The eBook Profit Secrets Blog

Warren Whitlock: If your marketing program is “I want to be a number one bestseller author and then I’m going to figure out how to make money.” You’re going about it all wrong. Start off by having something that actually makes money which I think is part of what you teach with eBooks and then whether or not that develops into courses or coaching or consulting or whatever else you do that’s fine.

Now when you have either a hard-cover book or a Kindle or whatever the format is now arranging to do a publicity push to get up to bestseller for a day makes a lot of sense. I don’t look at a book or even an ebook. Anything that sells for under $100 I don’t think you’re building a real business.

That should not be your only product. Don’t get me wrong if you can sell a million copies of something at $9.95 more power to you. Go do that. That’s fine but we consider anything under $100 now when we’re planning a business plan as being a trigger event…..

In other words, signing somebody up to start a relationship and if it covers cost you’re doing fine, if you make a dollar even better but there are good marketers out there who are now spending $100 to sell a $50 product because they know the relationship with that customer is going to generate $500,000 over time.

You’ve got to compete with those people if you’re going after a direct marketing way of doing it. So I always say yes. Start with what with you sell somebody and here’s a question if I came to you and I said I’ve got $100,000 and I want an answer and I want it fast would you sell me an ebook?

I don’t look at a book or even an ebook. Anything that sells for under $100 I don’t think you’re building a real business.

Ellen Violette: Right.

Warren Whitlock: That should not be your only product. Don’t get me wrong if you can sell a million copies of something at $9.95 more power to you. Go do that. That’s fine.

But we consider anything under $100 now when we’re planning a business plan as being a trigger event in other words signing somebody up to start a relationship and if it covers cost you’re doing fine, if you make a dollar even better but there are good marketers out there who are now spending $100 to sell a $50 product because they know the relationship with that customer is going to generate $500,000 over time.

You’ve got to compete with those people if you’re going after a direct marketing way of doing it. So I always say yes. Start with what with you sell somebody and here’s a question if I came to you and I said I’ve got $100,000 and I want an answer and I want it fast would you sell me an ebook?

Ellen Violette: No.To me if somebody’s coming to you directly and you’re going to talk to them then it’s trying to get them into the highest things first and work down.

Warren Whitlock: Right exactly. So, if you don’t have that highest thing first then you’ve got a problem.

Ellen Violette: Yeah.

Warren Whitlock: And that’s what I’m saying. So that the ebook or the book or the teleseminar series or whatever it is, it’s just the start of our relationship with somebody because…So if you don’t have that highest thing first then you’ve got a problem. So that the ebook or the book or the teleseminar series or whatever it is, it’s just the start of our relationship with somebody.

This is an edited excerpt from Preview Call 3 for Virtual eBook Expo 3 to hear the entire interview and all the FREE preview calls go to www.virtualebookexpo.com/3/previewoptin.htm.

Ellen Violette is the creator of The Virtual eBook Expo www.virtualebookexpo.com. She’s also a successful author and CEO of Create A Splash, LLC, a full-service ebook coaching, conversion and online-marketing company.

To learn more about ebooks go to www.theebookcoach.com. You’ll receive a free pdf “9 Deadly Mistakes To Avoid For Outrageous eBook Profits”, 9 Free Secret eBook Tips to Making Money Online and a complimentary subscription to the eBook Profit Secrets Newsletter. (Value $147)

Write a sales page and if you are going to put your ebook on ClickBank you need a sales page that talks about your ebook.

Then, send a customer over to a payment processor, I use PayPal a lot. And after they pay for it, they are sent back to a page to download it.

And my process is often to thank them on that download page, give them a link to click on to download the product and also to recommend something else, so that I don’t leave them hanging.That is really it for setting up the process.

With ClickBank, you need to have that sales page ready and have your download page ready and then you submit it. You have to pay $50 and you want to do that per product at ClickBank because only one can be the primary product. And so, basically you’ll pay $50 for each product to have a separate ClickBank account because when the customer clicks on a link, it takes them to one default landing page.

For $50 a person can read about, reach your page, click on a link and order. ClickBank is actually collecting the money and dealing with the credit-card companies and telling them and verifying that you are going to deliver the product to the customers, so ClickBank is actually selling the product when you use ClickBank as your platform.

This is an edited excerpt from Preview Call 1 for Virtual eBook Expo 3 to hear the entire interview and all the FREE preview calls go to www.virtualebookexpo.com/3/previewoptin.htm. Ellen Violette is the creator of The Virtual eBook Expo www.virtualebookexpo.com. She’s also a successful author and CEO of Create A Splash, LLC, a full-service ebook coaching, conversion and online-marketing company.

To learn more about ebooks go to www.theebookcoach.com. You’ll receive a free pdf “9 Deadly Mistakes To Avoid For Outrageous eBook Profits”, 9 Free Secret eBook Tips to Making Money Online and a complimentary subscription to the eBook Profit Secrets Newsletter. (Value $147)

(How To Insure That Your  eBook Will Be A Cash Machine For Your Business!)

Too many ebook authors jump in and start writing about whatever excites them without considering whether it will actually make money for them.  This is not the way to approach ebook writing if you want to be successful.  The best way to move forward is to figure out what I call your “Profitable Core” first.

There are four pillars of a “Profitable Core” passion, skills, finding the right target market, and knowing your unique selling position.To get started,  you want to look at what you are passionate about and what skills you have because you need passion to get and stay motivated, and you need to be really good at what you do or you won’t be able to sustain a business doing it.

If you make a list of all your passions and all your skills, you’ll see that there are topics you are passionate about that you aren’t necessarily skilled at and others where you are very skilled.

You want to consider the ones where your passion and skills overlap.  And you want to consider which ones will be the easiest for you to succeed at-that’s the lowest hanging fruit.  Then you are ready to move on to the next criteria.Once you have 3 or 4 possibilities based on your passion and skill, you want to find a target market that has a problem you can solve for them.

And, you want a market that is online, easy to find, that you understand, and that has money to spend and is willing to spend it generously on your topic of expertise.

Then once you find it, you want to look at who is already in that market and what they are already offering because you DON’T want to offer the exact same thing of you won’t stand out from the crowd and no one will see any reason to come to you over anyone else in your area of expertise.Then you want to create your message based on these 4 pillars.

To learn more,  register now for the Virtual eBook Expo 3 free preview series at: www.virtualebookexpo.com and listen to the audio from the call on April 21st 6 p.m. PDT/9 p.m. EDT where we went into more detail on finding your profitable core so you know your ebooks will be successful before you write a single word!

You’ll also hear Internet Expert, Willie Crawford on How To Use Cl Affiliate Programs To Get Others To Sell Your eBooks For You! So join us, it’s FREE! www.virtualebookexpo.com

The fastest way to build a targeted list and get paid for doing it is by putting on a virtual event like a Summit or Expo. These events are great when they work but they can be a nightmare if not done properly. 

I know because I put on a very successful event called Virtual eBook Expo and w’ere getting ready for our third one!  And in doing this event, I’ve discovered there are  3 major keys you MUST have for your event to succeed.

1. You MUST find joint-venture partners who have lists that are interested in what you have to offer.  It doesn’t matter how many lists you get access to, you won’t make sales if they are not lists that are targeting the same market that you want to reach. 

2. You MUST make  sure that at least some of the targeted lists you get access to are big enough ones to warrent putting all the time and energy that it takes to put on this type of  event.  Sales is a numbers game. The more eyeballs that see your offer (that are interested in what you have to offer) the more sales you will make.

So, you have to weigh the number of hours it is going to take to put on the event vs. how many people you will reach. It takes the same amount of effort whether you have big lists or small lists so you want to target as many big lists as you can.

3. You MUST have a solid team in place so that your event runs smoothly from start to finish.  If you don’t have a solid team that knows what to do and has your back,  you can run into major problems that can torpedo your success.

Want to learn more? Join me for a one-hour advanced training on how to create successful and profitable online events. It’s this month’s training  call for eBook Empire Builders which you get at no cost with membership.

It’s  only $9.97  a month to join and you can cancel at any time!   www.ebookempirebuilders.com  You can also grab   25 of the top tips from past trainings free at  www.ebookempirebuilders.com.

 Ellen Violette is the creator of The Virtual eBook Expo www.virtualebookexpo.com. She’s also a successful author and CEO of Create A Splash, LLC, a full-service ebook coaching, conversion and online-marketing company. To learn more about her company go to www.theebookcoach.com

The other night,  I watched the rerun of Celebrity Apprentice for this week where the men and the women made commercials for a video-phone system.

Both commercials were so good that the percentage between the winner and loser was very small. But the difference between the two presentations were night and day!

Lil John, who was project manager for the men’s team, warmed up the crowd, and got them excited and pumped up before the men’s commercial aired-he turned it into an event! And he left the crowd roaring when it was over; he was a real showman.

NeNe Leakes team on the other hand, just presented their commercial in a matter-of-fact straightforward way hoping the commercial would speak for itself.

And I believe the presentation made all the difference.

Now to be fair, the men’s team thought outside the box and presented a humorous commercial about a young man wanting his parents to meet his fiancé who turned out to be the gorgeous and hunky Jose Canseco playing the gay lover; they took a huge risk.

But truth be told, the executives said they wanted emotion and the women’s team stuck with that-using a young girl away at school in Paris talking with her parents (one of whom happened to be deaf). It was definitely warm, fuzzy, and Marley Maitlin, playing the deaf mother, made it very poignant.

So while the experience of each commercial was excellent, the experience of presenting the commercial was only excellent for the men and that made the difference.

So always think about the experience you are giving your customers not just in your products but in the way you bring them along to get to the sale and after the sale as well and you’ll make a lot more sales and bigger profits!

Ellen Violette is a successful author and CEO of Create A Splash, LLC, a full-service ebook coaching, conversion and online-marketing company.

Ellen teaches people how to write their way to wealth. If you’d like to learn more go to www.theebookcoach.com. You’ll receive a free pdf “9 Deadly Mistakes To Avoid For Outrageous eBook Profits”, 9 Free Secret eBook Tips to Making Money Online and a complimentary subscription to the eBook Profit Secrets Newsletter. (Value $147)

Before I share the first step of 7 that I will be revealing on my blog, I want to share a true story with you. I was surfing search.twitter.com last night looking for threads I could respond to, and I came across an article on 7 steps to successful ebook marketing. And it said: “find a niche; write an ebook”-those were  steps one and two.

THIS IS SO WRONG!

I know because that’s what I did that when I wrote my first ebook and in two years I made exactly ZERO Dollars! I eventually sold a few, but let’s face it, it was a disaster!  So I speak from experience.

The truth is there is so much bad information out there and it frustrates me. And that is why I’m talking about how to write an ebool the RIGHT WAY all the time!

So let’s be clear, there are a lot more steps before you can even START writing your ebook that you have to be aware of or you are going to fail.

So step one (drum roll please) ….is  find your motivation.  What is your purpose? - Why are you doing this? Motivation is absolutely essential. Because if you can’t get motivated,  nothing is going to happen.

People generally find motivation out of inspiration or desperation. For me it was desperation, I had to sink or swim.I had nothing to fall back on and I was out of options. I’d been in the music business for 20 years, got a Grammy nomination but I was struggling. Then I made a lot of money in real estate but the market dried up.

I had no real skills so no one would give me a job and they would never pay me the kind of money I’d been making and needed to support my family. Plus, being a creative type, I just wasn’t good at working for others.

Now people have different reasons for wanting to write an ebook. And you really have to know what your big motivator is that will keep you going. Some people just have something they really want to say, other people really want to make money, or people want to see their name in print. Different things motivate different people.

One great way to find motivation is if you see a need out there something that you’ve struggle with or that you’ve seen somebody struggle with, that you’ve or they have overcome.  In other words if you’re having a problem that needs a solution and you can figure one out and then help other people with a lot of times that’s enough to fuel real passion for people. Whatever it is for you, you have to find it and it has to be strong enough to make you stick with it.

Another way is just to make a list of all the reasons why you should write your ebook, make sure they are compelling, and keep it where you can see it and refer to it. Also, you can partner up with someone to keep you accountable- that will help you stay motivated.

What I often suggest people do , is figure out what motivates you, then  take little post-it notes and put them at your desk and on your bathroom mirror – wherever you’re going to see them on a daily basis to remind you why you are doing this.

Now sometimes people just can’t get motivated -it’s like they’re standing in a dark room and they want the light to go on and they’re waiting for it to happen, praying it will happen. But they aren’t taking any action. You have to walk over to the light and turn it on for something to change. And, something has to motivate you to do that whether it’s curiosity, being tired or standing in the dark or whatever.

So you have to be motivated and take the proper action.

To learn more, listen to my free 60-minute teleseminar, “How To Write An eBook In 7 Easy Steps”. There is no opt-in at this time, just go to http://tinyurl.com/7stepebook. Enjoy!

Ellen Violette is a successful author and the CEO of Create A Splash, LLC a full-service ebook conversion, coaching and online marketing company.  Ellen teaches people how to write their way to wealth.

I was recently slated to sit on an ebook panel in the San Fernando Valley, not too far from my home;  it had been planned for weeks.  Then the weekend before it was to take place, my husband’s leg got so swollen, I had to take him to the doctor. 

Well, the doctor took one look at his leg and told us he had to go for a test ASAP.  If it was negative,  we should go home so he could  elevate it,  but if it  was  positive,  we would have to go directly to the emergency room. 

 So of course, it was positive and we ended up in the emergency on a Friday afternoon.  And my husband, Christen, was very anxious because he had been in the hospital a year earlier for what was to be a 3 -5 day stay and ended up being there for over two months.  So he didn’t trust trust them and he hated being there. He was hoping they could treat him at home.

But, after running some tests,   he was admitted with a blood clot in his leg and two in his lungs. 

During that first hospital stay,it had been easy to get around and find his room. This time, not so much. It seemed like I walked forever and that was after taking several wrong turns and getting bad directions from nurses who just didn’t listen.

By the end of the weekend,  I had a terrible blister on my toe and I couldn’t put shoes on or walk very well so I had to wear floppys when I went to pick him up to bring him home that following Monday. 

I was hoping it would feel better by Tuesday night, when the panel was taking place. But it didn’t. And to make matters worse, Christen didn’t know if he could sit through the presentation. But he didn’t want to stay home alone, and he didn’t want anyone else to come stay with him.  So he asked me to cancel. 

But I didn’t think I should cancel. He was getting around okay. And it was right on topic for me “The eBook Option”.  Plus, I’d committed and I hate cancelling at the last minute. But then there was that blister to contend with. I would have to go in floppy’s and jeans (because they were the right length for the floppy’s and it would look really silly if I got dressed up with floppy’s)! But,  the thought of showing up like that horrified me. 

I once went to a weekend conference where the experts insisted that, as a leader,  you should NEVER show up in anything less than a suit and you should NEVER look like everybody else, you should look better and exude success and I never forgot that.  So I really didn’t want to go looking like that.  But I  had no choice. It was either go in floppy’s and jeans or don’t go.

Not only that, but because of the hectic weekend, I wasn’t as prepared as usual and I wouldn’t have time to print out ebook order forms for my ebook, The 1 eBook Solution so I would have a stack of information sheets but only 3 order forms. And I hate going unprepared!

It just seemed like everything was stacked against me. But something inside told me I should go,   so we went on the condition that if Christen got too tired we would leave.  Then we  got there and  everyone was pretty casual. I told the narrator my predicament and she let me speak first and take questions so if I had to leave I could. And I excused myself from the panel after my talk and took a seat by the door, just in case (which I also hated doing)

But, you know what?  I got nothing but high praise for my presentation-plus I made some ebook sales and Christen not only made it through the whole presentation but he enjoyed it! So  it worked out.

Would I rather I had looked like a million bucks? Of course.  Would I rather not have needed special consideration?  Yep.  Would I rather have felt really well-prepared with plenty of order forms? Definitely.  But did I do the right thing by going? Absolutely.  And what I learned was, sometimes it just can’t be helped and it will be less than perfect but it’s okay to do it anyway!

1.       Don’t include an opt-in box.  The money is in the list and if you don’t have an opt-in box you can’t collect names and emails and you won’t have a list! This is one of the biggest mistakes I see people make when they ask me to look at their website because they aren’t making any money!

2.       Don’t  do the research to find out what keywords people are looking up or misinterpreting the results when they do the research.  For instance “fighting depression”  gets  4,400 clicks per months and “fight depression” gets 12,100 clicks per month, but “treatment for depression” gets 110,000 clicks per month and “depression and anxiety” gets 135,000 clicks per month.  So if you key into the phrase “Fighting Depression” you’re making about 1/10 the money you could be making! So do the research! And if you need help interpreting it contact me and I can help.

3.       Don’t pick a a domain name that people can remember or is hard to mess up and don’t use a .com.  .Com is the industry standard-that is where people will go to look for you if they haven’t written it down, so unless you are a non-profit always find a domain name that is a .com

4.       Don’t add meta tags and a great description on your web pages so they appear in Google searches when people are looking for what you offer.

5.       Don’t segment your lists if you have more than one group of people who can use your products and services.  If everyone gets the same message but is interested in different aspects of your business you will lose a lot of money. So not segmenting your list is a great way to kill your business.

I see it all the time.  People come to me and they are so excited because they’ve wanted to start an Internet Business and they’ve finally got a a domain name, a website, and maybe a product or ebook.  And it’s DOA (dead on arrival).

There are many reasons for this and one was brought home to me today so I’m going to share it with you. (Next time I’ll write about some of the different issues that cause your busines to be DOA) .

I was following up with  one of my Facebook followers.  She was so excited-she had just come up with the domain name she was going to use and couldn’t wait to share it with me. 

So I sat on the edge of my seat, waiting to hear it (because she’d been working on this for quite a while).  Then she said it and immediately went into an explanation of exactly what it meant. 

Now, the fact that she felt compelled to explain was a clue right there that something was wrong.  You should NEVER have to explain what it means.

When it’s a great name, you “get” it right away.  When I hear a good one,  I get excited for my clients. And, if it’s REALLY good,  I feel goose bumps on the back of my neck. With this, I felt nothing. And I felt nothing. because I didn’t get it,  so it didn’t affect me. And it didn’t affect me because  I had no idea what it meant!

This domain choice would have  made her business DOA ( DEAD ON ARRIVAL)!  And, as I mentioned, this is not the only issue that can derail you;  it’s one of many! And when you don’t get it right,  no matter what your issue is,  it can undermine your self-confidence, and lead you to believe that only OTHER people can make money online!

But that’s simply not true. Anyone can with the right guidance! And, I can say that with confidence because I’ve seen it over and over with my coaching clients: when you build the proper foundation right from the start, you’ll KNOW before you build it out that it’s got the potential to be very successful!

But,  for that to happen you have to be able to communicate your message in everything you do, including picking a good domain name.  And with the right coach  you’ll be able to make the right choices for everything from finding the right domain name, to the look of your logo and website, to finding the right business model for you,  as well as,  the main marketing strategies and tactics you want to employ,  so you create a business that is not only successful but makes you happy!

If you try to do this alone, chances are you will make BIG  mistakes that could be the difference between success and failure.  In fact, this is one of the main reasons 95% of businesses fail in the first 5 years.  They don’t build a proper foundation and they try to do it on their own.

But the ones who succeed have help.  They know that a good coach, is worth his or her  weight in gold. That means finding someone who is doing what you want to do and who will guide you through the process. Not someone who only teaches one strategy and leaves you hanging to figure out the details that will make YOUR business successful (which is what happened to me when I was getting started).

If you find a great strategy you want to learn after you have the basics, Great go for it! But build the foundation FIRST! You’ll spend a lot less money getting started, and you’ll be a lot more focused which will lead to more leads, sales, and profits a lot faster with less effort!

I know from experience! I spent a LOT of money going from program to program and coach to coach as I built my business. But I was lucky enough to be able to put it all together over time and build a 6- figure income in 2 1/2 years and my clients have done it even faster

So now  you have a choice; continue to do what you’ve been doing and hope it works out  or  find a goood coach/mentor and build a solid  foundation so you can move forward quickly and build the  successful business you deserve. It’s up to you.

Ellen Violette is a successful author and the CEO of Create A Splash, LLC.  Her company coaches people to create a 6-figure business online using Internet marketing with a focus on writing.

If you’d like to learn more  go to  www.theebookcoach.com. You’ll receive a free pdf 9 Deadly Mistakes to Avoid For Outrageous eBook Profits”, ”9 free secret ebook tips to making money online”, and a complimentary subscription of “The eBook Profit Secrets Newsletter”  go to www.theebookcoach.com You can also pick up 2 free chapters of Ellen’s latest ebook, the 1 eBook Solution: The 12 secrets to turning a single ebook into a 6-figure income which lays out her coaching strategy.

I consulted with a woman yesterday who has been sending her book around to publishers trying to get a publishing deal. And, while she’s waiting, time is going by and she isn’t working on selling her book. Instead, she’s waiting to see if her book gets picked up, and what publishers will do for her.

This is a big mistake. I recently attended a panel of publishers and agents at Author 101 University,  and they all agreed that  even if you want to go the traditional route, publishers no longer want to know what you WILL  do to promote your book, but what you have ALREADY DONE  including: how big of a list you have created,  and how many books you’ve sold yourself.

And, if you’ve been marketing online, building your community, and selling books,  you will have a much better chance of getting a traditional book deal than if you haven’t  In fact, publislhing houses will be MORE inclined to publish a really good book from an author who is doing a bang-up job marketing online, than a great book  with no online marketing behind it.

Also, there is no time like the present!  So many people have ereaders now, that you’ll want to take your book and put it online as an ebook at sites such as Amazon, Nook, iBookstore and others as soon as possible.

(First, I would test it will smaller groups to make sure you are ready to go “public”, and/or  have it reviewed, which I can do for you.  Just go to www.theebookcoach.com/services.html to order your review under ”eBook Review”  and I’ll give you a full report with any suggested changes ) . To get started,  you can just PDF the manuscript at www.pdf995.com which is free before giving it out.

Then you’ll need to put it in the epub format before you can submit it to  major ebook stores ( my company can do that  for you as well-just send an email to info@theebookcoach.com with the number of pages in your book and we’ll give you an estimate).  You’ll also need to get an ISBN number (Go to www.bowker.com in the US. Google it to find what you need in other countries.

And,  if you don’t have a website just yet, don’t let that stop you. Start  sending people to your social-media lists then add the website as soon as you can.  When you are ready to  build your website and get online, be sure to grab your  2 free chapters of my ebook: The 1 eBook Solution: The 12 secrets to turning a single ebook into a 6-figure income online at www.1ebooksolution.com/2freechapters.htm to learn what options are available and how to do it right the first time so you don’t waste time, money, and energy! (Or, if  you’ve already got a website and you want to learn more about how to market on line go to www.1ebooksolution.com and pick up the ebook-it’s chock full of great information that will make your job a LOT easier!)

But the bottom line is: don’t wait! Get started today! The  sooner you start,  the sooner you will start selling your book. And if you get a book deal-great, but if you don’t, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a successful author anyway. And you never know when a publisher will come knocking on YOUR door when they see the phenomenal success you are achieving on your own!

Ellen Violette is a successful author and the CEO of Create A Splash, LLC. Her company teaches people to write their way to wealth through ebook writing and ebook/book/&Internet marketing. 

You can learn more at: www.theebookcoach.com