Scrabble is one of the most popular board games around. It’s a word game in which two to four players use individual lettered tiles to form words on a game board marked with a 15×15 grid. The lettered tiles are each worth a certain number of points, and the points are added up to get the player’s score for that round. There are also squares on the board that double or triple the points of the tile placed there.The game was invented by an architect, Alfred Mosher Butts, in 1938. He wanted to make a new game, and analyzed what kinds of games were available. He discovered they fell pretty much into three categories: number games, such as bingo, dice;and dominoes;
move games, such as chess and checkers; and
word games, such as anagrams. Butts decided to make a game combining chance and skill, so he used features of crossword puzzles and anagrams to make his game.To make his new game, he combined parts of doing anagrams and partly how you work a crossword puzzle. To decide on letter distribution, Butts studied the front page of The New York Times and did painstaking calculations of letter frequency. His basic cryptographic analysis of English, along with the original tile distribution he worked out to match the letter frequency continue to be valid after all these years.His first word game was called Lexiko. Later he decided to make a variation with the board and crossword-type game play and named it “Criss-Crosswords”. It featured a game board made of architectural blueprint paper glued onto an old chess board.Although Butts made a few sets of the game himself, he didn’t have much luck selling the game, and no major game manufacturer would buy his invention. Later, around 1948, he met James Brunot. He owned one of the original Criss-Crosswords games, and bought the rights to manufacture the game from Butts in exchange for a royalty on the sale of the games. Although he left most of the game the same, he did change the rules to make it easier to play. He also slightly rearranged the premium squares and changed the name to Scrabble.The game was not an instant success. Butts and his family made 2,400 sets of the game that first year, and lost money doing it. However, the game steadily grew in popularity. Then in the early 1950s, the president of Macy’s tried the game while on vacation and liked it so much, he ordered it to sell in his store. That was the tipping point, and within a year, Scrabble was so popular the games were being rationed to stores around the country.As Scrabble grew in popularity, it came to the point Brunot could no longer meet the demand, so he sold the manufacturing rights to Long Island-based Selchow and Righter (one of the manufacturers who, like Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley Company, had previously rejected the game). Selchow & Righter bought the trademark to the game in 1972.In 1986, Selchow and Righter sold the game to Coleco, who soon after went bankrupt. The company’s assets, including Scrabble and Parcheesi, were purchased by Hasbro.Today Scrabble is a trademark of Hasbro, Inc. in the United States and Canada and of Mattel elsewhere. This game is so popular, it is sold in 121 countries in 29 different language versions. One hundred and fifty million sets have been sold worldwide, and sets are found in one out of every three American homes. It comes in a Standard, Deluxe and Junior edition, plus a travel edition. There is a Spanish and a French version. It can be played on computers, Sony PSP, and the Nintendo DS.You can play Scrabble just about anywhere with one of the many versions. Don’t be left out, join the fun and play Scrabble!

Here are the 3 main steps to start a successful online business. When you go to start a successful online business you want to remember one thing a online business is a business so a lot of the same principles will apply to your online business as they would to any other business. Knowing that let’s get started on the 3 steps to start a successful online business.Step # 1 to start a successful online is to know your business model. What is your internet business going to be about? Are you going to be selling your own product or someone else’s product? If you’re selling someone else’s product are you going to do this by developing a relationship with a wholesaler or by becoming an affiliate? Are you going to set up websites that are purely informational where you make money by either selling memberships or by having other people place ads on your website? With so many options to choose from its important that whichever business modal you chose make sure to pick a good niche. When picking a niche you want to make sure it is something that has a decent market for that product but not too much competition. Choosing a good niche is the first step to start a successful online business.Step # 2 to start a successful online business is to get your website up and running. To do this you need to choose a domain name that relates to your niche and the keywords you want to use when marketing it. It’s also important to try to get a dot com they are a lot more memorable. Next you need to choose an internet hosting company and with so many to choose from its important to find one that fits your needs for a good price. I don’t however recommend going with a free one they will place ads on your website which will distract from your business. After choosing a hosting company you will need to put content on your site you could either do this yourself if you know html. You could hire a web designer to do it for you which can cost a lot of money. Or some of hosting companies offer templates making it easier for you to set up your website yourself. Getting your website up and running is the second step to start a successful online business.Step # 3 to start a successful online business it to market your online business. After getting your website set up you need to market your website so people will know how to find you. Sense there are so many ways to market your online business I am not going to go into detail I just want to let you know some of the different options that are out there. You can do pay per click advertising like Google Adwords. You can run ezine ads or write articles like the one you reading now that contain links back to your webpage. You can post on forums, do link shares, create your own eBook and give it away for free the possibilities are endless. In the beginning though it’s important to try different things and see which ones work best for you. Marketing your website is the main step to start a successful online business.Now that you know the 3 steps to start a successful online business I will let you know the most important step which is to take action. No steps can help you start a successful online business if you don’t take action and apply them.Here’s to your success!Ella James