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Post book launch comments.

by Ed on 4th February 2008

If you were subscribed to my blog before 4pm Friday you should now have my full book (in PDF format).

Also the few people who had problems with the PDF have been fixed. (It appears most of those were either due to the PDF requiring the brand new version of Adobe Acrobat 8.1.1, or due to a download corruption which is easily fixed — simply download it again.

So why did I just give it away when many marketers would have sold it, or maybe even bundled it as part of a larger, more expensive package?

I explained last week how anyone who gives away free information raises their posture, credibility and authority in their prospects minds.

If your web site doesn’t provide a tonne of free information then it’s really missing the trick.

On the Internet, people are craving information. It’s one of the main reasons they’re are online. Information gathering first, then buying.

This fact is also one of the main reasons why design heavy web sites can lose sales and get a high bounce rate (that phrase is explained in the book) — people don’t need to hang around for your pages to load — they know they can hit the back button and within a few seconds of Googling be on another fast loading site with the information they’re looking for.

Make educational, informative content a priority. Design must be subjugated to that.

By giving away my book for free, I dismissed the chance to earn revenue from a lot of my subscribers. Some of them, maybe you in fact, will still want the hard copy, but I suspect most will either print the PDF or scan it on screen. It doesn’t matter how the information is consumed.

What matters is that you got all the essential tactics in one go, and that if you continue to follow my blog with the book to hand, you’ll have a much deeper understanding of where I’m coming from, and how to implement the tactics.

For example, the section on advanced lead generation, where I explain how separate web pages that have their own web sites usually get a much higher conversion rates than when you have a ‘contact form’ on a standard web site?

Well one of the landing pages I set up last week to offer the book converted 23.1% of all web traffic, who joined my list and are now reading my blog. Whereas the popup and forms on my blog converted a still respectable but much lower conversion rate of 12.1% (average).

Landing pages work. Offering free information works. And back end marketing with e-mail, rss and blogging works… and the crazy thing is these days it’s so easy to get started with all of that, yet many business owners mistakenly think it takes a long time and a lot of money. It doesn’t. I hope my book proves that.

With just one small report, a handful of strong strategic alliances, and some effective e-mail marketing in place you can start to dominate almost any industry.

I hope you are enjoying the book, but more importantly finding it valuable in redefining how to use the Internet for your business, and I look forward to your comments.

-Ed.

PS. If you missed my book giveaway’s 4pm deadline last Friday, don’t worry — the paperback will be out in a few weeks time, and this blog will be the place to buy that at 65% discount off the full retail price of £19.97.

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Article by Ed Rivis

I'm the Amazon 5-star rated author of three books about web marketing, and since 2008 have spoken to more than 4,000 business owners at conferences and seminars around the UK. I've also developed software that automatically generates lead pages and home-study programmes that help small business owners like you generate more sales-leads and win new customers and clients, online.

Ed has written 326 awesome articles.

  • http://www.dynamicbusinessstrategies.co.uk Alan Briggs

    Hi Ed,

    As a professional business consulatant I really value your blog and website.

    The book is great and well timed I am just establishing a new website and will be building a new blog utilising everything technique that you highlight.

    I am recommending all of my clients to buy a copy of your book!

    Keep up the good work its great to see someone else who is not into ripping off customers, I see this on a daily basis ie. a website that did not have any key words in it as that is an extra charge!!!!

  • http://www.business-growth.com Mark Bossert

    Hi Ed,

    After a quick scan I can say your book is packed with solid, kick butt content. I will be reading and re-reading it. Excellent. I’ll report back with results as I implement tactics from the book. High quality mate!
    Do you have an affiliate program?

    Thanks,
    Mark

  • http://brendan-brewster.com Brendan

    Hi Ed,

    I am only 1/10 through the book and already I can tell it is a best-seller :)

    Anyway, is there a submission page where I can send you anything I notice that appears to be a spelling/ grammar mistake?

    I can do it here in the comments but…it is up to you. I just want a great product to be even better. And seeing as you gave it away, it is the least I can do for you.

    Brendan.

  • http://getinternationalclients.com Richard Mclaughlin

    I was one that downloaded it (an had no problems opening it). You covered a lot of information, and covered it well. I forget who pointed me to your site and because I forget I can’t tell them that I owe them a thanks.

  • http://www.thekissbusiness.co.uk Karin H.

    Hi Ed

    Ad friend of mine, the one who send me over here to read, learn and earn, wondered how I managed to read your book in such a short time.

    “Because it is so interesting, captivating and such a call for action – well, for me anyway”
    was my answer.

    Thanks again for your gift, it will be treated with the respect it earns.

    Karin H. (Keep It Simple Sweetheart, specially in business)

  • http://www.bauuinstitute.com/Marketing/Marketing.html Book Marketing Newbie

    Darn, it looks like I missed the free download and will have to wait to pick up the print copy. What a genius marketing strategy… now you have a bunch of free buzz from those who did get to download it. That is a slick technique… roped me in.

  • http://www.sumatrix.com Ed

    Alan thank you for the kind comments. Really appreciated.

    Mark: “Do you have an affiliate program?”
    Thanks for asking — yes the book and all future products will have an affiliate program but it will different from most others on the Internet, and it will be *very* high percentage. (I’ll explain it on the blog soon).

    Brendan: Thank you for your kind offer. I’ll email you privately to discuss.

    Richard: Thank you.

    Mr. Book-Marketing-Newbie :-)
    Marketing strategy? Who? Me? I’ve no idea what you’re talking about ;-)

    Thanks again and everyone who e-mailed me directly also, thank you.

    -Ed.

  • http://www.support4change.com/ Arlene

    Ed,

    I began my web experience as the pro bono executive director of a nonprofit with information for cancer patients and their families. Discovered I loved to write and enjoyed learning the technical side of design. Now I am the founder and editor of several sites on personal growth offering a great deal of rich content in a format that is inviting. But I’ve only recently had a real product to sell. (Unfortunately, didn’t realize I could have created some affiliate programs a long time ago.)

    In any case, when I finished my recent e-book, “Ask Yourself Questions and Change Your Life,” and started selling it two weeks ago, I had few takers. Like yours, it will be coming out in stores this spring. So when I stumbled onto your blog and signed up for your book, I decided the idea of having a time-limited giveaway of the e-book might work. I just added the offer today so can’t tell whether it will be a fruitful idea or not, but I’ve been increasing my numbers steadily so someone is paying attention.

    In any case, you have definitely sold me on having a way to capture viewers on a landing page. For example, I produced an excellent animated flash called “Getting Through the Gate to Change” didn’t have a way to capture the viewers once they finished looking at the flash (other than to point them to the page where I was selling the e-book). Today I added a form where people can sign up for the free e-book (which I’m calling my Valentine’s gift to my viewers). We’ll see what happens.

    Have your PDF book on my desktop and find it filled with excellent ideas. I particularly like the tone of honestly that comes through your blog. I’ve read so many blogs and suggestions for making a killing on the Internet (six-figure income on two hours a day). Like “The Secret,” everything sounds simple. I’m glad to see that you don’t peddle that line.

    Anyone can claim they make a lot of money, but it’s hard to know who is telling the truth. I can tell you that in January I had 33,872 unique visitors on one of my sites, 34,230 on another, 5,495 on a third and 1,975 unique visitors to my blog on the last 30 days. There are undoubtedly some cross-overs because I link to articles on different sites, but over-all that doesn’t sound too bad to me. That’s why I have to capture more of those viewers. But my point is that I can say those are my numbers and I have no way of proving it to you.

    If you’re interested, you can see my blog at http://support4change.squarespace.com/.

    The animated flash is at http://www.support4change.com/change/gate/flash.html.

    Thank you for your advice. Feel I’ve finally found someone who talks straight.

    Arlene Harder, MFT

  • http://www.support4change.com/ Arlene

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