Category: lottery

The Simplest Way to Get Online Passive Income

Based on my research, this seems to be the basic principle that website owners have been following to get passive income online:

* Get many people to come to your website
* Get them to click on your Adsense links

Sounds simple enough. Get people into your website from Google search, then link out to an Adsense Ad. Search In – Adsense Out.

Practically applying it to get sufficient commendable income, however, can be quite a challenge.

The first problem is how to get many visitors to your website.

That’s where Search Engine Optimization comes in. However, this is really easier said that done. It’s a bit of an artwork. You basically have to read the mind of an Internet user. What keywords would he use? Why would he visit your website? Do you have the content go get people interested enough to get to your website?

Basically, your goal is visibility. You have to be seen. You can do this using SEO or using traditional brand-building methods. Tell your friends, family and colleagues. If they have websites, politely ask if you could link with each other.

For those lucky few that are already on top of the search engines, this is not a problem. Others (including myself) would have to work hard at it. Look at FilipinoLinks.com. It’s been around for a very long time and has made quite a foundation. It would not be too difficult for its owners to tweak the website for SEO.

Experts have varied opinions on what to put in a website. Some say, put relevant important content – with around 500-1000 words on each of your website. Some say provide simple 300 word news posts.

Another option to get clicks would be to advertise online for keywords. Adwords is an example of a tool that can allow you to do this. There will be marketing expenses in this scenario. The goal here is to get more Adsense income than Adwords Expenses – which is really basic business sense. This is easier said than done, I tried it and got dismal results.

The next problem would be how to get visitors to click on Adsense links.

Well, the first thing that needs to be done is to get an Adsense account. It’s pretty easy to setup. After that, you need to put the Adsense links on your website. There are people who say make it blend it when the rest of your pages. Here, on my website, you can see my Adsense Ads that seem to be part of the overall theme.

Other experts say the more noticeable the advertisements, the more they will be clicked. In this case, the Ads stand out prominently – with a different, and sometimes contrasting color scheme. One tip given was actually position the Google Ad right next to an image/picture. Viewers tend to click on picture links, so more income potential income there.
What does this all mean for a Filipino Entrepreneur?

In my point of view, it means opportunities. Although I have just started experimenting on all of this myself, there seems to be a real possibility of gaining a little revenue. For example, I started this website (last January) and have,in my first month I gained US$7 from Adsense. It’s not much but consider this:

* My expenses so far have been the webhosting (US$4 monthly), and domain name (US$3 for one year – got it at a discount).
* If I continue getting US$7 a month, that would be, US$84 a year.
* My year’s hosting would be US$48
* My theoretical income for one year would be US$33.

There are other costs, of course, from writing the content for this website – electricity, less time to do other things, etc… I didn’t include it yet. If you had pre-existing content, this wouldn’t matter to you. Just upload it and you should be ready.

For example, if you had a song lyrics database, you could find a pretty reliable web developer, have him upload your database, and include AdSense. Optimize it for search and you should soon get some revenue. It will probably not be big, but enough to get you interested.

I remember on my last test with the wordtracker application, “Pinoy Ako Lyrics” were some of the top keywords I found. People were actually looking for lyrics of Filipino songs. Since new songs come out every month, whoever gets the lyrics out soonest would be found earlier.

If you had a database of all Philippine Lotto Results ever since it began, you could probably have a statistics analyzer custom-made from your website. It could give suggested lotto numbers based on historical info. That would be something a lot of people would go to.

There are probably other more interesting opportunities for the web-savvy Pinoy entrepreneur. As long as you get people to your website, and get them to click on an advertisement, there will be revenue.

Ranking the Best Gambling Business

There are gamblers and there ARE the gamblers. For those who cannot control their gambling addiction and those who want to delve into the business of gambling, there are some areas to turn in a profit, day or night.

Knowledge of state laws is crucial in making your choice as well as other regulatory and statutes that you need to be knowledgeable of. Remember, the law does not exclude anyone.

As in any type of business, the most crucial aspect in establishing your business is where to locate it. Location, location, location is the key. Unless you want to jumpstart the economy of a certain locality, choosing the perfect location is by far the most difficult decision to make.

Another decision you need to make requires you to evaluate which type of gambling business you would like to get into.

There are a lot of options to choose from in going into the gambling business. One can choose to establish a casino, a lottery outlet, a wagering system, bingo social halls, sweepstakes and dice games.

Casinos

Establishing a casino at the right location can make an individual (who can afford to build one on his own) or a group of individuals rich. But the initial investment is also very steep as the place needs to be at par with world class standards to be considered as the in place to be.

Lotteries

Everybody plays the lottery. Who doesn’t want to get rich quick? So getting a franchise or a license to open a lottery outlet is also another way of making a fast buck.

Wagering and/or Race tracks

Some go for the higher stakes of taking a chance on the outcome of the game from a jockey or from someone else. Building a race track for horses, for dogs or for any other animal is also a lucrative business that can be looked into. Provided state laws allow these animals to be a part of the gaming industry.

Bingo

People just love to play bingo. And formalizing a bingo social hall is just the right business around that corner if your community is into it day and night. Aside from its entertainment value, most charity institutions use bingo socials to forward their causes and solicit funding for their activities.

Sweepstakes and dice games

These have fairly been in the community long before the more elaborate and higher stakes gambling activities available now. However, these do not lose their charms as they provide a high that most people just can handle in their daily lives.

Last word on any gambling business you would want to establish, know your state laws.

NFL Players And Money

One of the questions people always ask me about being an NFL player is, “what is it like making so much money at such a young age?”

I have to say that it is very difficult to go from being young and having no money to being young and a millionaire because you do not know how to be financially responsible. It’s just like winning the lottery, and as you know from reading about lottery winners, most lottery winners go broke within 10 years after winning the lottery. Well, it is not that much different with professional sports players. The reason for this is most professional athletes, and lottery winners, were never taught money management skills. Going from being broke one day to being a millionaire the next day is a huge change in your life, mostly because once you have money, everybody wants you to give it to them, and most of the time you do.

I came from a single family home without a father, which is something many professional NFL players have in common. I am also African American and my family did not have a lot of money, which is also very common among NFL players. Because of this, I was never taught how to manage money responsibly and plan for my future. I went from being broke one day to being drafted into the NFL and becoming a millionaire.

A huge problem with being young and having a lot of money is the pressure by just about everybody including fellow players to spend a lot of money very quickly. When you are rich, everybody wants your money, especially your family and friends. My mother, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends, etc. all wanted to borrow money from me. And of course I gave it to them. Then, you have girlfriends and wives who want you to buy them lots of expensive presents like cars, jewelry and clothes because you are rich and they want to show off to their friends. You also have charities, investors, and businesspeople all asking for your money—and you end up giving it to them.

But possibly the worst of all is the other players because when it comes to money it is the blind leading the blind. We all spend our money as if it will never run out because we are uneducated in financial responsibility. For example, for you to be cool and respected by the other players, you have to keep up with them. So, if one player buys a new SUV, you want to buy one too. I mean, you can’t be an NFL player and drive a normal car like a Honda Civic. You have to drive an expensive Hummer, Cadillac Escapade, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, etc.

You also have to have a huge expensive house. All the other players do and if you just live in an average house, they look down at you. So, we spend a fortune buying huge houses for ourselves and for our parents that we do not need. And of course there is the jewelry. We spend so much money on jewelry it is insane. It is nothing for a player to spend $100,000 a year or more buying jewelry, and that is just for us. That does not include all the jewelry we buy for our family, wives, and girlfriends. It is all extremely irresponsible. But, when you have so many people putting pressure on you every day to buy things and keep up with the other NFL players, it becomes much easier to say yes than to say no, even as you are watching all of your money disappear.

Another problem is as a wealthy NFL player, you are expected to flip the bill for everything. Whenever you go out to restaurant, you are the person who pays for everybody. And, when you go out with other players or your buddies, it is always to a fancy club where we go to the VIP section and spend thousands of dollars on fancy champagne and drinks—for everybody. I have known players who have spent over $25,000 in one night at a club. And then they go and do it over and over so they can be the “big man.”

Another problem NFL players have is women who are after us for our money and our status. And many of these women are gold diggers. If we were not rich athletes these beautiful women would probably not look twice at us. But now that we are rich and well known, women chase us constantly. This almost always leads to us marrying a woman we shouldn’t marry and then getting divorced after a couple of years and losing a large percentage of our money in the divorce. I made this mistake myself and it cost me dearly and still costs me.

In close, being a wealthy athlete is much more difficult than people think because there is so much pressure on us to spend our money as quickly as possible. Money magnifies problems, it does not eliminate them as most people think it does.

Zimbabwe Casinos

The entire process of living in Zimbabwe is something of a gamble at the moment, so you might think that there would be little appetite for patronizing Zimbabwe’s casinos. Actually, it seems to be working the other way around, with the desperate economic circumstances leading to a greater desire to gamble, to try and find a quick win, a way out of the problems.

For most of the locals living on the meager local wages, there are two popular forms of gambling, the national lottery and Zimbet. Just as with most everywhere else in the world, there is a national lottery where the odds of winning are extremely low, but then the prizes are also extremely high. It’s been said by economists who study the subject that most do not buy a ticket in the rational expectation of winning; people understand the odds well enough. Rather, the possession of a ticket that might win that fortune acts as a pleasure in itself, dreaming about what could be done, if it did win. Zimbet is based on either the local or the UK football leagues and involves predicting the results of future matches.

Zimbabwe’s casinos, on the other hand, cater to the very rich of the society and tourists. Until recently, there was a very large tourist industry, based on safaris and visits to Victoria Falls. The economic woes and associated violence have cut into this trade.

Amongst Zimbabwe’s casions, there are two in the capital, Harare, the Carribea Bay Resort and Casino, which has five gaming tables and slots, and the Plumtree Casino, which has just the slot machines. The Zambesi Valley Hotel and Entertainment Centre in Kariba also has just slots. Mutare has the Monclair Hotel and Casino and the Leopard Rock Hotel and Casino, both of which have gaming tables and slot and video machines, and Victoria Falls has the Elephant Hills Hotel and Casino and the Makasa Sun Hotel and Casino, both of which have gaming machines and tables.

In addition to Zimbabwe’s casinos and the above mentoined lottery and Zimbet (which is very like a pools system), there are also two horse racing tracks in the country: the Matabeleland Turf Club in Bulawayo (the second city) and the Borrowdale Park in Harare.

Given that the economy has shrunk by more than 40% in recent years and with the associated poverty and violence that has resulted, it isn’t known how well the tourist industry which supports Zimbabwe’s casinos will do in the near future. How many of them will survive until things improve is simply unknown.

Theater Ticket Deals: Finding What You Want!

Finding the right theater ticket deal is like winning the jackpot of a big lotto. It is great to find a great deal on a great show. The problem that many people have though, is knowing how to find the best options for them. If you love to head to the opera or to the show, then you need to have a great way to get theater ticket deals.

While none of these ideas are definite ways of getting a great price, these will definitely help you get back on track.There are a number of great options out there to help you. Here, we’ll talk about some of the best ones to consider. Remember to keep your eyes and ears open for great deals you may come across.

• To get great theater ticket deals, you need to know what’s coming. Stay up to date on what is playing, where it is playing, and how popular it will be.

• If you have time before a show is coming, watch for the deals that are likely to come your way. Many times, there will be great prices offered during the first days that the show is available.

• Also, watch for the deals on various days of the week. Since everyone wants to go to the theater on a Friday or Saturday evening, look for the Sunday matinee or even the weekday options that are available. You’ll find a wider range of prices and discounts offered through these days.

• Watch the paper. Many times, theater ticket deals will be advertised in the paper only!

• Did you decide to go to the concert this evening? Many times there will be special ticket prices offered on any remaining tickets that are available right before the show starts. Check out these options for incredible savings!

Theater ticket deals are out there when you look in many places to find them!

Capture Your Prospects Now!

After six months of hard work you finally completed your apprenticeship on Website Development, Site Promotions, Traffic Building, and Internet Marketing. Your SEO campaign was programmed to all the Internet marketing Guru’s knowledge and advice. Your website looks and appears like it was developed by the leading web design company in the industry.

Page Rank and back links are now pointing to your website like a three foot laser beam coming from the heavens above.

You have successfully prepared your website to rank supreme and establish your presence as a successful money making Internet Home Business. Your website offers excellent products with good values.

As the sun goes down and the day comes to an end, you back-out of your day by surveying your daily sales records. The bottom line of your ledger reveals that traffic is respectable, but your daily sales are weak when compared to your traffic volume. Your prospects click on your sales link but fail to complete the transaction. What is the problem you ask?

To evaluate the strength and power of one’s website ability to actively generate significant revenue, you first must understand what forces your prospect to reach for their wallet.

When a prospect visits your website, they will skim over titles and phrases seeking pertinent information that may have relevant interest to them. Possible solutions and desires for solving their problems remain their main objective.

Remember one thing here that is paramount, we all have the American Dream of winning the Lottery, and or, successfully making money on the Internet working from home.

Have you ever seen a lottery jack pot rise to $200 million dollars? Camera crews from network Television stations sometimes camp-out at lottery ticket stations to interview wanna-be winners. They regularly ask the ticket holders what they initially intend to do with their winnings if their numbers are selected. These ticket holders are excited emotional with the anticipation with acquiring massive amounts of money and the personal rewards that come with it.

What these wanna-be lottery winners perceive in their minds are the primary solutions to their unresolved problems or desires. Just by purchasing a lottery ticket and winning all your present problems and desires will be solved.

Smart Internet marketing Guru’s apply the same tactics while trying to lure their prospects into purchasing their products.

Power words, power marketing phrases, and trigger words now all come into play to entice the prospect to purchase now.

Words and phrases that tug on your heart strings and won’t let go ultimately heighten your curiosity. These words and phrases emotionally place your mind in a state of seeking a practical resolution that may solve your problems and actively accomplish your dreams.

It’s all about the WORDS, folks! Trying to convince a prospect about how outstanding your product might be has never played an important role for any successful business.

Convincing a prospect that your product will resolve, aid, enhance, develop, cleverly save precious time, save money, etc. will overwhelmingly increase your sales.

Painting a picture of unexpected success by using power words, power phrases, and triggers into a prospects mind will increase your odds dramatically. Some of the worst products that were ever developed became a sales success due to their marketing campaign. The advertiser had placed a perceived value of their product into the prospect mind using the power of words.

Using the proper selection of power words and phrases to display on your website will become your ultimate sales force and should be considered as Golden Nuggets in a desolate field of rocks.

Stand back sometime you have a moment and evaluate yourself. Ask yourself the question: What makes you willingly purchase a product that you never heard of before? Exclude all meaningful name brands or recognition by your friends. What really captures your attention and peaks your curiosity? Is the advertiser bragging about their product? Is there product new with people standing in line to eagerly purchase it? Or just maybe because it’s just cutting-edge technology and a must have?

What if the advertiser of the website proclaimed:

… Take your business to a new and exciting level
… Achieve success instantly
… Boost your online commissions
… Claim all FREE bonuses Today
… Don’t spend another dime until you read this
… Exciting ways to make money
… Explosive information
… Financial Freedom
… Get thousands of visitors to your site using this simple Secret Method
… Make massive money
… Maximize your profit potential
… Outsell your competition
… Save hundreds of hours of time
… Seriously increase your profits
… Simple technique
… The fastest way to your success of making money online is
… You can generate more sales
… Yours FREE

These types power phrases motivate your prospects thinking regarding a relationship between their problems and your solutions.

Don’t just take my word regarding power words and phrases, simply reread the above phrases and see where your thoughts go.

The New Age Mathematician…Changing the World One Step At A Time

Jerald Bothell began his studies at Syracuse University. He received his B.S. from there in 1990 and moved to the University of California at Berkeley to undertake research in the area of theory of probability. After completing his Ph.D., Bothell spent the years of 1995-96 in Vegas to study the addictive habits of casino players and their magnetic draw to this city.
Throughout this period, Bothell continually worked on this one area which fascinated him. One of his students sums up this work:- It is evident that Dr. Bothell’s contributions to the field of probability are of considerable depth. However, what sets them apart is their marvelous originality. This is also true of his subsequent work on statistics.
In 1997, Dr. Drusler and Dr. Kingsman, authors of Integrated Mathematics describes Bothell’s contributions in the fields of statistics and probability:
Bothell has fantastic geometric insight and vision: his ideas have completely revolutionized the study of probability in 2 and 3 dimensions, and brought about a new and interplay between analysis and geometry.
In 2000, Dr. Bothell wrote an advanced version of the Ultimate Lottery System and immediately used its hidden secrets. His results yielded him a net gross of 5.5 million dollars in one year. Bothell’s work on statistics and its results has established him as well known guru in lottery circles nationwide. Kingsman describes this geometrical work in the following summary:-
Bothell’s results are surprising and beautiful. The method is a new level of geometrical analysis – in the sense of powerful geometrical estimation on the one hand, and spatial visualization and imagination on the other, which are truly remarkable.
Dr. Bothell has received many honors in addition to his work in the field of the theory of probability. He now resides in Texas with his wife, Eva, and has sold the copyrights of his lottery system to Pooh Bear Enterprises. He stays in frequent contact with the CEO and staff of P.B. Enterprises to ensure the accuracy and quality of his work. His goal is to help as many people as he can to reach their life dreams and share the great fortune of this land.
Dr. Bothell list his hobbies as cinema and reading, and his favorite sports are football and golf.

Forex Trading System.

Some like to play lotto or casino, and others love the excitement of trading with stocks and currency. They all want to find a system with a high profit and no risk, but believe me it does not exist and never will.

Forex have work out several of trading systems adjusted to the risk you are willing to take with your investments. There are systems for the careful investors, where the risk of loosing money is minimal, which also affects the profit, and there are systems, for the investors who are willing to take a higher risk, which also will increase the profit, and then there are systems, for the investors who wish to take the chance, and trade with a high risk to increase the profit.

So no matter what kind of investor you are, Forex have trading systems there will fit in for your investment, even if you are a new started investor, the skilled investor or an expert investor.

You can see, that the systems made by Forex is efficient, as more and more people are using them. As a new started investor, you have the possibility, to learn all about trading with stocks, currency or anything else you want to try out, by using the Forex trading system, with help from either e-books or personal assistance. Trading can be an expensive pleasure, with a great lose of money, if you don’t use the possibilities and tools which exist. Forex have made some systems, which is a great help to avoid such lose, and combined with common sense, you have a very good foundation, to make a good and profitable investment.

Good luck with your investment, but don’t use more money than you can afford to lose, as there is always a risk connected with any investment.

My Name Is Earl (DVD) Review

One of the best new shows of the past several years, My Name Is Earl follows the life of Earl Hickey (Jason Lee), a man who discovers karma while lying in a hospital bed. Celebrating a $100,000 scratch-off lottery ticket, Earl gets hit by a car and knocked unconscious. His lottery ticket escapes in the wind, and Earl is hurried to the hospital where a revelation from Carson Daly hits him like a ton of bricks. Convinced that his bad luck is the result of bad karma, Earl compiles a list of everything he’s done wrong from grade school to the present, and he’s intent on fixing every bullet point on his list… Nominated for two Golden Globes in its first season, My Name Is Earl won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite New Television Comedy. Created by Gregory Thomas Garcia, creator of the popular Yes, Dear, the series is certain to be a favorite for years to come with its eccentric characters, brilliant writing, and infinite episode possibilities (no doubt the list will grow as Earl tackles each thing on it)…

Joining Earl on his quest are his dim, yet innocent brother Randy (Ethan Suplee), friend and illegal alien hotel maid Catalina (Nadine Velazquez), Earl’s trailer trash ex-wife Joy (Jaime Pressly), and Joy’s new husband Darnell “Crabman” Turner (Eddie Staples). Also along for the ride is $100,000 in lottery winnings. Even though Earl lost the lottery ticket when he got hit by the car, his newfound dedication to the principles of karma pays immediate dividends when a gust of wind places the missing ticket right in front of his feet. With the money at their disposal, Earl and Randy dedicate themselves full-time to the task of crossing things off Earl’s list. It’s a quest that makes for some of the most interesting and comedic moments in television history…

The My Name Is Earl DVD features twenty-four hilarious episodes including the season premiere in which Earl sets out to help a former grade school classmate he used to pick on relentlessly, Kenny James (Gregg Binkley). Learning that Kenny is gay and lonely, Earl works overtime to find Kenny a partner… Other notable episodes from season one include “Stole Beer From A Golfer” in which Earl and Randy must pay back a golfer (Johnny Galecki) who they cheated out of free beer (a difficult task once they realize their actions have ruined his life), and the season finale, “Number One,” in which Earl sets out to rectify the number one thing on his list: “stole ten dollars from a guy in the convenience store”. But #1 becomes the most difficult item on Earl’s list when he realizes the guy he stole the ten dollars from would have used it to buy the $100,000 lottery ticket. In order to placate karma, Earl must not only give back the $10, but the entire $100,000…

Below is a list of episodes included on the My Name Is Earl (Season 1) DVD:

Episode 1 (Pilot) Air Date: 09-20-2005
Episode 2 (Quit Smoking) Air Date: 09-27-2005
Episode 3 (Randy’s Touchdown) Air Date: 10-04-2005
Episode 4 (Faked His Own Death) Air Date: 10-11-2005
Episode 5 (Teacher Earl) Air Date: 10-18-2005
Episode 6 (Broke Joy’s Fancy Figurine) Air Date: 11-01-2005
Episode 7 (Stole Beer From A Golfer) Air Date: 11-08-2005
Episode 8 (Joy’s Wedding) Air Date: 11-15-2005
Episode 9 (Cost Dad The Election) Air Date: 11-22-2005
Episode 10 (White Lie Christmas) Air Date: 12-06-2005
Episode 11 (Barn Burner) Air Date: 01-05-2006
Episode 12 (O Karma, Where Art Thou?) Air Date: 01-12-2006
Episode 13 (Stole P’S Hd Cart) Air Date: 01-19-2006
Episode 14 (Monkeys In Space) Air Date: 01-26-2006
Episode 15 (Something To Live For) Air Date: 02-02-2006
Episode 16 (The Professor) Air Date: 02-09-2006
Episode 17 (Didn’t Pay Taxes) Air Date: 03-02-2006
Episode 18 (Dad’s Car) Air Date: 03-16-2006
Episode 19 (Y2K) Air Date: 03-23-2006
Episode 20 (Boogeyman) Air Date: 03-30-2006
Episode 21 (The Bounty Hunter) Air Date: 04-06-2006
Episode 22 (Stole A Badge) Air Date: 04-27-2006
Episode 23 (BB) Air Date: 05-04-2006
Episode 24 (Number One) Air Date: 05-11-2006

Be My Valentine

Before there was a Saint Valentine to bring romance into the equation, mid-February was an important date for lovers. From 400 years BC, the Romans held an annual lottery in the name of their god Lupercus. The names of teenage women were put into a box and drawn at random by adolescent men. The ‘winners’ were legally paired for a year.
Meanwhile, the mad emperor Claudius banned marriage for young men – he believed that single men made better soldiers.
A Christian bishop, Valentine, disagreed with his Emperor and secretly performed marriage ceremonies until Claudius found out and first imprisoned him, and finally had him clubbed, stoned and beheaded on February 24th, 270.
While he was imprisoned, Valentine fell in love with the daughter of his jailer and when he was taken to be executed, he left her a note signed, ‘From your Valentine.’
Taking Valentine’s name in vain, the Church, in AD 496, decided to finally abolish the annual pairing off lottery held in honor of the god Lupercus and so decreed a small change in the rules:
>From then on, both the young men and the young women would pick a name out of the hat, but instead of getting a year of companionship (and often lust), they drew the name of a Saint whose life they had to spend the next year emulating.
Must have been quite a disappointment for the hot- bloodied young Romans!
They named the day after Saint Valentine whose involvement, 226 years after his death, was more to usurp the pagan god than to signify love.
Thankfully, public memory was more powerful that political will and Saint Valentine remained associated with lovers. Young Roman men, deprived of their lottery, took instead to handing hand-written notes to the women they admired on February 14th.
The tradition of the Valentine card was thus started over 1500 years ago!
The earliest known card that still exists is currently in the British Museum. It was sent by Charles, Duke of Orleans to his wife. He was a prisoner in the Tower of London at the time and so his feelings of love were probably more acute than most!
In the sixteenth century the Bishop of Geneva tried to reinstate the annual Saint’s name lottery, but his efforts were short-lived. February 14th was by then too firmly associated with lovers for the Church to successfully interfere.
In 1797 a British publisher, who would have done very well in modern Internet times, published ‘The Young Man’s Valentine Writer’ which offered scores of suggestions of sentimental verses for the creatively challenged.
The practice of sending cards anonymously began with the Victorians, who secretly loved anything of a racy nature, but publicly needed to maintain a show of respectful purity. Hence, the verses in the cards became more and more obscene, but the authors remained hidden behind a respectful anonymity.
The first publisher of Valentine’s cards in America, Esther Holland charged up to $35 for each card. And this was in 1870!
Finally, kisses are written as ‘x’ because in days of illiteracy, your signature was a cross. To convey the effect of an oath, people would draw their cross and kiss it – in the same way that they would kiss the Bible. So the x and the kiss became one and the same.
Have a lovely Valentine’s day! X