Teach a Child to Read

by Bill G. Graham

Do you take reading for granted? If you are a good reader, consider the impact on your life is the opposite were true. What if you only gleaned a dim understanding from reading newspaper and magazine articles? What if you were afraid to take tests of any kind if they involved reading? What if you didn't read for enjoyment because it was too painstaking? This is the situation in which more than a few adults find themselves today.

Each adult with reading deficiencies started as a child in school somewhere, unless for some reason they never attended school. As a child, maybe they had an undiscovered mental processing problem, such as dyslexia, that made learning to read difficult. Maybe they were hyperactive and couldn't sit still long enough to read. If you know of a child who struggles with reading, especially if it's your child, consider getting him or her tested for dyslexia. If diagnosed and treated early, dyslexia need not be a major obstacle to becoming a good reader.

Some adults may have had marginal reading skills, but never got much encouragement and never were stimulated by reading good books. For many reasons, children sometimes just don't learn to be good readers and they never realize what they are missing. In these days of too much TV, instant messaging, Ipods, etc., there's a lot that competes for time that could be better spent reading a book.

We all have occasions where we need to buy a child present, typically a birthday present. Instead of giving a gift card to the local electronics or game store, why not give the child a book? There is a whole world of books out there for children. As a child I taught myself to enjoy reading by reading comic books. I loved to read Superman comics. Not the best literature, perhaps, but it was reading and I enjoyed it. If you know the child pretty well, chances are that you have some idea of what kind of story they would be interested in. For my son, anything about soccer would be a good bet; he also enjoys stories about the Civil War. My daughter loves the Harry Potter books and The Princess Diaries series. Many children enjoy personalized books in which they get to be the main character of their own story.

A child's success in the education system depends heavily on reading skills. Reading comprehension is built primarily by doing a lot of reading, so a life-long habit of reading gives any child a distinct advantage when they get to high school and college.

There are many volunteer opportunities aimed at helping children learn to read and to enjoy reading. Reading is Fundamental is one such program. They have a website that lists volunteer opportunities by state, and a simple internet search will reveal even more opportunities to get involved. Each one of us has the ability to make a positive impact on a child's life by helping them develop a love of reading. Whether it's your own child or a child at the neighborhood school, take the time to make a difference in that child's future.

 

Personalized Books as a Home Based Business

by Bill G. Graham

Personalized books have been around for a long time. They have lasted too long to be considered a fad. Parents and grandparents like to buy them for kids because they encourage reading and enjoyment of books. Today personalized books can be found in such diverse places as mall kiosks, church fundraisers, flea markets, and on the web.

Almost since the dawn of the personal computer, systems have been available to enable people to operate home businesses producing personalized books on home computers. If you’re interested in operating your own home based business selling personalized books, just type in “personalized book business” into Google and you’ll see that there are several companies that offer systems for producing their particular line of books.

Before purchasing one of these systems, however, it pays to do a little homework. First, know what you’ll be selling. Get a sample book or two from each company so you can see the actual product. If you like the product, investigate a little further. Does the company give you potential sales figures that seem almost too good? If so, they probably aren’t realistic. How much will it actually cost to get started?. The company should be up front with all the costs involved. How do reorders work? Can you order supplies over the internet, or do you have to call to place orders? How soon are orders shipped? What happens if you need some technical help?

Another very important consideration is the production method you will use to print and bind the books. Some companies provide pages with preprinted color illustrations which you run through your printer to print out the story. You then bind the printed pages into a preprinted hard cover. This method requires that you have on hand sets of preprinted pages and covers for every title that a customer could ever order. Additionally, if a page jammed when going through the printer, you have ruined a complete book.

There is another method of producing personalized books that does not require any preprinted inventory. Using generic (blank) materials, this method lets you create from scratch any title that your customer wants. This is possible because it employs an all-digital method in which you print the illustrations and the text all at once on blank paper. There are large adhesive-backed labels on which you print the cover illustrations, so the covers don’t have to be preprinted, either. With such a system as this, you would always be able to produce whatever titles your customers want, so long as you have the generic materials on hand.

Selling personalized books can be a fun and rewarding business. You’re selling a product that customers want and that they will buy again and again. It doesn’t take long to get started in this business, but it pays to do some research before you buy.

 

The Benefits of Personalized Books

by Sally Graham

A personalized book is a unique creation in the world of children's books, simply because the child who reads the book is the main character of his or her own story. For generations parents have told stories to children in which their child was the star. Why? Because children love for the story to be about them.

Today's personalized books take this idea a step further in that the child now gets to be the hero in a fully illustrated story that they can hold in their hands and read over and over. Their book has their friends and family members in the book, too.

A quality personalized book encourages a child to read partly because his or her name is in the book. For such a book to be truly worthwhile, however, it must have a good story and good illustrations as compared to non-personalized children's books. In other words, a well-crafted personalized book should be more than just some story with the child's name in it. It should first be a good story without the personalization. It should further be an affirming story, enabling the child to see himself or herself doing something positive, possessing noble qualities, being a friend, etc.

Personalized books have a keepsake value. It's not unusual for a young adult to still have their personalized book that was given to them years ago as a child. It's seen as something personal and special because it is 'their' book. The aunt, uncle, or grandmother who gives a personalized book, is always remembered because their name is printed as the gift giver.

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Sally Graham has a Masters of Eductation degree and nearly 30 years' experience in business. A mother of three, she is president of Jiff-e-Books Personalized Children's Books, found on the web at www.jiff-e-books.com.

 

Saving Money on Inkjet Printing

by Bill G. Graham

Modern inkjet printers are truly marvelous devices. For a small cash outlay you can get a fast printout with excellent quality. The main downside to them if you do a lot of printing is the cost of the ink cartridges. The printer manufactures make the purchase price of their printers attractively low, then sell you replacement ink cartridges at high prices. It's the same concept as razors - you can get a razor at a low price, but watch out when you need to buy new blades for it.

In their efforts to thwart consumers from being able to use 3rd party cartridges in their printers, some printer manufactures have gone to great lengths to force consumers to buy their ink. A printer company could probably do very well by building a solid printer and selling replacement cartridges at a more reasonable price. They would likely make up what they lose in profit margin by selling more cartridges, plus they would definitely build up a lot of consumer loyalty.

So what are the alternatives to expensive cartridges? Refill your factory cartridges? Buy 3rd party cartridges? The first option, refilling cartridges, is not a very good one. It can be messy, even if one is careful, and the results are inconsistent. However, some of the national office supply stores have recently started refilling cartridges for customers. This may turn out to be a good way to save on ink. 3rd party cartridges are a good choice, if you have the right printer. Each cartridge is new and is filled and sealed properly. You won't have the mess associated with refills, and the quality will be very good at a much lower price than you would pay for factory cartridges. Printer companies can't void your printer warranty if you use 3rd party cartridges, unless the cartridges actually cause damage to the printer. Having used 3rd party cartridges for years, I have never seen a printer become damaged by using them.

How do you know if your new printer will accept 3rd party cartridges? One way is to search for web sites that sell aftermarket (3rd party) cartridges and see what models are listed on their sites. For instance, some models of Canon printers will accept 3rd party cartridges and some will not. If you need to buy a new printer, it would pay to investigate before you buy so you will know if you can use aftermarket ink cartridges.

Another factor to consider if you're concerned about the cost of inkjet printing is this: what am I going to be printing? If you're going to print a lot of photos, it makes sense to buy a 6-color printer. If you're mainly going to print text and illustrations, as in general business applications or books, a 4-color printer will do just as well and will cost less to operate. Also, is each color contained in its own cartridge, or does the printer use a multicolor cartridge? It doesn't make sense to replace an entire color cartridge when only the yellow has run out.

Build a High-Ranking Site the Right Way

by Bill G. Graham

This article is intended to get people to take a step back before they jump into building their new web site, to take a little time to learn before they begin to code. It will save time in the long run, and may save you some costly mistakes, as well. The most natural thing to do when creating your first web site is to fire up your new web page editor software and start building pages. Later, after the site is finished, you try to figure out how to get good search engine results. That's the way that a lot of people approach putting a site up on the web, but it's a little like building the car first, then trying to figure out how to make it get good gas mileage. It can be done that way, but it's a lot easier if one does some basic seo research before creating web pages. I know this because I did it backwards when I built my first site.

There are many companies that would like to help you with your seo. Some of them are good, and some probably don't really know what they are doing. All of them will take your money, however. Instead of paying someone to do it for you, why not do it yourself? You'll be happy that you know the nuts and bolts of your site. There is enough information available at your fingertips for you to achieve good search engine positioning through your own efforts.

So what should happen first? I think the first thing to do is search the internet for help with seo (search engine optimization). If you take the time now and read all you can on this subject, you will learn not only how to optimize your site, but you'll also find out about a lot of must-do's and some no-no's when it comes to building your site. Reading about search engine optimization isn't like reading a good page-turner, I'll admit. It is exciting to think, however, that doing the required reading will pay off when you have a high-ranking site much sooner than you otherwise might have had. If you're going to be selling a product, you'll get orders coming in much sooner and you'll get more of them.

The main search engines in which you need to be listed are Google, Yahoo, and MSN. You'll also want to be listed in the DMOZ.org directory. You'll want to get it right the first time when submitting these listings. In other words, make sure the descriptions you put in for your site are on target for what your site is about.

One very important consideration in good search engine positioning is keywords. I have found it very helpful to purchase software that will help you to analyze popular sites in your category to see what keywords they are using. There are several inexpensive software packages, such as IBP9, that are available online to help you with this. They help you by analyzing the top-ranking sites in your category and show you why they rank so high. Additionally, by purchasing the software you also get access to their newsletters, which can help keep you up to date on what the search engines expect from a high-ranking site. If you do this first, you can build the right keywords into your site from the start.

Another important issue is links, especially inbound links. Google, which enjoys about 50% of the search market, relies heavily on incoming links to a site to determine its ranking. These links should be keyword rich. If you're going to be selling a personalized product, then the word 'personalized' should be in the link text for some of the inbound links to your site. When you get your site up and running, it is time to begin pursuing inbound links. Make this a part of your daily routine and in time you will have more and more inbound links and better and better positioning. Stay away from link farms and other gimmicks and build your rankings with naturally-acquired links.

Remember, it really is easier to do it right the first time.