For An Alternative Rush

Men too can give birth!

I read somewhere that writing a book is like conceiving a child. You start out with and idea of what you want to create but that idea soon takes on a life of its own and the product that emerges several months later will likely bear little resemblance to what you originally had in mind. It may even lead to a “multiple birth” if the work becomes a series as so often happens with fiction.

I have discovered that writing articles can also take on its own identity and may lead to the birth of something much larger. Like a book!

I began writing articles for www.tlc-leadership.com my own website and later submitted several articles to e-
zines in an effort to boost traffic to my site. My field is Executive and Corporate Coaching for Leadership Development, Team Building and Change Management and as the number of articles grew it occurred to me that I might be able to assemble them into a book for that niche market.

In the process of searching for information about writing and publishing a book I discovered an old book, “Acres of Diamonds” by Russell H. Conwell together with a series of articles entitled “Russell H. Conwell, His Life and Accomplishments” written by Conwell’s friend Robert Shackleton. Both of these had been published in the 1920’s and are now in the public domain, i.e. copyright expired.

I had read this book many years ago, likely in the 1950’s when it was on every bookshelf and recognized it now as a still valuable contribution to the field of inspirational and motivational literature. I realized however that the style and grammar were much out of date and many of the historic persons, organizations and events would mean nothing to a modern reader and might even cause confusion.

An idea was conceived - re-incarnation! I would bring the grammar up to date, research people, organizations and events that I didn’t recognize or knew little about - on the theory that if I didn’t know, a lot of other people wouldn’t know either.

My original intent was to publish this as an ebook — but then I came across AuthorHouse — America’s leading self publishing house - and wham, I gave birth to “Acres of Diamonds Revisited”. The cover reads, Acres of Diamonds Revisited - Including “Acres of Diamonds by Russell H. Conwell” and “Russell H. Conwell, His Life and Accomplishments by Robert Shackleton” - Modernized, Edited and Annotated by Len McNally. The book is available through all major online bookstores as well as from AuthorHouse.

While all of this was happening, I continued putting together information for a book on Motivation and Leadership Development and again the project assumed its own identity. While that book is still in the works, another book on making a major career change began to develop.

Prior to becoming an Executive and Corporate Coach, I worked as a Career Consultant and over the years, in both capacities, I have met many, many people whose lack of productivity is rooted in having made the wrong career choice. I see a lot of evidence that most people have chosen a career by abdication rather than by conscious choice. A person leaves school, finds a job and becomes locked into a career path dictated by promotions, transfers and successes in that field. Few people have ever sat down and earnestly asked, “What do I really, really, really want to do with my life?” The result is that a lot of people are working in a field where, although they may have achieved a certain amount of success, they have never had the chance to develop and utilize their dominant, innate skills and abilities.

The result is, all too often, a life with little or no challenge or excitement, a life of boredom, frustration and lethargy - a mind is a terrible thing to waste.

Re-Careering will soon be ready for publication and I must soon decide whether to publish as an ebook or to once again avail myself of the considerable help and expertise of the people at AuthorHouse.

Then I will re-turn my efforts to the Coaching and Motivational book - although I am now prepared for it to once more take on its own personality and direction.

So - if you are writing an occasional article for publication - don’t be surprised if one day you realize you have 180 or 200 pages about something very different from what you started to write!

Len McNally

Len McNally is President of The Leadership Centre http://www.tlc-leadership.com through which he offers Executive and Corporate Coaching via telephone, webcast or, geography permitting, in person. For more information about Len’s re-incarnated book visit; http://www.acresofdiamondsrevisited.com

The first step to avoiding the troubles of financial debt is to
create and maintain a budget. It’s not as intimidating as it
sounds, don’t worry.

First off, create a list of all your monthly income and also a
list of your monthly expenses. When determining income, list all
sources including alimony, child support, side jobs, etc. In
calculating expenses, be sure to include housing, food,
transportation, utilities, entertainment, etc. To gain an
accurate reflection of actual expenses, sit down each night and
write down expenses, just make sure to save receipts. Determine
if your income covers all of your expenses. If the answer is no,
then some expenses need to be reduced.

Adjust expenses. If it is a small discrepancy, it may mean
reducing some minor expenses like entertainment or cell phone
plan. If the deficit is larger, you may need to downsize your
vehicle or living arrangements. If your income covers all of
your expenses, you still may want to trim some of the excess fat
off your spending habits. This can free up extra money for
things such as vacations or college funds for your children.

Additionally, consider if you need to add new categories. Some
areas that are often overlooked are debt reduction, emergency
savings funds, and retirement savings. An emergency fund ensures
there is an adequate amount available to cover unforeseen events
(car emergency, etc), should it arise. This will eliminate the
need for using credit which can quickly damage your budget.

There are several advantages to sticking to your budget.
Firstly, most people have set financial goals that they would
like to reach in the future. Sometimes it may be a trip, a brand
new car, or a college education. A budget can help people save
money to make these goals a reality. Additionally, many people
are crushed under heavy consumer debt. Without a disciplined
pattern of spending, it is virtually impossible to make much
headway in reducing debt. A personal budget will provide the
necessary framework to begin eliminating these inflated account
balances.

If executed properly, a budget will allow a person to
simultaneously meet their expenses, place money into savings,
and pay back outstanding debts. Therefore, it is anyone’s best
interest to create and implement a budget.

Copyright 2004 1DebtFreedom.com

Everywhere I turn these days I’m seeing ads for websites being sold proclaiming that they’ve optimized that particular site for an outrageously priced keyword, such as Mesothelioma (a cancer of the lungs caused by asbestos). In fact, I’ll bet that if you did a search at this very moment on EBAY, you would find at least one auction for such a website, probably claiming that you’ll make thousands of dollars a month with it if purchased. But don’t send them that Paypal payment just yet, you might want to read a little further.

In fact, some companies and law firms ARE paying upwards of $100 for specific keywords in the Adwords program, but that does not mean that you, as an Adsense publisher, will receive anywhere near this payout per click. In fact, you may end up being severely penalized and paid very poorly for that search phrase.

Let’s do another search. Hop on over to Google and search the term “Mesothelioma”. As of this writing, there are over 5 million results. Just a few months ago there were far less. All this tells me is that many believed the hype, and are now competing for a very small market. Won’t they be surprised when they find out how much that click actually pays. I’ll bet it’s less than a buck.

Let’s understand one thing. Google is smart. Period. They have spent a truckload of money in developing this program. And they have made BILLIONS from it. If you had something that was making you several billion dollars a year, wouldn’t you work hard to protect the customers that were paying you? You can bet Google is, and they are watching your web traffic’s quality closely. If you’ve put up a page that is worthless to the surfer, worthless to the advertisers, and just plain worthless overall, you will be penalized for it financially.

The fact of the matter is, there’s a reason why advertisers are willing to pay an extreme cost per click for certain terms. It’s just that there aren’t very many searches for them. Some terms may only have 100 or less searches a month, internet wide! So these advertisers are willing to shell out the dough in order to get that tiny market.

But it’s just not smart business for the little guy to chase these terms. There are a ton of terms out there that pay between $1 and $5 per click that are an absolute goldmine. For example, one of the terms on this site: http://www.thegiftedone.com does quite well for me. Does it pay in the triple digits? Of course not. But I’ll take the smaller paying keywords every time. There are more searches overall for them, and more people actually looking for the content I have to offer. The result is clear. More clicks, more money.

My advice to you on this is simple. Quit chasing the myths, quit searching for that one word that’s going to pay you $500 a click. Focus on building strong websites that are informative for the surfer, and more importantly, productive to your bottom line. Then build as many of them as you can. In time you’ll see just how far a PPC program like Adsense can take you, but only if you work for it.

If you would like more information on Affiliate Websites and PPC programs like Adsense or Yahoo Publisher Network, I have set up a forum at http://www.affiliatewebsitedesign.com . It’s completely free and full of information regarding promotion of PPC targeted websites. I hope to see you there soon!

Chuck Crawford is an established expert in web design, traffic development and website financial analysis. He has been helping people design and develop their internet business since 1996.

This article may be reprinted freely as long as all links remain active.

http://www.affiliatewebsitedesign.com

http://www.magicanswers.com

http://www.thegiftedone.com