The Ebook Cavern Newsletter

The Ebook Cavern Newsletter for March 2008 is ready to download.

You can view the HTML version by Clicking Here.

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This month’s newsletter contains an ‘eBay Ebook Success’ article on driving traffic to your blog, the results of the first Ebay Ebook Poll, a free ebook and more.

I hope you enjoy the newsletter. Please leave a comment once you’ve had a chance to read the newsletter. I would really like to hear from you.

In my last few articles I discussed how to create your own blog. Blogs can be a great way to represent yourself and your eBay ebook business online. However, if nobody reads your blog then all the potential benefits are lost. In this article I discuss six creative methods you can use to drive traffic to your blog.

1) FEEDBURNER:- Feedburner is a free service that helps you create Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds for your blog. RSS feeds are basically a summary of your blogs latest posts. People can subscribe to these RSS feeds and read them using a special piece of RSS Reader software. Whilst I haven’t noticed any substantial traffic from Feedburner I do have some subscribers to my RSS feed. Plus, it’s free traffic so there’s nothing to lose by creating a feed and giving it a try.

2) SQUIDOO:- Squidoo is an interactive platform similar to a blog but not exactly the same. With squidoo you create a free page called a lens which consists of various modules. Each module contains a different element such as text, YouTube videos, eBay products etc. One of these modules is an RSS module. You can simply copy and paste your blogs RSS feed (created using Feedburner) into this module and hey presto, your latest blog posts will appear as part of your squidoo lens. If you want to see this in action check out The Ebook Cavern Newsletter section of The Ebook Cavern Squidoo Lens. Again, it’s free traffic so you have nothing to lose by creating your own squidoo lens.

3) TECHNORATI:- Technorati is a huge blog tracking service with over 100 million blogs registered as part of their network. You can register your blog with Technorati for free and once registered all your blog updates will appear on their network. If fellow Technorati users like your blog they can favourite it. Alternatively, if they like your post they can tag it. The more tags you get, the more authority your blog gets on the Technorati website.

4) BLOG CATALOG:- BlogCatalog is a huge social blog directory. To begin you register your blog in the relevant category and create a profile for yourself. Then you can browse through the blogs and add them to your favourites. Plus, you can add blog owners to your friends list write on their walls, send them messages etc. I’ve not had a chance to fully explore all the options provided by BlogCatalog but it has the potential to be an amazing promotional tool and a great way to network with owners of similar blogs.

5) SOCIAL MARKER:- Social Marker provides you with a simple method to submit your blog to many of the social bookmarking websites out there. Social bookmarking websites are basically websites that display articles, videos, blog posts etc submitted by users. If visitors to the site like the content that is submitted then it will receive a positive vote. If not it will receive a negative vote. The idea behind this is that the good content will receive prime positioning whilst poor content will be removed from the websites.

6) YOUTUBE:- Although I haven’t tried submitting a video to YouTube to promote The Ebook Cavern Newsletter, I have had some success using YouTube videos to promote one of my other blogs. If you can’t create your own video then consider paying someone to create a video for you. If you shop around you can get quite a good deal.

As you probably know blogs are a lot more flexible than traditional websites. As a result there are many more creative methods available to you when promoting your blog. Traditional promotional strategies such as article marketing are still effective but implementing these six creative methods can boost your blog traffic to new levels.

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About the Author:
Tom Parker is an eBay Ebook PowerSeller who has been selling ebooks and software on eBay for a number of years. He trades under the eBay ID: EbookCavern and runs The Ebook Cavern Ebay Store. If you want to learn Tom’s top eBay ebook tips subscribe to The Ebook Cavern Newsletter.

(You may reprint this article on your blog, ezine, newsletter or website providing the article remains unchanged and the ‘About the Author’ box is included and unchanged.)

In my previous articles I discussed things you need to consider before you begin blogging. Once you have considered these factors you should be ready to start your blog. However, there is one more critical factor - content. Where are you going to get your blog content from? What type of content are you going to provide? In this article I try to answer these questions by discussing seven sources of content for your blog.

1) SELF WRITTEN CONTENT:- When starting your blog you should definitely be consider writing your own content. Why? Because it is free and it also provides your blog with a dose of your own personality. You do not have to write every single post yourself because this can take a lot of time. However, there is no reason you cannot write an occasional article or product review for your blog.

2) EBAY LISTINGS:- Since your blog is a supplement for your eBay business it makes sense to highlight eBay listings on your blog. Do not fill it with all your eBay listings or your readers will quickly start to see your blog as one big advert. However, the occasional post about one of your eBay listings that you feel requires additional attention is fine. For example, maybe you have a new ebook out? Perhaps you have just listed an ebook in your eBay store which contains some really insightful information? Your readers are interested in ebooks too (that is why they are reading an eBay ebook blog), so they will want to read about some of your eBay ebooks. If done correctly, blogging about your eBay listings can improve the appearance of your blog and generate interest from your readers. Just make sure you do not overdo it.

3) ARTICLES FROM THE DIRECTORIES:- I have discussed in my previous articles how article directories can be a great sources of traffic. Well they can be a great source of free content too. Have a search through the article directories for articles on the topics you are looking to publish and then republish them. The only thing you have to make sure of is that you include the author’s resource box so that they receive the credit for writing the article.

4) PRIVATE LABEL RIGHTS (PLR) ARTICLES:- PLR articles are sold to a limited group of customers (let’s say 50). These 50 customers then have exclusive rights to use these articles for web content, email content, part of an ebook or whatever else they wish. PLR articles can be a great way to get content for your blog quickly. Although they usually cost a little money, they have an advantage over articles from the directories because of their limited distribution. Instead of publishing a directory article that has potentially been used by thousands of people, you can publish a relatively unique PLR article. Plus, you can make changes to the PLR article, giving it a unique spin for your blog.

5) OUTSOURCED ARTICLES:- If you are not happy with other people having the same PLR articles as you and you do not have the time to write your own unique articles, outsourced articles are an option. Simply, find a good writer (ask for a sample of their work before agreeing to purchase any articles) and then agree a fee per article. They will then write unique, relevant articles which you can post on your blog. The disadvantage with outsourced articles is that they will cost more than PLR articles.

6) EBOOKS:- As an eBay ebook seller you should have plenty of ebooks with resell rights and giveaway rights stashed away on your computer. Why not give some away on your blog? Your readers will really appreciate getting free ebooks that they can then go on to resell in their eBay stores.

7) YOUTUBE VIDEOS:- Interactive websites are becoming increasingly popular and YouTube is no exception. On YouTube you can find videos on almost every topic including selling ebooks on eBay. All the videos on YouTube contain code to embed the video, so all you have to do is copy and paste this code into a blog post and voila - you have video on your blog.

I hope these seven sources of content prove useful to you and your blog. Even if you are not running a blog related to eBay and ebooks, many of the ideas above can still be applied. Now that you have the sources you just need to take action. Start posting today and watch your blog grow.

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About the Author:
Tom Parker is an eBay Ebook PowerSeller who has been selling ebooks and software on eBay for a number of years. He trades under the eBay ID: EbookCavern and runs The Ebook Cavern Ebay Store. If you want to learn Tom’s top eBay ebook tips subscribe to The Ebook Cavern Newsletter.

(You may reprint this article on your blog, ezine, newsletter or website providing the article remains unchanged and the ‘About the Author’ box is included and unchanged.

Yes it’s that time of year again. People often use the new year as a basis for setting resolutions such as go to the gym more, lose weight, quit smoking etc. As an eBay ebook seller I find it very useful to use the new year as a time to reflect on my progress during the past year, see if I achieved all my targets and then set new targets for the year ahead. It is something you should consider too because it is a great way to focus on your eBay ebook business, identify the areas in which you are doing well and identify the areas which require improvement.

So looking back at last year’s article I set myself the following targets:

- TO INCREASE THE SIZE OF MY EBAY STORE AND TO KEEP TO MY TARGET OF UPDATING MY EBAY STORE AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH

- TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS ON MY MAILING LIST BY AT LEAST 350 SUBSCRIBERS:- I didn’t get an additional 350 subscribers but I came close. My list now contains over 600 subscribers.

- TO CREATE AT LEAST THREE MORE PREMIUM EBOOKS AND SELL THEM VIA EBAY AND MY WEBSITES:- No progress here. I still just have one premium product “How to set up a Successful, Automated Ebook Business on eBay”.

- TO INCREASE MY MONTHLY AFFILIATE EARNINGS:- Yes I have increased my affiliate earnings, largely through increased adsense earnings

- TO CREATE FURTHER RESELLABLE PRODUCTS TO PROMOTE MY EBAY STORE, WEBSITE AND PRODUCTS:- Yes again I have created further resellable ebooks although the majority of these are to promote a new website of mine, not my eBay store or existing websites

- TO BEGIN A GOOGLE ADWORDS CAMPAIGH FOR HOW TO SET UP A SUCCESSFUL, AUTOMATED EBOOK BUSINESS ON EBAY:- Yes I did experiment with Adwords using the advice in Perry Marshall’s Guide to Google Adwords but I found it was costing me a lot more than it was making me. Maybe I need to experiment more but at the moment I don’t have the funds to carry on with it.

So in summary I didn’t achieve everything I wanted to but I did achieve a good few of my targets. This is partially down to me not putting in the neccessary effort and partially because my targets changed during the year. As the year has gone on I’ve found that eBay has become increasingly competitive. As a result my returns from eBay have been declining. I decided that if I was going to be successful online I couldn’t rely solely on eBay and eBay related products. I needed to diversify.

In October I started a brand new website, blog and newsletter in a completely unrelated niche. Since then a lot of my efforts have been focussed on setting this up and generating traffic. I’m not going to reveal the website or blog address in this article because I want to see if I can make it successful without using my existing subscriber base. However, as you can see part of the reason I didn’t achieve all my targets is because my focus changed. A year is a long time and in that time it is likely that your goals will change whether it be a marginal change or a signficant change. I’m still going to continue with this newsletter and keep adding to my eBay store but it is not going to be my sole priority online. Overall, I’m pleased with my progress during the year. The only thing I’m dissapointed with is that I didn’t get more premium products out there.

So now that I’ve measured my progress I need to outline my targets for the year ahead. Since I now have a new website, blog and newsletter my targets will take these into account:

- TO INCREASE THE SIZE OF MY EBAY STORE AND UPDATE IT AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH:- Even though eBay isn’t going to be my only focus over the next year I do not want to neglect it. The best way to do this is through regular updates.

- TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS ON BOTH MY MAILING LISTS:- I still want to increase the size of this newsletter. However, I also want to increase the size of my new mailing list too.

- TO CREATE AND SELL MORE PREMIUM PRODUCTS:- I really want to get some more premium products out there. In particular there are plenty of opportunities for the creation of premium products for visitors to my new website, blog and newsletter.

- TO INCREASE MY MONTHLY AFFILIATE EARNINGS:- I have already increased my adsense earnings in the last few months as a result of my new blog. I want to continue to increase my adsense earnings during the coming year and also increase my earnings from other affiliate programs. My new website, blog and newsletter provide a lot of affiliate opportunities so this is a big one for me.

- TO CREATE FURTHER RESELLABLE EBOOKS TO PROMOTE MY VARIOUS WEBSITES:- I already have resellable ebooks out there to promote my eBay store and related websites, plus a few resellable ebooks out there to promote the new website, blog and newsletter. In the coming year I want to create even more.

- TO IMPROVE MY ARTICLE MARKETING EFFORTS:- In the last few months (pretty much since the creation of my new blog, website and newsletter) I have spent a lot of time reading up on article marketing. In particular I’ve been looking to improve the title of my articles and improve my resource boxes. Since I’ve done this I’ve really noticed an improvement in the traffic my articles have been generating. In the coming year I plan to improve my article marketing further and generate even more traffic.

- TO FOCUS ON SOCIAL BOOKMARKING:- I’d heard of social bookmarking before but never really tried it until a few weeks ago. Social bookmarking sites are basically sites you can submit your webpages, articles or blogs too. In particular they’re very useful for submitting blog posts. Once you have submitted to a social bookmarking site other people will see the post and if they like it they can vote on it. If your post proves popular you can get a large amount of traffic from these sites. I’ve posted a some of my blog posts from the new blog to various social bookmarking sites and really noticed the increase in traffic. My aim for the new year is to submit all my posts from all my blogs to the social bookmarking sites.

- TO SETUP SOME SQUIDOO LENSES:- Squidoo is another thing I hadn’t tried until a few weeks ago. Squidoo lenses are similar to blogs and have the potential to generate huge amounts of traffic. I plan to set up a squidoo lens for my eBay ebook store and newsletter plus one for my new blog, website and newsletter.

- TO UPDATE ALL MY BLOGS REGULARLY:- I have been keeping my new blog up to date but I have been neglecting this blog and The Ebook Cavern Reviews Blog. Therefore, I want to maintain the standard I have set with my new blog try to update my other blogs more regularly.

- TO GET THIS NEWSLETTER OUT ON TIME EVERY MONTH:- As regular subscribers to this newsletter will know I have had problems getting this newsletter out on time. However, with better organisation I know that I can get it out on time every month and that’s what I want to achieve for next year.

So there you have it. Quite a lot to keep me going for 2008. But what’s the relevance to you? If you haven’t set targets for your online business in the past nows the time to start. Think about what you have achieved online in the last year. What are you happy with? Where do you think you need to improve? Then use this as a basis for creating some of your own targets for 2008.

Another key point to take from this article is that the Internet is constantly evolving which means your targets are likely to change during the year. If you don’t revise them accordingly you will get left behind? When I started my eBay store I never thought that I would be running a newsletter or blog and I had never heard of article marketing or social bookmarking. I never thought that I would be diversifying from my eBay related business either but that’s exactly what’s happened. To be a long term success on the Internet you will have to keep up to date with these changes and set your targets accordingly.

The third thing you should take from this article is that it does not matter if you don’t achieve all your targets. By setting yourself targets and trying to achieve them you are doing more than most by taking action. Even though you may not achieve all your targets you will make progress during the year and ultimately that is what you want.

So what have you achieved in 2007? What are you going to achieve in 2008? If you don’t take the time to reflect you are unlikely to achieve your goals. Write down what you want from the coming year and 2008 could well prove prosperous for you.

In my last few articles I discussed how email lists can be used to complement your eBay ebook business. In my next series of articles I will be discuss how the platform of blogging can be used to help promote your eBay ebook business. In this particular article I am going to discuss what you need to consider before you start blogging.

As I have mentioned before a typical eBay ebook sale is usually a very simple process with no incentive for your customer to return. They purchase the ebook, they receive the ebook, they leave you positive feedback and then they go away to read the ebook. If you can extend this process and give your customers an incentive to return, then you have an increased chance of repeat custom and increased opportunities to build trust and build your brand.

Blogs are an excellent platform for this because they are easy to manage, interactive and a great way to keep your customers up to date with the latest goings on. If people enjoy what you are reading they will keep returning and from here you can direct them back to your eBay store. But what will you need to consider before you begin blogging?

1) Blogging Platform: eBay have recently started their own blog service allowing you to host your blog on their website. Blogger and WordPress are two other services which allow you to create a blog. There are many other services out there too. Ultimately, the choice is down to you. You will have to check out the services and decide on the one you like best. I personally prefer WordPress because you can host it on your own website and therefore maintain full control over the blog.

2) Blogging Subject: What will you be blogging about? Apart from keeping your customers up to date with news from your eBay ebook store you will have to offer them some value on your blog. Otherwise there is no reason for them to keep coming back. Maybe you could write some articles about eBay? Perhaps you could seek out free ebooks with resell rights and provide these to customers? Maybe you could provide discounts on your products to those who read your blog? Maybe you can post news stories to your blog that may affect your customers. There are many possibilities here. All you need to do is choose one.

3) Blogging Time: Although this isn’t the only success factor, the more you post the more successful your blog will be. You therefore need to consider how critical your blog is going to be to your eBay ebook business and allocate adequate time towards posting. If you are planning to heavily utilise your blog as a means of generating traffic then you really need to be making quality posts every other day. However, if you are using your blog as a more general source of news for customers less time will be required to maintain it.

Overall, blogging is a great way to keep your customers up to date, build trust, build a brand and generate repeat custom. A successful blog can also generate you lots of traffic from outside of eBay. Consider the above advice and then start blogging.

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About the Author:
Tom Parker is an eBay Ebook PowerSeller who has been selling ebooks and software on eBay for a number of years. He trades under the eBay ID: EbookCavern. If you want to learn Tom’s top eBay ebook tips subscribe to The Ebook Cavern Newsletter.

(You may reprint this article on your blog, ezine, newsletter or website providing the article remains unchanged and the ‘About the Author’ box is included and unchanged.)

In my last couple of articles I have discussed the topic of building a mailing list. In this article I will discuss why you, the eBay ebook seller, will require a mailing list.

To begin let’s look at the usual eBay ebook sale. The customer finds your auction or your eBay store. They like the look of the ebook you’re selling so they make the purchase. They may even add you or your eBay store to their favourites. However, after the initial purchase they don’t really have any incentive to go back, look at your other products and buy more. Sure some people will come back, some will make repeat purchases and some will keep checking for updates. However, the majority of customers will not return. They will have completed the transaction then your relationship with them is finished.

However, if you get that customer on your mailing list you have much more chance of them coming back and making a repeat purchase. Therefore, if you are not building a mailing list your are not maximising the value you can get from each customer. Below I have outlined a number of reasons why you should be building your email list:

1) Repeat Traffic:- Instead of customers visiting your eBay store just once you can now get them coming back again and again. If you’ve updated a product, re-designed your eBay store, created some new products etc then you can send an email out to your list and have your customers revisit your eBay store.

2) Repeat Custom:- Your customers have bought from you once. There’s no reason they will not buy from you again. If you’ve got a new product then coming out then you can send an email out to your list notifying your customers. In this email you can send your customers directly to the auction. Even better, give people who are on you’re list a special subscriber discount. The customer gains because they’re getting a great deal. You gain because you will get some repeat custom.

3) You can direct customers to items of Interest:- Your mailing list is not just a means of selling more to your customers. It’s also about building a relationship and being more interactive with them. For example, if eBay make any changes which will affect ebook sellers I can let you know through this email newsletter. Plus, I can also provide you with free ebooks - a task that would be difficult without a list.

4) You can build a Brand:- As I mentioned in the previous point your mailing list is not just a selling platform. It also allows you to build a relationship with your subscribers. If you provide customers with quality content and information that is relevant to them they will keep coming back. They will start to trust you and the strength of your brand will grow. With The Ebook Cavern Newsletter I try to provide you, the reader, with quality content that is related to selling ebooks on eBay. I hope that as a reader you trust me and keep coming back.

5) You can direct customers to areas outside of eBay:- What happens if I find something really useful for my readers but it’s outside of eBay? Maybe I’ve found a good source of resellable ebooks and I want to let you know about it. eBay auctions don’t let you link to websites outside of eBay. However, with a mailing list you can let your customers know. Again, this allows you to build a better relationship with your customers.

Hopefully, this article has helped you realise how selling ebooks on eBay and building a mailing list go hand in hand. All that you need to do now is take action and start building your list.

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About the Author:
Tom Parker is an eBay Ebook PowerSeller who has been selling ebooks and software on eBay for a number of years. He trades under the eBay ID: EbookCavern. If you want to know how he runs and automates his eBay ebook business visit: http://www.theebookcavern.co.uk/

(You may reprint this article on your blog, ezine, newsletter or website providing the article remains unchanged and the ‘About the Author’ box is included and unchanged.)

*****

If you enjoyed this article I highly recommend Lee McIntyre’s Mailing Lists Unleashed. In this ebook Lee outlines how he builds and maintains a profitable mailing list whilst cultivating a strong relationship with his subscribers.

*****

If you have been reading my previous articles then you’re probably aware that I believe that an email list is one of the most valuable tools you can have at your disposal when selling digital products online. In this article I outline how to get subscribers to sign up for your email list.

Before you start getting subscribers you first need a squeeze page. A squeeze page is a simple webpage with a short description and webform with the sole purpose of getting visitors to sign up for your newsletter. You can see an example of one of my squeeze pages by Clicking Here. Squeeze pages are quite easy to design. Just offer subscribers an incentive to join your newsletter which can include the newsletter itself, a product discount or a free ebook which they will receive once they have joined your newsletter. Then finish off the page with a webform they can use to subscribe to your newsletter That’s all there is to it.

Once you’ve got your squeeze page ready you’re ready to start recruiting subscribers. Below are five methods you can use to start doing just that:

1) Ebay About Me Page:- eBay do not allow you to place email sign up forms in your auction listings. However, at the time of writing this article, you are allowed to place a newsletter sign up form on your eBay About Me page. Plus, you can link to your eBay About Me page from your auction listings, so if you want you can place a little advert for your newsletter in each of your eBay auctions. This will then link to your eBay About Me page where visitors will see the form and hopefully subscribe. I personally place a link to my eBay About Me page in the majority of my auctions.

The message that links to your eBay About Me page will vary depending upon the topic of your newsletter. My newsletter is related to selling ebooks on eBay so the link I place in my auctions is as follows: “Want to know how I run this eBay store whilst automating 95% of the tasks? Then Click Here.” Obviously, you should adjust the message according to the topic of your newsletter.

For this method to be most effective your newsletter should be related to the products you sell on eBay. I sell ebooks on eBay so a newsletter related to this is what I provide. If you are selling protein powders a newsletter on building muscles would be more relevant. Alternatively, if you sell cooking supplies perhaps a recipes newsletter would be best.

2) Ebooks with Resell Rights:- If you create an ebook related to your newsletter and offer resell rights this is a fantastic way to add subscribers to your list. Simply write the ebook (or alter a PLR ebook) and make sure you have a few links to your squeeze page in the ebook. If the ebook is good and relevant to your list then people will want to join your list as a result of reading it.

The more copies you sell the more subscribers you will get. Plus, by offering resell rights you also increase the potential distribution of your ebook because people who read it may also go on to sell it. Simply put, the more people that read your ebook - the higher the number of potential subscribers.

3) Articles:- Like with ebooks, if you write a relevant article and then submit it to the article directories (http://www.ezinearticles.com/, http://www.goarticles.com/ etc) with a link to sign up for your newsletter in the author resource box, this is another valuable way to add subscribers to your list. For example, if you are running a recipes newsletter, submit a recipe to the article directories. In the author bio box have something alone the lines of “I offer many more great recipes through my newsletter which you can sign up for by Clicking Here.”

4) Blogging:- If you post each edition of your newsletter to your blog and also have a sign up form on the blog, this provides you with another option to gain subscribers to your list. You may be thinking why this would get you extra subscribers because current subscribers will have already read your newsletter won’t they? Well your blog will be picked up in the search engines also, by people searching for topics that you have written about in your newsletter. If these people who came through the search engines like your blog/newsletter they are likely to become a subscriber.

5) Encourage Subscribers to pass your Newsletter On:- Whether you are reading the HTML version or the PDF version of my newsletter you will notice that I encourage you to pass this newsletter on to others. As long as you include a webform or a link to your squeeze page somewhere in the newsletter this is another great way to get more subscribers to your email list. If people like your newsletter enough to pass it on then their friends are probably going to like it enough to subscribe.

So there you go - five ways to get subscribers to opt in to your email list. Now all you have to do is take some action and start building your list. It really is that simple. As long as you provide quality content to your list and don’t bombard them with sales messages this should be the start of a lasting, quality relationship with your customers.

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About the Author:
Tom Parker is an eBay Ebook PowerSeller who sells ebooks and software at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/theebookcavern. To receive free tips from Tom regarding selling ebooks on eBay and a free collection of ebooks sign up for his newsletter at http://www.theebookcavern.co.uk/newslettersignup/.

(You may reprint this article on your blog, ezine, newsletter or website providing the article remains unchanged and the ‘About the Author’ box is included and unchanged.)

When starting out online I found Internet Marketing terms very difficult to understand. The first time I heard of backlinks, fantastico and hits I didn’t have a clue. It all seemed like jargon to me. In this article I explain 26 must know Internet Marketing terms.

AD COPY:- This describes the actual information contained within your advert. If you write an eBay listing then the information it contains is your ad copy. Effective ad wording will in general lead to more sales.

BACKLINK:- Refers to links on other websites that link back to your website. For example, if I place a link on my website http://www.theebookcavern.co.uk/ to my other website http://www.theebookcavernreviews.co.uk/ then this is classed as a backlink. Increasing the number of backlinks to your website is one way to increase the popularity of your website in the search engines.

CAMPAIGN:- Usually refers to advertising campaigns. It describes all the work you are doing to advertise a particular site, service or product. For example, if you advertise via Adwords then this is an Adwords campaign, if you advertise to your newsletter subscribers via email then this is an email campaign.

DEDICATED HOSTING:- A type of hosting where your website is hosted on its own dedicated server. Dedicated hosting provides greater computing power and capacity than shared hosting but is also more expensive.

ECOURSE:- An email course. Usually a series of informational email lessons which aim to teach you a specific topic.

FANTASTICO:- A commercial script library which automatically installs web applications such as blogs and content carts on a website. Fantastico scripts are usually executed through the cpanel area of the website.

GIVE AWAY RIGHTS:- This is when you have the rights to give away the product for free. These rights are particularly useful when you want to offer a free bonus with your paid products or provide a free incentive for people who subscribe to your newsletter.

HITS:- A single hit is recorded each time a file request is made for one of your webpages, images or other files. For example, if a visitor loads one of your webpages with two images this would count as three hits.

IM:- An abbreviation of Internet Marketing. Internet Marketing is simply the process of marketing products or services online to make money.

JAVASCRIPT:- Another type of coding/scripting language that can be used to ‘write’ webpages. Javascript was originally developed by Netscape. It can interact with HTML code allowing web authors to add dynamic content to their website.

KEYWORDS:- Words or phrases that you are trying to target and work with for a given advert, article, website or product. For example, if you are selling a chicken recipes ebook then keywords could include “cooking chicken”, “chicken sauce” etc. The use of keywords is particularly important when trying to generate search engine traffic, as these are the words people will type into search engines to find your article, product, website etc.

LANDING PAGE:- Landing pages are used by affiliates. A landing page is the page in between your advert or article for a merchant product. A review of a product containing an affiliate link to that product would be an example of a landing page.

MAILING LIST:- A list of people who have opted in to receive emails from you and/or your company. A good way to organise your mailing list is through the third party service Aweber which I use myself. Possible uses for a mailing list include sending out an ezine, sending out product details or conducting research.

NEWBIES:- This refers to those who are new to something and in the context of Internet Marketing it refers to people who are new to Internet Marketing.

OPTIN:- This is when someone has opted to be part of your mailing list. Most newsletters now require double optin where someone first opts to be part of your mailing list through a form and then confirms their optin (double optin) by clicking a link in an email that is automatically sent to them after filling out the form. Double optin allows you to comply with many of the rules governing junk email but also allows you to be sure that the optin has an active email address.

PAGE LOADS:- The number of times your webpage has been loaded. It is a popular way of counting people that visit your site but it is not as good as Unique Visitor Count.

RECIPROCAL LINKS:- The process of exchanging links with another website. For example, if I agreed to place a link to http://www.abc.com/ from my website http://www.theebookcavern.co.uk/ and in exchange they placed a link back to my website, then this would be a reciprocal link.

SALES COPY:- This is very similar to Ad Copy. It describes the information written on your sales page. For example, I sell “How to set up a Successful, Automated Ebook Business on eBay” at http://www.theebookcavern.co.uk/. The writing on the sales page is my sales copy.

TEMPLATE:- Refers to a pre-designed webpage which comes with all the relevant text and images. All that is required is for you to fill in the blanks with your own text. For example, all my resellable ebooks (including this one) come with a pre-designed sales page that contains all the relevant text and graphics. All you have to do is perform any edits that you wish.

UNIQUE VISITORS:- A method of measuring traffic to your website which records the number of unique IP addresses that visit your website. For example, if you get 100 visitors to your website each day and 50 of these are from unique IP addresses, then you are getting 50 unique visitors per day.

VIRAL MARKETING:- A method of marketing which relies on people sharing the information you provide to them so that it can reach as wider audience as possible. The name originates from the term ’spreads like a virus’ because your aim is for your marketing efforts to spread across the Internet like a virus. So if you provide some information to 2 people, they pass it on to 2 more people each, then those 4 pass the information on to 2 more people each, your information will soon begin to spread across the Internet. An example of viral marketing is the resellable ebooks in my eBay store. Whilst they provide valuable information to the reader they are also a great promotional tool for me, because the reader will associate the ebooks with The Ebook Cavern.

WORDPRESS:- A popular website and script that is used for blogging (writing and managing your blog). Wordpress blogs allow you to add pages to your blog as well as posts. Check out http://www.wordpress.org/ for more information.

ZWORKS:- A meta search engine located at http://www.zworks.com/.

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About the Author:
Tom Parker is the author of Internet Marketing: A-Z which explains 101 must know Internet Marketing terms. To get a copy visit http://stores.ebay.co.uk/theebookcavern. To receive free tips from Tom regarding selling ebooks on eBay and a free collection of ebooks sign up for his newsletter at http://www.theebookcavern.co.uk/newslettersignup/.

(You may reprint this article on your blog, ezine, newsletter or website providing the article remains unchanged and the ‘About the Author’ box is included and unchanged.)

If you have been reading my previous articles then you’re probably aware that I believe that an email list is one of the most valuable tools you can have at your disposal when selling digital products online. In fact, the majority of texts that cover selling online will agree with this point. Therefore, I’ve decided to base my next few articles on the subject of building an email list.

Now before you start building an email list there are a number of things you need to consider. Some of these are points that I personally considered before starting my email list. Others are factors I just wish I had considered before starting my email list. However, now that I have the benefit of hindsight I’ve collated a list of top tips to consider before starting your own email list:

1) Type of Autoresponder:- Before you start building an email list you need an autoresponder program to store all your email addresses. There are two types of autoresponder; Self Hosted (you host the autoresponder software yourself) and Third Party (you pay a monthly subscription fee to a company who will take care of your autoresponder for you).

Now I’m no expert on the subject but I have read that although Self Hosted solutions are cheaper (once you have purchased the software that’s all you have to pay), people often run into problems somewhere down the line. These problems include emails going straight into customers SPAM folders, emails not being delivered etc.

Although a Third Party solution is an ongoing expense, I feel this expense is justified. Third Party autoresponders usually provide very reliable email delivery rates, keep backups of your customer email lists and most importantly keep up to date with all the related legislation. If a new piece of legislation is introduced which you are unaware of and you are using a Self Hosted autoresponder you could potentially violate this legislation, landing yourself in very hot water. With a Third Party autoresponder, issues such as this are their responsibility and not yours. I personally use and recommend the third party autoresponder Aweber.

2) Number of Lists:- When I started The Ebook Cavern Newsletter I simply had all leads from all my websites subscribe to the same list. However, then I began to think that people who subscribe to my list after reading one of my reviews may not be be interested in the same topics as subscribers who came from my eBay About Me page. Therefore, I sat down, considered the different interests of my customers and then created different specific lists to match their interests e.g. an eBay list, a reviews list etc. Now when a lead subscribes they are added to a specific list depending on the website they subscribed from e.g. leads from my eBay About Me Page are subscribed to my eBay list. Every subscriber is also added to a main list.

By doing this I am now better equipped to cater to my customer needs. I can offer eBay leads free ebooks with resell rights and eBay offers, whilst offering leads from my reviews website free product reviews. If I want to communicate with all my subscribers then I have the option to do this by sending an email to my main list.

Although you don’t need to consider the number of the lists from the start I find it certainly helps. If you organise your lists in this way from the beginning you have a very good idea of what you’re different customer segments want and you can focus your marketing efforts accordingly.

3) Communication with your List:- Once you have decided upon your autoresponder program and the number of lists you will be operating, you need to consider how you will be communicating with your leads. Are you going to send out a regular email newsletter? Are you going to send out a combination of free ebooks and promotional offers? Are you simply going to offer product discounts to your list? These are important questions which you need to consider and then make a final decision.

My personal opinion is that a regular newsletter is the best way to keep subscribers up to date with what’s going on. In between each newsletter I send out offers which I believe would be of interest to my list. However, this is a very subjective topic and the final decision is down to you.

4) Incentive to Join:- In most cases you need to offer subscribers to your email list an incentive to join. This can include; a free digital product, a free newsletter or product discounts. It is wise to consider the incentive before you start your email list so that it is relevant. You don’t want to offer a free ebook on gardening if you are building a list in the health and fitness niche. Similarly, product discounts may only be a good incentive in certain niches. You therefore need to think carefully about the best incentive to fit your niche.

I personally believe the best incentive is a unique product (such as an ebook) that you have personally created. Offering a unique, self created product to your leads provides you with a great opportunity to demonstrate your expertise. If it’s a good quality product your leads will trust you and be more willing to buy from you. Furthermore, if subscribers pass on this unique product to other people it can act as a valuable promotional tool for you.

5) Newsletter Format:- If you are going to be sending out an email newsletter to your subscribers you really need to consider the newsletter format. You can deliver your newsletter as a plain text email, deliver it as a PDF file, post it on a webpage, post it on a blog or even have an audio/video newsletter. You need to make this decision before you start your email list so that all the relevant issues (including newsletter creation and newsletter hosting) are sorted prior to your newsletter’s launch.

I personally host my newsletter as a WordPress blog. I post each newsletter to the blog in both a HTML and PDF version. Prior to this I hosted my newsletter on a website. I made the decision to change to a blog because it is so much easier to organise and it allows readers to interact by posting comments on the blog. Changing from a website to a blog took me quite a lot of time which I could have saved IF I had considered WordPress blogs from the beginning. Therefore, I highly recommend you make the decision about your newsletter format at before you send your first newsletter.

Like with many online activities, preparation is key. Follow the five steps and you will have everything in place to launch your first email list.

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About the Author:
Tom Parker is an eBay Ebook PowerSeller who sells ebooks and software at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/theebookcavern. To receive free tips from Tom regarding selling ebooks on eBay and a free collection of ebooks sign up for his newsletter at http://www.theebookcavern.co.uk/newslettersignup/.

(You may reprint this article on your blog, ezine, newsletter or website providing the article remains unchanged and the ‘About the Author’ box is included and unchanged.)

I finally got there. In the July 2007 edition of The Ebook Cavern Newsletter I discuss how I would go about promoting my newly created ebook in 12 simple steps.

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In my last few articles I’ve been discussing creating your own ebooks. In this article, as requested by one of the subscribers to this newsletter, I’m going to explain how I would promote a newly created ebook, step-by-step:

1) Get a Mailing List:- I know everyone seems to be harping on about the importance of getting a mailing list. My opinion is - “If you want to sell digital products online you HAVE to get a mailing list together”. This is the first thing I would do when promoting my new ebook. If you don’t yet have a mailing list then head over to Aweber and sign up.

After this you need to start getting subscribers on your list. This is a topic far too detailed to be covered in this article, but here’s a basic summary of how to do it. First, you need to create a page with a web form allowing people to sign up for your newsletter (this is called a squeeze page). On this squeeze page you need to offer something of value that is related to what you are trying to sell. It could be a free report or a free chapter from your newly created ebook. If you want to get an idea of what a squeeze page should look like you can take a look at one of mine by Clicking Here.

Once you have your squeeze page you then need to get traffic to this page using promotional methods including; article submission, Google Adwords, etc, all of which I outline later in this article. You also need to make sure that you offer your subscribers regular, free, quality content so that they trust you and also so that they know you provide good material that is worth paying for.

I would recommend you get a mailing list before you launch your product so that you have a list of subscribers ready for the product launch. Anyway, as I said before this is not an article on list building. Above is a VERY basic summary and I would suggest you do further research into this area. However, the point still stands that you need to get a mailing list if you want to launch a product online.

2) Offer the Ebook to your Mailing List First:- Before launching your ebook to the general market, first offer it to your subscribers. This offer should be an exclusive offer that will not be available when the ebook is launched to the general market. For example, the ebook could be heavily discounted or you could include free additional content which will only be available to newsletter subscribers.

Make sure that the offer is time sensitive and not repeated. If the offer never ends or it’s repeated then it’s not really an offer at all. By introducing a time limit and not repeating the offer your subscribers really are getting an exclusive deal.

3) Release the Ebook to the General Market:- Once the time limit for the subscriber offer has expired you can release your ebook to everyone. I would recommend you set up a website to sell your ebook and list the ebook in your eBay store. Again if you don’t have all of the above you’re going to need them. I use 1and1 for my websites and you can get an eBay store by Clicking Here.

4) Write some Articles:- The topic of these articles will be dependent upon your ebook subject. Sticking with the theme of weight loss I mentioned earlier you could perhaps write articles such as; ‘10 Foods that will Burn More Calories’ or ‘15 Easy Exercise Tips’. Whatever the topic, make sure the articles contain quality content but at the same time do not give away the entire contents of your ebook.

5) Send an Article to your Mailing List at Regular Intervals:- Once the articles are written you want to be sending them out to your subscriber list on a weekly, bi-weekly or monthly basis. This provides your subscribers with free quality content. In between messages make subscribers aware that your ebook is available for purchase. Using the weight loss theme again you could perhaps send an email a few days after one of these articles saying; “I hope you found the recent article on ‘10 Foods that will Burn More Calories’ useful. In my ebook ‘Wonderful Weight Loss’ I discuss even more foods that increase the rate at which calories burn and include a full diet plan.”

6) Alter the Article Slightly and Submit to Article Directories:- You need to alter the article because the way you address subscribers will be different to a proper article. Once amended submit the article to relevant article directories including http://www.ezinearticles.com/ and http://www.goarticles.com/. Then in the author bio box include a message that promotes your ebook. Sticking with the weight loss example you could use; “Bob has studied weight loss for a number of years and has come up with the ultimate weight loss plan. If you want to check out the full details of ‘Wonderful Weight Loss’ visit…”

7) Set up a Blog and Post your Articles:- You can set up your own blog for free at http://www.blogger.com/ or http://www.wordpress.org/. Once set up, alter your articles slightly and then post them to your blog with a link back to your ebook sales page.

Make Regular, Valuable Contributions at Relevant Forums:- With this tip I am not advocating that you SPAM any forums. However, many forums allow you to have a signature which links back to your website. If you make your signature link back to your ebook sales page and answer relevant questions then you are likely to get a few clicks from potential customers. For example, if someone is asking which foods help burn calories then you could use information from your article to post an answer.

9) Submit your Sales Page to the Search Engines:- Submitting to the search engines is free so it’s definitely worth doing. Your sales page will get indexed eventually but manual submission speeds up the process. You can submit your page to Google by Clicking Here.

10) Sell your Ebook through ClickBank:- ClickBank is one of the Internet’s largest digital product retailers so you really want to have your product selling here also. By selling through ClickBank your ebook is listed in the ClickBank marketplace and affiliates can promote your product for a commission that you determine. You can sign up for ClickBank by Clicking Here.

11) Start a Google Adwords Campaign:- Like mailing lists Google Adwords is a topic that is beyond the scope of this article. However, when you do it right the results can be great. If you are thinking about doing a Google Adwords campaign I would personally recommend reading Perry Marshall’s The Definitive Guide to Google Adwords which I have reviewed at http://www.theebookcavernreviews.co.uk/.

12) Repeat Steps 4-11:- It’s important that you are constantly promoting your ebook and the best way to do this is repeat what is already working. Keep writing new articles & distributing them, keep building your mailing list & stay in contact with your subscribers and keep contributing to relevant forums.

So that is how I would go about promoting a newly created ebook. I would also be promoting my eBay store (which contains a listing for this newly created ebook) using my About Me page, eBay Reviews & Guides and more but overall the above is what I would do step-by-step.

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About the Author:
Tom Parker is an eBay Ebook PowerSeller who sells ebooks and software at http://stores.ebay.co.uk/theebookcavern. To receive free tips from Tom regarding selling ebooks on eBay and a free collection of ebooks sign up for his newsletter at http://newsletter.theebookcavern.co.uk/.

(You may reprint this article on your blog, ezine, newsletter or website providing the article remains unchanged and the ‘About the Author’ box is included and unchanged.)

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If you enjoyed the above article and want more information on promoting your digital product you might want to read Lee McIntyre’s Auction Profits Unleashed. In this ebook Lee outlines how he promotes his premium digital products using eBay traffic.

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