My brother and I have had our difficulties over the years. We were never super close. I'm six years older, so when he was graduating grammar school I was going away to college and we didn't have a lot in common.

But over the years I tried really hard. One year the Dodgers were playing the Oakland A's for the world series while I was at UC Berkeley. My brother and one of our cousins came up and stayed with me and we had a blast.

But then he drifted away like he always did. It got better after he got married and had twins because my husband and I lived with my mom and dad at that point ,and we were the chief baby sitters along with my mom. But after my parents both passed away it got even harder, although I have managed to get us together occasionally for holidays.

Recently he got on Facebook - I've been trying to get him to go online for the past 4 years to no avail. He's a celebrity in his field - he's a jockey agent and he gives great horseracing analysis. But I haven't been able to get him to go online and turn it into a business.

So whereas before I wouldn't have a clue what he was doing for months at a time, now I know when he goes bowling with his friends, what big race he just won, his thoughts about life and the afterlife and so much more!

And he's been busy. I've now been enlisted into the Cheviot Hills Group- that's a group of people from the neighborhood I grew up in, talking about local events and people we all knew growing up, and also another one called "I went to Alexander Hamilton High School." I'm learning way more than I want to know, like what teacher from high school just died!

But I'm thrilled to be using this social networking not just for business, but also to connect with my brother in a way that wasn't possible before! Now maybe I'll finally be able to convince him to use it to start making some money!

(Is there someone you want to connect with? Try getting them to use Facebook! Life is too short to lose touch with those you love)

Ellen Violette
www.theebookcoach.com
www.quickstart3day.com
www.quickstartebooks.com
www.virtualebookexpocd.com/1
www.ebookwritingsecrets.com
www.sellmoreebooks.com
and many more!

Teleseminars & Workshops

Feature Article

3 Affiliate Marketing Mistakes
You Don't Want To Make!

1.  Thinking you have to have a lot of people on your list before you start an affiliate program. You never know when you are going to get a really great affiliate who makes you wads of cash! It may be the first person on your list or the twentieth or the 1,000th. You just never know. So if you don't start your affiliate program right away, you just might miss hooking up with an incredible affiliate and leave a lot of money on the table!

I think there are two main reasons people don't get started right away.

• One is they don't want to spend money on setting up an affiliate program before they are making money. But the problem with this thinking is that when you have affiliates, you can make a lot more money than without them. So if it costs you $49 a month for an affiliate program and you have a $97 product (which could easily be a notebook and a cd) and you make $48.50 per sale; you get your money back with just one sale per month! And double your profits with 2! And even if you don't make a single sale right away, it's a small price to pay to be able to start getting affiliates.
  
  (And remember if you started a brick and mortar business it would cost you thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars to start your business and every active potential affiliate you lose could cost you thousands in lost revenue over time!)
  

• The second reason people don't start an affiliate program right away is they think they aren't ready. But if you are online, have something to sell, and have an ecommerce solution (shopping cart, affiliate program, and autoresponders) you are ready! If you aren't ready, I suggest getting your ecommerce set up TODAY and get ready. I use http://snipurl.com/splashmarketing and I've used it from day 1! And whether you use this program or something else, don't wait; get started now so you can exponentially grow your business with affiliates!

2. Waiting until you have all of your affiliate tools in place. If you have a live workshop, all you need is a merchant account and an ecommerce package which you can get all in one at: http://snipurl.com/splashmarketing as I mentioned, or you can just get the affiliate program at http://snipurl.com/splashmarketing  and get the autoresponders at: http://sn.im/smartautoresponders in which case you will also need a shopping cart (an inexpensive way to get started is http://snipurl.com/checkoutcart, and a couple of emails for your affiliates to send out.

(This assumes you already have a website. If not, you can start one at www.blogger.com for free in 5 minutes or hire a webperson to create one on www.wordpress.org which is free.)

If you start with a digital product you will need emails and ezine ads at a minimum. Banners, videos, podcasts, and any other materials can be added with time. However, the more you have, the better to attract superstar affiliates. (I would also suggest using articles, blog posts, and press releases)

3.  Not becoming an affiliate of programs you believe in that will benefit your potential buyers and put cash in your pockets! One of the things I often hear my subscribers say is they can’t hire a VA because they don’t have the money, or they can’t get an ebook cover because it’s too expensive (and do I know of one that is cheap). 

Becoming an affiliate is a great way to help cover the expenses of getting your business off the ground! And it can be as easy as sharing with colleagues and friends a great experience you had either from using the product yourself or with the person who is selling the product or service. Or just getting the affiliate materials provided by the seller and putting them on your blog or other sites at NO COST to you. So it’s pure profit! 

And if you’re looking for a great opportunity to promote a great a product with a $500 commission, consider signing up as an affiliate for The Quick-Start 3-Day eBook Authoring Workshop (it’s a teleseminar format online.)  Go to: www.theebookcoach.com/affiliates.htm 

If you missed: Answers To The 7 Most Burning Questions About Affiliate Marketing, you can still order this content-rich download and transcript for just $27
www.theebookcoach.com/7affanswers.html

Reader's Q&A

Q:  Since I'll be saving my ebook as a PDF, does it really matter what kind of software program I write it in?  I have MS Word, but would prefer to just write and produce it in my Mac desktop publishing software (Pagemaker.)  Once it's all set, I'd just save it as a PDF.  Do you see any problem with that?

A. No, there is no problem with that. It doesn't matter what program you use, you can still save it as a PDF.

Q: Can I repurpose the book I published last month and while selling it for $18, still sell an ebook that is excerpted from the book, for $47? Wouldn’t it make more sense to sell the ebook  (which is really at most 1/10 to ¼ of my print book) for $7, not $47. I could sell more for less money, no?

A.  There are a couple of ways to approach this situation. You could sell your ebook for $47 if you got some very valuable and relevant bonuses to go with it that you don't get with the book.  Or you could sell it for $7 as a downsell to those people who don't buy your book.  Or you could offer it for $7 and when they go to buy, ask them if they'd also like the book/or would they like the whole book instead for just $18 and give them the download for free while they are waiting for their book to arrive in the mail. You could also offer the book online and when they purchase, ask them if they'd also like the ebook for just a few dollars more so they get something right now.  This is what Amazon does.

Please submit your questions to http://snipurl.com/askellen