Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Successful Ebook Writers Use These 8 Methods



Info Digital Products mainly in the form of eBooks are the hottest thing on the Web right now! Authors with the entrepreneurial instinct are making anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars per month by selling ebooks online.

BUT before you rush to write or create or promote a hot ebook, as with everything online, there are several key ingredients that will separate the majority from the few really successful authors.

Why are some authors doing so much better than others?
a2z Group has discovered 8 major tactics and steps that successful authors and creators of ebooks take that separates them from the majority that fail or make small profits.

1. Relevant, concise and well written information.

Many involved in I.M. have jumped on the bandwagon and made one of the following mistakes:

* They cannot write well or spell but fail to use a ghost writer or as a minimum have a well educated person check the spelling and content.

* They use a group of articles on a similar subject and reform them into an ebook. This means that the information is already circulating and the ‘new’ ebook has mainly old info that is already yesterday’s news.

* The problem with using content from article directories is also that many are badly written or do not say anything new or helpful. The article writers are often also taking rehashed content from other articles or old ebooks, so by the time the info appears in the ebook it is very diluted and of little use to anyone!

Successful authors are able to write ORIGINAL, relevant, interesting and well written content that answers the problems or interests of the reader.

2. They write to a specific, target audience.

Smart ebook authors know their market and clearly define, identify and visualize who they are selling their ebook to. On the Web you must write to a targeted group of people who have specific interests. Make sure that you know exactly who is going to buy your ebook, and where you can find them online. To put it bluntly – do you have a hungry group of readers waiting to get their hands on the useful info that you have written about!

3. They focus their time by automating as many of their business activities as possible.

Selling ebooks can be time consuming and unless you do every step correctly or have some luck it is not a business where you make hundreds of dollars per sale.

Automate everything you can - credit card processing, ebook delivery, as much technical support as possible. If you can't automate a function, delegate it to someone else.



4. They have a compelling title for their ebook.

Use words that convey the benefit of what's in the ebook that also your audience is familiar with. Make the title as specific and accurate as possible and not too general. Also be careful of over-hyping the title as it will put many off and affect your credibility. You are all familiar with lines like “make 1000’s a day while you sleep on the beach” and “boatloads of auto cash”. Usually if they are too good to be true and promise almost no work for huge profits it will not live up to the over-hyped promises in the sales letter or title.

A bad title for an ebook: "Promoting Your Website."
A good title for the same ebook: "77 Ways to Successfully Promote Your Website."

5. They do not cover too much ground and offer something for everyone!

Many ebook authors convey a lot of information but don't cover anything in-depth. As a result, they never fully explain anything in enough detail to provide any specific value to their readers. This leaves the reader frustrated and with a list of questions and details that are not explained fully or at all in the content. Consider that many of the best selling ebooks are linked to titles like:

How to….. / The Best 17 Tips on……./ 7 Successful Ways to Promote……..

You get the idea – this means that it is even more important that your 17 or 77 How tos, Ways of, Tips on…contain relevant, specific ways that work and have been proven to help you solve your problems in that particular area or niche.

6. They are proactive in their marketing and consistently looking for new partners and methods.

It would be nice if marketing for your ebook simply happened on its own - but it doesn't. You have to do it yourself and enlist affiliates and JV partners to make it viral.

After you've promoted your ebook to the people on your own mailing list (if you have one), you have to contact other Website owners and persuade them to be your affiliates. This should be an ongoing process. You need to use all the marketing avenues open to you like article writing, posting in forums, advertising in relevant places or sites, posting in blogs etc.

7. Make your ebook unique and differentiate it from your competitors.

After choosing your topic based on your expertise, interests and keyword research to determine if you have a market, either select a specific area that is not well catered for or a different angle on the same subject that creates interest.

Successful authors are also aware of what is in and hot and sells the best. In other words some subjects or interests are based on current fashions or fads or concerns and others are more constant and rooted in people’s every day and unchanging needs or interests like health, sports and leisure etc. Whatever the topic make sure you are specific and offer enough useful details and facts to capture your reader.

8. They write ebooks that readers will pay for.

Many ebook authors write about information that either people can get for free, or that people are not actually interested in enough to pay for the information. That’s fine if you do not take much time and are looking to build your list and reputation so do not mind giving it away.

Before you invest weeks or months in writing your ebook, invest a little time discovering if other ebooks on a similar subject area are selling on the Web.

A lot of this is common sense, but with the explosion in ebook production and popularity, it is important not to jump on the bandwagon and become another writer that few read or need. Be aware of these 8 factors that successful writers and promoters of ebooks use and YOU will have a far greater chance of success in this interesting and exciting phenomenon.

David Fowler

Ebooks that can make a difference to your life!


The a2z Group:

Most Affiliates are Doomed to Fail by Making These Major Mistakes

After looking at many affiliate programs, sites and products I would like to pinpoint some of the major mistakes that affiliates make when promoting other people’s products.

If the stats are true we can estimate that possibly a max of 5% are making the majority of the profits to be had from this method of internet business. We know that it is very popular and a lot of money is paid out to affiliates each day. So why do the majority either make nothing or very little as affiliates?

Many who are new to internet marketing and want to possibly start a home business are told that one of the easiest methods is to become an affiliate by promoting other people’s products. This is seemingly the easiest, fastest and least costly way of starting out and getting your feet wet! They then start to read the hyped sales letters and vast riches that some of the super affiliates have made and want a piece of the action. By this time they are in a dangerous mindset of believing that not only is it easy and fast to start promoting but also there is little to stop them joining the bandwagon and making truckloads of cash with the minimum effort.

From this process of promotion and belief based on what the big boys have achieved, the newbie feels that if they get their links and ads up and running the sales will follow on auto pilot! Many expect the visitor to click on a banner or a link and BUY giving them instant commissions for the minimum effort. Stuff a page or site with the maximum number of products and links and you cannot fail!! Having understood this process and how so many buy into a false impression that has been created, we can move on to looking at the resultant mistakes that are made by so many affiliates and understand why so few have a good share in the fortunes that can be made as an affiliate marketer.

You need a professional, clear and well-designed website.

Many are told they do not need a website. If you are serious and want a unique landing page and design giving you the chance of using SEO for organic listings and a way of building your own list, then there is no substitute for having your own site.

The first big mistake many affiliates make is building an amateurish or ugly website. There are design principles that you must follow when you build your website to achieve success in affiliate marketing. There really is no excuse as there are many plug in sites, templates and plenty of tools to help you create a professional looking site.

When a visitor arrives at your site, you have only seconds to create interest and build credibility and rapport. First impressions are crucial and will determine of your visitor stays longer and opts in or buys something! Your banner must be clear, visually appealing, simple and to the point. The name of your website and what you say in your banner must tell the visitor exactly what your website is about.

Keep your site simple, easy to read, clean and uncluttered. That means having margins, easy to read fonts, and easy on the eye colors. White backgrounds with black type are best. Eliminate all the gaudy colors, multi-graphics, and blinking lights. Use blue for live links, red for the most important text or yellow highlights or simply bold. Be consistent and use the same font and text size except for headings or titles.

You should be trying to create credibility, reliability, and consistency with your visitor. Other ways to create credibility and rapport is to put a photo of yourself near the top of your page. Be sure to display your email address and contact details prominently.

Just below your banner should be your headline in large type as this is the most important part of your webpage. It must be interesting and bold and draw the visitor into your site. Your headline should address the needs of your visitor or provide a solution to your visitor’s problem and they should feel that the site caters to their initial interests and reasons for arriving there in the first place.

Finally, do not overwhelm your customer with choices. Design your navigation clearly and place it in the same location on each page. There should not be too many links to choose from. You do not want to confuse your potential customer as a confused mind simply won’t make a purchase. A confused visitor will be likely to exit your website in search of an easier and clearer solution to their need or problem.

Importance of getting subscribers and building a LIST

It is surprising how many affiliates fail to capture their visitor’s name and email address by either not even having an OPT IN/subscribe box or putting it in the wrong place. When you consider the importance of PRE SELLING and preparing the visitor for the sales page and eventual purchase, it is vital to capture the visitor’s contact details before they navigate away! A very small per cent of visitors will BUY directly from a sales page as most visit 6-7 times before buying. Also stats tell us that warming them up with a pre sales or squeeze page means conversion rates will be much higher once they are taken to the sales page! It’s amazing how many websites just try to sell products in the belief that visitors will magically click on a buy button as first time visitors!

Getting visitors to your site takes time and money, and often only 1 – 2% will buy your product. This is why it is vital to have the maximum chance of getting the emails of the majority of visitors by having a well positioned opt in/subscribe box. Get their name and email address. Then continue to market to them through your auto-responder emails system. Many will end up buying as a result of this process and once they get to know and trust you, they will buy from you again and again. Your customer list is the most important asset in your business. You will make more money on the back end than you will on the front end of your affiliate marketing business. One good practice is to put an opt-in form on every page of your website.

As more and more marketers realize the importance of building a list and capturing the details of those first time visitors, we see ever-increasing enticements for visitors to leave their details. It used to be a Newsletter with tips and advice would be sufficient but now you also need an array of free gifts usually in the form of an ebook(s). If you can relate the free gift to the content of your site or product all the better.
DO NOT SELL but prepare your customers by PRE SELLING

Another big mistake affiliate marketers make is selling to their customers. Your job as an affiliate is not to sell, it’s to PRE-sell. It’s the merchant's job to write killer copy to convert the visitors you have sent them into paying customers.

Many affiliates use parts of a merchant’s sales page with the result that their webpage resembles a sales letter. This turns your visitors off. People don’t want to be sold to, and don’t like reading advertising.

Pre-selling is all about sharing your personal experience with a product and by using it or reading about it you are able to write a convincing and personalized REVIEW. You should relate your own feelings about the product and what it has done for you. Explain why you like it. Instead of hyping a product the way sales letter pages do, you should describe to your visitor the product’s benefits. Make a list of benefits and how you have used the product successfully. Personalize your recommendation. Then casually offer the link to the product. Do not try to sell the product!


PRE SALE METHODS

Finally in the pre selling process, you need to think about the best ways to prepare your customers for the merchant’s site and sales page. Many use a unique SQUEEZE or LANDING page to act as a pre sell method where the potential customer clicks on an ad or link and lands on your squeeze page. Most of these pages should be selling ONE product but some can also be used to sell a group of various products or ebooks on the same topic.

Normally you will want the squeeze page to act as a good method to capture their details by having the OPT IN form as the main feature. So even if the minimum exciting text used does not entice them to continue on to the SALES PAGE/merchant’s site, you will at least get their email before they exit!

The page should thus be very clear with minimum text and a prominent OPT IN section featuring the benefits like free gifts etc. The main point of the text is to get them excited enough about the features, benefits and advantages of the product to continue on to the main sales page. If they did not leave their email there should be another OPT IN BOX at the top of the sales page so you have a 2nd chance to at least build your list.

This also depends on what emphasis and importance you attach to the visitor buying a product versus adding them to your mail list! If you afre able to get BOTH then you will fast become one of the top affiliate marketers! Many affiliates do not realize the VALUE of building their list and mistakenly feel that if a visitor does not BUY they have failed! The crucial thing here is to also understand HOW to make the maximum sales from your list and how to build up that relationship with your list that can lead to many future sales. That is another subject for a future article.

I hope as an AFFILIATE or a newbie to the world of INTERNET MARKETING you found this article to be a good AFFILIATE RESOURCE that helped you to better understand how to succeed in this field. My AFFILIATE RESOURCES section of the a2zebookshop has many more reviews and tips with the bst affiliate products for you to promote.

David Fowler

Ebooks that can make a difference to your life!

Wednesday, 26 March 2008

Make Money Producing and Selling Your Own eBook


Even if you are not new to Internet Marketing, it is surprising how few believe they can write or produce their own INFO PRODUCTS. While many have bought or possibly promoted Ebooks, few are aware of the reason why Ebooks are such a great product to write, sell and promote and how they can be instrumental in building your home business success!

When starting something like this, you should always consider the viral factor. By that I mean you want your ebook to spread virally across eBay or Amazon and hopefully for it to turn up in other ebook collections, shops and offers as a bonus.

And you should also consider something even more important, and that's called the WIIFM - What's In It For Me? In everything you do, you should carefully think about the motivation. What would cause other people to want to REALLY resell your ebook? You have to imagine you're them, and then think about the WIIFM.

So what would strongly motivate you to resell someone else's ebook? Aside from the obvious answer "money", it would be to build a mailing list. A list of loyal and satisfied subscribers can be turned into a money machine if you follow the right methods. Also if you feel it is so good and useful, you will want to share it with your subscribers to increase your credibility and reputation. This last factor is often overlooked.

There will probably also be a number of minor reasons you'd resell a particular ebook, but the biggest WIIFM for most people is money.

If you accept that, then you have to set up a system where the reseller can make a nice amount of money on the back end after selling your ebook. The more the better, for both of you.

Let's look at how YOU can make money first though, and then we'll look at how we can adapt things so that the reseller makes money too.

Before you even write your ebook, you have to do a bit of market research. This is a separate topic in its own right, that requires a separate analysis. Let's assume you've done your research and you've found something you CAN write about, you WANT to write about, and that it's also a hot topic with a hungry market.

The first part in this process is to write your ebook. How you write it is another big topic I'm not going to cover in this short article. Many who do not have the confidence or flair to write a lengthy complete ebook in one go use various systems that separate and split the topic into parts. A series of short reports or articles can often be used as a basis for a complete ebook.

Once you have your first draft and you've checked it for typos, the next step is the first real part of the monetising process for you.

What you're going to do is put links to similar, relevant products throughout your ebook. These links will be your affiliate links to those other products, so if someone clicks one and buys, you'll get paid a commission.

Example: You write an ebook on golf, and now you want to promote some golfing products within your ebook. You could go searching on Google for golf affiliate programs which can take some time, but the easiest way is to go to CLICKBANK and search their market place for golf related products.

Choose the products you want to promote carefully otherwise the trust and loyalty that you have or want to build with your present and future customers will be compromised. Check out each of the sales pages of the products you like the look of, and ask yourself if YOU would buy that product. Again this is a complete separate subject that can be covered elsewhere.

After you've chosen the products you want to promote, rewrite parts of your ebook and work in a mention of those products together with your affiliate link. Use a link cloaker or redirect to hide the fact that it's an affiliate link and protect your commissions. Also you want an invitation to a page where people can sign up to your mailing list…

Finally, do another rewrite of your ebook and "juice it up" a little. Dry facts are okay, but it's always better if you can work in for instance a bit of controversy and words like SECRETS, REVEALED, HOT TIPS, YOUR SUCCESS etc. Don't go over the top and create too much hype and overblown facts or your credibility will be questioned

And finally, make it look good and easy to read using pictures and plenty of white space to break up the text with short paras and maybe some use of bold or italics.

Okay so now you have your ebook full of your affiliate links. Your next step is to start listing it on sites like eBay and ebook directories/shops with master resale rights (MRR). To get people to buy it, you'll have to do a good job on your sales page, which should also be part of the package.

After a month of listing it (it may take longer), if you've done an all round good job of everything, you'll have ebook resellers buying it and listing it themselves. From that point it will spread virally across and outside eBay.

Now you have a source of free advertising. You don't need to list it on eBay any more as plenty of other people are doing it for you. And all the people that buy it and read it will be clicking on your affiliate links, and some will buy. Better still, some people will be signing up to your mailing list if your offer is good enough.

An example of another way to promote is you write TWO ebooks on the same subject.

One is a short 10-20 page report with MRR offered FREE and used to build your opt in list. The other is the larger more valuable ebook that you're either going to charge money for and use the report to promote it and get resellers interested etc.

You start selling the report on eBay and wait until it's picked up by other resellers. Inside the report, you make it clear there's a better version that can be obtained just by going to your web site, and there you make your offer. They get the better ebook at a special price and you also get their first name and their email address, and you then have them on your mailing list.

And for a slight variation…….

You could sell the larger ebook with a commission paid out to the ebook reseller who has signed up to your affiliate scheme and then rebranded the small report with their affiliate link.

A good ebook rebranding tool is VIRAL PDF by Sean Kelly. He's such a nice guy and his support is excellent.

It's important you always think about the WIIFM (What's In It For Me?) when you do any of the above. And by that I mean you to think about the WIIFM for your affiliate and not so much for you.

You may want to build a mailing list as your main priority, and forego any money made on the larger ebook. So you could give 100% commission to the affiliate and make your larger ebook $17.00 or more.

Now THERE's a good incentive for affiliates to resell your ebook. They're going to

a) make money on the upsell, and
b) get a chance to build their own mailing list too if they use SmartDD!

Especially with the follow up email 24 hours later to make an offer of their own.

Ebooks and products are the easiest and fastest item to sell digitally with the lowest costs. Whether you are a writer, buyer, seller or promoter of ebooks you can make a good living online by following some of these sound methods and strategies. Start writing now……..

David Fowler

Ebooks that can make a difference to your life!

www.a2zEbookshop.com

Tuesday, 25 March 2008

Promoting and Selling Your Ebook

Marketing your ebook is very important - if no one can find it you will have no traffic or sales.

Sales copies are an effective and efficient way to market your ebook. The sales letter/page should explain to the public what your product is, and how it will help them and give them what they are looking for and solve any problems they may have. Tell them why they need your product. How it will improve their lives if they purchase it.

Sales copies are all about the customer’s needs. When writing a sales copy for your ebook, try to think like your potential readers once you have identified who they are and feel you have a target audience hungry for te info in your book! Telling the reader what they are gaining from your product increases dramatically your chance of them buying it.

Another great and powerful ebook marketing strategy and promotion is to provide a free trial version. To do this you will need to create an “edited” version of your original electronic book. In the free trial version, provide your readers with a preview of your original ebook possibly excerpts or the intro section and index to whet their appetities. Make sure it contains instructions and links so that they can purchase the full version of the ebook when they have read the sample chapter(s). Many ebooks today come with a free product or report or as part of a package/bundle specially if the other books have been around quite a time.

Advertising your ebook online is a good way to generate sales. Having internet affiliates is the most effective way to promote and advertise online. Your affiliates will receive a commission on any sale generated through their link in your trial version.

This ebook marketing strategy encourages your affiliates to distribute your trial version which can increase distribution and will undoubtedly increase your sales.

By having an ebook affiliate program you dramatically increase your possible sales without doing any of the actual work yourself. Treat your affiliates well by providing all the necessary tools, including banners, articles, sales copies, pay-per-click keyword lists as well as a decent commission for their work. Many affiliates can earn 70% + commissions and will only choose the higher paying products. You should create a healthy, long-term relationship with your ‘army’ of affiliates that will want to continue pushing your product for years to come.

You can also use a third party affiliate tracking company. This is a company that would run your affiliate program for you. By choosing an affiliate tracking company to do the work for you, you now have a place where your affiliates can track and check on their stats. In most cases, you don’t even have to send out the commission checks. They will take care of it, saving you a substantial amount of time and the trouble of doing it yourself.

ClickBank is one of the largest and most trusted affiliate programs online. They have over 100,000 affiliates ready to promote the latest and greatest products to hit the market. You can signup for free.

Marketing your ebook(s) is an exciting process. It is the final step to creating your ebook so you can see it all in action and get rewarded for your efforts.

While you can rely solely upon affiliates to sell your ebook, it would be a good idea to create a web site of your own. This way you can post your order form and your free trial version of the ebook if you so choose. It could be a simple squeeze or landing page or part of a site or ebook shop. You can also look at ebay although this is usually a more competitive and price conscious market.

If you hire someone else to create a web site for you, you could write your own web site content to save some extra money. Submit your web site content to the web site provider. They can then edit it and apply it to your new web site along with your order form, free ebook trial offer (if you decided to do that), and anything else you wish to have on your site. Today there are also many plug in sites and templates that can be used so even if you have no html or ftp experience you can still get a website quite easily and at a low cost.

But before you can make money selling your ebook, you need to be able to accept credit cards. There are many companies on the internet that offer such services like Paypal and ClickBank. Clickbank offer you the ability to accept a number of credit cards including, Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover Card, Eurocard, and Novus cards among the many others.

A good thing about choosing ClickBank is that over 100,000 affiliates are able to choose to sell your ebooks for you. Commissions are also automatically paid to affiliates. This company will pretty much run your affiliate program for you, so you don’t have to worry about a thing.

Once you have set up your merchant account, or account with such a company, you are ready to start taking orders for your ebook. Now you need to get traffic and possibly place ads or use PPC etc.. There are many free and paying methods but that is another subject that requires a separate article.


David Fowler
Ebooks that can make a difference to your life!

www.a2zEbookshop.com

Friday, 21 March 2008

Affiliate Marketing Secrets and a Possible Path to Your Success

This article also appears in the AFFILIATES RESOURCES section of our main A2ZEBOOKSHOP site.


Part 1 of this article gave some thoughts on AFFILIATE MARKETING and now I want to share with you some excellent mainly FREE resources that can help you join the small group of successful affiliates…….there are 3 steps you need to take.


Step One - The first step to understanding affiliate marketing is to get some solid training. If you're serious about this, it's going to cost you a dollar a day. By clicking the link below you will be taken to a site that will teach you all of the affiliate marketing secrets, and give you all of the tools that you're going to need for success.


You'll get a complete education in affiliate marketing secrets. Actually, the buck per day only applies after the first month -- at the time of writing this, you could join the site for one dollar for the first month, and only pay the monthly fee if you're satisfied! click here for AFFILIATE MARKETING SECRETS.


By the way you may be wondering what the link above is with viralurl??? As an affiliate you will be given many links with your code at the end or hoplinks from Clickbank……many can be easily changed so that you do not get your commissions. That is why it is a good idea to cloak the links using a tool like ViralUrl as they also have a toolbar at the top of each page and if the visitor clicks on that you can benefit also. You can choose your own keyword depending on the name of the site. Take a look at their site and all is explained…you can join for FREE!


Step Two - OK ... I gave you "secret" #1 ... but there are a couple more to round out your education ..... You'll also need to download this free affiliate marketing ebook. Why? Because it's some of the best information on the planet about how to become a "super affiliate", and it's free! Just scroll to the bottom of the sitesell page and click on the ebook. One of the tips you will read is to not use BANNERS when promoting other products!!! So why do I have banners?? They are a good way to break up text and if used in context along with useful info that can answer your problems and help you along your path to success they can be effective! The main thing is not to sell using a page listed with banners and links and no advice or reviews of what you are promoting or recommending. If the visitor has already read some info and reasons for looking at the site they will be more likely to not only open the link/banner but also to act once they take a look at what is inside.


Step Three - Are you still here? So far it’s cost you a dollar for the introductory trial to the educational CLASSROOM AFFILIATE site, and I’ve linked you to the best free information on the planet about the basics of affiliate marketing.

One more free ebook that can help you on your way is by Michael Campbell. The author uses variations on the same theme, and makes several hundred thousand dollars per year promoting other people's products. Do you think he knows what he’s doing? Click HERE to get the FREE EBOOK.


Have a browse in our ebook shop on the home page of a2zebookshop and find the ebooks that match your needs as well as the useful SOFTWARE products that are featured. Remember these are selected products but if you want a2z to suggest the best products to suit YOU and your interests just subscribe using the form at the top of the page and as a member you will be sent our Profile Form that follows a more personalized style of Internet marketing allowing us to know more about YOU! We will then send you some suggestions and tips including free products based on your personal needs and interests. You have all to gain and nothing to lose so ACT NOW!


WHY NOT PROMOTE, BUY, SELL OR WRITE EBOOKS?

Want to promote ebooks? Check out all the benefits of selling or creating your own ebooks on our a2z site. Want to own your own shop that receives new monthly ebooks automatically at no extra cost? Take a look at our a2zEbookshop and you can also own your own shop by visiting The Shop Buying Site

If you want to sell a wide range of products or specialize in the ones that suit you and your interests go to the following well established sites that are the most popular for affiliates (you probably know them already but just in case):

  • Go to ClickBank and pick out the products that suit you to promote.
  • Want to promote physical products? Find something you like at Commission Junction.

Still not happy?

Try Affiliate Showcase .

Once again, if you want a more complete affiliate marketing education, try Anik Singal's Affiliate Classroom. Anik is a true Super Affiliate who shows you step-by-step how to promote any product as an affiliate. He tends to focus on products that are not aimed at the internet marketing crowd, so you really learn a broad range of skills. He offers a 14 day trial for $1. If nothing else click my banner below and sign up for his superb monthly newsletter. You could not learn affiliate marketing from a better teacher!

An alternative program that also has a day by day course and its own FORUM, that I recommend as a good guide to follow as an affiliate or internet marketer, is WEALTHY AFFILIATE. It may suit you more than the AC program so take a look before you decide…..

Now you have been linked to well over 30,000 products you can promote as an affiliate. You can use the training from the educational sites, and the ebooks to earn a decent living promoting any number of products as an affiliate marketer.

As the authors of the ebooks point out, you probably won't make huge money promoting just one product. You need to decide on one or several niches, and then promote a group of products to them.

One final thought. Most marketers make the mistake of choosing a product they like, and then try to market it. If you just want to "monetize" your hobby, that's fine, but if you're in this to make serious money, bad choice! First, you need to find a market. Once you know there is a horde of hungry buyers, then you decide on products to market to them. To put that another way, you need to research what sells well, or find a market that has high demand for products they can't easily find, and then market them.

A2z is much more than a list of products…….allow us to help YOU along your chosen path to success and share the parts of our LIBRARY and personal experience that answer your unique needs and interests!

Enjoy the ride and if you have been at your PC for 3+ hours take a break and refresh…Be patient and choose well and you will enjoy the success you deserve.

David Fowler

Ebooks that can make a difference to your life!

http://www.a2zebookshop.com/

Wednesday, 19 March 2008

Understanding Affiliate Marketing

If you are starting out in the great wide world of INTERNET MARKETING it is a potential minefield that can absorb your time, suck your resources and produce a lot of stress as you try to sort the real from the over-hyped, the true from the false
stories, and find the path to success that suits you. A good way to start that costs little and does not require a website, technical knowledge and a client list is promoting other peoples products and sites – AFFILIATE MARKETING. I think that understanding affiliate marketing is the key to your long-term success as an online entrepreneur. As an affiliate, you can learn about building web sites, generating traffic, or other online promotional
methods and make some money in the process. Then, when you have your affiliate marketing tools sharpened, you can move on to
creating and marketing your own product.

Like anything else, however, affiliate marketing is a two-edged sword. Some "super affiliates" literally make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year promoting other people's products. This gives the false impression that your success is guaranteed if you start promoting products and advertising. The super affiliates are very few as the vast majority of affiliates make nothing at all, or only a few hundred dollars a year, in part because they never take the time to learn how it is done or they use the wrong methods.

The internet has created a false impression of easy ‘truckloads of cash’ that will flow into your account on auto-pilot while you sun yourself on a beach! Many sites show flashy cars, big houses and treasure chests that lead you to believe that you can easily enjoy this lifestyle if you listen to the next secret system and click on the
buy button! They are playing on the emotions and dreams of the have nots by creating the
impression that you
can easily join the haves by copying the secret system they are about to share with you. Many of the testimonials are real but come from the earliest members or JV partners who already had a huge list and were fellow ‘gurus’! A lot of people seem to have the "field of dreams" mentality when it comes to making money online. They think you can just slap up a few affiliate banners and make a fortune, and they get angry and discouraged when they find it doesn't work that way.

The other problem is that few programs explain what level of expertise they cater to or how long it can take to implement their system and begin to get sales. Worse some do not outline clearly how much time or investment it will take to reap the rewards in the future. By the time the newbie begins to realize and separate the hype from the real programs that can genuinely help them on their path to success, their head is ready to explode with all the info, tips, emails and ebooks they have been exposed to.

In Part 2 of this article, you'll be told exactly where to get the right resources and tools to learn how to make a nice living as an affiliate. This will save you a lot of time and money if you are or want to become a successful affiliate and make a full or part time income selling others products.

Affiliate Marketing Secrets

First, you have to understand that there isn't anything all that "secret" about these affiliate marketing secrets. Once you hear about them, they make perfect sense. But figuring it out on your own takes a lot longer than most people have time for, so they think of super affiliates as possessing some sort of mystical, supernatural power that we mere mortals can't possible attain. Guess what? It's really not that difficult or mysterious, it just takes some ingenuity, and a little work.

One final thought. Most marketers make the mistake of choosing a product they like, and then try to market it. If you just want to "monetize" your hobby, that's fine, but if you're in this to make serious money, bad choice! First, you need to find a market. Once you know there is a horde of hungry buyers, then, and only then, do you decide on products to market to them. To put that another way, you need to research what sells well, or find a market that has high demand for products they can't easily find, and then market them.

David Fowler

Ebooks that can make a difference to your life!

The a2z Group:

http://www.a2zebookshop.com/

http://www.celebrity-star-portraits.com/

Tuesday, 18 March 2008

You CAN Write Your Own Articles, Reports or Ebooks!

Writing, painting, cooking are very similar in the sense that they are all skills that most people do not feel confident

practicing unless they have had some teaching or years of experience. How many times do you hear people say I am not a writer, or I cannot paint for the life of me, or I can make toast and boil an egg but that’s about it!!

Most of this comes down to confidence and a certain mindset. Maybe you have been told that you cannot paint at school or when you were young your Mum told you to stay out the kitchen. It could also be social and cultural stigmas like - boys do not cook, or sportsmen do not paint etc.. We like to put people in categories and limit our skills to the ones we feel comfortable doing or have had a lot of practice carrying out. How many times have you been surprised when trying a new skill to see it is not as hard after all or maybe more interesting than you imagined. Your confidence grows and soon you become an expert and start to show others how they can also enjoy your new skill and experiences!

The great thing about the internet is that it acts as an equalizer and allows many who would never dream of writing a book to share their information and ideas in the form of articles, blog postings, short reports or full ebooks. The choice is yours and the world are your potential customers browsing your shop window or checking out your ebook! If you are not comfortable writing a full ebook why not compile a series of short reports on a topic and later put them together to form an ebook? Others group their articles into one topic and produce an ebook.

Everyday millions of people all over the world surf the Internet looking for information. It may be information on how to do something, solving a problem, or information for the sake of satisfying curiosity. Whatever the reason, people are willing to pay for information they want to know. You might logically ask, why would anyone pay for something that they could easily get for free? The answer is simple: finding the information you want on the Internet is much more difficult than it seems. There are billions of pages out there and far too many of them are filled with useless and misleading information. The service that the ebook writer provides and deserves to get paid for is the gathering, distilling, and presentation of useful, desired information. It may be original and entirely written by you or compiled and revised from other sources into a unique product.

There are basically two approaches to creating an ebook. One is the do what you love and the money will follow philosophy, and the other is the find out what people want and give it to them. If you can find a hungry market and meet the demand in a topic that you already know or are interested in then all the better. Start with the subjects that interest you or that you have a good knowledge of and try to find a niche. Most ebooks provide information. The key here is to find a topic that people need information on, or, find a topic in which you have a unique angle, and can sell! The most popular and searched for categories are Health, Home Business, Travel, Relationships, Hobbies and Sports.

Once you have chosen your topic based on research and are confident that you have enough people who will be interested in reading and buying it, write a sales/squeeze page to promote it. Yes write this BEFORE you start on the ebook as this will focus your attention and act as a guideline when organizing the book ensuring that you fulfill the promises and cover the areas mentioned in the sales letter!

Get the book written - Whether you write the book yourself, or find a freelance writer to ghostwrite the book for you, it needs to get written. Generally speaking, the cost for a freelancer to write your books is about $10 to $15 per page. This process can take anywhere from 2 weeks to a couple of months depending on the writer and the size of the e-book. If you do not feel confident writing so much use a format to separate the book into sections and make your index. Examples can include 10 tips on how to improve your diet…….or 8 ways to fast track your home business success etc. You get the idea. Use short paras, bullet points, bold and short sections to break up the book and maintain reader interest.

Transfer to a PDF file with a table of contents. You can use Word but I use Acrobat for the security features. Decide on what kind of restrictions you want to put in place or if you want the book to have full master resale rights etc. This is a whole separate subject that needs to be covered in a future posting. Also decide if you are going to sell the book or give it away for free. Many give away part of the book or write a special intro that will entice the reader to buy the complete ebook.

Why would you consider giving away the ebook? Maybe it is your first one or you feel it is more like a report that also helps sell some products you offer or leads to your site and possible sales (in other words also a sales vehicle). Making it free means that the ebook can GO VIRAL! The goal of this approach is to have an ever-increasing number of copies of your ebook in circulation. You profit from this approach, not through ebook sales, but through sales generated through your affiliate links which are embedded throughout the text. It also helps to get your name known so that future ebooks are easier to sell as you already have a reputation and possible market. Perhaps also you have been able to build a list of subscribers by offering the ebook FREE once the visitor OPTS IN on your sales page or site.

Set up an e-book merchant account - The one that comes to mind is called Clickbank. This Internet site lists your book by category, and it also facilitates payment for the e-book when a customer clicks through. So, when a customer goes to the sales page, they can click on the merchant link and then you have yourself a sale!

Write at least 5 articles to promote your book on the Internet. Some authors just use parts of each chapter. Make sure you have a brief line about YOU and the link to your book or sales page in the author signature box at the bottom.

An alternative to a full-blown ebook is the special report. Special reports are generally shorter and more limited in scope than ebooks. Their purpose is to provide short, quick doses of desired information. Special reports can be presented in many forms, such as articles, list, bullet points, and faq. Later you can assemble a group of similar special reports into a full ebook.

Getting an e-book up of the ground may take a little bit of time, but it has great potential as a work-at-home opportunity. Once the book is finished, all you need to do is market it the way you want, and you will start seeing the sales roll in. If you are new to ebook writing and promotion I suggest getting started by writing articles or useful short reports on your chosen topic. This will give you confidence and can mean you already have an archive of writings that can be used to help you produce a full ebook.

Stay tuned for further postings linked to your HOME BUSINESS success and the use of EBOOKS to help you along the way.

David Fowler

Ebooks that can make a difference to your life!

The a2z Group:

http://www.a2zebookshop.com/