Get a presence on the web

First things first. You’ll need some web space for your book. You can either pay a host or you can get free hosting service. I recommend you pay (for an inexpensive web host at least), and I’ll tell you why.

There are many providers of free web pages, and a quick Google on “free web hosting” will illustrate that to the tune of page after page of providers.  However, some of the services are unreliable, have annoying popups or other advertising, or have strict requirements on what you can and can’t sell.

If you want something for nothing though, a good starting point is your own Internet Service Provider (ISP). Some ISPs, such as AOL, MSN, EarthLink, or RoadRunner may provide free web space as part of your monthly subscription. What they do not provide free is a domain name for your web site, such as www.yourEbook.com.

Likewise, other free web hosting services do not allow you to use your own domain name. Besides the annoying ads and rules, the domain name issue is a huge reason not to use free hosts. If you want to be professional and maximize sales, you will need your own domain, and not www.somecompany.com/withdistractingadvertising/yougetwhatyoupayfor.

Tip: Even with the big ISPs, free hosting is not an ideal for you. It’s just not that effective to have a site called www.personal/internetserviceprovider.com/home.html.

You can purchase a domain name to match the title of your ebook or the name of your business easily through any cheap yet secure service. This should not cost you more than $10 per year, so don’t pay more than that. Some fee-based web-site hosts will register your domain name for you as part of their pricing. Remember your domain name is one of the most important steps of your web presence, if you need help choosing the right domain name, Web Name Consultants are the best.

I recommend paying for web hosting service. First of all, it’s pretty cheap these days. You can get your own web page with tracking features for around $10 – $20 per month. You’ll get enough space to store a library full of your own ebooks if you wish. And you can use your own domain name.

Rather than list all the possible web hosting services you might use, We highly recommend E-Hosting they cater to the internet marketing types  CLICH HERE to see E-Hosting.

And if and when you add more ebooks to your library, then you should consider using forwarding services as necessary so that you can direct traffic to your best ebook-selling site.

Think about how a virus spreads from on person to another. One person gets sick and just by sneezing they can give the virus to many more people… those people get sick and share their germs with everyone they know and the next thing anybody knows is that there is an epidemic. That is the very concept of viral marketing. The idea is to get everyone to spread your marketing message around because they want to.

Now let’s look at using an E-book to start your viral marketing campaign. First you create an E-book… a really good one that has links to your website, to your sales page and affiliate links to products and services that you recommend… and you give it to three people. In the book you encourage those three people to give it to their friends and family.

Before you know it the E-book is spreading across the Internet like wild fire. Digital information duplicates easily and quickly so before you know it, thousands of people could be reading your free E-book.

Make certain that you let people know that they have permission to forward the E-book around the Internet. When you create the E-book, you have the right to give people certain rights. One of those rights could be that you allow them to give the book to other people. Make it clear that this book is free to give away.

You can write the E-book yourself, use private label content or you can hire a ghostwriter to prepare the content. There are a lot of ways to create an E-book. Once you have your E-book written, use software to create your E-book.

The marketing E-book is a slightly different animal from just an E-book. Marketing E-books contain text, images, links to web pages and navigation controls. The marketing E-book has become a very important part of marketing on the Internet.

With a marketing E-book you can present your story in an effective way and include links to your web sales pages. Your E-book can become your best salesman.

First, your E-book needs to be interesting and informative. It always has links back to your web site and to your sales page.

Next, be sure that you have a prominent section telling readers that they are free to give your E-book away. Let them know that they can post it on their site as a free download, that they can use it as a bonus, and that they can bundle it with other products. This is the way to create viral marketing for your products or services. Remember those links back to your site contained in the E-book?

Last but certainly not least before you send your E-book out to the world, double check spelling and grammar and be sure that you have tested every link to verify that it goes where it is supposed to go. Obvious errors will reflect badly on you and will not be of much value to you, it could even by damaging.

Post your E-book to some of the E-book directories. Many let you post it for free, or will let you post a link on their site to your E-book.

This is the basic principle that was used by Hotmail to get established. When the two founders set up their free email system, all the messages that were sent by subscribers had a text message at the bottom which identified Hotmail as the origin. People who sent emails to their friends advertised the free email site.

Using viral E-books as a marketing method is cheap. It doesn’t take long to set up and it’s even quicker if you use rebrandable E-books that have been written by others. Just use your favorite search engine and do a web search. You will find many rebrandable E-books that are available on whatever subject you are interested in and that apply to your e-business. One method of distributing the E-book is to offer it to visitors in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter. If they pass it on to their friends and family it will promote your business for you.

E-books are capable of reaching a large audience and are limited only by the enthusiasm of the participants.

E-books are fairly easy to create. It’s possible to produce your own E-books by combining articles that you have written or have gotten from public domain sources, such as directories.

A common approach is to use material that has Private Label Rights, including articles and reports that have been written specifically for that purpose, for that niche. Using a portion of a larger work that you have prepared such as the first three chapters of a large E-book could also be used as a viral E-book.

1.    E-books are cheap to produce and don’t take long to set up. If you have articles that you have already written about the subject you are promoting, you can simply combine these articles into an E-book.  If, on the other hand, writing isn’t your forte, you can use rebrandable E-books that have been produced by others.  Just use your favorite search engine and do a web search for “rebrandable E-books”.  You will get a lot of hits and have many to choose from.  One way to distribute these E-books to visitors to your website is to give them as a free gift for subscribing to your newsletter. If your E-book contains material that people will want to share with their friends and family, they will pass it along to them… they will pass it along to others…and you will make money.

2.    E-books are capable of reaching a large audience.  The only limiting factor is the enthusiasm or the participants.  Therefore, it is absolutely vital that your E-book contain something that people will want to share like timely information or humor.  Remember that people like to know something that the rest of the world needs to know. They will pass along something that makes them look like they are in-the-know.

3.    E-books are a way to sell other products other than the one you originally targeted.  For example; if you are selling garden products, your customers could also be interesting in E-books about lawns, trees landscaping, etc.

4.    E-books are effective in building your reputation. It is an implied recommendation if you give a quality E-book and users willing pass on to others.

1.    Identify your key words in each chapter of your E-book. Now, type those words into your favorite search engine. You are looking for free E-books on the same subject in more depth, by a greater expert than you are, or by someone who gives a new and fresh angle to the topic. Add a link to the free E-book in each chapter of your E-book.

2.    Research the Internet for related free gifts. Now you are looking for things that you could give as free gifts in your E-book that will make it more appealing and give it more pass-along appeal to your readers. For example: If you are selling gardening supplies, find a planting guide on the web that can be downloaded and include that as a gift in your E-book.

3.    Download the freebies. Visit the freebies pages on those web sites. Most sites have freebies and encourage you to distribute them.

Other key words I searched for are freebies, free E-books, and free reports and then gave the key word that I wanted the free stuff for. Like… “freebies for gardeners”.

Give your reader the vest that you can offer. Give them your book, additional reading material and free gifts to boot. Everybody loves a bargain!

Using the latest electronics. We are a society obsessed with having the latest and greatest technology. Do an ebook on iPods, email/camera cell phones, wireless Internet, digital TV, or any combination of these items.

Home improvement. There’s so much of a craze in this area that do-it-yourself (DIY) stores are on every corner of major cities. If you haven’t been to a Home Depot or Lowe’s lately, then you are one of the few. Sure, apartment dwellers and young students aren’t in this market, but people with homes and money to afford them are in this market. In fact, some cable TV services offer entire channels dedicated to home improvement.

Especially of current interest are in-home automation systems. DIY home improvers are eager to learn about and buy things that will make their home lives more relaxing, high-tech, or fun. Create a book to teach them how to make their lights come on for them before they get home from their jobs, or how to press a button to adjust window blinds, music, or temperature. Or how Bill Gates’ house works. Or how to add automation to an existing home, or how to build-in automation when a house is constructed.

Identity theft prevention. Especially because ebooks are marketed on the Internet, this is a great topic. This is because people who purchase over the Internet are concerned that their credit card numbers will not be seen by others or misused in any way. Even away from the computer though, consumers are on-edge about identity theft. Today, people are shredding their receipts, removing their personal information from the face of their checks, and cautiously covering themselves when they type in passwords at public terminals or ATMs. Microchips are being installed on ID cards. People are worried. Tap into this with an ebook!

Safety. Along the same lines as worrying about identity theft, people are worried about their safety from other things like crime, chemical warfare attack, and natural disasters. Watch the evening news tonight, and you will be able to list at least twenty things that people are afraid of. When you talk about safety, you are speaking their language. Titles along the lines of be prepared for any natural disaster would go over well, as would those like never be a crime victim again, how to defend yourself in a parking lot, or prevent sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).

How-to manuals for any new product recently on the market. This harks back to the Dummies series but takes it one step further. Target your ebook to people who want to buy the most current commercially available item. How to use the new model John Deere tractor. You will be sure that no one else has a book like yours, and you can say so in your sales pitch.

How to survive any phase of life. People face numerous demons and battles as they live their lives. For many, when they’re in need, they’ll be reaching out for help. Support groups, private therapy, being with friends, starting over – these are all solid topics for an ebook. You could also reach out specifically to certain people needing emotional assistance. How to get through the terrible two’s. How to cope with a cancer diagnosis. Living with your own shortcomings. How to live with someone who is dying. Surviving high school. Any of these will do.

Anything to do with pets. People are pampering their pets more than ever before. Some pets are treated better than people. It’s the people who spend small fortunes on their pets that will also be willing to pay good money for an ebook that gives them ideas on how to treat their animals even more royally than they already do.

Write books on how to pamper your parakeet, homemade meals for picky dogs, where the pet spas are, how to train your kids to be cat-friendly, million dollar homes for mutts, which animals make the best pets, or pet psychology.

Traveling mixed with the subjects above. Not only are people traveling like crazy, but they want to customize their itineraries and their methods of travel with their hobbies and lifestyles. Try a few of these on for size: where to dine around the globe and still stay on a low-carb diet plan. Hotels with the best exercise facilities. How to travel exquisitely with large dogs. Crime-proof your campsite. Be creative. There’s a market here.

You can outsource more than just rote writing to a ghostwriter. In fact, ghostwriters can be hired to research your topic fully on the Internet or elsewhere. They can then translate your or their research into organized sections and create palatable, conversational paragraphs for your readers. They can interview people that you designate or that they seek out for the ebook.

They can separate the ebook-worthy material from non-ebook-worthy material for inclusion with an eye on what readers are interested in and what you have hired them to write about. In other words, good ghostwriters will stay on the topic as they write and not veer off into irrelevant tangents. It’s actually an art form in itself to be able to insert quips and images that are designed to hold a reader’s interest while quickly and smoothly getting back on track to deliver the information promised by the title and table of contents.

Speaking of the table of contents, an experienced ghostwriter can review rough notes from you and propose a title and table of contents. Ghostwriters can start from notes, organize the material into an outline, generate a table of contents, research and add filling text, make boring information flow like an entertaining conversation, and more. They can basically start with whatever you’ve got to start with and get you from there to a completed ebook.

If you have already tried your hand at preparing an ebook, a ghostwriter can whip your existing draft ebook into sell-able shape. She can review the content, make suggestions, do necessary research, add new sections, repair grammar, or revise any not-quite-perfect portions of the ebook. In fact, it has been known to happen sometimes that one ghostwriter will be hired to edit another ghostwriter’s work. This may be done in a case where you are not satisfied with the result from the first ghostwriter, or can also be done if you just want to polish your product – going on the two heads are better than one philosophy.

She can use a writing style and language that is appropriate for the book. Should it be in first person like this ebook is? Or perhaps it would work better in third person like many reference books are written. Should it be written from a female or male perspective? Ghostwriters will accommodate your preferences, and if you don’t know your preferences, ghostwriters can help you make those decisions.

She can put the ebook into the format that you choose. If you want your pages to appear the size of regular notebook paper (about 8 ½ inches by 11 inches), then the writer can prepare the manuscript to fit. If you like large margins, where the text appears in-between in a narrower column, the ghostwriter can do that. Narrow column ebooks are popular, and easy on the eyes. If you like a blank page preceding chapters, ask for that. For items such as page dimensions, font, and layout, she can make recommendations. She can also, in most cases, provide you the electronic file type that you prefer (MS Word, WordPerfect, Adobe Acrobat, Internet html, or other), or make suggestions to you on format.

Finally, good ghostwriters can write quickly. Ghostwriters cannot perform miracles, but it’s not unheard of to get an ebook done in 30 days when you need it fast. Depending on your need and schedule, you can usually find some who will work even more quickly. It’s nice to allow six weeks, but not necessary.

You can sit back while your ebook is being written

All you need to do is give the ghostwriter the information and he can get straight to work. You may provide any level of detail on your title or topic, your notions (if any) on how the topic should be covered, and any other relevant information. Most of the communication can take place by email, and that keeps things pretty simple and also well-documented. You may, if you prefer, talk by phone or use regular mail. It’s not common or necessary to meet face to face with your writer to get her rolling on your project. This is because ebooks tend to be on tighter schedules and lower budgets than ghostwritten bookstore books. It will save time, money, and any confusion, if you try to use email and the Internet as your primary tools to communicate with your writer.

Ghostwriters are invaluable resources. Time is money, and you want to spend your time elsewhere (marketing, thinking of new ideas, relaxing at the beach), ghostwriting is definitely the way to go. The general advantages are that outsourcing the actual writing of the book is not too expensive, commonly done (it’s legal and writers are available to provide the service), and you can direct your energy somewhere else while the book is being written. In the end you’ll still own the written words, and can do whatever you want with them. Indeed you can even edit and revise them yourself! Next, I’ll talk about finding those available ebook ghostwriters and touch also on pricing.

When you hire for a writer for your ebook, what you are doing is enlisting the services of a ghostwriter. A ghostwriter is a writer who publishes under someone else’s name, with the consent of both parties.

Traditionally, ghostwriters have been and are still today hired by celebrities to write autobiographies when the celebrities are not talented writers. Ghostwriters also sometimes create works for well-known authors, such as Tom Clancy. This practice is done for business reasons, because the author’s name alone will sell the books, no matter who actually wrote them.

Ghostwriters may also write for book series’ that don’t actually have a real-person author. An example of a series written this way is the Hardy Boys series you may remember from your youth. The Hardy Boys cover author, Franklin W. Dixon, does not actually exist. Many romance novel series’ have also been created in this way, where the author name on the cover represents any number or variety of commissioned writers.

With the advent of the Internet and ebooks, today, ghostwriters also write ebooks. When you outsource your ebook to a ghostwriter, you are giving them the job of creating the words in your ebook in exchange for a fee. You still get to put your own author name on the finished product. Ultimately you will own the copyright, and you can sell the ebook as many times as you like. If it sounds like a pretty nice arrangement, it is. It’s all completely legal and commonly done. And you do not have to be a celebrity or Tom Clancy to hire one.

Great things about ghostwriters

Just because a ghostwriter does the writing does not mean that you do not deserve to be the credited author. You will be the originator of the idea, and provide direction to the ghostwriter, so that the written material reflects what you want it to say. You may also create a pen name for yourself if you wish your real name to remain anonymous to casual readers.

Once you hand off the reins to a ghostwriter to prepare an ebook for you, you may never go back and try to write one yourself ever again. A ghostwriter can do so many things for you, from researching to editing. And any writer knows that the process of writing and polishing a book or an ebook takes a significant amount of time. Much more than most readers will ever know. Start-to-finish writing is a large task best left to those who love their jobs, who are willing to spend the time writing and re-writing incessantly until things are just right, and who has talent and experience in the craft.

The web page for your ebook should contain a sales letter that is immediately visible. In fact, your web page really doesn’t need to contain much else, unless you choose to use additional pages for other uses.

Here are the components of a great sales letter.

1. a catchy headline.
2. a list of amazing benefits for the reader. Tell visitors what problems your ebook solves or how it will improve their lives.
3. testimonials. Quotes from people who have read the book or from people who know you and are willing to write something great about you for your site.
4. a guarantee.
5. a link to a sample chapter.
6. a link to purchase the ebook.
7. the price. Going rates are $5.95 to $19.95.
8. about four pages in length.
9. a narrow page with wide margins for easy reading.

10. dark text on a white or light-colored background, for easy reading.

Tip: Get testimonials early in the game by offering your ebook free to those who will in exchange, give you a one or two sentence testimonial.