| (print New Service Introduction Letter on business letterhead) March 15, 20xx Send To Customer List Customer Address – Line 2 Customer Address – Line 3 Customer Address – Line 4 Customer Address – Line 5 Dear [Customer Name]: New Child Care Center For Busy Parents! This is to let you know that on April 1, 20xx we will be introducing our brand new state-of-the-art Customer Child Care Center at our downtown location on University Street. We have taken this initiative because we talked to our customers and you told us that such a service ranks high on your priority list. We listened to you. Then we hired one of the best experts available for designing such programs and facilities, Dr. Claire Reinholdt. As most of you will know, Dr. Reinholdt is a successful and highly respected child psychologist who has penned two best-selling books about her specialty. We told Dr. Reinholdt that our general requirement was for a child care program and facility at which people could leave their children in a safe and educational environment for periods of between one and four hours while they shopped in our store. What she has designed is a leading-edge program and facility, staffed by accredited professionals, that is one-of-a kind in North America. We invite you to take advantage of this new service the next time you are in the market for anything from clothing, to furniture, to home appliances. Not only will you be well taken care of by our professional sales staff, your children will be in the safe care of the professionals at our new Customer Child Care Center. We look forward to seeing your whole family! Yours very sincerely, Charlotte Renfrew Vice-President, Customer Services |
Online Publishing Profits:
Boost Your Sales With Online Publishing
This is the first in my series of articles that explain the Online Publishing Model and how small-time authors and/or self-publishers can use the OPM as a viable alternative to the often archaic and dysfunctional traditional book publishing model.
Typically, you will create your book/ebook in a source word processing program such as MS-Word or WordPerfect. Once you have converted it into PDF format you’ll be ready to start selling it via the three primary channels that make up the Online Publishing Model: 1. Sales-Mini-Sites, 2. Digital Download Distributors, 3. Print-On-Demand (POD) Distributors.
This article explains the three primary channels of the Online Publishing Model (OPM). It’s an excerpt from my book/ebook Instant Book Writing Kit http://InstantBookWritingKit.com
After a number of disappointing experiences using the traditional book publishing model I decided to see if I could find a way that would eliminate all or most of the downsides of that conventional approach to publishing. After almost three years of trial-and-error experimentation (not to mention a few thousand dollars), I did manage to come up with a real, viable alternative to the old way.
It’s called the Online Publishing Model and it’s pretty exciting!
Based on my experience using the OPM since that time, I am truly convinced that it is the KEY to publishing success for small time authors and/or self publishers in the Internet age.
THE ONLINE PUBLISHING MODEL
The Online Publishing Model is a combination of online digital download delivery and print-on-demand (POD) paper book publishing that sidesteps most of the pitfalls of the traditional book publishing model.
It offers small-time authors/publishers an excellent alternative that will give them more control, and will increase their sales and profits by using little known online channels when publishing their books/ebooks. Here’s how it works…
OPM: THREE MAIN DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS
Using this model, once your book/ebook is written, there are a number of online channels through which you can distribute and sell your book/ebook, as follows:
- Dedicated Sales-Mini-Site
First and foremost, once your book/ebook is written you need to create what’s called a “mini-Website” (i.e. sales-mini-site) for the sole purpose of selling your product. Trust me, this is the only way to go. You MUST have a site dedicated to the sale of that one book/ebook. Search engines will send targeted traffic to your site and your site copy will make the sales online. - Digital Download Distributors
The second online channel for your book/ebook will be through digital fulfillment companies that distribute downloadable ebooks to the largest online bookstores such as amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and many others. These distribution companies are happy to put your ebook in front of thousands of traditional book buyers who normally wouldn’t see it. Listing your digital download ebook with one or more of these distributors is essential. - Print-On-Demand Distributors
These are distributors that use a relatively new technology called print-on-demand (or POD). You provide the company with a digital copy of your book, plus some cover art work in digital form, and they will set up your book so that single book orders can be printed and drop-shipped directly to the buyer. This allows you to provide a hard copy version (of your ebook) to those customers who insist on it, while you only pay the cost of printing a single copy. (No more printing 2,000+ copies up-front just to get a reasonable cost per copy!).
Other Distribution Channels
There are a few other distribution channels as well, such as small online ebook stores, but these are relatively minor, and to-date I just don’t think they’re worth the trouble.
OPM: BOTTOM LINE
Suffice it to say, the Online Publishing Model offers at least three highly effective channels by which you can distribute and sell your book/ebooks.
If you harness the three channels in the OPM and get them working for you, I can guarantee that you’ll make more book/ebook sales and profits than you ever would under the traditional publishing model.
(C) Shaun Fawcett is the author of numerous how-to books on everyday practical writing help. He also writes about how to create and publish books and ebooks, including his popular book that explains how to implement and profit from the Online Publishing Model:
http://InstantBookWritingKit.com
Online Publishing Profits:
Sales Mini-Sites Are Mandatory
This is another in my series of articles that explain the Online Publishing Model and how small-time authors and/or self-publishers can use the OPM as a viable alternative to the often archaic and dysfunctional traditional book publishing model.
Typically, you will create your book/ebook in a source word processing program such as MS-Word or WordPerfect. Once you have converted it into PDF format you’ll be ready to start selling it via the three primary channels that make up the Online Publishing Model: 1. Sales-Mini-Sites, 2. Digital Download Distributors, 3. Print-On-Demand (POD) Distributors.
This article explains the first of three channels that make up the Online Publishing model – a dedicated Web site known as a “sales-mini-site”.
A SALES-MINI-SITE IS A MUST
Based on everything I’ve learned over the past number of years about online book publishing and marketing, there is only one way to effectively sell a product such as an ebook from a Web site. That is, from what I call a “sales-mini-site. In fact, the creation of a sales-mini-site is an absolute MUST if you are to be successful.
This Web site will normally be your primary book/ebook sales and distribution channel, out of the three channels in the Online Publishing Model. I REPEAT. You MUST have a dedicated sales-mini-site to sell your ebook effectively online.
SALES-MINI-SITE – DEFINED
A sales-mini-site is a dedicated Web site with a URL name (i.e. domain name) specific to the product being sold on that site. The entire purpose of that sales-mini-site is to provide specific information to visitors about the one product being sold there, with the ultimate objective being to convert a certain percentage of those visitors from “browsers” into “buyers” before they leave that site.
I’m sure you’ll see that each one of those sites has one purpose and one purpose only – to convince the targeted visitor to purchase the particular ebook being offered.
There are of course, literally thousands of sales-mini-sites offering thousands of products across the Internet, one-product-at-a-time.
SALES-MINI-SITES ARE CHEAP AND EASY – REALLY!
Now that I’ve said you’ve got to have one, the good news is that creating and maintaining a sales-mini-site is not expensive, and they are not particularly difficult to set-up. Really!
For example, to host each of my sales-mini-sites costs me LESS THAN US $70 per year, per site. That’s the equivalent of 2 to 3 ebook sales.
Here are the basic tasks involved in creating a sales-mini-site:
- write your sales copy
- create your Web site in HTML
- upload your completed site to a Web host company’s server
- select a payment processor and set-up payment links
Don’t worry; you DO NOT need to be a “techie” to get a sales-mini-site built for your book/ebook. These things are WAY easier to create than they look. You can do some of the work yourself if you like, or there are MANY ways to get free or inexpensive assistance.
There now exist dozens of powerful interface tools that allow “non-techies” to design and build their own Web sites by just pointing and clicking. You may not be aware of this, but thousands of total “non-techies” are running businesses these days from their own Web sites.
So, if you’re serious about getting your book or ebook online, don’t be scared off by the seeming “techiness” of creating a sales-mini-site. It really IS NOT AN ISSUE once you know where to look for help. And you won’t need a lot of help. Trust me on this one folks!
Of course I can’t cover all of the details here as to exactly what to do, and where to find the resources to develop a sales-mini-site, to the extent that my Instant Book Writing Kit ebook does. After all, it’s a book and this is an introductory article! Just believe that it is possible!
I hope you’re clear by now that a sales-mini-site will be your most important sales and distribution channel under the Online Publishing Model.