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INTRODUCTION: WHO ISUSING A YAHOO STORE AND WHY YOU SHOULD TOO

Have you considered the key benefits of using a Yahoo! Store? Most people do not realize the true value that this one, simple tool can do for their business.

One of the most common reasons to turn to this type of ecommerce solution occurs when you want to take your offline business and start selling online. Imagine the local hardware store or the local print shop. While their business may mostly be through local community users, there could be a market for them in the online world, too. Because of the growing need for stores to turn to the web to increase their business, companies such as Yahoo! have come to the rescue with number of programs that make it very easy for the business to come on the web.

Why Yahoo? Many people would ask this question, but most will not ask who Yahoo is. You may use them on a daily basis for your search engine functions. You may visit their homepage to get your daily feed of the news. You may even turn to the organization to get your email. The fact is, the company is large and growing and it is well trusted. When you turn to Yahoo for your ecommerce needs, you get a quality product at an affordable rate.

You may be wondering why Yahoo is the company to turn to. The answer is actually quite simple. Other companies are having a lot of success using the ecommerce solutions that Yahoo! Store has to offer. You may know a few of these companies, for example:

• Oakland Raiders, a professional football team
• Simple Human
• Ben & Jerry’s ice cream
• American Pearl
• Lance Armstrong Foundation

These big businesses and organizations are turning to this particular company for their web solutions. This is one reason that you should too. - 4 -

One thing not to worry about is the cost. Yahoo! Store is highly affordable and provides you with a wealth of services for what you are investing in. If you have something to sell, it is always a good idea for you to choose an organization that is well known and is affordable because you are likely to get a product you can trust.

Check out these other reasons to turn to Yahoo! Store for your needs:

• You get virtually everything you need to put your business on the web. Everything is included in one tool to make the process that much easier for you.
• You get help along the way if you need it.
• Each step in the process is easy to do. You do not need any HTML experience, or any idea what web hosting is to get started. The product is very easy to use.
• You get the tools you need to start ranking in the web. This allows you to get your business online quickly and to start seeing a profit from it.

However, there are a few things to learn along the way, before you can start to invest in this product. You do want to ensure that Yahoo is the best option for you and that the company’s product will work with your particular needs. Keep in mind that most people will have no problem achieving this goal.

The information in this book will teach you about Yahoo! Store and how to get your business online using it. Keep in mind that product packages, discounts and sales may be available frequently from Yahoo! Store. Therefore, you do want to check out the latest information available before you begin to invest or use the product. In general, Yahoo is all about offering the best price, for the best features available.

Like the other businesses that are using this product and ecommerce solution to get their business online, you can do so too. - 5 -

1WHAT IS YAHOO STORE?

There are two important questions to learn the answers to from this chapter. What is Yahoo! Store and Is it right for me? If you can answer those, you know you are well on your way to investing in this company’s product.

Here’s a roundup of what Yahoo! Store has to offer to you in a nutshell:

• It provides you with the web hosting you need to get your business on the web.
• The company provides you with the software you need to build a catalog.
• It provides you with the marketing tools you need to get your business out in front of people who will buy from it.
• It provides the management tools to help you to oversee and monitor the success of your business.
• You also get access to something called Yahoo! Shopping. With this service, you get access to incredible amounts of traffic, which are just visitors and buyers to your site. Most sales come from this resource!

So, what does this all mean to the business owner who wants to get his or her business off the ground and online? In short, having a Yahoo! Store website allows you to do just that but in a simplistic way so that you are not overwhelmed by the process of getting your business up on the web.

In short, a Yahoo! Store website is a type of ecommerce platform. You are able to sell your products and services through this store as you would in the off line world. However, with Yahoo! Store, the company gives you more security and more dependable services and features that other companies may not. For example, the shopping cart system used is highly recommended because it is an easy tool to use by your customers and works well from the business owner’s standpoint as well.

Although the Yahoo! Store is incredibly easy to use as a tool for getting your business online, some people do invest in having a professional web designer set up the site. This is an additional cost, and it will require a third party to do so, but the fact is, you do not have to use that service to reap the benefits of a Yahoo! Store.

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Leveraging The Kindle Book Marketplace To Grow Your Business

Kindle provides an amazing opportunity to leverage the book marketplace to grow your business. It doesn’t even matter what type of business you have, becoming a published author can build your reputation as a knowledgeable professional faster than almost any other marketing activity you might choose to do.

Build Relationships

Whether you’ve already published or not, you need to focus on building relationships with others by using your website or blog, social media, and live events to help people get to know who you are and what you do. The more people know about you, the more they’re going to get to know you, like you and trust you.

- Website/Blog – Write directly to your audience about problems and issues you plan to address in your book(s). As you do, you can point to published work for more information, or you can use the questions and answers via discussions prompted by your posts to help you write your book.

- Social Media – You don’t have to be everywhere on social media. But, you do need to be where your audience is. Figure out which top three social media your audience uses on a daily basis and create a presence there. List your profession and include “author” in your profile. Always link to your books.

- Events – You can go to in person live events, as well as online live events. Webinars, Facebook Live, and other technology enable you to conduct interviews, explain hard concepts and more, easily. If you already have a book, remember to give away some signed books at the events to help people get excited.

Perception is 99 percent of the problem. If people see you as an expert, then they’ll trust you more and recommend you more.

Remember to build an audience that wants what you’re offering. It’s so much easier to give an audience what they want than it is to try to convince them of what they want. Therefore, your job while building these relationships, is to get to know them too so that you can solve their problems, answer their concerns, and show them your expertise.

When you’ve built a mutual relationship with your audience, you’ll learn about what to write about, plus they’ll happily buy what you publish and recommend it to their friends.

Create Your Manuscript

When you create a manuscript that you plan to use to help grow your business, it’s essential that you choose the right subject matter, understand how to format for Kindle, and that you consider hiring help. After all, when you are using your book to promote your business, the details matter a great deal. So, you want to get it right.

- Pick The Right Subject Matter – Your book should always be about whatever your audience needs it to be about. For example, if you have a food blog, the next step is usually to publish a recipe book. Even if you’ve already published the recipes on your blog, most people will still buy the book in order to have them easily available at their fingertips.

A good example of this accomplished successfully is High Carb Hannah from RawTillWhenever.com She uses her YouTube channel to build relationships with her audience, along with other social media and her website, and then when she published her books her audience was ready for them.

- Read Kindle Directions – This cannot be stressed enough that you should read the directions for Kindle publishing. Amazon does a great job giving you step-by-step directions on how to format your manuscript so that it looks the best. Plus, they will also explain the do’s and don’ts so that you can avoid problems down the line.

- Get an Editor – It’s really hard for a writer to edit their own words. Hire an editor that will at least check for grammar issues and typos. But, you can also hire editors that will fact check, help you word things in a better way and more.

- The Devils’ in the Details – Pay attention to the details of your book just like you would if you had a traditional publisher. Pay attention to the cover art, your book intro, and the table of contents and other inside information that is standard to most books. Try looking at other books to see what is standard.

When you are done with your book and publish it, it should look like any other professionally designed and written book. Just because you’re self-publishing doesn’t give you an excuse not to do top notch work. In fact, since this work is representing you and your business, you want it to be representative of your best work.

Publish Your Book

When you finish your book, you’ll need to choose how to publish your Kindle Book. You can publish it via regular KDP or KDP select. There are advantages and disadvantages to both of these options.

When you publish via regular KDP, you can still publish your book elsewhere including on your website, via affiliate sites like Clickbank.com or JVZOO.com. But, if you use KDP Select, you promise exclusivity for 90 days for your book. This opens up some extra marketing features for you such as price cuts, the ability for readers to lend your book, and more.

The biggest thing to consider is whether or not you plan to promote your book in other avenues and on other platforms. If you do, choose KDP. If not, try KDP Select first. You can always cancel it after the first 90 days.

It’s really just another way to promote your book because of the lending feature. After all, the point is to get the book in front of as many eyes as possible in order to send the audience to get on your lists and buy other things from you. But, if you are already selling your book on other platforms, you can’t use it. It’s okay because you don’t need it to make your book a success and helping grow your business via publishing on Kindle.

Promote Your Book

Whether you publish on Kindle or not, promotion is necessary. Every author has to promote their books to get buyers. While you may get one or two buyers just by the virtue of having published them on Kindle, you usually will still need to promote if you want to become a best-selling author or you want to use the book to promote your business.

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Introduction

A Zen lifestyle is an attempt to lead a simpler life. To do so effectively you will need to take on a set of habits that minimize, simplify and sort out the chaos of your everyday life.

By incorporating Zen habits into your everyday routine, you can learn to focus on what’s meaningful in life and give all your attention to that. At the same time, you will also hone in your skills to remove the unwanted and unimportant stuff from life. The goal is to lead a simpler yet more purposeful and productive life.

This book will help you get started with Zen fundamentals and how to implement these habits into your life.

Chapter 1

The Meaning of Zen

You may not have practiced it, but you most probably have heard of Zen. It is a common word doing the rounds in different circles, primarily where people are looking for a way to simplify their lives.

In fact, Zen has often been associated with aspects like tranquility, mindfulness, concentration and anything else that can help restore some order in today’s fast-paced and chaotic lives. In essence, Zen tries to understand the meaning of life without being distracted by logical or rational thought.

The practice does demand an intense discipline which, when followed properly, will let you get better at dodging distractions. But this is easier said than done. If you come from the western part of the hemisphere where intellectual thinking and multitasking dominate, it can be challenging to adapt to Zen.

The Origins of Zen

Historically, Zen has been practiced for centuries in Oriental monasteries by monks and goes by various names. For instance, the Chinese refer to it as Ch’an, the Vietnamese as Thien and the Koreans as Seon. But it is the Japanese rendering of this aspect of Buddhism that is known as Zen.

Zen Buddhism was brought to China by the Indian monk, Bodhidharma sometime in the 6th century. Then, it became known as Ch’an and then spread to Korea and Japan. Under the sixth Chinese patriarch, Huineng, Zen shed many of its inherent Indian trappings becoming more Chinese. It also became more of the Zen that we now think of.

But it was not until the middle of the 20th century that Zen Buddhism became popular in the West.

Zen, as we know it today is a way of living where people find happiness and peace within themselves. They learn to be more aware of their surroundings and the present rather than be distracted by an influx of information overkill. Zen teaches these individuals to lead a more disciplined and simple life instead of a contrived and artificial one.

So if you are looking for a way to incorporate more Zen into your life then read on. Here is a quick rundown of what to include and what to exclude from your life as you start your Zen journey.

What to Do?

At its very basic, Zen teaches you to be fully aware and live in each moment. This means you should work with a single-pointed awareness.

For instance, if you’re cleaning, then you’re fully present for the act of cleaning alone. If you’re spending time with family, they are your only focus and nothing else. Or if you’re relaxing at home, then you’re not thinking about the day’s events or worrying about tomorrow.

Keeping things simple and focused also lets you understand that less is more. So while you may be doing less, you’re actually giving it your everything, and coming out with a gratified experience.

Keeping things minimal will also help you figure out what’s important and unimportant in life. In a way, it’s decluttering your everyday affairs. But decluttering here doesn’t only refer to your physical life as in dealing with everyday activities and chores, but also decluttering your thoughts.

Often times, you get caught up in conflicting or confusing thoughts which can really affect your state of mind. As such, you become distracted, absent-minded, and even distraught. This, in turn, shows up in your behavior possibly making you fearful, troubled and preoccupied. You need to rid yourself of all this to lead a Zen life.

Then there is your attachment to your goals and dreams. Now, this is not a bad thing as long as you work towards it positively. But if you reach a point where you convince yourself that you can’t be happy without it, then you’re in trouble.

This kind of attachment is not healthy at all. Unfortunately, many people fall victim to this mentality. To enter the Zen zone in your life, you need to answer a few questions first.

Ask yourself why you’re pursuing your goal. Is it because you believe you’ll find happiness? Or is it something that will let you help others? Perhaps, you consider it worth spending your time on?

Now look on the flip side and see what this pursuit is costing you in terms of your own wellbeing or the wellbeing of others. If you find telling yourself that you’ll be happy when… (you achieve your goal), that itself is stopping you from enjoying the moment.

Anything that stops you from living in the moment also holds you back from realizing happiness and peace in that very same moment.

So to truly experience a Zen life, you need to work both on your body and your mind. On a physical level, practices like breathing, smiling more, and meditation can all help calm down the chaos in life. But the same can also have a surprisingly calm effect on your mind.

If the chaos in your physical life is levelled, then your state of mind will also relax.

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So You Want to Write a Book?

One of the best things that you can do to help grow your business and to position yourself as an expert in whatever field you may work in is to write your own book.

The problem is writing a book can be hard even if you are a seasoned writer.

In this guide were going to talk about different ways that you can have your own book completed by this time next month regardless of if you decide to write yourself or if you choose to take the easy route and have somebody else write it for you.

I would not have believed it if I hadn't done it for myself. You can actually write a book without actually doing the writing. Because of an interesting legal twist, you can hire a writer, and then when the writer is finished, you own the complete copyright to the work. If it sounds too good to be true, it almost is!

What's Your Book about?

It couldn't be easier to select a topic for a book. People are hungry for information, and people are looking to the Internet to feed their hunger. After you've read this chapter, you will feel confident enough to choose your own topic, or you can literally pull your book topic directly from this book and use it! How's that for a deal?

Finding That Aha Moment?

If you're smart enough to read this book, you're smart enough to look around you and determine what interests you and those around you. Think of what problems you've recently solved, and what kinds of problems others have had and solved. Any problem that has been solved in your world could easily be the subject of your next book. People love to read how other have solved a problem that they currently have.

So, brainstorm a list of problems in your life and in the lives of those around you. Your friend Bob lost his job? Your sister's child had chicken pox? How did they cope or find solutions? While you're at it, start another list of unsolved problems evident in your corner of the world. Write down problems you wish you had solved. Aha! These are subjects that people will really be interested in! How to lose the last ten pounds. The truth about UFOs. The straightest path to becoming a millionaire. From your personal corner, your step-granddaughter is pregnant at age 14? Your grocery bill is double what it used to be? Your roof leaks? These are problems waiting for solutions!

These unsolved problems would also be great book topics. Remember, you don't have to know the solution, just the topic. You're going to get someone else to do the research and write the book for you. You will not actually be writing one word.

Can You Say Google?

The Internet is a great way to find out what people are looking for at any given moment. You can search for almost anything. Google™ is a popular search engine you can use, or you can try any of the others like Yahoo!. Type in phrases like "top concerns of Americans," "best-selling nonfiction topics," or "popular how-to manuals."

And While You're on the Internet…

Find out the most popular nonfiction books from the New York Times bestseller list, Amazon, and a Google search for best-selling books. Your findings will tell you exactly what book subjects people are buying right now.

Try this. Go to www.amazon.com. From the tabbed menu running along the top of the Amazon home page, click "Top Sellers."

I did this one day in September 2011 and found a Harry Potter book, several other fiction books, and titles such as Natural cures "they" won't tell you about, How what you wear can change your life, How to profit from the demise of the dollar, and The official SAT study guide. I've paraphrased to some degree, but you get the idea.

Here's what I learned just from spending a few minutes on Amazon that day. People are reading good fiction from already-best selling authors (Da Vinci Code, the Harry Potter series, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and others). Secondly, Amazon buyers, buying over the Internet, are interested in nonfiction topics such as improving their lives and making more money. For these books, just about any author will do, even virtual unknowns or people who went to prison for lying to the American public.

And that quick visit only confirmed that the straightest route to book profits is in the nonfiction book market. This is for a number of reasons. Fiction readers tend to like to curl up in a chair with an actual book. Some of them attend book clubs where the physical books are brought around someone's kitchen table with wine and cheese. Fiction readers tend to purchase from authors they're already familiar with. Fiction can be more difficult to write and deliver well. Also, many of the classics in fiction are available as free ebooks. A reader interested in fiction could just download those. So stick with nonfiction unless you're feeling particularly bold and experimental.

Here is some more good news, and if you didn't already know this then you are going to be smiling big. Drum roll please... ideas are not copyrighted, therefore any idea you see, hear, or read anywhere anytime, is yours to use for a book! You can create books around the same ideas that are covered in the Amazon best seller list, and turnaround and create a book on the exact same subject!

Now, copyright law does protect the way ideas are expressed, so you want to make sure your hired author does not plagiarize or copy book text outright. And you cannot use the title word for word either. But there's nothing stopping you from creating another book or ebook that covers the same subject with a different voice. It's all as completely legal and guilt-free as nonfat Haagen Dazs. This is why looking at bestseller lists is a great way to get topic ideas.

Digging for Gold

There are groups of people who are willing to buy nonfiction books: hobbyists. At any given time, these people are looking for ways to spend their money on their hobbies. Their passion is your financial gain.