Ready, Set, Go Sell Your Book In The Real World! – Writing
Ready, Set, Go Sell Your Book In The Real World!
Mary Holzrichter
We hear a lot these days about more books actually being sold outside the traditional bookstore. Think about it. When was the last time you actually took time to linger and explore the bookshelves When did you last impulsively grab a book, flip it over, read the blurbs, and finger through a few chapters Lets face it, most of us are too hurried.
So Whats The Point
If you dont take the time to browse, why expect your potential customer to do so
Try This:
Grab about five copies of your book, and head for the "Ma and Pa" stores in your hometown area. Pick a time when you know it wont be too busy. Talk to the owner or manager. Ask him if you may set up a small display on his counter. Offer him a percentage of each sale.
Get Impulsive!
Go for the impulse buyers! Havent you at one time, while waiting at a cash register, seen a small display of books on the counter Before it was your turn to get checked out, you grabbed it, became excited, and added it to your other purchases Maybe it was a novel set in your locale. People love reading tales taking place in their familiar surroundings.
They think, "Oh, Ive driven that road! I know where it is!
Wheres the next landmark Have to find out!" They feel they become a "part" of it.
Is your book set in your region Try your local gift shops, bed and breakfast inns, pharmacies, hair salon, even the little "quick stops." You get the picture.
Is the hero in your book of Italian descent Is there a lot of ethnicity Head for the specialty shops like that little corner deli. Pesto. Gnochi. Fresh-baked focaccia. Get your book on that counter!
Maybe kayaking through turbulent river rapids is a large part of your novel. Or sky diving, race car driving, hang gliding, deep sea diving. Head on out to the sporting goods stores.
Whatever, go for it. Take control.
Another Idea
Grab your books and get a booth at the local festivals taking place in and around your area. Maybe share one with an author friend. In my area, there are different festivals every weekend throughout the summer and early fall. In the winter, many craft fairs. Think "thousands of potential customers!"
What Are You Waiting For
I know youre thinking, "But I only want to write!" That may be so. Promoting is time consuming. But whats the alternative Your book just sets there and gathers dust. So ease on out of that chair, and head on out. Let people know about your book. Talk it up. Readers who love your book will add another dimension to your promotion - word-of-mouth advertising!
Start Small and Think Big
Some stores you approach may not work! Granted. But youll get the ball rolling and your mind spinning. "Where else can I sell my book" Youll find yourself eyeing every little store as a possibility, while driving your car or strolling the sidewalks of your hometown. Who knows, you may even become your hometowns next "celebrity!" Give it a try!
About The Author
Mary Holzrichter
Do you enjoy reading quality fast paced action novels Do you like to write them Either way, visit ActionTales.com . We offer some great titles for
readers and an unbeatable publishing deal for authors.
Sell Multiple Products Through a Single ClickBank Account – Merchant Account
Sell Multiple Products Through a Single ClickBank Account
Tim Coulter
A ClickBank merchant account allows you to define and sell up to 50 separate products. If you have more than one product in your range, it makes sense to sell them from a shared ClickBank account. Here are three good reasons why:
Every active ClickBank account incurs a setup fee of $49.95. Why pay this more than once
Managing multiple ClickBank accounts adds unnecessarily to your administrative effort
The combined sales of multiple products through one account will significantly boost your Marketplace ranking
Unfortunately, the architecture of the ClickBank system has, historically, not been well suited to selling multiple products from a single account, especially for merchants who use affiliates to promote their products. The problem is that, although you can define 50 products within ClickBanks account control panel, you can only specify a single landing page URL - the destination page that your affiliates will refer their prospects to.
The result is that all referrals must arrive at your site via a common page. This forces you either to present all your products on a shared sales page or to create an intermediate page, from which your visitors must click through to see the product of their choice. Neither option is ideal as they both create obstacles that will distract your prospects and seriously reduce your conversion rate.
For optimum sales effectiveness, affiliate referrals should go directly to the sales page for the product of interest. This is known as deep linking and is widely acknowledged as the best way to convert affiliate referrals into buyers. But ClickBanks lack of support for this technique is a major barrier that inhibits effective use of its growing affiliate network.
To tackle this problem, a number of pioneering merchants have developed their own techniques to work around ClickBanks shortcomings. Some of these innovations have even evolved into successful commercial software products. Most implementations rely on intercepting the inbound referral and automatically redirecting it to the relevant product page, as indicated in URL parameters passed by the referring affiliate. There are several variations on this theme, but they share a common gambit - using scripts, installed on the merchants web server, to intercept and redirect requests.
However, the need for smoke and mirrors to fix ClickBanks limitations may soon be a relic of the past. In October 2003, ClickBank announced plans for major improvements to its hoplink system - improvements that will all but eliminate the need for workarounds or enhancement products.
The new architecture - known as the enhanced hoplink system - employs a more flexible referral URL format, in which affiliates are able to specify the numeric code of the product they are referring their prospects to. Using this code, ClickBanks server will look up the corresponding sales page URL and send referrals directly to it, handling cookie-tracking and other admin chores in the normal manner.
The main attraction of the enhanced hoplink system is its simplicity of implementation and maintenance. Whereas add-on products require at least a moderate understanding of script installation and configuration, the hoplink system is maintained entirely via the ClickBank account control panel. This means that a merchant selling multiple products even across multiple web domains can expose them for affiliate deep linking, simply by configuring the relevant sales page URLs in his account.
At the time of writing, ClickBank has published the format of the enhanced hoplink URL, but has not completed the database and control panel changes that will allow the configuration of multiple landing pages. So, although we can visualize the new architecture and dream of the benefits it will deliver, we remain in eager anticipation of its release.
About The Author
Copyright © Tim Coulter. All rights reserved.
Tim Coulter is a consultant and software developer who helps netpreneurs to harness marketing technologies.
He is also the author of "ClickBank - The Definitive Guide" The Ultimate ClickBank Tutorial & Reference Manual.
http://www.clickbankrevealed.com/
When Internet Marketing Gurus Sell Their Souls – Email Marketing
When Internet Marketing Gurus Sell Their Souls
Gobala Krishnan
If youre just getting started in Internet Marketing, you may be awed by the amount of "Internet Gurus" out there, all making millions of dollars or so they claim and for some reason seem more than willing, for a fee, to teach you their biggest, most intimate secrets.
I believe in one thing - If it sounds too good to be true, it most probably is!
While I have no doubt on the specialized skills and techniques used by these gurus, it can get way too frustrating simply getting into all their hype, and find almost no value at the end of the day. Hype - thats one thing I agree these gurus are really good at. For some of them, unfortunately, hype is the only thing theyre good at.
So the question, for those who are trying to master Internet Marketing, might be:
Can I learn anything from these gurus without paying money
Who is real and who is not
Whose methods should I follow
Can You Learn Something for Free
Most gurus have opt-in newsletters on specialized subjects like website marketing, Pay-Per-Click, search engine optimization or whatever specialized skill they have "mastered". Almost all of them ask you to subscribe to their newsltetter in return for some kind of "breakthrough" report, and promise to deliver "valuable information" weekly or monthly to your email address. Sound great.
Heres what happens 2 weeks later - You realize that the "breakthrough report" is the same old regurgitated information which you can find almost anywhere. You might also relize that the "valuable information" never comes in full, without any hidden agenda. The "valuable information" is actually a soft-selling sometimes even blatant advertisements ad for the gurus products, or even worse, some other Internet marketers products.
Im not trying to shoot down any marketer here, but the irony is in their teaching. Almost all internet gurus would advice you to offer valuable, free information that benefits other people. Profits, as they say, is secondary to actually helping people and making a difference in their lives. What a load of BS. How come they dont practise what they preach Of is that how the Internet Marketing Game is played
Fortunately, not all gurus are the same. There are still some jewels to be found, and they offer some great information in their newsletters, such as:
Vishal Rao: http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com talks about home based businesses.
Mike Cheney: http://www.magnet4web.com talks about building an effective and efficient business web site.
Jill Whalen: http://www.highrankings.com talks about Search Engine Optimization.
Of course there are more out there, but it is not necessary to subscribe to every Internet Marketing newsletter just to hope for nuggets of gold that may never come. Instead, give the guru a "trial" month, and if you dont find anything of value from them, just unsubscribe. It will only be a loss to them, not you.
Whos Real and Whos Not
To answer this question, you really have to "get around" the Internet a lot. Go to forums where you will definately find topics on info-products offered by these gurus, and see what others are saying about them. Forget about all those blaring testimonials that the gurus compile on their site. Forums are where the real testimonials are. You may also want to consider this site:
GuruDaq : http://www.gurudaq.com
Taking on a Nasdaq-like approach, this site lists all gurus according to ratings and stock price. Although I would advice to take it more as an entertainment that actual recommendations, perhaps this site will allow you to get a glimpse of "whos who" in Internet Marketing.
Whose methods should I follow
Honestly, nobodys. At least not word-for-word of what is thought in their newsletters or ebooks. The important thing to realize is that you need to develop your own technique to be really successful. The gurus dont teach you everything, anyway. They almost always feed you the crop but keep the cream for themselves. In other words, no one really tells you the "hot money-making secrets", especially those gurus that have sold their soul a long time ago.
Its really up to you to learn some tips and tricks of the trade from them, but set out on your own course. In order to be successful in anything, you need to do your own thing. Be original in you approach, whether its writing sales letters, doing email marketing, pay-per-click or search engine optimization.
Dont look to someone who has sold their soul to lead you to the path of success. Thats wishful thinking.
Copyright 2005 Gobala Krishnan
About The Author
Gobala Krishnan is an internet marketer and home business owner. Visit his site at http://www.sfidreamteam.com to start your own Internet based home business today, and get a free kickstart package, one-on-one coaching and a clear, proven system to earn a six figure income.