One the largest problems faced by Internet marketers is how to get more people to visit their web site. A greater number of visitors usually translate into a greater number of sales. But there are over 200,000 business web sites and that number grows daily. This means that there is a lot of competition for web site traffic. Most small business sites are luck to draw 500 to 1000 unique visitors a month. You are faced with a major problem: how to draw visitors to your site.
There are different methods that can be used to attract visitors to your web site. Some of these methods cost a lot of money, for example: Buying banner ads, advertising in magazines, or paying an expert to promote your site. The advertising budget of many small businesses is often too low to pay for a large promotional campaign.
Fortunately, there are many low cost promotional methods that can work wonders. Often these methods work better than paid advertising. This article describes one unique low cost method that can be very effective in attracting the kinds of people that are most likely to buy your product. This method is currently be used very successfully by a growing number of e-commerce sites.
This method entails producing an information software product and giving it away. The vast majority of people who use the Internet already own a computer. All of these people use a lot of different software programs. What computer user is not interested in a useful software program? Especially if that software product is FREE!
Most people also like to get FREE useful information about a variety of topics that interest them. Here is a way to meet both of these needs. Provide them with a book on disk that contains the kind of information that they are looking for. Here is an example.
Suppose that you are selling products for dog owners. Your goal is to attract as many dog owners as possible to your web site. Ask yourself: what type of information do dog owner's want, here are some possible answers:
"How to train your dog to be obedient."
"History and Special Features of various dog breeds."
"Natural ways to treat dog illnesses."
You do the research and then produce a report about each of the above and perhaps a few other topics. These reports can then be typed into the computer and made into an attractive E-book on disk or as a computer file that can be sent over the Internet. These reports can then be used as giveaways to draw visitors to your web sites. The user simply logs on to your web site, goes to the special download page, and then downloads the E-book.
For example I created an E-book called " 13 Hot Internet Moneymakers" I give this report away using several different methods. Anyone can go to my web site at http://www.homebiznews.com and download the E-book. The E-book serves as a method to draw people toward my book CASH FROM THE INTERNET. Another example is a company in Texas that recently created several recipes E-books and drew over 1000 request for it in the first three months.
Here are two very attractive features of e-books.
1. You can also send the e-book to many of the software download sites. This means that these sites are giving you free publicity and putting your file before thousands of potential customers.
2. You can also include links back to your web site. Thus anyone who is reading your e-book can then immediately visit your web site!
3. They cost very little to produce - virtually nothing if you send them over the Internet.
4. You can make changes or additions very quickly.
How do you produce an attractive E-book? The answer is by using Writer's Dream Software. Writers Dream will take plain text files and make it into an attractive E-book that can also contain pictures and sound files. The book starts out with Table of Contents that lists each chapter. The users just clicks on the chapter that they wish to read. Writers Dream ($39) comes in three versions (DOS, WIN 3.1 and WIN95) and creates stand alone exe files that are ready for you to distribute. Writers Dream is very easy to use. To find out more about WD visit the web site listed at the end of this article.
There are several other e-book software programs such as NeoBook ($149). Some authors also produce E-books in PDF format. However Writer's Dream is one of the easier to use and lower costing e-book creators.
KEYS TO A SUCCESSFUL E-BOOK
In order for this method to work your E-books must contain highly accurate and useful information that people are interested in. Of course the E-book should also be closely related to the kinds of products that you are marketing. This will help you to draw the kinds of people who are most likely to be interested in what you are selling. You should also make use of a few pictures and sounds to make your E-book a true multimedia experience.
Once the E-book is complete the next task is to get it distributed as widely as possible. There are literally hundreds of software download sites. Simply do a search on free software download sites. Then contact each site and send your E-book to them. They will list the E-book on their site and let their visitors download it immediately.
You can give the E-books away as free gifts from your web sites, at the many download web sites that exist on the Internet, as shareware, and by mail order advertising. Many small business owners are using this method as one way to attract more visitors. Your marketing effort should consist of several different methods. E-books can be one solid part of your overall selling campaign.
If you have trouble writing well then hire an expert to produce your e-book. Remember that you want a high quality product. If your E-book is poorly written or contains subpar information it will give your company a bad reputation.
Recently there are several companies that have produced elaborate e-books to sell rather than give away. Several of these businesses are having great success. In order to succeed by selling an E-book it must as informative and well written as any good printed book that you can get from a library.
E-books can be a valuable and unique product that your customer really wants. You can download a FREE e-book called 13 Ways To Earn Money on the Internet by visiting http://www.homebiznews.com/e-book. This will give you an idea of what an E-book can look like.
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Ed Simpson is the Publisher of Home Business News Newsletter a FREE publication that is packed with inside tips for anyone who wants to operate a successful home based business. You can subscribe by visiting http://www.homebiznews.com or sending email to esimpson@zoomnet.net with subscribe as the subject. Ed is the author of many books, including CASH FROM YOUR COMPUTER and CASH FROM THE INTERNET. For more information about Writers Dream software (and other software products) visit http://www.homebiznews.com/ebsale.htm
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Copyright 2000 Ed Simpson
