Archive for August, 2009

Recovering From Google Slap Aug 2009?

Sunday, August 30th, 2009

If you are a serious internet marketer, you will be aware that something happened a few days ago – another Google Slap. Google’s policies are pretty static, so it is not that Google has added some new terms and conditions for Adword campaign marketers, adsense publishers or affiliate marketers. Rather, they jsust do a bit of housekeeping now and then to clean up the spammy sites and campaigns that offer little in terms of real value to the Google public.

None of my sites were affected as I offer genuine content. However, I like to know what’s going down so after running around the Net a bit, I put together a plan of recovery for those who have received a none too gentle reminder of what Google expects.

Find out more about how to recover from Google Slap Aug 2009

Should Publishers Support DRM-free Ebooks?

Monday, August 24th, 2009

It seems authors and publishers are often at opposite ends of the tug of war between DRM ebooks and Open [DRM-free] Ebooks.
One such author struggled with his publisher over several months to have his books published DRM free. His reasons were typical of the two major hurdles faccing many other ebook authors:

Cost - this is largely a legacy issue through years of rather irrational pricing in the print publishing industry. Books seem to be largely priced on type of cover [hard or soft] and the number of page, and only then by the value of the content [if at all]. This same logic is being applied to ebooks – seen by many as having less intrinsic value than printed books. What nonsense – just because we have been doing it wrong for years, why should we continue now. Look at it this way. If we hire a professional or consultant to do some work for us, we evaluate their fees based on their knowledge and expertise, and the value we will derive from that. We don’t just evaluate them as one person per hour. Yet this is exactly how most people value books. All books are NOT equal. For example, the knowledge contained in a book like ‘The Logical Organization’. It’s a soft cover, 365 page book that retails at $USD79.95, but the content equates to hundreds of hours of consulting time and tens of thousands of dollars. Whether it is received as a print book or ebook is a personal preference of the reader. Myself, I am busy and travel a lot – I wouldn’t want to be lugging around TLO in my brief case. It wouldn’t fit anyway. But I can readily access it on my PDA or Kindle – and since it is a reference style book I can access it whenever I need to, wherever I am.

DRM - when you encrypt an e-book, DVD or computer game, you are immediately creating a relationship with your customer based on distrust. You don’t trust them. In reality – you don’t trust the low copyright laws of China or the fraudsters in Russia and Korea. Again, the logic is flawed. The normal customer is not going to rip off your ebook any more than lending a print book to a few friends. Copyright pirates and ebook theives will find a way to downloaded pirated copies anyway – they are much smarter at it than publishers, authors and readers combined. So the only people you are irritating are your so-called trusted paying public.

I hate DRM books – I can’t use them as I want, take notes out of them easily to reference quickly. Often, I can’t access it through more than one computer – yet I use 3 networked laptops at home, an ebook reader, PDA, PC and laptop at work. And I have to make sure I publish the password everywhere I go otherwise I forget it and can’t get back in!!! DRM-locked e-books will generally work with only one device, or one particular piece of software. No wonder print books are still preferred!!

The Best Book Marketing Campaigns Ever

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

In my last post I told you how how the experts get to Number one on Amazon. Now I am going to tell you exactly how it is done.

If you have already published a book and want to re-energize your sales, or if you have a book in progress – then this blog is especially important to you. The biggest secret book authors find out AFTER they have published their book is that the marketing is up to – who? YOU!!!

There are is only ONE WAY to ensure your book sales are the best they can possibly be – follow a proven method already used by #1 best selling authors. The two best options I can recommend are:

1. Peggy McColls Best Seller Campaign – starting a new course soon – costs around $USD 3000. Details at yourownbestseller.com
2. The Best Seller Secret – by two top selling authors Dan Strauss and Mel McIntyre – costs $37

Now, if you are someone who is disciplined enough to follow instructions and you already have a good knowledge of online marketing – then following a step by step guide is ideal for you. If you just know you need someone to help you every step, then investing in a mentoring program with Peggy is undoubtedly a wise investment.

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Amazon Spam Cam

Wednesday, August 19th, 2009

It’s legal, its permitted by Amazon and the best book marketers in the world do it – what is it? It’s the Amazon Book Marketing Spam Campaign.

Here’s how it works.

Amazons book ranking system is based upon sales. As soon as your book makes a sale you can expect it to jump from a no ranking to about 230,000. Make another sale that week and you jump to around 100,000. Three sales in a week will get you to around 30,000 – starting to get the picture?

Imagine if you facilitated sales of 200 books in a single day – you can expect a very, very good rank [top 20 or so], and if you make them within a single hour [the period during which Amazon recalculates its ranks for the top books], then it is not difficult to get to the top 100 – and even better, in certain categories you can expect to get to No. 1 bestseller!!. Even if your book never sells another copy.

Black Marketing – perhaps! Smart marketing – definitely.

However, from that point on, the publisher and author can claim to be a #1 Amazon Best Seller. This definitely makes an impression with the media and with publishers – even though they know the game. Media is not always about the truth, but about the perception of the truth, and the media are being totally honest in reporting your amazing feat.

Have I done it – No. Should I have – Yes. Will I in the future – Maybe!

You will have to be your own judge and jury on this one.