The House Of Print.Com

Publishing has always been a difficult business to promote successfully, which titles by which authors to promote, which genre, will it be fiction or non-fiction? Will they sell? Will they make money, both for the publisher and for the author? So many questions which there is no definitive answer and so the publisher takes a chance with his money and his time and resources and decides on which books to publish, promote and distribute to the bookshops. He may only distribute to bookshops in his own country and if they don't sell well enough, will not be seen by anyone else in the world.

What a loss to humankind and their quest for more knowledge to enhance their work, their lives.

The fount of civilisations knowledge were always universities, libraries, and bookshops, and if publishers don't find it profitable to publish certain titles at all, to distribute to university libraries, and bookshops, then civilisation is the poorer.

When I was young going through school the public library was a must to enhance my knowledge of the world around me, it filled the gaps in my science, geography and literature lessons, and gave me new insight. I often gazed in awe at the rows of shelving containing all the worlds knowledge which had been written up by scientists, explorers, academics, and others, and oftentimes, you would have seen me taking an armful of books home to read at bedtime, anything from how atoms work, to famous authors tales of pirate treasure or tales of Victorian London.

The young people of today have all this technology at hand, not only at school, but in the home as well, they are only a mouse click away to the fount of knowledge, but in digital form on the internet. Many students believe that if a book is not on the internet it does not exist, and they would not waste time going around to the local bookshop on their High Street to enquire about it.

It behoves, therefore, all authors, publishers and booksellers, to at least put a synopsis of their books on the internet so at least letting peple know they exist, and where to obtain it in print or where to download it from. Many books are now downloadable, but they are published only by technology enlightened individuals, not the large publishers.

Even prints can be obtained from such e-books, the technology has advanced that far. It needs the willingness of publishers and authors to add value to this new fount of knowledge. The first great library was established in Alexandria, in ancient Egypt by Ptolemy, but it was burnt down later by invaders, and all manuscripts were lost. What lost knowledge we could have gained we do not know, for there was often only one copy made on papyrus scrolls and no other copies ever made. With the internet and the enormous computing capacity we have, there would be countless copies of e-books online for instant download, and therefore new knowledge, and works of great literature, need never be lost, for they are so easily replicable and distributable to a potential audience of three billion people on this planet.

Modern man, and woman, now looks for information on the internet, they no longer go to bookshops looking for it, with the enormous capacity available, all information should be on the internet including all government information.

The fact that retail sales of printed books have been falling off over the last few years means that publishers, and authors, have got to get with the new technology - we no longer use papyrus scrolls.



By Tony Dean

Make That 3 Billion

My previous article I wrote called "One Point Two Billion" attracted quite some attention, the downloads through all the article syndication services has been astronomical compared to any other articles I wrote which are still with them.

It seems the numbers game is popular not only with the accountancy profession, but with just about anyone running a website who is interested in more sales from anywhere in the world.

The internet has proved to be the great leveller, even a grandmother I know has made hundreds of thousands of dollars just from publishing a couple of e-books, business of that magnitude is not now confined to those people with large sums of investment capital, teams of accountants, planners, secretaries, swanky offices etc. Anyone, even you, can make money regularly on the internet, just aim for a goal and 'go for it!'

The costs of setting up have never been lower, the ease of making web pages has never been easier, ( I make my web pages in Notepad, which is on every Windows computer), and the potential audience for your web pages has never been larger. So what are you waiting for?

The sheer mountain of information available through e-books on any subject and especially on setting up a business on the internet would take you a lifetime to read through, so just be selective and read only what you need to know about and get started in that business. Businesspeople who have 'been there-done that', have written up an enormous amount of e-books to pass on their knowledge and experience, pitfalls to avoid, how to spend your advertising dollars, and just about everything else you need to know about to ensure success. So profit from their experience, avoid the pitfalls, do what they say you should do, and you should be in a profitable business in no time, just the way they did it. No large sums of investment are needed, just time and dedication.

If you provide an excellent service that benefits all your clients, they will recommend you to their friends,if on the other hand you want to be a 'scammer' and a 'fly by night' operator determined to 'rip-off' as many people as possible, you will come to grief. You will find your web hosting account rapidly terminated, your e-mail account likewise, and your name plastered all over the forums and newsgroups. You get out of life exactly what you put in.

There are still mysteries about life we still don't understand and this is the reason we come to grief, but on the other hand, if you work for the benefit of others, this 'mystery of life', for want of a better name,cuts in and helps us along, we go with the flow and good things start to happen. I could tell you of many experiences I have had, both good and bad, which I have learnt a great deal from, but space precludes that, maybe one day.

All right, you win, I will tell you of one particular incident more recently and then move on with this article.

I carried a St.Christopher medallion on a gold chain in my wallet for six years, given to me by the wife of a good friend overseas, 'it will keep you safe' she said. I received a new wallet for a Christmas present and changed everything in the old wallet into the new one, except the St. Christopher medallion, it was looking a bit 'worse for wear' and I decided to put it in the cupboard. That day I lost my mobile phone!

For two whole days I felt a loss which can only be described as a 'bereavement'. I had lost touch with the network I was attached to night and day, seven days a week, I felt bereft. I did not know if someone was trying to ring me, whether something was urgent I had to know about, my sense of loss was total.

Was this to do with the St. Christopher medallion? I thought surely not. That was on the Tuesday, by Thursday morning I had decided to put that 'good luck' St. Christopher medallion into my new wallet. My mobile phone turned up via a 'good samaritan' who would take no money as a reward whatsoever.I was never more pleased to see my mobile phone.

So what happened here?Was it something to do with the St. Christopher medallion? Was it because I had 'bad thoughts' that it was the 'worse for wear'so discard it as inconsequential? I don't know the answer.

There have been too many such incidents in my life it would take volumes to relate the details.

We don't know these 'mysteries of life' but one thing is important -keep a positive outlook to everything and everyone and good things will happen for you.

It's difficult to visualize how many people that are out there who can log on to your website. It's also difficult to understand what kinds of people they are, what background and education they have had. Why they are logging on to your new site. What do they expect to see, or learn, or buy?

How will they benefit from visiting your site?.

Will they buy a good product, or learn something, or get some amusement or entertainment from it?.



Here are some figures to think about:-

Adults aged 65 and over are the fastest growing age group taking to the internet, according to Nielsen/Netratings. The number of adults from around the world over 65 who use the internet has grown by 25% over the past twelve months, with 9.6 million now accessing the web. The number of female seniors has seen the most significent growth, jumping 30%. Male seniors jumped by 20%.


44% of Western European internet users shopped online during 2003. Jupiter Research).


55% of the population of Spain are expected to be using Broadband internet by the end of this year. Jupiter Research).


50% of the U.S. population expect to be using Broadband internet by 2008.(Jupiter Research)


1 in 5 internet users download music according to Nielsen.


Online shoppers in Australia for DVDs. is now the fifth fastest . growing online purchase category after travel, concert tickets, accomodation, and books, growing by 30% ACNielsen Consult).


22% of U.S. consumers shop online at work.


67% of 12 to 24 year olds online in the U.S. have downloaded music from the net.


40 million Americans have downloaded music from the net, equivalent to one-fifth of the U.S.


It's not hard to see that the net is a hive of activity and people are paying for things they want, music in particular.Content has not been a thing that people have been keen to pay for except sex sites, one of the most successful ecommerce businesses of all time. Newspapers online charge for content with some success, but a survey by Jupiter Media Metrix claims that 70% of adult online users don't see why they should pay for content. The researchers project that revenues will only grow to $US5.8 billion by 2006 for online content!

Of that revenue the highest earners will be "Audio and Video Entertainment and Games'. This survey also shows that 42% of net users grudgingly expect that over time they will have to pay for content on the net.

So, which way will you go?.

Will your site be a subscription only site charging a monthly fee to access the content? Look at the history of one such subscription only site called Salon Magazine. They changed to a subscription only site and over the first six months only signed up 25,000 users, out of 3.8 million users per month who used the site previously.

Statistics are a wonderful thing as many accountants know too well. Will you be guided by all the statistics available through all the research companies out there when you build your website?

Yes, the numbers game attracts a lot of attention has I stated at the beginning of this article. Always remember though, that all these users in these stats are only human beings and want, need, and desire pretty much the same things you do, and set up your website accordingly. There are enough humans out there to visit your website, whatever you decide to do.

Oh, and did I mention?

The worlds population of humans is now 3 BILLION!



By Tony Dean

How To Accept Credit Cards Without a Merchant Account

To increase sales on your website, you must accept credit cards. To process credit cards, you could apply for a merchant account through your bank or other financial institution.

Sometimes, though, you would be further ahead to use the services of a credit card processor. This is especially true when you are first starting out and have more limited resources. In this way, you may process credit card transactions without the high front-end costs and requirements of a merchant account.

Here, then, are just a few ways of accepting credit cards without a merchant account. I personally use all of these vendors and can recommend them wholeheartedly.

1. Clickbank

If your product is downloadable (such as electronic books or software), you might consider ClickBank.com . For a $49.95 initial fee, you can process credit cards and on-line cheques for $1.00 per transaction plus 7.5% of sales.

You receive additional exposure through free listing on their website and through the search facilities of other websites, such as CBMall.com .

As an added bonus, you have your own built-in affiliate program. You decide what commission (from 1% to 75%) you would like to pay your affiliates.

2. PayPal

PayPal.com has no initial fees. For just 2.9% of sales and $ .30 per transaction (and sometimes less), you can receive money from anyone.

Also, you can pay others by credit card or chequing account without supplying your personal credit information to the payee. PayPal can be used to collect money from your auctions, website sales, or even from friends or clients.

3. PaySystems

PaySystems.com can handle either intangible (downloadable) or tangible (shippable) products. For an initial fee of $49.00, you can accept all major credit cards as well as online checks. Fees are just 3.95% of sales and $1.00 per transaction. Alternatively, you may pay 5.5% of sales and $ .35 per transaction.

For this, you receive shopping cart, integration with third-party affiliate programs (such as ClixGalore.com ), fraud screening, multi-currency transactions, toll-free support, marketing tools, and more.

For more information on how to accept credit cards without a merchant account, visit: http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/creditcards.html

RESOURCE BOX:

By J. Stephen Pope

3 Powerful Concepts That Climb Marketing Mountains

You have probably heard many times how you should offer free reports. Like many of us, the idea of putting in work to give something away may have gone through you transparent. (Right in your mind's ear and out the other :>)

So, if you passed over this idea before, you are not alone. However, I am here to tell you to reconsider it and for good reason. Why? Because this is one idea that is doable from any level. And, it still works and always will.

It can get your marketing off the ground without much if any costs. It can literally be your marketing vehicle to gain exposure, build a email list and even crank in affiliate commissions along the way.

This is not just another gorilla marketing tactic for folks who can't afford to advertise. Not at all. It's way more than that. Top marketers still use free reports as a legitimate marketing tool.

Why? Because they can penetrate a valuable message almost instantly with the least amount of marketing friction.

In this article you will discover why Free, Branding and Viral are 3 powerful concepts that hold a strong place in online marketing. You can get in on it now and climb some marketing mountains - here's how.

"Free" speaks for itself. It can cheapify or gratify depending on how you present it. There are many ways to add value to make people want what you will give them. Offer useful information to a targeted group and they'll eat it out of your hands.

"Viral Marketing" is a coined term in Internet marketing which indicates a passing from one to another - like a virus.

"Branding" is the key to viral marketing. This is a form of personalization that can be passed along from marketer to recipient. Then the recipient can also pass it along as a marketer to his recipients, and so on.

This forms an ongoing cycle that carries with it an incentive to keep the distribution in motion. Your personalization can travel along by literally hundreds, even thousands carrying links leading back to you and the products you represent.

Sound complicated? - It's not!

So, how does this viral marketing information get into so many hands? Again, it's the incentive that everyone involved can achieve something. This propels the viral distribution. And it's all possible because of branding!

Hot Tip: Think of it this way.

How many thousands of people do you think are interested in buying a popular ebook or piece of software that you already own?

What you should do then is create a free special report teaching something useful about the product. Show them a few of it's many benefits before they buy it and they may just decide to buy it through your affiliate link.

That's the power of the 3 concepts and it works like a charm everyday on the Internet. Please don't over look this very important point.

So, what's in branding reports for you?

Great question - let's go over it.

For example:

* In return for joining your email list, you can use free branded reports offering them to your signups.

* You can let others a give them away adding useful content to their websites or even as an added bonus with products that you sell.

* You make affiliate commissions when someone buys from your branded links inside the report(s).

And, even if you are branding someone else's report, there's about zero work involved and you can still benefit as if it's your own.

By giving away free reports, you can dramatically build your email list and boost affiliate commissions. The more viral reports you use in your marketing, the more it will increase your opportunities.

So, remember to offer several Free Branded Viral Reports and let the multiplicity of the Internet work for you!



By Michael Nicholas

One Point Two Billion

In this surreal world of the internet, anyone, even you, can put your point across to a staggering number of people in every country on the planet.

From political activists to artists and writers, can now find an audience to take notice of them where they could not get much attention in their local community. Their horizons have been dramatically extended, so their work will travel on indefinately with no end in sight as in entering a collosal black hole.

Where does their online work go? Where does it come to a stop? The answer is, it will go on as long as the internet is there. Even after they have no longer maintained a web site, their work can be handed on to other sites, to add content.

There are too, website archive sites who keep copies of websites for people to look at now and in the future. Twenty years from now people will be able to look through archived websites to see what was new then, what were the prices, what the stock market was doing, what writers and artists were putting out, and the list goes on and on. Ideal for a writer in the future. Not only will people be able to see what was going on, but in some cases will be able to hear what peple had to say, for websites now are using music, video, and sound. For those aspiring authors, and everyone it has often been said, has a book within them, can write their great work of literature, compile it to an e-book, and pass it around the internet, where it could go the rounds for ever more, long after the author has died. Conventional authors could hardly say that about their hardback or paperback books.

At this moment in time, maybe only 40% to 60% of people in any country log on to the internet every day, but the numbers keep growing every year, and for those wanting to make a living out of the internet, the future potential is enormous. Consider the Asian market where the internet is fairly new, with China as the next real big explosive market with unlimited potential. Credit cards in China are unheard of, except for an elite minority. To receive payment for anything over the internet you would either, have to wait another 50 years if you want to be paid by credit card, or persuade your Chinese clients to open an internet payment account online with the likes of Stormpay, which is an innovative new company, who will take any form of payment to credit your new account, even cash, or bank check. Stormpay even have 'WalkUp' offices around the world in major cities and more are being established where a client can deposit cash to credit their account for use on the internet.

Then the client can pay for anything on your site, e-books, software, music etc., if you also open a Stormpay account for receipt of the credits, all you need to open an account initially, is an email address. Could not be simpler. Credit cards over the internet could be a thing of the past, many people still will not use credit cards over the internet because of hackers, so what better way of secure transactions do you need than a Stormpay account? It gives confidence to your clients who need not hesitate to make a payment, there and then, for whatever type of goods and services you provide.

Consider another aspect of selling to Asia and China in particular. Most of the internet to-day is based on the English language, but that is not the language they understand in Asia and China. So, to sell to them you would have to make your site multi-lingual. This could be just a few captions in Asian or Chinese languages together with a button they can click on for web pages in their own language. Or failing that, clicking on a picture of an item on the screen can bring up a voice in their language to explain what it is and how much it costs, and to pay for it, they don't need a credit card, just click on a link to to Stormpay's site and sign up for an account and subsequently they can pay for anything on your site instantly. The voice in their own language can be reassuring to the client. Consider once again, if you intend selling to the vast Chinese population, the enormous potential of this untapped market, if you could only make a single dollar from each one living there, you would be rich beyond your wildest dreams, for the population totals ONE POINT TWO BILLION and still counting.


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By Tony Dean

The ClickBank E-Commerce Solution

ClickBank.com can offer you multiple solutions for your e-commerce business. Here are some of the advantages of using ClickBank.

1. Accept Credit Cards Without a Merchant Account

If your product is downloadable (such as electronic books or software), ClickBank may be an excellent solution for you. For a $49.95 initial fee, you can process credit cards and on-line cheques for $1.00 per transaction plus 7.5% of sales.

2. Start Your Own Affiliate Program

With ClickBank, you have your own built-in affiliate program. You decide what commission (from 1% to 75%) you would like to pay your affiliates.

To learn more about ClickBank.com, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/buy/clickbank.html

3. Receive Free Advertising

You receive additional exposure through free listing on the ClickBank website and through the search facilities of other websites, such as CBMall.com.

To learn more about CBMall.com, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/buy/cbmall.html

4. Obtain Referral Commissions

Even without applying for ClickBank credit card processing, you can earn referral commissions on thousands of ClickBank Marketplace products.

To learn more about ClickBank Marketplace, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/buy/clickbank-marketplace.html

5. Eliminate Sales Tax Problems

Are you registered for Value Added Tax (VAT) for online transactions for European Union (EU) countries since July 1, 2003?

Are you collecting the appropriate state or provincial sales taxes?

If you are a Canadian, are you aware of your obligation to collect Goods and Services Tax (G.S.T.) and Harmonized Sales Tax (H.S.T.) on Internet transactions?

Again, ClickBank may be your solution. ClickBank is registered for EU purposes and adds the appropriate VAT to each transaction.

As well, to deal with ClickBank, you must agree to sell your product to them. ClickBank then resells your product to their customers. Thus, ClickBank becomes the retailer responsible for collecting sales taxes -- not you. Obviously, ClickBank will not be subject to sales taxes in most jurisdictions.

Since ClickBank is located in the United States and can only sell or use the products it sells from there, it would appear that Canadian G.S.T. and H.S.T. would not be applicable to them.

Of course, this is not legal advice. To determine your liability for sales and similar taxes, consult your lawyer and accountant.

To read more about sales taxes on Internet transactions, visit http://www.yenommarketinginc.com/e-commerce-tax.html

Considering its many advantages, ClickBank may well be your e-commerce solution!

By J. Stephen Pope,

Bringing the World to Your Door

According to Internet.com, by the year 2008 nearly 30% of offline purchases will be influenced by online research. If your site is a well-implemented ecommerce site, the web can significantly lower both order-taking costs and customer support costs after the sale has been made. You could also experience larger purchases per transaction. Through automation, you can sell the 'back-end" on the front end by suggesting additional items at the time the purchase is made. You can offer your customer more information, such as order tracking. A customer can shop from the comfort of her or his home, in her bunny slippers or his boxer shorts. You can give the customer a larger variety of offerings. No need to send a great big catalog through the mail anymore. When you run out of an item, you simply remove it from the website. Makes shopping so much easier.

But first you have to get them there! No matter what function your site performs, whether it be to display your online brochure or ecommerce site, to get people to visit, you still need to market your site. It's easy to create a new ecommerce site, getting people to visit yours is not so easy.

Getting traffic to return to your web site a second time is equally challenging. Provide a product or service the customer needs, and they may be back and they may even refer others.

What makes you different from the competition? Check them out. See if they are online and see what they are doing. Look for strengths and weaknesses in the site's message, design and links. Find out who else is online. How do others fit into your target market?

Surfing is one thing, visiting another, but selling something online is the ultimate challenge of ecommerce today.

When creating or making improvements to your site, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Design a user-friendly site. Make it informative and easy in which to move around, so they will want to come back. Use light backgrounds with dark text for easy reading. It is also better to have less information on a page than pages full of text that will lose the reader's interest. Have an eye-catching site that entertains and informs.

Keep graphics simple. Over-use of graphics and flash graphics take longer to download. Today, you have 5-10 seconds to grab your visitor's attention. If loading your site takes longer than that, chances are good that they will quickly exit.

Keep your URL (uniform resource locator) - aka web site address/domain name - simple. It is the main way people locate you on the Web. While many of the good dot.com's are taken, dot.net's are a viable alternative. Soon, they too will be gone. If you have not already done so, get your domain name immediately. Make it memorable, something people might type in the subject line in a search engine looking for what you have to offer. Hard to spell words make it more difficult for visitors to find you.

Let's assume you have built a great Web site. It is filled with great content, well organized, easy to navigate, and encourages customer interaction. But you need visitors. The following online marketing ideas will help you sell your products or services, offer better customer service, help you build your company identity and establish brand awareness in the marketplace. In fact, if you are relentless in your pursuit of marketing on the web, you'll be hard to beat.

Here are just three ideas to "bring the world to your door."

Number One: Lead with your benefits. As with any copyrighting, headlines can make or break your success. Clearly state the benefits your site has to offer in your headline. Use power words, words that appeal to your visitors' emotions. It should describe how you will solve a problem, relieve pain, improve your visitors lives, educate them, give them something for FREE, save them time, and so on.

Number Two: Capture visitors. Add a form to your site so visitors can "register" - leave their name and email address. Tell them you want to use the information to send them periodic email message announcing special offers, and new products and services. It is important that you also make it easy for people to remove themselves (unsubscribe) from your list. Never send anything to this group unless you have something valuable to offer or say. Keep the emails short and succinct. Add links to your message that direct people back to your site for more information. Save time by automating this process with autoresponders.

Number Three: Start an Ezine This is an instant customer database builder especially if you offer it for FREE and it has a perceived value to your visitors. Ezines allow you to build a relationship with your customers and prospects. It should be short, interesting and filled with valuable information. I currently write five ezines. They are Self-Marketing News, Creating A Legacy, Ramblin' Rose, Petals N Cents, and WECommerce News. Between the five ezines, we have a total subscriber base of nearly 30,000 opt-in prospects and customers from all over the world. In addition to the great marketing potential ezines offer, they help you develop a positive reputation.

As the World Wide Web continues to grow and evolve, more and more companies and individuals are turning to the Internet to serve their needs. Make sure the world knows to turn to you.

Excerpted from The PMS Principles - Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business by Heidi Richards



By Heidi Richards