Tips about Selling eBooks
5 January 2009
Tips on selling eBooks
First things first for those of you that do not know what eBooks are. This is probably the simplest explanation that I can give. eBooks are electronic books that you can open, read, and print by using your computer.
Many people have bought eBooks and software for whatever reason selfhelp, selling on eBay, the list is almost endless. You know what they say knowledge is power.
Several eBooks that I have authored are currently being sold on eBay and the eBooks that have been purchased and given to me free is in the thousands there is a topic for almost anything you can think of from A to Z.
Why not take a look at my eBay store at: http://stores.ebay.com/E-InfoSpot. While your there browsing around go ahead and check out the feedback and about Me pages. You really should check out my webpage here is the webpage url: http://www.e-infospot.com
Selling eBooks on eBay is nothing new alot of sellers claim they have made lots of money in the 100,000.00 range and more.
My experience selling eBooks on eBay has been around 6 months. The profits for me have been no where near 100,000.00 but they have paid my seller fees, internet access, hosting fees, and my featured store on eBay.
That in my opinion is not too shabby lets face it I’m not getting rich but selling eBooks is starting to become a nice second income. Who knows maybe one day I’ll quit the full time job.
Lets take a look at the normal cost of an eBook selling on eBay the average cost totals around 2.99 to make around 100,000.00 per, year you would need to sell close to 100 each and every day.
The question you may have at this point is it possible to sell that many eBooks each day? My answer to that is in my opinion yes it is realistic and achievable.
Realisticly to obtain a goal of say 100K annually in sales you will need to automate as much of the selling of eBooks as you can. Put it on autopilot so to speak, and you will need to attract as many potential customers as you can.
Here are two items that is a must to have if you are looking to make some serious money item number one is an eBay store, Item number two would be a website. You need these two items to have the ability to cross promote and drive traffic to you. Without traffic there simply is no sales.
Promote promote promote I can’t say that enough join forums and post to as many topics as you can. Ask questions become an active member.
Warning don’t go into these forums and start blasting ads all over the place or you will find yourself banned faster than the time it took to register.
Pay per click advertising is another way to go I suggest you research it very well it could get expensive very fast so go with a well known advertiser such as Yahoo/Overture, Google, or Kandoodle. Don’t play around with them ppc’s that promise 100,000 visitors for only 10.00 and that type of traffic scheme.
One thing for sure if you are going to go the traffic wholesale route you might as well throw your money away because buying that type of traffic is the same thing.
If you are considering going that route send the money to me and I will send you some real information that can actually do you some good. I hope this article has been entertaining and informative
Authored By: Smiley Webb (e-info_man) Feel free to post this article in forums or on websites. You may remove my signature and replace it with your own. You must keep the content in its original form.
How To Create An E-book & Drive Massive Traffic To Your Site By Giving It Away…
3 January 2009
E-books or Electronic books are self-contained “executable” files of HTML. This HTML may be a web site you’ve created or HTML you’ve specifically prepared to be compiled into a downloadable .exe file for distribution. When downloaded, this file will self install on your clients desktop.
E-books are completely interactive with the Internet and can contain live links, graphics, forms, JavaScript, embedded video, can be protected via password/userid, search capabilities and more. This self-contained executable file can be distributed in a number of ways; CD, floppy disk, download, etc.
All e-book compilation software is not created equal. Make sure you review its capabilities before your purchase.
E-books can provide the Internet marketer one of the best promotional tools online. With its vast variety of uses, just one quality e-book development and distribution can produce an on going promotional tool that will work 24 hours a day, seven days a week and multiply itself by leaps and bounds. Your e-book can literally be viewed by millions simply by giving it away…
Suggested Uses:
- Marketing - Provide your sales network with your complete sales presentation to freely distribute with their ID to track sales.
- Promotion - Provide valuable information on a specific subject to bring traffic to your site.
- E-zine Archives - E-zine publishers can provide their publication archives to enable subscribers to read back issues on their desktop, visit your web site, subscribe, submit ads, etc.
- Catalogs - Provide a desktop catalog for you customers to view on their desktop. You can even provide a form to accept orders right through your e-book.
- How To Manuals - Provide your affiliates with a complete “how to” manual for marketing, advertising and promoting your products.
- Electronic Books - Writers can offer their books in an electronic version.
- Web Site - Create an electronic version of your web site to place on disk and be viewed on your clients desktop.
- Instructional - Provide an electronic training manual.
Creating an e-book is just like creating a web site. Simply create your HTML pages just like you would for your web site. Make sure you select a good software package that allows you to include hyperlinks, graphics, search, forms, etc. Keep in mind, the more professional, content rich your e-book, the more exposure it will receive.
There are several software packages available online to assist you in compiling your e-book. Prices range from $149 — $189.
Hyper Maker HTML http://www.bersoft.com/ NeoBook http://www.neosoftware.com/ InfoCourier http://www.smartcode.com/ WebCompiler http://www.webcompiler.com/
For massive exposure, select a subject with a broad appeal. If your sites focus is on web site traffic, consider creating an e-book on generating traffic. I.E. “A complete “how to” guide to generating massive traffic to your site”. Include several references to your site throughout your e-book such as; “For even more great traffic generating tips, visit “Traffic Tips” Your complete source for generating massive traffic to your web site. http://www.yoursite.com” or “Winning awards can dramatically increase traffic to your site. For a complete listing of award sites, visit “Traffic Tips Award Sites” http://www.yoursite.com/awardsites.
Tips for creating your e-book:
-Create a directory on your computer to include ALL the files for your E-book. These files will include HTML, graphics, backgrounds, etc.
-E-books should contain mainly text. Try to limit your banners to one per page. To keep your file size down, you may want to use only non-animated banners.
-E-books are generally formatted at a small screen resolution so make sure your pages are viewable through any screen size.
-Include good navigational links throughout your pages.
-Use spell check to search for any possible spelling errors.
For massive distribution, make sure you include a short paragraph on your main page in regard to your copyrights and distribution. I.E., This E-book may be freely distributed.
Sample Example of Distribution:
10 of your visitors download your e-book. Your 10 visitors each give away 10 e-books - 100 Those 100 each give away 10 e-books - 1000 Those 1000 each give away 10 e-books - 10,000 Those 10,000 each give away 10 e-books - 100,000 Those 100,000 each give away 10 e-books - 1,000,000
This is just a small example of how powerful your free e-book can be…
The Best Website Traffic Sources
3 January 2009
Not a day goes by that any serious website owner doesn’t wonder how to get more traffic to their site.
This intense desire to generate more clicks makes virtually any online entrepreneur easy prey to many of the traffic schemes and scams that pervade the Internet like conmen on a carnival midway.
Promises of fast traffic and big bucks often separate even the most savvy business person from their money because they want to believe the promises made by these traffic hucksters.
However, rather than thinking “complicated equals better” in the traffic game, the best website traffic sources rate extremely easy to separate from the useless garbage traffic.
Fact: “Good Traffic” equals “Targeted Traffic!”
That means the visitors come as a result of desire to find out more on a specific, niche topic, not as a result of “exit” traffic or membership in a “safe” list where members simply pitch each other in an incestuous spam fest.
Good traffic comes from people clicking links on topics targeted to their interests and getting directed to a website containing information they want and expect as a result of clicking the link.
Bottom line, when you get right down to it, the best, most dependable sources of targeted traffic come from links that people click.
So, next time you’re considering spending money on a traffic source, understand that unless it involves a targeted link that a targeted visitor can click to get to your website, think twice before opening up your wallet.
To my knowledge, only three ways exist to get a link to your site: buy it, “voodoo” it, or grow it.
** Buy Links**
Buying links actually rates the fastest way to get traffic to your website.
You simply sign up for Google AdWords at Google.com or you open an account with Overture.com.
You then run ads with a link on those sites and any time someone clicks the link, you pay for the click through a relatively straightforward bidding process based on the popularity of the keyword.
You can also buy links in ezines, newsletters, and on other people’s website either on a per-click basis, for a period of time (a week or month), or in exchange for paying them a commission if a sale gets made as a result of a click on the link.
** Linking “VoodDoo” **
Linking “voodoo” refers to attempting to manipulate the search engines into displaying links to your website.
You can find a large number of automated software programs online at any given time that will claim to help you get more search engine traffic.
Depending on the intensity of competition in a specific market, and the fact that search engines change their rules frequently, pursuing search engine links can quickly turn into the online equivalent of Alice chasing the rabbit down a hole to “Wonderland.”
** Grow Links **
I personally prefer this method to get links to my websites: growing them.
The best type of link to get involves one person telling another person, either explicitly or implicitly, they should click the link and visit the site at the other end.
One way to do this is simply to exchange links with another site which targets the same audience as your site.
You can manage this process manually or use one of the many software packages that will mange the process for you.
A search on Google.com for “reciprocal link manager software” yields a good start.
The easiest way to grow links is through using articles other people post on their websites which link back to your website.
The reason articles work so well for “growing” links involves the numerous ways in which articles get distributed online, each of which can create dozens, hundreds, even thousands of different links back to your website by publishing a single article.
As time goes by, and as the article spreads around, the number of links literally “grows” over time (but unlike a houseplant, you don’t have to water an article!).
In fact, the following represent only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all the places you can grow and expand the links to your site by publishing articles online.
~ Blogs - Your articles can not only appear on your own blog, but get posted by others on their blogs with surprising ease.
The links in these articles can point directly back to your website.
~ Article Directories - Article directories such as IdeaMarketers.com abound online.
They not only provide an easy way to display your articles to allow others to pick them up for posting on their websites, but also in and of themselves attract readers searching for content.
~ OPS (Other People’s Sites) - Popular websites like WebProNews.com attract repeat visitors by offering targeted content to their readers.
Since they can’t produce all the content themselves, they publish articles created by others. Links from these sites can bring a steady stream of targeted visitors by giving you targeted exposure.
~ Ezines - By getting your articles published in other people’s ezines, you can get a link on the most valuable real estate online, a targeted prospect’s email “inbox.”
Many ezine publishers run articles written by others to their targeted readers, and your link in the resource box can bring you a veritable avalanche of targeted site visitors when hundreds, even thousands of people receive your article at the same time.
Whether you choose to buy them, “voodoo” them, or grow them, getting targeted links to your site posted on the Internet represents the absolute best way to get steady traffic to your site.
Though not as fast as buying them or as exciting as trying to manipulate the search engines, growing links with articles gives you a long-term, dependable presence online.
– Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr^e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website, affiliate links, or blogs…
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5 Ways To Profit From Other People’s Products
3 January 2009
Five Ways to Make Money with Other People’s Products
http://www.iprofitdistributor.com
If you don’t possess the time, money or inclination to create your own hot selling product there is plenty of scope for profit by using other people’s.
In this quick article I’ll detail the best ways to take a third-party product and use it to fill your own bank account.
1. Resell Rights
Resell Rights let you sell a product and keep all of the money. It’s an ideal way to start. Usually you’ll need your own payment system to accept the money and your own webspace to sell it - but that’s very cheap to do these days.
Resell Rights can be free, or cost anywhere up to $1000 and beyond. The free Resell Rights are usually not worth bothering with. You want to sell items that have LIMITED distribution - quite simply because you’ll have less competition!
2. Reprint Rights
These are sometimes confused with Resell Rights but they are usually used to describe hard-copy material. For example, printed books, tape sets, CD’s or Videos.
You usually have to handle the duplication yourself but sometimes the company will provide copies, and even ship them for you, for a small fee.
These products usually cost more to acquire the rights but can be very profitable. As the old saying goes, it’s easier to sell 10 copies at $1000 each than it is to sell 1000 at $10.
3. Affiliate Programs
When you enter into an affiliate agreement you are sharing the cost and effort of promoting a product. You will take a percentage of the sales in exchange, so you want at least 50% for it to be worth your while.
With an affiliate program you can usually join at no cost, but will make less money - and have more competitors!
One other advantage, the company provides the site and the collection of payments. All you do is promote and cash your check.
4. Joint Ventures
These blur the line between the other processors. Basically, you connect those who make products with those who sell and promote them. You can acquire resell rights, or create your own product, or be part of an affiliate network. You then contact possible sellers, for example Ezine Owners, who may be interested in selling the product for a cut of the profit.
This way you can connect BIG sellers with BIG products and slice of some of the profit for yourself!
5. Branding Rights
These can be combined with Resell Rights but sometimes are offered as an extra. With Branding Rights you can make some or all of the links within a product possible money-spinners for yourself.
For example, you can take a book on copywriting and give it away, or sell it. But within this book are other links to further services, all that could make extra back-end sales for you.
As you can see there are plenty of ways to make money WITHOUT the expense of time of building your own product!
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About the Author: Tom Borda is an SEO Specialist and an Internet Marketer. If you would like to learn more about how can profit with resell rights and get access to over 85 ebooks and software applications with master resell rights and professionally designed sales pages, please visit: http://www.iprofitdistributor.com
Transfer Domain Registration
2 January 2009
For transfer of domain, you should apply to the gaining registrar, as it is responsible for the operation. It is the duty of the gaining registrar to ensure that the application for transfer by the domain owner is a valid one. The validation usually is in the form of an email sent to the admin contact that requires a reply. In some cases, however, signed faxes are used. Losing registrars these days may resort to ‘double-checking.’ In this case, they will perform additional security checks if you seek transfer from them. The losing registrars may ask you to reply to an email, or dispatch a notarized letter. After completion of the transfer, a year is always added to the end of the registration period.
If you have your names registered with a number of registrars, it will be better if you transfer them to one single registrar to make the domain management process much simpler. You should go for transfer as soon as you decide to do so. Or else, if the transfer application is not processed by the losing registrar on the domain’s expiry date, they can put your name “on hold” for non-payment resulting in more holes in your pocket. Usually, it takes ten working days (in some cases, not more than a couple of days) for most transfers to take place. Even then, you should ideally expect a month’s time to complete a transfer.
In case a transfer fails, most registrars will fully refund your money. However, others may charge some “administration fee” for failed transfers. Many losing registrars will insist on confirmation before authorizing transfers. This trend is growing these days, more so from the expensive registrars that are losing out. In a desperate bid to keep their market share in tact, they are taking recourse to every possible step to make moving away from their system as tough as possible.
Domain Transfer provides detailed information on Domain Transfers, Transfer Domain Registration, Cheap Domain Transfers, Free Domain Transfers and more. Domain Transfer is affiliated with DNS Hosting.
A Brief History of the Book
31 December 2008
“The free communication of thought and opinion is one of the most precious rights of man; every citizen may therefore speak, write and print freely.”
(French National Assembly, 1789)
I. What is a Book?
UNESCO’s arbitrary and ungrounded definition of “book” is:
“”Non-periodical printed publication of at least 49 pages excluding covers”.
But a book, above all else, is a medium. It encapsulates information (of one kind or another) and conveys it across time and space. Moreover, as opposed to common opinion, it is - and has always been - a rigidly formal affair. Even the latest “innovations” are nothing but ancient wine in sparkling new bottles.
Consider the scrolling protocol. Our eyes and brains are limited readers-decoders. There is only that much that the eye can encompass and the brain interpret. Hence the need to segment data into cognitively digestible chunks. There are two forms of scrolling - lateral and vertical. The papyrus, the broadsheet newspaper, and the computer screen are three examples of the vertical scroll - from top to bottom or vice versa. The e-book, the microfilm, the vellum, and the print book are instances of the lateral scroll - from left to right (or from right to left, in the Semitic languages).
In many respects, audio books are much more revolutionary than e-books. They do not employ visual symbols (all other types of books do), or a straightforward scrolling method. E-books, on the other hand, are a throwback to the days of the papyrus. The text cannot be opened at any point in a series of connected pages and the content is carried only on one side of the (electronic) “leaf”. Parchment, by comparison, was multi-paged, easily browseable, and printed on both sides of the leaf. It led to a revolution in publishing and to the print book. All these advances are now being reversed by the e-book. Luckily, the e-book retains one innovation of the parchment - the hypertext. Early Jewish and Christian texts (as well as Roman legal scholarship) was written on parchment (and later printed) and included numerous inter-textual links. The Talmud, for example, is made of a main text (the Mishna) which hyperlinks on the same page to numerous interpretations (exegesis) offered by scholars throughout generations of Jewish learning.
Another distinguishing feature of books is portability (or mobility). Books on papyrus, vellum, paper, or PDA - are all transportable. In other words, the replication of the book’s message is achieved by passing it along and no loss is incurred thereby (i.e., there is no physical metamorphosis of the message). The book is like a perpetuum mobile. It spreads its content virally by being circulated and is not diminished or altered by it. Physically, it is eroded, of course - but it can be copied faithfully. It is permanent.
Not so the e-book or the CD-ROM. Both are dependent on devices (readers or drives, respectively). Both are technology-specific and format-specific. Changes in technology - both in hardware and in software - are liable to render many e-books unreadable. And portability is hampered by battery life, lighting conditions, or the availability of appropriate infrastructure (e.g., of electricity).
II. The Constant Content Revolution
Every generation applies the same age-old principles to new “content-containers”. Every such transmutation yields a great surge in the creation of content and its dissemination. The incunabula (the first printed books) made knowledge accessible (sometimes in the vernacular) to scholars and laymen alike and liberated books from the scriptoria and “libraries” of monasteries. The printing press technology shattered the content monopoly. In 50 years (1450-1500), the number of books in Europe surged from a few thousand to more than 9 million! And, as McLuhan has noted, it shifted the emphasis from the oral mode of content distribution (i.e., “communication”) to the visual mode.
E-books are threatening to do the same. “Book ATMs” will provide Print on Demand (POD) services to faraway places. People in remote corners of the earth will be able to select from publishing backlists and front lists comprising millions of titles. Millions of authors are now able to realize their dream to have their work published cheaply and without editorial barriers to entry. The e-book is the Internet’s prodigal son. The latter is the ideal distribution channel of the former. The monopoly of the big publishing houses on everything written - from romance to scholarly journals - is a thing of the past. In a way, it is ironic. Publishing, in its earliest forms, was a revolt against the writing (letters) monopoly of the priestly classes. It flourished in non-theocratic societies such as Rome, or China - and languished where religion reigned (such as in Sumeria, Egypt, the Islamic world, and Medieval Europe).
With e-books, content will once more become a collaborative effort, as it has been well into the Middle Ages. Authors and audience used to interact (remember Socrates) to generate knowledge, information, and narratives. Interactive e-books, multimedia, discussion lists, and collective authorship efforts restore this great tradition. Moreover, as in the not so distant past, authors are yet again the publishers and sellers of their work. The distinctions between these functions is very recent. E-books and POD partially help to restore the pre-modern state of affairs. Up until the 20th century, some books first appeared as a series of pamphlets (often published in daily papers or magazines) or were sold by subscription. Serialized e-books resort to these erstwhile marketing ploys. E-books may also help restore the balance between best-sellers and midlist authors and between fiction and textbooks. E-books are best suited to cater to niche markets, hitherto neglected by all major publishers.
III. Literature for the Millions
E-books are the quintessential “literature for the millions”. They are cheaper than even paperbacks. John Bell (competing with Dr. Johnson) published “The Poets of Great Britain” in 1777-83. Each of the 109 volumes cost six shillings (compared to the usual guinea or more). The Railway Library of novels (1,300 volumes) costs 1 shilling apiece only eight decades later. The price continued to dive throughout the next century and a half. E-books and POD are likely to do unto paperbacks what these reprints did to originals. Some reprint libraries specialized in public domain works, very much like the bulk of e-book offering nowadays.
The plunge in book prices, the lowering of barriers to entry due to new technologies and plentiful credit, the proliferation of publishers, and the cutthroat competition among booksellers was such that price regulation (cartel) had to be introduced. Net publisher prices, trade discounts, list prices were all anti-competitive inventions of the 19th century, mainly in Europe. They were accompanied by the rise of trade associations, publishers organizations, literary agents, author contracts, royalties agreements, mass marketing, and standardized copyrights.
The sale of print books over the Internet can be conceptualized as the continuation of mail order catalogues by virtual means. But e-books are different. They are detrimental to all these cosy arrangements. Legally, an e-book may not be considered to constitute a “book” at all. Existing contracts between authors and publishers may not cover e-books. The serious price competition they offer to more traditional forms of publishing may end up pushing the whole industry to re-define itself. Rights may have to be re-assigned, revenues re-distributed, contractual relationships re-thought. Moreover, e-books have hitherto been to print books what paperbacks are to hardcovers - re-formatted renditions. But more and more authors are publishing their books primarily or exclusively as e-books. E-books thus threaten hardcovers and paperbacks alike. They are not merely a new format. They are a new mode of publishing.
Every technological innovation was bitterly resisted by Luddite printers and publishers: stereotyping, the iron press, the application of steam power, mechanical typecasting and typesetting, new methods of reproducing illustrations, cloth bindings, machine-made paper, ready-bound books, paperbacks, book clubs, and book tokens. Without exception, they relented and adopted the new technologies to their considerable commercial advantage. It is no surprise, therefore, that publishers were hesitant to adopt the Internet, POD, and e-publishing technologies. The surprise lies in the relative haste with which they came to adopt it, egged on by authors and booksellers.
IV. Intellectual Pirates and Intellectual Property
Despite the technological breakthroughs that coalesced to form the modern printing press - printed books in the 17th and 18th centuries were derided by their contemporaries as inferior to their laboriously hand-made antecedents and to the incunabula. One is reminded of the current complaints about the new media (Internet, e-books), its shoddy workmanship, shabby appearance, and the rampant piracy. The first decades following the invention of the printing press, were, as the Encyclopedia Britannica puts it “a restless, highly competitive free for all … (with) enormous vitality and variety (often leading to) careless work”.
There were egregious acts of piracy - for instance, the illicit copying of the Aldine Latin “pocket books”, or the all-pervasive piracy in England in the 17th century (a direct result of over-regulation and coercive copyright monopolies). Shakespeare’s work was published by notorious pirates and infringers of emerging intellectual property rights. Later, the American colonies became the world’s centre of industrialized and systematic book piracy. Confronted with abundant and cheap pirated foreign books, local authors resorted to freelancing in magazines and lecture tours in a vain effort to make ends meet.
Pirates and unlicenced - and, therefore, subversive - publishers were prosecuted under a variety of monopoly and libel laws (and, later, under national security and obscenity laws). There was little or no difference between royal and “democratic” governments. They all acted ruthlessly to preserve their control of publishing. John Milton wrote his passionate plea against censorship, Areopagitica, in response to the 1643 licencing ordinance passed by Parliament. The revolutionary Copyright Act of 1709 in England established the rights of authors and publishers to reap the commercial fruits of their endeavours exclusively, though only for a prescribed period of time.
V. As Readership Expanded
The battle between industrial-commercial publishers (fortified by ever more potent technologies) and the arts and craftsmanship crowd never ceased and it is raging now as fiercely as ever in numerous discussion lists, fora, tomes, and conferences. William Morris started the “private press” movement in England in the 19th century to counter what he regarded as the callous commercialization of book publishing. When the printing press was invented, it was put to commercial use by private entrepreneurs (traders) of the day. Established “publishers” (monasteries), with a few exceptions (e.g., in Augsburg, Germany and in Subiaco, Italy) shunned it and regarded it as a major threat to culture and civilization. Their attacks on printing read like the litanies against self-publishing or corporate-controlled publishing today.
But, as readership expanded (women and the poor became increasingly literate), market forces reacted. The number of publishers multiplied relentlessly. At the beginning of the 19th century, innovative lithographic and offset processes allowed publishers in the West to add illustrations (at first, black and white and then in color), tables, detailed maps and anatomical charts, and other graphics to their books. Battles fought between publishers-librarians over formats (book sizes) and fonts (Gothic versus Roman) were ultimately decided by consumer preferences. Multimedia was born. The e-book will, probably, undergo a similar transition from being the static digital rendition of a print edition - to being a lively, colorful, interactive and commercially enabled creature.
The commercial lending library and, later, the free library were two additional reactions to increasing demand. As early as the 18th century, publishers and booksellers expressed the fear that libraries will cannibalize their trade. Two centuries of accumulated experience demonstrate that the opposite has happened. Libraries have enhanced book sales and have become a major market in their own right.
VI. The State of Subversion
Publishing has always been a social pursuit and depended heavily on social developments, such as the spread of literacy and the liberation of minorities (especially, of women). As every new format matures, it is subjected to regulation from within and from without. E-books (and, by extension, digital content on the Web) will be no exception. Hence the recurrent and current attempts at regulation.
Every new variant of content packaging was labeled as “dangerous” at its inception. The Church (formerly the largest publisher of bibles and other religious and “earthly” texts and the upholder and protector of reading in the Dark Ages) castigated and censored the printing of “heretical” books (especially the vernacular bibles of the Reformation) and restored the Inquisition for the specific purpose of controlling book publishing. In 1559, it published the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (”Index of Prohibited Books”). A few (mainly Dutch) publishers even went to the stake (a habit worth reviving, some current authors would say…). European rulers issued proclamations against “naughty printed books” (of heresy and sedition). The printing of books was subject to licencing by the Privy Council in England. The very concept of copyright arose out of the forced registration of books in the register of the English Stationer’s Company (a royal instrument of influence and intrigue). Such obligatory registration granted the publisher the right to exclusively copy the registered book (often, a class of books) for a number of years - but politically restricted printable content, often by force. Freedom of the press and free speech are still distant dreams in many corners of the earth. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), the V-chip and other privacy invading, dissemination inhibiting, and censorship imposing measures perpetuate a veteran if not so venerable tradition.
VII. The More it Changes
The more it changes, the more it stays the same. If the history of the book teaches us anything it is that there are no limits to the ingenuity with which publishers, authors, and booksellers, re-invent old practices. Technological and marketing innovations are invariably perceived as threats - only to be adopted later as articles of faith. Publishing faces the same issues and challenges it faced five hundred years ago and responds to them in much the same way. Yet, every generation believes its experiences to be unique and unprecedented. It is this denial of the past that casts a shadow over the future. Books have been with us since the dawn of civilization, millennia ago. In many ways, books constitute our civilization. Their traits are its traits: resilience, adaptation, flexibility, self re-invention, wealth, communication. We would do well to accept that our most familiar artifacts - books - will never cease to amaze us.
About The Author
Sam Vaknin is the author of “Malignant Self Love - Narcissism Revisited” and “After the Rain - How the West Lost the East”. He is a columnist in “Central Europe Review”, United Press International (UPI) and ebookweb.org and the editor of mental health and Central East Europe categories in The Open Directory, Suite101 and searcheurope.com. Until recently, he served as the Economic Advisor to the Government of Macedonia.
His web site: http://samvak.tripod.com
Want To Know More About Cruises and Cruise Ships?
31 December 2008
Today, Norm Goldman Editor of Sketchandtravel.com, is pleased to have as a guest of Sketchandtravel.com Douglas Ward, author of Ocean Cruising & Cruise Ships 2005, now into its twentieth year of publication, published by Berlitz Publishing.
Thank you Douglas for accepting our invitation to be interviewed.
Norm: Douglas could you tell us something about yourself and why did you want to write a book about cruising and cruise ships?
Douglas: I had worked aboard passenger ships for 17 years before forming an association of cruise passengers, who were looking for more comparative information about cruise ships and cruising. So was born the idea for the book, which started with 120 ships and 256 pages. Today, after 20 years, the book has grown to include 256 ocean-going ships, 656 pages, and half a million words.
Norm: I noticed your first book on cruises and cruise ships was published twenty years ago, and you have been updating your book every year. How do you go about gathering material every year for these updates and how long does it take you to update your annual book?
Douglas: First, it takes me a minimum of three hours a day, every single day of the year, just to keep the book refreshed, up-to-date, and accurate. I also travel extensively, as much as 250 days each year. So, of course, I write while I am traveling, visiting, and sailing aboard the world’s cruise ships.
Norm: What makes cruises so appealing to honeymooners?
Douglas: Cruises take the hassle out of planning a honeymoon, particularly with regard to language, cuisine/meals, entertainment, and so many other things that go towards making a honeymoon a fine, affordable vacation, and a complete escape from the pressures of life ashore. Actually, it’s also a good way to find out how a newlywed couple cope with living in a small space.
Norm: Are you seeing more weddings performed on cruise ships lately? What should cruisers know about cruise ship weddings?
Douglas: By nature of their (out of the ordinary) appeal, more weddings are being performed aboard cruise ships today, simply because there is so much help at hand. The larger cruise lines have personnel dedicated to handling weddings and honeymoons, and the instant support of other personnel in cruise line head offices to draw from. Weddings can, in other words, be tailored completely to the individuals concerned (and without the interference of well-meaning parents and other family members who can create stress and pressure on couples about to undergo, what is for many, the most important ceremony of their lives).
Norm: With so many cruise possibilities, how does one go about choosing a cruise and what should people take into consideration before deciding on any one cruise?
Douglas: Choosing a cruise successfully depends on one’s personal requirements and expectations from a vacation. First-time cruise goers would be well advised to talk to an established cruise booking specialist, who will be able to help you to choose the right ship and cruise, for the right reasons, taking into account your personal tastes and socio-economic considerations. There are so many choices today that there should be a ship and cruise to suit even the most demanding and finicky of people. Perhaps the first decision, however, should be to establish how many days you can take for your vacation (including travel days to get to/from the ship), and then think about the area you would like to cruise in. The most popular regions include the Caribbean, Alaska, Europe, Norwegian fjords and Baltic ports, and southeast Asia/Australasia. Those with more time who want more involvement with nature should consider visiting Antarctica or the Arctic regions (you would ideally need about three weeks). Then there is perhaps the ultimate in long distance cruising an around the world cruise, which typically would take three to four months (most ships offering complete around the world cruises there are about 15 in 2005 sail between January and April away from winter).
Norm: Have you had any bad experiences on a cruise, and if so, please describe them.
Douglas: I have had many bad experiences, but most of them cannot be written about, and most have been aboard ships and cruise lines that no longer exist, or have changed their names. However, there have been a few nasty transatlantic crossings (I have done 152 of them), when the weather can throw some unexpected wrenches into what otherwise is perhaps a wonderful, serene way of traveling between the Old and New Worlds.
Norm: After deciding on a particular cruise, how do you plan for the cruise and what important elements should you keep in mind?
Douglas: Make sure you choose the right size ship for your needs. Do you want to be with 100, 500, 1000, or 3000 other passengers? Do you want to experience cruising under sail; cruising with specialist lecturers; be aboard a ship with spa facilities, large-scale production shows (a la Las Vegas), lots of gaming, or shopping opportunities? Whichever cruise you choose, try to make the travel arrangements as simple as possible. Sometimes, the mere act of getting to and from your chosen cruise ship (or embarkation point) can prove frustrating. If you are a first-time cruise goer, try not to do everything on your first cruise it could end up being more like an endurance test.
Norm: Can you tell our readers something about the different cabins that are available on cruises and what to look out for?
Douglas: First-timers would be best advised to book an outside cabin (a cabin with an outside view) rather than an interior (no view) cabin. So, when you wake up, you wont be disoriented, and youll be able to see what the weather is like, which helps you decide what to wear each day. Typically, the more space you want, the higher the cost. Large suites with private balconies cost the most (some can measure up to 3000 square feet), while interior cabins that measure as little as 70 square feet will, of course, feel incredibly small. Typically, you get what you pay for. The average cabin size aboard today’s larger cruise ships (they are really floating resorts) would be approximately 180-200 square feet.
Norm: What type of clothing should I bring aboard?
Douglas: Take clothing suited to the area you will be cruising in. Remember that ships are air-conditioned, so clothing that is layered works well. If you choose to cruise in cold weather regions, take suitable outer clothing, particularly for excursions ashore (Alaska is an example). If you take a Caribbean cruise, you really could pack light (cottons and natural fibers being the best, as many Caribbean islands have a high humidity factor for much of the year). Most of the (large) resort ships have a very casual dress code, while others (particularly ships that offer cruises longer than seven days the industry standard) feature more formal dress codes. Tuxes are only really needed aboard Queen Mary 2 when doing a transatlantic crossing; otherwise, you can dress down and comfortable.
Norm: Is there always a doctor and clinic aboard the cruise ships?
Douglas: Almost all cruise ships carrying more than 50 passengers have a fully qualified medical doctor and nursing assistants, which also take care of the crew. Some of the larger ships have several doctors, surgical specialists, small operating rooms, full x-ray facilities, as well as extensive pharmacies. In other words, today’s cruise ships would be able to cope with most medical emergencies. However, if you take medication, remember to take an adequate supply (and if you have to fly to get to/from your cruise ship, take medication in your carry-on luggage just in case your checked-in luggage doesn’t quite make it on the same day, or to the same port you’re flying to).
Norm: Can I make telephone calls from the cruise ship?
Douglas: Almost all cruise ships are equipped with direct-dial satellite-linked telephone systems (and Internet connectivity). A few ships even have special aerials that let you use your mobile phone, although most ships lose mobile connectivity when more than a mile offshore. The cost of a direct-dial satellite call varies between about $4 and $10 per minute, so don’t use the telephone unless you have to-the charges can add up quickly.
Norm: What is the usual check-in schedule before the cruise takes off?
Douglas: Most cruise ships start embarkation about four hours prior to sailing. You would normally complete all paperwork and go through passport and security checks in a passenger terminal before being allowed to board your cruise ship. Today’s check-in procedure is relatively painless, although it can take some time if you are cruising aboard one of the larger ships, when there will be 3000 other passengers to check in (in other words, there will be lines just like at the post office).
Norm: What happens if someone has special dietary requests?
Douglas: Most cruise ships can handle special dietary requests, but do give advanced notice so that chefs can order and prepare any food items not normally carried. Its too late once the ship has sailed, so make your needs and requirements known at the time you book (this is when it’s better to book through an accredited cruise travel specialist rather than picking something off the Internet which doesn’t answer questions well).
Norm: How do you make payments on board?
Douglas: An onboard credit account will typically be established when you check in prior to embarkation. When you purchase things aboard ship (drinks or wine, for example), these items are added to your account, and charged to your credit card at the end of the cruise.
Norm: Should you tip while on aboard the ship?
Douglas: Some ships include tips, while others automatically add a tip to your daily onboard account (particularly the major cruise lines such as Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruises, Holland America Line, Norwegian Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, and Royal Caribbean International). However, on average you should plan on about $10 per day per person. Aboard the ships of some of the more upscale cruise lines, such as Radisson Seven Seas Cruises, SeaDream Yacht Club, Seabourn Cruise Lines, and Silversea Cruises, tips are included in the fare.
Norm: How safe are cruise ships and how can I find out more about a particular company’s record pertaining to its safety and cleanliness?
Douglas: Today’s cruise ships are extremely safe (nobody wants to work aboard an unsafe ship), and most are clean. However, of late, I have noticed that standards of cleanliness in cabins and public areas aboard some of the very large ships leave much to be desired (this is the effect of discounting, when lines cut personnel to keep prices artificially low). In general, if the same standards of food storage, handling, and hygiene that are practiced aboard today’s ships were to be applied to hotels and restaurants in the United States, most would fail consistently! In other words, ships are clean very clean.
Norm: If you had any important advice to offer our readers that has not been covered, what would it be?
Douglas: Do read the book Berlitz Publishing’s Ocean Cruising & Cruise Ships 2005, and you’ll be more educated than most travel agents. Bon Voyage, I wish you all a wonderful cruise vacation.
Thanks Douglas for your time.
For over thirty- five years, Norm Goldman practiced as a Title Attorney and Civil Law Notary in Montreal, Canada. After his retirement from the legal profession, Norm pursued two of his passions - book reviewing and travel writing, implementing many of his research skills he had been practicing for 35 years.
Norm and his wife Lily are a unique husband and wife team, writer and water colorist, who write and paint about romantic destinations and wedding destinations.
Basically, they meld art and words in order to create an unusual travel story, which generates interest, particularly because of the fact that each painting appears to have been ‘custom-made’ for the story-original story and original art.
Combining the watercolors with travel writing provides a softer, more romantic look at the places they visit.
As they specialize in web-based content, their articles and water- colors are featured on their own site, Sketchandtravel.Com, as well as several other sites.
To learn more about Norm and Lily you can visit their site:
http://www.sketchandtravel.com
“Why Market Online With eBooks?”
30 December 2008
Everyday the internet is used as a source of information. You can find information about hobbies, careers, gardening, art, computers, health, and just about anything else you can think of by simply searching for it online. The net is also booming with the promise of being a great way of making money from home. If you’ve decided to try to make an income online, though, you’ve found that you needed to take the time to learn how to effectively market your products or services and you probably ended up downloading or buying at least a few eBooks to show you how to successfully promote your business, affiliate programs or opportunities.
It’s no wonder then that one of the most popular products on the net right now both to buy and sell is information, and that creating and publishing your own eBooks can be a great way for you to earn a good living online while providing your customers with valuable information to increase thier income and effectively promote their businesses.
What Are The Advantages Of Starting A Business Selling eBooks?
* You can start your business at a very low cost.
* You have very little overhead costs once you get your business started. Whatever you sell is practically all profit.
* Your cost of production is very small. Your customers can download your eBook right from your website.
* Your eBook is delivered instantly to all your customers making the sales process automatic. You don’t have to worry about or spend money stocking or shipping your product.
* You can add as many eBooks to your product line as you want once you get started and increase your profits.
* You have the freedom that comes from running your own business — you can even further increase your profits by running an affiliate program.
Plus you can:
* Gain satisfaction from helping your customers successfully promote their businesses.
* Gain recognition and respect as an expert in your field.
* Gain a sense of accomplishment as a successfull business owner.
* Gain more time and freedom to do other things you’ve always wanted to.
And the great thing about marketing online with eBooks is that even if you create ebooks that you give away for free, you can still easily generate more traffic to your website and more profits for your business.
For instance:
* If you run an ezine where you promote your products or affiliate programs you can easily increase the circulation of your ezine by adding free eBooks as a bonus to subscribing to your publication. Allowing your subscribers to download eBooks you have written is a good way to show your subscribers that you are knowledgeable about marketing and can lead to them viewing you as an expert in your field. You can also increase your profits by including links in your eBooks to your affiliate programs or business. If you wanted to you could also include your eBooks in a members only site you create for your subscribers. Your members only site can have your eBooks, resources you think your subscribers will find valuable, and other sites you wish to promote. This also can be a great bonus to subscribing to your ezine and easily increase your subscriber base.
* If you give away free eBooks with your marketing information to your visitors, you can also allow your visitors to rebrand your eBooks with a link to their site, products or services for free. This allows your visitors to promote their site in your eBook for free while promoting your products at the same time. This can lead to hundreds or even thousands of people promoting your eBook with your opportunties for free all with very little work on your part.
* If you run an affiliate program, you can increase your business profits by creating eBooks for your affiliates to give away for free that they can rebrand with their affiliate URL. This can increase the income of your affiliates and also increase the amount of promotion you get from your affiliates. A win-win situation.
* You can allow your visitors to read the first few chapters of an eBook you’ve written before paying for the complete version. This allows your future customers to see that you offer useful, helpful information, to make sure what you offer is what they want, and it makes it easier for them to make the decision to buy from you.
And you can do much more if you set your mind to it. Not only can you write an eBook that deals with marketing or promotion, but you could write about anything that you are good at, or have knowledge about. What you do with your eBook is as limitless as your imagination. The choices are up to you.
How to Use Ebook To Achieve Your Marketing And Promotion Target
29 December 2008
There are innumerable ways to use ebooks to promote your business and drive quality traffic to your website. Once posted on your site, you can turn them into a daily course, which brings your customer back to read the next chapter. You can use them as a free gift for making a purchase or for filling out a survey. Put your ebook on a disc, and you will have an innovative brochure. Blow your competition away by inserting the disc into your sales packages.
The most effective marketing products are those that are unique. Copyright your ebook, and immediately, you have a powerful tool that you, and you alone, can offer to the public. People will have to visit your site to acquire your ebook, which increases the flow of quality traffic and the potential of sales and affiliate contacts.
Make sure that you keep your ebook current. Update it frequently as the market and trends change. Add new advice and techniques to show your prospects how your goods or services can enrich their lives. By constantly keeping abreast of new trends and techniques, you can continue to see profits from your ebook for years after your original creation.
Another phenomenal advantage of ebooks is that you can test their marketing potential without putting out hardly any cash at all. You can even produce an ebook one copy at a time, each time you receive an order, eliminating the need for storage and inventory. By this method, you can gauge the saleablity of your ebook, and make adjustments as necessary until the orders start pouring in. Ebooks allow you to learn about your market and customer habits and motivation over a period of time, without risking your precious financial resources. They also provide you with an invaluable way to gather marketing information, which you can use in many different facets of your business.
Use your ebook to discover what the specific goals and problems are in your specific industry. Then figure out how to solve these problems, and publish an ebook with this invaluable information. This will increase the value of your business, upgrade your reputation, and get you known as an expert in your field.
You can extend the value of single ebook by breaking the book down into chapters for a serial course, into special reports available on your website, or into audio or visual tapes. Ebooks can be broken down into several different promotional materials by excepting some of the articles and using them to promote yourproduct. You can include a catalog in your ebook to promote all the products or services you sell. You can include a thank-you note for reading your book and an invitation to download a trial version of your product. Or you can include a form for your audience to contact you for further information or with questions, thereby building your business relationships and your mailing list. Using ebooks in this manner helps to cut the cost of individually producing separate promotional materials. You can use a single ebook to entice new prospects and to sell new products to your current customers.
No other medium has this kind of flexibility and ability for expansion. Think of your ebook like spider spinning a beautiful and intricate web. Now go and create that web, and see how many customers and prospects you can catch!
Viral marketing the easy way
29 December 2008
Viral marketing is a powerful method of getting your message around. You start a self replicating mesage and launch it into cyberspace. Then it and the carriers that it “infects” does all the work for you.
A viral message has two parts, first it gets the receiver to carry out some action such as subscribe to your newsletter, or buy a product.
The second part of a viral message is to get the receiver to pass the message on. This is the self replicating bit, and the bit that makes viral marketing so special.
Great in theory, but it doesn’t always work in practice.
Why do some viral marketing efforts fail to spread as their originators intend, while others thrive?
Harvey Segal, an internet marketing expert, has spent some time figuring this out. He has identified that the problem lies in the self-replicating bit. Getting enough of your receiver to complete this process is the weakest link where many viral campaign fail. This is hardly rocket science…but let’s look at it carefully.
A popular method of viral marketing is to use rebrandable ebooks. You send out an ebook with some useful information in it. It contains some links which are of value to you, say to a product you are selling on your own account or as an affiliate.
To make the book viral you encourage the recipient to REBRAND the ebook with his or her own links and send it on. This is the incentive part of process. Your need to ensure that all recipients have the tools, the skills and the incentive to pass the message on.
The problem is that rebranding the book is a bit clumsy, typically you have to download and unzip a file, then run an executable file to put your own links into it. Maybe you need to sign up for a few affiliate programs and enter your ID’s. None of this is especially difficut but it can be a drag, even with detailed instructions. Harvey reckons this is where you get a lot of drop outs. If you get too many your program will grow very slowly,or even just die out.
As I said, none of this is rocket science, but what Harvey does to solve the problem of drop outs is very smart.
Instead of all of your recipients, and their recipients, having to go through the rebranding process Harvey has set up a method of doing it on the fly. So the weakest suddenly becomes very strong.
But that’s not all you need. A viral program needs powerful tools to teach recipients how to distribute the message further. Not all recipients will know how to use autoresponders, opt-in lists and forums. The message has to be packaged up with the means for its own replication.
Once you have set up your first viral ebook you will be full of ideas for more. Your experience will help you do it quicker and better next time around.