Selling Information Products “by the Pound”
Archives: Daily Issues
Issue #2588
- WEALTHY: How the recent mass layoffs could help you make money (Marc Charles)
- HEALTHY: Sushi bar weight loss (Kelley Herring)
- WISE: Warren Buffett on price vs. value
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Do your products have the “thud” factor? (Bob Bly)
- 4 networking activities you can do from home (Jason Holland)
- It’s Fun to Know… about “feeling the beat”
- Add “pestiferous” to your vocabulary
== Highly Recommended ==
Could This Be Your Perfect Remedy for the Recession?
A ‘robot’ made one man $80k in the last few months from other people’s greed.
All done without leaving his home, with virtually no risk, and best of all… virtually NO WORK…!
The Power of Affiliate Marketing in the Employment Market
By Marc Charles
Employment websites generate hundreds of millions of page views every month from job seekers and employers. And employment-related searches are consistently among the most popular on Google, Yahoo!, and MSN. (Especially these days, with layoffs happening in droves.)
There are dozens of ways to harness that huge market with your own online business. But one of the best is to specialize in a specific job-search niche – and then link all of the articles, discussions, reviews, job postings, images, and “Featured Companies” on your website to a major affiliate partner site.
For example, you could start a site devoted to Silicon Valley start-up employment. Or you could start an employment blog for registered nurses. (The healthcare industry is a popular niche.) Then hook up with one of the top employment affiliate providers – e.g., Yahoo!, HotReach, or the Monster Affiliate Program.
When a visitor to your website clicks on a link and then posts a resume or available job on the affiliate partner site – you get a commission.
Most employment affiliate programs (the best ones, at least) offer commissions for three types of transactions:
1. For every employer who posts a job, purchases resume access, or both. Commissions range from 15 to 20 percent.
2. For each new resume that is posted to the site. (This also applies when a posted resume is revised.) Commissions for this vary with each program, but it’s usually between $1 and $2 per posting.
3. For each new account that is created by a job seeker posting a resume. Again, the commissions for this vary, but will typically be between 50 cents and $1.50.
As an employment affiliate, you can promote any or all of these services.
Fifty cents here and two dollars there may not sound like a lot of money. But if, for example, 50 employers per month post jobs or access resumes on an employment site using your affiliate link, you could make $1,500 to $3,500 every month.
[Ed. Note: As "King of Business Opportunities" Marc Charles points out, employment affiliate programs could be your key to a second income in 2009. For a weekly report on some of the hottest moneymaking opportunities around, sign up for Marc's Profit Center Dispatch.
ETR will be unveiling its own affiliate program very soon. Keep reading ETR for more details on this exciting method of increasing your income.]
“Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.”
Warren Buffett
Selling Information Products “By the Pound”
By Bob Bly
I frequently hire freelance writers to write e-books and other information products for my small online publishing business. Recently RH, a potential author, was taken aback when I told him I wanted a 15,000-word e-book from him.
“How did you come up with 15,000 words?” he asked me. “In this age of hyper-information overload, shouldn’t such a document be more like a lady’s skirt – short enough to be interesting and just long enough to cover the subject?”
RH’s question seems sensible enough on the surface. But his conclusion – that when it comes to information products, shorter is universally preferable – is not true.
May I explain why?
To begin with, RH is theoretically correct when he suggests that readers are busy, have too much to read, and not enough time to read it. Despite this, however, people who buy information products – especially online – have a slightly different perspective than ordinary readers.
Info product buyers do, to some extent, buy their information “by the pound.” If they pay a high price, they expect a lot for their money. Not just great content, but plenty of it.
We call this demand for quantity the “thud” factor. When a customer orders a $50 info product, the material should make a nice “thud” when he drops it on his desk.
For e-books selling in the $19 to $79 range, I find that the customer is satisfied with something that would be at least 50 pages when he prints it out and holds it in his hands. With approximately 300 words per page, a 50-page e-book is 15,000 words, which is the word count I gave RH.
RH, in turn, suggested that we could make a more valuable product by covering the topic in a single page, which he said he could do.
Well, let me warn you now. If you sell a $29 e-book and deliver to your customers a one-page PDF document on the topic, your refund rate will be huge. Those customers will feel ripped off and not buy from you again.
Even if that one page has great content, it is not enough. It does not meet the “thud factor” requirement.
RH is applying the rule that brevity is the chief virtue of good writing. Where he makes his mistake is in assuming that this rule should be applied equally to information the reader wants as well as to information he doesn’t want.
I agree with RH that in correspondence and other documents that the customer doesn’t really care about, you want to get to the point as quickly as possible – and keep it short and simple. But when you sell an e-book or special report, you are selling material that he actually wants to read.
Remember, he ordered it. He paid you for it. He didn’t have to buy, but he did. That means your customer is sufficiently interested in the topic to educate himself on it at his own expense. He is reading your e-book for his own benefit. And perhaps for his own enjoyment. It is not a chore. Or if it is a chore, it is one he has volunteered for.
Strangely, RH didn’t complain to me that books he buys on Amazon.com or at Barnes & Noble have “too many words.” Yet the average 200-page nonfiction trade paperback contains 80,000 words – five times the length of my average e-book!
Are you, like RH, afraid your copy – whether you are writing a sales letter, a landing page, an article, a special report, or a print or electronic book – is too long? If so, the reason might be any of the following… all of which can and should be corrected:
• Too much fluff
To meet a required word length, you have padded your copy, making it dull and flabby. You are wasting the reader’s time by saying the same thing over and over in different ways.
• Lack of content
You haven’t done your homework, so you don’t have a rich body of facts to illustrate your points and support your claims. Given the existence of the Internet and Google, there is no excuse for such inadequate research.
• Lack of authority
You sound like you don’t really understand your subject in depth, and the reason is you probably don’t. You need to either become an expert or interview an expert (or two).
• Boring copy
You don’t really care about the topic or the project, and it comes across in your copy. Solution: Write only on subjects you are interested in and care about.
[Ed. Note: You can get more expert advice on how to create and market information products as a member of ETR's Internet Money Club. Our experts will give you a step-by-step guide to setting up your own info-publishing business - including finding a market, starting an e-newsletter, creating a website, and writing copy to drive traffic to it. See if there are any spots left for the "Class" of 2009 right here.
To learn more marketing secrets from freelance copywriter and marketing expert Bob Bly, sign up for his free e-zine, the Direct Response Letter. Do so today and get $116 in FREE bonuses.]
I Can’t Take It Anymore…
When you are in the know about something – like I am about generating sales online – you can see right through the smoke and mirrors. You clearly see the true money-machine the Internet could be… in the right hands. Now I’m going to show you exactly how to make money online in 3 easy steps.
Yes, it’s that easy. And some have been hiding the real secret all this time. Check out everything for yourself by clicking here…
The Shy Person’s Guide to Networking
For the shy and introverted, a networking event or “business” cocktail party can be a waste of time… not an opportunity for finding business partners and new employees, drumming up freelance work, or making contacts that could pay off years down the road.
But networking in person is not the only way. So if face-to-face conversation paralyzes you, here’s something you can do while you work on getting over your “stage fright”:
Network online.
• Send an occasional e-mail to colleagues, partners, former co-workers, etc. detailing what projects you’re working on, your take on industry news – really anything that might be of interest to them. Think of it as your own newsletter.
• Regularly send personal e-mails to your important clients – even if you’re not working with them at the moment. (As Bob Bly has pointed out, keeping in touch with these folks helps keep the business relationship strong.)
• Take advantage of social networks like LinkedIn and FaceBook to connect with others in your industry. (If you’re going this route, be sure to keep your profile strictly work-related. No party pics!)
• Become a regular on forums and message boards dedicated to your industry or niche. (This makes sense from a social media marketing perspective, as well.) Follow up with other users who have the potential to work with you on joint ventures or new projects.
(Source: Business Pundit and Dumb Little Man blog)
[Ed. Note: Nothing can beat face-to-face networking. ETR has the perfect low-pressure venue for meeting potential colleagues, partners, or clients. At the same time, you'll discover $17.3 million in useful and powerful moneymaking secrets. Get the details here.]
Slim Down With a Seaweed Salad
The next time you go out for sushi, order a side of slimming seaweed salad. Research shows that fucoxanthin – a compound found in the brown seaweed widely used in Asian soups and salads – promotes weight loss in two ways.
1. It stimulates a protein called UCP1. This unique protein encourages thermogenesis – the conversion of body fat into heat.
2. It stimulates the production of docosahexanoic acid (DHA) in the liver. This essential omega-3 fatty acid improves blood sugar balance, reducing the body’s storage of fat.
But a word of caution: Not all sushi is created equal. Before you pick up those chopsticks, be sure you know about some of the potential health hazards of the food you’re about to put in your mouth.
[Ed. Note: One of the best ways to stay in peak condition is to eat good foods. Nutrition expert Kelley Herring has collected dozens of her healthiest and most delicious recipes in her e-book Guilt Free Desserts. Pick up your copy today.
For more advice on which foods you should - and shouldn't - be eating to stay in top health, sign up for ETR's free natural health e-newsletter.]
It’s Fun to Know: Born Dancing to the Beat
While watching people clump awkwardly around the dance floor at weddings, you might wonder: Are people born with a sense of rhythm or is it learned?
It turns out that babies are able to follow a beat from the day they’re born. This ability, called “beat induction,” is a uniquely human trait, not seen in animals.
University of Amsterdam researchers played a simple drumbeat to newborns, occasionally taking out the bass to disrupt the rhythm. The infants’ brain activity patterns spiked during those disruptions, indicating that they recognized them as being out of place. (Adults display the same brain wave spikes when they hear “off” rhythms.)
Further research is planned to see if babies can distinguish between different types of rhythms – waltz versus jazz, for example.
(Source: Wired)
=== Highly Recommended ==
Important Message If You’ve Lost Money From Your IRA or 401(K)
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Another is currently offering the chance to gain year-in and year-out returns of 65% with 99.77% certainty – even in today’s economy.
Word to the Wise: Pestiferous
“Pestiferous” (pes-TIF-uh-rus) – from the Latin for “pestilence” – means “bothersome/troublesome/annoying.”
Example (as used by James Michie in The Spectator): “What is the most correct, the politest, the best way to get rid of this pestiferous unwanted ‘guest’?”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2009
Thank you for posting this article about size and pricing of ebooks. It was very timely as one of my online contacts was asking about ebook pricing.
Thank you as always for the great articles. I especially liked the one titled “4 pillars of a successful afilliate website” They are really helping me in my business.