S. Lee Spelbring's Blog, page 25
January 24, 2018
Asgard Stories by Mary H. Foster
Asgard Stories: Tales from Norse Mythology by Mary H. Foster
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
First off, the author specifically states that this ebook was formatted to introduce young children to Norse Mythology. It was developed by teachers for teachers and others wanting to teach their kids about mythology from our northern ancestors.
As such, it is very much a beginner’s guide to Norse Mythology. It gives all the more famous stories, most notoriously the ones leading up to Ragnarok and the one with Thor in a dress. Having said that, a lot of the details are missing – there are a lot of duels during Ragnarok which the book glossed over. Mythology is also notorious for violence, killing, raping, and torture, which the book also glosses over.
If you want to get into Norse Mythology this might be a good place to start, but you will need find other resources for more in depth research.
January 20, 2018
40 Rules of Internet Business Success by Matthew Paulson
40 Rules for Internet Business Success: Escape the 9 to 5, Do Work You Love, and Build a Profitable Online Business by Matthew Paulson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I might be slightly biased as I found the author lives in the same state as I do and I feel that promoting people in the same region as me is the neighborly thing to do. That said, there is a lot of good beginner information in this ebook.
It’s been written so rules can apply to any kind of online business (even us trying to be authors!) and the rules seem to be common sense, or something that comes up later in business that you haven’t thought of when you started the business.
The rules aren’t really rules, you can break them if you think you need to, but mostly it is recommended that you don’t as serious problems can arise from some of them. One example is earning a bad reputation by using bad business practices (such as using others and then not paying them, or giving them less than what was promised).
At any rate it really is a good book and I would have said so even if the author wasn’t from my state!
January 17, 2018
40 Highly Effective Habits, Tools, & Hacks to Succeed Online by KC Tan
40 Highly Effective Habits, Tools & Hacks To Succeed Online by K.C. Tan
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This is mostly a list of online websites that provide some kind of service, some of the ones mentioned are: MailChimp, Pixlr, Stock.xchng, WordPress, Blogger, and many, many, others.
I did find some new websites that I didn’t know about, as for the habits and hacks…I’m not so sure those were new or exciting. They seemed more common sense, or something that everyone would figure out on their own.
At any rate, this ebook can be a handy little resource if you’re looking for a particular something.
January 13, 2018
How To Make Money Blogging by Bob Lotich
How To Make Money Blogging: How I Replaced My Day-Job With My Blog by Bob Lotich
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
Making money with a blog is a slow process and involves either a) affiliate marketing/ads or b) marketing your own products, or c) a combination of those two. And of course the SEO know how to market the blog and get yourself out there so that the public masses know your blog exists.
Anyway, this ebook covers most of that, not exactly in detail, but it does give you enough information to get yourself started and trying strategies to find out what will work for you, plus a few tips and tricks the author has learned on their journey to being a full-time blogger.
January 10, 2018
How I Sold 80,000 Books by Alinka Rutkowska
HOW I SOLD 80,000 BOOKS: Book Marketing for Authors by Alinka Rutkowska
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
What’s happening here is basically a tutorial on the four P’s of marketing structured towards writers, authors, and anyone else interested in writing a book.
It does not cover the actual writing of the book, though it does cover Product as polishing the draft, and getting it edited professionally, the cover done well, and so on. This is not a tutorial on writing it, just making it publishing ready.
Place, Price, and Promotion are covered in equal detail giving explanations for offline and online marketing for both digital and physical books.
This free ebook is actually quite informative and covers a lot of strategies for marketing any kind of book. In fact I was going to go with 3 stars, but just revised it after writing this review. It’s that kind of quality.
January 6, 2018
Passive Income Tutorial by Practical Psychology
Passive Income: How to Make Money Online using Evergreen Content by Practical Psychology
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
If Passive Income by G.D. Williams was the introduction to Passive Online Income, then this is the next chapter in that book. This person has obviously had some experience in making money online and they are very kindly sharing it with us.
She goes into blogging, youtube, affiliate sales, marketing, hubpages (briefly) and many other websites and strategies that have been tried and tested.
This ebook has given me some inspiration and insight into working to make the most of my time I spend online.
December 31, 2017
Passive Income by G. D. Williams
Passive Income: How To Build a Successful Online Business That Funds a Life of Freedom by G.D. Williams
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This was a very brief introduction into passive income online, I wouldn’t say that it told you how to build a successful online business (that’s another book in itself I should think). However, it did a fairly decent job of showing you different things to do to bring in some extra monthly income.
Some of the things are obvious: publish an ebook, affiliate marketing, blogging, and so on. Then he gets into strategies that combine with other things to work and basically ends up telling you to mix and match to find your best outcome.
It was ok, not as in-depth and earth shattering as I thought it might be, but it is a good introduction into passive online incom.
December 27, 2017
Numerology by Norman Shine
Numerology: Your Character and Future Revealed in Numbers by Norman Shine
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
From a point where I knew very little about numerology before reading this book, I now know quite a bit, and since this was a library book I am considering purchasing a copy for myself.
There is a lot of information in this book, and the author takes you through it step by step with examples and explanations along the way. Name numbers, name diagrams, fate numbers, psychic numbers, and how all of it relates to astrology is explained very well within this book. It even gives you an idea of how to predict your own future.
It’s definitely a great resource material for anyone interested in numerology.
December 23, 2017
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Having never read Hemingway before I can now understand his presence as one of more classical and popular authors whose works stand the test of time.
The Old Man and the Sea is one of the more well known of his works, while relatively short, and few on characters (most of them being sea dwelling creatures) it tells a remarkable story of life and the challenges we face, and the not so overwhelming outcomes of our choices.
There’s not much left to spoil as anyone who is literary minded will have at least heard of this tale or the author, so without further ado… Santiago is an old fisherman who is down on his luck and hasn’t caught anything for ~85 days, his record is 87 days. Manolin is a young boy, his friend, but his parents believe Santiago to be unlucky and make him sail with another boat.
Santiago sails out farther the next day, snags a huge marlin, and fights with the fish for two days and one night, before returning home again to a very worried Manolin. The way Hemingway tells this simple tale makes it all that more interesting and more like a folktale. I liked it, and want to read more of his writings.
