The magic price to market your ebook.

Have you ever wondered why all those products on TV all cost $19.95?  How about why used car dealers...excuse me, "preowned" car dealers offer $199 down $199 a month?

It's an often used and very successful marketing concept. The idea is that certain numbers set off alarm bells in a buyers mind and by shaving a penny or two off the price we can avoid these alarm bells. A person will wrinkle his brow and wonder if that fancy kitchen gadget is worth $20, but he will be franticly dialing the phone credit card in hand for the low low price of $19.95. What a bargain.

Believe it or not sales figures seem to support this idea. Shave a few pennies off the round dollar amount and people are more likely to buy from a TV ad, however this doesn't work in all forms of marketing.

When buying in person people appear to prefer round numbers. For instance. I have a friend who sells knockoff tennis shoes at flea markets. Don't laugh. He quit his regular job because he makes more in a weekend at the flea market than he did in a 40 hour week.

Anyway he dicovered that the magic price for knockoff tennis shoes at a flea market is $20. Any more and buyers huff and go "I might as well go to the shoe store for these prices." Any less and they question the quality of the shoes, Look them over again and agian, then walk away without buying.

I won't make a value judgement about peoples' behavior. The object is to make sales, not judge your customers right? The simple fact is for every product and service there is a magic price that a customer will readily pay with almost no selling on your part.

I won't even try to guess why, but for ebooks that price appears to be $7. You have probably by now seen the rash of $7 dollar ebooks everywhere. On marketing web sites and blogs and all over the web. For some unknown reason $5 is too low and 8$ is too high.

Does it really matter why? As marketers we don't need to question why. We find what sells and stick with it until it doesn't sell anymore.

If the public will pay $7 without flinching who am I to question them?

Maybe it's because $5 is not a lot of money these days. So if it cost $5 it must not be any good or it would cost more. But then $10 is double digits. Hold on here $10, I could get two fast food lunches for that.

Okay, I am guessing why, but the point is, $7 is the magic price for an ebook. Atleast for now it is.
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How Do You Write an Ebook?

There is only one way to climb a mountain - step by step.

Now think of writing your ebook in the same light. You must create it step by step, and one day, you will take that last step and find yourself standing on the summit with your head in the clouds.

The first thing you have to do, as if you actually were a mountain climber, is to get organized. Instead of climbing gear, however, you must organize your thoughts. There are some steps you should take before you begin. Once you've gone through the following list, you will be ready to actually begin writing your ebook.

Beginning Steps to Writing an ebook

First, figure out your ebook's working title. Jot down a few different titles, and eventually, you'll find that one that will grow on you. Titles help you to focus your writing on your topic; they guide you in anticipating and answering your reader's queries. Many non-fiction books also have subtitles. Aim for clarity in your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell books, as long as it's not too cute. For example,
Remedies for Insomnia: twenty different ways to count sheep. Or: Get off that couch: fifteen exercise plans to whip you into shape.

Next, write out a thesis statement. Your thesis is a sentence or two stating exactly what problem you are addressing and how your book will solve that problem. All chapters spring forth from your thesis statement. Once you've got your thesis statement fine-tuned, you've built your foundation. From that foundation, your book will grow, chapter by chapter.

Your thesis will keep you focused while you write your ebook. Remember: all chapters must support your thesis statement. If they don't, they don't belong in your book.

For example, your thesis statement could read:
We've all experienced insomnia at times in our lives, but there are twenty proven techniques and methods to give you back a good night's sleep.

Once you have your thesis, before you start to write, make sure there is a good reason to write your book. Ask yourself some questions:

* Does your book present useful information and is that information currently relevant?

* Will you book positively affect the lives of your readers?

* Is your book dynamic and will it keep the reader's attention?

* Does you book answer questions that are meaningful and significant?

If you can answer yes to these questions, you can feel confident about the potential of your ebook.

Another important step is to figure out who your target audience is. It is this group of people you will be writing to, and this group will dictate many elements of your book, such as style, tone, diction, and even length. Figure out the age range of your readers, their general gender, what they are most interested in, and even the socio-economic group they primarily come from. Are they people who read fashion magazines or book reviews? Do they write letters in longhand or spend hours every day online. The more you can pin down your target audience, the easier it will be to write your book for them.

Next, make a list of the reasons you are writing your ebook. Do you want to promote your business? Do you want to bring quality traffic to your website? Do you want to enhance your reputation?

Then write down your goals in terms of publishing. Do you want to sell it as a product on your website, or do you want to offer it as a free gift for filling out a survey or for ordering a product? Do you want to use the chapters to create an e-course, or use your ebook to attract affiliates around the world? The more you know upfront, the easier the actual writing will be.

Decide on the format of your chapters. In non-fiction, keep the format from chapter to chapter fairly consistent. Perhaps you plan to use an introduction to your chapter topic, and then divide it into four subhead topics. Or you may plan to divide it into five parts, each one beginning with a relevant anecdote.

How to make your ebook "user friendly"

You must figure out how to keep your writing engaging. Often anecdotes, testimonials, little stories, photos, graphs, advice, and tips will keep the reader turning the pages. Sidebars are useful for quick, accessible information, and they break up the density of the page.

Write with a casual, conversational tone rather than a formal tone such as textbook diction. Reader's respond to the feeling that you are having a conversation with them. Break up the length and structure of your sentences so you don’t hypnotize your readers into sleep. Sentences that are all the same length and structure tend to be a good aid for insomnia!

Good writing takes practice. It takes lots and lots of practice. Make a schedule to write at least a page a day. Read books and magazines about the process of writing, and jot down tips that jump out at you. The art of writing is a lifetime process; the more you write (and read), the better your writing will become. The better your writing becomes, the bigger your sales figures.

In an ebook that is read on the screen, be aware that you must give your reader's eye a break. You can do this by utilizing white space. In art classes, white space is usually referred to as "negative space." Reader's eyes need to rest in the cool white oasis you create on your page. If your page is too dense, your reader will quit out of it as soon as their eyes begin to tear.

Make use of lists, both bulleted and numbered. This makes your information easy to absorb, and gives the reader a mental break from dissecting your paragraphs one after the other.

Finally, decide on an easy-to-read design. Find a font that's easy on the eyes, and stick to that font family. Using dozens of fonts will only tire your readers out before they've gotten past your introduction. Use at least one and a half line spacing, and text large enough to be read easily on the screen, but small enough so that the whole page can be seen on a computer screen. You will have to experiment with this to find the right combination.

Of course, don't forget to run a spell and grammar check. You are judged by something as minor as correct punctuation, so don’t mess up a great book by tossing out semicolons randomly, or stringing sentences together with commas. (By the way, that's called a "comma splice.")

Last of all, create an index and a bibliography. That's it! You've written a book! Now all you have to do is publish your ebook online, and wait for download request from your website visitors.

How DO You Price Your eBook?

If you price it too high when compared with your competition, you will find yourself steadily lowering the price, which will cause you all kinds of new problems in the future. For example, if you sell your ebook at first for $49.99, and later reduce it to $29.95, don't you think the people who bought it for $49.99 are going to be a little bit un-happy?

Choosing the right price for your ebook is one of the most critical parts of the marketing process. The first rule of pricing ebooks is to never under price. Determine the highest price your audience can afford, and then if you find your book isn’t selling, you can always reduce the price. Before you take that step, make sure you are promoting your book like crazy on the Internet and on websites. The price should be aimed at bringing in profits, but you should never forget that price is one of the factors that people use in judging the value of your ebook, before they buy it. So always start with the highest price, and then launch a mega-marketing campaign.

Pricing an ebook is particularly difficult because ebooks are a fairly new commodity. Since they are digital, the value of an ebook is as confusing as the understanding of what digital actually is to the average layperson. This means that we must look at ebooks in a different light in order to determine their actual worth in this brave, new cyber world.

Let's look at the difference between a book in print and an ebook. A printed book is an object you can hold in your hand, store on your bookshelf, even hand down to the next generation. It is priced on factors such as paper stock, design and production costs, and marketing.

But the fact that unites ebooks and print books is that they are composed of ideas. It is the ideas in these books that have the ability to change, or possibly transform, people's lives.

What do you think an idea is worth when evaluated against the cost of paper and ink?

It is the IDEAS that are valuable! That is how you determine the cost of your ebook.

What should I charge for my ideas?

There are all different formulas and methods for determining the correct price for your ebook. Let's begin with honing in on your ultimate goals.

Decide if your goal is to get wide distribution and maximum exposure. This goal is aimed at drawing customers to your business or service, or to establishing the credibility of your reputation. If this is your main goal, you should aim to keep your price on the low side. Some authors have even priced their ebooks at a profit loss to draw a high number of new customers. The key is to find a price that maximizes your profits and the number of books you sell.

This is an excellent pricing strategy if you are looking to acquire long-term customers. Long-term customers are extremely likely to buy from you again and again ? as long as the first ebook they buy is of exceptional quality and beneficial to the customer.

However, if your book contains valuable, and more importantly NEW information, references, or techniques, then you should aim to price it on the high end.

After you figure out your goal, you must figure out what your audience's need is for your ebook. For example, does your book solve a particular problem? If it does, and solves it in a way that hasn't been written about in one hundred other ebooks, you will be able to achieve high sales at a high price. If your book solves a problem or answers questions in a new and unique way, you should price your book as high as you can go. You will achieve larger profits this way, but bring in fewer customers. Just make sure the question or problem that your book solves is one that is important and relevant to the majority of your market audience. If your ideas are not common knowledge, or you are presenting a brand new technique, you will be able to sell books at a high price. Just be prepared for your competition to undercut you on price as soon as they hear about your book.

Keep in mind that the above pricing strategy is temporary. Eventually, you will cease to sell books at this high price. So figure out in advance how long you plan to offer your ebook at this high price, and when that time is up, change your pricing strategy.

If you want to see large profits over customer draw, aim for an audience that is looking for easy solutions to their problems at a low price. If your book is aimed at solving one particular problem rather than general advice, then you can charge more. Start at the highest price the market will bear to bring in the largest profits, and plan to discount the book a number of times throughout the year.

Marketing Strategies

The key that unlocks the sales potential of your ebook is to find a single sentence that becomes your selling handle. This sentence states what question or problem your book answers and the benefits your ebook can provide. Then be sure to use that sentence in every piece of sales and promotional material, and every time anyone asks you about your ebook.

Besides promoting your books assiduously online, there are several other strategies that can help you sell more books.

One is to give something away for free with your book, such as a valuable bonus item. Or bundle several ebooks under one price, which lowers the price for each ebook if they were sold separately.

An effective technique for figuring out a price is to send out a survey to your current customers. If these customers have already bought an ebook from you, ask for their opinion in terms of price. Do this by creating a sales page for the new book, but don't include a price on that page. Instead, add a number of links to survey questions that ask pointed questions to aid you in assigning a price to your ebook.

Another strategy is to test out prices by creating a number of duplicate sales pages with different prices on each page. Make sure your sales copy is exactly the same on every page, and includes your selling-handle sentence. Then figure out for each page the conversion ratio between visitors to your site and sales of your book. This will tell you what your optimum price is.

Ultimately, if you've written a book that solves a problem or presents a new technique, your book will bring in both traffic and profits. So be sure to write that selling-handle sentence that sums up what problem your book solves and what the benefits of your book will be to the customers who purchase it. And then watch your market come to you!

Follow These Simple Steps to Book Publishing Success

Let's begin with the process that should commence before you write your first word. Begin by reading A LOT. Read both books you passionately love and books you can't seem to make it past page five. Then figure out what the author did in the book you loved, and what was wrong with in the book you couldn't finish. Write down these points so they are crystal clear to you. Read other people's books for inspiration and to
discover what you should avoid as a writer.

The next step is to plan out your book. Narrow down your subject, and then divide it into chapters. Each chapter should address a specific aspect of the problem your book is going to solve. In each chapter, break the specific aspect down into several parts. This will help your readers take in your information a bit at a time instead of overwhelming them with every bit of information clogging up the pages until they feel like they're about to go blind. It's not quite spoon-feeding the information to your readers, but it's close.

The next two steps are obvious. Write your book and then revise it. And then revise it again. And perhaps again. Of course, writing is extremely hard, and writing a book can seem like an impossible task. There are many books out there that give you guidelines to help you become familiar - and even love - the process of writing and revision. Find a number of books about writing. Better yet, find a number of books about writing the specific type of book you aspire to write. These can serve as roadmaps on your writing journey.

Once you've written your book and revised it at least twice, show it to someone else whose opinion you respect. If you're lucky enough to know a good editor, see if you have something to barter for him or her to go through your manuscript. Or join a writing group and let the other members critique your work.

Then take all these ideas from other people, and revise your manuscript one last time. And then stop! Put down that pen! Get your hands off the keyboard!

One of the most important steps to actually producing a book is to know when to stop writing and tinkering with it.

You've finally written your book! Pop open the bubbly! Give yourself a night out on the town!

Okay, now that this necessary celebration is out of your system, what do you do next?

How to turn your book into Profits

Ebooks are a revolutionary way to publish your book without incurring the costs of print production. All you need is a relevant and targeted subject and some inexpensive software, and you can transform your manuscript into a book.

The problem, in terms of actually seeing any profits from your ebook, is that the market is overwhelmed with ebooks, and many of them are not worth the time it takes to download them. Just because the ability exists to easily produce an ebook, doesn't make it good writing.

Make sure your book does not simply rehash old material. You will injure your credibility as an author by claiming to offer valuable new insights and disappointing your audience with material they've read a zillion times before. So spend enough time writing and revising your book to make sure it's of the highest quality and presents the most current information. A good book will eventually sell itself; false claims about your book will make it extremely difficult to sell any future books you may write.

Assuming you have determined that you do indeed have a quality product that answers some question or need of your target audience with NEW information, how do you know how much to charge for it? Rule number 1: Set a price for your book equal to its value. An under-priced book will only give the impression that your book isn't worth very much.

To figure out a fair price, estimate how much time you put into creating it and how difficult it was to transform the necessary information into understandable and engaging writing. Figure out how much your time and effort is worth, and then price it accordingly. The goal is for you to be adequately compensated for your talent, your time, and your effort.

Once you've figured out a price that is high enough to convey the value of the book, but not so high as to be out of the reach of your target audience's mean budget, then it's time to offer it for sale on your website. To attract sales, you will need to develop a promotional campaign, particularly if you are an unknown author.

There are multitudes of books about self-promotion that will guide you in your efforts. Choose a plan that is both creative and professional. Learn how to write a catchy yet informative press release, and send copies of your ebook to sites that specialize in ebook reviews.

Learn how to write powerful sales copy, or hire someone to write it for you. This is an essential. You absolutely need excellent sales copy to sell your book. Make sure the copy includes all the reasons your target audience needs your book, and the benefits they will derive from buying it.

Use graphics in your promotional materials. Beautiful graphics have the power to instantly convey the quality and value of your ebook. Graphics can also convey the amount of valuable information the book contains, and your careful attention to detail. Professional graphics sell professional books. They reassure the customer that the product is what it claims to be.

Consider excerpting chapters for articles. You can offer these titbits for free on your website as a sort of demo of your book. Include an order form for your ebook at the end of the excerpted articles.

Finally, when you set-up your download link, make sure to simplify the process. It's a good idea to offer a few bonuses that make your book even more enticing to purchase, but make sure the bonuses are valuable and high quality. Too many bonuses that are basically a load of useless stuff will compromise the impression your audience has of your ebook. The goal is to convey to your audience that they are getting a quality product for a good deal. That means applying restraint, especially when it comes to adding bonus items. Too much free stuff offered diminishes your credibility.

Make sure your book is a quality product. Make sure it is relevant and current. Develop an effective marketing plan that includes excellent sales copy and excerpted articles. Then offer your book for sale, and wait for your audience to discover you!

Explore The Emerging World of Ebooks

As we all know, the Internet changed everything. The Net and the Web have brought the world closer together. Many older means of communication have either been replaced or changed so as to co-exist with, and complement, electronic communication. Email, for example, has replaced almost all business and a lot of personal letter writing, though our mailboxes remain filled with lots of mail, most unwanted. A lot of printed newspapers and magazines still exist, but their content is now also available on websites, and the websites are timelier and often offer more detailed information. Printed media is not dead by any means, as millions of people still prefer to curl up with a good book or grab a paper on their way to work. There have been many efforts to popularize ebooks, downloadable books in digital form, but their acceptance remains in its infancy.

But that won't stay that way. Ebooks make eminent sense. Since books are almost all text, an ebook download is very fast and hundreds of ebooks can fit onto a small storage card. Ebooks do not contribute to cutting down forests, they do not need to be trucked across the country, they do not produce waste, and they are usually a lot less expensive than printed books. Ebooks also have many other advantages. Depending on your ebook reader software, an ebook can be annotated, bookmarked and searched. The latter is especially useful; I often want to go back to a certain quote or paragraph in a book, and electronic search is so much easier than leafing through a printed book.

One of the problems ebooks face is that people do not know how to use them. They are confused by the many different ebook formats or think they need a particular piece of hardware to read them. In fact, the formats are not really a problem. Most computers can read popular ebook formats and ebook reader software is freely available. Hardware is a bit more of an issue. Hardcovers and paperbacks are awfully convenient and they don't need batteries, so a lot of people shy away from reading on a computer screen or spending the money for a dedicated ebook reader.

This is really too bad as ebooks are clearly the way of the future. They just make too much sense. Those who dismiss ebooks are missing out on a great and increasingly attractive alternative to the printed page. Those who are willing to give ebooks a chance are rewarded with lower costs and the ability to carry an entire library on a device of their choice, be that a notebook computer, a Tablet PC, a dedicated ebook reader, a PDA or even a smartphone. And they have access to a potentially much larger variety of books. That's because ebooks make self-publishing easy and lots of authors who don't have a chance of getting picked up by traditional print publishing houses can distribute their books electronically. Best of all, there is no waste and there will never be unsold books that end up on a bargain table or in a landfill.

My advice is to give ebooks a chance. Download a free ebook. Look for sites dedicated to ebooks, especially those with a website design that is appealing. See what format you prefer, and what device you like to read on. But be warned: you may get hooked. Once you get into them, downloading and reading ebooks can become a passion.

eBook Profits - Why a Free Sample Chapter Can Send Your Profits Soaring!

Why should anyone give a sample chapter or mini-version of their book for free?  The main reason  -  usually to sell or make money  -  isn’t always accomplished at the front end of the marketing process, it often comes later, and brings profits way beyond your best expectations.

Here’s how and why to use the sample chapter technique to generate leads for your info product. 

*  To test your idea for a new information product before spending days, weeks, months creating something nobody wants to buy.  If few people request the freebie, your product is almost certainly a no-goer, similarly if the freebie is popular but results in few or no paid-for orders.

*  The sample chapter can be a selling tool not only for its own full length paid-for version, but for other products too, where for example a list or catalogue of additional products is included with the giveaway item.  For instance, the first chapter of ‘The Way to a Man’s Heart: Cooking with Known Aphrodisiacs’ might generate interest in the paid-for version of the book and might additionally direct readers to web sites offering related info products, such as ‘1001 Ways to Be Romantic’, ‘How to Find the Man of Your Dreams’, and so on.  It pays to be careful, however, when including links for other people’s products, and ensure they do not detract from the real reason the sample chapter was given, namely to sell that cookery book.  As for all things in mail order, direct mail, online marketing, you must test response to all your promotions.

*  The first chapter can represent a ‘suck it and see’ guarantee to a product delivered in installments, such as correspondence courses, resell rights packages, and so on.  If Chapter One or Module One isn’t as expected, readers can cancel their post-dated standing order or request a refund of money already paid. 

*  Sample chapters can be articles you’ve written for payment elsewhere, where copyright is yours, and the article or series of articles is expanded to book or course format.  A popular article is its own proof of a likely best selling book and you’ve probably completed most of the research already, and been paid for it. 

*  You could give the sample chapter with the full version of the product which is password protected.  Readers who enjoy the test version and decide to go full length simply give credit card details through such as ClickBank and move to a ‘Thank You page’ which provides the password for the full book already in their possession.  (Knowing the full length book is sitting there, tying up space on their desktop, just screaming out to be opened and read, is all the incentive most people need to get that password fast!)

*  You could write an article based on your full length info product, but leave the reader dangling somewhere between casting the article to one side and buying your book. 

Ways to do this:

-  Leave questions in your article which are answered in the full length title.  Make readers curious, give cryptic clues, leave the most vital information for Part Two – the paid-for product!

-  Offer articles to editors and publishers of print and online publications and end with questions that are answered at your web site where readers can buy books related to the subject of the article.

-  Get readers to subscribe to your eZine where you’ll answer those niggling
questions and in autoresponder follow ups you’ll promote your main book to the very limit of temptation!

*  The free sample gives credibility in you and your writing ability.  People know the book has  -  probably  -  already been written, and is of similar quality to what they’ve already sampled.  If they have money and they like your work, they’ll buy.  Probably!

*  The sample chapter can include a contents listing for the full length version, where readers can check length (yes some people still believe quantity outshines quality) and you can induce sales with tempting chapter titles and snippets.  It’s a good idea to give the page numbers on which certain highlighted features occur, especially where pages run into triple figures (again, never mind the quality, feel the width), and chapter headings are themselves deliciously vague.  Like this:

“Here’s a sneak preview of ‘1001 Easy Ways to Get Rich Overnight!’

-  How to live in a luxury home without having a mortgage and never having to pay a penny rent (Chapter Twenty Four, Page 201)

-  The four letter word that gets you everything you want out of life, and more!  (Chapter Twenty Five, Page 273)

-  How to get a brand new car and drive it away without having to pay!  (Chapter Twenty Six, Page 307)

-  Four words that guarantee you free travel for the rest of your life!  (Chapter Twenty Nine, Page 406)”

*  People will retain your sample chapter far longer than they will normally keep a sales letter, especially of the printed variety or on a web site with a domain name they’ll soon forget.  So although the majority of people will buy the full length product quite soon after receiving the freebie, you might still get a steady trickle of sales later when busy people find time to read your sample chapter.

Never forget the most common reason of all is to tempt readers of the free infoproduct to click on the link on the very last page where they find your order form and BUY YOUR BOOK!

E-Book Popularity is Growing by the Day

Books have gone through a rapid transition from placing a mail order using a catalog, to ordering Online, to now having the book being an instant download to your computer for reading on the screen or printed out on your home printer.  One of the hottest topics in the library and book world today is e-books.  Hard cover books and the newer e-books both have a place in our lives.

An e-book is the same as a hard copy book, only you read it on your computer screen, or you can print it, and then just read it as normal hard copy.  Our younger kids like to read inexpensive e-book stories on the computer screen.  We prefer our reading on hard copy printouts.  We make printed copies of all our e-books, and we keep all our e-books on CD too.

In most cases, an e-book quickly downloads to your computer in the popular Adobe Portable Document Format, or PDF.  The Adobe Reader, if not already installed on your computer, is a free download.

Stephen King brought e-books to the attention of the world by distributing his novel, Riding the Bullet, exclusively in e-book form.  In the first 24 hours of availability, 400,000 copies were downloaded - more than any other book in any format!  A quick scan of any of the e-Library sites will leave you in awe.  From old classics like Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, to favorites like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, right up to the most recently written novels, romance, how-to, and scientific books.  The list of categories will leave you breathless.

If your eyesight is not what it used to be, here is an area where e-books really shine.  You can quickly change the type size, screen brightness, or e-books can even be used with text-to-speech software.

Some other attractive features come to mind:
-You can buy an e-book without leaving home, from your personal computer.
- Instant download after buying, to read, save on your hard disk, or print. 
- Text can be searched.
- Takes up little space.
- Low cost.
- Does not wear over time.

The average reader might simply want to read books, and the Adobe format mentioned above is quite adequate for most readers using a standard desktop or notebook computer.  For the more advanced e-book reader, there is a myriad of e-book formats, some using dedicated handheld reading devices.  Their features include, portability, replicating page turning, integrating multimedia contents such as video, audio, animation and images, and even more.  For some readers, the advancing reader technology is as exciting as the e-book's contents.

If the e-book evolution has passed you by, now is the time to catch up.  There has never been a better time, with so many free and paid e-books available from so many sources.  If you are a reader, you are only a click away from obtaining that special book you have been looking for. If you are a writer, you are only a click away from producing an e-book.  An exciting e-book experience is in store for you.

Ebay Ebook Success: Effectively using your About Me Page

Your About Me Page is one of the best ways to promote yourself on eBay.  It allows you much more freedom than other eBay pages and there is a link to it beside your eBay User ID so every time you buy an item, place a bid etc, people may click on it.  Despite this it is one of the most underutilised pages for the majority of ebook sellers.  In this article I will discuss how you should be using your eBay About Me Page to effectively promote your eBay store:

1) Describe yourself and your Ebook Business:- At the top of the page you should describe yourself and your ebook business.  Say a little about yourself, how you got into selling on eBay, and what you sell.  Also say why people should buy from you instead of the competition. Examples could be that your eBay store is updated every week, your prices are low etc. 

2) Link to your Feedback:- To prove that you are a trusted seller you should link to your feedback rating from your About Me page.  Just include a simple sentence like "Click Here to view my feedback."

3) Provide a Contact Address:- Buyers viewing your About Me page may want to ask more questions so it is only logical that you provide a contact address.  Make it clickable for maximum ease to the customer. For example "You can contact me at any time at: sales@theebookcavern.co.uk."

4) Provide a direct link back to your eBay Store:- Not all the visitors to your About Me page will have found it through your eBay store.  Some may not even be aware that you own an eBay store.  The only way to make sure that everyone viewing your About Me page knows that you have an eBay store is to provide a clickable link to it.  For example "Click Here to visit my eBay store."

5) Other Links:- If you have a specific auction which you want to promote, or a specific page you want to link to then do it here.  For example "You can visit my super duper auction by Clicking Here."

If you follow the steps in this article then you should be well on your way to maximising the effectiveness of your eBay About Me page.  Many customers will use your About Me page to assess whether to buy from you so it's essential that yours is effective.  Till next time good luck with your ebook sales and take care!!!

Ebay Ebook Success: Effectively Promoting your eBay Store

To really maximise your eBay ebook sales you need to be promoting your eBay store.  eBay stores get less exposure than normal eBay listings and therefore will not yield great sales for you unless you promote them.  There are many ways both on and off eBay that you can promote your eBay store.  This article outlines some of them:

1) Ebay Auction Listings:- eBay Auction and Buy It Now listings get the main exposure on eBay.  When someone does an eBay search for an item all the eBay Auction and Buy It Now listings are displayed first.  Then after these the eBay Store listings are displayed.  Since these Auction and Buy It Now listings are getting the most exposure it makes sense to run a few of these and insert a link to your eBay store inside the actual description.  This works especially well with Auction listings as people often click the link so they can buy the item instantly from your eBay store rather than wait for the auction to end.

2) Ebay About Me Page:- The eBay About Me page is one of the best free opportunity's eBay provides to promote yourself.  Every time someone on eBay sees your eBay ID (whether you bid on something, leave feedback, or buy an item) there will be an About Me logo next to it and some people will click this logo.  Despite this, it really is one of the most under utilised tools on eBay.  If you do not yet have an eBay About Me page yet then get one NOW.  Use it to write about your eBay store and tell people why they should buy from you.

3) Ebay Reviews and Guides:- These are a relatively new addition to eBay but they are still a great way to promote your eBay store for free.  The reviews section allows you to write product reviews such as CDs and DVDs.  The guides section is more relevant to eBay sellers as it allows you to write guides on just about anything.  There has got to be some topic that you can write a guide on so get righting now.  When people read your guide they are presented with a link to your eBay store which is again more free exposure.

4) Ebay Seller Cross Promotion:- I outlined in the last article that with an eBay store you can cross-promote your items.  Recently eBay has also added the ability to cross-promote with other sellers.  This is very easy to set up and eBay manages the whole process for you.  All you have to do is go to the "Cross-Promotion Connections" area of My eBay and then use the request cross-promotions link in order to set them up.  If the other seller agrees then a box promoting their products will appear on your listings and vice versa.  This is a valuable way to increase your eBay sales and also generate more traffic to your eBay store.

5) Search Engines:- As I mentioned in my last article you get an actual URL with your eBay store.  This URL gets listed in the eBay stores directory and search engines which means extra traffic for your eBay store.  What's more eBay allows you to pick your search engine keywords so you can be listed under the categories that you feel are most appropriate to your eBay store.  Getting listed in the search engines is a great way to bring in customers from outside of eBay and maximise your sales potential.

6) Store RSS Feed:- When you access the home page of an eBay store you may notice a small RSS box in the bottom left corner.  If you click on this RSS box then you will be shown your store's RSS feed.  Now I myself am not an expert in RSS but I do know that it is another way to promote your eBay store easily and effectively from outside of eBay.  You can get some free software that submits your RSS feeds to the main RSS directories by doing a search on Google.

7) Blogging:- For those who don't know a blog is a weblog.  It's basically like an online journal where you post your thoughts, comments, or whatever else you want.  Blogging is an excellent way to get traffic to your eBay store.  Quite a few websites offer free blogs which you can sign up for and then link back to your eBay store.  Post in it regularly to gain exposure and your blog should soon become a great source of traffic.

8) Article Submission:- There are 100s of article directories out there that will you can submit your articles to, and if accepted you are allowed to have a live link back to your website or eBay store in the author resource box.  This is a great way to generate traffic to your website in the long-term as not only do the search engines index your article, but people also reprint these articles on their websites complete with your author resource box (and live link back to your eBay store).  The longer your article is online the more it will be reprinted and so the more traffic it will generate.

Hopefully this article has opened your eyes to some of the free and effective promotion methods for your eBay store.  At first the fact that eBay Stores do not get as much exposure seems like a major problem but by putting a little effort into promoting it yourself, it can be much more successful than any eBay Auction listing.  Till next time good luck with your ebook sales and take care!!!

Choosing A Format For Your Online E-Book Publishing Business

Publishing an eBook online is without a doubt one of the most profitable ventures you can undertake when trying to make some income from the Internet.  But you must consider what format your eBook will be in.  Choose the wrong format and you can doom yourself to never making a profit, or at least not making a profit for very long. 

What are formats and what are some of the things you need to consider?  A format is simply what type of file your information will be stored in.  On your desktop computer are many different file types, where each file type is typically opened by a different type of program.  For example, there are plain text files, usually denoted with a “.txt” extension, there are “.doc” files, which are usually opened in Microsoft Word, there are “.htm” files, which can be opened by any web browser, and so on.  There are many, many different types of formats that are used by the myriad text and word processing programs our there.

In the same way, the information you present in your eBook needs to be presented to your online audience in a format that they can open up and read.  Formats such as .doc, .txt, .htm (or .html), .pdf (for Adobe’s ubiquitous Acrobat Reader) will have virtually universal readability.  However, you need to consider more than just readability when you make this decision.  You must also consider piracy and copyright infringement.  If your eBook is truly stellar, with a title such as “How to make a million dollars in two weeks by watching TV”, you must realize that it will be a prime target for information pirates.

Your eBook creation is your intellectual property and needs to be protected as much as possible.  Otherwise, people can simply pass your eBooks around on the Internet or attach them in emails to their friends.  You want to ensure that anyone who is reading your valuable content has legitimately bought and paid for the right to do so.  For this reason, the best solution is to publish your eBook in one of the many proprietary formats that will convert your ebook into a protected file that can only be opened by the person who has purchased it.

There are many programs out there that will convert your eBook into a secure format.  I can’t even begin to list them all, but you want to look for a format that will convert your eBook into some type of executable (.exe) file that can’t be cut, copied, or pasted from.  Search for “ebook creation software” or something like that in your favorite Internet search engine, and follow as many links as you desire until you find the format you like the best.

It’s up to you to protect your content, because certainly no one else is going to do it for you!

Till next time…<I>Success to you!</I>

-Ted

Ted is part of an Internet information marketing
group that makes its home at:
<a href="http://www.ebusinessmentor.com">www.eBusinessMentor.com</a>
Check it out for up-to-the-minute info on
marketing YOUR information online!

Business Expansion with Ebooks

Businesses of all sizes are expanding with ebooks. An ebook is a paperless book in digital format that you can download to your computer, handheld or other reader device. It can be read by using a software program like Adobe (for .pdf formats) or Microsoft Word.

Here are several ways to expand your own business operations with ebooks.

Marketing – An ebook offers an inexpensive means of producing full-color marketing materials complete with graphics and audio components. Find good software or hire someone to help create your ebooks. Grab a digital camera and start snapping shots of your products, people using your products and services, your workers, etc. Then show off your shots, your products and describe your services with awesome power-packed presentations; web pages with interactive links for sound, visual presentations, communications (emails or forum posts) and more.

Education – When your products or services need explained, educate your prospects and clients with ebooks. Have sample or short versions available for trial offers or free downloads. Then include full-fledged detailed editions with product / service purchases. Educate with visual, sound and interactive point-and-click methods. Invite questions and feedback from recipients for improvements on future product and service development.

Communications – How many times do you get an email you with a question - the same question over and over gain it seems – that requires a book-length answer? Maybe questions like, “How do you create a basic website?” or “How can you market on a tight budget?” inspire lengthy replies. Well, now you can write one long reply, turn it into an ebook and send it out – over and over again and free up more time for other things. AND include your own marketing information inside so that readers can look you up on the Internet, pass your information along and give others the opportunity to find you, too.

New Product – Use surveys and take polls for new product creation. Include a link to a web page with a questionnaire and free download for recipients upon completion.

Sales Reps – Arm your sales representatives with professional, top-notch full-color media / product / service information kits presented via your ebooks to share with local newspaper, radio, television and other media reps, visitors and potential clients at trade shows and other events. Set up an introductory page in your ebook, then an index where people can click and quickly find your History, Mission Statement, product and service descriptions and images, Contact information, Testimonials, etc. Then copy the ebooks to disks and CDs to distribute at events. This gives people the opportunity to learn much more about you when they have more time afterwards.

So grab your cyber-pencil or keypad and start writing! Ebooks can definitely enlarge your operations.

Boosting the Sales of Your Internet Marketing eBook or Any eBook

When you put your all into learning something that  you  need  to know, you can bet that other people can  benefit  from  what  you have learned. Internet marketing is one of those topics that lots  of people need help with. So once  you've  gained  knowledge  and experience writing and selling an internet marketing ebook  might be a good opportunity for you.

In order to make money in ebook publishing, you have  to  have  a product that people want. How-to  books  that  fill  a  need  are undoubtedly best-selling  ebooks.  An  internet  marketing  ebook falls into that category.

There is nothing worse than an internet marketing ebook or how-to ebook that is filled with junk. Thus, in order for your  internet marketing ebook to be a best  seller,  it  has  to  offer  useful information. If  it  doesn't,  you'll  get  return  requests  and charge-backs left and right. Besides, if you don't  have  quality content in your internet marketing ebook, you  can't  comfortably offer a money back guarantee which is actually a vital aspect  of marketing ebooks for profit.

Every ebook, especially an internet  marketing  ebook,  needs  to have a clear purpose before you begin to  write  it.  Decide  who your target audience will be - who will buy your book?  Selecting a niche market to sell your internet marketing ebook to  is  half the battle. When you narrow your market  rather  than  trying  to satisfy the masses, you will have a much higher  quality  product and less competition. The trick to producing a best seller is  to provide a solution to an existing problem that isn't  effectively solved by numerous competitors.

Add value to your internet marketing ebook by  offering  freebies as  bonuses  for  buying  the  ebook  right  away.  A  customer's perceived value is very  important.  Examples  of  bonuses  might include things like a report  on  how  to  set  up  an  affiliate program for an ebook, how to manage a pay-per-click campaign,  or how  to  write  results-oriented  sales  copy  for  an   internet marketing website.

Realize that if your internet marketing ebook is  going  to  make money, you've got to apply the internet marketing principles that will get your ebook noticed, walk the prospect through the  sales process and close  the  sale.  The  first  principle  is  driving traffic to your website. Whatever internet  marketing  techniques you use to accomplish that, targeted traffic is vital.  Once  you have visitors at your website the sales process kicks in.

Long-copy sales letters  are  undoubtedly  best  for  selling  an internet marketing ebook or any  other  ebook  for  that  matter. Short copy just doesn't cut it. You see,  when  you  are  selling information products online, like an  internet  marketing  ebook, you don't have the advantage of a face-to-face sales opportunity. Your web copy has to accomplish the sales for you.

To close  the  sale,  the  copy  must  convey  a  unique  selling proposition - one or more things that stand out apart  from  your competition. It has to be attractive and compelling to your well-defined target market  with  headlines  and  subheads  that  grab attention by  stating  the  product's  benefit  or  solution,  or invoking curiosity. Your pricing strategy  and  relative  bonuses must give readers a high perceived value so they  feel  they  are getting an internet marketing ebook and additional information or products that are worth what they are paying.

The sales copy also has to build credibility  either  by  stating the  author's  credentials,  using  testimonials,  or  both.  The reader's objections also have to be countered by the sales  copy. This can be accomplished  by  addressing  them  directly  and  by offering a money back guarantee.

A long-copy sales letter for selling an internet marketing  ebook or another "how to" ebook that creates a  sense  of  urgency  can result in immediate sales. People have a tendency to  be  impulse shoppers so creating urgency by offering a "limited  time"  price or bonuses or making the product available  only  for  a  limited time will prompt the close of the sale.

Another factor to consider  when  writing  sales  copy  for  your internet marketing ebook is, buyers want to know they can contact you. When you provide  valid,  easy-to-find  contact  information your credibility increases tremendously and as a result  so  will your sales for your internet marketing ebook  or  any  ebook  you choose to publish.

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