I started  a thread in the Warrior Forum last night to debate whether or not it’s okay to have a potty mouth in your info products. I did this because when I launched my report last night called How to Write Product Reviews for Cash ($14.95) I got one email back about my language - my customer found it offensive. She’s a good customer, a solid person. So I immediately refunded her, apologized, and sent a clean version for her.

I’m torn after reading all of the replies. On one hand, I feel like it’s me - when I write, I don’t want to tone myself down or watch what I say. If I want to say ass-kisser, I want to say it. On the other hand, someone made a good point - people are paying for my info product - and they might be offended. Now if it was free, it might be my say. But if a customer is paying, it’s part their say, is it not?

Maybe not! Maybe they can keep their money in their pocket, but obviously, my goal is to cast a wide net.

Here’s the Warrior Forum Thread if you want to read it - it’s a great debate!

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-internet-marketing-discussion-forum/98649-good-girl-mouth-sailor.html

What do YOU think? Post here or in the forum - I really don’t know what to do but everyone agreed that offering two version is wimpy. And that’s what I did after my customer was offended.

tiff

I’m going to tell you how to market yourself into a presence on the web at no cost to you. You can’t just use PPC campaigns and buy all of your advertising. Well, you can if you have deep pockets, but most marketers starting out are on a shoestring budget.

You have to create a following and position yourself as a guru. Much of what you see online is pure hype. But it works. If you know a seminar is selling out and there’s only 8 spots left, it gives you more incentive to try to reserve a spot for it.

Build a spider-friendly blog. Blogs are adored by search engine spiders. In part, it’s probably because Google’s algorithm is set up to promote human-relevant content and not robotic-generated pages.

So when you go to Blogger.com or build a WordPress.com blog, you should make the most out of it by making sure every post is centered around a keyword or phrase for your niche.

Blogs are free and you can put them directly on your domain, like my blogs here and Social Marketing101.com/blog.

Where did I learn about blogging? Blogging to the Bank will teach you how to do it to make money and increase traffic. And then make sure you get Craig Desorcy’s Blog Lockdown to help protect all your hard work.

Use forum marketing for traffic.

Some of my best traffic (and most abundant) comes from marketing in forums where the discussion is relevant to my website. Just plop your URL right into the sig file and participate by giving back to the community and people will follow your link. Make sure you anchor your text with your prime keywords, and not just your domain URL. Want to learn more about making money and generating traffic through forum marketing? I recommend Russell Brunson’s Forum Fortunes.

Use article marketing for backlinks. The best way I’ve found to generate hundreds of backlinks to my sites is by submitting articles to directories. Article Marketing Domination by Josh Spaulding shows you the right way to dominate the web using strategic content articles.

Using good writing skills is only half the equation. When you’re submitting to directories, each one has a different set of rules and ideal submission styles they like to see. Josh walks you through all of that and shows you how to set up a web of links where you catch and funnel thousands of visitors through to your domain every day!

BODY,.aolmailheader {font-size:10pt; color:black; font-family:Arial;} a.aolmailheader:link {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:visited {color:magenta; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:active {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} a.aolmailheader:hover {color:blue; text-decoration:underline; font-weight:normal;} I created a quick under 5 minute video that I hope you’ll watch here:

http://www.tiffanydow.com/video/highdollaramazon/highdollaramazon.html

So many people were freaking out about the clamp down on certain topics (me included) because while ClickBank links are allowed, the most popular topics are things they are getting strict about - like diet eBooks.

My video addresses the fact that you can make high commissions without having to promote a CB info product and I show you an
example from just this morning. But you CAN still promote info products too.

Tiff

You’ll market to your list whenever you have something valuable to offer them. As they evolve into different kinds of customers with new needs, find ways to meet those needs and provide viable solutions.

I had a question from a ghostwriting client about whether or not I was an expert in his topic. No. I studied journalism in college and learned how to become an expert through research. I was a news reporter right out of college for a small town paper. Don’t expect the person you hire to be an expert - but find someone reliable who IS an expert at self-education.

Your #1 goal is to get some great information across to your audience. They’re looking to you (or your ghostwriter) to provide them information they don’t have. They could scour the Internet and gather free details, yes - but they’re wiling to pay you to do that for them and deliver it to them so they don’t have to work so hard.

Keep an open line of communication with your audience. I listen to my list when they email me with questions. Someone might ask me about Twitter, so I bang out a report on it. That kind of stuff is invaluable to your list - they can trust that you’re looking out for them.

I’ve done this before with dot com domains - I was hurrying through the process and I bought a domain with a typo in it. (NOT on purpose lol). I just did it last night when I built my new book lens called Finger Lickin Fifteen - a Stephanie Plum book.  I accidentally added an extra dash in the URL.

Oh well, I’m not going to redo it now but it’s a good reminder to watch it. I’ve done this a lot - in one of my best selling Halloween lenses, I accidentally spelled it infanst instead of infants in the URL - but it performs well regardless.

That’s my little tip of the day!
Carry on
Tiff

Two days ago in this post about Amazon on Squidoo I showed you one way I was going to use Squidoo. I mad ea lens about the #1 book I found on Amazon - Glenn beck’s Common Sense. Here’s more detail about how I built it and you’ll see why it matters in just a sec:

Introduction: I pulled quotes from the Amazon editorial review page with a note from Glenn Beck on it and reordered them. I added one new sentence (the one with the hyperlink).

Amazon Spotlight: The text is a quote from one of the reviews.

YouTube: I added a video about the book and I deleted the description so there’s no on lens link leakage.

Text List: I literally listed the TOC of the book. The short description telling them this is the TOC is mine - about 1-2 sentences.

Poll: I just listed hyperlinks back to all of his books

Text: I stated that here were some reviews from others and pasted from Amazon’s site.

Amazon: I just listed all of Glenn beck books for sale here.

Text: Again, all I did was tell them what it was - the second half of the TOC for the book.

YouTube: Another video I found - this time of someone reading an excerpt form the audio book.

Guestbook

Looking at this lens, I wrote 5 unique sentences total. (One of those 5 I used twice - the ones in the TOC text modules - I just changed the name from Glenn Beck to Thomas Paine). That’s ALL I did unique-wise.

Now look at my search engine traffic already in just TWO days:

I’m at the top of page 2 on Google for - glenn beck common sense book review

I’m on page 1 of Google (#9) for - glenn beck’s common sense book

I’m #1 on Google for - common sense note in glenn beck’s book

I’m on page 1 #8 on Google for - glenn beck common sense book

I’m on page 3 of Google for - arguments to thomas paine’s common sense of the origin and design of government in general

I’m on page 1 #4 on Google for - on line book common sense beck

I’m on page 3 for - common sense book

I’m on page 1 #7 for - excerpt from common sense glenn beck

I’m on page 2 #12 for - becks book common sense

Do you see what I’m getting at here? In just two days I’m indexed. I’m getting Google traffic already and I have some NICE rankings for some of these keywords, don’t I? And what did it take? I peeked at Amazon, grabbed a URL, and filled in some modules - mostly with content already created on Amazon.

I love this.

Once you have your first product created and you’ve launched your site to drive traffic to it, you’ll want to focus your efforts on adding more passive income to your profit machine.

The best way I know to expand is to utilize every aspect of Internet Marketing. That means having your own product empire, which takes some time to put together, and marketing other people’s products. This can apply not just to your own info products, but to the affiliate products you market as well. You want to have two empires: your own products and your affiliate library.

When I get hired to write an eBook by a new client, it’s not about a single project - it’s about a continuing relationship. The internet marketers I’m aligned with want a streamlined library of content.

It’s hard to hire multiple writers and get the same “voice” and as an information entrepreneur, you’re hiring a ghostwriter to brand YOU as the voice - the expert and authority of the product line you’re marketing.

So when you first get into internet marketing, brainstorm more than one info product. Keep them in the same realm of subject matter. Here’s an example of what I mean:

I have a client who hired me to write a baby name book. Not a list of names, but How to Name Your Baby. I wrote about 12 eBooks on this topic for him. You’d think there’s not enough information to write about naming your baby, but he developed ideas like this: Worldwide Traditions and Rituals, Celebrations and Ceremonies, Choosing the Name You Love, and 100 Dos and Don’ts, Spiritual Naming, Personality and Naming Games, Ancestry Naming, and more.

It’s all about creating an Empire. What could be next for this client? Well, he knows one thing - his customers are having a baby. So his empire can expand to include everything about pregnancy, parenting infants and toddlers, educating children, etc.

See the pattern? The profitability of Internet Marketing is backend selling to your customers. You capture and maintain a list. Treat this list like gold. Never abuse it.

If you go to my LinkedIn profile and click on the right side where it says View Full Profile, you’ll be able to see an update right under my picture that has a hyperlink back to my blog. It’s live and I’m starting to love this LinkedIn stuff.

I’m researching it, so I’m beginning to see just how enormous the marketing potential is - for branding, research, and more. Let me give you a couple of examples:

1.) The Answers section. Not only can I answer questions and hyperlink to resources, but I can scan questions to swipe and use on my blog! For example - someone asked this question on LinkedIn: “My company has created the Blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter pages…now what? How do we get people viewing these?”

Most people answered with blog, youtube, join groups, etc. But I was thinking - he’s done the page set-ups, he wants to know about Findability specifically - so here’s what I answered:

“I haven’t seen anyone mention the use of keywords and without them, every one of those pages will be useless. Keywords are how you get every page “found” because it’s what people type into search engines like Google to find the information they want.

This is how to get “findable” - you can’t just build a blog and hope it gets found. Also, write and type like your customer would. Don’t be too overly “professional” on your blog - if they would type in “save money on insurance” rather than “cost reductions” then use the same verbiage they would.”

I thought that was pretty insightful myself since no one else mentioned keywords - it’s basic SEO stuff! They just said to create content, but most people don’t know how to create content that works for humans AND search engine spiders alike.

2.) The Events Section - I didn’t know you could add an event and announce it on there like an invitation that goes out to all your connections! This includes virtual events, so if you’re on Blog Talk Radio, for example, which I have GOT to try one day, you could announce it and get more listeners.

This is just scratching the surface. I’m gonna milk this baby in a non spammy way, of course.

Tiff

When it comes to selling your eBooks online, you only need a 1-page minisite to do the job. Now, let’s learn the basics of getting your own minisite up and running.

The first thing you need to do is register your domain(s) for your info products. When it comes to domains, you should aim for a dot com - the shorter the better. I use GoDaddy to register my domains.

Although it’s been said that major search engines rarely use Meta Tags and title tags when you’re trying to get your site ranked higher, many of the lesser-known search engines still do include tags in their algorithm for ranking sites, so be sure to maximize your site for search engine optimization. And I’m only going off what I’ve been told here - I’m no SEO expert.

Depending on the kind of information product you sell, your site can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Most info products are simple min-sites - that means it has a border surrounding the content, which is a lengthy sales letter that includes testimonials, headlines, and bulleted lists of the features included with your info products. See an eample here: http://www.guide2ebooks.com

It will also tout the freebies that come with the product - bonus reports designed specifically with your customer’s needs in mind. You’ll need to include a thank you letter for after your customers make the payment, and it should include instructions about how to download or receive the info product they’ve just purchased.

This is all the easy part. The hard part comes in trying to get your site listed in search engines - and then work its way up to the top 10 searches. No one knows for sure what algorithms Google or other major engines use to rank sites, but we do know that fresh, unique content that is relevant is one of the deciding factors.

You can use pay-per-click search engines, but you really want to drive millions of visitors to your site - for free, right? That means constantly testing your keywords and phrases, testing your web copy to see which provides the highest conversion ratio, and continually trying to get your site positioned on other sites for linking purposes, without using a link farm.

“Pile em high and price ‘em low.” That’s what one customer told me in an email this week when he said we shouldn’t be charging $27 per eBook - nothing over $5 he let me know. And then another customer emailed me with a dilemma - he has an idea for an eBook (I won’t give it away) where most of the information is the same, but then there are 3 specific strategies you can choose from. So the foundation is the same for all 3 - he wanted to know whether to write 1 large eBook covering all 3 or 3 small eBooks cover each one.

So I want to talk about both of these issues. First of all, when my Squidoo eBook was $47 I sold more than I did after I lowered my price. I just believe it depends on which niche you’re in. With IM, they’re used to paying higher prices and they really do associate price with value in many instances. So $5 for a PPC eBook? No way.

Now on the other issue of big versus little - you’re not going to please everyone all of the time.  As I told the client, “It’s kind of a double edged sword. Some customers will want to know all 3 methods and feel ripped off having to buy 3 separate eBooks. Some will only want 1 and feel ripped off buying 1 eBook and paying for pages they didn’t need. ”

You’re going to get complaints or inquiries from everyone - so what do you do?

You do what YOU want to do and stand your ground.

That’s what being an entrepreneur is all about.

Now if the emails come pouring in and everyone’s complaining, consider merging (or splitting) the eBooks if it makes your customers happier. But it the line’s split down the middle, it’s your decision.

Tiff