How I wrote an e-book and started earning $6,000/mo.
I have the perfect job. I don't work at all, at least according to my friends. When I do work, I work at home. I get paid every day. And I get paid more than just about anyone I know.
I write and sell e-books on the Internet. I'm writing this little article to inspire people that are looking for the same things I was looking for just a couple of years ago: financial independence, a work-at-home option, some prestige, and oh yeah, that little thing we need called a creative outlet. When I go to parties and tell people that I write and sell e-books they almost always say "what's that"? But that's OK, that's just part of being an "e-book publisher". My story started out in 1996, when I was a Microsoft Certified Trainer and Network Engineer, flying around the world in a "monkey suit". I dreamed of a way that I could sell some study guides to some of the guys I was training and other people on the Internet, and so I wrote six documents in Microsoft Word that I began to sell at $24.95 each.
I started a web site, and eventually I had a 140 links to it and a nice search engine ranking (a luxury today). I sold my study guides on my web site, even producing an income of up to $1,500 a month. I didn't know it but I was selling e-books. At that time I didn't have the freewheeling "semi retired" lifestyle that I have now because e-books at that time took a little bit more work: I had to get a merchant credit card account. Trusting engineers would send me their credit card info in the e-mail and I would process each order by hand every night.
If people wrote checks, I processed those too. I handled customer service and "order fulfillment" for my orders: I would e-mail each engineer their study guide and sometimes make printed out copies of them, selling the printouts and processing those orders too. I dreamed of a day when I would be able to sell e-books automatically on my site, charging the credit cards and e-mailing the books all in one seamless process. At the time there were some electronic services that would do this for $1500 a month or more. I deemed this too expensive but eventually my vision came true: Paypal was born.
Paypal was a dream--I was able to sign up with no money down and Paypal would accept and process all credit cards and checks automatically. A couple of years later Google Adwords was born, and I was able to market online to all the users of the Google search engine, a huge audience with a good income. Now, my significant other with two jobs laments to friends: "she gets up at 10am, logs on, makes a bank deposit, then gets back into bed at 10:45". More than a few people in my life have noticed that I seem to be doing well and have loads of time for leisure activity. I am and I do.
And it's all because of that phenomenal invention called the e-book. I've written 10 e-books and I am coming up with more titles all the time. My one piece of wisdom to impart: coming up with a winning ebook is kind of like playing "Berry Gordy"--you learn to recognize the "hits". When you get an idea and it gives you gooseflesh, that's the one. Copyright it, write it and market it online.
If you want any advice on how to do that, I wrote an e-book "Paycheck in 30 Minutes " that talks about the steps to getting your e-book sold. Sure I plug my e-books from time to time, but mostly I'm out with my boxer dog in the dog park, or riding down the freeway in the RV to visit an out-of-state friend. If you see a woman with a boxer dog in an RV with Oregon plates, wave. It's probably me..
Expensive or Cheap Loans = Money lost or saved
Borrowing is always a costly affair. If the cost is not tangible in terms of interest, there is the factor of the moral obligation to repay. When a borrower decides on taking a loan, he is faced with a wide choice. In today's market you don't have to go searching around. There are lots of financial institutions who routinely bombard the consumers with advertisements and invitations to take loans.
It is almost as if taking a loan is now a necessity for all.
When you decide you require a loan, you must determine how much you really need? Also budget your expenses and know how much you can afford to pay in monthly installments as well.
How then do you go about making your choice? Does it solely depend on who is ready to give you the amount you need? Or does it depend on how successfully the bank has advertised their product to you? If you must choose, then choose a loan that is cheap not expensive as that will determine how much you save at the end.
Expensive or Cheap Loans = Money lost or saved 
Checks > Expensive or Cheap Loans = Money lost or saved
The Complexity and Risk of Check 21 Imaging Operations
New Research Report by Mercator Advisory Group - This report identifies five areas of risk involved in deploying large projects and then identifies many specific risks inherent in Check 21 and distributed check imaging.
While each individual financial institution ultimately faces its own unique circumstances, the report presents the key areas that every financial institution needs to consider and we trust that the report will be instrumental in guiding the institution's auditing of their own risk assessment effort.Before Check 21, the paying bank had both access to the physical check and the liability associated with any illegible image -- but this all changes in October when sweeping changes will go into effect based on the Check 21 legislation.
Check 21 creates a substitute check, generated from an image, that is a legal document.
The legislation also shifts liabilities between the paying bank and the bank that first converts a check into an image or accepts...
Checks > The Complexity and Risk of Check 21 Imaging Operations
Getting Started: Creating a Great Business Plan
Your excited. You have a great idea for a profitable online business. Maybe it is an original idea that has not been marketed online before. Maybe you have come up with a new spin on the ordinary. Whatever it is that has influenced you to start your online business, be sure that you have a plan before you begin.
This is not the time to "pick it up as you go". These are some basic things that should be included in your business plan.The business summary should give a brief description of the entire business and is an integral part of the overall business plan. After you have completed the business summary you should begin to list the objectives or the goals that you want to accomplish through the business. Next and perhaps most importantly, you should develop your marketing plan. The marketing plan will address all the specifics of the business.
When developing the marketing strategy you should consider the following:The target market. The target market is the customers...
Getting Started: Creating a Great Business Plan
Checks > Getting Started: Creating a Great Business Plan
Mail Order: "The Original Internet" Still Going Strong
While the world continues to go catatonic over the Internet and its endless possibilities, there's another industry quietly going about its business, piling up profitable year after profitable year after profitable year. What industry is that? It's the mail order industry--or as I prefer to call it, "the original Internet!"Yes, long before the birth and explosion of the Internet, mail order shopping was a hugely popular and preferred method of doing business--and still is. In fact, the Internet has actually enhanced and contributed to the overall success of mail order.The mail order industry was created by Aaron Montgomery Ward. Ward sent out his first mail order catalog in 1872--for his Montgomery Ward mail order business located at Clark and Kinzie Streets in Chicago. The first catalog consisted of a single sheet of paper with a price list, 8 by 12 inches, showing the merchandise for sale with ordering instructions.
"Ward's gradually expanded the catalog. They became bigger...
Mail Order: "The Original Internet" Still Going Strong
Checks > Mail Order: "The Original Internet" Still Going Strong
eProcessingNetwork and AIRCHARGE? Announce AIRCHECKZ at ETA 2004 Show
Houston TX / Gurnee IL (ContentDesk) April 21 2004 -- eProcessingNetwork and AIRCHARGE will be unveiling their new AIRCHECKZ product during the Electronic Transaction Association (ETA) 2004 Annual show in Las Vegas on 4/20 ? 4/22.Another first in the industry, AIRCHECKZ is a new way to accept check payments with ACH conversion to electronic deposit for personal checks using cellular devices and networks. AIRCHARGE currently utilizes cell phones and PDAs coupled with swipe/printer devices to accept "swipe qualified" wireless credit cards transactions.
With over 3 years of successfully customer deployment of the AIRCHARGE? systems, AIRCHECKZ will use the same proven J2ME? technology coupled with a wireless device and MICR (Magenetic Ink Character Recognition) devices to perform check conversion.Visit eProcessingNetwork at booth #901 at the ETA show to view live demonstrations of both the AIRCHARGE wireless credit card solution and AIRCHECKZ wireless check conversion products....
Checks > eProcessingNetwork and AIRCHARGE? Announce AIRCHECKZ at ETA 2004 Show
Houston Community College Increases Job Placement
Job placement for certified Network Cabling Specialists from Houston Community College's C-Tech programs were at approximately 50-60% in mid-2001.
This was not acceptable to HCC's Max Saravia, Department Chair of Industrial Electronics, who used DOL/Texas Workforce Commission grants to hire Anna Fowler to improve the rate of job placement for C-Tech programs that produced approximately 200 certified technicians in the past year.
Anna set herself a goal of 85% by June, the end of the academic year.She reached that goal, and more, by the end of May.
How did she do it?
"A lot of hard work!" she says.
She began by calling employers.
In addition to inquiring about job availability, she invited potential employers to visit the HCC Network Cabling Specialist program two weeks before graduation, and some 20-30 employers have done so.
"Once they come," says Anna, "they come back."She also worked hard to establish trust and a connection...
Checks > Houston Community College Increases Job Placement