Dr.Mani says...

10 Tips For Handling HUGE Gift Give-Aways

It's that time of the year the online marketing world looks forward to eagerly... Christmas gift give-aways. Every year, some business owners and marketers offer one or more of their high value products or services to clients, subscribers or prospects... absolutely free.

Last year, smart folks like you took advantage of the 'Season of Giving' and received goodies worth several hundred dollars in retail value. All you had to do was register with your email address - and download away!

There are many events like this, each with a different twist. All give away valuable stuff you and other marketers will find exciting, informative, educational and instructive.

At first, being offered so much value can be overwhelming. You don't know what to do. I know how intimidated I felt at the beginning, faced with a choice of almost 100 top-notch products. Today, I have a system. And by sharing it with you, hopefully you too will be able to take better advantage of this annual gifting frenzy! More...

How To Deal With Gift Giveaways
- Tips & Ideas To Help You Get The Most
From Amazing Offers This Christmas

Where do you get the nerve...

"...to offer a really good guarantee?

"And I'm not talking about just a 30 to 90 day guarantee or even one that lasts 6 months to a year.

"I mean one where you buy it, use it, and if you don't see any results within 1 year, I'll refund your money AND pay you $1,000 out of my pocket for the time you wasted."

This was a question I came across as I surfed the Net, and thought of sharing some of my thoughts about it.

As part of my mentorship program with Jay Abraham, one of the most valuable things I learned was about risk reversal (a.k.a guarantees).

Jay shared many things, but relevant to this question, here are 2 things:

1. Know your numbers. Refund rate, conversion of visitors to sales, satisfied clients, repeat clients.

Based on this, figure out what would happen if your sales doubled, and your refunds doubled too (or even tripled).

Say you sell a $50 profit product, and your refund rate is 5% (it should be lower, but let's say it's 5%). For every 5,000 visitors, if you sell 100 copies, your profit is $5,000. 5 refunds will cost you $250, leaving you with $4,750 in net profits.

If your conversion rate DOUBLES with a rock solid guarantee, your profit will become $10,000 (200 sales). If your refund rate doubles too, 20 will refund - and you'll lose $1,000 leaving you with a profit of $9,000.

Looks better, doesn't it? Even with tripling your refund rate, or quadrupling it, you get higher profits - plus you get more customers you can offer other products to.

2. Denominate your guarantee. Make it conditional upon the buyer doing something - trying out the software for X days, reading the book and acting on one of the ideas, setting up a website and promoting it using X tactics etc.

Specify what results they can expect, within what time frame, and then make your guarantee big enough to repay them for their time and cost investment in trying out your product.

These are the 2 biggies. You can see an example of the denominated guarantee on this website:

http://www.SmartNicheMinisites.com

I have also toyed with the idea of 'copying the gurus' when I first started - and was lucky I didn't get burned. Without this knowledge, it would have been an expensive mistake

580 Downloads, Almost 100 Testimonials

It's all about a short 14-page special report I recently released called Content Profit SECRETS

You can download this report here - Easy Niche Profits - it's going to be priced at $27, but for a limited time you can get it for free.

Take a quick peek at some of the testimonials readers sent in - it's changing the way many folks think about marketing with articles and working with private label content or reprint-rights articles!

WOW! Affiliate Marketing

The doorbell rang. It was a delivery man with a bouquet of flowers - FOR ME!

Surprised (it wasn't my birthday, or anniversary, or anything special), I opened the card that came with it. It read...

"A Thanksgiving gift to show my appreciation to my affiliates. All the best for a happy, healthy and wealthy end of year. Enjoy"

and was signed...

Yanik Silver

Wow!

Yanik teaches this - take good care of your affiliates, show your appreciation. And he walks the talk. This little gesture delighted me - as I'm sure it will his many affiliates.

A simple, amazingly effective way to build goodwill with your partners, don't you agree.

Remarkably purple affiliate management.

Hat's off, Yanik. And thank you VERY much for the gift :)

What I Did In 45 Days

Just in case you were wondering if the 'Day in my Life' post was exaggerated, or represented an unusually busy day, here's something that'll show it isn't.

I made this post on a private forum during my training with Jay Abraham, Stephen Pierce and Rich Shefren almost a year back. Hopefully it hammers home the point I try to make -

'Find what you LOVE doing, and you won't mind working hard to do it - plus, you're guaranteed success!'

 

It has been 45 days since I last posted on the forum.


And I've been busy - and happily productive too. Just wanted to share some of the stuff I've been involved with.


This post is NOT to boast of my achievements, but to inspire YOU to do more than this (hey, I'm only working on my web related stuff part-time, juggling it with a career as heart surgeon!).


I'm obsessed with this dictum:


Knowledge matters little - unless it's backed by ACTION.



Here's a short list of what I've done:


- Set up my affiliates' blog - List Building Tips - with input from Stephen (thanks, man!)


http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/list-building/


- Wrote a 'tips booklet' about Laptop Computer Care


http://www.Laptop-Secrets.com


- Created a short report on using online discussion forums to profit from - "Five Buck Forum Fortunes"


http://www.Reach-n-Relate.com/forum-fortune/


- Practiced copywriting skills from my AWAI "Accelerated Six Figure Copywriting" course - see a few samples:


http://www.I-Work-From-Home-Too.com


http://www.Reach-n-Relate.com/ezine/


http://www.Laptop-Secrets.com


http://www.Reach-n-Relate.com/forum-fortune/


- Set up an affiliate marketing training process to help my list members become better affiliate marketers - it's called "A MAP To Success" and is now in the 3rd week.


http://www.Reach-n-Relate.com/AMAP/insider.php?n=Dr.Mani


- I'm prototyping a list-building process which should run pretty much on auto-pilot


http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/ILB/


- Got, and am going through, two AWESOME traffic generating courses:


John Reese's TRAFFIC SECRETS


http://www.TrafficSecrets.com


Brad Fallon's STOMPIN' THE SEARCH ENGINES


http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/seo/


(incidentally, I made around $1,000 in affiliate commissions by promoting this course around the time the John Reese hurricane struck the Net!)


- Created a set of 'Dictionary' sites, after learning how they can help drive traffic from 'Trafficology' ezine


http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/IM/


- Built my list from scratch upto 697 subscribers - and counting!


- Split tested 3 versions of my ezine sign up page ... and found one pulling 30% MORE sign-ups!


- Helped raise just over $24,000 for my Heart Kids Foundation - helped by two large contributions - John Reese donated $12,500 and Michael Chen donated $2,000


- Am planning a new "movement" on online fundraising and charity, with the help of Mark Joyner, who will be personally helping and mentoring me! This is going to be VERY exciting.


- Wrote 2 inspiring articles which have been widely appreciated as having helped change paradigms:


In Search of Positives - http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/attitude.htm


The Generosity Factor - http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/generosity.htm


- Helped a friend with a fundraiser for helping victims in Florida of Hurricane Charley/Frances/Ivan - I contributed 5 of my products worth over $500 to the charity effort, and am donating all my share of profits to the Red Cross.


http://www.123-nichemarketing.com/hurricanecharley


(Frank Mullen is also helping with this venture)


- Helped my wife create 6 different blogs on niche markets I won't reveal here. On 2 of them, she has been indexed in Google and ranked on Yahoo within a week (thanks Stephen, for the fantastic tips on using blogs to do this!)


- Used BlogBomb to set up 3 different niche sites enhanced by feeds


- Studied Tinu Abiyomi Paul's "RSS Marketing" ebook for even more wonderful ideas to use RSS feeds to build traffic to my sites


- Tested out a unique affiliate marketing process (which didn't quite perform well, but was an interesting experiment) to promote Ewen Chia's new "Power Affiliate Marketing" ebook (another great resource about affiliate marketing), and Jason Cox's forthcoming "JV Brokering Summit"


http://www.Reach-n-Relate.com/2deals.htm


- Planned and executed 2 small JV deals with other product owners which netted a few hundred dollars and brought in some new subscribers to my mailing list.


- Set up a customer feedback process for my clients to offer comments and opinions - this is based on the Mr.X book, and I'd greatly appreciate it if you would take a peek at it and offer suggestions. I haven't yet told my clients about it!


http://www.EzineMarketingCenter.com/whois/



And oh yes, I've been dropping by the forum and browsing a few threads, listening to the audio recordings of the conference calls, and even applying for a visa - if I get one, I'll be seeing you all at L.A.


Whew!


NOW I feel tired - after reading what I've written :)


So what have YOU been up to? Please share.


Dr.Mani


(going back into his cave!)

Blog Challenge Update

The 'Blog Challenge' was to raise $10,000 from sales of Smart Niche Minisites in a month.

We're at the mid-way point - both in time and profits.

The tally is now at $4,986.26

A Day In The Life Of Dr.Mani

Many times I've been asked how I manage to get such a lot done. I've just smiled it away, or answered (only partly) jokingly, that I simply don't sleep.

But having some spare time today, I thought I'd post a little 'daily diary' of my day yesterday, so you can see what a 'typical' day in the life of a 'heart surgeon - online marketer' is like.

Friday, 11th November.

6:30 a.m. - Check email. Reply to urgent messages. Drop by Warrior forum to quickly catch up on the day's (or night's!) happenings. Check stats on my Google Adsense account.

7:00 a.m. - Read a short special report on customer retention. Jot down notes on some great ideas to implement, in my big notebook that sits beside my iMac.

7:30 a.m. - After successfully fielding requests to help her with several things, I finally give in and go to the aid of my 7 year old who is racing the clock to get to school on time!

8:00 a.m. - It's time for my own race - to beat rush hour traffic that could turn a 20 minute drive to hospital into a 45 minute nightmare.

9:00 a.m. - Surgery. When you're fixing a serious heart problem on a 5 year old girl, there's little time to do much else except focus on the job at hand. Incidentally, this is how I've learned to focus narrowly on one thing at a time - one of the major keys of my ability to get stuff done.

1:30 p.m. - The operation ends. It went off well. With my patient settled in post-operative intensive care, in the safe hands of a colleague, I return home to continue work on my current online projects.

2:00 p.m. - I enter my room, and start scribbling notes in my book. While driving, I got the most amazing idea for a headline to use in my new sales letter - along with a fantastic 'hook' for the offer. If I don't jot it down somewhere fast, it'll fade away - probably never to return. It's happened before - and that's the reason my notebook isn't far away!

2:30 p.m. - A quick check of my email, a short break for lunch, and back to my 'scheduled' tasks - a pretty intricate database set up for my new project which has a 'strict' promotion deadline (one determined by how often Googlebot will visit my site!)

3:00 p.m. - I read Jason Potash's new report, "Big Brother Is Watching", about Google's new policy about scraped websites. There's an interesting software he's offering - for free. I spend 30 minutes downloading and installing it - TWICE. Won't work! I can't unlock it :( Frustrated after 2 attempts, I give up and email Jason about it.

3:30 p.m. - Amazing just how much gets done in half an hour of concentrated effort. The silence is pierced by a delighted shriek. My daughter is back from school and the next hour will be sheer chaos! On the spur of the moment, we decide to go out for ice-cream - a decision that's greeted with a renewed outburst of ecstasy.

4:45 p.m. - Back at my computer. Have you heard of a 'Choco-chillo'? It's coffee with chocolate ice-cream - ummm... delicious! The next hour vanishes in a blitz of adding content to my website, browsing a few threads in online forums and checking out various links and offers I got in my email.

6:00 p.m. - A short tea break gives me time to review progress and prioritize things left to do today. Top of the list is a note to my subscribers about several great ebooks and reports I've read this week... and that they'll find useful too.

6:30 p.m. - The mailing has been created and sent. This has become a snap ever since I moved all my lists to a couple of services, instead of having them scattered all over the place. I now use Aweber for a few lists, and most of them are on ThirdSphere.com where I also host a few of my sites.

6:45 p.m. - My sister calls about something, and I make a few phone calls including one to a friend I'm helping develop his real estate website. A call to the hospital confirms that all is well with today's patient. We have an on-call rotation, and I don't have to go in today. Still, it's nice to know everything is fine!

7:00 p.m. - Study time again. I open up a short report by Mike Sin called the 'Greenback Hat Manifesto'. It has some cool information. I'm glad I signed up to his new paid newsletter - and look forward to receiving this useful stuff every month.

7:30 p.m. - I go back to my new project website, and make some minor tweaks to take full advantage of the tactics I learned in 'Greenback Hat'. Then I follow Mike's instructions to the letter - and submit my link to a PR-8 site.

8:00 p.m. - Back to the time intensive work of adding content to different sections of my site. I'm working on a process to have this happen automatically, or at worst, by getting someone else to do it for me. It'll happen soon - until then, this step is mandatory.

8:45 p.m. - Made short posts to some of my different blogs on niche topics. In all, I must have around 40 blogs, each updated on a different schedule - and all pulling in some free traffic to various sections of my sites. It's one thing I enjoy doing - and the results justify the time committment.

9:00 p.m. - Relaxation and dinner. I'm cooking today, my wife is busy working on her own project and I love making pasta (especially when it's the kind that comes in a box needing boiling for 7 minutes, and you're ready to eat!)

10:00 p.m. - A quick look at my stats log shows Googlebot has been at my site while I was having dinner. And this time, it's been digging around deeper than last time. 168 pages were spidered. And that's great news. The 'Greenback Hat' report is validated. I will now follow the rest of the advice with more enthusiasm and energy. That's another lesson I've learned from Jay Abraham - the only risk you ever have to take in business is an inexpensive test!

10:15 p.m. - Dropped by the Warrior forum and notice a thread about Firesales. This is a hot topic, one that has strong passions associated - and I expect to see sparks flying soon!

10:30 p.m. - Back to the 'Greenback Hat' report - it's the flavor of the day, particularly because it got Googlebot to my new site within 24 hours! Set up two more links back to the site from high ranking pages. And with the content updates I've made, the spiders will find fresh new content when they return.

11:00 p.m. - Went back to read Yanik Silver's sales letter for his Underground Seminar, to get some pointers to help with crafting my next sales page for a membership site.

11:15 p.m. - Some more reading left. I got a review copy of Mark Joyner's latest book, "The Great Formula" - and I'm mid-way through it. Really cool stuff - I'm going to send him a testimonial soon. After finishing it, I'll read some of 'Cracking the Millionaire Code' by Mark Victor Hansen and Robert Allen... until I'm sleepy.

To many this will seem like a crazy, hectic day. And it is - but there's not many things in it I'd change, if I have the choice (which, incidentally, I do!)

Donald Trump had it right - when you love what you do, you don't mind spending all day doing it. His Rule #2 for billionaires is: "Never take vacations".

The rationale? If you love what you're doing, why would you want to take a break from it?

Makes you think, dunnit? :)

Share your thoughts on the forum - click here

And Speaking of High Conversion ...

I don't know exactly how well this letter pulls, but I'm sure it
does GREAT.

It's an awesome example of the use of all sorts of copywriting
triggers - and an especially great use of TESTIMONIALS (if you
search carefully, you'll even find one by yours truly on it - can
you find it?)

See the letter - click here

Amazing Sales Conversion!

It Ends In 3 Days

I was just checking my stats - and notice this has a 6.6% conversion to sales - on a $297 product!

To see this amazing sales letter, click here

And if you hurry, you can join the affiliate program (it's open only to owners, sorry!)... the event ends on November 13th.

I'm STILL Downloading - 4 Days Later!

 

Ends November 13th

Can a special offer be PURPLE? Remarkable enough to talk about?

Well, this one is.

I'm willing to bet you've already heard about Simon Hodgkinson's and Jeremy Gislason's MARKETING MAIN EVENT mega-package.

Nothing else I can say will sum up what happened than this short 'testimonial' I sent them - soon after I did something I never expected to happen...

Getting My Own Copy

I still don't quite understand how it did - but I guess it simply soaked in that I'd have to be NUTS to pass on such an incredible deal!

Just take a look at this amazing sales letter, and you'll understand better... click here

Simon & Jeremy

First off, CONGRATULATIONS. An amazing collection - I had ABSOLUTELY no intention of buying, but after seeing your sales page, am pretty much sure I'm going to - I mean, how could I resist! :)

Just one quick question - (***I clarified a doubt here***)

Thanks for your offer, and have fun at Big Seminar :)

All success

Dr.Mani

Now, almost 4 days later, I'm still downloading stuff. The basic package is HUGE. And the bonuses are great. All said, there's enough in there to keep you busy reading and learning, or repackaging and reselling... or even just PLANNING different things to do!

So, here's a word of caution.

If you're the kind who likes to buy and hoard stuff, or simply twiddle your thumbs after investing in them, or suffer 'decision overload' and hesitate to do things because you don't know which to do first... don't get this pack.

You'll be OVERWHELMED with the sheer volume of valuable content!

But if you're a bold and action-focussed entrepreneur looking for resale rights products to jumpstart your online business - grab this deal and get yourself a pack of the MARKETING MAIN EVENT.

When you use my affiliate link - click here, I'll throw in a $147 bonus - a pack of SMART Niche Minisites... but the offer ends soon, along with the main event. So don't wait too long!

What If...

As a child, I loved to play 'make believe'. The
game begins with asking myself,

"What If..."

It's great fun. And today, I want to play it with
you... but this is for REAL.

* What If... there was a guide to becoming an expert at setting up deals with the 'top guns' in any field - or being the 'middleman' in bringing two related businesses or people together - & profiting from the explosive synergy that results?

* What If... that guide was not just 'theory based' but is backed by 3 DECADES of in-the-trenches experience, by an expert at the technique?

* What If... everything was explained in a step by step, simple, easy to read-and-apply style, suitable to anyone from beginner to seasoned expert, and applied to offline business just as much as online?

* What If... you could get that amazing guide, read it, USE it in every possible way for 30 days before even deciding if you want to keep it - and only then you have to pay for it?

* What If... this guide would be available only for the next few weeks - and then taken right off the market (maybe forever?)

Well, this isn't a game. It's for real. And the guide I'm talking about is Jay Abraham's "JV MASTERY"

It's the ultimate course about making JV deals that I've
ever come across. A huge 3-ring binder filled with notes,
covering every aspect of JV deal making and giving you
fantastic insight into the mindset of a genius.

At a price of $997 or more, it would have been a GREAT
deal. For just the cost of shipping, it's a no brainer
to get and read!

Just think about how little you have to lose!

Get the course and read it (should take you around 3 days
to quickly skim). At that point, when you're convinced this
is a goldmine, you still won't have to pay... UNTIL you've
had a chance to put it to the test!

Honestly, you could even make the course pay for itself
- if you're able to take instant action on the material.
And if you can't, this would still be a great investment
that's practically guaranteed to make you multiples of
what you'll pay for it.

I've used no more than a handful of the strategies (Jay
teaches some of them in his Protege program... I was
fortunate to be a part of it) - and it has been responsible
for a couple of $25,000 + promotions in these past 2 years.

Now, because this course is one I strongly recommend, I'm
going to go out of my way to try and get you to atleast
try it out. If you request JV MASTERY, read it, decide
you like it, pay for it, and then send me the receipt for
your payment, I will give you a pack of SMART Niche Minisites
- a $147 value - absolutely FREE.

(Note: There are only a few copies of SMART Niche Minisites
left. In case they sell out, I will give you a choice of
another gift of equal value, or a pre-launch copy of the
next edition of Smart Niche Minisites which will be released
probably in mid-December. So if you want to make sure you're
in time for this bonus, you'll have to act fast!)

Jay Abraham's "JV MASTERY - The Art of Dealmaking"

My 'Secret' List Strategy!

You might have got 3 copies of my 'Happy Diwali' email. Or five. Maybe even SEVEN.

But here's the rub... you *could* have got SEVENTY TWO

Yes, because that's how many sub-lists I manage at the moment!

I've been working with lists since 1996. My smallest list has 7 subscribers (and it brought in over $5,000 last year!). My biggest list has had around 15,000 people.

And these are/were DOUBLE opt-in subscription lists (not lead generation process results that many others proudly declare as their 'lists' running in the hundreds of thousands or even millions!)

If you've tried list building before, you'll know these are respectable numbers - and understand how difficult it is to build and retain this base in niche markets. That's why, when someone new (or less than ideally suited) to this subject writes to me with advice about running my list(s), I quietly smile and click on the DELETE button.

I've not revealed this facet of my work before - but for over 3 years now, I've been segmenting my list by interest area. That's why, even if you've been in my subscriber database for awhile, you'll notice how I sometimes require you to opt-in to a list to download a report, or take advantage of a special offer.

Now, I'm the first to admit the way I run the multiple lists is less than perfect. There's room for a LOT of improvement. But the solutions are either too expensive, or simply do not exist - and will require complex programming and fancy footwork to move my lists to a different system without a disaster.

So this is how my lists will run, at least for the near future.

• You may get multiple copies of some emails - there's a link at the bottom of each message, offering an option to take yourself off that list. (In case you get any email from me WITHOUT this link, please let me know a.s.a.p.!)

  
  
  

• You may have lost interest in what I have to say - again, that's what the link at the bottom is for. I don't want disinterested subscribers, just as much as they don't want to hear from me!

  
  
  

• You may not like the thought of having your inbox flooded with many emails from me - If that's you, hit the link on all the 'extra' messages... but know that it *might* prevent you from receiving email exclusive to some sub-lists.
  

Of course, the only other option is to delete the redundant copies of the message you get... and read one of them. Chances are you're NOT on all 72 of my lists - and I use my judgement in sending out offers based on preferences and performance.

Bottom line - I'm NOT planning to change my list management in a big way soon.

If the thought of getting multiple copies of my emails is repulsive, totally intolerable and positively revolting to anyone on my list (!!!), the best advice I can offer them is to do the smart thing and cancel their subscription. Life's too short to do the things you don't like doing!

And for you, and the rest of my loyal subscribers, there's enough value in there to make the extra couple of mouse-clicks on the DELETE button worthwhile. And there'll always be MORE!

The Blog Challenge - Update

Total raised: $4,145.55

You can download the special report about our progress so far - click here

Happy Diwali

Diwali, the Festival of Lights, is the greatest festival celebrated all over India. It projects the rich and glorious past of our country and teaches us to uphold the true values of life.

The word "Diwali" derives from the Sanskrit "Deepavali" -- Deepa meaning light and Avali, meaning a row. Every home is awash with the orange glow of twinkling diyas (small earthen lamps) lit to welcome Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth and prosperity.

It is looked upon as the beginning of the business New Year, and blessings of Lakshmi, the celestial consort of Lord Vishnu, are invoked with prayers.

The 5 Days of Diwali

A week-long Diwali celebration has special significance for each day. Here are some of the myths, legends and folk tales surrounding this colorful festival.

A Story of the First Day of Diwali - Dhanteras

The word "Dhan" means wealth, and this day is special to the merchant community. Homes and offices are renovated and decorated, to welcome the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. To symbolize her arrival, small footprints are drawn with rice flour and vermilion powder all over the house.

Lamps are kept burning all through the night. "Lakshmi-Puja" is performed in the evening, with tiny diyas of clay lit to drive away the shadows of evil spirits.

A very interesting story about this day is of the sixteen year old son of King Hima. Astrologers predicted he would die by a snake-bite on the fourth day of his marriage.

On that day, his young wife did not allow him to sleep. She laid out an array of ornaments and piles of gold and silver coins at the entrance of her husband's bedroom and lit lamps all over the house. And she spent the night, telling stories and singing songs.

When Yama, the god of Death, arrived in the guise of a serpent, his eyes were blinded by the dazzle and he could not enter the Prince's chamber. So he climbed on top of the heap of ornaments and coins and spent the night listening to her melodious songs. In the morning he quietly slipped away.

Since then, lamps are kept burning throughout the night on Diwali in reverential adoration to Yama.

Two Stories of the Second Day of Diwali - Narka Chaturdashi

The demon king Narakasura defeated the king of Gods, Lord Indra. He snatched away the magnificent earrings of Aditi, the Mother Goddess and imprisoned sixteen thousand daughters of the gods and saints in his harem.

Lord Krishna killed the demon and liberated the imprisoned damsels and also recovered Aditi's precious earrings. Lord Krishna then smeared his forehead with the demon king's blood, and returned home where womenfolk massaged scented oil into his body and gave him a bath to wash away the filth from his body.

Since then the custom of taking a bath before sunrise on this day has become a traditional part of Diwali day.

Another legend is about King Bali of the nether world. His mighty power had become a threat to the gods. In order to curb his powers, Lord Vishnu visited him in the guise of a small boy .

Vishnu begged him for a piece of land, small enough to cover in just three steps. Known for his philanthropy King Bali proudly granted him his 'little' wish. Instantly, the small boy transformed himself into the all-powerful Lord Vishnu.

With his first step Vishnu covered the heavens, and with the second step, the earth. He then asked Bali where to place his third step. Bali offered his head. Putting his foot on Bali's head Vishnu pushed him down to the underworld.

At the same time, to appreciate Bali's generosity, Lord Vishnu gave him the lamp of knowledge and allowed him to return to earth once a year to light millions of lamps to dispel darkness and ignorance, and spread the radiance of love and wisdom.

A Story of the Third Day of Diwali - Lakshmi Puja

This most important part of Diwali celebrations is entirely devoted to the propitiation of Goddess Lakshmi.

Mythology describes how the golden-footed goddess Deep-Lakshmi alights on earth in all her celestial glory amidst chantings of Vedic hymns. The day symbolizes the sublime light of knowledge dawning upon humanity, when man's devotion finally conquers ignorance. This self enlightenment is expressed through the twinkling lamps that illuminate the homesteads of rich and poor alike.

On this day Lakshmi strolls amidst her devotees, showering her blessings of plenty and prosperity among them.

A strange story lies behind the practice of gambling on this day. Goddess Parvati played dice with her husband, Lord Shiva. She decreed that whosoever gambled on Diwali night would prosper throughout the ensuring year!

A Story of the Fourth Day of Diwali - Padwa & Govardhan Puja

The people of Lord Krishna's home town, Gokul, worshipped Lord Indra at the end of every monsoon season. One year, the young Krishna stopped them, insisting they pray to Mount Govardhan instead.

Furious, Lord Indra sent a terrible rainstorm to submerge Gokul. It lasted for weeks. But Krishna saved his Gokul and protected his people by holding up Mt.Govardhan on his little finger, shielding them with it like an umbrella.

The fourth day of Diwali, Gudi Padwa, is symbolic of love and devotion between the wife and husband. It is also looked upon as the most auspicious day to start any new venture. In many Hindu homes it is a custom for the wife to apply red 'tilak' on her husband's forehead, garland him and pray for his long life. In appreciation of her tender care, the husband gives her a costly gift (and you thought it was ALL for love! ;) ).

A Story of the Fifth Day of Diwali - Bhayya Duj

Yama, the God of Death, visited his sister Yami on this day. She annointed his forehead with the auspicious 'tilak', garlanded him and delighted him with special sweets and dishes.

They enjoyed a wonderful day in each other's company, and while parting Yama gave her a special gift as a token of his love. In return, Yami also gave him a lovely present made with her own hands.

Yama announced that anyone who receives tilak from his sister will never be thrown. Since then the fifth day of Diwali is celebrated as a symbol of love between sisters and brothers.

I hope you enjoyed these short, interesting stories about the five days of Diwali.

Diwali has always been more a social than religious festival. It is a personal, people-oriented festival when enmities are forgotten, families and friends meet, enjoy themselves, and establish or renew a world of closeness.

A festival of light and beauty, Diwali encourages artistic expression and builds a strong sense of community. The diverse cultures and customs of India mingle together in a wonderful celebration of joy, light and unity.

For more about Diwali, see Jennifer's nice homepage here