The Six Steps for Writing a Successful E-book

One of the best ways to start an online business and make money from home is to find out what information people want and then sell it to them in the form of an e-book!

A huge mistake that new e-book publishers make is to first write an e-book on a subject that they themselves are interested in, and then try to dig up a market from a related niche and persuade them, without much success, that they too should have the same interests in buying the book.

Needless to say, this is not the best way to start out in the world of e-book publishing. First you need to research the niche, discover the market and what information they want, and then go about the task of putting into words, the information that they will gladly hand over their hard earned money for.

Here are six steps to a successful e-book:

#1 - What Subjects are You Knowledgeable About?

Make a list of all the things you could confidently write about. It's much easier, and a lot less work, to write about a subject in which you already have knowledge. Do you have hobbies that others would be interested to hear about? Do not make the mistake of assuming that because you are knowledgeable about a particular subject, others are too. You would be surprised at what you know that other people don't. We all have our own subjects of expertise!

Once you have decided on your topic, research the niches where this topic could be turned into profits. Don't be discouraged if the niche is already quite popular, this could an advantage to you. A popular niche is proof that there is already a market, and money to be made. Just be sure that your product is superior to the competition.

#2 - Find Their Itch And Scratch It!

You need to know what their problems are, find out what is missing in their life. What information do they want? The answer to these questions, and others, should be your main focus. You need to focus on what they don't have, sometimes you even have to tell them what it is that is missing and why they need it, and when you give it to them, they will reward you financially.

#3 - Do Your Research.

When you decide to start writing you should be well prepared. Don't sit at your desk one day and then decide that today, here and now, is the time to write your first e-book. Chances are that it will not work and if it does it will not be nearly the quality that it needs to be!

You must first research your subject, collect all the information you possibly can, and put it into a specified folder on your computer. Then when you feel you have all the information you need, you can proceed to bring it all together in an organized manner. This will make your e-book much higher quality, fluent and easy to read.

#4 - Create Your Masterpiece.

Now it's time to get down to it and start writing. Refer to your folder where you stored all your information, choose from your organized lists, and start writing. A great tip given by many when it comes to writing is to start and don't stop. Write down everything that comes into your head. If you try to think too much about what you are writing you will forget important information and it will take you much longer to finish.

In this step just get your thoughts written down. You will be editing and correcting later on. Write your e-book in smaller chunks rather than trying to do it all in one sitting. This will help prevent you from suffering from writers block.

Most importantly, keep it simple! The average adult only reads somewhere around the 8th grade level, so don't write as if you've just devoured two dictionaries and a thesaurus for breakfast! Write as if you were in a conversation with an average everyday person.

# 5 - Check Your Work.

Now is the time to re-read and edit your work. Read it through several times and be sure to check spelling and grammar errors. If it's hard for you, the writer, to read and understand then it will probably be about impossible others!

Give it to a member of your family or a good friend and ask them to read it through and give you an unbiased opinion as to whether they understand it. If they don't, why not? If necessary re-write it and then go through this step again.

# 6 - Put the Finishing Touches on it.

Somewhere along the line you have to decide that your e-book is finished. There will always be something that pops into your head later on... that little snippet that wish you would have used. Don't worry about it! The important thing is that you have passed on well researched, unbiased, quality information to someone who was in search of it.

Okay now that you have finished writing your e-book, it's time for the real work to start... You have to promote it to your target market and get sales!

About the author:

Trent Brownrigg is a highly successful Internet marketer and online business consultant. He has helped thousands of people's work at home dreams come true! He can help you too. Visit his website http://www.work-at-home-jobs-iowa.com for more information.

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Google Adsense - The Easiest Way to Make Money Online!

For quite a while now, Google Adsense has dominated forums, discussion boards, websites and newsletters all over the Internet. There are numerous tales of huge riches to be made by those who are working from home online. It seems that Google Adsense is now dominating the Internet marketing world and is now considered the easiest way to making money online.

The key to success with Adsense is the placing of ads on pages that are receiving high traffic for high demand keywords. The higher the cost-per-click to the advertiser, the more you will receive per click from your site. Obviously, it does not pay to target low cost-per-click keywords and place them on pages that do not receive hits.

With all the people getting online and clicking away everyday, it is no wonder why Google Adsense has become an instant hit.

For some who are new to Internet marketing, it could be a blow to their pride knowing that their homepage is buried somewhere in the little ads promoting other people’s services. But then, when they get the idea that they are actually earning more money that way, all doubts and skepticism is laid to rest.

There are two major, and clever, factors that successful webmasters and publishers are learning to mix together in order to make money more easily with Google Adsense...

1. Targeting high traffic pages on your website. If you check your stats, you will discover that many of your visitors are taking advantage of the free affiliate marketing resources and ebooks that you are offering on your site. In simple words, your ads are working effectively and are generating more clicks. It also means more money for you.

2. Placing Adsense links on pages that are producing little, or better yet, no profit. By placing Adsense on a free resources page, you will reduce the amount of potential customers being lost to other sites. Tricky, but effective nonetheless.

When learned to work effectively, these two factors are actually a good source of producing a minimal amount of revenue from a high traffic page. Many people are using this strategy to pick up some extra and cash with Adsense. This is also especially rewarding to informational sites that focus their efforts on delivering powerful affiliate link free content to their visitors. Now they can gain a monetary return on their services.

With the many techniques that people are now learning on how to make the easiest money with Google Adsense, it is not surprising that Google is trying everything to update and polish their Adsense in order to maintain their great image.

The possibility of adding a 2nd tier in Adsense is possible. With all the people spending more time with their Adsense now and still more getting into this line of Internet marketing, there is no doubt about the many new improvements yet to be made. Imagine the smiles on the faces of the webmasters and publishers all around the world if ever they sign up sub-affiliates and double or even triple the amount that they are already earning.

One particularly handy money making feature that is available with Adsense now is the ability to filter out up to 200 urls. These gives webmasters the option to block out low value offers from their pages as well as competitors to their websites. Talk about taking only those that are advantageous and discarding the ones that seem “useless”.

With Google Adsense, the possibilities are endless. Yet there is also the possibility of someone taking advantage of the easy money process that this Internet marketing gives. If you think more about it, these negative factors may force Google to break down and lower the value Adsense. If that does happen, people would have to go back to more of the the old ways of Internet marketing without using Adsense to make money online as easily.

However, for the time being, Google Adsense is here to stay! As long as there are people who want to earn some easy cash online and even more people wanting to use Google Adwords to advertise, the future of Adsense is looking good. And with all the strict guidelines that Google enforces over Adsense, it will take a long time for the Adsense privileges to be spammed or taken advantage of to the point of terminating the program.

The Google Cash Machine - Start Making Money 15 Minutes from Now!

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How To Get Your Marketing E-mails Read

More and more people are using e-mail marketing in their business as a way to quickly and easily contact hundreds if not thousands of prospects and customers. However, few people fail to realize that there is a lot more to e-mail marketing than that.

E-mail marketing is no different than any other type of marketing, the same types of rules apply. It is important to understand that e-mail marketing is just a tool and like any tool you must learn how to use it. Your goal should not always be to make the sale, but to get the prospect to request additional information.

Most e-mail marketing is doomed from the start. As much as 90% or more of e-mails sent will never be read. Why is that?

There are two big reasons for this...

1. Poor subject line - screw this up and the rest of your message is irrelevant.

Your subject line announces your e-mail and tells the reader if the message is important to them or not. Your subject line should do one thing and one only - get your reader to open the message and read the first sentence.

Simply stating "You can make $30,000 in the next 30 days" just wont cut it. In fact, a line like this will probably increase the chance that it will be considered spam and not read at all. The more hyped your subject is, the less chance of getting a response. How do you attract the reader's attention without hype? There's no magic formula, but personalizing the subject line with your prospects name greatly increases your chances for a second look. But name alone wont get you great results, you still need to write the rest of your subject line without the hype.

2. Don't confuse the prospect in the first paragraph

Now that the prospect has opened up your message, another huge percentage of your prospects will not make it past the first sentence. Your goal is to get them to read the first sentence, which leads to the second and so on.

Don't state in the first sentence why you sent the e-mail message, how to opt-out, apologize for your message, etc... and for sure don't state that this message is not spam! Every sentence should contribute toward moving your prospect towards your objective what ever that objective is. If your subject gets the prospects' attention, the first paragraph should lead them into the rest of you message. You should allows keep one thing in mind, your prospect only cares about one thing - what is in it for them.

Provide your prospects with something of value and they will take you up on your offer. What do you have that can help them in making a decision? What can you give away that will be an asset to them? If you become a resource to your prospects you will see the quality and quantity of responses change for the better.

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Avoiding Disasters in Internet Marketing Outsourcing

The free online business tips for today are about outsourcing tasks for your home business and how to avoid disasters...

Outsourcing is the latest buzz word to hit the internet marketing world. It is certainly not a new concept to outsource tasks, but like so many other things in our lives, the Internet has given rise to a new dimension of this popular technique. Because of this, there are a number of issues to keep in mind when looking at outsourcing as a viable alternative to doing it yourself.

For good reason, outsourcing is a concept that internet marketing professionals and newbies alike should acquaint themselves with. Because a large number of internet marketers are running the show by themselves or with a limited pool of additional assistance, there are just too many tasks to complete alone. In addition to the time factor, it is simply not possible for any one individual to possess all the technical skills necessary to accomplish all aspects running an internet marketing business.

With time and skill level being the two primary factors that lead internet marketers to outsource, it is important to understand which of these two needs you are fulfilling when you proceed to outsource.

When analyzing your outsourcing needs on the basis of time constraints, it is advisable to have a good understanding of what an hour of your time is worth relative to the task at hand.

For example, let's say it takes you six hours to accomplish a redundant task and it would take about 15 minutes for you to teach someone else to do it for you. Then look at what you may be able to accomplish in that same six hour period. Would you be able to use that time to finish an ebook that could be resold for untold profits, or write thousands of lines of code to package and resell? If so, then any modest fee that is paid to outsource that redundant task could be worth its weight in gold.

Outsourcing on the basis of skill level becomes a little more tricky and this is where most internet marketers who are new to outsourcing can get themselves in trouble. It is imperative to keep in mind that even though you may be outsourcing an activity that you are not capable of doing yourself, you still need to be in control.

This is your business and your image and income depends on it. Failure to have a firm grasp on what you are outsourcing will almost always mean that the end result will not live up to your expectations. And this is not productive for you or the individual you have contracted with.

Communication is the key component when outsourcing a task that you are not readily able to do yourself. For example, let's say you are not the greatest artist in the world and you contract with a designer to develop header and ebook cover graphics for your sales page. Telling the designer nothing more than the title of your ebook and expecting the graphics of your dreams to result is just not going to happen.

The more detailed you can be about your likes, dislikes and expectations, the greater the chance that you will be thrilled with the end result. Remember, just because the designer has skills that you don't, one of those skills probably isn't reading minds! If you don't like the color green, there is no way someone is going to know this unless you tell them.

Another area where internet marketers get into trouble is when the outsourcing project involves technical skills or programming. This can be particularly difficult if both sides are not communicating properly.

A non-programmer often sees a project as being far less complex due to a lack of knowledge about the mechanics involved in the programming process. End users are used to just clicking buttons and having things work; they never have to deal with or think about what goes on with the coding behind the scenes.

This can have both an impact on the perceived value of the outsourcing bid as well as the time frame and ultimate functionality of the programming project. Misunderstandings with all of these things can be greatly reduced by taking time to clearly and concisely define the project parameters ahead of time. Again, the importance of communication here cannot be stressed enough.

Finally, it is never a good idea to outsource anything you don't understand or cannot measure. This isn't to say that you need to understand the mechanics behind the process, but you definitely need to understand the result.

For example, it is not unusual to see bid requests on popular outsourcing sites requesting 200+ inbound links from PR7 or greater sites to be completed within 24 hours. While this may or may not be an exaggeration, the point is, if you are asking for this and adamant that you want to get your money's worth, you better be prepared to have a means in place with which to judge someone's performance in completing this task. Otherwise, it is just a recipe for disaster.

Simply put, if you want something done to your satisfaction, you need to be prepared ahead of time to know when that point is reached.

Remember, outsourcing in many ways is just the virtual version of an employee or subcontractor. If you have ever been an employer and created a job description, along with it you most likely implemented a means of gauging the employee's performance. And as an employee, you knew exactly what was expected of you and the consequences of failure.

Today's outsourcing concepts are based upon the same time honored principles used in business throughout the ages and understanding this will greatly increase your odds of success in your Internet marketing business.

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A Few Reasons Why You Should Re-Direct Your Affiliate Links

Affiliate marketing can make you a very good income without having to create your own product and mess with all the other stuff that comes along with creating your own product.

The trick to affiliate marketing is to be different and not appear like everyone else. One good way to look different is to re-direct or cloak your affiliate link.

However, this article is going to tell you three other ways that re-directing your affiliate links can benefit you.

The first is Spam. When you use the same link coming from the same domain as everyone else, the spam filters start to pick up on that domain as being a sales letter email and blocking it as spam. Example:

www.theaffiliateprogram.com/?id=222

So when ever the filters see www.affiliateprogram.com in the email it will get blocked as spam and get blacklisted, especially if it is a large promotion.

By re-directing the link - it will have your domain as the link and help to make it thru the spam filters.

The second reason is search engine optimization. If you write articles and submit them with a signature file that has the affiliate link, the affiliate site gets the back links. Plus it makes it easy for people to get rid of your affiliate id.

By using your domain as a redirect to the affiliate program you get the back links to your site and better SEO rankings.

The third reason is that it will make you look more professional as a marketer and not just someone who is out promoting all kinds of affiliate programs. When potential customers see www.theaffiliateprogram.com/?id=222 they know it is an affiliate program and will be less likely to click on it.

However when they see something like

http://yourdomain.com/affilliatename or http://yourdomain.com/recommends/program

They will view it more as your personal offer or recommendation.

There are many programs that offer to change your links. Many are simple software solutions and can have you changing all your links easily. The programs for changing links do not have to be pricey at all, and many are available as freeware or shareware through popular sites that offer these kinds of products.

Whatever program or software you choose, the key is to make your domain as the primary one. This will make your site seem more like the authority and have potential customers clicking on your links in no time. Your affiliate commissions should grow without any additional marketing on your part.

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The "Guru" Dilemma - When Everyone Wants Your Time

Let's imagine that you have spent years building up your expertise in a certain niche - say, Internet Network Marketing. You have written articles, created courses, published e-books (or real books), filmed training videos and hosted seminars. Suddenly, your name is out there. Your promotional activities have born fruit, and you are now the 'go-to guy' on Internet network marketing. At this point you have made "Guru" status!

For a while, it's great. Your products sell like hot cakes, and your e-courses are always full. Grateful clients send you emails telling you how fantastic your information is - and of course, you use their words in testimonials. That generates even more sales.

Then one day you sit down at the computer to start on your email - and you realize that it's out of control. Increasingly, you are getting mail from aspiring Internet network marketer's assuming you will be happy to dispense free advice. (After all, you are the guru.) People who have taken your courses tend to stay in contact, too. Sometimes they write just to report success, sometimes they ask for further advice. You get the same old "I know you're a busy person, but I wonder if I can just ask a quick question?"

At times, you open your email program and find that you have thirty or forty emails to answer. You're spending hours every day just being polite to people or answering more questions.

What are you going to do?

Obviously, you can't keep this up. Yet you know that these are nice people and you want their business as well - their motives are innocent, and you don't want to offend them. They obviously have no idea how much time you spend on unpaid support - or how the time spent on all those 'quick questions' can add up.

Here are a few strategies that can help you take control of your time again.


1. Outsource Technical Support.

This is the first thing you should do if your expertise has started producing a good income. Your time is precious: use it to create new products or to enjoy well-earned leisure time - not to give technical support. Create an email forwarder (or a new pop mailbox) on your website, which will forward all support issues to the person you hire. Make sure this 'support' address is included on the 'thank you' email that goes to all customers who buy downloadable videos, e-books or software.


2. Create a FAQ Page on Your Website.

You will find that the same problems or questions come up again and again. Each time you get a different question, add it - and your answer - to the FAQ page on your website. Suggest that clients check this page first to see if the answer to their question is there.


3. Create Website Forms for Support or Contact

Your email will decrease if you ask clients to fill in a contact form on your website rather than emailing you directly. Put a polite note on your website explaining to people that because of the volume of mail, it has been necessary to use a website form. Here, you can direct people to consult the FAQ page before they fill in the form, or to Tech Support, if this is the issue.


4. Create Quick Explanations Using the Signature File

Your email program should allow you to create new signature files. (In Outlook Express, this is under Options/Signature Files.) If your business is not yet large enough to outsource support, use the signature file to create quick answers to common questions. (For example: a common question is "I've downloaded your e-book but it won't open in Acrobat. I get a message saying that the file has been corrupted. What do I do?" Mostly, this problem arises because the customer is using an outdated version of Acrobat Reader. So, you create a new signature and call it "Acrobat Reader". Type out a few lines that say something like "Most problems in opening PDF files are solved when you download the latest version of Acrobat. You can download it here.... If this doesn't solve your problem, please contact me again."

Create similar signatures for any common question. One of the first that you should create is a friendly paragraph explaining that your email volume is so high that you can no longer spare the time to address problems personally. Suggest that the FAQ page is a good source of information... and perhaps provide a different email address for URGENT concerns that are not covered on the FAQ page. Most people will respect your time once they understand that you get large volumes of email and simply don't have the time to answer individuals.

You'll find that a collection of signature files that address common questions will save you a great deal of time - you can respond with a few clicks of the mouse, rather than typing it all out again.

Bottom line: If you don't recognize the value of your own time, nobody else will - so take action NOW to regain control. Then you can spend your time productively instead of wasting it on tedious daily tasks that get you nowhere in your business.

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Niche Markets - What Are They Anyway?

So, you are interested in starting a new online home based business. You have caught the "work at home on the Internet" bug. However, you are not sure if you even have the ability make money online. To make matters worse, you are confused about what home based business opportunity to pursue. There are just so many online home based businesses out there... how could you ever know what to do?

If this sounds like you, rest assured that money can be made online with a home based business. You don't need to study for years in order to reap the rewards. There are sound home business concepts that have been taught and proven to be true by some of the most highly successful Internet marketers in the world. What is the top principle that will help ensure your success? It is most likely choosing the right niche market.

You might be wondering what a niche market is. A niche is simply a group of people with similar interests and needs. They are very passionate about their topic of interest. Think of a small pond packed with starving fish and you have the bait specific to their needs; they will like what you have to offer the best. This basically is a niche.

Why a niche market? Well, unless you have a loaded bank account or bottomless pockets, niche marketing is the way to go. You see, most of the large corporations blow off niche markets because they are not trying to make an additional $1000 or even $10,000 per month like many online home based business entrepreneurs and other small business owners. They are seeking to make millions per month, which is good for you because you don't have to compete with those companies that have massive marketing budgets.

It really is fairly easy to find potential customers in niche markets. Here are some quick examples:

Speed Boat Owners
Carpet Cleaning Business Owners
Chianese Restaurant Owners
Rock Climbing Enthusiasts
Pitbull Owners (I am personally a part of this niche market)
Engaged Couples
Landscape Company Owners
Chicago Bears Fans (I am also personally a part of this niche)
Etc...

You get the picture.

Before you decide which niche market to target for your home based business, here are four important points to consider:

1. Is the market easily defined and reachable? Do you know where they hangout? What kind of trade journals or publications do they read? Do they have clubs or are members of particular organizations?

2. Is the market small enough that you will not have tons of competitors, but still large enough for you to make a good profit?

3. Does the market have the money to spend?

4. Does the group have a insane passion for their hobby or topic of interest? Do they eat, sleep, and breathe their hobby? Are they constantly seeking more information related to their subject? A great example of this would be hardcore sports fans!

Doing research related to these questions will help you pick the perfect niche market for your online home based business.

As you think about starting an online home based business and what niche market to target, follow the above suggestions and you will be way ahead of many other home based business opportunity seekers who want to start an online business.

Want an easy way to find your niches? Try Niche Products Monthly!

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