Here's the idea.
We've all been taught to create free viral
ebooks to either promote our products or
affiliate products and submit them to free
ebook directories. This was sound advice, but
I've found an even better way to make this
work.
Create your own free ebook directory full of
your own free viral ebooks!
Think Clickbank.com but with free ebooks on
all subjects that you own, promoting
affiliate programs 24/7.
People go to this site, download the free
book they want, they pass it around, and
there ya go, automated affiliate income.
But how do you go about creating these free
ebooks so they produce the best sales
possible? I've found by creating an FAQ list
(frequently asked question) on a certain
subject and then converting it into PDF, my
affiliate sales have soared.
I'm not trying to heavily sell them in the
book, they are getting very useful free
information and I then point them to a paid
resource to get more information if they want
to.
I also ask them to pass the book around as
much as they like.
Want an example of an FAQ list? Go here
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/bodybuilding/
hardgainer-faq/
This FAQ list is quite big and detailed. Your
free books only need to be 5 or so pages
long.
Here is an article I wrote on creating a
viral ebook. It really doesn't have much to
do with the business idea in general, but
will give you an idea of what I'm talking
about at least:
This is just a very quick overview, but if
you want more information on creating Ebooks,
I suggest you visit 2 sites.
My favorite site is Terry Dean's exclusive
membersite at
http://www.netbreakthroughs.com. It's full of
the best information on marketing and it's
only $19.95 a month.
The next product solely focuses on creating
your own Ebook in less then 7 days and that
is written by Jim Edwards. You can find it at
http://www.7dayebook.com. It's a one off fee
for $27 and it comes in Ebook format
ironically enough.
Now, back to my explanation.
Whether you like it or not, having your own
product gives you more flexibility in your
online advertising AND believe it or not,
compiling an Ebook is no more then a weeks
work part time if done correctly and IF you
do it this way the profits will come in for
life.
I have checks coming in still from work I did
2 years ago, thanks to the power of residual
income affiliate programs and viral marketing
Ebooks.
Ok, lets get down to the nitty gritty. What
is a viral marketing Ebook and why should you
create one?
A viral marketing Ebook is a book which sole
purpose is to be spread around the Internet
quickly, by any means possible. It's not
meant to make you money on the front end. You
want other people selling it and giving it
away to as many people as possible.
Why?
Because the inside of that book is full of
affiliate links to other peoples products and
every time someone gives away your book or
sells it, (depending on how you want to do
it) more people will be seeing your affiliate
links, and this is costing you what? NOTHING?
Exactly!
The best examples I could give you of this
process would be by Yanik Silver. He created
2 marketing books that spread over the
Internet like wildfire. He gave everyone who
purchased the book for $19 or $17 (depending
on the book) the rights to sell it or give it
away to their customers.
Needless to say, thousands of people starting
selling it and promoting it all over the
Internet. To this day, he is still earning
good money from that book, plus he became one
of the most well known Internet Marketers to
date.
So how do you go about creating your own
viral marketing Ebook?
Here are the steps.
1) Come up with a product idea based on your
affiliate program you've already chosen and
are already promoting.
Coming up with ideas isn't hard. For example,
and I know I use this example a lot, BUT, If
you are going to be promoting a sports
betting affiliate program, why not create a
book on becoming a successful punter. Then
throughout the book, you can recommend your
favorite sports betting affiliate program.
101 insider secrets to sports betting
How to bet with other peoples money
A good way to come up with ideas is to look
at what others are already selling and mimic
that. You dont need to recreate the wheel
here, so PLEASE don't make things harder then
they have to be.
2) Get the tools you need to succeed
You are going to need a few tools here.
A) A domain name
I register all my domain names with
http://www.namecheap.com for under $9 a
domain name, which to me is pretty darn
cheap. You want a fairly short domain name
that describes the content of your book
fairly well.
Here's an example for you people promoting
sport betting affiliate programs.
http://www.sportsbettingaffiliates.com
http://www.sportsoddbetting.com
http://www.101waystobeattheodds.com
http://www.betforfree.com
etc....
B) Webhosting
Let me say first, you get what you pay for.
This has never been more true then with
webhosting. YOU NEED a good reliable
webhosting company with 24/7 technical
support. If your site goes down and you can't
contact anyone to help you get it back up,
you will lose sales and a lot of them.
I recommed you use
http://www.thirdspherehosting.com for the
simple fact they offer all you need, plus a
lot more for a reasonable price.
C) Autoresponder
You will need this so you can contact your
prospects that don't purchase straight away.
This is where you will give away your free
course or someway to entice them to give you
their email address so you can contact them
periodically.
D) Credit card processor
Just use http://www.clickbank.com. This step
is too easy. They will let you accept all
major credit cards and start an affiliate
program for a one time setup fee of under
$50. They do take a percentage of every sale,
but this is so much cheaper then getting your
own merchant account.
Just about everyone selling Ebooks online is
using Clickbank.
E) Ebook Software
You will more then likely want to create your
book in PDF format so everyone can read it.
Some Ebooks come in EXE format, but mac users
can't read that format, so I find it best to
use PDF. You can create your book with
http://www.createpdf.com for a fairly cheap
price.
F) Graphic Design Software
If you are anything like me, your artistic
abilities peaked at age 7. So instead of
busting my hump to create my Ebook covers and
website graphics I use
http://www.ecovergenerator.comand
http://www.headergenerator.com for all my
graphics. They are great pieces of software
that you can use instead of hiring graphic
designers.
I do however recommend one graphic designer
by the name of Brian Terry. You can view his
work at http://www.ebookwow.com.
3) Outline your book chapters into articles
Writing a whole book in one sitting is hard,
and trying to write a book without outlining
the chapters is nearly impossible. My first
book I ever wrote took me over 6 months but
now most of my books take me less then a week
to finish and that is with a sales letter and
website up.
All you have to do is think up 12 to 15
article topics in sequence and write about
them. Each page should be around 700 to 1000
words, full of useful information, not
information people could get for free.
4) Write your content
Like I said just before, you need original
content. There are too many books out there
now where people are just regurgitating
information others can get for free and this
lowers the value of your book, which means
less people will pass it around and even less
will read it.
If you are really stuck with your writing, I
suggest that you do the following. Actually,
Terry Dean from
http://www.netbreakthroughs.com taught me
this trick.
The best way to get a good amount of original
information without writing it yourself is to
interview experts in the field. For instance,
if you were writing a book about improving
your golf handicap, I'm sure it wouldn't be
too hard to find some local experts who you
could grill in person, over the phone or even
via the Internet and you can then put all
that information in the book. It's also a
good selling point.
Also remember when your writing what the
point of this book is. The point of the book
is to earn you an on going commission with
affiliate programs, so don't feel like you
can't throw some affiliate links in, because
you can, but make sure it's tactful and in
place.
Another good idea would be to put a
"Subscribe to my newsletter" section in your
book as well, so not only will you make
commissions on sales, but also generate leads
without doing any extra work.
Make sure you clearly state in the front of
the book, that the buyer can sell this book
as his own. State that he has Resell Rights
to the product and can sell it or give it
away if he chooses.
5) Create your sales letter
This is where you will be selling your book
from and is critically crucial to your
success.
Creating a sales letter takes a lot of work,
especially if your new to the whole thing.
The best way and the way I use, is to mimic
successful sales letters.
I recommend you have a look at the following
sales letters selling Ebooks.
http://www.turnwordsintotraffic.com
http://www.masterinternetmarketing.com
http://www.linkingstrategies.com
http://www.the-whole-truth.com
http://www.instantinternetprofits.com
If for some reason you think you can't do
this by yourself, you have 2 options.
1) Use software that helps put together your
sales letter
and
2) Hire a copywriter
Software is great and there a 2 options out
there. The first one is
http://www.instantsalesletters.com by Yanik
Silver and
http://www.saleslettergenerator.com by Armand
Morin. They are just as good as each other.
However, if you want to hire a professional
copywriter, your looking at thousands of
dollars, plus royalties from your book sales.
Remember that your selling this book with
reprint rights, which means when they buy the
book they can sell it as well. This is a huge
selling point for you. You will also be
giving them your Ebook cover, website
graphics and sales letter to use to sell your
product.
6) Plug in your free 5 day autoresponder
series
The best way to write your free 5 day course
that your prospect get via your pop up window
is to take chapters out of your book and put
them in as a free teaser.
Remember to emphasize an urgency. You want to
make these prospects who don't buy straight
away, feel like they are missing out on an
opportunity of a life time and considering
the low price of the book, if they don't buy,
more then likely they weren't really
interested or were freebie seekers from the
start.
7) Advertise!
Depending on your topic, you will want to
target different people. However, no matter
what topic your selling on, there is one
market who will want your book for the sole
purpose of selling it, and that's the
Internet Marketing group.
Your book could be on Hippo's but all they
care about is the fact they can sell it as
their own. This is why this type of book
always does well.
The key is to target people in your market
and then the Internet Marketing crowd. I
really am begging you to check out Terry
Deans http://www.netbreakthroughs.com as it
will give you all the knowledge you need and
if you want you can stay for 1 month and
still get more then you will ever need,
information and personal help wise.
