Archive for August, 2009

20 Tips For Writing Your eBook Part 1

Outlining and Organization Part 1
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I’ll be honest with you up front — if you don’t create an in-depth outline, get yourself organized and stick to the plan, you’re going to have a hard time writing your eBook.

The reason writers can write a new eBook every month is because THEY STAY ORGANIZED. It’s that simple. It isn’t creativity. It isn’t writing ability. It isn’t some special power or magic wand. It’s ORGANIZATION.

So, let me share a few tips with you to keep you on track…

1. Get Organized.

I can tell you from experience, you got to get organized and stay organized if you want to write an eBook. Each time you get ready to write something new, ask yourself some very simple questions.

– What is the focus of this book, article, newsletter, etc.?
– What is the message that I want to get across to the reader?
– What makes this writing different or special?
– What is the order in which I need to divide categories?
– Is this a believable idea and if not, how can I make it believable?
– What kind of research do I need to perform?

Once you’ve answered those questions honestly, you will have better focus to begin. I cannot stress the importance of getting and staying organized. I just don’t know any other way to write than to have a game plan and to stick with it. I’d be lost without doing it.

A great tool many authors use is a planner or organizer. Find an office supply store and get you a new planner or organizer to record your outline and steps completed for your ebook.
Believe me, it’s money well spent. It is critical to your success as an author — simply because it helps you to stay on target and complete your projects.

2. Understand your Goals.

When you get serious about writing, sit down and actually write a mission statement. Identify why writing is important to you, what you expect to get out of it, and what result you want from your writing.
Do you want to earn money?
Do you want to experience a sense of accomplishment?
Do you want to be recognized as an expert?
Do you want fame or credibility?
Do you want to share your knowledge and experience to help others?
Do you want ALL OF THE ABOVE? (And then some!)

When you need motivation, look at your mission statement and re-read what it was that opened your heart to writing in the first place. For the writer that finds great success, it’s perfectly fine to be proud of your accomplishments and awards, but don’t get so caught up in things that you lose sight of why you started writing in the first place. A mission statement will also help keep you grounded.

3. Find a Significant Audience To Sell To

The biggest fear of most writers is that their eBook won’t sell. And that’s a good fear to have because it forces you to take some time to RESEARCH and find out if your eBook is something to pursue at all.

The biggest mistake you can make as an eBook author is to invest time and energy into writing something that no one (or very few people) want to read, or are willing to pay to read.

Before you write a single word of your eBook, find out if the information you are going to share is “sellable.” Determine if it’s information that is valuable to a significant number of people. If your eBook is something you are going to sell in the $20 – $50 range, then you need to make certain that there are at least 10,000 potential customers out there. You’re going to need to sell a substantial number of eBooks to earn some decent profits, so make certain that you have plenty of people who are potential customers.

If you are going to sell a very “nichey” product for a higher price tag of $100 or more, then obviously you won’t need as large of an audience to choose from.

4. Determine Your Own Unique Approach.

What makes you DIFFERENT? Why should a customer buy from you instead of your competition? Are you faster, better, cheaper? Do you offer more? More for less?
From the beginning, you need to find some way that you separate yourself from the rest of the package, something that makes your eBook more advantageous to the potential customer than anyone else’s. You want them to buy from YOU, so why should they?

One of the things that autors like to do — and then stress in their sales letter and ads — is that they offer 100% original, exclusive information. In other words, if you want this information, you gotta buy it from THEM, because NO ONE ELSE HAS IT.

If you can create an eBook that is structured in such a way that no one else is offering it, then you force folks to buy from you if they want the information. That’s a powerful concept, so don’t take it lightly. One of the most important things you can do is determine WHY someone should buy from you, and then work on solidifying that as you write.

Exclusive information? Then write only content (at least portions of it) that no one else is sharing.
Exclusive format? Then structure yours in such a way that can only be found through you.
Exclusive offer? Then put together something that is yours and yours alone.

You separate yourself from the competition by eliminating the competition.

5. Have a Purpose.

I mentioned this briefly before, but certainly it applies here as well. To stay focused on your objectives, you gotta have a purpose. Something that drives you. Something that is waiting at the end of the journey — at the completion of your project.

One young man started writing as a tribute to his loving parents who through unbelievable challenges had raised him with unconditional love and full support. As a way to thank them, he decided to write a book, hopefully have it published, and present it to them for their 50th wedding anniversary. Not only did he get his book published and completely surprised his loving parents, but he went on to a full-time career in journalism.

He had a purpose, a real purpose that drove him to succeed. Keeping your objective in sight is much easier when you’re excited about your work and strive to succeed at your goals. The great thing is that you’re never too young or too old!

Heck, even if the purpose is “Nah, nah — see I told you I could do it!” — that’s something to stay focused upon. One of the most invigorating things in life is to do something that someone told you couldn’t be done.

6. Write Objectives Down.

This is an extremely important step and one that shouldn’t be missed. If you don’t write your objectives down, you will quickly lose sight of them. Keeping them as a visual will help you achieve them.

The most important objective is to identify WHAT YOU WANT TO SHARE with your readers. What is it that you want to share with those who download your eBook?

And, more importantly, have you done that?

Staying on track means looking back over what you’ve already written and determining if it does meet your objectives. In other words, if you want to give your readers a step-by-step plan for losing weight, does your writing do that? If it does, keep moving on. If it doesn’t, then what areas need further explanation or additional information?

7. Working Title.

Choose a title to get you going. You should always entitle the product before you even start writing on it. It helps you to organize all of your ideas towards supporting the main theme of the eBook. That’s what a title for an information product is — it’s a statement of the main theme of the eBook.

For example, when Jimmy D. Brown wrote List PROFIT System, that title helped him to organize his thoughts, remove information that didn’t belong, and add new ideas as he worked on the outline. He structured that course so that everything he shared would work towards showing the reader how to profit from their online newsletter (Aka: ezine)

You can also use the TITLE to help you create your actual chapter headings. For example: If you are writing an eBook on becoming a better golfer, you might entitle it “How to Become a Great Golfer.” Your organization for the eBook might include chapters such as…

Great Golfers aren’t afraid to take risks.
Great Golfers develop their own unique style.
Great Golfers invest in their game.
Great Golfers blah blah blah

The TITLE of your eBook, in addition to helping you stay focused towards the theme, also helps you to organize the subheadings / sections of the eBook by incorporating it into the actual chapter titles themselves.

8. Thesis.

A thesis is one or several sentences that state the audience’s main problem and then how your book is going to solve it. Go ahead and write your book’s thesis, knowing that doing this before your book is written will help keep you on track much better. In this aspect, the chapters will all need to support the thesis so as you write, you will have that in your mind.

Basically, you are expanding upon the title of the eBook. “How to Become a Great Golfer” is the title. Your thesis statement might be “How to become a great golfer in less than an hour a day by following 7 strategies of other successful golfers.”

Everything you write works toward accomplishing what you state as the purpose of your eBook. If it doesn’t work towards that, then get rid of it. It doesn’t belong in there.

9. Use The 4-Step Writing Formula.

Closely connected to writing your objectives down and then seeing if you are achieving those objectives (particularly in reference to WHAT YOU WANT TO SHARE with your readers) is to use the 4-step writing formula…

Step One: Write Out A List of Everything You Want To Share. That’s right, just write down everything you want to share in your eBook. I’m talking just start rambling on paper (or your computer screen). Everything you can think of that relates to the subject of your eBook. Just a list of “ideas” you want to share.

Step Two: Write Everything You Can Think Of For Each Entry. For each entry on your list (I.E. Each “idea”) write down everything you can think of. Explain each idea as thoroughly as you can. Share research, examples, case studies, quotes, tips, resources — everything you can find for each section.

Step Three: Organize Your Thoughts. Take everything and put it into a logical order. If it’s a tutorial, organize it chronologically in order of which steps come first. If it’s a “tips” eBook, categorize the tips. Put things in a logical order for your readers to be able to understand as they begin reading.

Step Four: Edit And Pad The Sections. Go back to each section and edit. Take out what doesn’t need to be in there. And add more content to the sections that need further explanation.
Congratulations. You just wrote an eBook. :o )

10. Outline Again And Again.

A common mistake of many new writers is that they are so eager to write, they want to dive into a project immediately without giving much thought to process or content.

Perhaps you have an idea but it’s only half-baked. By using ideas that haven’t been thought out very well you usually end up with a poor eBook and a lot of frustration. (How many times have you quit a project and started a new one?) For this reason, if you are just starting to get involved with writing, you need to first learn about and understand the importance of OUTLINING your project.

I always start any writing project by constructing an IN-DEPTH outline. I jot down every idea that I want to share in the eBook (original ideas and researched ideas) and then I organize it into a logical flow for actually writing the content.

BUT, it doesn’t end there. As I am actually writing the eBook, I continue to tweak the outline. I add more subpoints along the way.
——————- Sidebar ———————
Here’s a “very simple” example:
Original outline…

3 Ways to Research Writing Projects
1. Interview experts
2. Subscribe to newsletters
3. Search keywords at search engines.

Expanded outline #1…
3 Ways to Research Writing Projects

1. Interview experts
A. Determine what you want to ask
B. Identify experts
C. Prepare contact letter
D. Submit contact letter
E. Conduct Interview

Expanded outline #2…
3 Ways to Research Writing Projects
1. Interview experts
A. Determine what you want to ask
You could easily add many subpoints here describing what I would actually want to ask the experts concerning my writing subject.
B. Identify experts
You could easily add many subpoints here discussing ways to find out who the experts are and how to contact them.
C. Prepare contact letter
You could easily add many subpoints here explaining what to include in the contact letter, how to make it “worth the while” for the expert, etc.
D. Submit contact letter
You could easily add many subpoints here about the best ways to submit the contact letter (email, traditional mail, fax, telephone, etc.)
E. Conduct Interview
You could easily add many subpoints here describing in detail how to do the interview. (necessary equipment, interviewing skills, preparation, etc.)
——————- Sidebar ———————

The point is to continue EXPANDING each point and subpoint until you have covered everything that is needed in order to comprehensively and clearly share the information your readers need.
Once you have an IN-DEPTH outline, the writing is easy. Who couldn’t write ONE PARAGRAPH about each subpoint? That’s really all it takes.

That is all for Part 1. In Part 2 of Outlining and Organization we will start with #11 Create a Plan of Action. Until then I hope you read, absorb and utilize the information in Part 1 to help you in writing your book.

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Make Sure Your Landing Page Is Relevant

PPC Tip # 4

Continuing our series on Pay Per Click advertising we take a look at a very
important aspect of any marketing campaign. The Landing Page.

One mistake that many people can and do make, is sending their PPC
traffic to an unfocused or bad landing page.

You want the landing page to be relevant to what that person searched for.
This will ensure that your visitor doesn’t simply click away the second they
land on your page.

People are often trying to find something very specific, and if it’s not clear
that you have what they want you’ll lose that visitor fast. If you make an
effort to customize a landing page that is relevant to your website you will
find that your traffic converts a lot better.

This often means sending visitors to different web pages depending on
the keyword they clicked on.

For example, if one of your keywords targets “natural acne treatments for
sale,” you want to make sure the page people come to clearly showcases
these natural acne treatments.

If a different ad created references “homemade recipes for acne,” that
landing page had better show some homemade recipes.

It might seem picky, but the more targeted your page is, the more likely
your traffic is to convert into sales.

Think about your own experience with searching for information or a
product you were interested in and how important the landing page was
for you when you reached it. Did it contain the information you were
looking for or did you click away because the information or product
was not relevant?

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Blantant Advertisement – But Worth A Look

Quick, without thinking about it,
what’s your number one traffic generation strategy?

Nothing … say that out loud with me, “Nothing” … will grow your traffic better than an effective affiliate program. Nothing.

You are only one person who can only do so much on your own. You only have 24 hours each day to get things done.

But, what if you could tap into the profit pulling power of hundreds, even thousands of other people? What if there was an entire sales army marching across the web, all promoting your product for you?

You’d like that, wouldn’t you?

Ask ANY successful internet marketer on the planet what their #1 source of traffic is and, if they are honest, I’ll assure you that they’ll tell you it’s their affiliate program.

Seriously, find your favorite “guru” and ask them. Ask them if there is ANYTHING that comes close to their affiliate team.

Ask John Reese. Ask Mike Filsaime. Ask Jimmy D. Brown. Ask Frank Kern. Ask Ken Evoy. Ask Marlon Sanders. Ask Russell Brunson. Ask Derek Gehl. Ask Yanik Silver.

Ask ANYONE – don’t take my word for it.

None of these guys would be where they are today without their affiliate program. None of them.

Now, you can find out the secret to their success and duplicate it.

Would you like traffic that you couldn’t stop if you tried?

Grab the free ecourse at www.SalesArmySecrets.com
“5 Practices of Wildly Successful Affiliate Programs” today.

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The Importance of Testing Your Ads

As we continue with ways to get more traffic to your site I wanted to combine tips #2 and #3
because they go hand in hand. Like planning, testing is also a very important factor in your overall advertising scheme and should not be avoided.

#2 – Test first

The best thing you can do after you’ve selected your keywords is to test them out. Don’t start out with a huge bid amount because you can quickly lose money that way. You’ll want to start off with a lower amount to see how many clicks you end up getting. It could be that you’re not getting as many as you expected, so you’ll want to increase your bids. Or, you might find that you’re seeing some traffic and high returns.

Don’t worry — testing doesn’t take long. You can determine within a few days whether or not you should discontinue your ads, tweak them, or keep them going as they are. Being cautious is the best thing at this point, because there are way too many people who dive in headfirst with PPC and then end up with a huge bill that just didn’t pay for the kind of traffic they received. If you do this right, on the other hand, the results from PPC can be faster and more profitable than they are with article marketing.

#3 – Split test your ads

Sometimes, people don’t click on our ads even when we think they’re great. There are many different reasons for this, and that’s why it’s so important to split test your ads. Pay Per Click engines like Google Adwords actually make this easier than ever. You can set up two or more different ads so you can see what is the better performer over time. I recommend that you take advantage of this because you might find that one ad never gets clicks and the other gets great clicks and conversions. Once you have these results, you can delete the non-performer and concentrate on the one that’s giving you the level of traffic and sales that you want.

It’s important to keep in mind that if people are searching and your ad pops up it should contain the keyword you’re targeting. That’s because the search engines highlight the keywords in your ad, which makes them stand out more to your prospects. This is a great way to get more clicks and more traffic.

Now, with the above said there is a system you can copy to increase your results in your ad camgaigns. For more information go to: PPC Profit Mircale.

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As an internet marketer, I know just how lucrative it is to make money marketing online businesses. However I have to let you on a secret I just stumbled upon. I have just found out that instead of concentrating only on online businesses, it is just as easy to earn easy cash using internet marketing techniques on offline businesses!

The main reason for this is because to offline businesses, internet marketing proves to be something new. They are not aware of this market and avenue of free marketing, which brings increased sales and profit for them.

We as internet marketers have nothing to lose as all we have to do is to teach all of them the tricks of internet marketing. Basically, offline businesses at present carry out similar marketing and advertising tactics like using coupons for promoting their businesses and perhaps getting listed in the yellow pages.

They save while we earn

However what they do not know is that they can save money through internet marketing (while we make money!). Instead of spending money printing coupons, we can teach them how to use online coupon companies for free. And instead of getting listed in the yellow pages, we just have to show them the global audience the business gets by listing their business in online yellow pages and directory sites.

We can also carry out workshops to teach them all there is to internet marketing and earn some money by charging for attending the workshop. We can also offer to start blogs for them, and manage them by adding fresh content on a regular basis, and by perhaps starting an e-newsletter for interested people to sign up for.

So you can see that by offering our internet marketing skills to offline businesses, not only do these businesses flourish, we can also earn a sizeable amount through their internet marketing.

There are more tips and techniques to learn by implementing internet marketing techniques in offline businesses. This is why I highly recommend you download this free report called Easy Offline Cash. It discusses everything about using internet marketing techniques in offline business. If you care at all about making more money with what you always to, you will at least download and read the report, it’s free!

Click Here To Download Your Free Easy Offline Cash Report

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Generating Traffic Using Pay Per Click

Pay Per Click (PPC) is another resourceful and effective way to get traffic to
your web page. While article marketing is free (except for the cost of your time),
Pay Per Click cost you money.

There are many pay per click networks. The top three are Google Adwords,
Yahoo, and MSN. With Google Adwords being the most well know of the services.
There are many smaller pay per click networks that show some promise but
Google, Yahoo, and MSN give the best results for now.

How does PPC work you may ask? You basically pay for every visitor that you
receive to your website whom click on your ad through the pay per click service.

What you will do is create a text ad that entices people to click on your ad. Your
ad will appear when someone searches based on the keywords you have chosen.
Now, it can cost anywhere from a few cents per click to several dollars per click.
The cost of each click depends on the niche you’re in and how many other people
are bidding on the same keywords you are using at he same time.

It is very easy to say, you will “lose your shirt” if you are not careful. I recommend
that you learn as much as you can about this very useful traffic generation tool.
You should especially learn how to track your results so that you can quickly
recognize which ads are working and which aren’t and adjust your spending
accordingly. One of the greatest things about PPC is that you can see the results
almost instantly. As soon as you can put your ad up, you can start getting traffic.

Today I am starting a series of PPC tips to help you understand more about this
useful tool. I hope these tips will help you in your Pay Per Click campaigns.

Tip #1 – Plan Your campaigns carefully

Earlier I mentioned you could “lose you shirt” if you not careful. The main reason is
it’s very easy to get carried away in the bidding frenzy and pay too much for your
PPC advertising. This can be because your ad might get shown more than you
expected, and a lot of people click on your ad. If you haven’t tested this could
cause you to lose a lot of money.

Planning ahead and learning all you can about Pay Per Click traffic generation is
the absolute best thing you can do. The most important and first step in planning
is doing proper keyword research. You want your ads to be highly targeted so that
when people enter their search information and your ad pops up it entices them to
click.

For example, if you are selling a certain brand of MP3 player you wouldn’t want
your ad to pop up for the search term “CD player.” Instead, you would select
keywords that are targeted to strictly to MP3 players.

Before you start your campaign you need to use a keyword research tool to
determine what your keywords should be. There are several free and paid for
keyword tools available. The most popular free keyword tool is Googles’ own
keyword research tool.

The Google keyword tool can be found here:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

A very resourceful paid for keyword tool is Micro Niche Finder. I use Micro Niche
Finder for all my keyword research because I can research my keywords deeper.
You can find out more about Micro Niche Finder here:
http://www.onlinesuccessideas.com/mnfsp

With careful planning it will help you earn money instead of losing money.

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