7 Simple Ways To Boost Your EBook Sales

7 Simple Ways To Boost Your EBook Sales

by: Michael Southon

You can often dramatically increase your EBook sales by making a few minor adjustments to your sales page. Here are 7 ways to increase your EBook sales:

(1) Make sure your กOrderก link appears at least 3 times on your sales page.

(2) If your link currently says กOrder!ก, change it to กOrder via Secure SSL Serverก (if that is the case). I made this change about a month ago, and I noticed an immediate increase in sales.

(3) Offer a moneyback guarantee that makes it clear that you don’t mind refunding purchases.

(4) Add a กguaranteeก logo or icon to your sales page. You can find a variety กguaranteeก graphics at AltaVistaกs MediaSearch:

http://web.altavista.com/cgibin/query?cn=med

Click on the กradio buttonก that says กImagesก and then type กguaranteeก into the search box. AltaVista will return 20 pages of กguarantee iconsก.

(Before placing one of these graphics on your website, make sure it is not covered by copyright).

(5) Offer 2 or 3 chapters of your book free (in the form of a downloadable Trial version of your EBook). You could also allow people to read those same chapters online.

(6) Include a ‘table of Contentsก so that your visitors can see what your EBook contains.

(7) Keep your sales copy to one page. People are spending less and less time surfing the Web if your sales message is more than one page, your visitors will probably move on before reaching the end.

(c) 2001 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. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This article was posted on August 30, 2002

by Michael Southon

Ten Tips for Getting More Sales From Your Website

Ten Tips for Getting More Sales From Your Website

by: Michael Southon

(1) Create a Direct Response Website, with the minimum number of pages possible (e.g. an Index Page, a Contact Page, and an Order Page).

(2) Make sure your sales copy is positive and inspiring people buy things because they want to improve their lives.

(3) Identify a problem and show people how and why your product or service solves the problem.

(4) Keep your paragraphs short no more than 2 sentences per paragraph.

(5) Use bold headings to break up your sales copy into short chunks of text.

(6) Use a bulleted list to itemize the benefits of your product or service. Start each benefit with an action word: ‘turnก, กmakeก, ‘tripleก, กgrabก, กcreateก, กbuildก, กconvertก, กstartก, กchangeก, กdriveก, กorganizeก, กpromoteก, กdevelopก, กlearnก, กcompelก, กfillก, กattractก, กgetก, กearnก, ‘takeก, กdiscoverก, กproduceก, กfindก, กgenerateก, กacquireก. กinspireก, กsendก, กblastก.

(7) Give your visitors at least 3 order links (e.g. 1/3rd of the way down your page, 2/3rds the way down, and at the bottom). But don’t stop there turn some of your key phrases into hyperlinks that go to your order page. Here are some examples of phrases that you could link to your order page: กincrease your salesก, ‘take advantage of this offerก, ‘try it riskfree for 30 daysก, กget the following 5 bonusesก, ‘the competitive edge you needก, ‘this riskfree offerก.

(8) Use purple (#990099, R=153 G=0 B=153) text the color purple (used sparingly) has been shown to increase sales.

(9) Give a time limit most people are procrastinators.

(10) At the end of your sales copy make a call to action: กAct now don’t let this opportunity pass byก

(c) 2002 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. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This article was posted on July 31, 2002

by Michael Southon

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

Word of Mouth Marketing

Word of Mouth Marketing

by: Michael Southon

กWord of Mouthก is still one of the most effective marketing techniques, online or offline.

Joe arrives at your website and he likes it. In fact, heกd like to tell Fred about it. Itกs just the thing Fredกs been looking for. What if Joe could recommend your website to Fred by sending him an email straight from your website?

Well, he can…if you have an กemail to a friendก script installed on your website.

There are many free scripts that will do this for you. But the one I found easiest to install is a script developed by William Bontrager, called กMaster Recommendก.

This one was easy. I had it working on my second attempt.

You can see this script in action at: http://www.freezineweb.com/index.html

Basically all you have to do is (1) configure the cgi script and upload it to your cgi bin, (2) create a new web page with a form that is linked to the cgi script on your server.

You can download Master Recommend at: http://willmaster.com/master/recommend/mr.pl?v=zip

To get a detailed explanation of how to install it, visit: http://www.willmaster.com/master/recommend/MasterRecommend.manual.html

This script will even send you a copy of your visitorกs message (itกs useful to know what your visitors think about your website).

If you prefer not to have anything to do with cgi, thereกs a much easier way of putting กemail to a friendก on your site.

Thetellafriendnetwork.com has a program that is hosted on their site. Installing it is as simple as pasting some HTML code into your web page. Your visitors will be presented with a simple form where they can enter up to three of their friendsก email addresses.

You can add this service to your website at the following URL: http://www.thetellafriendnetwork.com/addasite.html

(c) 2001 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. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This article was posted on August 30, 2002

by Michael Southon

10 Tips For Ezine Publishers

10 Tips For Ezine Publishers

by: Michael Southon

1. Many Ezine Publishers use too many styles of separator in their Newsletter. I recently saw an Ezine that used no less than 7 different separators:

++++++

~~~~~~

\\\\\…..

======

******

This confuses the reader and makes your Ezine difficult to read. Your Newsletter will look much smarter and be much easier to read if you use just one or two styles of separator.

2. Always give an email address for your readers to un subscribe. Making your readers go to a website to unsubscribe will create more traffic but it won’t make you popular.

3. Place the email address for unsubscribing near the top of your Newsletter where it can easily be seen. That will avoid messages from your readers asking you to unsubscribe them.

4. Put the title of your main article in the subject field of your Newsletter. People are much more likely to open an Ezine whose subject field reads:

WebTrafficDaily: ก10 Power Tips to Boost your Trafficก

than:

WebTrafficDaily, Vol 14 Issue No. 6

5. Unless your Ezine specializes in offering free ads, limit your classifieds to ten per issue. More than that and your readers will be irritated and the ads will lose their effect.

6. In every issue of your Newsletter, tell your readers about some new resource you have added to your Website give them a reason to come back. After all, thatกs one of the main reasons for publishing an Ezine to turn onetime visitors into repeat visitors.

7. Before sending out your Newsletter, do a trial run and send it to yourself. I do this and I almost always find some little error that needs fixing.

8. Keep an archive of backissues on your website. People are more likely to subscribe to your Ezine if they can see a sample.

9. Search the Web for Tips on the theme of your Ezine include an กEditorกs Tipก in each issue.

10. Format your Newsletter to 60 charactersperline. You can either do this manually using a กrulerก such as this:

012345678901234567890123456789012345678901234567890123456789

Or you can use an ASCII file formatter (much quicker) such as กEzine Assistantก. Ezine Assistant is free and you can download it at: http://www.ezineassistant.com/

(c) 2000 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. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This article was posted on August 30, 2002

by Michael Southon

Eight Tips for Ezine Writers

Eight Tips for Ezine Writers

by: Michael Southon

Have you ever wondered why Ezine Articles have become one of the most effective marketing techniques on the Web?

The reason is quite simple.

People very rarely go online looking for something to buy. They go online looking for information free information.

They want to be educated, entertained and informed. And the best way to do that is to write free Articles for Newsletters.

At the bottom of your Article is your 4 or 5line Resource Box. Thatกs what turns your Article into one of the most powerful marketing techniques on the Web.

Here are eight tips to help you write your Articles and get them published.

Never allow yourself to think that youกve run out of ideas. Instead, have the opposite thought: that there are more ideas than you could possibly write about. I heard someone saying recently (with regard to Ezine Articles) that everything that could possibly be written about has already been written about. Nonsense! The Internet is evolving so fast that even if you wrote a new Article every day, you still couldn’t keep up.

The Golden Rule of Five. Keep your Article titles short no more than five words. Ezine Editors love short titles (they fit into the subject field of an email).

Keep your paragraphs short no more than 3 sentences. Itกs much harder to read a computer screen than a printed page so make it easy for your readers.

Make sure your Article flows properly. The easiest way to do this is to write down the opening and closing sentences of each of your paragraphs, then read what you have. If it makes sense and moves along nicely, you have an Article that is well organized and flows properly.

Include a word count at the top of your Article. This makes it easy for an Ezine Editor to make a quick decision on whether to use your Article. It also shows youกve been thorough in preparing your Article for publication.

Check all the links in your Article before submitting it. Then include a note that says: กAll the links in this Article were checked and verified on (date)ก. Again, this saves time for the Ezine Editor and demonstrates that youกve been thorough.

Offer a Free Report in your Resource Box. When someone reads your Article in an Ezine, they probably won’t be connected to the Internet. So the challenge is this: to offer something so interesting and exciting that theyกll fire up their modem and visit your website. The best way to do that is to offer a Free Report.

Put all your Articles on autoresponders and then create another autoresponder that lists all your Articles, with an autoresponder address for each Article (e.g.: [email protected]). When you submit your Article to a List or to an Article Archive, always include a note that says: กFor a complete list of Articles by this author please send a blank email to: [email protected]

Remember Ezine Articles are probably the fastest way there is of building your presence on the Web and getting your message in front of a targeted audience. Happy writing!

(c) 2001 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. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This article was posted on August 30, 2002

by Michael Southon

How To Make Your Resource Box Sell

How To Make Your Resource Box Sell

by: Michael Southon

Ezine Articles they’re everywhere!

And little wonder. They’re one of the fastest ways of building traffic to your website.

But what many people overlook is the Resource Box. Itกs almost as important as your Article. After all, your traffic comes to you through your Resource Box.

Writing your Resource Box is an art in itself. You have very little space (5 or 6 lines) and you want to make the most of it. Here are four key elements your Resource Box should contain.

1) Your Name

Remember, one of the reasons Ezine Articles are such a powerful promotion tool is that brand your name, they establish your reputation as a an expert.

So the first line of your Resource Box should be a short sentence that gives your name and tells the reader what you do on the Internet.

2) Your website URL

This is pretty straightforward you want people to visit your website. But thereกs another reason for including your website URL.

As well as being published in Ezines, your Articles will also be published on websites, often with a live link to your website URL.

And thatกs going to do wonders for your linkpopularity. Remember, the major Search Engines are making linkpopularity one of the key factors in ranking their search results.

3) Your Newsletter subscribe address

A given reader may not purchase your product, they may not even click through to your website, but why not at least capture their email address?

Remember that the average person has to see your message seven times before they buy your product.

4) Something FREE!

Your Resource Box is probably one of a dozen other Ads in the same Ezine, all clamoring for attention. Offer something free and youกll vastly increase the chances of a reader clicking through to your website.

(c) 2000 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. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This article was posted on August 30, 2002

by Michael Southon

Instant Success or Gradual Improvement?

Instant Success or Gradual Improvement?

by: Michael Southon

We live in a culture of instant success.

This is especially so on the Internet. Everyone wants to become an กOvernight Millionaireก, ‘retire Quicklyก, กGet Rich Quickก, and so on.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work except in rare cases.

But hereกs a system that does work itกs called evolution or Gradual Improvement and Nature has been doing it for millions of years.

Nature operates through trial and error. Itกs constantly experimenting, testing. Each generation produces new mutations. Some succeed, some don’t. Those that succeed become the basis for the next advance, and so on.

And thatกs also the secret of successful web marketers trial and error. They constantly test. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. When they find something that works, they improve on it. Each tiny success becomes the platform for the next success, and so on.

In fact, people who succeed in any walk of life do so not because they discover a กformula for successก, but because they learn how to deal with failure.

Thomas Edison, when asked if he felt discouraged by the 1,073 failures he had before inventing the electric light bulb, replied กI did not fail 1,073 times, I found 1,073 ways not to do itก

Remember, thereกs no failing, just learning.

(c) 2002 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. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This article was posted on August 30, 2002

by Michael Southon

Five Great Ideas For Your Next Article

Five Great Ideas For Your Next Article

by: Michael Southon

Itกs amazing how quickly free articles can generate traffic my traffic sometimes triples within 24 hours of releasing a new article.

But if free articles are your main marketing technique, you may run into a problem how to come up with new ideas.

Yesterday an interviewer asked me in an email: กHow does someone come up with topic ideas? What do you do, for example?ก

This was my reply:

The key to coming up with topic ideas for your articles is to be very aware of what you yourself are learning. As you know, ecommerce is a huge area and we’re all learning new things every day. Every time you learn something new, write a short article about it. Because there are almost certainly other people who are going to have to learn what you just learned and your article is going to make it much easier for them to get that information.

The other thing to do is pay close attention to the questions people ask you. For example, I had a question last week from a man in the UK who wanted to know how to use articles to promote an affiliate link. So I answered his question and then wrote an article titled: กHow To Boost Your Affiliate Sales With Free Articlesก.

You may notice that Iกm using this technique here. Yesterday someone asked me a question and today Iกm writing an article about it. Itกs that simple!

Here are five great ideas for your next article:

Write a Book/Product Review

This is an endless source of new articles. Every time you see a new eBook, write to the author and ask if you can have a ‘review copyก (this is also an excellent way to get free copies of the latest new eBooks).

Writing a book review is really very easy just summarize the points that most impressed you. You can see some examples of book reviews at:

http://www.freezineweb.com/article41.html

http://www.freezineweb.com/article44.html

http://www.freezineweb.com/article46.html

Do an Interview

Contact a wellknown figure on the Internet and ask him or her if you could interview them by email. Thereกs an art to doing a good interview and the best way to learn is to look at other interviews:

http://www.ibizinterviews.com/

http://www.ebookinterviews.com/

http://www.ebooksnbytes.com/drevoy.html

Write a Business News Article

Subscribe to one of the Internet News services, clipping agencies, or Press Release services and use the information you receive to write articles on the latest developments in your industry field.

Here are some websites that specialize in Internet Business News:

http://www.newsbureau.com

http://www1.internetwire.com/iwire/home

http://www.newinternetnews.com/

http://www.internetnews.com

http://www.researchbuzz.com/

Write an Anecdote

Have you had a strange or frustrating experience on the Internet, or have you made a big mistake that you learned from (people love reading about other peopleกs mistakes). Write about it!

Write a กHow Toก article

These kind of articles are always in demand. And it doesn’t have to be very long five tips that youกve picked up in the last month on some aspect of running an online business. Maybe you learned how to choose a web host, how to choose a list server, how to deal with spam, how to get better results from your Newsletter, or how to succeed with affiliate programs? Why not share those tips with others?

I hope these ideas have given you food for your next article and the next surge of free traffic to your website!

(c) 2002 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. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This article was posted on September 18, 2002

by Michael Southon

The Key to a Successful Affiliate Program

The Key to a Successful Affiliate Program

by: Michael Southon

Two Christmases ago I tugged on one of those paper crackers and after a small bang, out popped a piece of yellow paper the size of a credit card.

On one side was a riddle that didn’t make much sense, but on the other side was an กInspirational Quoteก that made a lot of sense.

So much so, that I still have it in my wallet.

This is what it said: ‘the shortest and best way to make your fortune is to let people see clearly that it is in their interests to promote yoursก.

Iกm constantly amazed to see affiliate programs that offer 20%, or even as little as 15%, to their affiliates.

It is generally accepted that the production of any information product is only 10 percent of the whole process.

Whatกs the other 90 per cent? Marketing!

My own affiliate program gives 50% commissions, and I wouldn’t dream of offering less. After all, who makes the sale me or the affiliate?

It may be disappointing to see 50% of your sale price going to your affiliates. But itกs worth remembering this: without your affiliate, that sale simply wouldn’t have occurred.

Of course, there are many other factors involved in building a successful affiliate program, but this is the first and most important: make your affiliates your equal partners, because theyกll be doing 90% of the work.

(c) 2002 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. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This Article may be freely published in its entirety exactly as it appears above. No alterations or changes to the Article are allowed, without the express permission of the Author. The Resource Box must remain with the Article just as it appears.

This article was posted on July 31, 2002

by Michael Southon

How To Choose the Right Ezines For Your Ads

How To Choose the Right Ezines For Your Ads

by: Michael Southon

Do you feel bewildered when you begin an Ezine Advertising campaign?

I do.

Take ‘the Free Directory of Ezinesก, for example. There are over 800 Ezines in the Directory that accept paid ads. How do you decide which Ezines to place your ad in?

There are several factors that narrow down the choice for me.

First, I look at the subscriber numbers. If an Ezine has less than 400 subscribers, I move on.

Then I look at the Publication Dates. I prefer to advertise in Ezines that are published weekly, or even more frequently; I don’t want to wait a month my ad to appear.

Then I look at the number of ads that appear in each issue. If an Ezine has more than 15 ads per issue, I give it a miss; I want my ad to be seen.

Then I look at the payment method; if the Ezine doesn’t accept online payment with the major credit cards, I move on.

Then I look at the Ad Rates on a กblind dateก like this, the most Iกm prepared to pay for an Ezine ad is about $20.

Finally, I look at when the Ezine was last updated. If the Ezine listing is more than 6 months old, the ad rates have probably gone up, or maybe the Ezine itself has folded up.

These are all factors that you can use to narrow down your search for the right Ezine for your Ads. But itกs still a กstab in the darkก.

Thereกs another technique, however, for choosing the right Ezines for your ads. Basically, you want Ezines that will give you a high responserate to your ad. The following technique will tell you this with pinpoint accuracy. I used this strategy a couple of months ago and it produced excellent results.

First of all, I signed up for a กProก account with ROIBOT, an กAd Trackingก service. It costs $17 per month, but youกll get that back easily from a successful ad campaign. You can find out more about ROIBOT at:

http://www.roibot.com/

In the กManage Your Campaignก area of ROIBOT, I generated 50 traceable URLs for my ads.

Then I went to my own eBook, กEzyAdsก, and subscribed to 50 Ezines that give a free ad to new subscribers. I submitted an identical 25word ad to each of those 50 Ezines. Each of those ads contained a unique URL generated by ROIBOT.

I then sat back and waited. My 50 ads were published during the following month, some the very next day, others 2 or 3 weeks later. Once or twice a week I went to the ROIBOT website and checked how many clicks I had got from those traceable URLs.

The results were very interesting. Of the 50 Ezines that I placed free ads in, 15 produced an outstanding response. At the end of the month I purchased paid ads in 10 of those 15 Ezines. And I continue to get a high response rate from those 10 paid ads.

(c) 2000, 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. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This article was posted on August 30, 2002

by Michael Southon