Business Corner

Find just one skill that you are good at and document this skill into a format so you will be able to teach this skill to other people. If you are one of these people who have been blessed with multiple skills then choosing which one to kick off with could be hard. If this is the case then choose the one that you feel most comfortable with.

In helping with the research phrase you may go to places like amazon.com and search for all of the items that are available on your choosing topic. This will cover everything from books to hard items. Go to YouTube, plus other video sharing sites and look for videos about your topic as well. Now go to article directories and look for articles about your topic for extra content. Gather up all of the information (including URLs) you find and record it in a special folder on your hard drive. With this information collected you will be able to place it into a format that is teachable for other people.

Set yourself a goal to create one 15-20 page ebook about the chosen skill that you are good at. This will be in a step by step guide and teaching format. You will either sell this book for a small fee or give it away. This book will be your passport and introduction to other people who are interested in passing your book on to other people that they know who will derive exceptional value from it.

You will be able to teach people by the way of videos about what you are talking about in the book. Then with the people who make a purchase of your videos supply to them as a bonus for free like audios, mp3s and small reports. You may lead of with some of the content for free as an incentive to purchasing the video package.  Read more... (534 words, estimated 2:08 mins reading time)

When Amazon announced that their Kindle digital download sales had eclipsed both their hardback and paperback sales combined, the moment of the new ebook revolution had arrived.

The launch of the Amazon Kindle in 2007 allowed people to simply click and buy to download ebooks from the Kindle marketplace onto their device. In 2009 the Apple iPad exploded onto the scene bringing with it the iBook app that also enabled ebook sales via other Apple family of products such as the iPhone and iPod.

Other ebook readers such as the Nook range of readers opened up the Barnes and Noble marketplace with Sony and others joining the fray.

This is truly exciting time for writers and information publishers throwing open a mainstream marketplace that is quickly expanding.

Firstly why should you publish an ebook?

• You establish yourself as an expert
• You can use your books and guides as lead generators to build your list and sell backend services and products
• It doesn’t have to be a mammoth book. You can publish guides, short reports, whitepapers and even publish your blog posts as a book.

The global ebook market grew by 200% in 2010, so the question is how can you take advantage of this huge market?

There are plenty of Publish on Demand platforms out there that can help you publish and distribute your books. You can ‘Google’ publish on demand and see what is available and best suits your needs.

Lulu is probably the most well know of POD (publish on demand) services with a range of add-on support services such as marketing, proofreading, design and editing.  Read more... (406 words, estimated 1:37 mins reading time)

No doubt that professional ebook covers will make your website and the product look trustworthy. It gives the perception that you’re an expert in the field and the product has quality.

Just ask yourself this question… Would I buy a product that is presented by a poor quality image?

Lets’ look at an Amazon study that was done on 45 top ranked publishers, and 15 top ranked authors with over 100 covers reviewed ebook covers. The covers were ranked into 4 categories:

1) Unreadable

2) Poor

3) Average

4) Good

Conclusion: A good ranking was awarded to a cover if the Author’s name and Title could be read in the thumbnail/cover and the image or background did not interfere with the legibility of the two.

Another conclusion was that, developing “one size fits all” ebook covers, is not really working and that, part of the prospective customer’s decision making is the eBook’s cover.

Now, here’s why professional ebook covers will increase business

There are few “angles” to look at, when you start selling your eBook product.(Although, is valid for other digital products as well):

- A professional cover will increase the perceived value of the product.

- Well designed covers attracts attention. The result is “stickiness” to your website.

- It build your brand. If you are in business for a long run, you really need to build “a brand” around your product.

- High quality design of your ebook covers will help your customer visualize what they are considering buying. The representation of the graphic has proven time and time again to increase sales and increase the overall professional image of your website.

- And last, but not least… increase the “buzz” — believe it or not!  Read more... (468 words, estimated 1:52 mins reading time)

Over the years, I’ve written a few e-books, and I am also a reader who likes to partake in e-books and load them onto my e-reader. However, there is something that has concerned me over the last year, and that is when I buy an e-book based on its title, I expect a little bit of substance and meat in it. All too often, I end up downloading the e-book only to find out that it isn’t more than about 25 pages, and it is conveniently spaced, and a font which is larger than normal. In fact, if one were to take out the pictures, and all the formatting, it wouldn’t be more than 10 pages.

Now then for all of you e-book writers who produce these ultra-short e-books I have news for you; that’s not an e-book, it’s an essay. Further, even if you’re selling your e-book for only $.99 because you are hoping to go for volume, it still isn’t fair to the reader who expects something of more substance. In a way you are cheating your readers and you are hurting other e-book authors because the consumers who feel cheated may think twice about buying an e-book from a newer author who they are unfamiliar with, as they don’t want to take the risk of being cheated again, and in this way you are doing a disservice to all e-book authors.

Indeed, if this is something you are doing, I sincerely wish that you would stop, but if you aren’t a very good writer or you don’t have very much information to impart to your reader then I have some tips for you. Don’t call your e-book an; e-book. Instead call it an;

Essay
Report
Novella
Mini-Book
Short Story
Ultra-short E-book  Read more... (442 words, estimated 1:46 mins reading time)

When reviewing various e-books, particularly on the subject of online businesses, my readers often ask me what is the point to buying an e-book when most everything discussed in these e-books can be found online. My one word answer: Time.

Time is money friend and a lot of time can be saved when purchasing the right kind of online business start-up or e-book. If the product is of good quality, not only will it have all the resources and links you need, but it often will already have entire websites, storefronts, and blogs ready to go “right out of the box!”

A good example of the time you can save for a few bucks comes from my own experiences when launching my first blog. I knew nothing about blogging and wasn’t about to buy the e-books when I knew I could find the information on my own. I had a bit of web-page design knowledge from tinkering around a couple years earlier but not much. All and all, It took me almost three months to get my first blog setup.

Rough draft of time spent:

3 weeks just reading and learning. Learning how to start my website, best software and host to use, all the basics of website design.

2 weeks just getting word press (the most common blogging software) installed and configured the way I wanted. I was on forums every day trying to figure out how to get a link to show here, or a picture to align in a certain way. To make good money, you need to host your own blog so setting up the web server and all the applications that go with it also took a lot of research before I could do it right.  Read more... (674 words, estimated 2:42 mins reading time)