Philbrick

Dear Reader: E-books and other information products are rapidly increasing in popularity, and of course that popularity has lead to a surge in the number of products that are now available. If you want to make a profit with your e-book, you will need to set it apart from the rest.

When selling e-books acquired through the purchase of resell rights, ethical retailers will be limited to pricing set by the publisher. In that case your best bet at being competitive may be to increase the value of your product with added bonuses to sweeten the deal. "But wait...there's more!" may be a clich we all laugh at on infomercials, but wait...it works!

If you're selling your own e-book you can set your own price, but if you don't want to pocket just pennies per sale you may want to add bonuses to make a mid-level price more competitive with cheaper offerings. It's no secret that consumers like free things and the right bonuses may be what you need to add, to accomplish what you'd hoped to with your product.

To make the most of your bonus offer, you should choose that bonus wisely. Bonuses that may be popular with your customers include...

♦ free product samples

♦ segments of an upcoming book

♦ coupons or discount codes

♦ relevant materials or resource guides

♦ additional chapters or 'part 2'

The one absolute is that it has to represent a real benefit to your customers before they will see it as added value!

If you were promoting an e-book that taught your readers how to get out of debt, you could choose from a number of printable resources. These could include a monthly budget chart or one that can be used to track spending as it happens...or both. These would be relatively easy to create and offer added value to your customers.

If you are interested in offering bonuses like product samples or coupons with your e-book, you may need outside help. For this example, let's say that you were selling an e-book that outlined caring for your exotic pet...

You may be able to create a partnership with an exotic pet store, online or off. You will find that more businesses than you may expect will be happy to provide you with coupons or discount codes to give to your customers! In this case, coupons for exotic pet food or other supplies will be of value and probably put to good use by your e-book buyers.

It is also important to note (and point out to them) that the company you form this partnership with will also benefit. They too will probably see an increase in sales, as many consumers will shop where they save the most money. Those first-time sales may even create long-term customers for your partners, so everything works out for both of you.

When deciding to add bonuses to e-books, there are many sellers who wonder exactly how far they should go. In the end it is your decision to make. If you are able to affordably create your own bonuses, or you decide to use those included by the publisher with the original e-book, you may want to give these bonuses away to all buyers.

If you are partnering with another business to offer your e-book customers samples or coupons, it might be best to set a time frame or limit the number of buyers who qualify for the bonuses. That exotic pet store may not want to sell its llama food at half price for long! Advertising that these bonuses are available for the first 100 buyers or the next 30 days may only create a temporary spike in sales, but it may be enough to create a buzz you can benefit from.

Adding bonuses to your e-books is ultimately optional and you dont have to do it. However, these bonuses have a fairly high success rate when marketed the proper way. If you decide to offer them, consider advertising them with your e-book on your sales pages, ads or press releases to clearly outline the value you're giving your customers. You may find they're just what you need to send your sales to the next level!

To your success!

Bill Rudosky, YBM

PS... From a consumer standpoint, do you like getting free things? There is a good chance that you do and so do millions of other consumers!

I am the owner of Your Business Manuals (http://yourbusinessmanuals.com), which offers online business operators information and software to enhance their work-at-home success.

Treatment of Stage 0 Colon Cancer

Treatment of Stage 0 colon cancer (carcinoma in situ) may include the following types of surgery:

Local excision, which is surgery to remove the colon cancer without cutting through the abdominal wall.

A polypectomy, which is surgery to remove the colon cancer from the bulging piece of tissue.

Resection/anastomosis, which is surgery that removes the colon cancer by taking out a section of the colon and rejoining the cut ends of the colon. This procedure is done when the cancerous tissue is too large to remove by local excision.

Treatment of Stage I Colon Cancer

Treatment of Stage I colon cancer is usually resection/anastomosis (removal of colon cancer by joining the cut ends of the colon) because the cancerous tissue is usually too large at this stage to be removed by local excision.

Treatment of Stage II Colon Cancer

Treatment of Stage II colon cancer may include the following:

Resection/anastomosis

Clinical trials of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or biological therapy after surgery

Treatment of Stage III Colon Cancer

Treatment of Stage III colon cancer may include the following:

Resection/anastomosis with or without chemotherapy.

Clinical trials of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and/or biological therapy after surgery.

Treatment of Stage IV Colon Cancer

Treatment of Stage IV colon cancer may include the following:

Resection/anastomosis

Surgery to remove parts of other organs such as the liver, lungs, and ovaries where the cancer may have spread.

Chemotherapy.

Clinical trials of chemotherapy or biological therapy.

Radiation therapy may be offered to some patients as palliative therapy (to relieve symptoms).

Treatment of Recurrent Colon Cancer or Cancerous Cells

Treatment of recurrent colon cancer depends on where the cancer has recurred (come back) and the general health of the patient. Treatment for recurrent colon cancer may include the following:

Surgery to remove cancer that may have spread to the liver, lungs, or ovaries.

Surgery to remove cancer cells that have recurred in the colon.

Radiation therapy as palliative therapy.

Chemotherapy as palliative therapy.

Clinical trials of biological therapy or chemotherapy.

Theodore Frazer http://www.colonproducts.com

Sleep is a dynamic process that our brain and body needs for physical restoration and proper mental processing. According to Fadia (2002), the amount of sleep that is necessary depends on a number of factors (age, weight, etc.) Infants require about 16 hours of sleep while teenagers require around 9. For most adults, about 7 or 8 hours of sleep tends to be the average. However, there are some adults that require as less as 5 hours a night and as much as 10 hours of sleep per night. In addition the amount of sleep a person needs will also increase if that person has been deprived of sleep or experiencing sleep deprivation. This causes sleep debt. This means that when a person is deprived of sleep that sleep must then be made up (2002).

Many people are able to notice the difference between a good night sleep and waking up feeling sleep deprived. However, those who have constantly had to deal with sleep deprivation developed a conditioning that overtime became normalized. They were unable to determine that sleep deprivation had caused and continues to cause impairments in their judgment, reaction time and/or in their overall functioning. They simply have come to believe that this is the way it is for them. This process has been noted in larger heavier individuals that have been heavy most of their lives. Thus, this article will focus on sleep disorders and gay men in the bear community in order to increase awareness regarding the health risks posed by sleep disorders in the GLBTQ community.

Sleep Apnea: A Common Sleep Disorder Affecting the Bear Community

What is Sleep apnea? Sleep apnea is a sleep breathing disorder that causes severe sleep deprivation by interrupting sleep and collapsing the windpipe. This occurs because of a build up of extra tissue in the neck area from weight gain. Men tend to gain weight in their neck and have thicker, heavier necks. When we fall asleep our muscles relax throughout our body. When our throat muscles relax the weight of the neck, along with attempting to inhale causes the windpipe to collapse and become blocked. When this occurs the individual must wake up to regain his muscle tone in order to open the windpipe and breathe. This occurs for just about three seconds before returning to sleep and usually the individual is unaware of waking. However, some individuals may have awareness that their sleep is very restless. They may even wake up coughing from a dry throat. The number one sign that one may have sleep apnea is snoring. Everyone that has sleep apnea snores. However, everyone that snores may not have sleep apnea. Additionally, if ones neck is greater than 17 inches then there is a greater risk of having or developing sleep apnea.

Sleep apnea can be very dangerous as it deprives the body of oxygen and results in chronic sleep deprivation and disease if not treated. Symptoms such as morning headaches, loss of sex drive and a decline in mental overall functioning (loss of concentration, memory deficits, etc.) could be signs that you have sleep apnea. Sleep deprivation clearly also has an effect on our mood and can lead to experiencing symptoms of depression and irritability. This can affect your performance at work and/or your personal relationships with your partner(s) and family. Additionally, sleep apnea can put one in a higher risk category for stroke, hypertension, and heart attack. It also can suppress the immune system influencing how efficiently the body fights infection. Thus, sleep apnea can lead to an increase in ones viral load and decrease T-cells if HIV positive.

Diagnosing in the Sleep Lab and Treatment

In order to find out for sure if you have sleep apnea, you need to be evaluated by a physician. Your primary care physician can refer you to a sleep specialist that can order an overnight sleep study. A sleep technologist will then apply sensors to measure your sleep stages, eye movements, heart rate, breathing, muscle tone and leg movements and oxygen levels and then fit you with a mask for the CPAP. CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) is a device that blows air in your airway to create pressure that lifts the soft throat tissue off of the airway allowing it to stay open. You should also get a chance to practice with the mask before going to bed. So talk to your technologist about the proper fit of the mask.

There are a number of choices to choose from. It is important that no air is able to escape through the sides of the mask when wearing it. If there is, then tell your technologist. After going to bed, the technologist will monitor your sleep for the first half of the night in order to get a baseline of your sleep. If the technologist assesses you as meeting the criteria for sleep apnea, he or she will put on your CPAP mask and turn on the CPAP machine. It is important to note that this treatment is non invasive and is part of the overnight study. After the study, your results will be ready in about two weeks or so. At that point, schedule an appointment with your doctor to discuss your test results as well as treatment options besides CPAP.

Conclusion

Sleep apnea is a very common sleep disorder and has been known to cause accidents in the workplace resulting in lawsuits and personal injury. So if you believe you are at risk for this sleep disorder, talk to your doctor or health care professional. Relief could be just around the corner. We value our Bears. You deserve it and you are worth it!

Barry Aneda is a National Certified Counselor and a Licensed Associate Counselor working with our GLBTQ community in the field of Addictions and HIV/AIDS.

For more information you can visit him at http://www.barryaneda.com. To visit him at his virtual office, simply click the link titled Visit My Virtual Office.