Ebooks, selling and hosting

Reg from Elemental Truths writes about selling and hosting ebooks. He's used Quickshare before to host a free ebook, but they eventually deleted it, and he's also wondering about "for sale" ebooks.

A common question I get!

First of all, if you have your own Web host as Reg does, you can stick it there (that means "host" it there). How to do it depends on the hosting provider you use, but typically they'll have some type of "File Manager" application which lets you point and click to upload it. You can give people the link via blog, email, smoke signal, etc. so they can download it.

Now if you want to "sell" it, you can use a shopping cart, for example my beloved KickStartCart, and either a merchant account to accept credit cards or you could use PayPal. PayPal is OK, but not everyone knows or trusts it, and some argue that it seems amateurish which may affect sales.

Now if you are only selling one ebook, and have no plans to expand your online adventures, KickStartCart and a merchant account is probably overkill, like having a cool Point Of Sale (POS) system for a neighborhood lemonade stand. You can just use PayPal which includes a very basic shopping cart which is OK if your selling one or a very few items.

There ARE other options too! There are companies that will help you sell your ebooks and deal with collecting money. Of course they'll want a cut, but it might just be worth it as they do most of the work.

One to consider is ClickBank, which deals in only digital products. For a one time setup fee of about $50, they'll help you sell inexpensive digital products, usually up to $50 although they make some exceptions. Their big advantage is their affiliate network and capabilities -- basically a small army of people that may help sell your product for a commission that you set.

I personally like SmartClips although I haven't used it yet. They provide free hosting and collect the money too. ZERO setup costs.

I wrote about SmartClips here. Seems like a no brainer if you're just getting your feet wet. They're smart, easy to use, ZERO costs to you, the publisher, and very flexible too.

Will CEO blogs ever Take Off?

Define "Take Off" :)

CEO blogs WILL become more popular. There will be more CEO blogs in the future -- of that I'm quite certain.

I can even imagine certain CEO Positions requiring the CEO blogs!

But most CEOs will never blog, at least with a "traditional" blog. Most CEOs, and companies, just aren't right for it, for a multitude of reasons.

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Ghost Blogging - Useful, or crime against nature?

One big reason CEOs and other executives give for not even considering blogging is the time commitment.

What about "Ghost Blogging" -- could this ease the time burden and the blogging still be effective?

The chorus of self righteous bloggers, and we are a self righteous group, are probably chanting "Evil", "Not Authentic" and "Burn Ghost Bloggers and Bloggees at The Stake" now!

Sure, a blog entirely produced and scripted is not going to be effective.

Continue Reading

3 BIG reasons CEOs should Blog

There are plenty of reasons for CEOs and other high level executives to blog. I'm skipping the "because communicating is good" and concentrating on the solid benefits in this list.

1) Blogs add a personality and face to a company. This can mean more business -- more dollars and cents.

Let's face it, people don't tend to trust big organizations anymore, whether it's the US Government, Microsoft, Worldcom, Enron, etc. People do however trust people they know, and like to do business with people they know and trust. When an executive blogs, they become part of the face and personality associated with the organization. They build trust. They build likability.

I never liked Sun Microsystems. They were an arrogant competitor from way back. I now occasionally read their president and CEO Jonathan Schwartz's blog, and I no longer think of them as the old arrogant Sun -- I rather like them these days.

2) Blogs influence the most important people.
Continue reading

Take Months Of Your Blog Learning Curve

Finally, the "Secrets of Successful Blogging" audio CDs are ready!

A few promo copies are done, and the rest will be done any day.

"You are telling me how to do exactly the things I want to do to grow my online presence to a new level!"

- Becky McCray,  Co-host of The Small Biz Startup TV and author of Small Biz Survival

If interested and you want a discount and special bonus, signup for BizBlog+ newsletter in the upper right corner for the special pre-release offer.

Should CEOs blog? (from the IAOC blog)

Should CEOs or other senior executives blog? That is an open question. Certainly some do, and do effectively.

Executives who blog include Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of General Motors, Jonathan Schwartz, President and CEO of Sun Microsystems, and Mark Cuban, owner of The Dallas Mavericks among other things.

Some of these blogs are easy to dismiss. Although Bob Lutz’s blog is great, GM is in such bad shape that perhaps this is a move of desperation? Companies in tough shape have little to lose by blogging or anything else. Sun Microsoft is a high tech company and lots of high tech companies blog – we can almost say there is a tradition here.  And Mark Cuban is, well, simply a maverick. Besides, as a billionaire entrepreneur, the rules are somewhat different. Oh yeah, he’s in high tech too.

How about . . .
More here at the International Association of Online Communications blog, where I'll be posting daily this week

Charging for Content -- Special Reports

Special Reports, in depth reports on a very small subject, are something you can sell.

The key is "in depth" and "very small subject" and it better be a subject that people really care about!  Inch wide and mile thick in an area people care about.

Many bloggers can easy develop special reports in their area and sell them. For example, I could probably sell a special report on "Blog Naming" -- Google sends me plenty of people daily searching on "blog names" so I know it's a hot topic.

I have someone in my mentoring program who is paying their mortgage selling a few special reports in their niche.

So how would I develop and sell a special report? I suggest writing it in Microsoft Word, making it 5 to 10 pages long, and then converting it to Adobe PDF format, the uber-popular cross platform document format. You can use Adobe's full featured multi-hundred dollar software or a free PDF converter. Adobe will also let you create up to 5 PDFs online for free.

I recommend you only sell electronic downloadable copies. This frees you from dealing with and shipping physical product AND allows interested people to immediately get the information, hopefully increasing sales.

Selling price? Perhaps $5-$10. You'll need to test prices and it'll depend on your niche too.

How to sell? I recommend KickStartCart as probably everyone knows and use it myself. You can also use PayPal's free shopping cart which is pretty basic but OK.

Why pay for KickStartCart if PayPal is free? Think of the difference between a helpful salesperson who suggests other items you might be interested in, basically helps you sell, and the braindead checkout person I experienced at Walmart today who obviously didn't want to be there and wasn't remotely helpful.

More on Blog Shopping Carts
Example of Special Reports for sale
Thanks to James Taylor for encouraging me to write this.

Why I'm not going to podcamp Boston Oct 26-28

I loved podcamp last year. It was the most valuable (un)conference I went to all year, and I went to a good dozen events.

You don't need to be a blogger or podcaster to attend or get value. It's FREE.

I ranted and raved about how cool it was.

I claimed "We are the Neo-Hippies" or something similar, and I meant it as a compliment!

I met cool people, including Mitch Joel, a big guy named Guido podcasting passionately about knitting, guys with high tech companies doing fascinating stuff, people doing free music shows and musicians, and video production people?

I saw great people I knew, but sometimes hadn't met in person like Bryan Person in Person, Christopher Perennial Penn, and Chris "Sorry You Got Cut From my Book" Brogan.

I learned, I drank beer, I made merry.

So why aren't I going? Unfortunately something else had been booked way before the date was set :(

I'm not going to podcamp Boston Oct 26-28, but you should! And if you can't, there are podcamps everywhere. Capetown or Perth anyone?

Can Blogging get you Press?

Can Blogging get you Press? Can it get you attention from the mainstream media? How do you do it?

The answer of course is yes, absolutely, you can get press, and you don't need to be an uber-blogger or even blog daily/weekly/etc.

Now I get press, but sometimes it's unclear whether I'm contacted because of my blog or my books, however plenty of bloggers ARE contacted by the mainstream media because of what they write on their blogs.

Stephen Turcotte, who only blogs every month or so, has quite a bit of success getting media coverage as he writes in How Blogging Can Get You Press Coverage.

His tips for success? Simple. In his words, He takes:

questions that I was hearing over and over again from my target audience and tried to offer my own insight and perspective on the matter. I laid it out there and cited a few related posts that helped make my point. Days, months or years later a journalist does a search in Google, finds my post and says here’s a person that will give me a good quote or two. I made their job very easy.

Journalists are overloaded and always under deadlines. They use search engines a lot for research. Make their jobs simple, and they'll love to quite you and give you visibility.

And if no one notices? Well, you can still claim, as I do, to have been quoted by USA Today, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe and even Pizza Marketplace Today :)

Who cares? Well, people considering hiring me or buying my products.

Press helps creates expert status and makes you more credible -- it's that simple.

Blog Action Day

Yesterday was Blog Action Day:

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

Unfortunately, let's be serious -- we're trashing the planet. For starters there are just too many of us to go on living and trashing things the way we are. Maybe if there were only a few millions of us, but there aren't anymore.

Check out Frugalist's 57 ways to help.

You also might want to take up hunting or fishing -- hunters and fishermen are the most environmentally aware, and active, people around! Hunters have essentially saved African wildlife (I don't hunt, but I did shoot a wild cow in New Zealand once -- long story).

So why didn't I post yesterday on Blog Action Day?

Simple -- I biked to work instead of driving my car. And since it's about 40 miles round trip, I didn't bring my laptop with me!