And yes, I WILL Explain the concept of how you can make BIG money through a website, but be warned, the only way to get there is by developing a borderline criminal mind. Many businesses act that way, and they really make the BIG money – literally hundreds of thousands of dollars per year – through a number of cleverly designed scam websites.

I call it scam, but the perversity lies in the fact that their business is LEGAL, and American lawmakers, regardless of their political orientation, are absolutely helpless. On the other hand, I doubt that the majority of our lawmakers are even aware of the damage that is being inflicted on unsuspecting citizens, especially those who are unemployed.

Okay, let’s get to it…

Some Initial Investment Required

Yes, you need to follow the age-old business rule and invest money to make money. Nothing comes from nothing. Even Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook guy, didn’t get where he is without investing – he’s not one of the bad guys, though. The method, I will describe in the following, will work with some minor investments. You can get away with $100 per year for your website service provider, but success will come faster if you think in terms of a few thousands of dollars. Don’t worry. Take a loan. And invest some time. You will need it.

The Website

Naturally, the basis for the business is a cleverly designed, flashy website, or, even better, a number of websites spread over several servers in different physical locations. You get there by signing up for several Internet providers (GoDaddy.Com, BlueHost.Com, etc.). You can even find non-US based providers, and you’ll get your .co.uk (Great Britain) and .ca (Canada) URLs. Of course, you link all websites to each other, and thus gain those valuable hyperlinks that search engines love so much.

Finding and installing that flashy design shouldn’t post a problem. You use the right software to create a website within a few hours. Make sure, the website has a white background, and lot of red and blue elements, a color combination proven to receive the most attention.

The Catch

In order to make this business scheme work, you will need a ”product” that your customers will buy, and, ideally, that product should be in electronic format, for instance, a book in PDF format titled “How To Make BIG Money Through Your Website.” (I’m sure, with the criminal mind developing, you can come up with much more appealing titles.) Electronic products are immediately available to the customer after the credit card charges are approved, and you don’t need to worry about shipping and handling.

You can write that book yourself by copying, pasting, and re-wording articles from the Internet, or you hire someone to do it for you. Check out the multiple freelance websites, where people from India, Bangladesh, and other countries work for less than minimum wages (Sorry, no discrimination meant; it’s just a sad fact).

Or to increase the level of greediness, have the book printed and publish it on Amazon.Com (adds to your reputation), but offer it for free through your website. Charge an S&H fee of $16.58 and ship the book per media mail; you’ll make an average $10 profit per book.

How To Make BIG Money Through Your Website

We all have a computer and a fast Internet connection. So why not use the incredible power of the Internet and create revenue?

All it takes is a small investment of less than 50 Dollars! I will show you the guaranteed path to riches!

Dr. Helmut Ziegler
CEO and owner of Ziegler Investment GmbH in Bern, Switzerland 

Note: The above photo was purchased for the amount of $2.99 from Bigstockphoto.com. The name of “Dr. Helmut Ziegler” and his business are the product of my vivid fantasy (I write novels in my copious spare time).

Testimonies

Work At Home Mom Makes $6,397/Month Part-Time

Online News 6 Investigates…

Have You Ever Thought About Working Online?

Kelly Richards of Grand Fenwick, MA never thought she would have a job working at home until one day she filled out a simple form online. Before she knew it, she discovered her secret to beating the recession, and being able to provide for her family while at home with her two children.

I read Kelly’s blog last month and decided to feature her story in our local job report. In our phone interview she told me her amazing story. “I actually make about $5,000-$7,000 a month using Google. It is enough to comfortably replace my old job’s income, especially considering I only work about 10-15 hours a week from home.” [Read the full article...]

Note: The photo above was purchased for the amount of $2.99 from Bigstockphoto.com. The name Kelly Richards and the description that comes with it has been copied from another scam website.

Leave A Comment

Thanks to Dr. Ziegler’s book I made $4,328 in the first six weeks!
– Jeff Wollybug, Pennsylvania

I can’t believe my luck! I was unemployed for six years, and just yesterday I bought a big mansion at Virginia Beach!
- Loretta Wainwright, Nova Scotia

With the money I made through Dr. Ziegler’s method we could finally afford my husband’s bypass surgery. That money was literally a life saver!
- Dorothy Parton,  Southern California

Comments Closed.
Sorry! Due to overwhelming posting of positive feedback we are unable to keep up with all comments.

Note: Yeah, yeah, all comments are a product of my greedy mind.

Promotion

Promotion, of course, requires money. Either you have it as part of your initial budget or you use the money you earned. Promote your product on websites like The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Facebook, and others as demonstrated here:

How To Make BIG Money Through Your Website

We all have a computer and a fast Internet connection. So why not use the incredible power of the Internet and create revenue?

All it takes is a small investment of less than 50 Dollars! I will show you the guaranteed path to riches!

Privacy Policy

Yes, a privacy policy page on your website is mandatory to reflect a “well-mannered” business behavior. Really, it adds to your “reputation.” Just copy and paste the policy from one of the big websites like Amazon.Com, eBay, or others.

Return Policy

This is the tricky part. Yes, a return policy could possibly damage your profit. On the other hand, you need it for legal reasons, and it boosts customer confidence. I am sure, with a greedy/criminal mind you can come up with terms & conditions that are virtually impossible to accomplish by the customer. Most scam websites post 1-800 phone lines that nobody answers. At the same time they require your phone call within seven days after the product was shipped (shipped; NOT received).

Disclaimer

Here we get to the part that makes the whole business scheme legal – besides the fact that you are selling a legitimate product.

Disclaimer:

The person of Dr. Ziegler does not exist, and his comments were created for marketing purposes. All customer testimonies have been enhanced for marketing purposes to reflect the potential of our product without any guarantee that the product will provide the results as promised. In general, every information on this website is a piece of crap, and if you buy our product, go blame yourself.

The good thing is that the vast majority of your website visitors will not read the disclaimer. For those who do read it, make sure you use ample legal blabbering.

Last, but not least (and this one, please take seriously):

While based on facts, the content of this article “How To Make BIG Money Through Your Website” is not a business advice. It is of a satirical nature based on the writers’ personal views and should not be taken seriously.

Yes, this post will explain how you can make $100+ per month through your website, and to make sure we are on the same page: I am talking $100 and maybe a little more. I don’t promise a $10,000 monthly income with virtually no work, and you sitting at the swimming pool of your home in the Caribbean, sipping your vodka martini – shaken, not stirred. If I knew how to get there, I wouldn’t be sitting here in my small office typing posts on blogging or running a website.

Through the years I have written a number of posts on the everlasting online scams that promise you the path to riches by running your own website, and I am proud that I was able to save a few people from losing their well-earned money by reporting on these scams. It is sad, though, that most people find my articles after the fact, and the majority of them are unemployed.

And also through the years, the same question came up again and again: How CAN I actually make money through the Internet? The discouraging answer was always, that you can’t, based on the assumption that you can create enough income to pay the groceries, the mortgage, etc. But to stay with the truth, there are a few ways to contribute to your income, or, in the least, ease the financial burden.

In this article I will cover the most basic – and easiest way – to make those previously mentioned $100 and maybe a little more. Ironically, it’s the same method that scammers promote to make millions of dollars, but this is where the scam starts. First, there is no secret formula; it’s all common knowledge in the internet community. Secondly, you can create a little money, but – and here comes the harsh reality issue again – you need to invest some work and maybe some money.

Also, for the record, I am not the guru on making money through your computer. Again, it’s common knowledge. On the other hand, I will also NOT ask for your credit card information before I disclose my “secrets, guaranteed to work”…

You Need A Website

Duh! That was obvious. If you don’t have the funds to pay GoDaddy.Com and the likes, there are free services by Google (Blogger.Com), WordPress.Com, and others. If you can afford roughly US$100 per year to pay an Internet provider like Go Daddy.Com, have a look at the FREE book I wrote on Professional Blogging. Again, yes, it’s FREE. I wrote it some time ago, and it’s not entirely up to date, but it contains some helpful insights on running a professional blog (I don’t separate the term blog from website; in all consequence it’s the same thing). To download the document go to our section on Professional Blogging.

For additional information, see also my post Ground Rules For A Successful Website.

Add Advertisement To Your Website

This is the part where you can make the money, but before we get to it, let me just make a serious statement. First of all, there is never ever a guarantee for success. That depends very much on the nature of your website and your involvement. Secondly, addressing the involvement, success comes only through investing blood, sweat, tears, and time. Again, see the above mentioned post.

Have a look at this very website, FrogenYozurt.Com, which took me more than three years and roughly 4,800 pages to get where I am now, and that is the where some of the roughly $100 per month through advertisement come from. On the other hand, I use the website primarily to promote my product line, namely the literature I publish. Also, I don’t use Google Ads for business-related reasons. The Google Ads that showed up on my website did either promote my competition or, even worse, the previously mentioned scammers. In all consequence, I cannot fight scammers and, at the same time, promote their business. Nevertheless, I do recommend using Google Ads for the mere purpose of creating income.

My recommended ad strategy is:

First, create a website and add some content. If you are not familiar with the process, make sure you get the necessary information either through the Internet or get a book on the topic. You can also download and read my document (See above).

Sign up at adsense.google.com and create an affiliate account. The application process is easy, and you should get approved fairly quickly. The Google website contains all the information you need, and there are even books and Internet resources on the topic. You will earn between a few pennies up to a few dollars per click, and if your website concept works, you can easily make $50 and more per month.

However, do not rely entirely on Google ads. You can sign up for additional affiliate accounts, and they will not collide with each other.

Next, I recommend to become an Amazon.Com affiliate (https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/). Amazon provides code for banners and images that can be easily integrated into your website. The application process is as easy and painless as Google. Amazon.Com pays a flexible percentage of actual sales that resulted from the click on the ad. The more sales you create for them, the higher the percentage will be.

The next service I recommend, infolinks (http://www.infolinks.com), requires that your website is already active for a while. I believe, they require a six month lifetime of the website. You can see their impact on this website through the green highlighted hyperlinks, and they work as a perfect addition to Google Ads.

These are, in a nut-shell, the affiliate programs that, with the exception of Google, worked for me. I have tried a myriad of other services, but they either provide minor quality (I chose my words very, very carefully here…) or they accept only websites in the range of The New York Times or The Washington Post.

The More Websites You Have…

Last, but not least, a brief flashback to the getting-rich-fast-scheme… As I have explained, it is possible to make $100 and maybe a little more per month through your website, that is, one website. And here comes the light-bulb popping up above your head: If I make $100 with one website, I could create a decent income by creating a total of 30 websites or even more. This might work when you spend 25 hours a day to maintain your website – you get there by skipping the lunch hour. You get the point; this equation doesn’t work. It will take great efforts (as I wrote a lot of blood, sweat, tears, and time) to create sufficient web traffic, and, rather than spreading content over several websites, concentrate on one large website. Search engines love large websites.

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My first book

Let’s just say it upfront: I don’t promise success; I just shoot out ideas. What you make of it, is entirely up to you. On the other hand, I don’t ask for money.

I know there are many people out there who are unemployed and desperately searching for a chance to create some extra income. Many of them fall for Internet scams promising them easy money, and they all lose their money. I wrote about these scams, and I can proudly say that I saved a great number of people from being scammed. They were smart enough to search the Internet for more information, and that’s how they found me.

That is also the reason why I try to provide free advice. I report about these scams, but I missed to provide the most-wanted information: how to actually make money online. I will try this now, but be warned. Financial success comes only through hard work and it will take blood, sweat, tears, and time, time, time.

You Need A Product Line

In my personal opinion, these days you can only create online income through selling a product or product line. The following concentrates on technical literature as a product.

Selling Technical Literature

So, here’s the idea that worked for me: Back in 2005 I wrote my first technical book titled “A Comprehensible Guide to Controller Area Network” (see image above). Yes, it’s a dry technical topic, but since then the book sold about 500 copies a year. I wrote three more technical books, and in total I sell between 1,500 to 2,000 copies a year, through Amazon.Com and through my own website as eBook (PDF). The monthly income is not bad, but not enough to pay the mortgage, groceries, and other luxuries, meaning I still have a daytime job. It’s kind of ironic, because I don’t have enough time to write as much as I would like to, because I have my job. If I had all the time in a day, I could write more books faster and create more income. This is the point where reality kicks in.

Nevertheless, if you have the time, the skills, and the resources, you can build a steady income. However, let’s do another reality check: Your success depends on a great number of factors like, just to name a few, popularity of the topic to write about, marketing, promotional activities, and more.

Necessary Resources

Fortunately, this is the easiest part, because the majority of us owns a computer with word processor. Plus, most of us have access to the Internet. And here you have the essentials for writing and publishing technical literature.

Why Technical Literature?

Yes, many of us maintain that dream of becoming a famous writer, because, as I mentioned before, we all have that computer, a word processor, and a fast Internet connection. Been there, done that, didn’t work out, meaning I wrote two novels, but in terms of sales numbers it’s a waste of time. This has nothing to do with lack of talent, but with a vast competition in the market, considering millions of new books published per year in the US alone.

The same is true to a certain degree with non-technical nonfiction literature. In general, nonfiction sells much better than fiction, simply for the fact that your readership is easier to define and to target. That simple fact is even more amplified when you write technical literature. In layman’s terms, it’s easier to find buyers for a “John Deere Lawnmower Repair Manual” than for “Buddie the Vampire Slayer.” The offerings of vampire novels is overflowing the market  these days.

What Should I Write About?

Again, there is no secret formula that will excel you into writers’ heaven, but your best bet is to write about something unique. If you have an idea, check out Amazon.Com to see what the “competition” is. If the competition is vast, try something else, unless you think that your approach separates you from the competition. My approach, for instance, was that my books are “comprehensible” and I make sure that word is part of the title. I also use a lower price than the competition.

However, my books are appealing to a niche market, which makes it easier to promote, but I won’t be selling millions of copies, either. The approach of a “John Deere Lawnmower Repair Manual” is not  bad at all, because it does appeal to a much greater audience (I haven’t checked the potential on Amazon, though).

My suggestion would be to look into repairs and maintenance topics. Millions of Americans do need such information.

How Do I Sell?

Besides the more cumbersome ways of finding a publisher or getting into self-publishing, I have two major keywords: Amazon Kindle and Smashwords.Com. Check out the corresponding websites and check out their publishing options. It’s easy (and free) to sign up and post your eBooks. And the beauty is, you don’t need an ISBN for your book.

In terms of required length of the book, it doesn’t really matter when you post eBooks through Amazon Kindle and Smashwords. Naturally, it should reflect in the price, meaning a very short book should cost only $0.99 where the price is higher for larger ones. I do recommend, though, to start with low prices.

Basically, we are talking about a product – the book – that nobody knows, by a manufacturer – the author – that nobody knows, and a quality – the writing style – that nobody knows. The simple solution is a low price and promotion, promotion, and promotion.

The idea behind this concept is that you should write constantly and publish as many books as possible, and, again, Kindle and Smashwords make that easy for you.

How Do I Promote?

This question cannot be answered right here and now. There are literally thousands of books available on the topic. However, the first, absolutely essential step is to establish a web presence, meaning you need a website. If you don’t have the funds to pay for your website try WordPress.Com, which I consider the most effective free website service. If you can afford roughly $120 per year, see my section on running a website, Professional Blogging, where you can also find a free (Really, it’s free) download of a book I wrote on the topic. Also, see my Facebook page where I will post more information, among others, on making money from home.

Click on image to buy from Amazon.Com

In 2000, after the Tribune Company acquired Times Mirror Corporation, it comprised the most powerful collection of newspapers in the world. How then did Tribune nosedive into bankruptcy and public scandal? In The Deal From Hell, veteran Tribune and Los Angeles Times editor James O’Shea takes us behind the scenes of the decisions that led to disaster in boardrooms and newsrooms from coast to coast, based on access to key players, court testimony, and sworn depositions.

The Deal From Hell is a riveting narrative that chronicles how news industry executives and editors–convinced they were acting in the best interests of their publications–made a series of flawed decisions that endangered journalistic credibility and drove the newspapers, already confronting a perfect storm of political, technological, economic, and social turmoil, to the brink of extinction.

Editorial Reviews

Kirkus, June 1, 2011
“Numerous books have covered endangered daily newspapers, but few relate the sad saga from the perspective of a top editor with investigative reporting experience… Given O’Shea’s level of detail and candor, some journalism icons will almost surely lose respect within their field…A spirited, fascinating insider’s account of a troubled realm.”

New Statesman, January 7, 2011
“This book is a passionate and heavily researched account of the case against the cyber-utopians.”

Ugly Details in Selling Newspapers

The New York Times – June 19, 2011 (Excerpt)

Any look behind the curtain of Wall Street is not going to be pretty. But there is not pretty and then there is plain ugly.

James O’Shea, the former editor in chief of The Los Angeles Times, found a classic of the genre in the course of reporting out “The Deal From Hell: How Moguls and Wall Street Plundered Great American Newspapers,” his deep dive into the two deals that tipped over the companies that owned, among many other newspapers, The Los Angeles Times and The Chicago Tribune.

Here’s the capsule version: in 2000, The Tribune Company, owner of the Tribune and many other papers, bought the Times-Mirror Company, owner of The Los Angeles Times, for a then-record $8.3 billion. The merger never yielded much in the way of synergy, and the combined company put itself in play in 2007, when there were few buyers left.

Enter Sam Zell, a real estate tycoon with a fondness for distressed assets, who took over the business with the help of an Employee Stock Purchase Plan that saddled Tribune with $13 billion in debt. The company is now mired in a two-year, hugely expensive bankruptcy.

That’s all known. What Mr. O’Shea focused on was how the bankers — who he said should have known the deal would render the company insolvent — seemed to be too busy counting their fees to care. Here’s a note he found buried deep in court records from Jieun Choi, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Company, that demonstrated a breathtaking level of cynicism and self-dealing:

“There is wide speculation that [Tribune] might have so much debt that all of its assets aren’t gonna cover the debt in case of (knock-knock) you know what,” she wrote to a colleague, in a not very veiled reference to bankruptcy. “Well that’s what we are saying, too. But we’re doing this ‘cause it’s enough to cover our bank debt. So, lesson learned from this deal: our (here I mean JPM’s) business strategy for TRB but probably not only limited to TRB is ‘hit and run.’ ” [Read the full article...]

Jack Shafer reviews James O’Shea’s ‘The Deal From Hell’

The Washington Post Book Review – June 24, 2011 (Excerpt)

Eyewitnesses can’t be expected to produce the best dispatches from a calamity. They’re usually too bound in bandages and cross-stitched with sutures to understand anybody’s pain but their own. That’s what sort of witness James O’Shea was to the disastrous purchase of the Los Angeles Times media empire in 2000 by the larger media empire that owned the Chicago Tribune.

From vantage points first in the Tribune newsroom, where he supervised coverage of the deal, then later in the Times newsroom, where Tribune Co. executives installed him as the paper’s top editor, O’Shea files a comprehensive report about the genesis of the deal, its rapid unwinding into a novel buyout by real estate wizard Sam Zell, and the final descent into bankruptcy where the combined company languishes today. But his book “The Deal From Hell” appears to make the reportorial mistake of coming to conclusions first and not letting the evidence, no matter how strong, shake him loose from them.

In O’Shea’s view, the cause of the undoing of the newspapers owned by the Tribune Co. and Times Mirror, as well as other newspapers in the country, has not been the Internet, or declining circulation, or long stories and “skimpy attention spans, or arrogant journalists.” It’s been the reaction of newspaper executives to those forces. He writes: “The lack of investment, the greed, the incompetence, corruption, hypocrisy, and downright arrogance of people who put their interests ahead of the public’s are responsible for the state of the newspaper industry today.” [Read the full article...]

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Boiled Peanuts

A Novel by John Patrick Doyle

A Peeping Tom Goes Nuts Over A Blind Girl

Paul Kirk is a librarian and one of his town’s quirkier residents.  In a childhood home lacking parents (his mother dying of MS and his father an alcoholic) Paul had imagined himself a member of the neighboring family. Now in his late twenties, Paul vicariously participates in the households of his community. His peeping-Tom proclivities express his awkward need for social bonding.

Then Paul meets Bronwyn, a counselor who is lovely, independent and blind. She has inherited her Aunt Phyllis’ house and is newly arrived in town. When Paul first sees Bronwyn at church, he knows he wants to be part of her life. As the mystery of Aunt Phyllis unfolds, Bronwyn and Paul become more deeply involved as they learn about Phyllis’ secrets and how they relate to Bronwyn and her past, but Paul’s peeping ways may ruin it all. [Read more...]

Boiled Peanuts is available through Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

Google AdWords Scam?

This morning I received an e-mail from Google AdWords:

Dear AdWords Advertiser,

We had encountered a number of issues when reviewing your ads this morning and we stopped running them. We will review them again and make the necessary changes that will allow to run your ads without any problems.

Click here to review your ads and let us know if we made a mistake.

We’ll often stop running your ads until we are able to make the necessary updates. As soon as we made and saved the changes, your ads are automatically resubmitted to us for review.

Please note: If you do not verify the status of your Adwords account and notify us if your ads do not appear online we can not help you and your ads will stay offline for the next few days.

Note: The above link has been removed for security reasons.

The problem is, we don’t run any advertisement with Google (for good reasons, I might add), and the e-mail is addressed to “undisclosed recipients.”

The link in the e-mail (http://www.google-pd.com/adwords/?ServiceLogin?service=adwords) leads to a website suspected to be a phishing website. Naturally, my browser put up a warning message, and I didn’t go any further.

Channel 11 News Report - As Found Through The Washington Post Advertisement

As we all know too well, traditional newspapers are suffering from the Internet boom. Subscriber numbers are declining steadily, and the online versions (Damn if you do, damn if you don’t) don’t produce sufficient revenue to support the writing staff.

As a result, many newspapers, besides downsizing, tend to sign contracts with the devil… uhm… online advertising companies who promise high-quality online ads. However, even if you use regular Google Adsense (like this very website) you can’t prevent the display of the most despicable, misleading ad campaigns. Even if you can block ads insulting your sense of taste or style, why would you cut the hand that feeds you?

The Washington Post seems to be one of those newspapers who lower their level of integrity and pride in order to produce more revenue through clicks on their online advertisement.

The result comes in form of, in my very personal opinion, dubious ads such as:

• Channel 11 News Report – How a Small $90 Investment Turned Into $3900..
• 1 Mom’s Tip To Make $279/Day
• EXPOSED: New York Mom Makes $4,000/Month And You Won’t Believe How She Does It!
• $65/Hr Job – 25 Openings
• RMGX HOT Penny Stock – Making money vs. saving the planet? Do both! Invest today!
• Spinal Stenosis Pain? See where laser Spine Surgery Began-No Hospitalization!

You get the picture.

Don’t get me wrong, I love reading The Washington Post, especially Rob Pegoraro with his no-nonsense information on technology. I would hate to see The Washington Post vanish into nothingness. The same is true for other publications such as The Boston Globe (and their ever-annoying Netflix-popups on Boston.Com), The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune, and others.

So, here’s my suggestion:

Support The Washington Post Financially Without Spending A Dime

You can support The Washington Post without spending a dime, and you can do a good deed by clicking on those ads that you personally find despicable and misleading. Every click creates some very small revenue for The Washington Post, but if we all do it frequently, it will support The Washington Post, and it will cost the advertisers.

Just a fair warning, though: Do not submit your credit card or any other information to these websites. Just click and close.

If you have doubts about the advertiser’s intention, please check out my section Making Money From Home, which describes their workings.

Pay special attention to my post The Scam: Work At Home Mom Makes $6,397/Month Part-Time, especially the numerous comments it received by those who were scammed or those who were saved by reading the post before signing up. These scams target and hit the most vulnerable people in our society, specifically those without a job. The workings of the advertisers are officially legal due to their disclaimer, basically stating that the website’s content was faked for marketing purposes.

Happy Clicking! You are doing a good deed!

Note: This post reflects my very personal opinion based on research on the topic of online advertisement. My views should not be taken as a proven fact, and they are not necessarily shared by others.

What Happened?

by Ray Connolly

“So, how did you get on putting your book online?” That’s what I get asked quite a lot these days, a reference to how in August I began serialising my latest novel, The Sandman, free on my website. A thriller about music, social networking sites and cults, I reckoned it fitted the moment.

Well, so far I think I’ve been proved right, largely, I must confess, since the Guardian published a piece I wrote outlining what I was doing and how publishing was changing. Until then my website had been attracting no more than 150 readers a day, but on the day the article appeared it got an astonishing 50,056 hits. Eureka!

Naturally the level of online traffic levelled off after a hectic week, but it never dropped to fewer than two and a half to three thousand visitors a day until the serialisation ended in mid-October. Since then the figures have returned to a regular couple of dozen more than where they were before it began.

Now, in terms of book sales a following of maybe a couple of thousand isn’t huge – although many a hardback novel struggles to sell a thousand copies these days. And it was interesting that when offered the choice between downloading the entire book immediately for £4.99 or reading the free serialisation, the serial won hands down. Readers clearly didn’t want to pay for instant access if they could get it for nothing as a drip-feed.

But most interesting was the geographical breadth of The Sandman’s readership. Obviously the greatest following came from the UK and the US, but there were also many readers in Russia, Japan, Australia, the Scandinavian countries and Germany, France and Switzerland ‒  twenty five countries in all. What was really surprising was to find people downloading the entire book chapter by chapter in Moldova and Ukraine. I hadn’t expected that.

I’m not a tecchie but over the last few months I’ve learned how to trace IP addresses, and the idea that someone is following my novel on his or her computer in the Carpathians does give a certain buzz.

My great worry when I began was that people would read the first few chapters and then miss and episode or two and lose interest. I’m sure that happened in some cases, but many readers stayed with the book, quite a few of whom, I worked out, were reading the chapters every morning at work.

I could almost set my watch by the time readers came to the website in the Lancashire County Council offices in Preston, Lancashire, and the University College London department of medical physics and bioengineering, before, as the day wore on, regulars logged on to the latest episode in New York and Washington, later in Texas and Chicago, and, towards the end of my working London day, in California.

Having given the stragglers several weeks to catch up with the final chapters, the free The Sandman is no longer available on my website. I’ve now put it on Amazon’s Kindle, which means it can be bought and read anywhere in the world on Kindles, iPads, iPhones, BlackBerries and almost any Android device, as well as on computers. There’s been some interest from TV, too. We’ll see.

Like other authors whom, I now hear, are putting their books online, I would obviously have preferred it if a big publisher had snapped it up, given me an advance, sold foreign rights, put The Sandman into the shops, advertised it and got it reviewed in newspapers.  Because, although it’s now relatively simple to put a novel online, without a publisher’s marketing force it isn’t easy to let the world know about it.

But it didn’t happen. And now, as agents continue to struggle to sell fiction to publishers, things are changing on an accelerating basis. This Christmas millions are being spent on persuading us to buy easy-to-read electronic devices like Kindle and iTab, and with more digital books said to have been sold in the US this year than hardbacks we can all see that a publishing revolution is on us. Just this week Google launched its Google eBooks website in opposition to Amazon and Apple.

I don’t for a minute think the reader will be forced any time soon to choose between digital and print. Surely the future points to the two co-existing alongside each other. But for the writer it means a new avenue of communication has been opened.

Where any of this leaves The Sandman, I really don’t know. But it’s fun to be in at the start of something new.

(c) Ray Connolly, 2010

Website/Blog URL: http://www.rayconnolly.co.uk/

About the Author

Ray Connolly is the author of fourteen books, including Shadows On A Wall and a short biography of John Lennon, screenplays for the movies That’ll Be The Day and Stardust, the TV series Lytton’s Diary and Perfect Scoundrels and several radio plays. He wrote and directed a documentary on James Dean, and worked with Sir George Martin on a three part BBC TV series about music, The Rhythm of Life. Also a journalist he is widely known for his many interviews with the Beatles and other rock icons and his many articles on popular culture.

The Sandman is now available as an eBook from Kindle on Amazon.

Let me just say upfront:

In my personal opinion, the “Womens Dream Team” is a scam designed to lure you into losing your money for nothing!

Their website is very cleverly designed, and they aggressively promote it through Google and other ads. I have reported about various scam schemes in the past, and if the “Womens Dream Team” is not a scam than I haven’t seen one in my entire life. See also my section Making Money from Home.

The “Womens Dream Team” website bears all the signs of a scammer’s site, especially the non-descriptive content filled with meaningless slogans. And then there are the success stories by Marsha Martone and other women, which are, in my personal opinion, blown out of proportion if true at all. There is no solid information on how you would earn your money, and they claim you don’t need any business experience.

If it sounds too good to be true, then it most certainly isn’t!

Just a fair warning: The Internet-Work-From-Home-And-Getting-Rich System does not work! You won’t even create enough income to pay for your monthly grocery bill, not mentioning your mortgage. The “Womens Dream Team” will most probably ask you for a small payment of a few Dollars, and then they might charge you a higher fee after a week or so plus a monthly fee somewhere between $50 and $150.

Just a few guidelines if you are planning to sign up with them or already have:

• Read the terms and conditions carefully. They might indicate hidden fees, or even comments that their claims of success have been manufactured for promotional purposes.
• Do NOT sign up with the “Womens Dream Team” if they ask you for an upfront payment! … Actually, I just found out they do. Minimum $50. They call it an “investment into the future.” Help yourself and get one of the “… for dummies” books on creating income through the Internet (no insult meant; I use them, too.)
• In case you have already signed up with the “Womens Dream Team” and provided them your credit card information there is only one solution: CANCEL YOUR CREDIT CARD! It’s most probably the only way to prevent further charges.
• Contact marsha@womensdreamteam.com and demand more details on how the Internet-based home business is supposed to work, especially the means of income they claim to provide.

Yes, I use Twitter to promote my website, and, according to my web statistics, I do create some traffic by using Twitter. My problem is with the vast number of “followers” who are not in the least interested in my posts … uhm… tweets, and it seems to me that Caboodle, apparently a provider of mobile websites, encourages extensive and relentless spamming on the Twitter website.

Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with promoting business, but hiring people to attach as “followers” to innocent Twitter users like a leech is not how I understand Twitter’s purpose. I personally consider Caboodle one of the biggest spammers on the Internet.

The whole story started this morning when, in the time range of about twenty minutes, I received seven (Wait! Here comes another one! And another one…) e-mails notifying me of new Twitter “followers.” After an initial excitement (“Man, I am really popular!”) I realized that most of these new “followers” are in some way sponsored by Caboodle, or have nothing in common with me.

Gary Hill (@CaboodleCats) is now following your tweets (@FrogenYozurt) on Twitter.

Rhonda Hulsey (@CaboodleIs4U) is now following your tweets (@FrogenYozurt) on Twitter.

Jerry Harpin (@docaboodle) is now following your tweets (@FrogenYozurt) on Twitter.

Steve Sleeper (@SleeperCaboodle) is now following your tweets (@FrogenYozurt) on Twitter.

Robert G Wade (@time2caboodle) is now following your tweets (@FrogenYozurt) on Twitter.

Well, if the purpose of Twitter lies only in the collection of “followers,” regardless of their interests, then, maybe, Twitter is not for me. I, for my part, reported all of the above as spammers.

In the case of Steve Sleeper (@SleeperCaboodle – info@stevesleeper.com)  I checked out his website reference, and it leads to a site with the typical scammer design: A single page with little real information, filled with large fonts in red and blue on white background plus the usual promotional, misleading video and the contact form. All this is designed to collect as many as possible e-mail addresses, and you can be sure they will spam the living daylight out of you without a chance to unsubscribe. In addition, they may even sell your e-mail reference to other, “related” businesses.

Do you have similar experiences with the Caboodle spam, or can you contribute details? If yes, please leave a comment below. I am interested in your view.

Supplement October 15, 2010

Now that I have experienced the “wrath” of some unhappy Caboodle leeches, let me quote Penny Sansevieri, top literature marketing and social network specialist, who, among many others, writes for the Huffington Post:

The Right Way to Approach a Social Networking Site

There’s an old saying that goes: fake it till you make it. This is not true of social networking. You can’t fake anything. The best sites are those with an authentic voice. Social network members can sense an individual who is pretending to be just an “average Joe,” but is really just looking for a quick sale. The worst thing you can do is constantly promote your book.

Users join social media sites to socialize, learn and get to know what you’re offering. Be helpful or be gone. That’s the motto of the social networks. Remember that social media (much like anything on the Internet) is a trust-based model. You gain trust by helping, advising, educating, or enlightening your readers. Seth Godin, who started one of the best social networking sites out there today (Squidoo.com), is a great example of what to do when promoting yourself. He offers helpful advice, tips and insights but rarely promotes his book. Does he sell books? You bet he does, but he’s helpful first, and a sales person second (sethgodin.typepad.com). The point is, gain someone’s trust and you’ll probably gain a sale, too.

See the full post at Bloggers: The Right Way to Approach a Social Networking Site.

Now that my blog gains more and more popularity, I also have to deal with an increased number of spamming attempts. Naturally, my blog is protected against automatic spam attempts by all kinds of programs scanning the Internet and attempting to leave hyperlinks to dubious websites.

But this is only one side of the picture. More annoying are the attempts by human beings, because their comments look like regular responses to my posts. They leave comments with the intention to place hyperlinks to all kinds of distasteful websites.

It’s the old story: Search engines like hyperlinks. I do, however, read all comments to my posts and these comments need my approval before they are published on my blog. Even if the comments look legitimate I do check out the hyperlinks in case they are posted. If I determine that a message is spam I mark it as such, and I add certain catch phrases to my blacklist settings. For the record, there’s nothing wrong with leaving valid comments and attach a hyperlink, but the comment should refer to the post and the website should not serve yet another scam.

So, my question to all spammers is, why do you waste my and especially your time with useless messages?

It is not my intention to point out all aspects of spamming and how it effects our society; I just would like to share some stupid entries I filtered over time. You may notice that most spam attempts come from people claiming to have a gmail account.

Spam Entries

bidbana@gmail.com

It’s really great to post my comments on such a penny auction news blog. I would like to appreciate the great work done by the web master and would like to tell everyone that they should post their interesting comments and should make this blog interesting. Once again I would like to say keep it up to blog owner!!!! I am glad that the blog owner has chosen a very interesting matter in order to spread huge knowledge among people. I would like to congratulate for this hard work to the blog owner and would like to be part of his blog by submitting.

Note: This response was posted on my article on the penny auction scam. The link in the response leads to another scam called bidbanana.

Tuberville@gmail.com

I really like your post. I found it really usefull. I will have to go to your website again some day.

adenoma43640@googlemail.com

I definitely must to get out of my house a little more as well as give up wasting a large percentage of of my daylight hours learning poker on myspace or facebook on the grounds that of late i have been unable to ready with regards to this. Despite the fact that I find it difficult to declare that I undeniably go along with every single term, its good to browse some intelligent posts in place of the popular crap I uncover floating all over the net.

aojudy@gmail.com

I think that to receive the mortgage loans from creditors you ought to have a great reason. However, once I’ve received a car loan, because I was willing to buy a bike.

aojudy@gmail.com

Some time ago, I needed to buy a good house for my corporation but I did not have enough money and couldn’t order anything. Thank heaven my sister adviced to get the mortgage loans from trustworthy bank. Hence, I acted that and was satisfied with my auto loan.

Ellie30vn@unique-papers.com

Lots of organizations can propose the buy dissertation service and thesis proposal just about this post for all people’s success. Hence, don’t loose your time, see the thesis writing services, buy dissertation online and be satisfied.

Geena25@yopmail.com

In this moment people order essay writing and buy term papers selecting writing service but very frequently the students buy an essay referring to this good topic. It is really important article, thank you a lot!

jennifer.bond46@gmail.com

People in the world take the home loans in various banks, just because that’s easy and fast.

Halyk83@gmail.com

thanks, very well written post, found it through a random google search and i shared it on my facebook

Seems legitimate? Well, think again. The URL this person posted leads to yet another Viagra website.

phrenologically53025@gmail.com

heya terrific little blogging site ya have right here  I work with the very same theme on my website yet unfortunately for whatever odd factor it looks to load a lot quicker on this blog although yours features significantly more content material. Are you employing any individual plug ins or widgets which will speed it up? If you could possibly write about the programs so I can use these on my internet site so twilight eclipse users could watch twilight new moon online trailers and clips more easily I would always be grateful – kudos ahead of time 

Note: I received the same entry with exactly the same wording on another one of my business blogs. The e-mail address was a different one, though; the claimed names did not match.

As the title of this book implies, the author delivers a concise description on setting up a professional blog – using WordPress – without wasting time convincing the user of the reasoning for creating a blog. The approach is “quick and dirty.”

This book will provide a crash-course in setting up a web site that goes beyond a basic blog. In this sense, the author added many exciting features such as slide shows, cool navigation tools, social network connections, integrating videos and cartoons, and even an e-commerce system. He also puts an emphasis on search engine optimization (SEO), creating web traffic, and protecting the blog from being spammed. In addition, the author shares his experience with creating income through blogs without promising a “new path to riches.”

Throughout the book the author refers to one particular web site, myprofessionalblog.com, the web site (blog) he designed to write this book, and to provide evidence that what he describes really works. The author encourages everybody to read his comments on myprofessionalblog.com to assure they are comfortable with the decision to buy the book – or not. Every feature as seen on myprofessionalblog.com is available to the user with little effort.

In addition, the author will post further information that becomes available after writing this book on the same blog. The access to the web site is free of charge, and so are all the special features he added to the blog.

From the Author

As the title of this book implies – I am referring to the “No-Nonsense” part – I am trying to deliver you a concise description on how to set up your own, professional looking blog without the usual motivational bla-bla combined with superficial information I found in many other books. My approach is “quick and dirty.”

At the time of the writing I have set up numerous blogs, and I have investigated numerous scenarios of how to get a blog useful for one’s purposes.

In my personal case I am in the business of promoting my books, but I also looked into related aspects such as selling my books through my blogs, or even create revenues through my web site with paid advertisement. In the process I found a lot of useless books on the topic, and I deemed it was time to stop the nonsense.

Please be aware that all the information in this book in freely available through the Internet, or through many, more detailed books, but reading this book and following the instructions will save you a lot of time and, after all, aggravation.

This book will give you a crash-course in setting up your blog, and, if you need more than just a basic blog, I have tried to add as many exciting features as possible. I also put an emphasis on search engine optimization (SEO).

Please understand, everything in this book is designed to give you a concise description on blog features without the hassle of reading hundreds of pages, and thus saving you a great amount of time setting up your own blog.

I will not provide you all details, just enough to get you going. The manuals you need – just in case you want to investigate the blog features in more detail – are all available through the Internet, and I will point you to the corresponding web sites. This approach did not only save me a great deal of time writing this book, but it also reflects in the price you pay for it.

Let me stress again, that you do not need to read the full manuals to set up your blog. Just follow my description, and your blog will shine within a few hours of work.

Let me also add another “no-nonsense” aspect: I will deliver you many aspects of optimizing your blog, but I do not guarantee success. Especially, I do not promise a “path to riches” if you are in business to create revenue with your blog. The success of a blog or regular web site depends on many factors not related to the blog setup and operation. Success, just like in any other business, is primarily based on hard and continuous work. Perseverance will pay eventually in one way or the other, but, again, there is no guarantee.

Throughout this book I will refer to one particular web site, http://www.myprofessionalblog.com, which is the web site (blog) I designed to write this book, meaning I set up the blog, made screen shots of what I was doing and inserted them into this document.

Everything you see on http://www.myprofessionalblog.com is available to you with little effort. In addition, I will post further information, that becomes available after writing this book, on the same blog.

This About This Book section is also part of http://www.myprofessionalblog.com. My intention is to provide sufficient information on my book to make you comfortable with the decision to buy it – or not.

This being said, if you are in business to find a totally free solution for your blog, do not buy this book! My book is primarily about creating a professional blog with little expenses (roughly $120 – 200 per year), but it is not totally free.

If you want your blog totally free I recommend to set one up through various services such as Google, Yahoo, WordPress.com, and others. Please be aware that these services will give you a free, but limited blog, i.e. without all the special features you see on http://www.myprofessionalblog.com. If you don’t need the special features, i.e. you just want to write posts, you will be just fine using these services.

Another reason, not to buy this book, would be that you already use an Internet service provider (ISP), have your own web site, but your ISP does not support WordPress. WordPress, an Online blog development tool, is an essential part of this book.

If you have neither an ISP nor a web site, but want your own, professional blog, I will explain how to get there quickly and easily.

Review

I have had a chance to get my hands on “A No-Nonsense Guide to a Professional Blog.” I am an experienced blogger myself, and I run my own websites. As such, the book was not really for me, but for those who want to start a professional looking blog with minimum efforts. Nevertheless, I still found some surprising insights, which I immediately incorporated into my websites. I can also vouch that the method as described in this book works, since I am using WordPress for my blogs for a while. I just wish I had this book available when I started; it would have saved me a ton of time and aggravation. What I liked especially was the honesty and, as the title implies, the no-nonsense attitude. The author promises merely a pain-free setup of the blog, but he does not promise success, which is entirely up to the blogger. He does, however, offer a number of valuable tips when it comes to search engine optimization, spam protection, and even creating income through a blog. Just a fair warning (and the author makes this abundantly clear) this book is not about running a cost-free blog; that would prohibit the ingenious features of the blog such as video implementation, Google gadgets, Google Ads, a free e-commerce system, etc. The operating costs are roughly $120 – $200 per year, depending on the Internet Service Provider of your choice. Again, this book is intended for beginners, and as such it definitely deserves a 5 star rating. – Sandpiper, Amazon Customer Review

Google Webmaster Guidelines

Following these guidelines will help Google find, index, and rank your site. Even if you choose not to implement any of these suggestions, we strongly encourage you to pay very close attention to the “Quality Guidelines,” which outline some of the illicit practices that may lead to a site being removed entirely from the Google index or otherwise penalized. If a site has been penalized, it may no longer show up in results on Google.com or on any of Google’s partner sites.

Read more…

Google Image Guidelines

With image search, just as with web search, Google’s goal is to provide the best and most relevant search results to our users. Following the best practices listed below (as well as our usual webmaster guidelines) will increase the likelihood that your images will be returned in those search results.

Read more…

Google Search Engine Optimization Starter Guide

This document first began as an effort to help teams within Google, but Google thought it’d be just as useful to webmasters that are new to the topic of search engine optimization and wish to improve their sites’ interaction with both users and search engines. Although this guide won’t tell you any secrets that’ll automatically rank your site first for queries in Google (sorry!), following the best practices outlined below will make it easier for search engines to both crawl and index your content.

Download the PDF file…

Nevertheless, we all strive to use our resources (i.e. our website or blog) and earn a little bit on the side. The combination that works for me is Google Adsense, Amazon Affiliate Program, and Infolinks. See also my post Blogging – Creating Income Through Affiliate Programs.

So far, I had not been able to evaluate the service provided by Chitika. Chitika works very similar to Google Adsense, but their ads are much closer targeted to users who find your website through search engines. If you write about, for instance, automobiles, and somebody finds you through searching for Toyota, you can bet all your ads refer to Toyota and ONLY Toyota. Very effective targeting, you might think. In addition (and this is a very nice feature!) they allow you to display Google ads when a user did NOT find you through a search engine.

My website (the one you’re looking at) was finally, after an evaluation period of four months(!), approved, and I was excited. I had read a report where somebody said that Chitika produces more income than Google. Well, if they are as picky that it takes four months to be approved, they must be good. Right? WRONG!

After a period of testing them for roughly ten days I made a whooping US$2.31! Be aware that this amount is still “unaudited,” because they will re-evaluate all clicks. They are much better than Google when it comes to prevent charging their customers for random clicks, which is good for the advertiser, but not so much for the publisher.

My website, FrogenYozurt.com, creates good web traffic. This month I will have roughly 17,000 unique visitors. According to Alexa.com that puts me under the top two percent of all registered websites (latest rating: 1.82%). However, for Chitika that’s not quite enough. FrogenYozurt.Com was only good enough for their “Silver” program. Apparently, the “Gold” program will give you access to higher-value ads, but you need to go through yet another evaluation process. In the meantime you’ll lose money!

As of yesterday, I switched back to Google Adsense and made more than US$2.31 in one day. Also, I get what I call high-quality ads. Most of the Google ads on this website are occupied by only one ad in form of a full graphic. Every click on these ads will create more income than on a regular box with a number of links. Apparently, Google is more appreciative of my website than Chitika.

The Chitika”Silver” program ads are of very poor quality, and I don’t blame anybody for not clicking on them. In the last seven days my website produced 10,000+ impressions without a single click, at least according to their online reporting system. Their reporting system is sluggish, and maybe I am making a mistake by removing their ads. I doubt it, though. I can’t afford to wait several weeks for their system to catch up. As a business man I need to know quickly what works and what does not.

Also, as a business man, I am concerned with appearance and quality of my website. The cheap looking Chitika ads (hyperlink texts are cut off, images don’t load) are definitely not helping in either direction.

If you have any experience with Chitika, let me know. It could very well be that I am mistaken…

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Have You Ever Thought About Working From Home… Online?

Jessica Holcomb of Greenfield, MA never thought that she would, until curiosity got the best of her and she filled out a simple online form and put out just a little money to try a program she came across. Before she knew it, she discovered her secret to beating the recession, and being able to provide for her family while at home with her three children.

I read Jessica’s blog last month and decided to feature her story in our weekly consumer report. In our phone interview she told me her amazing story. “I actually make $6,000-$7,000 a month online which is enough to comfortably replace my old jobs income, especially considering I only work about 10-13 hours a week from home.

Online work has been a financial windfall for Jessica, who struggled for months to find a decent job but kept hitting dead ends. “I lost my job shortly after the recession hit, I needed reliable income, I was not interested in the “get rich quick” scams you see all over the internet. Those are all pyramid scams or stuff where you have to sell to your friends and family. I just needed a legitimate way to earn a living for me and my family. The best part of working online is that I am always home with the kids, I save a lot of money.”

You may have found this Online ad on abcnews.com, msnbc.com, washingtonpost.com, or somewhere else, but don’t be fooled! ABC News, MSNBC, and others are not responsible for the ads they display, and they don’t add any value to the actual advertisement.

Just a fair warning: The so-called “News 1 Report” is a scam!

If you found this Online ad, do yourself a favor and be extremely cautious. DO NOT, by any means, submit your credit card information, and if you already did it, CANCEL YOUR CREDIT CARD! These guys will suck you dry!

A few hints:

• The so-called reporters are definitely a fake. The photo of the young woman shown above appears on many known scam websites.
• Jacqueline Douglas and Ralph Stevens used to be Jennifer Theuriau and James Field, top news anchors of CNNews. See my post CNNews Supports “Online Work at Home Program” Scam.
• The so-called “News 1″ logo is a fake.
• The website structure is identical to many known scam websites.
• The hyperlinks on the “News 1″ website don’t work.

Still not convinced? Read my post on http://www.frogenyozurt.com/my-articles/making-money-from-home/.

Read the comments from readers of my website on the bottom of this page: The Scam: Work At Home Mom Makes $6,397/Month Part-Time.

Remember: If it sounds too good to be true, it most probably is!

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Queen of Misfortune

A Lady Jane Grey Novel by Peter Carroll

Now Available As Paperback And Kindle Edition!

Queen Of Misfortune is the fictional story of Lady Jane Grey as told by her beloved tutor, John Aylmer. At the time of her execution a stranger is recorded to have assisted her when, blind folded, she lost her way upon the scaffold. Was it the same ‘stranger’ who was also recorded to have visited her when she was imprisoned in the Tower? Little is known of this unfortunate girl who was beheaded for treason in the 16^th Century. She was only 16. She is omitted from the list of monarchs but was actually queen for nine days. Author Peter Carroll, in his novel, follows John Aylmer’s close relationship with Jane as her tutor and later, as she grows up, her lover. [More...]

Available at Amazon.Com, Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble, and any other good bookstore.

As I wrote, the only way to create sufficient income, may it be as a full-time business or only as an additional income, is through selling a product. That product could be, for instance, something you create yourself, maybe a certain craft you are good at. Such products could be handmade jewelry, art, pottery, dolls, woodwork, sewing, and much more. And you don’t even need to maintain your own website to sell your product.

etsy.com, for example, enables people to make a living making things and connect makers with buyers. As member you have your own online store to showcase your items. It is free to become a member, but there is a fee of $0.20 for each listed item. When the item sells Etsy takes a 3.5% commission. There is no limit to how much you can charge and what you can earn.

Another resource for selling your product online is JewelryWonder.com. Sellers must have at least thirty items to open a free account. There is no charge such as setup fee, monthly or transaction fees, or listing and hosting fees.

ArtFire.com is an artisan marketplace home to artists from around the globe. The community celebrates and supports art and creativity in all forms. Sellers can choose either a free basic account or a professional account for $15.95 a month. They also provide you the means to sell items directly through your own website.

Author Ray Connolly decided to put his newest work, The Sandman, online. It has been serialized chapter by chapter on his website where, over the next ten weeks, it will build like a part-work. The Sandman‘s progress can be read free-of-charge, but if readers want to find out how The Sandman ends they can download the whole book for less than the costs of a paperback.

Let me quote from the article I found at guardian.co.uk:

With one digital bound, I’ve become an entrepreneur. There’ll be an iPod version later, for those who want to listen to it being read, and of course there will be Facebook and Twitter links. Having begun this new career as an ePublisher, I feel empowered. As a one man band, I have nothing to lose.

Apart from the time spent writing The Sandman, the other costs have been relatively small. And for the first time in my writing career – and I’ve written movies, TV series, radio plays, short stories and several novels – I’m in total control. It’s an experiment, obviously, but I’m enjoying it. And, as it happens, the subject of the novel might be prescient.

When I was writing The Sandman, a thriller that links rock music with cults, and involves a television reporter who investigates a series of deaths she suspects may have occurred because of grooming on social internet sites, I thought it might be slightly ahead of its time. I was wrong. With the furore over the recent events on Facebook, it’s absolutely topical.

And now I’m going to market it, using exactly the same tools that are central to the story – namely those of the computer and social online sites. In other words, a novel about manipulation through the web is being made available for readers in serial form . . . through the web.

Read the whole article at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/aug/12/publishing-book-online-ray-connolly

Usually, I try to be nice and diplomatic about books that I didn’t care for. After all, it’s all about personal taste. However, when I smell fraud I get aggravated, and I have a hard time holding back some profane thoughts. That is the case with New Path to Riches by Nick Usborne.

As a matter of principle, I do not buy any books that promise the reader the guaranteed path to success, but every now and then I need a slap in the face, I guess. The not-so-literal slap in the face came with buying and reading New Path to Riches by Nick Usborne.

Well, my excuse is that I bought the eBook version through BookLocker.com, a business managed by Angela Hoy (who also publishes WritersWeekly.com). I do LOVE Angela’s weekly newsletter, and I do love her style and her approach to publishing. She is, however, not responsible for the content of the books she sells. My hope was that the authors she deals with are as honest and as straight-forward as Angela, or, at least, in the same ballpark. Unfortunately, Nick Usborne is not in the same class as Angela.

My hope was also to learn intimate details about creating a money-making web site, but his book New Path to Riches is a 150+ page collection of mindless blabbering that reads like the presentation of a motivational speaker. There is absolutely NOTHING in this book that you cannot find on the Internet free-of-charge. There is close to NULL profound information on how to create a web site and make it work – as I said before, just mind-boggling bla, bla, bla, and… bla.

Don’t waste your money with this book. Spend a few minutes on the Internet to get REAL information.

Last, but not least, if you want honest information on how to start a web site or blog and make money from it, check out my book, A No-Nonsense Guide to a Professional Blog (There is also a preview of the book). Honestly, I wrote it after learning about the so-called “Google Profit Library”, but especially after reading New Path to Riches by Nick Usborne. I deemed it was time to stop the nonsense. The book shows you step by step how to set up a professional blog with some advice on how to run it, and maybe even make some money from it. The difference is, you don’t pay me at all (I would appreciate that you buy the book, paperback or PDF), and the required investment of roughly $120…200 per year goes to your Internet service provider for running your web site. Also, check out myprofessionalblog.com. This is the web site I created to write the book, meaning I created the web site, made screen-shots and included them into the document.