Saturday, February 7, 2009

Book Marketing - 3 Ways to Drive Sales Using an Effective Book Cover Design

The cover of your book is a critical component of your book marketing strategy.It is the first impression people will have of your book and it may be the last.So it's essential that your book cover does more than convey your book's title.

Your book cover is your silent spokesperson and your mini-billboard.

So here are 3 ways in which you can maximize the impact of your book to help boost sales:


1.

Add Your Image


Naturally, this is not appropriate in all cases but it can work effectively whether you are well-known or not.

If you are well-known and your image is part of your overall branding then incorporating your image on the cover of your book will give your book brand recognition.Take Donald Trump for example.He incorporates his image onto the cover of all his books for to quote one of his book titles - "There's no such thing as over-exposure".

If you are well-known then your book represents a great opportunity to increase your recognition.People are generally curious to learn more about an author and to see what they look like.Authors are seen as very special people - celebrities even.Allow potential buyers and or readers to connect with you.So even if you don't want to include your image on the front cover of your book make sure that your image can be readily found.For example, consider including it on the back cover or on the inside flap if your book is a hardcover version.

2.List relevant awards or distinctions


If you have received a significant award for your writing or your work in the subject matter of your book then you can include this information on the cover of your book.

By distinctions I mean something that is worthy of note.For example, if your book has a TV connection your book cover is a great place to mention it.People have a tendency to believe what they see on television which is one reason why this is such a power medium and any TV links will massively boost the saleability of your book.

For instance, Dean Graziosi on his New York Times best selling book "Be a Real Estate Millionaire" mentions "As seen weekly on national TV since 1999".This instantly gives him a ton of credibility even if you've never actually seen Dean Graziosi on television yourself.

Another example is the book "Think Yourself Rich" written by the award-winning author Sharon Maxwell Magnus."Think Yourself Rich" was a major BBC television series and this was mentioned on the front book cover not one but twice.

3.Direct people to a free recorded message


Think of your book as a lead generator.

Your book should be just the first stage of a journey a reader shares with you.offer your readers different ways to interact with you.

So you can use your book cover to invite potential buyers and or readers of your book to phone you using a free phone number where they can listen to a pre-recorded message.Your pre-recorded message can outline a special product or service you might have and a special offer that is only available to individuals who purchase your book.

You might even want to run a special competition in association with the launch of your book and use your pre-recorded message to give details about this.People love competitions and structured astutely a competition that is run as part of your book launch can generate massive publicity for you, your company and of course, your book.


About the Author

For a great opportunity to learn first-hand about expert book marketing visit Book Marketing University.

And to listen to a FREE teleclass on how you can turn your book into an Amazon Bestseller visit Becoming An Amazon Bestseller.

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Starting An Online Business? Here Are 3 Choices

There are tons of ways to start businesses online.There are web businesses that you can start with no money whatsoever, there are web business models that will require minimum start up capital, and there are web business that could cost thousands of dollars to start.

You need to know what type of business models an online business can encompass to be able to decide on one.For many people, learning how to start a home based online business becomes a job in and of itself.To help you have a quick overview of the best business models for an Online business, here are some of the best models.Affiliate marketing, Membership Sites and Virtual Real Estate are three of the top Internet businesses.

Affiliate Marketing
If you want to know how to create an online business, affiliate marketing is not only a free way to get started in an Internet business, it will also give you an extremely solid understanding of how marketers make money on the web.
You have the option of using an affiliate marketplace like Clickbank offers, to find products and just promote them for commissions, or finding websites that you yourself have an interest in and joining their affiliate programs to make commissions from helping them sell their products.

You can use free platforms like Blogger blogs and Wordpress blogs to write interesting articles about these sites and then write some additional articles to submit to article directories, which you can use to link back to your own blog, giving the reader extra information and your affiliate link through which to buy the product, thus earning you a commission.

Membership Sites
Memberships sites are one of the best ways to learn about how to create an online business.
Membership sites can be sites that offer fresh new content every month for marketers, or they can be new recipes for stay at home moms looking for quick meals.Depending on the market you're targeting, membership sites can cost anywhere from $5.00 a month for a membership, up to $800.00 a month.

Virtual Real Estate
Finally, Virtual Real Estate.
An amazing business model that is similar to the real estate boom of the late 90's.Virtual real estate consists of some amazing techniques to make fast money on the Internet.Domain name flipping is buying a domain name and selling the domain name.As the 'long tail keyword' phenomenon progresses, more and more new and extremely keyword rich domain names become available.You don't even need a site.If you find a hot new topic that people are doing a lot of searching for, like some new diet pill that's getting rave reviews, if you can snatch up a domain name for about $10.00 you can turn around and sell that domain name for $50.00.

Some other techniques for domain name flipping are to buy expired or about to expire domains.If it's an expired domain with a good audience factor, you stand to make a few bucks selling it.Another facet of Virtual Real Estate is website flipping.This similar to domain name flipping where buying the domain or an 'aged' domain is concerned, but you need an actual site.If you hold on to it for about 3 months and then sell it, you can show how much money it made and sell it for 1-2 times its annual income.

There are many variations of these three types of online businesses.


About the Author

Free report How to Start a Home Based Business: 27 Ways to Earn Money Online Dee Power is the author of several nonfiction books and the novel Over Time.

Dee's blog Earn Money Online You can Earn Money Online


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Thursday, February 5, 2009

Are you Looking For Posting Programs For Craigslist?

If you are an Internet Marketer or you are trying to promote something online, you know some of the hottest spots are places like Craigslist and Myspace.

Personally I think cl rocks but unfortunately it takes a lot of time to make posts on cl and you have a lot of stuff going against you.There are the phone verified accounts you need if you're going to post in certain areas, there is the "spinning" of the ads because you can't post duplicates.And worse of all there are the ghosted ads.

If you have ever religiously tried posting on craigslist you know all about the ghosted ads and frankly, they suck.A ghosted ad happens when you post an ad, verify it, and click the verification link.Usually CL will say something like "your ad will appear in 15-20 minutes".So you sit and wait, hoping, wishing.But it never shows up.

That is a ghosted ad.It exists to you but no one else can see it because for whatever reason, cl decided not to post it.This can become increasingly annoying especially if you utilize cl to make money!I have never done anything too hardcore on Craigslist but, I have tried to post my business ad in a few cities and I have gotten flagged and ghosted.This is really frustrating!

There is hope, however!Recently I was searching online because I kept hearing about this posting software you could use for cl ads.Its supposed to make your life a whole lot easier and its supposed to keep you from getting ghosted and this is done by using proxies amongst other "tricks".The website I found I had a ton of information such as:


Learn the secret of how to set up your very own PRIVATE proxy server.

Semi-automate your cl posting absolutely FREE so you spend less time doing manual and repetitive tasks and more time making money!

Use FREE software to rotate through your IPs automatically so you can focus more on making money on Craigslist and less on worrying about changing your IP and remaining anonymous.

Learn cl posting tips for FREE that many other membership sites charge hundreds of dollars for.These tips and tricks will help you to post better and convert traffic more effectively.

Everyone recognizes that on the Internet, traffic equals money.Craigslist is a supercharged highway full of traffic!It really is that Simple to get traffic to your website and begin making money.If you want to make money you need to think outside of the box.This is thinking outside of the box.

Every single day that your ads aren't on cl, you are letting some other advertiser to steal your money!One of the main focuses and point of sales of this site is that you can efficiently have this working for you whether you're in the US or you live elsewhere Internationally.Some programs have restrictions for usage and this one does not!

I really like software programs such as these because they are informational, affordable and they work.Plus the website I found will actually allow you to view a live presentation so you can see how it works!If you want you could even do a review search online just to see what other people are saying about it!


About the Author

This author is a HUGE fan of Craigslist Proxy


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How to Target Keywords for Your Product?

Keyword is a word or phrase entered into a search engine in an effort to get the search engine to return matching and relevant results.Many web sites offer advertising based on keyword targeting so an advertisers banner will only show when a specific keyword is entered.Keyword stands for much more than its literal interpretation.Choosing the right keyword is one of the most important factors to market online. 


How to choose the most effective keyword phrase for your product and service?

Tips for finding a name that is just right.

1.Your keywords should always be relevant to your site, product or service.

2.Know who and where your audience is.Different keywords speak to different parts of the country.Different terminologies are used all over the world so you should try to use these keywords according to your target market.For example, sweaters are also called sweatshirt, jumper, pullover and jersey.But remember, avoid using internal business jargon or region slang that your potential customers may never search for.

3.Think as your customers.Ask yourself several questions: How your customers search?What words do they use?What's their intent?Pretend you are your customer, you wanna purchase a certain kind of product, what keywords do you like to use?There are many channels to work on it.Your customers' feedback, consultancy from customers, salesmen, your agents, etc.You can even ask employees or colleagues to simulate customers and collect their keywords as a list.

4.Consider regional keywords.If your product or service belongs to a particular region, then your keywords should contain the city or state.For example, you are running a bookstore in Los Angeles, "Los Angeles Bookstore" looks better than "Bookstore".

5.Don 't depend on yourself to choose the right keywords.Your audience may not use the same keywords you think they'd use.In this case, why not turn to some friends outside your business?Or ask your customers for some recommendations?They may give you some very useful suggestions.

6.Stay away from general keywords.Before you are trying to choose very common and often-used keywords such as "computer" or "table", think about the following points.Firstly, generic keywords bring more competitors.The competition must be fierce.Is that what you want?Particular phrases are much better than single keywords which help you stand out among never-ending search results.What's more, searches show that when a consumer wants to purchase something, he or she will type exact title instead of single keywords.For example, your friends want to buy the DVD of 007, which do you prefer, DVD, DVD of 007 or Pierce Brosnan DVD of 007?

7.Consider your individual goods or services.Find some words to mark the characteristics of your own goods or services.Keep in mind that it's not only a name of products, but also a way of advertising online.If you are selling vanilla chocolate then use "vanilla chocolate" rather than using "chocolate".People who search for "chocolate" may be looking for black chocolate, coffee chocolate, hazel chocolate or any other kind of chocolates available.If vanilla chocolate is your concerned business category then getting an inquiry for coffee chocolate is worthless.It would be better to have fewer users interested in vanilla chocolate rather than high users interested in other chocolates.

8.Consider the age-group consumers.If your product or service is related to a particular age group, you'd better include it with your keyword phrases.For example: Kids T-shirt, Baby Shampoo.

9.Consider season-targeted keywords.If your products vary with season like apparel, you should mention the season name in the phrase.For example: Ladies' Winter Coats.

10.Take a general keyword and add a specific word to it.If you just favor general keywords, write a list of those and add some specific words to it.Different combination of keywords work out different results.

11.Know what keywords are your competitors using.Sometimes you might omit some words.At this moment, collect the typical websites of your competitors, see what keywords the are using and how they rank in the search engines.Of course you do not need to copy their keywords, you just go through those tags and pick out one or two keywords that may be helpful.

12.Use Keyword Tool (e.g.https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) to better your keywords.

13.Give your keywords time to rank.There are many factors affecting the ranking.So do not expect your site, product or service rank well immediately.

14.Once you've determined your keyword phrases, keep it on.Never leave it alone.Do not think your keywords are always perfect for your site, product or service.The world is changing.Internet is changing.Consumer is changing.Our competitor is changing.You should continue to re-evaluate your keywords and see which are well-done and which are failing.Find their ranking in the search results and analyze how comes.


About the Author

www.

ecvv.com is an innovative and comprehensive business portal in China, dedicated to saving costs for Chinese SMEs to find buyers and export to overseas markets.

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Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Using The Most Cost Effective Lead Generation Methods

What is the most cost effective lead generation?How about free?While the internet offers us every single type of prospective business, you now have the choice of investing grand amounts of capital all the way down to starting a business for free.Those that are available for free have received a lot of criticism, but with a little creativity and some determination, you can make it work if you want to.

The truth of the matter is that the less money you spend on lead generation the more effort you need to put into it.But if you are serious about creating a new and improved income stream for yourself, and you have to start with little to no capital, your sweat will do.

Online forums and online communities are a good place to start.Here, you can always develop a few business relationships, offer some idea trading solutions, and develop the rapport you need in order to offer a good business opportunity to potential customers or associates.Finding the right demographic is not as difficult as you might believe.There are forums for businesses in every major internet service provider and carrier, as well as plenty of forums that are available through independent servers and developers.Building a positive reputation while you are in there can help bolster your online image and give you a strong grounding for when your business really starts to develop.

Using your wits alone can offer you a distinct advantage.You can start building a mailing list by offering newsletters, freebies, and special bonuses before you even present your business.For most people who don't have the capital, being able to build a reputation first has often led to an easier transition once the capital starts to accumulate.

Being personable, developing a strong reputation, and offering great and creative ideas and free email bonuses will eventually increase the traffic to your website and even lead to additional marketing venues that others are willing to offer up.In some cases, other individuals will be able to point you to other forums that are likely to be interested in what you have to offer.

Link trading is free.It is a very common technique used among internet marketers that offers you a change for more exposure without spending any money.Link trading involves offering a business a link on your website in exchange for a link on theirs.That way, the traffic that hits your site is exposed to their site and the traffic on their site is exposed to your site.Link trading has been around for quite some time, and you are likely to get a handful of clients or associates through this process over time.

Take up your own article writing.There are ample free submission sites that allow you to submit keyword laden articles that are rich in content and useful information.This is a great way to promote your site and there are many professionals who can instruct you on how to drive your traffic from the article to the site.There are numerous methods, but the most common is a backlink, a link within the text that brings people directly to your website.

While there is a lot of effort involved in creating just these three methods of bringing traffic to your site, those who have started with nothing more than sheer determination and a desire to succeed often do when they have to work so hard for it.Simply purchasing a few sign ups and paying someone to do your marketing for you might bring in the financial profits earlier.But there is more to internet marketing than financial profits alone.There are emotional and character building profits that can never be spent.

Thanks to the internet, there really is no limit to what a person can do if they really want to.Any one who wants to create a full time income from a part time work at home program can do so if they throw their heart into it.It's just that few ever really do.You have the power to develop an online business if you want to.You have the power to change your financial picture if you want to.It just takes consistent effort.


About the Author

OR if you would like to succeed immediately to create financial freedom working only 4 hours a week, check out www.

secrets2internetfortunes.com

AND receive a limited FREE copy of the amazing 113 page Book "Online Fortunes A Beginners Guide!
" which is jam packed with so many ideas you can use to instantly create an automated income for life!That's my GIFT to you as a way of saying thank you for reading my articles.

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Tuesday, February 3, 2009

10 Steps To A Successful Ebay Seller

So you want to be a successful seller with your own eBay business, do you?Here's a simple, ten-step path to eBay enlightenment.

Step 1: Identify your market.Take a while to sit and watch for what sells and what doesn't out of the items you're interested in.Any market research data you can collect will be very useful to you later on.You'll probably see the 'sweet spots' quite quickly - those one or two items that always seem to sell for a good price.

Step 2: Watch the competition.Before you invest any money, see what the other sellers in your category are up to, and what their strategies are.Pay special attention to any flaws their auctions might have, because this is where you can move in and beat them at their own game.

Step 3: Find a product: Get hold of a supplier for whatever it is you want to sell, and see what the best rates you can get are - don't be afraid to ring round quite a few to get the best deal.If the eBay prices you've seen are higher than the supplier's, then you're set.

Step 4: Start small: Don't throw thousands at your idea straight away - get started slowly, see what works and what doesn't, and learn as you go.Remember that it's very cheap to try out even the craziest ideas on eBay, and who knows, they might just work!

Step 5: Test and repeat.Keep trying different strategies until you find something that works, and then don't be ashamed to keep doing it, again and again.The chances are that you've just found a good niche.

Step 6: Work out a business plan: A business plan doesn't need to be anything formal, just a few pages that outline the market opportunity you've spotted, your strategy, strengths and weaknesses of the plan and a brief budget.This is more for you than it is for anyone else.

Step 7: Invest and expand: This is the time to throw money at the problem.Buy inventory, and start spending more time on your business.Set a goal number of sales each week, increasing it each time.

Step 8: Make it official: Once you've made a few thousand dollars worth of sales, you should really register yourself as a business.Don't worry, it's not expensive or hard to do - a lawyer is the best person to help you through the process.

Step 9: Automate: You'll probably find that you're writing the same things again and again in emails or item descriptions.This is the time to give up on the manual method and turn to automated software that can create listings for you, and respond to completed auctions and payments with whatever message you provide.

Step 10: Never give up: Even when it looks like it's all going wrong, don't stop trying until you succeed.If you keep working at it then you'll almost always find that you make a real breakthrough just when things are starting to look desperate.

Once you get into the swing of things, you might start thinking that you should quit your job and take up eBay selling part time.But it's not always as easy as that - there are all sorts of factors that you need to consider.The next email will weigh up the case for and against taking up eBay full-time.


About the Author

Want a PROVEN method to make money on Ebay?

Click Here to find out more!

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What I Wish I Had Known About Websites When Just Starting My Business

I have been around computers for years, but only really started to embrace websites in the past 5 years.

As I have learnt and grown there is a pile of stuff that I wish I had known about websites when I was first starting out.Recently a number of start-ups have been asking my advice for beginners, so here are a few of the things I wished I had known when I was starting.

1.Domain names and web hosting are two different things


Starting from the simplest things.

Your domain name is just like your registered business name.It is the name of your business on the web.It can be your regular business name or it can be your keyword or keywords.

Your web hosting is the electronic equivalent of the landlord who leases you office space for your business.Your web host is the location where your business lives.

The other big lesson about domain names and web hosts is it pays to shop around.You can and will save thousands per year by doing your own research.Check out the forums and reviews for the most reliable companies with the best prices.Don't take your web developer's word as gospel.Generally they want to sell you their own package (with a huge cut in it for them).

The other thing I wish I had known is to buy more bandwidth, email accounts and domains than you think you will need.1GB storage, 3 emails and only 1 domain will get you nowhere fast and if you are like me you will max it out at the most inconvenient time.

It's not that big a deal to change your hosting.If you find a good one, they will manage the transfer for you, making it all quite seamless.

2.80% of all web designers don't know what they are doing (but will charge you a fortune in the process)


This is the most frustrating thing I have learnt.

Most web designers (especially the ones at the budget end of the market) cannot build a website that will generate good search engine rankings if their life depended on it.They have absolutely no clue about SEO (search engine optimisation) and will sell you designs that are search engine poison.The problem is most of them can talk a good fight and will baffle you with jargon that hides that they have no idea what they are doing.

You may get an attractive site, but it has no way to be found in search engines.Often the sites are all in flash, the keywords are useless and there are no decent metatags.And it generally would have cost the poor business many thousands of dollars to do.

If any of your web designers tell you it will take at least 6-12 months for search engines to find you then run away.A good SEO designer can have you ranking in search engines in less than a week.

If your designer insists they will make all the edits for you and that you can't do it - sack them.They are just trying to keep you hooked in to them.

If your designer insists on building you your own personal programs to run the back end of your database, newsletter or autoresponder - they are ripping you off just to make you stay with them.

If you have been caught out don't panic!You can choose a new web developer to update your site or hire an SEO expert to go over your site and improve things.

3.Good SEO Copy is vital to your website


Your website has 2 audiences - humans and search engines.

Unless you write in a way that search engines like and "get", your human audience will never find you to read your information.But ...if you write only for search engines, then it will appear stilted and unnatural.

You need to write your copy so that it is persuasive to both humans AND search engines.This is an art form and a science that takes many years to master.

Most copywriters are not trained in SEO, so while you may get great persuasive copy for your human readers, you may not get the search engine results you are looking for.A good SEO copywriter will cost you, but they are worth it in terms of business and search engine results.

4.Buy pre-packaged rather than tailor made


Wherever possible buy commercial pre-packaged products for things like your auto-responders, affiliate programs, shopping carts, newsletter broadcasts.

This means that the bugs in the programs generally have been ironed out before you get to them, they work with the features that you want and need, and they are cheaper!

The most critical piece is your auto-responder.You get one shot at choosing the right one, as every time you change your auto-responder program due to tough anti-spam laws, all of your lists must elect to resubscribe to your mailing list.You can kiss up to 75% of your list good bye each time you shift.

5.Akismet and Captcha are your best friends


If you have any forms on your website, comments sections on your blog or other methods of interactivity, insist on some form of human identification such as Akismet or Captcha.

They are the boxes down the bottom that ask you to type in the letters you can see.75% of all comments on blogs these days are spam.Akismet or Captcha reduces the number you see, so you are not manually deleting them every few minutes.

If you don't have something like these on your website and you have a form, expect your email box to attract the attention of spammers when their robots (yes they have their own versions of spiders out looking for vulnerable sites) find your address.

6.Host your own blog on your own website


Blogs are brilliant - but don't be tempted to host your blog on a site such as Wordpress or Blogger.

If you are going to go to the trouble of hosting a blog, do it on your own site (and not just publish to your site).

7.You can learn to do it yourself


There are piles of courses out there to help you learn.

Some are great and some are very expensive wastes of time.Do your research before you sign up for anything and check out some of the free courses available.


About the Author

Ingrid Cliff is a freelance writer and the Chief Word Wizard of Heart Harmony - a writing services studio that helps put your business into words.

For a free copy of the "7 Secrets of Compelling Copy & Powerful Words" visit her website http://www.heartharmony.com.au "> www.heartharmony.com.au .

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Monday, February 2, 2009

Tools For The Successful Affiliate Marketer

Do you know what it takes to become a successful affiliate marketer?If not, then this article will help you with it.To be a successful affiliate marketer, there are a couple of things you have to learn.And, no matter what the "guru's" is saying, you need to put some work into it, if you want to make a living from it.

Tips from Successful Affiliate Marketer


There are a couple of things that the professional affiliate marketers think is vital for building a business.

One of those things is using the right tools.But, witch tool do you need?Well, there are actually 3 tools that are very important for you business and they are:


1.

The Website
2.
Email list
3.
Link building tools


The Website


To create your own website is very important because it's the jump off point for all of your marketing efforts.

You should concentrate on building a website that is user-friendly and has contents that is relative to the product that you are promoting.You cold do that by posting articles, reports etc.that is relative to the products.By the way, you don't have to write that article by your self, just go to any of those free articles directories.From there, you can usually find articles that would fit on your site.

Opt-In Email list


Building your own email list is also something that I would recommend.

You have probably heard the "Guru's" saying that "money is in the list", and nothing could be truer than that.It has been demonstrate that it take a customer 7 visits to the website, before they actually buy the product.By building your own list, you will create a relation with your (hopefully) your customer and they will come back to your site more than 7 times, and then buy the product that you are offering.

Link Building Tools


Building links is very important if you want to succeed with your business.

Without links to your website, nobody will ever visit it.There are a couple of tools that you can use to build links to your website but I would recommend that you start submitting articles to article directories or ezine.This method is free to use, and the quality of the traffic you get from it, is very good.If you don't like the idea of writing your own articles, you can always buy articles from a ghost writer, that means that some body else writes the articles for you, for a small price, and you can then use it as your own article.Just do a search at google for the word "ghost writer" and a lot of alternative will show up.
Another method you can use if you don't want to write the articles by yourself is to use plr articles.Plr articles are articles that you have the right to change and put your name on.Just remember when using plr articles, you need to change the articles at least 75 % from the original, before submitting them to the articles directories.For more information about plr articles, I highly recommended that you visit places as:


* Plrpro
* Nicherevolution
* Simpleplr


That's it, these are the tools/methods you need to master to become successful as an affiliate marketer.



The opportunity for the affiliate marketers is huge but to take advantage of these opportunities, you really need to use the tools recommended.


About the Author

For more information about how to become a successful affiliate marketer, please visit AbsolutBusiness.

com


Patrik Karlsson

AbsolutBusiness.


com


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