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Now having looked at a handful of the Maldives specific sites that are out there, I can tell you that NONE of these questions are answered. I wish I could share some of the woeful sites I’ve visited – but that wouldn’t be right. I’ll describe them for you – poor layouts with Adsense Ads in the wrong places plus text and design that’s just an eyesore.

But more importantly…THEY LACK ANY VISUAL STIMULATION! Some don’t have more than a handful of pictures (none I’ve seen have video).

Sure, they may make some sales…but imagine how much more they could sell if they could immediately answer all the questions that are going through their browsers minds.

The best way to do that is to optimize the site design, have a lot of intriguing pictures & useful content and (most importantly) SHOW them exactly how STUNNING the Maldives are. We live in an age where streaming video can be put online onto any website with relative ease…yet no-one seems to have applied this obvious use of video to the travel market and I find that absolutely incredible!

Now let’s say your site DOES have streaming video. I click onto it and it’s great – you’ve got content about the various island resorts and their facilities. You have information about transport, culture, marine life, diving, fun & activities, excursions and about every useful fact that the visitor wants to know. But there’s more – your information is accompanied by high quality pictures so that your browsers can practically see themselves strolling along those golden sands and lying on a deckchair under the shade of a cool parasol staring into the ocean.

It doesn’t even end there – you have several short videos to tempt them even more. Videos that show the beauty of a seaplane ride, sunsets, boat trips, the scenic beauty of the islands, cultural shows organized by the resorts. You’ve got them hooked. They’re mesmerized. What happens?

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FRIED FRAGRANT BELLS

1 lb Ground pork
2 Finely chopped green onions
1 sl Minced ginger
3 tb Chicken broth
1 tb Dark soy sauce
1 tb Dry Sherry
1 Egg
2 tb Cornstarch
3 tb Water
4 Dried bean curd sheet
Additional cornstarch
1/4 c Salt
2 tb Szechwan peppercorns
2 To 4 cups vegetable oil

Combine pork, onion, ginger, broth, soy sauce, Sherry, egg and 1 tablespoon cornstarch in bowl and mix well.

Combine remaining 1 tablespoon cornstarch with water in small bowl.

Moisten 1 bean curd sheet under running water. Place on work surface and spread with 1/4 of meat mixture. Roll as for jelly roll; brush long edge with dissolved cornstarch to seal. Repeat to make three more rolls. Cut each into slices 1 1/2 inches thick; dip each end in additional cornstarch to seal filling. (Can be done 3 to 4 hours ahead to this point and refrigerated.)

For salt: Combine salt and peppercorns in small skillet and cook until browned. Crush in mortar with pestle.

Heat oil in deep fryer to 375 deg. Add slices a few at a time and fry until crisp. Drain on paper towels. Serve hot with peppercorn salt, if desired.

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Like most modern writers with an ebook out there to sell, one of the first things I did upon its ePublication was to spend an entire weekend hunkered down over my computer and throwing up a Web site! Okay, it’s not the greatest site in the world, but it’s not the worst either. It contains free samples from my ebook, Freedom to Freelance, links to all of my Web published articles, great graphics a la the cover of my ebook and several of The Buzz On books I’ve written or edited, and all in three, easy-to-click pages.

So why isn’t anybody coming?!? After all, my Web site isn’t exactly setting the cyber world on fire. In fact, I’m lucky if I get over twenty visitors a week! So how have I sold ANY copies of my ebook at all, let alone the numerous copies that make my quarterly royalty checks such a pleasant cyber surprise? Simple: I write!

Write On!

As an ebook author, you’ve got the skills for your very own marketing campaign handy: your creative writing talent. Whether your ebook is about gardening or gothic ghost stories, you’ve got enough talent and chutzpah to have written the book, searched out an ePublisher, and gotten your creation out there on the Web and ready to be downloaded by one and all. So keep doing what you do best and write some more!

Take time off from that new gardening guide or gothic novel and spend an afternoon writing an article about your favorite topic instead. A 700-word treatise on “how to sprinkle” or a 1,000 word vampire story will seem like child’s play after writing an entire ebook, and as a result you’ll have a very handy marketing tool: a brand new, original article/story to submit.

Cyber Submissions

Take advantage of the plethora of Web sites, ‘zines and e-mail newsletters out there and submit your brand new article accordingly. Run an Internet search on “gardening” or “gothic” and bookmark those sites that accept submissions from frantic freelancers like yourself.

Many of these sites conveniently allow, and indeed prefer, you to submit your article electronically. Take advantage of this fact by creating a concise query letter and then including your story underneath it in the body of the e-mail, never as an attachment. Format your submission for convenient e-mail reading by losing all of your paragraph indents and placing a single space between each paragraph instead. (Your future editor’s eyes will thank you!)