Students Of Success

Kizis has got it all down: our neuroses, anxieties, and (most importantly) that annoying flicker of hope that keeps us looped in the madness that is the world of dating. She develops real characters who leap off the page and exclaim their uniqueness with real voices.

Twenty-seven year-old Benjamina Franklin is the dating authority for Filly, L.A.’s lady mag, even though her own personal life is in an all too familiar place somewhere between “in shambles” and “hell”.

Ben is increasingly successful at being a failure in love - but hey, at least she is able to make a living from the debacle otherwise known as her (very public) personal life! To sweeten the pot (and add an extra kick of reality) while Ben’s romantic disasters are the meat of public entertainment, her baby sister announces she’s tying the knot and her single mother has men falling all over her. And then there’s Max. Is he merely a return trip to spinsterhood or a one-way ticket to true love?

Due to uncontrollable fits of laughter, I had to put the book down after reading the first page of chapter and feature titles, including:

“Is He or Isn’t He? Maybe he’s your boyfriend. Maybe not.”
Five Dates from Hell: Men Who Are Two-Timing, Cheap, and Utterly Revolting - What’s Not To Love” (is there any other kind?)
And of course, “The Other Four-Letter Word: What you should never say out loud.”

You’ll adore Ben’s forte for extreme over-analysis, and maybe even improve your own dating nightmare while you laugh out-loud reading her insanely funny, provocative (and sometimes wise) tips, articles and quizzes straight from the pages of the fictional Filly .

Definitely read it, (especially if you’re out there in the dating battle-field) but be prepared for numerous pauses filled with wild laughter. Fellow single ladies, if you take nothing else from this book, take these four words: Full life his ass.

Johneen Manning is Editor-In-Chief of http://www.GKFA.com, a hip, savvy & fresh online magazine for the ‘Sex and the City’ generation of women.

The Storyteller
New Book Offers Supernatural Tales Involving Everyday People

Martha Whittington invites readers to take a break from the doldrums of daily
routine and delve into a world where ordinary lives are blindsided by the bizarre.
The Storyteller: Volume I (now available through AuthorHouse) provides a feast of
paranormal delights that satisfy the imagination.
Comprised of six intriguing tales, The Storyteller delves into the lives of a colorful
variety of people who suddenly find themselves in unsettling situations. In “The
Fennigan Case,” two news reporters step across the threshold of a creepy house and
into another dimension. “A Unique Team” follows another investigative journalist as
he plunges into international intrigue. Readers explore the mind of a psychic
teenager in “The Hidden Knowledge” and meet a wicked woman who holds an entire
town hostage with her dark magic in “The Witch”. Two brothers endure tragedy in a
remote corner of the world in “Sand,” and a couple experiences any parent’s worst
nightmare in “The Gifted Child”.
Throughout The Storyteller, Whittington weaves a macabre tapestry of drama,
suspense and fast-paced action. From the dangers of the Egyptian desert to the
cold streets of New York, she takes readers on a thrilling journey along the knife-
edge between this world and the unknown. A captivating read for fans of the
disturbingly weird. The Storyteller delivers thrills and chills at each turn of the page.

For further review on this book, please go to: http://storytellersbookclub.com or e-
mail us at: thestorytellers2121@yahoo.com

Born and raised in Monterrey, Mexico, Whittington set out to see the world when she
was 21. She holds a Degree in Communications and a Master’s in Public Relations,
and she speaks fluent Spanish, English, German and French. Whittington comes
from a family of published authors. At a young age, she wrote short stories that won
awards in international contests. She currently lives in Houston, where she
continues to nurture her passion for writing.

Interview with Dr. Brian E. Walsh, Author of “Unleashing Your Brilliance: Tools & Techniques to Achieve Personal, Professional and Academic Success.”

Reader Views’ Managing Editor, Irene Watson, is pleased to interview Dr. Brian E. Walsh. Dr. Walsh is the author of Unleashing your Brilliance: Tools & Techniques to Achieve Personal, Professional and Academic Success.

Irene: What inspired you to write a book that deals with learning patterns of the brain?

Brian: I became a hypnotherapist a few years back. Part of my study included brain hemispheric differences. One of the most intriguing aspects was that, not only do we have a dominant brain and hand, we also have dominant feet, eyes, and ears. How an individual is neurologically wired can result in one of 32 possible learning styles. How many teachers and trainers know that? This information sparked my interest in accelerated learning. Actually, I prefer the term enriched learning. It isn’t speed, it’s the quality of learning that that is critical.

Irene: In your book you talk about the various forms of intelligence. The one that we are most familiar with is the “IQ” measurement. Two that you mention are spatial and musical. Explain some of the other forms that we possess.

Brian: Well the “IQ” measurement is not only ethnocentric, but is also bias against students who have smarts in intelligences other than mathematical, logical, and linguistic. School systems cater to the left-brain, and students wired that way do well in school. The other intelligences are, spatial, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic, and the most under-appreciated: kinesthetic intelligence. Kinesthetic people need to move, touch, and experience in order to learn. Those high in this intelligence often have a very difficult time in school. Occasionally, they are mistakenly labeled as hyperactive, and subsequently drugged. A large number of high-school dropouts are kinesthetic learners.

Irene: By hyperactive, do you mean many young children are diagnosed as having ADD or ADHD? If so, why do you believe they are misdiagnosed and drugged?

Brian: Yes, I do mean ADHD, and I am not saying that misdiagnosis takes place in the majority of cases. ADD and ADHD are simply behavioral disorders. Not all cases should be treated with drugs. Most teachers and physicians are ignorant of the basic three learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic). Few teacher colleges include these concepts in their curricula. Often the approach is to just cure the symptom. An overworked physician reverts to drugs as the easy way out. There are a number of programs available to deal with these issues, Brain Gym being just one of them.

Irene: You believe that creative and critical thinking are not common skills. It is believed by some, however, that logical concepts of everyday reasoning and problem-solving are innate. What is your basis for your theory?

Brian: I agree that these skills are with us naturally at first. Unfortunately, in school, there is greater reward for being right instead of exploring alternatives. We become programmed to find the “right” answer, then stop looking. This results in limited thinking. When I say that these are not common skills, I mean that students are encouraged to get the test answers right rather than explore unorthodox concepts.

Irene: Give us some examples of unorthodox concepts.

Brian: Perhaps a better phrase would be to allow random, intuitive, creative discovery — to permit, indeed encourage, out-of-the-box thinking. By narrowing the scope to the one correct answer, open frank, and expanded thought is inhibited.

Irene: Discipline, and how it is administered in schools, is a touchy subject. You have expressed that classrooms actually work against learning. Please explain your thinking.

Brian: This is a reference to the kinesthetic learners. For them to sit still in class is hell. They squirm, they fidget, they drum their fingers, they shake their legs. They often thrive in the earlier grades, because there is some activity. As they get older, they are expected to “act” more maturely. Most teachers haven’t a clue about the advantages of kinesiology exercises, such as the cross-crawl. A host of these activities can drive fresh oxygenated blood to the brain, and concurrently stimulate cross-hemispheric brain activity. Whole brain learning is achieved. While I’m on this subject, water is crucial to energy and learning. Dehydration is a major cause of fatigue and impaired brain functioning. A person who is just 5% dehydrated has already lost 30% of cognitive ability.

Irene: The cross-crawl exercise is also used by some people with dyslexia to stimulate cross-hemispheric brain activity. The results have been notable. Do you believe that dyslexic people are often misdiagnosed also?

Brian: Well, dyslexia is a label indicating a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. It shows up in reading and spelling. Strange that dyslexics are called disabled, since many are average to above average intelligence. To answer your question, absolutely, some people are misdiagnosed. I am so encouraged by the great research of Dr. Carla Hannaford in hemispheric dominance. I believe that kinesiology will play a greater role in education in the years to come.

Irene: In chapter nine of Unleashing Your Brilliance you cover the benefits of hypnosis for the purpose of a student having more discipline and organization in their learning structure. What other practical reasons would a student benefit from hypnosis?

Brian: I am careful in my use of the words hypnosis and trance in reference to learning. Let me put it this way: The ideal learning state is known as “relaxed alertness”. In actuality, this is a light trance. Most people do not understand that information hits the subconscious mind first. Only a very little of the incoming data reaches the conscious mind. This is the central theme for my book. If you truly understand that information is processed by the subconscious first, then you can adapt your learning methods to take advantage of this fact.

Irene: Basically, you are talking about being in the Alpha level of consciousness. Would you explain to our reading audience the various levels and what activity occurs in those levels.

Brian: The brain wave frequencies are designated by the terms Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta. Our normal state of consciousness oscillates between Beta (full awareness) and high Alpha (light level of trance - daydream). Some hypnotherapy is accomplished at various levels of Alpha since a person is highly suggestible in this state. The deeper level of Theta is reached in hypnosis, meditation, and light sleep. Twenty minutes of Theta trance is as beneficial as a few hours of sleep. The Delta level (very slow brain wave frequency) is occasionally reached in hypnosis, and is reached during dreamless deep sleep in the first few hours of sleep. This is the most valuable period of the night’s sleep, since it is in Delta that the necessary cell repair and regeneration takes place.

Irene: At what age should a person start using hypnosis for enhancing learning skills?

Brian: Interesting question. Have you ever wondered why children learn so easily? Children are already in trance. Their brain waves are slower than adults express in their fully-conscious state. Hypnosis is evidenced by slower brain waves. I believe that with proper instruction in self-hypnosis, a student can begin as early as the age of 7.

Irene: Thank you for your interview. I find this subject very fascinating and could talk to you much longer but we need to wrap it up. Is there anything at this time that you would like the reading audience to know about you or your book?

Brian: I am passionate about this subject. My mission is to reach people, students or adults, who have any thoughts that they don’t have the smarts to get ahead. Most of us have been processed through the factories that are called schools. School boards have limited budgets, and this puts pressure on the teachers. There are no simple answers. I recommend that parents be assertive. If they get a grasp of learning styles, multiple intelligences, kinesiology, and how the brain learns, they will be in a much more powerful position to assist their children. Students of all ages must take charge of their own learning. Relying on conventional schooling is not enough.

Irene Watson is Managing Editor of Reader Views, a book review service based in Austin, Texas. http://www.readerviews.com She the author of her memoir, “The Sitting Swing.”

The RIGHT books can be great sellers at the RIGHT time of year. Note the word RIGHT because certain times of year are notoriously unkind to the mainstream info products seller.

The run up to Christmas, for instance, typically brings little demand for business opportunities books which often fare better just after Christmas when credit card and other bills land on the doormat and tempt the individual to look again at ways to regenerate his fortunes.

Summer, too, with holidays on the horizon, creates a feelgood factor that outweighs worries about boring old things like bills, work and money. When the cold months return though, it’s a different matter, there’s little to do now but work out ways to make money for next year’s travels …… and then there’s Christmas closing in …..!

Generally speaking, January to June and September to November, are kindest to anyone selling business opportunity and other moneymaking titles, including marketing, investing in stocks and shares, building a property portfolio, making money at auction.

So what happens in between, how does the specialist seller of business opportunities and moneymaking books survive the leaner times? The answer is he either makes enough during the good times to cover the bad, or he finds something additional to sell with all-year-round or seasonal appeal. Let’s look at seasonal appeal today.

SEASONS, ANNIVERSARIES, SPECIAL EVENTS - A MARKETERS’ DREAM COME TRUE!

Seasons, anniversaries, special events - some of universal interest, like birthdays and family celebrations, others with a high market following, like Christmas, Easter, Valentine’s Day, Mothers’ Day, Crufts Dog Show, 100 years since someone famous died or something important happened, and so on, and so on. And so on!

The benefits of focusing on seasons, anniversaries, special events, are many and include:

* High Niche Market Potential. At Christmas, almost everyone thinks Christmas, and much the same goes for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween. The result is niche markets that last just a few weeks, sometimes just days, but they’re potentially most profitable of all.

* History Repeats Itself. Seasons and anniversaries come and go, and what you learn one year will benefit coming years’ endeavors. You’ll learn which ads to repeat and which to bin, which media to focus on and whose advertising sales reps. to cold shoulder, while all the time building a list of enquirers and buyers for future promotions.

* Great Research Potential. Every season, anniversary and special event comes with ready made ideas for you to copy next time round. Be careful, however, and learn to distinguish between legal and illegal copying of other people’s ideas, products and intellectual copyrights. When you know the distinction, buy as many advertising publications as possible for your target audience, visit web sites, save marketing emails, compile a huge swipe file of print and online marketing ideas and initiatives. Especially product ideas.

* Sense of Urgency To Buy. Most seasons, anniversaries, special events, are of limited duration and people know if they don’t buy soon, the ads. will quickly disappear. There’s a sense of urgency attached which forces people to buy NOW, unlike non-time-sensitive promotions which might be put to one side to study later, and promptly forgotten!

* All-consuming Passion. Virtually every season, anniversary, special event has a huge audience of followers, and usually buyers, too, of theme-related products and services. At such times of year, the occasion fills MOST people’s minds, MOST of the time!

* Nostalgia. The most popular seasons, anniversaries, special events, have been spoken about, filmed, written about over many years, sometimes centuries, so a mass of research material exists which can itself form the basis of your product. More than this, history itself interests today’s readers, so you could create a product based purely on the background to a particular season, anniversaryor special event. Take virtually any publication and you’ll find the Christmas edition of issue one to forever includes articles, ideas, snippets of useful information, jokes, puzzles, pictures, and more, which can be lifted untouched (out of copyright items or with permission only), or adapted (by rewriting, paraphrasing, not plagiarising) for your info products.

* Niches Within Niches. Many very profitable market niches exist within already seller-friendly niches. Cat lovers for example, and Elvis fans, are highly responsive buyers within other profitable markets, such as Christmas where books, calendars and diaries come bearing pictures and facts about most popular subjects, including cats and the King.

* Free Publicity. Opportunities for low-cost, no-cost marketing are great, as for example where a book about James Dean was launched on the anniversary of his death and sparked countless television and media mentions through carefully timed news releases about the book.

* Media Self-Promotion. It’s a well-known fact that few writers specialise in seasons, anniversaries and special events, so editors are frequently short of features around those special times and will welcome articles, fillers, photos, cartoons and other printable matter in exchange for a write up about your products.

Avril Harper is a business writer and triple eBay PowerSeller and webmaster of http://www.resell-rights.net. She has produced several free guides to making money from resell rights titles - which you can download with other freely distributable reports and eBooks at http://www.toppco.com.

This is a book that will play with your emotions, one minute you feel rage - the next you feel pity. How could this man play with her heart so cruelly? How could she stay and allow him to slice large wounds into her heart - not just once, but repeatedly.

Marie Carroll has performed a difficult task and fully portrayed her main character as a sufferer, one whom many ailments and negativity become her world. Mrs. Carroll shows the consequences of this kind of long-term betrayal that affects the entire family’s emotions, finances and health.

At the end of the story, the decision of the main character had me debating whether she is completely stupid, or a saint.

If you want to read a story about obsessive behavior and cruel adultery that will leave you ranting for days - then this is the one for you.

~ Lillian Brummet, Book Reviewer, and co-author of the book Trash Talk - a guide for anyone concerned about his or her impact on the environment. (www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit)

Author: J.F. del Giorgio
ISBN: 9806898001

J. F. del Giorgio’s The Oldest Europeans opening chapter cites the well-known French comic strip, Asterix, wherein we are reminded as to how the Romans were unable to defeat a rebellious, ever-quarreling, and wild people. Apparently, these individuals lived by the sea however, their exact location is never disclosed in the comic strip.

According to J. F. del Giorgio, what is remarkable about this tale is that there were similar inhabitants living in the French territory during Roman times. These were extraordinary individuals who, according to history, were excellent sailors and probably the first to circumnavigate the world. Furthermore, they were survivors of a much older European population and they occupied Europe thousands of years before the Latins arrived on the scene- even before the Aryan, Indo-European tribe came to the continent.

Moreover, they still exist among us and to a large extent many keep their age-old customs, speak their ancient tongue, where some of their words have been considered to come directly from the Stone Age. Major religions have been influenced by them and their ancient myths are still celebrated in the arts. Their influence has been felt in the fields of art, religion, philosophy, science, architecture, jewelry, folklore, customs, traditions, legends, institutions and family. In fact, they were even written about in the Iliad, the Odyssey and the Aeneid. And if their men were impressive, their women were no less remarkable. In many aspects they outshone the men of their times.

I guess by now you are wondering, who are these people? From J. F. del Giorgio’s The Oldest Europeans we learn that it is widely accepted that the oldest Europeans are the ancient Basques, who call themselves Euskaldunak, their country Euskalherria and their language Euskera. Some Basque thinkers use the term Euzko to name their people and those who are related to them or have the same origin from their DNA and cultural ties, such as the Etruscans, Scots, Scandinavians, Celts, Irish, Welsh, Gauls, Thracians, and Pelasgians

The Oldest Europeans contains a wealth of information packed into a 246 pages. It is a journey through prehistoric Europe that has as one of its principal contentions that the invasion of people for the East in Neolithic times coincided with the gradual decrease in women’s rights in European cultures. These women’s rights were very much in evidence among the oldest Europeans and as pointed out, they were not gained from their male counterparts, but rather inherited. One of the foremost essentials of Euzko societies was that they demonstrated profound matriarchal influences or as J. F. del Giorgio maintains, “they were matrilineal (i.e. tracing ascent through maternal lines. Occidental societies tend to do the opposite), and they were matrilocal and matrifocal societies.” Furthermore, it was this respect for women’s rights that fostered the growth of children in an equalitarian environment. It should be noted, as mentioned in the book, that among the Euzkos, the power was transferred from a queen to a princess and not from a king to a prince. A king only gained his power from being married to the Queen of the realm.

It would be an understatement to say that reading this well-documented study about witchcraft, old religions, women’s rights, our own stone roots, ancient European names, language, Greek mythology and history, ancient traditions such as the carnival, Easter, Christmas, hallucinogens, religious rituals, river names, and many more topics is fascinating!

However, when readers try to plough through a book that contains all of this and more, the outing may be a bit rough with its abundance of detail, particularly where the organization is cumbersome and the author tends to wander from time to time.

Unfortunately, this is one of the shortcomings of The Oldest Europeans, nonetheless, the book still merits a read, even if you have to re-read it two or three times, chew on it and digest it before understanding its full impact-it is still well worth the time and effort, as the author provides priceless insights into European ancestry.

Norm Goldman is editor of the book reviewing and author interviewing site http://www.bookpleasures.com and the travel site http://www.sketchandtravel.com

Bookpleasures is a global Internet book reviewing and author interviewing village. Reviewers come from all over the globe and review all genre. There are over 6500 sites that link to Bookpleasures and many of the reviews are listed within the first 3 pages of the Google Search Engine.

Norm also offers his own personalized express review service where you can have a quick review within 15 business days from the receipt of your book. To learn more about this service go to bookpleasures.com

Norm is ranked among the top 1000 Amazon reviewers and he contributes his reviews to several other Internet sites.

In addition, Norm and his artist wife Lily meld words with art focusing on romantic and wedding destinations, inns, and other hospitality properties. You can read Norm’s travel articles and view Lily’s art work that is always for sale at sketchandtravel.com

It’s the second book penned by the talented authoress who received critically acclaimed reviews for her first book, Taylini: A Family Saga. The fictional mafia book made waves over in Europe, which landed her a spot in the Italia Press!

Traci Collins has endured a rough childhood. From taking care of her drunken mother to overcoming a horrible accident that almost killed her at the age of fourteen. Now, at the age of twenty-seven, she has one more demon to deal with: her addiction to alcohol. As Traci struggles to get her life together, she seeks help for her addiction and finds love with Marc Drake, a handsome criminal defense attorney.

While attending group sessions, she meets three strangers: Olivia, Norman, and Kevin. When Traci accepts their invitation to join them for coffee, she learns they all have a story to tell. As they become close friends and start to trust one another, their stories begin to surface.

Doing her best to stay on the road to sobriety, Traci’s world begins to turn upside down. She soon finds herself in a tug of war over Marc Drake. Marcy, her rival co-worker, causes chaos for Traci by threatening her life over the one man she cannot have.

Finally, Traci will be asked to keep quiet when she learns of, her new best friend, Olivia’s dark secret, a secret that could impact her life forever.

Sampling of Reviews:

Traci’s Story, by author Marguerite Ashton, is not only a mind-blowing story but also a wonderfully crafted novel about a very bold and courageous girl, named Traci, who despite being born and brought up in a troubled home, faces great challenges in life and in meeting them, ends up trying to fight them out for good which had destroyed her for nothing.

Marguerite Ashton has a smooth writing style and this is one book everyone should read. As I read the story, it came to life, as if I were watching a movie. I give this book thumbs up and look forward to future writings from this promising author. I highly recommend Traci’s Story.

-Samia Muqueem, Visions of the Soul

Traci’s Story sucked me into its pages and I had difficulty tearing myself from the manuscript. This is a moving story based on a true story of a woman brought up by an alcoholic single mother.

As a child, Traci bravely accepts the barrage of difficulties, disrespect and responsibilities of handling a helplessly drunken parent but it leaves her emotionally scarred. While driving under the influence, the thoughtless mother inflicts a permanent and visible disability on her child that serves as a constant reminder of her past. Every mirror, every pair of eyes reflects her abnormality and this becomes a torment for Traci. As an adult, she struggles with her inner demons and the mind-numbing addictions to both alcohol and her work.

Marguerite Ashton uses a direct and simple writing style that envelops the reader in Traci’s world so deeply that the real world fades away for a little while. The ending left me with a feeling that the book is not finished. Yet, because I was thinking about it for days, I would have to say the ending was effective.

-Lillian Brummet, book reviewer and co-author of the book Trash Talk and Towards Understanding

Traci’s Story by Marguerite Ashton is an amazing book about growing up in a troubled home, dealing with very tough circumstances, and fighting the same poison that destroyed her entire being.

This book is an incredible insight into a battered world and will have you appreciating life as well as the love around you. Traci’s Story is a definite must-read!

-Sherry Moore, Shadows of the Past and Jason’s #16 Dream

Title: “Traci’s Story”
Author: Marguerite Ashton
Publication Date: January 14th, 2006
Retail Price: $19.95
ISBN: 1-4137-7386-9
Format: Trade Paperback, 165 pages

For more information on Ms. Ashton’s upcoming books and screenplays, feel free to visit her website at http://www.myspace.com/margueriteashton or http://www.publishedauthors.net/margueriteashton

Naomi Jo Rush new book of poetry, I Kissed a Frog and My
Prince Forgave Me, is a well-crafted poetic journey through
infidelity.

Naomi reveals the most vulnerable time in her married life.
Her poetry teaches us that married couples tend to forget
about each other’s needs and become absorbed in habitual
day-to-day behavior. While she strained for the attention that
her husband would not or could not provide Naomi put on a
performance of a happily content wife, when she was really
screaming with frustration inside.

Her confusion ripens with the prospect of temptation. The
thrill of spontaneity coupled with feeling of being desired
draws Naomi to her lover like a drowning person would
desperately clutch at a lifeline.

Craving for her husband to notice the change and
discovering she never wanted the marriage to end prompts
Naomi to confess her wrong doings. When it is all revealed,
Naomi endures the torturous guilt while watching her
husband writhe in the pain she inflicted upon him.

In the end, I think Naomi provides hope for us all in showing
us the reasons and effects of infidelity by walking us through
the steps of recovering a marriage. I felt encouraged that
marriages have a chance of thwarting this common mistake
if we show one another love and open the channels of
communication .We can thrive in a world of strife and
temptation.

~ Book Reviewer: Lillian Brummet - Co-author of the book
Trash Talk, a guide for anyone concerned about his or her
impact on the environment – Author of Towards
Understanding, a collection of poetry.
(http://www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit)

As ebook publishers we constantly strive to develop new information products that we
hope people will find value in, open up their wallets and graciously hand over their hard
earned dollars to us in their hope of learning something new or finding an immediate
solution to fix whatever problems they may be experiencing at that moment in their life. I
call this a hunger for curable knowledge, a fixer upper of sorts. It is often a battle for
many of us to decide on a realistic price that we believe the potential customer will
perceive as fair value. We all know, at times, this can be a painstaking task. We bounce
back and forth between prices, testing out the waters, trying to find just the acceptable
price range to motivate the visitor to make that all important decision. It’s easier said
than done. As marketers we have the temptation of offering bonuses as a way to increase
the perception that this info product we worked hard to develop is actually worth the
price were asking. But when does this strategy reach the plateau of overkill? To the
point where offering so many extra bonuses to entice the visitor to buy at the price of
$27.00, instead are we not actually implanting the emotion of doubt in our visitors mind?
Another difficult question to answer. As we all try our best to try and put ourselves in
our customers shoes, to try and figure out what their thinking when they see our offer, but
were not all psychic. Could our customers be thinking “If the author is offering this
many bonus ebooks in his or her offer to entice me to buy this one ebook is the
information in that ebook really worth the price?”. Then there’s alway’s the argument
that adding many bonuses to an existing offer definitely increases the chances for a sale.
Raises the perceived value of course! I agree that this type of marketing does work, but
only when applied to a book that we are asking a much higher price for, such as $97.00.
Asking people to fork out that kind of cash can be pretty risky simply because many
people can’t afford the asking price, or figure it’s not worth it. Whatever information
that is contained in that ebook had better be hard to come by information or the
percentage of refund requests could be high. To avoid this potential downfall is when
offering bonuses should come into play. But the bottom line is this, if the information
contained in the ebook your offering is truly valuable why bother offering a bunch of
bonuses in the first place, possibly risking making your prospect suspicious? Not
everyone perceives the same way. If they take the risk (and a lot of people who purchase
online feel they do take risks when making a purchase) and buy your info product
without any bonuses and like what they read, as long as it helped them, most of the time
they won’t ask for a refund, and you’ve made a sale and everyone’s happy. Long
extended no questions asked money back guarantees can be a great way of putting your
prospects fears at ease, but sometimes it can backfire to. But even more importantly than
offering bonuses, 1 year money back guarantees and all the rest, it’s absolutely critical
and probably the most important part of closing a sale is to have your contact information
in plain view on your site. A place they can call and to talk to a “real person” before
deciding to buy, and a physical address, not a P.O. Box. More often than not that’s all
that’s required besides good ad copy, but I see many sites in my web surfing adventures who fall short on
providing that information. As a customer would I buy from them…not a chance.

About the Author

Brian is a freelance writing covering topics of interest in the financial, health, and family arena’s. He’s the owner of www.theebookking.com and invites submissions of free quality ebooks to display in his growing directory.

E-books are one of the most beneficial and easiest ways to make mone on line - if you sell them. But how can you make profits from free e-books? This closely-guarded secret of the self-styled guru’s has recently become easily achievable by just about anyone with something to say, and certainly by everyone who already has a e-book or other information product to sell.

What is a free e-book?

A free e-book is usually an abridged or shortened version of a full e-book or information product. However, neither the fact that it is free or that it is a shortened version of something else means that it can not have value on its own. In fact, you will quickly find that if it does not have its own intrinsic value, that it will be very difficult to distribute - even for free.

For example, our own free e-book gives away our entire content on heart disease and cholesterol - something that virtually everyone needs to know about if they want to maintain their health.

The reason for this is two-fold. Firstly, even if it isn’t costing them money, people always want something for their efforts. To download something then actually read it takes effort, and that effort had better be worthwhile! Secondly, the whole point of creating a free e-book is to showcase the main product i.e. the full book or information product, in order to generate sales. If the free book is not up to scratch, then you can be sure that sales of the full product will not benefit from it.

Why a free e-book, why not just sell it?

Good question. The simple answer is that people love to get something for nothing - or at least to feel that they are getting something for nothing. As stated above, in order for this to be the case, they need to perceive that the “something” has some value to them and the process needs to be as simple as possible.

This means that far more people will be prepared to read your book if it is free than if they have to pay even a small amount for it, which both suggests it has little value and adds time and effort to the process. Conversely, if people see your e-book is free it not only makes them more likely to download it, it also adds value to your main product, i.e. your paid-for book, by letting them know they can only get so much for free.

How will people find my free e-book if I have no website traffic?

This is perhaps the most crucial aspect of giving away anything from your website, and until recently, a difficult issue to resolve. Building traffic to your site takes both time and considerable effort - building the site, getting it hosted, promoting it etc. There are many ways to make this easier and relatively automatic, but it still takes some effort on your part, and, inevitably - time.

The secret of generating both interest in your product and traffic to your site is to get others to help you do it - in other words, multiplication of your efforts. Of course the people you will want to sell your product will already have successful websites (ideally with subject matter relevant to yours) and will want some reward for selling your product (or even giving it away), and this is the part that until recently was difficult.

How to get others to give away your free e-book?

The first thing you need to do is to arrange some reliable way to ensure that those who you want to help you will benefit from sales of your product. This is easy to arrange by setting up an affiliate program and there are many different ways of doing so, which vary enormously in cost, complexity and ease-of-use. Personally, we find Clickbank both inexpensive and easy to use both to set up your program and for your customers to make purchases.

The real key, however, to getting others to give away your FREE e-book is to ensure that THEY will benefit from any sales that it generates. That means that you need to allow them to add THEIR affiliate links to YOUR e-book, so that any recipients of the free book that click on the sales links will generate revenue for both of you.

Either you can make the resultant free e-book editable by your affiliates (a potentially risky strategy, just asking for it to be ripped off) or you can create what has become the new standard for such products - the brandable e-book.

What is a brandable e-book?

A brandable e-book is an e-book that contains specially formatted links that can be changed with a simple editing program without giving editing access to the rest of the book. This means that not only can your affiliates benefit by distributing a copy of your e-book with their links in it, but people that receive it from them can also reformat the links and redistribute it again (you explain HOW in the book itself!).

This creates a “viral” e-book that provides not only the motivation, but also the means for any web-savvy recipient of your book to make a profit from it. Of course, if your content is excellent as well, people will have another good reason to redistribute it to their friends etc and it will reach even further.

The key to creating a brandable e-book is to use an inexpensive branding program to create the special links for you, which will also give you the relevant re-branding program for your affiliates.

We explain exactly how to do this on our own re-branding page - feel free to copy our method and wording if you think it would help you.

By following these simple steps, you too can generate a small army of affiliates to help sell your product for you, for mutual benefit.

About the Author

Brian Adamson is the founder and President of Natural Health Information Centre, a unique, independent resource whose sole intention is to cut through the myth and propaganda surrounding disease and health and make available the TRUTH about Disease prevention, management and cure in easily understandable language.