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The Value of a Branded e-Book

Let's not waste time on this one!  The utmost value of a branded e-Book is website TRAFFIC and back-end sales. No traffic=no sales= no income.

Now knowing this, why would any Marketer worth his/her salt, persist in promoting empty value e-Books that do not relate to their marketing niche?

You have a website and you  need a lead capture page. You pick some freebie e-Book the big guns are promoting and off you go competing again against thousands of other affiliate links giving away the same e-Book.

Hey, it's a how-to e-Book full of great promotional ideas Direct Sales Marketer needs to know to be even remotely successful but you are in the affiliate field.  How does that help you capture your share of the market?

Or you have a good product to back-end and you do not have a website, so off you go doing the rounds of ezine, classifieds, FFA's and safelist marketing with your affiliate link to this latest and greatest e-Book.

If you notice, everyone is downloading it, BUT not everyone is contacting you about it.  If you notice, once you have captured the email addy of the person downloading the e-Book, and you have sent them a very nice, thank you email, you never hear from them again.

Or maybe you will get one response, they hit the REMOVE link at the bottom of your next follow-up email.

There are four basic musts to an e-Book you will choose to promote:
   1. You download it or buy it so you know what you are promoting. Your promotional copy will reflect that lack of knowledge if you don't.
   2. The value content of this e-Book teaches you something that enlarges the scope of what you are doing.
   3. You would buy it again and recommend it to your best friend without hesitation.
   4. YOU must be able to brand it with YOUR name and YOUR promotional URL and so must the people who download it from your links.

Let's follow those intentions with a wee bit more value for your consideration.

1.Your e-book MUST be relative to the field of marketing you are involved in and it must contain valuable information.

Gimme a break.  All e-Books are of value to someone. And you can almost guarantee everyone and their aunt will download a freebie.

Two things I look at before I choose an e-Book to give away is, would I want this e-book decorating my hard drive? Does it say anything of value to me and what I am doing online?  Will I learn anything from it?

And, IF I was going to promote this e-Book, could I charge a reasonable fee for it and would others buy it? Heck if you were charging a fee for this e-Book, would I buy it?

If the e-Book passes this criteria, we have a winner if we promote it effectively.

2. It must be an easy read.

Hey, I'm no rocket scientist and Einstein and I would never have been intellectual equals.  I doubt he would have wasted time sharing a coffee with me, if he drank coffee.

So talk to me in nice simple language.  Make it look like you give a darn that I am reading it.  If you have problems following the logic of this e-Book then so will your average reader.

3.  Website traffic and back-end sales come to you IF you can get others to distribute this e-Book for you.

If you are the author then this makes absolute sense. How else will your latest and greatest get out there and even stand a chance at becoming viral?

There is nothing like a great search engine ranking to help the success of your e-Book get recognized and used.

If you are an affiliate or a Marketer with a need to create a good responsive contact list, then you need to interest everyone who downloads a copy from your affiliate link in the same way you became interested in promoting it and for the same reasons -  website traffic and back-end sales.

Target people with huge contact lists of responsive marketers who will realize the value content of this e-Book first. Get some feedback on it and some testimonials to its value from these people.

4. Do NOT decorate the pages with an overabundance of affiliate links.

If the e-Book you are going to give away is loaded with affiliate links that should be a red flag that you are promoting someone else to the nth degree and the value of your branding will be lost in the mix.

It will also lead to many people deleting that e-Book faster than they downloaded it.  Remember, people are looking for good value content.  Content that teaches them something they need to know.

If your links take them to more resources that will make their learning experience valuable, then that  is fine if you have an affiliation with that link.  But just to promote something that hypes a sale will not work.

5.  Allow the person who downloads your e-Book the same branding rights so that they see the value of giving it away too.

The majority of marketers are competing with big names and brand names that believably hold the market share online or offline. The only way to compete in these markets is to get YOUR name and YOUR product/service or business out there for all to see.

The distinction of being able to place YOUR name and YOUR affiliate link or website URL in a good e-Book that everyone can use is immeasurable in saved promotional advertising dollars.

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© Copyright 2004, Fran Klasinski All Rights Reserved.
Fran Klasinski is a writer/publisher and co-editor of
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