eBookGuru.org

Reviewed by: Brenda

Short. Sweet. Simple. Three tiny words in this complicated world that humans love to hear or read. These three tiny words are also what I use to describe www.795marketingplan.com’s ebook on how to create a memorable domain name for less than $10.

The ebook is quite easy to read and follow and being only 40 pages long helped. The pizza example on how to create a marketing plan was fun and the every day common language used to write this plan was great. It wouldn’t matter if you were young or old, an experienced entrepreneur or just a beginner, this ebook was very easy to read and follow. The use of internet links to show examples of already established domains and easy to follow exercises were a plus! The links worked even when the book was downloaded to the PC.

I would honestly recommend this ebook to anyone even considering starting their own business or just trying to get the word out about an existing one.

#7 Gathering All Your Friends Around

OK, you’ve finally got some people following you around. (Relax it’s just me and about 1000 of your closest fans!) It may be that manly body spray or the pheromones that you put on this morning, but whatever; it’s working for you. We’re here and we want to know where you are going to be. You need to make sure that you are SPECIFIC when you tell us where you are hanging out.

* Instead of, “Hey, I’m going to be over at AJ’s blog tomorrow, why don’t you stop on by!” Consider the following. “Hey guys, I’m going to be over at AJ’s blog tomorrow (www.ajbestwrites.com) The blog post is going up sometime around 8am and I will be answering questions on and off throughout the day. So stop by and see me! I need all the support I can get!”

When you give all the pertinent information make sure to include everyone in there. There may be people who honestly don’t know who I am. (I know, I know, I can’t imagine it either, but seriously they don’t!) And there are people where you do your promo work who have never been by AJ Best’s website (shock of all shocks since I haven’t gotten it up yet!) and don’t know when the blog normally posts. So tell them these things. Maybe AJ is a night owl and likes to have her posts run at night, so your friends and followers may end up confused and lost in a time warp. (You may stop dancing now, we are not at a showing of Rocky Horror Picture Show! Attention here people, attention!)

* Signatures lines baby, signature (sig) lines! Now don’t get over zealous here. I have seen some sig lines that are actually longer than the email message that the author sent me. That is a little bit much. If your audience gets bored after two lines then you have just over two lines too many! So keep it to the point. Where do you REALLY want to have them come see you? Where do you spend the vast majority of your time working the crowds? Start with the most important thing first your website. They have to know where to find your important information. Then list things in order of importance from there — blogs, and then social networks. Now let’s say you have a MySpace page, and a Facebook, but spend 85% of your time at MySpace, well for goodness sake, put that one in your sig tag and leave out Facebook. No need to clutter it with everything else. And if you have 12 lines of text about all of your books that you have out, do you really think that a flashing neon sign flashing the book covers, your name AND your website will get them to pay more attention to you? All things in moderation.

* OK, so you have the readers hooked on you, and they are on your website. They are searching frantically for your contact information so they can tell you just how wonderful you really are. Hold on, they can’t find it? It’s not there? WHAT!? Make sure that if you want readers to contact you, that you are available. Even something as simple as a contact form enables them to get in contact with you without giving out your email address if you are afraid of getting too many emails or getting spammed. Remember, you can’t gather your friends around if they don’t know where to find you!

* Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a great way to get in touch with people quickly to let them know what is going on in your life. You have 140 characters to get in there, and leave a message letting them know where you are. You can shrink the URL down by using a number of different methods (http://bit.ly/) which is a website you can go to that will enable you to shorten the URL, but I happen to have a favorite way to shorten mine. It’s called Glue (www.getglue.com). Not only does it shrink URLs so you can get them on Twitter (and with bit.ly also) easily, it connects you to friends and the things that they are looking at. I can go on and on about that, but this is an article about gathering all of your friends around you. (Hold on, isn’t that what Glue does?)

* Calendars! They are the easiest way in the world to keep in touch with your readers. I have created calendars for friends and they have added them to their page so their readers can keep up with where they are blogging, chatting, and guesting. It’s very easy to do with Google (www.google.com/calendar) and you are able to give access to all of your friends, family and relatives. It’s a great way to keep everyone up to date on what’s going on in your life.

So you need to make sure that people can see where you are, when you are, and who you are hanging out with. Make sure to keep the lines of communications open, because we all want to be around you, — Don’t You Know That You Are A Shooting Star? Don’t believe me? Just ask Bad Company. Catch you next week when I have to tell you to Be Prepared to Catch the Bug!

With the two articles that I recently wrote on marketing eBooks with a blog – I thought that I should follow it up by reviewing a book that takes the ideas I shared a little farther. The book I chose is by Chris Freville, and it’s called Web 2.0 Traffic Stampede.

If you don’t know who Chris Freville is, he’s one of the bigger eBook marketers on the web. Specifically he releases a lot of information pertaining to affiliate marketing. More importantly though, before he ever sold his first eBook he was one of the top affiliate marketers around. He’s one of those marketers that when his sales page says “Learn how one underground marketer used whatever technique to earn $26,245 in one month”, I actually believe the figure.

In the book, Web 2.0 Traffic Stampede, Chris shares his traffic building secrets that helped take him to the top with his own marketing campaigns. If you read the last two articles I wrote, this particular book is the perfect follow up to building traffic using Web 2.0 methods. It does cover the power of blogging briefly, but more importantly it goes into other techniques to build serious traffic using the power of Web 2.0.

The book covers ideas like:

• The four P’s of Web 2.0
• How to Network to Build Traffic
• The Power of Syndication
• Social Networking, Social Bookmarking, and Selling it Socially
• VLogging, Podcasting, and More..

The reality is that this is one of the better books that I have read on traffic building, and more importantly it teaches many different techniques to build big traffic for free. If you’re looking to get a web site noticed, for any purpose really, I do highly recommend this book.

Specific to the last two article that I wrote on building traffic with a blog, this book is the perfect follow up to take your knowledge to a whole new level.

Get your copy of Web 2.0 Traffic Stampede by Chris Freville

The last time we talked about blogging, we covered the idea that simply getting involved in the blogosphere was the easiest way to get noticed and build traffic to your site. It really is just about taking the time to read what others have to say, leaving some comments around, and having some fun getting to know other bloggers.

Of course, that’s only half of the story, and if you really want to build a blog that’s valuable to you for getting noticed, there are some other things you should do.

If you take a look at our site, at the bottom of every post is a Share This button. Now the button itself isn’t what I want to point out – the networks that button connects our site to is. With a single click of a button anyone can add one of our posts to their Technorati faves, to Digg, to Delioco, StumbleUpon, etc. They can also post a portion of the content to their own blog, or then can email it to their friends.

The Share This button is a great tool, but it isn’t necessary for everyone (we use it because it makes it simple for authors to promote our reviews of their books). What is necessary is to get involved in at least some of the bigger blogging networks out there.

Every blogger should claim their blog in Technorati, and it will also be beneficial to use at least one or two of the other services I list below.

Technorati - Technorati is the biggest blog network out their. They are also the only site that ranks blogs. You should sign up on technorati and claim your blog. Once you do, you can add “fave” buttons to your posts, or you can use their sidebar widget to allows others to fave your blog. I also use Technorati to follow other blogs that I like to read.

Claiming your blog in technorati does two things for you. First it gives you a simple measure of how many other blogs link to you (which is your Authority ranking) and it also allows you to add fave buttons or even just links like the one below (Ask Dave Taylor has a simple explanation of how to do this):

Add eBookGuru.org to Your Technorati Favorites

Stumble Upon - Stumble Upon isn’t specifically a blog network, but it will build traffic if you add Stumble buttons to your site and to your posts. This particular site is one of our largest referrers, and all it takes is for a few pages to be Stumbled and you’ll have traffic coming on a daily basis.
When you use StumbleUpon, you can add buttons like the one below (the button will give our site a thumbs up) and allow your users to vote for your content. Occasionally your content will end up on the front page of Stumble, or in the top ratings for content related to your site, and suddenly you’ll get a few hundred extra hits over a short time frame.

Stumble It!

Blogged - There
are many different blog networks out there, one of the biggest is blogged. This particular site is the one that allows you to post buttons like the one I’ve shown below. You can allow others to rate your blog, and the more ratings you receive the higher you’ll climb within the blogged site itself. If you really get involved in this community it can be a big traffic builder.

BlogCatalog – BlogCatalog is the social network for bloggers, that is how they market themselves and in this case it really is true. There site is a huge network of blogs on any imaginable topic. It gives you tools to connect with other bloggers, and to promote your own blog. Again, if you take a little time to become involved with this site it will bring visitors to your site.

Bloglines – Is another big blogging network. This one focuses on sharing and favorites, but adding your own content to this network will help to build some traffic for your own web site.

FuelMyBlog - Fuel my blog is another social network for bloggers. This one is newer than BlogCatalog, but it is quickly gaining in popularity and you’ll see their logos on more and more blogs as they grow. A less mature site can sometimes be a great way to build traffic because there is a lot less competition (you get to grow as they do).

Digg and More – If you tend to post a lot of tips content that teaches others how to do something Digg buttons are an excellent addition to your blogging toolbox. Although content is key with this one, if you do have an article that becomes popular on a huge site like Digg, it will bring a lot of traffic and fuel your own growth.

There are really hundreds of sites that I could list that work to build traffic without costing you anything. If you have a big Twitter account, or a pile of friends on Facebook, those types of networks can also work to bring visitors to your blog. The most important thing is to get involved in at least a few of these networks. Most of us don’t have time to become active in all of them, but simply adding your blog to Technorati and Bloglines, for example, will add to the traffic you get from your own involvement in the blogosphere. Really most of these sites are just another way to become more active within the realm of blogging; which is the key to getting your own blog noticed.

Further Reading:

If you want to read more about blogging, I can recommend both of the following books. In reality, both of these books teach how to make money with a blog. But, because of that fact, they both teach the ideas behind marketing (building traffic, SEO, web 2.0 marketing, etc) which is the information you really need to grow a blog quickly.

1. Blogging to The Bank 3.0 by Rob Benwell – I have read this book in two different versions, and Rob Benwell’s latest book is well worth it’s cost. It’s likely the biggest-selling book on blogging ever, and they’ve done well keeping it up with the current state of technology/web marketing. (Clarice reviewed this one here)

2. Atomic Blogging by Alvin Phang – Don recommends this one. Personally I have never read it, but it does come with tons of bonus materials that likely make it a sound investment in learning material and in blogging in general. If Don recommends it, then I would imagine it’s just as good as the first one I listed (he’s more actively involved in the marketing side of information products, so he should know).

3. Instead of Atomic Blogging, you might want to read Web 2.0 Traffic Stampede by Chris Freville. I reviewed this book specifically for this purpose – after thinking about it, I remembered this one and thought it would be a more natural follow up to take your knowledge of Web 2.0 Marketing further. Read the review here: Web 2.0 Traffic Stampede by Chris Freville

If you took the time to read Charlee’s article the other day, on building your E-Authors web site, then it’s very likely your on the road to getting set up with your own site. Today it’s time to talk about building traffic and getting noticed. In my experience the simplest way to do this (short of spending a pile of money on advertising) is to install a WordPress blog.

WordPress is a simple too that is easy to install on your site, quite easy to use once you know your way around, and even with that simplicity it is the best way to gain a readership quickly. One thing to note before we move on: I am referring to the WordPress software that can be found on http://www.wordpress.org, and not a free wordpress.com blog. You can actually build just as much traffic with the free blog that doesn’t require a web host, but then you wouldn’t be bringing that traffic to your author’s site.

Why Blogging Works

Before we talk about how to build traffic with a blog, let’s first discuss why it works for traffic building. There are actually a few reasons why a blog will work to build a fan base faster than a web site, some of them are obviously clear, and other’s you may not have known.

1. Blogs are more personal. With a blog you not only have a method to reach out to people but you also have a way of becoming a person and not just another author. More than than you have a way to build relationships (in a way) with your readers. According to the Technorati’s last State of the Blogosphere report, 67% of of bloggers have built relationships with people who they’ve never met in person through their blogs – that fact alone speaks for the personal nature of a blog.
2. Search engines love blogs. The blog on your site will get rated higher, and be updated more often than any other section of your web site. If you have a term that you want to be rated for (your name, your book titles, etc), all it takes is including those terms in the title of a post and you’ll gain search engine rankings quickly.
3. A blog gives you a connection to the world. Your web site is a static page. It’s there but people have to find it before anyone will ever see it. With a blog, you can post comments on one of the other 184 million blogs out their, and each comment includes a link back to your site. In other words you just gained a way to potentially put a link to your own site in front of the 346 million people who read blogs regularly.

Getting Started – Setting Up Your Blog

Since we’re covering traffic building I’m not going to go into technical detail on installing a blog. Wordpress.org has great documentation, if you need to learn the how of it. If your still confused you can always hire someone on Rent a Coder to install if for you (and it probably won’t cost you more than $50). With that said, you will need the Wordpress Software and you’ll also need the Wordpress.com com stats plugin.

Install both of those to your server. Generally you would create a new folder called blog, and install them there. This will allow you to have you new blog hosted at www.authorsdomain.com/blog/. To activate the Wordpress stats plugin, you will need to signup for a WordPress.com account. Be sure to link that account to the URL of your new blog (it will allow you to comment on other blogs and have the link back to your site).

Getting Noticed With a Blog

Now we get to the part you’ve been waiting for – the big secret to building traffic with a blog. This one really is a big secret so pay attention! To build traffic with a blog, all it takes is commenting on other blogs.

Update your blog 2 – 3 times per week and every time you post head over to Wordpress.com. Use “Right Now in Tags” section, on the right side of that page, to find a tag that is related to your site (I almost always comment on writing or book related blogs). With each post to your blog, take the time to comment on five to ten other blogs around the world of WordPress. With your Wordpress.com account being linked back to to your own blog, on your own site, every comment includes a link to your site.

If you take the time to do this something wondrous begins to happen.

First you’ll see immediate results from the owners and common readers of the blogs you comment on. The blog owner will click the link to see who you are before approving the comment, and regular readers will click the link to see who the new person is (popular blogs are like small communities). As time goes on, those links will bring you even more traffic. Other people find the blog post you commented on from other links, or through search engines, and they see your comment and will often click that link to.

The most important part of this whole traffic building method, besides ensuring you stick with it, is to actually get involved. Don’t just comment on someone’s blog for the sake of leaving a link. Read what they had to say and post a relevant comment – get involved, build relationships, make some friends, and have some fun! Soon not only will you find that you have hundreds of links back to your site as time goes on, but you’ll also meet real people who like you and your writing, and who are willing to promote your work as well.

This is the first of two posts I will be writing on promoting yourself with a blog. In the next article I will cover tools to take your blog to the next level. Be sure to subscribe to our RSS feed so that you catch the next article, and also so you don’t miss Don’s upcoming series on email marketing.

This article was written for us by Charlotte Boyett-Compo, an award-winning author who has published over 70 books. The first 10 books are part of the ever-popular WindLegends Saga series. To learn more about this author, and to grab a copy of her latest book, in eBook or paperback format, please visit her site at http://www.windlegends.org. Charlee is also the founder of Infinite Worlds of Fantasy Authors (http://www.iwofa.net), a site that houses a group of over 300 fantasy-fiction authors.”

There are two things every e-author must have: a working computer and reliable access to the Internet. Think of the computer as a lifebuoy and the Internet the rope attached to it. While it is possible to have one without the other, the two functioning together are how an author creates and submits work to an e-publisher.

Likewise, there are two things every e-author needs in order to have a successful career in e-publishing: a functional, informative website and creative patience.

Often the first introduction a reader has to an e-author is on a webpage. Perhaps he’s seen the author’s name on a review, an interview, the cover of a book while browsing a genre-specific website. Maybe he saw the name on a Yahoo group when the author dropped by to promote the latest release. Or it could have been on Fictionwise or Amazon or any number of bookseller websites. If the reader is interested enough in what he read, wants to learn more about the author, the next thing he’s likely to do is look for a URL to the author’s website. He might want to see the back list if there is one or simply wishes to satisfy his curiosity about the author. He’ll spend a bit of time looking for that URL on the website he’s already on and if he doesn’t find it, he might Google the author’s name. If there’s a website, he’ll go straight to it because his interest has been tweaked. If there isn’t a webpage for that author, oh well. Chances are he’ll simply lose interest and look for an author who does have a web presence.

The worst thing an author can do is to have a crappy website. Nowhere does the Will Rogers adage of “You never get a second chance to make a first impression” hold more power than when it comes to that initial sight the reader will have when he lands on the author’s webpage. If what greets him is a mishmash of garish colors, a font either too large or too small for comfortable reading, and an amateurish conglomeration of foolish-looking graphics the author thinks are ‘cool’, there won’t be much time spent perusing what the author has to offer. Instead, the reader will hightail it off that site and it’s a good bet he won’t return.

What that happens, there are two consequences to the reader’s dismissal of the website: the author has most likely lost not only a potential reader and sale but has gained a very unfavorable impression that will stay with the reader longer than that reader stayed on the author’s poorly designed website.

An author doesn’t have to be a genius to have a professional looking website. He doesn’t need a degree in computer language or be a graphic artist in order to present a website that is pleasing to the eye yet contains the essential information needed to promote his work. All he needs is the desire to put forth the best informational website he can and make it work for him. The two key words in this paragraph are PROFESSIONAL and INFORMATIONAL. A good website needs both. You can’t have one without the other and expect the website to adequately promote you.

There are several ways to obtain a website that grabs the reader’s attention and hold it. The first is to hire a professional to build the site, incorporate all the necessary things needed to present a strong promotion. If money’s no object you can have a website with all the bells and whistles and have someone who will maintain the site for you. All you need to do is shoot off an email whenever you need information updated and you’re good to go. Everything is a-okay if money’s not a problem.

But let’s say that isn’t the case. Let’s say you have a day job and some discretionary cash with which you can part without too much hardship. Maybe you’ve saved a few dollars here and there and you can shell out up to $300 for a simple website. And perhaps you can send $25 a month to PayPal for whoever creates your website to do the updates for you.

Bear in mind the above figures are just for the creation of the website. It doesn’t include the web host where the webpage will be located. That’s an additional expenditure per month if you don’t pay by the entire year. There is also the domain name in which you really should invest. That’s a yearly expense to keep the domain active. Some web hosts provide a domain name as part of the package which is a good deal.

What that happens if you are like most e-authors just starting out and you don’t have $300 to pay a web designer right off the bat? There are genre-specific websites that will host a single webpage for you for a modest monthly or yearly fee. That can range from $20 a month upwards depending on the website and what is included in the package. The average seems to run $35.00 a month or $420.00 a year.

Too much? Well, there are some very good web hosts out there. Freeservers.com has a starter package for $3.95 a month. For $47.40 a year paid upfront you get no intrusive ads clamoring for the reader’s attention and 1 gb of web space. That’s about all you really need to begin promoting your work. You can always upgrade to a more disk space as you go along. You’ll still need to buy a domain but you can get one for $8.99 at Name.com. (You can shop around for domain registers and probably find an even better deal.)

Spend a little more money and go with hostmonster.com and you can get unlimited hosting space and bandwidth for $5.95 a month or $71.40 a year upfront. This is a pretty good deal because it also includes a free domain name forever.

Website, webhost, and domain name: the three most important assets needed to promote an author on the Internet.

Free website, ad-infested webhost, and a generic webhost name + your own: three things guaranteed to let a reader know you aren’t serious about either your profession or the impression you are putting forth.

Nothing screams amateur louder than an author’s website that is advertizing someone else. It looks cheap and it sends the wrong message. If an author is serious about wanting to make writing a career and make that career a successful one, he isn’t going to settle for a crass, ugly, ad-flashing website that takes the spotlight from his work and puts it on Gerard Butler ringtones.

If an author wants to be a professional, that author should act like a professional. The old saying-you have to spend money to make money-is very true in the publishing world. Beg, borrow or steal but come up with $100 that can be invested in a webhost and a domain name and have a professional and informational website of which to be proud.

One of the things about which many e-authors will lament is that they have no expertise to put together a webpage. It isn’t rocket science. Most webhosts have simple templates into which the author can drop the necessary information, add a book cover or two, a photo of himself, and an excerpt. Add to that a hotlink to where the book can be purchased and there’s a simple, uncluttered website. That’s a heck of a lot better than a freebie website where the author has discovered bars and buttons and graphics galore and slaps them willy-nilly all over the page.

An author who has the desire to put forth a little extra effort to do his own webpage has an advantage the author who pays to have it done doesn’t have. He can do updates whenever he has a spare moment. He can add pages without it costing him anything. He can change colors and fonts or add graphics that will enhance the site and catch a surfer’s eye. He can experiment with things that would otherwise cost him some serious cash if he had to leave it up to a web designer.

That is the person this article is aimed at reaching-the author who wants to do it himself. Things to remember when putting together the webpage: COLOR, FONT, GRAPHICS, and SIMPLE HTML.

First things first.

There are certain websites to be bookmarked

• NotePro. An html editor. Drop in what you write and convert it to html code! There’s a free version but the Pro version is one of those essential things every author should have if for the tab filing alone!
• ASCII Character Code. Yes, you have this in Word, but why have to open Word every time you need a special code? Print this out, laminate it or stick it into a sheet protector and keep it handy on your desk. It’s great for general use as well as web design. Why have strange symbols on your webpage. USE the correct coding.
• IrfanView. A terrific free graphics re-sizer!
• Pixeur. This free little tool is worth its weight in gold. You can find the code for
  ANY color from any website you see.
• CoolText . This is a graphics generator where you can make logos, buttons, and headers for your webpage. Individualize it; spruce it up; make it stand out with textured headers and an appropriate font.
• HTML Tutorial . Learn the basics and apply them.
• Eos Clip Art. Here you can find truly expressive backgrounds for your webpage as well as navigation buttons, divider bars, and page bullets. A beautiful site.
• Simply the Best Fonts. Dozens of font categories.
• Fotolia. For $20 paid through PayPal, you can purchase twenty truly outstanding stock photos to use rather than the geeky, Pozer crap you can pick up for free.
• GRSites. Thousands of backgrounds, graphics, but—most important of all—menu builders and webpage templates! This is a must have for every web designer.
• HYPE’s Color Specifier. Find just the right color and the coding for your backgrounds and fonts.
• IconBAZAAR. If you’re looking for icons, this is the place to go.
• StatCounter. An invisible web tracker so you can find out if anyone’s visiting your webpage.
• Triple Borders. When you want to try your hand and something extra.

Last but not least is what SHOULD be incorporated into your webpage, what CAN BE and what SHOULD NOT be there.

Use colors that are pleasing to the eye. Show the background and font to others to see what they think. Remember: sight-impaired people also surf the web and if they can’t read what’s on the webpage, chances are they might not investigate the author’s work, either. Avoid garish colors…especially bright yellow and infant-puke green. Those are very unsettling to the eye as is bright red and neon blue.

When using a background, stay away from paisley or something that clutters, detracts from the font, and overwhelms the visitor. Make sure the font can be seen and isn’t lost in swirls or checks or something equally annoying. By carefully picking the background and/or borders, the author can insure his visitor will stay longer than it takes to shout: “MY EYES! MY EYES!”

When building headers or logos, keep the font crisp and clean. While some fonts look really kewl, if the visitor can’t distinguish between the letters, his impression of the site might not be a good one. Outline fonts are great but make sure what’s inside the outline compliments what’s outside. Putting plaid in the letters and having polka dots on the page background is a good example of what not to use.

Menus are a necessity! If not a dropdown menu then at least buttons that stand out, look professional and tidy. At the very least, these should direct the visitor to the author’s home page, bio page, links page, and book page. Depending on how in-depth the author is willing to make his website, he can add other information specific to his works. Visitors need to be able to find the important things on the webpage easily and without having to hunt for them. Easy navigation, professional-looking layout that says what it needs to crisply and cleanly, elements that include pleasing colors in background and font (size 4 and 5 and NO bigger for everything except maybe the occasional size 6 for a header), the latest release with purchase link, the author’s bio page and back list, and a free story are things readers say they want to see on an author’s webpage.

Take a look at this writer’s website at WindLegends. It was designed, created and is maintained by the writer. There are over 500 pages on the website and all of them are informational in one form or another. Bear in mind the site has grown over a ten year period; it wasn’t built in a day. As inspiration and need hit, the website has grown.

Separate pages for full-length novels and short stories, books by publishers, books at Amazon and Fictionwise with links to each, other places to purchase the books, individual synopsis pages for EACH book as well as pages for that book’s reviews and an excerpt make the website so large. There are templates for book page, review page, and excerpt page in place on the webhost so when a new book comes out, all that is necessary is to drop in the information and three new pages go up in less than half an hour. Book covers are sized in IrfanView when received and saved in pixel sizes at 300 dpi as main cover (375 x 228), promo (159 x 97), intro (109 x 66), MySpace (200 x 121), and buy link (82 x 50) then uploaded to the webhost. The book cover should NEVER be more than 375 x 228 or it will overpower the page.

Little Johnny may be the apple of an author’s eye but he doesn’t need to be on mommy or daddy’s professional webpage. The same holds true of Fido or Felix. While having a pet’s photo for all to see seems like a fuzzy warm thing, some visitors will see that photo and think: “Huh?” Likewise photos of the author at conventions, receiving awards, picking his nose…whatever. Such pictures are fine in the Photos section of the author’s webpage but NOT on the intro page. NEVER on the intro page. Think of the intro page as the cover letter being sent to ask for work. It goes back to that first impressions admonition. To appear professional, one must LOOK professional. Little Franny grinning maniacally bears no resemblance whatsoever to a professional look. Keep the photo in the wallet where it belongs.

Don’t crowd your page, plaster extraneous graphics across it, line up divider bars or have a page that goes on and on and on so the visitor has to keep scrolling down. Break up the page. Several pages are better than one if you have a lot of information to give.

Don’t confuse a blog with a webpage. A blog is a blog and it’s just another promotional tool in your arsenal. A webpage is a professional presence. A blog is for blogging.

Don’t use MySpace or Facebook as your webpage. They weren’t designed to be used in that fashion. (A word of caution when using Facebook: There are TWO kinds of presence on this website—a profile and a page. A profile is what you must have to have a Facebook presence but authors should never use it to promote their books. Don’t put your covers on your profile page. Don’t put your book videos on your profile page. Do not put buying links on your profile page. Why? Because authors have had their Facebook profiles deleted for doing so. That’s why Facebook has pages. A page is for you to gain FANS. You MUST have two separate email accounts to take advantage of both the profile and fan page. The reason for this is because Facebook doesn’t want artists/authors spamming the profile friends. Ignore this warning at your peril or…better yet…ask an author who has had to start over after having his page deleted by Facebook.)

While webrings can bring traffic, having a whole gobble of them only clutters the page and makes it look unprofessional…and needy. If using a few genre-specific ones to bring in visitors is high on the priority list at least learn to use the little code to push the webring banners/graphics down as far as possible on the page. The “<br>” used at least twenty times will put it far enough down that it doesn’t show unless the visitor is curious to see what’s down there. Having the webrings down at the bottom of the page will satisfy the requirement of the webring owner while still bringing hits to the page.

DON’T USE MIDIS! They tend to crash some browsers and a visitor who has that happen to him most likely won’t return to have it happen again. Music doesn’t really enhance the webpage. It tends to distract. While Nights in White Satin is a beautiful, haunting song, it has no place on an author’s ‘professional’ website.

When building your website, make sure you have the three top browsers installed on your computer and check that website in each: IE, Firefox, and Chrome (don’t know about Chrome? It’s the Google browser and you can download it at Chrome. It’s a great browser for two reasons: it isn’t as wobbly as IE and doesn’t hog CPU use as does Firefox plus it has a cleaner interface. Try it out.

After you’ve built your webpage, start promoting it. You need to list your domain name with all the major search engines. Hit all the genre-specific websites and announce your new webpage. Plaster the domain name everywhere you can. Unless Google can find you, you’ll have done all that work for nothing. For search engines to find you, you need to use meta tags that will have those little crawlers sitting up and taking notice. So be sure not to forget to make use of the power of meta tags.

So build a website that is powerful, professional, and informational. It’s your calling card. How readers see you will go a long way in helping your career to grow.

As someone who makes their living marketing eBooks, one question that I am often asked is: how do you become successful at selling eBooks online?

In this case I’m not referring to fiction eBooks. Instead I am referring to eBook packages, or information products. In other words: marketing information in the form of an eBook, a video file, audio file, etc with the intention of teaching your customers something. These products are generally sold as packages that may
contain one eBook with a couple of bonus ebooks or other types of products that can be instantly downloaded (software, audio, video, etc).

The reality is that marketing these types of products needn’t be difficult. In fact anyone can make money with eBooks if they put in the effort. You don’t even have to be able to write them, some people just do the research and then hire others to write their books for them. What you do need though is a general knowledge of the marketplace in general, and the persistence to stick with it as you grow your business.

Before I get to teaching you how to sell your eBooks, I would recommend that you purchase and read the following products by Ewen Chia (the go-to guy for making money with eBooks). The “eBook business in a box” system costs $17, and it will give you an excellent overview of eBooks and eBook marketing. The Working form Home package costs $7 and it will get you a start in learning about Internet marketing
in a more general sense.

• Working From Home – 3 Quick and Easy Ways to Make Money from Home on the Internet
• Ebook Business In a Box – 10 Automatic Income Streams

Once you’ve read those books you suddenly have a good general knowledge of the eBook market place, and you’re reading to get started with your own success system:

10 Steps to Successful eBook Marketing

1. Build an eMail List – Email marketing is a big part of success in any eBook marketing program, for this reason I put it as the very first step. You should sign up for a system like AWeber and work to build a mailing list throughout your entire eBook selling career.
2. Find a Niche – The next thing you need to do is find a successful niche to write about. The simple way to do this is start Googling topics that you are interested in. Look at the paid ads (on the side of the search results) and see how many other information products are advertised for the topic. If there are other people selling eBooks related to your interests, then it is likely that you may have success in
   that market as well.
3. Research the Market – Head over to the ClickBank MarketPlace, the largest affiliate network for digital products, and start searching for related products. The more products you see in the topic, the more popular the market is. At this point I would buy 2 – 3 of the top products on the market and read them. This is the easiest way to find out what type of information people are looking for in that market. I would also begin using the Ask Database as suggested in the next step.
4. Come Up with An Idea that Fits (Research Step 2) – The next step is obviously to come up with your own idea. You want something that gives the same type of information that other tops sellers in your niche have, but your book also has to be unique and provide something else. One way to accomplish this task is to ask your prospective clients. To do this I would use the Ask Database to create a survey, and then run an AdWords campaign to drive traffic to the survey.
5. Write Your eBook – Once you have your idea in place, obviously you need to have you eBook written. The research you should do yourself, and if you don’t decide to write it, you should at the very least, outline what you want the book to teach. Once that’s done, you can write it yourself, find a freelancer (like our own Trevas Walker) to write it for you, or just post a project on a freelance site like Rent a Coder and find a freelancer that way.
6. Make it a Package – Most information products sell better when marketed as a package. As your book is in the works you should also decide on 1 or 2 bonus products that fit well with the package. These can be additional smaller eBooks, videos or audio files, or whatever else fits well with your intended product.
7. Design You Web site – The next thing you need to do is design a sales page. Copy writing is a complex topic, and your sales page means everything when it comes to selling your project. In this case I don’t suggest you write it yourself. Your better off to find a freelance writer who has copy writing experience to do it for you.
8. Find Launch Partners – As you begin to market more and more eBooks, and build a name for yourself within your own niche, launch partners will come easily. In the beginning though, this is often the most difficult step. One suggestion I can make is to contact some of the others who market similar products. Ask them if they would be willing to help you market the product (they earn money as an affiliate).
9. Add Your Product to an Affiliate Network
   - With everything in place you are ready to start selling your package. Sign up for a publishers account on Cickbank. This is the largest affiliate network out there, and using the power of affiliate marketers will get your product noticed faster. Marketing yourself can be expensive. Paying a portion of your profits to have others do it for you is much less time consuming, and your marketing won’t cost you nearly as much. Another network that is growing in popularity is Click2Sell.eu.
10. Start Your Own Ad Campaign – As your product gains in popularity, you’ll likely have many
    affiliates working for you. Some of whom will run ad campaigns. To start through, you will want to sign up at Google Adwords, and begin with a marketing campaign yourself. Successful ad campaigns can be difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. In this case I recommend spending the $19.95 to get a copy of Google Profits. The book will get you started with a campaign that will drive relevant traffic to your site.

Once you’ve started selling your first information product, your next step is to do it all over again. Most marketers tend to stay within the same product niche, and work to build a name for themselves in that
market.

Quick Links:

Recommended Reading:

• Working From Home – 3 Quick and Easy Ways to Make Money from Home on the Internet
• Ebook Business In a Box – 10 Automatic Income Streams
• Google Profits – Recommended to anyone who is unfamiliar with PPC marketing.

Other Links:

• AWeber – My choice for email marketing/list building.
• Find a Freelancer to Write Your eBook on Rent a Coder
• ClickBank – The Largest Affiliate Network for Digital Products
• Ask Database – For creating surveys to research your market further

READ THIS FIRST – Clarice Reviewed this book way back in November. At that time the book was being sold as “an ebook by Rebecca Cooper” and the sales page stated the same. Today that page has changed and lists some other name. Since we have no way of knowing whether this is just a bad marketing idea, or whether it actually is a different book available now – we are no longer recommending this one! You can still use the links below to get to the site, but if you choose to buy it you do so at your own risk!

Update January 19: It has been confirmed for me that the product is still the same, so we are leaving this review as is, and we can still recommend the book to anyone who wants to make money with Kindle. Cheers, Trevas Walker

When it comes to making money with eBooks, there are many routes that Internet Marketers take. You’ll often hear us talking about information marketing on this site; after all it is big business. With today’s review though we’re going to look at a course that teaches you to make money with eBooks using a less common method.

If you’ve been around the world of eBooks for any amount of time then you likely already know what a Kindle is. It’s the handy little device that was created as Amazon made their way into the world of eBooks. It allows you to read download, and in some cases share, eBooks.

In today’s review we are looking at an e-learning course created by Rebecca Cooper. This course teaches you how to make money with Kindle books. The course includes a video portion, an eBook, and an audio interview. If you’ve been looking for a method to make some extra cash with eBooks, without getting into the massive world of Internet Marketing then Rebecca’s course is likely for you.

Kindle Profits Exposed runs you through how to create content for the Kindle network. The books focus is on taking public domain material and marketing it, but the methods taught would work for any eBook, including that fiction book you wrote yourself. It teaches you many other important aspects of making money with Kindle:

• How to properly categorize and list your book.
• How to price your book for maximum response.
• Which products sell well and which don’t.
• How to get repeat customers.
• How to gain exposure for your books.

The reality is that traditional Internet Marketing is hard, and with this new realm to get your eBooks online it provides a much easier way to get started. For anyone looking to make a little extra cash by publishing eBooks, Rebecca Cooper’s Kindle Profits Exposed is highly recommended.

Click Here to Get Your Own Copy of Kindle Profits Exposed