Book Reviews

There are many opportunities available for those of us seeking work from home online income. The sheer amount available can be overwhelming. There are so many that it can be difficult to know where to start. I have gathered together below several areas that offer programs that anyone can use to start their online earnings growing.

1. Micro job sites:

A recent arrival online, these sites allow anyone to post a job they are willing to complete. To find a list of available sites just do a search for "micro job sites." Once you join you can list your job offer, most allow you to offer a great range of services, take a look at what is popular and be inventive. You will get paid a fixed fee for completing the agreed work. Make sure you are aware of the fee the site takes so you know exactly how much you will receive before starting.

2. Data Entry:

There are many opportunities for the speedy keyboard operator. Jobs entering un-formatted data into web forms or documents so that it is usable by the organization employing you. This job is suited to a quick typist who is able to read longhand or typed data, and enter it error free into the required area. Some specialist areas exist such as medical and legal data entry.

This particular area also attracts a lot of scams. If this is the kind of work you decide to seek beware of sites asking for a fee before they provide you with work, and perform all necessary due diligence. Always search for data on the company concerned before you accept work.

3. Proof reading:

If you love reading, and can spot errors in spelling and grammar a mile away, then this may be for you. Reading documents such as books, articles, and website copy, then spotting and correcting any mistakes, is a service many are willing to pay for.

There are websites that specialize in offering this kind of opportunity. It is also a job you could offer to perform on a micro job site. Offering this service on a site like that is also a great way to build a client base.

4. Graphics editing:

Website headers, e-book covers, company logos, for those of us with a skill for creating graphics elements there are many opportunities available. If you have skill using Photoshop then you have a marketable talent. There are many people who need help with these tasks. Again it is another great service to offer on a micro job site.

5. Writing:

There are literally millions of websites, and more are coming online everyday. All of these will need content. If you love writing there are many people who will pay you for this skill. Articles, email series, sales letters, web-pages, everything you see was written by someone.

Writing jobs are probably the easiest to come by, and if you can produce good error free work you will be in demand.

6. Selling online:

This is not so much a work from home online job, but a business. Go around your house and collect up all the stuff you don't need or use, and sell them on an online auction site like eBay. Using stuff you already have means you can get started today. You can make some money, and build a reputation doing this in the early stages. Then you can use the money from your clear-out to buy more stock and build your business. There are endless things you can sell, take a look at the eBay pulse to find the current best sellers. Some stock gathering ideas are companies selling job lots of large retailer returns and overstocks, charity stores, yard sales, etc. There are thousands making a full-time income doing this from home.

7. Affiliate marketing:

If you don't fancy selling direct, you can sell other peoples stuff by becoming an affiliate marketer. Sites like eBay, Amazon, ClickBank, in fact nearly every online retailer will have an affiliate program you can join. This is a massive subject and there is a lot of good affiliate marketing training available. Basically however you are given a special link by the product vendor that tracks any customers you send. If the person you send makes a purchase you receive a payment.

Work from home online income is available in many sectors. Choose your path and stick to it. Start taking action today and you will soon see success.

Are you looking to boost your English language teaching or learning skills to yet ever higher levels? Would you like to stimulate more interest in your language classes or break out of a slump or plateau? Combine the use of a variety of language learning techniques with continually developing technology to spur your successes. Here are some useful ideas and web sites to get you started.

BLOGS

A Web Log or Blog, is not unlike a dairy you keep online. You can write instructions, an essay or post any type of information you want. Graphics and images can be included to illustrate the written material. Sound and audio-visual files can also be placed into a blog for added impact. A teacher can post a reading or assignment where students can comment right online. No papers, no clutter and you can view it almost any time. Blogs are becoming easier to use and access and many sites allow you to set one up for free.

ONLINE VIDEO / AUDIO

Most professionals have an e-mail address or two. Your e-mail can now become a communicative tool between you and the learners. E-mail can now also include the use of images and sound or audio-visual clips, as well as the message text. Learners can send in assignments as attachments or pasted into the body of the e-mail. They can ask questions and receive timely feedback without waiting for the next class session. Teachers can send out instructions, updates or other information to learners individually, or as a group also without having to wait for the next scheduled class session.

No computer? No problem. In many parts of the world e-cafes are so cheap they're actually a viable alternative that students can easily afford. Whole "communities" of young learners are based on hangouts at e-cafes in some cultures. Talk to your students about it. You might be surprised.

USE OF ONLINE RESOURCES for TEACHING / LEARNING

The use of online games, EFL practice sites student and teacher forums, communities and activities has exploded in recent months in many parts of the world. Virtual communities and online reference libraries now enable learners to problem-solve, research a paper or to more quickly complete assignments that formerly would have taken disproportionately large amounts of time to complete. For example, a few sites worth mentioning include:

o http://www.books.google.com/

A web site which offers free access to books that can be read on-screen

o http://www.universia.net.co

This is a site which has a lengthy listing of virtual libraries in almost any genre and connects more than 900 mostly Spanish language libraries

o http://www.redclara.net

This site interconnects an advanced academic network of Latin American libraries

o http://www.lablaa.org

This site allows you access and read a large number of its collected works online and contains exposition pages

o The official Project Gutenburg web site contains an extensive listing of literary works in English which have entered the Public Domain. It's online at: [http://promo.net/pg/]

Try some of these useful ideas and web sites to get you started in combining the use of a variety of language learning techniques with continually developing technology to explode your English language teaching and learning successes. If you need to know more about using these or other new technologies to boost student interest and motivation making your English language teaching more effective, feel free to e-mail me at the address below with questions or comments.

If you are planning to take the GED test, you should take your test prep seriously. As they say, the key to happiness is doing everything- whether big or small undertakings – with your heart. This includes preparing and studying for your GED test which can ultimately give you a better life. But what GED test prep works best? Should you enroll in a local class or look for online GED classes? Maybe you ought to hire a tutor?

These are all viable methods, but if you need to take your budget in consideration, know that there are various no-cost or low-cost GED test prep programs. For one thing, you can study for your test at home, particularly if it is not possible for you to go to a classroom at night to attend local GED classes. Here are your options for a customized GED test prep plan that you can carry out in the comfort of your home.

• Be aware of what the requirements of your state are for taking the GED test. This is the task that you should primarily complete before doing any measures for your test prep. Obtain thorough information about what is required for taking the GED test before starting your study program. This way, you wouldn’t waste your time or money on stuff that don’t matter.
• Look for a reliable study guide. If you go to your local bookstore, you will find numerous GED study guide books published by different companies. You will also realize that each of these books utilize different strategies and approaches for GED test prepping. Browse through every book that you find interesting and read the first few paragraphs and pages. Flip through the chapters, too. Now, which of these books do you respond better to? Choose that which is easily digestible for you because that resource is going to be your GED test prep teacher. Note that these books can be pricey, but you have a more affordable option, and that is to use an online GED study guide. Look for a credible website through its Google ranking and user comments and reviews.
• Enroll in an online GED class. Learning through online GED classes is convenient because you can do it at home or anywhere you can bring your computer to. You can join online GED classes while in the coffee shop, the library or the park. Choose an online GED class website wisely. Some of them are free yet reliable, and there are those that are free and substandard. Again, determine how your chosen site fares in Google and refer to comments and reviews about it.
• Set up your personal study space which is free from distractions. Remember that you’ll be spending most of your study time in this area. It should be your place of test prepping retreat especially if your life is hectic because of your job or your family. Creating a study space that provides privacy for a GED study program that works best for you is indeed essential.
• Learn the details about the content and coverage of the GED test. Do this before beginning your GED study program. What you need to do is to study about the right topics. Focused studying is smart studying where you skip exerting your effort on subjects that don’t matter.
• Know your strong and weak areas by taking practice tests. As you study through online GED classes, it’s time to evaluate what you have learned so far. What you should do at this point is to take practice tests so you can figure out if your test prep had been effective. Are you getting high scores? Or else, which subjects did you find most difficult? Work on these problem areas and decipher how you have improved by taking periodic practice tests.

Reviewing through GED online classes and study guides are a novel and motivating way to prepare for the GED test. The Internet is becoming an indispensable tool in shopping, banking, networking and in distance education, among others, and online resources for GED test prep programs have become effectual and reliable.

Largely all business pros who wanted to have their own businesses have began the same way-reading articles, tips, and advice just like this one. Moreover, they also network with other prosperous people, and they read as many books as they can in a week’s time.

There are innumerable opportunities to make money online. This article includes a short description of three efficient processes to make money online. One of the means to make money online is to advertise your own products or services on an e-commerce web site. In order to do so you require to know what products you are going to sell and how much profit potentiality those products bear.

A different efficient way to make money online is to join an affiliate marketing program. You will be able to offer information on a website or blog free of charge and place advertisements from advertisers on the pages of your site. In exchange you would earn a commission either from the sale of items bought or you will make a small sum of money every time someone clicks on an advert. You may also decide to set up a subscription service if you own an online magazine. Sometimes free magazines links are also sent to people’s e-mails.

You can also make money online [http://www.wezod.com] using it to sell traditional health services or other types of expertise you would provide to people locally. Most businesses nowadays think of a website as a very crucial aspect of starting and running a business. You can learn more about how to create an effective website for whatever business you are in. It is very important that you have one that can be seen by search engines so visitors will be able to find your site.

You can sync iBooks on your iPad with your computer by using iTunes. First you have to open iTunes and connect your iPad to your computer. This allows you to transfer books purchased on iBooks to your iPad. The benefit of doing this is to keep a backup copy of your book on your computer just in case it’s deleted on your iPad.

1) On iTunes select “File”

2) Select “Transfer Purchases from iPad”

One of benefits of storing books on your computer is the increased flash drive space on your iPad. If you are voracious reader and have a large eBook collection, you can save iPad drive space by offloading books you have read onto your desktop hard drive.

1) Click on your iPad name in the left hand panel (i.e. iTunes Source List).

2) Click the “Books” tab in the main iTunes panel.

3) You now have the option of syncing your entire book collection or choosing selected titles. If you only want to off load a few books on the iPad, click the “Selected Book” icon.

Saving other eBooks to your iPad.

Your iPad can also read other types of eBooks. Everything does not have to be purchased through iTunes. iBook uses the ePub format for digital books. Your iPad can read any type of ePub book from various online sellers. Books in ePub format will have the .epub file extension. A great source of eBooks is from Google Books and Project Gutenberg ( http://www.gutenberg.org ). Project Gutenberg is a great source for free, ePub encoded books. Many of the classic works and many non-copyrighted books can be found here.

To add ePub books and.pdf files:

1) In iTunes click “File”

2) Click “Add to library”

3) Once the file is added, hit “sync”

4) iTunes will not load your eBook onto your iPad. You will find those files in the iBook app.

Amazon Kindle & Barnes & Noble Nook

For those who have an Amazon Kindle or Barnes & Noble Nook, you can read those eBooks on your iPad by downloading the free Kindle and Nook readers from the App Store. With the Kindle and Nook, you will find many free books but you will have to pay for most contemporary publications.

You can also read many online books offline by using a an off line page saving app. We suggest getting Instapaper. With Instapaper you can read your favorite webpages offline. The iPad app allows you to save websites and webpages for later reading. One of the major benefits of using Instapaper over other apps of the same variety is Instapaper’s integration with other apps. Because Instapaper has become the most acclaimed app in its category, over 135 other iOS apps support Instapaper. Instapaper does more than just save webpage for future reading. It does it very smoothly and smartly. To optimize for iPad or iPhone screen dimensions, Instapaper removes most of the ads and unnecessary content. Instapaper also allows you to customize the font and the type size of your saved web pages.

(Guerilla) Marketing Your In-print Book

Following are a few of the things I’ve implemented to market some of my own books, which have received top ratings on Amazon and hundreds of “Likes” on my official author page on Facebook.

All it will cost you is some time, some gas, a lot of creativity and perseverance, and less than $200:

$40 – for 1500 business cards on Vistaprint

$75 – for 20 copies of your book (if less than 300 pages) on CreateSpace

$1 – for a roll of tape at the dollar store

$30 – for an ad on Facebook

$50 for postage (to mail 10 copies of a book to 10 different people)

If on a limited budget, get the copies of your book for $75 and 1 box of business cards for $10. Almost anyone can lend you tape, and you can hand-deliver copies of your book instead of mailing them.

Your strategy:

+ Create an intriguing ad on Facebook and set your advertising budget to $1 per day. ($30 per month)

+ Mail copies of your book to tv / radio personalities, bookstore owners – and include a handwritten note asking them to read the book or pass it along to someone who may be interested. Make sure your handwriting is clear. ($5-8 per book print, plus $5 postage if you mail it priority)

+ Post a link to your Facebook page or website on a relevant Facebook page – for example, if your book is about a child with Down’s Syndrome, post a link to your book on Down’s Syndrome Association, Downs Side Up, and Down’s Syndrome Scotland page. Most page owners are OK with you doing this as long as the topic or book is relevant. FREE!

+ Get articles or stories published in a magazine like Harper’s, Tropics, Apex Magazine, etc. This usually pays you $0.50 to $1.00 per word, and it gets your name out there. FREE (can actually pay for the rest of your marketing efforts!)

+ Subscribe to a writer’s magazine like Writer’s Digest. You can also read copies for free at your local public library. ($15 per year or FREE)

+ Social Media: create a profile on the following, and maintain them regularly (schedule at least one day a month – it should take you just a couple of hours to maintain all of them! Fill in your username, password, and a link to your profile in one place, such as this file.

(Facebook pages should be created for your main characters, your books, and an author page for yourself)

Facebook:

Twitter:

Google+:

Pinterest:

GoodReads:

LinkedIn:

Yatedo:

Tumblr:

Picasa:

Instagram:

AIM:

MailChimp:

AlterEgo:

Blogger:

Plaxo:

Snapchat:

Your Website:

Amazon Author Page:

Smashwords:

(ALL FREE!)

+ Ask local bookstores if you can do an appearance or signings. Most small bookstores welcome this, and it benefits them as well. I recommend you offer the owner a flat fee or a commission for each book you sell. (FREE – can even pay for your other marketing efforts!)

+ Most public libraries will host local author appearances and readings, usually with themes such as “Women’s fiction”, “Black History / Literature”, “Hispanic Heritage”, “Mystery Month”, etc. contact them and see if they’ll feature you at one of those events. (FREE!)

+ Networking – attend parties, events. Dress to impress! A good place to start is ProfessionalNetworkingGroup.com, which hosts a networking event for local professionals every two weeks. Here you can make connections that can help you land work as a freelance copywriter, ghostwriter, gets your name out there, and may help you promote a book. Plus, they’re fun! (and FREE!)

+ Book Fairs – take advantage of your local market. Most cities and towns will host a book fair, and it’s usually not too expensive to get a booth. Or, you can buy a ticket to get into the book fair and give away business cards or copies of your book(s). (Cost will vary). An alternate FREE option is to volunteer for the event. Check the event website.

+ Reading clubs – These actually exist, and if you are an author people will buy copies of your book, read it, and sit around and discuss it over tea. Be sure to offer your books for a decent discount to the members of the club. You can find book clubs on Meetup or Booksprouts. PaperbackSwap is like Netflix for books, and you can lend out copies of your printed book in exchange for someone else’s. I recommend including a handwritten request on the inside cover for the borrower to rate your book on Amazon and Goodreads if they enjoyed it. (Free – can actually pay for your time!)

+ Writers clubs – such as those on Meetup (Free!)

+ Chatrooms – although dying out and becoming more focused on adult entertainment, regular chat rooms are still a great way to connect with readers. (FREE!)

+ Book Websites – such as Shelfari, Goodreads, Whichbook, Librarything, Gnooks, TheStaffRecommends, GetGlue, Blippr, 22Books. (FREE!)

+ Donate copies of your book to libraries and universities, or school libraries if a children’s book. Again, handwrite a note on the inside cover asking for the reader to rate your book and pass it along if they enjoyed it. ($5-8 per book print)

+ Post business cards (with tape if needed – but don’t damage property!) EVERYWHERE a lot of people can see them: bus stops, tables at Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts, mailboxes at apartment buildings, the checkout lanes at Target and Walmart, INSIDE SIMILAR BOOKS AT THE LOCAL LIBRARIES, on the shelves of your genre section at a large bookstore like Barnes and Noble (ask management if this is OK with them first), bulletin boards, grocery stores (usually have a bulletin board), doctor’s office waiting rooms (here you can leave copies of your book as well), movie theaters that feature a film in the same genre as your book(s). Get creative – but stick to places large numbers of people can see them, and display them prominently. ($10 for 250 cards, less expensive if you buy more)

Note: I tried leaving business cards door-to-door in my neighborhood, used 380 cards, and only got 1 new “Like” on my Facebook. The other way above works better. Also, If using this strategy be sure to avoid places in which the books are on timed consignment. That is, the books they have are on the shelves for 3 months or so and then unsold copies are sent back to the publisher. These places include Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, KMart, Target, etc. If you choose to do it anyway, make sure you only place your card in 1 copy of each title.

+ Make sure your cover looks good as a small icon. Remember that your book may appear on a list with several other books – and if your picture is a jumbled mess, nobody will click to learn more.

+ Similarly, make sure your business card catches people’s attention. Plain cards tend to get filed or thrown out without a second look. Use an eye-catching picture on it (not necessarily of you) and consider printing something unique on the reverse side (an excerpt of a story, pictures, motivational words, etc.) – things that will entice people to keep the card on their desk at work or fridge at home.($10 for 500 cards)

+ Monitor your online presence by opening an account on Yatedo. This website monitors search engines and is able to maximize searches by moving sites that are not relevant to you lower on the search results list. It also helps you monitor any negative websites that could affect your online reputation. (FREE)

+ Sign up for Google Alerts (http://www.Google.com/alerts). This will send you an email whenever a new website or result pops up on Google, and will help you monitor websites that may be illegally selling your book (Thailand, China, and India are notorious destinations for this kind of thing). It also helps you to find if anyone has posted a review or anything about you online that is searchable immediately. (FREE)

+ Get reviewed. There are numerous ways to do this – you can pay $400-550 at Kirkus Indie – but remember that they can review you negatively and will not issue a refund. Another, less expensive, option is Publishers Weekly’s PW Select, which costs $150. However, despite paying them, you may not get reviewed. What you pay for with them is consideration for review, not a review itself. ($150-550)

+ Consider doing a book trailer. Many writers are doing this (James Patterson, Dan Brown), and it gives you the opportunity to tap into YouTube’s millions of users. Make sure you tag your video with commonly searchable terms (Coming Soon), plus some very specific terms (murder with knife). Do a search on YouTube to get an idea of what these look like. (FREE – 1000’s of dollars)

+ Do a Press release and send it to local newspapers. This is quick, easy, and FREE. Many newspapers (and don’t forget the small-print ones, like your local municipality’s newsletter or paper). Newspapers need to fill pages, and sometimes news are just not there on a given day. Press releases are used to fill this space – but be sure you follow the proper format or they won’t even consider it. (FREE)

+ Create an Amazon Author Page (author central). This adds credibility to your work and you as an author, in addition to getting you on search engine results. EVERYONE should do this, even if not published yet! (FREE)

+ Create a Wikipedia article for yourself and/or your publishing company. This will take you some time to master, because you will need to cite sources before getting it approved and posted, but it will help get you in search engines and more. It also adds credibility to you as an author, since not many independent authors are on there. Again, don’t submit a bio you would put up on an Amazon Author Page. SPEND TIME ON IT. (FREE)

+ Giveaways. These are powerful marketing tools. Make sure that the item you are giving away clearly identifies you and your product (book). One great and inexpensive option is stickers. I created stickers shaped like my latest book (cover) which has the title of my book and my name as the author. I purchased sheets of 24 on Vistaprint (if you place an order for business cards, they will offer these to you at a great discount – but order only 1 sheet – you’ll see why later). Once you complete your checkout process, Vistaprint will take you to their limited time offers page, with a clock that starts counting down from 10 minutes. When it reaches 0, the offers will no longer be available. This is where you will purchase more sheets of stickers at a fraction of the discounted price. For me, the first sheet cost me $5. After checkout, each sheet cost me $1.50. You can cut these up into individuals and ask the manager at ANY store (preferably a book store, though) if they would mind giving one away to each customer in their bag or whatever, and you can do this with branded pens, pencils, or whatever. Most managers will do it, because it looks like they’re the ones giving the customer the gift. ($1.50 -?)

Remember that when you are a writer, you belong to the class of “creative types”. So, when it comes to marketing yourself or your work, why use that creativity? There are many options to get the word out about you or your work, and many of them are free. Now go out there and get famous!

As an experienced, but self taught, entrepreneur and online business person, after learning to type at school and not much else, I turned to books and mentors when I finally decided I had had enough of being poor and unsuccessful!

Having read hundreds of books and websites, and subscribing to even more newsletters, there are some people who, over the last 10-12 years, have consistently delivered value.

Sometimes it was just one word, phrase, question or comment, that made the difference, but what a difference that was. Each step forward was a real step forward, and we all know that the journey to success is a series of steps, each building on the last.

I wanted to share with you the Top 10 Digital Marketing “gurus” who have inspired me on my online business journey so far and I’ve tried to tell you about them in chronological order – how I found them (or in Guy Levine’s case, how they found me!)

1. Robert G Allen – I became aware of the potential for making money online around 1998 / 1999, about five years after I bought my first domain name. I had long been aware of the potential for marketing any real world business online, but was totally blissfully ignorant about selling information products, making money by affiliate marketing and building a mailing list to make offers to. I, like many dyed in the wool entrepreneurs before me, was so obsessed by building a real world business, that the potential just passed me by! Luckily I was to meet Guy Levine and Chris Barrow fairly soon and accidentally did a few things right… in the meantime, my sister’s husband gave her Robert Allen’s “Multiple Streams of Internet Income” for Christmas, which I stole, devoured and which led me to read other great Robert G Allen books like “No Money Down For The 90′s” now updated for the 2000′s, the brilliant and groundbreaking “One Minute Millionaire” and also other great internet books like…

2. Joe Vitale – perhaps best known for his excellent personal development books and being featured in The Secret film, Joe Vitale is also a very experienced internet marketer – he’s been around and making money online from the mid to late 90’s (which in the history of the internet is very experienced indeed). Email marketing is one of the easiest ways to get started making money online and is, in fact, still the way that I make most of my money, either marketing my own products or services to my mailing list, or by recommending carefully chosen items by friends and colleagues. Email marketing (simplified) involves driving traffic to a page where someone gives you their name and email in return for a gift of some kind, thus building your mailing list. You then need to keep in touch with people so they get used to hearing from you and you build a good relationship with your subscribers. Joe explains how to do this very well indeed in his book “The E-Code” over a couple of chapters and if you want to get started somewhere simple, I recommend you read it. Then check out Martin Avis of Kickstart Monthly, as he is a master of using a simple text newsletter to make money online!

3. Jaclyn Easton – Her “Striking It Rich.com” book which I read around the same time. I had been trying to get an internet business off the ground, based around matching up unsigned artists in the music industry (where my husband and I had worked) with managers looking for artist to read. Jaclyn’s book was all about 23 little known websites that make more than $1 million per year and essentially many of the business models were membership sites. This inspired me so much I ended up presenting my business plan at the VERY SECOND the dot com bubble exploded, at the fancy Atlantic Bar & Grill in London, to a bunch of Venture Capitalists, during a fire alarm. Which fire alarm bell started and stopped randomly, so I was alternatively shouting into the void, or totally inaudible!

4. Thomas Leonard – founder of the Coaching movement, and Coach U, which was my online college, and then Coachville. Thomas wrote the first coaching book “The Portable Coach”, which I highly recommend still and he used email, mailing lists, research & development groups, autoresponders and everything we use today pretty much. I’ve been using the ShoppingCart he recommended, since 1999, to host my double opt in email list, handle my product inventory, automatically follow up with prospects and customers, deliver digital information products, offer both timed and % off vouchers, split test headlines and pricing via AdTrackers… Thomas was very inspirational and ahead of his time, however, he died very unexpectedly and tragically, having overcome many of his personal demons, in 2003.

5. Guy Levine – going to my first ever coaching convention, in Las Vegas, to see Thomas in action live, led me to meet Chris Barrow (my new business coach) and Guy Levine, his friend and internet marketing advisor. Guy blew me away – he was only about 19 – but one of the brightest people I’ve met. He knew way more than me about internet marketing and shared his ideas and techniques very generously. Guy has gone on to build a successful SEO / AdWords / PR company based in Manchester, have two babies with wife Martine and buy two helicopters which he flies himself to speaking gigs in. He’s a great speaker too! If he wasn’t so much fun you would HAVE to hate him!

6. Brett McFall – after getting to know Guy, Steve Watson, Paul & Philly Fuggle and I were invited to go along and support him when he was speaking at the first World Internet Summit to happen in the UK, in Wembley. There the co-host was Alan Forrest Smith who, while not one of my Digital Marketing gurus on this list, has also been incredibly influential in my life. I resolved, while standing in the audience at that first event, to speak on the stage next year. And I did, thanks to Alan, in fact I went on to speak twice for them, the only British woman to be asked to do so. I became great friends with Brett McFall, one of the co-founders of WIS as it’s now universally known, and he’s a very inspirational guy. He’s a very kind and genuine man who has helped me a lot with my speaking and promoting my business from the stage particularly. He came to Brighton just before one of our Money Gym events that he co-hosted and while we were recording videos there, we captured a very funny video of him being rained on and also being a bit upstaged by a seagull which never fails to make me laugh and remember a great day out.

7. Frank Kern – I was listening to one of Brett’s audio interviews around this same time and was particularly taken with a couple of guys who had a simple but dynamite system called “The UnderAchiever Method”. Those guys turned out to be Frank Kern and Ed Dale and they had invented a neat little system involving driving traffic to a page where you asked one question “What One Thing Do You Want To Know About……X? where X is your chosen niche. The answers were collated and compiled so you could see what most people wanted to know about, and which were the most popular 1 word, 2 word and 3 word phrases people were using. Then you went and created the product (usually an ebook, perhaps written by a ghostwriter, covering the most popular questions) and then you sold it back to your new mailing list. Most people gave the initial product away as an incentive to answer the questions and this also brought testimonials, so it was all good. Then the new traffic was sold the product along with real testimonials and using the language of the niche. Very clever stuff. I believe they sold their mini-publishing empire of niche information product pages to a UK publisher for a very large sum of money, in the end.

That was the first time I really realised the value of a specialist, niche market, responsive mailing list of buyers. Both Frank and Ed have gone on to become incredibly successful in their separate businesses, in Franks case not without a few setbacks! He is heavily involved with many huge IM product launches. Frank’s online style is laconic, casual and very, very persuasive. Now Frank get’s some stick for perhaps being too persuasive but I just love his style and watching his live gig recordings is just hilarious – so rock ‘n’ roll – I really want to see him live one day. Ed Dale went on to found the highly successful “30 Day Challenge” which walks new internet marketers through a free program (Ed makes his money on the affiliate products he recommends in that free program).

8. Rich Schefren – around 2006 a new internet marketing guru exploded on the scene, except he was a real life business guru who was moving into the internet marketing world, having sold his last business. Having coached many of the big names such as Jim Edwards, Mike Filsaime and many others, he then released his ground breaking report “The Internet Marketing Manifesto” swiftly followed by the “Missing Chapter” and “Final Chapter” reports. Rich blew my mind because he taught a load of solid business techniques that I had NEVER come across before, in an easy to understand and digest way, capturing the attention and admiration of the ADD troubled internet marketing community at the same time. I went on join both his “Business Growth System” and “Guided Profits System” mentoring programmes – which are fantastic by the way – and my company started to grow swiftly as a result. Do yourself a favour and download the reports – they are not just about IM but about entrepreneurship – you won’t regret it.

9. Gary Vaynerchuk – well, what do you say about Gary? I bloomin’ love him. I first heard him on an audio interview Rich Schefren did for his mentoring students and Gary was just starting to rise to World Wine Domination! Hey, that’s a great catch phrase! You can find Gary at WineLibrary.tv and all over YouTube and Ustream – he’s the MASTER of online video. Enthusiastic, passionate, straight talking, unconventional, Gary believes in HARD WORK, that you can simply “Crush It!” in the title of his first book, if you care about what you do, care about your readers, listeners, subscribers and customers and if you show you care at all times. According to Gary, smaller companies have NEVER had a better chance to dominate their competition.

10. Yaro Starak – I can’t remember where I first came across Yaro and his Entrepreneurs Journey blog but I knew instantly he was the real deal. I have subsequently gone back and read pretty much every one one of his blog posts from Day One because I was fascinated in how he grew from a kid selling students Dissertation Editing Services to becoming one of the most respected bloggers in the world. He’s got an interesting background and talks very openly about that, and his various challenges – both work and personal – and I love that about him. It’s not just how to get traffic, it’s how to be a better entrepreneur. Yaro’s got loads of great free reports – one called the Blog Profits Blueprint and he’s very strong on Membership Sites too, both of which reports you really ought to read if you want to learn more about blogging for your business. He also recommends great people, like Gideon Shalwick who has got the most gentle, enjoyable video presence I’ve come across for a while. I recommend both Yaro and Gideon very highly.

There they are – the Top 10 Business & Internet Marketing Gurus of the last 12 years or so. For me anyway. I hope you enjoyed the article and you check out some of the reports and books and then PUT THEM INTO ACTION!

Publishing Reinvented

The process for self-publishing has finally become a cost-effective exercise where the reliance on traditional publishers is no longer the norm. With print on demand and e-publishing now readily available, writing a book is anyone’s game, but as with most things there are rules to winning. Contrary to popular prediction, the internet has not damaged the volume of book sales or diminished the idea of reading a book as a source of entertainment or information. It seems to have enhanced it. The cost of buying an e-book or e-reader may still look like a relatively expensive exercise for now, but competition is driving the prices down. Besides, readers can always access your book on their smart phone, e-reader or through Adobe PDF downloads on their PC. As for the cost of production, the cost is your time and possibly how much you spend marketing your work off and online. In many cases it’s completely free to get to a reasonable stage. What’s more, your e-book can act as a springboard to a lucrative paperback publishing deal if it’s any good to read and you’ve done your homework getting the word out on the available platforms. The big boys in the publishing world may come calling once your sales volumes rise to an encouraging level.

Choose Your Genre

To get your feet wet with online publishing, you can start with non-fiction, such as ‘how-to’ books, which are quite popular in the e-publishing business. These are also an excellent way to promote yourself, your website or online business. You can opt for a style of formal language or lace your writing with wit and humour. There are literally tons of guidelines on writing styles and delivery you can find online, such as inboundpro and bloggersdeck.

Print On Demand Option

We won’t go too far into the subject of designing your book, but the main thing to know is what formats are available to you. The e-book option is simply putting your text together complete with a well-designed cover in the form of a PDF and uploading it to your bookseller account. It’s that simple in theory. To get that great book cover design done is not the hardest thing to do. A graphic designer plying his/her trade on Gumtree or any of the freelance websites can be commissioned for as low as £40 for a great cover. Better still, you can recruit the services of student or recent graduate who’d be willing to tackle the work for free in order to help build up their portfolio. Publishing with print on demand is where the physical world meets the virtual. The big players are lulu.com and bookmasters.com. There are others, of course, but the user interface and account system for these two are very easy to get to grips with. All you do is use their templates to place your PDF files of finished content and cover on to the system and in a few clicks you have a professionally finished book complete with your set price. We tried this and it took an hour and a half and that’s only because we were a bit too fussy with font choices and general layout.

Lulu.com’s print on-demand service basically gets your book printed in a single or multiple unit. Unlike traditional book printing services, the minimum order does not come in the thousands. You can get one single copy printed at a slightly higher rate than your average book in the shop, but not that much more. Your potential reader can read the synopsis and review of your book from the online bookstore and pay for a print version there and then. Of course, you would need to set the price and earn from your set royalties. Lulu.com and others will process payments and deliver the print version within the week and hey presto! You’re a published author. You do have to be careful how your deal is set up as there are some unhappy authors who are getting very low royalty fees per unit or multiple purchase. It forces them to raise the retail price, which may become an unattractive prospect to the would-be reader. Some royalties are as low as 15% against a retail price of £8-9. It’s probably best to stick to one service that offers a decent royalty return in your favour. You also get an ISBN marking for free. This enables the book to be sold for you in multiple bookshops. The beauty of the scheme is that you pay zero set-up fees. Amazon and the big five online sellers can be selling your books as soon as you are ready to release it. With lulu.com, distribution to other bookshops is done on your behalf. Ours was extended to Barnes & Noble plus Amazon, though we limited it back to Lulu.com and took it to Amazon bookstore ourselves to reduce the amount of hungry middle men. We got a better rate for royalties on individual sales.

Download Option

Format your book and get it up on as many e-book seller websites as possible. The popular ones such as Barnes & Noble, Amazon, EPUB, Sony Reader, iTunes and Google books are where to be. The list is endless, they act as virtual bookshops and offer tools to showcase and market your books, much like competitive shelf space within your local bookshop. Try as much as possible to get your book featured, even if it means you have to pay for desirable shelf space. Yes, this happens online too. Like lulu.com, many of these online publishing services provide you with the tools to get your book in e-download format. You need your e-book to be in as many formats as possible. Start with Adobe PDF. Readers can download and read on all or most devices this way. Your book being assessable on Amazon Kindle is a must as that’s where books are sold the most, plus Amazon Kindle readers are the holy grail of reader sales. You can get this done by signing up with an Amazon account and following the upload and format process. If you don’t wish to bother yourself with the process, Amazon and Sony e-reader offer a service to do this for you, all you need do is email the PDF files of your finished product and they will arrange the page formats, size and connect your cover image, all for a small fee. Amazon and the Apple store have a great way to reward good books. There’s a chart system for popular downloads and a recommended titles list.

I’ve listed the cost-effective ways to get your e-book up and ready for trade. The rest is getting the word out and choosing from the various revenue streams. You’d be surprised how many non-traditional options there is to harvest your good work.

Every individual, whether a self employed or employed wants to have a good life. Everyone yearns for a comfortable life without stresses. However, financial issues are still the most pressing. Many are the people who work hard for their money, but do not understand how they use it up. When you do not have a plan for the money presently, it can be hard to make any future progress, especially as far as saving for the future is concerned. Living a day at a time can be dangerous. You will find it impossible to handle emergencies if you are not putting anything away as savings.

Money handling tips

When you start earning, you will need to come up with a list of needs and wants. You can make the list on a monthly basis. When you separate the needs from the wants, you will know what to give priority as soon as you get your money. Always give the needs importance. You do not have to satisfy all your wants if there is not enough money to do it.

1. Come up with a budget. A budget is very important in handling your needs. It will not only ensure that you know the exact amount that sustains you fully for a specific period, it will also ensure you avoid impulse buying. Individuals handling money with a proper budget will always find that they do impulse buying. It is through the habit that they can’t account for huge amounts. Always avoid buying something you have not contemplated buying no matter how attractive it is.

2. Come up with a savings plan. It is the savings that will lead you to a brighter financially secure future. When you stick to your needs and budget, you will manage to save a good amount of money every single month. Commit to a specified amount of money to save every month no matter how many other things you wish to do during the month. When you have some money accumulating in your bank account, you will slowly start securing financial freedom even in cases of unexpected situations.

3. Make it hard to reach to the savings. The one mistake many people make is making it easy to access the savings they have made. The better option is to go for a banking option that makes it harder to access the money. When there is a long process to follow to withdraw your savings, you will find it harder to think about getting the money for other uses.

Financial issues can be very tedious to deal with. Fortunately, there are helpful books online with all the information you require. Most will work on very simple steps to handle your money and secure a future through savings. The online books are easily accessible and most are actually free to read. You can download books that touch on what you desire the most. With the free books, you can read at your own pace and work through the guidelines to work out a financial plan that will work.

Moving a watch sideways, words uttered, “Your eyes are getting heavy. You are getting sleepy. I am now hypnotizing you with this watch to do everything that I will want you to do. You are my slave and now, I can conquer the world!” says the antagonist in a Disney cartoon movie. In real life, though, how to hypnotize someone with a watch is long gone. It is not anymore practiced by psychiatrists in treating patients. Truthfully, the watch routine is making the subject feel weird and nauseated.

Using watches to hypnotize like in stage shows are normal for entertainment purposes although the hypnotist’s practice is real. People watching the show can really be captivated by the hypnotist since hypnosis seems to be very easy to do. How easy can it be? People who volunteer to be hypnotized by the stage hypnotist are willing individuals who are aware that they are going to be hypnotized and their mind is prepared for such activity. That is the first step. Acceptance. Second step is readiness. Third step is focus. Learning how to hypnotize someone with a watch is not necessary at this point. You don’t need to swirl any object to the person you are going to hypnotize. It will just annoy the person or make him or her feel sick.

How can you effectively hypnotize another person? You have to be equipped on the techniques about hypnotizing. Read books and check free websites online that teaches you how to learn hypnotism.

Is it hard to learn? It is moderately challenging since you have to study how it is done and you have to be committed. It is like studying any subject in school. You have to read the basics. You also have to practice what you know and hypnotism doesn’t successfully happen overnight. You have to practice over and over again until you get it right. How to hypnotize someone with a watch used to be a technique until conversational hypnosis, NLP, induction hypnosis and other methods proved to be more useful.

To be truly exceptional in the art of hypnotism, you must go through a learning process before you can see the outcome. Use the skill on the “field”. Practice whenever you have the chance and you should start that with people you know to achieve some positive feedback. The more you use your hypnotism techniques, the quicker you will be learning from it and improve yourself every time you use it. The more hypnotism techniques you learn, the better hypnotist you are going to be. Say goodbye to the notion on how to hypnotize someone with a watch. Hypnotize someone with the expertise that you have acquired.