ROANOKE, VA – “Everybody’s doing it!” says Heather Jacobson, successful Internet marketer and virtual business owner. “It’s just a matter of time before you’ll be doing it too.” “That’s right, I’ve done it multiple times and I can’t wait to do it again!” says Laurie Dart, successful author and virtual business owner. What is IT? Writing e-Books, that’s what. Jacobson and Dart have put together an e-Book to help infopreneurs generate passive income. The Everyday Guide to Writing and Marketing Your e-Book Wisely combines their years of experience and education into an easy to use, easy to follow guide to help you write, publish and sell your own e-Book.
What’s all the excitement around passive income and what is an infopreneur? An infopreneur is an entrepreneur who makes money selling information on the Internet. Passive income is income that does not require your direct involvement. There is an initial investment of time in developing the product and there may be minor costs like the purchase of a domain name, but overall, the investment is minimal. Once you’ve recouped your costs, the income generated from future sales of your e-Book qualify as passive income.
Many successful infopreneurs generate a great deal of passive income selling information online. The most obvious advantage of being an infopreneur is the low overhead and high earning potential. Once you’ve written an e-Book, tele-seminar, e-course or other information product, it can be sold over and over again. It is even better than selling a traditional book because you do not have to print anything and you don’t have to jump through publisher hoops. The costs to produce a piece of information are the same whether you are selling to one person or to millions.
The Internet has changed the way people look for and acquire information. For many the Internet is an overwhelming network of unimaginable volumes of information difficult to navigate and lacking in credibility. Infopreneurs wade through the myriad of information available on the Internet weeding out erroneous or outdated information and consolidating and presenting current accurate information in easily accessible and understandable forms.
About The Everyday Guide to Writing and Marketing Your e-Book Wisely
Heather and Laurie have combined efforts to produce “The Everyday Guide to Writing and Marketing Your e-Book Wisely” a guide to writing, publishing and marketing your own e-Book. The process is not as intimidating as you may think. This e-Book answers all your questions from idea to income!
For more information visit the Web site at http://www.penandpublishebooks.com.
About Heather Jacobson
Heather Jacobson is the author of Making Dollars Out of Cents: 101 Tips for the Frugal Marketer, and is also the publisher of the popular ezine, Marketing Made Simple, a bi-weekly publication filled with simple marketing tactics designed to enhance one’s marketing efforts. An expert in implementing marketing campaigns for companies on a budget, Heather thrives on coaching others to achieve financial success. For more information, visit www.HeatherJacobson.com.
About Laurie Dart
Laurie Dart, owner of Writing Wisely is the author of The Everyday Guide to Writing Wisely. She provides writing and editing services to entrepreneurs and small business owners. To learn more about how you can improve your writing, visit: www.writingwisely.com.
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Use It Or Lose It
Orginially featured in the August 31st edition of Marketing Made Simple
Let’s face it…people like free stuff. You probably know people who attend Home Shows and Expos and go from table to table with a bag and gather as many freebies as they possibly can.
Because we know that people like free stuff we often try to send our own products to them as a sample so they can see what we have to offer. Many times we even take it a step further and personalize it for them. We have the mindset that just because they like free stuff, it’s an automatic in. That pen or calendar we send will last a while and, in turn, our telephone will ring off the hook with their orders.
Your customers are no different. They come to you, the distributor, to purchase promotional items to give away because they too know that people like free stuff. The next time you are at an expo take notice of how many people walk by a booth because there are no goodies on the table. It’s just the nature of the beast.
But, as a business owner, you are aware of the amount of direct mail you get each month. What sets one company apart from another? Do you think it’s a pen or a calendar? With a pen, something we all have too many of, it goes into the drawer typically never to be seen by the recipient again. In my home, they are stolen by one of my children who seem to think pens are disposable after one use.
The calendars? How many calendars do you get around the first of the year? How many calendars does one person possibly need? What makes your calendar different from the one they got from their insurance agent, their realtor, or the local dry cleaner?
While these are both inexpensive products that you can give away to your existing and potential customers, what other items do you have in your arsenal that might have a longer shelf life? This can include items that people don’t realize they need but can’t seem to live without once they have them or items that you can never have enough of.
Items that people don’t realize they need but can’t live without once they have them
Jar openers
Most everyone struggles at some point in time opening a jar lid. The average person does not know that there is a solution to the problem. So, when they go to the store, they are not looking for something to rectify the issue. They deal with it.
When they are introduced to the jar opener, they see they can easily open the lid with a flimsy piece of plastic. It becomes a necessity for them over time and when they lose it they truly realize the value in it. It becomes something they can’t live without.
Travel Alarm Clocks
How many times have you traveled for business and were so afraid that you would oversleep and miss that important meeting in the morning? When you are away from home you often feel out of your comfort zone and typically the alarm clocks in the hotels are different from the one to which you’ve grown accustomed. Rather than lugging your own alarm clock across country, wouldn’t you rather have a personal travel alarm clock that you know how to operate and you know is going to wake you up in the morning?
Zippy Letter Openers
A letter opener is a letter opener is a letter opener. Not necessarily. One of my clients recently discovered the Zippy letter openers after I recommended that she purchase them to give away at the conference she was attending with administrative professionals from all over the state.
It’s the little things that make people happy. I no sooner showed it to her and she began opening every envelope she could get her hands on. Shortly thereafter, that old point letter opener found its way to the trash can.
The average consumer would never make a special trip to the office supply store for a simple letter opener. It is one of those items that never seem to make it to the list of items needed. Before the Zippy letter opener was discovered I used my finger and oh how attractive those paper cuts were!
Items You Can Never Have Enough Of
Sticky notes
Can you imagine your life without sticky notes? They have been around since 1977 and by 1990 Post-Its were one of the top five office supply products sold in the United States. We now have computerized versions and those annoying pop-ups while surfing the internet are starting to look like them as well.
You can never have enough sticky notes! How many creative messages can you send with your sticky notes to a potential customer? Perhaps it’s a note pad in the shape of a foot with a little note that says, “Just wanted to get my foot in the door.”
Sticky notes are not going to go in the trash or into an unused drawer and more often than not will be seen by many.
Flashlights
How many times do you find yourself in need of just a little more light? There is always one place in your home, office, or vehicle that you wish you had a flashlight but always seem to forget to pick up an extra one.
For me, I wanted one in the office but never made it out to get one. When I need to plug something in to the back of the computer the extra light is always nice. A realtor gave me the one that I have now and I’ve had it for 4 years. It’s made 2 moves with me. The best part is I don’t have to traipse all over the house to find a flashlight when I need one. I’m now on a quest for a flashlight for my glove compartment.
We’re no different than anyone else. We like free things. As consumers, we are drawn to the word free. We all go to conferences and events only to slip away to see what everyone else is giving out. How many of us come home with promotional items that we didn’t bring with us? I normally come home with a big bag of goodies that I give to my children only after I’ve taken the cool gadgets out for me.
That’s right. The kids get the pens, pencils, plastic key chains and candy. Most of these items end up in the trash at some point in time. I keep the Zippy letter openers, sticky notes, travel mugs and jar openers.
Go through your inventory. Ask your friends. Determine what they use and ask them what promotional items they have in their home they just cannot live without. Make sure that what you give your potential customers will not find its way to the circular file or the bottom of a toy box.
About the Author:
Heather Jacobson is an expert in marketing and implements marketing campaigns for companies on a budget. Her favorite topic is frugal marketing, and her latest book, “Making Dollars Out of Cents: 101 Tips for the Frugal Marketer” demonstrates how to maximize your marketing budget. For more information visit www.HeatherJacobson.com
Permalink 7 CommentsOriginally featured in Young Wealth Weekly…
Your Time is Money…
How much time do you spend maintaining your business instead of building your business? Are you spending all of your time working on administrative stuff instead of doing what you love; doing what prompted you to start your business in the first place? Have you thought about hiring help but think it’s too expensive?
Then a Virtual Assistant is the answer. Virtual Assistants (VAs) are entrepreneurs, just like you, who assist others with maintaining and building their businesses with services from general administrative work to web design and maintenance.
You may think hiring an in house assistant is cost prohibitive for you at this point in time, but a VA might be exactly what you need to propel your business to the next level.
Pay only for the time that you need
A survey conducted by Salary.com and America Online reports that the average employee wastes 2.09% of their 8-hour workday. That can add up day after day, week after week. VAs only charge you for the time that they spend on your project, therefore, if the project takes two hours, then you will be billed for two hours. You do not pay for long lunches or time spent surfing the ‘net. You also do not pay for vacation or sick time.
VAs come fully equipped
Hiring an in-house assistant means providing them with an office and all the standard office equipment. VAs work virtually and therefore have all the equipment they need to assist you with your projects.
No Taxes
VAs are business owners and they pay their own taxes and their own insurance. These are both expenses you would incur if you hired an in house assistant.
How much is a week of your time worth?
Spending two hours each day on the backend of your business equates to 10 hours each week and 40 hours each month. Can you put a price tag on 40 hours of your time? What could you do with an extra 40 hours each month? How many additional billable hours would you gain? How fast could you turn around that new product?
Partnering with a VA will help you catapult your business to the next level. If you would rather be out building your business, a VA can help put together your website or get your marketing pieces done and out the door or help with whatever you need. Isn’t it time you invested in yourself and your business?
About the Author:
Heather Jacobson is the owner of Valley Virtual Assistants, a VA business catering to solopreneurs who require assistance with their marketing efforts. She is also the author of Making Dollars Out of Cents: 101 Tips for the Frugal Marketer and co-founder of the Virtual Assistant Revolution, a low-cost alternative to coaching for VAs. For more information, please visit http://www.heatherjacobson.com
Permalink 2 CommentsLast night, while watching “Deal or No Deal” I asked my boyfriend if he were on the show what outlook he would have. Would he take the stance that he had nothing to loose and keep going to try to win it all or would he have a target figure in mind and quit when he reached that point? I really asked this question because I was trying to figure out what I would do in that situation.
His answer was “I’m never going to be on the show so what does it matter?”
I was taken aback by his response and asked him, “don’t you have a lottery dream?”
It was then that I realized, he didn’t and that baffled me. I thought everyone had a lottery dream; something they thought about — fantasized about even, what they would do with all that money.
I have a lottery dream and it changes with the current situation of my life. Where I once would go purchase a home outright, I would now pay off my current home and fix it up just the way that I want it, sell it and then build a new home; the house up on the hill, my dream home. Complete with a dishwasher and a refrigerator that has ice and water coming out the front.
I would buy my purple mustang convertible that I’ve been pining over since I was 15 years old. I would put money aside to send our three little ones to college and pay off any student loans that the oldest has.
We would take a trip to Disney World, this time staying in one of the resorts, fly instead of drive and eat out every night. Oh the things I would do with that lottery money.
I have a different kind of dream for my business. It has nothing to do with winning the lottery, rather where I see my business in five years or ten years. Here’s where the dreams end and the visions begin. I have to win the lottery to make my lottery dream come true. I don’t play the lottery. You’ll probably never see that purple Mustang convertible in my driveway and I’ll send you a post card from Disney World talking about the drive down there and the house we rented a few miles from the park.
However, my business dream…the one where I have a book on the shelves of Barnes & Noble by 2016, the one where I’m working 3 days a week, 3 weeks out of the month, now that one – that one can come true. But it’s because I’m doing something about it. I working hard now, I’m laying the foundation; I can see the road in front of me. In essence, I’m playing the lottery for my business.
Do you have a dream for your business? Can you take that dream, turn it into a vision, and start working toward that dream? Do you want to make your dreams come true?
Start with your goals. What do you want for your business ten years from now, five years from now, two years from now, or even next year? Your goals could be as simple as hiring a VA to manage your email to as lofty as making six figures and subbing out all of your work. It’s your dream.
Keep reviewing your goals; see where you need to make adjustments. Perhaps you’ve changed your mind and you have a new vision for your business. That’s okay. Refigure where you want to go and how you’re going to get there.
Dreams can come true but only if you play.
Until next time…
Heather
Permalink 6 CommentsAfter joining Jimmy D. Brown’s List and Traffic Video Newsletter, I’ve been tweaking some of the processes that I use as well as joining with other list owners to help cross promote our publications. I’ve been working on co-authoring some eCourses as well so look for those in the upcoming weeks.
One of the things that I’ve done is work on my thank you page when someone signs up for the newsletter. When I began my newsletter, I needed a page to redirect my subscribers to once they signed up. Because I was in a rush to get it set up, I redirected them to the archives page of my newsletter.
Big Mistake #1.
When I had some free time I went back and made a thank you page that simply stated, “Thank you for subscribing. Your first issue will arrive shortly.” and listed the archives.
Big Mistake #2
What I failed to realize when I set up those two pages is that I had my visitor’s attention. They were already interested in what I had to say because I convinced them to sign up for my newsletter or eCourse and I let them get away. I missed an opportunity. I missed potential profits.
When I redesigned my thank you page I included the standard “thank you” and “make sure you look for your confirmation email”. I also instructed them to make sure they added me to their safe senders list to ensure they receive my emails. But this time I included “You may also be interested in these additional free offers:” and listed a free eBook, the opportunity to sign up for a free eCourse, and information about my favorite business author – all using my affiliate links.
Guess what happened? When I checked my affiliate stats, my click through rate increased 100% in just two days. 95% of those who subscribed to my newsletter also subscribed to the free eCourse I offered. My affiliate sales for the three products I promoted have doubled.
I’ve been publishing my newsletter for five months and it makes me sick to think about how much money I’ve lost because I didn’t take the time to talk to my visitors.
Do you know what’s mind blowing? Not only did it take me 30 minutes to set up the new thank you page, it didn’t cost me a dime. I already had all the information tucked away in my personal affiliate tool kit and was just too lazy to pull it out and put it to use.
Don’t make the same mistakes. Take a look at the page you’re redirecting your new subscribers to. Are you offering targeted product recommendations? Are you keeping them with you or just letting them close that window to possibly never return? Take thirty minutes of your time and the resources you already have available to you and update your redirect page.
Your bank account will thank you.
Want to use this article in your publication? You can as long as you include the following:
Heather Jacobson doesn’t spend a fortune on marketing if she doesn’t have to. To discover how she does it and claim your 10 inexpensive marketing tips visit http://www.inexpensive-marketing-ideas.com
Permalink 4 Comments