Direct Mail Marketing vs. Email Marketing: What’s Best for Your Small Business?

Synopsis
Direct mail marketing and email marketing both have their advantages and disadvantages. But, both are an efficient and cost-effective way to find new customers, make new sales, up-sell to current customers, and stay connected with existing customers. And best of all, both of these marketing methods can be easily implemented into the marketing plans of even the smallest business on a very tight budget.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn the advantages and disadvantages of direct mail marketing and email marketing.
2. You will learn how you can decide which method is best for your small business.
3. You will learn the benefits of using both methods at the same time. Continue reading

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4 Simple Low-Cost Ways to Improve Your Outbound Marketing Efforts

Synopsis
Among the basic foundations of a thriving profitable business is an active, ongoing, and professional-looking outbound marketing presence. It doesn’t matter if you are a home-based business, or one-person professional office, or a business with many employees. This list doesn’t change no matter how small or large your company is now.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn the basic differences between “outbound” and “inbound” marketing.
2. You will learn four simple and effective ways to improve your outbound marketing efforts.
3. You will learn just how imperative it is for your success to keep updating and improving your outbound marketing efforts. Continue reading

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4 Myths about Sell Sheets That Can Ruin Your Book Sales

Synopsis
Understanding the myths and misperceptions that many self-publishers have about the role of their book’s sell sheet can dramatically improve a book’s overall success. Having a well-prepared and professional-looking sell sheet for your book will go a long way to prove to the distributors, wholesalers, and bookstore retailers that you are serious about the success of your book.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn about the four biggest myths about sell sheets that can harm your book sales.
2. You will learn how these myths can keep your book hidden in obscurity, not helping anyone.
3. You will learn just how important a role the sell sheet can play in the success of your book. Continue reading

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5 Signs Your Sell Sheet Needs a Makeover

Updated September 14, 2023

Subtitle
If your sell sheet driving is not driving the results you want or need, it might be time for a makeover

Synopsis
Is your sell sheet driving the results you want or need? If not, it might be time for a makeover. The solution may be to rebrand, adjust your value proposition, or modify your existing marketing strategy before these five danger signs become unavoidable headaches.

The Professor with a clipboard

What You Will Learn
1. You will learn the five signs that your sell sheet needs to be redesigned, rethought, and rewritten.
2. You will learn how to analyze your sell sheet’s message.
3. You will learn to recognize if your reading audience has changed, shifted, or grown. Continue reading

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7 Questions to Ask before Writing Your Book’s Sell Sheet

Synopsis
A sell sheet is not as simplistic as it might first appear. It’s much more than a simple list of physical facts about your book, and a picture of you and your book. It’s a sophisticated and calculated strategic marketing tool that can help you achieve several important goals at once. The following seven questions will help you develop an amazing and powerful sell sheet that will help you start to sell more books.

The Professor And The Sell Sheet Book

What You Will Learn
1. 7 questions you must ask yourself that will help you develop a powerful sell sheet.
2. Why you must determine who your audience is for your book’s sell sheet, and why would they buy your book.
3. Why you must calculate what you should say that will grab the reader’s attention so that they will read your entire sell sheet, and still want more information. Continue reading

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7 Things Readers Notice When Picking up a Book

Updated September 13, 2023

Subtitle
Understanding the buyer’s first impression of your book can boost your book sales significantly

Synopsis
If you hope to have your book achieve financial and critical success, you must understand the book shopper’s perception of your book when they first see it. Once you understand their thought process, you can adjust your book accordingly and significantly improve your chances of making a sale.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn how to improve your book’s sales by fully understanding how your readers perceive you and your book.
2. You will learn what specific questions you must ask yourself to improve the reader’s perception of you and your book.
3. You will learn what readers first notice about your book and how those things can affect their perceptions. Continue reading

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Who Should Be Acknowledged in Your Book?

Updated February 9, 2023

Subtitle
Recognizing and thanking those who helped you will help make your book more successful

Synopsis
The Acknowledgments is an excellent place to thank those who helped along the way to publishing your book. You should include those who had a meaningful impact on you and your book. Here is a list to help you get started.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn who you should thank for helping you.
2. You will learn who should be in the Acknowledgments.
3. You will learn how and why the Acknowledgements are an excellent place to connect emotionally with the reader. Continue reading

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10 Great Reasons to Self-Publish Now

Updated April 27, 2023

Subtitle
Self-publishing can be a fascinating and profitable way to improve your career, bank account, self-esteem, and business

Synopsis
Self-publishing can be a fascinating and profitable way to improve your career, bank account, self-esteem, and business, all at the same time. It is also a fantastic way to share your experience and knowledge worldwide. Here are ten great reasons that explain why self-publishing is a great business to get into.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn ten reasons to consider self-publishing your book now.
2. You will learn why sharing your experiences and knowledge with the world is much easier now.
3. You will learn how and why the many benefits of self-publishing far outweigh the drawbacks. Continue reading

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What Is Print-On-Demand (POD) Publishing?

Synopsis
Print-on-demand (POD) publishing is a way to have books immediately printed and bound AFTER a customer places an order for the book. This can be a very efficient, fast, and cost-effective way to get books into the hands of customers and readers. The ability to create and sell books, without having to pay for and take delivery of a large inventory of them, has been a major blessing for small and independent publishers.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn the definition of just-in-time production, and how it relates to POD.
2. You will learn how and why POD has transformed the world of self-publishing.
3. You will learn the reasons why POD is beneficial to large and small publishers. Continue reading

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The 5 Elements of Successful Online Marketing

Synopsis
If you want to share your book with the world, and thereby help as many people as possible, and make some money doing that, you’ll need to treat your book like a product that your business sells. And that means learning about marketing, especially online marketing. But don’t stress out over this. It’s actually an interesting process that can also become a very enlightening learning experience.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn about the fundamental elements of a successful marketing plan.
2. You will learn how these elements are defined, and how they can help you sell more books.
3. You will learn how and why you must treat your book like a product that your business sells. Continue reading

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10 Amazing Low-Cost Ways to Market Your Book

Updated September 24, 2023

Subtitle
Practical, popular, proven-to-work, and inexpensive ways to market your book

Synopsis
Here is a beginner’s list of practical, popular, proven-to-work, and low-cost ways to market your book. The steps to marketing your book and deciding which avenues look promising for you might take several months to figure out. But all the tips on this list are straightforward to set up, are generally low maintenance, and have low or no cost to you.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn several low-cost and low-maintenance marketing tips for your book.
2. You will learn how to develop a robust and easy-to-maintain book marketing plan.
3. You will learn how and why book sales depend on using several different marketing avenues simultaneously. Continue reading

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Getting a Big Name to Write Your Book’s Foreword

Synopsis
Getting a “big-name” to write the foreword for your book is a great way to jump-start bigger sales and get positive publicity for your book. If you’re an unknown author, getting a notable leader in your field to write your foreword is essential if you want to get readers to take a chance on you and buy your book. Having your name associated with a VIP will greatly enhance your credibility within your industry and with your readers. Here’s a quick introduction to get you started.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn how and why getting a VIP to write your book’s foreword will jump-start your sales.
2. You will learn how to explain to the VIP that writing your foreword is a win-win for you and the VIP.
3. You will learn how and why a foreword is similar to a recommendation about you and your book. Continue reading

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10 Basic Steps to Setting up Your Blog

Updated September 24, 2023

Subtitle
The benefits of setting up a blog can be very rewarding

Synopsis
There is a learning curve to successful blogging. It will take several months to thoroughly learn most aspects of blogging and how to do it successfully. But the benefits that you and your business might gain can be enormous. Here are ten essential basic steps that you must take to set up your blog correctly.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn the most critical and essential steps to setting up your blog.
2. You will learn concrete tips for making your blog look professional.
3. You will learn how and why these steps can help your readers appreciate and trust your blog. Continue reading

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Do the Best Book Ideas Originate in the Marketplace or in the Heart of the Author?

Marketplace Or Heart: Where Do The Best Book Ideas Originate?

Synopsis
This is one of the initial big questions would-be authors ask when they finally decide that they want to write their first book. The answer isn’t as elusive as many might believe. And dealing with this question early in the writing process will help ensure your book will achieve some measure of success. Here’s a short discussion to help you figure out where to find the answer.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn why and where the best book ideas originate from.
2. You will learn the difference between what the market wants, and what you want.
3. You will learn where and how to find and develop your book ideas that have a good chance of becoming a success. Continue reading

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What Makes a Great Sell Sheet?

Synopsis
On its surface, the sell sheet might simply look like a static piece of marketing material. But, under the surface, it’s actually a practical, useful, and powerful marketing tool. Here’s a quick discussion of the 3 key ingredients needed to create a powerful sell sheet that’ll help you sell more books.

The Professor And The Sell Sheet Book

What You Will Learn
1. You will learn the three ingredients a sell sheet must possess in order to become a powerful marketing tool.
2. You will learn why a sell sheet must be flexible enough to accomplish several marketing tasks at once.
3.You will learn what it means for your sell sheet to have a clear message and objective. Continue reading

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Direct Mail Marketing for the Self-Publisher

Synopsis
Many self-publishers have probably forgotten the power of this marketing strategy – or don’t believe that this method can work for a tech-savvy self-publisher. But, for the authors of non-fiction, especially those that own a business, a book’s marketing plan isn’t complete without some use of direct mail.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn why direct marketing can be a good marketing tool for the self-publisher.
2. You will learn why direct marketing is still relevant in today’s fast-paced and high-tech world.
3. You will learn exactly how I continue to build my list of names and addresses. Continue reading

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10 Cons of Self-Publishing

Updated April 19, 2023

Subtitle
Reasons Self-Publishing Might Not Be for You

Synopsis
The odds against becoming a successful self-publisher can seem daunting. But if you are serious about seeing yourself in print and using your writing to help as many people as possible, then no number of negatives can stop you from accomplishing your goals. Here are ten reasons why self-publishing might not be suitable for you to get into when trying to publish your new book.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn the most common reasons self-publishing can be disheartening.
2. You will learn about some of the major stumbling blocks that make self-publishing seem too daunting to start.
3. You will learn why self-publishing might not be the right path to explore. Continue reading

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What Is Self-Publishing?: A Quick Overview

Synopsis
Self-publishing is where you, the author, bypass all the intermediaries that are involved in traditional publishing. These intermediaries do the editing, designing, illustrating, marketing, promotion, etc. of your book. As a self-publisher, you get to choose which functions you want to do, and which ones you need to hire someone to help you.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn how I define what self-publishing is all about for me.
2. You will learn why I find it important to define self-publishing as a business.
3. You will learn about the 3 main stages that the process of self-publishing can be broken down into. Continue reading

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7 Key Ingredients Needed to Create Compelling Blog Content

How To Create Great Content For Your Blog

Synopsis
In order to attract readers to your blog, and actually get them to read your writing, you must create compelling content. This means that your content must quickly get the reader’s attention – and hold on to it. But, at the same time, you must make an emotional connection with the reader. Compelling content will help the reader start to believe you and trust you, and will in turn help build an emotional connection with the reader. This is what will make your blog a success.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn the most important ingredients necessary in order to create compelling content on your blog.
2. You will learn why compelling content is so important to your blog’s success.
3. You will learn how and why these ingredients work together to help you build a long-lasting and profitable relationship with your readers. Continue reading

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8 Tips to Using Testimonials and Endorsements to Promote Your Book

Synopsis
Testimonials and endorsements must be an integral part of your self-published-book marketing program. They should be shown and used everywhere and anywhere you have an opportunity to show them. These eight tips will give you a very powerful way to take advantage of your testimonials and endorsements to help you sell many more books.

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What You Will Learn
1. You will learn eight specific places to use testimonials and endorsements to help promote your book.
2. You will learn exactly why you must get testimonials and endorsements from a wide variety of people.
3. You will learn how and why testimonials and endorsements can give you a powerful advantage over other authors. Continue reading

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