“You’ve just won a fabulous vacation or prize package! Now, if you’ll kindly give me your credit card information and social security number for verification purposes, you will receive this awesome gift!”

Now why would they need my credit card or social security number to send me a freebie? Can you say, “identity theft?”

Although there are legitimate reasons for people to need that information, such as a purchase or job application, thieves need it to steal your life and money from you!

Crime officials are reporting that this kind of theft is becoming quite common. Don’t be a victim! Follow a few common-sense suggestions to avoid finding out someone else has taken over your life-along with your bank account!

-Do not allow anyone to borrow your credit cards! Your best friend may be trustworthy, but her boyfriend may not be!

-Don’t provide personal information such as date of birth, credit card numbers, your pin number, mom’s maiden name, or social security number over the telephone unless you initiate the call.
Don’t leave mail lying around for strangers to pry into. How well do you really know your teen’s friends?

-Destroy all bills, pre-approved credit card applications, credit card receipts, and other financial information when you no longer need such items.

-Don’t keep private information like pin numbers and such in your purse or wallet. It’s just too risky. We humans are much too forgetful. Be honest, how many times have YOU had to return to a restaurant or friend’s home to retrieve your purse? Is there anything in there that could harm you if it was stolen or lost? Time to check.

-Check your credit reports regularly. To order your report, call the three major credit bureaus at these toll-free numbers: Equifax at (800) 685-1111, Experian at (888) 397-3742, or Trans Union at (800) 888-4213. By law, the most you can be charged for a copy of your report is $8.50. To be safe, consider getting a copy from each of the three companies. If after reviewing your report you spot signs of a possible fraud, report it immediately!

-Keep your passwords and pins confidential and secure. Avoid passwords and pin numbers that will be easy for a thief to figure out. For example, don’t use your name, street address or birth date. Also, change your passwords every once in awhile, just to be safe.

The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop and avoid them. To file a complaint or to get free information on consumer issues, visit www.ftc.gov or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357); TTY: 1-866-653-4261. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. Report suspected Internet-based fraud to the Federal Trade Commission or the IFCC (www.ifccfbi.gov/Default.asp), a new joint project of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime.

Kristi Sayles, author of too many publications to list here, invites everyone to subscribe to her Internet Treasures Newsletter. Freebies, advice, information, humor and other treasures from the Internet are included. It’s free! http://smartauthor.com/treasures.html

There are thousands of e-books and reports released on the Internet every month. And not every e-books and reports are written by the owners themselves. Many of them are hiring someone called ghostwriters to write the whole e-books or reports for them.

Ghostwriting is a in demand and lucrative freelance opportunity that can make you serious income. If you have proven yourself as a reliable ghostwriter, you will always get the e-book writing projects from people who need help.

As a ghostwriter, you will be responsible of writing e-books and tiny reports for your clients with the following criteria:

• You will follow exactly the instructions given by your client or employers;
• All the work you submit to your client must be original and not plagiarized from other resources;
• The information and content created by you have to be well-researched and that they are accurate and verifiable;
• The work you submit must be grammatical and spelling errors free;
• You will usually submit your work in .doc or .rtf format for easy editing, but you will submit other file types if your clients requested it.
• You will always submit your work on time.
• The deal between you and your client is confidential. So, you will not reveal anything about it to others.

You should also realize that you are not writing for your client. Rather, you are writing on behalf of your client. The copyright and ownership of the e-book or report are belong to your client.

Creating and writing an e-book or report take a few steps. You may read E-book Marketing Revealed to understand more about the e-book creation process. And the Info Product Creation Manual will give you more tips and tricks about e-book writing.

Sometimes, your client will request you to send the finished work in .PDF format. You can complete this fairly easy if you use the tool like ViralPDF. With ViralPDF you can convert .doc file to .pdf file.

How to Charge Your Client?
Ghostwriters typically charge in two ways:

Per Page – the amount you can charge is in the range from $2 to $10 per page depend on your experience and reputation.

Per Word – $100 to $500 for every 10,000 words. The better your experience and reputation, the more you can charge.

As you are going to write an e-book or report, you need to spend a great deal of time doing research and gathering relevant information so that you will have the ideas and good amount of resources needed to write an e-book.

Creating an e-book or report will take you a lot of time and works as well as you need to put in your creative ideas to come up with a great information product. But the reward is huge. You can be making more than a full-time income as a ghostwriter.

Need help to start making money online by blogging? Anik signal from Blogclassroom.com and his team has prepared a blogging course to help you get started. They have put together a series of videos and homework assignments that will walk you through the process of setting up a blog online and show you how to get traffic once the blog has launched.

One of thing they are going to be talking a lot about in the course is blog traffic generating. So, even you have already run a profitable blog, the course is still helpful to you as they will help you drive more traffic.

The course is free to sign up. It will give you everything you need to know to start blogging for cash. It covers the steps of installing a new blog, how to configure the blog for the search engines, how to get traffic and how to actually monetize the traffic for generating income.

Bring those visitors back for more, applauding you and saying
BRAVO! They will create a buzz about your great site, and send
you many more visitors through word of mouth. These visitors
are your personal marketing force.

If you are a non-techie like me, you may not have heard of what
a “sticky” Web site is (it is the stuff that lures visitors back again
and again). But we do know we want that!

Forget getting to the top of the search engines. Let your
Webmaster do that. Instead, try out some of these low-
maintenance ways to bring ‘em back to your Web site for more.

1. Upload new, original, and useful content often. Do not think
of your Web site as a virtual brochure. Avoid blatant ads such
as banners, which turn visitors off. Give them information only
they can’t find anywhere elseand give it free. People want
and need how to’s, especially.

Always think benefits when you post some new article. Helping
your visitors get what they want will bring their trust and respect
as an expert, and eventually, bring you profit from your book,
other products, or service.

2. Update your Web site content regularly and often, perhaps
daily or weekly. If someone visits your site and finds nothing
new, they will disappear into cyberspace and spend their time
on other sites.

If you don’t want to write articles, copy and paste other people’s
articles or tips from their ezines or Web sites with their
permission, of course. Keep the pieces under 1200 words.
Common lengths are anywhere from 75-1000 words. You can
include a tip list, past feature articles from your ezine, an excerpt
from your book, poetry, a heart-felt story, or a character sketch
from your fiction book.

3. Publish your own ezine. Make it short and sweet. Start with
a monthly, then see if you can do it bi-weekly. If you don’t stay
in regular touch with your possible buyers, they will forget you
and your book’s message.

People want to know you better, so they can trust you and think
of you as an expert in your field. Your free information, tips and
resources will keep them as subscribers. If they like your ezine,
they will recommend it to others. The opt-in eNewsletter tops all
other ways to drive traffic to your site, and it can be mass mailed
free, too. Check out www.topica.com.

4. Include a recommending service on your site. Your repeat
visitors create new traffic. Check out www.Recommend-
It.com. It’s free, fast, and versatile. Each time someone
recommends your site, they are entered in a contest to win a
Palm V reading device and a chance to win $10,000.

5. Host a forum on your site where people can interact fully and
you can share your knowledge and offer suggestions. It’s a
great way to help others and get these people visiting your site
often because they want to know you as a real person. Without
a chance to interact with you people lose interest.

Allow your visitors to post a message or reply to other
messages. They will check back every few days for new
messages or replies. To find these services, do a search on “free
webmaster resources.” Two specific ones:
http://www.delphi.com and http://www.evryone.net. Check out
this discussion group http://www.ablake.net/forum/

6. Remind your visitors to bookmark your site. Tell them you
update material every day or week. If you omit this, you pass
up a great opportunity to lure repeat, loyal visitors. You want
more visitors, and you want them to spend a lot of time on your
site. The more time they spend on your site, the more likely
they will check out your products or services pages.

The biggest complaint from clients is that they get hits, but not
enough sales. When you follow the above tips, you’ll be much
more likely to succeed at increased sales.

7. Serialize some of your content. If visitors get it all in one visit,
what’s to keep them coming back?Put one part of an article,
special report, or excerpt from your book on your site each
week or so. Let people know this through your ezine.

8. Post a monthly special only for your Web visitors. Call it
“Discount of the month,” or”Freebie of the month.” Without
incentives your audience will go elsewhere. Go to your files
now, and see what you can use. This fabulous technique has
worked well for the author.

9. Enjoy the journey. Each day, you can learn something that
will make your Web site more real, more YOU. Let your
passion show! Add some personal information such as the
personal column. ‘The Coach’s Corner” is a new column in the
ezine, “The Book Coach Says.” It mentions personal writing
and marketing set backs, boo boos, along with a tip or so. Put
personal messages on your site too.

10. Allow everything you do on the Net to be easy and fun. If
you don’t love to create ad copy, or if you don’t like the technical
side, delegate it to someone who loves it. Do what you do best
and hire the rest. It’s far smarter to eliminate all struggle from
your adventure, so you will shine at what you do.

The biggest complaint from clients is that they get hits, but not
enough sales. When you follow the above tips, you’ll be much
more likely to succeed at increased sales.

Judy Cullins ©2005 All Rights Reserved.

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach works with small business people who want to make a difference in people’s lives, build their credibility and clients, and make a consistent life-long income. Judy is author of 10 eBooks including Write your eBook or Other Short Book Fast, Ten Non-Techie Ways to Market Your Book Online, The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Your Targeted Web Traffic, and Power Writing for Web Sites That Sell. She offers free help through her 2 monthly ezines, “The BookCoach Says…,” “Business Tip of the Month,” blog Q & A at http://www.bookcoaching.com and over 185 free articles.

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Email her at Judy@bookcoaching.com or Cullinsbks@aol.com
Phone: 619/466-0622 — Orders: 866/200-9743