Even if you are a normal person, not a CEO earning money in the seven figures, there's no denying that you are interested in money. After all, everyone is.

People like to read about business and finance, just as they like to read up in any category, whether it be technology, sports and fitness, travel, women's fashion, or anything else. Particularly, people like to read not only about where they currently are or might be, but where they wish to be. They want to be know that they could be there too one day. The magazine transforms into something much more than a guidebook. It becomes a wish book.

This is true more than ever in consumer-oriented publications. In the wide range that makes up the business and finance titles, the more you aim your title to the consumer market, the more sure you can be that your distribution will include the wannabes as well as the magnates.

Keeping this in mind, let's look at two covers of Money magazine. One succeeded, the other failed. Which was the good, and which was the bad?

Both covers assure that you can make money, but the successful one promises the readers that they can make $100,000 simply by working at home. What a dream! The cover picture shows a thriving executive working from her bathtub with various luxuries at hand. This prospect would appeal to anyone.

The second cover also speaks to people's desires: "Make Money". It's a great idea, but unspecific. The first cover promised a solid $100,000 dollars, but the second one sounds vague and creates a feeling of doubt, less confidence.

Worse than that, the words coming after "Make Money" read "Even if the Market Falls." Does this mean the market is going to fall? This is not what a reader wants to hear. That is the tragedy incessantly looming; the sinister side of the Wall Street Shangri la.

The field of Personal finance is already fraught with enough stress. A Fitness magazine reader doesn't want to be told: "Look good - even if you get fat." The reader wants to hear "You too can have the body of an 18 year old." In the same way, Money Magazine readers already have quite a lot of concern about finances. They are not looking for more. They want to hear that they too can join the ranks of the 2 million Americans already making piles of money - without leaving their homes.

The covers both stay constant in their respective approaches. Money's hit cover happily proclaims "Great tax-filing tips"; the flop cover pessimistically heralds "IRS audit crackdown.

It is obvious to everyone that the self-help realm is thriving. Aren't these titles also a type of self-help - self help geared toward the business and finance field? Think of the dissimilarity between the assurances of the two covers. The hit guarantees "Safe 12% returns"; the while the flop feebly offers: "Cut your investing risks in half." If you've tried your hand in the field of pop psychology you understand the difference in meaning between "be successful" and "don't be a flop." This difference is the same as the difference between investing 12% safe returns and cutting risk in half. Cutting risk in half still talks about risk, and if you cut something in half, half is still there.

Everyone understands that there is a risk inherent in the act of investing. Everyone realizes that there's nothing that can be done do to entirely do away with that risk. But no one wants to hear about it. Cover two admittedly gives a few positive lines: safe bond funds, your best job moves, 22 great stocks. Still, after the leading cutline and its depressing reminder, those feeble lines are too little, too late. We don't need more angst than there is out there to begin with. If I have the choice between working out of my bathtub and dealing with the harsh realities of an unstable market, I'm sure which one I'd decide on. Do the readers of Money have a different opinion? According to the results of the sales, apparently not.