Book Summary: Effective Networking For Professiona

Book Summary: Effective Networking For Professional Success

by: Regine Azurin

This article is based on the following book:

Effective Networking for Professional Success

กHow to Make the Most of Your Personal Contactsก

by Rupert Hart, Stirling Books, 1997

ISBN 0 949 142 09 3

125 pages

We are all ขselfemployedข now.Today there is absolutely no job security. We are living in an age of corporate downsizing, and freelance consultants, or selfemployed workers are growing by the day. Networking is one skill you need to practice to get ahead and survive these uncertain times.

Wisdom in a Nutshell:

1. Networking is essential for both new jobs and business contracts.

2. Effective networking is 12 times more effective than answering advertisements

3. Advertising is becoming ineffective except on a large scale.

4. Networking helps you find hidden opportunities and can set you apart from the competition.

5. An indirect approach is better than a direct one. Use someone you know to introduce you to your target contact. Never go straight to your target without a gobetween who will put in a good word for you.

6. You can overcome your natural shyness, your fear of using people, and your fear of rejection.

The 3 key networking techniques are:

1. Build a network of partners to keep an open eye and ear for new opportunities for You.

2. Reach targeted individuals in two ways: directly or indirectly.

3. Build visibility by raising your profile. Go to every social gathering you possibly can.

Building your network is an ongoing process. You need to increase your range of contacts constantly.

Planning your campaign:

1. Define your objective

2. Select the right technique

3. Understand that ขdeal flowข or your number of prospects must be great in order to bag one new business contract.

4. Identify your target

5. Work out your positioning. This is a short statement of what you are about, what you can offer.

6. Think about what you can do for your network partners in exchange for information and contacts.

Building Network partners:

1. Talk to everyone you know about opportunities

2. Clarify what network partners can and will do for you

3. Know which contacts to build into network partners

4. Find those friendly network spiders, those types of people who just seem to know everyone.

5. Use the telephone.

How to grow and refresh your network:

1. Go out of your way to be where people are.

2. Get into the habit of being talkative.

3. Get the contact details of people you meet. Not just exchanging business cards but stapling information like birthdays, anniversaries, hobby clubs, and key information onto their cards.

4. Choose the right method for the right person.

5. Warm up longcold contacts.

How to find targeted individuals:

1. Focus on what you want to achieve and how people can help you.

2. Use your network partners to find suitable companies.

3. Gather key information on these companies.

4. Figure out who is the one with the power to hire you.

5. Find people connections and common areas of interest.

Reaching targets through network partners:

1. Find and persuade the best partner for your targeted individual.

2. Engineer an introduction.

3. Build wordofmouth exchanges about yourself.

Reaching targets directly:

1. Decide if you should write a letter or not.

2. Be able to demonstrate your achievements.

3. Have a line ready to get you past the secretary.

4. Act as though you expect to be put through.

5. Be ready to leave a short, persuasive message for the decisionmaker.

Your opening line:

1. Be cheerful, confident and straightforward.

2. Exploit connections and recommendations.

3. Mention common interests.

4. Report news of interest to the target.

5. Wait for a response. Know when to shut up.

6. Write down your opening lines before picking up the phone.

How to be visible without really trying:

1. Ask a question at a conference.

2. Make a point in a meeting.

3. Write letters to your industry magazine.

4. Introduce yourself to lots of people at an industry show or ball.

5. Buy people a drink at the bar at a lecture.

6. Discuss a book with an industry leader.

7. Wear bright ties.

8. Make people laugh.

9. Have an opinion on everything. (But keep an open mind)

10. Hand out an unusual business card.

11. Recast your CV to be a little different.

12. Take up an unusual hobby. (But not too unusual)

13. Don’t overlook using the email and Internet to communicate your cause.

About The Author

By: Regine P. Azurin and Yvette Pantilla

Regine Azurin is the President of BusinessSummaries.com, a company that provides business book summaries of the latest bestsellers for busy executives and entrepreneurs.

http://www.bizsum.com/lite.php

กA Lot Of Great Books….Too Little Time To Readก

Free Book Summaries Of Latest Bestsellers and More!

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This article was posted on March 22

by Regine Azurin

Your Book Not in Book Stores? Don’t Worry

Your Book Not in Book Stores? Don’t Worry

by: Dr. Jamie Fettig

Trying to figure out how to get your self published books into book stores? Don’t worry about it because you can get more book sales easier and with less effort elsewhere. Some useful tips for you and your book from Mark Victor Hansen, who has sold more than 100 million books so far.

Sure, we all want to look on the shelves at Barnes and Noble and see our books there. Itกs thrilling. But itกs really not necessary. I see so many authors waste their time and money paying distributors and driving from store to store, delivering books when they should be selling directly to the public. The Internet makes it possible.

In fact, there are many good reasons NOT to be in bookstores:

You don’t have to pay a distributor, who will take a cut of your profits.

You don’t have to worry about shipping and returns.

You don’t have to fight for shelf space.

In most cases, selling direct to the public, or through bulk sales to institutions, is a much better way to turn your book into a revenue stream. With the Internet, tradeshows and other events, and seminars, you have multiple ways to sell direct, pocket 100% of the profits, and save yourself the hassle of trying to get into Borders.

I also recommend selling on Amazon.com. They do take a substantial chunk of your sales price, but itกs a wonderful way to generate buzz about your book. Otherwise, unless you can truly benefit from the prestige of being on the bookshelves, leave the bookstores to John Grisham and Stephen King.

Pursue bulk sales.

Ninety percent of new authors are only focused with getting people into bookstores to buy their book. And itกs great if you can do that, but I give them all the same advice: do not overlook bulk sales. They can turn your book from a moneyloser into a profit center in a few months. Bulk sales are a gold mine.

What do I mean by bulk sales? I mean selling your books in large quantities to an organization, which could mean anything from a corporation to a school district to a nonprofit group to a church. Youกll have to give the organization a price break for buying in bulk, but youกll get dozens, hundreds or even thousands of your books into peopleกs hands, which dramatically increases your wordofmouth and viral marketing.

Promoting bulk sales is a pretty straightforward deal. Simply look at your book and ask yourself what companies, organizations or affinity groups would be interested in the book for their employees or members. If youกve written a book on corporate team building, make a list of corporations where you have personal contacts. If your book is about exercise for seniors, try contacting AARP. And so on. Marketing bulk sales is usually about personal contact, either by letter or direct mail.

When you’re going after bulk sales, try to get to the กgatekeepers,ก the people who can make the decisions for a large organization. It makes much more sense to talk to 20 people who have the potential between them to order 10,000 books than to sell them one at a time. Even if you only get orders from three of those gatekeepers, youกll sell a few thousand books.

Be sure to offer a good bulk rate discount for your bulk buyers. The more books they buy, the bigger the price break. If they buy over 1,000, give them 50% off. Youกll still make money and youกll start winning readers.

Always build your mailing and email lists.

There are two kinds of lists: physical mailing address lists and email lists, and you should always be building both. They are your promotional lifelines to your potential readers and customers, and everything you do to market your book should have some component that gathers contact information of prospective buyers.

The best way to build your list is quite simple: get people to come to your Website, offer them something of value, and require them to give you (at a minimum) their name and email address to get it. The kinds of things you can offer:

Downloadable excerpts from your book.

A subscription to your enewsletter.

An advance discount on your book.

An audio CD or other ancillary product.

Be creative. Is there something that pushes your target audienceกs buttons? Offer it to them. This kind of กoptinก list, where people consent to receiving future information from you, is the gold standard of marketing.

Some other reputable ways you can build your list:

Take names or business cards at a tradeshow or conference.

Membership lists from organizations of which you are a member

Get respected colleagues to email their lists asking their contacts to go to your site to find something of value to them.

But always, always be building your list. And make sure that your database software is solid, proven, regularly maintained, and backed up weekly.

About The Author

Dr. Jamie Fettig

Are you interested in the one seminar that has created more BestSelling authors than any other seminar? A seminar put on by the guy who has sold more books than every other book in the history of the world except the bible? Then get yourself to the Mega Book Marketing Seminar and train yourself to be a megasuccessful author and become a sought after speaker. Make the difference with your book that you want to make. To Register and for more information go to http://www.bazuji.com/book

This article was posted on March 18

by Dr. Jamie Fettig

My Identity Crisis

My Identity Crisis

by: David Leonhardt

When we are young it is all so simple. We know exactly what I want to กbeก when we grow up.

You know what itกs like: กI want to be a fireman.ก I want to be a ballerina.ก กI want to be a movie star.ก กI want to be a nuclear physicist specializing in embryonic schisms in postmenopausal subatomic particles.ก

This aspect of growing up came back to haunt me recently when reading a magazine article by someone working in television who had always wanted to be a celebrity. To paraphrase her words, กIt never occurred to me that I might have to actually do anything.ก

Well, here I am, a fullygrown adult. Or perhaps I am no longer fully grown – Iกm not sure at what age we start shrinking! But I do have a confession to make; I never knew what I wanted to กbeก. I knew only what I wanted to do.

What I wanted to do was design cities, urban spaces, bus routes. No, thatกs not true. What I really wanted to do was design maps…but most map companies want map designers to simply mimic the cityกs existing design. Geesh, whereกs the creativity in that?

So I was led astray, falling in love with politics instead. For a while I worked as a political aide, plotting to become King of the World. Amazingly, it took only five years for reality to grind my idealistic innocence to sawdust and send me on a frantic search for a doityourself lobotomy kit. (I never did get to be King of the World, nor did I ever find that doityourself lobotomy kit.)

I spent the next decadeandahalf as a consumer advocate and lobbyist, doing media relations, government relations and industry relations none of which are technically verbs that one can actually กdoก.

At social events, the accountants and lawyers had it easy. กI am an accountant,ก says it all.

I was not so fortunate.

กI am a consumer advocate,ก I would say.

กSo what do you do?ก

กWell, I talk to the media and to the government and to industry,ก I would explain.

กAhaaa… and I talk to the tooth fairy. So what do you do?ก

Now, I have an even harder time when somebody asks what I do. Most people have no clue what search engine optimization is, which is my main กcareerก. Few people really understand what freelance writing is, except if they read a freelance writerกs article in a magazine . I don’t even try to mention that I run three websites and do affiliate marketing. But people do understand what it means to be an author.

กWow, you wrote a book on happiness? Congratulations. So whenกs your next book coming out?ก

Which is when I have to explain how a book really doesn’t feed a family, and if I took the time to write a second book, it would take time away from search engine optimization and affiliate marketing…

กHuh, whatกs that?ก

กNever mind,ก I answer. กIกm a stayathome dad.ก Which also is true. People might look at me weird, but at least they understand me. Or, so they think.

All of which brings me back to that question I never answered when I was young: what do I want to be when I grow up? I guess Iกll just have to wait a little longer to find out. Like when I grow up.

About The Author

David Leonhardt is author of Climb Your Stairway to Heaven

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/Item.asp?Catalog=Books&Item=059517826X

Read more personal growth articles:

http://www.thehappyguy.com/selfactualizationarticles.html

Visit his liquid vitamins store:

http://www.vitaminsupplementsstore.net

Or his happiness website:

http://www.thehappyguy.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 30

by David Leonhardt

Book Printing Through the Millennium

Book Printing Through the Millennium

by: Paul Hood

Book printing might sound like a boring niche that doesn’t much over each turning year. That’s why you might find it surprising that like letters and the alphabet, book printing tells a far more astonishing story than what we usually know of.

There had been many developments that had great effect on book printing. The technology that spawned the making of records and preserving them was started by the Sumerians in the form of cuneiforms. Cuneiforms are an ancient wedgeshaped script used in Mesopotamia and Persia. Stone tablets would later give way to papers which would then be the main medium of the books as we know it today. Large volumes of books found a home in the Alexandria Library in Egypt during the reign of King Ptolemy I Soter. Ptolemy instructed his scouts to collect every possible book there is in the civilized world and bring them to the library for safekeeping. Original works were duplicated and was promptly returned to its rightful owner. Those returned were the duplicates of course. It would have been interesting to know how the owners reacted upon finding out that they were given mere copies of their books. Then again, we’ll never know. One thing’s for sure, arguing with a king is not good for your health.

Of all the events that transpired having an impact on the printed book, none have greater effect than the invention of the movable type. This process has been used by the Chinese as early as 1041 and in 1403, the earliest book was printed in Korea. Though similar in process, Johann Gutenberg’s invention would have a far greater contribution to the printed book as his movable type was able to print many copies of the same text quickly. Something the Chinese and Korean types failed to do. Gutenberg’s pioneering invention paved the way for later innovations and would serve as the spark for the success of future printers and publishers.

Today, printers can churn out thousands of books in record time. The invention of advanced printers capable of printing thousands of pages in a minute has made this a reality. Due credit is given to the pioneering spirit of early civilizations and of course Johann Gutenberg for making mass production of the printed book a possibility. This rich history has given us modern people the comfort of having books readily available.

About The Author

Ariel Velasco goes by the author alias of Paul Hood. This author is into books and writing. Reading is an essential part of his life and this has lent a considerable influence in his writing. Well traveled and would always want to travel more. He loves learning more about people and their ways. Took up a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology to further this fascination and had a fulfilling educational experience having been exposed to a wide spectrum of people. Always ready for new opportunities to learn and have a great deal of interest in different fields of expertise.

For additional information about the article you may visit http://www.uprinting.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 03

by Paul Hood

$27,817 Monthly With Affiliate Programs

$27,817 Monthly With Affiliate Programs

by: John McLaren

I still remember thinking that promoting Affiliate Programs was a waste of time. Until I started making a small fortune.

At the end of 2004, I started some time exploring the concept of promoting affiliate programs through payperclick search engines. I knew of some Internet Marketing gurus who were claiming you could make thousands of dollars every month. But I was skeptical. I remember thinking, ขI know what these guys are about. They just want to sell more books.ข

But I decided that at least it was worth a look. The concept is quite simple. Choose a product – and one that has an affiliate program, of course. Set up an advertising campaign at a PPC search engine like Google and choose how much you want to pay per click. Write a three line advertisement and add your affiliate link. Whenever anyone clicks through your ad and buys the product, you earn a commission.

So I looked. And thought about it. And looked some more. I was still very uncertain about the whole concept, but I finally decided to test for myself whether it could really work. And since I knew I’d be spending quite a bit of money on advertising clicks, I felt it was well worth investing in a book so I could learn from more experienced marketers how to maximize the profitability of my campaigns.

As my business grew over several weeks I purchased and read several ebooks. By far the best I read was Chris Carpenter’s Google Cash ( http://tinyurl.com/6gdaq ). His approach is genuine, downtoearth, and he explains very clearly how to build your own affiliate marketing business. And importantly, he makes a fortune doing what he explains in the book.

I started by testing 2030 campaigns on various products. Most of them were unsuccessful, but I expected that from what I had been reading. I would test a product, and if it didn’t work, I would drop it quickly. The key with this business is identifying the affiliate products and campaigns that are successful. Once you find one that works, the money starts rolling in.

By February of 2005 I had identified several campaigns that were turning a profit. With one of these I was spending $0.08 per click to promote an affiliate product that pays me $18 commission on each sale. Approximately 1 visitor in 100 buys the product, so I make around $10 profit for every 100 visitors that I send.

What a formula! For every 1,000 visitors, that’s $180 in commissions. That might not seem like all that much, but remember once you have a successful campaign it keeps going all day, every day. If you send just 1,000 visitors to a program like this every day, then by the end of the month you will have earned $5,400 in commissions, of which $3,000 is profit.

Does it seem too simple? Well, if it was so easy everyone from your Aunt Mabel to the mailman would be doing it. In fact, while the concept is simple, getting your campaigns to run profitably does take some work. Since I can’t possibly teach you all you need to know in one article, Iกll give you a few tips here and recommend Google Cash for a detailed explanation:

Choose Your Product Wisely. The program should pay a commission of $15 or more, otherwise it won’t be worth paying for your clicks. And if the commission is very high, be careful. Some products like web hosting and satellite dish installations may pay commissions of $100, but you face intense competition from other affiliates, so the price you need to pay to get ad exposure and clicks will probably also be very high. Sometimes it is better to identify a niche product with less competition from other affiliates.

Track Your Campaigns Carefully. If you’re paying around 7 or 8 cents per click for a program that pays close to $20 commission, you need to make at least one sale for every 250 visitors. If you send 300 to 400 visitors with no sale, consider dropping it.

Days Of The Week Do Matter. When testing campaigns keep in mind the day of the week and even the time of day. Some products sell better on Mondays through Fridays, during business hours. Others, like entertainment products, sell better in the evenings and on weekends.

Getting back to my own experience, after identifying several campaigns that ‘worked’, I spent some time finetuning them using techniques I read about in Google Cash. By the end of February I had earned $27,817 in commissions for the month, all on products I had never even heard of at the end of 2004. My profit was a neat $10,795.

It’s incredible really. I made this money without a web site. From home. Working an average of just an hour or two a day.

I’m finally making the amount of money online that I dreamed about.

How about you? Would you also like to build an affiliate marketing business? Could you use some additional income? I encourage you to proceed, but be smart about it. There are risks involved and you should be aware of them. You should read Chris Carpenter’s book. That way you’ll be on a fast track to more profitable campaigns. And his book will save you hundreds of dollars, easily, as you avoid some common mistakes and pitfalls.

Good Marketing!

About The Author

John McLaren has worked for many years selling IT consulting services. Now he works from home, just a few hours each day, building his highly successful affiliate marketing business. For more professional advice, he recommends the book, Google Cash, available at: http://tinyurl.com/6gdaq.

This article was posted on March 26

by John McLaren

Build Credibility, Value and Trust on a Shoestring

Build Credibility, Value and Trust on a Shoestring

by: George Torok

Setting priorities in your business? Your first job is to sell. Selling is writing the orders; receiving the cash; feeding the beast. If you don’t sell; the beast, (your business), dies. The impact of selling is immediate. You may love it, but it is a beast. You need to feed it and control it.
Your second priority is marketing. Marketing is taming and grooming the beast. Marketing is everything that makes it easier to sell. Marketing is about sending messages and everything you do or don’t do sends a message. You are responsible for these messages because they impact the perception of your credibility, value and trust. The impact of marketing is long term. The best time to start marketing was yesterday. The next best time is today.
Use these lowbudget techniques to build credibility, value and trust on a shoestring.
Be a guest speaker for community groups, schools and associations.
You most want to speak in front of prospects. But sometimes you need to take side steps to get there. There are over 8,000 associations in Canada. Check the directories at the library to find associations that may have prospects. Then contact the local chapters to offer a nocharge seminar or speech. Don’t tell them you speak for free even though you do. Instead tell them that you normally charge, pick a number, but agree to waive your fee as a first time offer. The presentation must be of value and interest to the audience. It can not be an infomercial. Provide a handout with key points from your talk. Include information about your services along with your contact numbers and website on the handout. Ensure your introducer reads the introduction you prepare that establishes your expertise and what you do. But don’t stand up there and sell instead market by using examples of how you helped previous clients. Ask for a list of all attendees. If they refuse, collect everyoneกs business card for a draw. Give away a book, one of your products or 30 minutes of your service. It is more important to collect business cards than to give yours away.
After your presentation ask the organizer to refer you to speak at other associations or other chapters of the same association. Other groups you might speak to are Rotary, chambers of commerce, and various networking clubs. You don’t need to be a member to be a guest speaker. Prepare and rehearse your presentation. To become a better speaker read the book, กSecrets of Power Presentationsก, by Peter Urs Bender and visit Toastmasters, a nonprofit association that teaches presentations skills. The book is in most stores and you can find a local Toastmasters club by visiting www.Toastmasters.org
Volunteer for a charity, community cause or association.
Budget your time wisely and volunteer for a cause or group in which you strongly support. If you do, then you will work willingly and passionately. You will feel good about your contribution . Others see you at your best. They have the opportunity to know you and like you. And we would rather do business with people we know and like. By volunteering on a committee or charity you contact others who share your beliefs. And we like others who are like us. After working together as volunteers it is easier to discuss business opportunities. In this way you may discover new customers, and suppliers. You might also find partners for cross promotion or referrals. The bonus payoff from volunteering is positive media exposure. This might include photos and interviews that could result from your impact. You could join an established cause or you could simply organize your own event. A dentist donated one day of his time to give free fillings to children of single mothers just before Christmas. He received frontpage coverage.
Write and publish articles
We grant tremendous respect to those who have published works. Write a book and that is an invaluable credibility tool. Case in point; before I wrote my book with Peter Urs Bender I was a nobody. After, I was an overnight marketing guru. I say กovernightก because it took two years to write and lots of promotion. Nothing in business happens overnight, neither success nor failure.
You can and should start with something simpler than a book articles that highlight your expertise. The simplest article to write is a tips list. It could be ‘three steps to prepare for ______ก; กFive questions to ask when buying ________ก; กSeven ways to save money on your __________ก; or ‘ten tips for improving your _________ก.
The most important step in writing is to start. The second most important step is to edit and rewrite. Forget about writing excellent copy the first time. I would be so disappointed with myself to find out you can write perfect copy the first time.
Where do you publish? You most want to be seen in the publications your prospects read. These might be trade and association magazines. Members tend to read them covertocover. Of course it is wonderful to appear in a national business publication such as the Globe & Mail, Canadian Business, Profit or Small Business Canada. Copy your articles and send them to your clients and prospects. Post them on your web site and on the wall of your office for visitors to admire and for you to be reminded that you are an expert.
Feed, tame and groom the beast and it will be your friend.

About The Author

© George Torok is coauthor of the national bestseller, กSecrets of Power Marketingก, Canadaกs first guide to personal marketing for the nonmarketer. He delivers seminars and keynotes to corporations and associations across North America. He can be reached at 8003041861 For more information the training programs and more marketing tips visit the web site www.PowerMarketing.ca

[email protected]

This article was posted on July 06, 2004

by George Torok

How to Avoid the 11 Biggest Mistakes of First Time

How to Avoid the 11 Biggest Mistakes of First Time Authors

by: Roger C. Parker

ขIf you want to change your life,ข Harry Beckwith wrote in The Invisible Touch, ขwrite a book.ข But writing a book can also be tremendously frustrating and unrewarding.
Following are the 11 biggest reasons most firsttime authors fail to receive the rewards they are due.
1. Unrealistic expectations. Don’t expect to get rich off your book, even if it’s a success by publishing standards. The vast majority of books fail to earn out their advance.
Instead, develop a personal marketing plan to leverage your career off your book. Instead of trying to make money on the book itself, use your book to open doors, promote your credibility and build relationships with readers.
2. Writing without a contract. Never write a book without a signed contract. Instead, prepare a polished proposal and two sample chapters.
Publishers are increasingly selective about the titles they accept. Often, less than 1 in 20 titles proposed are published. Writing a book that isn’t accepted is not a good use of your time.
3. No agent. You must be represented by a literary agent. Publishers rarely accept unsolicited book proposals. Unsolicited proposals are frequently returned unread or are simply discarded.
The right agent will know exactly which publishers might be interested in your book. Agents can also negotiate terms more effectively than you.
4. Weak titles. Titles sell books. The title of your book is like the headline of an advertisement. The title represents your one and only chance to attract the attention of acquisition editors or bookstore readers.
Successful titles stress the benefits readers will gain from your book. Successful titles arouse curiosity and offer solutions. They often include consonants and alliteration (repeated ‘hard’ sounds like G, K, P or T).
5. Title versus series. Focus on a series of books rather than an individual title. Publishers want concepts that can be expanded into a series rather than individual titles.
6. Going it alone. Successful careers involve a nurturing support group of readers and peers. Your quest should include the support of your friends, other authors, book coaches, readers and others who will help you maintain your enthusiasm while providing ideas, assistance and feedback.
7. ‘Event’ writing. Write a little each day rather than ‘going away’ to write your book. Stress is an author’s biggest enemy. When you attempt marathon writing, you’re putting an unrealistic burden on yourself. ขWhat happens if I come back and my book isn’t written?ข
8. Selfediting. Avoid unnecessary selfediting. It’s far more important to complete the first draft of your book than to agonize over the perfection of every word.
Editors will ensure that grammar is correct and ideas appear in the proper order. But they can’t do anything until you submit the final manuscript.
9. Failure to promote. Publishers are not promoters. Publishers are skilled at editing, manufacturing and distributing books. But they are not set up to give your book the marketing attention it deserves. A single publicist may represent over 100 books!
If you want your book to succeed, you have to promote it as well as write it.
10. Failure to back up and save. Save frequently when writing. Always save before printing. Never turn off your computer without making a copy of your files for offpremises storage. Never end a writing session without printing out a hard copy of the latest version of the chapter you’re writing.
11. Failure to plan future profits. Before writing your book, create a book marketing plan. Book sales should be just the first step in an ongoing relationship with your readers. Your plan should identify opportunities from consulting, newsletters, audio/video recordings, seminars, speeches and yearly updates.
A book can, indeed, change your life. But you must take charge; take a proactive role in promoting and leveraging its success.

About The Author

Roger C. Parker is the $32,000,000 author with over 1.6 million copies in print. Do you make these marketing and design mistakes? Find out at www.gmarketingdesign.com

This article was posted on July 02, 2004

by Roger C. Parker

Self Publishing At The Speed Of Thought

Self Publishing At The Speed Of Thought

by: Jack Humphrey

Publishing, both electronic and hard copy, from articles to books, has come a long way in recent years. I used to be fascinated by anyone who had become a ‘realก author of a book. For that matter, anyone who had been published in a magazine or newspaper!

The whole thing seemed so validating for authors, yet getting published, so cryptic. How do you become กpublished?ก How did you get someone to take your subject so seriously that they gave you a retainer to finish your project and then published and sold your books for you?

These and many other questions always flew around my head in the years that it took me to figure out how publishing, the traditional kind, worked. Then came the internet. Then everything changed.

And the changes today are more radical than ever before. You can completely publish your own work from the first sentence you write to the first time you flip through the pages of your book, all through the internet.

In fact, self publishing your own book is verging on common place these days. And publishing your work entirely on the web, with blogs or through a regular website is almost old hat to many people.

Some very famous people today are กbloggers.ก People who have a site that they constantly and instantly update with their articles and blurbs on politics and trillions of other subjects. If you don’t have a blog in some circles, you are not even considered worth talking to.

If you are an aspiring writer and are mystified by traditional publishing กrulesก fear not! You can take the bull by the horns and publish on the web by choosing from all kinds of software and services that suit you best.

If you want a book you wrote to be published, to hold in your hands and give to friends and family and even stock in Barnes and Noble or sell at Amazon, nothing is holding you back anymore! You can literally control the whole publishing process from start to finish yourself.

There are print on demand services that cater solely to self publishers these days. You can have a batch of books printed in runs as small as 50 books at very reasonable prices. Here is just one source of valuable self publishing information I found with a quick search engine query:

http://www.bookpublisher.com/publishyourbook.cfm

There are myriad free sources of information on the web that teach you how to get your own ISBN and UPC codes so you can sell your book in major and minor bookstores anywhere in the world.

I know people who have taken their self published books and gone to #1 on Amazon with them through savvy, guerillastyle marketing campaigns that really aren’t that hard to learn and master.

If you aren’t into paper it is even easier to get published and become known through the internet. You no longer have to be a geek to figure it out and there and tons of resources out there to help you figure out which method of online publishing is right for you.

If you are an article writer you can become an almost overnight success just by learning how to get syndicated all over the web, possibly being picked up by a very major online or offline publisher. I know people whoกs entire lives have changed over night, literally, after syndicating their articles to choice publishing กclearinghousesก on the net.

Below are just a few of the hundreds of sites that can help you get started learning about publishing online and offline.

Tale Chaser Publishing is a self publishing directory and information library on various self publishing topics for people looking into getting published online or off. http://talechaserpublishing.com

EquipMint.com is an online promoterกs Valhalla. Although there are many specialized marketing resources there for people to learn about marketing their websites, there are a few gems of information for self publishers including links to places that can have your work in front of every major online publisher you can imagine. http://equipmint.com

You can also find some syndication and promotion tools at Webmaster Traffic Tools. http://webmastertraffictools.com

Want to write the perfect press release for your website, blog, or book? Then take a free press release writing course at http://goodpressreleases.com.

Bottom line is: There are no more excuses for not getting your work published. With some work and research into the new technology and avenues for publishing that are available to anyone these days, you can become known in a very big way without having to pitch to major labels.

In fact, if you really do your homework, you can learn how to have the big publishers pitching YOU for deals!

Copyright 2004 Jack Humphrey

About The Author

Jack Humphrey is an author and marketing consultant. More information at http://jackhumphrey.com

This article was posted on September 21, 2004

by Jack Humphrey

Website Imperatives and Solutions

Website Imperatives and Solutions

by: Richard Keir

When you take a look at the most visited sites on the internet, what hits you in the face? Change, growth, new content. In a sense, a search engine is the perfect web site. By itกs very nature, it grows and changes continuously and moment by moment adds new content. But, most of us are never going to build a Yahoo or a Google. The competition at that level is horrific.

But the lesson is there to be read. You could build a great site with terrific content never seen before and do very well for a while. But the imperatives that control our success or failure revolve around growth, change and new content. An obvious solution is to continually provide new content for your sites. Basically this means writing or constructing new pages, preferably with unique content.

There are, certainly, several easy ways to get content for your site. The first is to use other peopleกs articles. Nearly all of us who do write and publish articles want people to pick them up and use them with live links to our sites, naturally. Despite a lot of mindless babble about a duplicate content penalty, article syndication is alive and working as well as ever. Just don’t scrape a site and replicate it.

Another source is RSS. Most feeds are meant to be syndicated (but not all so you do need to check Terms of Use) and they provide updated content. Other sources include content in the in the public domain.

Like all easy solutions, there are a couple of drawbacks. Other peopleกs articles may not be focused as well as youกd like to your site content and goals. And they don’t help your siteกs link popularity. Along with growth, change and content, incoming links are a critical success factor.

Using RSS feeds or other searchbased content can raise copyright issues, irritate some feed or site owners, and may be even more poorly focused to your siteกs content than articles. If you use RSS feeds, almost inevitably youกll see content on your site that is absolutely irrelevant.

Public domain materials are extremely useful as content sources if you can find matches to your site content. Assuming that you can, then you will need to convert the material into pages or into a form useable on your web pages. This can be timeconsuming, but it may be easier than writing your own content.

Ghost writers are yet another alternative. Here you trade time for money. But this can be a tricky process. Some are not really fluent in English and you may need to do some rewriting. Also, you may need to doublecheck and make sure that the articles provided are actually original and not nearly identical to existing copyrighted material. Some ghost writers seem to work by finding a site with a related theme and then pretty much copy material from that site with minimal changes. Not a good idea for you to post that as your own.

Another source would be sites offering private label products. Many of those products can be mined for excellent targeted site content. Some products sold with Master resale rights also allow you to use the materials as site content. In this last case, you need to be certain exactly what you can and can’t do under the specific rights package. Sometimes you can alter the materials, sometimes you can’t.

Private label products with you having full rights, including the right to alter them and put your own name on them as author can be one of the easiest ways to meet all of the imperatives. With rights to an informative, new and interesting book on a niche topic, you can rework it a little, maybe add some nice graphics, generate a PDF and sell it.

Or you could generate that PDF and also generate pages for your site from the book. Give the PDF away in exchange for signing up to your list. Extract tips and ideas from the book and put together 2 or 5 or more articles based on the book. Publish and distribute the articles to generate links to your site and help brand yourself as an expert.

>From one private label product you can generate a lot of new real estate for your site, add a viral product that you can use to build your lists, and through articles generate incoming links and do some useful branding.

It really doesn’t get any easier than that. It takes some time and effort, but nothing like the effort of writing 5 or 10 articles from scratch, building 30 or 50 or 150 web pages, and writing your own viral book for listbuilding.

What about the other people who belong to the same private label site? Isn’t everybody going to have duplicate content? In the real world, 90 percent of the people with access to a product will do nothing at all or the absolute minimum. Very few will mine the product, produce articles, produce web pages, or produce a nicely modified PDF. And of those that do, each will follow their own unique path. The chance of near identical content is pretty low. The PDFs produced may be more similar, but consider how many people make serious money with resale rights selling identical material.

Thereกs a lot of room out there. Even within the most competitive niches, a thoughtful, patient marketer who pays attention to the imperatives and works smart, can make a living few would complain about. But there are also less competitive niches where the same marketer could become the dominant force. The materials are out there to get you going. Use them and work smart.

None of this is rocket science. The first, and ultimate, imperative is take action. Too many will fail, because they never even really began. Start today.

Copyright 2005 Richard Keir

About The Author

Richard Keir writes, teaches, trains and consults on business and professional presentations and eCommerce related matters. For more information on eCommerce sites and eCommerce site building http://www.buildingecommercewebsites.com and http://www.buildingecommercewebsites.com/articles for more eCommerce articles.

This article was posted on September 14

by Richard Keir

The Shocking 100 Million Dollars Secret Marketing

The Shocking 100 Million Dollars Secret Marketing Book That Few People Know About

by: Ikey Benney, Ceo

Why Your Website Is Not Making Money And How To Turn It Around: Learn This Unique Nitty Gritty, High Octane Marketing ขSecretข From A Little Known Guy Who Made 100 Million Dollars In 2 Yrs By The Age Of 28….

Send a floodgate of traffics to your website and explode your sales.

Hundreds of millions of people have websites today that are not making any money for them.

They have tried many different types of promotions such as search engine optimization and promotion, banner ads, ffa ads, email marketing, linking, ezine ads but failed.

Are you one of these people?

Do you have a website? Are you promoting any product, program or service?

Have you tried various types of promotion and you’re yet to get rich from promoting your product or services?

If you answer yes, cheer up because at last, you may now have the ultimate solution to your marketing problem.

The one problem that all website owners or marketers have in common is the difficulty in locating the people who are interested in buying their products, programs and services.

By the time you finish reading this article, you’ll discover how I stumbled unto a powerful book that has a solution to this serious marketing problem.

5 years ago, I stumbled to a very powerful secret way to make money, known to only millionaires and billionaires.

After testing it, I created a program from it and called it ขMscsrrr: the millionaire secret cash system, generate $1500 weekly for lifeข.

You may have seen one of my websites on the internet.

I was so excited by this powerful money making ขsecretข that I decided to make it available to the public to help others.

But after setting up a website to promote it, I was hit by the harsh reality of internet promotion.

I was getting zero traffic! No traffic, no sales. I was not a huge success in all the internet promotions that I tried: search engine optimization and promotion, banner ads, ffa ads, email marketing, linking, ezine ads and others.

I was making sales but not enough to get rich from! What I mean by rich is generating $100,000$1,000,000 in sales.

For this reason, I embarked on a 1 yr research on internet marketing.

You may have seen any of the several hundreds of my articles on internet marketing, online promotion, website promotion, online marketing and website sales posted at hundreds of thousands of websites all over the internet.

A week a go, I had some free time, so I decided to continue to do this internet marketing, online promotion, website promotion, online marketing and website sales research.

That was when I stumbled unto the most powerful marketing ขsecretข I have ever known during the past 20 yrs.

I discovered a little known guy (VJ) who used this insiders’ ultimate marketing weapon to rake in 100 million dollars in 2yrs by the age of 28 yrs.

Not only has this guy (VJ) made 100 million dollars with this exciting powerful ขsecretข, but he is crazy enough to share this sizzling hot ขsecretข with the rest of the world.

After reading his letter, I could not eat or drink or sleep until I blasted my order out to him.

Within 3 days, he rushed this heavy package containing his book to me. It is as big as the telephone book, very neat, very impressive, very well written, concise, to the point and over flowing with fantastic secrets on how he used this ultimate marketing ขsecretข to create 100 million dollars fortune in 2 yrs.

Yes, you guessed right. I had to drop everything I was doing to devour this book.

Usually it takes me forever to read a small book.

But in 2 hrs, I surprised myself by how fast I devoured this 310 page book brimming with the most fantastic secret marketing information I have ever been lucky to find anywhere.

There are many people who claim to be internet marketing guru (sorry, I will not name names) or offline marketing gurus. They are full of talk. Talk, talk.

And little to show for it.

And they invite you to their seminars and try to charge you $1000, $2000 or even $5000. Most of them are full of fluff. Very cheesy. I know all of them and may be you do too.

I don’t know any of them who have personally made 100 million dollars with his/her marketing secrets by the age of 28! (Another Bill Gates in the making?)

I have never thought it wise to pay them $5000 no matter what internet marketing secret they may have. Perhaps I have been a fool. Or may be not.

However, what I can tell you is that, at last, I have found a guy who not only talks the talk, but has walked the walk and made 100 million dollars as proof that he knows what he is talking about.

What other proof do you need? (As for me, 100 million dollars proof is good enough for me.)

This is the kind of money that gets my juice flowing real fast.

What about you?

To illustrate to you the power and the genius of the writer, VJ, the creator of this ultimate marketing ขsecretข, here is an excerpt of his letter, in his own words:

ขNo matter how hard I tried, it always seemed like I wasn’t going to amount to anything real important in life. And this really sucked because I had a passion for the finer things. I wanted the gold Rolex, the sporty Mercedes, and the MillionDollar Mega Mansion!

But when I looked in the mirror, I didn’t like what I saw. I was convinced the good life I wanted was just a dream.

But that was all about to change. Seriously by the time I was 19, I had a brandnew Corvette. At 20, I had 2 brandnew Mercedes Benz automobiles. And at 21, I was the proud owner of a Rolls Royce Silver Spur!

By the time I turned 28… I made over $100 Million in gross sales. I profited over $50 Million. I owned two homes one of them was 14,000 square feet and had a sevencar garage, a billiards room and a resortstyle pool with an underwater bar! And I paid cash for the home!

In my garage, I had a red Lamborghini Diablo, a yellow Ferrari 360 Spider, a white Bentley Arnage Red Label, about 4 Mercedes, and a 12passenger Lincoln Town Car Limo!

My checking account had over $10 Million in it. I was earning $400,000 in pay each and every week. That breaks down to $80,000 a day… or $10,000 an hour! And those figures were if I worked 5 days a week for eight hours a day, which I didn’t!

In the year 2002, I made more money than the CEOs of Federal Express… eBay… Amazon.com… Time Warner… Apple Computer… McDonalds… Microsoft… Nike… Yahoo… Ford Motor Company… General Motors… and Goodyear Tire COMBINED!

YesCOMBINED.

In the May 12th, 2003 issue, Forbes Magazine listed their top paid 500 CEOs in America. Of their prominent and prestigious list of the 500 CEOs, I made more money than 483 of them.

$17,549,000 MORE than the CEO of Starbucks.

$13,030,000 MORE than the CEO of Target.

$17,225,000 MORE than the CEO of Motorola.

Now, this may all seem like Iกm some rich (&zxc$3@) bragging about how rich I am… and you’re partly correct. I am bragging! But more importantly, the reason why Iกm telling you about all this is that this course is about getting rich very quickly. If the talk of obscene money makes you feel uncomfortable, or even angers you, maybe you do not really want to be rich.

The reason why Iกm telling you about all the toys I had when I was just 28, is to prove to you that if a guy like me… with a learning disability… a bad childhood… and no formal education can get filthy rich by the time I was 28… you can absolutely follow in my footsteps and build yourself your very own empire of wealth!ข

Even Gary Halbert says, ก……believe it or not, much of this information is so electrifying; it was unknown even to me.ก

Gary Halbert is recognized all over the world as America’s numero uno marketing authority.

Can you imagine Gary admitting in writing that VJ’s book and marketing power secrets are electrifying to him? I need not say more.

So, if you’re tired of having websites that are not making any money or tired of making nickels and dimes and tired of all the lousy promotional secrets from the so called internet gurus (that don’t work), and you’re finally ready to turn over a new leaf and get serious about creating real wealth from whatever products, programs or services you currently promote, may be you should consider finding out more about VJ’s super secret marketing book, the ultimate sales generator and marketing engine.

In this unique powerful book, VJ has been very kind to reveal so many dynamic marketing secrets he used (never before revealed in one book) : the products he sold to make 100 million dollars in 2 yrs, how he promoted it, when he promoted it and how you can duplicate his success.

Do you have a website? Do you sell any product, program or service? Would you like to know the exact ขsecretsข on how to find hundreds of thousands and even millions of buyers for your products and services?

Would you like to get your paws on how to market any product to hundreds of thousands and even millions of people who really need them?

If you answer yes, rejoice because VJ’s book has the ultimate ขsecretข.

If you know the ขsecretข on how to locate hundreds of thousands and even millions of people who are hungry and thirsty for your products and services, you can generate millions of dollars easily and get rich, like VJ!

If after reading this revealing article you don’t hear about me again for the next 15 yrs, you should be able to guess why.

Excuse me, I have just decided to take VJ’s book and powerful ขsecretข and create a billion dollar empire.

So, I am going to be very busy!

Forbes 400 billionaire’s list 2010, here I come.

How about you?

Please feel free to copy and use this article at your website, ezine or email it to your friends and please retain the author’s resource box below.

Thank you.

Hasta la vista baby.

Warmly,

Ikey Benney, CEO

About The Author

Ikey is the creator of ขMscsrrr, Millionaire Secret Cash System, The Royal Road To Riches, Generate $1,500 Weekly For Lifeข (http://www.mscsrrr.com) and ขTMT: Transcendental Mental Technology, The 10,000 Yr Old ขSecretข Of Infinite Wealth, Infinite Success, Infinite Happiness, Revealed. (http://www.tmtworldwide.org )

To learn more about this powerful ultimate marketing secret book, by VJ, please go to: http://www.12monthmillionaire.com?a_aid=982e5bcf

[email protected]

This article was posted on August 13, 2005

by Ikey Benney, Ceo

How To Tweak Your Website For More Sales

How To Tweak Your Website For More Sales

by: Michael Southon

There are two pillars to a successful online business. One of them is traffic and the other is sales copy the text on your your website. Thatกs what this article is about getting more sales from your website.

(1) Format. The fastest selling websites have the following format: a onepage sales letter; a single column of text occupying half the screen width; and a maximum of 2 or 3 linked pages (eg. partners.html, testimonials.html, author.html etc.)

(2) Headline. This should be in font size 4 or 5 and offer a strong benefit. Writing a compelling headline is a delicate balancing act you need to grab your readers attention but you don’t want to strain their credulity. Here are some tips on writing effective headlines: http://tutorials.findtutorials.com/read/id/28

(3) Date. A date at the top of your page adds to the feeling that your sales page is a letter, which makes your page more readable. It also assures visitors that your site is uptodate and still relevant. Here is a javascript code that will insert the current date: http://www.ezinewriter.com/datescript.html

(4) Paragraphs. Keep them short no more than 1 or 2 sentences per paragraph. It makes your page much easier to read.

(5) Bolding and highlighting. If you emphasize certain keywords your sales page will be much more effective. It draws your readers attention to your benefits and it also breaks up the monotony of the text. To highlight text, use these tags: your text here

(6) Book covers. An attractive book cover will increase your sales by up to 300% so if you don’t have one, get one! Here are some websites that design book covers:

http://www.killercovers.com/

http://www.ebookwow.com/

http://www.ebookcoverart.com/

http://www.ebookcreators.com/

http://www.dynamitecovers.com/

(7) Testimonials. These will also dramatically increase your sales. If you don’t have any, ask your customers for them. Every testimonial will always contain a key phrase or benefit make that phrase leap out at the reader by using bold type. Always provide the website and/or email address of the person who wrote the testimonial. If you make the website URL and active link, youกll get more testimonials but youกll also lose traffic when your visitors click on those links.

(8) Bonus Gifts. Offering freebies with your product is an old trick in web marketing nearly everyone does it. My advice is take the freebies off. Why? Firstly, chances are the freebies you offer are also being offered by hundreds of other websites your visitors have seen them all before and are not impressed. Secondly, offering freebies sends the message that your product is not really worth it on its own.

(9) Unique Selling Proposition. You must differentiate your product from your competitorsก products. One way to do this is to have a กWarningก near the bottom of your page that says กDo not buy an eBook on XYZ unless it meets the following criteria…ก And then list the unique features of your eBook (or product).

(10) A Call to Action. This is the biggest cause of lost sales. Most people procrastinate so you must create a sense of urgency. You can do this in various ways a price rise after a certain date, a price rise after a certain number of copies have been sold, or a bonus report for the next 15 orders.

© 2003 by Michael Southon

About The Author

Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3 years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this simple technique to get massive free publicity and dramatically increase traffic and sales. For more information visit: http://www.ezinewriter.com/

This article was posted on February 15, 2003

by Michael Southon

Simplify Your Message For An Effective ENewslette

Simplify Your Message For An Effective ENewsletter

by: Michael J. Katz

If you’re old enough to know your total cholesterol count off the top of your head (217), you may remember a man by the name of Jim Fixx.

Fixx gained prominence in 1977 with the publication of his book, The Complete Book of Running, and is widely credited with singlehandedly starting the jogging craze in this country. Unfortunately, Fixx died suddenly in 1984.

Hearing what had happened, my Aunt Esther — a woman known for sometimes not quite getting her facts straight — gave me the news: ‘the guy who invented running died.ก

Admittedly, a bit of an oversimplification. However, with those six simple words she had captured the essence — if not the absolute factual truth — of the story. Before Fixxกs book came out, running around the neighborhood for exercise was not a common practice, and in many ways, he had กinventedก running.

Iกm here to tell you that when it comes to effective communication with an audience, my Aunt Esther had it right — essence matters more than facts.

How many times have you been forced to endure 85 slides worth of a speakerกs Power Point presentation, getting to the point where you start looking for a way to unobtrusively take your own life? Invariably, the problem isn’t that the data is wrong or even lacking in value, itกs that itกs delivered in a way that is too detailed and too convoluted for the average human being to digest. You arrive eager to learn something, but the delivery itself gets in the way.

Many newsletters suffer from the same กgood information; poor deliveryก syndrome. The facts are there, but the reader is not able to — or not interested in — finding them. With that in mind, I offer some suggestions for being heard and appreciated:

Pick one idea. I always find it kind of funny that the biggest worry people have about producing a newsletter is กrunning out of content,ก and yet the biggest problem I see is ‘too much content in each issue.ก You don’t need to explain your entire field of expertise in each issue any more than you need to review everything you know each time you eat lunch with a client. Break it up into little pieces. Youกll have more content to choose from next time and your readers will find it easier to hear your message.

Boil it down. An ENewsletter is really just a glorified email, and mixed in with all the jokes, appointment confirmations and pieces of information that fly into our respective inboxes every day, this is not a medium that lends itself well to lots of detail. Be prepared to edit, simplify and throw out information on your way to getting to the heart of the matter.

Speak like a human being. I don’t know who started the rumor that business communication must be formal to be valuable, but it seems to have caught on nonetheless — thatกs an opportunity for you and me. Your readers will find it a breath of fresh air to กhearก the people behind the newsletter. Nobody is interested in reading one more กcritical communicationก from a company that claims to be, ‘the leading provider of cross platform broadband solutionsก (or whatever). If you can’t read your newsletter out loud to your spouse without bursting out laughing, youกve got too much marketingspeak in there.

Bottom Line: Youกve got 800 words of opportunity each month to get your message across. Sure youกve got to have something useful to give your audience, but remember that these people are busy, tired and often just plain bored. Make your publication the one they wait for and youกll never again live in fear of the delete key.

About The Author

Michael J. Katz is Founder and Chief Penguin of Blue Penguin Development, Inc., (http://www.BluePenguinDevelopment.com) a Boston area consulting firm that helps clients increase sales by showing them how to nurture their existing relationships, and that specializes in the development of electronic newsletters. He is the author of the book, ENewsletters That Work.

This article was posted on January 06

by Michael J. Katz