Communication Beat

“Virtual Real Estate Investing” is a relatively new concept. Everything from using the internet as an avenue to make more money in real estate to online games such as SecondLife seem to be included in the popular definition of this term.

In order to figure out the truth of the matter, I sought out Bryan Ellis, whose experience in the fledgling industry is truly impressive.

“I began using the term ‘virtual real estate investing’ in the late 1990’s when I realized the clear similiarities in profit strategies, regardless of whether the “real estate” is “virtual” or “physical” said Ellis.

Bryan Ellis cites the similar strategies one can employe to make money from “virtual property” and “physical property” as a primary parallel of the two markets. “These types of assets – websites and physical real estate – can be monetized in very similar ways like buy lo/sell high, leasing/rental and advertising opportunities” he says.

The parallels really are obvious. Consider: A valuable piece of real estate is valuable largely due to the interest that other people have in that specific location. Similarly, ownership of a desirable domain name is valuable for the same reasons. Regardless of the type of asset, you can sell or lease or use any number of strategies to turn the assets into cash.

In our next installment of this series on virtual real estate investing., Bryan Ellis will share the internet analogies to the physical concept of real estate development.

ESSAY 3

Writing an autobiography involves a matching up of a specific plot-structure with a set of historical events. The autobiographer wishes to endow these events with a particular meaning. Some writers see this process as “essentially a literary, that is to say, fiction-making operation.” The document, the autobiography, is still a historical narrative. It is one of the ways a culture has of making sense of both personal and public events. For it is not the events of a life that are reproduced through the writer’s description; rather, it is a direction to think about these events, a charging of the events with “different emotional valences,” that the writer produces. Of course, a writer does not like to see his work as a translation of “facts” into “fiction.” But the crisis in both historical thought and in the writing of autobiography may be illumined by the insights gained from this perspective.

The ordering of events in a temporal sequence does not provide any necessary explanation of why the events occurred; for a history, an autobiography, is not only about events, it is also about possible sets of relationships, only some of which are immanent in those events. For the most part they exist in the mind of the writer and the language he or she uses. Hayden White argues that “if there is an element of the historical in all poetry, there is an element of poetry in every historical account.” History is made sense of in the same way that the poet or novelist tries to make sense of it. The unfamiliar and mysterious is made familiar. Both the real and the imagined are subjected to a process aimed at making sense of reality. For this reason history often appears fictionalized and poetry often appears like reality, like history. Writers of poetry and fiction, says Hayden, impose formal coherence on the world in the same way writers of history do.

Such a view, if taken seriously, would go a long way to freeing historians from being captive of ideological preconceptions. Drawing historiography closer to its origins in literary sensibility, in the literary imagination, may help to increase understanding. For an increase in facts does not necessarily bring understanding. Chronicles of events, the sense of ‘what really happened,’ types of configurations of events, the emplottment of sequences of events, are determined as much by what facts are put in as what are left out and by the extent to which the writer can engage in constant currection and revision, in tireless seeking out of new information.

Aristotle saw poetry as unified, intelligible and based on the subordination of the part to the ends of the whole. History on the other hand was organized around continuity and succession, a congeries of events and is not intelligible in the same way as poetry is. He associated history with the unexpected, the uncontrollable, the unsystematic. Poetry he saw as part of an ordered and coherent schema. Poetry was, to Aristotle, a more serious, a more philosophical, business than history. It speaks of universals; history of particulars.

About the Author:

Ron Price
2.1 Articles and Reviews: Journals
1. * “A History of the Baha’i Faith in the Northern Territory: 1947-1997,” Northern Lights, 25 Installments, 2000-2002.
2. * Periodic Articles, poems and letters in “Newsletters,” Regional Teaching Committees of the NSA of the Baha’is of Australia Inc., 1971-2001.
3. * Periodic Articles, poems and letters, Baha’i Canada and The Australian Baha’i Bulletin, 1971-2001.
4. * “Memorials of the Faithful,” Baha’i Studies Review, September 2001.
5. * “Review of Two Chapbooks: The Poetry of Tony Lee,” Arts Dialogue, June 2001.
6. * “Asia and the Lost Poems: The Poetry of Anthony Lee,” Art ‘n Soul, a Website for Poets and Poetry, January 2000.
7. * “The Passionate Artist,” Australian Baha’i Studies, Vol.2, 2000.
8. * “Memorials of the Faithful,” Australian Baha’i Studies, Vol.1, No.2, 1999, p.102.
9. * “Poetry of Ron Price: An Overview,” ABS Newsletter, No.38, September 1997.
10. * “Thomas a Kempis, Taherzadeh and the Day of Judgement,” Forum, Vol.3, No 1, 1994, pp.1-3.

Dissatisfied with your book sales? With book signings, press releases, book store sales?

So many authors spend a lot of time and money on promotion that doesn’t work. It’s time to do what authors do best–write a short article. Follow these ten steps to write an article top web sites will clamor for with a link back to where your book is sold.

Apply these Ten Steps

1. Choose a topic that relates to your book. Make sure this how-to article has useful, needed information. One site who markets to professional speakers just published my article “What Makes One Book Out Sell Another.”

2. Know your article’s thesis. The thesis is what your article will prove. In the introduction above, the thesis is stated in the last line, “Use these ways to write an article top web sites will clamor for with a link back to where your book is sold.”

3. Know your preferred audience. Just as your book has a target audience, so should your article. My book, “How to Write Your E-Book or Other Book Fast! is a short, easy-to-read, step-by-step guide to assist professionals with writing and selling their book.

4. Write a sparkling opening. Like a headline in a press release or on your book’s back cover, your first sentence should grab your readers by the collar so they will keep reading. The opening could use a shocking fact, a question, a benefit, or a compelling story right out of your book. Make the opening a short paragraph, even a single line. Readers want short, concise, digestible information, especially on the Internet.

5. Illustrate a need. Whatever your topic, show your readers why they need your information. If you have written a book on listening, then in your short article discuss how much is at stake for not listening such as divorce or lost business.

6. Give a brief background of the problem or situation you will solve. One of my book coaching clients wrote a book, “The Cure for Multiple Sclerosis.” She shares that over 2 million people worldwide with Multiple Sclerosis are diagnosed incurable, that doctors are pressured to use pharmaceuticals, and that the health industry is not about getting people well, but about making money.

7. Share the problems that result. In “The Cure for Multiple Sclerosis,” the problem is that most people rely on western medicine which does not have the answers. Big money is not spent on alternative or complementary ways to prevent and cure chronic diseases, so people with problems get drugs that deplete the immune system.

8. Give the solution. Your book offers solutions to problems. So must your article. Show your readers how to get excellent health, how they can write a book, make more money, or have better relationships.

9. Show them where to get the solution and how. The article, “How to Listen at Work,” needs to suggest where to go or what to do next. You may name a quality book to read (maybe your book!). Mention a seminar or training, or recommend a coach. You may even mention a web site address or 800 number.

10. Place your article on as many high traffic Internet sites and Opt-in Ezines as you can. Just as feature articles in newspapers are seven times as powerful as advertising, so is your article.

People are looking for free information Online. That’s the major reason they surf!

So, now that you know how to write a short article, put it to work for you to promote your book.

In the midst of hundreds, if not thousands, of résumés recruiters and employers receive for any given position, your résumé needs to stand out from the crowd. You must make the Hiring Manager want to read your résumé more thoroughly than just the rudimentary 10-20 seconds the vast majority of your competition will warrant. The way to do this is by designing an accomplishment driven résumé.

What makes a résumé that is focused on achievements so effective? Most job seekers tend to list their responsibilities of their past and current positions. While this may be important, it should not necessarily be the focus of your document. The higher level the position you are seeking, the more crucial the accomplishment aspect of your résumé. You need to provide proof of the results you were able to achieve with the implication that you can bring the same, if not better, results to your future employer.

Say for instance, you are a CPA. Your current résumé states things such as “Control accounting activities”, and “Invest and manage cash activities”. What does that really say about your abilities? How does that differentiate you from all of the other CPAs out there applying for the same job as you? It doesn’t. You need to show the potential employers what you can bring to their organization. Now is the time to brag. How have you improved a company’s bottom line? Have you spearheaded any projects that resulted in increased revenue, company savings, or employee morale? That’s the kind of information that Hiring Managers seek out amongst the résumé clutter.

Your résumé is your own personal sales pitch. Keywords are an integral part of that pitch. While you are describing your accomplishments, be sure to use powerful keywords to signify the importance and magnitude of those feats. It is not the time to be modest. Use strong action verbs that really drive home what you’re trying to say. Use industry terms, where appropriate, if you are seeking a job similar to your current position. The company will understand this terminology and be relieved to know that you are competent enough to comprehend them as well.

Another significant part of an accomplishment driven résumé is the format. Do not clump your achievements and responsibilities together. You can write an overview of your responsibilities in a paragraph and then highlight your accomplishments with bullets. You don’t want to have everything in a paragraph, and likewise, not everything in a bullet format. You must draw the reader’s eye to the important parts that you really want to sell. If everything looks the same, nothing will stand out.

Using these techniques, you are on your way to writing an accomplishment driven, extremely effective résumé. Your potential employers will not only see what you have achieved in the past, but what you could offer them in the future.

We all know that article writing is a great way to promote our businesses AND helps establish us as an expert in our fields. But, just because we know how important it is to our business doesn’t necessarily make us able to do it. It’s often said, “I’m not a writer, I can’t write articles.” Or “I can’t write an article about my own products without it sounding like an ad.” Do either of these sound familiar?

Here’s a twist on article writing that can both help and provide a little extra fun. Find another consultant from another non-competing direct sales company. Exchange products with each other and both of you try them each out. Once you have tried the product yourself, write an article about it. In return the other consultant does the same thing. It’s much more natural for us to be able to write about and recommend someone else’s products. It’s a win-win situation!

The following is perfect example of an article that was written about a gift from another direct sales company rep:
http://www.mommyshelperonline.com/rainy-day-cakes.html

Don’t forget to add your resource box to the end of your article, and remind them to do the same. So really you are getting twice the advertising as you would just writing your own article! Not to mention you have a “testimony” that’s not an ad and being used as content on other sites.

Pull up your address book and start figuring who you can exchange products with. Try to find others that have similar but not competitive products. Such as if you sell home decor with no candles, find someone that has candles.

About the Authors: Kara Kelso & Anita DeFrank are two busy wahms, and the owners of Direct Sales Helpers. Learn how you can be successful in your company by visiting: http://www.DirectSalesHelpers.com

Different states call it different things: a discount reseller’s license, a seller’s permit, resale certificate, certificate of authority, application to collect/report tax… but in the end, no matter what it’s called, discount reseller’s licenses are all the same thing. A wholesale company asks you for a discount reseller’s license in order for you to get further price cuts.

There are two premises behind discount reseller’s licenses:

1. The government wants to make sure that businesses are reselling wholesale goods appropriately by collecting and rendering taxes legally, and
2. Manufacturers want to be assured that the goods they are selling to a discount reseller are not being used for personal consumption.

When a business is acting as a discount reseller but isn’t licensed, an item ends up being taxed twice: once when it is purchased from the wholesale supplier, and once when it is purchased by the end consumer. By purchasing a discount reseller’s license, middlemen businesses can avoid this headache and save some cash in the process.

To find out where and who to get these discount reseller’s licenses from, look in the blue pages of your local phone book for the local government business regulators. Give them a ring and ask if and how you can apply for a discount reseller’s license, and what the costs are.

Another option is to contact your local Chamber of Commerce to see if they have any relevant information on discount reseller’s licenses. Usually they can save you a lot of time and heartache by knowing exactly where to look for the information you require, with little time or expense.

Jim Staley is the is the CEO for WholesaleGopher, one of the most trusted dealer and distributor directories on the Internet, offering visitors wholesale items, import and export goods, surplus and closeouts from true wholesale sources. Learn more about wholesaling with his free, bi-weekly blog at http://wholesalegopher.com/blog/.

There is a considerable assortment of women’s lingerie on the Internet for example the best nightwear lingerie, satin lingerie, exotic lingerie and much more. There are various interesting kinds of ladies lingerie on the Internet that you will without doubt be confused & will want to know which specific 1 to buy now and which 1 to purchase later. As there is defiantly no way, you can ever say no to women’s lingerie on the web!

Nightwear Lingerie: If you are mystified about women’s nightwear lingerie to purchase & which will best suit you and the setting the most, this is the perfect place to get all the important info about nightwear lingerie.

Sexy Women’s Lingerie: Even though all women’s lingerie is sexy lingerie, its tremendously important to know if you will look sexy in specific lingerie or not. For example corsets & bustier may not look good on everybody, so even if you spend a lot on this sexy ladies lingerie, you may not look sexy at all. Get stunning and sexy thongs at great prices from designers such as Lola Luna, Bracli, Sensualle, Atlantis, Spoylt and Luxxa.

Satin Lingerie: Satin is a material, which can look sexy in any case. If you buy satin lingerie, the odds are you will never wan to come out of it. The 1st thing women in addition to men love about satin lingerie is the sheer softness and shine of the material. If you want to come across striking and captivating, its definitely worth giving satin lingerie a try

Exotic Lingerie: If you want to look out of the ordinary & wish to get exotic lingerie, lace courtesan chemise set, is the best option for you. There are scores of exotic lingerie types available online, all of which are bold, beautiful and of course, peculiar. Your other half would have never ever imagined you could look so wonderful, as exotic lingerie is something that comes into view more often. In addition, you can also acquire fetish sets as they work very well as first-rate exotic lingerie. The best exotic lingerie accessible online is ‘Shangai Sweetie’ – if you are able to lay your hands on this sexy piece of lingerie, just don’t let it go!

9 out of 10 professionals and small business owners have at least one book or information product inside their head, but lack the time and organizational skills to get it out into digital or print form. You may cringe when you read this list of ten things keeping you from writing your book, because it rings too close to home for you. You may have already written a book or an e-book, or have come close to starting it. It’s hard, we know it, and we’ve been there too. But go ahead and read this list, see if you can identify, and let’s discuss a possible solution to the book writing problem. 1. I can’t seem to find the time. 2. Every time I sit down to write I go blank. 3. I need an uninterrupted time period to immerse myself. 4. I need clarity on my message, but there’s no one to consult with. 5. I don’t know where to start or how to organize all the chapters. 6. I’m afraid of losing clients and having my business suffer if I take time away from it to write my book. 7. I agonize over the writing, the grammar, the sentence structure and punctuation. 8. I know what I have to say, just can’t put it into written form without losing clarity and impact. 9. I keep thinking about all the time involved in writing the book, and wonder if it will ever bring me the results I want. 10. Once I get it written, I have no idea how to get it formatted, let alone marketed. Ok, you know why you haven’t started writing your book. Do you know why you need to write a book? Why You Need to Publish a Book Here are a few reasons why writing and publishing a book is important to you as an independent professional, small business owner, or solo-preneur: 1. Having a book, whether in digital, soft-cover, or hard-cover establishes you as an expert in your field. 2. People buy from people they know and trust; reading your book is one step in creating client confidence and relationship. 3. Once people buy and read your book, they will want more of what you have to offer in the way of services and knowledge. Your book can attract readers into your sphere of potential clients; once they have bought your book, they are ready to buy other services from you. 4. Having a published book is a great marketing tool, and people will actually pay for your expertise. 5. Books are one of the major sources of passive income for professionals; once it is published it can continue to generate sales for you, over the years and while you sleep. 6. If you don’t get a book out soon, your competitors will have the edge, because many of them already have one and even two books out. 7. If you are a speaker, they make great bonus gifts and back-of-the-room sales. 8. They provide a platform for you to expose your readers to your mind and your heart, showing not only what you know, but how much you care. You can reveal your deepest philosophies through your writing, as well as your personal stories. Three Solutions to the Book-Writing Problem Of course, there is no problem if you’ve got a lot of money. You just hire a book writer. There are many of them listed at Elance.com. Some professionals do this, especially when they need to get something published fast and there are not a lot of complex issues to put forth. But is this really what you want to do as a professional who has an important message to convey? Here is a list of solutions: 1. Hire someone to write your book for you (you can always rewrite it in your own voice and add your own stories). When finished, hire a publisher and then a publicist to market it. 2. Hire a writing coach who will walk you through the steps, chapter by chapter (again, for a substantial fee). Then when finished, hire a publisher and a publicist. 3. Bite the bullet, put your business on hold for a few months, and devote your time to just getting it written. You will have to turn it over to a book designer and get it formatted; search for the right publisher such as self-publishing or print-on-demand services, and then market it yourself. Expensive? Yes, all three solutions are expensive. They each have their advantages and disadvantages. The Fourth Solution There is another solution! What if there was a way to help you get your book down in print and ready for formatting in 90 days? What if you could do this by following a system that organized you chapter by chapter, included testimonials, input from peers, professional editing resources, design and formatting resources at low costs, and only took a half-hour of time per day? Could you afford to invest that much time and energy out of your busy day? Would it be worth it to you even if it meant an hour a day for 90 days? If you already have a blog that you use to communicate with readers online, you can use your blog to write your book. The blog format is perfect for organizing your ideas, chapters and getting feedback from readers. If you don’t have a blog yet, you may wish to create one. They are simple to set up and use (we recommend Typepad.com). It can be used to stay in touch with clients and to write your thoughts in an informal way. A blog is like having a conversation with people interested in your subject or expertise. Once your book is finished and formatted, you can then use your blog to market it. You already have a built in audience, hungry for your content. To read more about how this system works and how you can benefit, go to this site: http://www.blogtobook.com – the way you think about writing your book will shift and you’ll see it in a whole new light!

Denise Wakeman of Next Level Partnership, and Patsi Krakoff of Customized Newsletter Services, have teamed up to create blogging and marketing services for independent professionals. Their latest program is the Blog to Book Project: How to Use a Blog to Create a Book in 90 Days or Less at http://www.blogtobook.com. You can read and subscribe to their blogs at http://www.buildabetterblo g.com

HOW MANY FINGERS ARE POINTED AT YOU?

I once heard someone say, “when you point your finger at someone, there are three fingers pointing back at you.” This is so true in our “aim to place the blame” world. There is a reason why The Book says not to judge. Who among us is able to stand inside the heart of another man and truly know his motives? Were you there when that person was locked in a closet as a child? Were you there when that person was molested by an individual that the family trusted? Were you there when that individual was called stupid and made to stand in a corner? No, you were not. You cannot judge for this very reason. Pride will make you judge another, but your judgments will be unrighteous and untrue.

Pride in one’s self or in one’s accomplishments is one of the biggest traps that the devil has going. Listening to flattering voices is just flat-out stupid. Soon, you will begin to believe these flatteries and all of hell laughs. You will, then, be under the judgment spoken of in Proverbs: “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.” Your fall, or disgrace, will be of the same measure as your pride. Take a look at all of the idols that are falling daily.

Pride has the spirit of its father. It has existed since the Angelic Fall. Truly, Lucifer; “the anointed cherub that covereth” was corrupted by virtue of his beauty. He was exquisitely made and now, he is on a mission to overtake whomsoever he can by using this exclusive M.O. Pride never attacks from the front, it attacks from the back, you never see it coming. You only recognize it when you have fallen into disgrace. It begins with little things: listening to people tell you how beautiful or sexy you are, or that you are the very best. Seeking accolades from man leads to a snare. We should only seek accolades from the living God, who knows we are dust, and we wither even as the grass.

At this juncture, I would earnestly suggest that everyone do their own fruit inspection. The only fruit that matters is the fruit of the Holy Spirit which are these: love, joy, peace, longsuffering (patience), gentleness, goodness ,faith, meekness, and temperance. Is your fruit paltry, shriveled, or even non-existent? I can tell you of a certainty that God is not impressed by your gifts, but by your fruit. This is the evidence of the perfecting work of the Holy Spirit in an individual’s life. It is not too late. Pray to the Father that your fruit be fully formed when the season for the Divine fruit inspection comes.

If you have spent any time at all researching internet marketing strategies then you know that writing articles can help position you as an expert in your field, gain valuable targeted traffic for your web site, drive leads to your products, grow your email list, and quickly multiple your site’s text links.

Once you are ready to dive into article marketing — and you have a few articles all lined up and ready to submit — you can quickly become overwhelmed by the sheer volume of article directories available. Sure you could simply use a search engine to locate article directories but a recent search netted me 17,800,000 results. That’s enough to make anyone give up before they even begin! Plus that is really not a very effective way to determine the quality of a directory and doing your own quality check can be extremely time-consuming.

Why should you care about the quality of the directory? Just think about it. On the internet you are very much judged (by search engines and visitors alike) by the company you keep. Another important reason to carefully select your article directories is that your time is finite. It is better to regularly submit to a core group of high-quality directories than to throw the same handful of articles at every directory site you can find.

Finding the best high-quality article directories that meet your specific needs and match your specific goals can greatly increase the power of your article marketing campaign. You need to become a savvy article marketer to maximize your article marketing campaign.

Great, but how do you find those high-quality directories?

When I first embarked on article marketing I went straight to people who had been article marketing for a while and asked them for their top recommendations. I posted the question in a couple forums that I regularly check. I quickly assembled a list of hundreds of sites. Now obviously this list is much more manageable than the 17+ million I got from Google but still rather large. First I culled through and found the sites that were mentioned by more than one person and that list became my starting point. I then gathered as much information as possible to determine if they were right for me. I will share my criteria and priorities but you need to work out your own.

Here are the 10 essential questions I ask when reviewing a site:

1. How old is the directory? Is it well established and ranked or is it new and growing? If not then I cross it off the list.

2. Can you easily identify who owns and/or operates the directory? Is there a way to contact that person?

3. How fast do they respond to your email contacts and/or article posts?

4. How many authors does the site have listed? A lot of authors and articles mean a well established site but there may be room on a growing site for more exposure.

5. How many articles does the site have listed? Again a big site won’t get knocked off my list for this but a small site that is growing steadily might be due for a good seo bump soon.

6. Think about the categories you are likely to need and see if they exist. Is there a place to submit all your articles? If this is a niche directory it may be very narrow but then might also be to your benefit in the long run — if at least some of your articles fit within the niche.

7. What special options does the site offer visitors and publishers? Do they provide RSS feeds, email alerts, forward to a friend function and other strategies to increase the distribution of your articles?

8. Are they responsible with the advertising clients they have on their site? ie: No popups, flashing, or offensive ads

9. Do they provide article reports to help you see which articles are getting viewed, rated, distributed or not?

10. How do the search engines view this site?

After visiting each directory and answering these questions it is easy to refine your list to a handful of top sites that you want to really concentrate your efforts upon. You can also maintain some a list of additional sites to submit to as time allows.

I also regularly re-evaluate my top article directory list. I check my backlinks and the directory stats to see how my articles are doing. Some sites move up and down my priority list (or even off the list entirely) when I investigate how they are performing for me.