Ideas Loading...

NEW YORK - James Patterson's latest best seller, "The Angel Experiment," is a little different from his usual hits. The novel isn't new; it came out four years ago. Readers aren't picking it up at bookstores, but mostly on the Kindle site at Amazon.com.

And the price is low even for an old release: $0.00.

"I like the notion of introducing people to one book, while promoting the sales of another," says the prolific and mega-selling author (and co-author) of numerous thrillers." His Kindle download is the first book of Patterson's "Maximum Ride" young adult series.

"We've given away thousands of free e-copies," Patterson said. "`Maximum Ride' is big already and we think it could be a lot bigger. That requires getting people to read it."

Patterson is among the biggest brands added to the growing list of free e-book offerings. Over the past few months, top sellers on the Kindle — with downloads in the tens of thousands, authors and publishers say — have included such public domain titles as "Pride and Prejudice" and "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes," and novels by Jennifer Stevenson and Greg Keyes.

In recent days, the top three Kindle sellers have been free books: Patterson's, Joseph Finder's "Paranoia" and Keyes' "The Briar King."

"There's always going to be someone who wants free things. What we're trying to do is link free with paid," Maja Thomas, senior vice president of digital media at Patterson's publisher, the Hachette Book Group, said. "It's like priming the pump."

"What we like to do is make the first book in a series free, usually a series that has multiple books," said Scott Shannon, publisher of the Del Rey/Spectra imprint at Random House, Inc., which published Keyes' fantasy novel.

Shannon said Del Rey has had especially good luck with Naomi Novik's "Temeraire" fantasy series after offering the first book for free. He said sales for the other Temeraire novels increased by more than 1,000 percent. "It's been stunning," he said.

Publishers and authors have been nervous that the standard cost for electronic editions of new releases, just under $10, will take away sales from the more expensive hardcovers and set an unrealistically low price for the future. They are concerned, but open-minded, about free books, which present a chance and a challenge: Readers may buy other books, or, they may simply seek more free titles.

"It's a huge hot-button topic we've been discussing within our division and at the corporate level," Shannon said. "We have had phenomenal success with using free books to get people to buy others by an author. But in the long term, we have to guard the market. We have to make sure people understand that time and energy goes into writing a book."

"Consumers love free — free is a good price. But the opportunity they present to publishers is to experiment, and I stress experiment," Ellie Hirschhorn, Simon & Schuster's chief digital officer, said.

The dominant e-book seller Amazon.com has been aggressive about keeping prices low, and has given free e-books high visibility by including them on the Kindle best-seller list. A leading rival, Sony, does not include free works among its best sellers, although some free books have popular downloads.

"We do withhold them from the best-seller list, so that it's an accurate reflection of what people are actually buying," says Sony eBook store director Chris Smythe.

In an e-mail statement about free ebooks, Amazon.com spokeswoman Cinthia Portugal, said, "We work hard to provide customers with the best value possible and pass savings on to them whenever possible." Portugal added that Amazon includes free books among its top sellers because the list is "based on customer orders — customers are still ordering these books, they just have a price tag of $0.00."

David Bailey, 56, a systems analyst in Tacoma, Wash., is the kind of customer publishers and authors want to get. He has downloaded free texts by Kelly Link, Scott Sigler and others, but has then purchased other books by those authors, sometimes "just to support them."

One of Bailey's free downloads was Finder's "Paranoia," a thriller first published in 2004. Finder, whose "Vanished" comes out Aug. 18, said he initially saw the free offering as a "no lose" deal since "Paranoia" wasn't selling many copies anyway and sales for his other books, including "Power Play" and "Killer Instinct," have gone up. But, noticing all the free best sellers on the Kindle, he wondered if readers will get used to not paying.

"I get a lot of e-mails from people, saying, `I hadn't even heard of you until I read your free book.' So no question, it does bring in free riders," Finder said. "But I'm also increasingly concerned. There are so many free e-books that basically you could stuff your Kindle or Sony Reader with free books and never have to buy anything."

Lenovo has become the latest PC vendor to offer users a free upgrade to Windows 2007.

The company said that all systems sold between 26 June and 31 January with the Home Premium, Business and Ultimate versions of Windows Vista would be eligible for the update.
Advertisement

Lenovo said that the offer will be limited to home and small business system purchases. Customers who purchase more than 29 systems will be directed to use Microsoft's volume licensing programme instead.

The offer makes Lenovo the second major PC vendor to roll out a free upgrade programme in recent days. On Thursday HP said that it would be offering a similar deal to users who purchase new systems between now and the 22 October release of Windows 7.

Microsoft is also pressing users to plan an upgrade to the new version of Windows. The company said yesterday that it would offer discounted pricing to those who pre-ordered copies of Windows 7.

The company is also offering a deferred cost programme to encourage more PC vendors to offer free upgrades to Windows 7.

Both Microsoft and PC vendors are hoping that the free upgrade campaigns will serve as a way to keep users purchasing new systems throughout the summer rather than waiting until after the release of Windows 7 to purchase a new PC.

If you want to learn Linux bash shell commands in a fun way this is the place for you.

This website provides Unix-like virtual online bash shell command line interface where you can try out bash commands easily online in a web browser without the fear of installing Linux.

Once you gets your hands over bash shell commands you can easily move on to Linux because the knowledge of bash shell commands are essential for operating any Linux distro to its full potential.

Online Bash Shell

Most computer users are familiar with Adobe Flash, the browser plug-in responsible for powering much of the Internet's multimedia content--from YouTube videos and Flickr slideshows to addictive Web-based video games. Flash is popular because it works on any operating system and on many mobile devices, and because it handles media and graphics with aplomb.

AIR creates stand-alone applications that run from your desktop just like any other application. AIR apps are developed in much the same way that Flash applications are, providing developers with a new environment for creating powerful Web software that can run without a browser.

Despite AIR's impressive ability to blur the line between your desktop and the Web, AIR apps are by no means Web-only. In fact, some of them have nothing to do with the Web at all.

To get started using AIR applications, simply download and install AIR from Adobe. Once you've done that, downloading and opening an AIR app on your desktop will trigger the standard AIR installer--think of these files as traditional .msi or .exe setup applications, except that AIR handles the installation.

Some Filipinos think online money making is tough in Philippines? No. There are a lot of ideas to make online money from not only Philippines but from anywhere in the world . You can find advertisements on online money making opportunities and businesses that you can do right from Philippines. But remember, the Internet not only connects your business to big traffic, but also your servers to Internet hackers and malware. Thats why Internet security is so vital. So, along with some ideas on making money online, you also need some knowledge on how to improve the Internet security of your business.

Online Money making ideas
Online money making can be quite tough for people in Philippines, especially when they don't want to spend money or if they don't have a website. But ideas do exist if you want to go the “free” way. You cannot expect to get rich in a flash nevertheless there are some online money making opportunities to help you make money without any investment. One way is to start a blog on free platforms like Wordpress or Blogger, and add Google Adsense or other pay per click ads. You can add niche content on something you are passionate about and also something people are looking for, so that more traffic is driven to your blog.


You will be paid for every click on these ads. You can also market affiliate links to earn money. There are some free affiliate link programs available. All you have to do is market the link through advertisement techniques like forums, blogging, articles etc. You will be paid when people buy through your link Another online money making technique is taking part in free online paid surveys. Businesses conduct surveys to know about trends in a particular locality like our own Philippines for example. You can make use of these surveys, but don't expect big money.

Advertisement Ideas for better Traffic
If you own an online money making website, you should not only concentrate on design but also on traffic. You need traffic to get repeat visitors. Remember, repeat visitors are the ones who are going to buy something from your website. You can achieve this by using good advertisement methods like journals, web, news media and magazines. The goal of the advertisement should be to persuade the visitor on the legitimacy of your business. Another way of improving your online money making efforts is including well written and related articles on your website. You can also take part in forums to meet fellow Internet entrepreneurs from Philippines and share business ideas. Remember, traffic is directly proportional to the profit you are going to get.

Ideas for improving Internet security
If you have employees working for your e-business, you need to educate them about viruses, Trojans and others that can attack via the web. You can use web filters to prevent your employees from visiting harmful websites. Also install a centrally controllable anti-virus software and Firewall to prevent worms from web traffic accessing your computer.

Hello to all my visitors! My site is open for link exchange partnership! If you have a blog, personal website, community forum, blah blah blah, then you're in! All you have to do is post a comment here that you're linking me so that i will link you back in my site as soon as possible.

Please do not forget to post your links inside your comment plus the description of the site you want me to link to. Posting a comment automatically subjected to my link exchange registration. I will review your site first. Unpleasant sites are not allowed! (porn sites, green ideas, or anything that could mislead the public especially the minors).

You'll be informed if your site was approved and linked!

And the sites on this bloggosphere are:

Nickole
Saging
A Story of A Girl
☆ gLiTteR mInDeD ☆
D I V I N E
A Woman On A Journey : MsRay
PinayKeyPoint : “A Glimpse to the Pearl”
Ria : Live Love Laugh
Mai : sharing my thoughts, my world... enjoying life!
I Feel Okay
SURVIVOR: the REALITY of my LIFE
Konten Hape
Private Territory
Visual Appeal
Imagination is more important than knowledge
Inspire Me
blog-w.co.cc
InfoWings
WARSHOCK
Jessie's bloggie
Blog to Learn
HealthnBeyond.com
I am Neri
Symbian Library
Kathezai | The rocker girl
Chazlizone
Only Bob's Opinion
Ariawijaya
Dhemcy Dias
Dias Family Spot
Simple Things Can't Be Ignored
Kryk Loves You
Louisa | A Drum Rocker Wannabe
Avengers Corner
Urban Ermitanyo
Thinks Free
We Can Do it
Nichola(s) Care
Mount Pinatubo Tour