Make More Money From Your Ideas

"The ebooks that I have read/bought/had seem to be quite thick with good ideas and I doubt that I have enough information to put into them. So how can I ensure that I am giving value for money (even if they are free) so that I expand my list?"

Ask your customers, clients and readers for their most important questions, challenges, problems and issues. Then answer them in your products. That's the best way to ensure you're giving value.

Labels: e-books, free products, providing value, survey

"Do subscribers to free newsletters actually purchase products and courses through the websites they subscribe to?"

Yes, I know this is true, because it happens with my own newsletter. The key is to always provide value. Follow the rule that every message you send provides at least 80% valuable information and at most 20% advertising. And if you do advertise, make the advertisement related to the information you provided.

Labels: e-mail newsletter, providing value

"I am trying to encourage more people to subscribe to my newsletter. I would like to offer a free report to everyone who subscribes through the website. The report would be "7 easy ways to improve xxx" or some such."

A free report is an excellent idea. I suggest using the opposite psychology - e.g. "7 dumb things that people do to wreck xxx... and how to avoid them". I think you'll get more responses that way.

Also consider some of these ideas:

• Offer an incentive for people to refer others - e.g. another free e-book. I do this with my newsletter.
  
• Consider giving away the reprint rights to the e-book, like I do with my "Seven Fatal Mistakes" e-book. That allows people to distribute it to their own network, which brings more people to your site.
  
• List your e-book on Web sites that list e-books (Search Google for ebook directories). This is a good reason for calling it an e-book rather than a report.
  
• Submit your articles to other Web sites, including a short bio at the bottom, including a Web site link. This is time-consuming, but probably has the best chance of success. Search Google for article directories - this will give you suitable places to submit your articles.
  

Labels: e-mail newsletter, free products, providing value

"How do I create awesome 'subject headlines' that make people WANT to open my message & not send it straight to their Recycle Bin?"

The simple (but unpopular) answer is: Write consistently good information, so that when people see that the e-mail is from you, they will open it. They are more likely to take action based on you rather than your headline.

The reason I say this is unpopular is that many Internet marketers think there's some magic secret that they can use to compel people to take action. Not so. That might have been the case in the past, but Internet users are getting smarter now. Build a relationship with your readers, based on delivering consistently high value.

If you're still keen on writing great headlines, get Make More Sales, which includes an e-book with 350 of the world's best headlines.

Labels: copywriting, e-mail newsletter, providing value

"Actually I'd like to know how these people get to rip off others by charging money for viewing their website ... and im not talking about charging on porn websites ... simple websites ... how do they do it? and is it legal? i shouldnt have to pay extra money for viewing a simple website..."

This is a good question. Although I disagree with your point of view, I'm glad you have raised this issue.

If you're talking about a government Web site, then yes, you could argue that your taxes are already paying for the site and you shouldn't have to pay extra. But in other cases, why shouldn't the Web site owner charge a fee?

The fact is that information does have value. If there's a market willing to pay money for it, and it isn't readily available elsewhere, then it can have a price. For example, I teach people how to write and sell electronic books, which have no printing cost, no design costs and low distribution costs. Yet they can command a higher price than a printed book. Why? Because somebody is willing to pay money for that information, and they believe it's a worthwhile expense.

Labels: providing value

"How do I turn seminar material that is primarily experiential (the participants have an 'Aha!' breakthrough as a result of the training) and turn that into an information product?"

Give them a different experience.

This is also true of many high-energy keynote speakers whose presentation is as much a performance experience as an educational experience. This usually doesn't translate directly into a product. It's hard to generate the same experience in an audio or video recording.

Instead, your products could be based on the core material you present rather than the training itself. For example, Matt Church has created a high-energy keynote presentation "Fix How You Feel". But his products (books and CD) are based on the content behind the keynote, not the content of the keynote.

Labels: product creation, providing value

"Selling product at my trainings and presentations - how do I do it without sounding like I'm heavily pitching?"

First change your mindset. Are you so good that you can give people everything they require in a single session? No - they absolutely require on-going materials and support. By having products for sale, you are being helpful, not pushy.

Of course, you have to make sure that your presentation doesn't turn into a blatant sales pitch. As long as you deliver high-value information and don't hold anything back from your live audience, that should be safe. And if you're already delivering high-quality presentations, don't change them! Just add the products as an additional resource.

Labels: providing value, selling from the platform

"I think that my speech is not developed enough to record it."

I think you're confusing two things here. Your speech is definitely good enough to record - I mean, you just buy a recorder and a microphone and record it!

But I think you mean that it isn't good enough to record and create an audio product. And you may be right. But that shouldn't stop you from recording it, getting it transcribed, and then using that material for articles, newsletters, special reports, an e-book or a book. You might be surprised how much valuable material is already there, even if it does require some editing and polishing.

Labels: providing value, selling from the platform

"How do I make money from a website that is primarily a search engine / information resource for a specific industry?"

Become an affiliate.

What this means is that you look around for people selling products in that industry, and check whether they have an "affiliate program". If they do, it means that they pay you a commission for every sale that comes from you referring somebody to them. Sign up for the affiliate program and you'll get a special link to use on your Web site. When you refer people to their site, use this link.

The only catch is that you really should buy the products first, so that you ensure that you're referring people to high-quality products. This means that it could be a high initial investment to buy and evaluate all these products.

Labels: affiliate marketing, providing value

"How do I create something that is different from all the other products on the same topic?"

Well, my first question is ... Why? Why is it so important to be different?

If you're just doing it for the intellectual exercise of having something unique, fair enough. But otherwise, being different isn't all it's cracked up to be.

For example, do you go to your favourite restaurant because the food is different from all the other restaurants in the world? Do you shop at your local supermarket because they stock items that are different from any other supermarket? Do you go to your doctor because she gives different advice from every other doctor?

Now you might have answered "Yes" to some of those questions. But I bet you that the reasons are not due to the uniqueness of the product. In my case, my choices are due to the friendly staff at the restaurant, the convenience of the supermarket and the fact that he's my family doctor.

You do not have to be different from every other product on the market. What's more important is to offer real value to your customer/client. The definition of value will vary for different customers - it could be price, convenience, service, ease of use, loyalty, promptness, reliability, whatever. Find out what matters to your customers and clients, and focus on that, not on being different.

Labels: providing value

"We've created an e-book, but how do you go about selling it, both electronically and physically?"

This is a big question.

To begin with, much of the process is exactly the same as selling anything else. In other words, you have to have the right product for the right customer at the right price. If you're selling to a non-responsive market, or your product doesn't have value in the customer's eyes, or they can get it at a better price elsewhere, you're already fighting a losing battle.

So, assuming that you do have the right customer, product and price, you then have to convince them of the value of buying it. Make sure you can answer these questions:

• What problem does this e-book solve?
• Is it a big enough problem for them?
• Does this e-book really solve this problem?
• Why should they buy from you?
• Why should they buy it now?

There is, of course, a lot more to know about writing profitable e-books, but this is a good start.

Labels: e-books, providing value

"Are e-books typically priced higher than printed books or booklets? My tips booklet is priced at £5 but I've converted it to an e-book and thinking of seling it for £7 - is that about right or way off?"

Here's the simple answer: Pricing depends on the value you offer; the more value you offer, the higher the price you can charge.

There are a number of ways of demonstrating the value of your e-book - e.g.

• Showing them how much money they can make from it
• Offering a money-back guarantee
• Adding relevant bonus products to boost the value

Here's a video that demonstrates the money-back guarantee idea.

The other thing to remember is that if you charge a low price, it's easier to get people to buy it, but you require more customers! So if your marketing is great, you can afford to charge a lower price.

Pricing is just one of the factors in writing profitable e-books, but it definitely is important.

Labels: e-books, pricing, providing value

"My question is how to work out whether it would be worth putting all the time and effort into creating a particular product. I work within a fairly small target market, and have no idea whether or not they would bother to buy or read the sorts of things I am thinking of producing. They are busy people and tend to put all their time into money-making activities and their reading is mostly in their specialist area. I know you will say I need to do some research, but I am not even sure how to start this - what questions to ask. People can say that they would buy certain things or that they have certain problems but still they might not actually buy."

The good thing about people who spend all their time in money-making activities is that they are interested in making money! So, in some ways, it's easier to convince them to buy your stuff than to convince other people.

The real question is whether you have something of enough value to them.

I've fallen into the trap of writing e-books that I thought the market would buy, only to find that they are not interested.

So my suggestion is to write a brief but high-value e-book and offer it to them free, but get their name and e-mail address in return. If they take up the free offer, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will buy, but at least you have some idea that you're on the right track. But if you find that they don't even take up your free offer, it's an early warning signal!

What should go in your e-book? Stuff that's of high value to the reader, but also promotes yourself and your services. This is exactly the thinking behind my own free e-book, so download that as an example.

Labels: market research, providing value

"How do I convert a small list of people who do not join or buy anything into a list that does both?"

First, convince them to join your list. You have to offer them something of value regularly in order to convince them to join your list and stay on it.

If your group is skeptical, make sure that you keep offering them lots and lots of value - at no charge - until they begin to trust you.

Then you can offer them products for sale. But do it gently! I recommend the 80/20 rule in all your mailing list communication: At least 80% free value, at most 20% advertising.

Good luck!

Labels: e-mail newsletter, providing value