50 Secrets of a Blissful Relationship/Review

by: Joan Bramsch

When Michael Webb sent me a review copy of his latest book - 50 SECRETS OF BLISSFUL RELATIONSHIPS, What the top 1% of marriages have in common - I knew I'd be able to read it from a "professional" point of view. I have been married to my Bill for 47 years, and the love we have shared throughout the years has been wonder-filled, if not always blissful. And so I read with great interest, Michael's insights.

His advice is sound and filled with great common sense. He uses humor and kindness to get his points across to the reader. Above all else, his outlook on marriage is honest.

50 Secrets Of Blissful Relationships

My Bill has always said that a good relationship of any kind can be described with just one word: Respect. Michael and his wife appear to know this truth, too.

I especially enjoyed his list: You might be mistaken for newlyweds if you...

Here is my response to his list.

Often hold hands in public (always)

Display other proper affection in public: wrapping arms around each oher, casually kiss, gently stroke another's hair from time to time. (when the Spirit moved us we "adored" each other)

Refer to each other with endearing terms (He was "my Bill," always; I was often his "Joan Lois.)

Want to be near each other in social occasions, not as far apart as possible. (We have always been each other's best friend and so we enjoyed one another's company.)

Refrain from insulting one another. (Never... remember that word: Respect. Insulting, fighting "dirty" or arguing achieves nothing but sadness; talking, discussing and reaching decisions together always made more sense to us.)

Comment how beautiful, kind, smart, caring, etc. your mate is to others. (My Bill has been my hero since the first day we met, when I was only 12-years old! He has told me "thank you" for every meal I ever made him in 47 years, and there were literally 1000s, I suppose. He told anyone who'd listen what a good person I am and that I was his Angel.)

Make each other smile or laugh often. (Absolutely always. That's what best friends do, don't they?)

Once, when my Bill was hospitalized I was helping him with whatever he needed. We had no idea there was a nurse on the other side of the curtain as we talked. Smiling, she came to his bed and asked if we were newlyweds. Two, obviously past twenty-one year olds, grinned from ear to ear.

"Nope," replied my Bill. "We'll soon be married 47 years."

Well, the nurse just gasped. "I would have bet you were newlyweds. All that Love Talk and sweet names."

"Did you think this might have been a second marriage for each of us?" I asked.

She nodded. "You're a lucky pair," she said.

"Yes, we are," I agreed, as I glanced over at my beloved and he gave me one of those winks and smiles that still made me go all silly inside.

Do you wonder why I miss him so, now that he has moved on to his Next Adventure?

It takes work to make a good marriage. Two can never take their commitment for granted. Never. Michael Webb and his beloved know that, too. I recommend his book, whole-heartedly.

Please click on the book cover and buy now. Thank you.

Love is wonder-filled. I wish every couple could experience it as my Bill and I have done. It's a Forever kind of thing - our Love.

Respectfully,
Joan Bramsch
http://www.EmpoweredParent.com

JOAN BRAMSCH is a family person, educator, writer and E-publisher. Her articles appear internationally in print and online. Six of her best-selling adult novels - near one million copies - have worldwide distribution. Her Empowered Parenting Ezine serves 1000 parents around the globe. http://www.JoanBramsch.com mailto:hijoan@joanbramsch.com

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10 Ways to Create Huge Income With Your Web Site

by: Dennis Becker

The cost of buying a domain name and arranging hosting for it is dirt cheap anymore, virtually anyone can afford to have their own web site, or several. Learn how to squeeze money out of cyberspace with these revealing tips.

The cost of setting up a web site is dirt cheap nowadays. You can register a domain for less than $2.00 as I write this (for .info domains). Hosting is also very cheap, and getting cheaper all the time.

So why are so many web sites springing up? Obviously somebody's making money besides the hosting companies, so here's some idea starters for you:

1. Sell your own products or services. They should be related to your target audience. You want to be able to take credit cards (at least with PayPal if not otherwise) on your site and deliver your product to your customers as fast as possible.

2. Sell another company's products. There is no shortage of companies willing to drop ship items for you, all you have to do is make the sale and place the order with your fulfillment company, they do all the work, and you profit on the difference between their price and yours. There are ways to avoid the hassles some attribute to drop shippers.

3. If you have enough activity to your site, you can sell advertising space, such as banner, classified, or text ads. Of course you need to have enough traffic coming to your site first, so that people have an incentive to want to gain exposure to your visitors. You might not make a lot from displaying small text or banner ads, but it can easily pay for your hosting fees, and enough more to invest in some software scripts that will make your site that much better.

4. Sign up with Google AdSense or another contextual advertising company, and let them place their ads on your pages. When someone clicks on an ad, you earn money. Some webmasters are making many thousands of dollars a month with Google AdSense.

5. If you have enough web space, you could rent other people web pages. You could also give them away for free and make money by including your Google AdSense ads on their web pages.

6. Charge people a fee (monthly or annual subscription, or a one time fee) to access your web site. People will pay you money for your content if it's valuable to them. This can be ebooks, reports, interviews, software, etc.

If you find a niche market, you can spend some time researching your topic and put all sorts of articles and resources to that niche on your site. Then those who have a similar interest might be likely to want to take advantage of all the time you've already spent by coming straight to the site (yours) that has all the answers for them already. If you have enough articles on your topic, you might want to get a site search engine (there are free scripts available) to make it easier to find the information your visitors want.

7. Make money selling other people's products through affiliate programs. They'll give you a link to track your sales. If you haven't heard of affiliate programs, you're in for a treat, many thousands of people are making a full time income just by driving traffic from their site to merchant sites, never touching or shipping a product, letting the merchant do all the work and make the entire investment in inventory.

A good way to start with affiliate programs is to sign up with ClickBank. There are well over 10,000 different eBooks that you are then automatically an affiliate for. It's likely that there are some that tie in with the theme of your site. Write up some reviews and recommendations and send traffic to the ClickBank merchant, and if the eBook sells, you get commissions sometimes as high as 75%.

Another benefit is that if you make a page for each of your eBook reviews, you will eventually start drawing traffic from search engines because some of your pages will get ranked well for the keywords used to describe the eBook you're reviewing.

8. Publish an e-zine from your web site. Ask your visitors to subscribe to the e-zine right from your web site through a sign up box. You might want to find something to entice them to give you their email address, like a free report, eCourse, or eBook. Once you have enough subscribers to your e-zine, you could sell classified or sponsor advertising inside your e-zine, or you could periodically review and recommend products that you're an affiliate for to your subscribers.

9. If you have your own business already (real estate agent, hairdresser, contractor, restaurant, etc.), put up a web page to draw in prospects. All you need is a picture, contact information, a description of what you do, and you have a cheap advertisement that will pull in customers.

10. Set up a local directory of small businesses. Give each business their own page, fix it up for them so that it's optimized for the search engines, and charge them annually for the service. They won't have to pay hosting fees and you do everything for them. Suggest that they put the web site address on their business card, and you'll have virtually locked them in for annual renewals for the life of their business.

These are just some thought-starters for you. There are over a billion web sites on the Internet, there are obviously more than ten ways to earn money with them. Come up with a unique method of cashing in from all those surfers, or use one of our methods, and one day you'll be writing your own advice articles.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Dennis Becker has been a computer "nut" since the late 70's, specializing in helping non-techies make better use of computers. Find out how to maximize your profits and minimize your expenses by visiting: http://www.a1-cheap-web-site-hosting.com

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10 Things To Do Before Buying A Novel

by: Jill Brennan

OK, you don’t get much time to read novels anymore. You used to but that was another life. Before you could pick up something that appealed and because you read so much, you weren’t too disappointed if it didn’t grab you like you thought it would. Things have changed. Now when you pick up a novel to read it has to get you in quickly or it will collect dust on your bedside table. There are too many other things demanding your attention…like sleep!

And when you go to the bookshop sometimes its hard not to be overwhelmed by the sheer number of books on offer, especially with the big mega stores becoming the norm. So what to do?

I’ve put together a checklist that with a little bit of preparation can help you wade through the sea of books and help you pick a surefire winner: a novel that will captivate YOU.

1. The best place to start is to look out in magazines, newspapers and online for book reviews – see what is being billed as the latest must read. Even if you don’t have time to read the whole review, jot down the title and author as one to look out for.

2. Ask friends for the best book they have read in the last few months or this year or the last few years if like you they really are struggling with the whole when-am-I-going-to-find-time-to-read-a-novel?-thing. Don’t just ask them what book was their favourite; ask them why they liked it. Was it an unusual story, was the pace so fast they needed a crash helmet, did it have edge of the seat suspense, did it remind them of growing up? You want to know what exactly made it a great read for them. This will help you to refine your search, especially if they say they liked the quirky twist in the ending and you don’t do quirky. Just because you’re close friends doesn’t automatically mean you like the same books.

3. Ask the people behind the counter at your favourite bookshop what they enjoyed reading and get them to take you to it or give you a specific reference number so you can find it easily yourself.

4. When you get the book in your hands look at the cover. Is it a catchy title? Does the cover appeal to you? Despite the old saying about not judging book covers, publishers put a lot of time and effort into creating a captivating cover and title. Does it work for you?

5. Turn it over and read the back. Does it still appeal? Do you only like reading modern books and this is set in the 1800s? It’s important to be fairly ruthless at this stage. If the premise for the story doesn’t leave you wanting more, chances are the writing probably won’t either.

6. Look at the size of the book. I know this isn’t something for the purists but if you don’t get time to read many novels, don’t launch back in with a 700 page tome or it will probably take you all year and then you’ll be frustrated and annoyed at wasting time and money on something you haven’t enjoyed.

7. The next step is crucial. Read the opening – does it get you in straight off? Novels have a bit more time to seduce you than a short story but not much these days. A good opening is like someone placing a thread around your finger and gently tugging on it. They’ve got you but can they keep you?

8. Has the author mentioned 10 characters and 5 different place names in the first 3 paragraphs? You want to be captivated not confused, remember? If your main reading time is before you drop off to sleep, books that have lots of characters and places or even a family tree at the beginning are a warning that it gets complicated and you need to keep track of who is who and what they’re up to.

9. Are there lots of long sentences or are they short and sharp? Lots of short sentences usually mean action and pace. Something. Is happening. Right now. Usually it’s best to go for a story with a combination of both – one that suits your preferred action/background information mix.

10. If you still think the book in your hands is worthy, randomly flip open the book in 5 places and see whether it is densely packed with text. Is there dialogue at each page you stop? No dialogue usually means that a book is more descriptive rather than direct scenes. If you want a compelling read then go for something with a fair amount of dialogue; if you don’t mind a slower pace then bits of dialogue here and there is probably enough to keep you going.

If it all stacks up, buy it and enjoy. Just one more tip though. If it doesn’t captivate you in the first 100 pages and you find reading it a chore, give it up. Don’t keep persisting just because you don’t like leaving things unfinished. The book won’t feel hurt if you don’t finish it. And the author will never know.

About the Author:
Jill Brennan, an experienced writer, editor and mother of 2 young boys, created espresso Fiction to help time-poor fiction lovers get a regular hit of quality fiction that they could read in 15 minutes or less and still feel satisfied. To learn more about getting great fiction home delivered, go to http://www.fastfoodforyourmind.com

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10 Steps to Happily Ever After

by: Slade Hartwell

Do you know what all happy and healthy marriages have in common? In every one of them you will find two people committed to making each other happy. You will find a man who cherishes his wife and puts her needs above his own, and you will find a wife who respects and trusts her man. We live in very selfish times. Pop-psychology messages are everywhere in the media encouraging us to love ourselves, do right by ourselves, and generally please ourselves first. If you really want a happy marriage, don’t buy into that type of self-centered thinking. Instead, try these 10 time-tested techniques and experience the happiness, peace, and tranquility of a healthy marriage.

1. Make time for each other. It’s so easy in our hyper-busy modern lifestyles to forget to set aside a little time to enjoy each other’s company. Start a weekly tradition of setting a date for the two of you to be together doing something you both enjoy. Keep it simple. Take a nice walk together. Sip coffee together in a cozy coffeehouse. Talk to each other, reminisce, and get to know each other again.

2. Take time off from each other. Give each other space and time to work on hobbies and personal interests. When you have an interesting project to work on, you will feel more fulfilled and you will be a more interesting person.

3. Make little romantic gestures. Remember to compliment your spouse. Leave a little love note for them to find once in awhile. Celebrate the day you first met.Send flowers for no particular reason. You should continuously make little deposits in your spouse’s emotional bank account. The return on your investment will be incredible.

4. Fight fair. Don’t argue in front of other people. Don’t insult each other or each other’s families. Never threaten divorce, and never go to bed angry. Let the little things go, and don’t make a big deal out of every disagreement. Before arguing, think; is this really going to matter in the long run?

5. Take interest in what interests your spouse. Watch their favorite shows with them. Read their favorite book, so you can talk about it with them. Encourage them to develop their talents.

6. Listen to your spouse. Husbands, remember that women need to express their feelings. Be a good sport and just listen. Don’t interrupt, or get distracted. Empathize with her. Let her know that you can relate to what she’s feeling. Ladies, please remember that the kind of talk you might like to have with your husband does not come naturally to most men. Just be patient. It’s not a good idea to "unload" on him right when he comes home from work.

7. Accept your spouse for who they are. Practice total acceptance. Don’t hold your spouse to your expectations; you will only succeed at building resentment.

8. Express your commitment. In little ways, you can, and should, renew your vows to each other over and over. Your spouse will feel comfortable and secure knowing that you are truly committed to the marriage. True closeness will only happen when all doubt and insecurity is replaced by confidence in the relationship. Let your spouse know that you really are in it "till death do us part."

9. Trust in each other. Don’t be suspicious. Don’t snoop through each other’s belongings. To help ensure the trust, be honest with your spouse in all things. Never keep secrets from each other, not even little ones.

10. Make it your aim to be your spouse’s best friend. Appreciate your spouse for who they are. Loosen up and have fun with each other. If you are practicing the steps above, you are on your way to being your spouse’s best friend the ultimate relationship in marriage.

About the Author:

Slade Hartwell, Webmaster at www.ezromantic.com

Romance Relationship Resources We offer tons of romance and relationship help such as: great articles, advice, love poems, book reviews, gift ideas, romantic travel guides, a relationships forum, and more.

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5 Strategies to Streeetch Your Good Press

by: Susan Harrow

In the following story Toronto Star columnist and lifelongCatholic, Kathy Shaidle, whose website tweaks confiningreligious and spiritual notions, talks about how she's beengathering steam to publicize her site. Shaidle's irreverentcommentary spares no one. She dispenses her thoughts oneverything from renting a married priest to buyingenlightenment. What better way to provoke controversy thanto challenge the sacred cow of people's spiritual andreligious beliefs? Visit Kathy's site http://www.relapsedcatholic.com and see for yourself whatmakes for good arguing.

Where the religious rubber meets the pop culture road

That's the motto at RelapsedCatholic.com, my daily weblog offaith & culture news. On March 27, 2001, my site was singledout for praise by the Site-A-Day newsletter.

1. Send out a press release about your good press to yourniche market

I IMMEDIATELY sent out a short, punchy email press release(quoting Site-A-Day's rave review) to my list of religioneditors (in print and online), book reviewers (I'm also anaward-winning author) and other Best of the Web sites.

The day the brief piece about RelapsedCatholic ran in theOttawa Citizen, I logged my busiest single day ever, withmore than 300 hits. I was recently interviewed by theCatholic Register, too, and expect a similar spike when thatpiece runs. RelapsedCatholic was also singled out forspecial mention in recent articles about blogging, in bothInternet Business Forum and E-Zine Tips.

MY NOTE: Notice Kathy sent her press release to a VERYtargeted market (religion editors) that she had previouslycontacted. Often times you must contact an editor a numberof times with different ideas before he/she will write aboutyou.

2. Email thank you notes and begin a correspondence withjournalists

I gained some valuable new relationships and helped cementestablished ones. I've been asked to write and speak onsubjects related to religion and pop culture. I feel thiskind of exposure increases my visibility and credibilitywith the press. Sending thank you emails after even a smallmention has sparked continuing correspondence with somewriters and editors. I may be better able to pitch otherstories to them in the future. I recently got a fan emailfrom the man who runs the ChristianityToday.com weblog,considered the best of its/our genre. He says he checks outRelapsedCatholic every day now.

MY NOTE: Thanking someone sincerely opens lines ofcommunication.

3. Write press releases that can be printed verbatim

Best of all, the Ottawa Citizen printed my press release,practically word-for-word, in their Sunday color section.RelapsedCatholic's hits that day were higher than they werefor the whole first month I was online!

MY NOTE: Write your press releases in the same formatjournalists use to write their pieces and you'll stand abetter chance they'll use your words instead of strugglingto capture your ideas by paraphrasing -- which can lead to adifferent interpretation than you intended.

4. Network with the press at your speaking engagements

I was asked to sit on a Periodical Association of Canadapanel, Writing about Religion for the Secular Press. I alsoheld a book signing during BookExpo Canada. Networking afterthe panel discussion led to new friendships with otherwriters/editors. And again, a spike in page views. Hits tothe webpage have remained fairly high, increasing four-foldsince the site's inception in November 2000. My logs show anincreasing number of regular return visitors since the pressrelease went out. Hits went from about 300/month in Novemberto more than 2000 in April, and have remained steady since.I anticipate May's hits will be about the same due toupcoming story in Catholic Register, and continued mentionin the by-line of my Toronto Star column.

MY NOTE: Writers and editors are more likely to listen toyou once you've spoken on a panel (or at a keynote orworkshop). You've established yourself as an expert --someone who has expertise and is worth speaking with.

5. Continue sharing your news with the right targeted media

MY NOTE: Once you get the publicity ball rolling, keep it inmotion by following any leads that could bring you morereaders, recognition and sales.

Kathy sent me her story and now has opened another avenue tomore publicity for her one mention. Excellent work, Kathy!

Learn more about getting good press and self-promotion togain publicity for your business, product or cause in *SellYourself Without Selling Your Soul*(HarperCollins). Go to http://www.prsecrets.com for your free excerpts today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Susan Harrow is a top media coach, marketing strategist and author of *Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul* (HarperCollins), *The Ultimate Guide to Getting Booked on Oprah*, and *How You Can Get a 6- Figure Book Advance.* Her clients include Fortune 500 CEOs, millionaires, best-selling authors and successful entrepreneurs who have appeared on Oprah, 60 Minutes, NPR, and in TIME, USA Today, Parade, People, O, NY Times and Wall Street Journal.

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