Episode 103 - Yes, it can happen to me too!

In the early 2000’s I was a victim of identity theft for the first time. Later, in May 2005, thanks to the VA losing a laptop, myself and 26 million other veterans lost our identities. Then again a couple of weeks ago, I was informed that my identity had been stolen once again and this time used to purchase a pair of glasses at Lenscrafters. So, the bottom line is, I am now using my own advice to begin the road to recovery once again and yes, it can happen to a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist too!

Popularity: 14% [?]

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How To Write An eBook

The hardest part of writing is the first sentence.
When you look at the whole project, it seems like an
impossible task. That’s why you have to break it down
into manageable tasks. Think of climbing a mountain.
You are standing at the foot of it and looking up at
its summit vanishing into the clouds. How can you
possibly scale such an immense and dangerous mountain?

There is only one way to climb a mountain ? step by
step.

Now think of writing your ebook in the same light. You
must create it step by step, and one day, you will
take that last step and find yourself standing on the
summit with your head in the clouds.

The first thing you have to do, as if you actually
were a mountain climber, is to get organized. Instead
of climbing gear, however, you must organize your
thoughts. There are some steps you should take before
you begin. Once you’ve gone through the following
list, you will be ready to actually begin writing your
ebook.

Beginning Steps to Writing an ebook

First, figure out your ebook’s working title. Jot down
a few different titles, and eventually, you’ll find
that one that will grow on you. Titles help you to
focus your writing on your topic; they guide you in
anticipating and answering your reader’s queries. Many
non-fiction books also have subtitles. Aim for clarity
in your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell
books ? as long as it’s not too cute. For example,
Remedies for Insomnia: twenty different ways to count
sheep. Or: Get off that couch: fifteen exercise plans
to whip you into shape.

Next, write out a thesis statement. Your thesis is a
sentence or two stating exactly what problem you are
addressing and how your book will solve that problem.
All chapters spring forth from your thesis statement.
Once you’ve got your thesis statement fine-tuned,
you’ve built your foundation. From that foundation,
your book will grow, chapter by chapter.

Your thesis will keep you focused while you write your
ebook. Remember: all chapters must support your thesis
statement. If they don’t, they don’t belong in your
book. For example, your thesis statement could read:
We’ve all experienced insomnia at times in our lives,
but there are twenty proven techniques and methods to
give you back a good night’s sleep.

Once you have your thesis, before you start to write,
make sure there is a good reason to write your book.
Ask yourself some questions:

* Does your book present useful information and is
that information currently relevant?

* Will you book positively affect the lives of your
readers?

* Is your book dynamic and will it keep the reader’s
attention?

* Does you book answer questions that are meaningful
and significant?

If you can answer yes to these questions, you can feel
confident about the potential of your ebook.

Another important step is to figure out who your
target audience is. It is this group of people you
will be writing to, and this group will dictate many
elements of your book, such as style, tone, diction,
and even length. Figure out the age range of your
readers, their general gender, what they are most
interested in, and even the socio-economic group they
primarily come from. Are they people who read fashion
magazines or book reviews? Do they write letters in
longhand or spend hours every day online. The more you
can pin down your target audience, the easier it will
be to write your book for them.

Next, make a list of the reasons you are writing your
ebook. Do you want to promote your business? Do you
want to bring quality traffic to your website? Do you
want to enhance your reputation?

Then write down your goals in terms of publishing. Do
you want to sell it as a product on your website, or
do you want to offer it as a free gift for filling out
a survey or for ordering a product? Do you want to use
the chapters to create an e-course, or use your ebook
to attract affiliates around the world? The more you
know upfront, the easier the actual writing will be.

Decide on the format of your chapters. In non-fiction,
keep the format from chapter to chapter fairly
consistent. Perhaps you plan to use an introduction to
your chapter topic, and then divide it into four
subhead topics. Or you may plan to divide it into five
parts, each one beginning with a relevant anecdote.

How to make your ebook “user friendly”

You must figure out how to keep your writing engaging.
Often anecdotes, testimonials, little stories, photos,
graphs, advice, and tips will keep the reader turning
the pages. Sidebars are useful for quick, accessible
information, and they break up the density of the
page.

Write with a casual, conversational tone rather than a
formal tone such as textbook diction. Reader’s respond
to the feeling that you are having a conversation with
them. Break up the length and structure of your
sentences so you don?t hypnotize your readers into
sleep. Sentences that are all the same length and
structure tend to be a good aid for insomnia!

Good writing takes practice. It takes lots and lots of
practice. Make a schedule to write at least a page a
day. Read books and magazines about the process of
writing, and jot down tips that jump out at you. The
art of writing is a lifetime process; the more you
write (and read), the better your writing will become.
The better your writing becomes, the bigger your sales
figures.

In an ebook that is read on the screen, be aware that
you must give your reader’s eye a break. You can do
this by utilizing white space. In art classes, white
space is usually referred to as “negative space.”
Reader’s eyes need to rest in the cool white oasises
you create on your page. If your page is too dense,
your reader will quit out of it as soon as their eyes
begin to tear.

Make use of lists, both bulleted and numbered. This
makes your information easy to absorb, and gives the
reader a mental break from dissecting your paragraphs
one after the other.

Finally, decide on an easy-to-read design. Find a font
that’s easy on the eyes, and stick to that font
family. Using dozens of fonts will only tire your
readers out before they’ve gotten past your
introduction. Use at least one and a half line
spacing, and text large enough to be read easily on
the screen, but small enough so that the whole page
can be seen on a computer screen. You will have to
experiment with this to find the right combination.

Of course, don’t forget to run a spell and grammar
check. You are judged by something as minor as correct
punctuation, so don?t mess up a great book by tossing
out semicolons randomly, or stringing sentences
together with commas. (By the way, that’s called a
“comma splice.”)

Last of all, create an index and a bibliography.
That’s it! You’ve written a book! Now all you have to
do is publish your ebook online, and wait for download
request from your website visitors.

Popularity: 10% [?]

Why Write an eBook

It’s not true that everything that has been said has
already been written. Since that unfortunate axiom
came into use, the whole universe has changed.
Technology has changed, ideas have changed, and the
mindsets of entire nations have changed.

The fact is that this is the perfect time to write an
ebook. What the publishing industry needs are people
who can tap into the world as it is today - innovative
thinkers who can make the leap into the new millennium
and figure out how to solve old problems in a new way.
Ebooks are a new and powerful tool for original
thinkers with fresh ideas to disseminate information
to the millions of people who are struggling to figure
out how to do a plethora of different things.

Let’s say you already have a brilliant idea, and the
knowledge to back it up that will enable you to write
an exceptional ebook. You may be sitting at your
computer staring at a blank screen wondering, “Why?
Why should I go through all the trouble of writing my
ebook when it’s so impossible to get anything
published these days?

Well, let me assure you that publishing an ebook is
entirely different than publishing a book in print.
Let’s look at the specifics of how the print and cyber
publishing industry differ, and the many reasons why
you should take the plunge and get your fingers
tapping across those keyboards!

Submitting a print book to conventional publishing
houses or to agents is similar to wearing a hair shirt
24/7. No matter how good your book actually is, or how
many critique services and mentor writers have told
you that “you’ve got what it takes,” your submitted
manuscript keeps coming back to you as if it is a
boomerang instead of a valuable mine of information.

Perhaps, in desperation, you’ve checked out
self-publishing and found out just how expensive a
venture it can be. Most “vanity presses” require
minimal print runs of at least 500 copies, and even
that amount will cost you thousands of dollars. Some
presses’ minimal run starts at 1,000 to 2,000 copies.
And that’s just for the printing and binding. Add in
distribution, shipping, and promotional costs and -
well, you do the math. Even if you wanted to go this
route, you may not have that kind of money to risk.

Let’s say you already have an Internet business with a
quality website and a quality product. An ebook is one
of the most powerful ways to promote your business
while educating people with the knowledge you already
possess as a business owner of a specific product or
service.

For example, let’s say that you’ve spent the last
twenty-five years growing and training bonsai trees,
and now you’re ready to share your knowledge and
experience. An ebook is the perfect way to reach the
largest audience of bonsai enthusiasts.

Ebooks will not only promote your business - they will
help you make a name for yourself and your company,
and establish you as an expert in your field. You may
even find that you have enough to say to warrant a
series of ebooks. Specific businesses are complicated
and often require the different aspects to be divided
in order for the reader to get the full story.

Perhaps your goals are more finely tuned in terms of
the ebook scene. You may want to build a whole
business around writing and publishing ebooks.
Essentially, you want to start an e-business. You are
thinking of setting up a website to promote and market
your ebooks. Maybe you’re even thinking of producing
an ezine.

One of the most prevalent reasons people read ebooks
is to find information about how to turn their
Internet businesses into a profit-making machine. And
these people are looking to the writers of ebooks to
provide them with new ideas and strategies because
writers of ebooks are usually people who understand
the new cyberspace world we now live in. Ebook writers
are experts in Internet marketing campaigns and the
strategies of promoting and distributing ebooks. The
cyberspace community needs its ebooks to be successful
so that more and more ebooks will be written.

You may want to create affiliate programs that will
also market your ebook. Affiliates can be people or
businesses worldwide that will all be working to sell
your ebooks. Think about this? Do you see a formula
for success here?

Figure out what your subject matter is, and then
narrow it down. Your goal is to aim for specificity.
Research what’s out there already, and try to find a
void that your ebook might fill.

What about an ebook about a wedding cake business? Or
an ebook about caring for elderly pets? How about the
fine points of collecting ancient pottery?

You don’t have to have three masters degrees to write
about your subject. People need advice that is easy to
read and easily understood. Parents need advice for
dealing with their teenagers. College students need to
learn good study skills - quickly. The possibilities
are endless.

After you’ve written your ebook

Getting your ebook out is going to be your focus once
you’ve finished writing it, just as it is with print
books. People will hesitate to buy any book from an
author they’ve never heard of. Wouldn’t you?

The answer is simple: give it away! You will see
profits in the form of promoting your own business and
getting your name out. You will find affiliates who
will ask you to place their links within your ebook,
and these affiliates will in turn go out and make your
name known. Almost every single famous ebook author
has started out this way.

Another powerful tool to attract people to your ebook
is to make it interactive. Invent something for them
to do within the book rather than just producing pages
that contain static text. Let your readers fill out
questionnaires, forms, even crossword puzzles geared
to testing their knowledge on a particular subject.
Have your readers hit a link that will allow them to
recommend your book to their friends and associates.
Or include an actual order form so at the end of their
reading journey, they can eagerly buy your product.

When people interact with books, they become a part of
the world of that book. The fact is just as true for
books in print as it is for ebooks.

That’s why ebooks are so essential. Not only do they
provide a forum for people to learn and make sense of
their own thoughts, but they can also serve to promote
your business at the same time.

To find more about eBooks, visit http://www.thepersonalpublisher.com

Popularity: 9% [?]

My Turnkey eBookStore w/MRR

Setup your own eBook store with 200 pre loaded products
Complete Store Working On Autopilot!
This Instant Product Download eCommerce Store is a complete PHP/MySQL shopping cart system and a profitable online business, that requires no previous web experience, The site is integrated with PayPal IPN (Instant Payment Notification).

Manage your Download Store online without knowing any html or php or any web designing language. From the admin area you can add or edit unlimited products, complete with pictures, descriptions and prices.

Create unlimited categories, check your customer’s orders, upload your own banners for your affiliate programs and other websites, send email newsletters to your customers, add your own keywords and meta tags through your Admin area to help search engine ranking.

+ Google Adsense And Amazon Built in For Additional Income Revenue Streams!

Simply insert your Google Adsense ID and Your Amazon Affiliate Links to start earning even more money!

This Download eCommerce Store integrates with PayPal, Nochex, Worldpay and Stormpay,
allowing you to accept online credit card orders easily with these popular payment methods.

Search Engine Optimized to help your website rank HIGH in the search engines.

Your eBook Store’s Currency can also be easily changed in real time to:
GBP £, USD Dollars, Euros, Australian $ and Canadian $

Features
Comes pre-installed with 200 bestselling digital products to get you started.
Manage your store online via your own easy to use web-based Store Admin Area.
Easily add your own eBooks and downloadable products, with pictures, descriptions and prices.
Easily change the prices and edit product descriptions to your own taste.
Text and colors are completely customizable via your Admin
Accept online credit card orders with popular payment methods such as PayPal and Nochex.
Totally automated checkout system! Customers get an instant download of their purchase.
Purchase can only be downloaded once. No one can pass the download link around to friends.
No need to add PayPal buttons. Simply enter your PayPal email address in your Admin. That’s it!
Keep an easy to manage record of all customers and orders online.
Easily view products purchased and monthly sales reports.
Works with UK Pounds, US Dollars, Euros, Australian Dollars or Canadian Dollars.
Create unlimited categories and subcategories.
Automated built-in links page where other websites can exchange links with you.
Easily send newsletters to all your customers with your own built-in Newsletter Manager.
Readily search engine optimized to help your website rank in the search engines.
Add your own keywords and meta tags through your Admin to help your search engine ranking.
Built-in Google Adsense. Enter your Google Adsense ID in Admin and start earning extra cash.
Upload your own banners to your affiliate programs and other websites.
Displays random featured products every time the front page is visited.
Editable About Us and FAQ pages that can be customized in Admin.
Editable pre-filled Terms And Conditions and Privacy pages.
Includes simple instructions in PLAIN ENGLISH on every Admin page.
Includes an easy to understand PDF installation manual.

Total package size 342MB
Comes with your own reseller website.
Retails for $197.00 - Yours Today for Only $27.00

Popularity: 17% [?]

Sherlock Homes in Flanders Field

In Flanders Field Originally Aired May 14th, 1945

Sherlock Holmes Adventures was a fictional detective of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who first appeared in publication in 1887. He was devised by British author and doctor Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A brilliant London-based detective, Holmes is famous for his prowess at using logic and astute observation to solve cases. He is perhaps the most famous fictional detective, and indeed one of the best known and most universally recognizable literary characters.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Low Cost VOIP Phone Service

If you are looking for a low cost alternative to phone service, then Magicjack is the answer! For $19.95 a year, yes, per year, you can have low cost phone service and call anywhere in the World! There is a $39.95 one time fee for the USB device to plug in any standard phone and after that, no phone charges for a year. Think about it, no monthly charges or phone bills and clear phone calls made through your internet provider using a standard phone.

You can even hook up a fax machine to the USB device and make and receive fax calls through this device as well and you will receive voicemail, caller ID and all the standard services that you are accustomed to getting from the phone company now, without the monthly charges.

Visit http://www.magicjack.com for more information and find out how you can get started with this same great service that I use myself!

Popularity: 18% [?]

Text to Speech Converter

One of the biggest problems in the world of business is trying to keep your staff up to date with the latest skills and techniques. This is essential in moving your business forward, as you know.

This software will ensure that your staff easily pick up new skills almost instantly, first time, every time!

If you’re an ebook or article seller, you know exactly how frustrating it is having written great work only to have no sales.

Spice up your work with this software and gain a better profit!

Keeping up to date with the latest news and trends is something every successful business does.

Forget reading endless articles! Use this software wherever and whenever you like to keep up to date, without having to sift through the junk, even whilst doing other things!

So what is this software then?

The Text To Speech Converter will turn any text into an audio file at the click of a button!

The simple fact of the matter is people WILL NOT READ IF THEY CAN LISTEN!

Whatever the message is, listening to it instead of having to read it will get it across much more successfully.

Here’s the proof!

‘In 2005 alone ‘podcasting’ experienced nearly fivefold in audiences tuning in. It is even projected to reach between 20 Million and 80 Million by 2010!’

Don’t you want to profit from that increase?

You know yourself that picturing something is much easier when you are listening to a description rather than reading it.

Here are just a few things you can do with this impressive program:

Turn your ebooks, articles and reports into audio to listen to yourself or sell to customers as an interesting and effective method of learning.

Create audio teaching packs from new course manuals for your staff, who will appreciate and benefit from the more efficient method of developing new skills and techniques.

Produce podcasts for the upcoming boom in iPod technology before other companies in your niche with the built-in Podcast Creator! This will give you first access to thousands of potential new customers!

Use the software to issue reports and memos to staff, new product descriptions to customers, provide professional updates for company meetings, and even news or promotional information to post on your website or business blog!

The beauty of this software’s products is its portability? information can be obtained wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. It also makes use of the most effective method of message delivery and teaching: listening.

Beat your competition! Be the leader of the pack!

In business, time is money, so waste none in securing your order for this essential tool.

Retail $97.00 $37.00

Popularity: 25% [?]

New User Oriented Support Forum Online

It’s official! The NMP Network now has a user oriented support forum online using the ever popular phpBB forum script and it will provide user based support for many of the web sites under the NMP Network umbrella, including Podcaster Training. This will in no means be the only support, however, it will be a means of 24 hour a day support that users may be able to locate an answer quickly to an issue as the forum grows.

You can access the forum from the main menu of the site.

Popularity: 19% [?]

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea

By Jules Verne

Originally aired April 22nd, 1953

Years before their appearance, Jules Verne foretold the submarine, the balloon, the airplane, the telephone, the long-range projectile, and many other inventions. But perhaps his greatest writing achievement was the complex but very human character of Captain Nemo, the tragic star of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. In this man we glimpse Homer’s “Ulysses”, Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”, and ourselves; our dreams, our disillusionment’s, above all, our instinctive yearning for good. These are the things that make Captain Nemo and his great adventure timeless. And so it is with pride and pleasure that Family Theatre presents Gene Lockheart as Captain Aronnax in Jules Verne’s beloved classic Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea.

Popularity: 17% [?]

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

New format announced

The NMP Network, a Division of New Media Pro and GraiteSites Services, has announced a new format that will integrate several of their blog sites into one area for easier maintenance and viewing for the subscribers and first time viewers.

The new format is already online and redirects are already in place that will allow users of the blogs to be automatically sent to the newly formatted blog site!

We believe that this will make things easier for everyone and we would like your comments on our new format as well! Tell us what you think!

Popularity: 16% [?]

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