What’s in Your Tomatoes?

By James B. LaValle, RPh, MS, ND, CCN
You may be certain that your plate is full of healthy food… but the truth might surprise you. Your tomatoes, corn, soybeans, Hawaiian papaya, zucchini, crooked neck squash, and even ice cream could have genes from cloned fish, bacteria, or viruses. That’s because you’re not always dealing with the “real thing.” Your grocer’s shelves are likely stacked with genetically modified (GM) foods.
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Word to the Wise: Phalanx

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It's Fun to Know: High-Tech Tombstones

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SEO Don’ts: Critical Site Content as Images

By Alexis Siemon
When developing your website, it’s easy to get swept away by some of the gorgeous creations your Web designer proposes. But while they may look great, it’s important to make sure that none of those images contain critical information or content. The reason is because the search engines cannot “read” any copy that is in an image.
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Give Your Prospects a Taste, Get More Sales

By Paul Lawrence
"The proof of the pudding is in the eating. By a small sample we may judge of the whole piece." - Miguel de Cervantes

I was walking in the food court at the mall. I planned to get my lunch from one of the fast-food franchises, where I knew exactly what I could expect. But an employee from a place where I’d never eaten was passing out free samples of their entree of the day. I tried it and loved it. In the two years since then, I’ve spent a lot of money on lunches there. Plus, I’ve referred half a dozen other people who now also eat there regularly.
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It’s All About Quality Not Quantity

By Rick Pendergraft
I recently [in 2008] attended an investment conference in California, and it seems I always come back from these things with new ideas to share with you. At this particular event, one of the questions I kept getting was “How often do you trade?”
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YouTube Can Bring Video Profits

By Paul Lawrence
“I find that a great part of the information I have was acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way.” – Franklin P. Adams

I wanted to buy a how-to video for a partner-dance called the West Coast Swing, so I went to Google and did a search. As you’d expect, I instantly found 2,480,000 results, including quite a few sites that looked like they might have the professional-level show dancing that I was looking for.
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Give Away Too Much Free Information?

By Michael Masterson
“We are not cisterns made for hoarding, we are channels made for sharing.” – Billy Graham

“You guys are nuts,” Josh told me.
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You Are Going to Have to Kiss a Few Frogs to Find Good Employees

By MaryEllen Tribby, ETR's CEO & Publisher [May 2006 to January 2010]

“Hiring good people is hard. Hiring great people is brutally hard. And yet nothing matters more in winning than getting the right people on the field.”
- Jack Welch

All the really smart businesspeople I know have exactly the same challenge when it comes to building a business. That includes every single attendee at the Michael Masterson Wealth-Building Retreat we held last April [in 2007], regardless of their business sector or gross revenues.
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Choose “Clean” Proteins When on a Low-Carb Diet

By James B. LaValle, RPh, MS, ND, CCN
A healthy low-carb diet can and should include plenty of low-glycemic plant foods (non-starchy vegetables, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds). That being said, following a low-carb diet still means eating large amounts of protein and the fats that come with them. So you need to make sure you get your protein from high-quality sources.
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Insider Report: From Michael… to Charlie… to Me

By Suzanne Richardson
I e-mailed an article I’d just written for ETR to Charlie [Byrne] – and he sent it straight to his trash bin!
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Boost Your Metabolism With Coconut

By Kelley Herring 
Wouldn’t it be nice to crank up the dial on your metabolism a notch?
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Boost Your Body’s Response to Exercise

By Shane Ellison

It’s frustrating to watch obese people suffer in the gym and receive absolutely no benefit for their efforts. Eventually, they give up. But it doesn’t have to be like that. In fact, if they learn how to use one miracle substance properly, they could go to the gym less and have a lot more to show for it – including mega fat loss and lean, sexy muscle.
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"How does someone like me fit anything else into a day?"

“I’ve recently [in 2008] started reading your newsletter. Some of your advice sounds great – but help me here. I already get up most mornings at 6.00 a.m. I’m at work by 8.30 a.m. In that time, I’ve taken the dog for a walk, done a load of washing and hung it out, packed lunch for my husband (who leaves at 7.00 a.m.) and children, and then gotten myself and my kids out the door and off for the day. There’s no time at work for me to be working on my own personal goals. You can imagine what it’s like at the other end of the day… not much time left there either!

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A Life-Changing Early-Morning Routine

By Michael Masterson
"I would have inscribed on the curtains of your bed, and the walls of your chamber: 'If you do not rise early, you can make progress in nothing." - William Pitt

When it comes to personal productivity, we all have the chance to have good days or bad days.
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The Language Perfectionist: How Bad Can Spelling "Bee"?

By Don Hauptman

Certain words are consistently misspelled. Here are four examples I found in major newspapers, whose editors should know better:

• "While technologies like cellphones are steadily reducing their size, television screens are simultaneously growing gigantic and miniscule." (Correct spelling: minuscule)
•  "Now, with many of the biggest and best-known [ad] agencies owned by global firms, it all seems homogenous." (Correct spelling: homogeneous)
• "The judicial system works very hard to emphasize the rarified, solemn, and sequestered nature of jury deliberations... ." (Correct spelling: rarefied)
• "The Pope has a Muslim problem alright." (Correct spelling: all right)

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The Language Perfectionist: Avoid Adverbial Awkwardness

By Don Hauptman

Consider these three sentences, found in articles I clipped from newspapers:

• "The poet Phillip Larkin famously declared that the English discovered sex in 1963."
• "[Eartha] Kitt once famously told Lady Bird Johnson at a White House luncheon that the Vietnam War was irrational."
• "Donald A. Norman, a Northwestern University professor and author of Emotional Design and other books, has famously argued that attractive things work better.'"

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"What are your dos and don'ts when it comes to using a pen name?"

“Michael, what are your dos and don’ts when it comes to using a pen name? I am publishing a book under a pen name. I do not care to register my book with a copyright, because then you have to list your real name.

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Kicking Off the New Year: 7 Foolproof Ways to Increase Your Market Presence and Build Your Business

By Wendy Montes de Oca
“Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.” - Robert Bresson

Whether you’re talking about the articles you include in your e-zine or about your sales message, one thing is certain: Content is king. The written word has the power to educate and inform… as well as create buzz about your website, product, or service. That’s why one of my jobs here at Early to Rise [has since left ETR and started her successful consulting firm, Precision Marketing and Media, LLC] is to circulate our e-zine articles through multiple delivery channels. Reaching potential subscribers this way helps us increase our readership and, ultimately, our revenues.
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