Notes from Minnesota

I've been incredibly intrigued with e-books lately. With Amazon demanding more and more from publishers, with paper prices going through the roof, with publishing options blooming like a peony, I've been using e-books more and more as my freelance career matures.

They simply make good sense. You can create great content, test an idea, tinker with price points, and test your marketing chops... all in the matter of weeks. It's like a writing triathlon, except the only person you're “racing” is yourself.

Oh... and did I mention that you can make money in the process?

It's a mighty interesting freelancing proposition, writing, producing, and marketing e-books. And they become even more intriguing when you consider that most writing contracts consider a 10 - 15 percent royalty on book sales pretty darn generous.

So, it's with this in mind that I'm presenting a short primer in e-book production. I hope you enjoy (and profit) from this issue of Writing Etc.

Best,

Beth

P.P.S. Be sure to check out our best sellers.

A Mindset Moment

Hey Freelancer,

Outside influences, places, and events will always vie for your attention and will continually attempt to sway you to their opinion of reality.

Truth is, reality lives strong in your heart. Once you unfailingly trust your intuition, your freelance career has the power to really take flight and exceed your wildest dreams.

Onward and upward!

(Mindset Moment)

Beth's Hot Pick of the Week

Today's topic: E-books. If you want a step by step road map from the master of Internet information marketing, this resource is a definite must-have for your library.

I've sold a ton of e-books and had developed what I thought was a pretty nifty system. Well, this particular e-book pointed out a number of techniques I can immediately implement to tighten the ship, streamline the process, and (woo-hoo) ratchet up profits. I like that.

Written in his clear, straight-forward style, Bob Bly outlines a simple step-by step method to ensure a profitable adventure. From choosing the right topic, to processing orders, from driving an audience to your website, to back-end sales... this thorough resource guide is a steal, coming in at under 20 bucks (that's 40 dollars less than his regular price).

I'm not sure when Bob'll withdraw this offer so I suggest if you've ever contemplated dipping your toe in the e-book pool, grab your copy right now.

Enjoy! Click here for all the info.

How to Take Control of Your Freelance Career

Beth Ann Erickson

It's frustrating. Since the economy got tough, I receive e-mails every week from panicking freelancers begging for “tricks” to boost their income... query hints, hot market ideas, the best places to land writing assignments.

Truth is, as the economy tightens, freelance opportunities tend to become stronger. Let me explain...

In a booming economy, people are tossing their discretionary income left and right. Selling becomes easier than shooting fish in a barrel. As the economy tightens, it actually requires a fair amount of skill to effectively sell products, services.

This is where freelancers come in.

Those freelancers who have taken the time to grow their marketing savvy, those who can boot the profit of their clients will automatically find themselves with enough work to keep more than busy.

On the general freelance writing side of things, the picture has changed a bit. Publications are closing their doors. Newspapers are cutting staff. Lean times are surely upon us. That's the bad news. The good news?

Again, writers who know how effectively market their wares will weather the storm just fine. And the writers who take matters into their own hands and take control of their freelance career can, quite possibly, thrive during this downturn.

It's been my experience that, as a freelancer, if you rely upon your sales skills to not just sell one article, but to sell something that has the potential to provide a long-lasting income, you've just taken control of your own career.

Of course, I'm talking e-books. Now, as a professional writer, I'm assuming you can whip together a fantastic, information packed, e-book. What may trip you up, however, is selling it.

But if you've ever written an effective query, you pretty much know the major elements of a great sales letter.

It takes just a bit longer to craft a nice sales letter for an e-book, after all, it takes time to draft an effective query as well. On the plus side, once you've uploaded your sales letter, you can continually tweak it based on the conversion rate you're currently experiencing.

You can ascertain the effectiveness of your selling technique when you know how many people are visiting your site versus how many actually purchase your e-book.

But let's break this a part. First, how do you get traffic to your website?

Driving traffic to your website is actually not that hard once you learn a few tricks. Writing articles, e-mag sigs, and a prudent use of Google Adwords can do wonders in this regard.

But the best part of creating and selling e-books is this: once you've got your system in place, it's virtually hands-free. You wake up each morning, check your stats to see how many books you sold in the last 24 hours, and you're free to do whatever you'd like to do the rest of the day.

It really is that easy... if you know the secrets to successful e-book setup, marketing, etc.

And if you enjoy the income you can generate from one e-book, imagine what you can do with two, three, four, perhaps more e-books working hard for you.

This is a large subject, far too huge for the scope of a short e-mag article. If you're interested in an incredibly detailed map, a thorough step-by-step guide outlining all the specifics you need to do to make your e-book highly profitable, just click here. I highly recommend this resource.

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Beth Ann Erickson is the “Queen Bee” of Filbert Publishing. She’s also the author of numerous titles including “101 No Cost and Low Cost Secrets To Turbo Charge Your Freelance Income.” Pick up your copy today at http://filbertpublishing.com/101.html   She’s also a busy copywriter, speaker, and publisher of Writing Etc., the free e-mag for writers.

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I Recommend:

Writing For Dollars! The FREE ezine for writers featuring tips, tricks and ideas for selling what you write. Receive the FREE ebook, 83 WAYS TO MAKE MONEY WRITING when you subscribe. Email to subscribe@writingfordollars.com -*-

http://www.WritingForDollars.com

WRITERS FIND MARKETS EASILY - Worldwide Freelance has a NEW fully-searchable Markets Database. Discover writing markets from North America, Europe, Australia and other places. It's free, so come and try it out

here: http://www.worldwidefreelance.com

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