Publishing Penfriend Magazines

Publishing Penfriend Magazines

I can remember one particular year when I received post from over 120 different countries, some I had never even heard of before. I'd better be honest and say that this was because I published several worldwide Penfriend magazines and not because I had lots of friends! I did this for over ten years along with producing a Business Opportunity magazine.

I started with one penfriend publication and can recollect the thrill when I first started receiving a reasonable amount of overseas mail. I bought a worldwide map, which I pinned to my office wall, and started placing red dots on all the countries from where I received a letter. As the magazine got more and more publicised more and more post came through my door each day. I have to say that, as good as e-mail is, there is nothing like receiving handwritten letters. It's much more interesting.

After a while I became able to guess from where many letters originated, without seeing the envelopes or postage stamps. The type of paper and the style of handwriting was the give-away. From Ghana, for example, the handwriting is large and heavy handed and the paper is mostly lined and looks as if it has been torn from exercise books. Algerians tend to use squared paper, USA prisoners letters are on yellow paper, with blue lines. I had many from 'Death Row'. USA overall aren't all that neat often on torn up scraps. I'm generalising, of course, but many countries are very distinctive. The prize for the neatest, and with the smartest writing paper, would have to go to Japan. They appear very meticulous, no crossings out, and with small precise handwriting.

As for us British! It is sad but many don't appear to have any idea of how to write a basic letter and sometimes have terrible illegible writing. To say this can be a handicap, if you want penfriends, is a bit of an understatement. I remember one particular gentleman who complained that he didn't get any replies when he wrote to people listed in my magazines. He sent his letter to me all in heavy, smudged block capital letters, the spelling was atrocious and the paper was smeared with I've no idea what. It was obvious why no one answered his letters, but how do you tell someone this? I didn't, I just gave him his money back and wished him luck.

I would say the minimum requirement, on writing an initial letter to a penfriend, is the obvious i.e. decent paper and envelope, tidy handwriting and to make sure the senders address is easily readable. Lots of people seem to scribble addresses which can be difficult to decipher if you are unfamiliar with town names in far off countries.

People have various ideas as to what they think penfriends are all about. In my experience I would say there are three main categories.

(1) Firstly there are what I called the 'Genuine'. These are people who are simply looking for friends in different countries. They want to learn about other peoples' lives and enjoy swapping letters and experiences. They may never meet but quite a bond of friendship can develop. This is the group that I really wanted to cater for when I first started my magazines. It felt a 'nice' business linking up people of this sort.

(2) Next came the 'Romance' category. I didn't envisage this initially, but there are so many people seeking relationships, romance and marriage. Some is understandable because it can also be a way to escape from poor circumstances and almost a flight to freedom. For instance, when the old USSR broke up I was inundated with letters from women living in the Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and so on seeking husbands in other countries, but preferably in the UK, USA or Australia. The striking thing was that these were mostly well educated women with qualifications, 'good' jobs and they wrote excellent English. There were teachers, doctors, psychologists, nurses, business women, university lecturers etc. They sent photographs and, I must say, the majority looked very attractive.

From countries such as Algeria and Morocco it was nearly all young men that were looking for 'romance' in other countries (and perhaps a passport). The rest of Africa was a mix of men and women seeking to move away for love.

There were genuine romantics of both sexes as well, from all over the world, who seemed to just want to meet a partner regardless of where they lived. Through one of my magazines we had two marriages and I received very nice letters from the couples concerned. It was never my intention, when I first went into the penfriend business, but I later published a magazine just for those who were seeking partners.

(3) The third main type is one I summed up with the word 'Dirty'. As you are on the Internet this won't take much explaining. It appears there are an awful lot of people who like to exchange 'private' photos, videos, stories, experiences and possibly meet up, even though they may be in different countries. I would never have dreamed that these sort of people would want to be listed in penfriend type magazines. And I couldn't believe some of the photos sent to me requesting publication. I thought they must have mistaken me for a gynaecologist or something! Obviously there was no way I could print these in a penfriend magazine so for a while, and after legal advice, I published a worldwide adult contact publication even though it wasn't my sort of thing. It did prove to be amazingly profitable! At first it was just what seemed harmless fun, but I began to get some very 'odd' letters to say the least, which I just wasn't happy about. I eventually sold the publication to a Swedish dealer. They are a lot more relaxed about such things over there

Publishing the magazines was very enjoyable. Now that I have moved on I am left with several black bin bags full of foreign stamps that I collected from envelopes over the years. One day I'll decide what to do with them. I've also got a pile of banknotes in currencies that the banks won't exchange, such as Iraq, Iran, India, Korea, African countries and so on.

The main currency in the penfriend world is the USA dollar and also International Reply Coupons (IRC's). For my worldwide advertising I quoted prices of my magazines in dollars, but would accept the equivalent in any currency. I also welcomed IRC's at the rate of two for every USA dollar. If you are not familiar with IRC's they can be purchased from Post Offices all over the world. These can then be exchanged at the recipients Post Office for postage stamps.

I sold the majority of my publications within the UK but needed to advertise worldwide so that I had a constant supply of people from many countries being listed in each edition. This could have cost me thousands of pounds but I found a way of doing it nearly for free by exchanging adverts with other worldwide publishers. What I did was put a code of 'x-ad' in the corner of my adverts. This meant that any publisher who saw this could print my advert knowing that I would print his once I had received a checking copy of his mag.

As you can imagine this had a snowball effect and I soon had hundreds of adverts being circulated worldwide and all for very little cost. It certainly put me well ahead of the competition, but the secrets out now!

I think there is still a place for penfriends today but the popularity may be declining because of the Internet. We have become more of an instant, no delay generation but I enjoy writing and especially receiving letters. I've made some lovely friends worldwide and somehow the letters seem genuine. You can sense a persons true personality more when reading their handwritten correspondence than in some anonymous chat room on the web.

Being involved in the penfriends business emphasised to me how similar we all are, despite our differences.

Mike.

Visit Mike's Blog Mike's Money Making Mission
or return to top of page




Technorati Profile

An Introduction To UK Shares & Investments

An Introduction To UK Shares & Investments

Most of us know about saving with Building Societies. This is the most popular way of investing our money for a rainy day or for the future with virtually no risk. When it comes to company shares, however, a lot of us still look on this as being something of a complete mystery. What I thought I'd try and do is explain what shares (and things like Gilts) are all about for those that aren't too sure. I'll start at the very beginning.

~ HOW IT ALL BEGAN

The very first companies had grand names such as, 'The Mysterie and Companie of the Merchant Adventures for the Discoverie of Regions, Dominion Islands and Places Unknown'. This particular one later became known as the Muscovy Company for short, which must have been a relief to all concerned.

Trading was a great adventure in the very early days. Various merchants would take what they called 'shares' in an enterprise, often importing from overseas, and would then divide up the profits at the end of a voyage. It all made good sense to pool resources, reap the benefits and also to spread the risk.

Gradually it dawned on investors that it wasn't really necessary to break up their 'companies' on the completion of each venture. The company could go on and on indefinitely, provided there was a way in which the original backers could get their money back, if required, by selling on their share to someone else.

~ THE STOCK EXCHANGE

To buy and sell shares in these now permanent companies an informal market developed based in coffee houses around the Royal Exchange in London. In 1773 one of them, called 'New Jonathans', became 'The Stock Exchange' and was the first building anywhere in the world to become known as such. It was properly instituted in1802, when it had some 550 subscribers and 100 clerks. Other 'exchanges' developed throughout the British Isles and finally amalgamated in 1973 to form 'The Stock Exchange of Great Britain and Ireland'.

The Stock Exchange is a completely independent organisation, though its biggest user is the Government. Modern industry makes huge demands on capital, which can only be satisfied by a system that can draw on the savings of the population, and this is what 'The Stock Exchange' does.

~ SHARE PRICES

The reason for investing in companies is quite simple. If a company prospers it will grow larger and the value of its shares will rise. Not only that, but it will pay larger dividends to share holders, so income will rise as well. If only it was that simple. The snag is that the opposite can also happen.

The actual day-to-day behaviour of share prices is governed by supply and demand. All of the shares in a company must belong to someone and these shareholders may or may not be willing to to sell. Prospective buyers have thousands of options to choose from and each buyer will have his or her own reason for preferring one company to another.

What the Stock Exchange does is to find a price at which the seller and the buyer agree.

As for stockbrokers, they do more than just buy and sell shares. They are also an independent advisors on a wide range of financial products. In additon they are researchers. Stockbrokers' analysts look out for cases where simple supply and demand has either over or under valued a particular share. They seek evidence of management skills, or lack of them which will show up later in the form of achievement or missed opportunities.

~ INCOME & CAPITAL GAIN

When we think of investments there are two main kinds that spring to mind, one that gives an income and one where there is a capital gain. Here are two examples.

(1) A building society account is an 'Income Only' investment. At say 4.25% £100 will produce £4.25 of income each year. The original £100 investment remains the same and does not rise or fall.

(2) There are also investments such as gold coins. Buyers know they will receive no income but hope for a 'Capital Gain' should the price of gold rise (i.e. they can sell the coins for more than they paid for them).

The point about Stock Exchange investments is that some offer a mixture of 'Income' and potential 'CapitalGain'. It is not necessary to sacrifice one entirely for the quest of the other. As already indicated, there is potential income from Dividends, paid yearly, and Capital Gains from the value of the share price rising.

~ SECURITIES

'Securities' is The Stock Exchange term for stocks and shares in general. They fall into two basic categories: those that give the holder part-ownership of the company he/she has invested in, and those that do not.

The largest single issuer of Securities is the Government. 'Gilts', as they are often called, represent money borrowed by the Government, on which it pays a 'fixed' rate of interest. The amount payable each year, during the life of the stock, is always the same, no matter whatever happens to bank or building society rates.

Similar Securities are issued by local authorities, public boards and also sometimes by companies. These are known by a variety of names such as 'Stocks', 'Bonds', 'Loans' and 'Debentures'.

In number the largest group of securities are 'Equities' or 'Ordinary Shares'. These are only issued by companies and represent the money that has gone into setting up the company. The ordinary shareholders between them own the company, have a vote in how it's affairs are run and they are entitled to a share of any profit the company makes (i.e. Dividend).

This Dividend is not a fixed amount. What shareholders receive is decided afresh each year, depending on the size of profit and the amount that directors feel is prudent to plough back into the company reserves for future expansion.

On a typical Stock Exchange day, securities worth in excess of £1,200 million will exchange hands in around 25,000 transactions. Of these about 3,000 will be Gilts, 1,500 in other fixed interest stocks and virtually all the rest in equities (i.e. ordinary shares).

The average turnover of Gilts is high because of the unique feature of the British financial system. The Government manages the National Debt across the floor of The Stock Exchange. The transactions include a large number of deals for hundreds, rather than hundreds of thousands of pounds. In ordinary shares as well, the days trading will consist of a few very large deals but a great many small ones.

~ THE INDEX

On a typical day, some share prices will go up, some will go down and most will probably not change. The overall movement of the market is a matter of importance. It reflects what investors in general think of the prospects of the economy as a whole.

The way this movement is measured is by an 'Index'. The best known is the 'Financial Times Industrial Ordinary Index', started in 1935. This is based on the shares of 30 companies, chosen as representative of British industry and commerce. It is calculated on an hourly basis.

A more sophisticated one, the 'All Share Index' was introduced by the 'Financial Times and the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries'. Despite its name it does not take into account all shares. It is calculated on a daily basis. The most recent is the 'Financial Times / Stock Exchange 100 Share Index'. This is based on 100 of the largest companies and is calculated on a minute-by-minute basis using computer technology.

~ AND FINALLY

Investing in company shares is a gamble on future profits and prospects. The good news is that in any five year period shares as a whole should out perform the returns from building societies. The dangerous thing is that share prices can collapse, following all sorts of circumstances, causing the value of investments to tumble. Buying and selling shares needs some knowledge. The obvious 'secret' is knowing when to buy and just as importantly when to sell. Anyone have a crystal ball?

The first steps into share buying are probably best through a Unit Trust, where the risk is spread over a large portfolio of companies. This can be done under the shelter of a tax free ISA. Personally, at the present time, I would suggest a monthly savings plan with one of the major Unit Trusts, as opposed to a lump sum investment. Savings plans start from about £25 per month. This spreads the risk even more. If shares are low or drop you buy more Units in a month. If they rise you buy less. This is all done automatically by the Unit Trust on your behalf. At the end of the year you will actually have paid less than the average price of the shares throughout the year. Hopefully over a five year or longer period you should, in theory, show a decent profit, much superior to any building society.

Unit Trusts can be purchased through brokers, many of which give a discount on charges. This can make a saving as opposed to dealing direct with the actual Unit Trust provider. I have dealt with both of the brokers below and have had excellent service: Hargreaves Lansdowne and Willis Owen.

Good luck,
Mike.

Visit Mike's Blog Mike's Money Making Mission
or return to top of page

Self Hypnosis For Success

Self Hypnosis For Success

I like to think, no I'll go further than that, I 'believe' that we are all in control of our own destiny. By this I mean that to a very large degree our health, wealth, happiness, good fortune and most of the things that happen in our lives are down to us. For instance, if I am poor, sick and sad or alternatively rich, healthy and happy it's because I have made myself so. I realise that it's easy to find an argument against this theory, that is okay by me. I'm not out to influence others, I'm just saying things as I have come to believe them.

Many won't want to agree with what I have said because it is more comfortable to blame something else other than ourselves, if life isn't as we would wish. It's easier to say it is the fault of fate, bad luck, God or some other power, even the stars. To me though, I feel that once we have reached maturity we create our own lives.

The way our lives turn out, our health, happiness and wealth is all because of the way we act, think, talk and visualise ourselves and our future.

This is why I see self-hypnosis as a tool that can be used to improve some aspects of our lives. Much of how we are is down to reflexes and habits. These may have been developed from childhood or formed later in life. Some reflexes and habits are good but many aren't. If we can alter the negative ones, in this case by suggestion, it will go some way to improving our lot.

Self-hypnosis is a highly suggestible state of mind which, with practice, we can all produce. In this state we can give our mind suggestions and instructions that create mental impulses for the purpose of eliminating or altering various mental and physical conditions.

Our thoughts and suggestions have an effect on our body and mind. Let's look at some examples.

Someone might be suffering from indigestion but come to believe that he or she has in fact got heart disease. They may well, therefore, start to suffer palpitations and breathlessness. After a medical examination and reassurances from a doctor, that there is no disease, the associated symptoms will vanish.

It's similar to if we see a friend and he says, "You're looking a bit pale, not feeling too good then?" The suggestion may seep into our mind. Later we may find ourselves not feeling well because of what has been said to us. This may be very simplistic but all of the time we are being bombarded with negative suggestions. It's up to us to keep these at bay and to feed ourselves with positive words of how we are fit, happy, confident and can achieve anything we want. Very much of how we are, mentally and physically, is based on how we believe ourselves to be.

What we believe we become.

With self-hypnosis we can plant positive suggestions into our mind and start to create new beliefs of how, and even who, we are. Some psychosomatic anxieties may also be overcome.

We all have conditioned reflexes that make us act automatically in different situations. These are psychological or physiological responses to specific stimulus built up through training or our experiences. They are often established by repetition until eventually they become involuntary. We sometimes respond to things that happen in a manner similar to Pavlov's dogs, who were taught to salivate at the sound of a bell.

I was reading another example of this recently regarding how they used to train dancing bears. This was accomplished by having the bear walk over warm coals while a fiddler played a catchy tune. The bear would obviously raise his feet high in the air every time he touched the warm coal and so appeared to be dancing. After following this procedure for a period of time the bear became conditioned to 'dance' whenever the fiddler played the tune. The coals eventually become unnecessary. (Hopefully this isn't being practised today.)

We likewise may have been programmed or conditioned to act in certain ways by parents, teachers, the media and all sorts of life experiences. I remember seeing a friend, who has an allergy, start to sneeze when she saw some roses in a vase. The flowers turned out to be artificial and when she realised this she stopped sneezing.

If we can become conditioned without realising it hopefully we can also 're-condition' ourselves to become the healthy, balanced person we would like to be. I don't think that self-hypnosis can re-make us completely or is the answer to all of our problems by any means. What it can do is help alongside visualisation techniques, positive thinking and altering the way we act and look at life.

~ How To Hypnotise Yourself ~

Self-hypnosis sounds a bit grand but it's really only a form of relaxation and giving the mind positive suggestions. By being relaxed the mind becomes more receptive. Repeat a suggestion enough and it will become part of us, a belief.

Suggestions may be given either silently or aloud. Find somewhere comfortable, where you won't be disturbed. Sit in an armchair or lay down on a couch or bed. Focus your eyes on a spot on the ceiling and keep looking at it. Repeat slowly to yourself, several times, words along the lines of the following :-

"Presently I shall notice a very pleasant feeling of heaviness coming over all of my body .... every muscle and nerve in my entire body is completely relaxed and at ease .... my legs are getting heavy .... my entire body is very heavy and sleepy .... my head and eyes feel very tired now and I just want to close my eyes and fall fast asleep .... my eyelids are becoming very heavy and I just want to close my eyes and fall asleep .... the moment that I close my eyes I shall be in a deep, sound, hypnotic sleep .... I shall be able to give myself suggestions and I shall be able to wake up at will .... when I complete the count of three it will be impossible for me to keep my eyes open and I shall close them and fall into a deep sound sleep .... one .. two .. three .... I am now in a deep hypnotic sleep and I can give myself post-hypnotic suggestions. I have perfect control of myself and can wake up at will .... deep sleep .... sound sleep ...."

Once a proper level has been reached it is then that your positive suggestions should be made. It's not necessary to be in a deep state of hypnosis. A lighter level is okay as an alert mind will respond to your suggestions. There is no need to turn yourself into some sort of zombie! Complete relaxation of the body is the aim.

After your session come out of the 'hypnosis' by saying something like:-

"When I complete the count of three I shall open my eyes and wake up feeling good .... I shall awaken feeling full of energy and vitality .... I shall be wide awake and feel perfectly well .... One .. two .. three .... I shall now open my eyes and feel fine".

Welcome back to the 'real' world!

Your suggestions when in the hypnotic state should, of course, be positive with plenty of 'I am', 'I will', 'I can'. As an example, something along the following lines may be suitable for more confidence:-

"From this moment I will have complete confidence in myself and in my abilities .... I will enjoy being with people and look forward to making new friends .... I now have complete self confidence in myself and my ability .... I know that I can succeed".

Use your own words as they will be more meaningful. A good way is also to record the whole 'session' beforehand on a cassette or CD and just listen.

I believe we can all do and achieve virtually anything we want. We just have to believe. Maybe self-hypnosis can play a small part in helping us reach our goals, whatever they may be.

Good luck,
Mike.

Visit Mike's Blog Mike's Money Making Mission
or return to top of page

Time Management In The Work Place

Time Management In The Work Place

Most of us will probably agree that there never seems to be enough time and that this in turn can create stress. No more is this so than in the workplace. As our jobs tend to dominate our lives, usually out of necessity more than choice, the problems we encounter there can get carried over into our private lives as well. This can cause all sorts of added difficulties. Because of this, I have concentrated my article on time management within the workplace.

In business and in a lot of employment we are faced with the responsibility for achieving results through meeting targets, schedules and plans. These results, however they are expressed, are always measured against a time scale, either in terms of units per hour or by specified deadlines and target dates. Time, therefore, is a measure of efficiency and the only denominator for comparing relative efficiency between different individuals, product types and companies.

It is not possible to talk about efficiency without including the element of time. The effective worker or business person is the one who gets more done in less time and can devote increased hours to important matters. If any tasks have to remain undone, they should only ever be non essential ones.

As time is a resource its use must be planned, controlled and accounted for. As a resource it is as important as any industrial or commercial asset. The difference being that you cannot buy it, trade it or drill for it, but you can manage it.

~Where Does Time Go?

In order to improve the utilisation of time it is important to understand where time goes. The use of time falls into two broad categories:

(a) Time spent on useful work and
(b) Time that is wasted

Useful work can be further classified into four types:

(1) Routine Work
This includes what are often essential tasks such as filing reports, writing memos, answering phones and other administrative duties. Such tasks are usually of a minor nature, but they have to be kept under control otherwise they can consume time out of all proportion to their importance.

(2) Key Tasks
Every job has its heart, key activities or tasks which produce the main results or pay off. They include planning assignments, sales, progress checking, inspecting for quality, measuring and controlling output, perhaps training staff, directing labour and issuing instructions. Unfortunately it is easy to lose control and and these can often receive less attention than they should.

(3) Special Projects
A lot of us have to carry out special projects from time to time. These may range from evaluating a new type of machine to designing and implementing improved systems or procedures. These projects are extremely varied; the only predictable features are that they do arise and can take time away from Key Tasks and sometimes Routine Work as well.

(4) Innovative Work
The successful person needs to take steps to constantly improve his/her area of activity by using imagination, creativity and innovation to improve such things as sales, methods, systems, layouts and quality.

~ How Is Time Wasted?

There are probably six main ways in which time at work is wasted.

(a) Failure to focus on the Key Tasks which lead to the achievement of results
(b) Failure to communicate properly
(c) Failure to delegate, if you have staff or helpers
(d) Failure to plan ahead
(e) Interruptions
(f) Fatigue leading to low performance

~ Suggestions For Managing Time Better

We have looked briefly at why we should manage time, key tasks and how time is wasted. Here are a few ideas for managing time better.

(1) Personal Time Study
Begin to manage time by first of all finding out where it is going. Try keeping a daily log of the time spent on your various activities at work over a two week period. Once you know how your time is being spent you can take steps to correct areas where it is being used unproductively.

This can also be done for other apsects of our lives besides the work place. I wonder how many hours are spent watching television that is of little interest, for example. How long do we actually spend time: talking to our wife, husband, partner or children; taking exercise; following our hobby; laughing and having fun? Obviously you can take this sort of thing to extremes but finding time for what, to us, are really important things in life must be worthwhile.

(2) Budget Your Time
Assign different blocks of time to the four categories of work i.e. routine work, key tasks etc. Strive to achieve a balanced time budget, which allows time to give proper attention to each of the four categories.

I am talking about work, but why not also budget personal time as well (without becoming obsessive and stopping all spontaneity).

(3) Communicate
Do this effectively in order to reduce misunderstandings and the rectifying of costly mistakes. How often we waste time because we haven't got over what we are trying to say, whether this be in the spoken or written word. We have to make sure that the other person really understands the message we are trying to convey. This also applies in our personal lives.

(4) Cut Down Paperwork
Eliminate forms, records and reports that achieve nothing. Be ruthless and concentrate on the really essential communications and records that contribute to actually achieving desired results. Simplify, eliminate and combine documents wherever possible. Keep it all simple.

I realise some companies have set paperwork that has to be followed. This doesn't mean, however, that you can't look for improvements and make suggestions.

(5) Be Decisive
Effective people can make swift decisions and dispose of minor matters quickly. Do not spend a long time vacillating over small matters. Decide straight away if you want a digestive or plain biscuit with your tea!

(6) Control Interruptions
Stick to the point, limit telephone calls to essentials, reserve unessential contacts for a free period, set aside time in your budget for routine communications and allow for legitimate interruptions. Be firm in dealing with unnecessary interruptions and limit social gossip to lunch and other breaks.

(7) Set Specific Times
Set definite timed appointments of a defined duration, if this is applicable to your job.

(8) Use A Checklist
Write down planned activities on paper. Use this as a checklist to remind you of what needs to be done. If the scheduled time for performing a task is passed by, without it being completed, efficiency can suffer.

When I do lists myself I prioritise the entries in order of importance and find there is great satisfaction in crossing off completed tasks. When I feel there is a lot to do, getting it all down on paper removes a lot of the stress as it acts like a map, and you can clearly see where you are heading. The journey often turns out to be far less difficult than first thought.

~ Finally

As I have already said work often dominates our lives. Employers are becoming more and more demanding. Though many of us have responsibilities I think we owe it to ourselves to try and find work that we really like and enjoy. What is the point in spending forty hours doing something we hate? All this does is effect our health and often relationships outside of work as well. It is true we need incomes but there are usually options if we 'really' want them.

We all have only limited time and I think we should try and gain as much enjoyment, in the true sense of the word, as we can from our lives. We need time to watch our children grow, to develop our natural inbuilt talents and to follow our true purpose. We can only do this if time is our friend and not a foe we are constantly fighting.

~ Good luck.

Visit Mike's Blog Mike's Money Making Mission
or return to top of page