Cookies
It's not too often that I get into real technical stuff here.
However, in your marketing of ebooks and print books via your website, as you get progressively more experienced, you begin to monitor your site visitor stats. Depending on the software you use, you will get varying levels of detail.
One of the most valuable stats a website has to track is "unique visitors". This statistic is supposed to tell us how many unique and different visitors came to our site. The stat "total visits" is meant to tell us just that; how many times those unique visitors came to the site.
However, for the first time in my experience, a company, Belden & Associates has done a survey on computer "cookies".
You won't find the survey data at their site. I'll get to that in a minutes.
For the relative newbie, a "cookie" is a small text file dropped on your computer by websites when you browse. Most websites use cookies to track your movements through the website. Advertising networks and advertisers use cookies to help verify click costs and payments, incentive payouts and more.
So cookies are a very important piece of technology.
This Editor & Publisher article on the Belden stufy is quite insightful. Click that to learn more about their cookie study.
About halfway down the article, Greg Harmon, director of interactive services for Belden says:
"The surprising result at one site: 45% said they clear cookies at least once a month. The average was once a week. "For work and home, this behavior was consistent," Harmon explains. Many may not be using browser tools to remove cookies, but rather "spyware" and "computer hygiene" tools that have become more popular as the public worries about unauthorized snooping on their online activities."
This really hit home for me. I clear my cookies every day with WinPatrol, which has a free version (the one I use).
Cookies are often integral for server-side virus distribution these days. I delete my cookies, every time I reboot or turn on my PC, as I have WinPatrol in the boot up sequence.
This is significant because as web content publishers, and perhaps for those of you using Pay Per Click advertising, our server logs are truly wrong.
WOW!
If more and more people are using tools like Adaware, WinPatrol, PestPatrol and others to try to keep scumware, virus, spyware and other undesired crap off our computers, we are in fact, every time we delete our cookies, appearing to every website as a "new" or "unique" visitor.
This news (news to me too!) will cause me to rethink my search engine optimization, marketing, blog and email marketing strategies. Clearly I'm not getting as many unique visitors every day / month than I thought I was.
Time to go back to the drawing board!
Posted on May 06, 04 | 5:52 pm
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Self-Publishing Challenges
I received an email from one of my readers today.
He is very dejected about how his self-published book sales are going.
He outlined some of his challenges, problems and concerns to me. I thought I would take each one over the course of the next several days and do my best to offer some tips and advice.
One of his statements was "I've prepared a "media package" according to given guidelines,
the media simply does not seem to be very interested."
One thing I've learned from my experiences is in general, the media and reporters aren't interested. Unless your topic and expertise happen to be in areas of current events.
Also, simply having a "media package" and perhaps sending that out to different outlets isn't going to get you anywhere.
My friends in the media and public relations markets have taught me the best approach to gaining recognition as an expert in your field will likely come from your local, neighborhood news, radio and television media.
For every "event" you have to announce, there are at least three press releases you can create and send to your local media:
1. An announcement of the upcoming event
2. The completion of the event
3. An announcement that you did the event and what the results were
It's sort of like the old saw about writing sales proposals:
- tell them what you are going to tell them
- tell them
- tell them what you told them
The point is: use repetition.
The challenge for an author / expert is you don't know if and when a reporter, editor or producer of a particular media outlet may have need for your expertise and commentary.
In addition, if your PR is of a general nature and not solving real world problems for your readers and clients, your PR will likely end up in the trash bin.
Again, I don't hold myself out as any expert in public or media relations, so you may find or have a different experience. I do have my own experience and I can certainly verify how hard it is to gain national media attention, even with local media recognition.
In regards to my readers' comment about the media not being very interested: make them interested OR spend time finding out what stories they are writing and find a way to spin your topic to help them. Again, very challenging, as most reporters aren't looking around for new "friends".
Lastly, an author should try to focus on media who report and produce in the field of work where your expertise lays. Get in front of the parade. Find the existing stream of media reporting and writing stories where you can simply plug in.
And most of all, keep at it. Don't give up. You haven't failed.
It simply hasn't been time for your success: YET!
Here are some resources of publicity experts and web sites that I read, subscribe to their ezines and trust:
Joan Stewart, the Publicity Hound
Dan Janal's PR Leads
Tom Murphy's PR Opinions
O'Dwyer's PR
John Kremer's Book Marketing Update
I'll leave it up to you to determine the usefulness of those resources to your own judgement, however I highly recommend them!
;-)
sp
Posted on Apr 18, 04 | 12:00 pm
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eBook Pricing
One of the issues that is rarely talked about in this industry is pricing of your eBook or info product.
I won't get into a long diatribe of my opinion on pricing, but I will share a few insights and a resource I've recently learned about.
Since the self-publishing of ebooks is entirely in your control, you can set whatever price point you darned well like. That's one cool aspect of this business.
However, if you price too high, you will limit your market.
If you price too low, you will limit your market. Pricing too low may also give the impression that your content is not valuable.
The notion of examining your competitors pricing and adopting some nearby range is also a dangerous practice, unless you KNOW for a fact what their sales are.
Pricing your ebook product is subjective yet important.
Another angle on pricing has to do with volume and post-sale support (read: headache). Also, product returns may factor into the post-sale equation, depending on the true value of the content.
Pricing Psychology offers info and a special report from a pricing expert, Marlene Jensen. Just her website alone has some clever and simple ideas that could help convert more sales.
Lastly, make sure you totally understand your target market. Someone buying an expert book on Quality processes and methodologies is much more likely to pay north of $300 for a solid ebook, while a housewife probably won't pay more than $20 for an ebook with 200 dinner recipes featuring low carbs.
In closing, you should, in all cases, test, test and test again. Change your pricing and examine your web logs and sales orders. Assuming you have similar streams of targeted traffic during your test periods, the results of your own tests will reveal more than any outsider could possibly tell you.
Good luck!
sp
Posted on Apr 03, 04 | 4:16 pm
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eBook Website Copy
One of the key aspects of selling and marketing for eBook authors are the words on your website, otherwise known as sales copy.
What is your sales copy like?
Does it yammer on and on about features and how great your eBook is? Or does it clearly spell out all the great benefits your reader will gain by owning and implementing what you will teach them in your eBook?
Among my 15 or so websites, for the ones that actually sell a product or service, I try very hard to focus on benefit selling. I've spent the last three years, on and off, studying and practicing writing headlines and sales copy.
I'm also an ezine and newsletter junkie. I subscribe to almost 50 of them. I don't always get to read them, but certain ones I do.
I've studied what many people consider to be the best: Gary Halbert, Ted Nicholas, Bob Bly, Nick Usborne, Dan Kennedy, Joe Robson and many, many more.
Among my favorites is Debbie Weil. Debbie specializes in B2B copywriting, but from her ezine and website you can learn so much.
After you subscribe to Debbie's ezine, you should go to your favorite search engine and input some of the other names above. Go to their websites. Read and study their headlines, sub-heads and the copy in between.
Regardless of whose style you emulate, and do feel free to emulate, you should pay attention to the formatting and calls to action, as well as how they clearly spell out the benefits of whatever they are selling or promoting.
Then get busy and implement some changes on your own eBook selling website! Test, tweak and test again until your sales and visitor conversion ratios start to become meaningful.
sp
Posted on Mar 10, 04 | 10:26 pm
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More eBook Marketing
Now that you have found some general and specific directories to get listed in, you're waiting for those directory people to approve and post your listing and link.
That will take weeks for the free directories, if not months.
If you paid a fee to get listed, it will not take as long.
However, in any case, from the date your listing and link are actually posted live, you should still plan on another 60 days before the search engines spider those directories and get your listing and link in the search engine directory.
Meanwhile, you're not selling any ebooks.
Today's tip is aimed at helping you get some more immediate traffic, recognition and hopefully, sales.
This is one of the most overlooked methods of gaining some name recognition and traffic:
Get active with reading and contributing to online forums. Ideally, you'll do so in forums that are themed or in your specific topic area.
If you don't yet do this, search for some topic specific online forums. Review them and find one or two that seem credible and where users are actively posting.
Every forum displays the date and time of the posts. Make note of them. Most forums also give you summary info like the number of times selected sub-topics have been read and posted to by members.
Before you join, notice various poster's "signature line". They likely have a two sentence sig line after their name. Usually one line is the busines name and the other is the link to their site.
Many forums allow you to use your keywords and place the link as an "underlaying" link connected with your keywords. Learn how to do that in your chosen forums. Those keywords can possibly help your search engine rankings.
Take some time and craft yourself a respectable and clear signature line.
Join in the action by introducing yourself and perhaps ask some questions.
Where possible, offer up some free advice or information or answers to other posters' questions.
But no matter what, do NOT sell!
You'll be banned very quickly and lose any prospects of building a referral base, traffic and credibility.
Help people solve their problems in your topic area and you will become known and respected as knowledgeable and helpful.
Those are the types of people you want to do business with, right?
This activity can consume time, and can take some time to get known and have referrals and visitors come to your site to buy. However, it is time well spent!
sp
Posted on Feb 27, 04 | 7:48 pm
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Marketing eBooks
I'm going to turn the articles to the marketing of your ebooks.
KD is growing with new authors and ebooks every day. During the 2 yrs. since launch, I've noticed that many authors toss up their ebook website, send out a few emails to friends and hope the sales come streaming in.
It never happens.
Usually by the second or third month of doing nothing and selling nothing, authors end up terminating their subscription to us.
Some of them should. Their topics and sites are horrible. But many good quality topics and site authors quit too soon, largely because they don't know what to do.
The first step you should do is read some of the free articles on ebook marketing that are on the main KD website.
Tomorrow, I'll start detailing some simple and effective ways to get your ebook website noticed by the search engines so you can get what we call "organic" search engine traffic to your site.
sp
Posted on Feb 22, 04 | 11:38 am
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The Reality of Writing
Many people get into writing, in the form of articles, books, ebooks, essays, columns, whatever, for the wrong motivation.
In this honest and truthful essay writer and instructor Tod Goldberg gives a very open and behind the scenes take on the nature of writers conferences.
He says "The truth of the matter is that no one I know was ever discovered at a writers' conference, or at least not at the ones I was attending, where in general the agents and editors were as interested in acquiring new work as they were in solving complex issues related to the Dewey Decimal System."
In many areas of his piece, he dashes the hopes of the reader / prospective writer.
The take-away that I got from this was not so much the false hopes of getting published by someone else, but that if your motives are good, and you are realistic, self-publishing is very realistic for a writer.
What he doesn't say in his essay is as important as what he does say: self-publishing and hard work can earn you an income, reputation and profession as a self-employed speaker, teacher, seminar leader, mentor and so much else.
Yeserday, my wife told me of one of her friends who this weekend is going to a seminar put on by a lady I've never heard of, nor has my wife ever heard of. This lady wrote a self-published book on becoming a "coach" and her seminar is on how to become a "coach".
$4,000 to get in the door.
There are only 10 slots and it's held in a small conference room of a local hotel. Room rental, lunch and beverages might run the author's bill up to $1,000. That makes a $39,000 gross margin, before her travel, hotel, food etc.
Not a bad gig.
4 of those seminars a year, a few hundred books sold along the way is a pretty good business.
Do you think she asked permission? Nope. She just wrote her book/ebook, decided on her market and positioning and went for it.
If you get real about your topics, market and prospects, and your motives are to help others, the world is awaiting your arrival!
sp
Posted on Feb 21, 04 | 9:09 am
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Free Press Source
Here is a source for our eBook authors at Knowledge Download to get some free publicity and distribution of your press release.
Press World is a viable option to other press release distribution services.
From an examination of their site, it appears they get your new out to a lot of sources via their own syndicated network.
If you don't know how to write a press release, get on any search engine and type "write press release". There's about 3,000 sites or more with good info for you.
sp
Posted on Feb 04, 04 | 3:17 pm
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Authors Need To Market
This press release gives five (5) excellent points that authors need to consider before entering the ebook or book writing and selling business.
I receive a lot of inquiries from authors or prospective authors who feel eBooks are the way to go for them.
Most of their topics are outstanding and they are well qualified individuals.
Yesterday I received an unsolicited proposal to help an author market their ebook.
If you do not have the passion to get out and promote, speak, market, do joint ventures, write articles, do search engine optimization, join forums or any of the other myriads of marketing options, your book is going no where.
That's why it's so impressive when you find those folks who have legitimately built their ebook or book business.
It's an entrepreneurial endeavour. Period.
Do you have the juice to start your own business? If so, ebooks are an excellent way to get going.
sp
Posted on Jan 30, 04 | 1:05 pm
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Triathlete eBook
This is exactly the type of ebook that I've been harping on my readers to get busy writing.
I'm not a triathlete.
In fact, I don't even know one.
However, there are lots of triathletes, and there are certainly those people who are considering becoming one.
This fellow wrote an ebook. Clearly he's been coaching, teaching and mentoring long before he wrote the ebook.
Now however, he's got people like me posting links to his site, talking about it and hopefully, selling them.
What do you know? What experiences do you have? What are you passionate about?
Write an ebook!
If nothing else, you'll leave behind a wonderful piece of you for your family. In the best case, you sell them, make some money, and learn a LOT about websites and internet marketing.
What are you waiting for?
Posted on Jan 27, 04 | 9:20 pm
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