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Monday, August 23, 2010

How to create and market an e-book product











People spend a great deal of time blogging for ad dollars that never really pay off. Although affiliate marketing is a good way to go, the product is not yours, and you have no control over the cost, or how to necessarily market the product. At the end of the day, the best product you have to offer is one that you own. So then the question becomes what product should I sell? That is a good question, and it depends a lot on what your blog is all about, and who your target audience is.

Information sites are great, but it is hard to charge for information that people can get somewhere else for free. The information should be specialized to some degree and should benefit the reader in some way. The best way to think of it is that your product should either solve a current problem that your readers are dealing with, or it should help to minimize a potential problem that they might incur. The other option is that it could add some sort of entertainment value where the reader is receiving enjoyment in some fashion. In any case, the product should have a measurable benefit to your readers.
What does all this have to do with eBooks you might ask? Well, the thing is you have a certain level of expertise in whatever field of interest you blog about. This information can be of value to your readers, especially if the information is from your best or “Pillar” blogs. This type of content can be culminated into an eBook which in turn can be used to attract traffic to your site, or to help in the process of obtaining an e-mail subscription list which is a very valuable commodity when attempting to make a successful blog that actually makes money. The content does not need to be outrageously long, in fact, you can often turn a sweet profit from a document that is only 10, 20 and up to 50 pages long, as long as those pages solve a problem that people will pay to have the solution to.

When determining what type of issue you are looking to “solve” don’t over think this part of the process, as the information can even something that anyone could research online, as the reader doesn’t want to have to do all the legwork of researching something online when they can have that done for them for a small fee. Do the work, but also show them that you are a credible person that has the necessary credentials to deal with the issue, and as long as the “problem” is real, you should make a sale.
In summation, the steps involved in creating a successful eBook should include:
1. Identify a potential topic (Either a problem to solve or to avoid at some future date).
2. Research the topic and determine a viable solution to meet the reader’s needs.
3. Pull all the information into a single document that is written for the perspective of the target audience.
4. Market the eBook to your readers (For profit, or as incentive to subscribe via email).

By following these steps, your site will begin to see some definite improvement s in the amount of traffic , and in actual sales.

I wish you continued Success in all your endeavors.



Regards,
Mark

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Optimization and traffic

Boosting the ranking of a website in order to be profitable can be a huge endeavor, and a daunting task with little to no reward for the effort. However,
if you are armed with the right knowledge and expertise, most SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and promotional tasks can be accomplished with little or no cost. The attached video is from Steven Witt, affiliate marketer, and gives a base of information to begin with to assist with helping build rankings and blog traffic.

Let me know what you think of this and if you find it helpful.

Regards,
Mark

Thursday, August 12, 2010

New Faces…of Marketing

A name that has been getting a lot of publicity lately is Zac Johnson, as an affiliate and an internet marketing guru. He has an uncanny ability to drive traffic, and has a new ebook out named “Six Figure Affiliate Blogging." This certainly sounds like something that anyone involved in online marketing will want to read. The book is targeted toward s those already online and with some blogging experience.

He has been making a living on the internet for over 15 years, but only recently started blogging 3 years ago. Zac talks about his focus in “finding a blog niche and using affiliate marketing to generate revenue from that blog.”

A lot of attention is directed towards affiliate marketing, what it is, and how it actually works to generate revenue. Products and services are advertised on your blog site, visitors click on links to the retailer’s sites, and a commission is earned on every signup or sale. That is really the process in a nutshell.

Payments are Pay-per-lead (PPL), pay-per-sale (PPS), and pay-per-click (PPC). The information in the book goes into more detail regarding the affiliate programs and specific recommendations that Zac makes from his personal experience. From the affiliate programs he then covers detail related to getting a blog set up, devising a “custom” theme, and literally getting it introduced to the “masses.”

I recommend that you take a moment and check it out, as it is a great source of information , and it’s Free!!! You can check out Zac’s site at http://zacjohnson.com/

Best of luck to you all as you continue on your blogging journey!



Regards,

Friday, August 6, 2010

Mailing lists and what to do with it…..


In the course of creating an audience for your blog, it becomes necessary to keep in contact with them. Let’s face it, a blog audience is indeed an audience, but this doesn’t necessarily mean “real-time”. If they receive your content by RSS feed, then they might only check it periodically and not each and every day. This can be disastrous for any promotion or product campaign, especially as time is everything in this competitive market. This can make the entire effort for the promotion wasted, and you lose momentum and potential sales.


This can be corrected by getting people to subscribe via email. Instead of waiting for them to check for new content, they can be notified of it today…..right now……this very second. You have the control to notify your readers in advance. This can be extremely helpful when preparing to launch your promotion.

This is good for the people that you currently have subscribing via email, but what about getting email addresses from those readers already signed up, or directing new readers to subscribe via email. The best way to do this is through a “Free” product promotion. Now, “Free” product does not mean some worthless report that gives absolutely zero relevant information or a compilation of your “best” posts. It means something of value that ultimately solves a problem for your readers. This should be a useful product or tool that provides immediate results. This captures their attention, and creates trust that they can come back and receive good, useful products from you. Very few competitors will follow through with this, giving you a competitive edge.

It’s worth it to take some time and look at what products are offered out there in the blogosphere and see if there is something out there you can use or create yourself.

I will follow up with my own research on products available and present them in a following post.

Regards,

Mark

Monday, August 2, 2010

What is selling?

Blogs do many things. They inform people, tell stories, generate interest, create a need, and in some cases generate money somewhere along the way.


There are articles, e-books, reports, services, and advertisements, and perhaps actual products that are attached to any one single blog. So what is the answer? Well, first off identifying a niche in the platform of your blog is a great way to start. What is your subject matter and target audience?

The term “products” can take many forms when considering a blog. It can be advertisements such as Adsense, product placements, sponsored posts, affiliate products, surveys, and reports that provide specific information that is difficult to obtain somewhere else, or is much more expensive from other sources.

Adsense is a good source is you are generating 100 or more visitors a day. Otherwise you will find that the ads are not effective in viewing, let alone converting sales of any significance. Two things to remember with Adsense are to place ad boxes within the content of your page. The reader cannot avoid the ads this way, and the reader is more likely to actually view the ad in more detail. The second tip is to place the ads next to something that they already need to click on, as they will be more inclined to actually check out the advertisement.

PayPerPost will pay you a fee for posting a product review on your site. In this case make sure that it is disclosed that the review is a paid product review, or this could appear unethical to your viewers. This information can prove to be quite helpful for readers looking for qualified opinions, and also helps to promote trust and loyalty to you as a blogger, and the content that you provide.

Some interesting statistics related to different advertisements is that According to a new study by Internet Retailer, visitors who arrive on a site from pay-per-click (PPC) advertising are 50% more likely to buy than traffic generated by search engine optimization (SEO. The study found that the average conversion rate from paid search is 2.03% vs. only 1.25% from organic search. Visitors sent to web sites via e-mail marketing convert even better, at 6.9%.

E-mail is a more personable approach leading to the reader having more trust that you have a stake in their needs and wants, and gives the most information about what to expect, so the conversion rate is higher. PPC ads have significantly less copy, so the prospect is not as clear on what is being offered, and conversion rate is less.

SEO (Search engine optimization) actually has the lowest conversion rates, and is directly tied to the much smaller fields available for descriptions, and with less consideration demonstrated in regards to making the ad more personable.



As always, I hope the information proves useful and that you continue on your blogging quest with

Passion, Zest, and Vigor as you grow your Blog and your business.



Regards,
Mark