Jane says…..

Did you know that one and four people suffer from the disease of bad breath… Halitosis?

That is almost 80 million Americans with bad breath! Fortunately, thousands of those sufferers are seeking medical help and naturally treating their bad breath by simply correctly brushing, flossing and cleaning their tongue.

What? I know what you might be thinking. Who doesn’t know how to brush their teeth? Unfortunately, millions of people continue to brush, floss and clean with the bad habits passed down from previous generations. As oral hygiene has advanced in recent decades, so has what we know on how to keep your teeth clean and how to keep halitosis in the history books!

Did you know that bad breath comes from bacteria growing in your mouth?

In the most common forms of bad breath, the odor comes from activity of bacteria in the mouth (85%-90%), usually from the back part of the tongue. Simply stated, microorganisms in the mouth break down proteins and produce foul smelling gasses called volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs). These VSCs emit a smell similar to rotten eggs. Because bacteria need an environment free of oxygen, they will live in areas that are difficult to reach such as pockets around the teeth, the grooves in the tongue, and ESPECIALLY on the back of the tongue. The most common cause of bad breath is bacteria on the back part of the tongue. This bacterium lives deep in the tiny grooves of the tongue and digests proteins while producing gasses.

Did you know you can begin treating bad breath today by CORRECTLY brushing, flossing and cleaning your tongue?

The Basics for fighting Halitosis

Brushing and Flossing are the two most crucial elements for defeating bad breath. Since bacteria lives on our teeth and gums, brushing and flossing will remove the bacteria and will decrease production of VSCs which causes halitosis. However, most people do not spend the 2-3 minutes it takes to properly brush all tooth surfaces. In fact, the average person spends less than 1 minute brushing their teeth and spends even less time flossing. NOT flossing your teeth is the equivalent of not washing a third of your body in the shower causing you to have body odor. Flossing is very beneficial and should be practiced daily. Cleaning your tongue is also extremely important. Because many of the odor causing bacteria live in the deep crevices on the tongue, they lay protected from oxygen under mucous, proteins, and food particles. The back of the tongue should be cleaned with a tongue cleaner on a regular basis.

Brushing Tips

1. Place the toothbrush bristles against the gums at a 45-degree angle.

2. Move the brush back and forth gently in short (one tooth wide) strokes. All surfaces of the teeth need to be cleaned: the inner areas (by the tongue), the outside areas (by the cheeks and lips), and the grooved biting surfaces.

3. Turn the brush to use the whole length of it to clean the insides of the upper and lower front teeth.

4. Brush teeth for 2-3 minutes.

Flossing Tips

1. Break off about 15 inches of strong floss and wind most of it around one of your middle fingers. Alternatively, you can tie the two ends of the floss together to form a circle.

2. Wind some of the floss around a finger of the other hand.

3. Hold the floss taunt between your thumbs and forefingers. Guide the floss between your teeth using a gentle back and forth motion. Do not snap the floss between the teeth.

4. After the floss is through the tight area between the two teeth, curve it into a C shape against one tooth. Gently slide it up and down the tooth and under the gum line.

5. Do the same thing for the side of the other tooth.

6. Advance the floss so you use a clean area between each tooth.

7. Remember to floss behind the molars.

Tongue Cleaning Tips

1. Gently brush the tongue with a regular toothbrush dipped in an antibacterial mouthwash.

2. Reach back as far as you can without hurting yourself. At first, you may gag, but practice will decrease this natural urge.

3. Rinse the toothbrush well and repeat a few times until the white coating on the surface of the tongue is removed.

4. Be gentle so the delicate tissues are not damaged.

5. Special tongue cleaning devices may be used. Gently scrape the surface of the tongue according to the manufacturer’s directions.

You Are On Your Way!

Congratulations! You have just begun the journey to cure bad breath. Follow these tips daily and you will begin to notice a difference in the first few weeks. However, there are also hundreds of other guidelines you can follow to cure halitosis naturally at home. Including the foods you eat, what you should and should NOT drink, what vitamins you are taking, what type of mouthwash to use, should you use gum or mints, and much more! Our website will lead you to a beacon of information which has helped numerous people cure bad breath. Please do not waste another day and wait until your next embarrassing ‘bad breath’ moment. Today could be your last day of bad breath… now doesn’t that smell sweet! Please visit our site:

http://www.takemybadbreathaway.com/bb1

Joe Barton writes for Barton Publishing Inc., a natural health company specializing in educating people of natural remedies and safe, affordable cures. To naturally treat halitosis… guaranteed! Click here:

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Email marketing is far from dead, despite the fact it can be a challenge to build an opt-in list of email addresses. Even with the popularity and ease of publishing on blogs, an ezine should be a standard in your online marketing toolbox. Ezines are easy, accessible, inexpensive, instant, and interactive

Here are ten reasons to publish an ezine:

1. Gain name and fame; become widely known as an expert in your field to people you might not ever see or meet. You establish yourself as a thought leader and demonstrate your expertise in a way you could never do on a website or brochure.

2. Cultivate a relationship with your readers; establish trust and credibility. Your ezine is an opportunity to teach, to share interesting information, and to share your philosophy and real life experiences. Readers get to know you. Show them what you know, and also that you care. (There is that old adage that says ‘people don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care!’)

3. Create quality content for your website. When you post your ezines on your website, you increase the chance of search engines picking up your site because you have more pages and more content.

4. Stay in touch with past, present and potential clients. You never know when, where or why a person will contact you for services, so you need to stay in touch, and make it easy for them to contact you. Some say people need to hear from you 5-7 times before they are ready to hire or buy.

5. Give people up-to-date information on programs, services and products you have created that can help them. How else will they know what you have to offer?

6. Create alliances and affiliations with other ezine publishers, programs and service providers that interest your readers. They will love you when you offer solutions from other sources that you don’t provide yourself. You become a go-to resource for many of their needs. You can also earn passive income through affiliate programs.

7. Reinforce your branding. Your services may be great, but every business needs a look, a logo, colors, a name, a tag-line quote-things that sum up in one glance the essence or feel of who you are and what your business stands for. Your ezine is one more opportunity to put forth your brand.

8. Expand and grow your database: Ezines can be forwarded to a reader’s friends and associates. Your list of subscribers can grow with people you might never come in contact with. You can reach a global audience instead of your local area.

9. Create a two-way dialogue with your readers: Ask your readers questions, survey them about topics, ask for their opinions and feedback. Your ezine can help you keep your finger on the pulse of your ideal clients; you can use their feedback to create more ezine content, or other products such as telecourses and e-books. And this in itself sustains the idea that you are really interested in them and in providing the kinds of services that are important to them: you care.

10. Bottom-line: sales. You turn prospects into clients. Your ezine can be a magnet to your website, to your products, to your services. People are more likely to buy from you when they feel they know you. Ezines are particularly effective for selling services where there may be a long sales cycle and where the relationship is important.

Patsi Krakoff, Psy. D.

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Unless you have been living in a cave, you have read by now multiple articles about the brain training and brain exercise craze: sudoku, Nintendo BrainAge, multiple online games, software like MindFit and Posit Science…

How do you know which of them can help you more, or whether you need any of them? Well, that’s why we are publishing the SharpBrains Checklist below, to help you navigate through the overwhelming and conflicting media reports and company announcements.

We have spent over 18 months interviewing scientists and reviewing available Brain Fitness and Exercise Programs worldwide, and we are going to share with you, right now, the research-based criteria we use to evaluate them.

***** 10 Questions to Choose the Right Brain Fitness Program for You (and a brief explanation of why each question is important)*****

* 1. Are there scientists, ideally neuropsychologists, and a scientific advisory board behind the program?

(Neuropsychologists specialize in measuring and understanding human cognition and brain structure and function.)

* 2. Are there published, peer-reviewed scientific papers in PubMed written by those scientists? How many?

(PubMed is a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine that includes millions of citations science journals. If a scientist has not published a paper that appears in that database, he or she cannot make scientific claims.)

* 3. What are the specific benefits claimed for using this program?

(Some programs present the benefits in such a nebulous way that it is impossible to tell if they will have any results or not.)

* 4. Does the program tell me what part of my brain or which cognitive skill I am exercising, and is there an independent assessment to measure my progress?

(The question is whether the improvement experienced in the program will transfer into real life. For that to happen we need assessments that are distinct from the exercises themselves.)

* 5. Is it a structured program with guidance on how many hours per week and days per week to use it?

(Brain exercise is not a magic pill. You have to do the exercises in order to benefit, so you need clarity on the effort required.)

* 6. Do the exercises vary and teach me something new?

(The only way to exercise important parts of our brain is by tackling novel challenges.)

* 7. Does the program challenge and motivate me, or does it feel like it would become easy once I learned it?

(Good brain exercise requires increasing levels of difficulty)

* 8. Does the program fit my personal goals?

(Each individual has different goals/ needs when it comes to brain health. For example, some want to manage anxiety, others to improve short-term memory…)

* 9. Does the program fit my lifestyle?

(Some brain exercise programs have great short-term results but are very intense. Others may be better over time)

* 10. Am I ready and willing to do the program, or would it be too stressful?

(Excess stress reduces, or may even inhibit, neurogenesis-the creation of new neurons-. So, it is important to make sure not to do things that stress us in unhealthy ways.)

We hope this information is useful. Now, go and exercise your brain!

Copyright (c) 2007 SharpBrains

Alvaro Fernandez is the CEO and Co-Founder of SharpBrains, which provides the latest science-based information for Brain Health and Brain Fitness. Alvaro holds MA in Education and MBA from Stanford University. He has been teaching the class Exercising Our Brains at the San Francisco State University, and will be teaching The Science of Brain Health at UC-Berkeley Lifelong Learning Institute. Learn more at http://www.sharpbrains.com/hottopics.

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Sun, nature, outdoors… and ticks! Lyme Disease Season is upon us! Lyme disease will plague over 200,000 people in the United States this year alone. It is estimated that nearly 1 billion cases of lyme disease are left untreated in the world today because doctors often overlook or misdiagnose lyme disease. If you are reading this article, then quite possibly you or a loved one is suffering from the aftermath of this debilitating disease. Perhaps you are part of the millions who were misdiagnosed and are now suffering from the late stages of lyme disease. Don’t lose hope! Did you know there is a natural remedy that has been healing people of lyme disease? This could be the most shocking article you ever read about lyme disease!

The Good and Bad…

My name is Joe Barton and I’ve discovered a simple, all natural cure for lyme disease. Unfortunately, medical doctors have found lyme disease to be one of the most difficult diseases to diagnose properly, often leading to ineffective prescriptions which cost a bundle. Thankfully, the remedy I have discovered stops the progression of lyme disease, using 2 simple household ingredients.

The facts!

Did you know that lyme disease has grown exponentially in recent decades?

Did you know that lyme disease was almost non-existent before the 1970s?

You may not realize a correlation between these two facts… but over the past 30 years, Americans as well as many other people worldwide have drastically decreased their intake of sodium in order to combat high blood pressure, calcium depletion, and fluid retention. Unfortunately, many of those who told us to decrease our sodium intake forgot to tell us the benefits of certain types of “safe” sodium…. Namely the cure and prevention of lyme disease! By taking a certain type of sodium in conjunction with another common health supplement, the results are liberating. Thousands of people are educating themselves and becoming free from the pain and symptoms of lyme disease.

Could I have lyme disease?

Here are some common symptoms of both early and late stage symptoms of lyme disease:

Early Lyme Disease Symptoms:

Flu-like feelings

Headache

Stiff neck

Fever

Sleep disorders, or brain wave disruptions

Muscle Aches

Fatigue

Unique Enlarging Rash/Bruise

Progressive Lyme Disease Symptoms:

Profound fatigue

Severe headache

Fever

Muscle aches and pains

Vision Changes

Rash (possibly a bull’s eye rash)

Symptom-free in less than three

Chances are good that you saw a doctor, but you may be wondering if there is more you can do. After months of research I have discovered a 72-hour or less remedy that might free you from the aching complications of Lyme disease. The remedy consists of two household ingredients at specific amounts for specific amounts of time. Please do not delay. Visit my website link below and see how thousands of others just like you are now free from the ailments of lyme disease. You owe it to yourself and your loved ones to be 100%. healthy.. and just imagine, 100% could be just 3 days away.

Here is what one of our customers had to say:

“Hello, I tried your remedy Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Monday I felt better than I have felt in 2 months. The back pain I have had for months was much better, and my knees have improved.”

Joe Barton writes for Barton Publishing Inc., a leading natural health company specializing in educating people of numerous natural remedies and safe, affordable cures. To educate yourself more on Lyme disease and understand how you can free yourself from lyme disease, click here: http://www.www-lymedisease.com/L1

Joe Barton writes for Barton Publishing Inc., natural health company specializing in educating people of numerous natural remedies and naturally cure lyme: http://www.www-lymedisease.com/L1

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The old adage, “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer”, is applicable not only to personal relationships but business relationships as well. While I’m not suggesting that you befriend your competitors, it is important that you are cognizant of your competitors’ business ventures and methods.

It is important to realize that while monitoring your competitors is essential, it could easily become an obsession. Therefore, it is crucial that you strike a balance when incorporating it into your business plan. There are several ways to conduct successful stealth competitive intelligence operations. While it is fanciful to imagine yourself as a secret agent or spy, none of these techniques are difficult, hidden or secretive. In fact, most of them are tools or services available to all businesses.

1. Ego Searches

What are ego searches? Ego searches are keywords or keyword phrase searches for a specific brand, product, or company name. Ego searches are a great way to monitor mentions of a competing product. You can automate the set up of ego searches using RSS, so anytime a competitor’s product or brand name is mentioned in the news, blogosphere, or print you receive notification and the details in an RSS feed.

How to Setup Ego Feeds - http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-ego.htm

Create RSS Ego Searches - http://www.rss-tools.com/ego-search-feeds.htm

2. Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence is defined as the process of gathering actionable information in a competitive environment. Competitive Intelligence is researching the business environment or techniques that another business uses. Competitive Intelligence is often used to influence a strategy for business development.

First, it is necessary to know your competition. Background research can be conducted using the tools at DNS Stuff http://www.dnsstuff.com , and various other websites. The DNS stuff website will allow you to do a whois lookup. A number of other research tools are also available on the site.

3. Google Alerts

Receive notification via email on the latest relevant Google search results (web, news, etc.). Define the Google Alerts using a competitors company name or product name. http://www.google.com/alerts

http://www.googlealert.com/ (3rd party tracking service) - Google Alert is the web’s leading automated search and web intelligence solution for monitoring your professional interests online. It tracks the entire web for your personalized topics and sends you new results by daily email.

4. Meta Tags

Have you ever considered what keywords or phrases a competitor is targeting on their website? Have a peak at their meta tags by simply viewing the webpage source. Pay particular attention to the header tags that include title, description, and keywords. Are these keywords part of your marketing mix?

5. Information

Arm yourself with information. The Googspy website is particularly useful when used properly. Enter a keyword, company name, or domain, click the results and view the companies top 25 competitors. If any of those websites are using pay per click on Google, you will also be able to obtain a partial list of the adwords they have purchased. The website gives you a glimpse inside competitors, but the list they provide is by no means exhaustive. http://www.googspy.com

6. Incoming Links

There are a number of ways to determine who is linking to a competitor.

A simple search can be conducted in Google and MSN for “link:domain.com” (replace domain.com with competitor’s domain). In Yahoo enter a search for “linkdomain:domain.com” (again replacing domain.com with your competitors name). The search will produce all webpages that provide a link to your competitor. Ideally you can request links from the websites as well.

Other BackLink Tools - http://www.webuildpages.com/tools/

Search for Places to Submit to; this site auto-generates http://www.webuildpages.com/search/ another tools that works in a similar way - http://tools.seobook.com/general/link-suggest/ ; simply enter the keyword and a list of sites that will allow you to request links appears.

7. Alexa Ranking

Use Alexa to determine not only who is linking to a competitor, but also to determine what sites are related (list yours) . Alexa monitors web traffic trends, and a list of similar websites. Alexa also has the ability to show a website’s popularity trends. http://www.alexa.com

8. Website Monitoring

It is generally a good practice to monitor competitors, and you can do this using a tool like CodeMonitor. CodeMonitor takes a snapshot of a websites’ HTML and notifies of any changes. The differences in the web pages are highlighted, making it easy to discern what changes occurred. CodeMonitor is a free online tool, that can be found at: http://www.emarketingperformance.com/tools/codemonitor/

9. Comparison Tools

MarketLeap has some great search comparison tools that allow for you to compare domains and ranking. Marketleap’s Trend/History report gives you a view of how you or a competitors website’s Search Engine Saturation has performed over time. It also verifies search engine placement based on keywords so you can quickly discern a competitors ranking for various phrases in the top search engines. http://www.marketleap.com/publinkpop/

10. Other Useful Spy Tools

Domain tools has a mark alert that allows you to monitor the use of a trademark. They also have a number of domain tracking and monitoring tools that can be helpful. http://www.domaintools.com/

Keep in mind that while you should be aware of the direction a competitor is moving. I do not advocate copying a competitor. These tools above are to assist businesses in monitoring their competition. I am not suggesting that you replicate, duplicate, or copy anything that a competitor does. Use the competitive intelligence to make sound business decisions about the direction you want to take.

Copyright 2006 Sharon Housley

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

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RSS is not quite a household word, but technically astute individuals are adopting the use of RSS feeds at an alarming rate. If you are interested in jumping on the bandwagon, but not quite sure of where to start, consider following these simple RSS feed tips to maximize feed compatibility and make your feed stand out from the crowd.

RSS DO’s

1. Titles and Descriptions.

Always include meaningful keywords in your RSS feed’s Channel title and description. Many readers will view or search for topic specific RSS feeds using keywords or keyword phrases. If you have descriptive keywords in your RSS feed’s title and description the feed is more likely to be located and subscribed to by interested parties.

2. GUID Format.

Always include a GUID with each feed item. The GUID is a globally unique identifier. Each post should use a different GUID. The GUID will in some cases assist RSS news readers and aggregation software in determining when new content has been added to the RSS feed or when existing content in an RSS feed has been modified. If you do not use GUID’s, the software used to aggregate the feeds may have difficulty detecting changes to feed items or the software may not always recognize new content.

3. Publish Dates.

Always include a publish date on feed items. The publish date should be used even if the content is timeless. The Publish Date will help readers determine that status of the content contained in the feed item.

4. Polish Your Feed.

Consider including images within your RSS feed. While the added images will not necessarily improve ranking, they will add a polished look to your RSS feed and help brand your feed.

5. Feed Hosting.

Either host your own feed, or set it up to forward to a third party from your website. This will allow you retain complete control over the RSS feed. You will not need to rely on the stability of another company. If you control the forwarding and at any point you are dissatisfied with the service provided by the third party, you can redirect the feed to another location.

RSS DON’Ts

1. Plagiarize.

Do not plagiarize content in your RSS feed, there is little more to be said. Written words are considered protected in most countries. Posting someone else’s work and taking credit for their words is wrong and will damage your reputation as a credible source.

2. Splog.

Do not create splogs by automating feed creation. Splogs just clutter the search engines and directories and make it difficult to locate RSS feeds with meaningful content.

3. Violate Copyrights.

Do not violate copyrights by republishing an RSS feeds contents. If you quote content from another RSS feed, credit the source and provide and link to the original source of the content. As a rule of thumb, editorial content should exceed the length of the quoted material in the post.

4. Violate TOS.

Do not republish RSS feeds without confirming that feed syndication is allowed. The terms of use are not always apparent, so it is important that you check the terms of service on the publisher’s feed subscription page prior to syndicating the contents of another publisher’s RSS feed.

5. Provide Multiple Feed Formats.

Do not provide multiple feed formats for the same content. As far as the subscriber is concerned, the version of RSS that you are using is irrelevant. Multiple versions of the same feed simply cause confusion. Almost all RSS readers and news aggregators support all versions of RSS, simply choose a version and provide a single feed.

By adopting good feed practices, you can reap the benefits of having an RSS feed. Following these simple RSS do’s and don’ts will get you started on the path to RSS success.

Sharon Housley manages marketing for FeedForAll http://www.feedforall.com software for creating, editing, publishing RSS feeds and podcasts. In addition Sharon manages marketing for NotePage http://www.notepage.net a wireless text messaging software company.

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First, the disclaimers: Since the algorithm Amazon uses to generate its sales ranking is proprietary, the details contained herein are extrapolated from research and field tests. The resulting consensus finds Amazon’s system to provide marginal sales data at best.

To whit, read Amazon’s own definition of its system, slightly paraphrased from their FAQ: “The Sales Ranking system exhibits how books are selling. The lower the number, the higher the sales. The calculation is based on sales and is updated each hour to reflect recent and historical sales of every item sold. We hope you find the Amazon.com Sales Rank interesting!” This last sentence seems to indicate Amazon’s own perspective on the importance with which the sales rankings should be viewed.

You’re not supposed to find the sales rankings informative or helpful. You’re supposed to find them interesting.

In actuality, the process is somewhat more convoluted than they let on. Only the top 10,000 books are updated every hour and the ranking does not depend upon the actual number of books sold, but rather, on a comparison against the sales figures of the other 9,999 books within that same hour. Simultaneously, a trending calculation is applied to arrive at a computerized sales trajectory. So, hypothetically, a book that held a ranking of 2,000 at 2pm and 3,000 at 3pm, might hold a 4,000 ranking at 4pm, even if it actually sold MORE books between 3-4 than it did between 2-3.

Books with rankings between 10,000 and 100,000 are recalculated once a day, rather than once an hour. Current projections, as well as historic sales information play a key role in these calculations. In fact, the predictive nature of the Amazon ranking system is what makes it possible for a newly-released book to outrank an older established title, even though the actual sales figures for the latter far exceed the former.

Books with rankings over 100,000 are also recalculated every day and applied with historic sales information and projections, although in the case of these books, history takes a back seat. Sales projections and trending take an active role here, which is why a book’s ranking can leap from 900,000 to 200,000 in the span of 24 hours or less. Does this mean the book has sold 700,000 copies in 24 hours? Absolutely not! What it does mean is that recent activity (i.e. purchases) for that book is trending higher than those 700,000 books it just surpassed. But, don’t get excited just yet; since the activity of those 700,000 other books range from slow to stagnant, one or two orders are sufficient to catapult a ranking.

If a book’s ranking breaks into the top 100,000, the sales history calculation starts to rear its head, which is why a “phenomenon” book has a hard time maintaining a high, legitimate ranking. A phenomenon is defined by a book that leaps from the high hundred-thousands into the lower thousands (or better) in the span of 24 hours or less, usually due to some concentrated marketing initiatives. Since Amazon’s sales history for that title doesn’t support the leap, the spike occurs and then quickly drops again.

HOW DOES ALL THIS TRANSLATE TO ACTUAL SALES FIGURES?

Since the data is recalculated every hour and/or every day (depending upon a book’s current ranking), it’s impossible to get cumulative sales figures, although those figures are applied to the algorithm during the calculation. No, to get a very rough idea of the actual number of books being sold, the sales ranking has to be dissected dynamically, with the same immediacy as the ranking being calculated, (hourly for top 10,000 books or daily for top 100,000 books). Chart the ranking of a top 10,000 book every hour for 24 hours and divide by 24 to arrive at its average daily ranking. In the case of a top 100,000 book, take its ranking every day for 7 days and divide by 7 to arrive at its average weekly ranking.

Bear in mind that this next piece of information is extremely arbitrary, based upon sales ranking/sales figure comparisons and data received from third party sources. In other words, it’s probably completely wrong. But rather than disclaiming this chart until the cows come home, I’ll just say this: It is difficult to make sense of something that doesn’t make sense. But it sure is interesting, and now, perhaps, even slightly helpful.

If the book’s average ranking is…
2,000,000+ Perhaps a single inventory/consignment copy has been ordered

1,000,000+ Current trends indicate total sales will most likely be under 40

100,000+ Current trends indicate total sales will most likely be under 200

10,000+ Estimate between 1 - 10 copies being sold per week.

1,000+ Estimate between 10 - 100 copies being sold per week.

100+ Estimate between 100 - 200 copies being sold per week.

10+ Estimate between 200 - 1000 copies being sold per week.

Under 10 Estimate over 1,000 copies per week

Brent Sampson is the President & CEO of Outskirts Press Publishing at http://www.outskirtspress.com and author of Publishing Gems: Insider Information for the Self-Publishing Writer. Information at http://outskirtspress.com/publishinggems

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With today’s plethora of large chain bookstores and online bookstores,a book that is brilliantly written but lacks a good quality cover design will sadly remain unnoticed and undiscovered. So it is absolutely crucial, especially if you are publishing your own book, to have a book cover that grabs attention.

This article was written to help you create a book cover that looks as good as the professionals, with instruction on how to get started, get finished, and ensure a smooth printing process.

Eye-appealing covers essentially share the same characteristics:

* Bold or complementary colors–primary colors work well together, other hues look nice if they complement each other and are not overdone.

* Balance of layout–The eye is soothed and relaxed by the design, not strained. The elements are clean, not cluttered; the font is readable; the text is balanced in size and style to the graphics; and both text and graphics are harmonized with a focal point, enabling smooth eye direction.

General Cover Tips:

* When setting up your cover layout, allow another .25″ in from the trim guides to place all your elements. This will ensure enough allowance around the cover’s edge and provide a more tailored look.

* Use light on dark for dramatic effects (novels, spiritual, etc.) and dark on light for easy readability (self-help, how-to, business). There are always exceptions to the rule when you want your book to stand out with a certain color or theme.

* For an interesting, eye-grabbing effect, try a subtle blended or patterned background.

* People read left to right, top to bottom. Position your elements in appropriate levels of importance.

Give your finished cover the thumbnail test: Make sure it will look crisp and polished when reduced way down for display on online bookstores like Amazon. We’ve seen many, many thumbnail covers on that site that looked like mush because of poor color and font choices.

First the viewer looks at the front cover; then flips to the back to solidify his decision to read further. Draw him in with a catchy back header.

* Visit a bookstore or your library and research as many book cover designs as possible. Identify what works, and what doesn’t work for you. You can learn just as much from badly designed books as from beautifully designed books.

* Don’t center all the text on your cover or title page–this looks unpolished and unprofessional. Exceptions: poetry, recipe books. Left aligning and right aligning produce much cleaner lines.

* Don’t use more than three different fonts on your cover–this includes counting bold, italic, underline etc. variations as different fonts. This confuses the eye and sends a negative message to the viewer.

* Create a bar at the top to put in any important info about your book - awards won, important testimonials, etc.

* Put your title “above the fold” - somewhere in the top half of your cover.

Back Cover Tips:

1. The same rules of design apply to the back cover as well as the front. Again, peruse your bookstore for back cover ideas. Look for typestyles, colors, and copy styles you like and make notes.

2. This is a toughie: Unless you are well known in your field, or have written several books, do not place your photo on the cover. This will appear ostentatious and unprofessional. Trust us. There are many independent publishers who fall prey to their egos–and suffer

3. Try to solicit 3-5 good testimonials of your book from respected field individuals. This will give your book instant clout.

4. A typical softcover back cover consists of a short summary of your book, testimonials, and the author’s bio. Leave at least 1″ at the bottom for your ISBN barcode and your publishing info. Too much copy will lose reader interest; while not enough copy will appear unfinished and unprofessional. Try to maintain a good ratio balance of words to white space.

5. With a self-help or how-to book, include bullets in your back copy describing what the reader will gain from reading your book. You could use a header such as “In This Book You’ll Learn How To” … then list bullets beneath describing what the reader will learn.

6. For book jackets, a good base is to offer a summary of your book on the back, with 2-3 testimonials, and publisher info, then on the flaps have the author bio, maybe more testimonials, and contact info. Having copy on the flaps is optional. You will need to allow space for the flaps to wrap-around, so be sure to get exact specs from your book printer. A good default size for flaps is 3″.

Spine Tips:

1. In a bookstore, most books are displayed with only the spine in view. So this area of your book has to look its best when competing with other spines.

2. A lot of books repeat the front cover graphic into the spine as a smaller version. This acts as a preview and helps to visually enhance the spine and attract the viewer.

3. With a thin spine, try setting the type vertically, so people won’t need to tilt their heads to read the title.

4. Include your logo and/or business name at the bottom, 1/4″ in from the trim edge.

5. Make sure you allow enough clearance room on the spine. Size your copy to fill a maximum of 1/2 of the spine’s thickness to allow for the fold.You will need to allow space for the flap and spine wrap-around, so be sure to get exact specs from your book printer.

Most Printers Will Require:

1. Your cover and all graphics to be at least 300 dpi (dots per inch) for correct printing.

2. Your cover to be in .pdf format, 300 dpi.

3. Your trim area (the area around your cover) to be at least 1/8″, preferably 1/4″. This allows your printer to have some adjustment room.

In Conclusion…

Humans are visual beings–we look at faces. Cover design, simply defined, is a book’s face. People do judge a book by its cover, so remember–your book needs to be polished and professional to attract attention. And if it is beautiful inside and out, it will be a success.

To a magnificent book!

Doni

Angela Donelle (Doni) Underwood is a leading book cover designer and consultant who also runs a successful internet and software development company, PlanetIcon. Doni and her team have developed a revolutionary program that allows authors and publishers to design their own professional-quality book covers with ease, and without high-cost. Find out more at http://www.bookcoverpro.com.

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‘Mainstream’ - a principal current of a river, 1667, from main (adj.) + stream, hence, “prevailing direction in opinion, popular taste, etc.,” a fig. use first attested in Carlyle (1831).

I propose that the concept of ‘the mainstream’, be it music, art, ideas, politics, entertainment and all other social constructs, is and has always been a social myth.

The key to this argument lies in the cyclical nature of the market economy, political thought, and technological advancement. For sake of simplicity, I shall concentrate solely on the development and eventual disintegration of the concept of the ‘mainstream’.

What came before the MP3? The CD.

And before that? Vinyl.

And before that? Shellac and wax drums for musical boxes.

And before that? Sheet Music. Musical Scores.

As funny as it sounds now, at the very dawn of ‘Popular Music’ or pop, a ‘Hit’ technically accounted for the total sales of a sheet of music, a musical score. The expectation and reality of the market was solely reliant on availability of current technologies at the time (namely music boxes and pianos) and the musical ability of the consumer.

For the main part it was more economic to purchase an upright piano rather than a the musical box, purchasing songs for a music box was a privilege of the rich. Imagine paying $500 for an mp3 track? No one in their right mind would, yet the physical nature of such devices meant that supplying a range of music for any device would be beyond the reach of the masses. The ‘Player Piano’ moved things along somewhat, creating rolls of punch paper reduced the costs considerably. For many this was new technology was still out of reach of the average, or even middle income family.

For most, instead of an Ipod, there would stand, pride of place in the Sitting Room or Parlour, a basic upright piano, of which at least one member would be able to read and play music, and the others would at the very least need to hold a whole gamut of decent notes to make the performance painlessly entertaining. The more savvy music publishers (yes they were printers and nothing more), realized early on that if they wanted to increase their sales they’d need to expand their market.

A few seemingly harmless pointers to publishing a popular ‘hit’ led to a series of hard and fast rules that held back the creative growth of the music industry for over a century.

Family friendly. Their market was the Middle-Class Family, they had money, Sunday Evenings with little to do, a strong moral and religious upbringing and a very definite idea of what music should do.

It shouldn’t offend, anyone, anywhere, anyhow. It cannot include any mention of any controversy. The melody must be light, instantly engaging and simple to follow. The whole family must be able to join in and not feel awkward or embarrassed in anyway. Basically hymns.

The market began to fracture eventually, songs for the kids, religious, risque ditties for young lovers and dirty old men, then came style… jazz, blues, big band. Finally wax rolls for musical boxes gave way to shellac and eventually Vinyl discs and as the sound quality improved, and the availability increased and prices reduced, finally those that played the piano instead of a Gramophone, were the rare exception.

The World has changed a lot since then, but as with all things fashion has a funny habit of repeating itself. More and more iPod fans and mp3 addicts are beginning to manipulate their own collections, with the development of a whole series of cheap and cheerful music mixing software releases on the way, it doesn’t seem so far-fetched to imagine a time in the not so distant future where rather than the ‘Mainstream’ we will be talking in terms of Single Streams, or even the ‘Onestream’.

In the past the more forward thinking printers and publishers of the day decided to buy music from songwriters for a pittance, sometimes even steal them outright and make all the profit for themselves. Now things are changing beyond belief.

Anyone can make music to a point with the aid of software and electronic instruments that a child could learn and play within minutes. With the increased interactivity involved in many of the new technologies, the PC being the original focal point, most consumers are no longer purely consuming, they are now producing. Be it their own Tivo TV schedule, the play list on their iPod, the answer phone message they recorded themselves. Consumption was never a creative act, but finally it seems technology is enabling individuals to come to that conclusion by themselves.

Eventually few people will purchase entertainment in any form, simply the means to produce it. As part of my Fine Arts Degree many years ago, I specialized in Photo Montage, appropriating and aggregating a variety of disparate images, and manipulating and combining them to form a new and original work. Nowadays few would ever consider going through the rigmarole of cutting and pasting printed matter when a graphics program and the Internet can provide vast more choice in subject matter and imagery.

Technology has led our actions, or rather inaction for most of the 20th Century, in the 21st we are witnessing the slow decay of Consumerism itself, and at the beginning the first change we are all both witnessing and providing, is technological manipulation of consumer goods.

As the manufacturers of multimedia devices finally catch up with demand we will witness more and more graphic and sound interactivity to the point that most products will simply enable us to create our own entertainment, as we have in histories past. The only difference is that your Bedroom DJ Mix is now heard by the world rather than an unwilling friend or family member. Local heroes and heroines will be born, down the road from my place are the band Keane, a very successful UK pop band from Battle, Sussex. Without the proliferation of social networking technologies I doubt that their meteoric rise to fame would have been as startling.

Other more stark examples are Gnarls Berkley and the Arctic Monkeys, who via the Myspace.com service have become major players in the world music scene. This isn’t simply a technological change. The ‘Futurism’ Arts Movement at the turn of the last century was obsessed with painting fast cars and trains and planes, as much as a young boy might do these days. No one wants to draw an MP3 player, no one wants to write a poem about their Xbox. People want to ‘use’ them, and they do, all of them.

The idea that materialism can enable anything other than a show of wealth has changed, we no longer have toys, we have tools. Consumption is now lured by the idea of Production, the snake is eating itself.

Within your lifetime, your or someone you know will produce something remarkable, the miraculous is about to become commonplace and the ‘Mainstream, obsolete.

The mainstream is diverging into a billion tributaries, the concept of popularity, and eventually mass advertising will dry up, along with monolithic centralized institutions and corporations. We as individuals are finally learning to disagree with each other, we are taking informed and personal choices in our consumption, and eventually the production of our own ’streams’. We fish for ideas, we take those ideas and create our own unique range of arts, entertainment and individual understanding of the world. And when we’re bored with our own minds, we trade our goods with others, some like-minded, some not so.

Music, Art, Entertainment, conceived, designed and produced by the individual for the individual. Very much the way we began. Travelling Minstrels, visiting one village and the next, trading music, trading styles, ideas, even new technologies, but for the main part from home.

There never was a mainstream, the concept of the mainstream was conceived for the convenience of unwieldy organizations with little ability or even impetus to change. Like a vast dam, blocking and filtering the river, it is now beginning to crumble, and creative sources and flowing in from all directions, a veritable waterfall of new ideas, sounds and images are about to be born.

Paul Baines, Singer Songwriter for http://www.OneManBrand.co.uk. A UK Based Electronic Musician, Designer and Writer. Visit http://www.onemanbrand.co.uk to find out more…

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Using press releases for marketing purposes for promoting anything from new web sites to new product announcements have become increasingly popular lately as business owners learn the powerful benefits of using press releases.

Press releases have been used over the past few years by quite a few smart business owners and marketers that have seen first hand how they can help their business get the recognition they need in marketing new products or services both offline and online.

But a lot of businesses have been reluctant in using press releases as they were unsure of how to properly construct a simple press release or how to distribute them for maximum effectiveness.

Using press releases can be a very effective marketing tool and seo strategy if constructed and implemented properly.

Learning to write a powerful optimized press release can often drive tons of targeted traffic to your web site while providing multiple back links that can lead to increased page rank and numerous top ten search engine rankings for your targeted keywords.

The real secret behind writing any effective press release and to gain maximum exposure for your new product or service is to plan your release out carefully even before publishing it.

A poorly constructed or planned press release is just a waste of your time and resources. You want to target the message of your press release for the purpose it was meant for.

So, the first thing you must do before writing is to figure out just what do you want to accomplish with your press release?

– Do you want to create some brand awareness for your web site or products?

– Do you want to add additional subscribers to your newsletter or ezine?

– Or are you trying to promote a new product or service you have developed or are marketing?

Once you’ve decided what the most compelling reason is for your press release, you can then get down to the business of writing it.

The first thing you may want to do is sketch out a rough draft of your press release to see how it flows. Does it provide the needed information to get the word out and has it been properly formatted?

Most press releases have a certain format that they follow. If you’re unsure of how to format your press release correctly you can view a sample press release template here at http://www.prweb.com/pressreleasetips.php#template .

The number one most important aspect of your press release is your headline.

Get it wrong and you will limit the effectiveness of your release.

Your headline is what the search engines are going to pick up on first. The headline is what normally gets listed first once indexed so make sure you use it advantageously. List any key points here, using your keywords or a catchy headline so that it will grab your reader’s attention.

Also try to keep your headline as short as possible as Google gives more weight to keywords if not surrounded by irrelevant words. Again planning is essential.

If promoting a new site include the URL in the headline. If promoting a product or service then include some keywords in the headline.

Some press release services use a summary box. I normally write a catchy one-paragraph recap of my press release using some of my targeted keywords.

Without being spammy, I will normally optimize my press release by using some of my targeted keywords in the first and last paragraph. I will also include some of them throughout the release for a keyword exposure of approximately 2-5% saturation.

Tip: if you’re promoting a web site, I will normally mention my URL around three times within the release for the maximum benefit.

One of the first questions I had when I first started writing press releases was what was considered a great release? What did it consist of and how was it constructed?

Being curious, I emailed my contact at http://www.prweb.com/ and asked them if they could show me a few press releases that they considered as excellent examples.

These releases have received their editorial scores of 5 on their scale of 1 to 5; with five being the highest.

They sent me three of them for review and you can see each one of them here:

http://prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb136748.htm

http://prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb149213.htm

http://prweb.com/releases/2005/2/prweb203448.htm

Study each one of these against the press release template to see what is required for an effective release.

Note: to get additional exposure for your press release via www.emediawire.com you have to have an editorial score of 4 or higher. So it is to your benefit to write the best release you can the first time around.

Once you have studied the examples and want to try submitting you own press release you need to know which ones are the most popular ones being used.

Here are some of the press release services I have used and found to be effective:

http://prweb.com/

http://www.pressbox.co.uk/index.html

http://www.webwire.com/default.asp

http://www.24-7pressrelease.com/

With most of press release services you can submit your press release for free or via paid inclusion. Paying for inclusion gives you the benefit of faster indexing into the search engine news services and natural search engine result pages.

Normally your release will be picked up by Google news within a few hours after its release. From there it will normally show up in the natural search results within a few days or a week.

I have used both of these services in the past but have found that paying them at least the minimum amount for their distribution services will allow you to view your stats online. It will also allow you to choose different categories for my press release to be displayed in, giving your release a chance for wider coverage.

So using press releases can and is a very effective marketing tool that you can use for promoting your web site or affiliate products if done correctly.

By using press releases, I have been able to create a steady flow of targeted visitors to my web site and affiliate programs while generating dozens of back links to my web site.

Even though the effects of each individual press release may be short lived, they still have provided me with both free and inexpensive ways for getting hundreds of new visitors to my site and quite a few top ten positions in Google for my targeted keywords.

So isn’t worth while to at least check out the benefits of using press releases in your marketing methods? A little work now could reap amazing results.

Ted Kushner writes about consumer interest stories dealing with health, business and finances. See how you too can get multiple top ten positions in Google, Yahoo adn MSN using press releases at: http://www.affiliaterevenuesources.com/press-release-secrets.htm

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