Salute Friend

It continues to amaze me that everyday I see more and more webmasters and e-zine publishers still worrying about the high costs of online advertising and promotion when all this time they have been sitting on a 24 carat goldmine. A goldmine so valuable that it promises to end their worries for months if not years to come.

As the webmaster of Carvers E-Book Marketing Center http://carver.bizland.com I see day after day visitors who are sitting on what promises to be one of the most effective and exponentially growing free advertising mediums that they’ve ever explored. A free advertising medium that is so effective (unlike the majority of the rest) that it literally made me drop all my other online ventures overnight and focus entirely upon e-book marketing.

Before I continue it would be best to explain a little about e-book marketing as the majority of online marketers that I meet seem to know little to nothing on the subject. To put it simply effective e-book marketing harnesses the power of giving away “substance for free” in an attempt to build ongoing trust and future purchases from potential customers. We see this everyday with major corporations such as Microsoft giving away free software and companies such as Hypermart that provide free web space in hope to on sell other products and services.

While many of us just can’t afford to be throwing away such elaborate software products there is still room for even those on the tightest budget to harness the same power and bring similar results as the major online players. How do we do this? E-book marketing of course!

E-Book marketing works in much the same way as publishing an e-zine, helping to develop trust within potential customers and continually building on that trust by maintaining consistent interaction with your online business. Not only that but it also acts as an exponentially growing free advertising medium which literally pulls people to your web site.

Mark Joyner the CEO of the Aesop Marketing Corporation (http://foreverweb.com) created his first e-book titled “Search Engine Tactics” a subject that is directly related to the products and services that his company sells. Since its release in early 1998 it has now been downloaded over a million times which equates to 1 million readers! A fair estimate based upon independent research would be that at least 95% of those readers visited his web site and depending upon the conversion rate of his sales pitch at the time can you even begin to imagine how much extra revenue was obtained from his e-book?

Terry Dean of Bizpromo (http://www.bizpromo.com) has experienced similar results. Here is a direct quote ripped straight from his e-zine,”Web Gold” Vol. 2, #40, October 8, 1999:

“We produced our first electronic book for download back in December of last year. It was titled “101 High Profit Businesses You Can Start Online with Little Or NO Money.” I announced it as a Christmas gift all of my subscribers could download. The first couple of months it was online, it received 500 to 2,000 downloads per week… I currently estimate that around 1/3 of my current business is still being generated by this one e-book being given away for free on hundreds of sites. I consider it the most valuable promotion my business has ever done!.”

There’s no doubt about it e-book marketing works and is effective. Even the highly intelligent and respected people at IMC (http://www.marketingchallenge.com) have realized this and released their own e-book of articles that they’ve previously published both in their newsletter and on their web site - so what about this 24 carat goldmine I mentioned you’re probably sitting on? Well we’ll take two examples that will clearly show how many of you can begin to tap into this medium almost overnight.

The first being the content from the web site of a person who visited Carvers E-Book Marketing Center several days ago. You can find their web site “The Small Business Knowledge Center” at http://bizmove.com. This is prime example of an online business that is truly sitting on a 24 carrot goldmine.

On their home page you will notice 8 major sections all quite distinct but at the same time all similarly related to small business information. Here I already count 8 unique e-books that if complied in the appropriate manner and released for free distribution could see this web masters web site promotion blues gone forever! Imagine if just one of those e-books brought similar results as that of Mark Joyner’s. Imagine if 2 or 3 of them did!

While this an extremely good example anyone with a set of articles, a short tutorial, back issues of their e-zine or collection of useful information can create an e-book. Let’s take a different example. Take a quick visit to “Golfgateway” at http://www.golfgateway.com. You will find a link on the left side titled “Tips from the Pros”. While this web site lacks any articles as such, even golf related web sites could harness the power of e-book marketing.

Compiling an e-book of all past pro tips effectively titled “The Little Golden E-Book of Super Golf Tips from the Pros” and then giving it away for free they would have then created a book that I’m 100% certain people will begin to pass on to their friends. The beauty is that these friends share the same interests and are therefore the same highly targeted prospects that are the most desired visitors to the Golfgateway web site!

I’m also 100% certain that they would find or already have associated web sites that would gladly like to offer their free e-book for download as an incentive to attract more visitors to their own web sites.

It’s also probably quite ridiculous the amount of money that both webmasters from these examples spend on web site promotion each and every month. When you consider that the small cost to begin and continually harness the power of e-book marketing it’s almost crazy they themselves and others aren’t exploring it.

While this article couldn’t possibly provide you with all the techniques and methods that are required to successfully explore and experience the results of e-book marketing I hope that I have brought this relatively new medium to your serious consideration.

Write an eBook

Everyone has a gift, talent, or interest which others would love to learn about and they would pay to learn about it. Writing an ebook is one of the most simple ways to do this! All you need to do is write something, put it into pdf, and set it up to sell it.

1. Write Something.

Start by asking yourself what your special interests are or what things you are knowledgeable about which others would like to learn about. What experiences have you been through which other people would find fascinating? Two areas which I’ve found people love reading about are creative home business ideas and ways to save money. Topic such as these will especially attract buyers because they will hope to get a lot more out of your ebook than they paid for it. If they expect the information in your ebook to save them quite a bit more money than they paid for it, they will usually be anxious to buy it. The same goes for ebooks on home business ideas.

Pick your topic and start writing! The nice thing about ebooks is that they don’t have to be long. 25-40 pages is a good size for ebooks, though longer or shorter is acceptable. Be sure to have a couple different individuals proof your ebook; typographical errors are so common nowadays, but that doesn’t make them right or acceptable. Numerous typos in books or ebooks always leaves a poor reflection on the author.

2. Convert Your eBook to PDF.

Once you have written your ebook and have it laid out in an easy-to-read manner, you will need to convert it into pdf or an ebook format using an ebook program. If you do not already have a pdf program, you can download a free pdf converter program here: http://www.PDF995.com. PDF is best to use for smaller ebook files, if you have a larger ebook file, I would recommend eBook Generator.

3. Set Up Your eBook to Sell.

In order to sell it online, a great program to begin with is PayLoadz. (http://www.payloadz.com/affiliates/go.asp?a=payments@covenantwed dingsource.com). I have been using PayLoadz for my ebooks and have been extremely happy with it. It allows you to set up the book process so that your ebooks can be instantly downloaded once your customer pays for them. This makes it much easier for everyone! Your customers will love being able to instantly download the ebooks and you will love not having to mess with sending them a download link. Once you have your ebook written and it set up on PayLoadz, you can just sit back and allow the payments to come in. You can set up an affiliate program through PayLoadz which allows others to make money by promoting your ebook. (See my affiliate marketing page for more information on this: http://www.BiblicalWomanhoodOnline.com/affiliatemarketing.htm.)

If you are planning to sell a lot of your ebooks and you want to have an affiliate program (which I highly recommend you do), ClickBank is an excellent program to consider using (http://CPaine.reseller.hop.clickbank.net). They charge a $50 fee to set up your ebook and they take out a small percentage of each sale, but they will give you wide exposure for you ebook which you will probably not be able to generate from your website.

In order to sell your ebook online, you need to have a website. It can be something extremely simple as just a two page sales-letter-type of website. There are multitudes of website options available out there. I would recommend starting out with something extremely simple. If you know nothing about html, you could hire someone to create it for you or you could use something like Create Your Own Website. Make sure that you put testimonials on your website from people who have purchased your ebook (you can give away some copies in exchange for testimonials!). Testimonials add a lot of credential , especially if the people who write them have their own website or business in a similar field.

In Jim Edwards and David Garfinkel’s tutorial “eBook Secrets Exposed”, they take you through the process of writing and marketing an eBook, so you can make money on the internet. Instead of broad generalities on writing about a particular subject, the eBook shows you the five most important steps in finding a topic for your eBook that will be targeted to a specific market. As they point out, you must identify your target audience, making sure there a lots of sites already selling to them because then you know people are willing to pay for the information.

Together they talk about how and find to identify Niche markets along with the top ten reasons or motivations for people to buy anything. There is lots of information on how to take topics and frame them into an eBook concept. Jim and David point out that your eBook will be purchased to solve your prospects painful problem or be a way to obtain a desirable solution. You must know exactly who will buy your book before you write it. They clearly take you through that process step-by-step.

Of course the main problem is always how to find the “Niche Market” that everyone always talks about. Although Jim and David do give you ideas on how to search for one, it is still a hazy realm within the internet. I would love for some internet guru to just list the markets that should be examined for creating eBooks.

With that one flaw noted, Mr. Edwards and Mr. Garfinkel do take you step-by-step through the process of writing an eBook that can be profitable, if you follow the steps they lay out for you in this eBook. So why would you take their advice? Jim Edwards has sold thousands of his eBooks online. Aside from writing eBooks, he has several CD-Rom products, videos, numerous audio tapes, software packages and a newsletter with thousands of subscribers. David Garfinkel is a copywriter and an award winning business journalist. He was the San Francisco Bureau chief for McGraw-Hill World News. More recently, he was the Editor in chief for “What’s Online” a privately circulated Internet marketing newsletter where subscribers paid $497.00 a year.

Yanik Silver said: “Jim and David have really broken the code on what it takes to make big money with almost any eBook on the Web. If that’s what you want to do I (Yanik) can only give you one piece of adviceget this resource now!”

One of the most valuable points of “eBook Secrets Exposed” is that they try to teach you how to find a hot market for your eBook and to find Joint Venture Partners that will sell your product. This is especially important if you don’t have an internet subscriber list of your own. They have even included email wording suggestions to send to potential JV partners. They further explain resale rights and how to build your own list.

“eBook Secrets Exposed” stresses how important it is to choose a topic that already has a market and has other people selling to that market. This gives you two vital opportunities: 1) the Market is established and 2) you have the potential for multiple joint venture partners. And why would you need joint venture partners? Because they already have lists of people who bought their products and they just may be interested in yours. The way to do this is mapped out in the eBook.

You will probably have to read the eBook through a few times to “get” all the points that are included, but after the second or third time you’ll have a great grasp on how to write an eBook.

There is a section in the book that goes over using pay per click advertising to get conversion numbers (number of visitors to your website that purchased your eBook). Conversion numbers are used to entice Joint Venture Partners. Although this is an option, the down side is the days of the inexpensive pay per click are over, so this could cost you some money.

This eBook is very well written and packed full of information. The only other question I would have or improvement I would like to see is how to get joint venture partners in different ways when you are just starting out. This is always a murky area.

Other than my comments on Niche Markets and finding JV Partners when you’re new, “eBook Secrets Exposed” is a very concise tutorial on how to write an eBook and market it to a targeted audience. If you want to learn quickly on how to write an eBook and you want serious information on marketing, I would give this book an 8 out of a possible 10.

For more information on Jim and David’s eBook click here http://www.WebMarketingReviews.com/eBookSecretsExposed.html

Copyright © 2005 Mary Hanna All Rights Reserved.

This article may be distributed freely on your website and
in your ezines, as long as this entire article, copyright
notice, links and the resource box are unchanged.

Mary Hanna writes eBooks, Software Reviews (for people who are technically challenged like her) and Practical Articles on Internet Marketing, Cruising, Gardening and Cooking. Visit her websites at: www.WebMarketingReviews.com
www.FirstCruiseBestCruise.com
www.ContainerGardeningSecrets.com and
www.GourmetChefAtHome.com

With this all possible the price could be lowered to a back breaking competitive level giving lower prices to consumers who voted with their dollars while retaining a huge number of proficient hours each time period. It is amazing that with all the freight forwarding software, inventory software, manufacturing scheduling software that no one sees the obvious uses to streamline services. Look at a Taxi Cab company, police dispatch, air traffic controller, train master at a rail yard with trains moving all directions and many 300 miles away all converging and departing simultaneously. Or the Phoenix missile system used by the government which when put onto an F-14 could track and kill 8 target 150 miles away moving at almost any speed in and direction on a three dimensional plane. Ever wonder why no F-15 has ever been shot down in combat? Even a gondola wire could not stop it, it always wins. So is it safe to say that when you have the best of everything that the odds are stacked so far in your favor that knowing the percentages is irrelevant to the game. All that needs to happen is to set fire in motion.

If anyone has ever watched Fed Ex work they use nearly the maximum of human resources as pilots load there own planes and help with the production of the sort. This can only happen when the norms of union workers were broken where one guy drives a fork lift, one guy drives a truck and they take breaks at different times and if the truck driver moves the fork lift then the fork lift driver who is on his 1 hour break files a grievance with the union. Scary, productivity level? Not much. Same with highway workers who really need a shovel with a kick stand since they are not needed to hold it up anymore. If one guy works and fifteen guys lean on their shovels while one strong tenure supervisor sits in his pick-up waiting for his supervisor to discuss the next coffee break. Yet with finite capacity scheduling even these dilemmas can be averted to some degree. Yet the total capacity management plan cannot achieve any additional savings in job completion frequency.

The only way this will work however is that all the team take ownership in the scheduling system and not try to change it by calling in with a bogus excuse such as tire is low, I need to get air. Traffic is busy, I cannot get there. This one we can mitigate knowing the speed of the vehicle by GPS/GIS and correlating that to the traffic reports. Without being a big brother, you can have a strong team like ours in every micro team unit. Working together to win and sharing in the economies of scale by profiting when goals are met. Keep in Mind that we can do better than the GE Way where if goals are not met heads roll. Fear is an excellent motivator, but it burns people out and screws with their psychy. It is much easier to win by other winning and through diplomacy and reward for achievement like in sports, or medals for war heros, or status and profit incentives all inline with FCS, it can easily work together. Add in bonuses for new customers signing up for with customer and employees and watch referrals skyrocket and all this can be tracked as well. Imagine a company tracking its referrals not by secret codes on print media or post card mailins, but with regards to days of the week, area, type of services, employee who did the last job before the referral came in. A small business person can keep track of this with out too much problem if he has one unit and all the referrals come from him. But what about the multiple unit operator of a plumbing company, tow company or National Tree Trimming Company? What about a national franchise company. Where things very from region to region on some services and others are almost an identical match such as the friends and family programs and can be figured out by DMA service region and census (or tiger files) population formulas.

I would recommend that anyone on our team reading this search the internet for mobile car wash scheduling and come up with all the previous postings. Try Alta Vista, Northern Light and the search feature on this bulletin board and you will see the tremendous progress we have made in discovery and research.

I think the best point in the book was made for the nay Sayers of FCS, here it is.

No matter how good a software package is, if the users do not have ownership in it, it will fail.

Conversely; No matter how bad a software package is, if the users have ownership in it, it will succeed.

So obviously education and proper motivation is the key, the company and good will that has been built up is at risk.

If you think this book review is crazy, think of it as a discussion of thoughts after reading such a book. FCS is very efficient and it is even used by HMOs to schedule patients, and during operations. Remember that the efficiency in an HMO is how they make their money, not by making you healthier or better. But by doing that minimum promised at the lowest possible price. Luckily the FCS model is sound otherwise in this case it could literally cause death. Hospitals use these systems to manage inventories, supplies, labor, machinery, and all facilities. Makes since. Problems may occur if you are maximizing surgery equipment and rooms and doctors, when someones surgery takes longer than anticipated and the next scheduled is a kidney transplant. This is why in the customer service business that the limits of capacity are drawn and jobs of little importance can be moved to a later time while time is of the essence jobs are to happen forthwith. In fighting a war one cannot stop because a component is out. The enemy does not stop if you stop for tea. But in the case of logistics and moving reinforcements into position it is of the utmost importance to have these processes in place to look ahead fifteen chess moves. This is why Schwartzkoff said on CNN that Saddam was not very good military strategist. Maybe he is right, however, by then we had knocked out significant communication lines, SAM sites and blown up half his strength. I would have to thank Schwartzkoff the airforce, Navy and AWACS for destroying his logistical operations before the ground war started. Then the Marines first in and first to die, had no problems at all. We won the logistical battle. In business it is the same game, strategic partners and alliances to secure distribution channels for rapid advancement or roll out of a product line. Then to win the war it is all about delivery of desired services or products in the proper amounts to the proper places at the most efficient methods. FCS. Both operational and tactical. Logical thinking with an experience of true reality of the market place. Pencil Neck geeks with little round glasses reading spread sheets and answering every question in such a way that would make their college professor proud does not work. You cannot outsource your FCS software needs to someone who has never been in the war and flown by the seat of their pants. There is a reality of the market place and if it is the only consideration next to the customer you will win, you need both and if a professor who cannot teaches someone who has never how can the customer be enlightened enough by great service to repeat their orders? This is why Gates left school, Paul Allen was the coach and Steve Balmer is now running the company and why they won so well in the market that the government had to find something wrong with them even if they did not understand what and could only get complaints from competitors as no consumer was ever actually damaged.

It is necessary to track everything to have the right answers and providing you have built an FCS system correctly you are in a good place. The rest of the process is to cut out the waste and complexity. As long as you know you know you are the best, like we do at the Car Wash Guys, you do not need to create for the sake of creating, you create for the sake of achieving, everything else is wasting. Which by the way wasting does not calculate in the logical world of FCS. If we follow our competitors we would be really complicated and achieve less and less as we grow bigger and bigger on a per store basis. If you copy your competitor it will not help you beat your competitor. You only have to think like him to find him and know how he thinks to beat him all the while thinking beyond him. That is how the Bizmark was found caught and sunk. And why Alexander the Great won so many battles.

I liked the way the book ended with this quote, probably another quote to go with the famous quote; If you do not know where you are going any road will take you there. He finished the book with this quote. Even if you know where you are going, if you do not move fast enough you will be run over. Yes precisely.

Just another exercise for the team in brain power. Think allot and call me when you have a good idea, so we can implement, adapt and stay leading edge.

No need to read through this book completely, the highlights as they relate to winning the car wash war are within these previous chapters.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

Ebooks are an extremely popular way to make your mark on the world wide web. Whether you are seeking fame and fortune or just looking to share your knowledge with the general public - ebooks are a great way to do either. An ebook is essentially a book in electronic format. Ebooks can easily be downloaded online to be read and saved on the computer. Before diving head first into writing an ebook is it important to know why you want to write an ebook. Knowing why you want to write a book will help determine how the book is written and what the book will be about. There are three basic types of ebooks. The ebook types are advertising, hobby, and money.

Hobby based ebooks are written for the express purpose of writing about what you love! Model airplanes, cooking, or gardening are all great subjects for ebooks especially if authored by an individual that truly enjoys the topic. There is a wealth of information which can be shared between two hobby enthusiasts. With today’s modern technology there is no quicker, or more efficient way of sharing this information then through an ebook. Making money from a hobby ebook is merely a great side benefits of already doing what you love.

Advertising ebooks are used as a tool to sell a particular product. For example if your product is a hardwood cleaner then you might write an ebook which is called “How to Safely Clean Hardwood Floors”. In the text of the ebook you would give the consumer directions for cleaning floors and then cite your product as one of the best ways to clean hardwood floors. Advertising ebooks are written to promote a product and outline the benefits of the your product. Be sure that the ebook has a good bit of useful information and not just an extended advertisement.

The most popular use of ebooks is to make money. For people seeking to make money from ebooks there are a couple of factors to keep in mind. There are several marketing schemes which lure in people wanting to make money from but in the end just scam people out of their money. However, there are several secure distribution systems which potential ebook authors can have confidence in. The important component to making money with ebooks is that the ebook is a quality product that people will want to pay money for.

A successful ebook is one that exhibits brevity, stylized writing, and a sense of humor. In terms of ebooks it is important to find and stick with your core message. Reading text on a screen is strikingly different then curling up with a good book on the couch. Text on the computer is a much slower read and there is a great deal of eye strain associated with intense online reading Therefore, the text of a successful ebooks gets to the point quickly and stays on point. Rambling, story telling, and general fluff is of no use to the online consumer. Successful ebooks usually contain a number of great visuals like graphs, lists, and diagrams. This adds interest and ease of understanding to the reader of difficult topics.

Hafis Joel Raji is the author of “Writing an ebook.” With a website dedicated to help student get the best results Visit his site to find out more information http://www.studenttogether.com or mailto:admin@studenttogether.com.

This is an extract of an article by John Atkinson, co-editor of the world famous ‘Investing & Online Trading stock market newsletter’ at www.sharetradingeducation.com.

This article was first printed in Daryl Guppy’s Newsletter Tutorials in Applied Technical Analysis on 26 March 2005 and is reprinted here with his permission

A stop loss is a predetermined exit point. When a trade is first planned, the stop loss is designed to protect the trader’s capital. The exact price of the stop loss is the result of a relationship between the maximum level of risk as determined by the 2% rule, the logical support levels on the chart, and the amount of capital the trader wants to allocate to the trade. By varying these three figures, the trader is able to reach an ideal trading solution that controls risk effectively.

A stop loss order should always be constructed at the same time that any trade is planned or entered. Disciplined stop loss sell orders are the key to long term trading success.

The new chat room Stockmeetingplace.com has an educational bias where traders from around the world come to exchange ideas, swap exploration formulas and discuss trading techniques.

Many topics are covered and for the benefit of readers who may not have read the following, this article is based on four posts on Stockmeetingplace which were recently provided by two regular contributors to this newsletter and myself on the subject of the difficulty in taking stop losses.

This topic was introduced by a new trader Jim who wrote:

Okay I’m going admit it, “I find it hard to act on stop losses”. I know I’m not the only one.

Many possible reasons …I’m comfortably ahead this year anyway…the companies are fundamentally sound with good prospects…the price decline defies common sense (this is a common thought). I’ve pondered on this for some time now.

Anyway, I know I’ve got a problem that could bite me hard if the market turned nasty. For those of you that have been here but overcame it, please share your thoughts on how you did it.

In response, John Atkinson replied:

“In Daryl’s first book Share Trading he uses the analogy for wannabe traders of learning to put down notes on the footpath and have someone pick them up & walk away with your money. During the tech stock run traders worldwide felt they were invincible as stocks soared at an incredibly fast pace. During those times we found it easy to sell out at losses when you were making up for it on other profitable trades.

Then one week the party was over - and all of a sudden its not any fun anymore as you see red on any screen you look at - and no more green up days

First of all regret hits you - wishing you hadn’t listened to that broker who told you to hold - regret you hadn’t got out sooner - regret you hadn’t acted on your stop (if you set one in the first place) or not bought such a large position or too many positions or had actually taken the time to get some education on technical analysis, psychology and risk management in the first place

This then moves to hope - the BHP approach - Buy Hope and Pray - you find yourself looking at the charts or screen hoping the share will turn around - believe me the share can’t hear you - it doesn’t care about you or your hope - it always did and always will respond to supply & demand and if no-one wants it , it’s headed South.

Then fear really hits - gut wrenching fear as you see your capital decimated - 20 years of working multiple jobs to get ahead & most of it all gone in months ……. sleepless nights for weeks then months …….And you still have to try & function at work by day when you’ve been pacing the house night after night - your mind goes, your memory goes, your reasoning goes - and our waterfront home went.

And all of that can be traced back months previously to a series of small decisions that evolve around getting the right education and developing discipline for correct position sizing, capital allocation, setting your initial stop, moving up trailing stops and exiting your stops when they’re triggered.

Hope this helps you in what you consider now to be a dilemma. I also hope this helps you decide whether trading is actually for you or not and please realise it’s okay to say no and seek your fortune in other endeavours, in which case we applaud you for your decision.

I mean this with sincere conviction - trading is not for everyone and sorry to be appearing tough on you but acting on stops is tough - and the alternative is much tougher, believe me.”

To this Jason Mitchell added

“Well done on being honest. I think as you say many people do have trouble acting on stops. I would like to tell you there is a nice simple way but I think for many people it takes losing money. It did for me anyway. This is because of our beliefs.

I noticed in your post you wrote “the companies are fundamentally sound with good prospects…the price decline defies common sense (this is a common thought)”

I am assuming these are your thought processes. Thought processes are generally underpinned by our beliefs. I have no trouble acting on stop losses because I have lost money in the past not doing it. My belief is that working on fundamentals and common sense loses me money while acting on stops helps make me money. Your belief however may be that the fundamental opinion of a company is meaningful and that price will come back.

I am not saying you are wrong and the others are right. Every body has a different way of trading. Many fundamental analysts have no time for technical views - if they make it work that is fine. I believe using technical analysis is a numbers game. Minimise losses and put the balance of probability on your side. In order to do this stops are generally needed.

Changing beliefs for the most part (I think) comes from our experiences. For example I love dogs but if I got mauled tomorrow by a pit bull I may be less caring next time I see one running across the road… Maybe this answer is not what you are looking for but while ever someone is trying to adhere to another person’s belief when it doesn’t seem right to them, there will always be trouble maintaining discipline.

The only suggestion I can make is extensive research on your approach. Seeing factual results can be hard to deny especially when there is a repeated pattern that becomes visible. This could be done through back testing but this is more difficult with fundamental and technical combined. Hope this helps in some small way. I admire your honesty.”

Daryl Guppy added his perspective on this subject with the following:

“Consistently exercising stop loss discipline is the greatest challenge and barrier to successful long term trading. Our desire to avoid experiencing the pain of losing is hardwired.

Once you have created a discipline to take a series of losses you tend to find that another set of inhibiting factors start to creep in. At first they are special cases, Later they become the ‘normal’ reason for not acting a stop losses and the losses grow.

I do not think there is a single, or simple, solution. The solutions we use to force ourselves to act on stops change over time. We need to be alert for the need to change and the more we can read about the different ways that others resolve this problem, then the better the chance we give ourselves of finding a solution that will work for us.

The foundation is accurate trade planning and good records showing how a trade failed. Look for the patterns as Jason suggests, and then develop strategies to block the losing behaviours. This may mean not taking particular types of trades because they always ‘blow up.”

Jim’s response to these replies may be read at http://www.stockmeetingplace.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=471&pag e=1#pid2132

This is the book acclaimed by those who do the acclaiming as the bar-none most compelling tale of people having a bad time, ever told. Paul Theroux describes it as the best adventure book he’s ever read. Couple that with the perennial appearances on the ‘best this’ and ‘best that’ lists and it becomes clear that it deserves considerable consideration by those wishing to be well-read.

There is no doubt Garrard had a horrible time of it. Nor can it be argued that this narrative is anything but compelling; or that the quality of the prose is less than stellar. None-the-less, the accolades given this book lead one to ask, what is it that makes a book the best adventure book ever written? And is this it?

The Worst Journey in the World was written a decade after the fated 1911 Scott expedition to the South Pole. It is a compendium of Garrard’s reminiscences and diary entries, as well as the diary entries of Scott, Lashy and others. For the most part it’s a clear-heading accounting of the expedition that is both realistic of the hardships encountered and of the team’s strengths and shortcomings. Granted, there is certain amount of romance in the telling, but for the most part it avoids the late century gosh-gee-whiz-let’s-add-an-adjective school of story telling which ruins so many contemporary tales.

That said, how good is the book? If the first criteria is the note-worthiness of the adventure itself, rest assured that Garrard’s account qualifies. That Scott was runner-up in the race to the pole is reason enough to record the event. The fact that he did so in such miserable, and by all accounts unusually harsh conditions makes it even more so. Cherry-Garrard’s winter expedition to collect eggs of from the previously unstudied Emperor penguins was downright awful, and a pre curser to the year ahead …

” … a trip so appalling, so horrendous, so absolute in its misery and its danger that you cannot think a man could endure it for a day, much less for five weeks”

In an era where falling into a crevice just once is seen as a cheating death, Cherry and crew impress with their daily, sometimes hourly plunges through rotted snow bridges. As do their accounts of floundering snow blind through mazes of impassable pressure ridges. Temperature as low as -60 and -70 degrees were common. Every morning the team would prop open the mouths of their sleeping bags so that they would be able to climb back into the frozen bags the subsequent evening. Horrendous hardly seems to be the appropriate epitaph. The fact they survived is beyond comprehending.

As odd as it to say, Scott’s return journey from the pole replete with spectacularly frigid conditions, depleted supplies and eventual stormbound death seems almost manageable. Not that his journey was easier than Garrard’s, but rather quieter and more in the norm of what you and I might expect to be overcome by …

… blizzard bad as ever — Wilson and Bowers unable to start — tomorrow last chance — no fuel and only one or two days of food left — must be near the end. Have decided it shall be natural — we shall march for the depot with or without our effects and die in our tracks.

R.Scott

There is something familiar about the end; proof perhaps that we are mortal, that we are decent, and that there is an intrinsic worth in attempting the unlikely.

There is never any queston that the adventure itself (if one can call it an adventure … Garrard certainly wouldn’t object) is eponymous; it records one of the great endeavours of the modern era. As an adventure in-and-of-itself, however, it’s hardly possible to rate it as greater or lessor on some arbitrary scale against F.A. Worsley’s, Endurance. It’s quite the tale; I’d be a fool to say otherwise. I’d also be a fool to claim it was the greatest of all and so, remain agnostic.

Which leads then to criterium number two; apart from the subject, is the narrative compelling? Well … it isn’t a page turner like Touching the Void is a page turner, but it was written in a different era. And while it doesn’t plod, it is true to its intent and records the expedition as fully as Garrard thought possible. What this means is that everything from zoological observations to crew manifests are recorded, along with the joys and tribulations of the event.

Nor is Garrard interested in leaving the reader hanging at the end of each chapter; he was NOT negotiating a film deal in the background and the story proceeds accordingly … everyone knows the ending and we get there eventually. What will surprise is how quickly it comes and how quickly the 550 pages disappear. Is it the most compelling narrative ever … ? Not really, but it is good. And if one were to take readers’ reactions from consumer sites into account the over-arching opinion has it that it’s very good.

An adventure, no matter how worthy, coupled with a narrative superbly paced does not make a good book if the telling of the tale gets in the way. Common to much recently written adventure lit is a quality of over-enthusiasm … a seeming need by the author to convince a reader of the awesomeness of the events; adjectives multiply, perspective seems lost and we’re left wondering why the author needs to try so hard.

What will strike a reader is how unassuming Cherry-Garrard is, and how he under-states what the expedition was faced with. His is the precise opposite of a typical over-written, over hyped post millenial account. Stiff-upper-lipped-Britness explains it partially. Eric Newby does the same thing in A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush where hardships are downplayed and collegiality reigns. It may be last-gasp-of-the-empire mentality, but the Brits of that class had class. And it shows. It’s this quality exactly that has endeared the account to readers for the last century … and I suspect it’s what readers and editors are responding to when they call it the best adventure book ever.

It is good. It is very good. The best, however … ? Geez, I’m going to weasel on this … for it to be the best, it has to feel the best and somehow … somehow … somehow …suffice it to say that Cherry Garrard’s, The Worst Journey in the World is more compelling than most, better paced than most, and better written than almost all else. It will impress.

Let’s face it, the ability to read faster, and still comprehend what you’re reading, is an essential skill in today’s fast moving environment. We must read extensively if we want to be successful in our studies, or careers. There’s no doubt, learning to speed read is probably the most valuable and time saving skill you can acquire. Frankly, under today’s information pressures you must read faster and read better if you are to get ahead at all. Of course, some people will say you can do fine without knowing how to speed read. WRONG! Young men and women trained in Modern Speed Reading show distinct advantages over those who lack this kind of preparation. Schools and colleges have discovered that courses in reading skills give enormous aid to students struggling under the heavier loads of today’s scholastic programs. Their higher grade point averages speak for themselves. Just imagine being able to read a novel in less than half the time it takes you now, and knowing how to skim an article effectively so the information you’re seeking seems to pop out of the page for you to find. Once you can speed read, your whole attitude toward reading changes. You will enjoy reading a great deal more and will read with greater intelligence.

Once you have become proficient at speed reading, you’ve prepared yourself to move with confidence into the wonderful world of books. It will be a rich experience with your newly developed skills, for books are an opening of new horizons, a road to new adventures, and a source of unending pleasure and delight. People who have really learned to read are never at a loss and are never lonely. A good book is the best of friends, the same today and forever.

Learning to speed read is not a difficult or painfully long process. In fact, a recently released Learn To Speed Read book that I have just finished had me reading faster by the fourth chapter. Truly fast reading skills come with time and practice of course, but this book can teach you to read faster and read better right from the beginning.

If you are a High School or College Student, read extensively for your work, like reading the morning newspaper each day, or just enjoy reading a good novel occasionally, you really should consider learning to speed read. Once learned, it is a skill that will benefit you throughout your life.

Ken Asselin

Award winning author John Roynesdal, is a retired English teacher who has written for more than 15 years and produced 3 books for his Phillip Michael Carnegie Mystery series. Throughout the series, John focuses on issues that prevail on mankind: greed, prejudice, poverty, dysfunctional families and the conflict between traditional and modern societies. Living in Darkness, a 265-page mystery novel, is the third book in this series.

Here, we have a serial killer at large. Detective Carnegie and his coworkers Paul and Nick are out to solve the case. Clues point to many possibilities and keep the team working hard. Is it the work of a homophobe? Or a case of mad revenge? Or pointless youth rage? Juliana, their insightful and caring friend has often aided in cases in the past - and this one is no different. Inspired by the work of another man, Juliana is attempting to open a safe house for runaway gay children but she is obstructed by zealous religious leaders.

The boss, “Fats”, wants to see the serial killer case closed and it seems that it should be - but Detective Carnegie feels something is not quite right. He continues the investigation without consent and stumbles on some clues that change everything.

This book promotes freedom and a willingness to live and let live regarding sexuality. Good points were made about prohibition making various sexual urges into something secretive and devious. I felt that John did a wonderful job depicting the stresses of the homosexual. Readers are shown the stigma that is placed on them as soon as they are known as “gay”. The reaction of employers and family was interesting and the prejudice homosexuals endure was enlightening. The story line definitely brings awareness to the hateful and disgusting crime of gay-bashing.

ISBN#: 1411626702
Author: John A. Roynesdal
Publisher: Lulu Press

~ Lillian Brummet - Book Reviewer - 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. (www.sunshinecable.com/~drumit)

You have permission to reprint ©-by Brian Holte

Ok, so you’re at that stage where you’ve gotten just enough content to publish your first e-book, finally the grunt work is out of the way.

Sit back and pat yourself on the shoulder for a job well done.

Next task on the list?

How to add fresh content to your already existing e-book, I personally find it much easier to add to an already existing e-book then to create an e-book!

But one does not shine without the other.

Can you think of any “sub-niche” market your target audience would like more information about, something that would definitely grab their attention and add:

• Punch to your e-book. • Increased interest for your e-book but even more importantly… • Increased sales of your ebook • Add a “higher perception value” to your already existing ebook

How do you go about find that all elusive nugget?

Always turn to your target market for the best ideas on which “sub-niche market’s” to explore next, not what you think they might be interested in but what they are buying and recommending to others.

Case-In-Point:

A few months ago I created an e-book related to a certain breed of dog. I made it through the grunt work and now simply add to the e-book one step at a time, one product review or interview at a time.

I ended up picking (by reading what the most used products or most wanted products by this particular target market were) a pedigree software program for a back end sales product. This pedigree software program helps owners of animals keep all the details they could ever want to track in a database about their pets.

What owner wouldn’t want to know about a software program that could help make tracking certain details of their pets easy and convenient?

So I simply contacted the owner of this particular software program, told him that I was interested in including information about his product in the e-book I had created. He knew it was a win/win situation and gladly agreed to answer a couple of questions regarding how his software worked and what benefit it could bring to the reader.

The end result, more content for the e-book with only a few minutes of work involved on my part plus the possibilities of making commission from the back end sales of the pedigree software which sells for $95.00 U.S., which I get a nice chunk of every time someone clicks on my link and makes a purchase.

So you see, it’s not that hard to add fresh content to your e-book.

With the right angle, you can make your e-book unique from your competitors, more informative to the reader, putting more money in your pocket.

Summary:

Expanding an already existing e-book is simply a matter of reading what products your target market purchases, analyzing their wants and needs, focusing on one “sub-niche market” at a time.