Electronic books, or ebooks, are one of the quickest ways
to make yourself an infopreneur, or someone who makes money
by selling information. As a service business owner, it's
also a simple way to sell the information that you have
spent countless hours amassing to all of those who want to
buy what you know but who cannot afford to hire you as a
service provider.
The most effective way to market your ebook is via a
one-page website. If you already have a website, I
recommend that you set up a separate stand-alone page for
this ebook. Most domain registrars will permit you to
forward and mask your product domain to an internal page of
your current website. If you don't have a site, you can
create a one-page site with its own hosting.
Here's what you need to know to successfully market your
ebook via a one-page website:
1. An identifiable target market. Ebooks work best as a
product for a very specific niche market, like an ebook on
how to teach your dog tricks, how to effectively meditate
to relieve stress, or how to find a green career. You need
to be able to identify and describe your target market,
from determining what the target market needs and what
they'll pay for (as well as how much they will pay) to what
publications they read, what groups/associations do they
belong to, and where they hang out both on- and offline.
Make sure you understand what your target market needs and
how to reach them before proceeding to the next step.
2. A domain name. The domain name for your ebook site
should mirror or closely resemble your product name or a
prominent feature of your product. So, for example, if you
are a hypnotherapist and you have a podcast that you're
selling on how to use hypnosis to lose weight, then you'd
want to try and get a domain name like LoseWeightFast.com.
Try and get the .com version of your domain name if
possible, but if that's not available, seek out the
hyphenated version of the .com domain name.
3. A give-away. You have two goals for your ebook site: get
the contact info from your visitors and convert them into
paying customers. Because not everyone will buy your
primary product (thus providing you with their contact
information), you need another strategy to collect your
prospect's information. The best way to obtain contact info
from a visitor is to create a free giveaway that's closely
related to the product that you're selling in which the
content is so compelling that the visitor gladly parts with
his/her name and primary email address to obtain the free
giveaway. By giving you their contact information, they
have become a warm lead and you can start to develop a
relationship with them. You can then develop a series of
3-6 follow-up autoresponders to upsell them to purchasing
your product.
4. A merchant account. In order to collect payments, you
need to be able to take credit card payments online and
provide electronic product delivery. I use and highly
recommend PracticePaySolutions.com, a company that works
with many coaches, consultants and speakers. Your merchant
account company needs to offer a "virtual terminal", which
lets you enter and process transactions online and
interfaces with your shopping cart program.
The most commonly used virtual terminal is that provided by
Authorize.net. If you don't want to invest in a merchant
account, you can begin by using third-party processors like
PayPal or ClickBank, but they offer less flexibility than a
full merchant service.
6. Shopping cart software. Ultimately, your shopping cart
software will be a workhorse for you and enable you to
automate many functions of your online business. The cart
that I highly recommend is KickStartCart.com, which offers
a great deal of flexibility in how you list and bundle
products, gives buyers a 24-hour download URL for
downloading your electronic product, has built-in
autoresponders so you can automatically follow up with your
buyers, and provides an email broadcast function so that
you can send out special notices to the customers or
prospects on your list.
7. Sales letter page. This is the primary sales page of
your ebook website, containing a long sales letter with
benefits of your product and testimonials of others who've
used the product. In many ways, this has now become the
electronic version of the 6-10 page direct sales letters
that used to be sent to us regularly via snail mail. The
formula for writing an effective one-page sales letter site
includes an attention-getting headline, a strong opening
statement, body of the letter that outlines the features
and benefits of what you're offering, the actual offer
itself, several testimonials from happy purchasers, and
then a request for the sale. Most sales letter pages are
constructed very similarly. If you look and compare other
one page websites, you'll find this style used again and
again.
8. Follow-up auto responders. It's always easier to sell to
someone who has already purchased from you than to convert
a new prospect to a customer. Therefore, the ability to
continue to reach out and "touch" your customers is key in
developing a relationship with them so that they continue
to buy. I create a series of 3-6 follow-up autoresponders
that are sent out over the 3 weeks following a purchase to
check in with the purchaser and to interest the purchaser
in another item.
9. Traffic to the site. Because your ebook site is only one
page, it will be virtually ignored in the organic search
engine ranking process. There's simply not enough content
to warrant a high ranking on any keyword you might choose.
The easiest way to drive traffic to a one-page web site is
to purchase keywords, or pay-per-click advertising.
Google's Adwords is the best-known pay-per-click
advertiser. You can also generate traffic to this site by
holding teleclasses or webinars on some topic covered in
your ebook, creating a series of articles with a link back
to your product in the resource box, or create a blog or an
article directory devoted to the topic of your ebook.
10. Additional selling features. Once you've created you
one page ebook website , you may want to add additional
selling features, especially if the ebook is priced more
than $50. You could create additional pages in which you
print a chapter excerpt, your table of contents, or an
invitation to sign up for your product's affiliate program.
Ebooks are one of the quickest and inexpensive ways to help
you establish your expertise and create another source of
income for your business. Follow this simple ebook
marketing plan and begin selling your information today!
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Online Business Resource Queen (TM) and Online Business
Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals
learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their
expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. To
claim your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketing
Toolkit, visit her site at http://www.OnlineBizU.com . Ask
Donna an Internet Marketing question at
http://www.AskDonnaGunter.com .
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