eBook News, Articles, and Contests

Proliferation of $7 eBooks

eBooktastic — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 18:02:53 +0000

When Jonathan Leger created his $7 Secrets ebook, I became suspicious that we would suddenly see an influx of $7 guides floating around the internet — and I was right.

Since the guide has been released, I’ve received numerous e-mails from marketers offering their latest creation for only $7. Jonathan has even aided in this trend my creating a website exclusively for the $7 products (the website is called $7 Offers).

The good news is that these guides are all affordable and short. The downside is that some people are not masters of education, thus, some of these guides are actually worthless.

It’s one thing to write a short, concise guide on a subject, it’s another thing completely to pull a bunch of pages together with no flow.

So, if you decide to pick up some $7 guides (and I probably will), make sure to look at the author’s reputation for the subject matter, her track record, and if possible, look for reviews of the report elsewhere.

You should also be wary when choosing to promote certain guides as well. If you promote garbage, you may lose the respect and trust of your readers. Be sure to thoroughly review a copy of the report — or at least, tell your readers it’s an unreviewed recommendation.

To this point, I’ve been lucky - the two guides ($7 Secrets and Craigslist Traffic) that I snagged for eBooktastic have been well put together.

Technorati Tags: 7 dollar secrets, seven dollar secrets, jonathan leger, 7 dollar offers, craigslist traffic, ebook tips

Profiting with Craigslist

eBooktastic — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 17:46:55 +0000

Craigslist had its meager beginnings and then blossomed into its own online melting pot. It’s actually one of the top 10 most popular websites on the entire internet.

Hot on the heals of $7 Secrets, one author decided to make a quick $7 guide for harnessing the power of Craigslist. Since this is an area I’d like to get into and learn about myself, I considered this guide research when I picked up a copy.

It’s turned out to be far more than just simple research, it’s a mini blue print for receiving a deluge of traffic from Craigslist.

The guide covers, in the basest form

What Craigslist is and gives a bit of background information
How to actually post an add to Craigslist
Some tips for selling both physical and affiliate products
How to generate opt-in subscribers
Driving the traffic to AdSense pages
How to test your ads

It’s amazing that so much information can be crammed into this 32 page ebook, but it has. Over the coming months, I’ll be testing some of the strategies outlined to see how well they actually work.

Tentatively, I’ll give this Craigslist ebook a positive recommendation.

Technorati Tags: craigslist ebook, traffic, internet marketing, online marketing, affiliate marketing, 7 dollar secrets

$7 Secrets Explained

eBooktastic — Sun, 04 Feb 2007 16:49:32 +0000

It’s amazing how news of this new ebook, called $7 Secrets, spread through the internet marketing circles — it was like wildfire (viral marketing at it’s best).

The salesletter claims the author made $3,000 in 6 days selling a $7 product — bold claim. One he backs it up in the book itself.

The premise of the book is to sell an information product for only $7, which will certainly help with the impulse buyers, instead of spending your time promoting a high end product.

$7 Secrets is a fairly short ebook (33 pages) and can be read in a single sitting, which is a breath of fresh air compared to some of the fluffy tomes available.

The chapters include:

Why you should sell info products (refresher if you’re not new to info product sales)
Problems selling info products (basically, why selling high end, high priced items can be difficult)
The $7 Method
How you can get more than $7 from each sale (instead of just selling the ebook, you can make back end affiliate sales and grow your list)
Building affiliates - which affiliate wouldn’t love 100% commissions?
A synopsis of the entire 5 step method - great to print out for reference
The scripts to make it all possible, including the affiliate script (this alone is worth the $7 price tag)
Creating ebook covers for your reports

The final two chapters are about promoting the product and the author’s bio.

What I find especially nice about the affiliate program is that it pays out 100% directly into your PayPal account, there’s no sign up form to fill out, and it’s very difficult for people to steal commissions because PayPal doesn’t allow you to pay yourself. Having the script that manages it all is definitely a treat and makes the value of this report more than $7.

My final verdict: $7 Secrets is highly recommended.

Technorati Tags: 7 dollar secrets, affiliate marketing, internet marketing, online marketing, writing ebooks

eBook Security

eBooktastic — Thu, 12 Jan 2006 04:52:15 +0000

eBook authors can put a lot of work, blood, sweat, and tears into their ebooks. Because of that, they deserve the revenue their ebook generates.

However, some less than honest people will try to circumvent the cost of the ebook by searching for it free elsewhere or by attempting to sell a pirated copy of the ebook.

This is inevitable, unfortunately. But, there are things that you can do, as an ebook author, to help protect yourself from ebook theft.

Make your copyright notice visible within the first 2 pages, and provide a way to report ebook copyright infringement and pirating. To also sweeten the pot, provide some type of reward for people who would tip you off.
Make sure to password protect your ebook with a strong password (at least 8 characters, but 15-20 is ideal). Use all the various characters and make it random so it’s more difficult to crack
Limit printing only to low resolution and disable the copy/paste function. If you offer information that needs to be copy/pasted, then create a separate document for it.
Include your name, copyright notice, a link to your website, and contact information in the footer of each page.
Close the ebook with a short bio and description of your expertise/services.
Make sure all links go through your own website so you can track their activity and update them as necessary
Password restrict the download area and install a download manager so you can manage the approved users individually and can turn off download privileges on a per user basis.

Agatha Christie’s Books Are Mesmerizing

eBooktastic — Mon, 26 Dec 2005 21:41:42 +0000

You come home from work one day, kick off your shoes, then curl up under the covers with a good book. For many people, that book was a mystery novel by Agatha Christie.

Now, scientists are telling us that it may not have been by mistake and are, in fact, suggesting that Agatha may have hypnotized us with her writing.

The words, phrases, and sentences in her novels were analysed after being loaded into a computer and the results are actually quite interesting:

Despite the grisly theme of her novels, researchers say that much of her vocabulary is pleasing and gentle.

Favourite words or phrases, repeatedly used in a “mesmerising” way, help to stimulate the pleasure-inducing side of the brain. They include she, yes, girl, kind, smiled and suddenly.

[Source]

It was also found that she used a limited vocabulary in order to keep her readers focused on the clues and plots. The article itself contains some hidden nuggets for improving your writing.

If you’re looking to gain more knowledge in the field of writing hypnotically, then pick up a book on psychology or Joe Vitale’s Hypnotic Writing.

Related Resources: Hypnotic Writing

Technorati Tags: agatha christie, hypnotic writing, improve writing, agatha project

Season’s Greetings and Happy New Year

eBooktastic — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 14:41:18 +0000

2005 has almost come to an end. Soon, it will be time for new resolutions and new goals. Hopefully you’ve met all of your resolutions and goals from this year, but if not, don’t fret .

Remember to take some time now to reflect on your own life, your accomplishments, your family, and all that you have to be thankful for.

Wishing you a warm and happy holiday season and a prosperous new year from eBooktastic.

Becoming A Better Author

eBooktastic — Sun, 25 Dec 2005 14:23:32 +0000

Debbie Weil has published a list of books she’s found useful this summer, and among them is Bird By Bird by Anne Lammot.

Though the book isn’t an ebook, it’s potentially helpful to ebook authors who find themselves suffering from a bad case of writer’s block. According to Debbie, the book itself is quite amusing. Based on the excerpts she’s provided in the entry, I’m inclined to agree.

Any writer, whether traditional paper or digital format, can benefit by learning the actual mechanics of writing well. The information gleaned from Bird by Bird combined with information on writing for the digital audience to help to produce some top notch work.

In other news, there will be a few reviews coming for the new year. Some of the Upcoming Reviews include:

The Rich Jerk by Anonymous Rich Jerk
The Super Affiliate Handbook by Rosalind Gardner
Google Cash by Christopher Carpenter
Breakthrough Money Making Secrets Revealed by Holly Mann
Top 10 Tricks To Conquer Your Niche With WordPress by David Pankhurst

Technorati Tags: book reviews, improve writing, anne lammot, bird by bird

Joe Vitale (Mr. Fire himself) Has A Blog

eBooktastic — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 20:49:28 +0000

It looks like everybody is blogging now.

Joe Vitale, known as Mr. Fire, author of way too many books to list, including Hypnotic Writing, has set himself up with a blog.

The style is laid back and casual. He really does draw you into his world and we can hear the true voice of Joe Vitale the person, instead of just Joe Vitale the marketer.

Check out Mr. Fire’s new blog if you have a moment - it’s sure to be a hit with your feed reader.

November Contest: Get A Free Copy of Google Profits

eBooktastic — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 22:17:46 +0000

Since eBooktastic just recently launched this blog, we figure we should start it right - by giving you something!

Because we’ve just finished our in depth Google Profits review and it turned out to be an excellent eBook, we believe it would be a fitting prize for our November contest. So 3 lucky (or rather creative) people will receive a copy of Wade Winger’s Google Profits ebook.

“Combine AdWords and ClickBank for Huge Online Profits”
Make $1000’s per month. No website needed. No product needed. Profit within hours.”

[Learn more about Google Profits]

I bet you’re saying to yourself, “Geez, how can I be one of the lucky…er…creative people to get a free copy of Wade Winger’s Google Profits eBook?” — Easy peezy lemon squeezy, just tell us why we should get it for you.

There’s a catch though (oh no, the shock, the horror), but don’t worry, it’s nothing life threatening - you just need to start your entry with:

“After reading eBooktastic’s Google Profits review, I believe that the fine folks at eBooktastic should give me a free copy because…” with a link back to the Google Profits review.

We’ll even make it super easy for you, just copy and paste the code below to your website or blog:


After reading eBooktastic's Google Profits review,I believe that the fine folks at eBooktastic should give me a free copy because...

(replace the ‘…’ with your reason ).

Once you have your entry online, take a moment to leave us a note in the comment’s section with a link back to your site (and please provide a working email address where it asks for one - it won’t be shown) or you can even trackback this entry from your blog - but please make sure there’s a way to contact you on your website in the event that you win!

The contest will end Sunday December 4, 2005 at midnight PST. We will review each of the entries and reveal a winner by Friday December 9, 2005 (see, just in time for the holidays) and if you win, we will order a copy of the Google Profits eBook just for you.

No boot leg copy - this is the real deal. The receipt and everything will be emailed straight to you along with download details. Just our way of saying - thank you for helping to get the word out and making the eBooktastic news blog a successful one.

The Fine Print:

Our decisions are final, but don’t worry, we plan to have a lot more contests and giveaways. Sign up for the newsletter if you want to be kept in the know.
We will close comments on this thread at Midnight PST Sunday December 4, 2005 and we’ll announce the winners here (no, we won’t publish your email address - just the link to the site)
If we can’t get in touch with you, then, you can’t win - if you trackback, make sure you at very least have a working contact form on your site

Now - go get the word out and get creative - tell us why we should get you a copy of Wade Winger’s Google Profits!

Don’t forget - you can invite others to join as well - we are giving out more than one!

Technorati Tags: wade winger, google profits, google adwords, affiliate marketing, contest, giveaways, free ebook

Google Profits: It’s Really Not A Google Cash Rehash

eBooktastic — Thu, 10 Nov 2005 20:14:30 +0000

Finally a book that truly demystifies making money online, and does it in plain English. Google Profits by Wade M. Winger (edited by Denise Blankenship) is an online business related ebook centered around earning money through Google AdWords and ClickBank affiliate products.

What To Expect From Google Profits

The book is geared to those who are new to online or affiliate marketing and can even be of great value to intermediate affiliate marketers.
Google Profits explains, in plain English, what an affiliate program, Pay Per Click advertising, ClickBank, and Google AdWords are and why the latter two are the focus of the ebook.

Google Profits continues by explaining how to select affiliate products from ClickBank to market using the 5 step success formula.

Find a product
Set up an advertising campaign
Identify profitable campaigns
Start a full campaign
Expand (make more money)

Each step has supporting information separated into two parts: Information and Action. The information section gives an overview of the step and why it’s important. The action step outlines exactly what you need to do using the information provided.

Demystifying Google AdWords And Taking The Easy Route With ClickBank

Coming from an Internet Marketing background, I must say that most of the content provided is based on sound advice, especially the section on developing profitable AdWords campaigns. However, I don’t fully agree with his suggestion to blatantly copy other advertisers if you draw a blank.

It seems like a very bad habit in my opinion and doesn’t teach creative thinking. I would suggest emulating the other advertisers. Learn from their ad and then craft a better one.

In addition to the excellent section on developing successful AdWords campaigns, I wish the book included at least a small section on how to manage or keep track of the campaigns. That was an instance I was glad to have Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook because it has some great tips for managing and estimating the profitability of AdWords campaigns.

The section on expanding the successful campaigns could have also used a few more details on the advertisers other than Overture and Search123 needing a landing page.

A brief blurb on why he liked the listed advertising sources, any caveats to using them, and any other notes the reader should be aware of before deciding to use them would definitely have enriched the section.

But all in all, my mind was finally able to wrap itself around some of the concepts which seemed so confusing in other articles or ebooks. I now have a much clearer understanding of how to get started advertising with Google AdWords. While it may not be the definitive guide to Google AdWords, it’s certainly enough to get someone ‘new to the game’ started right away.

When Google Profits gets into the ClickBank section, the book states “go to ClickBank and search through the 11,000+ affiliate programs.” That may cause some confusion to someone just starting out because ClickBank does not have search function. But he does clear it up when he goes into the explanation for finding the products via the ClickBank marketplace.

Google Profits Makes For Easy Reading

Google Profits is written for the layman, complete with a step by step walk through and screen shots. While the language wasn’t completely elementary, it didn’t contain an overabundance of technical or ‘buzz’ words.

The paragraphs were of a manageable length and the size of the font when printed made for comfortable reading. Because of this relaxed writing style, language, and structure, I found learning from it to be exceptionally easy and enjoyable.

However, there were an odd number of simple grammatical errors for an ebook which has an actual editor. Though not many, it was still slightly perturbing to see them. But not to worry, they certainly didn’t take away from the readability or informational integrity of the ebook itself.

This is an ideal book for those just starting out online or even intermediate online marketers who have been shying away from using Google’s AdWords program because it seemed too complicated or time consuming. I actually felt pumped up and eager to get started before I even arrived at the first ‘Action’ section, but I wanted to read it through once for comprehension before starting.

Final Thoughts and Helpful Advice When Getting Google Profits

If you truly want to get started online with affiliate marketing, it doesn’t get any easier than Google Profits, but make sure you have at least $100 to build up some momentum. Once you’ve established yourself in the black, then take some of that profit and reinvest in to build up a stable monthly income.

If you wish to truly expand and build a business out of affiliate marketing, I’d recommend purchasing Rosalind Gardner’s Super Affiliate Handbook to expound on the Google Profits Success Techniques.

At the end of the day, I give Google Profits 4 out of 5 stars.

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To leave your own review of Google Profits or to read other ebooks and learn how you can save money on future ebook purchases, visit eBooktastic

This article may be reprinted online as long as the original links and author bio box remains unaltered.

Technorati Tags: google profits, wade winger, denise blankenship, google adwords, clickbank, affiliate marketing