Tag: style=”font-size: 12px;”>public speaking
How can we make our Advertising as Effective as Possible.
The answer is to test. Test again. And then test some more. If ad ìAî receives a two percent response rate, and ad ìBî receives three percent, then we can deduce that ad ìBî will continue to outperform ad ìAî on a larger scale.
Testing takes time, however, and can be expensive if not kept in check. Therefore, itís ideal to start with some proven tested known ideas and work from there.
For example, if testing has shown for decades or more that targeted advertising significantly outperforms untargeted advertising (and it does), then we can start with that assumption and go from there.
If we know based on test results that crafting an ad that speaks directly to an individual performs better than addressing the masses (again, it does), then it makes little sense to start testing with the assumption that it does not. This is common sense.
So it stands to reason that knowing some basic rules or techniques about writing effective copy is in order. Test results will always trump everything, but itís better to have a starting point before you test.
Sometimes a little tweak here or there is all that is needed to increase response rates dramatically.
When a prospect reads your ad, letter, brochure, etc., the one thing he will be wondering from the start is: ìwhatís in it for me?î
And if your copy doesnít tell him, itíll land in the trash faster than he can read the headline or lead.
A lot of advertisers make this mistake. They focus on them as a company. How long theyíve been in business, who their biggest customers are, how theyíve spent ten years of research and millions of dollars on developing this product, blah, blah.
Actually, those points are important. But they should be expressed in a way that matters to your potential customer. Remember, once heís thrown it in the garbage, the sale is lost!
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How To Sell Your Books On Radio
When my book was published I participated in eleven 15-minute live interviews on local radio over a period of just five days.
The results were highly encouraging; the book leapt from nowhere on Amazon.co.uk to position 194 out of 3123 competing titles and eventually grabbed the No.1 spot for its core keyword (retirement) where it remained for nine months.
I am shortly to repeat the broadcast exercise for my newly published tome but before doing so I am already off to a head startÖ
Although this title does not hit the bookstores until Monday 8 May 2006 it already ranks at No.47 out of 3453 competing titles on Amazon.co.uk ñ which means of course that the book is already selling in big numbers online ñ thanks largely to the success of its predecessor and the initial boost it got from radio promotion.
These promotional interviews are arranged by my publisherís media consultancy and I do not require to visit a single studio to take part; they are all conducted over the telephone, sitting at my desk at home.
So what if you self-publish your output and you donít have a publicist to arrange radio interviews?
Does that mean you are excluded?
No way; I have self-published several books in the past and managed my own promotion.
Wherever you live in the world youíll find that the majority of local radio stations are banded together into a single network for cost-effectiveness.
Here is what you do
1. Identify the controlling network;
2. Visit the corporate website containing links to all subsidiaries;
3. Pick out those stations within a 500/1000 mile orbit;
4. Visit each local station website individually;
5. Scan the daily programming schedules;
6. Highlight those programs that might identify with the topic of your book;
7. Note the presenterís name;
8. Email him/her with a well-couched request for a live interview;
9. Follow that up with an identical snail mail request;
10. Follow that up with a telephone call (youíll get to speak to someone in authority).
You know your topic inside out; speak up with confidence and youíll get your interview; maybe not straightaway but, if you sell yourself and your project professionally, youíll be logged into and up-and-coming slot in the station scheduling.
Go for it is free!
I will be reporting in a subsequent article on the outcome of my latest batch of broadcasts.
In truth though there is more to creating bestselling books than spieling about them on radio and if youíd like to learn how I manage to produce bestsellers consistently, visit the website featured in the resource box below.
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Make Big Money On Your Book – 10 H*O*T Tips
Wouldn’t it be nice to write a book, get paid handsomely for it and be considered a top expert all at once? It’s possible–if you know the rules.
1. Study the publishing industry.
Today celebrity books rule. Books that catch a quick trend come in second. Take chick lit, for example. Nobody cared about hip books for women ten, or even five years ago. But women buy the majority of books–and actually read them. It’s not to say that other book genres aren’t viable. Of course they are. The big categories of fiction and non- fiction will live on forever. But even self-help is on the wane according to some sources. And, as a literature savvy friend of mine said, *Plots are passe.* There’s much more to know about the industry. Like what agents look for and how publishers decide on what will be profitable.
2. Understand that publishers don’t buy books, they buy ideas.
Many new authors think they need to write a book to sell it. Not so. You develop an idea (fiction excluded) and give publishers a taste of what’s to come. They decide whether your idea has a large enough market for them to make money on it. You must prove, without a doubt that they can. Lots of it.
3. Think of your proposal as the business plan for your book.
Map out the life of your book in the marketplace for the next five years. Plan on devoting at least that much time to promoting it.
4. Have a huge platform.
A platform is simply YOUR ability to sell books to the audience that you have said will buy–from you. Are you already a *personality* people recognize and love? How many organizations, companies, groups do you speak to every month? Do you write regularly for newspapers, magazines or the Internet? Do you have prestigious clients who can sell your books in bulk to their corporations? You get the idea. You must *look* like a mover and shaker in your field.
5. Be a media star.
If you’re not already a familiar face on TV, a vivacious voice on the radio or a person who appears in print often, not to worry. If you can show you have the potential to become a star, that’s a start. Maybe you’ve been on local TV and had rave reviews. If so, mention that.
6. Speak.
A major publishing house hired me to media coach one of their rising star authors. Her book was getting major national press–but she was dull. And they were worried that her lackluster personality would effect her book sales. We worked until she got comfortable on camera while talking vividly in 15 second soundbites.
7. Get media coached.
With some media coaching you can morph into a mediagenic maven. But it does take practice and sincere commitment. You can work on your pizzazz factor by studying great interviewees and modeling the behaviors you liked. If you canít afford a media coach, get out that video camera and do mock interviews with friend. A lot can be revealed and ironed out just by seeing how you appear to others on the big screen.
8. Develop your platform.
When I interviewed editors at top New York publishing houses like Simon & Schuster & HarperCollins they told me repeatedly that the most important thing a writer can have today is a strong *platform.* A platform is a plan of how you are going to reach your audience to sell books.
Prove you have a following. Publishers want to know who has bought your books or products in the past– and they want to know how many. Can you show that you have a track record of selling your goods to people across the globe, or at least in your community? Maybe youíre not as far along in your career as one of my clients who is a $12,000 an hour speaker who put in his proposal the fact that his audiences range from 100-10,000 people, and he speaks 250 times per year.
His speaking bureau typically sells his video and audio tapes to those audiences in advance when they book his talk. What you want to show is how you can secure sales in large quantities to people you know will buy from you–because they have bought already. Or how audiences similar to the ones who have purchased are primed to buy your book.
9. Get high profile endorsements.
To instantly establish your stature put these accolades on page number one so theyíre the first thing an agent or editor sees. Endorsements need to be from celebrities, best- selling authors and well-known experts in your field.
Show that youíre respected in the world. Endorsements show that high-level people believe in you, that youíre a good bet. They also go on your book cover jacket and help sell your book–and in todayís competitive marketplace itís essential. Donít say youíre *actively seeking endorsements.* Leading with the endorsements makes sure an agent or editor gets that youíre a big shot–or soon will be.
One secret that many authors donít know is the best blurbs are written by the writers themselves. Donít expect famous people to read your tome. They donít have the time or the desire. And please donít send it to them unsolicited. Ask permission. Then do the work for them and ask them to sign off on that perfect gem–the one youíve written–touting the marvels of your work.
10. Your sample chapter.
Once youíve established that the author has some sort of a platform, that they have some voice in the world beyond their circle of friends, I go straight to the sample chapter.
Prove you can write. *I want to know if they are a good writer, because an agent can tinker away with the rest of the proposal and make it sound really good,* says Kelly Notaras, a Senior Editor at Hyperion.
What if youíre not a great writer? Hire a ghost writer. Remember platform is non-replaceable. You, the personality, the presence, is what theyíre investing in. Good writing can be bought. Star quality canít
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Increasing Link Popularity the Gateway to the Internet
Search engines are the gateway to the Internet; they are
the first tool that potential customers use to find the
products and services they need. This is why link
popularity is so imperative. If the customers do not find
your website, you have no possibilities of making any
sales.
You’re probably wondering what the blazes is popular about
a link! Well, in a word – plenty! Link popularity refers to
the ranking assigned to your website by the search engines,
and it determines the ranking your page gets when keywords
are entered into a search engine. So, you’re probably
wondering, how do I make my link popular?
Search engines are discretionary, giving status and ranking
to sites that have links to their pages from related,
quality sites. It’s a simple formula, but a very important
one. Google created the system, and now virtually all the
most popular search engines employ it to rank your web
pages in their indexes.
The more commonly used your keyword is, the harder it will
be to achieve link popularity, but without achieving this
step, it is almost certain your site will never rank highly
on any search engine. But don’t be discouraged; there are
tried and true ways of achieving link popularity using the
most competitive keywords.
There are a few things you should be aware of. The first is
that just linking up with a large number of other websites
will not achieve link popularity. In fact, it may have
quite the opposite effect. This is particularly true when
pertaining to websites that are nothing more than “link
farms” – pages containing line after line of indiscriminate
links. Search engines may aggressively discriminate against
your website if you are associated with a link farm, so
steer clear of them!
The next thing to bear in mind is the quality of the site
you are linking to. Never link to a page you have
reservations about your visitors seeing. The last thing you
want your website to appear as is indiscriminate and cheap.
Linking to sites of poor quality will only lessen your link
popularity, if not completely destroy it.
So let’s get to what you need to do to achieve supreme link
popularity and improve your rankings to stellar status on
all the popular search engines.
The first step, and the fastest way to get your foot in the
door, is to get a listing in a popular directory, such as
Open Directory Project and Yahoo. If your site is
business-related, you will want to be listed on Yahoo, and
despite the fact that it will cost you around $300 a year,
it will be money well spent. If your site is
non-commercial, the listing will be free, but it will take
time and follow-up to actually get it listed. Open
Directory is gives you a free listing whether you are
business-related or non-commercial, but be prepared to make
a lot of follow-up inquiries before you see your site
listed.
You are aiming to get listed in the highest level of
appropriate category, and this just takes some common
sense. For example, if your company ships Alpaca wool from
an Alpaca farm located in the middle of Nowhere, Tiny
State, do NOT submit your listing to “Retailers from
Nowhere, Tiny State.” BIG MISTAKE! All you have to do is
look a little deeper – and submit your listing to the “Fine
Alpaca Wool” category. You will not only associate yourself
with culture and quality, but you will be listed in a
national category.
The next step after you have attained directory listings is
to locate other quality sites that will increase your link
popularity. Try to find sites that are in some way related
to yours, so not only will your link popularity increase,
but your customer base may also be expanded. You want to
avoid your competitors and look for sites that are useful
to your site’s visitors. Let’s look at the Alpaca Wool site
example. Linking up to a site that sells knitting supplies
would be helpful to your visitors, and the chances of the
knitting supply site wanting to link up to your site are
also greater. By linking to a related site that will be
relevant to your website’s traffic, you are increasing both
of your site’s business prospects – and both of your sites’
link popularity.
Not all sites want to link to other sites, so you will have
to do some research when you are looking for possible
linking partners. Google is an excellent starting place for
your search. Make sure you enter keywords that you think
quality customers will also enter to find your own site.
Remember, your criteria are quality, highly ranked,
non-competing websites that have a links or resources page.
Go to these sites and objectively assess them. Look at the
quality of the product, the graphics, and the ease of use.
Then check out the other sites they are linked to, and
determine if your own site would fit in with the crowd.
When you decide you have found a good prospect, you must
set out to woo them. The first thing to do is to add a link
on your own links page to their site. This is an essential
first step; it shows good faith, and ups your chances
significantly of their reciprocity. After you have added
their link, you must contact the webmaster of their site.
Since this is almost always done by email, you want to make
sure it is immediately clear that your message is not junk
mail. This requires that you tell them right off the bat
that you have added a link to their page on your site. A
hook like this almost always insures the reader will read
on.
Next, be sure to be flattering and let them know how much
you appreciate their website. Make sure you emphasize that
you have actually visited their site, and that their site
is not just a random pick. Give them the address of your
links page, and ask them to check out the link for
themselves. It’s a good idea to mention that they will not
only benefit from the increased traffic your website will
direct their way, but you will also increase their link
popularity. Briefly, explain why link popularity is so
essential, but do this in a sentence or two so you don’t
sound like a professor! Finally, tell them you would
greatly appreciate if they would reciprocally add a link on
their own links page to your website.
Go through this process with as many appropriate sites as
you can find, bearing in mind the criteria of quality and
non-competitiveness. After you have emailed all relevant
sites, be sure to check these website frequently to see if
they have added a link to your page. Give it about a month,
and if no link appears, try another charming email. Then
give it another month, and if your site is still absent
from their links page, it’s time to remove their link from
your own links page. The only time you want to pursue a
link further than this is if you believe a site is crucial
to your link popularity and your business needs. Just
remember to keep all your communications complimentary and
cordial.
Then set up a schedule to check your ranking in search
engines frequently to see if your link popularity has
improved. This is not achievable in the blink of an eye. It
will take some time and a good deal of work. There is no
way around the labor-intensive quality of improving your
link popularity, which is why search engines regard it with
such importance.
By the way – make sure you have a beautiful, streamlined
site or you will never persuade anyone to link up to you.
Be prepared to keep plugging away at this process, as long
as it takes, until you achieve link popularity stardom!
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How to Market and Price Your Ebook
You’ve written and compiled an ebook. Now you have to
decide how much to charge for it. Finding the right
price is essential to the success of your product. If
you charge too little, people will think it’s of
little value, and they won’t purchase it, or even it
they do buy your book, you will have to sell thousands
of copies to get to the point where you can begin to
see a profit. If you price it too high when compared
with your competition, you will find yourself steadily
lowering the price, which will cause you all kinds of
new problems in the future. For example, if you sell
your ebook at first for $39.99, and later reduce it to
$24.95, don’t you think the people who bought it for
$39.99 are going to be PISSED?
Choosing the right price for your ebook is one of the
most critical parts of the marketing process. The
first rule of pricing ebooks is to never underprice.
Determine the highest price your audience can afford,
and then if you find your book isn?t selling, you can
always reduce the price. Before you take that step,
make sure you are promoting your book like crazy on
the Internet and on websites. The price should be
aimed at bringing in profits, but you should never
forget that price is one of the factors that people
use in judging the value of your ebook ? before they
buy it. So always start with the highest price, and
then launch a mega-marketing campaign.
Pricing an ebook is particularly difficult because
ebooks are a fairly new commodity. Since they are
digital, the value of an ebook is as confusing as the
understanding of what digital actually is to the
average layperson. This means that we must look at
ebooks in a different light in order to determine
their actual worth in this brave, new cyber world.
Let’s look at the difference between a book in print
and an ebook. A printed book is an object you can hold
in your hand, store on your bookshelf, even hand down
to the next generation. It is priced on factors such
as paper stock, design and production costs, and
marketing.
But the fact that unites ebooks and print books is
that they are composed of ideas. It is the ideas in
these books that have the ability to change, or
possibly transform, people’s lives.
What do you think an idea is worth when evaluated
against the cost of paper and ink?
It is the IDEAS that are valuable! That is how you
determine the cost of your ebook.
What should I charge for my ideas?
There are all different formulas and methods for
determining the correct price for your ebook. Let’s
begin with honing in on your ultimate goals.
Decide if your goal is to get wide distribution and
maximum exposure. This goal is aimed at drawing
customers to your business or service, or to
establishing the credibility of your reputation. If
this is your main goal, you should aim to keep your
price on the low side. Some authors have even priced
their ebooks at a profit loss to draw a high number of
new customers. The key is to find a price that
maximizes your profits and the number of books you
sell.
This is an excellent pricing strategy if you are
looking to acquire long-term customers. Long-term
customers are extremely likely to buy from you again
and again ? as long as the first ebook they buy is of
exceptional quality and beneficial to the customer.
However, if your book contains valuable ? and more
importantly NEW information, references, or techniques
? then you should aim to price it on the high end.
After you figure out your goal, you must figure out
what your audience’s need is for your ebook. For
example, does your book solve a particular problem? If
it does, and solves it in a way that hasn’t been
written about in one hundred other ebooks, you will be
able to achieve high sales at a high price. If your
book solves a problem or answers questions in a new
and unique way, you should price your book as high as
you can go. You will achieve larger profits this way,
but bring in fewer customers. Just make sure the
question or problem that your book solves is one that
is important and relevant to the majority of your
market audience. If your ideas are not common
knowledge, or you are presenting a brand new
technique, you will be able to sell books at a high
price. Just be prepared for your competition to
undercut you on price as soon as they hear about your
book.
Keep in mind that the above pricing strategy is
temporary. Eventually, you will cease to sell books at
this high price. So figure out in advance how long you
plan to offer your ebook at this high price, and when
that time is up, change your pricing strategy.
If you want to see large profits over customer draw,
aim for an audience that is looking for easy solutions
to their problems at a low price. If your book is
aimed at solving one particular problem rather than
general advice, then you can charge more. Start at the
highest price the market will bear to bring in the
largest profits, and plan to discount the book a
number of times throughout the year.
Marketing Strategies
The key that unlocks the sales potential of your ebook
is to find a single sentence that becomes your selling
handle. This sentence states what question or problem
your book answers and the benefits your ebook can
provide. Then be sure to use that sentence in every
piece of sales and promotional material, and every
time anyone asks you about your ebook.
Besides promoting your books assiduously online, there
are several other strategies that can help you sell
more books.
One is to give something away for free with your book,
such as a valuable bonus item. Or bundle several
ebooks under one price, which lowers the price for
each ebook if they were sold separately.
An effective technique for figuring out a price is to
send out a survey to your current customers. If these
customers have already bought an ebook from you, ask
for their opinion in terms of price. Do this by
creating a sales page for the new book, but don’t
include a price on that page. Instead, add a number of
links to survey questions that ask pointed questions
to aid you in assigning a price to your ebook.
Another strategy is to test out prices by creating a
number of duplicate sales pages with different prices
on each page. Make sure your sales copy is exactly the
same on every page, and includes your selling-handle
sentence. Then figure out for each page the conversion
ratio between visitors to your site and sales of your
book. This will tell you what your optimum price is.
Ultimately, if you’ve written a book that solves a
problem or presents a new technique, your book will
bring in both traffic and profits. So be sure to write
that selling-handle sentence that sums up what problem
your book solves and what the benefits of your book
will be to the customers who purchase it. And then
watch your market come to you!
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How To Get Your Book Reviewed In Magazines
In one of my past magazine jobs my office was next to that of the book editor. He would get boxes and boxes of books daily. There was a separate room devoted to storing these books, but that still didn’t keep them from piling up in his office. Whenever he returned from vacation he practically had to use a bulldozer to get his door open!
You see the problem, right? How do you get your book noticed, let alone reviewed, when it is just one among stacks of books in an editor’s office? Here are a few tips to help you map out a winning strategy.
1. Determine which magazines are the best for reaching your target market.
As you plan to market your book, decide first who your ideal reader is. Is it a 35-year-old urban professional man? Is it a stay-at-home mom who lives in the Midwest? Is it female college graduates who also happen to be sports fanatics? Once you decide who you’re targeting, ask yourself: What magazines does my ideal reader read? Those will be the magazines you’ll focus on. That way, you won’t waste time and money pursuing dozens of magazines which, even if they did review your book, wouldn’t give you much in terms of gaining readership. With my novel we focused on magazines with large female audiences. Ideally you should be doing this a few months before your book comes out because the goal here is to either write a story for the magazine or get interviewed in the magazine, and have the article appear before or just as your book is published.
2. Find out what the editors need.
When you have chosen the magazines, buy them and read them. Do they have a certain writing style? What kinds of articles appear in the magazine again and again? If you can, write, email or call the features editor and find out what kinds of stories the magazine is looking for. You’ll have more success if you can fill the editorial holes the magazine is already working on.
3. Let an editor know what you have to offer.
Start sending query letters to get article assignments. If you have a particular expertise, you can let an editor know that you’re available for interviews if they ever need an expert on a particular subject. Often an editor will assign a story to a writer and give them a few possible interviewees to help them get started. I contacted editors at Essence a full year before my book came out to let them know that I was working as a personal and career coach. Within a few weeks I began getting calls from reporters to interview me for working mom stories for Essence.
4. Mention your book or get it mentioned.
When your article gets published, make sure you get the little italicized blurb at the end that says that you are “a writer whose next book, The Best Book in the World, will be published this month by Big Press, Inc.” You get the idea. If you are being interviewed for an article, chances are they won’t have room to mention your book but you should still tell the reporter about it anyway. You can even ask them to put it in their notes. As the story gets discussed in meetings, someone might say “Did you know she also wrote a book?” This builds awareness.
5. Check in with your contacts, but don’t pester them.
Once your book is sent out for review, you can call or email to make sure that the editor got the book, but leave it at that. You’ve done all you can. I’ve never met the book editor at Essence, but when I heard that he was aware of my novel I was totally psyched. I kept my fingers crossed after that. You can see the review here. One last note: Some magazines and newspapers don’t review self published books. Find out beforehand so you can make your efforts elsewhere if that’s necessary.
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