Expelling The Duplicate Content Myth Associated With PLR Content

If there's one thing that scares an internet marketer more than anything else, it has to be the fear of having all their sites delisted because of duplicate content. But what if I said you had a better chance of being 'eaten by a shark' then you would of being picked up for violating this regulation set out by Google and the other search engines!

Expelling The Myth Once And For All

So when in the past has a site been delisted directly as a result of using PLR content? Very rarely I can tell you! In fact I haven't met a single marketer who uses PLR content that has been caught violating the duplicate content rule. So what does this mean? It means that whatever you've been told about the connection between PLR content and the duplicate content rule is for want of another word completely 'bogus'.

We all know that when you purchase PLR content, the chances are you're going to have to share it with a certain number of marketers. This in affect has been a major deterrent from purchasing such content, even though the real truth is, it's completely safe.

So What Is The Duplicate Content Rule?

The duplicate content rule affects those who copy a site, word for word, as well as mimicking the exact design and layout of the other site in question. Well of course they're going to delist you if you do this! You may as well download someone else's site and re-upload it to your own server under a different domain!

Using PLR content however on a completely unique looking site, won't offend the search engines at all and why should it? Sure you may have some content on your site that is the same somewhere else, but you may also have some other unique content that will benefit the visitors to your site.

Rewriting PLR Content

I bet I know what you're thinking. Your thinking "why has this guy been telling us this whole time that PLR content is completely safe and now he's going to talk about rewriting!" Well the truth is there are more advantages to using unique content then there is for using just straight copied PLR content.

Think about it for a minute. Would the search engines be more likely to rank a page with unique content rather then a page that has the same content found elsewhere? Of course! Now you're thinking "what's the point in having PLR content then?" Well when we say rewrite that only means rewriting a fraction of the PLR content you have available. 25% would be a good amount to aim for, which should take you barely any time at all. This insures your pages are going to be looked at by the search engines as being unique content, which will more than likely boost their rankings up higher than those articles copied word for word.

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Writing Emails with A Purpose

How many times have you seen it? You open your inbox just to see another long, seemingly endless list of emails. You cautiously open each one, giving "some" of them 10-20 seconds of a quick scan. If something captures your interest, you read on. If not, it's a quick click (delete key) and you move on. If this is your pattern, you are not alone. This scenario is repeated by thousands, if not millions of internet users each and every day.

Knowing this pattern makes the job of internet marketers even more difficult. Our ability to cultivate and retain any significant numbers in a downline is directly determined by our ability to maximize these precious few seconds of reading time. Have you got what it takes to write an email and get the replies flying in? Most of us send out emails almost every day. We do it all too often with out carefully thinking about it. As a result these emails are often written and sent out less than perfect and fail to produce the desired result.

The purpose of sending out mass email is usually intended to attract visitors to view a website rather than make a sale, therefore it is important to take your time and define your aim precisely before writing the email. Here are a few hints to help you along the way:

Keep it simple and brief.
Avoid using long or technical words as some people may not understand them.
Do not use three words where one will suffice.
If the email is long and full of waffle boredom will set in and without a doubt it is likely to be deleted before reaching the end of it.
The opening paragraph is vital.
If it does not click with the reader right away you have wasted your time sending it.
It's true that even the best writers spend time editing and rewriting their articles and emails.

Start with an eye catching headline. It might be a question or statement. You must grab their attention right away.
Make sure to look at it from your readers point of view, is it forceful enough or exciting to make you want to read on and discover the end result?
Headlines hook prospects and lead them to the next line. There you start to build their interest to ensure they read the next sentence... and each subsequent one.
You might even find it is worth offering a free gift or a monthly newsletter that would help their business. There are plenty of free e-books on the web that you can give away.
If the intention of your email is to make a sale then offer a guarantee or a full refund. This should dispel any fears they may have.

A cheeky way to test out your email is to send it to a couple of friends who are interested in business, add a message at the end of it and ask them to email you. If you don't receive a reply, take it as a sign that perhaps your email was discarded before they made it far enough down the message, to get your message. When this happens it is a good idea to edit your email and remove any unneeded text before sending back out to your master list.

The exact techniques and methods you use will vary depending on personal preferences, product differences, market circumstances, etc. However, the basic approach is to make sure you give it some advance preparation and work, before sending them out. You will be pleasantly amazed at the difference it makes.



NOTE: You have full permission to reprint this article within your website or newsletter as long as you leave the article fully intact and include the "About The Author" resource box. Thanks! :-)

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How To Get Your Book Reviewed In Magazines

In one of my past magazine jobs my office was next to that of the book editor. He would get boxes and boxes of books daily. There was a separate room devoted to storing these books, but that still didn't keep them from piling up in his office. Whenever he returned from vacation he practically had to use a bulldozer to get his door open!

You see the problem, right? How do you get your book noticed, let alone reviewed, when it is just one among stacks of books in an editor's office? Here are a few tips to help you map out a winning strategy.

1. Determine which magazines are the best for reaching your target market.

As you plan to market your book, decide first who your ideal reader is. Is it a 35-year-old urban professional man? Is it a stay-at-home mom who lives in the Midwest? Is it female college graduates who also happen to be sports fanatics? Once you decide who you're targeting, ask yourself: What magazines does my ideal reader read? Those will be the magazines you'll focus on. That way, you won't waste time and money pursuing dozens of magazines which, even if they did review your book, wouldn't give you much in terms of gaining readership. With my novel we focused on magazines with large female audiences. Ideally you should be doing this a few months before your book comes out because the goal here is to either write a story for the magazine or get interviewed in the magazine, and have the article appear before or just as your book is published.

2. Find out what the editors need.

When you have chosen the magazines, buy them and read them. Do they have a certain writing style? What kinds of articles appear in the magazine again and again? If you can, write, email or call the features editor and find out what kinds of stories the magazine is looking for. You'll have more success if you can fill the editorial holes the magazine is already working on.

3. Let an editor know what you have to offer.

Start sending query letters to get article assignments. If you have a particular expertise, you can let an editor know that you're available for interviews if they ever need an expert on a particular subject. Often an editor will assign a story to a writer and give them a few possible interviewees to help them get started. I contacted editors at Essence a full year before my book came out to let them know that I was working as a personal and career coach. Within a few weeks I began getting calls from reporters to interview me for working mom stories for Essence.

4. Mention your book or get it mentioned.

When your article gets published, make sure you get the little italicized blurb at the end that says that you are "a writer whose next book, The Best Book in the World, will be published this month by Big Press, Inc." You get the idea. If you are being interviewed for an article, chances are they won't have room to mention your book but you should still tell the reporter about it anyway. You can even ask them to put it in their notes. As the story gets discussed in meetings, someone might say "Did you know she also wrote a book?" This builds awareness.

5. Check in with your contacts, but don't pester them.

Once your book is sent out for review, you can call or email to make sure that the editor got the book, but leave it at that. You've done all you can. I've never met the book editor at Essence, but when I heard that he was aware of my novel I was totally psyched. I kept my fingers crossed after that. You can see the review here. One last note: Some magazines and newspapers don't review self published books. Find out beforehand so you can make your efforts elsewhere if that's necessary.


© 2005 Sophfronia Scott

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How to Market and Price Your Ebook

You've written and compiled an ebook. Now you have to
decide how much to charge for it. Finding the right
price is essential to the success of your product. If
you charge too little, people will think it's of
little value, and they won't purchase it, or even it
they do buy your book, you will have to sell thousands
of copies to get to the point where you can begin to
see a profit. If you price it too high when compared
with your competition, you will find yourself steadily
lowering the price, which will cause you all kinds of
new problems in the future. For example, if you sell
your ebook at first for $39.99, and later reduce it to
$24.95, don't you think the people who bought it for
$39.99 are going to be PISSED?

Choosing the right price for your ebook is one of the
most critical parts of the marketing process. The
first rule of pricing ebooks is to never underprice.
Determine the highest price your audience can afford,
and then if you find your book isn?t selling, you can
always reduce the price. Before you take that step,
make sure you are promoting your book like crazy on
the Internet and on websites. The price should be
aimed at bringing in profits, but you should never
forget that price is one of the factors that people
use in judging the value of your ebook ? before they
buy it. So always start with the highest price, and
then launch a mega-marketing campaign.

Pricing an ebook is particularly difficult because
ebooks are a fairly new commodity. Since they are
digital, the value of an ebook is as confusing as the
understanding of what digital actually is to the
average layperson. This means that we must look at
ebooks in a different light in order to determine
their actual worth in this brave, new cyber world.

Let's look at the difference between a book in print
and an ebook. A printed book is an object you can hold
in your hand, store on your bookshelf, even hand down
to the next generation. It is priced on factors such
as paper stock, design and production costs, and
marketing.

But the fact that unites ebooks and print books is
that they are composed of ideas. It is the ideas in
these books that have the ability to change, or
possibly transform, people's lives.

What do you think an idea is worth when evaluated
against the cost of paper and ink?

It is the IDEAS that are valuable! That is how you
determine the cost of your ebook.

What should I charge for my ideas?

There are all different formulas and methods for
determining the correct price for your ebook. Let's
begin with honing in on your ultimate goals.

Decide if your goal is to get wide distribution and
maximum exposure. This goal is aimed at drawing
customers to your business or service, or to
establishing the credibility of your reputation. If
this is your main goal, you should aim to keep your
price on the low side. Some authors have even priced
their ebooks at a profit loss to draw a high number of
new customers. The key is to find a price that
maximizes your profits and the number of books you
sell.

This is an excellent pricing strategy if you are
looking to acquire long-term customers. Long-term
customers are extremely likely to buy from you again
and again ? as long as the first ebook they buy is of
exceptional quality and beneficial to the customer.

However, if your book contains valuable ? and more
importantly NEW information, references, or techniques
? then you should aim to price it on the high end.

After you figure out your goal, you must figure out
what your audience's need is for your ebook. For
example, does your book solve a particular problem? If
it does, and solves it in a way that hasn't been
written about in one hundred other ebooks, you will be
able to achieve high sales at a high price. If your
book solves a problem or answers questions in a new
and unique way, you should price your book as high as
you can go. You will achieve larger profits this way,
but bring in fewer customers. Just make sure the
question or problem that your book solves is one that
is important and relevant to the majority of your
market audience. If your ideas are not common
knowledge, or you are presenting a brand new
technique, you will be able to sell books at a high
price. Just be prepared for your competition to
undercut you on price as soon as they hear about your
book.

Keep in mind that the above pricing strategy is
temporary. Eventually, you will cease to sell books at
this high price. So figure out in advance how long you
plan to offer your ebook at this high price, and when
that time is up, change your pricing strategy.

If you want to see large profits over customer draw,
aim for an audience that is looking for easy solutions
to their problems at a low price. If your book is
aimed at solving one particular problem rather than
general advice, then you can charge more. Start at the
highest price the market will bear to bring in the
largest profits, and plan to discount the book a
number of times throughout the year.

Marketing Strategies

The key that unlocks the sales potential of your ebook
is to find a single sentence that becomes your selling
handle. This sentence states what question or problem
your book answers and the benefits your ebook can
provide. Then be sure to use that sentence in every
piece of sales and promotional material, and every
time anyone asks you about your ebook.

Besides promoting your books assiduously online, there
are several other strategies that can help you sell
more books.

One is to give something away for free with your book,
such as a valuable bonus item. Or bundle several
ebooks under one price, which lowers the price for
each ebook if they were sold separately.

An effective technique for figuring out a price is to
send out a survey to your current customers. If these
customers have already bought an ebook from you, ask
for their opinion in terms of price. Do this by
creating a sales page for the new book, but don't
include a price on that page. Instead, add a number of
links to survey questions that ask pointed questions
to aid you in assigning a price to your ebook.

Another strategy is to test out prices by creating a
number of duplicate sales pages with different prices
on each page. Make sure your sales copy is exactly the
same on every page, and includes your selling-handle
sentence. Then figure out for each page the conversion
ratio between visitors to your site and sales of your
book. This will tell you what your optimum price is.

Ultimately, if you've written a book that solves a
problem or presents a new technique, your book will
bring in both traffic and profits. So be sure to write
that selling-handle sentence that sums up what problem
your book solves and what the benefits of your book
will be to the customers who purchase it. And then
watch your market come to you!

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The Top 5 Secrets of an Article Marketing Superstar

By now you've probably heard about article marketing. If not, then read my article, "Stop Working For Google And Start Making Google Work For You." There you will find a succinct introduction to the topic.

Article marketing is, by far, the best way to get free traffic to your website. But there are tricks to making it work even better. Here are the top 5 secrets to making yourself an Article Marketing Superstar:

1. Grab Your Readers Attention with Catchy Headlines
As good advertisers and journalists know, the best way to get your article read is to create a catchy headline. An easy way to do this is to put yourself in the reader's shoes. If the headline motivates you to read on, then it is probably worthy.

2. Repeat Your... Repeat Your... Repeat Your Keywords
Ignore what your English teacher told you. Good article marketing repeats important keywords frequently. The more you repeat your keywords, the more search engines will target your site for those specific keywords. (Just look at how many times I used the word "keywords" in this paragraph - 5 times in 5 sentences.)

3. Content Quantity is King
Write multiple articles and post them frequently. Some say writing multiple articles per day is helpful. Other say to space it out and post a few articles per week. Regardless, the more articles you post, the more links you get. The more links you get, the higher your page gets ranked and the more traffic you get.

4. Article Submission Site Quality is Ke Post your articles to article submission sites that are ranked high in Google. Google ranks sites using something called PageRank (PR for short). PR ranges from 1 to 10 with 1 being less important than 10. Try to post your articles to high PR sites. By doing this, your page's PR will be higher because of the high quality links to your site. You can install the "Google toolbar" in your browser to check PRs.

5. Make Sure Your Links Don't Stink
Make sure that the links in your article's resource box are active. Each article submission site has its own protocol for making your links active and some sites don't even make your links active. Most sites require that you include the full URL to your site including the "http://" part. I would recommend always including the http:// in your URLs, but read the site's instructions carefully and check your article after it has been posted.

It goes without saying that regardless of the techniques that you use, one of the best secrets of article marketing is to write informative articles. You may not be a very good writer, but that doesn't matter. The most important thing is that you give readers information. The more information the better. Pack your articles full of interesting tidbits and data. If you just post fluff, your articles may not even get approved.

So I hope these techniques help, and I'll see you at the top when you become an ARTICLE MARKETING SUPERSTAR.

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