How to Add “Tell-a-Friend” Functionality
Posted on February 25, 2008
The concept is simple: when someone comes to your website and finds something he likes, you want to make it as easy as possible for him to share it with his family, friends, and associates. “Tell-a-Friend” functionality is the easiest way to do this. There’s nothing better than having someone else endorse and promote you. Be sure to include a “from” field for the person’s name and email address so the recipient knows the message is from his friend (and not spam from you). Also make sure that you have your privacy policy posted to help put your potential advocate at ease. (A simple “We Value Your Privacy” with a link to your privacy statement is all you need.)
For an excellent example of this functionality, go to: www.ideavirus.com and click on “Send it.”
This post is an excerpt from the FREE Become a Best-Selling Author eBook, 60 Effective Strategies for Selling More Books. Download it here.
Posted in Publishing
How to Publish Another Book
Posted on February 18, 2008
Once you’ve established yourself as an expert or talent in a particular area, a great way to generating additional sales on your first book is to publish a second. (Of course, this assumes you have exhausted every marketing strategy for your first book project). The second time around, you will have a warmer market, a better understanding of the industry, and a working knowledge of strategies that work for you.
To help you determine the subject of your next book, consider what specialized markets might be interested in your platform. For example, after The Monks of New Skete wrote How to Be Your Dog’s Best Friend (Little, Brown, 2002—Revised Edition), which has sold over 500,000 copies, they went on to write The Art of Raising a Puppy (Little, Brown, 1991).
And you never know—your second book might achieve more success than your first. After the sales of John Grisham’s first novel, A Time to Kill, tanked, the publisher refused to publish his next book. Grisham’s second novel, The Firm (published by Dell) hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, with Tom Cruise playing the leading role in the film version. Following The Firm’s extraordinary success, A Time to Kill moved onto the New York Times bestseller list as well.
Understand the “New Factor”: Our society is obsessed with the latest, newest thing. This pining for new products and new packaging seems to be wired into the human condition—especially the post–baby boomer generation. This helps explain why a new book or product can be more easily promoted through the media and why publishers jump when an author achieves notable success, extracting as many books and ancillary variations of the successful book as possible in order to ride the “new wave” to profitability.
This post is an excerpt from the FREE Become a Best-Selling Author eBook, 60 Effective Strategies for Selling More Books. Download it here.
Posted in Publishing
How to Develop an Audio Program Through Nightingale-Conant
Posted on January 28, 2008
Nightingale-Conant is the largest publisher of motivational and educational audio programs in the world, with over two million customers.
Nightingale-Conant currently publishes and/or distributes more than 150 authors and over 1,400 titles in six key areas: Personal Development; Business Strategy; Sales and Marketing; Wealth Building; Skills and Learning; and Mind, Body, Spirit.
All-stars like Wayne Dyer, Deepak Chopra, Brian Tracy, Dennis Waitley, Tony Robbins, Jim Rohn, and Tom Peters all have multiple product offerings through Nightingale-Conant. A deal with Nightingale will give you lots of additional exposure through their catalogs, promotional mailings, and website, in addition to further solidifying your “expert status.”
Go to www.nightingale.com, click on “Customer Service,” and look for “Submission Guidelines” under the “New Product Development” section.
This post is an excerpt from the FREE Become a Best-Selling Author eBook, 60 Effective Strategies for Selling More Books. Download it here.
Posted in Publishing, Marketing, Uncategorized
How to Create a “Live” Audio/Video Product
Posted on January 24, 2008
Between 10 and 15% of your audience will come ready to buy what you’re selling. As your platform evolves, you’ll need to be constantly developing new, insightful, value-added products to “feed the frenzy.”
What else can you sell besides your book? There are lots of different product ideas in this e-book, but one of the easiest things to do is to professionally record one of your speaking engagements and have it edited and packaged as your first audio product.
Also, a single “lecture” CD can be created in your home and manufactured on a relatively inexpensive budget (one device that can be used for home recording is Sony’s Net MD Walkman MZ-NF810—make sure it has a microphone jack). You can convert the audio file into digital format (like an .mp3) and stream it on your website. If the content is unique and highly-specific, you can even sell it!
This post is an excerpt from the FREE Become a Best-Selling Author eBook, 60 Effective Strategies for Selling More Books. Download it here.
Posted in Publishing, Web, Marketing
How to Craft an e-Book
Posted on January 22, 2008
E-books and “Special Reports” can be used in a number of ways.
If you have timely, market-specific information that addresses your audience’s key frustrations, you may be able to create a landing page (a variation of the traditional website) and sell your product online. (Outlining the strategies for implementing this successfully is beyond the scope of this book, but there are examples all over the web—www.bestsellingauthor.com is one of them.)
E-books can also be presented as a “free gift” for people who subscribe to your mailing list or visit your site, respond to a survey, etc. For consultants/coaches, e-books can serve as a “brochure” to showcase and sell their services. Finally, if you use pay-per-click services like Google Adwords (covered below), you can promote your free e-book as part of your campaign to drive traffic to your site.
For more information on how to create and sell your e-book, check out:
www.7dayebook.com/
This post is an excerpt from the FREE Become a Best-Selling Author eBook, 60 Effective Strategies for Selling More Books. Download it here.
Posted in Publishing, Marketing
