Students Of Success

Even though I’ve never met you, I know one thing about you. You are an expert.

Don’t shake your head and smile that shy, self-deprecating smile. Modesty is not the name of the game here. This is about identifying your expertise, owning it, and parlaying it into money.

How can I be so sure you’re an expert? Easy. Everyone is.

Think about it. It’s impossible for any of us to go through life without developing a high level of competence in at least one area, and probably more than one. What is yours?

Maybe you cook amazing Mexican food. Maybe you convinced your two-year-old to sleep in his own bed. Maybe you make your own clothes, and could show someone else how to do it, too.

Maybe you recently bought a sound system, but first you spent months comparing products and features. Maybe you can do ten basic repairs on your car, or your bike. Maybe you know everything there is to know about Pink Floyd.

No matter what your area of expertise, there are people out there who want to learn what you already know. And tens of thousands of them are surfing the Internet, right now, looking for you.

Despite early belief that the Internet was going to be all about shopping, recent marketing reports show that most people go online for one reason: information. Information products are the hottest products on the Internet today. Increasingly, this information is delivered in the form of e-books.

All right, I saw you wince. Writing a book takes years, doesn’t it? Well, writing the Great American Novel might take a while, but writing an e-book is very different. Electronic books are a form unto themselves, written with a different goal than printed books.

With e-books, the sole objective is to transmit information. Visitors to the Internet want to locate information, get access to it, read it and absorb it – quickly. They don’t care about a beautiful cover, or the heft and feel of the paper and binding, or how a book looks on a shelf. They want information, succinctly presented.

An e-book must be only as long as it needs to be, to transmit the information. Many e-books are thirty pages of 16-point type, but each page is packed with the information the reader wants, and nothing else. A good e-book is a quick, enjoyable read.

After you write your e-book, publishing and selling it are much simpler than you may imagine. The Internet marketplace is responding to the demand for information with an array of resources for the e-book publisher.

You can take the text from your word processing program and put it into a PDF file such as Adobe Acrobat, or you can use one of the web-based publishing programs. The whole process can be completed in less than half an hour.

You don’t need your own website to sell your e-book. There are a number of sites that, in return for a percentage of the sales price, will display your e-book and allow buyers to pay by credit card and download their purchase immediately. Some of these sites have affiliate programs, so that website owners who believe your book might be of interest to their visitors can also offer it for sale. In those cases, you share a percentage of the sales price with the affiliate.

What you do need is a good sales letter. In fact, I’d suggest that you learn the basics of writing a good sales letter and put as much effort into that as you do into writing the e-book. The sales letter introduces the potential buyer to the book, and is displayed on the sales site.

You can also develop affiliate sellers yourself, by offering your book through websites you identify. For example, if you are an expert golfer, and you’ve written a book describing your techniques, approach the owner of golf or sports-related sites. Many of these sites offer a newsletter to their visitors, and might want to feature your book in their e-zine.

So there you have it. Identify your area of expertise, spend a week or two putting it down on paper, format it, write your sales letter, and put it up for sale. Then spend five or ten hours each week marketing it. When those monthly checks start rolling in, you might decide to get to work on book number two!

2003 - 2005 (c) Jillian Coleman Wheeler

Jillian Coleman Wheeler is a Grants and Business Consultant. Her website, http://www.GrantMeRich.com, is a resource site for entrepreneurs, grant writers and consultants, and offers online training for grants consultants. She is also author of The New American Land Rush: How to Buy Real Estate with Government Money. For information: http://www.NewAmericanLandRush.com You may reprint this article, if you credit the author and include this
resource box.  Please notify the author of publication information:  jillian@grantmerich.com

Wouldn’t it be INCREDIBLE to be financially FREE?
To be flexible enough to live out your heart’s desire? Achieve
this by starting your own online business, selling informational
products.

Why do you want to sell Informational Products? Because it is
easy and free or low in cost to create your IDEA into an
informational product for example: an e-Book, like this article;
a Video product or an Audio product, from the comfort of your
own home by using a word processor.

Imagine working once on creating an ASSET that will work
for you from then on, generating money constantly. How do you
create such an informational product? Look into your heart and
discover your own interests and hobbies. Use these to formulate
the idea on what you are going to create your informational
product on, and then choose an interesting topic. Do your
research and find out what other people are talking about in
forums, discussion groups, or on the news and find a common
problem that these people have relating to the theme of the
topic you choose.

Now it is time to find a solution to this problem, by any means
of research for example, read other articles and evaluate them,
take a course on the topic and use this research of yours to
create an informational product which you can now sell to this
group of people, solving their problem. You are guaranteed to
have them come back running as soon as they experience another
problem on the same topic, instantly creating opportunities for
sequels you’ll love making for them because you have the same
interests at heart.

Anything is possible as long as you believe in yourself and take
action today to become Financially Free.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article and wishing
you all the best of luck.

Dirk Kotze

The act of selling an eBook can be a profitable experience. When one considers the relatively inexpensive nature of eBooks with resell rights and the ways by which cheap eBay auctions can be constructed, the selling of eBooks at auction can be a wonderful means of creating revenue.

However, it is a mistake to look at a completed eBook transaction as the end of the potential profits. EBooks can be sold in a manner that produces a lingering value for the seller simply via the inclusion of affiliate links either within the eBook or as part of the delivery of the eBook.

Affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to generate an online income. It works quite simply. If someone purchases a product after using your uniquely coded link to get to the sales page, you receive a commission on the sale. Many companies and product manufacturers offer affiliate programs and all eBook sellers should take a close look at their potential.

For instance, if you are selling an eBook about widgets, you may want to consider joining an affiliate program offered by someone in the business of selling widgets. Along with the eBook you have sold, you can include a mailing that includes some additional widget information. This might just be an email to the buyer included with the eBook. It could even be offered in the form of a free “special report” offered along with the eBook.

Regardless of the format, this additional communication would include a link back to your affiliate partner. If your customer decides to make a purchase via the links you provide, you will then receive additional revenue in the form of a sales commission.

Affiliate commissions can be quite high and even if your efforts produce very few conversions, it can still be a profitable exercise and a great way to increase the potential value of the eBook transaction to the seller.

If you are selling an eBook you have self-authored, or one that came with private label rights allowing for full editing and customization, you can include affiliate links within the eBook itself. This is a powerful technique for driving qualified traffic to affiliate sites that can really help improve your bottom line.

One does, of course, risk transforming the sale of an informational product into mere advertisement by overusing affiliate links. This should be avoided, as it generally decreases the likelihood of affiliate sales and also creates a lower perceived value for the eBook itself.

However, judicious use of affiliate links is a great way by which an eBook seller can add an additional profit dimension to the products he or she is selling on eBay. Selling eBooks can, in and of itself, generate some eye-opening profits, but by using affiliate measures one can really supercharge their potential earnings after the eBook sale is already made!

John Thornhill trades on eBay under the username planetsms. For more advice on how to succeed on eBay with information products visit http://www.planetsms.co.uk

Reading has not yet gone out of style. In fact, millions of
people around the globe count reading as their number one way to
relax, learn new things, and share ideas with others in
discussion forums or book clubs. Most of us have a few books
lying around the house, whether they be children’s picture
stories or a well-worn dictionary. But where do you go to find a
good read when you want something new or different? Sure, you
can visit the library if you can remember that two-week return
date. If you want to purchase the latest bestseller or audio
book, though, check out some of the premier bookstore sites that
you can find online.

At Addall Book Search and Price Comparison
(http://www.amazon.com/), you can quickly find a certain book
you’ve heard about and want to read. The site will help you
locate new and used books, audio books, and a variety of topics
in print. You can even find out on which country’s currency the
book is priced. With more than 40 sites offering your choice
among millions of publications, you can spend hours searching
for a particular title or author, or just a few minutes placing
your order.

Another helpful book search site is Discount Search
(http://www.discount-search.com/cat/37) where you simply click
on the “Books” link that is located on the home page. From
Harlequin to academic textbooks, you can link to top booksellers
with huge selections and competitive pricing. With a few finger
clicks you can quickly locate the books you want or browse new
titles that catch your interest. You also can find useful
supplies like bookmarks, stationery, and theme mugs to augment
your personal reading time at home or while taking a break at
the office. Your book order can be quickly shipped to save time
and money when you avoid fighting traffic, fueling the car, and
waiting in checkout lines.

If you don’t like to read, now is the time to take up this
meaningful hobby. Research shows that people who stretch their
minds with ideas and language often manage to keep Alzheimer’s
Disease at bay longer than those who idle their time away. Books
help to make you an interesting person when you talk with
others. They expose readers to a plethora of perspectives and
issues. A book can become your best friend for life, one you
will want to return to now and then to get reacquainted once
more. Studies show that young children from birth and up can
benefit from being read to by, and later, from learning how to
enjoy reading on their own. Their language, problem solving, and
comprehension scores tend to be higher than those of
non-readers, and their overall grades are better, too.

So why not shop for one of the exciting new titles that is
available online when you visit sites like those mentioned
above? Your entire view of life will be impacted–count on it!