I’m talking about electronic books (or ebooks), of course. In the age of the Internet, newsletters and ezines are not the only things you can publish without recourse to a big name publisher. Now, anyone can publish their own book.

Why should you publish your e-Book?
Besides wanting to immortalize your name, here are a couple of reasons why you might want to publish your own electronic book (eBook).

1. Publicity: Why do you think so many people on the Internet are giving away electronic books? Free ebooks, like other free things, spread fast. They become an easy way for you to publicize your website or business.

   Of course, for that to happen, your Ebook needs to be more than just an advertising brochure - it really has to have something worth reading for people to bother to read and pass it on.

2. Sell Your Book: Electronic books for sale are becoming increasingly common on the web. As mentioned earlier, even Stephen King has taken to publishing electronically. It’s becoming an acceptable medium in this age of electronic communication.

The beauty of publishing your book electronically is that your costs are incredibly low (relative to hardcopy publishing). You only need to get the software to create the ebook, and nowadays, you can even get that free of charge.

Whether you sell or distribute 1000 copies of your eBook or just one copy, your cost of producing the ebook remains at that same fixed cost it took to produce the first copy. In fact, once you’ve bought your software, you can produce any number of Ebooks without incurring any additional cost.

Another advantage is that you do not need to try to find a publisher to accept your work. You can be your own publisher and distributor.

As in the case of publishing newsletters, you should of course write on things you’re familiar with. If your intention is to publicize your website or your business, your topic should be of course be related to what you’re promoting. That way, people will come to see you as an expert in that field and go to your site for more information and help.

1. Get the software for you to create an electronic book (see below).
2. Write your ebook.
3. Use the software to convert your document to the electronic book format.
4. Make your ebook available from your website. Note that even if you wish to sell your Ebook, you should still have a sample of your eBook available freely to whet the appetites of your prospective customers.
5. Publicize your ebook.

1. Write each post title so it grabs the reader’s attention. It is the first thing someone reads, and it should get your reader’s attention right away. Your title should both pique the reader’s interest and be informative. Do not write “Business Writing Advice”; instead, say “The Best-Kept Secret to Reducing Your Business Writing Worries.” Longer titles have the advantage of describing in detail what your post is about; 8-12 words are a good range.

2. Keep sentences short and clear. A little goes a long way. Readers are busy people and they will not spend hours detangling complex syntax or sifting through blocks of text. Also, use strong language. Start a new paragraph every few sentences, and limit each post to 250 words, if possible. If you cannot write it in under 250 words, split it into two entries.

3. Break up the text. Use numbered lists, bullet points, and subheadings to make your posts easy to scan. Lots of white space on the page is a good thing-it allows your reader to take mental breaks and let the knowledge soak in. In addition, with the inevitable clutter of banner ads and side text, this technique puts some distance between your writing and all those distractions.

4. Keep current. No one wants to read old news. Your job is to stay up-to-date so your readers do not have to themselves. Read newspapers. Scour the web for references. For example, if you write a blog about business communication, subscribe to Google News Alerts using keywords related to the field, such as blogs, podcasting, instant messaging, business letters, memos, and business reports, so you will always be well informed. Posting items from last month or last year will lose your reader’s interest faster than you can say “Enron.”

5. Be bold. Timidity is an easy path to anonymity. Do not be afraid to create and state your opinions. Of course, there are some situations in which objectivity rules-but you have to give people a reason to read this blog by you and not by the person next door.

6. Be accurate. If you make a statement, be prepared to back it up. Know what your sources are and quote them accurately. Misinformation spreads like wildfire online; do not be the spark that sets it off or the wind that fans it.

7. Contribute to the conversation. Links are great-but then what? Do not just post links to the same tired sites, offer your reader something new. Contribute to the conversation. Your goal is to be the site to which everyone else is linking-so you had better have something worth writing about.

8. Stay focused. Once you have defined the theme of your blog, stick to it. A blog about piggy banks has no business posting about the latest innovation in alternative energy. Such a deviance will only confuse your reader and chip away at your virtual authority.

9. Use key words liberally. Keywords are, well, key. Harness your blog’s search engine potential by dousing your title and post with effective keywords that will help interested parties find your page in the vast, muddled blogosphere. This is one of the most important elements of getting your blog read-go at it with gusto.

10. Be consistent. Keep a schedule and stick to it. Post frequently-at least several times per week if you want to increase your potential of attracting new readers. Let your blog languish for weeks without updates and your audience will move on to fresher ground.

Maintaining an informative blog that people want to read takes hard work and good writing skills. Find what makes your writing unique-and flaunt it for all it is worth.

1. Google Analytics is a popular tool for website owners. It is easy to install and provides basic reliable trending information on visitor traffic. The program works well if measuring total visitor traffic, behavior patterns, geographic clustering, where visitors come from (external links), where they’re going on your site and how long they stay. The service also provides technical data including the type of browser, connection speeds and language visitors to your site are using.In some cases, such as websites that rely heavily on buttons, or tracking multiple website URLs in different languages or through various microsites, a more sophisticated measurement package is probably required.If you have a single, content rich site and primarily want trending data then Google Analytics will most likely do the trick.

2. The Market Leap website provides online tools and a “university” section to help with search engine marketing tactics. The site has three main tools: search engine saturation, keyword verification and link popularity.

The link popularity tool allows users to view the popularity of a URL, which means the number of links to your website found by means of search engines, as well as compare it to three websites of their choice. Users can also select an industry to get a benchmark comparison. The results are broken down by website with Google, AOL and HotBot appearing in one column and Yahoo!, FAST and AltaVista appearing in the other. Data about MSN is not available because the search engine recently disabled the function. The site also added a trend/history report that gives a long term view of your website’s popularity instead of just a snapshot.

Search engine saturation and keyword verification tools are also easy to use. These tools provide information to help interpret what the results mean and give links to articles about the topic. There is nothing to download, no need to register and it takes a few seconds to generate the results. The university section of the website has a collection of articles about search engine optimization and key topics in search engine marketing.

3. SEO Book has an extensive collection of search engine marketing information. The site has a compilation of tools from around the web for measuring search analytics, keyword research, competitive research, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, link analysis, and search engine ranking checkers. SEO book also has a variety of articles and recommended reading, and a blog about important search marketing issues. For SEO beginners the site has a helpful glossary of online terminology. The content on the site is free, but there is a fee for some of the tools which link to outside sites.

4. SEO Chat has more than 40 analytic tools to evaluate your site. The site offers tools for evaluating specific search engines including Google, and also other tools that are more general. The site contains articles and white papers about search engines, selecting keywords, search engine news and more. It’s a simple site to use and the tools provide quick, snapshot results. In addition, this site gives you an easy-to-read report for each of the tools.

5. Vertical Leap provides visitors broken links reports, site relevance tests and geographical location of web sites (geolocation). This site delivers very basic results but can be helpful if users just need a quick report. The broken links function emails users the results and thus requires a valid email address.

The site notes that while they don’t have a ton of tools available yet, they plan on expanding and providing new tools or a new twist on tools that may exist elsewhere.

These are just a sampling of the free resources available on the web to help with the building and evaluation of your website. They can be a great starting place, and can help identify places where a site needs improvement but the tools aren’t necessarily a quick fix. Make sure that you look for the right information and match the analytics offered to the needs of the site.

Similarly, there are a lot of bad tools available online, and even some of the best tools can provide meaningless or misleading information if you don’t know what you’re looking at. So be sure that the tools you use provide the information you need to create a more effective site.

When you choose a web host, make sure they have excellent support. If you have a problem with your web site you want help now, not in a day or two.

So, how can you tell how responsive the web host you are considering actually is? You test them. If they have a phone number (and they should) call them late at night or on weekends to see if they are really there.

You can also send an e-mail to their support e-mail address (not their sales e-mail) and ask them a basic question like “How many e-mail addresses am I allowed?” or “Is there a limit on the number of autoresponders I’m allowed?” and see how long it takes them to get back to you. For a non-emergency email like that I think up to 12 hours is acceptable. If you send the e-mail on Saturday and they don’t get back to you until Monday, that isn’t good. If they take more than 12 hours and either don’t have phone support or aren’t answering, choose another web host.

All of this said, the company that I feel most comfortable with and who I choose to do my business with is MidPhase hosting company.

1. Put your emphasis on building a quality mailing list. This means that all of your marketing efforts go towards getting subscribers. The quicker you get a quality mailing list the faster you will make money mailing to it.

2. Avoid spam at all costs. This means do not buy thousands, or even millions, of email addresses to mail out to. There are people who do very well with bulk email campaigns, but your goal is to build a quality list of your own and bulk email marketing does not do that.

3. Purchase a domain name that accurately describes what you offer. Point that to a splash page that you will build to get subscribers.

3. Use a splash page that you can quickly design to do one thing. Your primary goal with your splash page is to get the email address and the name of your visitor. You do this buy trading something of value for their contact info. This can be a free report, or eBook. The important thing is your giveaway is so valuable to them that they are willing to sign up to receive it.

4. Advertise your splash page anywhere you can. Put it in your signature file if you do forum marketing. Add a sign up form on your blog or website. Place classified ads for it. Promote it via traffic exchanges. Include the link to your splash page in your resource box of every article you write. This has been a few ideas on where you can advertise your splash page.

5. Once you have a mailing list you need to work at developing a relationship with each subscribers. Your goal is to become a trusted person that offers valuable information designed to help your reader. You will be able to sell to your list more easily the sooner that you develop trust with it.

6. Think long term in everything you do. Do not go for short money making schemes that can hurt your credibility. Your ultimate goal is to be able to work your list and make sales for several years. You can not do that when you are driving people to unsubscribe.

This is 6 email marketing list building tips that will help you build a quality mailing list for your future. Email marketing is not dead as long as you do it correctly!

2. Keep it simple. Many people cite overly complicated navigation or too many pages in the purchase path as reasons they don’t complete their online sale or abandon their shopping cart. Successful eCommerce sites simplify the checkout process and display clear pricing and shipping information. They also post clear return policies and access to customer service. Putting your brick and mortar store’s phone number in a visible place on your Web site is a good idea. Studies suggest that consumers feel more confident knowing you’re just a phone call away if they have a question or if there’s a problem with their order.

3. A picture really is worth a thousand words, so use photos of your products and go easy on the text. Online usability studies suggest that people do not read; they scan. It’s 25% harder to read on the Web, so keep these guidelines in mind for optimum readability: Headlines should be 8 words or less, shoot for 9-12 words on a line (people don’t want to read across the entire screen), keep sentences short (15-20 words) and try to keep summaries under 30 words and hold paragraphs to 40-70 words. In this way you can maintain compelling product descriptions alongside your product offerings.

4. Market your site once it’s live. It’s not enough to just build a Web site. You need to make an effort to market and promote your Web site to new and existing customers. Collect email addresses on your site to help you keep in touch with customers and consider creating a newsletter. Seek links from other sites that complement yours. Optimize your site’s content for relevance and submit it to the major search engines. With ProStore, you’ve got an incredible built-in marketing opportunity in that you can promote your products to millions of eBay customers. Take advantage of this capability to reach a whole new set of customers.

5. Make payment processing easy. Online shoppers need a way to give you money online. That’s easy these days. You can accept credit card payments with either a PayPal account or an online merchant account. PayPal is ideal for anyone trying out the eCommerce waters since there’s less of an upfront commitment, but you may end up paying more per transaction. If you know from the beginning you’re going to have strong sales and lots of online transactions each month, you may want to consider setting up an online merchant account. The thing to note about PayPal is that both the buyer and the seller need a PayPal account, but that’s hardly a barrier to entry. It’s so easy to create a PayPal account that more than 96 million consumer accounts have been created at PayPal since it was founded in 1998 and it’s estimated that PayPal has a 24% share of all U.S. online payments.

Let’s take a step-by-step tour through your WordPress site and learn about how all the different functions work and how to make your new site your own.

During the first part of this tutorial, we ask that you don’t change anything within the program, unless it is part of the tutorial. Just follow these simple steps and soon you will be changing everything.

You are shaking your head in agreement. A fancy promoter service is out of the question. It will not fit in with your budget. A viable alternative does exist: A handful of tried and true methods that you can use to promote your site.  By using the following *proven methods* you can effectively promote your site and announce it to the Internet.

1. Search Engines: Thousands of search engines exist on the Internet. But, you should only be concerned with the top eight or ten. You should manually submit to the top eight: Alta Vista, Excite, Yahoo, Hotbot, Lycos, Northern Light, Infoseek, Webcrawler, and use one of the FREE automatic submission services like *SubmitPlus* to handle the smaller search engines.

2. Directories: List your site here too. Directories organize sites into categories. Good examples of Directories: Yahoo, Magellan.

3. Ezine Listings: If you have an e-zine to promote along with your site. Why not list it with one of the many e-zine services on the Internet. E-zine Library is a good one to start with.

4. Free Classifieds: You will have to submit to a ton of FREE classifieds to get any significant traffic. Why? You are competing with thousands of other Ads. Remember to work on your Ad copy and make it attention grabbing. Go to one of the popular search engines, type in Free Classifieds, and surf to the top 20 classified sites for beginners. Often, these sites will lead you to several other Free Classified Sites. In response you’ll get a stack of e-mail thanking you for listing your site while barking their promo. Best to get one of those free email accounts. Hot mail is a good one. So is Yahoo mail.

5. FFA Pages: Free For All’s are worth a try. Be prepared for a avalanche of e-mails from FFA web site owners. If your title is attention grabbing you will get a few clicks. Good Attention grabbing headlines, FREE, Limited Time, Limited Offer, Proven, Secrets, and many more if you brainstorm. Check out the sales literature delivered to you by regular mail. Check and see what headlines grab your attention. And why? Incorporate them into your Online Ads.

6. Signature File: A short message you include at the end of your e-mail messages. Suppose you publish a gift e-zine list. You might use this “sig” to promote your e-zine:

Jane Smith webmaster@gifts.com
http://www.gifts.com
Subscribe to our FREE Weekly Gift Ezine, by emailing: gifts@gifts.com

7. Ad Swaps: Swap Ads with other e-zine owners if you are promoting an e-zine. Best to swap with a zine that has a larger subscribership. Go to one of the e-zine directories and search for zines with a similar theme. Send them a short, polite, e-mail asking if they would like to swap ads. You will certainly increase your traffic flow if you hook up with the right zine.

8. Write An Article: Write an article promoting your site or product. Write an article on a hot topic many people would like more information on and submit it to various e-zines. How do you find out what’s hot? Visit a few of the message boards and see what questions are raised often.

9. Tell Friends And Family: If your friends, family, acquaintances, have an Internet Connection, e-mail them telling them about your new website, and ask them to visit often. Offer a FREE incentive if they tell a few friends to surf over. Perhaps, a FREE Ad in your e-zine.

10. Leave Business Cards or Flyers: Leave these promo pieces with small businesses in your community. All relevant contact information; email address, URL, telephone number, should be included. Offer a freebie to anyone who visits your site. A free e-book, report.

Still think you have to spend Big Bucks to promote your site? This short article has disclosed easy, simple, solutions, to promote your site for FREE, and increase the hits on your site. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and Promote!

1. Keep it short
Although some places allow you to register a name with up to 63 characters, you have to keep in mind that people need to be able to remember it, and easily type it into their browser. Try to register the shortest name that your customers and visitors will associate with your Website. The general rule of thumb is, keep it under seven characters if possible. (Not including the suffix.)

2. Dot What?
There are many different extensions available right now. For businesses, we recommend a .com suffix. It is the first extension that most people try when searching for a Website. Also, since it is one of the oldest extensions, .com shows that your business has been around for a while and that you have a well-established presence on the Web.

3. Avoid Trademarked Names
There are two really good reasons for this. First, it’s not very nice. We have all heard the stories about the zany guy who thought ahead and bought “some-huge-multi-million-dollar-company.com” and sold it to the company for enough money to retire on. But, remember that those companies, like yours, have spent lots of time and money creating their brand, and what goes around comes around. Also, companies are no longer opening their pocketbooks to get their names back. They are calling their lawyers.

4. Register Your Domain NOW
Domain names are being snatched up faster than candy at the St. Patrick’s Day parade. You must register soon unless you want to get stuck with “the-domain-name-that-no-one-wanted.net [1]”. You do not have to have a Webmaster or an ecommerce department or a Web design consultant or… Heck, you don’t even need a Web page. Just get out there and register before you loose the opportunity to get the name you really want.

5. One May Not Be Enough
Sometimes, it isn’t a bad idea to register several similar domain names. If you have “yourname.com”, register “yourname.net” so no one else takes it. You can register your full company name and a shorter, easier to remember version. Some people even register common misspellings of their company’s name. (You don’t need a separate Web page for each. Several domains can point to the same Website.)

6. Character Types
Just a reminder. Domain names can only use letters, numbers, and dashes. Spaces and symbols are not allowed. Also, domain names are not case sensitive.

7. Ask Around
When you have settled on several available name choices, see what your friends and clients have to say. A name that may make perfect sense to you may be too hard for other people to remember. Is your domain easy to say? Is it hard to spell? Do you have to explain why you chose the name?

8. Don’t Shell Out Large Amounts of $$$
At one time, companies were able to get away with charging reservation fees plus a “mandatory” $70 InterNIC fee. Recently, it was decided that other companies should be able to compete to sell domain names. This has lowered prices dramatically.

And remember, if you think that if you have found the right domain name, but you’re not quite sure if it’s the one… register it anyway before someone else does!