Ho Ho Ho! Yes, Santa is coming to town soon. In another few weeks, we will be coming to an end of 2006. Have you been good this year?

Last year around this time, I send to my members a funny version of Prediction for 2006 by the Internet Marketers. You can download that same report “The Most Starling Internet Marketing Predictions for 2006 by clicking here.

Before I forget, there’s something I want to share with you.

You’re probably going to see a flurry of Christmas giveaway sites in the next few days and weeks ahead.

I just wanted to let you know that this is my 2nd year joining in some of this giveaways (actually it is more of a JVs in some cases for me).

One of my most successful JVs was with Mark Hendrick who starts this since 2003.

It’s called “The 12 Days of Christmas” and it’s organized by the great guy named Mark Hendricks (you’ve probably heard of him).

Unlike the others, Mark looks at each and every gift submission, and I mean EVERYTHING. In my last submission, it took me 4 days and 6 emails before the details were confirmed. I must say I am proud of my final results after discussing with Mark.  My package compliments the spirit of how Mark wants to run his giveaways.

Mark builds his pages and linking by hand instead of using the automated software that has been developed by his copycats who want to ride on his success with this type of promotion.

He still does this the old-fashioned way and looks at everybody’s gifts, links, and pages to make sure it’s really good stuff for you — and if it’s not good enough he sends it back to the applicant for further work for resubmission, or just let’s them know it’s not quite good enough.

I’ve heard that he’s got something very special going on this year, kind of a new twist that he’s developed — and I’m not allowed to tell you what it is, but let’s just say I think you’ll be blown away at what he’s done again this year for you.

Here’s where you can signup and get on the early announcement list so you can get early first access and first shot at all the goodies:

Click Here To Claim Your Spot In This Year
12-Days Of Christmas GiveAways!

See you inside the sites. Btw, did I mention that the open will be opening in 24 hours from this post?

Happy Holidays!
Keith Choy

Related postings:

• Mark’s 12 Days Of Christmas Gifts
• December 2005 WealthMountains Christmas Newsletter

Tag: massive christmas giveaways, 12 Days of Christmas gifts

A lot of times, author just happily goes about writing their own book and forgets about the other “little” things.  Such “little” things could easily come back and hurt the author themselves (in terms of potential earnings and other rights) later.

One such “little” things is … your author rights.

Read the following excellent summary of what all authors needs to watch out for.

——————————————————-
Know Your Author Rights—and Hang Onto Them!
by Diane Eble
——————————————————-

When a book or magazine publisher agrees to publish your work, you must sign a contract. In this contract there is a very important area concerning rights.

Be very careful about which rights you retain, and which rights you hand over. For a magazine article, you want to grant first rights only. Be careful of granting electronic rights, which almost everyone will ask for these days. If they are paying you for a piece, be clear about whether you want them to be able to distribute it on the Internet. If you do grant this right, know that the article probably can’t be resold anywhere else (because it will be so available to everyone else).

It may be advantageous for you to grant electronic rights, as long as you make sure you stipulate that they must include your byline and web site address(es). This way you will get something out of it—free, targeted traffic to your site. This is a key marketing strategy which I use all the time. I write articles and distribute them for free—but only with a carefully-worded resource box that tells people where they can go for more (enticing) information.

I was recently contacted by a publisher who wanted to rework an article I’d written back in 1987 for a product they were selling. They didn’t ask me, they just told me, and included a check for $25. Upon inspection of my contract, I learned that they had a right to do that, because even though they had bought “first rights,” the contract also said they could use it as a reprint in an anthology or other product.

As for books—grant only print rights, if you can. I have clients whose hands are tied on creating other (more lucrative) products, because they signed away things like “audio-video recordings of any or parts of the WORK or of adaptations of the WORK.”

One author recently told me that current book contracts include wording such as “the right to all forms of the WORK which currently exist or may be invented, into perpetuity”! Yikes!

If you do land any kind of publishing contract, seek out a good intellectual properties attorney, or at least send me an email about your contract. I can help you spot what may be problematic in it.

Note that agents aren’t always as sensitive to these things as you should be. Though they are supposed to have your best interests in mind, they want to seal a deal, and unless they would be included on your other information product ventures, they don’t have a vested interest in making sure you retain these rights.

The words you create are your most important assets as an author. Make sure you protect them!

About the author:
Diane Eble has 28 years experience in the publishing industry as an editor (magazines, fiction and nonfiction books), author (11 published books, more than 350 articles), and copywriter. She is now a book publishing coach as well. Her recent books are Abundant Gifts, MotherStyles: Using Personality Type to Discover Your Parenting Strengths (coauthored with Janet Penley), and the new eBook, Jump Start Your Book: 12 Questions You Must Answer Before You Write Your First Word.

Related resources:

• How To Write Featured Articles For Newspaper And Magazines
• A first time author’s publicity kit materials
• Secrets To Publishing Success (Part 1)
• Secrets To Publishing Success (Part 2)
• Make A Point!

Tag: author rights, electronic rights

“If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then comeback and hit it again. Then hit it again-a tremendous whack!”

- Winston Churchill

To maximise your impact in your advertising (for your services or products), you need to make your POINT noticed!

Don’t be subtle.  People might not get your message!

Direct marketing means hammering home your promotion message directly … and make it hit 3 times as suggested by Winston Churchill.

Tag: the apprentice, winston churchill

The lesson that I learnt in Episode 7 of “The Apprentice (Season 5)” is …

Be Decisive!  Don’t waste time over small things. Always focus on the goal!

In my opinion, the project managers in both teams for this round were ineffective.  The winning team won because his team pulled through (more on this later).

In this episode, the team would be working with two Ace Hardware executives and an executive from the Boys and Girls Club of America as part of Ace’s “New Faces for Helpful Places” program. Each team was to renovate a room in a Boys and Girls Club location.

Below is what I found to be relevant lesson to our online business.  Avoid the mistakes and model after the effective methods.

1. “Gold Rush” did the following wrong this round:

First of all, the project manager did not listen to the suggestion of his team members.  He was only focused on what he wanted.

Second part, he was not well prepared enough to ask the executives the critical questions on what they wanted from this project.  This was the most critical mistake made.  It also left a bad impression.

Lesson at this point: Before you start your goal, ALWAYS know what is the end-goal of the market.  It is not what you want, it is what the market wants that is important to determine your success.  The project manager of “Gold Rush” lost sight of this critical point even though his members has reminded him on this.  To me, this is the main reason this team has failed.

1. “Synergy” did the following right this round:

They found out exactly what the executives were looking for. The project manager asked them pointed questions when he sat his team down to meet with them.  This was the first right thing that they achieved for this task.

Lesson at this point: In your online business, always make sure your initial planning and foundation is done correctly.  It need not be perfect but at least you must cover the main points/goals.  If this is not done, you will face a lot of problems at a later stage.

After the initial success, the project manager were not decisive in even minor decision.  For example, it took them almost 9 hours to decide on the colours to use for the room.  This has delayed the project progress and had also impacted his members (who need to work through the night).

Lesson at this point: Make decision fast based on the best knowledge available.  By holding back, you are impact your down-stream work.

In the end, “Syngery” team won this round.

The results after this episode was “Gold Rush” - 2 and “Synergy” - 5

Above are the main lesson that I noted in this episode that is relevant to Marketers and Infopreneurs. Tuned in next week for my review of the next episode.  You can check out the pictures from this official site.

Related postings:

• My Compilation “The Apprentice” Lessons
• Lesson 1 - Creating Successful Buzz
• Lesson 2 - Location, Location, Location
• Lesson 3 - Have A Theme And A Plan B
• Lesson 4 - Keep It Simple, Silly!
• Lesson 5 - Listen To Your Team And Your Customer
• Lesson 6 - Command Respect

To Your Success,
Keith Choy

Tag: the apprentice, take decisive action