9/23/02 - The Civil War, The Cotton Industry and the Reemergence of Slavery

9/22/02 - As of Midnight Saturday copies of the June, July, August and September 2002 Newsletters can be found to all Kazaa users.  My goal is to reach a large audience and Kazaa's network definitely fits the bill given the millions of people that are using the peer to peer network software.  While most are swapping MP3s who knows what kind of enhanced visibility might occur by posting my full length book reviews and original articles/content.  Whenever my computer is online the reviews and newsletters will be available.  If they are valued to others hopefully they will save them in their "common area," making the files accessible 24/7, 365 days a year.

9/22/02 - As of Midnight Saturday I have published four new articles, three business-related and one op-ed article (exceeding my goal of 2-3 new articles.)  While the articles are interesting I think I can do better work and so I plan on making sure that the articles written in the next month have some serious insights / information in them.  Look for facts and figures you wouldn't find just cruising the web in future articles since I think that is where I can provide value to you, the reader.

9/21/02 - I purchased a copy of Adobe Acrobat 5.0 which has some interesting Internet capabilities as far as .pdf files goes.  In the coming weeks I will show everyone what features are available, which should be of value to you and other readers.

9/21/02 - I hope to get 2-3 new articles / Op-Ed pieces done by Sunday Evening (9/22/02).  It has been awhile since I posted new content to the website.  Given my week out of town and lack of a laptop a slowdown was expected.  Unfortunately I now have a relative in town which is hindering my writing time. 

9/20/02 -  I updated every webpage with the new subscription button.  The reason for doing this is to make sure non-yahoo users can sign-up quickly and with reduced hassle. In the past week three people alone have subscribed to the newsletter.  I believe this is attributed to the ease of use in signing up.  

9/19/02 - I have established a goal of having 1,000 satisfied subscribers by the end of 2003. At the end of the day I hope I am providing value to everyone via the original articles, book reviews and additional content.  I believe some of the original articles I am working on, along with the P.R./viral marketing aspect of them, should help accelerate the trend towards 1,000 subscribers.  At this time the number of subscribers only amounts to approximately 25.  Given my complete LACK of marketing I find this interesting.  I will let everyone know how this number changes every quarter 

9/10/02 - I have decided to publish 1-2 new book reviews per month from September to December.  Most book reviews will be of "classic" books which need to be added to the website.  Such books are highly recommended to me by numerous people but due to time constraints I cannot read them right now.  My primary focus in the next few months will be the creation of new business related articles and improving the current book reviews.  Some are fairly short and some sections, such as sales, are highly repetitive/not differentiated.  

9/10/02 - Some time in the next 10 days I will be changing web hosting companies.  Hopefully this will result in minimal loss of services/responses.  I believe I have properly planned the migration of service companies.  I am crossing my fingers.  I will need to do the following (for those interested.) (#1) send the website and all the pages to the new website company (#2) make sure all relevant e-mail addresses are configured and working (#3) redirect the traffic via Register.com so that the traffic flow points to the new website vs. the old one, hosted by another company.  Since my contract expires on September 20th I have let the old company know that I will no longer need service after that time.  

Finally, for those interested in why I am doing this.  The primary reason is cash.  The old website cost $74.95 a quarter vs. $7.95 a month or $23.85 per quarter at the new website host.  My website and # of mailboxes needed didn't require such a large cash outlay and so I downsized the cost.  At this rate I can operate the website for under $100 a year in hosting fees + $29 paid for the referral program.  I have considered adding an autoresponse company but I will wait until the number of subscribers to the website exceeds 200.  Otherwise it is very difficult to justify the cash outlay and the benefits would be to a minimal group of people

9/10/02 - I will be traveling and unavailable from September 13th - 17th.  As a result, responses will be delayed and no new articles will be published during that time.

9/9/02 - Every section is updated to the new format except the Personal Development Section.  

9/6/02 - Book reviews for the Marketing, Business Advice, Economics, Economic History, Investing, Parables and Technology sections have been modified to the new format.  It took longer than I thought to get them done (approx. 8-10 hours total) due to the "About the Author" information that needed to be added to each review.  I plan on finishing 2-3 more sections by Sunday, the 8th.  As of now approximately 60 books out of the 100 reviews available have been modified to the new format.

9/4/02 - I published an Op/Ed piece entitled Wendy's / Tim Hortons Conquers All.

9/2/02 - I published an Op/Ed piece entitled UAL Chief Brought In For Bankruptcy?

9/1/02 - I published the Monthly Newsletter for September 2002.

9/1/02 -  Full length book reviews for Free Agent Nation and Differentiate or Die have been posted.  Both books are excellent books.  Free Agent Nation discusses the evolution of the U.S. workplace and how it is impacting society, individuals and organizations.  Differentiate or Die is an excellent marketing book with tons of excellent facts/insights.  

8/31/02 - If you visited the website throughout the month you may have noticed that very little content was being added.  Due to computer problems all I have only had my computer 5 days in August. The computer went in on August 2nd and came out on the 27th for a power management hardware problem.  I will post my comments about this debacle in early September.

8/31/02 - I have added three new book reviews.  The new books that I finished reading and then posted review on are:

• The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding
• Differentiate or Die
• Multiple Streams of Internet Income

8/31/02 - Amazon.com - My message to the company

8/31/02 - You are a Brand

8/31/02 - Chinese Bikers

8/31/02 - Afghanistan Labor

8/31/02 - Managed Health Care?

8/31/02 - Iraq Part 2?

8/2/02 - August 2002 Newsletter is ready!

8/1/02 - Investing = Gambling?

8/1/02 - Technical Analysis of the S&P 500

7/31/02 - Downward Revisions to Economic Growth are Here !

7/30/02 - Politics as Usual? - The Homeland Security Debate

7/27/02 - Stock Market Valuations / EPS Forecasts - Still too high?

7/26/02 - Stock Options (The Untold Story)

7/16/02 - End of the "Housing Bubble?"

7/12/02 - A Falling U.S. Dollar - Why it Matters

7/12/02 - 20th Century U.S. Currency - A Brief History

7/11/02 - "In God We Trust" & the Pledge of Allegiance

7/9/02 - Michael Jackson and Race in the Music Industry

7/9/02 - Corporate Confidence Crisis: My Take On It

7/6/02 - What Drives Economic Growth in Cities and Nations (Still under development but a lot of info. is available.)  Lots of interesting graphs folks.  Worth perusing through over time.

7/5/02 - The LAX Terrorist Incident - My opinion - This was sent to Bill O'Reilly.  The guy may be blunt with people but I find he is very rational about issues and simply voices his opinion on what he believes is right or wrong.  He is definitely not LEFT or RIGHT winged.  Most would probably say he leans to the right but I find he is more in the middle.

7/3/02 - I posted a copy of my full length review for The Essential Drucker.  If anyone wants to comment on the review, contribute his or her comments/insights on the book please sign up for the book club, where everyone is free to comment in a yahoo group I have set-up.

7/3/02 - I published the Monthly Newsletter for July 2002 and announced that the August 2002 BetterBizBookclub Book of the Month is going to be Free Agent Nation by Daniel H. Pink. I will publish my full length review on August 1st, 2002. I look forward to everyone's contribution and insights regarding the book.

6/29/02 - Unfortunately I got little original writing completed and published this month.  While I posted two articles they frankly aren't significant or intellectually stimulating at all.  

I did get quite a bit of writing started but finished very little of it.  In the next month I plan on finishing a major report and getting three smaller articles written.  Each article will probably be 3-5 pages in length and be in html and .pdf formats. 

6/29/02 - If you want to find out what books I am reading I have added a section with a brief description of each book, how many pages it is and why I am reading the book / what I am hoping to get out of the book.  Just so everyone is aware, I have eight books I am currently reading and will publish reviews on in the next 3-4 months.  While the total is only eight books I still have over 3,500 pages to read amongst those books so it will take some time.  

6/29/02 - I will be trying to fix the enormous # of broken links on the website over the next two weeks.  An unfortunate side effect of the changes I have made (renaming of files to accommodate better linking for the newsletters) has resulted in tons of links not working.  I have over 600, out of 7000 total hyperlinks that aren't working.  This is a poor observation on my part (no one mentioned it to me) but I will, in the future, be checking more continuously on the quality of the website and the links on the site.   

6/27/02 - I have added five book reviews since last month.  The new books that I finished reading and then posted review on are:

• Deflation
• The Business of America
• What Everyone Should Know About the 20th Century
• A Brief History of Economic Genius
• Whale Done

I must admit that the top three books I found to be Excellent reads whereas the 4th book is an excellent work with poor editing.  The 5th book is a waste of time and money and the fourth.

6/27/02 - Economic History Section Added, along with reviews of various books I have read in the subject matter.

6/26/02 - Work/Success Quotes added.  These are some of the best quotes on the subject I have collected over the years.  If you have any to add send them, with the reference to dan@betterbizbooks.com

6/15/02 - Find out why I read multiple books at once.  Just some brief thoughts.

6/5/02 - I wrote an Investment Article, showing some concerns of mine and how they might constrain EPS growth and stock prices in the next few years.

6/2/02 - I published the Monthly Newsletter for June 2002 and announced that the July 2002 BetterBizBookclub Book of the Month is going to be The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker. I will publish my full length review on July 1st, 2002. I look forward to everyone's contribution and insights regarding the book.

5/31/02 - I have published an example of the economic timeline I am constructing to show the overlap and dates in which the greatest economic thinkers lived.  This is part of my "BIG PROJECT" that I will have finished by the end of the year.  Eventually I will have another timeline for philosophy and for political figures.  I will integrate them together at some date to be determined so that people can click on Adam Smith and see what philosophers, politicians and historical / technological events may have impacted his analysis.  I am going to also link the political leaders together with the other data so that people can see the economic, social and philosophical backdrop that some of the world's leading political figures were operating under.  All of this is to eventually be available in a graphical format as I am a firm believer in the old adage "a picture is worth a thousand words."

5/31/02 - You can now find recent newsletters & the Full Length Book Reviews in the My Articles / Thoughts Section or at the newsletter signup area (not the pop-up).

5/22/02 - Information acquired / restored!  In the past week I have been able to obtain much of the work that was lost in the system meltdown.  As a result, I anticipate that I will begin writing new articles and reports shortly.  I would expect to publish at least three additional reports/articles by the end of June 2002.

5/21/02 - I put a table of contents page online for those wishing to find out what content is evaluated/provided in my U.S. Housing Report.  Hopefully this will enable people to get a small glimpse into the content prior to downloading the file, which is quite large on a relative basis at 3.4 Mb.

5/14/02 - I am recovering from a COMPLETE computer meltdown.  After Microsoft Internet Explorer stopped working correctly I tried to delete it and then reinstall it.  However, in the process, it corrupted just about every boot-up file out there.  After two days of attempting to fix the glitch I said "NO MAS" and reinstalled windows ME, which deleted EVERYTHING on my hard drive, which I anticipated.  Thank God the website is stored online but it will definitely delay me writing new articles.  I will be updating the anticipated dates in which I will launch new content in the next few days.  What a headache!

5/6/02 - If you haven't notice the index page (front page or home page as some call it) has a different look.  Let me know if you like it more than the old version, which can be found here.

5/1/02 - I published the Monthly Newsletter for May 2002

5/1/02 - I posted an in-depth analysis of what I consider the intriguing parts of Hernando DeSoto’s Mystery of Capital at the Book Club.  The analysis really looks at the cross discipline nature of his work and how it caused me to look at the world a little bit differently.

A copy of my basic book review can be found here.

4/28/02 - The U.S. Housing Market - With 54 pages and 53 graphs / tables (3.4 Megabyte pdf file) this research report provides a pretty good look at the current economic environment, some history on our economic growth over the last 20 years and some of my thoughts about growth rates moving forward in the economy, U.S. Housing market and in corporate profits. 

4/27/02 - I published book reviews on some books I have recently read.  I also started up a section entitled "parables" to address this genre of book, along with my thoughts on such books. 

• 101 Ways to Promote Yourself
• Raving Fans
• Fish Tales
• Fish!

4/12/02 -I am trying to figure out how to impose a discipline in my writing.  It is my belief that I don't suffer from "writers block" but rather from pure absent-mindedness.  As a result, I have established a list of article, along with a timeline for each at the layout section.

4/9/02 - Yankees vs. Cablevision - My brief analysis

4/8/02 - I finally decided on a formal layout for the editorial section! 

For the layout click here!  

3/27/02 - BetterBizBooks.com gets Launched!  With over 1700 hyperlinks and no prior website development experience this has been a HUGE learning experience.  Expect to start seeing articles within the next week.