Jennifer Mattern Authors can use testimonials to sell an e-book in a number of ways.. They can be used on the e-book sales page, email newsletters, blog posts, the author’s business site, or just about anywhere the e-book could be mentioned. Here are a few ways people use testimonials: Fake Testimonials Under no circumstances do I endorse this kind of use of testimonials. People essentially use stock images
Having an e-book cover gives you a graphic element to use when promoting your e-book, and it gives e-books more of a traditional product feel (more of a “product” than just a file, from a buyer’s and marketing standpoint). But how do you design and create one? I’m no expert in this area, so I’m just going to point you to a few resources that
As far as I’m concerned, the answer is yes. If you’re trying to sell your e-book (as opposed to giving it away for free), I’d recommend using affiliate marketing (having others sell your e-book for you for a cut of the profits). The two biggest mistakes I made with my first e-book were not having it instantly downloadable and not setting up an affiliate program.
E-book marketing isn’t anything particularly unique. It can be much like marketing a website or blog, or like marketing a physical product (if anything, it’s like a combination of the two). When marketing your e-book(s), keep some of these marketing tools and tactics in mind: Your Sales Letter / Sales Page You have to have some kind of sales page that tells prospective buyers what
After your e-book is written and the price is set, but before you start aggressively marketing your e-book to draw sales, you’ll need to choose a delivery method. Here are a couple of e-book delivery options, and some pros and cons of each: Manual Distribution You receive payment, and manually deliver the e-book via e-mail (or through a link contained within a manual email). Pros
How much should you charge for your e-book? How do you set your e-book’s price? There’s no single right answer for every person or every e-book. However, there are a few factors that every e-book author should consider when setting a price that works for them: 1. What You Need to Earn Start by thinking about how long the e-book took to write, format, and
Some recent personal discussions with a few colleagues got me thinking about ethics a little bit, and how they apply to all of us as freelance writers. We talk a lot here at All Freelance Writing about how to be a successful freelance writer. Now let’s talk about some ethics-related (and just common sense) issues, and how poor judgment can actually kill your career as
Here’s a trick that just occurred to me tonight while getting the next freelance writing jobs post ready for All Freelance Writing (I haven’t tried it myself yet): Go to a site where you can find freelance writing jobs. Search for the term “freelance writers.” Now, instead of just looking for actual job titles for freelance writers, look for freelance editing jobs where the term
When you publish your e-book, should you offer resell (or distribution) rights? Here’s what I think: Paid E-books I’d suggest not offering resell or re-distribution rights on e-books that you’re using as an income stream. This was probably my single biggest mistake with my own first e-book, and one I won’t make again. Why would you want to avoid offering resell rights on a paid
Let’s keep this short and sweet: A lot of writers are intimidated by e-book writing, because they think writing an e-book is going to take a huge time commitment. That doesn’t have to be the case. There’s no right or wrong length for your e-book. It should be long enough to cover your niche topic, and short enough that your particular target market will actually
I talked a little bit before about choosing an e-book format and the benefits of PDF e-books. If you’re a first-time e-book author, I’m going to absolutely suggest that you go the PDF route (as opposed to using e-book compilers to create an EXE file for your e-book). Given that suggestion, here are the only two pieces of software you’ll need to create your very
The two most common e-book file types are PDF (read through Adobe Acrobat Reader and similar programs) and EXE (executable program files). PDF files tend to be much more popular, and there are several reasons for this. Here are a few benefits of publishing your e-book in PDF format: People are often not willing to open .exe files that they’re unsure of, because they can
There’s more to choosing a format for your e-book than PDFs versus executable files (.exe files). Here are a few of the e-book formatting decisions you’ll have to consider when writing an e-book: Do you want your e-book to be in a program file of its own (.exe file) or PDF, or another format altogether? Do you plan to protect your e-book (from copying, printing,
So you’ve chosen a niche for your new ebook, and you have a good idea of what you want to write about. What’s next? Some e-book writers may simply jump right into the e-book writing. Personally, I’m a note-taking, outline-loving, organizational junkie. If you’re even a little bit like me, you may want to plan or outline the content of your e-book before you sit
So, you’ve decided to write an e-book, have you? Well what are you going to write your e-book about? One of the most difficult parts of e-book writing is finding your final e-book idea (or the niche for your e-book). We often have a general idea about what we want to write about. We can use a tool like the Adwords Sandbox to help us
People write e-books for several reasons. One of those reasons is to make money. So why would any e-book author be willing to give their e-book away for free? If you’re planning to write an e-book, how should you decide whether to charge for it or give it away? It really comes down to why you’re writing your e-book in the first place. If your
I saw someone on a forum giving a blogger really bad advice today – essentially that sticking a stupid Copyscape banner (like the one below) will actually somehow protect their content for them. That’s such a load of BS. Here’s what sticking a Copyscape banner on your site really says: Go ahead and steal my site content, b/c I’m quite obviously not aware of how
Have you toyed with the idea of writing an e-book, but find the process a little bit intimidating? Will investing time into writing and marketing an e-book really be worth it? How can you determine if e-book publishing is right for you? Reasons to Consider E-book Publishing There’s more to writing an e-book than making money. Here are a few e-book publishing motivations. See if
Cold calling or emailing prospective clients to offer your services can be an effective way to bring in business as a freelance writer. However, many writers are turned off by the idea because they lack confidence. I haven’t used cold contacting in quite some time, because I’ve been kept pretty busy with referrals and my own sites. I came across a company running a service
If you haven’t been poking around the comments here at AFW, you may not know about my upcoming monthly writing challenges in 2008. So here’s a bit of background on the first two upcoming challenges: January: E-book Writing Challenge In January, you’ll be challenged to write an e-book in 14 days (the final 14 days of the month). During the first half of the month,
I was going to wait until the new year to really test out E-junkie, but decided to give it a go today while working on my new business site (so I won’t have to manually distribute my first e-book anymore). The setup was pretty simple, quick, and painless, and on testing, the delivery is working wonderfully. The big question was whether I should use E-junkie
I’m finally working out some of my service and writing rate changes for the new year. These are my two biggest changes: Press Release Writing – I’ve always offered press release writing at ridiculously low rates (compared to other PR professionals; not compared to content writers offering them). I did that ($99 this year) as a marketing strategy (I’d bring in clients with press release
With the new year fast-approaching, now is the perfect time to think about making your freelance writing business more “official.” Keeping better records will not only help you to work more productively, but it can help you protect your rights to your work and deal with difficult situations that may arise with clients. It’s always a good idea to get everything in writing, even if
Christmas is right around the corner now. Are you still not sure what to get for the writer in your life? Here are a few last-minute gift ideas for writers to help you out: Gift Cards / Certificates – Easy, and they don’t need to be shipped. Pick up a gift card for your writer’s favorite book store, or an online book store like Amazon.com.
Let’s compare a few publishing models authors might consider: traditionally-published books, self-published books, and e-books. Each as their own benefits. For example: Traditional Publishing – There’s a certain amount of respect that comes from being a published author, you’re often paid an advance, and there’s a publisher to help with the marketing of your book. Self-Publishing – You can become a self-published author without getting
We’ve talked a little bit about goals and resolutions for writers in 2008. I took some time today to review my domain names and their expiration dates. As it turns out, I currently have 43 domain names (still a good bit, although much fewer than I used to have, and that’s not counting about five .infos I may give away just to unload). As I’ve
There are several different ways to make money with articles as a freelance writer. Here are a few ways articles can help you make money online, whether as a full-fledged business model or as some side income: Make money writing articles for clients. Pros – Direct payments, Income can come quickly Cons – Limited rights usually limit earning potential per article, Deadlines Make money writing
Quite a while back, I was introduced to the blog points system from Passionate Blogger (referred by Judy Gombita of PR Conversations). I forgot all about it until today, and decided that this system would be a good tool to help me better manage my multiple blogs. The idea is simple… to be a better blogger you need a certain amount of consistency, and you
We’re getting close to the end of the year, and there’s no better time to rethink our freelance writing rates. While I’ve already covered the issue here and on the writing forums, I want to revisit the topic again by taking a close look at the numbers and possible freelance writing rate strategies. Common Strategies for Setting Freelance Writing Rates Per word Per project Per
Heather Beck, both a screenwriter and published author of What Legends are Made Of and the Fable Farm series, was kind enough to share her marketing insights with me on marketing anthologies and series, marketing books versus her screenwriting, and the marketing effects of being published at a young age (Heather, now twenty two, was first published at nineteen). Do you predominantly work through publishers,