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'elf Expressions Ezine

Get Hold of Your Elf!

"Get hold of your 'elf!"


Your weekly collection of marketing tips, hints, and advice interspersed with humor, inspiration, and other goodies to spice things up a bit. Guidance, tutoring, advice, mentoring, coaching, inspiration, English lessons, editing, proofreading services for entrepreneurs and online marketers.


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Publisher: Mary Wilkey
Volume 3 - Issue 8 - January 28, 2003
Published every Tuesday


Hello, and welcome one and all, especially to all new subscribers. And I'd like to invite each and every one of you to submit a short biography to be featured in our Subscriber in the Spotlight section. This is not to be an ad, but a way to share with other readers who you are, what you're about, a little of your background, family, education, where life has taken you, your dreams and aspirations, etc. Of course, you may include a very short blurb about what you're doing, your URL and/or email. This is free publicity for you, folks, and it is a shame that no one took advantage of it this time around.

Also, I need to tell those of you who don't already know that any time you see a strange character, such as in an ad—or anywhere else that it seems inappropriate, it is there to prevent the spam filters from dumping this publication into your "Deleted Items" folder. Spam filters are giving us publishers the fits, and anyone who can come up with another way to foil these spoilers will probably be canonized! LOL!



In Remembrance of
September 11, 2001


Smile!

If you enjoy this ezine, you can help it grow faster by introducing 'elf Expressions to just one other person—because the faster we grow, the more everyone benefits from the ads. Thank you!

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Signature





 

It isn't always enough to be forgiven by others.
Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.



Contents:

Sponsor Ad
Ad Contest
Subscriber in the Spotlight
Feature Article
Today’s Bit of Irony
Today's English lesson
Marketing Mania
Internet Tips & Hints
Guest Article
Inspiration
Etcetera


Sponsor Ad


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Ad Contest


Results of last issue's ad contest when the question was: Fahrenheit and Centigrade thermometers read exactly the same at one temperature only . . . what is that? The answer: 40 degrees below zero. Naomi Knudsen was first in with the correct response . . . see her ad above.

For our subscribers only: Be first to submit the correct answer to the following question and receive the next available top sponsor ad FREE! Here is the question:

Name six celebrities from Ohio and give their hometowns.

Send to adcontest@elfexpressionsezine.com



A Real Plan


The following is a testimonial from an individual stating what results SHE has experienced. No medical claims are implied, and we are not saying that the products discussed will cure the problems you have. (The foregoing statement is required by the US Government, which should not be a substitute for your ability and right to think for yourself and make your own decisions!)

"After hearing Jon Barron speak and having dinner with the President of this company, Terry Martin, I joined as a distributor. I was so impressed with Healing America because they have the KNOWLEDGE and a real PLAN or BLUEPRINT to allow people to realize optimum health and relief from catastrophic illness. This is the first time I have seen any company really put all of the knowledge I have been studying for the past 7 years in one place in a cohesive manner.

"Since taking the Healing America products I have noticed some major differences in my well being.

"I don’t get depressed hardly at all anymore (this is back from Clinical Depression) I am actually HAPPY just about every day!

"I have my Libido back! Must be the Natural Balance Plus. WOWEE!

"Healing America has made a substantial difference in my life and in the lives of many others. My goal is to change the world-always has been. This company allows me to achieve that greatness one person at a time."

—Candis Ross

If you would like to see what has worked miracles in Candis' life—and also get a free download of Jon Barron's book, "Lessons from the Miracle Doctors," go to:

http://goodbody.healingamerica.com
The only company in the world with scalar enhanced products!

If you would like to look into becoming a distributor, just go to this website: Watch the 6-minute video presentation (it may take a few minutes to load). Fill out and submit the questionnaire at the end of the presentation. Very shortly then, you will be contacted one time to determine if you qualify for our program.





Better to have common sense without education
than to have education without common sense.




Subscriber in the Spotlight


The first subscriber to submit his or her personal profile sharing with the rest of us all about who he/she is, background, family, location, interests, hobbies, goals, dreams, etc., will be spotlighted right here next issue—and yes, an email and/or URL may be included!

Send to readermail@elfexpressionsezine.com

Your bio and free publicity could have been HERE!
No one bothered to submit a bio this week . . . how sad!



 

To educate the child, begin with the grandparents.



Feature Article


How to Write a Newsletter Without Doing ALL the Hard Work!
by Michael Green

Newsletters have become an increasingly popular way to communicate, and it isn’t hard to see why.

Back in the days when printing was the only method of publishing a newsletter, the rules were different.

The production costs (print & distribution) were high, and this excluded many people from producing their own newsletters.

But with the Internet and email, the rules have completely changed . . .

Nowadays newsletters are incredibly cheap to produce and distribute over the Net. This fact has led to an explosion in the number of titles. And while it’s impossible to know precisely, one recent credible estimate said that there are between 3 and 400,000 newsletter titles published on the web and via email each month!

Obscure Interest Groups Now Have Their Own Newsletters. The ultra low cost of producing a newsletter, combined with the global nature of the Internet, means that any band of people with an obscure minority interest can now viably publish their own newsletter.

Hence, most Internet newsletters have a distribution of fewer than a thousand, and many have memberships in the low hundreds or less.

But the explosion in newsletter titles has led to a whole band of first-time newsletter editors.

Many of them are home based. Nearly all of them under-resourced for the writing task ahead.

So here’s one useful tip that, during my lengthy newsletter editing career, I’ve used successfully many hundreds of times. I call it:

"How To Write A Newsletter Without Doing ALL The Hard Work"

One of the greatest challenges for any newsletter editor is not, as the job title suggests, "editing," but finding or producing the content. Some people view newsletter editors in the same light as magazine editors. Nice comparison—shame it just isn't true!

You see, a magazine editor probably has a sub-editor, a photographer, a picture editor, and a number of reporters or feature writers. They probably still complain that they are badly under-resourced. But they are not compared with you, of course.

So you've got to learn a few shortcuts! Here's one to start with:

Conduct an Interview and Tape It. Get hold of a key member of staff, head of the sailing club, whoever is appropriate to your newsletter. Tell them that you know that there's an audience out there who would just love to hear about his/her views, and that you're coming down to do an interview (this can be done over the phone if need be).

Now set your voice recorder, answering machine or Dictaphone running, and ask the key questions you know your readership is waiting to hear the answers to.

Remember to ask open ended questions. Those are the ones starting with: who, what, why, when, where, and how.

Remember—you want to keep the content as interesting as possible. And there’s nothing more interesting to the reader than hearing about something that answers a problem that they have. So keep the interview rich in problem solving and benefits, and you can’t go far wrong.

When you've finished the interview, off you go with say 20-30 minutes of recording, and your job is simply to play it back and write it out, editing as you go.

Good luck,
Michael Green
© How To Corporation. All rights reserved.

=======================================================================

The author, Michael Green, has developed a TOOLKIT called "How To Write A Newsletter." It comes complete with hundreds of Copyright Free Articles, DTP Templates, a How To Manual, and lots more. A must for all Newsletter Editors!

Check out ===> http://tinyurl.com/4ybq



 

A Bible Riddle

There is a 90-word verse found somewhere in the King James Version of the Bible. Where can this be found, and what is so special about this single verse in the Bible?

ANSWER: This 90 word verse is found in Esther 8:9, and it is special for it is the longest verse in the Bible: "Then were the king's scribes called at that time in the third month, that is, the month Sivan, on the three and twentieth day thereof; and it was written according to all that Mordecai commanded unto the Jews, and to the lieutenants, and the deputies and rulers of the provinces which are from India unto Ethiopia, an hundred twenty and seven provinces, unto every province according to the writing thereof, and unto every people after their language, and to the Jews according to their writing, and according to their language."





If there is light in the soul, there will be beauty in the person. If there is beauty in the person, there will be harmony in the house. If there is harmony in the house, there will be order in the nation. If there is order in the nation, there will be peace in the world.

—Chinese Proverb



Today's Bit of Irony


Think YOU'RE having a bad day?

Two animal rights protesters were protesting at the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn, Germany. Suddenly, all two thousand pigs broke loose and escaped through a broken fence, stampeding madly. The two hapless protesters were trampled to death.

STILL having a bad day??

Iraqi terrorist Khay Rahnajet didn't pay enough postage on a letter bomb. It came back with "return to sender" stamped on it. Forgetting it was the bomb, he opened it and was blown to bits.




Concentrate upon the work in hand.
The sun's rays do not burn until brought to a focus.



Today's English Lesson


Seeing the same elementary mistakes over and over again has prompted this publisher to write an English lesson each issue.

This one concerns the misuse of "a lot" as "alot" or—and I've actually seen this—"allot"! Again, all part of the dumbing-down-of-America syndrome so evident today.

"Lot" is a stand-alone noun. There is no such word as "alot"!

"Lot" means an amount, as in "a whole lot" or "a lot of moolah." It can also mean one's fate or fortune. Another use is to describe a plot of land.

Still another use is as an adverb, as in "Thanks a lot."

"Allot" is a verb and an entirely different word with an entirely different meaning. It means to measure out or ration, as in an allotment or an allowance.

Reminder: We offer a reasonably priced editing/proofreading service for articles or even entire ezines. Just email: editingservice@elfexpressionsezine.com



Marketing Mania


Don't Delete That Ezine! Read it!

Featuring Donna Sweat, weekly columnist, and publisher of Dee's Helpful Info. and A Real Home Business Newsletter.

Reading of other publisher's problems has startled my brain into active duty. It's been some time since I've aired my thoughts to the Internet marketing arena, Actually, I have been tempted to voice my thoughts many times and stood down. This is for the subscribers of all ezines, regardless of the ezine and its publisher. This is for "the so called "readers" we publishers have.

Now it is time for a break . . . to think this through before continuing.

Now,I am back with some astonishing thoughts: What is the purpose of any ezine? Who are its "REAL" readers? Suppose there were no ads in any ezines.

Could you, or perhaps a better question might be, "Would You look for your information elsewhere? Doing a search is easy . . . right? Wrong . . . You may search for hours looking for something that is right under your nose in one of those ezines that you can simply save and read later.

How would you know which program to sign up for? Where could you advertise efficiently? Did you know you can establish a good relationship with publishers? They can help you more then you think.

What is the point of all this rambling on . .. you ask?

There is so much spam, filtering, so many bogus emails and rip off affiliate programs out there, why would someone NOT want to read the ezines they signed up for?

I DO NOT read every word of the ezines I am signed up with, BUT I do find some really good content, written by good, respectable authors, and I have some great publisher friends that have gone that extra mile to help me . . .

Ads alone do not make an ezine. They are not even the heart of the ezine. The heart of the ezine is the publisher who composes the ezine.

Publishers bend over backwards to get your ezine to you! They put together the ezine for you, the reader. They spend hours finding just the right content that maybe you have not seen or something that may be useful to you. Then they need to put all this in some order, format to specific guidelines, add HTML if they publish this way, plug it in to their template, and send it off using their specific email program.

You receive the issue, but hit "delete" right off the bat. Why? Do you realize how much information you just dumped without even a peek?

Why do you suppose we go through all the work? Well, I would think we wish to help others succeed in the business world of the superhighway called the Internet.

But we want quality readers just as excited to read the content we provide, as we are to compose it for you. Subscribers, or in my eyes, my Internet Friends, are what keeps an ezine growing and expanding to other readers, who are looking for quality writing and articles.

Let's face it. Business has its ups and downs, on and off the web, but ezines need faithful people, and publishers are human, too . . . we need human friends that care.

Remember this the next time your finger wants to touch "Delete": This publisher was in my shoes at one time or maybe still is.

=============================================================================

©2002 Donna Sweat — mailto:donna@sosbbs.com
Publisher — Dee's Helpful Info. — subscribe@homebizandmore.biz
Endless Mts. Home Business — http://hbandmore.rjdenterprises.net/




Compassion is difficult to give away, because it keeps coming back.



Internet Hints & Tips


Background Roulette

This gives you or your visitors many options to view your page with different background colors.

It's cool!

http://www.resource-a-day.net/resources/effects4/
AOL users click here





We would rather be a has-been than a never-was.
Because a never-was never was, and a has-been has been.



Guest Article


What to Do With Old Web Pages
by Shannan Hearne

So you want to clean up your website? Delete old information. Perhaps remove the content you once needed provided by others and update product or service offerings.

That’s great. But what do you do with the old web pages?

You could just delete them, but wait! How many of them have already been spidered, indexed, and listed in search engines? How many of them are already bookmarked by previous site visitors? How many were once used as entry pages for ads and advertising campaigns? Don’t just delete those old web pages. Recycle them.

You can do this several ways.

1—Prepare new content appropriate for the page’s existing title and load it to the server. This is just as effective as deleting the page and putting up another one with the new content. But it's already listed in search engines and already has traffic coming to it.

2—Prepare a new 404 error message just for that page telling visitors the old content has been removed, but you will immediately recycle or redirect them to new and improved content on your server.

3—Rethink your plan to delete the page and its content. You created it at one time for a reason. Why get rid of it? Perhaps you just need to dress it up and re-market it.

4—Create a mini-directory page on the now-not-needed page, cataloging content related to the page’s original content. Then people who return to it via bookmarks or search engine listings will still find basically what they were looking for.

Whatever you do, don’t trash the old page. Why throw away all the marketing work that originally went into it?

======================================================================

Shannan Hearne is the president and wizard of http://www.successpromotions..com and thrives on helping online business people keep from making costly marketing mistakes.





Many people mistake thinking for reorganizing
the thoughts they already have.

—William James



Inspiration


Just A Little Thought

In light of the many perversions and jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like the attacks on Sept. 11 happen?"

Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.

And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered and her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK.

Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school ... the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). An expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Then someone said teachers and principals better not discipline our children when they misbehave. The school administrators said no faculty member in this school better touch a student when they misbehave because we don't want any bad publicity, and we surely don't want to be sued (there's a big difference between disciplining, touching, beating, smacking, humiliating, kicking, etc.). And we said OK.

Then someone said, let's let our daughters have abortions if they want, and they won't even have to tell their parents. And we said OK.

Then some wise school board member said, since boys will be boys and they're going to do it anyway, let's give our sons all the condoms they want so they can have all the fun they desire, and we won't have to tell their parents they got them at school. And we said OK.

Then some of our top elected officials said it doesn't matter what we do in private as long as we do our jobs. Agreeing with them, we said it doesn't matter to me what anyone, including the President, does in private as long as I have a job and the economy is good.

Then someone said let's print magazines with pictures of nude women and call it wholesome, down-to-earth appreciation for the beauty of the female body. And we said OK.

And then someone else took that appreciation a step further and published pictures of nude children and then further again by making them available on the Internet. And we said OK, they're entitled to free speech.

Then the entertainment industry said, let's make TV shows and movies that promote profanity, violence, and illicit sex. Let's record music that encourages rape, drugs, murder, suicide, and satanic themes. And we said it's just entertainment, it has no adverse effect, nobody takes it seriously anyway, so go right ahead.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass this on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it ... no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don't sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.

Thanks to Gabriel Beter, a loyal reader, who sent this in. Visit his website at: http://www.wealthlink.com/beterfuture




Etcetera

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