eAction

You have very likely heard of, and probably even own, these new books and videos with ‘THE Secret’ to success in life and in business. I just learned about another one this week, called the Jackrabbit Principle. It was promoted by a Christian so I thought it might be worth checking out.

It was a disappointment. The analogy in the video was not even clear, but they implied that it was all about goal-setting. Well, I appreciate the value of goal-setting and try to practice it, but I don’t think that’s the ultimate secret to success.

So I’ve done a little thinking.

As a Christian we are not to have other gods (this can be anything we think has power to help us) besides God Himself. The true success He promises us lies in trusting Him, and living by His principles. It has been when I’m in utter submission to God’s will and ways, that I’ve had my greatest successes.

So then, there is no point in chasing these ’secrets’ that others purport to offer for a price. All the success advice we need is accessible to us for free in the Bible. You probably have one already too.

To build our faith muscles we just need to spend time reading it and discovering promises to inspire faith and forward-thinking.

As Jesus said to His disciples, these gem-truths are hidden in little parables and stories, so that those who should not defame them cannot find them. With humility and a teachable heart willing to obey however, we can mine these great truths and enjoy successes that will last forever.

We may not all be great animal lovers, but there are lessons we can apply from the common traits that we observe in them. It is as though God wants to plant visual object lessons all around us in such a way that even the most illiterate person can by observing and thinking apply key principles to their life and work.

Since I have just become a pet owner, I’m picking up some of those principles in a fresh way. However, others have done quite intricate and scientific studies comparing instinctive animal habits with character traits that would be good for us to adopt as well.

Would you like to follow me as I mull over some examples? Let’s try to focus our thoughts on those that show how to succeed with our business, since that’s our slant here already.

Ah, the humble but industrious little ant comes to mind quickly. Starting and running a business means work, and more work. You have to commit to keeping at it over the long haul, but in the end you can accomplish a lot.

There are many others, of course. Now you can draw up your own list and see how long it grows.

If you create a really long and exceptional list, I’d be glad to see it.

You may be running a wee home business and apologizing for it, thinking that you can only call yourself a true business person when you have a commercial location, and you go in for regular business hours, and you deal with the public every day. I’m here to explain that thinking away.

For the last ten years I’ve been calling myself (mostly privately) a business woman, and running it from my computer at home. I’ve tried hard to be orderly and systematic about how I run it, thinking that some day it will be easier to adjust to a real business in some office location. Well, since the beginning of December 2007, I’ve been preparing such a business where I plan to offer training in those basic office skills you need when you run a home business. When I find some exceptionally good workers I plain to hire them so I can delegate more of my work to them, and take on more commercial clients. However, this process over the last six weeks has proved something to me. There are wonderful advantages to running a business from home. Wistfully, I think how I’d like to go back to that comfortable lifestyle.

For your home business you don’t;
- need to pay for all kinds of licenses and government documents
- have to re-decorate and make your office ready for strangers
- have to buy up desks and computers and set things up for others
- have to go out in bitterly cold weather to walk or drive to the office
- go home and worry about unfinished work at the office
- nor do you need a presentable wardrobe to wear at the office.

All that is not to say that you run a home business lackadasically, and make do with a pitiful income. You can apply high personal and ethical standards, and do very well from home. You must weigh the advantages and justify your choices accordingly.

You might be asking what kind of business can you run from home that just calls for quality time in front of the computer? Good. I should clarify that I’m talking here mostly about a web business. One that you run from a web site which generates your income. One where, once you have built the core of the site, you can maintain it by adding a page or so a day, and checking for contacts from visitors to your site via your contact form, and those responding to your blogs, or whatever. If you are making digital sales you need to send emails to make sure they got their download okay, and build relationships with your customers by email or chat, or whatever. (See work from home for more).

It is quite possible now to run a straight information site about a topic you know well, and can write easily about to add to your site on that passion or favourite subject. If you add Google adSense ads to your web pages (no cost to you), it can bring you a quiet stream of income that is deposited regularly every month in to your bank account. Such a web business is perhaps the easiest to run. You can add affiliate links too, for more income that requires nothing of you, but to write good informational pages on your site’s topic. Or, you can write e-books with your knowledge set up in a helpful manner - and sell these.

Maybe you’ve heard me say it before, the Internet is a writer’s paradise. Almost everywhere you turn you will see that writing skills are needed to make an income on the web. Those who can’t write want to make money too, so they have to hire a writer. If you can write well, you save yourself that expense and can charge to do it for others. Another stream of income for you that you can earn from your home business.

It is good to register your home business name if it is other than your own name, and to do careful bookkeeping for all your expenses and profits. You should have a desk and computer dedicated to your home business, and guard that area so when you sit down there, you are really “in your office.”

But oh, the advantages of working from home;
- no office lease or rent to pay, or parking
- you can use the furniture you already have or scrounge at second-hand shops
- no signs to paint or pay for
- flexible hours (dash into the kitchen to start lunch or supper, and be right back)
- flexible days (take time off for a funeral, or shopping when necessary)
- wear extra socks and your old housecoat if you feel chilly

Let me be sensible and say that there are some things to overcome in starting a home business too. One of the main ones is disciplining yourself to stick to the schedule you set for yourself, and to persuade family and friends that you really are NOT available to socialize during the blocks of time you are working. (Living alone is an advantage here too, if you can keep from curling up to nap or watch TV or get distracted by other fun activities).

It’s time to talk about MyPowerMall again. Ginny Dye’s enthusiasm is very catching. I know she’s not a perfect human being and probably has some ways that rub me the wrong way, but it is that enthusiasm and her grand and generous ideas that are causing the program to take off. Just yesterday she went back to the restaurant where she gave birth to the idea, to celebrate the first anniversary. And celebrate she should! Look at what she’s accomplished in just one year!

She’s founded a new online business that is harnessing the power of consumers to shape their own economy - and eventually it will shape it on a national and global scale. Already there are over 78,000 members in 206 countries. More and more of them are shopping in over 1000 stores she has lined up to work with her mall. The flow of cash all over North America is picking up momentum!

But if you listened to her “call” (even the delayed recording on the site, as I did) this week, you will know that starting in January things are going to EXPLODE with MyPowerMall! She has found a company who will set up in-house debit cards in conjunction with MasterCard. All members can be paid promptly by direct-deposit into those debit cards. These cards can be used in off-line shopping too, such as at your local grocery store or gas station, etc. Every use of your debit card will bring you more rebates and commissions.

On top of that, if you convince more merchants to come onside with MyPowerMall (at no expense) YOU will gain a percentage of all business done with them through the MPM debit cards by members. Can we even fathom what that will mean?

How many years ago did cell phones first come on the scene? A big of digging, and I learned it was invited in 1973 by a Martin Cooper who worked with Motorola. It still involved a suitcase full of batteries back then. These handy pocket phones have only proliferated in the last five years or less. In the same way, online shopping has been around for quite a while - at least a decade or more - but it is about to bust wide open, like the cell phone. People are going to shop online as fluently and commonly as they flip open a cell phone to call home.

If you had known five years ago what we see now with cell phones, and someone had said, “For 10 bucks you can have a share in the company that makes the phones,” would you have snapped it up?

Well, guess what. We now have such an opportunity to buy in on the “online shopping” that is going to grow like a huge snow ball and sweep the world. In January, Ginny is going to cut down on deadwood in the membership by asking us to buy at least one dollar’s worth through our malls every month, or we forfeit our mall. I think that’s only sensible. Else her system might break down. But it is - and she says always will be - free to join and get a PowerMall in your own name.

If you just want good deals and great rebates, sign up for the Personal Mall, but if you want to multiply your streams of income over the next 2 to 5 years many times over, then it is sheer stupidity to ignore this. I mean there may be some good reasons to decline on personal or moral issues, but speaking generally signing up is the obvious choice.

Then resolve to at least do a few things to insure your benefits. 1. Learn to shop online through your mall
2. READ Ginny’s training lessons that come by email the first 30 days.
3. Make some business cards or postcards or flyers to hand out as invitations to others.
4. Make sure your mall URL address is on them all, and you give it out at every opportunity.
5. Don’t nag or bother people, just keep handing out invitations cheerfully.

If you really want to make it big, use free advertising online, and if you can afford it go for paid ads too, both on and offline. Even if you are not good at math, you should catch on that the bigger your downline of real shoppers the greater your income will be.

Yet, important as that is, I think it is better to teach people how to shop online and then sign them up, than to persuade them to sign up for all the money they will make them, and you. Even though that’s what I’ve just done here.

My excuse is that I want to show you that this is you-can’t-lose business op because that’s why you are reading this - you want to do business online in such a way that You can have God involved and blessing your efforts.

Now if you haven’t signed up yet - go hear Ginny tell you all about it in one of the short audio movies here; MyPowerMall

(Incidently, not quite 100% have a cell phone yet; I don’t).

Sometimes we need to do something over and over a few times to develop a productive habit that we can start using in other areas too. For me, I’m discovering that an approach I took with selling tangible goods for my sister who is out of province and unable to look after the sale of these items is showing lots of promise.

At first glance you might think my example has nothing to do with you, but let me describe it first, and then help you find a principle that you can adapt for yourself.

Here’s the background. My sister Elsie had left things in storage at Dad’s house when she moved to the west coast in 1995. I promised to look after her stuff, but earlier this year after Dad died, I knew that I’d have to find myself a new place, and I wouldn’t have room for all of her things. We discussed it, and agreed that I should try to sell some of her things at Dad’s estate auction. That didn’t go over too well, and some things didn’t even get a bid. Now what?

Well, I got permission to store some of the larger furniture pieces in a vacant office, with the promise that I would advertise and sell them as soon as I could.

From what I’d learned in the past, just from reading online, I knew I could take photos and probably sell them on e-bay, etc. I was especially concerned about the stereo credenza and large speakers. As I researched them for the most effective keywords to use in my ads, I saw that this was not quite old enough to be an antique or collectible. Hmmm…! Antique dealers didn’t want to hear from me for another 9-10 years, but I needed to sell this suite. So I pressed on.

I took photos and cropped and carefully choose the best ones. Then I created a web page on my business site that would describe and show it off to best advantage. I decided against e-bay because I wanted to get my sister at least $500 for it. Once my web page was about as good as I could get it, with the most sought after keywords to describe this vintage credenza stereo, and I had described it as something to snap up now and store for 10 years and then make a profit - that’s when I wrote a classified ad very carefully.

Next I logged into Craigslist.org, the most popular classifieds site on the web, and placed my ad, including just a couple of my photos with it, and the URL to my special web page for more details.

I’m happy to say that after a few weeks the $500 is on the way to me!

But now I’m doing this over again with Elsie’s quilt-rack, and I’m about to do it once more with a course of binders for developing a business. I’m sure Elsie paid about $300 for this box of jumbo binders full of information, so I should have no trouble selling it for $50. But as I am going through these paces all over again, I realize that I’ve found a pattern for selling tangible goods that is working for me.

Now, do you see the principle or outline of steps you could take to sell something?

1. Get to know the product or items very well. Research the most effective keywords to use. What would someone looking for this item call it?

2. Take good photos and resize them so they load quickly.

3. Use the photos and your keyword list to write a winsome web page describing the features, but also the benefits of owning this product.

4. Write a good classified ad, with a link to your web page, and include a photo or two. Then place it on Craigslist and any other classifieds sites that you think will be useful.

You can do all of this without spending a penny!

I seem to be re-learning a lesson about placing classified ads. The better quality ones, the ones set up for local cities, etc., do not allow you to post ads with affiliate referral links in them. They want ads for items for sale or for services and jobs, and community announcements.

Just yesterday I placed an ad for a free e-book to download, geared to work-at-home Moms. I soon had an email telling me it had been deleted for being illegal.

Illegal? Well, only on that site.

I’ve just done a search for classifieds that allow affiliate links, and it seems there is only AdlandPro and a great barge full of the ones that you really don’t want your ad to be seen in. Oh yes, there are classifieds sites that allow affiliate links, but the caliber of ads is low, and your ad will not come before the eyes of the people you really would like to join under you. - or I should say under me.

I’ve gone through phases of trying classifieds in the past, and found that most of them were free-for-all (ffa) sites, and those sites are set up to trap your email so they can flood YOU with their ads. That’s not the crowd I want to run with.

This tells me that I should work a little harder at my ads on AdlandPro, and I should be making room in my life for some other methods of promotion.

Since last year I’ve heard, or read, a lot of advice about writing interesting and informative articles that subtly refer to whatever website or affiliate program I want to promote, but with the clickable link in the bio or resource box which comes at the bottom. That is in fact, my deluxe ad, and since these articles are posted on article directory sites, the links to my site are worth far more than in a classified ad. It also means that visitors come to see my site and explore around it, rather then just landing on an affiliate program page, and clicking away as fast as they realize what that is.

If you can chatter helpful stuff on any given topic you should be able to write an article too, though, naturally, there are tips and tricks for writing a more productive article that will really score high for you.

I really want to be thorough about my campaign with classified ads, so I’ll work at submitting mine on a regular basis at AdlandPro for a while, to test the effectiveness of those ads. There’s no point in dumping the baby out with the bathtub water if there’s hope, right?

But you will find my advice here shifting to articles over the next while. We’ll see if we can’t make that a whole lot more useful to you. Even if you’ve never seen yourself as an article writer before. It’s a learnable skill!

I recall when I first came online in 1999, I was astonished to find so many sites where I could place free classified ads. After trying out a great many of them, I discovered that some of them were not any great help. Mostly they were tricks to get my email address so that the owner of the classifieds site could swamp me with his or her ads. I’ve learned to despise those sites.

For quite a while I’ve avoided placing classifieds because of that experience, and I think to some degree they lost their reputation for some years. However, there are a few outstanding sites, that seem to be above board, and effective in reaching real people with your ad, and drawing some positive results. I don’t think I’ve found all the good sites yet in this regard. (My campaign to try them out is disrupted quite often). But I’ve been reading very good things about at least two or three classifieds sites, and I can recommend them to you for now.

If you have not been placing ads yourself, you might like a short primer on how to go about it for the most effective results.

The one with the best reputation is Craigslist.org, so let’s go through the steps for that one You can become familiar with that one first, and as you have time, add other sites to spread your ads further.

Explore Craigslist.
1. I suggest you go to the site and just explore it, read their directions, and frequently asked questions (FAQs) and look over ads in various categories so that you see how others are using it. Keep in mind that not everyone is doing it right. You’ll come across some bad ads, so look at a good cross-section for a better chance to see good classifieds that bring results. You want to learn what kind of ads go into each category too. It doesn’t hurt to visit some of the discussion forums too.

Sign up for an Account.
2. If you have enough time that first day, you could also sign up for an account. There is no charge. You’ll notice that posting an ad is free, except if you are advertising a job. There is a charge for those. You don’t even have to sign up but having an account will make things easier and faster for you in the end.

Prepare Your Classifieds.
3. Prepare a plain text file in your Promo folder with the ads you want to post. Make sure all your ads are within the guidelines. Fortunately, on Craigslist, you are not limited to a word count, and experienced users say that your ad will go over better if you know to use some html coding. That is, at least control which words are bold (dark) print, and the size of the fonts. (Don’t go totally crazy). You can also upload a number of photos to show off the item you have for sale. Take time to prepare good photos and have them ready in another folder to upload when you start posting. If this takes a few days, so be it. Why waste time on something you don’t do to the best of your ability?

Start Posting Ads.
4. This will probably happen on another day. At least I am not able to get it all done in just the one hour block of time a day I give to this. But if you have done the previous steps, you should find it fairly easy to place a number of ads in a single hour. Just remember that you can get into trouble if you place the same ad in various categories. So go slow when you are deciding on the best category for each ad. The secret to success in not in swamping Craiglist with a single ad, but getting it into the right place, and going back to edit or re-post it within the required number of days before it expires.

Set a Routine to Return.
5. Prepare a schedule or mark a special little calendar to help you routinely go back to repost your ads when they are about to expire - assuming your ad is for a service or something that is not sold out. And of course, to place new fresh ads as you get more ready.

As you find other classifieds sites that are above board and effective, you can add posting to them as part of your routine. Another one you might try is AdlandPro. If you become an affiliate and place a link to AdlandPro on your website, you are allowed unlimited free ads.

If you have followed the previous training sessions for promoting your site and products, you should be ready now to to try classfied ads.

You need to watch out for bad sites that promise you classified ads, but are really just a trap to get your email so they can dump loads of advertising emails on you. True, if they are sending out the ads that have been submitted, then others are getting your ad in with all this un-requested dump of ads too. But my philosophy is that if I’m not enjoying reading those ads, others will not either.

All that being said, there are some classified sites that have a good reputation for effectiveness without such low down dirty tricks. The key is to find them. But once we start looking for those sites, we also want to have our ads ready to submit, or we are wasting precious time. So let’s focus on writing good ads today, and we’ll look for suitable locations next time.

Now do you remember those descriptions of your site I suggested you write up to go list your site at all those directories? Let’s use that text as our starting point. It is a fairly brief summary of your site, right? You want people to come to the site… however, effective sales people tell us that just a description isn’t going to bring in the droves of visitors. You need to adjust the wording in such a way that readers will think, “That’s just what I want! I must go see that site!”

So let’s re-write our description to read more like a lure to a great benefit to the reader. Let me show you my site descriptions as an example.

…………..DIRECTORY DESCRIPTIONS…………
Ruthe’s Secret Roses - Making Friends Everywhere! Ruth promotes her novel of Christian Spiritual fiction with a site themed around friendship and mentoring especially in Christian living and writing. She has a Sharing Library with articles and book reviews.

This Bouquet of Enterprises - is meant to bring Ruth an income large enough to accomplish her publishing goals, and to be able to give away generously. She longs to be a Giver like God! Along the way, She’s always ready to teach and share what she knows, particularly if you too, are eager to have God involved in Your business ventures, and are willing to live by high ethical standards.
………………………..

Hmm…? My novel site is all about friendship and mentoring and writing, and has lots of articles and reviews, but it doesn’t promise the reader any unique benefit does it? I would like them to find a friend there, in fact, introduce them to my Best Friend. How shall I write my ad to appeal to the lonely who really would love to have such a friend?

I would also like them to buy my novel. I will have to ask them directly to do so, else they won’t know, will they?

Maybe, without further ado and fuss, I should just tell them that they’ll find a good friend here! and they ought to buy this book about friendship.

RSR AD: Come meet my Best Friend! Buy the novel, Ruthe’s Secret Roses. It’s about a wonderful friend who gets involved in your life - who really cares and helps you. This book can lift you out of your loneliness! Read sample chapters at Ruthe’s Secret Roses

That’s 43 words. Great. Because some classifieds have a word limit. This will save me having to edit it down if they don’t allow more than 50 words. it can stand some more polishing and refining yet, but I’ll accept that as a first draft.

I could of course, write more ads for the same book, but focus on other benefits in it. But for variety’s sake, let’s try the second one for my business site.

The description talks about my high goals and willingness to teach others. What is in that for someone speed reading through a page of classifieds?

BE AD: Keep God involved in your online business. Learn to maintain high ethical standards by following Ruth, a business woman with great goals and self-discipline, by reading her eAction blog, and her site, where she shares a Bouquet of Enterprise ideas. You will be blessed if you become one of her downline! Bouquet of Enterprises

55 words. Hmm… needs more work. But I trust you now catch on to how you must think and write your ads.

Write as many ads as you can in one sitting. Then set them aside a day or two, and when you can devote some time, bring them to your computer screen again, and pour over them. You may be surprised how many spots you see that you can improve because now your eyes will see short-comings or too many words, or whatever.

It may also help to go browsing some classifieds sites just to learn from others.

When you have a list of classified ads written, and you are satisfied that they are as good as you are likely to get them… then it is time to set up go posting them on the better sites that allow submissions of classifieds. We’ll talk about that in two weeks.

All right. I’m going to assume you have followed the instructions in that first article. Next we need to prepare the information we are going to list at all those places where we will list or promote our web site. Since I have a number of sites, I start a page like this for each one. I’ll be using my BE (BouquetofEnterprises.biz) site as an example here. Replace that info with what applies to your site.

At the top of this BE-Submissions.txt file, I prepare my answers for the forms I will encounter;

________________________________________
NEW PROMO OF BOUQUETOFENTERPRISES.BIZ

My information is as follows;
URL: http://bouquetofenterprises.biz
Title - Bouquet of Enterprises
email - [left out here to protect my address]
Address: 903 23rd St. West.
Saskatoon, SK. S7L 0A5 Canada
Phone: 306-956-7785

Description - Small business ideas with imagination, creativity and God’s blessing. Also offering economical hosting and web design with blogs that giveencouragement and show action steps for your online ventures, remembering to keep God involved.

Keywords - small business ideas, imagination, creativity, publishing goals, giver, God involved in business ventures, high ethical standards,

______________________________________________

Below that I have a section where I paste the URL of the sites I’ve just listed at. This gives me a quick-at-a-glance place to see how many I’ve done and exactly which ones.

______________________________________
Sites I’ve listed at:
http://www.botcw.com/add_your_site.html
http://4hurtingchristians.com/links_directory/index.php
http://www.christiansunite.com/addsite.shtml
http://directory.crosswalk.com/join/
______________________________________
______________________________________|

Below that list I keep a record of every place where I have entered info about my site. I copy paste from the above prepared info at the top of the page, and while each line is still in my computer’s clipboard memory, I paste it down here too.

___________________________________
11/30/06 http://directory.crosswalk.com/join/
Contact: Ruth Marlene Friesen
Company name: Bouquet of Enterprises
Phone: 306-225-2138
Address: Box 208, Hague, SK. S0K 1X0 Canada
site URL: http://bouquetofenterprises.biz/
site Title: Bouquet of Enterprises
email: [removed from eg. to protect my email]
Category: Web Services and Computers/ Christian WWW Services
Web Services and Computers/Web logs - Blogs

Description: Small business ideas with imagination, creativity and God’s blessing, offering economical hosting and web design, with blogs that give encouragement and show action steps for your Christian online ventures.

reciprocal links; (did both already on R/Networking.shtml)
HTML CODE:
Crosswalk Directory:
Over 18,000 wholesome, family friendly, Christian websites.

BUTTON:
1. Right click on the image below
2. Select “Save picture as” and/or save the image to your computer
3. Place the image on your website and have it link to http://crosswalkdirectory.com

____________________________________

Notice that in this case I was also asked to choose a category for my site. I recorded that in case I ever have to go back and edit or re-do this listing. (Sometimes you have to hunt around their site a bit to find the best category for your listing, and sometimes you are allowed more than one category).

Notice too, that this directory site, asked for a recriprocal link. I always stop to ask myself, do I really want to offer a link from my site to this one? If yes, then I record the info they provide for the link, so that if I lose it from my web page, I can come back to find it here.

It’s perfectly permissible to make extra notes on your listing. No matter how great your memory is, with lots and lots of submissions they will begin to run together in your head, and as you age, in a year or two, you’ll be very glad of your notes!

But when you’ve entered everything you can for one directory or reciprocal listing, draw a line, and start your next one.

So you’re eager to know where to find all these sites that allow you to list your site for free?

Okay. I’ll give you a starter list, but be aware that some of these sites disappear sometimes, or they change the URL at which you are to list your data, so you may have to hunt around for it a bit. Look for small links to “Add a URL” or “Suggest a site” or “submit site.” Things like that. Be sure to highlight, copy and paste the exact URL on which you do your listing, so that you’ll find it again next time. You’ll be grateful one day!

Here’s my Places2List file;

_______________________________
Here are lists of directories and Search engines to list at. I recommend you only list at those which offer a free service. Save the paid ones for when you have exhausted all the free ones and know how to get the best milage out of that paid listing.

While we seek out the best sites to list at, eventually we end up listing at some that have no integrity, and our email address will be mis-used. So prepare a separate email addres that you will use ONLY for submitting to directories and SEs. This is crucial! But sometimes sites will not list you until you respond to their confirmation email, so it is important to go check for those you have to respond to. Don’t totally ignore that email address.

It’s always a good idea to check out their directories in the categories where you think you’ll list. It may turn out they have a better category for your site. When you’ve found that, list from that page.

www.dmoz.org/add.html
www.lii.org/
www.jayde.com/
www.mavicanet.com/
google.com of course, (but they’ll give you a better rating if you’re listed on other sites first).

Christian Directories:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Suggested directories to list at:
www.ourchurch.com/
directory.crosswalk.com/
christianportals.com/
www.crosssearch.com/
www.searchenginecolossus.com/Christian.html
www.christpages.net/
711.net/
www.agapesearch.com/
www.cbd-search.com/
www.lightlinks2000.com/litelink.htm
http://www.praize.com/
on this page Praize has a directory of 74 Christian Directories! Explore them!

http://www.praize.com/engine/Internet_Gateways/Directories/index.html

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
These are links I saved after listing books on them. They might be changed, but you could check them out. In this case, you ought to write up a set of answers as I’ve done in the example for the site, but focus the answers on details about your e-book. Then make entries specifically for that book at sites like these below. Or use as springboards to hunt for the right category for your site or products.

Don’t forget to do online searches yourself for sites that have “submit site” or “suggest URL” Build up your own database of places to list at.
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ http://www.booksxyz.com/nonsale.php?a=1&book=
http://www.religiousresources.org/directory/submit.php?cat_id=64
http://www.missionaries.org/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://www.fni.com/xstart/newsite.html
http://links.conline.net/cgi-bin/add.cgi?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/search/index.taf?_UserReference=079827BB0484FC433D89F288&_function=add
http://www.christianlife.com/cgi-bin/add_url.cgi
http://www.ichristianweb.com/posting.php?category_id=13
http://www.ccunetwork.net/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://www.chritech.com/cgi-bin/search/add_url.cgi?Category=Publishing%3ABooks
http://www.zuzu.com/sub-st.htm
http://www.scrubtheweb.com/addurl.html
http://www.homewithgod.com/cgi-homewithgod/links/add.cgi
http://www.praize.com/engine/index.html
http://www.xenite.org/internet_authors/announcebooks.html
http://actschristian.com/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://www.christianlinks.com/AddURL.asp
http://www.crosscanadasearch.com/cgi/links/add.cgi
http://search.711.net/cgi-bin/add.cgi
http://www.tbcl.com/cgi-bin/search/add_url.cgi
http://actschristian.com/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://www.missionaries.org/cgi-bin/links/add.cgi
http://search.711.net/cgi-bin/add.cgi
http://www.robslinks.com/addok.shtml

SEARCH ENGINES (found in W.E.B. 1/25/06)
There’s a new search engine to submit to. (If you submit more than one domain, force a reload in order to view the new security graphic letters.) http://navisso.com/add

Last September, Yahoo launched Site Explorer, allowing you to enter an URL and get information about it, including number of pages in that domain, and links to that page:
http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/

Learn how to optimize your website and increase visitors: http://www.seomoz.org/beginners.php
_____________________________

There! That will keep you busy for a while. I’ll try next time to have some more suggestions for you.

As I learn more about online shopping I’m getting more enthused about my Power Mall. (Taking time to research something online is a very smart idea!) This week I have actually looked at those online stores in My Power Mall more closely and checked out what a few items I would like might cost.

For instance, I re-ink my printer’s cartridges myself, but even so, I seem to use them up eventually and have to buy more cartridges. It used to be that they cost about $30 each in our city, which drove me to check online and discover re-inking in the first place. Now the price has come down to about $20 for a black ink cartridge, and about $26 for a tri-coloured one for my HP three-in-one.

But when I went to check for prices through MyPowerMall, I discovered almost immediately a new store I’d never seen before which is offering my brand of cartridges for $17.95.

How? I just went to MyPowerMall and clicked on “the mall” on the row of links across the top, then down the left side I went to “computers/Electronics, and clicked on the tiny white triangle beside it. A sub-menu appeared with “computers HW peripherals” (meaning the hardware stuff related to computers) as the top choice. I clicked on that, and the first store button/graphic was for All-ink.com So I clicked on that. I see they offer a 2 year guarantee and free shipping. Hmm!

A few more clicks to find my model number, and look! It is only $17.95, with a bright notice on the right column that I can have an instant saving of $10 off today. What? That means I can get this cartridge for 7.95 and pay no shipping!? Whoa, have I got enough money to buy several at this price?

But then I do a bit more browsing and find that the $10.00 off means I must join the supersaver club and pay 8.95 a month. It gives me a 35% discount at this store. Also that the free shipping is for orders over $40. Shipping on anything less is $4.95. - Okay, I can’t afford to spend the $40 today, but I am expecting a ship to come in next week, so I’ll put it off for now.

Besides, I should shop around some more and see if there is another better deal somewhere. If one online store does this, there’s bound to be others. So I vote against an impulse purchase, but am now more open to doing more comparison shopping.

The best news for you, if you’re too cautious to sign up for a FR e E PowerMall is that you can do this comparison shopping from my Mall without having to log in at all. Browse all you like, (and even shop if you like - just note that I’ll get the rebates instead of you!)

Oh yes, didn’t I mention that? If you accept a PowerMall, you get a rebate on everything you buy. The percentage varies from one shop to another, but the stores often give you good deals for shopping online, and then the Mall re-imburses you the related rebates afterwards. You save twice!

It’s getting to be more and more foolish to ignore this, isn’t it?