Solid Gold Writers

Start Blogging - Make Money

2007-09-05T21:31:00.000-07:00

Hello again. I know it has been a long time since I checked in here, but better late than never.

I know that many of you who visit here are looking for legitimate ways to make a living online. The best program I have found is called Blogging To The Bank. I've devoted a whole web site to it here. Or, you can go directly to the source to find out more.

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2007-03-22T16:10:00.001-07:00

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5 Ways to Rake In Cash Selling Books Online

2007-03-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

By H. Tim Sevets

Selling books is fun, and many people earn a living doing it online. I have had some success with all of the following.

1. Link to books on Amazon and receive commissions

If you have a web site, you can make money by linking from your pages to books and other items on Amazon.com.

You make money when someone clicks through from your link and makes a purchase on Amazon, which will pay you a commission.

You don't actually handle any books with this method. You just send people over to Amazon and collect a reward when they buy something.

You can link to any book on Amazon, but you should try to link to books related to the theme of your site.

For more information and to sign up, go to Amazon and look for a link to the "Associates Program."

2. Sell used books on Amazon and eBay

Some people make a full-time living with this.

First, find used books that you can buy inexpensively. Try thrift stores, yard sales, and your local library's annual book sale.

Next, list your book finds on Amazon. You should be able to sell them there for at least four or five times what you paid for them.

You can also sell books on eBay, but in my experience, it is better to use eBay only for collectible and rare books.

You will be responsible for packing and shipping the books you sell. Try to set up an efficient system for packing your books, weighing the packages, applying labels and postage and making trips to the post office.

You will also need to learn how to grade the conditions of your books so you can describe them accurately to potential purchasers.

3. Write and sell ebooks

Probably more people have made major money with this idea than with any of the others described here.

Write a book on a hot topic, convert it to a PDF file and offer it for sale over the web. "How-to" is by far the most popular and best-selling subject category.

Because your buyers download your ebook directly to their computers, you avoid most of the expenses associated with traditional book publishing. Most of the money you take in will be pure profit.

Of course, you must first write the book or "information product." There are a number of excellent guides available that show how to come up with an idea, research it, and then get your book down on paper--or "on screen" in this case.

Once you've created your ebook, you must gain your prospective buyers' attention and persuade them to purchase. This usually involves crafting and posting a good sales letter that will make people eager to whip out their credit cards.

4. Republish books that are in the public domain

Did you know that there are thousands and thousands of books and other printed works whose copyrights have expired? This means that anyone is free to republish them, in any form.

In the United States, most books published prior to 1923 are considered to be in the public domain ("PD").

If you find a public domain book that you think would sell well if it were republished, you could reprint it as a physical book. Or, you could publish it as an ebook and make it available for download, for a price.

Yet another method of "repurposing" PD books is to make them freely available on a web site, and then put advertising on their pages. I recommend a combination of Google AdSense and affiliate merchant ads (from sources such as Commission Junction).

To make use of this idea, you must of course find some PD works that you can republish and make money from. Several guides, and even a web-browser tool, have been published that can point you to a treasure trove of such works that are free for the taking.

5. Sell individual pages from books

This sounds like an odd way to make money, but it works.

You can often make more money by tearing a book apart and selling the individual pages than you can by selling the intact book.

The basic idea is, you scour old books and magazines for pictures, maps or advertisements that you can remove and offer for sale on eBay.

To be successful, you must learn which subjects sell well. For the right subject, people will go wild bidding for one page from a book that you might have paid only $2 or $3 for. Imagine the money you could make if that book has 10, 20 or 30 saleable pages in it!

Only a handful of people are using this method, and they're raking in the cash. In my opinion it's still a wide-open niche, with plenty of room for others to get in on it.

H. Tim Sevets is books editor for the Solid Gold Info Writers Consortium, specializing in objective reviews of the top money-making reports sold over the Web. His expanded article on ways to make money as an online bookseller is available here: http://www.solid-gold.info/5-ways-to-sell-books.html.

The Scotch-Irish: A Book Review

2007-03-05T19:07:00.000-08:00

By H. Tim Sevets

I've traced my family tree and, as best I can determine, most of my stock here in America was of Scotch-Irish heritage.

Although ancestral to millions of Americans living today, especially in the southern part of the United States, the Scotch-Irish remain a hazy mystery to many people, even people with an interest in history. Who were they, exactly? How did they differ from the unhyphenated Scotch and the just-plain-Irish? Was their history in America in any significant way at odds with other settlers from the British Isles, or from Europe at large for that matter?

Although first published in 1962, James G. Leyburn's The Scotch-Irish, A Social History remains the definitive work on this group. Kept in print by the University of North Carolina, it belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who has Scotch-Irish (or Scots-Irish) ancestors, or who has an interest in the various streams of people who contributed to the American experience.

The book is divided into three sections.

The first examines the Scotch-Irish in their original home in Scotland, before they added an Irish component to their identity.

The second section treats of their removal to Ireland and the events and influences that shaped them during their stay in that country.

The third section describes their migrations to America and their dispersal into and through the backcountry, particularly Pennsylvania and the states of the South.

Leyburn tells an enthralling story, one which had not been fully or accurately told before the publication of this seminal work. No history of the settling of America would be complete that did not draw upon its insights into the people now known to us as the Scotch-Irish.

The Scotch-Irish; A Social History is published by The University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; ISBN # 0-8078-4259-1.

H. Tim Sevets is books editor for the Solid Gold Info Writers Consortium, where he specializes in objective reviews of the top money-making reports available over the Web. Recently, he reviewed an e-book that claims to show how to make money by tearing up old books and magazines and selling them on eBay. Read his opinion at http://www.solid-gold.info/tear-up-old-books-sell-ebay.html.

Scotch-Irish: A Social History

A Visit to Mike's Radio World On the Web

2007-03-04T18:45:00.000-08:00

By Stefan Smith

Oh, hi. Excuse me while I take off these headphones. I was just away in Key West, listening to Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl" on the radio.

Actually, my body was sitting here in my home in North Carolina. But I decided it would be neat to listen to a Key West station while imagining the tourists congregating for the famous sunset-watching ritual. Who knows, some of them might be standing there listening to the very same radio station while gazing at that big orange fireball sinking beneath the horizon.

I found the live streaming audio of that Key West radio station on Mike's Radio World (www.mikesradioworld.com), perhaps the least flashy yet most useful radio guide Web site I have yet to come across.

"Mike" is Mike Dean, according to the scanty information available, and beyond that there's not much about him. His site is frankly amateurish looking, with layout and (minimal) graphics that appear to be straight out of the 1990s. (Based on the visitor counter displayed there, the site has existed at least since May, 2001.)

Despite such "deficiencies"--or perhaps because of them--Mike's Radio World is an excellent resource for those looking for live Internet radio streams from around the world. It's simple, straightforward and to the point without frills or fluff--not even any ads that I can see.

Mike's Radio World calls itself "Your global Internet radio guide," and with good reason. It contains links to more than 3,000 live radio streams, categorized by genre and then again by world region, followed by the country. The listing for each station includes two links, one to the station's Web site and the other to the live audio stream. If the user happens not to have the correct media player software on his or her system to play a particular stream, Mike has conveniently included a button for downloading it.

You could spend a lot of time roaming the world on this site and never listen to more than a fraction of the radio stations that are included in the 3,000+ directory. It would be fun to try, though.

Mike's Radio World is a throwback to the days when enthusiastic amateurs created Web sites on their favorite topics for the sheer love it, and not with the idea that they would make a ton of money from it. It does one thing and does it exceptionally well--provides a well-organized, easily navigable collection of live links to live radio streams for the radio junkies of the world.

Thank you, Mike!

Stefan Smith is a radio and music junkie who writes on these and other subjects for the Solid Gold Info Writers Consortium. Recently, he has written an extensive review of new software that anyone can use to capture music audio streams from Internet radio broadcasts and break them up into individual mp3 song files--a legal way to download virtually free music. Read the review at: http://www.solid-gold.info/radio2mp3.html

The AdSense Code: A Book Review

2007-03-04T18:39:00.000-08:00

By H. Tim Sevets

AdSense is one of the easiest ways for the Internet marketing newbie to start making some online income. It is also one of the hardest ways for most people to make a lot of money.

(AdSense refers to those little Google ads that appear on millions of web pages. If you have a web site, even a simple blog, you can get a code from Google that will enable similar ads to show up on your pages. Then, every time someone clicks on one of those ads, Google will pay you a few cents.)

Joel Comm is an acknowledged authority on AdSense, having built an online empire of web pages that provide him with an ongoing living, and a quite comfortable one at that, largely through the income he earns from ad clicks. Anyone wanting to learn how to get started at building their own AdSense empire, and do it right, needs to get hold of Comm's book on the subject, The AdSense Code; A Strategy.

According to Comm, there are some people who receive checks each month from Google in the $10,000 range, while untold numbers of others are regularly generating significant extra income with AdSense.

The AdSense Code reveals all of Comm's own strategies and hard-learned tricks for maximizing income from people clicking those little ads. For example, where you place your ads and what colors you choose to display them in can make the difference between a successful AdSense site and a dud.

There's a lot here, too, on how to get visitors to your site in the first place, so they have a chance to click on the ads. There's also vital information on the often-overlooked necessity of tracking visitors and ad responses, and how to do this so you know exactly what works and what doesn't – allowing you to tweak your ads and your web page accordingly.

The AdSense Code covers all the basics of this fascinating but often frustrating income niche, and then some. Before you paste your first AdSense block on your first web page, you need to read this book. Even if you're an AdSense veteran, you stand to pick up a new trick or two you hadn't thought of before.

The AdSense Code; A Strategy is published by Morgan-James Publishing of Garden City, New Jersey; ISBN # 1-933596-70-8.

The AdSense Code: What Google Never Told You About Making Money with AdSense

Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle (A Review)

2007-03-04T18:29:00.000-08:00

By Denny Waldarmo

To be honest, the red flags were flying when I first saw the ad for this e-book.

I'm a born skeptic, especially on the subject of weight loss and muscle building. I've seen too many "gurus" in this field come and go.

The claims seemed over the top: "Turbo-charge Your metabolism, gain muscle, burn off body fat and develop unstoppable motivation ... Guaranteed!"

Yeah, right. In my own weight training career, I've learned that people differ tremendously ... in genetics, in body type, in goals and desires, in plain old stick-to-it-iveness.

How dare this guy, Tom Venuto, claim he can guarantee to help anyone get leaner, faster than they ever thought possible?

Then I learned something that blew me away: Burn The Fat, Feed The Muscle is the best selling fitness e-book in the history of the Internet.

Maybe the guy was just a genius at marketing. But maybe ... just maybe ... he was really delivering on those promises. There was some reason his e-book was selling like the proverbial hotcakes.

So I checked out Tom Venuto, checked out his system, checked out his customers' results.

Turns out, thousands of men and women of every age really are burning off body fat by following his program. Fat--not muscle or water weight. And, they're doing it naturally, without supplements, pills, or the latest weird exercise gizmo being hawked on late-night TV.

Venuto is a natural bodybuilder who believes in a common-sense approach to trimming off fat and building muscle. He doesn't go for gimmicks, because in the long run, gimmicks don't work.

Burn The Fat is not just another diet program. It's better described as a fat loss Bible. It is, simply, the most complete, detailed and precise guide to fat loss you'll ever read. (Click here if you want to see Venuto's own web site before reading further.)

What makes it so different from other weight loss and body building books and programs?

First, it's not a "weight loss" but a "fat loss" program. This may seem like splitting hairs, but once you've read just the first three chapters, there will be no doubt in your mind that pursuing "weight loss" is not only the wrong goal, it may be the reason you've failed to reach and maintain your ideal body weight.

Burn The Fat shows you why it's fat you must lose, not "weight" (which includes muscle, water and other lean tissue) and then goes on to show you exactly how to do it.

Second, what also makes Burn The Fat different is the thorough attention Venuto gives to every element of successful, healthy, and permanent fat loss.

Burn The Fat not only dispels the lies, myths and fallacies in this field, it is the most detailed book about fat loss ever written, in my opinion.

By reading Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, (or better yet, studying it attentively), you will learn more about fat loss than you would from an entire year of nutrition classes or from a whole shelf of maintstream diet publications at your neighborhood bookstore.

If you're wondering if this is just some low-carb or high-protein diet, the answer is no. That's because with the information in this book, you will easily be able to determine your own ideal protein, carbs and fats ratio.

This personalized approach--so unlike the "one size fits all" formulas in the latest fad diet books--makes sense. Each of us is a unique individual, and no two people are exactly alike in terms of body physiology and personal goals.

Speaking of goals ... I loved the very first chapter of Tom Venuto's book. It's on goal setting, and is incredibly powerful.

That first chapter will give you what may be the ultimate secret to burning fat and getting in shape... and it has nothing to do with diets, supplements or training programs. Trust me on this.

The rest of the book teaches the complete mechanics of fat loss and muscle building, explained on both a scientific and a practical level. You can easily apply the practical advice to your own daily life in terms of what to eat and how to exercise for maximum, permanent results.

Who is Tom Venuto anyway? For starters, he's been bodybuilding for about 25 years and competing for most of them.

Furthermore, he's worked in the fitness industry as a personal trainer, health club manager, nutritionist, motivation coach and writer.

I mentioned that Venuto is a "natural" bodybuilder. What does this mean? It means he has never used steroids or any other illegal or questionable physique enhancing drugs--ever. This is important to me and should be to you, too.

As he says: "You can achieve amazing results on this program without ever taking drugs - and I'm living proof!"

If I have one criticism of Burn The Fat, it's that it contains so much information that some readers could find it nearly overwhelming. Nevertheless, it's worth the effort not to skip any part of it, because this could easily be the last book you will ever need to buy on the subject.

Will you benefit from this e-book?

Only you can answer that after reading the additional information at Venuto's web site as well as my remarks here.

Personally, I think this book is absolutely essential for body builders and anyone who is into weight training. You can bet I'll definitely be urging my own clients to grab it.

See, if you're looking to begin weight training at home, or at the gym; if you've been at it a while and are looking for some new weight training tips; and especially if you've taken up weight training to lose weight, this book will give you all the information you need.

But anyone who needs to lose weight will benefit greatly from it, too.

Venuto teaches the system that fitness models and bodybuilders use to reach single digit body fat levels and achieve rock-hard muscle definition that makes them look like "walking anatomy charts."

But it doesn't matter if those are goals that you aspire to or not.

The principles are the same whether you want to lose 10 or 100 pounds; whether you want to be 13% or 3% body fat; whether you want to compete in a bodybuilding or fitness show or you just want to look good on the beach.

I think Venuto's shooting straight with his claim that if you diligently apply the techniques in Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle, "you can literally choose any body you want."

One caution: You will find no "30 lbs. in 30 days" miracle being touted here. It's all about intelligent eating choices, planning, hard work and lifestyle.

"Burn the Fat is simple, but it's not easy," Venuto advises. That's honesty, friends. Another reason I've come to like this guy and his no-nonsense approach.

A word about the format of this program. Burn The Fat is an e-book--clean and professionally laid out, in the popular PDF format.

Admittedly, it's a little on the plain side, being just text, but that makes it ideal for printing and reading in the comfort of a favorite chair. (Because of it's size, it does require a robust printer and a good stack of paper!)

A few people might consider Burn The Fat a pricey because $39 seems like a fair chunk of money for an e-book download. However, after they see the sheer amount of information contained in its 340 pages -- not to mention the bonus e-books and reports that come with it -- almost everyone will agree that it is worth many times its price.

As with any how-to publication, you're paying for what the information can do for you, and clearly, Venuto's system has changed many lives. The hundreds of testimonials and success stories found on the Burn The Fat web site are proof of that.

The bottom line?

Anyone looking for a quick fix solution to fat loss, anyone eager to be told fairy tales, and anyone looking for a "magic bullet" offered by the likes of body wraps, fat burning pills, diet shakes, or "fat-burning" creams is best advised to steer clear of Burn The Fat.

On the other hand, if you're tired of spinning your wheels and going nowhere, and want the truth about losing fat and putting on muscle and are ready and willing to put in the work and discipline necessary to gain a fat free body, you will find Burn The Fat to be one of the best investments you've ever made.

Click here to learn more about Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat.

Lonely Planet's Guatemala: A Book Review

2007-03-04T18:10:00.000-08:00

By H. Tim Sevets

When my family and I visited Guatemala a couple of years ago, we took along two guidebooks to that beautiful and fascinating Central American land. One of them was Lonely Planet's Guatemala, and it turned out to be the one we referred to most often.

When the first Lonely Planet travel guides were written, they were aimed more directly at backpackers and budget travelers than at the more well-heeled tourists catered to by other travel publishers. That spirit of independent adventure travel still pervades the Lonely Planet series, but most of their books, including this one, are sophisticated and comprehensive enough to be useful to anyone of any age or budget who wants to learn about the country in question.

Most readers of Guatemala will find themselves repeatedly thumbing to the chapters on specific regions and towns, searching out restaurant and lodging recommendations or looking up admission fees and hours for museums and other attractions. Back in the hotel room, though, or back home after the trip, they will likely find themselves browsing the sections on the history and culture of the country and the people they encountered there. These background sections are well-written without descending into textbook-ese, and will add depth to the experience of visiting Guatemala.

Lonely Planet's Guatemala is chock full of the requisite maps, the town and city street plans being particularly useful. A nice selection of color photographs helps bring the vibrancy of Guatemala and its culture to vivid life.

True to its backpacker roots, the book includes many recommended hikes, both in and around cities as well as up mountains and volcanoes, through jungles and around lakes. Outdoor activities in general get a fair amount of attention in this guide.

There are reference sections on such essentials as exchanging money, finding a doctor, using the telephone system, and so forth. And, there is due attention to what the book likes to call "annoyances" — such as being robbed or coming down with a tropical fever. The authors are careful to note areas deemed unsafe due to crime or other dangers; it is up to the reader whether or not to avoid such areas, knowing the risks.

Guatemala was written by John Noble and Susan Forsyth, both of them seasoned travelers in Central America.

Guatemala is published by Lonely Planet Publications of Australia, the U.S., the U.K. and France; ISBN # 1-74059-293-X.

Lonely Planet Guatemala

AdSense and Video Sites: A New Way to Make Money

2007-03-03T11:00:00.000-08:00

By Stefan Smith

The popularity of video on the Web these days opens up new ways to profit from Google AdSense.

I assume you know what Google AdSense is. If not, AdSense refers to those little Google ads that you see on many Web pages. If you have a Web site, you can sign up for an AdSense account and have similar ads appear on your own pages. When someone clicks one of those ads, you get a part of the money Google charges the advertiser for displaying that ad.

The advent of wildly popular video sites such as YouTube and Google Videos offers a new way to profit off of this idea. That's thanks to the little snippets of code these sites provide that you can copy and paste onto your own site to make their videos appear on your pages. It's really pretty neat. The code embeds a video player right into your page; your visitors can enjoy then your favorite clips without leaving your site.

You can make money off this by adding AdSense ads to your video pages. This is the same as adding AdSense to any other kind of Web page, only in this case you have much of your content already provided to you, for free, from YouTube or Google Videos. To make it easiest of all, just create your video site in a blogging tool such as Blogger or WordPress, both of which accept the embedded code used by the major video sites.

Of course, you should add some commentary of your own to your video pages. You want to give your visitors added value over what they would find if they went directly to the original video site. This will make your pages more acceptable to the search engines, as well.

Do you remember that wild "Numa Numa" song craze that was going on awhile back? It was based on a Romanian pop song with an incredibly catchy tune. People by the hundreds started making and uploading videos of themselves lip-synching and dancing to it. Anyway, just for a lark, I created a blog dedicated to this craze and embedded what I considered the best or most interesting "Numa Numa" videos. Then, I would make comments on them.

That "Numa Numa" blog got a fair amount of visitors, and I made a little money off of people who clicked on my AdSense ads. But, I could never boost traffic high enough to make anywhere close to what I had hoped for.

Now, though, a new development in regard to Web video and AdSense has me really excited. It's Web sites where hundreds of people are posting videos--again, using the code from YouTube or Google Videos--and sharing in the AdSense revenue that the site owner is taking in.

One such multi-poster video site is called VideoSense. It's free to join, and very easy to learn to use. Basically, you just embed as many videos as you like and then share their URLs with friends or with the world. When people go to your video pages on VideoSense, and click the ads with your AdSense code in them, you earn revenue.

It's too early to know if this will make a lot of money for anyone. But I predict that those who get in near the start will be in the best position to profit significantly.

Stefan Smith writes on entertainment and make-money-at-home subjects as a member of the Solid Gold Info Writers Consortium. His assessment of profit-sharing video sites is available at his "Make Money by Sharing Videos" review page.

For Real Reality, Tune In To Live Police Radio

2007-03-03T10:54:00.000-08:00

By Stefan Smith

Today's so-called reality shows are too staged for my taste. Their contrived situations and semi-scripted actions actually render them somewhat less than real.

For unvarnished reality, try listening to a police scanner. You'll hear real cops answering real crime calls. You'll hear police officers as they head into potentially dangerous situations. You'll hear police dispatchers as they try to keep up with everything from fender benders to shootings--all in a standard night's work for many police departments.

When the first police scanners came out, my mother bought one so she could hear what was happening in her city, and especially to hear if anything bad was being reported in her own neighborhood.

I remember coming in late at night from a date to find her sitting at the kitchen table with the scanner going. Naturally, she had been worrying about where I was and listening to hear if there had been any wrecks.

When my brother became a policeman, my mother really had something to worry about--and an excuse to listen to the police radio day in and day out.

Police scanners are not just for professional worriers, though. Many people listen to them as a hobby. Newspaper, radio and TV reporters listen to them in order to get the first word of a major crime or accident so they can get to the scene quickly.

Nowadays, you don't even need a police scanner to hear police calls in many cities. There are hundreds of live police radio feeds being streamed over the Internet. There are also fire department radio feeds as well. All you do is click a link for the city of your choice and start listening.

Tonight, I listened for about an hour to the live police feed from my hometown, a medium-sized city with a normal share of crime and other human conflict. During that hour, I heard police answer calls to respond to an assault, a stolen car, an attempted home break-in, and someone who was threatening her neighbor with a knife.

A number of Web sites exist that have links to police scanners across the United States. Two good ones are policescan.us and police-scanner.info.

Policescan.us has more scanner links--fire as well as police--but it is disorganized and, to be frank, pretty junky looking. Nevertheless, it's worth a visit just for the sheer number of scanner feeds available.

Police-scanner.info is also a rather cluttered site, but its scanner list is much neater and better organized. As the list is arranged by state, it's easier to find a particular town's or city's police radio link.

One tip if you want to get the most out of listening to live police radio: Learn the 10-codes! Police use special codes over the radio. Many of the most common ones start with "10." You're undoubtedly familiar with "10-4," meaning "I copied (heard) you." But what about "10-12" or "10-19?" If you don't know the codes, or have a list of them near to hand, you won't always know what is happening.

Below are some of the most common 10-codes, but there are others. There are also other sets of codes, used by some police departments, that do not begin with "10," or any number for that matter. For example, in some cities you might hear a dispatcher tell a police officer to respond to an "ADW," that is, an assault with a deadly weapon.

10-7 Officer is out of service
10-8 Officer is in service and available for assignment
10-9 Repeat last transmission, please
10-12 Visitors or officials are present, so be discreet
10-15 Prisoner is in custody
10-19 Returning to the station
10-22 Disregard your last assignment
10-24 There's an emergency at the station; all vehicles return now
10-27 Driver's license check
10-32 Drowning
10-33 Alarm sounding
10-34 Please assist at office
10-43 Call a doctor
10-50 Subject is under the influence of narcotics
10-51 Subject is drunk
10-54 Possible dead body
10-56 Suicide
10-64 Found property
10-66 Suspicious person reported
10-67 Someone is calling for help
10-70 Prowler
10-71 Shooting
10-72 Knifing
10-79 Bomb threat
10-80 Explosion
10-91 Barking dog

Stefan Smith is a radio junkie who writes on this and related subjects for the Solid Gold Info Writers Consortium. Recently, he has written an extensive review of new software that anyone can use to capture music audio streams from Internet radio broadcasts and break them up into individual mp3 song files--a legal way to download virtually free music. Read the review at: http://www.solid-gold.info/radio2mp3.html

The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power: A Book Review

2007-03-03T10:51:00.000-08:00

By H. Tim Sevets

Vernon Howard was one of the top authors on mind power and spiritual self-help of the mid to late 20th century. He is gone now but his copious writings live on, kept in print now by his devoted followers, especially those associated with the Arizona-based New Life Foundation.

I first discovered Howard through a short booklet that fell into my hands many years ago, titled Your Power to Say No. The style of writing, as well as the message, immediately grabbed me. It was clear, to-the-point and mercifully free of the esoteric (read "airy fairy") language that clutters so much of the writing in the spiritual self-help field. Howard was a guru without guru pretensions.

Since that first little booklet, I have avidly sought ought his book-length writings. Each one is different; while Howard's core message about mental self-reliance and spiritual self-empowerment remained the same, the way he presented it changed with each new book. My favorite of his – and I'm guessing it's his all-time best seller – is The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power.

The only thing I dislike about Mystic Path is the title itself, which perhaps was forced on Howard by a publisher. It's a little too cheesy for my taste, and, worse, it does not reflect Howard's own style of writing. Nevertheless, that's a minor quibble.

The book itself offers a wealth of practical suggestions for waking up (spiritually speaking), feeling great every minute of one's life, curing fear and tension, becoming an entirely new person, smashing barriers and speeding ahead toward achieving one's true goals. Howard is a master of the illustrative anecdote and the perfect metaphor, and he uses them liberally to drive home his advice.

The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power was first published in 1967. Still in print, it is as fresh and as powerful today as it was then. If you decide to seek out and read only one of Vernon Howard's books, make it this one.

The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power is published by New Life Foundation of Pine, Arizona; ISBN # 0-901203-93-1.

The Mystic Path to Cosmic Power

Amo, Amas, Amat and More: A Book Review

2007-03-03T10:49:00.000-08:00

By H. Tim Sevets

The other day at a staff meeting, one of my co-workers was talking about a project that had gone badly off the rails. "Per angusta ad augusta," I said as he concluded his tale of woe. Everyone looked at me — uncomprehendingly, of course. "You know … through difficulties to honors," I said.

Now, I am definitely no Latin scholar, but I do arrive at staff meetings armed with several memorized phrases from the ancient tongue, ready to whip them out whenever the occasion permits. My source? It’s a breezy little tome titled, Amo, Amas, Amat and More; How to Use Latin to Your Own Advantage and to the Astonishment of Others. Its author is Eugene Ehrlich, a renowned dictionary editor and contributor to other books about words.

The book is straightforwardly presented, with the Latin phrases given in alphabetical order. Each entry consists of the phrase followed by a phonetic rendering to assist in pronunciation, then its English translation and finally, in most instances, an explanatory paragraph to help elucidate the more mysterious of the offerings.

One aspect of Amo, Amas, Amat that is particularly helpful is that the author will occasionally translate a phrase using an equivalent English expression that might not be a word-for-word rendering (although he does provide the exact translation in the follow-up paragraph).

An example: "Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus" is translated as "You can’t win 'em all," but a more precise rendering would be, "Sometimes even good Homer dozes." Ehrlich offers the history behind this phrase, which helps us to understand why our common expression about not being able to "win 'em all" is indeed a good way to translate the Latin in this case.

Amo, Amas, Amat includes an introduction by William F. Buckley, Jr., as well as an index to the English translations, which makes for a nice cross-reference.

Amo, Amas, Amat was published by Harper & Row Publishers of New York; ISBN # 0-06-181249-8.

H. Tim Sevets is books editor for the Solid Gold Info Writers Consortium, where he specializes in objective reviews of the top money-making reports sold over the Web. Recently, he reviewed an e-book that claims to show how to make money by tearing up old books and magazines and selling them on eBay. Read his opinion at http://www.solid-gold.info/tear-up-old-books-sell-ebay.html.

AMO AMAS AMAT & MORE (Hudson Group Books)

The Little Book That Beats the Market: A Book Review

2007-03-03T10:44:00.000-08:00

By H. Tim Sevets

Joel Greenblatt's The Little Book That Beats the Market may be the last investment book you will ever need to read.

If only I had had this book when I was in my twenties. Quite honestly, I do believe I would be a millionaire by now – perhaps several times over. As it is, by applying its principles I am seeing my stock market wealth grow faster and more steadily than it ever has before, and I am confident of having a quite comfortable retirement as a result.

Greenblatt is a successful hedge fund manager and professor. He runs an investment firm that has averaged 40 percent annual returns for more than two decades. In this book, he teaches how anyone can match or exceed such returns in a personal stock account.The Little Book … is an extended discussion of what Greenblatt calls his "magic formula" for investing. This formula is nothing particularly exotic, nor will it seem strikingly new to seasoned investors or business analysts.

At heart, Greenblatt's formula is simply an effective method for identifying companies whose shares are currently trading at a large discount to actual value. The idea is to buy several of those companies, wait for them rise to their true value, sell them, and then start the process over with a new set of stocks.

In practice (as my own experience has taught me), not all stocks identified through this formula will go up, but over time enough of them will do so to produce rich rewards for those with patience.

Although the book is a little dry in places, for the most part Greenblatt is an uncommonly engaging writer for the field he is in. His chapters explaining basic economics as applied to business are downright entertaining. This book would be perfect to place in the hands of college students and bright high school students to motivate them to begin building a solid financial future at an early age.

Helpfully, Greenblatt also has a web site which anyone may use free of charge to acquire a list of current "magic formula" stocks. In the final pages of the book he directs readers to that site, where most of the work of applying the formula has already been done for them.

Quite simply, The Little Book That Beats the Market works. Read it to start building wealth today.

The Little Book That Beats the Market is published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. of Hoboken, New Jersey; ISBN # 0-471-73306-7.

The Little Book That Beats the Market

The Waterlover's Guide to Marine Medicine: A Book Review

2007-03-03T10:36:00.000-08:00

By H. Tim Sevets

Medical emergencies can be harrowing no matter where they occur. When they happen on a boat or ship, many miles and days or weeks from hospitals and doctors, they can be especially distressful. Add to this the fact that some of the types of accidents seen at sea are rarely encountered by landlubbers, and you understand the need for a book such as The Waterlover's Guide to Marine Medicine.

Subtitled How to Identify and Treat Aquatic Ailments and Injuries, and written by a doctor, Paul G. Gill, Jr., the book deals with hypothermia and cold-water immersion, seasickness, jellyfish stings, sunburn and near-drowning, among other emergencies.

Much of the text is good basic First Aid, such as how to give CPR or apply a tourniquet. But it also ranges into areas a bit more exotic, such as recognizing the symptoms of fish poisoning and avoiding shark attacks.

The Waterlover's Guide to Marine Medicine bills itself as "the essential shipboard medicine chest," and that is a good description. The author, in addition to being a physician, is someone who also loves to sail and has spent many years doing so. He therefore knows whereof he writes.

The text is supplemented by line drawings where words alone might not suffice, for example, in showing how to make a sling for a broken arm or how to remove a fishhook from a finger. This is one book that no sailor or other boatperson should leave port without.

The Waterlover's Guide to Marine Medicine is a Fireside Book published by Simon & Schuster of New York; ISBN # 0-671-79452-3.

Spanish Courses - Interesting Spanish Facts

2007-03-02T05:19:00.000-08:00

By Steve Smith

Thinking of taking a Spanish course? Here are some interesting facts about Spanish that you might like to know:

Spanish (español) is classed i a Romance language, so-called because it is part of the lange family descended from Latin (the language of the ancient Romans).

Spanish is the fourth most widely spoken language in the world. Taking a course or classes in Spanish makes a lot of sense!

Portuguese speakers can read Spanish, and Spanish speakers can read Portuguese, though they often cannot understand one another's spoken speech.

The first Latin to Spanish dictionary (Gramática de la Lengua Castellana) appeared in Spain in 1492. In some ways it might be considered the first "Spanish course" as well.

Spanish is used as an official languages of both the United Nations and the European Union.

The country with the largest population of Spanish speakers is Mexico.

The country with the fifth-largest population of Spanish speakers (after Mexico, Colombia, Spain and Argentina) is the United States. By taking a good Spanish course, the English speakers of the U.S. can better communicate with the growing community of Spanish-speaking persons.

Spanish is the native language of about half of the population of the little nation of Belize, although it has no official recognition in that country. The official language of Belize is English.

Spanish holds co-official language status (alongside English) in the U.S. state of New Mexico.

Ladino is an older form of Spanish that survives among ephardic Jews. For that reason, scholars sometimes refer to it as Judæo-Spanish.

Portuñol is the name given to a mixed language of Portuguese and Spanish, spoken in towns on the border between Brazil and Uruguay.

In Gibraltar, you may hear people speaking Yanito (or llanito), a mixed English-Spanish language.

Spanish has three second-person singular pronouns: tú, usted, and in some places, vos As a general rule, tú and vos are informal and used with friends. Usted is formal, used as a mark of
respect when addressing one's elders or strangers. Although such rules may sound complex to non-native speakers, good Spanish courses make these concepts simple to understand.

Vosotros is the plural form of tú in Spain, although in Latin America it is replaced with ustedes.

Spanish is a relatively inflected language, has a two-gender system, about 50 conjugated forms per verb, and a subject-verb-object sentence structure (although this can vary). Again, don't worry if this seems a bit confusing. If you're studying--or considering studying--Spanish from a course or from classes, mastering these aspects of the language will soon become second nature to you.

One of the two or three best Spanish courses, in my opinion, is Learning Spanish Like Crazy. Of the many courses available that promise to teach you to speak fluent Spanish rapidly, it is one of two that get my highest recommendation.

Technorati Tags: spanish, spanish language, ladino, llanito, Yanito, learning Spanish, Spain, Latin America, Gibralter, languages, trivia, grammar, culture , Spanish courses , Spanish classes

Barron's Spanish Bilingual Dictionary: A Book Review

2007-03-02T04:54:00.000-08:00

By H. Tim Sevets

Go to the language learning section of any large bookstore and you will find Spanish dictionaries galore, along with dozens if not hundreds of Spanish instructional books, tapes, CDs, DVDs, flash cards and more. The choice is almost overwhelming.

Among dictionaries for people who are trying to learn Spanish, a handful rise to the top. One of the best is Barron's Spanish Bilingual Dictionary; A Beginner's Guide in Words and Pictures by Gladys C. Lipton and Olivia Muñoz.

This is a two-way dictionary (English to Spanish and Spanish to English) focusing on approximately 1,400 words in each language. It is said that the casual traveler can get along quite well knowing around a thousand words in a host country's language, if they're the right words and if he knows how to assemble them to express basic thoughts. Barron's Spanish Bilingual Dictionary might be all one needs, in addition to a phrase book, for negotiating the streets of Mexico City or Buenos Aires.

Each entry in this dictionary not only gives the word's translation in the opposite language, but also uses it in a sentence – which is presented in both English and Spanish. Many of the words are also illustrated with simple line drawings.

A couple of years ago, my wife, then-9-year-old daughter and I traveled to Guatemala on a family vacation that included several hours of Spanish language learning each morning. Before the trip we picked out dictionaries for taking to class. We bought this one for our daughter because it most resembled a children's dictionary. After a couple of days of instruction, though, I began envying her and wished I had a copy of my own. Whenever I had a chance to refer to it, I often found that I preferred its definitions and illustrative sentences to those in my "grown-up," more comprehensive Spanish dictionary.

The strength of Barron's Spanish Bilingual Dictionary – its limited word list -- is also its weakness, though. If you travel much in Spanish-speaking countries, especially if you take language instruction, you will inevitably encounter words that are not to be found here. My advice is to pack this dictionary along with a more complete one, and you will be all set for whatever language adventures await you.

Barron's Spanish Bilingual Dictionary is published by Barron's Educational Series, Inc.; ISBN # 0-7641-0281-8.

Diccionario para principiantes español/inglés - inglés/español: Barron's Spanish Bilingual Dictionary

The Joy of Fast Food Restaurant Recipes

2007-03-02T04:37:00.000-08:00

By Sarah Sandori

Love it or hate it, fast food is embedded in American dining culture. Fast food restaurants cater to our modern need for convenience, cheapness and a "no surprises" experience.

While it is fashionable to sneer at them, if pressed many of us would confess to really liking at least some of the menu items offered by the major chain fast-food restaurants. Most kids love those places, as you probably know if you have youngsters. Children wield a lot of influence with parents looking for a place to eat that will satisfy everyone in the family; hence the great effort on the part of fast food restaurants to market special meals and toys to the younger set.

The fact that half of the food ordered at fast food places now takes place via the drive-up window should tell you all you need to know about the success of this type of restaurant. We Americans practically live in our cars, so if we're eating a large part of our meals behind the wheel, you know this is one marriage (cars + food) that really will be "'til death do us part."

If you're one of those who resorts to this type of fare only grudgingly, or because the kids are bugging you for it, you might be surprised to learn that there are fast-food aficiandos among us who positively love fast food. Usually, they have one particular fast food chain that they adore, and one or two specific menu items that they crave several times a week.

If you happen to be one of these fast-food conoisseurs--or you know someone who is--the good news is that it's easy to obtain the recipe for that "gotta-have-it" menu item. You can then make the favored dish at home, saving you at least a few trips to the drive-through. (Of course, you'll miss out on having the burger or burrito or whatever come nicely enveloped in the restaurant's logo-printed wrapping paper, but you can't have everything.)

Recipes for many of the world's favorite fast-food items can be found by doing a web search for them. Or, you can purchase one of the books of "secret" restaurant recipes available in most of the big bookstores. Conveniently downloadable ebooks, filled with such recipes, are also readily to be found.

One tip: As the name implies, fast food tends to be eaten on the run. But if you decide to make your favorite fast-food meal at home, try slowing down and enjoying it at a more leisurely pace. "Slow fast food" -- now there's a concept.

Sarah Sandori is the food and entertaining columnist for the Solid Gold Info Writers Consortium. Have you ever wanted to be able to exactly duplicate a favorite dish from a favorite restaurant? Check out Sarah's article where she reveals her source for the most mouth-watering secret restaurant recipes in America: http://www.solid-gold.info/most-wanted-recipes.html

The Web Radio Revolution Is Now

2007-03-02T04:34:00.000-08:00

By Stefan Smith

Have you listened to web radio lately?

A lot of folks still don't know what web radio is. Let's note first of all that it is not the same thing as podcasting, although the two are often confused. Without going into the technicalities, web radio uses streaming audio to create a "live," ongoing broadcast such as you would hear from a regular radio station. Podcasting involves the creation of individual recordings which people can download for listening at a later time, either on their computer or on an MP3 player such as an iPod.

For a long time web radio was plagued by problems. Sound quality was usually poor. Because of the bandwidth required, many web radio stations were severely limited in the number of people they permitted to listen at any one time--in some cases, this could be as few as a half dozen! The number and variety of stations were quite limited, as well.

Happily, most of those early limitations have been resolved. The web radio scene today presents a wonderful smorgasbord of musical variety, an incredible array of genres to suit all tastes, and a quality that often matches high-end stereo for the ability to produce a satisfying listening experience.

Although web radio's primary audiences remain office workers and college students, more and more people are discovering this neat entertainment source. One study in the UK reported an 84% increase in internet radio listening hours for the most recent year. Another study said web radio attracts 52 million listeners during a typical month.

Web radio is free to listen to, for the most part, and the software one needs to take advantage of it is free as well. Player software such as WinAmp or iTunes not only sends the music to your computer speakers, it also generally includes a directory of radio channels--just click on your choice and play. The directory will almost always be arranged by genres, some of the more popular being blues, oldies, rock, psychedelia, easy listening, country, trance or electronic, country, reggae, world music and hip hop. The diversity truly is astounding: the other day I ran across a web radio station devoted exclusively to Hawaiian and polka music!

Web radio is also a good place to go for people who are homesick for their old hometown station. In addition to the web-only stations, many regular radio stations nowadays offer their audio over the Internet, too. As long as you have a computer and Internet connection (preferably a high-speed one), you can be anywhere in the world and still enjoy your favorite music--or hometown news and traffic reports, for that matter.

When it comes to web radio, the revolution truly is happening now.

Stefan Smith is a radio and music junkie who writes for the Solid Gold Info Writers Consortium. Recently, he has written an extensive review of new software anyone may use to capture music audio streams from Internet radio broadcasts and break them up into individual mp3 song files--a legal way to download free music. Read about it at: http://www.solid-gold.info/radio2mp3.html.

Weight Training for Seniors

2007-03-01T18:30:00.000-08:00

By Denny Waldarmo

One of the most amazing men I ever met used to work out in the same gym that I used when I lived in Florida. When I first saw him, I figured his age to be late 50s ... perhaps 60, tops. I was astounded one day to learn that he was 73.

His face was that of a man in his 50s, but his body was that of a 30-something. He could lift heavier weights than most men in that gym who were half his age. And whenever he started swinging around on the parallel bars, people would stare in wonder and admiration.

This was a guy, I was sure, who had been working out since he was a teenager. I assumed he had been a competitive athlete of some kind when he was younger, perhaps even an Olympian.

I was flabbergasted, therefore, when this gentleman explained to me that he had only started working out when he turned 55. Until then he had led a completely sedentary life. When he began weight training, he said, he could barely shuffle into the gym, and even lifting the lightest of dumbbells for more than a few repetitions was a strain.

Clearly, this 73-year-old could serve as a spokesmodel for the power of weight training to remake a person beginning at any age.

Perhaps you cannot imagine yourself, or your parents if they are seniors, ever achieving a fraction of what my gym mate had accomplished in terms of building strength and muscle. True, he was exceptional. But remember, he started at about the same place that you might be now. He started slowly, built gradually and -- most important of all -- stuck with it.

My advice to someone beginning weight training in their 50s, 60s or 70s is basically the same as it would be for anyone. Start out easy. Buy some inexpensive dumbbells and perhaps an exercise bench to use in your home. Normally I suggest getting a pair of 10-pound weights and a pair of 15-pounders. But if these seem a bit much for you at first, don't be ashamed to start out lighter. You can move up to heavier weights when you've built up your strength.

As for which weight lifting routines are best suited for seniors, there's no one prescription that will meet everyone's needs and individual situation.

You may have heard it said that as we get older, our legs are the "first to go." There's some truth to that. So, you might want to concentrate on exercises that work your legs, especially at the beginning. Squats are good. Books on weight training show people doing them with barbells or dumbbells resting on their shoulders. You can do squats without any weights at all, though, if you like--you'll still be building leg muscles.

Speaking of weight training books, skip those that are targeted specifically to seniors. Too many of them treat their audience as nincompoops or assume that older people should set low fitness targets for themselves.

Instead, I recommend obtaining a well-illustrated bodybuilding book, even if it looks as though it's pitched to 20-year-olds aspiring to become competitive weight lifters. A book like that won't short-change you by leaving out exercises that might seem difficult at first, but that provide tremendous benefits. There are also some excellent weight training systems available on the Internet, in the form of downloadable e-books.

My advice: Get going now. Whether you're 75 or 25, the main key to effective weight training is simply to start.

Denny Waldarmo is a fitness coach who writes on exercise and diet topics. He is an advocate of weight training, particularly the system taught in "The Truth About Building Muscle." Denny's eye-opening review of this program, which will help anyone seeking to build muscle size and strength, is available on his Web site: http://www.Solid-Gold.info/truth-about-building-muscle.html.

Republication of this article is welcomed and encouraged! If you use it, you must keep this author's informational text with it, including the live link to the author's Web site.

Profits from Your Backyard Herb Garden: A Book Review

2007-03-01T18:06:00.000-08:00

By H. Tim Sevets

Profits from Your Backyard Herb Garden, by Lee Sturdivant, is a simple and straightforward business guide for anyone who likes working with plants and would like to earn a living or at least a side income from it.

Although the book includes advice on growing different kinds of herbs, its main focus is on marketing the products of one's herb garden. This includes sage (sorry!) advice on packaging and labeling, setting prices, and approaching the various kinds of potential customers, such as grocery stores and restaurants. Other advice ranges from bookkeeping to complying with local laws and licensing requirements.

Without a doubt, the most valuable part of the book is its suggestions as to which particular herbs to grow and market. From obviously hard-gained personal experience, the author is in an excellent position to advise novices as to which herbs are in great demand and which ones would be a waste of time to try to sell. Sturdivant pares the "essential" list down to 12, starting with basil: "If you only have room for one herb – make it basil," she writes. The others are dill, French tarragon, mint, oregano, sweet marjoram, French sorrel, rosemary, chives, parsley, thyme and sage.

Profits from Your Backyard Herb Garden also includes some recipes for using the different herbs, and helpful photographs and line drawings of herbs, as well as illustrations of labels and packages as used in this business.

Sturdivant readily cautions that the herb business is not a quick route to becoming a millionaire. But as an enjoyable way to make a hundred or, potentially, several hundred dollars a week, it could easily prove to be the road to business success for quite a few aspiring garden entrepreneurs.

Profits from Your Backyard Herb Garden is published by San Juan Naturals of Friday Harbor, Washington; ISBN # 0-9621635-0-3.

Profits from Your Backyard Herb Garden (First Steps Bootstrap Guide)

The Sedona Method: A Book Review

2007-03-01T18:01:00.000-08:00

By H. Tim Sevets

Who knew self-help could be so easy? The Sedona Method by Hale Dwoskin proves that it doesn't have to be complicated at all.

Hale Dwoskin is the guy behind that "Sedona Method" tape set that you might have seen advertised in the mail or on the Web. The tapes are excellent--though possibly too pricey for many people who could be helped by them--but this book is really all anyone needs to begin practicing this particular method of "letting go," said to be the key to lasting happiness, success and abundance.

In brief, the method taught in this book is a way of dealing with negative emotions at the moment they arise. Most people tend either to suppress such feelings and try to cover them up, or give in to them and become depressed, angry, frustrated or fearful. But there's a third way to deal with them ...simply letting them go, releasing them, allowing them to peacefully float away.

"Easier said than done," was my first reaction to this core Sedona Method idea, but by the end of the first chapter I knew that yes, this could easily be done. Most readers will have a basic grasp of the Sedona Method before they're even a quarter way through the book. After that, it's just a matter of practicing it, constantly, twenty or a hundred times or more a day. And believe me, life presents most of us with at least that many occasions for working on bad feelings.

Ultimately, though, the Sedona Method is not just a shortcut for releasing negativity. It can be used to set and achieve goals, clear the way to greater material prosperity, help to create or strengthen a relationship, break bad habits, improve health, and much more. Since the method itself--which mainly involves asking certain questions of oneself--is so quickly described, the bulk of this nearly 500-pages-long book deals with specific topics such as these, those major "life issues" that most of us struggle with at one time or another.

Self-help and self-improvement books come and go. Because it describes a method that is foundational to virtually any kind of self-work, while appearing to be so simple, I predict that The Sedona Method will become one of the mainstays in a crowded field.

The Sedona Method is published by Sedona Press of Sedona, Arizona; ISBN # 0-9719334-1-3.

The Sedona Method: Your Key to Lasting Happiness, Success, Peace and Emotional Well-Being

Welcome!

2007-03-01T17:43:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Solid Gold Writers blog. This is our first entry.