December 23, 2008

Online Investing & Online Stock & Share Trading: Difficulty in Taking Stop Losses in the Market

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

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December 16, 2008

The Worst Journey in the World, Apsley Cherry Garrard - Book Review

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.

Thursday, March 29th. Since the 21st we have had a continuous gale from W.S.W and S.W. We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for any better things now. We shall stick it out to the end but we are getting weaker, of course, and the end cannot be far.

It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more.

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.

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Speed Reading,Read Faster, Read Better, Learn Speed Reading

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

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December 14, 2008

TLC’s OVERHAULIN’ Transforms Junk Cars Into Works of Art With a New Twist.

With the recent publicity of automotive reality shows like Orange County Choppers, Monster Garage, and MTV’s Pimp My Ride TLC (The Learning Channel) has launched their own version. Overhaulin’ is similar to Pimp My Ride, but they don’t have a huge music celebrity like Exzibit. They instead use a legendary automotive designer named Chip Foose and give it a twist - they keep the beneficiary of the newly remade car completely in the dark about what is happening to their car.

As quoted in the New York Times, “OVERHAULIN’ revs the makeover-
genre engine with an automotive twist.” In the show, Chip Foose leads a team of top mechanics and automotive professionals whom completely redesign and rebuild the automobile into a work of art. This qualifies as a frame off restoration in automotive circles - the highest level. The difficulty is that the project car has to be completed in less than 1 week and various tactics are used to keep the unsuspecting automobile owner in the dark. Most of the time they resort to impersonating the police, private detectives, repo men, etc…all the while, using the automobile owner’s closest friends to make the stories more believable.

Chip designs each project car before the team starts. Basically the car is recreated. Top of the line equipment is installed (Power windows, performance brakes, top-of-the-line engines, and of course unbelievable sound systems). According to industry professionals a rebuild like this would normally run $100,000 plus. So, it is no wonder the overhauled recipients cry tears of joy when their new autos are revealed. This completely rebuilt automobile is something they could never afford to do. Every redesign takes the owners likes, interests, and relatives input along with Chip Foose’s amazing ideas to make sure the owners are more than pleasantly surprised.

“In each episode, Chip Foose and his team watch the videotape of the car’s
owner as he or she talks about the car and his or her dreams for it.”

Some shows have used celebrities for the Overhaulin’ victim. Every show has been extremely exciting and this is a show worth watching for anyone that has automotive inclinations and one day dreams of having a fantasy overhaul. Some of the stories of loyalty and acts of kindness and benevolence by the selected owners can really humble you and bring tears to your eyes. Overhaulin’ is a great show and definitely worth your time - if nothing else, it will give you great ideas to dream about!

David Maillie is an alumni of Cornell University and specializes in automotive safety products and information. He holds numerous patents and awards for his patented headlight cleaner and restorer. For more information please visit: http://www.mdwholesale.com

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Internet Gaming Keeps Betters Safe inside

online sport betting site

Many modern risk takers may have encountered the term “offshore sports betting” recently, but some aren’t completely convinced of what it refers to. A foreign gaming website inherently runs outside the jurisdiction of any distinct nation on the other hand it can also mean an internet based gaming web site that should have their servers inside the borders of a country where networked sports gaming is not presently disallowed. In short then, it can be identified as a gambling business functioning extraneous to the land of the clientele. Networked gaming sites are mainly modulated via three structures. These organisations are OSGA (the Offshore Gaming Association), IGC (Interactive Gaming Council) and the Fidelity Trust Gaming Association (the FTGA).

The OSGA is in fact a self regulating “watchdog” institution which currently keeps tabs on the overseas gambling business in an attempt to deliver betting buffs a simple way to to readily pick out trustworthy businesses to play games of fate on, without concern. The OSGA aims to defend customer’s rights, and also they charge no society fees. The agency are a professional and impartial third party affiliation who pronounce objective assessments, advised by customer feedback, impartial scrutiny, chats, insider prompts and additionally provides inside communication.

The IGC are a nonprofit organisation. The agency was established to provide a forum for involved people to address subjects and in addition to progress pertinent worries in the international interactive gambling business, to establish honorable and answerable commercial rules and forms which heighten consumer trust in online gambling commodities and functions, and to function as the trade’s general strategy advocate and in addition the IGC provides an information clearing house.

The Interactive Gaming Council has established a distinction for advocating honor, candor also sincerity due to the principles it demands, and its allure for business organizations of proper practise. The Interactive Gaming Council governs offshore sports gaming via implementing a characteristic 10-step standard procedure directory and also charges gaming business enterprises a license fee to show their logo. Dissatisfied customers can, should they require, recount any of their grievances to the Interactive Gaming Council.

The FTGA has been set up in order to generate a standard which will raise the actions of world wide web based gaming business enterprises. The authority hope that conducting business with honorable enterprises, they are able to mold a union of the most honest and professional cyberspace gambling businesses all over the planet.

These are governing bodies who manage the conduct of online gaming and which should function to alleviate any fears due to the apprehension experienced by gamers. Internet sports gambling internet sites are at present completely harmless, beacuse private data aren’t needed and also the payments and the odds should be usually as balanced and reasonable as a regular Vegas-type stake. These web sites diminish travel time, but nonetheless keep of a Nevada gambling casino, but today you are enabled to game at your own pace.

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Living in Darkness - Book Review

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)

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December 13, 2008

Adding Fresh Content to Your Existing Ebook

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.

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December 10, 2008

Get Rich Quick Scams REVEALED!!

Like many of you, i’ve searched the internet far and wide to find an easier way to make money other than our normal 9-5 job (which leaves most of us with little satisfaction!). Also like many of you, i’ve purchased Get Rich Quick programs online that promised us the world but were disappointing in the long run.

I’m here to tell you that our staff has discovered that over 90% of these so-called Get Rich Quick programs are A COMPLETE WASTE OF YOUR MONEY!!! Sure, they all sound enticing with “real testimonials”, bank statements suposedly showing the success of the program, and finally the WILD GUARANTEES that you can make thousands a day by only working 5 minutes. I’m sure you have fallen victim to one of these types of programs before, I know I have! In reality, the only person who is going to make money off of one of these programs is the creator….because he roped us in to buying his useless ebook!

So after many, many ebook purchases and just as many disappointments, I told myself that enough is enough!! I was going to get to the bottom of the Get Rich Quick phenomena to see if there were any programs out there that were not a complete load of crap. To get our hands on some of these ebooks, we posed as website reviewers for a new online awards program. We emailed the ebook creators and said that we have heard alot about your site and we’d like to review it and possibly give you our award seal to add to your site. I knew that if anyone was going to fall for that lame scheme, it would be the sites that were thrown together overnight to try and make money selling garbage. To our surprise, we were able to get alot of ebooks using this method, but there were still some sites that ignored our attempts or gave us nasty replies!! In the end we broke down and purchased some in hopes of finding a diamond in the rough.

Click here to see the results of our research!

Kevin Perry is the owner and webmaster of TheMoneyMakingReview.com. This is a site dedicated to help people find programs that will help them make easy money online. He as also just recently added a section on Online Casinos to his site.

Click here to visit the new Online Casino section.

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December 8, 2008

Boosting Traffic With Viral E-Books

A proven technique in viral marketing is the use of Ebooks which include your marketing message and are willingly passed on to others. This method uses the multiplication effect to “explode” the distribution of your message by willing participants.

The basic principle was used by Hotmail to get established. When the two founders set up their free email system, all the messages that were sent by subscribers had a text message at the bottom which identified Hotmail as the origin. People would send emails to their friends, who would be tempted to set up hotmail accounts and send emails to their friends…

Within a short time, Hotmail had 22 million subscribers. They eventually sold out to Microsoft for about $400 million.

Using viral ebooks as a marketing method is:

a. Cheap. It doesn’t take long to set up. It’s even quicker if you use rebrandable ebooks that have been produced by others. Just do a search on Google and you’ll soon find many rebrandable ebooks that are available in your field of expertise. One distribution method is to offer these ebooks to visitors in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter. If they also pass it on, then others will promote your business for you.

b. Capable of reaching a large audience by geometrical progression, limited only by the enthusiasm of the participants.

c. Effectively combined with other forms of promotion.

d. A means of selling other products than the one you originally targeted. For instance, if you are selling garden products, those interested in flowers could also be interested in a catalogue that contains material on lawns, trees, landscaping, garden tools, etc.

e. Fairly easy to create. It’s possible to produce your own ebooks by combining articles that you’ve written or have obtained from public domain sources, such as directories. An increasingly common approach is to use material that has Private Label Rights, including articles and reports that have been written specifically for that purpose, for that niche. You could also use as a viral ebook a portion of a larger work that you’ve prepared, such as the first three chapters of a larger ebook.

f. Effective at building your reputation if you distribute a quality product that users are willing to pass on to others, as this is an implied recommendation.

Whatever the subject matter, the ebook should be of significant value and free - or of very low cost in relation to its perceived value. But usually it is free and easy to pass on.

Many ebooks also combine very well with an affiliate program. When the affiliate receives some extra benefit from promoting the viral message, such as being able to brand your ebook with his affiliate links, the affiliate makes a sale when a reader buys through a branded link. You benefit from the increased traffic to your website because the affiliate is willing to promote the ebook for you!

Be sure your message includes a clear call to action. There should be no doubt about what you intend recipients to do. Offer clear instructions so that recipients know HOW to act. As well, the action you require should be simple and obvious. Don’t complicate it or confuse the reader, such as by adding numerous links. Remember the K.I.S.S. principle: Keep It Simple, Stupid.

Finally, the INCENTIVE should be clear to those you want to act. Readers will linger over your offering for only a few seconds before they move on. If it takes too long to work out, if your message is vague or difficult to understand, chances are you will lose them. If you don’t respect your readers enough to express your message clearly, they will lose interest.

Viral Marketing with ebooks is but one of many techniques that together have a cumulative effect in attracting customers and subscribers to your business - in attracting targeted visitors to your website. You’ll soon find that this is an excellent way of increasing sales, subscribers and referrals.

Ivan Kelly managed a Direct Mail business with extensive mailing lists for ten years and has designed and promoted many websites. He also provides quality f’ree courses on key internet marketing subjects. For details go to:
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December 7, 2008

Ecover - Proven That it Could Boost Your Sales by 317%

Dear Reader,

If you’re wondering or thinking a way that you could boost your sales immediately.

If you’re wondering how you could boost your sales by 30% or more.

If you’re are wondering how you could create your own professional ebook cover, than this maybe the most important article that you will read today.

Recently I have been researching about how to convert document into PDF for free. Although I know the method already, but I want research to see if there is one that is similar.

I couldn’t find one online, maybe I didn’t search hard enough, so I went to Ebay to see if I could find one.

I came across this interesting auction that sell somethind called “Easy PDF toolkit”. This thing really got my attention, I mean, the ecover is professional looking, the salescopy is good.

But I still hesitate, I kept on looking, still, can’t find any. The image of the ebook cover “Easy PDF toolkit” is still in my mind reminding me that there is still one more choice for me to choose.

So I go and and look again, spend a few minutes there looking at the discription, the whole things is quite good, good packaging, good looking ecover, and of course good salescopy.

Finally I gave up and I bought it.

What I want to tell you is that a good ebook cover could make a whole lot difference.

If you want to know more about how big that an ebook cover could influence you sales, how you could create your own professional ebook cover, visit www.instantebookprofit.com, join our newsletter there, not only will you know the answer you want to know, you will also have a chance to get the biggest secret that people are asking for just to join our free newsletter.

Titus Cheng, author of the ebook “Secret of creating PDF ebook without spending money on any software”, http://www.instantebookprofit.com.

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