time.

Martie McCabe is an internet marketer.. My articles focuses on developing strategies and tips on how to become a social media specialist. Learn more about promoting your blog with social media articles, by clicking here.

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1: Article Marketing Strategy: Putting Together a "Class Schedule" For Your Article Topics

Businesses go to so much trouble when there is one sure-fire, simple, very inexpensive way to attract new clients to a business: Teach a free class. That is what article marketing is like. Your articles are just like free classes. You teach your target readers something helpful in your article. Your resource box then says, "If you enjoyed this article you can visit my website and apply what you have learned."

2: Why You Need To Build Multiple Streams of Income For Yourself

Being an entrepreneur and earning multiple streams of income is a dream that many have, but in reality it does take some initial hard work to achieve this. Earning multiple streams of income is the wave of the future, and here are some tips and advice for you when you are looking for ways in which to do this for yourself.

3: Understanding Online Business Success

Starting a home based business to earn income online takes a significant amount of time and energy upfront to get things going. Not seeing results immediately can be discouraging and cause people to give up too early. In this article, we look at the process of starting a home based business and working through the frustrations to be there when the sales come flowing in.

4: What is Cyber Marketing And Why It Is So Important For The Success Of Your Website

Cyber marketing has now become an indispensable segment of e-commerce as well as the internet and World Wide Web related topics. Cyber marketing simply refers to a technique of attracting potential customers by advertising your products or services through such means as websites, emails, and banners.

5: The Best Way To Optimise Your Website SEO For Google Panda

If you want your SEO to work you now need to concentrate on appeasing Google Panda, and to do this you need to know what Google Panda's spiders/bots will be looking for. Find out here how to search engine optimise your website for the latest Google Panda algorithm, and achieve the success you deserve.

Source: http://www.content4reprint.com/internet-marketing/how-to-manage-social-media.htm

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৫ এপ্রিল, ২০১৩

Health & Fitness Solutions: Another Benefit of Marijuana: Weight Loss

Could marijuana help in weight loss? A new study has found that obesity rates are lowered by one third in those who smoke marijuana three times weekly.
In a stunning look at the medicinal properties of marijuana use, a study published in the?American Journal of Epidemiology?has found that obesity rates are lowered by roughly one third in those who smoke three times weekly. The research included 52,000 participants, with findings concluding that 22% of those who did not smoke marijuana were obese, compared with just 14% of the regular marijuana smokers. Read more

Source: http://health-fitness-solutions.blogspot.com/2013/04/another-benefit-of-marijuana-weight-loss.html

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Facebook interests could help predict, track and map obesity

Apr. 24, 2013 ? The higher the percentage of people in a city, town or neighborhood with Facebook interests suggesting a healthy, active lifestyle, the lower that area's obesity rate. At the same time, areas with a large percentage of Facebook users with television-related interests tend to have higher rates of obesity. Such are the conclusions of a study by Boston Children's Hospital researchers comparing geotagged Facebook user data with data from national and New York City-focused health surveys.

Together, the conclusions suggest that knowledge of people's online interests within geographic areas may help public health researchers predict, track and map obesity rates down to the neighborhood level, while offering an opportunity to design geotargeted online interventions aimed at reducing obesity rates.

The study team, led by Rumi Chunara, PhD, and John Brownstein, PhD, of Boston Children's Hospital's Informatics Program (CHIP), published their findings on April 24 in PLOS ONE.

The amount of data available from social networks like Facebook makes it possible to efficiently carry out research in cohorts of a size that has until now been impractical. It also allows for deeper research into the impact of the societal environment on conditions like obesity, research that can be challenging because of cost, difficulties in gathering sufficient sample sizes and the slow pace of data analysis and reporting using traditional reporting and surveillance systems.

"Online social networks like Facebook represent a new high-value, low-cost data stream for looking at health at a population level," according to Brownstein, who runs the Computational Epidemiology Group within CHIP. "The tight correlation between Facebook users' interests and obesity data suggest that this kind of social network analysis could help generate real-time estimates of obesity levels in an area, help target public health campaigns that would promote healthy behavior change, and assess the success of those campaigns."

To connect the dots between Facebook interests and obesity, Chunara, Brownstein and their colleagues obtained aggregated Facebook user interest data -- what users post to their timeline, "like" and share with others on Facebook -- from users nationally and just within New York City. They then compared the percentages of users interested in healthy activities or television with data from two telephone-based health surveys: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System-Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trends (BRFSS-SMART), and New York City's EpiQuery Community Health Survey (CHS). Both surveys record geotagged data on body mass index, a reliable measure of obesity.

The comparison revealed close geographic relationships between Facebook interests and obesity rates. For instance, the BRFSS-SMART obesity rates were 12 percent lower in the location in the United States where the highest percentage of Facebook users expressing activity-related interests (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) compared that in the location with the lowest percentage (Kansas City, Mo.-Kan.). Similarly, the obesity rate in the location with the highest percentage of users with television-related interests nationally (Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach, S.C.) was 3.9 percent higher than the location with the lowest percentage (Eugene-Springfield, Ore.).

The same correlation was reflected in the New York City neighborhood data as well, showing that the approach can scale from national- to local-level data. The CHS-reported obesity rate on Coney Island, which had the highest percentage of activity-related interests in the city, was 7.2 percent lower than Southwest Queens, the neighborhood with the lowest percentage. At the same time, the obesity rate in Northeast Bronx, the neighborhood with the highest percentage of television-related interests, was 27.5 percent higher than that in the neighborhood with the lowest percentage (Greenpoint).

"The data show that in places where Facebook users have more activity-related interests, there is a lower prevalence of obesity and overweight," said Chunara, an instructor in Brownstein's group. "They reveal how social media data can augment public health surveillance by giving public health researchers access to population-level information that they can't otherwise get."

The study also bolsters the case for using social media as a means of delivering targeted interventions aimed at reducing rates of obesity and other chronic diseases, as applicable.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Boston Children's Hospital.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Rumi Chunara, Lindsay Bouton, John W. Ayers, John S. Brownstein. Assessing the Online Social Environment for Surveillance of Obesity Prevalence. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (4): e61373 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0061373

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/TNeEtWOw3jM/130424185209.htm

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U.S. government, Fisker grilled over loans to green carmaker

By Ayesha Rascoe and Deepa Seetharaman

(Reuters) - Taxpayer-backed funds kept flowing to electric carmaker Fisker Automotive months after the company failed to meet key production benchmarks, lawmakers said at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee cited Department of Energy documents as showing Fisker got $32 million in payments, even after it failed to launch its Karma vehicle in February of 2011.

They spent hours quizzing current and former Fisker executives and an Energy Department official over what the lawmakers termed the government's "bad bet" on the fledgling luxury car-maker, and questioned whether the company received special treatment that put taxpayer dollars at risk.

The committee hearing focused on the DOE's decision in 2009 to grant the company a $529 million loan only to see it veer toward bankruptcy - a chain of events with echoes of Solyndra, the government-backed solar manufacturer that went out of business in 2011.

"The government is a very poor venture capitalist," said Patrick McHenry, a Republican from North Carolina.

Fisker's troubles are the latest in a string of green automotive technology flops, including last year's bankruptcy of its lithium-ion battery supplier, A123 Systems. Forecasts in 2009 for sales of hybrid and electric vehicles far outstripped subsequent demand.

Henrik Fisker, founder and former CEO, said the company, which has not built a vehicle since July, can still bounce back and repay nearly $200 million in government loans if is able to find the right "financial and strategic resources."

Testifying about his eponymous company, the Danish-born Fisker, who was forced to resign as chairman in March, blamed problems with its parts suppliers, delays in regulatory approval and recalls of its flagship Karma plug-in hybrid sports car for the company's struggles.

The automaker verges on collapse. Among the questions still outstanding is whether Fisker's prospects were ever strong enough to warrant the DOE's backing, which helped trigger a flood of private financing for Fisker.

"After resolving initial launch challenges, the cars perform well and customers love them," Fisker asserted.

Fisker's failure to make a payment on the DOE loan on Monday was the latest of its troubles. In recent weeks, Fisker has fired 75 percent of its workforce and hired bankruptcy advisers.

"The Obama Administration owes the American taxpayer an explanation as to why this bad loan was made in the first place, and what they are going to do to minimize the loss that taxpayers face," said Ohio Republican Jim Jordan, chairman of the subcommittee holding Wednesday's hearing.

DOE BACKING BOOSTED FISKER

The DOE's early backing helped put Fisker, and its $100,000-plus Karma plug-in hybrid sports car, on the map. With government backing in hand, Fisker has gone on to raise $1.2 billion in private funds to date, according to SEC filings.

The 2009 loan signaled that the DOE had done a rigorous review of the project, said Salo Zelermyer, a senior counsel at the DOE under the Bush administration, who also helped create the auto loan program. The loan program was funded in late 2008.

"It's fair to say the projects the DOE chose to proceed with were clearly given an added credibility with folks on the outside," said Zelermyer, now a senior counsel at Bracewell and Giuliani in Washington.

Fisker tapped $192 million of its $529 million before the DOE quietly decided to freeze Fisker's credit line in June 2011.

Neither the DOE nor Fisker publicly disclosed that decision until early 2012. Lawyers and a DOE official said the department was not obligated to divulge the decision.

In the confidential "information statement" sent to shareholders in December 2011 and obtained by Reuters, Fisker said it "will not meet certain financial covenants and project milestones" required in the DOE agreement, including earnings, net worth and certain financial ratio targets.

Lawmakers raised questions about the relationship between the DOE and Fisker, which has been strained in recent months, people familiar with the matter have said.

Republicans said Fisker received loans despite its junk bond rating and unproven track record.

The terms of Fisker's pact with the DOE were enough to put off potential suitors, including Chinese automaker Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd. The conditions included an obligation to restore capacity and jobs at the company's Delaware plant according to a schedule imposed by the U.S. government.

Energy Department officials defended the auto loan program, saying it helped to bring the industry from the brink of collapse during a severe economic downturn. Mainstream carmakers like GM and Chrysler were key beneficiaries, and their revival has been widely acclaimed.

Nicholas Whitcombe, former head of the auto loan program, said the DOE remains open to providing additional aid to the auto industry.

Since the high profile failure of Solyndra, a topic brought up regularly by Republicans during President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election campaign, the Obama administration has become far more risk averse when doling out loan payments.

Solyndra, the first loan recipient and first major failure for the department's portfolio, received more than $527 million of its $535 million loan before filing for bankruptcy.

(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman and Paul Lienert in Detroit, Ayesha Rascoe in Washington and Nichola Groom in Los Angeles; Editing by Ros Krasny, Matthew Lewis, Leslie Gevirtz and Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/floundering-fisker-faces-grilling-over-government-loan-181203884.html

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Microscopic dust particles found in underground railways may pose health risk

Microscopic dust particles found in underground railways may pose health risk [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 24-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Becky Attwood
r.attwood@soton.ac.uk
44-023-805-95457
University of Southampton

New research from the University of Southampton has found that working or travelling on an underground railway for a sustained period of time could have health implications.

Previously published work suggests that working in environments such as steel mills or welding plants, which are rich in airborne metals, like iron, copper and nickel, can have damaging effects on health. However, little research has been done on the effects of working in an underground railway environment a similarly metal-rich environment and results of studies that have been conducted are often inconclusive.

New research published in Environmental Science and Technology shows that the small dust particles in the air in an underground railway is quite different to the dust that you breathe in every day and that could have health implications.

Matt Loxham, PhD student at the University of Southampton, explains: "We studied the ultrafine dust (or particulate matter) found in an underground station in Europe. Typically, ultrafine dust is composed of inert matter that does not pose much of a risk in terms of its chemical composition. However, in the underground station we studied, the ultrafine dust was at least as rich in metals as the larger dust particles and therefore, taken together with their increased surface area to volume ratio, it is of potential significance in understanding the risks of working and travelling in the underground. These tiny dust particles have the potential to penetrate the lungs and the body more easily, posing a risk to someone's health."

While coarse dust is generally deposited in the conducting airways of the body, for example nasal passages and bronchi; and the fine dust generally can reach the bronchioles (smaller airways), it is almost exclusively the ultrafine dust which is able to reach the deepest areas of the lungs, into the alveoli, where oxygen enters the blood and waste gases leave, to be exhaled. There is evidence that this ultrafine dust may be able to evade the protective barrier lining the airways (the epithelium), and enter underlying tissue and the circulation, meaning that the toxicity of ultrafine particles may not be limited to the airways but may involve the cardiovascular system, liver, brain, and kidneys.

Mr Loxham adds: "Underground rail travel is used by great numbers of people in large cities all over the world, for example, almost 1.2 billion journeys are made per year on the London Underground. The high level of mechanical activity in underground railways, along with very high temperatures is key in the generation of this metal-rich dust, and the number of people likely to be exposed means that more studies into the effects of particulate matter in the underground railway environment are needed, as well as examining how the levels of dust and duration of exposure might translate to effects on health."

The Southampton team, which included the Geochemistry Group at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton and the Inhalation Toxicology Group at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in Bilthoven, initially collected airborne dust from a mainline underground station underneath an airport in Europe. The metal content of the dust was analysed and a detailed elemental profile was established for each dust sample. These profiles were then compared to profiles from other dusts analysed at the same time, for example dust from wood-burning stoves and a heavily-trafficked road tunnel, showing that underground particles were very rich in metals, especially iron and copper. The shapes of individual particles were examined and gave clues as to how the particles were generated. The team then showed that the dust was capable of generating reactive molecules which are fundamental to their toxic effects, and that this was dependent on the metal content of the particles and, importantly, occurred to a greater extent as the size of the individual particles decreased. Further work is now being performed to examine the effects of underground dust on airway cells in more detail and the potential mechanisms by which cells may be able to protect themselves.

###

The study was funded through the Integrative Toxicology Training Partnership studentship provided by the Medical Research Council UK.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Microscopic dust particles found in underground railways may pose health risk [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 24-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share Share ]

Contact: Becky Attwood
r.attwood@soton.ac.uk
44-023-805-95457
University of Southampton

New research from the University of Southampton has found that working or travelling on an underground railway for a sustained period of time could have health implications.

Previously published work suggests that working in environments such as steel mills or welding plants, which are rich in airborne metals, like iron, copper and nickel, can have damaging effects on health. However, little research has been done on the effects of working in an underground railway environment a similarly metal-rich environment and results of studies that have been conducted are often inconclusive.

New research published in Environmental Science and Technology shows that the small dust particles in the air in an underground railway is quite different to the dust that you breathe in every day and that could have health implications.

Matt Loxham, PhD student at the University of Southampton, explains: "We studied the ultrafine dust (or particulate matter) found in an underground station in Europe. Typically, ultrafine dust is composed of inert matter that does not pose much of a risk in terms of its chemical composition. However, in the underground station we studied, the ultrafine dust was at least as rich in metals as the larger dust particles and therefore, taken together with their increased surface area to volume ratio, it is of potential significance in understanding the risks of working and travelling in the underground. These tiny dust particles have the potential to penetrate the lungs and the body more easily, posing a risk to someone's health."

While coarse dust is generally deposited in the conducting airways of the body, for example nasal passages and bronchi; and the fine dust generally can reach the bronchioles (smaller airways), it is almost exclusively the ultrafine dust which is able to reach the deepest areas of the lungs, into the alveoli, where oxygen enters the blood and waste gases leave, to be exhaled. There is evidence that this ultrafine dust may be able to evade the protective barrier lining the airways (the epithelium), and enter underlying tissue and the circulation, meaning that the toxicity of ultrafine particles may not be limited to the airways but may involve the cardiovascular system, liver, brain, and kidneys.

Mr Loxham adds: "Underground rail travel is used by great numbers of people in large cities all over the world, for example, almost 1.2 billion journeys are made per year on the London Underground. The high level of mechanical activity in underground railways, along with very high temperatures is key in the generation of this metal-rich dust, and the number of people likely to be exposed means that more studies into the effects of particulate matter in the underground railway environment are needed, as well as examining how the levels of dust and duration of exposure might translate to effects on health."

The Southampton team, which included the Geochemistry Group at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton and the Inhalation Toxicology Group at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in Bilthoven, initially collected airborne dust from a mainline underground station underneath an airport in Europe. The metal content of the dust was analysed and a detailed elemental profile was established for each dust sample. These profiles were then compared to profiles from other dusts analysed at the same time, for example dust from wood-burning stoves and a heavily-trafficked road tunnel, showing that underground particles were very rich in metals, especially iron and copper. The shapes of individual particles were examined and gave clues as to how the particles were generated. The team then showed that the dust was capable of generating reactive molecules which are fundamental to their toxic effects, and that this was dependent on the metal content of the particles and, importantly, occurred to a greater extent as the size of the individual particles decreased. Further work is now being performed to examine the effects of underground dust on airway cells in more detail and the potential mechanisms by which cells may be able to protect themselves.

###

The study was funded through the Integrative Toxicology Training Partnership studentship provided by the Medical Research Council UK.


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/uos-mdp042413.php

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Facebook Home to hit select phones on April 12th

Facebook Home to hit select phones on April 12th

Facebook hasn't made Home official just yet, but we can tell you one thing for certain -- it'll be arriving on April 12th. It won't be available on all Android devices that day, broader availability should be coming in the future. On day one it will show up as a download for select devices, which will likely include the rumored HTC First that we anticipate will make its grand debut shortly. As expected there will be no "Facebook Phone" or even a Facebook OS. Home is an app that will "transform your Android phone into a great social phone" according to the company. The roll out is starting with "just a few phones," but those lucky device owners will be able to enjoy Facebook's mobile vision starting next week.

Zuck and the gang mentioned that a version of Home for tablets will launch along with the smartphone app, but won't arrive at launch. The only word on a slate app date so far is that it'll come "later this year."

Developing...

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/TELYse3knco/

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Is Lance Armstrong's swimming career sunk, too?

Lance Armstrong has been branching out since the doping controversy that got him expelled from competitive cycling, but his tarnished legacy may drown his competitive swimming ambitions.

By Jim Vertuno,?Associated Press / April 4, 2013

Kicked out of the pool? Lance Armstrong, seen here swimming in a half triathalon last October, just withdrew from the Masters South Central Zone Swimming Championships at the University of Texas, where he was scheduled to swim three distance events this weekend.

Steve Ruark / AP / File

Enlarge

Lance Armstrong's doping past got him kicked out of the pool.

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Armstrong was forced to withdraw Thursday from the Masters South Central Zone Championships this weekend after swimming's international federation raised objections to his participation.

Armstrong has been banned for life from sanctioned Olympic sport competition by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency because of his performance-enhancing drug use during his professional cycling career. He had entered three distance events for the meet at the University of Texas and had been cleared by U.S. Masters Swimming officials to compete.

FINA stepped in with a letter to U.S. Masters Swimming officials, saying that because the organization falls under the FINA umbrella as a sanctioning body, it must recognize the World Anti-Doping Code and bar Armstrong from competition.

Armstrong spokesman Mark Higgins said Armstrong contacted U.S Masters Swimming weeks ago about racing. Armstrong, who is 41, was among the top qualifiers in the 40-44 age group in the 500, 1,000 and 1,650-yard freestyle events.

"As of (Wednesday) evening, we were told he was welcome," Higgins said in an email to The Associated Press. "That position changed and we were told he could not compete, so Lance will not be swimming."

U.S. Masters Swimming does not drug test. Before FINA stepped in, masters swimming executive director Rob Butcher had said Armstrong could compete because the organization was trying to promote its mission of encouraging adults to swim.

"His interest was around fitness and training. In light of FINA and the other political stuff, he will not be swimming," Butcher said Thursday.

FINA sent its letter after media reports surfaced Wednesday that Armstrong would compete.

"We're expecting them to apply the rules," FINA executive director Cornel Marculescu told the AP. A USADA spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment.

Armstrong won the Tour de France from 1999-2005 and denied doping for years until USADA issued a massive report in 2012 detailing drug use by Armstrong and his U.S. Postal Service teams.

In January, Armstrong said during an interview with Oprah Winfrey that he used steroids, blood boosters and other banned performance-enhancing drugs and methods during his career. Armstrong also was removed from the board of the Livestrong cancer foundation he formed in 1997 after being diagnosed with testicular cancer that had spread to his lungs and brain.

Armstrong had been pursuing a post-cycling career in triathlons before he was banned by USADA.

AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf contributed to this report from Rome.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/GW-mMkVVFdc/Is-Lance-Armstrong-s-swimming-career-sunk-too

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