 |
|
  
|
  
Today's Expert Interview"Write eBooks and Sell eBooks Online - With Rose Smith"
Have you missed any?
Rose, it is wonderful to have you here with us today, to have you share with us some of your success tips and experiences. Let's start by having you share with our readers your background, and how you came to start your online business? Rose Smith [Answer] Well Jeff, I've been involved with planning parties, corporate events, and fundraisers for over 25 years, both for personal enjoyment, school committess and through my various places of employment. It's something I've always enjoyed and tend to have a knack for it. 4 1/2 years ago, I was working as an office manager for a computer training company and just got fed up with the whole "rat race" scene, so I quit my job and decided to work for myself. The problem was, we were in a new city and I wasn't sure what I could do. After surfing the Internet for a bit, I came across Ken Evoy's "Make Your Site Sell" and ordered his ebook. The idea blossomed from there. I decided to write an ebook on putting together a Medieval wedding theme, which is a period in history that I love - you know, Camelot, fair maidens, knights in shining armor, dragons and all that other good stuff :) Once I got the ebook written, I set out to learn how to build a website, and Wedding Themes and More was born. Jeff [Question] We've covered many aspects of niche markets with our readers in past issues - can you tell us a little more about how you first discovered, and perhaps tested your target market? What steps or techniques did you use to decide that this market was worth pursuing and was indeed a market you could reach online with your "Wedding Themes and More" site? Rose Smith [Answer] I didn't really test the market. I did know that weddings were a major market, so I knew that it would be a good area to start in. One thing I did keep in mind was to come up with an item to promote that was not easily available, either online or offline. At that time, theme weddings was just becoming popular and brides were looking for specific information on how to plan one, as opposed to just a general wedding planning guide - which can be found anywhere. I did search through many wedding sites to see what they offered. Many were alike in a lot of aspects - the same planning articles, the same favors and decorations offered, etc. I also read through many forums and found that there were a lot of brides looking for ideas specific to a theme wedding - and for Medieval weddings in particular. Truthfully, that was about as much research as I had done. Mostly I just went with my gut feeling that putting up a website devoted to wedding themes would work very well. Jeff [Question] As you may know Rose, in my book "Ultimate Information Entrepreneur's Idea Guidebook" available at: http://www.infoproductcreator.com we talk about 40 different ways to find high-demand topics to write about. We would love to hear the techniques you use. Rose Smith [Answer] I have written 4 ebooks myself that I promote and sell. The first was How To Create a Beautiful Medieval Wedding. As I mentioned above, it was created because I found brides were searching for specific information on how to decorate and plan a Medieval wedding. That took me nearly 6 months to write (I was also learning how to build web sites during that time as well). This specific theme guide is filled with ideas, inspiration, and suggestions on attire, decorations, music, menus, entertainment, invitations, locations, favors and more. It covers everything I could think of. There is even a section listing castles and such that are available to rent throughout the United States, Canada and of course, Europe. I also then wrote a second ebook that covered just Medieval Wedding Favors and Decorations. It was an ebook I originally sold separately for those couples who didn't need a whole planning guide, but only wanted ideas on wedding decorating. I've since stopped selling it directly and include it in a package with the main Medieval wedding guide. The whole package now sells for $19.95 US and is available at Wedding Themes and More at: http://www.wedthemes.com/medieval_wedding.htm The next ebook I started to work on was my Wild West Wedding Roundup. As you can probably tell, this is a guide for planning a western wedding. Again, it was just a matter of reading through wedding forums and seeing exactly what the most popular themes were that brides were asking for help on. I then checked Amazon.com to see if there were any books available on the subject. Other than general "theme" books for weddings, that only include small sections for different themes, I figured this would also be a good ebook to write. I did do a search on the Interent for western wedding themes. You could find bits and pieces of articles here and there, but nothing that walks you through the whole wedding planning process for this type of theme. I had also found out about using the Overture Keyword search tool, so I began using that as well to help get ideas and to check on the number of searches for this type of wedding theme. Again, it took several months to put this ebook together, but it's been a great seller for me. http://www.wedthemes.com/western-roundup-wedding.htm The next ebook was 250 Simple Favor Ideas which I put together fairly quickly. While researching various themes, I had put together quite the collection of ideas on favors. So, using what I had found and my own imagination, I more or less threw together this ebook that contains 29 different theme categories and gives ideas on wedding favors for each one. http://www.wedthemes.com/250-simple-favors.htm The latest ebook I have just finished is Sensational Seaside Weddings. Seaside Weddings covers all aspects of planning a wedding by the seashore. There is information and advice on what to look for when scouting out a beachside location, what type of food to serve with complete menu suggestions, advice and ideas on wedding decoratings and favors, tips to help you avoid possible problems when planning this type of theme, plus much more. I've also included a bonus chapter that covers 6 specific and unique oceanside wedding themes.This actually turned out to be my largest ebook so far. http://www.wedthemes.com/sensational-seaside-weddings.htm When writing a theme ebook, I try to cover as much as possible so as to give my customer all the information they could possibly need to plan their wedding. All the books also include links to various websites that either sell related items they could use, or give them visual pictures and ideas. Some are affiliate links, many others are just general links that make no money for me, but are a service to the buyer. The remaining guides and product items on my website are all affiliate related. I searched for web sites that had good paying affiliate programs and were related to wedding themes or wedding planning. I also looked for sites that had a nice variety of wedding decorating products that could be used for various themes and then feature these specific products on related article pages, rather than in one "product" page or directory. I know how frustrating it can be to be searching through page after page of products, looking for just a couple of items that are related to your theme, so I give that to them right on the article page. Jeff [Question] Let's step back and have you share with our readers the motivation you find in creating and marketing your own products online. What are the top 3 things that motivate you and keep you going everyday? What are your goals for the business? Rose Smith [Answer] Well, the first thing that keeps me motiviated is that I love what I do. That's key in my opinion. It doesn't matter what occupation you're working in, you need to really enjoy what you do, otherwise your interest will soon be gone. I love writing and I love building websites. Both bring out the creative ideas that I have and I get to help others with this creativity. I guess that brings me to the second motivation. I have always liked helping people in one way or another. My website and my ebooks do just that. It makes it easier for a wedding couple to plan their wedding. I know how stressful a wedding can get. If I can provide them with something that makes their life a little bit easier, then that makes me feel good too. I certainly enjoy the emails I receive from happy couples that found my ebooks helpful. It is definitely uplifting! The third motivation is purely selfish. I made up my mind when I left the corporate world that I would never work for anyone else again. I enjoy being at home (I hated getting up at 5 am to get ready for work), I got to spend time with my children and our pets...and now I enjoy babysitting my 2 1/2 year old grandson two days a week. I have the time now to do those everyday things, such as housecleaning, landscaping, or even just taking the car in for an oil change, that I didn't have before and would get really stressed out about. So working from home is a big motivating factor. Now, truthfully, at first this was a "full-time" job - having to learn how to put together a website, marketing and promoting, plus everything else that goes along with an Internet business. But, once the hurdle was jumped, then things balanced out and I now have much more freedom then I ever did before. Jeff [Question] Rose - your experience is incredibly value to those readers who are either struggling with their online business or are just beginning to build it. Can you share with us 3 of your top tips for succeeding with an online publishing business and 3 mistakes that perhaps you could help others avoid? Rose Smith [Answer] First, pick a topic that isn't easy to find. For example, I would not write an ebook on general wedding planning - there's hundreds of these out there. Narrow your category choice down into a micro-niche if you have to. In my case, there are very, very few books (either printed or electronic) that are available on specific theme weddings. Second, research exactly what people are looking for in your topic of choice. Check for keyword searches on Overture and/or Wordtracker.com to see if people are even looking for your topic. This should also give you some ideas on what chapters to include. Third, read forums on your topic idea. Write down the questions that the forum members are asking then find the answers. In my situation, I've found this to be the best way to get ideas for my ebooks. These forums also usually provide plenty of good answers as well. So I make note of them so I can refer back to them to give me ideas on what may need to be included in a specific chapter. As for what not to do, probably the biggest mistake is reading a ton of books on writing a book! Pick a couple of good books and stick with the advice in them. Find a website or two that also gives good clear information on marketing and promoting ebooks. Otherwise you'll end up with information overload, which happened to me. Plus, everyone has their own style and advice, so one person says you should do this and another says you should do that...then the next thing you know you have no clue as to who you should be listening to. Pick an author who's style and ideas seem to match your own then stick with that. As I mentioned above, stick to a topic that doesn't have many books written about it, but do have people searching for this type of information. If you can find a lot of articles about the topic, but no or few books, then that may be a good place to start. As an example, I had created two baby-related websites. One covered information and products on baby furniture and the other was about baby care. They were well designed sites, promoted good products and had lots of informative articles. They didn't do well at all. I close them both down after a year. Why? Because you can go into any department store and pick up those same items. I find the same principle applies to ebooks. Third, find 2 or 3 really good marketing forums that are active and that have members that give helpful advice. You'll need this for getting ideas to help you with writing and promoting your product. Also find 2 or 3 good newsletters that you find interesting and contain well written articles. Don't join dozens of forums or newsletters. For one thing, you'll spend too much time reading them and none writing or promoting your product OR you won't check them at all because of too much information and you won't have the time to look at them. Jeff [Question] Rose, we really appreciate your time today - we urge everyone to visit our sites and take a look at your quality business and attractive products. Rose Smith [Answer] My number one technique to bring in traffic is by writing articles and getting them posted on other websites. I now have a section on my site that provides webmasters with all my articles that are available for reprint along with my resource by-line and a link back to my site. It's been working quite well too. There have been many owners of sites out there that I didn't know of that have picked up several of my articles. I also use Adwords to promote my own books. I actually place ads for specific theme books according to the season and what's being searched for the most at certain times of the year. I also use very highly targeted keywords to keep costs down. I don't get as many click-throughs with this, but for those that do, I know they are definitely looking for what I'm selling. I would suggest anyone doing any pay-per-click marketing to read Perry Marshall's Definitive Guide to Google Adwords. It's been a great help to me. Optimizing your pages for keywords also helps. However, that being said, I actually don't worry too much about this. In my own opinion (and this is JUST my opinion), search engines change the "rules" so often, that you'd spend more time agonizing over it and trying to keep up, than you would promoting your products through different avenues. I do use keywords in the title, meta tags, alt graphics tag and throughout the body of the text...but I don't "count" how many there are, nor do I worry if I've done everything I can to optimize it for a specific keyword term. Lately I've found people going crazy because they suddenly "dropped" from Google's top pages. It happens. If google tries to spider your pages and your hosting service is temporarily down (and I'm talking maybe 2 to 3 minutes - which happens), you suddenly "no longer exist". Why beat your head against the wall over this? Find other ways to market your website. Fourth, put up a well-designed site that's easy to navigate. It's up to you whether you want a site that contains a sales letter or a larger content site. Both work, but they have to be promoted in different ways. Make sure your sales copy tells the visitor what they want to know about your book. I would suggest printing out and looking over good sales letters and perhaps buying a book on how to write good sales copy. I'm actually going to give a fifth idea...set up an affiliate program! Get others to help you sell your products for you. If you do this, you'll have your product featured on many pages, not just yours. More visibility equals more sales. Even if you have to pay out a commission, you'll be making more sales, so you'll still be ahead of the game. It's a simple equation. but too many people don't get this. However, if you do set an affiliate program, please also give your affiliates information on how to promote your products. Provide them with ebook cover graphics, simple text advertising blurbs and even some full-length articles they could use on their sites. Help your affiliates to help you make money! Thanks again to Rose Smith... Thanks again to Rose for sharing her valuable insights, tips, techniques and strategies - you can visit Rose's Wedding sites here: http://www.wedthemes.com http://www.wedding-planning-guides.com http://weddingspeeches.wedthemes.com http://weddingcandles.wedthemes.com Wow - amazing stuff from Rose Smith, I wish I had access to this type of information when I was first starting out! Take special note of Rose's advice on micro-niches, her ability to "read" her market and her underlying motivation to continue to release product after product in her field. She can't help but to succeed - the same can happen for you. If you have comments, questions or suggestions on what you would like to see in future editions of this newsletter - be sure to contact me here: mailto:jeff@infoproductcreator.com Jeff Smith http://www.highertrustmarketing.com ATTENTION: There is only one way that you could be receiving this ezine, that is you, or someone using your email address, subscribed. There is no other way of being added to this list. We do not make this list, or your address, available to ANY other companies or individuals. We value your privacy. Although we work hard to make sure that all of the information in the Profit Secrets newsletter is accurately and genuine as possible, neither the publisher, nor the editor assume any responsibility for the accuracy or otherwise of the information presented. By reading this information, the Information Product Profit Secrets reader assumes all responsibility for an inaccuracies or other risks associated with the information within this newsletter. Jeff Smith Editor Online Marketing Secrets Revealed webmaster@inf oproductcreator.com http://www.highertrustmarketing.com Home | Marketing Articles | Newsletter | Products | Hire Jeff | Free E Course | Resources | Make Money | Writing Courses | Writing tips | Copywriting Course | Internet Marketing | About Us | Contact Us 
|
 |
 |
| © 2004 Higher Trust Marketing |
Jeff Smith's