Feed search engines such as google fresh fodder daily or be ignored.

Google has more than 65% of the search traffic. You absolutely have to keep them happy or you will not have a presence on “their” Internet.

All of Terra Publishing’s and MarinEStudios content development is designed to help you with ranking positions; all is considered with your Web package.

Content, not stunning design, determines your visibility on the Internet.

However, I am partial to attractive sites also so that people are pleased when they find you, your site displays quickly and correctly and all links work . . . as I type this, I am working on updating a client’s site that grew quite haphazardly for the past 8-10 years. Generally when sites are not planned and grow through years, they do need some work — certainly a few of mine need updating, especially on the SEO part.

However, there is no nice way to say this, this particular client’s site is a mess; the person who built/managed it previously should actually be embarrassed for a number of reasons, including the site is for a highly-regarded non-profit doing superb work in the community, the organization paid for this site, it is filled with broken links, missing graphics, NO optimization, slow load times and no positioning on major searches. I see that as unfair business practices on the Web person’s part.

Good content, optimized for your company or subject, becomes organic, but it still needs a good design and a long-term plan. Organic sites grow naturally and are most trusted than paid-for sites.

 Google Analytics validates that “content is king.”

The Internet has more than 1 billion Websites, yet fewer than 20% are visible; most receive a dozen or so visitors each month.

Many of the Web sites you are up against have teams of writers, editors, photographers, artists, and programmers feeding their sites (i.e. SFGate.com owned by Hearst and fed by San Francisco Chronicle media professionals).

You CAN play with the Big Boys and keep your service/company on top of searches by adding frequent content relevant to your business. That is what feeds search engines.

Be absolutely sure your chosen Web design group has a solid track record and can give you appropriate statistics on sites under their charge.

make yourself believe you can do whatever you want!

Well, not yours exactly . . . but that of your web site.

I recently completed a site based on a client’s wishes. This person is a top-notch print designer, but hasn’t completely embraced reader habits of people visiting Web sites. So I don’t think the site will work based on that design and recommended reviewing some of the following:

Concerns:

• Indexing: You have less than 3 seconds to grab your visitors. Indexing on the bottom of the page ("below the fold" in newspaper jargon) is inadvisable. This can’t be seen on a mobile device, which is how many younger executives view the Web, and, generally people will not scroll down to the bottom of a page in any case.
• Graphics must be top notch and compliment the layout and site. If they are poor quality, viewers will assume that you and/or your Web designer does not know what they are doing.

Homework:

• Take time to review best internet practices from the Yale Style Guide site or buy the book at Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites; Second Edition — this is one book that will make your life easier!
• Visit the W3Consortium
• The F Pattern: This site has heatmaps from user eyetracking studies of how sites are viewed. It’s quite fascinating: Web Reading Patterns
• Pick up any well-written book on Web Design . . . as this is written you can save up to 30% at Peachpit.com. Peachpit press has been part of my life since I started building Websites 20 years ago; they keep me up to date (if I take the time to read!).

More on the F-Shaped Pattern (F Means FAST)

According to Jakob Nielson, who recorded how 232 users view thousands of Web pages with their Web Content Eyetracking visualization heat-reading software, users often read Web pages in an F-shaped pattern: two horizontal stripes followed by a vertical stripe.

In a few seconds, your visitors eyes move at amazing speeds across your website’s words in a pattern that’s very different from what you learned in school.

Basically, they found that the reading pattern resembles an "F":

• Users first read in a horizontal movement, usually across the upper part of the content area. This initial element forms the F’s top bar.
• Next, users move down the page a bit and then read across in a second horizontal movement that typically covers a shorter area than the previous movement. This additional element forms the F’s lower bar.
• Finally, users scan the content’s left side in a vertical movement. Sometimes this is a fairly slow and systematic scan that appears as a solid stripe on an eyetracking heatmap. Other times users move faster, creating a spottier heatmap. This last element forms the F’s stem.

Obviously, users’ scan patterns are not always comprised of exactly three parts. Sometimes users will read across a third part of the content, making the pattern look more like an E than an F. Other times they’ll only read across once, making the pattern look like an inverted L (with the crossbar at the top).

The areas where users looked the most are colored red; the yellow areas indicate fewer views, followed by the least-viewed blue areas. Gray areas didn’t attract any fixations.

The above heatmaps show how users read three different types of Web pages:

• an article in the "about us" section of a corporate website (far left)
• a product page on an e-commerce site (center)
• a search engine results page (SERP; far right).

If you squint and focus on the red (most-viewed) areas, all three heatmaps show the expected F pattern. Of course, there are some differences The F viewing pattern is a general shape.
On the e-commerce page (middle example), the second crossbar of the F is lower than usual because of the intervening product image. Users also allocated significant time to a box in the upper right where the price and "add to cart" button are found.

On the SERP (right example), the second crossbar of the F is longer than the top crossbar, mainly because the second headline is longer than the first.

• Users won’t read your text in a word-by-word manner.
• The first two paragraphs must state the most important information. This is consistent with classic newspaper style — an inverted triangle is generally used to describe this.
• Start subheads, paragraphs, and bullet points with information-carrying words that users will notice when scanning down the left side of your content.
• If you "MUST" build your own site, please consider using a package from the #1 Automated Web Design Software for Blogs, CMS and Portals. Generate templates for WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. I actually use DreamWeaver for my sites, but I also often combine my skills with templates from companies that are known for using "best practices."

prosper in pajamas

In the event you don’t believe one CAN Prosper in Pajamas, may we remind you of the infamous Hugh Hefner who built a multi-million dollar empire while clad in pajamas.

And on the offchance that you don’t have a set of favorite PJs in which to work, we offer this LINK to all types of pajamas to get you started with prospering in pajamas: silks from Gilligan & O’Maley, Big Feet, Red Flannels . . . and BedHead Pajamas also has an exceptionally well-designed selection of natural fiber PJs and substantial percentages (20%) of their prices is donated to Esperanza, a community program offering employment in distressed areas. Yes, this is tongue-in-cheek, but I’m also serious. After 40 years in increasingly responsible jobs in corporate America, I took a buy out and, because I love world travel, decided to figure out away to live comfortably anywhere and everywhere in the world. Thus my concept of "prosper in pajamas" began . . . and it’s working. The following selections have all helped me along this road.

saying no is saying yes

Maximum Confidence and other growth materials
by Jack Canfield

The author of the billion dollar series “Chicken Soup for the Soul” spends his life helping others get from Point A to Point B and beyond. He has been a mentor of mine for years. Reading this piece has helped make it clear to me that I can’t help anyone unless I help myself first. My positon is not strong enough to shore up others; once I have my base, then I can reach out! Surely this applies to many many of us and I hope this helps you in your endeavors.

If you are constantly saying yes to other people, then you are constantly saying no to yourself and your goals. Ask yourself if what is being requested of you is in line with your goals, will it benefit you in some way and bring you closer to your success, or will you simply be spending your time on someone else’s good opportunity?

There are only two words that will always lead you to success. Those words are yes and no.

Undoubtedly, you’ve mastered saying yes. So start practicing saying no. Your goals depend on it! Success depends on getting good at saying no without feeling guilty. You cannot get ahead with your own goals if you are always saying yes to someone else’s projects and agendas.

Although the concept is simple, you’d be surprised how frequently even the world’s top entrepreneurs, professionals, educators and civic leaders get caught up in projects, situations and opportunities that are merely good, while the great is left out in the cold—waiting for them to make room in their lives. In fact, concentrating on merely the “good” often prevents the “great” from showing up, simply because there’s no time left in our schedules to take advantage of any additional opportunity . . .

Highly successful people say “no” all the time—to projects, to crazy deadlines, to questionable priorities and to other people’s crises. In fact, they view the decision to say “no” equally acceptable as the decision to say “yes.”

One response that I have found helpful in saying “no” to crisis appeals or time-robbing requests from people is . . . It’s not against you; it’s for me.

When the chairman calls with yet another fund-raising event that needs your dedication, you can say, “You know, my saying no to you is not against you, or what you are trying to do. It’s a very worthy cause, but recently I realized I’ve been over committing myself.

So even though I support what you’re doing, the fact is I’ve made a commitment to spend more time with my family. It’s not against you; it’s for us.”

Few people can get angry at you for making and standing by a higher commitment. In fact, they’ll respect you for your clarity and your strength.

So, how can you determine what’s truly great, so you can say no to what’s merely good?

Start by listing your opportunities—one side of the page for good and the other side for great. Seeing options in writing will help crystallize your thinking and determine what questions to ask, what information to gather, what your plan of attack might be, and so on. It will help you decide if an opportunity truly fits with our overall life purpose and passion, or if it’s just life taking you down a side road.

Test the waters. If it’s a new career you’re interested in, first seek part-time work or independent consulting contracts in that field. If it’s a major move or volunteer project you’re excited about, see if you can travel for a few months to your dream locale or find ways to immerse yourself in the volunteer work for several weeks.

And finally, look where you spend your time.

Remember, just as you are in control of your feelings and attitudes, other people are in control of theirs, so if they do get upset with you for saying no…well that is a choice they make for themselves.

ack Canfield is founder of the billion-dollar book brand Chicken Soup for the Soul© and a leading authority on Peak Performance and Life Success. If you’re ready to jump-start your life, make more money, and have more fun in all that you do, get your FREE success tips from Jack Canfield now at: www.FreeSuccessStrategies.com

© 2010 The Canfield Training Group

All Rights Reserved.

make yourself believe you can do whatever you want!

We started Terra Publishing House in 2009 but were derailed by America’s economic nightmare in 2009 and 2010. One of the advantages of being detrailed is that we have actually learned to Prosper in Pajamas . . . honest. Turns out that the realm of silk pajamas is not reserved only for Hugh Hefner. (In addition to saying in pajamas, I, for one, really don’t like shoes and have replaced them with various lovely sandals.)

We are not quite up to our extraordinary union-protected position at The San Francisco Chronicle, but we are gaining ground and expect to surpass those benefits and probably those salaries this year. Also the juggling has not cut far into our travels; we’ve still managed 12 countries in the past few years. Those journeys are excerpted at International Harbors, for which we have been invited to speak on cruise ships, which means free travel.

We are also returning to peace and growth through Wisdom To Change and by working on projects we love and consider valuable for many of us. We want to prosper. We want you to prosper.

As we grow in our path, we will share information with you, talk about our successes and success rate, and develop easy step-by-step guides to self-publishing which we hope will serve you well. All the electronic pieces are now in place to make the process relatively easy for anyone. The difficult part remains the putting of pen to paper and finding time to do what one loves.

All prayers are welcome during this process; if we can do it, so can you.

Yes it is. Better than expected, actually . . . so much so that the site is being reformatted into an eStore at ProsperInPajamas.com. Response to the name has been suberb.

This started in mid-2010 . . . I am in my pajamas as I write this.

Much of my income comes from designing/building Web sites; I started with nominal fees until I realized the value of online presence. It brings the broadest market/audience at the least possible cost; nothing, absolutely nothing is as effective for so little . . . if you or your Web person knows what they are doing.

It’s great. I don’t have to leave the house unless I want to. No traffic nightmares to/from work. My gas bill went from about $200/month to less than $50/month. My clothing bill is a fraction of what it was. No dry-cleaning bill. I worked on Web sites while cruising the Mediterraean for two weeks on the Star Princess and actually have done well enough to cruise the Caribbean for two weeks while doing absolutely nothing. I checked the Internet only twice on that trip.

Sell Your Book on Amazon: The Book Marketing COACH Reveals Top-Secret “How-to” Tips Guaranteed to Increase Sales for Print-on-Demand and Self-Publishing Writers By Brent Sampson with a forward by Dan Poynter

Part of my Prosper in Pajamas “career” includes affiliate marketing programs through Amazon.com and publishing my own books and selling them through my Web site or through Amazon as PDF publications. It’s quite easy.

Amazon.com sells billions of dollars worth of books each year, and your title can be on this global bookstore next to established authors without having to have contracted with a publishing house.

If you are a self-published author, it is easier than you think to begin selling your writing through a well-regarded site such as Amazon.com.

The easiest way is to set up self self-published, print-on-demand books such as my eMarketing book. The key is to use a service that you can load your book onto as well as managing some of the promotion if you choose to. The fees for these services vary. You can do it all yourself for free or you can pay them to do most of it for you.

The process works as follows:

1. Upload manuscript. You take your finished manuscript in PDF format and load it onto the website of the service you choose (examples below). You also load the cover.
2. Create sales page. You write your webpage text and add the price, and your royalties are calculated.
3. Order and Review. You order one of your own books to sign off that you are happy with the final product. Then you authorize distribution.
4. Distribution. The files are distributed to the electronic bookstores including Amazon. You see them with a few days/weeks depending on the service.
5. Build Amazon site. You upload images and get testimonials etc, adding more information to your online site. You promote and drive people to buy your book.
6. People buy the book from the site. The order goes to the service who print it and ship it to Amazon who ship it to the customer.
7. Royalties are paid royalties monthly.

There are quite a few companies now offering assistance with your manuscript and/or online selling. All charge fees, but they are nominal. Following are two of my favorites.

BookSurge
Booksurge is Amazon’s own self-publishing company offering print-on-demand, inventory management and distribution. They can take you all the way from idea to book and onto Amazon with a hand-holding approach, or you can just load your print-ready PDF and cover and go for it. You receive approximately 35% of royalties on retail sales of trade paperback books. The cost price is determined by your book e.g. black and white inner is cheaper than coloured or photos. You can also use Amazon’s own promotional tools e.g. Buy X Get Y program pairing your book with a famous persons (although this will set you back $1000 per month). When you go through the process, you will be guided to upload your files, cover and wording and within a few weeks your book will be featured on Amazon.com as well as Amazon.co.uk.
You can find out all the information at www.booksurge.com

Lulu.com
Lulu offers the same services to Booksurge but it is not owned by Amazon. This doesn’t seem to make any difference to the products they offer at the moment. The books are distributed through Lightening Source and are accessible to many other online retailers. You can load your files and cover and be published on Amazon in the same time frames. You can also be published on BN.com (Barnes and Noble). There is an author community, you can ask questions in real-time online, and you can build a shop front of your own. Lulu has a great FAQ section and that includes detailed information on the required formatting for books submitted for Amazon. Make sure you read this before submitting your document as you may be rejected otherwise. You can find out more at www.lulu.com.

Need New Pajamas . . . Try Nautica Sleepwear

For quite a few years, I’ve been an Amazon.com affilliate (I sell their books through my sites and make a marginal profit from each sale). Recently, friends have set up accounts to sell their books through Amazon.com and are doing quite well — whether they’re publishing for a small audience or a large audience.

Friends have been selling self-published books through Amazon for a few years. Paul McHugh just included his novel Deadlineson the site. Listing self-published material on Amazon helps you reach a larger audience while avoiding shipping out copies to each customer who ordered through your own website. For a smaller operation, mailing and tracking orders is time-consuming and disruptive. Amazon is huge, with a massive warehouse in Nevada (and probably other places — I haven’t checked). The only place you need to ship your copies is to their warehouse.

Kindle Wireless Reading Device (6" Display, Global Wireless, Latest Generation)
I’ve also been shopping through Amazon for a decade or so and have never been disappointed. Friends who have purchased Kindle reading devices through Amazon LOVE them.

Amazon Kindle Hot Pink Leather Cover w/ Strap (Fits 6" Display, Latest Generation Kindle) . . . And now that they have a hot-pink leather cover for Kindle, they may have won me over.

More importantly, as popular as your website may or may not be, it doesn’t compare to the traffic headed to Amazon to search for books and DVDs. Instant credibility seems to develop once one is on Amazon listed alongside the large publisher’s offerings for "similar books" or even in reader’s lists and guides, my titles gain a greater chance to be seen and ordered.

There are two ways to sell on Amazon:

1. Open an Amazon Seller Account and list copies of the books you would like to sell. Amazon charges a 15-percent commission on Marketplace sales and separate fees of $1.23 and 99 cents per transaction. (However, become an Amazon Pro-Merchant if you sell more than 40 books per month on Amazon.com and the 99-cent fee on each sale is waived; at this level, your subscription will pay for itself.) You fulfill the order when an invoice is sent to you from Amazon.com;
2. Fulfillment by Amazon: It’s easy, but, of course, the fees add up and cut into your percentages, i.e. storage, order handling, packaging and shipping weight (you have the latter two no matter how you fulfill the order, of course).

The cost of using Amazon is high. They take 55% of the "official" price (not the sale price but the price you originally determine). That means that even if they discount the book (good for sales), the discount is coming out of their half. But it means you are only getting 45% of your listed price. In addition you pay for shipping books to Amazon, and, of course, for printing them, so the math does not encourage fortune making. Most self-published books are in the "long tail" zone, selling only a few copies per month. This is not necessarily a way to make money, but it will sell books and get you into the public eye.

Following is how to get your book, CD, or DVD listed on Amazon:

1. Get an ISBN (for a book), or a UPC (for a CD or DVD). For one book it costs $125, for one CD, $55, for one DVD, $89.
2. Get a bar code based on the ISBN or UPC. Costs $10, or may be included in UPC.
3. Sign up with Amazon: Seller Account, Pro-Merchant Account, or Fulfillment by Amazon account.
4. Duplicate your stuff; include the bar code on the outside.
5. Ship two copies to Amazon
6. Send cover scan
7. Track sales

This is working. Check out the new site: ProsperInPajamas.com

Before this job market started unravelling, I was working with affiliate marketing through various web sites by offering books for sale through Amazon.com. That affiliate marketing program has afforded additional income each month through book sales AND Amazon.com does all the fulfillment, so I don’t have to do anything but provide links.

Now my affiliate marketing programs are becoming necessary to supplement my income so I can pay my mortgage!

During monthly sessions with out-of-work professionals, I talk about affiliate programs and the benefits of income from them to help get through rough spots, so it seemed worthwhile to post it here also. There’s a LOT of information and it can get overwhelming, but here are basics. If you are stuck finding full-time work, or if you just want additional income or a different path, then affiliate/vendor marketing may be for you. Just add items to your blog and/or eMails to family and friends.

Let’s look at the definitions, starting with the term VENDOR, which the dictionary defines as:

someone who exchanges goods or services for money. One that sells or vends: a street vendor; a vendor of software products on the Web. Simply put, this is the seller of any number of goods of any possible type. From topsoil to cars, new homes to pets, the person doing the selling is the vendor. Traditionally, he/she is selling goods that they may or may not have produced or manufactured themselves.

. . . and AFFILIATE as:

anyone that has an agreement with a seller (vendor) to represent (sell) his or her product within the terms that the seller has dictated in exchange for remuneration (payment) of some type, normally a percentage of the sale.

This is the exciting part of doing business on the web . . . either as your main source of income or to supplement your “day” job. There are literally THOUSANDS of companies out there willing to PAY YOU to sell their products and services. All you do is introduce people to a vendor’s product, and we’ll show you how to do that too! The rate of commission paid to affiliates varies widely from vendor to vendor . . . from 3% all the way up to 75% or even higher.

HOW DOES THIS WORK?

If you click on that image or on a text link (which are highly effective), you will be taken to the supplier of the item — they will drop ship the purchase for you. You do not need to run to the post office every day. When you purchase an item, a commission automatically drops into my account. I don’t have to look up. It’s easy. If you pass on a specific items offered, but purchase jackets or daypacks or something else that appeals to you . . . same thing: the commission drops into my account.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I’ve recently learned that some affiliate payouts are dreadful (i.e. Expedia) and that some time-frames are equally dreadful (Barnes & Noble). Expedia’s percentage given on the sale of an expensive airline ticket is so low it isn’t worth the time to link to them. Also, affiliates have payouts for sales generated through your site for different periods of time, i.e. if a client returns within 10 or 20 or 30 days, you still receive your percentage for that lead/sale. Some are longer. Barnes & Noble, on the other hand have NO return policy — if the visitor you sent to them does not purchase immediately, you are out of luck.

It is quite a bit of work to set up affiliate marketing and get going, but, still, once it’s underway, it can be excellent additional income. It can be an excelelnt way to help a non-profit; such purchases do not cost the buyer additional money as the commission is built into the price, just as it is if they go direct or through a travel agent.

Figuring out which offers better commissions takes some research, but it is well worth taking that time.

Companies such as ClickBank and 1stPromotion make you an instant affiliate of approximately 5,400 vendors representing approximately 12,000 products. YOU can make commissions on ALL of them. Part of the problem is that some of the offerings are downright ugly.

There are also affiliate-vendor opportunities out there through some very well known services. Some such as LinkShare, which offers a free membership and gives you access to quality companies offering all types of consumer goods and services. Commission Junction and Amazon.com also deal with a mixed bag of goods, both tangible and intangible.

If you are interested in going in the “print-on-demand” arena, ClickBank is the #1 online provider of electronically delivered goods. They deal solely with electronically deliverable products and services. That’s all they handle. Nope, you can’t get a birdhouse or a backyard pond kit through ClickBank, but you could order plans on how to make your own. ClickBank currently offers thousands of the hottest-selling products and services and pays each affiliate up to 75% commission on each and every one of them! The print products sold through ClickBank do not cost them anything, so they also make money on your purchases, as does the author, and as do you.

ClickBank handles all financial transactions, taking away headaches from both the vendor and the affiliate.

IF YOU WANT TO START NOW . . .

Or keep reading . . . 1stPromotion is a perfect vehicle to start your career with affiliate marketing. Through a single web page, not only do you instantly connect to ClickBank’s 5400 vendors and their 11,000 plus products, you can also profit from dozens of other affiliate programs – you have total control. A few top-rated programs already built-in to your Pro2 site are:

• Internet Marketing Center
• Ken Envoy’s 5 Pillar Program (SiteSell)
• Linden Method
• Native Remedies
• Push-Button Publishing
• Dropship Wholesalers
• and many more!

You can also add and promote ANY other affiliate program and product that you wish to on your Pro2 store. This is YOUR store, and you have total control over the products and the content of your site. Use the “Suggest A Product” or “Suggest A Program” links to add your favorite product or affiliate program right into our member’s product library and you could have thousands of other 1stPromotion store owners promoting it for you!

IF YOU WANT TO START NOW . . .

Sell anything your heart desires . . . anything you would truly like to share with others . . . music, books, domestic or international travel (flights, cruises, accommodations, tours), cameras, shoes (like these from Jimmy Choo), sunglasses, auto parts, beauty products, gift baskets, coffee, electronics, events tickets . . .

If you can think of it, there is probably an affiliate program for you! Be sure to check out their affiliate conditions. I just signed up for Barnes & Noble only to find out, as mentioned above, that they have a “one-day” activitation rate, which means if the person does not buy on that click-through but comes back later, you will not receive a commission. Why bother!! So I’m taking them off all of my sites.

I’m somewhat upset with Amazon.com also because of the low percentages on commissions; however, Amazon.com has been lobbying hard to keep Internet sales free from taxes. AND they did help me get into affiliate marketing with a few easy steps.

You would be surprised at the age(s) of the techno generation, who knows what and who has had experience with what.

At an excellent multi-media party in the Presidio, I noted that approximately 35% of the guests were my age (around 65); they started with the Internet when I did (or before) — in its public infancy. I was content editor for The Chronicle during its foray into public access information systems, then called VideoText. That design department built pages, literally, pixel by pixel. It was insane. In was exciting. The first ad “sponsorhip” sale was to American Express. And guess for what? Oh, you’ll never get it.

Numbers were the game then, and they are the game now. From working at The Chronicle, I knew that the most read pieces were 1) The comic pages; 2) The sports pages; 3) The horoscopes. I don’t care who says they sit around reading Spinoza for relaxation. They don’t. Actually, I do. Do you know that Spinoza wrote “There’s no virtue in humility.” (No, I did not sign a non-disclosure agreement so The Chronicle cannot sue me — or if they can/do, I can’t pay them, so who cares.)

What did I also discover at this exceptionally well-organized networking party, other than I wasn’t the oldest person in the room? Some of under-40 folks, whom I thought would be miles ahead of me on eMarketing and eNetworking aren’t! I talked about eMarketing, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn with a few people. They are just starting to dig in. These are media professionals. They are in the trenches. They are barely dealing with eMarketing and are still using more traditional print ad methods (mail, flyers, brochures) than eMethods. I have been testing eMarketing for two years with dramatically slashed budgets. The Internet is staggeringly effective (more effective) if you know your market and know where they are.

Not many people get it yet. eMarketing is still quite new. For a great story of the effectiveness of this, find a story about the Jim Beam Baja 500 wherein you race just about anything through a 500 mile stretch of desert in Baja. Jim Beam Twittered the whole event in micro-blogs. (I first saw this in the Tokyo Drift movie, so maybe that’s where Jim Beam got the idea.) It was brilliant “soft” marketing and extremely effective. The guy that thought of this got 40 cells, positioned people on the course with them, and reported the race in Tweats. In no time at all, they had more than 40,000 followers on Twitter. I am SO envious of anyone who thinks like this. He was up 36 hours, but what an exhilerating 36 hours that had to be. I will try to find the original article and upload it here. The actual racing news on this is at: http://twitter.com/BAJA500

A note directed to those of us who are semi-recently unemployed: One of the men at this party was making, oh, $19 million a year not that long ago. It’s gone. His house is gone. What did he learn? Saving for a rainy day might be a good idea. I noted this because I have never had a savings plan. I’ve always been able to find significant funds when I needed them. This IS a different clime/climb.

(Please excuse typos. I don’t have an editor sitting in the room. Darn.)

This is difficult for me to believe, but here it is again . . . In the 1970′s, Duke University’s Psychology Department compiled this data after long-term experiments in Neuro-linguistic programming. These words have been proven to evoke emotion in a listener or reader. The words are, in no particular order:

You, Money, Save, New, Easy, Love, Discovery, Results, Health, Proven, Guarantee, Free

The theory runs along the lines of weaving as many of the words into your vocabulary as often as possible. Apparently, this was not lost on the major advertising agencies across the world, as we notice all 12 words appearing in all types of media. 

And here they are in a short fairytale:

As a result of this new discovery, you will save money easier than you ever imagined. Additionally, by insuring you good health, these results are proven to freely guarantee you love that will last your lifetime.

What do you think? Will it sell?

The Maritime Heritage Project
This internationally well-regarded site, started in 1998, is dedicated to preserving the maritime history of San Francisco Bay during the 1800s.

It has thousands of entries about ships, captains, and lists containing more than 50,000 names of passengers sailing into the Port of San Francisco during its most dramatic Gold Rush days.

It also has information about merchandise shipped into San Francisco from ports around the world . . . if you had money, you could have anything you wanted in those days.