How to Save Money With Your Paper Stock

It’s a tough question to answer, and one I hear all the time: Which paper stock should I choose for my book? And although it’s a tough question, it is an important one because the paper you choose will tell your potential buyer what kind of book this is. Go too cheap, you might lose some buyers to a different title. Go too expensive, you just wasted your money.

Let’s start by clearing up a point of confusion among many looking to print their first book: the difference between bond and offset paper weights. When you purchase paper for your copy machine or home printer, you’ll note paper is listed as something like 20# bond. What that means is that when the paper is manufactured at 17 x 22″, 500 sheets of that paper weighs 20 pounds. However, offset paper for printing plants is manufactured in 25 x 38″ sheets, which is 2.5 times larger than bond paper. So 500 sheets of that same paper stock now weigh 50 pounds. Thus, 20# bond is the same as 50# offset.

Typically, I would recommend that for a standard book with just black text (no color) and not a lot of images, 50# offset is just fine. If there are a lot of graphics in the book, you might want to bump up to 60# offset to eliminate some see-through from one side of the page to the other.

One thing I cannot emphasize enough - get print samples. There are a couple times when I have had a client tell me they knew exactly what type of paper they wanted to use, but then they were disappointed when they got the final product. Why? A friend of theirs had told them which paper stock to choose, and they ordered their books without ever seeing a paper sample. Don’t make the same mistake!

Now let’s assume your book is not as simple as a novel or a book with just black text. Maybe your book needs to be printed in full color. If that’s the case, you’ll want to use a paper stock that highlights the color better than a typical offset sheet. Glossy paper will usually do the trick.

Also, if you are printing in full color, you’ll definitely want a thicker paper stock. You don’t want any see-through for your color images from one side of the page to another. I usually recommend 80# gloss for most color books. If you want a little thicker, step up to 100# gloss. If you are trying to save cost, drop down to 70# gloss - but never less than that.

I’ll say it again: Samples, samples, samples. Don’t be shy about asking your printer for paper samples. It’s probably the most expensive choice you’ll make when printing your book; make sure you get it right!

Paperback covers overseas are usually printed using 250 gsm or 300 gsm cover stock. In the U.S. that translates to a 10 pt. C1S or 12 pt. C1S sheet. Also be sure to add gloss lamination to give your cover that extra pop!

Developing Technology & The Evolving Internet

Time and tide may be two things that wait for nobody, but something else that nobody seems to be able to catch up with is technology. No matter what field you are in, whether it is media or business or medicine or travel or anything else, technology has made everyone’s life a lot easier. Of all the fields, information technology has been the fastest developing.

Information technology is what makes our lives so much easier and overwhelmingly simple today. Unlike 20 years ago, when people had to store endless files in cabinets, wait for months for mail and rely on the nearby shops to buy everything they need, we now have virtual file storage, email and instant messaging and almost all businesses have an online presence and buying is simply a matter of having a credit card or online secure payment method.

Everything from preparing simple documents, calculating complex functions and imaging to streaming audio and video, instant communication and e-commerce, information technology has ushered in a new era for the human existence. The internet has grouped the entire world into one giant community and as it stands at present, nothing seems impossible.

Information technology is responsible for most things that we take for granted now - from networking to development of applications to websites and database management.

Communication - It began with simple peer-to-peer messages via the command prompt and has evolved to become VoIP technology and video conferencing. The passage of 20 years saw a remarkable advance in instant communication, making ordinary communication such as telegrams and mail near obsolete. The internet has become the primary instant communication method, with email and instant messaging applications used by both businesses and individuals. The ability to integrate internet capabilities in mobile phones have also contributed heavily to this advancement.

E-Commerce: Buying and selling online is something we simply don’t give a second thought to anymore. Place an order and get what you want delivered, right into your hands - and there are plenty of ways to pay, from your credit cards to paypal to eGold. In fact, you can get anything you want online

Devices: Every device has to be constantly improved to stay in the market. Everything is going digital, in fact - after all, if alarms can wake you up by telling you exactly what time it is and schedulers can remind you of what you should be doing, why shouldn’t refrigerators, soon, suggest what you should eat if you’re on a diet? Manufacturers for everything are searching for new ideas. Integrated GPRS to connect to the net, broadband connections - brands like LG and Samsung are at the forefront in such research.

As technology continues to grow and the eventual influence of it on the internet increases too, the future achievements of humans are unlimited.

Evolving Biotechnology

What exactly is biotechnology? There are plenty of definitions being floated around by different organizations. Using biology in order to develop technology, with regard to product development and research, is what biotechnology entails. The fields biotechnology can feasibly be used in include agriculture, medicine, food science, environment and robotics.

We have always tried to manipulate and control the world, change it to suit our needs. We do that when we ferment beer, we do it when we culture bacteria, and now we have moved to new levels that would have been considered impossible a few decades back - we have cloned animals and research has turned to concepts like nucleotide-based organ regeneration.

Biotechnology was in practice much before the actual term was used to describe it. The basics began with very simple scientific methods such as preserving foods for winter. The first fruit juice fermentation to produce alcohol is believed to have been done in 6000 BC. Back then, it was more of an art than an actual science.

The biotechnology we know today started gaining attention only about twenty years ago, when genetics were discovered to be the primary element for synthesizing essential proteins in an organism. The discovery of DNA and the related development of molecular biology was the true beginning of biotechnology as we know it now.

The eighties marked an epoch in biotechnology with the discovery of new concepts, the most important being that modification of genetic structures was possible through combinations of plants and animals. This discovery led to research into fields like disease resistance and increase in productivity rate. Medicine and research in other fields of biology have found the most use for biotechnology. Now, plant-generated pharmaceuticals are common enough, as are creation of insulin and antibiotics.

Modern biotechnology is practiced in three different categories - red, white and green. Red Biotechnology is when the genetically altered microorganisms are used to produce medical and pharmaceutical substances, such as proteins, vitamins, antibiotics and vaccines etc. It’s also used in genome manipulation.

White Biotechnology is also known as bio-manufacturing and Grey Biotechnology. This is not yet a completely established field and involves manipulating live organisms to create important industrial chemicals. Some of the organisms used in these techniques include bacteria, enzymes, moulds and yeast.

Green Biotechnology is important in agriculture - making better produce that stays fresh and lasts longer, and is more nutritious. This is something people have been doing for a long time - making sturdier crops, like cross-bred wheat for example.

How You Can Dominate Niche Markets Effectively

Gurus are always talking about the use of original content on your site and steering clear of duplicate content.

If you want to increase the traffic to your website then you need to use less or preferably no duplicate content.

I’m referring to a service that takes fresh, unique content to the next level, and make any type of Internet Marketing simpler and much, much more effective.

I have the inside knowledge from some very savvy product creators who have just shown me something very exciting that will make creating unique content for your web marketing campaigns lightening fast.

No, you are not dreaming, there is a new approach - which has taken the Internet by storm with fresh unique content that the search engines just love - it has been created with the reader in mind so the overuse of keywords, which will lower your website ranking, has been eliminated.

The most exiting i-marketing membership is here. It is appropriately named Content FX and for those of you with high standards, the masterpiece that is Content FX will solve the problems of junk spun PLR articles, saving you from ever having to stare at a blank screen again.

For one article, start to finish — that is create the article, check the density, check the number of times I inserted a keyword, and post it — takes me approximately 3 seconds; yes you did read that correctly.

How much time do you think you waste on your business each day? I bet since you started working on the internet you have stopped if not reduced your social life; the reason is you hardly get time to get away from your desk because you are too busy getting content created to get on your website.

Have questions? Reply to mailto:ContentFX-4@i-Commerce-Business.com with a blank email to read “ContentFX Revealed”.

Saving Our Environment

‘The Environment’ is a blanket term that includes two primary areas. The environment includes everything around us that is living or non-living. The first of the two areas of the environment is nature as it exists without human interference - animals, plants, microorganisms, even the atmosphere and soil.

The second key environmental component constitutes anything and everything not specifically human-originated, but also lack clear boundaries while belonging to universal natural resources and physical phenomena. Among these are water, air, climate, energy, magnetism, electric charge and radiation.

What nature had already provided and what man has created are in sharp contrast. What humans have created is called the built environment. At any place, only if the influence of humans is negligible can it be called a natural environment.

Wilderness, does not automatically mean a natural environment. Any area where there is no human interference at all is a wilderness. There are other conditions that need to be met if a region is to be considered a natural environment. National forests and nature reserves are considered to be part of the latter.

There are so few regions that can be considered to be natural environments now. Climate changes can account for some of this - climate changes caused by human influence. We have unseasonal rains and floods, melting icecaps and glaciers, and rising temperatures. Natural environmentalist groups play a major role in trying to keep natural environments intact. They try to push through laws and policies that will preserve the environment - keeping what there is safe, and trying to restore what was lost, as well as trying to create altogether new wilderness areas.

There are plenty of things to be done to preserve the earth - pollution is a major concern that needs to be tackled. The depletion of non-renewable sources of energy is another concern. Many species have been wiped out and many others are on the brink of extinction. Land, air and water are not inexhaustible resources. The environmentalists try to preserve and protect the earth and its ecosystem in many ways, trying to tackle these problems.

The challenges faced by our natural environment include mega development projects, emitting tons of waste into the air and water around it. Industrial plants are also contributing to this. The most recent attention to global warming shows an increasing concern over toxic emissions, which must be reduced at a drastic pace.

Taking up the challenge to protect and preserve our environment is everyone’s responsibility. It cannot be simply put off till tomorrow. Global environmental preservation starts right inside your own home.

Anything & Everything - Blogging Makes It All Fun

The new face of web publishing is owned by the art of blogging. Not too long ago, creating and publishing websites were complex and needed extensive technical knowledge. But now, everything has changed and even a computer novice can create web pages easily. Blog providers have come up with various themes and templates and anyone can get a blog, write or copy paste from offline documents and publish, all within a few hours.

With blogging came the ability to make maximum use of the internet. Online democracy took on a whole new meaning and increased interactivity, social networking and communication among global communities. The introduction of RSS feeds contribute further to this, by broadcasting and making use of the direct advertising and promoting opportunities.

Email marketing and network building turned simple blogging into a money-making concept. The need for auto responders, mass mailing software and direct online advertising became near obsolete with the blog marketing techniques. Blogs are able attract subscribers and loads of backlinks, so the need for link exchange techniques are often not applicable in blogging.

Many businesses are now turning to blogs to promote their products and services. Regardless of the industry, blogging and affiliate marketing are able to work together towards a common goal and earn you riches. Direct sales are also part of this, as the blogs provide advertising space.

If you feel the need to be outspoken about anything, you should get yourself a blog. By keeping a blog, anyone can talk about anything freely, without offending society. It’s your personal online space and no one has to read anything if they don’t like it. Choosing a topic is easy, especially when you know what you like. Blogs can be either all-inclusive or specific to a topic, depending on your preference. General blogs are more interesting to people from all walks of life.

In comparison, some prefer to have singular blogs, focusing on just one topic. These topics can be anything from advertising and business to computers and travel. This type of blogs are truly interesting only to those who are keen on that specific topic. A more interesting blog would be one where anyone can join in on the discussions and contribute.

Sometimes, blogs allow guest authors to place content too. Also, readers are welcome to leave comments, suggestions and create forums for the blog etc, which encourages global participation in maintaining the blog.

You can write a blog for money or just for fun and you can be a blogger regardless of who you are and what you do. Blogging can be done throughout each day or just a few hours every week. It gives some simple joy, encourages online socialising and provides information. Blogging is the new way of getting the global communities together and the introduction of audio and video blogs have made blogs even more popular.

Copywriting How To’s - Turn That Testimonial Into A Selling Tool!

Great testimonials are a powerful part of a copywriters tool kit. That’s why you should never settle for weak, vague or generic testimonials, even if that’s all your client has given you.

Don’t wait for great testimonials to come to you. Go out there and get them! When you do, you’ll be able to get testimonials that highlight certain key benefits. This lets you show your prospect that someone just like him has used this product and gotten great results!

Most customers give the same type of testimonial. I call it a Before and After testimonial. He tells you the problem he had, and how this product solved it. This type of testimonial is definitely better than just saying, “I loved your product!” but in today’s market you need to go one step further.

Why do I say that? Because nowadays everyone gives Before and After testimonials. They’ve become common and after awhile they start to all sound alike. They simply aren’t as powerful as they use to be.

For great copy, you want to get richer, more powerful testimonials. The good news is it’s not that hard to do! In fact, with just a little work, you can have a pile of testimonials — each focusing on a different selling point. All you have to do is go out and get them!

Start out with a list of happy customers. Get on the phone and talk with them. Take a half hour and interview them. Find out what their real story is. Uncover the emotions they felt, the things they worried about or the frustrations they use to have. Why was it so important to find a solution?

When you’re finished, you are ready for the next step. This is where you take the information you just gathered and transform it into the strongest testimonial possible.

When you’re finished interviewing the customer, ask him if he’d be willing to let you use what he said as a testimonial. If he says yes, offer to type one up for him based on the conversation you just had. When it’s written, you will send it to him for his approval. Surprisingly, most people will jump at this suggestion!

As long as you’ve done a good job interviewing the customer, you’ll have a ton of great material to work with. If the customer has agreed, all you have to do is take what you’ve got and create the best testimonial possible.

Start by reviewing your interview notes and asking yourself a few questions:

* What angle will work best?

* What selling points do I want to reinforce in my copy?

* Which one is best supported by this person’s story?

* What is the best way to position this particular testimonial?

* What parts can I use to make my prospect say, “That guy is exactly like me!”

Just imagine how much more powerful and effective these type of testimonials will be. All of the different angles you can take and the great real-life tidbits that you can weave through your sales copy.

The truth is, there’s no better way to get these type of powerful testimonials. When you know how to guide the interview, you can uncover the “good stuff” quickly — every single time. Then all you need to do is take what you have and position it, and you’ve got a testimonial that will make selling your product that much easier.

What you end up with is a testimonial other copywriters would die for. One that’s laser-focused on a specific, key selling point in your copy. One that speaks directly to your prospect’s needs and desires. One that uses your customer’s words only better!

Everything you’ve been told about copy writing is wrong!

Even if you focus totally on pay per click advertising such as Google Adwords to promote your website, ebook or affilliate scheme you still need to create compelling adverts and persuasive landing pages or your sales will be lost. But everything you’ve been told is wrong!

They say you need a copy writer to create your content - they are wrong! Giving control of all your website content is a terrible thing to do. Althought the copy make be technically good it will be missing one essential ingredient - you, your passion and your knowledge!

They say creating a great sales page is important - they are wrong! Creating great copy for your website is absolutely essential and goes far beyond the sales page. To build long term success you need fantastic content. Whether you have an ebook to sell, website to launch or affiliate scheme to promote you need to write interesting and compelling copy - copy that will form blog entries, articles, forum posts, press releases and website content. Even if you focus totally on pay per click advertising such as Google Adwords you still need to create winning adverts and persuasive landing pages or your sales will be lost.

They tell you that PLR copy is the answer - they are wrong! PLR (Private Label Rights) copy is dreadful. It’s the industrial approach to website content in which you can buy 100s of articles in one go.

They don’t want you to realise that you are the best person to create your copy so that you keep paying them.

When have you ever heard a copywriter say “You know far more about your business then I ever will.” or “I’ll do this first one so you can do the rest.” That’s this secret conspiracy at work! I doubt that there’s an official HQ or conspiracy to bring together the copy writers and grammarians but it’s just as effective.

The answer is probably never because they don’t want you to know how to write, they don’t want you to realise that you are the best person to create your copy and they don’t want it to be quick and easy. Then they bill you. Not only do they bill you they then keep you in this trap so that you go back for more and more.

It’s time that you changed a few things and decided to create the compelling copy that the search engines and your customers will love. 1. Fire the copy writer - it is your opinions that count. 2. Answer your customer’s questions - By solving their problems they’ll come back for more. 3. Take control - only by taking ownership of all of your site including the content will you get the success you deserve.

The magic sales letter, the secret weapon of business profits

One of the biggest mistakes made by business people is operating with prejudice based on ignorance. In the crucial areas of sales and marketing, this mistake is made most often by neglecting the absolute most effective vehicle for obtaining new customers and reigniting the interest of existing ones. An important mentor of mine, Dan Kennedy calls it “writing your own check”. This vehicle is known commonly as a sales letter.

By definition a sales letter is something in print that is meant to influence someone to buy your product. Without getting caught up in formality, a sales letter just has to work to earn the title of good sales letter. Most businesses never get around to even writing a bad one.

This omission is devastating to the bottom line, or at least what the bottom line could be. To clear it up, there is no one way or format to create a blow them out of the water, panting for more sales letter. So have no fear.

I want you to run with the concept right now, so I am going to tell you all you need to know: Go to the library and grab a stack of magazines from the popular genres. You are looking for things in the area of fashion, entertainment, sports, and health and fitness. Pick one from specific and one more general from each category. In sports, you might pick up Sports Illustrated and Golf Digest. Go through them and do nothing but look at the ads.

You’ll know the sales letters because they are usually full or half page, but not always. They frequently offer a free report if you contact them. Very often the focus is on the product or service and there is almost no mention of a company name. Trutfhfully, the big corporation advertisers you see during the final episode of Seinfeld or whatever, don’t have a clue about sales letters or how to use them.

When you find really good sales copy you’ll know it. You’ll know it because it is interesting in that it makes you interested in the thing they are selling. Mark it with page tag and go get two or three of the previous issues of that magazine. If the ad is in there again, it is safe to say that it likely has been a success.

The strategy of the big boys who throw their money around on the expensive ads is mass marketing to a mass market based on branding using singing polar bears and football playing frogs or whatever. It is highly likely that they have no idea of the ultimate effect of the millions spent. That’s fine, they have that luxury in many cases. For the purposes of bringing your product or service to everyday people with choices, you need to bring them benefit and make it real clear up front what that benefit is.

Rule #2 is to convey a unique benefit to your customer. The question to answer is: “Why should I be doing business with you and not others offering the same product or service?” What can you do for them? The ultimate question.

It has been written many times over about the power that a simple USP (unique selling proposition) can have for a business. Tom Monaghan, founder of Domino’s pizza took a fledgling pizza joint in a college town (he lived in the back room at the beginning) by carving out special turf in the brutal market of pizza with: “Fresh Hot Pizza delivered in 30 Minutes or Less, Guaranteed”.

By conveying a unique benefit, unlike any other in the marketplace, Dominos moved to the head of the pack.

But you might have noticed that having a powerful USP is strategy # 2. Where is strategy 1?

It is the headline. The headline is the first thing that captures the reader’s attention. It is vital. How to put together a good headline is a great topic for future discussions.

I Hate Writing Articles - Isn’t There An Easier Way?

Running and developing an internet business requires fresh content for your site on a regular basis. Daily if possible. Fresh content articles lures your prospects to your site by quenching their thirst for information and knowledge.

But what are you going to do if you can’t or don’t want to write?

First of all, if you just don’t like writing and you don’t want to hire someone to write for you, you can get a lot of free articles online. One place to look is at public domain articles. Copyright infringement is not an issue with public domain articles.

Public domain articles have expired copyrights. In other words, when a work is copyrighted, that copyright has an expiration date. Copyrights can be extended but when the author dies, sometimes they don’t get extended and actually expire. When that happens, they end up in the public domain. So, these are writings that were once published. And, in that light, the writing should be very good.

The downside to public domain articles is that anyone can use them and your competition may have done so already. You may have to edit them a bit to place your keywords and keyword phrases in the appropriate places. Also, make sure that if you use public domain articles they pertain to your niche topic.

You can also let other websites with similar content submit articles and post them on your site. Many bloggers today do what is known as “utility posting” in which they post an intro to a post on another site and link to it. They are using content from other blogs to fill their content needs and linking to the other blog.

Now, you might be thinking — woah, wait a minute, I don’t want to put links to other websites on my site! Well, that’s a little behind the times. That’s exactly what Web 2.0 is all about! Google knows this and is now displaying pages based a great deal on their popularity and link status. Google uses other parts of the website for rankings as well, but remember that social populariaty is of UTMOST importance!

So, start sharing as much as you can and forget about keeping all the links to yourself.

But, here’s the gold nugget in all of this and why I’m writing to you today. There are also a lot of article sharing services popping up online. I recently joined one and not only do they send my “unique” articles to about 700 sites each time I submit one, but I also subscribe to the service and get as many unique articles each day as I need. And, you don’t have to write articles if you only want to receive articles.

This service is not costly but is well worth the minor fee I pay monthly. As a result, I’m seeing my links increase in Google daily. It’s the best method I know of to help us all trade links and acquire unique articles. I have no problem posting regularly to all of my sites now. It’s up to me to choose what categories of articles I receive, how many are sent each day and whether or not to publish on my website. Unfortunately, not everyone is able to write good articles! If it’s crap, I don’t post it.

One more thing you should know — There are now many websites that offer Private Label Rights Articles that you can publish on your site. Many of them are free to join. Private label rights allow you to take credit for writing the articles. If you want, you can even rewrite all or part of them. In fact, that’s how I wrote this article. I’m pretty good at writing, but sometimes the ideas don’t come as quickly as I’d like. So, when I begin with a PLR work, the ideas start churning out and there’s no need to create all of the content myself. Although most of the time you would not recognize the original as the starting content, when I’m done!

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