text: Following Yahooâ€™s recent announcement that they intend to buy 10% of the IPO for Alibaba.com Ltd, a company in which they already have a 40% stake, they announced yesterday that they adapted its instant-messaging service for six Asian languages, expanding to a total of 25 countries.
  This seems to play right into Yahooâ€™s efforts to capture the Asian, and more specifically, the Chinese market. Yahoo seems to be moving in the right direction in my opinion. The Chinese market is one of the only remaining markets in which they can compete with and dare I say, possibly eclipse Google. I know I might be getting a bit ahead of myself by saying “eclipse Google” because I cannot see that happening, but I do admire the efforts in which Yahoo is moving forward. With so much market share up for grabs in Asia, the expansion of Asian languages in Yahoo messenger and the Alibaba IPO purchase seem to show Yahoo moving with clear direction.
  Wall street has taken notice as well. Last Friday, shares in Yahoo surged as much as 8.5% when the Alibaba IPO news was released. In the month of October, Yahoo shares increased in value by 16%. Seems like things have really turned around for Yahoo, but Terry Semel and their current director, Eric Hippeau did just exercise their options. Maybe they know something others donâ€™t.
  It’s very interesting about Semel and Hippeau exercising their stock options, not sure what % of their options they exercised, but I’d be less excited about Yahoo! and more interested in what they plan to spend the money on. I bet some startup is going to get an injection of cash.
  Audio: "Wrestleview Radio" for December 9, 2010 - WWE News and Results, RAW and Smackdown Results, Impact News, ROH News
  The latest edition of “Wrestleview Radio” for Thursday, December 9, 2010 is now archived and airing on the Wrestleview Radio Network with Adam Martin, Hunter Golden and Doug Lackey.
  Article 43-Estate Planning Series: How the VA is Changing the Rules for Veterans to Receive the Improved Pension Benefit – Part 3
  Written by Wright Law on March 18, 2016 . Posted in Estate Planning, Improved Pension Benefit, Veterans	
  In recent columns I have explained the improved pension benefit available to many veterans or to spouses of veterans. However, the qualifications will be changing. This is the last of three columns explaining what I expect the most significant changes to be.
  Next summer, July 14-18, 2008, we proudly will present the Sixth Oregon Coast Children's Book Writers Workshop www.occbww.com in the exquisite Oregon coast town of Oceanside. The instructors will be five authors, David Greenberg, David Gifaldi, Esther Hershenhorn, Tom Birdseye, and Mel Boring, one children's book agent, Susan Cohen (Writers House), and two children's book editors, Harold Underdown (who has worked at Macmillan, Orchard, and Charlesbridge and who is author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Children's Book Publishing), and Stacy Graham (editor at Houghton Mifflin Books for Children). Summer Workshop 2008 promises to be our best yet because
  We will have five author-instructors (specializing in novels, picture books, non-fiction, and poetry), one children's book agent-instructor, and two editor-instructors,
  If you are ambitious to publish a children's book (or simply adore children's books), this is the workshop for you. One of our 2003 students, Maureen Hoessle, has just had her first book published: Under Three Flags, Exploring Early St. Louis History. She credits our workshop for helping to make this happen. Three other authors from our past workshops have signed with Susan Cohen, our agent-instructor, who is actively representing their work.
  For complete information, including reviews from last summer's attendees, we welcome you to visit our website at www.occbww.com
  If you're interested in joining, the class fills up rather quickly, so you should probably register fairly soon.
  Children's Book Manuscript Advisors www.cbmadvisors.com will enable you to work one-on-one with a published children's book author who will
  Our Author-Advisors have already helped many aspiring writers with picture book manuscripts, novels, and poetry projects. The consults have ranged from simple one-hour question-answer sessions to extensive in-depth manuscript work. So, this is an opportunity to receive experienced counsel and instruction from professionals in the children's book writing business. Your needs may range from small questions regarding a project to advice on all aspects of a manuscript from concept to completion. Children's Book Manuscript Advisors will customize your course according to these needs. And, if you wish, depending on the program created, you may receive graduate credit. Please visit our site at www.cbmadvisors.com for particulars.
  Rules for a writing group help the group to run smoothly. Use the example of rules here to write your own.
  Readers who bond with you are readers who buy. The stronger a connection you can make with your readers, the more easily you’ll earn — especially if you only have a small blog audience.
  So how do you form a closer bond with your readers? In short, you need to be an approachable, likeable person, and write in service of your readers.
  You also need to exceed your readers’ expectations. You need to stand out from the pack with surprising and unusual help that really makes a difference in their lives.
  When I launched, I thought I knew what the freelance writers who read my blog would like to learn from me. But I discovered that’s different from delivering what my readers actually need to know. As I mentioned above, surveying your readers is vital.
  I thought I knew my readers—they’re freelance writers, right?—until I started asking them to post about their problems and their lives in my blog comments. Then, my eyes were opened.
  Some of my readers, it turned out, were brand-newbies. Others were experienced journalists, but new to freelancing. Still others were experienced freelancers, but hadn’t figured out how to earn well.
  Understanding I had different types of readers helped me vary the content of my posts, so that everyone got useful tips. Take a survey, or post a question as a blog post, and just let your readers vent! You’ll get a gold mine of information.
  For several years, my welcome auto responder to new subscribers asked them to email me with their top concern. That generated an endless stream of interesting insights about my readers’ needs!
  Once you know what readers want, you can design activities that strengthen your relationship. Here’s a list of a baker’s dozen different things I’ve done to grow closer to my readers:
  Many big bloggers delegate responding to blog comments to someone on their staff, or close their comments altogether—so this is a chance for you to stand out. Seize this opportunity to build relationships with engaged readers.Don’t respond just to say ‘Thanks for posting,’ either—have a conversation.
  Look for opportunities to feature or give exposure to your readers. Besides letting readers guest post, I ran link parties on my blog using the InLinkz tool, where my readers were free to post a link to one of their blog posts, and I held a reader vote for the best ones. This gave my readers valuable backlinks—and made me many loyal fans.
  I’m active on Twitter, and do a couple things there I know my readers love. If they retweet one of my posts, I’ll share THEIR comments on it, instead of just sending out my own tweet.
  If I see them sharing an interesting link in my blog comments, I make a point of retweeting that, too. That way, their face and name gets in front of a bigger audience. On one of my sites, I show my tweets, so their face and Twitter handle often visible there all day long. Give your audience free marketing and they will love you for it! Often, I’ll get thank-you tweets back, even if what I shared of theirs was really a link of mine!
  The chance to talk to you live and get their specific question answered takes your relationship to a whole new level. You are definitely not an anonymous blogger now—you’re clearly a real person who’s there to help.
  If you want to get people excited about your live event, have them take an action before it starts by leaving you a question. This gets people really looking forward to this free learning opportunity, makes them feel you care, and allow them more time to think about their question! (Some people hate having to cook them up on the fly.) That way, even if they end up unable to make it, they could hear their answer later. Which brings us to…
  Lots of people can’t make live events—but you can make them feel included by offering a replay, where they can hear the answer to that question they left you ahead of time.
  Many people just aren’t into watching or listening to recordings. (I’m one of them!) If you get your event transcribed, you’ll help—and endear yourself to—more readers.
  If you’re writing an e-book, look to your subscribers for beta-readers. Or give a free e-book to all your subscribers when they sign up. I know one blogger who gives out quarterly special mini-course PDFs to his subscribers.
  These days, not all my ‘blog posts’ appear on my blog. Some are emails I send out only to my subscribers, as an exclusive bonus, just for staying on my list. These posts usually don’t sell anything–they just contain an insight or helpful tip, usually from something that happened to me or a writer I know in the past week.
  Could you help your readers improve their own online presence? Take a day and give them each a quick tip. I’m actually using this method on the launch day of my e-book and handing out free blog feedback, all day.
  I’ve simply handed out my cell-phone number and invited readers to call me for a free 15-minute coaching session. You won’t believe how excited people are to connect live, and see for themselves that you’re a real person, and to get a little personalized help from you.
  I’ve thrown pizza parties for subscribers in Chicago and Seattle, and bought coffee at Starbucks in Los Angeles. At World Domination Summit in Portland one year, I took a group of 20 of my blog subscribers out to breakfast at an awesome local diner, and paid the whole tab. Sure, it cost nearly $200…but it was so fun! And I’m still in touch with some of those writers today. (And remember, that’s a marketing cost and a tax write-off for you.)?? Meeting your subscribers face-to-face is a HUGE bonding opportunity you should jump on, any chance you get. Show them you’re no faceless Internet drone! Word will spread.
  If you have a subscriber list, you should be able to segment it by location. That means you could organize a local meetup where you turn up to just meet and brainstorm with local subscribers. I’ve done this, and it’s a super-powerful bonding tool. You can also facilitate bringing your subscribers in other locales together to bond and meet with each other. That strengthens their connection to you, the person who brought them together.
  Your list of appropriate freebies may be different from mine, but hopefully this starts you thinking. Consider your audience and what they would be thrilled with—then, drop it on them free sometime.
  Top online retailers such as Zappos talk about the need to “surprise and delight your customer.” Make blog readers feel special, surprise them with unexpected goodies, and they’ll feel that of all the bloggers in your niche, you’re the one they should buy from.
  You become trusted, and your blog becomes an intimate hangout that feels safe and secure to your readers. You become not just a blogger they like, but THE blogger they want to learn from.
  The small blogger’s advantage is that you have more chances to form personal connections with readers. Big bloggers are super-busy! Talk to your readers, lavish them with goodies, and build an audience that will buy from you.
  Carol Tice’s new e-book for bloggers looking earn more is Small Blog, Big Income. She helps freelance writers grow their income at Make a Living Writing.