October 23, 2006 by rcarruth.

 Ebooks and reports are my favorite method for generating passive income. I have an article in the works that will detail the tools needed to generate your own ebooks and reports, from your computer, at NO cost.. Stay tuned..  

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Information products are a hot commodity in the online marketplace, transforming traditional entrepreneurs into infopreneurs. Ebooks and special reports are two of the most basic forms of info products. They are relatively easy to create and distribute and best of all, these products can generate passive income—money you make while you sleep.

An ebook is an electronic book that can be downloaded to a reader’s computer or hand-held device. Special reports are similar, but typically shorter in length. Some savvy internet marketers sell special reports ranging in size from two to twenty pages. Ebooks tend to be more comprehensive, with page counts from twenty to three hundred.

If you’ve been thinking about cashing in on this trend, then follow these simple steps to get started.

Establish Your Expertise

Everyone is an expert at something. Whether you are great at writing financial reports, organizing a home or training hamsters, you have something to offer the public. Sure there may be other people out there with similar qualifications, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t room in the market for another expert. If you have a unique approach, you can compete with the best of them.

Building your expert status takes some effort. If you have special degrees in your field, a popular website, have published articles, been quoted by the media or given presentations on your topic, you are on the right track. If you don’t yet have these qualifications on your resume, start working on adding as many of these credibility-builders as possible.

Find Your Audience

You could write the most fascinating ebook on the planet, but your parents and friends will not be enough of an audience to make it worth your while. To be successful at selling ebooks and special reports, you must be able to reach a broad group of buyers. The best place to start is with a content-rich website.

For example, if you want to become an expert on dog training, your website should appeal to dog enthusiasts. To attract an audience, offer resources and articles that appeal to the dog-loving community. You can write your own articles or ask others to contribute content to your site. You can also locate articles available for reprint from sites like ezinearticles.com and ideamarketers.com. The key is to offer as much valuable information as possible. When your site visitors find value, they will be more interested in investing in the products you have for sale.

Communicating With Customers

One of the most effective ways to reach potential buyers is with an ezine. By sending a monthly or even weekly electronic newsletter, you accomplish several things at once: you get your name in front of your website visitors, you establish your credibility as someone who provides valuable information, and you can get your products in front of readers repeatedly. Studies show that the average consumer must be exposed to a product six to eight times before making a decision to buy. Your ezine can become a powerful tool for your information product business.

To capture subscribers to your ezine, provide a subscription link on every page of your website. You may want to offer a bonus, such as a complimentary special report or ebook, to entice visitors to sign up.

Create Your Products

Once your website is drawing traffic and your ezine is going out on a regular basis, you’re ready to create your first information product. First you must decide what topic to cover in your ebook or special report. Consider what information your site visitors want to know. Do you receive the same questions over and over? Answering those could be the basis of your first product. You could also survey your customer base to find out what interests them.

Once you know what your subject matter will be, then get to work on writing your first ebook or special report. It would be wise to have your content edited by either a friend or a professional so you can ensure you are delivering the best output possible. Don’t forget to include your website and contact information along with a copyright statement similar to the following:

Copyright © 2006 by Annie Author

Once your work is complete, you will want to convert it to a user-friendly format. Adobe PDF Creator software allows you to convert your document to PDF format which can be viewed on personal computers, Macintosh computers, and numerous handheld devices. You can also choose security settings to protect the contents of the document. If you don’t already own this software, you can visit www.adobe.com to convert up to five documents at no charge.

Automate the Sales Process

Once your finished product is ready to go, you will need to automate the sales process. You could add a link to your website and attempt to process payments and deliver your info products manually, but this will only leave you and your customers frustrated. One of the benefits of info products is the instant gratification. When a customer makes a purchase, he wants to access the product immediately instead of waiting for you to check your email and deliver the goods.

There are a variety of online merchant systems available and one such solution is offered by www.payloadz.com. This service manages the sales and delivery of electronic products. You can upload your file to Payloadz and create shopping cart buttons that can be placed on your website. When a customer makes a purchase, Payloadz will handle collecting the payment (which is processed via Paypal), and will send the buyer a link to download the product from their server. All you have to do is sit back and wait for the cash to hit your bank!

Market, Market, Market

Once your product is created and the sales and delivery process automated, your focus should be on marketing. Few businesses can be successful without marketing, and information products are no exception. Here are some ways to market online without breaking the bank:

*Publish articles in related industry publications and websites.

*Publish articles through content sites such as ezinearticles.com.

*Write a book. Being an author is an instant boost to your credibility and a book can open the doors to a variety of opportunities such as media appearances and speaking engagements.

*Form strategic alliances with website owners in your industry. Trade links to each other’s sites, swap ads in your ezines, or partner on a project or event.

*Be everywhere. Participate in teleconferences, internet radio interviews, blogs, and industry-related forums and chat rooms.

As your business grows, continue to evaluate what your customers want to know and develop products to meet those needs. Remember that it’s much easier to fill a need than to create one. And if you can do just two or three things each day to market your business, it shouldn’t be long before your website traffic and product sales exceed your wildest dreams.

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October 19, 2006 by rcarruth.

No matter where you go or who the source might be, the advice is still the same. You can’t make a sale without benefit of *killer* content (otherwise known as sales copy).

Unfortunately, for most individuals, meeting this criteria is much easier said than done. After all, not everyone is blessed with the ability to write well, let alone establish content that’s geared toward advertising genius.

So… if the only way to guarantee sales is to use killer copy, and you don’t happen to possess that level of writing ability, what alternative does the average webmaster have?

The obvious choice, of course, is to simply hire a professional copywriter. Needless to say, we’re talking major expense here so let’s just forget that one. And assuming you don’t have some close friend or family member that writes for a living and is willing to donate their expertise to you free of charge, two choices remain.

1. Find some way of writing the sales copy yourself.

2. Don’t even worry about it and let the chips (or potential buyers) fall where they may.

Since the latter choice is totally unacceptable, let’s roll up our sleeves and see what it takes to transform a non-writer into the necessary advertising genius.

The first priority is to swipe good copy.

And before you ask, no one’s suggesting you go out and steal someone else’s hard word. At best, it’s immoral to do so, at worse, it’s downright illegal.

Instead, the word “swipe” refers to developing a file that contains each and every piece of quality sales copy you happen to find.

Every copywriter worth their salt has a swipe file, a folder (or folders) stuffed with headlines, sales copy examples, and advertising ideas in general. Then, when it comes time to write something, they merely breeze through the material and pull out what works best for a particular ad campaign.

Naturally, the more information contained in your swipe file, the easier the chore of putting together the entire sales content. So now the question is, where do you begin?

Start by checking out websites owned by top Internet marketers, more specifically, the pages where they’re promoting a specific product. Pay close attention to how they present their sales copy, how they skillfully lead the viewer to the order button.

If you run across a headline or an ad in a newspaper or magazine that not only grabs your attention but compels you to make a purchase as well, make certain you add it to your swipe file.

Once you’ve collected a good assortment, take a closer look at what prompted you to add them to your file in the first place. Regardless of whether it was the headline, the copy in general, or the basic format, see if you can determine exactly why it was so effective.

Choose the methods that made the most impact and then use those same techniques in your own sales content. Keep in mind, most successful (and high-priced) copywriters didn’t start out creating genius ad campaigns and neither will you.

The only way to learn how to write well is to write and then write some more. If you start by using material taken directly from your swipe file, practice re-writing it to suit your own product or service, you’ll eventually reach the point where you can simply create original content on your own.

And since the ultimate content you create will have been based on proven, professional methods, your own writing skill will not only excel but continue to improve as time goes on.

Keep in mind, however, that if you skip this crucial “practice writing” method, there’s not much chance you’re ever going to have the ability to create killer sales copy. Practice, practice, practice… write, write, and then write some more.

If you’re not willing to invest hard work and effort, you’re not really serious about succeeding online. Let’s face it. It’s a very simple equation. Top Internet marketers are successful because they worked hard at it, not because it got handed to them on a silver platter.

So follow their lead and establish a commitment to do it right by investing whatever time and energy is necessary to get from Point A to Point B. The end result will be well worth the effort.

For more detailed information about this topic, make certain you grab a copy of the free distribution ebook entitled “Learn How To Write Killer Sales Copy” at www.ebookhelper.com/FreeEbooks.html.

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October 4, 2006 by rcarruth.

 I use these tools. That’s why I published this article. If you aren’t using Google’s array of tools for marketers and web site builders you’re missing out on a ton of freeware. Check it out… 

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 10 Most Valuable Free Google Marketing Tools
Google has become the dominant search engine on the Internet. It would be hard to imagine a web without Google. For that matter, it would now be hard to imagine a world without Google. As frightening as that may seem to many people, it is none the less true.

For better or worst, Google has permeated into almost every aspect of our everyday life. Being Googled is now a common expression and an act carried out by millions of users around the world each day. New Google products and services are coming on stream at a frightening pace, further increasing Google’s impact on our lives.

Despite this dominating presence, many people still don’t realize Google offers some excellent free marketing tools for marketers and webmasters. Marketing tools which can prove extremely valuable to any webmaster or marketer trying to promote their sites or products online. Useful tools that will make your promotions easier and much more profitable.

Don’t be fooled by the ‘free’ label, these marketing tools might be free but there are also valuable. One even wonders why Google would be giving away these tools and services for free? It probably makes good business sense in the long run, by providing these free tools Google is fostering a lot of company good-will and building up the Google brand name in the process. Good PR is good business.

Every marketer and webmaster should be taking advantage of Google’s good-will and snapping up these professionally run services and marketing tools. Here’s a quick run-down of the 10 most valuable free Google Internet marketing tools:

1. Google Analytics

Perhaps the premier marketing tool offered by Google. It will prove helpful to both the marketer and the webmaster. Google Analytics gives you a daily snapshot of your web site. Google Analytics analyzes your traffic, where it comes from and what it does once it enters your site. You can monitor up to three sites for free.

Google Analytics is extremely valuable in analyzing your marketing funnel, it tracks all the steps leading up to your sales or checkout page. Vital information for raising your conversion rate and ROI.

You may be placed on a waiting list for this highly in demand service from Google.

LINK http://www.google.com/analytics/

2. Google Sitemaps

Webmasters can use Google Sitemaps to almost instantly place newly created pages on their site into the Google Search Index. This is an XML file that is uploaded to Google as new pages are added on your site. Needless to say this can be a valuable service for any webmaster or marketer who wants to get their information on the web quickly.

LINK https://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/docs/en/about.html

3. Google Alerts

Be notified when someone or another site lists your site or mentions your name. Great way to keep track of all your online activities. Great way to monitor all your online business interests and products.

LINK http://www.google.com/alerts

4. Google Froogle

Froogle is Google’s price directory! It simply lists all the cheapest prices for different products on the web. For marketers and webmasters who are promoting products, it should be studied and analyzed. Optimizing your site’s content for Froogle may prove to be very beneficial.

Follow Froogle or Google directions exactly on how to list or display products on your site. Froogle will spider your site and display your prices and products to thousands of targeted customers. That, as they say, is priceless.

LINK http://froogle.google.com/

5. Google Checkout

Not exactly free but for those marketers who use AdWords — for every $1 spent on AdWords you can process $10 for free. You can also place the shopping cart logo on your AdWords ad and take advantage of the prestige and trust the Google brand name has built up.

Over time marketers may find this tool to be very effective and valuable.

LINK https://checkout.google.com/

6. Google eBlogger

Blogging has become vitally important to the health and functioning of your web site. No site should be without at least one blog and RSS feed. Creating a blog (online journal) on the topic of your web site or product will bring in extra traffic and targeted customers. eBlogger is a simple free blogging service that even lets you publish or post your blog files to your own web site server. Keep in mind, each blog has that all important Google Blog Search bar.

LINK http://www.blogger.com/

7. Google Toolbar - Enterprise Version

Try the new enterprise version of the Google Toolbar for your company or business. Integrates countless features with all your employees or corporate network. These could include a common customer database, company calendar, financial news…

Keep in mind, Google also ranks every page it indexes on a scale of 0-10. While it is important to know the Page Rank of your own pages, it is even more important to know the PR of your competitor’s pages. You can use the toolbar to get the PR of each page you’re visiting. Extremely helpful information for webmasters and marketers to know when forming online linking or business arrangements.

LINK http://toolbar.google.com/T4/enterprise/

8. Google Groups

Every marketer knows the important of having a large contact list of people with a similar interest. Social networking will play an ever increasing role in your success on the web. Just look at the growing popularity of sites like MySpace and LiveJournal.

Google groups is another form of social and business networking that every marketer should be aware of and pursuing.

LINK http://groups.google.com/

9. Google Adsense

One simple way to monetize your web content is to use Google Adsense. Just place the Adsense code on your site and receive a check from Google each month. For webmasters who are not really into online marketing (does such creatures exist?) Adsense can be a painless way to earn extra income from your site.

For professional marketers using the Adsense system can supply a tremendous amount of marketing information on the keywords in their particular niche. It keeps the marketer informed on what keywords are being bid on and how much advertisers are willing to pay.

Adsense also has an excellent real-time tracking system you can use to keep track of all your important web pages.

LINK https://www.google.com/adsense/

10. Google Writely

A recent addition to Google’s stable of free products. Writely is a full featured online writing editor with spellcheck and great collaborating features. It also lets you publish your content directly to your blogs. One feature that may be of interest to marketers, it lets your save files in the popular download format of PDF.

Lets face it, until video takes over the web in four or five years time — the written word is still king on the net. It is the medium that markets, promotes and sells your content or products. Writely will help you write better.

LINK http://www.writely.com

Honorable Mention - Google Trends

This Google program will let you search popular trends, important for marketers searching for the latest hot product to promote. You can also break down these trends by different regions.

LINK http://www.google.com/trends

Final Note

Please take note that signing up for a Google account will usually help you in obtaining most of these free services or programs. Some of these programs may have to be applied for individually. But be assured, all these free Google marketing tools are well worth your time and effort. They will make your marketing easier and they will help any webmaster or marketer run their online business more efficiently.

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