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lint631
First Time Poster
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Joined: 26 Apr 2006
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| Create a Book or Website? |
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I am working on a website. It is about computers and I am in the process of writing some great content. The information is written in a "how to" manner. But as I am writing, I am wondering if I should use this as my content for my site or create a how to book and sell it? Of course I would use google ads and affiliate programs for my site to make money off of the free content but then I wont have a product to sell. Any thoughts?
By the way, this site is great and everyone shares some great information. I have been lurking for a while and decided to post.
Thanks!!!
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Wed Apr 26, 2006 5:55 pm |
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Andrew
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Location: Texas
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Hello and thanks! Glad you came out of lurking!
That's a good question.
Premium-based content, whether it's in the form of pay-to-read private forums or e-books, can be difficult to sell, especially without a ready-to-use stream of visitors. You certainly aren't obligated to give all your gems away for free, but you will certainly want to load your website up with lots of great free content. You may have no visitors to speak of when you first start, but the search engines will index your free content and hopefully begin to supply a small flow of visitors to read what you've got.
Maybe they will take advantage of your advertising, or maybe they will like your content so much that they will freely link to it from their website or maybe a forum posting. These links are golden, as they serve both as an endorsement and a new avenue for visitors to find your articles.
If your content continues to inspire, your traffic will slowly grow, and after a few months or years you could have good visitor base to market your premium content to. If you consider a hypothetical conversion rate of 1 out of 100 or more visits, you can see that the more traffic the better for a sale.
Another thing to consider is the professional marketer's gold standard, the email mailing list. Consider starting a newletter list right now. Interested parties can submit their email in order to get more free information or website content updates from you on a regular to semi-regular basis. Over time your list will grow and hopefully you will have earned trust and respect of your readers, so when you are ready to sell your ebook, you will have a way to spead the news to hundreds of potential buyers who are already familiar with you and your resources.
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Wed Apr 26, 2006 6:47 pm |
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Stock Mama
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Do both.
Then you have a book to build credibility and promote your website, and an established website to promote the book.
I've seen lots of websites for promoting books. The least effective ones are the "here's my book, here's how to buy it, here's who I am" kind of sites. The most effective ones are the ones that offer something more: articles, advice, interactive features -- in short, something to keep people coming back to your site (like this outstanding example for a gardening book called You Grow, Girl!). You could, for example, start a forum using phpBB or other discussion board software.
That presumes, of course, that you can get the book published. I don't recommend going through the vanity publishers just to get it between two covers. Try the traditional publishing route, since that can gain you the highest credibility factor, and if that fails, go with self-publishing using a book printing service (such as Books Just Books) rather than a vanity press. Obtain your own ISBN number and copyright. But if you go the self-publishing route, be sure to read all that you can about it. Publishing is a business, after all, and you need to understand the business end of it.
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Sun Apr 30, 2006 5:41 am |
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Moneymaker79
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Location: Slovenia
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I'd create a web site first with some -- but NOT all of the
information you want to share in your book.
In the past months I've seen people doing the following
(this is very powerful and can actually get your book
"sold out" in a matter of hours!):
Register a domain and get hosting. Put a Wordpress
blog on the site. Make sure you create a professional
looking header and stuff. Then post the so called
"teasers" -- snippets from the ebook, discuss all the
benefits of your upcoming ebook. Really build tension
and anticipation.
Also do some contests where people who participate will
get your ebook for free once it's launched etc.
This will get you three things...
1.) your site will get indexed in the search engines
2.) you'll have ready customers before you've even
started writing your ebook
3.) you'll see how great of a demand there is for your
product and you can also ask your visitors what exactly
they want to know
Also make sure you set up a "priority notification" form
where people enter their name and email address so
that they can be the first to know when the launch
happens and get some more bonuses than "the others".
Your contest could be as follows:
Put a link to my web site on your site and when we launch
I'll randomly pick out five people and give them the ebook,
bonuses and something extra for free! 5 minutes of work
will get you a great chance to get this $47 or $97 ebook
absolutely free. All you have to do is to make sure your
site is indexed in Google and that you use such and such
anchor text... (here you give them a simple copy-paste
code to put to their web sites).
Engage your visitors, make them feel really important and
encourage them to tell their friends about your site. If
you provide quality content and good prizes (your free
ebook and bonuses -- these actually cost you nada  )
your site will soon be swarming with people eager to
purchase your ebook...
Just a thought
Insurance information - What you need to know about insurance.
Subliminal and acupressure videos
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Thu May 04, 2006 8:16 am |
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