The Nimble Books Blog

Zdenek Burian art at auction

A beautiful illustration from a book on auction at Illustration House.

The megafauna sure look charismatic as they’re getting ready to be cooked.

An ibex drive provides a band of Neanderthalers with enough food for several days. The stronger animals clear the chasm but weaker ones plummet to the bottom where they are slain by waiting hunters.

Book illustration: Early Man, by F. Clark Howell; Publisher: (Time-Life Books), 1965, p. 134: The Neanderthal Epoch.

Tags: Glossary, Uncategorized, What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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Equity Loan Bad Credit (n.): a bad idea.

If you are looking for a home equity loan and you have bad credit, think again! You are probably about to do something very stupid. There may be a very few circumstances where it is smart to apply for an equity loan with bad credit, like, say, a meteor is about to hit you and the only way you can avoid it is by adding to the mortgage on your house, but for almost everyone else, you are probably much wiser off paying down your home equity and working patiently to repair your bad credit.

In case you don’t remember, a home equity loan is secured by the equity in your home. That means that if you happen to fall into bad credit habits again, you lose your home.

That is the worst consequence of taking out a equity loan with bad credit.

You automatically get some pretty bad consequences because of your bad credit. Specifically, you are going to have to pay outlandish interest rates and the payment terms are likely to be much less forgiving. One slip, and you have more bad credit and even less (or absolutely no) home equity.

Don’t go there.

According to Symbiotic, this bad boy normally generates between $30 and $40 per click.

Tomorrow’s high-paying Google AdSense keyword brought to you by Nimble Books. This article free for reuse as long as you link back. (c) 2006 W. Frederick Zimmerman.

Tags: High-Paying AdSense Keyword of the Day by admin
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AAA Insurance Michigan: notably paternalistic “auto club” which awards itself a lot of “As” but gets a “B” from this customer.

According to my buddies at Symbiotic, AAA Insurance Michigan hangs around $5.00 click. AAA Michigan’s insurance offerings are familiar in my circles. My late mother-in-law worked for the notably paternalistic company for 20 years. Her workplace at AAA Michigan was a refuge for her from her increasingly abusive alcoholic husband. Not enough of a refuge, though; she died at 53. I can’t help but feel vaguely disappointed that AAA Michigan, like so many other firms, was, in the end, silent and unaware of its employees’ personal tragedy. These “employee assistance programs” are a good start, but somehow I feel that something is missing in the whole scheme of employment in our country when you can work somewhere that

I myself have been a AAA Michigan insurance purchaser ever since I learned to drive (at 25, but that’s a story for another day). I’ve almost always gotten my AAA Michigan insurance through a group purchase plan at the University of Michigan Credit Union. In theory, this entitles me to a discount … in practice, when I’ve comparison-shopped, the discount has never seemed that great.

AAA Michigan’s insurance claim services have usually been pretty efficient. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever had a bad experience with a AAA Michigan insurance claims adjuster. I’ve filed maybe four or five claims in my 20 years, and they’ve always responded quickly and paid what I thought I was due.

AAA Michigan has an advertising campaign running right now for its road-side service. The gist of it is:

• moderately dangerous crisis described (your daughter wants to buy a new car)
• AAA Michigan comes to the rescue (for example, by offering insurance)
• stirring music allowing you to congratulate yourself on your smarts in being a AAA Michigan insurance or road-side service customer

Somehow, the AAA Michigan ad campaign fails to impress. It is just a bit too smug and smarmy. It would be so much more effective if it was a little more common-sensical and understated.

That’s all I have to say for now … stay tuned for tomorrow’s high-paying Google AdSense Word of the Day!

(c) W. Frederick Zimmerman 2006. Free for reuse as long as a link back is provided to Nimble Books.

Tags: Google Stuff, High-Paying AdSense Keyword of the Day, Tech Fun by admin
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Wow — I just learned there is a Windows XP PowerToy from Microsoft called TweakUI that lets you prevent apps from “stealing focus,” i.e. jumping to the top of screen no matter what you are doing in another window. This is a huge productivity gain for me! I hate the way XP allows apps to steal focus by default.

Tags: Glossary, Microsoft Stuff, Tech Fun by admin
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Z71 Tahoe is today’s high-paying Google AdSense word of the day. According to the lookup service at Symbiotic, Z71 Tahoe earns between $6.20 and $7.75 per click. Yowza!

I do have some strong opinions about the Z71 Tahoe. We rented a Tahoe to go on a trip up north last fall and bottom line is we flat out loved the Tahoe. It’s ginormous! Unfortunately I am “narrowness challenged,” with a big butt and broad shoulders, and I really need lots of room in the front seat. The Tahoe delivers. There would be room for three of me up front if it weren’t for the leather bucket seats.

[ad#ad-inpage]

You may ask, WTF does “Z71″ mean? Well, it means two things:

• Your Tahoe Z71 is the most expensive Tahoe model (price as shown $44,110)
• And your Tahoe is equipped with the “Z71″ suspension, which theoretically lets you go off-road more effectively.

These two benefits do kind of counteract each other. You’re nuts if you take your Z71 very far off road, as spare parts for a $44,110 car do not come cheap.

My dad accidentally (we hope) backed his car into our Tahoe last fall, causing a minute dimple on the bottom rear door. Ka-ching! $750.

As for what exactly Z71 means — why Z? why 71? beats me. Readers?

(c) 2006 W. Frederick Zimmerman. This entry free for reuse as long as credit is given to Nimble Books.

Tags: High-Paying AdSense Keyword of the Day by admin
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As usual, Scott Adams is more than a cartoonist with this dead-on observation.

Google Reader

Over the past 15 years I have received amongst my bit-piles of appreciative fan e-mail approximately one per week saying in effect, “You used to be funny. But something has gone horribly wrong.” This e-mail, written by a different person each time, is long, and passionate, and often detailed in its argument. These helpful critics make it clear that their tough love is intended to snap me out of whatever steaming hole of mediocrity I have shoved my head so that I can get back to my past ways of excellence.

100% of these e-mails are from males who seem – based on their well-written letters – above average in intelligence. That’s 780 nearly identical messages from men, and zero of this type from women. I call it the Helpful Critical Guy Syndrome, HCGS for short.

Tags: Glossary, What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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The Politically Incorrect Guide to High-Paying Google AdSense Keywords (the PIG book ) will contain between 100 and 1000 text entries commenting fearlessly about the concepts underlying the highest-paying Google AdSense keywords. The text will be published in electronic format as an Amazon e-book and for 100% on-line access via Google Book Search. The basic observation is that most of the content that currently surrounds high-value keywords is credulous, self-interested bumpf. The publication date, and the number of entries, for the first edition of the PIG book will depend to some degree upon the extent to which my AdSense statistics support my theory that contrarian content about high-value transactions can cut through the clutter.

Tags: Glossary, Google Stuff, High-Paying AdSense Keyword of the Day, What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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Taschen: publisher of beautifully produced but crassly pornographic “art” books.

Nimble Books readers seem to enjoy buying paraphernalia related to Diana, Princess of Wales. My review page about the Taschen book has generated more AdSense clicks than almost any other article on my website.

Brave New World of Books observation #001: books with paraphernalia are better than just plain books.

Tags: Books I Won't Be Reading, Glossary, High-Paying AdSense Keyword of the Day, What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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Gee whiz … according to the Google AdWords Traffic Estimator, AdSense clicks related to Enterprise Rent-A-Car yield between $6.38 and $10.52 a click! Maybe I should be spending more time working on my Politically Incorrect Glossary of High-Paying AdSense Keywords! I am still determined to figure out a way to publish AdSense-sponsored books.

What do I have to say about Enterprise Rent-A-Car? Well, the local Enterprise Rent-A-Car here in Ann Arbor, Michigan has been a great help to me and my family on numerous occasions. The local Enterprise Rent-A-Car on Washtenaw is the first place we go when we have car trouble that sends our van to the shop, and we’ve found that the staff there is generally young, responsive, and pleasingly nimble. They live up to their reputation as energetic and well-managed.

Tags: Glossary, Google Stuff, High-Paying AdSense Keyword of the Day, Tech Fun, What's New for Book-Lovers by admin
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Woof (n)

1. vocalization uttered by dogs when waiting plaintively outside a door to be let in. Generally, any plaintive cry of putative helplessness.

2. vocalization uttered by dogs just prior to biting the hand that feeds them. Generally, any act of ungrateful and unwarranted hostility.

Tags: Glossary by admin
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This book provides Google AdSense marketers with 1,654 pages of high-CPM content focused on high-value AdWords related to health.

This file contains the complete contents of the following books:

• Hypochondriac’s Guide to Hoodia Gordonii (H 57)
• Hypochondriac’s Guide to Phentermine
• Hypochondriac’s Guide to Bontril (Phendimetrazine)
• Hypochondriac’s Guide to Tamiflu (Oseltamvir) for Bird Flu
• Hypochondriac’s Guide to Wellbutrin (bupropion hydrochloride): Public Information Resources
• Mesothelioma Pointers: Resources and Annotated Bibliography

and, as a bonus,

• Debt Consolidation 1, Bad Credit Card Debt 0.

The book includes instructions on how to “burst” the PDF into one web page per PDF page, as demonstrated at the Nimble Books website http://www.hoodia-gordonii-h-57.info.

The license included with purchase entitles you to deploy these pages on your website immediately, in any manner you see fit!

Special 25% discount when you purchase direct from the publisher! Standard retail $165.94; buy now for $124.45!

Delivery via secure ftp.

For more information about Nimble Books’s Google-related offerings, see the Tech Fun blog or check out our other AdSense titles at Amazon.com.

Tags: About Nimble Books, High-Paying AdSense Keyword of the Day by admin
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Eric Giguere writes a very good blog about AdSense.

An AdSense Blog: Make Easy Money with Google
One of the readers who contacted me, Frederick Zimmerman, has gone further and applied the niche approach to the keyword list itself, which I thought was interesting enough to mention here. What he’s done is quite clever. He created a list of pharmaceutical product names from the US Food and Drug Administration’s official guide, the “Orange Book”. After some cleanup, he submitted it to AdWords to get cost and traffic estimates. And now he’s selling it as an e-book on Amazon:

Top-Paying Google AdSense and AdWords Keywords for Pharmaceuticals

Not many publishers go the Amazon route, most prefer to use a service like ClickBank that offers affiliate programs and the like. Zimmerman thinks the Amazon route is more reputable, and I can see some validity in that view.

What’s even cleverer is that he’s also included the keyword information in spreadsheet format embedded within the book itself — just click on the link and it loads into Excel, ready for manipulation.

Disclaimer: Zimmerman sent me the list, unsolicited, for my opinion. If you’re looking to write pharmaceutical-targeted content, it seems like a reasonable source of information on what’s hot and what’s not among advertisers. All the usual caveats about taking keyword lists too seriously apply, of course. (If you’ve got a keyword list you want me to review, go ahead and sent it to me, I’m compiling a list of them for reference.)

Tags: About Nimble Books, High-Paying AdSense Keyword of the Day, Kudos, Tech Fun by admin
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