No kidding…it doesn't matter if you have the best ebook, course or information product in the world, if aren't capable of selling it online and marketing to get it in front of your niche market, it doesn't mean a thing.

The other point I want to make before moving on is that having a "quality" or "good" ebook means nothing!

Having an "in-demand" ebook is what's important.

Again, if you haven't organized your ebook to address a high-demand desire for a transformation in someone's like, then you likely will not have the demand to drive sales for your infoproduct business.

But…having the right topic focused on targeting the right desire will mean your infoproduct business hops into overdrive generating automated profits for you as people seek you out rather than you having to always chase them down. 

In any case, here are the main 5 steps we work with our clients to put in place on their way to highly profitable ebook selling businesses online:

1. BLOG FOR TRAFFIC AND CUSTOMERS

Even though blogging has grown tremendously over the last few years, we still find it our #1 technique for generating a constant flow of relevant, quality traffic to our different web sites and sales pages 

2. KEYWORD DIGGING

To catch fish, it helps to match the color and size of lure to the type of fish…same thing goes with online marketing.  "How" and "Who" reaches your site matters more than How Many reach your site.

You want people who badly desire the information you have in your ebook to reach your site, not just anyone.  You must seek to reach the consumer at the exact moment they are desperately searching for the information you have to offer…that doesn't happen by chance. 

Use the free Google Keyword Suggestion Tool to explore the keyword combinations that people will use to search for solutions to the problem your health product addresses

3. AUTORESPONDER AND LIST BUILDSING

You can't ignore that leads buy from you, visitors do not.. Get yourself an autoresponder account (Aweber, 1SC, etc…) and put together a 3-5 part email course or small report that directly targets the same underlying demand as your ebook does

4. KNOW THE BASICS OF COPYWRITING (SALES LETTER AND ADVERTISING WRITING)

Study top sales letters on Clickbank and top websites in other domains to learn the basics of how a sales letter is structured…then put together a very simple (yet professional) sales page on your own.

5. GET YOURSELF A PAYMENT PROCESSOR

To make money, you need to be able to support "Buy Now" buttons and process your customer's credit cards…two of the most popular are Clickbank and Paypal.  Pick one so that you are ready to accept payment for your ebooks.,

Now, let's look at your immediate action plan.

1. Get your freebie email course or report put together…load that into your autoresponder – each lesson should provide a practical, usable and relevant tip directly linked with the demand behind your ebook with a link to your ebook sales page to get more information
2. Get your blog operational and post daily with relevant content (tips, opinions, experiences, news related to your topic, etc…) and include a form (created fom within your autoresponder) where people can sign up to your email course or to download your report
3. Get your sales page up – once you have a draft written you can post it here for ctitiques and you are sure to get some decent help (Ideally you could pay a copywriter to review which would be less expensive than a complete greenfield write-up, but there some very intelligent marketers here to)
4. Use Google's Website Optimizer as a free split-testing script to test multiple versions of your sales page – that will help you fine-tune conversions faster
5. In parallel you can approach the potential affiliate list you have with a note as to what you have asking if they would like a review copy and then if they review it and like your ebook, you can typically get them to sign on as an affiliate

Need more help with any of this? 

Post a comment to this blog post and we will get an answer for you or head over to InfoMarketer'sZone where there is a highly effective 6-Week InfoProfit Training program that will help guide you through launching your own ebook from A-Z.

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So you start yourself a Facebook page and open a Twitter account and you become a lurker…watching what other people are posting – nonsense and all!

As 90%+ of what you are going to see if useless spam, you may immediately get the wrong idea about what the most effective methods of social networking really are…you may even wade into the dark waters of blasting out notices urging people to buy your shit (I only use this term because this is what your stuff is to someone who doesn't like or respect you – no matter how good your real stuff is)

Hmmm…after a couple of weeks of lurking and hitting people over the head with a bunch of promotional posts you find yourself with a couple hundred followers, none of which really engage with you or click through to buy your stuff.

Well that sucks…this social thing DOESN'T WORK does it?

GETTING SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

The power of social networking is all about word-of-mouth enhanced by global technology.

Word-of-mouth has always been a huge part of marketing…that's how good movies end up getting great attendance as each person tells 5 friends who tell 5 friends etc…

But realistically that had a limit – you could only tell as many people as you could engage with on a daily basis, so the impact though significant remained somewhat muted.

Enter stage left…Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare, YouTube and Pintrest (so far) — and now you have a platform over which you can network globally with like-minded people and influence those people as you would your "real-life" buddies today.

But that's not the way most people approach these platforms is it?

Instead, they look at it as nothing more than a way to blast our their message, to stand on the street corner and scream out their business offer…

No wonder most users are so ineffective.

The question remains though, how DO you network, engage and interact inside of these platforms, build credibility, brand yourself and your company and sell things?

1. TOUCH RAW NERVES

To attract people that are like-minded, loyal and engaged you first need to stand-out from the crowd and the best way to do that is to share updates, opinions, resources and content that touch emotions…that make people laugh, cry, angry or peaceful…the better you get at touching the raw nerves of your interest groups the more people will jump in and engage with you attracting others to do the same

2. ASK QUESTIONS

Have you ever had a friend (or stranger) that did nothing but talk and never listed to you?  Never asked you what you thought or let you share your point of view?  If you had the choice, did you walk away?

Why is it any different online where it's even easier to walk away?

To engage, tap into the fundamental human need to be heard, understood and loved…that will get you more engagement than anything else

3. CURRENT EVENTS

Be aware of and ready to discuss (in a relevant way to your peer group) current events.  A huge amount of "bonding" in the "real world" of communication happens because we share certain fundamental views on things…one of the fastest ways we learn this is through talking about the events of the day.  Same thing goes for social networking, you can bond with your peers by sharing opinions and views on current events

4. CROSS-PROMOTE

Way too many people are NOT taking advantage of cross-promoting.  What I mean by that is using multiple platforms and media to expand your social circle.

For example, let's say you have a valuable tip to share with your market so you jump on YouTube to record a 5-minute lesson with that tip.  You then post a link to your video on Twitter asking people to watch and give their opinion.  Next, you head up and place a copy of the video on Facebook and then share a picture of it on Pintrest…including your own blog in the mix.  If you have a mailing list, send them to your blog and have them follow up on Twitter or Facebook with their opinions.  You want to make it easy for people to see and engage with you where they are when they are there.

5. SHARE AND BE SHARED

This point is especially important when you are first getting started in social networking…the more you are willing to share other people's content (Retweets and Reply's on Twitter, Comments on their blogs or videos, Like's and comments on Facebook and so on…) the more they will come back and take you seriously sharing your links with their followers.  Of course, you want to share quality, relevant stuff and quickly get a read on who the main influencers are in your marketplace.

Social networking is where the future is in terms of finding information, deciding which products to buy and reaching wider and wider targeted audiences.  You can learn to leverage social networking to build your business in amazing ways, but you want to get used to Engagement rather than Advertisement…now you know how.

WHAT DO YOU SAY?

How about you…leave us a comment about how you are using social networking or with your opinion on what role social will play online in the next few years.

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There's the usual furor all over the web and certainly you guys inside Infomarketer'sZone have been asking about the impact on your new businesses, so let's try and make some sense of this shall we?

As I weed through panic emails and comments from website owner after web owner and SEO specialist after SEO specialist I can't help but think about the young guy who goes out and has unprotected sex with 20 different women and then is surprised when he finds out he's a father!

Yes, accidents happen, but mostly they are NOT accidents.

RANKING BASED ON INBOUND LINKING WAS A MESS

A huge source of frustration for us over the last year is how many times we would see crappy, new, thin, useless sites ranking on the first page of search results primarily because they had "gamed" the use of obtaining inbound links on a massive scale.

Kudo's to those who figured out the combination of how many links needed to be added, what anchor text needed to be used and how to spread those links out amongst various properties making it tougher (though certainly not impossible) to track them down.

But seriously, search results were becoming seriously impacted by these sites…and that should have meant to everyone that Google would act.

My only question is why they waited so long.  Certainly this activity of "buying" links has been going on for years, it seems we hit a tipping point this year and they finally put in place an action plan to weed out these "gamed" search listings.

With Panda, the objective was to re-architect the hierarchy of how content loaded into content aggregation sites (like article directories) was ranked…again anyone who understood the value of these aggregation sites should have known they were due to be dropped in importance.

Now with the Penguin update we seem to have enough analysis in to know that one of the elements they targeted is the weight placed on low quality inbound links.  Here's a great summary over at Search Engine Watch

Suddenly, that $100 you spent to go out and have someone blast links back to your site in a bunch of blog comments, forum profiles or signature files doesn't look like such a great investment.

HAVE THEY GONE TOO FAR?

Of course, the tricky part in any sweeping change like this is how many legitimate sites your algorithm takes out along the way and make no mistake that will happen.

For example, if one of the "triggers" Google now uses to locate spammy links is sheer numbers of links back to one page with the exact same anchor text…that could infer these links were created automatically not naturally where you would expect to see more variety.

However,  it certainly is possible that someone DID, over time, syndicate content that was distributed widely containing the same anchor text making it appear to be automated when in fact it was not.

I know in our own sites we have seen fluctuations in our top content pages, some have remained untouched while others have dropped…and we have NEVER paid for links to these sites – EVER!

So yes, there will be collateral damage, and in some cases that damage may impact the owner substantially.

All the more reason to diversify your traffic sources online so that you are not relying on Google for more than 50% (and ideally more like 35-40%) of your traffic.

But mainly, we all should understand that OUR opportunity to rank useful, relevant, well produced content favorably will now have improved substantially – so keep creating content, watching your rankings and diversify your traffic across paid ads, publicity, other search engines such as Bing and affiliates who send you traffic and sales.

HAVE THEY GONE TOO FAR?

What have you experienced?  Has your traffic decreased or increased since the Penguin update?  Has it impacted your business?

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Many people think so, but here is a quick video that shares with you how things have changed and how you can take advantage of an even bigger opportunity by starting your own online business today..

Watch it here:

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• Too complicated – design, layout, cover, editing, production, distribution, etc…
• Limited Branding Potential – how would people know you had a book or ebook available
• How Will They Find You – it used to be that if you weren't in a retail store, you wouldn't be found
• Limited Publicity – not many self-publishers made it to TV or received reviews
• Black-Eye – until recently, you could tarnish your reputation rather than build it by going the self-publishing route
• Not A Real Book – for many, not being backed by a traditional publisher meant they hadn't really lived their dream of writing a book

Of course, that has all changed now.

The process of designing your book or ebook has been simplified 1000X – and while you still need to outsource things like cover design, potentially editing and adhere to same basic layout principles, the process is much simpler and much more affordable than it used to be.

Self-publishing is quickly becoming the norm and the ability to  build your brand and platform based on self-published books increases each week. 

Not only that, but using sites like InfoMarketer'sZone to help get your ebook or book to market and then dominate that market with smart online marketing tactics means that you can have a huge advantage over traditionally published books…

Each week there are hundreds of new stories of everyday people hitting it big self-publishing their own books and ebooks – here's just one example from today -about an author that put her novel on Amazon and watched it climb to the top of the best-sellers list

The market has changed to a "direct to consumer" model for many goods and services these days – ebooks and books are leading the way.  The middlemen such as Barnes And Noble, Borders and other retail outlets are dinasours today, instead making your ebooks and books available on your own website, through social networking portals like Facebook, Twitter and Pintrest and leveraging the e-reader book directories like iBooks and Kindle have made direct-to-consumer a massive success for the everday author.

The time is ripe to become a top selling writer, leverage your brand, open new career opportunities and mutliple sources of income that you may have not even dreamed possible just months ago.

Want to learn more and get started…check out The Ultimate Information Entrepreneur's Success Package and turn words into profit fast.

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I had a members of InfoMarketer'sZone call me up last evening and ask me "Are people still buying ebooks?" 

Ummmm….Seriously! 

After I picked myself up off the floor, took a minute to regain my composure I went on to give him example after example of ebook success stories from our own business and the business of thousands of others we have coached or helped through our blog and various instructional courses. 

In fairness, this is a common way of thinking for those who were involved in the "Wild West" internet from years past where ebooks were on the fringe, but were very lucrative money makers for savvy marketers who produced material in the internet marketing, self-help, health and financial market niches . 

Now that ebooks are making it more mainstream it is easy to conclude that the opportunity is lost when in fact it is really just beginning.

According to this study released earlier this year we have already cultivated nearly a $3Billion market for ebooks and are on our way over the next few years to seeing a $10Billion market. 

GRABBING YOUR SPOT ON A SPEEDING JUGGERNAUT!

That's more than 300% growth over the next 4-5 years, markets like that don't come along very often.

The fact that ebooks (and all kinds of digital information products for that matter) are inexpensive to produce, cost nearly nothing to distribute, are simple to produce and come with a built-in brand-enhancer function make this an absolute NO-BRAINER business that we all should be in.

I have had people in InfoMarketer'sZone that have taken the simplest of passions for food, losing weight, raising kids, starting a business ,getting a promotion, enjoying the game of golf or other hobbies and turned those into top selling ebooks – in some cases starting entirely new, high-paying, work-at-home businesses for themselves. 

Don't make the same mistake in thinking that you missed the growth of ebooks…you are merely seeing the start of hyper-growth, a phase 2 that will be 4-5X bigger than phase 1 and the opportunity for you to participate is sitting right in front of you. 

Have a comment…or let us know about your ebook plans, leave us a comment.

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Your Business Mentor

Nearly every day I get a call or email from someone looking to have me help as their business mentor…to help guide them toward their goal of making money online, growing their internet business or helping them improve an existing business that isn't reaching the desired profits.

Obviously there is no possible way I can offer this help to everyone…though there is something very close with InfoMarketer'sZone which offers a low-cost, very high-touch model to help nearly any beginner or advanced online business person get more traffic, conversions and profit from their business.

WHAT"S LIFE LIKE IN THE WORLD OF A SUCCESSFUL ONLINE ENTREPRENEUR?

But it brings up a good question, we all need mentor's in life, so how do you get experienced online business people to mentor you through your ascent to higher profit?

It's good to think in terms of the typical situation for a successful internet entrepreneur…

1. They are extremely busy…they know how to focus 110% on their business and ignore everything else around them
2. They are addicted to execution…they know how powerful taking action can be in growing your business
3. They are extremely independent and like others who are the same
4. They like to help people, but only people that are like-mind/ed and that they know will put their ideas into action
5. They look for positive people…knowing how important it is to be around enthusiastic, fun and passionate people
6. They typically charge for their advice…after all they worked damn hard to get their knowledge…and don't have much time for people who do not see the value in their knowledge
7. They are used to leveraging their time…if they can do something once and benefit many times, then that's their kind of activity

HOW TO GET A BUSINESS SUCCESS TO MENTOR YOU?

So, it goes without saying that you will have a much better chance of attracting and then getting the most from a mentor when you align yourself with their characteristics

Here are a few examples of what you can do to make yourself more attractive toward getting help from those around you…

1. Be passionate - you want to have an unstoppable attitude toward your online business…if you are not 110% sure that you MUST succeed, then go back and get that before you waste someone else's time

2. Hustle...show that you have done your homework, that you understand the basics and have specific questions that show you are taking action.  I know when someone comes to me with a specific question that shows they have been active putting together their online business I am much more likely to respond than to someone who comes to me and asks me general questions like "Will you mentor me…"

3. Be Specific...approach someone with a specific question instead of expecting general help…building a business is way to complicated to guess what you may need, but if you ask specifically you will usually get some help and establish a relationship

4. Prove That You Execute...nothing will get the attention of a mentor faster than if you take their advice and go put it into action immediately and come back showing them the results.  That shows you listen, that you care, that you take action and that you can be one of the top 5% performers we all seek as the ideal prospect or customer.

5. What Can You Do For Them…don't assume that successful online entrepreneurs can't use your help.  Can you write an article, give them a testimonial, offer to support them as a case study, work with them on a joint venture, put them in contact with someone else…etc   There is always a way you can help if you really look closely.

6. Compensation...look, mentor's do care about your success and often that is enough to justify their time and effort, but if you can find a way to pay them back – either by paying a consulting fee, helping promote them or their product or some other service you can provide they will go that extra mile for you and you will get their best attention.

7. Setup Communications…you arrange to meet them in person, call them on your dime, connect on Skype, etc…you take the initiative to fit into their schedule and you will show them you respect their time and business

8. Be Persistent...look, often the squeaky wheel gets the grease. If you have followed steps 1-7, then be persistent and eventually you will get the help you desire.  It may take several attempts in the beginning until their is a relationship.

We all need mentors…use these 8-steps and you will find it possible to have some of the top people in the world mentor you, the impact that can have on your business is astounding.

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In 99.99% of the cases, our subscribers, customers and coaching clients come to the table looking to make a full-time income ($100K or more) by launching their own internet businesses and often they are looking to produce an information product – book, ebook, course, membership site etc….

In short, they have…

• Huge passion for being successful
• Some ideas on HOT niche markets
• A pretty good background understanding of how money is made online
• Some initial training and sometimes an initial go at making money online with their own business
• A vision of how much money they will make through their pending venture
• A definite ability to both plan and execute on their vision

Seems like everything they need right?

YOUR VALUE, YOUR GIFT AND YOUR REWARD

There is something missing that makes a big difference in how engaged their market will be with them, how much success they will achieve and how much potential their business has to make it really big.

That factor is "Value To The Market" which can also be described as what GIFT will you give your market in exchange for their adoration?

You see, to really create word-of-mouth, engage your market to the point where they become champions of your cause, and build momentum around your products and services your market must be crystal clear on the value you bring to the table.

So it's fine to think about what niche market, topics and products you will use to launch your online business, but even more critical than anything else is understanding what VALUE by way of a GIFT (I'm not talking about giving away your product necessarily here…by GIFT I mean what information will you give your market that they will view it as a gift even if they pay you $100, $1000 or $10,000? )

Try flipping the way you think about your internet business to the point where you think mainly about the value you will bring to your customer….

This value should guide all of your messaging, marketing, list-building, product planning and creation, operations and customer support/post-sale follow-up.

Thinking of your business as a GIFT you are giving to your market is a way to ensure that you are focused on the right priorities…not only doing the "right" thing from a personal standpoint, but also from a profit standpoint.

NOW LET'S HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS?

What are your thoughts on marrying Value with Market Demand to formulate your GIFT to the market?  Is that useful for you, or do you have a different approach?  Leave us a comment.

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They have a special landing page (sometimes known as a squeeze page) that basically looks like any other squeeze page offering an incentive to get visitors to sign up to their list…

Always remember, it is as much about what is ON the landing page or  squeeze page as the design…in fact MORE!

A BIG REASON WHY!

It all starts with "What's In It For Me"…what will your reader get if they "opt-in" to your list?

It could be something as simple as notifying them of future updates (not as compelling) to giving away a report, ebook or tips package right through to providing complimentary access to a private site or giving away a more valuable course.

Be sure your offer is compelling…that you are giving away something that hits the "opportunity triggers" of your visitors.

You want to focus on giving your reader immediate access to a benefit for which they are passionately behind.

REMEMBER YOUR END GOAL

Remember that you don't just want a subscriber, your end objective is to turn a visitor into a subscriber into a loyal, engaged and active customer…that is the signal of a great opt-in, list building campaign

Within InfoMarketer'sZone we share some examples of the most effective list-building campaigns we have run ourselves as well as having worked on for others…why there were effective and how we came up with the specific offer.

Then, make sure that what you deliver is both high value enough and delivered in a way that will convert your subscriber to a customer.

At the end of the day, even if you have the most successful squeeze page and build a large list, unless you can convert them into customers, it doesn't really matter.

So yes, you may be using the same techniques as everyone else, but that doesn't mean your offer has to be the same.

For example, say you are giving away a 3-step system to reduce stress…instead of giving away a report or ebook (like your competition is doing), you could instead give away a video course, give them access to a monthly Q&A coaching call for no charge that you then package and add to a paid membership site, etc…

Be creative about what and how you deliver will set you aside.

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The first hurdle is getting traffic to your site.

Then you have to get a portion of that traffic to want to sign up to your list.

Next, you have to make it easy enough, compelling enough and valuable enough for them to hand over their email address…not a trivial task these days when most people online have been trained to ignore ads and opt-in forms. 

As if all of this was not enough, you need to find a way to both get the follow-up campaign delivered and make them relevant and interesting enough to get them to open your emails

Finally, you somehow need to work out the perfect balance of useful/valuable content and promotional material that works so ultimately your subscribers buy. 

No wonder there are so few people effectively marketing online…that's a pretty challenging process right?

Sure enough, there are many people that have the traffic and perhaps even have the initlal lead-generation down, but then they find they can't create a relationship with their list.

They won't open the emails and of those that do, they are not actively engaged in commenting or responding to offers. 

Soon, they stop opening your emails altogether.  Now you have LOST them forever!

4 RULES OF EMAIL ENGAGEMENT

Fortunately, there are 4 techniques we have found to work best for making sure your followers, blog readers, content consumers DO take action and remain an active part of your community

1. FOCUS ON A HOT DESIRE

To begin with, your mind and your business must be focused on a specific market…and ever more important…the hottest, most desired transformation that your market wants, but has been unable to achieve.  Having this as your focus will mean you have the chance to become one of the most important parts of your prospect's life…now that's pretty compelling. 

2. IN THEIR LANGUAGE

When you market online you do not have the opportunity to read body language, repeat your messages in different ways or to change your dialog according to the silent feedback we so often do when we see who we are communicating with.  That means it is more important to know HOW your subscriber phrases the desires and frustrations they have…the closer you get to these, the more engagement you will have with your prospect.  We like to continually create ways for our readers and content consumers to submit feedback so we see THEIR WORDS…even if we know what they are going to say, it is worth GOLD to know how they will say it. 

3. WRITING LIKE YOU WOUL D TALK

Writing in a onversational tone is the single best piece of writing advice I have ever received…and it's more important today given the content channels than it used to be.  Imagine your prospect has just asked you a very speciifc question about one part of their desired transformation, now imagine you are explaining the answer and write that down (or dictate it and get it translated).

4. HELPING NOT PROMOTING

Change your focus on promotion within your email campaign…instead think of it as helping your prospect with part of their transformation.   When I teach online marketing to new people I run through the tools we have found of most benefit when marketing online…the value I bring is that we have USED these tools for 4+ years operating multiple businesses online so we can save them time, lost dollars and lots of frustration by helping them quickly know how to find, setup and run these tools.  Find value to recommendations and you will no longer be promoting, instead you will be helping. 

Being on-target, using the language your prospects would use, coming across as a human instead of a marketer all will improve your list loyalty, engagement and ultimately will end up putting more money in your pockets. 

What question do you have around list building?

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