Article Marketing and Your Info Product

I woke up early this morning to do some research on article marketing. Like all my projects, I plan my research using a set of aims and objectives. This saves time and stops me wandering off at a tangent as I surf the net for information.

My research starting point this morning was the various article directories I use to submit my own articles. Article directories house a wealth of information on every subject imaginable so it was only natural to start my research here.

Although the articles posted on free directories are fairly limited in scope and sometimes quality, they do, nonetheless, contain references to other sources of information. It is these references that prove the most valuable when it comes to building knowledge around a chosen subject. However, that is not what I want to write about today.

Most of the articles I read on article marketing this morning were absolutely appalling. Yes, they contained reference material, but the articles themselves were so poorly written I had to ask the question: why were they ever published in the first place?

One article in particular, promoting the services of ‘a web content writer’, was so poorly written that I had to stop reading it before I threw up over my laptop. (Barfing at four in the morning is something that family would not have appreciated.)

I am certainly no purest when it comes to writing and I do make mistakes, as we all do. However, proof reading and a good spell checker eliminates a majority of errors in my work. If only the author of the article in question had used the same tools, they might have received more work from content hungry webmasters. And this is the point I want to make.

A majority of info product writers spend an inordinate amount of time and energy producing a first class product only to throw all their hard work down the drain with a poorly planned, written and executed article marketing campaign. Why?

As info product creators, we owe it to ourselves and our product to produce an article marketing campaign that builds credibility around the material or services we want others to buy. You don’t have to be a writing expert to produce a good article marketing campaign. You just need to apply a little thought and effort to the process of planning and producing articles that people will want to read. Here are some useful tips for producing a good article marketing campaign.

1. Plan your campaign. The five ‘P’s apply here. PRIOR PLANNING PREVENTS POOR PERFORMANCE.

2. Research your subject before you begin writing. Your articles should be written from a foundation of knowledge. Don’t write garbage. Always remember that you are trying to build credibility for yourself and your info product.

3. Produce articles that are fresh and unique. Don’t rewrite PLR articles or use article generating software. It’s your voice the audience wants to hear, not the nonsensical sound of a word mincing machine.

4. Quality is better than quantity. Some article marketers suggest writing 50 to 100 articles at the beginning of each campaign. This is nonsense. Think about it for a moment. If you write 50 articles at 500 words each, then you will need to write 25,000 words for each campaign. That’s the equivalent of a novella, and probably more than the total number of words it took you to produce your info product. It is better to write 10 to 15 really good quality articles in the initial stages of your campaign. Then simply add to that number as your campaign gathers momentum.

5. Don’t submit the same article to multiple directories. Most search engines employ filters to sift out duplicate content. You will simply be wasting your time submitting the same article to multiple directories.

6. Don’t use article submission software to submit your articles. Submit them manually, selecting only the top ten directories in your chosen niche.

7. Proof read your articles before submitting them to an article directory. A poorly written article will destroy the image of your info product and call into question your credibility as an authority in your chosen niche.

8. Monitor the progress of each article. Check to see how many people have viewed your article. Readers sometimes leave comments. Read them. Reader comments will provide you with valuable insight into how your article marketing campaign is going.

Article marketing takes time, patience and effort. Planned, written and implemented correctly, your article marketing campaign will generate genuine interest in your info product and build your credibility as an authority in your chosen niche.

Writing E-books: Living Memory as a Source of Information

In previous articles I have discussed the importance of utilizing one’s own knowledge as a means of choosing a topic for your e-book. However, personal knowledge of a particular subject, while it might be extensive, should always be supplemented by additional research.

Additional research not only enhances the quality of our work, it also adds another dimension to our writing. For example, about twenty years ago I was researching material for a book that I was planning to write. The title of the book was called ‘Truth, Justice and the Fallen Woman’. The book was based on the true story of Charlotte Bryant, a woman convicted of murdering her husband Fredrick. Charlotte was eventually hanged after a trial marked by controversial and misleading evidence presented by the crown prosecution.

The idea behind the book was to highlight the real possibility that Charlotte was not only a victim of a miscarriage of justice but also a victim of extreme social prejudice. This meant that I would have to do extensive research into the murder and into the evidence presented by the prosecution and defence counsels at Charlotte’s trial.

At the time I began my research the Internet was barely in its infancy and access was not as easy as it is today. I was therefore dependent on my local library and various newspaper cuttings for sources of information. Although the information gleaned from these sources was useful, it was also very limited in scope because of its sterile and seemingly detached nature. In essences, these sources didn’t give me Charlotte’s full story from a humanitarian perspective.

As Fredrick’s murder and Charlotte’s subsequent conviction was an event that took place in the small community in which I lived, I decided to ask members of the local population who were old enough to recall what had happened to Charlotte and her family. Many of the people I questioned about Charlotte were getting on in age, but thankfully they were able to recall the scandal that brought so much attention to our small community all those years ago.

One of the people I asked about Charlotte was an aging gentleman who was well into his late seventies. He remembered Charlotte and her family very clearly and had even kept paper clippings from her trial. The information imparted by this old gentleman proved invaluable, as it allowed me to pursue alternative avenues of research which I hadn’t previously thought about. One such avenue of research was related to Fredrick Bryant’s employment.

Fredrick died of severe arsenic poisoning, which the prosecution claimed had been administered to him by his wife, Charlotte. However, what was not mentioned at Charlotte’s trial was the fact that Fredrick was a farm worker and as such was regularly exposed to various pesticides containing arsenic.

Thanks to the aging old gentleman’s recollections of Charlotte and her family, I was able follow a line of research which uncovered evidence which suggested that Fredrick may have inadvertently poisoned himself.

Resorting to living memory as a starting point for my research into Charlotte’s conviction uncovered a wealth of information that was not readily available through other channels when I first started Truth, Justice and the Fallen Woman. Although the book has yet to be published, I am convinced that living memory will play an important role in how Truth, Justice and the Fallen Woman will be received by its readers. It is my sincere hope that the end product will raise questions about the soundness of Charlotte’s conviction, which in turn might lead to a judicial review of her case, albeit posthumously.

If you are into writing about recent historical events, then living memory may prove to be a useful tool to you in your search for information. You might be surprised at how much firsthand knowledge is stored in the minds of those who have actually lived through the events that you plan to write about.

Note: ‘Truth, Justice and the Fallen Woman’ will be available in e-book form in March 2011.

The Advantages and Disadvantages of Writing E-books for Profit

There is a multitude of online opportunities open to the wannabe e-entrepreneur. From building membership websites, selling products on e-bay, blogging, publishing your own e-books and affiliate marketing, it is all a question of choosing the right opportunity that matches your demeanor and interest.

Perhaps the most open of all the opportunities available to wannabe e-entrepreneurs is the world of e-book writing and publishing. If you are passionate about a particular topic and you can write about it with some authority, then writing and publishing e-books might just be for you.

Writing and publishing your own e-books has several advantages over other areas of Internet marketing. The most notable of these advantages is the control that you have over the revenues you receive on the sale of your e-book product. In most cases you will be able to keep 100% of the profit.

E-books also have a sense of immediacy about them, which makes them the ideal e-commerce product for Internet marketing. Buyers of e-books can download their chosen e-book within seconds of paying for it, thus satisfying their need for instant gratification.

The other advantage of e-book authorship is the relatively low cost of production and distribution. Once written, you can reproduce and sell unlimited copies of your e-book at no further cost to yourself or your business.

Moreover, unlike affiliate marketing, you do not need a blog or a website to host or promote youre-book product. You can simply upload your e-book to an e-book publishing platform/host.

E-book publishing platforms are the Internet’s equivalent of a book store. Visitors can browse e-books much in the same way visitors browse books at the local bookstore.

E-book publishing platforms handle the payment transactions related to the sale of your e-book. When your total sales reach a certain threshold, say $100, you get paid. E-book publishing platforms normally charge a 20% handling fee for the use of their facilities.

Reliable statistics on how much e-book authors actually make from writing and publishing e-books are relatively hard to come by. But if you write your own e-book and sell one hundred copies of your work for $10 each, you do not need to be Einstein to know that $1000 is a sizable chunk of pocket change. Considering your e-book might have only taken you a day or perhaps even a week to write, $1000 is not a bad return on your effort.

The downside to writing e-books is the fact that the Internet is awash with e-book publications. These publications vary in size and quality but they are all, nonetheless, vying for the same dollars as your e-book. Your problem as an e-book author is one of differentiation. You need to differentiate your e-book offering from the rest of the market.

The key to differentiating your e-book from the rest of the market rests on your ability to identify a niche that is not saturated by competitors. So be prepared to do market research before you dive into your e-book writing project. Market research will save you time and energy and will help you to produce a better e-book product.

In the final analysis, whatever your e-book niche, you should always bear in mind that it is the quality of your product that will deliver on going sales. There is no point in having good sales copy if your e-book does not live up to the hype. E-book buyers can be extremely fickle. If they feel short changed by your initial e-book offering, then they are unlikely to buy your next publication.

If you want to learn more about how to succeed as an e-book author, then click on the following link: http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=63918

Why People Fail to Make Money from E-books

There are many reasons why people fail at writing and publishing e-books. But most of those reasons are related to the individual’s disposition rather than any problems associated with the e-book publishing industry.

First, most individuals entering the e-book publishing industry do so without fully understanding what it is they want to achieve.

Second, developing an e-book publishing business takes time and energy. Impatience is probably the biggest contributing factor towards people giving up on e-book writing and publishing as a possible source of income.

If you decide to become an e-book author/publisher, then be prepared for a lot of hard work over a long period of time. Even though there are no guarantees that your efforts will be successful, determination and hard work will swing the odds in your favor.

Third, becoming an e-book author/publisher is about learning the tools of the trade
The world of e-book publishing is very different to the one most of us encounter at the shopping mall where glitzy packaging entices us to buy the book. The Internet does not have that touchy feely experience about it most of us have become accustomed to when we go shopping. On the contrary, e-book publishing requires you to get your message across in a sincere and direct way that convinces prospective customers to purchase your e-book offering.

Learning about what works or does not work in the world of e-book publishing is imperative to your success as an e-book author/publisher. And the best way to learn about what works or does not work is to use the tried and tested methods employed by the more successful and experienced members of the e-book industry. Taking note of what the professionals do will give you a solid base of knowledge from which you can develop your own ideas.

Fourth, choosing the right e-book niche is vitally important if you are to succeed as an e-book author/publisher. You do not want to enter a market already saturated by competitors. You are a newbie and will soon become overwhelmed by the size of the competition. Survey the e-book landscape before you take the plunge. Choose something that matches your talent and your demeanor. Market research will prevent you from making the wrong, and perhaps costly, decisions.