Feel free to use this article in your ezine and for posting at
your website. Please include the resource box at the end of the
article.

Thankyou

David McKenzie


Using 'Power' Words when Writing Articles

By David McKenzie

Capturing the attention of your reader is paramount when
writing free articles.

You can make the greatest impact in capturing your readers'
attention by having a good title.

One of the ways to do this is by using what I call 'Power'
words. By using these special words you can get the attention
of your reader much more quickly and easily.

But what are these 'Power' words that I am talking about?

For me they are something that makes me read on. Makes me want
to find out more. Makes me want to find out what's in it for me.

Power words are exciting words that draw the reader in.

For instance, the word powerful is a good power word. Exciting
is another good power word.

I have a list of power words I like to use from time to time to
make the greatest impact I can with my articles. Here are a few
of my power words from that list:

Free
Tips
Methods
Exclusive
Fantastic
Secrets
Success
New
Techniques
Opportunities

How about some examples of using these power words in the
titles of articles. Here are 3 examples:

17 Free Home Gardening Tips

An Exclusive Opportunity to Profit in Real Estate Developments

New Techniques Revealed for Stock Market Success


Do these titles grab your attention?

They should do, because they use power words. In fact, each
title uses 2 power words for maximum effect.

One of the key objectives of an article writer is to get their
article read by as many people as possible. The best way to do
this is by having their articles featured in as many ezines and
on as many web sites as possible.

When ezine owners and web site owners scan for articles to
feature they usually make an initial decision based on just the
title of the article.

By using power words you stand a much better chance of ezine
owners and web site owners picking up your article. Then you
can multiply many times over the number of people who will read
your article.

Resource Box
David McKenzie is offering a Free Email Course
"5 Secrets to Making Money Writing Free Articles"
==> http://www.brisney.com/how-to-write-free-articles.htm
Click now for your FREE course!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hello Everyone,

We have a special announcement just for online publishers. I
have known Rok Hrastnik for more than two years and have found
him to be extremely trustworthy. Please consider his offer for
a copy of his ebook, customized to further promote your ezine
or other offers.

Thank You,

Bill Platt
List Owner


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Sirs,

My name is Rok Hrastnik and I come from a small country in
Europe, Slovenia.

We have just developed a new free "success achieval,
spirituality and personal growth" eBook that we would like
to offer to you (personalized for your business of course)
for your visitors, subscribers and members. We will do this
free of charge.

The eBook is 36 pages long and is titled "Born to Win: Ideas
for Winning the Game of Life". We would equip it with your
URL (on every page) and also give you the chance to write a
special letter to your subscribers that would be placed
within the PDF file as an introduction to the eBook.

Since the eBook is not promotional, but mostly motivational
and success oriented, it could help you establish an even
deeper connection with your visitors and subscribers,
especially with the option of writing your own letter
(introduction) for your subscribers.

The eBook also includes viral elements and should also serve
you well as a free way of getting new subsribers using your
current subscriber base, or you may also use it to promote
anyone of your products or services. You can actually use
this eBook as your own promotional material or sales letter
for any products you are promoting or for your ezine for
example.

The eBook has been prepared in cooperation with Mr. Joe Vitale
(publisher) and has already been endorsed by people such as
Kevin Hogan, Blair Warren, David Garfinkel and others.

Some headlines from the eBook:

- The Foundation of Success
- Why Are Only Some People Successful in Their Life
- Advice Worth its Weight in Gold
- What is “True” Wealth?
- What the Future Holds for You
- Everything that Happens to You Depends on You Alone
- Nothing Comes by Itself: You Can’t Win a Lottery if You
   Don’t Buy a Ticket
- Life is a Discovery
- Your Thoughts Create Your Destiny

Please let me know whether you are interested so that I can
send you a courtesy copy of the eBook for your evaluation.
You can email me at rok.hrastnik@....

Thank you for your time and attention.

With respect,

Rok Hrastnik
Email: Rok.Hrastnik@...

Thanks for your interest in my article. This article is 183 words
long including resource box and is formatted to be 60 characters per
line. You have permission to use this article in your ezine, ebook or
on your website as long as you include the resource box along with
the article and neither the article or resource box are changed in
any way. Minor formatting changes are permitted. Thanks again for
your interest.

Quick Tip -Use Article Announcement Lists To Promote Your
Articles

One of the easiest and most effective ways to get your articles
to ezine publishers interested in running your articles is to
submit your articles to announcement lists.

These lists allow ezine publishers to receive your articles
individually in emails, in a digest form, or to view your
articles on the web where they will be archived.

Some good article lists for you to submit your articles to are:

1. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/article_announce/
2. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArticlePublisher/
3. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/free_content/
4. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free_eContent/
5. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Free-Reprint-Articles/
6. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreeWrites/
7. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/freezinecontent/
8. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/netwrite-publish-announce/
9. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/publisher_network/
10. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ReprintArticles-Paradise/
11. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WriteitPublish_Announce/
12. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheWriteArticles/

Once you write an article you would like to get published, use
announcement lists to get your articles to interested ezine
publishers.

You'll find that this will be an easy and effective way to get
your articles published and drive more targeted traffic to your
website.

Article © 2002 by writer, Ken Hill. Discover how you can
generate more profit online by writing articles. Get your FREE
4 part "Beginner's Guide To Profiting With Articles" marketing
course now at mailto:yourfreecourse@...

Article Title: The Secret and single-most Effective Step in Internet Marketing
Author Name:  Craig Lock
Contact Email Address: clock@...
Line Space: 60 characters (approx)
Category (key words):  Internet Marketing, Online Marketing,
Internet, Web (www).
Internet address: http://www.craiglock.com
Copyright Date: Copyright:  © Craig Lock 2002
Publishing Guidelines: This article may be freely reproduced electronically
or in print.

"We share what we know, so that others may grow."

                                              *

The Secret and single-most Effective Step in Internet Marketing

© Craig Lock 2002

..and best of all, it's FREE  (that "magic" online word)

What is it (I can't wait for the suspense a moment longer)?*

* see PS at the end of this article for a "bonus tip"

WRITE ARTICLES - for ezines (or online newsletters) and
article announcement lists.

WHY DO THAT?  WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS TO ME ("WIIFM")?

If it is well-written and most importantly, helpful and
informative, your article could become widely published  =

* Extra exposure (sounds rude that!)

* You'll "brand" yourself and your business. You then "make
a name" for yourself online;  so that you  become known
as an expert in your field.

* You'll gain people's trust, as you establish extra credibility
online, regarding your product or knowledge in your field.

* It's free advertising at its very best (ie. most effective).
Writers don't get paid. But on the other hand, they get
free advertising, which may be just as valuable...especially
as most writers live off tins of baked beans and carrots (no
wonder they are "arty-farty/airey-fairy types"!).
What's the difference between a writer and a large pizza?

The pizza can feed a family of four!

After that little joke at the expence of my "funny" occupation
(get a "proper job", Craig!), back to my point...

You are advertising your web site (in the form of your
resource box with your web site listed at the end of the
article); so that your www... could multiply all over the
internet, like a "marketing virus", a "bubonic plague" (that's
a metaphor, by the way!).

Now a little "info" on E-BOOKS...

When you have a number of useful articles
written and published, you could perhaps put them
all in the form of  an electronic book and offer them for download
on your web site. We've done this with my various articles
(internet marketing, writing, self help and money) at:
http://www.bridgeniche.com/ebooks/Ebooks.htm

At the end of each article is a resource box with
a link back to your main product site... and hopefully
you'll make some sales (especially if your site visitor
likes the style and content of your articles)!
(Incidentally, one of my main writing aims is to inform
in a "light breezy style", ie. inform + entertain at the
same time!).

Finally, if you're really adventurous and innovative,
you can even create an e-book and give it away for free.
Really good for promotion of your product or service.
Just place a link to your web site on each page of
your e-book. I've got the first three chapters of
my various books available as e-books at
http://www.bridgeniche.com/CLOCK/zaniestbooks.htm.

You are giving away free information (or entertainment)
of value (hopefully!).

No harm in all this, is there?  Now do you see the benefits
of article writing? Enough questions, Craig (like the Spanish
Inquisition!).

Lastly (and most importantly), writing ezine articles  HELPS
others out there in cyberspace. Though it takes quite a
bit of time and effort (even for us writers). Though you
don't have to be a writer to write good articles. I believe,
virtually ANYONE can do it.

The results for your efforts don't usually come overnight.
My advice is...Do a little writing and research on your
topic(s) every day...even if it's only an hour.

Just do it regularly and re-write your article (many times).
Re-read it aloud, so that it flows nicely.  With practice,
you'll get better in your article writing and your confidence
will increase in "leaps and bounds". Funny expression that,
like a "runny babbit" (that's a simile, by the way)!

Tourist to street vendor...
"How do I get to Carnegie Hall?"

"Practice, Sir, practice!"
Back to my point after that little interjection (my "grasshopper
mind" at work - creative minds are rarely tidy,
as my dear exasperated mother, Hazel, often said to me) .

Then just be very patient and the results DO come.

As the saying goes...

When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot
and hang on.  Success comes to those who ride out the
"ups and downs, the  highs and lows" of life
- the ones who stick with their dreams, never giving up.

To your internet marketing dreams in 2002

Craig Lock

P.S:

Hope this helps and best wishes in your newsletter article
writing and internet marketing strategy. Why not start
writing articles for the www?

The second half of the year could be a new beginning.
JUST BELIEVE! and WORK HARD.

YOU CAN DO IT.

Craig Lock
"Information and Inspiration distributor"
http://www.craiglock.com
http://www.craiglockbooks.com


P.S: The other "secret" in internet marketing, I believe,
is developing and marketing your OWN PRODUCT
or SERVICE. If you want to make "some real money"
on the www, my advice is don't bother with things,
like affiliate programmes. From our experiences, one
rarely makes much money for yourself with them.
Er sorry, all you affiliates "out there in cyberspace".
Just trust the amazing powers of your CREATIVE
IMAGINATION to come up with ideas here.
you'll probably surprise yourself at your creativity!

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead
where there is no path and leave a trail."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Enthusiasm is the match that lights the candle of achievement."
- William  Arthur Ward

"Your belief determines your action and your action
determines your results, but first you have to believe."

- Mark Victor Hansen

About the author

Craig Lock has been marketing products online for five years.
Craig is a writer, who believes in encouraging and helping
others to strive for and accomplish their dreams. He truly
believes people can overcome obstacles, rise to any occasion,
and accomplish their entire dream with enough faith.

Online Creative Writing Course
http://www.nzenterprise.com/writer/creative.html

Craig's various books are available at:
http://www.bridgeniche.com/CLOCK/zaniestbooks.htm

All proceeds go to needy and underprivileged children - MINE

THIS ARTICLE MAY BE FREELY PUBLISHED

P.S: Don't worry about the world ending today...
it's already tomorrow in "little" scenic and tranquil
New Zealand.

Title:  Fears: A Detour on the Road to Success
Author:  Boris Vene
Copyright: 2002

Article Originally Written: July, 2002

Article URL:
    http://ThePhantomWriters.com/free_content/d/v/fears_a_detour.shtml

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Fears: A Detour on the Road to Success
Copyright © 2002, Boris Vene
The Millionaire Mind
http://www.TheMillionaireMind.net/ezine.html?a2



If you are like most people, you are often confronted with
fears that hold you back - consciously or subconsciously.
Although you weren't born with them, you are under the strong
influence of the environment that implanted them. You might
even be tempted to think that worry and fear is the primary
base from which your actions stem.

Salespeople know of this powerful influence. People buy
truckloads of insurance in preparation for some disaster that
"might" happen. "It is better to be safe than sorry." Do you
have an extra set of keys (or two) for your house or car? Do
you buy food, drinks or even pills that will help you improve
your complexion or lose unwanted weight?

Whether it is a fear of losing something good, or getting
something bad, fear is a driving force that is always there ...

Why does someone behave rudely or arrogantly?

Because he or she is afraid of losing their "feeling of"
authoritative power, which would destroy or undermine his
or her position in society. You already know where jealousy
stems from - out of fear for you, wanting or losing something
you think you cannot have or the fear that someone else will
get what you feel "belongs to you."

New situations in life force you to confront a new set of
fears. You may even comfort yourself by saying it isn't so
bad. Have you ever made a doctor's appointment, a dentist
appointment or a hairstyling appointment only to arrive in
the respective waiting area with no pain or the best hair
day you've had in a long time? Now you want to go home.
Fear is a powerful motivator.

Some of the more common fears are:

1. Fear of the Unknown
2. Fear of Failure and Rejection
3. Fear of Loss (losing what you have)
4. Fear of Facing Reality
5. Fear of Disapproval

You have to deal with ALL of these fears if you want to
succeed.

You cannot deny them or banish them to your subconscious, as
that will only add fuel to a fire that will probably and
suddenly burst out beyond your control. Like fires, fears
are easiest to squelch when they are still small.

Confront your fears and banish them forever!

Start with ...

THE FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN

There isn’t a person alive that isn’t apprehensive, nervous
or even fearful of entering new territory, wandering into the
great unknown. What will it hold? How will it change you? Will
you be able to handle the situation or complete the task? Will
you know what to do and have the ability to do it? Will you be
laughed at? Will it be worth it?

One way of confronting the unknown is to recognize that without
action you will never escape mediocrity. The primary difference
between people who fulfill their dreams and those that don’t is
action – the former move from words to action, the latter never
get beyond the words.

Ask yourself:

What could I lose if I begin to act? Answer frankly. Typical
answers are time, pride and so on. You should note that these
answers are merely superficial.

What could I gain? An experience that will, without a doubt,
make you richer (maybe financially) and one that will bring
you closer, above all, to success. You shouldn't forget that
it is self-confidence, overcoming your fears and changing your
habits or undesirable attributes (like transforming yourself
from timid to outgoing) that bring you a step closer to
attaining your desires.

I remember a case where a young entrepreneur was taking an
exceptionally long time to decide whether to start a new
business that excited him, or not, because his mind told
him that he wouldn’t succeed. After a conversation we had,
he decided to start the business because he felt this was
his path. He didn’t succeed; in fact, the results were
pretty awful at first.

I was surprised a year later when I received a kind letter
from him thanking me for the time I had spent with him. He
wrote that he has been a changed man since then and that he
is enjoying what he is doing for the first time in his life.
He wasn’t doing well, financially, in the beginning, but
gradually he built a firm foundation and is now earning well.

“If I hadn’t made the choice and taken that first step,” he
added, “I wouldn’t have known that work exists that can bring
in both money and pleasure. My first financial failure was a
small price to pay for such awareness. More importantly, it
enabled me to identify the fear that had been present in all
my business and personal decisions in the past. Today, I laugh
at the limits I was living under then. Now, I’m happy to meet
new challenges and I have been succeeding in everything I do
lately.”

In 1991 my partner and I started construction of a large
corporate building. We put all of our savings into this
project. During that time there was a war in Slovenia and
alarms signaling a bomb attack often interrupted our work.
People asked me several times if there was any point in
continuing construction while the war lasted – what if the
building was destroyed? We decided to continue with our
project. Had we stopped construction then, maybe that
building wouldn’t have been finished until today, if ever.
However, by following our own instincts and remaining true
to our vision, that building has been serving the purpose
it was intended for, for more than ten years.

Is it worth it to miss an opportunity? Think.

If making a decision appears too difficult, take a piece of
paper, divide it in half and write out the pros and the cons.
More often than not, the “against” side is filled with
“circumstantial objections,” like “a lack of self-confidence,”
or “I don't have enough money or time.” The substance of these
objections cannot compare to the reasons “for” doing something.

Most of your reasons for not doing something are probably
based on weak excuses. If you are afraid of doing something,
your mind will find a way to make sure that you don't do it,
will even stand in your way and prevent you from doing
something that it perceives you do not want. Be sure to
address all your fears first and then take that piece of
paper in your hands once again.

Chase your fears away and consciously decide to take a chance
in life. Trust me, it's usually well worth the trouble!

Of course, the decision (as always in life) is still yours.



Resource Box:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Boris Vene is known as one of the most distinguished European
international speakers, motivators and personal coaches in the
areas of leadership, communication and development of human
potential. He has devoted his life to personal growth and the
discovery of human potential. He is know for the first time
sharing his vast experiences with the US audience through his
new free "The Millionaire Weekly Memo" eZine. Subscribe here:
http://www.TheMillionaireMind.net/ezine.html?a2
-----------------------------------------------------------------


Posted: Fri Aug  9 22:23:25 EDT 2002


For more articles by this author, please visit:

http://ThePhantomWriters.com/free_content/d/index.shtml#Boris_Vene

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SPECIAL NOTE: This article was first released on July 18th, 2002.
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    was the reason why the original delivery had failed. The
    carat is intended to help us bypass this filter, so that
    everyone who wanted to see this article can.

    Bill Platt - Owner
    http://thePhantomWriters.com Distribution Service
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Title:  Turning Demographics Into G^old
Author:  Joanne Fritz, Ph.D.
Copyright: 2002

Article Originally Written: June, 2002

Article URL:
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Turning Demographics Into G^old
Copyright © 2002, Joanne Fritz, Ph.D.
American Dream Publishing
http://www.notyetretired.com



Do you know who buys, or is likely to buy, your
products, services, or information?

If not, you should be looking for demographic
information that will help you make good marketing
decisions.

You do not have to be a research guru in order to use
demographic information. Just look for the results of
studies other people have done and then apply them to
your business.

For example, my audience is the mature market...people
over 50. There is a lot of data on this group and more
studies are being done daily. Some data I found
indicated that older people are avid readers. They
really like newspapers and magazines. If I was trying
to find clients for estate planning services, I would
know that I should advertise through newspapers and
magazines, rather than spend money on television.

Since my business is internet-based, this information
about reading tells me that I should provide a content-
rich web site for my older customers, and that mailing
a printed newsletter could be another way to develop my
customer relationships.

How do you find demographic data?  First, find out
who might be keeping tabs on your audience. I know, for
instance, that AARP surveys people over 50 constantly.
AARP makes that information available on its website.
I also know that Forrester Research
(http://www.forrester.com)
does studies on older people, along with many other
groups. Yankelovich Partners
(http://www.yankelovich.com/) has been a leader in
market research on older consumers; and Age Wave
(http://www.agewave.com/) collects tons of stats on
this market for its website.

Although AARP data is free, research firms sell their
information...often at prices that the small business
or entrepreneur cannot afford. But, by reading their
news releases and the snippets of data they make
available to the general public, you can glean quite a
bit. To find firms that do research on your
demographic, check out MarketResearch.com
(http://www.marketresearch.com/).

Another great source are the news release distribution
services. You can sign up to receive their news
releases by email. Common ones are Internet Wire
(http://www.internetwire.com), Internet News Bureau
(http://www.newsbureau.com), and PR Web
(http://www.prweb.com).

In addition, there are search tools you can use to make
your data collection easier. Copernicus
(http://www.copernic.com/desktop/index.html) is search
software that is downloaded to your computer. It will
search most search engines for keywords and phrases.
You can get a free trial version to see how it works.
Tracerlock (http://www.tracerlock.com) is a web-based
service that searches most of the news portals on the
web and then alerts you by email when it finds your
keywords. I have found this very useful and gladly pay
its monthly fee. Spyonit (http://www.spyonit.com) is a
free service that will spy on specific URLs or
keywords and phrases. It delivers what it finds to you
by email.

Don't overlook the magazines and journals that are
specific to your audience. For the older audience, I
keep an eye on the AARP magazines, Readers Digest,
Aging Today, and several others. Even a regular perusal
of the daily newspaper will yield lots of information.
USA Today is a great source of quick, easy-to-
understand statistical data. Take a look at the NYTimes
online, and sign up for The Wall Street Journal's
online version.

By casting your information "net" in this way, you are
more likely to come across data that will help you
devise better marketing strategies. In addition, you
will find a lot of content for your website and ezine.

Now, if I could just figure out how to use the fact
that the older market is an up and coming group for pet
supplies (it's true!).



Resource Box:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Joanne Fritz, Ph.D. owns American Dream Publishing. She
specializes in the mature market with three websites:
http://www.notyetretired.com
http://www.second50years.com
http://www.ebiz-for-seniors.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------


Posted: Thu Aug 9 22:24:16 EDT 2002


For more articles by this author, please visit:

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Title:  LookSmart is not Small Business Friendly
Author:  Lee Traupel
Copyright: 2002

Article Originally Written: May, 2002

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LookSmart is not Small Business Friendly
Copyright © 2002, Lee Traupel
Intelective Communications, Inc.
http://www.intelective.com



There is a firestorm of negative press regarding LookSmart's
recent marketing stumbles via numerous discussion groups,
including two of the oldest and most influential, I-Search
and I-Advertising Digests. Most of the critiques center on
LookSmart's inability to develop programs that are well
matched for SMB/SME ("small to medium business or enterprise"
with revenue in the $5-50M range), their lack of customer
responsiveness and the difficulty in managing their new
"pay per click" traffic generating program.

Many of us in the agency/marketing services world relied
upon LookSmart's directory in the early days; especially as
an offset to Yahoo's "my way or the highway" attitude when
they became the 200 pound gorilla in the marketplace So,
it's sad to say, but LookSmart appears to be morphing to
just another portal with little marketing awareness of
how to work effectively with the tens of millions of SMB
companies that have rapidly embraced a web-centric business
model.

One of the core issues that frustrates many small businesses
is the difficulty in getting a listing that actually describes
their company, products, services accurately - to add insult
to injury, you have to pay in some cases twice to have your
listing upgraded. Apparently, LookSmart's editorial staff
can't keep up with the demand, or is so pressured to maintain
some internal quote their descriptions suffer accordingly.

LookSmart's new "pay per click" "Small Business Listings"
program is simply not "small business friendly". It is a
complex program with lots of important details buried in
an FAQ that has to be read carefully as there are some
"gotchas" in the small print - including being forced to
wait up to 90 days for the return of the upfront deposit
of $150. and paying a setup fee for a listing; but having
it deactivated when you exceed the dollar amount of your
"monthly click limit." I can understand their dropping the
listing once you exceed your budget, but it does not seem
equitable to charge $49. to setup the listing in the first
place - your in essence subsidizing LookSmart's cost of
doing business.

We've found inconsistencies in LookSmart's stated Privacy
program versus inbound e-mail traffic we've received from
them over the past 3-6 months. We've unsubscribed 3-4 times
and still keep getting self-promotional marketing materials
which are not of any value, other than promoting LookSmart's
business. They are clearly not adhering to their stated privacy
policy and to compound matters, our complaints have not been
addressed via their customer service department.

So, if you're an SMB company what are your alternatives to
working with LookSmart? We would recommend your assessing
Google's new "AdWords Select" program which is geared more
for business of all sizes; but, I must warn you there is some
complexity in setting up this type of program as well. But,
you certainly get much more coverage with Google - their
rapidly becoming the dominant search engine du jour with
approximately 40% market share of all combined searches.

Inktomi's "Search Submit" program should also be assessed as
an alternative to working with LookSmart and as an adjunct
to an existing Search Engine or Marketing program. They have
partnered with some of the same companies that LookSmart is
working with, including MSN, AOL, iWon, and many others. They
offer very good value for the cost, charging a nominal fee
$39. for the first URL and $25. for additional URLs to have
your web site "crawled" (assessed or indexed) on a regular
basis for one year and sharing this information with the
most heavily used search engines on the web.

Finally, you may want to consider utilizing standard pay per
click ("PPC") search engines to drive qualified traffic to
your web site and/or looking at competitive PPC programs
offered by LookSmart's competitors including Yahoo, AOL, Alta
Vista and others. Overture (formerly GoTo) is the dominant
market leader in the pure PPC market that can deliver a great
deal of traffic. But, there are approximately 150 second tier
pay per click search engines operating at present and you
should be able to leverage your marketing costs by carefully
analyzing your "keyword costs" via some of these PPC search
engines including Kanoodle, FindWhat, Sprinks and many others.




Resource Box:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and
marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective
Communications, Inc. http://www.intelective.com, a marketing
services and software company which provides strategic and
tactical marketing services exclusively to small to medium
sized companies. Lee@... Reprinted with permission
from Intelective Communications - this article may be reprinted
freely, providing this attribution box remains intact.
(c) 2001-2002 by Intelective Communications, Inc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------


Posted: Fri Aug  9 23:38:52 EDT 2002


For more articles by this author, please visit:

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Title:  E-Mail Newsletter Marketing Essentials
Author:  Lee Traupel
Copyright: 2002

Article Originally Written: May, 2002

Article URL:
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E-Mail Newsletter Marketing Essentials
Copyright © 2002, Lee Traupel
Intelective Communications, Inc.
http://www.intelective.com



If Gutenberg were alive today he would be in publishing
heaven! Forget the printing press, the web has fast-forwarded
self-publishing in ways that are evolving so rapidly it's
becoming difficult to integrate technology and process to
leverage the opportunities. Any company, regardless of their
size and marketing resources should be publishing an opt-in
e-mail newsletter - it's a very low cost way to build community
with customers, keep suppliers/partners/other informed and
generate new business.

How do you get started? You must decide up front if you have
the marketing expertise to develop your "newsletter creative"
in-house and how you want to manage the distribution of your
newsletters. Many companies turn to agencies/marketing services
firms to help them develop the actual newsletter creative and
also outsource part of the process to ASP (Application Service
Providers), who handle all facets of the list distribution,
signup and ongoing management.

Content format can be critical to the effectiveness of your
newsletter - we typically don't recommend HTML (text with
images/graphics embedded) format unless our client's product
or service is very consumer-focused. Plain old text is not as
glamorous as HTML but it's a lot more effective in most cases -
people want information, not fancy eye candy that's appealing
to marketing geeks - keep your message, simple, to the point
and with customer success stories or references when/where you
can to drive credibility.

It's relatively simple to use a Word processor with a mail
merge program to integrate the addresses (depending on the
volume) with your message and then send out via your ISP. But,
doing it in house can be very time consuming - you have to deal
with inbound requests for people who want to be added to your
list,  "unsubscribes" (people who want to be deleted) and
integrate your web site into the process, so people can
automatically sign up with a back end auto-responder
(automatic message) that confirms their sign up.

Most companies utilize an Application Service Provider
("ASP") to outsource the list hosting, signup and unsubscribe
management processes and web site integration - typical costs
are under $50. per month based upon your number of subscribers
(on average up to 10-30K), frequency of your newsletter
mailing (rule of thumb would be 2-4 times per month) and other
specialized features, such as bounce back deletions (deleting
any e-mails that have a "bad address") and making the HTML
code available with a graphic to sign up people directly from
your web site.  Be forewarned, most list hosting providers
tell you up front they reserve the right to delete your account
if they catch you spamming thousands of people whose e-mail
addresses were not "opted in" (given to you with permission
to market to them).

What do you want to look for in an ASP List Hosting Provider?
You want great customer service, an online interface that
enables you to easily manage the process, the ability to
easily to cut and paste your text (newsletter copy), instant
distribution of your newsletter and the ability to know at a
glance how many subscribers you have on an ongoing basis and
the number of new subscribers and unsubscribers.

There are lots of list hosting companies out there - I'd
recommend including two on your short list. One of the oldest,
most well established companies that has consistently won rave
reviews for excellence in customer service is Sling Shot Media,
LLC www.listhost.net - they've been hosting since 1998 (ancient
in web time) and offer a wide range of consulting services
related to all aspects of newsletter marketing. The other
company to check out would be Microsoft's bCentral Services
www.bcentral.com which offers list hosting as one of its
services. I can't give them rave reviews for customer service,
as they make you pay extra for anything more than e-mail
support which can be a hassle at times. But, their list
hosting interface is easy to use, works well most of the
time and they are price competitive.

Finally, one of the biggest marketing challenges facing many
small to medium sized companies is generating a newsletter
subscriber list. I don't have sufficient space in this column
to address this challenge - but, it's a classic go/no go
situation; the longer you put it off the harder it becomes,
so get started, the upside rewards are too significant to
delay!



Resource Box:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Lee Traupel has 20 plus years of business development and
marketing experience - he is the founder of Intelective
Communications, Inc. http://www.intelective.com, a marketing
services and software company which provides strategic and
tactical marketing services exclusively to small to medium
sized companies. Lee@... Reprinted with permission
from Intelective Communications - this article may be reprinted
freely, providing this attribution box remains intact.
(c) 2001-2002 by Intelective Communications, Inc.
-----------------------------------------------------------------


Posted: Sat Aug 10 00:07:18 EDT 2002


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Title:  You Need SAUSAGE To Be Successful In Network Marketing!
Author:  Gordon Bellows
Copyright: 2002

Article Originally Written: July, 2002

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You Need SAUSAGE To Be Successful In Network Marketing!
Copyright © 2002, Gordon Bellows
Article Cafe
http://www.ArticleCafe.com



Being involved in network marketing (also known as MLM) can be
personally and financially rewarding. Being successful and having
a lucrative income doesn't just happen, it takes time and effort.
There is no guarantee of success. However, certain things can
greatly improve your chances of being successful.

By the way, if someone says they can guarantee your success, be
leery of such offers. There might be a proven formula that you
can follow, but your success still depends on your own efforts
and your ability to follow the proven methods.

This article uses the letters of the word sausage to represent
the fundamental things that are needed to have lasting success in
network marketing. It's an effective way to remember the basics.

S - System
A - Attitude
U - Understanding
S - Solutions
A - Action
G - Guidance
E - Enthusiasm

System - By system, I mean a way to advertise and promote your
opportunity. There are 3 main parts to a good system:
   1. Ads and promotions to get traffic coming to your site.
   2. An interesting site that makes people want to know more.
   3. Autoresponder messages to follow up with your prospects.
Many opportunities have their own marketing system. Also, someone
in the upline can tell you what works best for that opportunity.

Attitude - It is important to have a positive attitude. A big
part of that is believing in yourself and your product or
service. Your positive outlook and your success-oriented mind-set
can help give you the energy and the drive you need to accomplish
whatever goal you wish to attain.

Understanding - You need to understand that success and the
desired income does not happen overnight. You should know from
the start what is required in terms of time, effort, and money,
to reach your desired level of success. Find someone who has
reached a level of success you want to reach for yourself and ask
about the methods they used and how long it took to get there.
Keep in mind that even with a proven formula, different people
may get different results.

Solutions - Forget about trying to sell anything, offer solutions
instead! Most MLM businesses will have two types of solutions;
one type from the product or service and one type from the
opportunity itself. For example, if you provide long distance
phone service, it could be a solution to high phone bills. The
opportunity may be a solution for people who want to work from
home and spend more time with their children.

Action - You may have the World's best marketing system or an
experienced mentor to guide your every step, but you still need
to make it happen by taking action! You should have a weekly and
a monthly plan that you're able to follow. The plan should
include reviewing/updating ads, answering questions from your
prospects, participating in conference calls, and doing whatever
it takes to run your business.

Guidance - The successful people in an organization should offer
guidance and support to help others become successful. People
just getting started or people who want to take their business to
a higher level should seek out those who have already been down
that road. Helping others and passing along tips helps increase
the retention rate and makes the experience more profitable and
enjoyable for more people.

Enthusiasm - You should be enthusiastic because it will be
reflected in your phone calls and written messages. People
respond more favorably to what you say about your product or
opportunity when you are positive. It is good to be upbeat, but
don't overdo it. You can most likely think of someone you've met
who is so bubbly that they seem to be hyperactive and/or
hysterical.  That's not the best impression to make.

There are many good opportunities available. It's important to
check out the one that interests you the most and ask yourself if
you are ready to do what it takes to make things happen. The
basic approach outlined in this article, along with patience and
persistence, is what you need to increase your chances of being
successful in network marketing.



Resource Box:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Bellows is a business advisor and writer. He suffered from
various health problems for ten years until a remarkable product
changed his life. Only two weeks to better health, more energy!
It gets amazing results! All-natural, non-toxic, no side-effects.
Visit http://www.YourHealthKey.com to see what it can do for you.
It's your key to better health and wellness!
-----------------------------------------------------------------


Posted: Sat Aug 10 02:00:52 EDT 2002


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Title:  Do You Have The Four D's You Need For Success?
Author:  Gordon Bellows
Copyright: 2002

Article Originally Written: July, 2002

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Do You Have The Four D's You Need For Success?
Copyright © 2002, Gordon Bellows
Article Cafe
http://www.ArticleCafe.com



In order to achieve any amount of success in your life, it is
important that you understand four basic characteristics. Let's
call these four attributes the four D's of success, and they are
vital no matter what level of success you want.

Desire - Decision - Determination - Discipline

Desire is the most essential of the D's. Without desire, the
other fundamental things just don't matter. There are many things
we might like to have, and perhaps, we envy someone who already
has something we like. However, we are not very likely to have
these things for ourselves without desire. Not just a feeling of
wanting something or thinking it would be nice, but a deep-down
burning desire, a do-it-or-else attitude and a willingness to
make sacrifices to reach that goal. By sacrifices, I mean things
like giving up the extra servings to lose weight, watching less
TV to have more time available for a special project, doing
without a few things to be able to save money for a down payment
on a new house. Without a strong desire, the sacrifices may
become more of a dreaded chore than a means to an end, in which
case we are more likely to just give up and abandon the goal.

Decisions need to be made once you have a clear-cut desire. You
want to accomplish a specific goal and now you need to decide how
to do it. Decide on a method to reach your goal and how long it
might take to get there. You can usually find valuable
information that is related to your goal in a bookstore, the
library, or on the Internet. Other times, you might need to talk
to someone who has accomplished a similar goal. Also, decide what
sacrifices, if any, may be necessary for you to make in order to
reach your goal. Reaching a goal is often easier by breaking a
major goal into mini-goals, each one being a milestone in itself.

Determination and willpower are the traits you need to reach your
goal when you have a burning desire and you've made the decision
to take action and make something happen. There may be obstacles
on the way to your goal, but strength of mind and fortitude can
help keep you on track. It doesn't matter how fast you are moving
toward your goal as long as you keep moving in a positive
direction. You should be resolved to turn your desire into a
reality no matter what it takes.

Discipline can sometimes be the hardest D to handle. We may have
the best of intentions, but a moment of weakness can throw us off
track. It takes self-control and restraint to make sacrifices and
stick to the plan we decided upon. Every so often, we have to be
strict with ourselves and remember that the goal we seek is worth
the effort. If it becomes too hard to follow the plan, we might
need to revise the plan or the time it takes to get there.

Usually, what we desire most, is not the goal itself, but the
benefits that we experience when the goal is reached. The
following is a list of some goals and possible benefits:

Goal: lose weight         Benefit: look/feel better, more energy
Goal: plant a garden      Benefit: fresh food, exercise, nature
Goal: learn to play golf  Benefit: exercise, recreation
Goal: buy a motorhome     Benefit: travel, family outings
Goal: work at home        Benefit: freedom, more time with family
Goal: make more money     Benefit: better lifestyle, prestige

Take a moment to think about your desires. Chances are good that
you have desires that are strong enough for you to make the
decision to take action and make things happen!



Resource Box:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Bellows is a business advisor and writer. He suffered from
various health problems for ten years until a remarkable product
changed his life. Only two weeks to better health, more energy!
It gets amazing results! All-natural, non-toxic, no side-effects.
Visit http://www.YourHealthKey.com to see what it can do for you.
It's your key to better health and wellness!
-----------------------------------------------------------------


Posted: Sat Aug 10 02:25:18 EDT 2002


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http://ThePhantomWriters.com/free_content/d/index.shtml#Gordon_Bellows

We hope that the following article, based on our
online marketing experiences, may be informative
and helpful to your e-zine readers, or on your web site.
You have permission to publish this article  (formatted
to 60 characters, approx) electronically or in print. If my
article helps other "spaced out cyberspacers out* there"
in any way, then I'm happy.

"We share what we know, so that others may grow".

* enough "outs"

HOW TO BUILD CREDIBILITY ONLINE: THE "MAGIC" TEN STEPS

by Craig Lock

I find this a most interesting and somewhat complex subject,
as there has to be TRUST in any business relationship before
any exchange is made. This can be quite difficult to achieve,
when you have never met your customer (prospect) face to
face in another part of the country...or even the world.

Having been on the www over five years, here are a few
pointers that we find helpful in the online sales process:

1. Have your OWN DOMAIN NAME
(not expensive - less than $20 a year from www.000Domains.com
We have three of them at:
http://www.craiglock.com)
http://www.nzenterprise.com and
http://www.novelty-gift.com/

2. Offer GUARANTEES (money-back) on your products or services

N.B:

3. Emphasise transaction SECURITY in the form of a secure
payment system and a secure server.

4. OFFER TESTIMONIALS

5. Have a PRIVACY POLICY for your online business.
Offer a Privacy Statement

6. Have CONTACT INFO on your web site. People then know to
get hold of you, if they want further info... or if there is a problem
(they do occur from time to time, but a problem is only an
opportunity in disguise!).

7. Offer a BRIEF BIO - a little bit about yourself and how you are
qualified to offer your product or service. This builds trust in your
abilities.  Also have a picture of yourself (do they call it a photograph
still?). This shows that you are a "real live person". Must update my
"piccie" sometime.

8, Have a FEEDBACK FORM on your web site for visitors comments
about possible improvements... and finally and most importantly,

9. BE YOURSELF, YET BE PROFESSIONAL IN YOUR WRITING
(on your web site). Just be YOU, when writing script on your
website or in your ezine articles . Ensure the information is accurate -
write with absolute integrity and honesty.  Also suggest using a bit
of HUMOUR in your writing. I try to use a "dollop", as I believe
reading a computer screen is not a very exciting  pastime (except to
"geeks"). It's also a sedentary (big word) activity; so the least I can
do for our site visitors, as a reward,  is attempting informing and trying
to entertain at the same time with doses of  my "rather strange/wacky/
zany" humour.  Hopefully it works!

and finally,

10. "GIVE AND THOU SHALT RECEIVE."
GIVE FREE INFORMATION ... AND YOU WILL SURELY RECEIVE FAR
MORE IN RETURN.
(Everybody has unique knowledge and expertise in certain areas -
specialised skills, which can help others through SHARING). This is the basis
of "the Golden Rule", the Law of Giving, which is the basis of all the religions
of the world (I think!).

Follow all these steps and people then will be attracted to your web site
(and regular TRAFFIC is THE BASIS/KEY FOR/TO SALES), like bees to a
honey-pot (that's a simile, by the way!).


I hope this "non-technogeek info" may be helpful to you in your internet
marketing strategy.

Become a "busy internet marketing bee" in building your online credibility

Here's to finding your "pot of gold" at the end of the internet marketing
"rainbow".*

Craig Lock
"Information and Inspiration distributor"
http://www.craiglock.com
http://www.craiglockbooks.com

* that's a metaphore, BTW

About the author:
Craig Lock has been marketing products online for the past
five years. Craig is a writer, who believes in sharing information,
as well as encouraging and helping others to find their talents
and gifts, to strive for and accomplish their dreams in life  -
whatever they may be.

The various books Craig "felt inspired" to write  are available at:
http://www.nzenterprise.com/writer/books.html and
http://www.bridgeniche.com/CLOCK/zaniestbooks.htm

All proceeds go to needy and underprivileged children - MINE

THIS ARTICLE MAY BE FREELY PUBLISHED

P.S: Don't worry about the world ending today...
it's already tomorrow in "little" scenic and tranquil
New Zealand

Copyright (C) John Lundgren 2002- Permission is granted
to reprint this article as long as the resource box is
included. Please let me know when you use
article by emailing me at: johnl42@...
_____________________________________________________



Blink,Wave Or Scream-It's Auction Time!


Auctions are a kick, right?  Sometimes while thrusting my arm
in the air, I wish someone would give me a kick!  Anyway, I am
one of the arm wavers at your friendly corner auction.
Did I say friendly?  Yes, as friendly as a lion's den as
everyone competes for the pieces of meat! And to think that
I am a vegetarian!

Recently at an auction I attended, I  noted the various
styles of bidding and was especially fascinated by a technique
used by Mr Blink.  Mr Blink would sit looking as bored as a
lizard sitting on a rock.  When a fine piece of funiture came
up, he never flinched, but maybe he yawned.  As the bidders
drove the price skyward, old Mr Blink  waited in ambush.

Just as the bidding was about to come to an end, old Mr Blink
shot his hand up-only once.  From here on out, the only
part of his body to flinch were his eyelids.  Now the rift-raft
had long fled the scene and only three or four serious bidders
remained.  Everyone scanned the hall to locate the mysterious
bidders.  One remained hidden behind his inscrutable blink,
and later he loaded a nice piece of curly maple furniture
into his van.

Sure, the hall was filled with head nodders, ear pullers, and
head shakers, but this night Mr Blink ruled.  I began to realize
that there was an unwritten code between the auctioneer and
his high roller bidders.  Before the gavel hit the podium,
there was usually a quick glance at Mr Blink and other
bidders accustomed to bidding high and winning.

A closer look at Mr Blink revealed a cunning strategy.  Just
when someone thought the winning bid was theirs, Mr Blink
yanked the rug from under them.  His  late bid in the
the auction was a heart breaker for the competition and served
notice that his check book was prepared for battle.  Much of
the competition gave up without a fight.

Then an amorphous pile of debris came up for bid.   There was
a lull in the action as the auctioneer directed his eye
toward one of his most reliable bottom feeders.
Recognition by the man himself. This is powerful stuff and
the person's body reacts spasmodically.  There is no subtle
blinking of eyes, no tugging on ears, and no nodding of the
head.  An arm shoots skyward and the man shouts the word
SOLD! Yup, I defeated them all.  Where was Mr. Blink when
I needed him.

..........................................................

John Lundgren is a garage sale enthusiast and author
of, "How To Turn Your Garage Sale Into a Money
Machine."  Visit http://www.garagesalebonanza.com for free
tips. Send a blank email to garagesale@... for
a free course on garage sales and auctions.

Title:  Passively Acquiring New Subscribers by the Boatload
Author:  Bill Platt
Copyright: 2002

Article Originally Written: June, 2002

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Passively Acquiring New Subscribers by the Boatload
Copyright © 2002, Bill Platt
Bill Platt's Power Marketing Magazine
http://www.PowerMarketing.tk



First off, don't be lulled in by the title of this article
into believing that anything can be acquired by doing nothing.
People are always sending us emails telling us that we can make
millions online without any work.

Hogwash.

Stop to think for just a moment about the person who sent you
that garbage. How in the world did he send you the email you
are reading without first investing work to create the email,
and then investing hundreds of hours to send his garbage to
the masses?

Every person selling the "sitting on your ass" approach to
online success is busting his ass to sell you his garbage.
Think about that.

The truth is that success in anything requires hard work… lots
of hard work.

Having said this, let me now return to the subject of this
article:

    "Passively Acquiring New Subscribers by the Boatload"

By using this method, subscribers CAN be acquired by the
boatload! However, it must be noted that while these
subscribers are coming to you in a passive method, you
have in fact done a considerable work to position yourself
to take real advantage of this technique.

It is like the people who promise that you can make $5,000 in
a week by using a particular method. That may be true, but what
they did not tell you was that they had invested as much as 5
years work ahead of the $5,000 per week earnings! Nothing
happens overnight, not even on the web.

Everyone has pretty much seen by now the pop-ups that appear on
sites you visit on the web. These pop-ups offer all kinds of
goods and services to you. A lot of people complain that these
pop-up ads are really annoying, but the truth is that they do
work.

While it makes sense to offer a pop-up that tries to get your
visitor to subscribe to your ezine, it makes even more sense
to have this offer made on dozens of other websites. By joining
an advertising co-op, you can get your ad to appear in the
pop-ups on the sites of other folks, when you agree to do the
same for the co-op members.

The kind of pop-up ads I am talking about here is the pop-ups
that ask you to subscribe to any of ten ezines listed in the
pop-up ad. These pop-ups show a list of ezines with checkboxes
in front of them, so readers can pick and choose the ezines
that appeal to them for a new subscription.

Now, let's take this concept and apply the multiplication
power of  MLM to the equation. Imagine a system that lets you
advertise the program and anyone who signs up to the program
from your site is placed in your downline, permitting you to
gain exposure credits from those you recruit to complement
the exposure credits you earn from your own site's traffic.

In the old system of pure pop-ups with no matrix program built
into the system, your exposures in the program are limited by
the amount of traffic you can generate to your site and your
site alone. With the matrix built into the program, your
credits are determined by the exposures that you produce on
your site plus the exposures the pop-ups get on the websites
of those you recruit into this free program.

Add to this program cookie technology so that your pop-ups do
not serve to annoy your visitors. With the cookie, the pop-up
will only repeat itself on the same system after a two hour
delay.

This system I speak of lets you attract new subscribers for any
opt-in list for absolutely free! You can even begin earning
impression credits within a few minutes of signing up to the
program. For each exit pop-up page that you show, you get your
newsletter subscription box shown 4 times, which in turn will
lead to new subscribers through a passive means!

Once you have the ball in motion, this method will pretty much
take care of itself. The one thing to keep in mind here is that
you earn your advertising credits based on the traffic that you
and your downline is capable of generating. With this having
been said, let us look back to the $5,000 per week example
again.

The more traffic your site generates, the more opportunity you
have for your ad to be seen and for you to get new subscribers
through the system. This is where the hard work comes from. You
need to generate the traffic to improve your ability to be seen.

I loaded this program into my highest producing webpage. The
page by itself generates three thousand unique page views each
month, and has done so every month for the last three years.
I just did some updating to the page to improve even those
numbers so that I can gain even more exposure for my ezine.

I am able to log in each day to the page to check my current
statistics outlining impressions and new subscriptions to my
ezine. My ezine subscriptions had been kind of flat for the
last year or so because I had pretty much stopped advertising
it. However, with this one method, I am now generating a 2%
increase in subscriptions every week!

Now that is what I call Power Marketing!

To sign up for the program yourself, please visit:

    http://www.subscriberdrive.com/a/c.cgi?8085

Whether you are earning your credits from the ad impressions
that you give the co-op or the ad impressions that your downline
gives the co-op does not matter. What matters is that each of
these credits go towards helping you expose your ezine to the
new subscribers that you are looking to acquire for your ezine.



Resource Box:
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To subscribe to this monthly ezine, send a blank email to:
mailto:PowerMarketing-subscribe@...  Power Marketing
helps online businesses discover the success they have been
working hard to acquire. Make sure you are Working Smart
while you are Working Hard. http://PathTrax.com/x.pl/BP121,54
-----------------------------------------------------------------


Posted: Sat Aug 10 14:27:36 EDT 2002


For more articles by this author, please visit:

http://ThePhantomWriters.com/free_content/w/index.shtml#Bill_Platt

Title:  Define Yourself to Find Market Share
Author:  Bill Platt
Copyright: 2000-2002

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Define Yourself to Find Market Share
Copyright © 2000-2002, Bill Platt
Bill Platt's Power Marketing Magazine
http://www.PowerMarketing.tk



Sometimes, finding the right product or service to make your
own is to find someone else's version of the same product or
service and discovering ways to deliver it in a different way.

Someone once told me that I could not make it in a business
because there were already people in that particular business!

The thought struck me as stupid. That is why we have other
restaurants right. It was not enough to put a McDonalds in town,
we also had to build a Burger King, Wendy's, Carl's Junior,
Braums, Sonic and several more all of the local variety. All
of them offer us hamburgers, so why do we need more than one
of them?

Because diversity sells. They all make hamburgers, but each
one delivers the hamburger to us in a slightly different
fashion. Every single one of them are successful and have
been for years.

Just the other night, I read a story on the history of Root
Beer. They stated that in the 127+ years of history surrounding
the beverage, that there have been 8000 documented variations
of the same product. They believe that there may have been
100,000 variations of the same product, though they could
not verify the larger majority of them.

In today's market, there are just over 2000 variations of
Root Beer on the market. What differentiates one from another?
They all have the same basic ingredients, though they offer
some small differences in the ingredients. These slight
differences in the recipe makes for slight differences in
taste.

In the end, it is not the differences in taste that sells
more of one than the other. The difference that defines
market share is packaging and marketing.

So, make a determination of what your product or service
will be, then package it and market it in such a way that
people want your version as often, if not more than your
competition! Market your differences, not your similarities.

Diversity is the key to success. Packaging and Marketing are
the tools.



Resource Box:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Platt is owner of Bill Platt's Power Marketing Magazine.
To subscribe to this monthly ezine, send a blank email to:
mailto:PowerMarketing-subscribe@...  Power Marketing
helps online businesses discover the success they have been
working hard to acquire. Make sure you are Working Smart
while you are Working Hard. http://PathTrax.com/x.pl/BP121,57
-----------------------------------------------------------------


Posted: Sun Aug 11 02:10:17 EDT 2002


For more articles by this author, please visit:

http://ThePhantomWriters.com/free_content/w/index.shtml#Bill_Platt

We hope that the following article, based on our online
marketing experiences over the past 5 years, may be
informative and helpful to your e-zine readers, or on your
web site. You have permission to publish this article
(formatted to 60 characters, approx) electronically or in print.

"We share what we know, so that others may grow."

HOW TO MARKET YOURSELF AND YOUR BUSINESS ON A "SHOESTRING BUDGET"...
OR EVEN FOR FREE!

© Craig Lock 2002

(Please excuse my long title!)**

Here are  some tips in writing some articles to "spread the word" about
your business, as an internet marketing strategy...

..and especially on the smell of an oily rag"...


Me write an article! Yes, you can, because you know more
about YOUR business than anyone else on this planet.
And most importantly, I don't believe that you have to be a
"pro" writer to write good articles.

HOW TO GET STARTED?

To "kick off"...
Firstly pick a subject that YOU KNOW - a topic
that pertains (nice word that!) to your area of
business. You are the "expert" in it. Then write to
HELP others by sharing your unique knowledge or
experiences.  I believe, it's the BEST MARKETING TOOL
available.

And (can I begin a sentence with "an and" - yes)...
You DON'T have to be a good writer to write articles.


My advice is just find your "natural style" by writing
as you speak; as practicing writing in your "natural
style" breeds confidence. Then submit your articles
to ezines and announcement lists, like Article Announce
Free Content, Publisher Network, Article Xpress,
TheWriteArticles and Article Publish.

We find this marketing method by far the most effective
means of getting traffic to our various sites (and one thing
then leads to another)... and best of all the form of
BRANDING your busines in cyberspace costs nothing,
but a little time and effort!

Lately, all our marketing has been done through
writing articles (on internet marketing, writing,
money and self help) and submitting them to
the above-mentioned article announcement lists.

Often from there they get picked up by ezines with
large readerships - from 10000 ...to even ones with
millions of subscribers. True! These big ezine publishers
are continually looking for new and quality content,
particularly ORIGINAL material that can help others.

My advice is...
Write about what you KNOW - your areas of
knowledge and expertise, based on your
experiences. We find this strategy of SHARING
relevant and practical information most effective
of all in drawing traffic to our various web sites...
and best of all, it helps others "out there in the
vast void/realm of cyberspace". That is one of
the reasons why I write my various articles.

Here are some other points in writing articles for
the www:

Firstly,

* Identify your target audience.

* Keep your title reasonably short* *.

*  Keep your paragraphs short.

* Get to the point quickly (enough waffle with
maple syrup, Craig!).

* Target your article to your audience with
"focussed information".

* Use the occasional exclamation mark (!) to
get your readers attention.

* Make sure your article flows properly. Re-read
and re-read.

* Try to be concise in your wording. Brevity is
the hall-mark of good writing...or so say many
of the teachers of writing!

* Be credible (big word, eh?) at all times. I try
to write my articles in a "conversational style
with dashes of my funny humour".

*  Put some thought and effort into your heading -
again to get your reader's immediate attention.

* Use bullets in your articles - its makes the
points easy to follow (as I've used in this section).

*  Conclude with a strong message.  The final
paragraph should contain a message that
summarises your article, or gets your reader to
take further action.

* Offer a free report with your article  - this is
an easy way to collect a list of adresses for
marketing your product(s).   An instant target
market.

* Finally, make sure your layout is good  (not
one of my strong points!), as this greatly enhances
your prospects of getting published

Some prominent article writers say one should
write differently to one's natural style, when
writing for the web . I say , DON'T. Just write
what comes naturally...and BE YOURSELF.
Though you may have to be briefer than usual,
if you are a "waffler", like this writer. People want
immediate information online and have limited
time usually - it's the "instant coffee, er sorry,
generation.

The internet is such an amazing medium for
communication. I've just submitted this article
and it's been published almost instaneously (big
word!) in a few places. So YOU TOO can write
articles on your chosen subject in your internet
marketing efforts.
MORE TRAFFIC = INCREASED SALES

Your writing will improve with confidence...
so just take that FIRST STEP and watch what happens

Writers and internet marketers - Grab this moment in history
well.

"Carpe diem" (seize the moment!).

Happy writing and...

Just GO FOR IT

Craig Lock
"Information and Inspiration distributor"
http://www.craiglockbooks.com
http://www.craiglock.com

P.S:
As the ancient Chinese philosopher said so well,

"A journey of a thousand miles starts with a ...
broken fan belt and a flat tyre"...
er sorry...

a single step.

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin
it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
- Johan  Wolfgang Von  Goethe (German
philosopher)

The "original" Online Creative Writing Course
http://www.nzenterprise.com/writer/creative.html

Craig's various books are available at:
http://www.bridgeniche.com/CLOCK/zaniestbooks.htm

All proceeds go to needy and underprivileged children - MINE

THIS ARTICLE MAY BE FREELY PUBLISHED

"If you have knowledge, let others light a candle to it."
- Margaret Fuller

(That's a metaphore, btw)

PPS: Don't worry about the world ending today...
it's already tomorrow in "little" scenic and tranquil
New Zealand

Article Title: How to Make a Million - THINK like a Millionaire
Author Name:  Craig Lock
Contact Email Address: clock@...
Line Space: 60 characters (approx)
Category (key words):  Internet Marketing, Online Marketing,
Internet, Web (www).
Internet address: http://www.craiglock.com
Copyright Date: Copyright:  © Craig Lock 2002
Publishing Guidelines: This article may be freely reproduced electronically
or in print.

"We share what we know, so that you and your money
may grow".
                                              *

HOW TO MAKE A MILLION - THINK LIKE A MILLIONAIRE
(PART ONE ...of THREE)

© Craig Lock 2002

"Money can't buy you happiness. But it helps you to be
miserable in comfort."

Becoming a millionaire starts with one word...DESIRE.
You have to REALLY want wealth and prosperity...
for whatever end (reason) YOU want.

Then you have to really BELIEVE that you can achieve
it one day... no matter how deep in the "brown stuff"
you may be!

Here are a few misconceptions about millionaires:

Myth Number 1: Millionaires work 10 times as hard
as the ordinary man in the street.

Myth Number 2: Millionaires are more intelligent and
better educated than you and me.

Myth Number 3: Honest people don't get rich.

Myth Number 4: You need money to make money.

You may be surprised to learn that most millionaires
have "begged and borrowed" to get started. Some
have even been bankrupt and fired (there's a glimmer
of hope for me then!)

Financial prosperity and a fulfilling, well-lived life are
goals we can all achieve -- if we understand the
principles of success.

The main attraction of money is the FREEDOM to
choose your desired lifestyle. Earning a great deal
of money should not be for it's own sake. I really
believe that most people are too busy earning a
living to stop and think about how they could get
rich and solve their money problems... and that is
the reason haven't been able to do so.

Have you ever stopped to think through your particular
situation? Here are some ideas to help you get started
on the road to TRUE financial freedom. Look at each
one and apply them to your individual situation.

THNK HARD ABOUT WHAT YOU DO FOR A LIVING

Millionaires love their occupations. Work is leisure,
a hobby. Most millionaires continue working long
after they become wealthy.

"Do what you love, then you'll never have to do a
day's work in your life."

First, find an idea or concept (one that leads to the
birth of a PRODUCT) - one that people really want
and that can help make their lives easier in some
way (eg. save time, give more pleasure, save money
or make more money. (I "sell" information about how
to help people better manage their money and in
recent years I love sharing information, helping and
hopefully even "inspiring" people through my various
writings).

Don't give yourself a choice, an exit. Put your "back
to the wall" and "burn the bridges behind you."
(I didn't have many other options here in "Sleepy Hollow"
(provincial New Zealand); so I was forced to use the powers
of my creative imagination to the absolute fullest in "creating
a job", which I LOVE doing.). Take the first step in FAITH
and you will fly. If you display commitment and enthusiasm,
together with great faith, people whose skills you lack WILL
come to your aid to move you forward.

Your seemingly insurmountable problem can become
the greatest opportunity for your achievement. Make
the most of it and you will receive untold satisfaction!

"Great people are just ordiniary people, who find themselves
in extraordinary situations and who possess great (enough
"extraordinaries") amounts of determination."

ACQUIRE THE MENTALITY OF A MILLIONAIRE

Most people don't believe there are secrets to wealth --
they believe rich people are just "lucky." Most people
don't believe they can ever become rich.

It all starts with DESIRE: a DESIRE to be financially
independant and perhaps even wealthy. I believe
having substantial amounts of money gives one
choices and I would like to use it one day for good
to HELP other needy people, like other promising
writers.   Dream on, Craig!

Here's a joke or two about writers...

What's the difference between a writer and a family
pizza?
The pizza can feed a family of four!

What's the definition of an aspiring author?
A waiter!

Sorry waiters!

"Reach high, for stars lie hidden in your soul.
Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal."
- Pamela Vaull Starr

"You are never given a dream without also being given
the power to make it true."
- Richard Bach

When you come to the end of all the light you know,
and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown,
faith is knowing you will be given something solid to
stand on or you will be taught to fly.

- Edward Teller

Follow your dreams and fly high.

Craig Lock
"Information and Inspiration distributor"
http://www.craiglockbooks.com
http://www.craiglock.com

Craig's various books are available at:
http://www.bridgeniche.com/CLOCK/zaniestbooks.htm

All proceeds go to needy and underprivileged children - MINE

About the author:

Craig Lock has been involved in the personal finance field for
many years before becoming an author. He is a writer, who
believes in encouraging and helping others to find their talents
and gifts, to strive for and achieve their dreams in life,
whatever they may be.

Craig's money books are available at:
http://www.bridgeniche.com/CLOCK/zaniestbooks.htm

END OF PART ONE

THIS ARTICLE MAY BE FREELY PUBLISHED

P.S: Don't worry about the world ending today...
it's already tomorrow in "little" scenic and tranquil
New Zealand

Feel free to use this article in your ezine and for posting at
your website. Please include the resource box at the end of the
article.

Thankyou

David McKenzie


Give Away Something for Free!

By David McKenzie

Whether you operate your online business selling your own
products or re-selling other peoples' products through
affiliate programs, you need to give away something for free.

Like it or not, people online virtually expect to receive
something for free before they buy. In fact it is only usually
after they have received your free offer and have satisfied
themselves about the quality of the information before they go
on to buy.

It is even more important to give away quality free information
when you consider that your competitors are giving away
something for free. If you are not giving away something for
free, these visitors (or potential customers) will go elsewhere
- somewhere where they can get free stuff.

What should you give away? What can you offer?

Here are 3 things you could give away free to your visitors:

1. A Free Ebook

Give a free ebook away on your web site or as a free bonus
when signing up to your newsletter. I personally download free
ebooks all the time. Most of them have really good information.
It does not have to be that long; an ebooklet could be 10 to 20
pages long.

2. A Free Email Course

Develop an email course available by autoresponder and give it
away free. It could be just a simple 5 day email course on
internet tips. Anything of value you think you could give away
for free. At the moment email courses are VERY popular.

3. Free Membership

Consider offering a members only section on your web site and
give away a free trial membership. You could offer the first
month for free. People really love being part of a members only
area and if you give away a free trial period it gives them a
chance to see what they might be missing out on.

The big benefit about giving away free stuff is that you get a
very important item - an email address. An email address can be
your source for internet success.

As most people only start considering buying something after
being exposed to an offer more than 5 times, you really need to
get that email address. By giving away something for free you
can ask for the email address in return.

Instead of just a casual 1 time visitor you might get a
customer for life. All because you gave away something for free!

Resource Box
David McKenzie is offering a Free Email Course
"5 Tips to Being Successful with Affiliate Programs"
==> http://www.1sthomebasedbusiness.com
Click now for your FREE course!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Article Title: How to Make a Million - THINK like a Millionaire (Part Two)
Author Name:  Craig Lock
Contact Email Address: clock@...
Line Space: 60 characters (approx)
Category (key words):  Internet Marketing, Online Marketing,
Internet, Web (www).
Internet address: http://www.novelty-gift.com
Copyright Date: Copyright:  © Craig Lock 2002
Publishing Guidelines: This article may be freely reproduced electronically
or in print.

"We share what we know, so that you and your money
may grow".
                                              *

HOW TO MAKE A MILLION - THINK LIKE A MILLIONAIRE
(PART TWO...of THREE)

© Craig Lock 2002

"Money can't buy you happiness. But it helps you to be
miserable in comfort."


* FOCUS ON A GOAL. Write down the amount of money
you want and how much time you'll allow yourself to
acquire it. In order to achieve monetary wealth, you
need an amount and a deadline to aim toward.

There is magic in having a quantified objective working
on your sub-conscious mind. If you don't know where
you're heading, chances are you'll never get anywhere.

What do we ask from life? Ninety-nine out of one
hundred people don't even think about it.

You be the exception to the rule and write down
your goals, your wants, your dreams, your desires.


Stretch yourself. "The greatest limitations are those
man imposes upon himself." Therefore, the greatest
obstacle to your success is a mental obstacle. Do
things differently and ignore the objections of "rational"
people.

Set yourself an objective initially that is reasonable,
yet bold (within reach, but ambitious), so you are
forced to extend yourself to reach it). Most people
are overly conservative and too scared to dream.
Expand your mental boundaries - don't be a creature
of habit with your mental limitations.

TAP YOUR INNER RESOURCES

"Character is destiny."

DESIRE will sustain your thoughts. The more
passionate your desire, the quicker you will make it
happen.

Benefit from the knowledge ("the pearls of wisdom")
found in books, like this one (shameless plug!).

Read books and keep repeating positive words. The
repetition of affirmations really works by imprinting
positive thoughts on your mind.

NEVER GIVE UP

Mastering our own destiny and fulfilling our dreams
is our ultimate purpose in life. In so doing, you can
(and WILL) glorify God, the Universe, the Great Creator
and "Source of our Being."

Find your passion and extend your goals. Love what
you do. Find work that satisfies you and you will have
found your passion.

MASTER THE UNCONSCIOUS (SUBCONSCIOUS)
MIND

I believe it is how God, the Universe speaks to us
individually - the "connecting link" between us and
the Divine - the way the spiritual turns into thought,
ideas and "physical action," in the form of a PLAN.
Accept it (your feelings, your "heart") as the truth and
you will. If you have faith that you will accomplish
something, you will. BELIEF IS THE SECRET.

The more you internalize it (a fancy term used by
those 'psycho types'), which simply means making
it real within you), the more powerful it becomes.

"You can do very little with faith, but you can do
nothing without it." - Samuel Butler

Your unconscious mind is extremely susceptible to
the power of words and it can be easily influenced.
Words like "can't" engrave themselves in the
unconscious; so that negative thoughts and feelings
become your self-image. To become rich you have to
create a new self-image: one of thinking wealth and
prosperity. Self-image depends largely on your
expectation about who you're going to be.

So work on your SELF-IMAGE. Believe in your
uniqueness and ability to make your own special
contribution to the world  - no matter how small, or
how dull, or unintelligent you think you may be.
Everybody has some unique talent and there is no
other like you in this world. There is a seed of
greatness in each one of us - a precious resource to
achieve something unique in our lives.

Craig Lock

"Information and Inspiration distributor"
http://www.craiglockbooks.com
http://www.craiglock.com

About the author:

Craig Lock has been involved in the personal finance field for
many years before becoming an author. He is a writer, who
believes in encouraging and helping others to find their talents
and gifts, to strive for and achieve their dreams in life,
whatever they may be.

Craig's various books are available at:
http://www.novelty-gift.com/ebooks.html and
http://www.bridgeniche.com/CLOCK/zaniestbooks.htm

All proceeds go to needy and underprivileged children - MINE
Cut that out, Craig... and THINK like a millionaire!

END OF PART TWO

THIS ARTICLE MAY BE FREELY PUBLISHED

P.S: Don't worry about the world ending today...
it's already tomorrow in "little" scenic and tranquil
New Zealand

We hope that the following article, based on our internet
marketing experiences, may be informative and
helpful to your e-zine readers, or on your web site.
You have permission to publish this piece (formatted to 60
characters, approx) electronically or in print. If it
helps other people "out there" in any way, then I'm happy.

"We share what we know, so that others may grow."

SOME HELPFUL HINTS IN WRITING ARTICLES FOR THE WEB
- TWENTY FIVE TIPS

© Craig Lock 2002

Writing articles can provide you with enormous
amount of exposure on the Web. You are branding
yourself on a shoestring budget - it hasn't cost you a
cent, but a little time and effort Writing a free content
article is simple and follows a similar professional
approach as an article for a standard, paying market.

People want quality content : for their ezines and their
web sites .; however, the competition for content is
fierce.  Every Web site owner wants content and
hundreds of writers want their content visible on the
Web It's FREE promotion through your signature file
at the end of your article*  Articles that give good
information or explain how to accomplish something
are usually best, and will be read most often.

Here are some  pointers in writing articles for the www:

1. Accept that writing for the web is different to
writing for the off-line world. People tend to skim and
scan (note alliteration) when reading online.  They
read quickly scrolling down the page.

2. Identify your target audience.

3. Give your article a catchy title that will grab
attention and make people want to read.

4. Keep your title reasonably short. Put some thought
and effort into your heading - again to get your reader's
immediate attention.

5. Be professional and take your article writing seriously.
Write about something you know professionally. Don't
be overly casual in your writing (ie. don't write exactly
as you speak)

6.  Keep your paragraphs short.

7.  Get to the point quickly (enough waffle with
maple syrup, Craig!).

8.  Target your article to your audience with "focussed
information".

9.  Be brief, if you are a "waffler", like this writer.
People want immediate information online and have
limitedtime usually - it's the "instant coffee, sorry
generation.

10.  Write briefly and concisely (redundant words,
meaning the same thing, Craig!). Try to keep your
article under 1,500 words.  Most paying markets
usually only accept between 500 and 2,000 words...
and with a bit of luck they may even "pick up" your
great article. Try to be concise in your wording. Brevity
is the hall-mark of good writing...or so say many of the
teachers of writing!

11.  Use the OCCASIONAL exclamation mark (!) to
get your readers attention.  Forget the ALL CAPITAL
LETTERS and  exclamation points!!!

12.  Be credible (big word, eh?) at all times.I try to
write my articles in a "conversational style with dashes
of my funny humour".

13.  Use HUMOUR. People like to have a bit of fun
with the occasional laugh, whilst being informed on a
serious subject. At least I believe so!

14.  Write from "your heart", so that you come across
as a REAL person. Just write what comes naturally
with INTEGRITY...and BE YOURSELF.

15.  Be totally honest in your writing and don't
"borrow" too much from others content.  It's so easy
to "steal" on the www - so do your own work and if
you "borrow ideas or material, ACKNOWLEDGE.
"Incidentally,  I have borrowed some ideas in this article
from some good writers and well-known internet
marketers - thanks a lot, David, Michael, John, Meredith,
Joe and Edward).

16.  Be humble…and don't talk down to your readers.

17.  Use bullets (not live, please) in your articles -
it makes the points easy to follow.

18.  Don't forget your byline ...or your "business card".
Make sure that you resource box at the end of the
article provides enough information to identify yourself
and provide contact information.  It's FREE advertising.

19.  Offer a free report with your article  - this is an
easy way to collect a list of adresses for marketing your
product(s).   An instant target market.

20.  Check all the links in your article before submitting it.

21.  Offer your articles by autoresponder

22.  Conclude with a strong message. Your final point
(and paragraph) should be a message that summarises
your  article or gets your reader to take further action,
like  "GET STARTED" (as I've done in this article).

23.  Finally, make sure your layout is good  (not one
of my strong points!), as this greatly enhances your
prospects of getting published Use a spell-check. Go
over your article carefully and be an editor yourself.

24.  Make sure your article flows properly.

25.  Re-read and re-read, until you get it "just right."
"Aim for perfection, but settle for excellence" in your
article writing.

SUMMARY:

The internet is such an amazing medium for
communication and SHARING information. I've just
submitted this article and it's been published  almost
instaneously (big word!) in a few places. So YOU TOO
can write articles on yourchosen subject in your internet
marketing efforts.   MORE TRAFFIC = INCREASED
SALES

Writers and internet marketers - Grab this moment in
history well. "Carpe diem" (seize the moment!).

Why not start writing articles for the www?

YOU CAN DO IT.

Craig Lock

"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."
- Johan  Wolfgang Von  Goethe (German philosopher)

"Whatever, you want to do or dream you can do,
the hardest part is making a beginning.
Once you take that first step in following your heart, your
dreams the rest will follow naturally...
and lead to who know's where."
- Craig Lock

"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage
to pursue them."
- Walt Disney

P.S: I hope that these tips help in your article writing .
In my opinion it's the best internet marketing strategy.

To your internet marketing dreams

Happy writing

Craig Lock
"Information and Inspiration distributor"
http://www.craiglock.com
http://www.novelty-gift.com/ebooks.html
http://www.craiglockbooks.com

About the writer:
Craig is a writer, who believes in encouraging and helping
others to find their talents and gifts, strive for and achieve
their dreams in life, whatever they may be. He truly believes
people can overcome obstacles, rise to any occasion and
accomplish their entire dream with enough faith and
commitment.

THIS ARTICLE MAY BE FREELY PUBLISHED.

We hope that the following article may be informative
and helpful to your e-zine readers, or on your web site.
Please feel free to publish this piece in your ezine or web site.

"We share what we know, so that others may grow".

WRITING FOR PUBLICITY AND FOR PROFIT ON THE WEB

© Craig Lock 2002

I sincerely believe that there has never been a better time in
history for we (or is it us?) writers to making a comfortable living
on the internet.

The World Wide Web offers you an opportunity, unique in history,
  to speak directly to millions of potential customers. Some
commentators advise that if you want to be listened to,
speak to them "in their language".
I only partially agree (but then, I'm always breaking the rules!)...


When I write articles for "the international market" of the net,
I don't target particular countries and try to adapt my writing
style. I've found that people around the world don't seem to
mind the fact that I may use "funny" words or spelling - small
details, like "s's"  instead of "z's", color or colour...as long as the
grammar is reasonably correct. I just try to write in my "natural
style" - one in which I feel comfortable (seeing I was brought
upin South Africa with British English) and suggest you "foreign"
writers do the same.

Incidentally, I put this short note at the end of some of my articles...

"PS:
Dear Americans, please excuse my"strange" British English spelling.
Very Colonial! I just write and use my own style and spelling -
one that I'm accustomed to (sounds funny that ending
]sentence n a "preppie").  I am quite happy for these articles
to be used and distributed by other electronic and other
magazines.If they help others out there in any way, then
I'm happy."

To sum up...
My advice is just find your "natural style" by writing as you
speak- as practice writing in your "natural style" breeds
confidence. Then submit your articles to ezines and
announcement lists, like Article Announce, Free Content,
Publish In Yours, ArticleXpress and Article Publish. I find
this marketing method by far the most effective means of
getting traffic to our various sites (and one thing then leads
to another)...
and best of all it costs nothing, but a little time and effort!

Lately, all our marketing has been done through writing
articles (on internet marketing, writing, money and self help)
and submitting them to the article announcement lists
mentioned before.  Often from there they get picked up by
ezines with large readerships - from 10000 ...to even ones
with millions of subscribers. True! These big ezine publishers
are continually looking for new and quality content, particularly
ORIGINAL material that can help others.

My advice is...
Write about what you KNOW - your areas of knowledge and
expertise, based on your experiences. We find this strategy
of SHARING relevant and practical information most effective
of all in drawing traffic to our various web sites... and best
of all, it helps others "out there in the vast void/realm of
cyberspace". That is why I write.

Here is my "dime's worth" (see learning "American English" ,
or at least your expressions already) on the subject of writing
for an international audience on the world wide web. The
Web offers you an opportunity, unique in history, to speak
directly to millions of potential customers. Some
commentators advise that if you want to be listened to,
speak to them "in their language".
I only partially agree (but then, I'm always breaking the rules
- story of my life!).

Here are some other points in writing articles for the www:

Firstly,

* Identify your target audience.

* Keep your title reasonably short.

*  Keep your paragraphs short.

* Get to the point quickly (enough waffle with maple syrup, Craig!).

* Target your article to your audience with "focussed information".

* Never use a big word, when a dimunitive will do.

* Use the occasional exclamation mark (!) to get your readers
attention!

* Make sure your article flows properly. Re-read and re-read.

*  Try to be concise.

* Be credible (big word, eh?) at all times. I try to write my articles
  in a "conversational style".

*  Put some thought and effort into your heading - again to get your
reader's immediate attention.

* Use bullets in your lay-out - easy to read in point form...but be extremely
security conscious, when "checking in" your articles. Bang bang !
(oops, er sorry - bad taste).

3.......
*  Conclude with a strong message. A message that summarises
your article or gets your reader to take further action

* Offer a free report with your article  - you can collect a list of adresses
for marketing your products.

* Finally, make sure your layout is good  (not one of my
strong points!), as this greatly enhances your prospects
of getting published

Some prominent article writers say one should write differently
to one's natural style , when writing for the web . I say , DON'T .
Just write what comes naturally...and BE YOURSELF. Though you
may have to be briefer than usual, if you are a "waffler", like this
writer. People want immediate information online and have limited
time usually - it's the "instant cofffee, sorry generation.

The internet is such an amazing medium for communication.
I've just submitted this article and it's been published
almost instaneously (big word!) in a few places.
So YOU TOO can write articles on your chosen subject in
your internet marketing efforts.
MORE TRAFFIC = INCREASED SALES

Writers and internet marketers - Grab this moment in history
well.

"Carpe diem" (seize the moment!).

Happy writing and...

Just GO FOR IT

Craig Lock

P.S:

On re-reading this short piece, found I used a lot of "eyes".
Very "ego-centric" (big word). Sorry, but didn't know how
to write it any other way based on my experiences!

Hope this may help you readers "out there in cyberspace".

Craig Lock
"Information and Inspiration distributor"
http://www.craiglock.com
http://www.novelty-gift.com/ebooks.html
http://www.craiglockbooks.com

Hard copies and e-books: Fiction and non-fiction, novels
travel, humour, inspiration and self help.

Creative Writing Course
http://www.nzenterprise.com/writer/creative.html

THIS ARTICLE MAY BE FREELY PUBLISHED.

We hope that the following article (which was extracted from a
lesson on our online creative writing course) may be informative
and helpful to your e-zine readers, or on your web site.
You have permission to publish this article (formatted to 60
characters, approx) electronically or in print.  If it helps others
"out there" in any way, then we're happy.

"We share what we know, so that others may grow."

HOW TO "WRITE TO WIN" - WHAT ARE THE "SECRETS" OF
WRITING SUCCESS?

by Craig Lock

"If a man has talent and cannot use it, he has failed.  If
he has a talent and uses only half of it, he has partly failed.
If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of
it, he has gloriously succeeded and has a satisfaction and
a triumph few men ever know."
- Thomas Wolfe

"Everyone has a talent.  What is rare is the courage to
follow the talent to the dark place where it leads."
-  Erica Jong

Funnily enough, I don't believe there are any magic 'secrets'
to writing success. If so, I'm still trying to discover them.
So I'll cover this subject very briefly, because I don't know
the answers. It's really all common sense, following your
basic instincts and having a bit of fun at the same time.
Just BE YOU and write what your heart, your imagination
tells you to write. The writer or author is a puppeteer,
moulding the clay through the words that you choose.
You weave the strands of the article or story together,
through use of your creative imagination.

You start your article, short story or novel with an idea.
You decide HOW you will start: "Once upon a time". (This
could be the little child emerging from the depths of your
soul). Sounds very "airy-fairy" that, like many "arty farty
writer types"!

You perhaps got the plot from a television programme
or a newspaper article. The plots of some of my novels
came from newspaper articles.

Then you make choices as you go along: to base your
story upon fact or fiction, or faction (a mixture of fact and
fiction - I like that genre (impressive word that - must use
it more often!).  You choose the track. You are the director,
producer and actor: YOU set the scene, decide whether it
is to be local or foreign. It's up to you HOW you describe
the landscape or surrounding environment.

You decide on the characters and how you will describe
them. To let them live or die? What immense power you
have to determine destinies! Whether to have a happy or
sad ending?
"And they all lived happily ever after...."

A few short words of advice to end off this lesson...
Make your writing FUN and get readers (and the editor)
"hooked" with a good opening paragraph and an even
better opening line.

What do you think of this example by Charles Dickens from
"A Tale of Two Cities"?

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was
the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the
epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the
season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the
spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had
everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were
all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other
way - in short, the period was so far like the present period,
that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being
received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of
comparison only."

I find it excellent and powerful writing; but quite "heavy
reading". What did you think of that style of writing?

How's this for an opening line for a novel?

"James walked into the hotel and it was as if he was struck
by a bolt of lightning. He instantly went into a state of shock,
as the past ten years of his life flashed through his mind, as
in an instant replay.  It was too much to all take in in a
second. His legs began to tremble, as if they had turned
into instant jelly. They could barely hold his slight frame,
as he struggled with all his might to hold his body upright.
Out of his numbness he could see seated at the end of the
bar the face of the man that was indelibly printed on the
deepest recesses of his subconscious mind, the striking
features that had haunted him all those years.  It was
the same mysterious man, who in an instant had turned
his entire world upside down and consumed James's
every waking thought for the past decade."

Was that "a bit over-the-top" writing?
"Did I need to say "mysterious man"? Do you want to read on?

Perhaps that could be the first paragraph of my next book?
Would you be interested in reading a book with a beginning, like that?

Or this one from my novel "Angolan Dawn"

"It was just getting light with that certain freshness in
the air of early morning. Albertina Kangombe saw the
figure of her husband Marcelino receding in the distance
down the sandy track, walking slowly down the gentle hill.
She saw him turn around once to look at her but he could
not see the tears of sadness running down her face. She
wondered when she would see her dear, strong husband
again. He was a tall man but he became smaller and
smaller as she saw him gradually receding into the distance
on that early January morning. And then he was gone...

Time to end off (I've done enough "work" re-writing this
lesson) already....

Stimulate your imagination to the fullest. then go with the
flow. Observe life and jot down notes about your thoughts
and feelings . Then "make the words dance to your tune".

"Don't spend your days, stringing your instrument - start
making your own brand of music right NOW. "

See you next week, when we'll talk more about style and
grammar. Oh no, not another boring lesson!

I hope this  information may be helpful to you in your creative writing.

Happy writing

Craig Lock

"Information and Inspiration distributor"
http://www.craiglock.com
http://www.craiglockbooks.com
http://www.novelty-gift.com/ebooks.html

"Life is about finding, then following the dream...
and one's dream/vision comes to reality through believing in
yourself, making the commitment and then creating it."
- Craig Lock

Craig's "original" online creative writing course is at:
http://www.nzenterprise.com/writer/creative.html

THIS ARTICLE MAY BE FREELY PUBLISHED

"Light your own candle from the flaming fountain of knowledge."

That's a metaphor, by the way!

Title:  How the War Against S^p^a^m is Killing the Internet
Author:  Bill Platt
Copyright: 2002

Article Originally Written: August, 2002

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How the War Against S^p^a^m is Killing the Internet
Copyright © 2002, Bill Platt
The Phantom Writers
http://thePhantomWriters.com



    (AUTHOR NOTE: Notice the use of the carat < ^ > character
     within words. These have been included to assure that ISP
     filters do not reject this article on the subject of Sp^am
     and Sp^am Filters.)


Hands down, email is the most widely used and loved computer
application brought to life by the Internet.

According to the publication 'Messaging Today' (2000 Electronic
Mailbox Report - Feb. 21, 2001), "Email is the most successful
communications technology since the television, and in a few
years will even surpass that. There are currently more than 891
million email accounts in use Worldwide and 440 million in the
U.S. alone - with an average of more than 4 email accounts per
person."

While more than 200 million of us use and enjoy email, there
are a few thousand people abusing the system and damaging the
communication potential of email for the rest of us.


SP^AMMERS ARE THE ENEMY OF US ALL!

The most common forms of email abuse are as follows:

- Using email harves^ters (software which gathers email
   addresses from the Internet for the purpose of sending
   sp^am messages).
- Selling the addresses gathered from an actual opt-in email
   list to someone who the recipient did not give contact
   permission to personally.
- Buying the Mil^lions CD's and then requiring people to
   opt-out of email, rather than to opt-in to the email.
- Providing remove addresses that do not work.

Generally, the persons using these sp^am techniques are morons
who are simply too lazy to learn how to develop an honest
online business or too impatient to build a business that will
last a lifetime. Let us not forget that "moron" is the key word
here since a sp^ammers business will not generate enough income
to justify the cost of doing business the outlaw way.


LAZY LIVES ON BOTH SIDES OF THE STREET!

Sp^ammers sp^am because they are too lazy to build an online
business the old-fashioned way --- with honesty and integrity.

As a result of the sp^ammers obnoxious laziness, the public
has been confronted with the growing nuisance of hundreds of
sp^am messages in their email boxes on a daily basis! I have
filtered more than 100 pieces per day to my trash bin, and I
still receive another 200 plus messages per day that I have
not set up filters for yet.

While I will admit that sp^ammers are truly annoying, I must
confess that the general public has created new problems for
all of us! In the war against sp^am, email account holders
constantly suggest that their ISP's must deal with the sp^am
issue for them.


ISP'S RESPOND

By putting the responsibility of controlling sp^am on the
shoulders of ISP's, rather than hitting the delete key
ourselves, we have opened a whole new can of worms.

In truth, ISP's cannot do too much to stem the tide of sp^am.
Yet, with so many angry customers, ISP's felt a strong need
to find some kind of solution to the problem.

ISP's had one of two options:

- RBL (Realtime Blackhole List) http://mail-abuse.org/rbl/
- Installing Email Filters

Neither is a perfect solution to the sp^am problem... In fact,
both are actually very poor solutions to the sp^am problem!


HOW SP^AM FILTERS WORK

To understand the quandary created by the use of filters in the
war against sp^am, we must first understand how sp^am filters
work.

It is important to understand that filters are actually
software applications.

Software is not intuitive!

While a few software applications may seem intuitive, the
illusion exists only because the mind of the programmer was
able to foresee your desires for the use of the software.

Filtering software exists only as a set of rules to determine
the likelihood of a message being sp^am. Here is an outline of
some of the basic rules that sp^am filtering software follows:

1. If the origination email server is different from the email
    server of the sender's default email address, then it is
    likely sp^am.
2. If the email is delivered to more than 25 people, it is
    likely sp^am.
3. If the email originates from a specific server, then it is
    likely sp^am. (This is the only rule that the RBL follows.)
4. If the email originates from a specific country TLD
    (top-level domain), then it is likely sp^am.
5. If certain words appear in the Subject or Email Body, then
    it is likely sp^am. (This is where the real problems begin!)


THE PANDORA'S BOX OF THE SP^AM WARS

ISP's who choose the filter option will either install a filter
on incoming email only, outgoing email only or a combination of
both.

With the fifth basic rule in the sp^am filtering software that
most ISP's use, each ISP has a list of "sp^am words" that the
software scans for.

A few of the simpler, more obvious "sp^am words" follow:

- H^GH
- D^VD
- C^asino
- G^ambling
- P^orn
- M^illion
- B^illion
- V^iagra


The first time I had experienced the ugly filter problem was
with my first ezine. My ezine was a computer support publication
and upon the introduction of a major v^irus, I tried to send
instructions to my list on how to identify the v^irus and to
repair its damage. Unfortunately, my list server had blocked
all messages that mentioned the name of the virus. (Never mind
that the actual payload email never mentioned the given name
for the v^irus!)

My second experience was in trying to send an article to a
friend because I felt the content of the article was important
for my friend to have. After seven attempts, I finally realized
what the blocked "sp^am word" was. If you can believe it, the
blocked word was Ama^zon.com !!!

Within the last 30 days, I had two outgoing emails blocked by
my own ISP.

The first was being delivered to a client of mine to inform
them that I had received their p^ayment. The subject of the
email was "P^ayment R^eceived" (a common subject of sp^am
messages) !!!

The second email hinged on an article I tried to deliver for
another client. The dreaded "sp^am word" was "g^old" !!! We
had to change the name of the article to get the article past
my own ISP's filters.


THE PROBLEM IN A NUTSHELL

Richard Lowe, the owner of http://www.Internet-Tips.net says,
"The Internet is communication. It's as simple as that."

The problem with ISP filtering is that the ISP cannot know
what we want to read and what we do not want to read. A single
ISP has clients who use the Internet for business, health,
family, research or any of a dozen different purposes.

The person who wants to use the Internet for family
communications usually has no interest in business topics.
And the online business person may have no interest in
family tree software or health products.

Yet, the ISP has no choice but to block all kinds of "sp^am
words" for the full range of communication subjects.

As a result, the family person may not see the information
concerning family tree software or other items regarding home
life, and the business person may not be able to receive
information vital to the operation of their business.


THE SCOPE OF THIS PROBLEM

We email junkies tend to subscribe to ezines covering a wide
range of personal preferences. Unfortunately, a large number
of ezines are being blocked by ISP's because ezines tend to
meet at least two of the criteria built into most sp^am
filters (#1, #2 and sometimes #5).

Once again, the fifth basic rule is the dangerous one.

Sp^ammers are using more and more common words in their
mailings that the ISP's are beginning to block.

I can almost guarantee that if your own ISP was to turn off
their sp^am filters for a month, you would get to see for the
first time a large number of ezines that you subscribed to
way back when, but have never seen before.

Sure, you would see a large increase in the sp^am coming into
your email box, but you would also see all of the mail that
you want to receive that you have not been receiving.


WHERE SHOULD WE GO FROM HERE?

If we rely upon our ISP's to do the filtering for us, then we
are committing ourselves to receive only the information that
our ISP's filters are able to let us receive. It is as simple
as that.

It is like the news pundits on television say about the war on
terrorism, "We have a choice between freedom and security. The
more of one we have, the less of the other we will have."

We have two choices:

1. We turn back the tide of ISP controlled communication and
    accept the responsibility of setting up our own filters to
    eliminate the garbage in our inbox.
2. Or, we continue to rely upon our ISP's to filter the sp^am
    by adding new words to their "sp^am word" lists, eliminating
    all personal control from our personal communications.


TURNING BACK THE TIDE WILL REQUIRE SOME CONCERTED EFFORTS

Our ISP's have been asked for so long to be our "Big Brother"
to stem the tide of sp^am. ISP's have come to the point of
believing that we are children who need to be protected from
the "morons" who are destroying this incredible communications
tool.

To turn back this tide, we must be ready and willing to
accept the personal responsibility of controlling our own
communications.

First, we must learn to use the tools included in our email
software that permit us to set up our own filters. Once we have
the basic understanding of how to set up our own email filters,
we must progress to step two.

In step two, we must contact our ISP and let them know that we
want to be responsible for ourselves. Our ISP must understand
that we DO NOT want them to run sp^am filters on their email
servers. We must declare that we do not them to baby-sit our
communications for us. We must emphasize that we want to decide
for ourselves what we want to read and what we do not want to
read! We must emphasize that we would rather use our delete
keys, than to rely upon their filters to not block any of our
important communications.

You and I alone will not be able to convince our ISP's to
ditch the policy of acting as our "Online Big Brother". But,
when enough of us have banded together and made our demands
for open communications clear, ISP's will have to take notice
and turn off their filters for fear of losing their customer
base.

If we permit ISP controlled filters to continue to grow
unabated, the filters will eventually eliminate the real
value of email as a communications tool.

We must take a stand to reverse the focus of the War Against
Sp^am! We must take a stand now to reverse the tide, or we risk
the very real death of email communication and the Internet!


For more information about the "War Against Sp^am", visit the
following links:

    http://PathTrax.com/x.pl/BP121,spam_war_crossfire
    http://PathTrax.com/x.pl/BP121,Will_Email_Kill_Email



Resource Box:
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Posted: Thu Aug 15 16:59:52 EDT 2002


For more articles by this author, please visit:

http://ThePhantomWriters.com/free_content/w/index.shtml#Bill_Platt

You have my permission to reprint the following article in it's entirety
with the credit information intact.  It is 1066 words long, not including
title and credit box.

Please send me a courtesy copy upon publication.

Best of Success!

Kimberly Stevens
CEO, Ask The Biz Coach
Web:  www.askthebizcoach.com
Email:  kim@...

       Want More Clients & More Sales?
  Jump on the FastTrack to business success!
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Ready, Fire ... Aim!
August 2002

by Kimberly Stevens

Almost every book about starting a new business begins by telling
you to write a business plan.  Many readers run in terror, others
jot some notes on a pad and a very few sit down to write out a
comprehensive strategic plan for their business.

After all, the majority of business owners start their businesses
without outside financing, so why do they need a business
plan?

But, along the way, with millions of great ideas pulsing in their
brains, most business owners begin to write things down.  They
begin to devise strategies, set goals, create plans, lay-out
timelines, etc.  This is good -- unless you get stuck in this stage
like Bruce did.

"I don't believe I'm admitting this to you, but I can't find any
other way around it.  I have been struggling with this problem
for the whole time I've been in business, and I'm embarrassed to
share it with anyone else.  But, I know I'm holding myself back
from being really successful, and I need some help to work this
out," he told me.

I was truly surprised by his candor, but not by his problem.  Bruce
was suffering from what I had experienced myself .. perfectionism.
And it was draining all of his energy.  He started his financial
planning company 2 1/2 years ago wanting to provide clients
with informed and honest advice - things he felt were lacking in
other providers in that field.  But since then, he had gone from
being idealistic and enthusiastic to being discouraged and
disillusioned.

"I really thought I could make a difference and make money at
the same time. But my best ideas get stuck on the page.  I can't
seem to get any one idea rolled out completely.  By the time I
come up with the idea, do some research, pull together some
numbers, lay-out a plan and develop some marketing strategies,
I have about 10 more ideas I want to pursue."

"It feels so invigorating when I'm thinking about the idea and
creating the plan and strategy.  I always think that the idea I'm
working on is the one that will truly make my business take off.
But as I look back over the past two years, I feel like a complete
failure."

"I started this business thinking I could provide a great service
and make great money doing it.  But, now I'm starting to doubt
if I really have what it takes to be successful.  I'm ashamed to
talk to my wife about it after I told her how great I would be at
this."

"I just don't get what I'm doing wrong.  My clients really like me,
and I do a great job for them, but I'm stuck at this sort of
survival level and can't seem to implement the ideas that I think
would really establish my business.  Maybe I should just go back
to working for someone else."

"Is that what you want to do?" I asked him.  He jumped in almost
before I finished, "No, I really want to make this work.  I just
don't know what I'm doing wrong."

"Don't sell yourself short, Bruce.  You aren't doing anything wrong.
You've done a great job at establishing yourself as an honest and
informed financial planner -- your clients told you so.  You
certainly aren't a failure, but I definitely understand why you feel
so disappointed and frustrated. It sounds like there is just one thing
that's holding you back -- fear."

Bruce was experiencing what many perfectionistic people do.
They are so concerned with doing everything right the first time,
they continue to work and re-work their ideas and never reach
the implementation stage.

The planning process is a safe haven for perfectionists.  They can
craft the perfect, controlled, predictable strategy.  But, they
tend to get paralyzed when it's time to move forward.  They fear
that executing the plan will show that the plan was not perfect --
that they are not perfect.  So to avoid being "found out", they
continue to re-work the plan.

It takes awhile for most people to recognize this pattern in
themselves and many never do.  But, for Bruce, it was a lifesaver.
After selecting one idea to work on, he created a timeline for
his roll-out plan.  Each week, he had specific tasks that would
take him through the implementation of his strategy.

After only three months, he had taken on six new clients, created
an additional stream of income, and established five relationships
with centers of influence who could sell his services to their clients.

The last time I talked with him, he could hardly believe that he
had been so disillusioned about his business only three months
before. "I feel exhilarated again," he told me.  "I'm finally
having fun, providing a great service, and making money!
Thanks so much for helping me move forward on my ideas.
I was right ... they were the key to my success!"

Are you anything like Bruce?  Are you stuck in the planning
mode? How long have you been working and re-working your
strategy? Could it be fear that is holding you back?

Remember, many times we don't recognize it as fear, so just
look at your patterns.  Are you spending a lot of time planning
projects and strategies that never get implemented?

If so, set aside one afternoon this week to look at all of the
potential projects you would like to implement.  Force yourself
to pick just one that you will implement now.  I know it can
be hard to pick just one but doing so will give you the best
chance of success.  I'm not telling you to burn the rest -- just
set them aside.  They'll still be there when you come back.

Now, for the project or plan you want to implement, create
a timeline for roll-out.  Make a list of everything you would
have to do in order to implement the plan, then assign
realistic dates to each one.

Plot those dates out on a calendar and make sure to set
aside time to complete whatever tasks are necessary in
order to stick with your roll-out plan.

Is this plan guaranteed to succeed?  I can't say that and
neither can you.  You don't learn anything from your plan
just sitting there.  Roll it out and see what happens.  That
is the ONLY way you'll ever know.

Good Luck!

(c) Copyright 2002 Ask The Biz Coach.  All Rights Reserved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kimberly Stevens is a Business Coach and creator of the FastTrack
MBO (Mastering Business Ownership) Program providing business
owners the ability to follow a step-by-step system to focus on the
key areas critical to the success of their business.  Learn how this
program can help you by sending a blank email to:
mailto:kim4-20129@... or by visiting:
http://www.askthebizcoach.com/fasttrackmbo.htm


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Article Title:  The Power of Personality
Author Name:   Terri Seymour
Contact Email Address:   ter02@...
Word Count: 540
Category:  E-Commerce
Copyright Date:  July 23, 2002
Internet Address:  http://www.myownezine.com/articles.shtml
Autoresponder Address:  mailto:personality@...
Special Requirements For Reprint:   This article may be
freely reprinted as long as article and resource box remain unchanged.

Complete Article with Resource Box at end:

The Power of Personality
Copyright 2002  Terri Seymour

Owning an online business and publishing an ezine can
be very frustrating, AND rewarding!  There can be 100's
or even 1000's of websites and/or ezines that are almost
exactly like yours.  What can you do to make your online
business stand out from the rest?

The number one answer to this question is - add your
own personality to your business and in your ezine.

I subscribe to probably over 100 ezines and most of
these I do not even read.  The ones that I like to read
are the ones that contain some personality.  I like to
know that there is an actual person that I can identify
with or get in touch with if I have any questions.

You are the main thing that makes your business unique!
Use this to your advantage.

*Connect with your readers.  This is the whole purpose
of your ezine.   By doing the following, you will make
that very important connection.

*Let them get to know you.  Have a section in your ezine
where you talk to your readers and open up to them.  I
am not talking about pouring out all your personal
problems to them, but share the part of yourself that
makes you who you are.  Share little tidbits of your
life so they know that you are a real person and they
can connect with you.

*Treat everyone with respect and courtesy. This is one
that unfortunately some people forget these days. This
one goes both ways for readers and publishers.  You
have to remember we are all in this together, so let us
treat each other as we would want to be treated.  Yes,
the Golden Rule, which I believe in strongly!!

*Be as helpful as you can.  Offer your expertise, advice
and support whenever possible.  Learn to understand
what your readers/customers want and need. This will
help form a strong bond.

*Let your passion and spirit come through.  This is
very important also.  By letting your love for your
work shine through, you will be "contagious"!  Your
readers will get caught up in it and they will become
passionate as well.

*Include some original content.  Always write some of
your own content so there is a part of your ezine that
is in no other ezine.  If you write your own articles,
(yes, you should) this will help give your ezine its own
identity.  Subscribers will look forward to reading
each issue because of the original material.  If you
are not ready to write articles, even writing a short
editorial or introduction to each issue will make a
big difference in originality.

*Build Yourself to Build Your Business - In essence,
you need to build yourself and your reputation in order
to build your business.  Show your readers that you
are someone who knows what they are doing and
that you can help them succeed as well.  You want
to prove that you are dependable, trustworthy, capable
and definitely unique!

Publishing an ezine might be simple, but creating a
unique, powerful, and personality-packed connection
with your subscribers is a bit harder and much more
effective!


*********************
Terri Seymour owns and operates MyOwnEzine.com
MyOwnEzine.com is a website, ezine and service which
provides the resources, tools, guidance and more to help
you start, publish and promote your own ezine. You can
contact Terri at mailto:terri@...  Subscribe
at mailto:subscribe@...  or visit
http://www.myownezine.com for lots more info.

********************
This article is available for reprint.  For more
articles on this and other subjects email
mailto:myownezine-index@...

`
Title:  How to Discover If Your E-Book Idea Will Sell
          --- Before You Actually Write It
Author:  Joe Vitale
Copyright: 2002 Joe Vitale

Article Originally Written: August, 2002

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How to Discover If Your E-Book Idea Will Sell
  --- Before You Actually Write It
Copyright © 2002 Joe Vitale, Joe Vitale
The Millionaire Mind
http://www.TheMillionaireMind.net/ezine.html?a2j



Jim Edwards sent out a survey about e-books. He asked a
variety of questions. But the number one thing everyone
wanted to know was this: "How do I find out if my e-book
will sell---before I write it?"

Obviously, that's a great question. If anyone could
accurately determine the salability of an e-book before it
was written, that person could be a billionaire. Every
aspiring author would hire him, or her, to judge their idea.

The truth is, there is no guaranteed way to 100% accurately
test an idea for an e-book before you actually begin to sell
it. Yes, you can run ads for your e-book and see if it will
fly or not. But that's not totally accurate. Or guaranteed.
And if people buy and you don't deliver that e-book within
30 days, it's also illegal.

But there *is* a way to massively improve the odds of your
e-book being something the public will want. This is
something you can do right now, before you write a word of
your e-book.

Let me explain this system to you:

I researched the 1800s to write my book on P.T. Barnum.

I researched the 1920s to write my book on Bruce Barton.

I researched the last 150 years to write my book on ads.

And I've been researching ancient Roman history to write a
forthcoming book on old world marketing practices. What I
discovered in the most unforgettable way is that in every
era, people wanted the exact same things.

People never change. They will always have the same
basic desires. Technology will change. People won't. Today
we have e-books. That's a new technology. Yet what people
want to read in those e-books will remain the same as
always. Human desires are hard-wired into our DNA.

That's good. By knowing what people want, you can profit
from their desires. And since their desires are predictable,
your ability to make money from your ideas just got a lot
more bankable, as well.

So, what exactly do people want to read about?

First, the top three general categories are these: Food,
sex, and money.

There will *always* be a market for new cookbooks, new
books on love, and new books on ways to make money. That
will never change. Ever. So if you have an idea that fits in
one of those categories---and if it's a new spin on existing
ideas---you may have a wining race horse.

Second, Jim Edwards and I identified the TOP Ten tried and
true subjects for e-books in our own e-book, "How to Write
and Publish Your Own e-Book in as little as 7 Days."

Our own research proves these ten resaons are just as
reliable as the three more general ones that I discovered.
These are the subjects people will *always* want to know
about. Since those subjects are listed in our e-book, I
won't discuss them here.

Third, after Jim and I wrote our e-book, we discovered
16 more subjects that people always want to know about.
These, too, are proven hot buttons for people. When I
reviewed my studies from the last several years, I realized
that these 16 topics are things people will always want to
know more about, too. Here they are:

11. To attract sex.
12. To keep their possessions.
13. To have more fun.
14. To satisfy curiosity.
15. To protect their family.
16. To be in style.
17. To have beautiful possessions.
18. To quench their appetite.
19. To emulate others.
20. To avoid trouble.
21. To avoid criticism.
22. To be an individual
23. To protect their reputation.
24. To grab opportunities
25. To be safe.
26. To make work easier.

So, how does this system work?

Okay. Say you have an idea for a book on how to make
money in network marketing. Will it sell? Since people want
to (20) avoid trouble and (26) make their work easier, I'd
say chances are good it would. Add to this formula the fact
that people always want to know how to make money (one of
the top three subjects hard-wired into our make-up) and yes,
the book could sell.

And what if you have an idea for a book on how to find
cool things at garage sales? Would that sell? If you tied
the title to a direct benefit---such as to make money---then
your idea could work. In other words, title the e-book
something like, "How To Make A Fortune In Garage Sales" and
you just made it fit one of the basic human desires. If you
can also tie it to (14) satisfying their curiosity about
garage sales, all the better.

What if you have a technical book idea, such as an e-
book on how to filter out spam? No sweat. People want to
save time, so you might tie your idea to that benefit. "How
to Save Time By Eliminating Spam!" might work. Or you could
even tie your idea to (23) protecting their reputation. Then
your e-book might be "Protect Your Name By Stopping Spam!"

Get the idea? You can take almost any e-book idea you
may have and improve the odds of it selling by simply
matching it to one of the 16 categories above or the
TOP 10 listed in our e-book. It's easy.

Now, before the critics rush in and shoot at any holes
they see in this system, let me add these final words:

A book that sells is more than "a good idea." It's an
idea well expressed. It's an idea packaged in an
irresistible way. It's an idea targeted at a specific niche
audience. And it's an idea that works once people begin to
implement it.

In short, make your book idea fit one of the key categories
people are proven to want more information on. Title it to
reflect benefits people want. Describe it in your sales
letter in ways that activate people's basic desires. Just be
sure you deliver what you promise.

Do all that and your e-book will sell---guaranteed!



Resource Box:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Vitale is the #1 best-selling author of "Spiritual Marketing"
and the co-editor of the new "Millionaire Weekly Memo" free
eZine. Do you want more practical New Marketing Era secrets
to market your business and achieve the personal wealth you
deserve? Subscribe here:
http://www.TheMillionaireMind.net/ezine.html?a2j
-----------------------------------------------------------------


Posted: Fri Aug 16 14:20:02 EDT 2002


For more articles by this author, please visit:

http://ThePhantomWriters.com/free_content/d/index.shtml#Joe_Vitale

Article Title: How to Build an Online Audience on a very Limited Budget
Author Name:  Craig Lock
Contact Email Address: clock@...
Line Space: 60 characters (approx)
Category (key words):  Internet Marketing, Online Marketing,
Internet, Web (www).
Internet address: http://www.craiglock.com
Copyright Date: Copyright:  © Craig Lock 2002
Publishing Guidelines: This article may be freely reproduced
electronically or in print.

"We share what we know, so that others may grow."


"We share what we know, so that others may grow."

HOW TO BUILD AN ONLINE AUDIENCE ON A VERY LIMITED BUDGET

© Craig Lock 2002

I find that writing articles based on my own knowledge and life
experiences is the best means of internet marketing.  In other
words, you are BRANDING yourself. Writing down information
(valuable), that can inform and most importantly, HELP others
through SHARING.

A few words of advice here...

Just write in your own UNIQUE and distinctive style - what
comes naturally to you.  Be yourself in your writing and you will
find that the words will flow. Use your individual area of expertise
(and/or interests) to help others through sharing your unique
knowledge and experiences of the magical journey that is life.

Then submit your articles to relevant ezines in your area of
interest or expertise, and/or publishers resources - lists like
Shelley Lowery's Article Announce, Mike Valentine's Free-
Content, Angela Giles-Klocke's TheWriteArticles, PromoteYour
Article and Free-eContent.  All very useful lists, that we regularly
use.

Their web adresses are:

http://www.egroups.com/group/article_announce
TheWriteArticles@yahoogroups.com
http://www.egroups.com/group/Free-Content

Also,
Publisher Network: publisher_network@egroups.com
PromoteYourArticle@yahoogroups.com
Free_eContent@yahoogroups.com
and finally ArticlePublish@yahoogroups.com.

They are all an excellent source of information and many
ezine publishers source relevant articles from these lists.
Sometimes even ezines with huge readerships pick up articles.

I believe that this strategy is the most effective form of TARGET
MARKETING... that get's us the best results on a very limited
advertising budget (like most start up home online businesses)...
and best of all it's BRANDING oneself through free advertising.

A few final words to summarise...

Why not start WRITING ARTICLES for the www and see
what happens...transpires (nice word, eh?).You DON'T
have to be a "professional" writer to write articles. You
know more about the subject matter (based on your past
knowledge and experiences) and especially YOUR business.
It doesn't matter whether you have never written anything
before, just make a beginning.

"Be bold and unseen forces come to your aid."
(that is one of my favourite quotations - story of my life!).

Progress in life is accomplished by doing the basics right - the
"little chores day by day". Success is never instantaneous -
in any field of endeavour. For a while it may appear as if you
are not making a noticable difference through your substantial
efforts (in time and dedication put in ). However, just keep
"chipping away" at your online marketing long enough and I can
assure you, you WILL get noticed with web traffic...even though
it may take awhile. The key to internet marketing success is
PERSISTENCE - taking the small steps daily and making them HABITS.
Ingrained...like writing articles!

This whole business of internet marketing has been one long
learning curve for us over the past five years - seeing what
works and what doesn't... like the lessons of life itself.

Finally...

Just make a beginning. Take that first step and you'll find
that one step naturally leads to the next.

As the ancient Chinese proverb so wisely said:
"A journey of a thousand miles starts with a broken fanbelt
and a leaky tyre... er sorry, a single step".

Good luck with those first few steps in writing articles for the
www (without a broken and leaky pen).

Craig Lock

http://www.craiglockbooks.com
http://www.craiglockbooks.com

About the author:

Craig Lock has been marketing various products online for the past
five years. Craig is a writer, who believes in sharing information, as
well as encouraging and helping others to find their talents and gifts,
to strive for and accomplish their dreams in life - whatever they may be.

http://www.craiglock.com

The various books* Craig "felt inspired" to write are available at:
http://www.bridgeniche.com/CLOCK/zaniestbooks.htm

* Hard copies and e-books: Fiction and non-fiction, novels,
travel, humour, inspiration, self help and money books

THIS ARTICLE MAY BE FREELY PUBLISHED

"If you have knowledge, let others light their candle to it."

Title:  It Is Never Too Late For Success - Age Is Not An Excuse
Author:  Gordon Bellows
Copyright: 2002

Article Originally Written: June, 2002

Article URL:
    http://www.ArticleCafe.com/articlecafe/id39.html

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    mailto:articlecafe-09@...

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    mailto:Gordon@...

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   mailto:Gordon@...
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It Is Never Too Late For Success - Age Is Not An Excuse
Copyright © 2002, Gordon Bellows
Article Cafe
http://www.ArticleCafe.com



People who have reached any significant level of success agree
there are a few things successful people have in common; desire
and determination combined with a spirit that never gives up.

To illustrate the point that it is always too early to give up,
this article includes three well-known success stories.

Ray Kroc: At the age of 52, Ray Kroc had suffered for years from
arthritis and diabetes. Although Ray had poor health, and his
bladder and most of his thyroid had been removed, he never
stopped believing in himself and his biggest idea. It led to the
start of McDonald's in 1955. By 1961, 228 McDonald's restaurants
had been established and sales had reached $37 million. When Ray
passed away in 1984, there were 7,500 McDonald's outlets around
the world. The number of outlets and sales are still growing.

Ray Kroc was described as a simple man with a simple plan:
  1. Never give up
  2. Always persevere
  3. Don't forget part 1 of the plan

Thomas Edison: Before perfecting the light bulb, Thomas Edison
tried between 9,000 and 10,000 different things searching for the
right material that would make a good filament. When a reporter
asked Edison about failing more than 9,000 times, he responded by
saying he had not failed, but had found 9,000 items that did not
make a good filament. Edison went on to invent many other useful
items, many of which are now taken for granted. Edison received
1,093 patents, more than any other person in U.S. history.

Thomas Edison had a formula for his success:
  1. It takes time for greatness
  2. Be patient
  3. Persistence is the key

Colonel Sanders: The founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken was turned
down over 1,000 times when he tried to interest others in his
recipe for chicken. He drove from town to town, often sleeping in
his car, calling on restaurant owners. He strongly believed that
the secret recipe would eventually pay off. His persistence and
belief in himself and his recipe finally paid off in a big way!
His tenacity is inspiring, especially when you consider that he
found his success when he was 65 years of age.

Colonel Sanders kept his chicken recipe a secret, but he was
willing to share his recipe for success:
  1. Never quit
  2. Always believe in yourself
  3. Be patient
  4. Be positive

There are countless stories of people from all walks of life who
achieved remarkable success. Almost without exception, the same
types of characteristics can be found in stories about success.
Being patient and persistent, having a positive attitude, and
never giving up are the traits that are essential for success.



Resource Box:
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Gordon Bellows is an economic trend analyst and part-time writer.
Poor health was affecting all areas of his life until he found an
amazing product that changed his life. He had remarkable results!
Visit http://www.YourHealthKey.com to see what it can do for you.
It's your key to better health and wellness.
-----------------------------------------------------------------


Posted: Sun Aug 18 01:15:50 EDT 2002


For more articles by this author, please visit:

http://ThePhantomWriters.com/free_content/d/index.shtml#Gordon_Bellows

Dear Editor,

You have my permission to reprint the following article, Positioning for
Profits, in it's entirety with the credit information intact.  It is 943 words
long, not including the title and credit box.

Please send me a courtesy copy upon publication.

Best of Success!

Kimberly Stevens
CEO, Ask The Biz Coach
Web:  www.askthebizcoach.com
Email:  kim@...

       Want More Clients & More Sales?
  Jump on the FastTrack to business success!
       **  www.askthebizcoach.com  **
------------------------------------------------------------------

August 20, 2002



Positioning for Profits!




by Kimberly Stevens



Last Friday, I was spending one last day of freedom with a dear

friend who was expecting to have her first baby at any minute.

We decided to hang out by the pool.



On the way there, we stopped to pick up some lunch to

eat pool-side.  Given the choice of Wendy's, Subway, or

McDonald's, I chose Subway because I knew I could get a

relatively low-calorie, low-fat lunch there.



How did I know that?  Because I'd seen their commercials

starring Jared who had lost something like 150 pounds by eating

an all-Subway-sandwich diet.



Now, I don't need to lose 150 pounds, and I don't plan to go on

an all-Subway-sandwich diet.  However, I also didn't want to

blow the 648 calories I had burned on the elliptical trainer that

morning.



From the moment we walked in, I knew I had made the right

decision.  They had a poster-sized sign telling me how many

calories and grams of fat each of their basic sandwiches have.

That helped me make a decision about the best thing to order.



Then, they reinforced my smart decision when they handed me my

sandwich-drink combo.  Plastered across the sandwich wrapper,

around my cup, and over my napkin were the same calorie/fat

breakdowns.  I was pleased to see that I was only eating 320

calories for lunch (okay, truth be told, I splurged on chips too).

But, nonetheless, Subway had done their job and done it well.



I'm talking about POSITIONING.  They might be a lot of things,

but the thing they want you to know above all else is that they

offer low-calorie fast food alternatives.  Yes, they were fast.

Yes, they were cheap.  But the point they have hammered

home with their advertisements, in-store signage, and paper

goods is that I can get a meal that won't blow my diet.



Positioning is what sets you apart from your competitors.

It's what makes a prospect choose to work with you rather

than someone else.  It's the part of perception that you

have the most control over.  But many business owners

neglect to take charge of their position in the marketplace

and let customers position their business for them.



How many times have you lowered your prices to get

a new client who balked at your original bid?  How many

times have you agreed to provide a certain service to

a client that you never planned to provide, don't enjoy

doing, and isn't very profitable?  How many times have

you taken on a job that requires the most basic skills you

possess and complained that you can't get clients that

want to use all of your talents?



These are all things that business owners experience when

they let their prospects/clients position their business for

them.  If you find yourself doing this, the time to change is

NOW!



Are you letting the market position your business for you? If

so, don't fret.  Most all of us have been there at some time or

another.  Sometimes, it's important to take on low-end jobs.

We all need to pay the bills.  We all experience market

downturns. We all have to build up confidence in our services.



But, if you find yourself feeling frustrated with the type of work

you're doing, the amount of money you're making, or the

kind of clients you are working with, it's time to take charge

of your business.



Take a piece of paper and write down 5-10 things you want

people to think of when they think of your business.  Here are

several examples, but you might think of many more:



      * low price

      * fast service

      * high quality

      * personal service

      * caring attitude

      * expert advice

      * emotional support

      * technical expertise

      * immediate results

      * creative ideas



Now, look through your list and choose the one thing that you

want to emphasize more than any other - the one thing that

will set you apart from your competitors.



Once you've selected it, write down a list of benefits that the

one thing provides to your clients.  For example, if you chose

"high quality" from the list above, some benefits might include:



   * you make them look good to their employees/employer/clients

   * you help projects stay on track because your work is good

        enough the first time and requires no changes/edits

   * you allow them to take one thing completely off their plate

        because your work meets their standards without their

        direct involvement



Once you've identified the aspect of your business that you

want to emphasize and you've identified the benefits to your

clients, sit down with all of your marketing materials.  This

includes your business card, brochure, letterhead, web site,

advertisements, bio sheet, etc.  Determine how you can

tweak each one to emphasize this aspect of your business.



If you can afford it, you might reprint some of your materials.

If you can't, you might come up with ways to add a tag line

to your existing materials.  You could print your tag line at the

bottom of every piece of letterhead each time you are sending

a letter.  You could have stickers printed with your tag line to

stick on each of your brochures.  Be creative!



The best part about proper positioning is that you end up doing

the type of work you enjoy and making more money.  Many

times the work is more profitable -- you are able to charge

more than your competitors because you are delivering more

value than they do.  The clients that choose to work with you

are making the decision to pay a little more in order to benefit

from the extra value you provide.



Happy Positioning!




(c) Copyright 2002 Ask The Biz Coach.  All Rights Reserved.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~



Kimberly Stevens is a Business Coach and creator of the FastTrack

MBO (Mastering Business Ownership) Program providing business

owners the ability to follow a step-by-step system that focuses

them on the key areas critical to maximizing their business

success.  Learn how this program can help you succeed:

send a blank email to: mailto:kim4-20129@...

or visit http://www.askthebizcoach.com/fasttrackmbo.htm



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thanks for your interest in my article. You are free to publish
this article in your ezine, ebook or on your website as long as
you include the resource box with the article and neither the
article or resource box are changed in any way. Minor
formatting changes to the article are permitted. The article is
310 words long and formatted to be 60 characters per line.

5 Tips To Choosing The Right Affiliate Program

Affiliate programs can be a great way to make money online. You
don't have to spend time developing your own product, worry
about taking orders, or take care of customer service.

If you already have a high traffic website or run an e-zine you
can stand to earn a steady flow of commissions every month
without a lot of extra work on your part.

To help you get started promoting affiliate programs, I've
provided the following 5 tips to help you choose the affiliate
programs that are right for you.

1. Choose affiliate programs that match the content of your
site. If your site targets a niche market than choose affiliate
programs that offer products to that niche market.

2. Choose affiliate programs that pay a high commission. For
example 30%-50% on your direct sales.

3. Join affiliate programs that pay two-tier commissions This
enables you to not only earn commissions on your own sales but
also on the sales of people who you introduce to your affiliate
program.

4. Join affiliate programs that offer a line of products so
that you can earn commissions when your referrals come back and
purchase other services or products.

5. Join affiliate programs that offer their affiliates great
marketing support. Many affiliate programs offer their
affiliates pre-written ads to use or get ideas from, sales
letters, marketing courses, and articles to use in promoting
their services.

Remember, the best affiliate programs will see their affiliate
program as a partnership with you and combine high commissions
with excellent support so that you can start earning money
promoting their products as quickly as possible.

Article © 2002 by writer, Ken Hill. Discover proven strategies
to generating more profit promoting affiliate programs. Get
your FREE 10 Part Guide To Success With Affiliate Programs
marketing course now at mailto:affiliatecourse@...

Greetings,

If you accept articles, please accept this article for
consideration in placement with your ezine publication.
If at all possible, I would very much enjoy you sending
me a copy of your ezine the article is
printed in if you decide to publish the article.
mailto:editor@...

Thank you for your valuable time and consideration,

Adrian Ghioc
Ads Market
Directory of Ezine & Advertising Offers
http://www.adsmarket.biz

P.S. You have permission to use this article for your
ezine, website or any other public print as long as you
include the entire article and the resource box.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

WHY People Unsubscribe?
by Adrian Ghioc (c) 2002


Some months passed since I decided to reply to every
unsubscribe request with a message asking people
why they unsubscribe. I'm always looking to improve
the content of the ezine and the unsubscribers' feedback
may be valuable. If you're an ezine publisher you should
do the same. It's a sure way to find out what people need.
And that's a key to your SUCCESS!

Please find below a collection of reasons which determine
people to unsubscribe. You'll be amazed to find out how
many reasons are on this earth! Maybe you won't believe
me, but one guy who never ordered me one single paid
ad as long as he was my subscriber, after receiving my
unsubscribe follow-up, asked me about my prices!!!
I'm not joking! Enjoy!

"I signed up to be on ezine list through xxxxx
(author's note: here was the name of an ad coop program).
But I find I am on solo ads and everything else that these
so called ezines can find to sell. I some times get as many
as 20 emails from one ezine alone a day  and that was
NOT in the original deal. I am inundated with what I
consider to be spam every day. A hundred or more emails
daily. So I am opting out of ezine advertising." - Richard E.

"The reason I am unsubscribing is that a lot of your content
while relevant to people who are selling information on the
net, I feel is not what I am looking for in marketing my
children's novel." - Warren T.

"I made the silly mistake of jumping at a chance for a free
ad on somebody's website, and before you could say
"uh oh" I had 100 or so e-mails in my inbox. It doesn't
take a genius to realise that I cannot possibly read all of
them. It's just not worth a free ad to wade through a sea
of ads, ads, ads! Makes me realise that people probably
won't even read mine, free or no. Of course, since you've
given it the personal touch and actually contacted me, I
will give you another look and possibly resubscribe using
my "business" address... this is my personal one
(my mistake, I guess)." - Jaye

"My reason for unsubscribing is that I am receiving way
too many ezines and yours comes as 3 issues at a time!"
- Stuart R. (author's note: after receiving this message I
decided to send maximum 2 parts of the ezine at a time :-))

"Hi, Adrian, my unsubscribing to your ezine has nothing to
do with the quality or content of your ezine, but merely
with my own time constraints. I subscribed thru the xxxx
(author's note: here was the name of an ad coop program)
program, along with 155 other ezines. That was a mistake;
there aren't enough hours in a 24 hr day to read 155 ezines.
But let me ask you a question: how much would you charge
for a top or middle sponsor ad to run in every issue for a
month or two weeks? That way, even if sometimes your
email is deleted because of time constraints, over the course
of 2 weeks or a month all your subscribers are going to see
my ad at least once, and others will see it multiple times.
I haven't seen an ad package like that being offered by
anyone that I know of, but I'd rather do that kind of targeted
advertising, rather than a one shot deal in 155 ezines.
So let me know what you think of this idea, and maybe we
can do some business after all.
Thanks again for your follow-up interest." - Erik J.
(author's note: this is the most unexpected answer I received.
An order coming from a guy who just unsubscribed!!!)

"I am unsubscribing for two reasons
1) I am suffering from information overload and
2) I simply don't have time to read your publication
since I opened the ..." - Scott

"I am un-subscribing because I just got a job in another
city, and I'll be un-hooking and un-plugging and moving
a mobile home. This move should take a couple of weeks
or so. Your mail would stack up or bounce."
- Guadalupe O.

After first publishing the article "Why People Unsubscribe?",
I received from a reader the following funny message:

"Thanks for the great article on 'why people unsubscribe'.
I agree with them all.  Please unsubscribe me as well :-)
Thanks" - Clint C.

Well, not so funny for me because it's an unsubscribe
request, but at least ...  maybe I really wrote a great
article, as my ex-subscriber said :-)
What do YOU think?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Adrian Ghioc of Ads Market
Directory of Ezines & Advertising Offers
( http://www.adsmarket.biz ) publishes a
motivational ezine to help you achieve wealth online.
Find the latest marketing trends, newest traffic
programs and get marketing e-courses & e-books.
To subscribe mailto:subscriptions@...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~