Promoting Your Book To The World

If you have an existing mailing list, tell them about your new ebook first! Offer them the best deal possible - a special offer that no one else will be getting. (You’ve gotta treat your own list the best.)

I would also offer an affiliate program to my customers so they can promote the product to others while they earn a commission.

If you don’t have your own list, the first thing you may want to do is, start sending out ‘joint venture’ offers to other businesses in your field. Offer them a nice-sized commission (at least 50%) and explain to them how they (as well as their customers) will benefit from the deal.

I would send out at least one JV letter, per day!

If all you do is work on striking joint ventures with other marketers and business owners, you will not need any other marketing strategy to pull in amazing profits! Joint ventures are the best thing out there for us writers and marketers — especially online!

You can also use highly-targeted ezine ads to get customers. (Here’s a twist to this technique: instead of targeting customers, target affiliates who will help you sell the product! This strategy can grow your business very quickly!)

Another strategy that can work well for you (if you don’t have an existing customer list) is to write short, focused articles and submit them to targeted ezines. Articles can be a great way to get viral advertising working for you.

There are hundreds of other strategies you can use. However, the ones listed above are some of the best and most effective ones around. You should always go for ‘quality’ traffic verses ‘quantity.’

What To Do When You Get Stuck

If you get stuck or lost at any point during the product creation / marketing process, don’t panic. There’s an easy solution!

Just watch what the experts in your field are doing and how they’re doing it. Then do the same thing.

Example: If you can’t think of a great title for your ebook, look at what the experts are doing. Or, go to amazon.com and do a search for books on that subject. Read the titles/headlines and you’ll get some great ideas from there.

Don’t know how to create an outline for your product? Look at how the existing books are formatted.

Having a hard time creating a killer sales letter for your product? Just look at the top sellers and see how they’re doing it. And model yours after the best sellers!

Most of the work has already been done for you. You don’t have to steal other’s work, but you can look at their stuff to get ideas… you can model after the successful ones. And of course, make yours better!

Another good point to keep in mind is… your book doesn’t have to be hundreds of pages long. I tend to create short powerful reports because they are quick and easy to produce.

That’s a great way to go, especially if you’re a new marketer and want to get your feet wet.

Best of all, short reports allow you to spread your risk.  Listen, all of your projects will not become home runs. That’s just the reality - of any business - that most of us have to accept

So, if you invest a lot of time and energy into creating a monster ebook that turns out to be a dud, you would have lost all the time and energy you put into that project… with nothing to show for it.

On the other hand, if you had only spent a few weeks on creating a much shorter ebook which also turned out to be a dud, you could quickly pull that one out and replace it with another short one. Your risks are dramatically reduced and your chances of putting out a winner is increased!
See, it’s better to create 10 little ebooks per year and have 2 of them flop (which means 8 of them are bringing in the cash!) than to only create one or two big ebooks in that same year and risk having them both flop. There is also a much better chance that 1 of your products will be a hot seller if you have 10 of them out there, instead of just one or two.

That has been my strategy for the past 7+ years. And it has worked very well for me. It can work well for you too.

Make It Better!

Most importantly, keep testing and tracking everything you do!

After you have the basics down, start testing everything to make it better.

Test your headlines to see which one pulls better.

Test your offer, packaging, benefits, pricing… test everything! Don’t let anyone tell you what they “think” will work. Let your customers decide that for you.

Measure the response of everything you test to find out which is working better and producing more profits.

Don’t ever stop improving on what you have.

Each little improvement you make (after testing it out) can mean substantial additional profits for you. It’s the easiest way I know of to give yourself a raise without really doing too much extra work.

Finally, make your package unique, either through the offer, the packaging, or the product itself. Make yours stand out from the rest of the pack..

If you don’t do that, you’ll be lost among the other mediocre offers, and your customers will probably never find you.

If you can’t think of a way to make your product/offer unique, just look at how other industries are doing it. You’ll get some great ideas just by watching other businesses that are completely unrelated to your field.

Do the above and you’ll continue to get great results.

Ken Mathie
An Easy Way To Create A Popular Auto-Run CD Product For Family, Fun Or Profit - And All It Takes Is Just Two Hours more information click here

How To Begin Structuring Your CD Navigation
(11 Minutes)
In this video I’ll talk you through how to create ‘templates’ that make your CD creation process a lot faster and easier.

Establish Your Uniqueness!

Look, creating products is not that difficult, as I’m sure you’re aware of by now. But if you really want to make good money in this business and establish yourself as a respected expert, you have to be unique! This is so important that it’s worth repeating several times.

Come up with a unique product or service, or as mentioned earlier, a unique twist/angle to an existing product. (Of course, the latter is much easier and quicker to do.)

If you’re in a highly competitive niche, take existing ideas and products and find ways to improve on them considerably.

Look for an area within your field/niche that needs attention but isn’t getting any. Look for ‘holes’ in your niche.

What are the main problems and frustrations of customers that other marketers and business owners aren’t addressing?

Look for something that’s highly needed but not being addressed by others. Do surveys, visit message boards and forums, etc.

Target a sub-niche (a smaller niche within a large niche) that isn’t overflowing with competition, or one that isn’t being addressed yet.

Example: When I first got into online marketing, the ’spam’ laws were just beginning to come about. Marketers were just starting to get away from sending unsolicited email because they didn’t want to get in trouble. The online business was changing. New marketers were tip-toeing around the issue. They either got in trouble for sending unsolicited email, or were too afraid to even approach email marketing in fear of being labeled a ’spammer.’

I noticed the area that needed attention: permission email marketing. Email marketing was the easiest and cheapest way to build a business. But people were too afraid to use it. They needed a step-by-step guide to using email marketing the ‘right way’ - using opt-in methods so they wouldn’t get in trouble.

So, that’s what I wrote about. And, that’s the book that put me on the map… Email Marketing Strategies Revealed! was born.

Find out what’s missing from your market and fill that need!  Study your market. Find the holes, and then find a way to fill them.

If you don’t think you have the skills needed, find someone who does and market that person’s assets!

Example: think of celebrity agents. They don’t have the acting/dancing/singing skills themselves. But it doesn’t matter because they go out and find the talent, then they sell that talent!

A really powerful way to come up with unique ideas is to study other businesses that are NOT related to your market. If you’re in the online marketing field, look at the real estate business, the plumbing business or any other non-related business. If you look closely, with an open mind, you will find many creative and unique ideas that you can bring back to your own business and surprise your market! They will think you’re a creative genius!

Don’t hold back when you’re trying to come up with new and creative ideas. Let your brain take off - freely and unhindered. Think back to when you were 8 years old. Get back in touch with that “nothing is impossible” energy that children possess. That can be your greatest ally in business.

Every now and then I’ll come up with a completely original product idea, but usually it’s just stuff I see happening around me. I look at what’s already selling, what’s already (or is starting to become) popular.
I use my creativity to put new twists to existing “winning” ideas. That’s the shortest route to success!

By giving it a twist, it sort of becomes a unique product. Just learn to pay attention. Keep one ear on the ground. Notice what’s getting the most shelf space in bookstores. Visit discussion groups in your niche. Get on mailing lists, etc.

In short, get out there and hang out among your customers and competitors (either online, offline, or both.) Do that and you’ll never run out of ideas to write about.

However, I’d strongly recommend that you give your product idea a little “twist.”  Make it unique in some way so that it’s not the same ol’ product that everyone else is selling.

That little twist can make your product stand out and sell very well.

Here’s an example from the past…

When I first started my ‘Secret Collection’ of ebooks several years ago, no one was selling it the way I was. People were selling individual reports, on various niche subjects, but you rarely saw anyone put it together the way I had.

And there was a reason no one was doing it. It was difficult to group those products together and still maintain a “theme.”  I’m talking about subjects like online investigation, self defense, credit tips, beating speeding tickets, UFO’s, etc. None of these products had anything to do with each other.

Well, I decided to use the “secrets” theme. My main selling point (and headline) was.. “Discover Secrets You’re Not Supposed To Know About!”

And, in the package, I revealed online investigative secrets, self defense secrets, credit secrets, UFO secrets… and so on. Suddenly, all these products - on different subjects that normally could not be grouped together -  worked very well as a “package.”

My uniqueness in this case was the way I “packaged” the products, and of course the “secrets” hook that I used. The moment I gave it a “theme” it was a hit.

I got the “package/membership site” idea from Tom Hua’s “Free To Sell” package back in 2001. So it wasn’t an original idea. (Like I said, pay attention to the top marketers and you’ll get lots of ideas.)

But, I gave it a twist that was original. At least for the online crowd.

So… you don’t have to be an inventive genius to have a hot product. Just watch for what’s selling. Then, focus on solving problems, on providing solutions, on creating value for others, on making your product better than what’s already out there, and you’ll do fine.

Power Tip: Here’s another major reason for coming up with a unique product. Not only will the customers love your product (since they’re always after what’s “new” and “hot,” a unique product will also get other businesses in your field/niche interested in working with you.

Nothing can build your business faster than joint venturing (partnering) with other successful businesses. And nothing will get other businesses to want to partner with you more than a unique product that really solves the problem of your target market.

The Process

As soon as I get an idea for an ebook that gets me excited, I write it down. (Keep a pen and pad, or tape recorder, with you at all times.)

Then, I transfer it into a 14” by 17” sketch pad. It’s a drawing pad i.e. it contains blank sheets of paper, without ruled lines.

I designate at least one sheet to my new idea. And, then I just go crazy on it. The secret I’ve discovered is to forget about logic, linear thinking or organization. Just let go and pour out whatever is inside you at that moment.

In other words, my mind is usually going in 10 different directions when I scribble on the pad. One minute I’m writing a brief table of contents on one section of the page. The next minute, I’m writing a killer headline that just came to me, for that product. Pretty soon this large 14” x 17” page is filled up with scribbles, notes, gems that I brainstormed.

Everything that I can think of (relating to this product) gets recorded on this pad (table of contents, ads and salesletter titbits, cover design, formatting, etc.)

I also let the idea simmer in the back of my head for a few days (and nights) and each time I get bits and pieces of insight, I make a note of them all.

(It’s very important to let your mind relax and roam freely, in a limitless manner. That’s when some awesome ideas can come to you. After you’ve given your brain a goal to focus on, sleep on the idea and let your brain really go to work on it, unhindered.)

Ken Mathie
An Easy Way To Create A Popular Auto-Run CD Product For Family, Fun Or Profit - And All It Takes Is Just Two Hours more information click here