In This Issue

• Feature Article: 5 of the Biggest Mistakes People Make
  When Marketing Their E-books And How To Avoid Them
  
  
• Tech Tip: Hide Your Download Pages From The Search Engines
  
  
• The E-book Nook Review: How To Build Support At Home For Direct Sales By Mark Semple

My husband Christen and I spent last week in Solana Beach just North of San Diego . I hadn't had a vacation in several years . We actually slept the first day and a half! Then we graduated to laying on the beach doing nothing. And eventually we were ready to play.

Then Hurricane Katrina hit and I sat in front of my t.v. and wept. Then I got really angry and got on the phone and made a donation to the Red Cross after they assured me that they were going to get food and water to those poor people in the convention center!

You can make a donation at: The Red Cross, The Salvation Army or The United Way to name a few.

Then I wept again as I watched a newsman carrying a cute little dog in his arms that was shaking, having just been separated from his owners. To help the animals you can go to the U.S. Humane Society or the ASPCA.

I agonized whether I should send out emails last week about the Quick-Start 3 Day E-book Authoring Workshop but my support team urged me to keep going and reminded me that the more people I can help get what they need, the more I will be able to give and the more people I help become successful, the more they will be able to give. So I just kept moving forward.

This hurricane also got me thinking about disasters. I got an email from a friend of mine who was in New Orleans when the hurricane hit. He said that people have a laid back attitude in New Orleans and didn't take it seriously enough.

I live in earthquake country and we tend to feel the same way about earthquakes. There's always the possibility of a terrorist attack as well. This got us thinking seriously about what we would do in either of these situations. We realized that we must be as prepared as possible in the future. I hope that you will take stock as well because you just never know.

Joy & Success,

Ellen Violette, “The E-book Coach”
Creator of the Quick-Start 3-Day E-book Authoring Workshop
and the E-book Profit Coaching System

The Quick-Start 3-Day E-book Authoring Program for September is sold out! But it's not too late to get into the next Workshop which will be held October 14-16th (with preview calls Oct 11 & 13). This is for anyone who wants to create an e-book in three days or less guaranteed. It is done from the comfort of your home by telephone. I give six hours of instruction, then there are two Q & A sessions and then I am “on call” all weekend. Register by October 1st for $297.00 ( Regular price $399.00 ). This is absolutely the last time this program will be offered this year and at this price.

SAVE THE DATE
Sept. 22, 2005 - 6-7:00pm PDT / 9-10:00pm EDT
AND
October 4, 2005 4-5:30pm PDT / 7-8:30 p.m EDT
5 Biggest Mistakes People Make Marketing Their E-books and How To Avoid Them.

The E-book Coach also offers FREE teleseminars, articles, and other resources to help authors, small business owners and intrepreneurs harness the power of e-books to generate leads and make money on line in record time. To learn more now go to www.TheEbookCoach.com/teleseminars.htm

5 of the Biggest Mistakes People Make
When Marketing Their E-books And How To Avoid Them

Marketing your e-book isn’t difficult when you know the pitfalls and how to avoid them. 5 of the biggest mistakes people make are:
trying to do everything at once, designing a website just to look great, focusing too much on selling products instead of growing their list, not having a marketing plan, and failing to create innovative products that sell themselves.

The biggest problem I see is people trying to do everything at once; they get confused and overwhelmed and nothing gets done. They don’t know how to create an Internet business step-by-step that takes people through a funnel; they just start creating pieces that don’t work because they don’t understand the function of each piece or why they are creating them. When I work with people, I get them to look at what they are trying to accomplish in a systematic way. I then help them create the pieces that will move their customers through their funnel and get them to buy.

The second mistake people make is designing a website for looks, not sales. One of the problems is that people are ignorant; they rely on a web designer and many of them unfortunately don’t understand Internet marketing. I’ve seen people spend $10,000 on website design and still not have a website that works! It’s important to educate yourself so you know what you’re getting in a web designer. In my 10-week E-book Profit System Group Coaching Program you’ll learn what you need to know to create an effective web site whether you work with a web designer or do it yourself! And, I promise it will save you a lot of time, money and aggravation. To learn more go to http://www.theebookcoach.com/10weekgroup

The 3rd problem people make is creating too much product when they have no buyers! It’s better to approach it in layers and create the products you need to get started and then create more as you go. In the meantime, you want to work on building your list using one or two tactics at a time-not all at once. In my E-book Profit System Program, I’ll help you build a successful business that works!

Another problem is people focusing on selling their e-book to the exclusion of everything else. They fail to see other opportunities and streams of income- they leave a lot of cash on the table because they don’t understand how to capitalize on it all. You will learn all the different ways you can maximize the profits from your e-book, guaranteed in my program!

And finally, there are two ways to make money on the Internet, by marketing and by innovating. I think you need to do both and I can show you how so that you are considered the ONLY choice in your field. With my creative background and innovative programs, I’ve proved that I know how to do this and I can help you achieve the same kind of success in your business. So if you’re ready to get started right now and stop making excuses then go to http://www.ebooksprofitsecrets.com and learn how to grow your ebook/information product business from the ground up for 90% less and 5- to 75% than any other program out there and it really works!

@ 2005 Ellen Violette

Do You Want To Use This Article In Your Ezine or Web Site?

Feel free to reprint this article in its entirety in your ezine, on your website, blog, or autoresponder, as long as you leave all links in place, do not modify the content and include the following blurb with it:

E-book Coach, Best-selling Author, Intrepreneur, and Grammy-nominated songwriter, Ellen Violette, is the creator of the E-book Profit Coaching System. To learn more about this step-by-step e-book authoring and marketing system, and to sign up for her 9 FR.EE Secret E-book tips to making money on line, fr.ee teleseminars, tips, and more go to www.TheE-bookCoach.com

If you do use this article, please send us an email and let us know. Thanks.

How To Build Support At Home For Direct Sales
By Mark Semple

The core idea of this e-book is a good one- it's a subject you don't hear a lot about - how to support your spouse when they embark on a direct sales career. However it still needs quite a bit of work to put it over the top. It attempts to solve a problem but it gets bogged down talking about what to do when the problem isn't getting solved-the author really needs more clarity on his subject.

Title and E-Book Cover
The most important aspect of any e-book is the title and the book cover. If people aren't wowed by it, they are never going to read it. Unfortunately I found the title to be vague. I also found that the e-book itself didn't really support the title. The first few chapters don't talk about building support at all, they actually talk about how you have to believe in yourself and not look to others-especially in the beginning. Later the author talks about where to get support when you are not getting it at home. So rather than being about building support it's really about how to navigate the waters of a direct sale business with or without the support of others and then how to gather more support as you go. The title, the e-book cover and the subject matter all need to work more together.

Also, the e-book cover design itself confused me. It was soft and fuzzy but my eyes saw the words “direct sales” and because the title was vague there was a disconnect for me. I expected more power colors and an intensity that was missing. However, after I read the e-book and I realized that he was talking about love and support, the cover made more sense. Again, I'd make the title match the cover.

Design and Layout
There was not enough differentiation between the chapter headings and titles and the rest of the text. It would help to use bigger fonts for headings and sections and different fonts so that you could read them more easily. It would also add variety and look more professional. Another way to increase the readability is to use pictures or graphics but generally just changing fonts, using color and better layout will help a lot without getting too complicated or expensive. I suggest looking at other e-books, find fonts and layouts that are appealing to the eye and model them.

It would also help to have quotations set off in boxes or different colors so that they stand out from the text. In addition the use of bullets which were used in Chapter 3 could be used more effectively throughout the e-book to make it easier to
focus on the key points. In addition, the page numbers should start inside the e-book not on the cover.

Content and Writing Style
The table of contents gives you an idea of what to expect and is laid out well. The headings could be a bit exciting to draw you in and a little more descriptive as well. The terms “direct selling” and “direct sales” are used interchangeably and it seems a bit awkward switching back and forth.

There are also grammatical inconsistencies that make the e-book difficult to follow at times-including incomplete thoughts and changing from third person to first person. Sometimes when the author says “we”, he's actually talking about the person he is supporting but by including himself, it throws the reader off. I would recommend that the author have an editor or someone he trusts with good grammatical instincts edit the manuscript- that alone will make a big difference.

The short bio on the author is a nice touch at the end of the e-book and the photograph helps the reader to relate to the author.

The point of view is refreshing but I found that the e-book fell into clichés at times. I would like the author to dig a little bit deeper and give us more details on how to support a loved one in their business.

The e-book provides a nice list of references and resource, most of which were mentioned in the text. It would be helpful to have a short sentence about those works that were not referenced i.e. what is “Dinosaur Brains” and why would I want to read it?

Originality
With all the books and e-books on the market about sales and related subjects, this e-book covers an aspect of the sales industry that is important and not widely dealt with so the author gets an “A” for originality. Marketed to the right niche it could find an audience once it is reworked. It's a great start. I commend the author for having the courage to follow his dream of becoming an author. As they say it's 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration so just keep with it.

How To Build Support At Home For Direct Sales
- By Mark Semple