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Sunday, March 14, 2010

Imagine your Blog turning out into a Hardcopy Bestseller !

by Colin










You've spent weeks, months... maybe years writing your blog - now don't just leave it out there in cyberspace. Turn your hard-earned creative work into a hard copy book...

Imagine having your book turn into a bestseller!

Having your own hard copy book, you'll be recognized as a professional author, and it will become another passive income stream.

With your blog, the writing is done, and it's just a matter of turning your blog content into a real professional, hard copy book. Get a quality, eye-catching cover, professional interior book design. Upload your manuscript to one of the online booksellers, like lulu.com, or createspace.com, and start to promote your book - you can start with an entry on your own blog - get a Press release out there, and maybe an article or three.

You can use the same manuscript, and create an ebook version - you'll then be able to offer 2 versions, and that way increase your income possibility.

When you turn your blog into a book, make sure your manuscript looks as professional as it reads. Naturally, you want to make money with your book, and you want the word to spread on how good it is.

Imagine thumbing through a book you’ve plucked from the shelf at a bookstore. You notice that it lacks a compelling cover design, and when you look inside, all you see is plain text with the title and author’s name. There are no page numbers, no table of contents, no alphabetical index. The margins aren’t consistent, and there is no white space where there should be white space.

What would your perception of that book be? Would you buy it?

Maybe you have a bundle of articles - at directories, or on your site - turn them into a book as well. Another possible income stream.

If you want to be taken serious as an author, make sure your book interior is professionally designed. Every prospective reader, whether it's an ebook or a hard copy book, base their purchase on these visual cues - and it will influence your reader in whether they tell others about your book, or not.

Word-of-mouth is a powerful marketing medium.

Book design is more than just the structure of the book - cover design, Foreword, index, etc. It's about turning interesting content into a book that's a pleasure to read, or use.

Some elements to consider with book design are :
  • Suitable headlines and sub-headings.
  • Paragraph and sentence length.
  • Font selection and size.
  • Suitable images that support the text (non-fiction).
  • Language that is easy to read.
  • Layout that suits the type of book (e.g. children’s book versus business book).
  • Margins, headers and spacing for total visual appeal.
As Richard Hendel writes in On Book Design, “What the author writes in a book is not all that tells what a book is about. The physical shape of the book, as well as its typography, also defines it. Every choice made by a designer has some effect on the reader. The effect may be radical or subtle, but it is usually outside a reader’s ability to describe.”

If you are serious about being recognized as a professional author, and want your work taken seriously, and especially if you want people to buy, keep, and tell others about your book, then a professional book design could make the difference between success and failure.

Can you imagine having your own real hard copy book ?
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Colin Dunbar has more than 30 years experience in book design. He also enjoys writing non-fiction, and is the author of "Invest in Yourself" and "How to Get What You Want". You can check out his book design services at his personal web site, http://www.colindunbar.com/book-design-services.html
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Thursday, March 11, 2010

Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage - The Dangerous Bill

Yet another email which took me by surprise. Nothing new to be honest. Must say, we Indians have become used to it nowadays. What is our PM doing here...Please read it below to know more....
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Dear Aswani,

Our government is churning out one hazardous bill after another. This time it is a bill called the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage, and it's coming up for a vote in a couple of days.

The bill lets U.S. corporations off the hook for any nuclear accidents they cause on Indian soil. They'd only have to pay a meager amount, and Indian taxpayers would be stuck paying crores for the nuclear clean up and to compensate the victims.

Without any public debate, the Prime Minister is appeasing American interests and ignoring our safety. The Parliament is planning to vote on the bill this week, so we're launching an emergency petition.

Can you sign this petition asking the PM to hold a public consultation before taking a decision on this dangerous bill?

http://www.greenpeace.org/india/stop-the-vote/

The petition says: "India must hold a public consultation before changing the liability rules for any nuclear accidents caused by U.S. corporations."

The cost of clearing up a nuclear disaster could be enormous—far more than we experienced during the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Yet our leaders have set a compensatory amount lower than the one set for the Bhopal tragedy.

After 25 years, the survivors of the gas leak in Bhopal are still fighting for justice and the companies involved are evading liability. With nuclear plants, the situation becomes graver and it is dangerous to pass a bill with constraints on liabilities.

American corporations cannot reap profits without responsibility. If tens of thousands of us sign this petition before the vote, we'll show our elected leaders we oppose this bill:

http://www.greenpeace.org/india/stop-the-vote/

Thanks a billion!

Karuna Raina
Nuclear Campaigner
Greenpeace India
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Tuesday, March 9, 2010

The button you should tweak hard…

by Paul Njuguna

Yet another guest post on this blog from a very good friend of mine. Hope you will find it worth reading just as I did..
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Some people say life is unfair others say the world is ruthless. The greatest question however is “Is life unfair?” Obviously wherever you may be in a society there is always someone that people refer to as ‘Mr. Have it all’. The kind of a guy with the best car in town, most beautiful fiancée and may be an expensive mansion to live in. These individuals seem to have achieved a lot but ask most of them, they definitely have a blockbuster movie like story to tell. Could be they stole all that, you never know, but that’s smart so they too have a story to tell.

Take time and meditate for a while about a specific scenario here “Someone is exiled from his own motherland, seeks asylum, and with only a college education manages to set up a multibillion dollar company within a period of ten years.” The most crucial part in these ultra – success stories is, we all get to ask, ‘How did you make it that big?’ These individuals always leave you with a statement that made them who they are, and that must be something that they kept doing and doing.

I call that the ‘button’.

Don’t you think in life there is always a button somewhere that if you tweaked it hard, it would brings an overflow? Well, you may not but I think so…

What sort of a button? Take an image of a young girl fumbling for a matchbox in the dark… That’s how life is at times. There are those activities that you keep on doing, the assurance of a fast massive success may not be there, but you keep on trying out different ways through which you could achieve. Just like the young girl in the dark fumbling for a matchbox, you get hold of the matchbox and light it.

What’s amazing is individuals who have achieved massive success live with us but somehow we don’t ask them what the secret really is. Rather than taking the long route to fumble for the matchbox the whole day, why don’t you yell for help? Ask and get directions.

However asking is not enough, get a mentor. Request the achiever to be your mentor, the person that will show you the Do’s and Don’Ts in your field. These are definitely the buttons for you and an overflow of success shall emerge. Is it worth?

Please leave a comment and don’t forget to share this with a friend.
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Paul Njuguna is a big time blogger, looking towards a better world through social media. At the same time, an upcoming philanthropist who believes in 'something for nothing'. You can visit his blog here - http://volunteerbig.blogspot.com
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Thursday, March 4, 2010

Blogging Ethics - Is it your copyright ?

Copyright – what does it mean to you? As a blogger, have you ever been so serious about it? Moreover, do you make sure that whatever you blog, has to be your copyright or you just avoid being concerned about these things as you feel that it goes against your thinking.

Just a few days back, I was taken aback by seeing a comment from one of my fellow commenters. The comment was made on one of my posts. I could have deleted the comment but then I decided to make it live as I felt nothing wrong with it. The comment had questioned my ethics as a blogger. The commenter had asked me a question regarding the originality of the content in the post. Straightforward but very politely, he had asked me to give credit to the original author of the content. And since I was not following the same, I was being dubbed as unethical. Interesting I must say but very true. I agree it was not my original content. I had found it from somewhere on the web and since I loved it so much, I thought about sharing it here on my blog. Obviously, my idea was good and I was also making sure that I stayed away from the copyright violation. I posted the content finally but then I didn’t give credit to anyone.

The reason why I did so because I believed it didn’t belong to anyone. Yes, it was just a small story which I found on an article site. The author of this article had already numerous articles posted there on the site. Just like most of the other posted articles, his article too had a linkback to his blog. And when I visited his blog, I could see that his blog had lots of interesting and useful content on varied topics mostly in the form of short stories.

Now tell me, could all those stories be his original? Believe me, it couldn’t all be his original. Moreover, I had no such reasons to believe so. And even if it were his original then why didn’t he bother to put it as a disclaimer? Tell me, are we that honest enough to shout it loud and say that this work is purely mine. I believe it is nowhere on this web and absolutely not in this blogging world. Even I haven’t been so original with my work. It really is impossible at times. But yes, I do agree that we must give credit to the creators of the original work, often in the form of linkback. But then how could I be unethical to say it simply that I didn’t linked to the original article which I am dead sure didn’t belong to anyone though it was posted on an article site. I could have given the link to the original article if it were not any story, to be honest.

I find nothing unethical with whatever I did. Was I ??

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Saturday, February 27, 2010

The doubled excitement !

Well, the excitement has doubled this time. In a just few hours, I will be leaving for my home and why?? Because..Holi, the great Indian festival of colors is just around the corner. Just two more days to go and I will be there again at my home to celebrate this festival with my family and ofcourse my lovable friends. I remember I did the same last year too. Well, Holi and Diwali, I love to spend these 2 festivals with my family and friends.. Life hasn't been the same the way as it was a few years back..I could go to my home whenever I wished to, anytime I wished to and no matter how long it would be for..it was worth spending some time with my parents and my sisters.

But it is not the same case today. Its been more hectic life..something which I have been finding very difficult to manage offlate. But this is how life goes..you need to be prepared for everything..and I am trying to my best to get used to it. I am trying my best to adjust to each and every situation..goes the same with spending some time with my parents and my sisters. No more big breaks now...have to listen to and follow what I am being instructed..as no one is above the rule...the more I can do is to make a polite request for more holidays..but then who cares..am I that special...ofcourse not, but still I think I could have been given more..Not an issue, will have to adjust to these things too..life is all about adjustments and compromises..someone told me the same few days back and so very true...Isn't it?

Anyways friends, as I said at the top that the excitement has doubled for me this time. You came to know about the one but what about the other. Well, its all about the man whom I have admired like anything from the time I grew up. Yes, he is the one and only - Sachin Tendulkar who has once again made every Indian proud of what I would say as a rare feat. Yes, to score 200, single handedly in a One Day International Cricket match and that too against a team like South Africa....Can anything be better than this one? Ofcourse not. Really, no one deserved to do it more than Sachin. This man does it so often and makes us speechless..just unbelievable! My best wishes are always with him and I hope he can keep playing this for many more years to come !

So, that was the doubled excitement which I felt like sharing with you people. Hope you liked it. Wishing you people a very happy and colorful Holi..Enjoy yourself :)
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Thursday, February 25, 2010

The Facebook Feat

Well, this is in continuation with my last post. We have seen how social networking is affecting our lives. All for good reasons..I must say. Now today, its all about the facebook, arguably one of the best social networking sites around. In my last post, I had let you people know about why I love this facebook? How facebook is better than other related social sites? What makes facebook phenomenal? All such things being discussed in my last post.

Now, facebook has been growing like anything. To let you know more, I am here with some interesting facts on this social wonder. All these stats were out very recently. And it all proves why facebook leads when it comes to social networking.

Just have a look at these stats -
  • More than 400 million active users
  • 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
  • More than 35 million users update their status each day
  • More than 60 million status updates posted each day
  • More than 3 billion photos uploaded to the site each month
  • More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week
  • More than 3.5 million events created each month
  • More than 3 million active Pages on Facebook
  • More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages on Facebook
  • More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
  • Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
  • Average user has 130 friends on the site
  • Average user sends 8 friend requests per month
  • Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
  • Average user clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
  • Average user writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
  • Average user becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month
  • Average user is invited to 3 events per month
  • Average user is a member of 13 groups
  • More than 70 translations available on the site
  • About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
  • Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application
  • More than one million developers and entrepreneurs from more than 180 countries
  • Every month, more than 70% of Facebook users engage with Platform applications
  • More than 500,000 active applications currently on Facebook Platform
  • More than 250 applications have more than one million monthly active users
  • More than 80,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect since its general availability in December 2008
  • More than 60 million Facebook users engage with Facebook Connect on external websites every month
  • Two-thirds of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites have implemented Facebook Connect
  • There are more than 65 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
  • People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are almost 50% more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
  • There are more than 180 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products
Is there anything more to be added..please have your say !
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