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Re: more ebook info.

I was wondering if Maureen couldn't address the question I had a while about
ecommerce, and handling all
the processing for ebooks manually.  How does it save you money?

Thanks again for your help!
Kent

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> than "Re: Contents of gardenwriters digest..."
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>
> Today's Topics:
>
>   1. Re: more specific info on ebooks (kent@herbgardeningtips.com) 2.
>   Re: more specific info on ebooks (kent@herbgardeningtips.com) 3.
>   ebooks (DGreen)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 15:53:02 -0500 (CDT)
> From: <kent@herbgardeningtips.com>
> Subject: Re: [GWL] more specific info on ebooks
> To: <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<60003.201.154.33.126.1128545582.squirrel@www.herbgardeningtips.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Hi Maureen, congratulations on the success of your ebook.  Sounds
> great! For those of us who are strickly writers and don't know much
> about ecommerce, what do you mean exactly when you say that you're
> handling all the processing manually.  How does it save you money?
>
> I'm curious about this because it seems that more and more people are
> getting into ebooks publishing and I'm trying to see if it's worth
> getting into to expand my freelance writing work.
>
> Thanks again for your help!
>
> Kent
>
>> Send gardenwriters mailing list submissions to
>> 	gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
>>
>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>> 	http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters
>> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>> 	gardenwriters-request@lists.ibiblio.org
>>
>> You can reach the person managing the list at
>> 	gardenwriters-owner@lists.ibiblio.org
>>
>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
>> than "Re: Contents of gardenwriters digest..."
>>
>>
>> Today's Topics:
>>
>>   1. Re: Contents of gardenwriters digest Vol 33, Issue 2]
>>      (kent@herbgardeningtips.com)
>>   2. Re: Contents of gardenwriters digest Vol 33, Issue 2]
>>      (HERBWORLD@aol.com)
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 11:42:48 -0500 (CDT)
>> From: <kent@herbgardeningtips.com>
>> Subject: Re: [GWL] Contents of gardenwriters digest Vol 33, Issue 2]
>> To: <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Message-ID:
>> 	<3006.200.65.227.165.1128444168.squirrel@www.herbgardeningtips.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>>
>> Thanks Maureen, do you have a link directly to where you sell your
>> book? How did you get started? How did you do end up marketing and
>> selling it? Any other ebook tips?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Kent
>> www.gardenplantcare.com
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 11:53:23 EDT
>> From: HERBWORLD@aol.com
>> Subject: Re: [GWL] Book Proposals
>> To: gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
>> Message-ID: <79.4f1c924d.3073ff73@aol.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>>
>> In a message dated 10/4/2005 11:32:12 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>> kent@herbgardeningtips.com writes:
>> Do they
>> actually sell?  Amazon.com pretty much has dominated the print book
>> market, so maybe it's a good idea, but I still have my doubts that
>> people want to read a book on their computer and not curled up on the
>> couch with a cup of coffee.
>> I sell an ebook on starting an herb business for $10....it's about 70
>> pages  printed out and I get at least 10 orders a week for it.  It's
>> their option to  print it off and read it offline.  No complaints so
>> far and I've been doing it  for about 5 years.
>>
>> Maureen Rogers
>>
>> The Herb Growing & Marketing Network
>> PO Box 245, Silver Spring, PA 17575
>> 717-393-3295; FAX: 717-393-9261
>> herbnet.com and herbworld.com
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> gardenwriters mailing list
>> gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters
>>
>> GWL has searchable archives at:
>> http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters
>>
>> If you have photos for GWL, send them to gwlphotos@hort.net and they
>> will show up at:  http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos
>>
>> End of gardenwriters Digest, Vol 33, Issue 2
>> ********************************************
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 13:10:16 EDT
>> From: HERBWORLD@aol.com
>> Subject: Re: [GWL] Contents of gardenwriters digest Vol 33, Issue 2]
>> To: gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
>> Message-ID: <19b.3dba5195.30741178@aol.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>>
>> In a message dated 10/4/2005 12:45:07 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>> kent@herbgardeningtips.com writes:
>> Thanks Maureen, do you have a link directly to where you sell your
>> book? How did you get started? How did you do end up marketing and
>> selling it? Any other ebook tips?
>>
>>
>> The link to the book is off the main page of the herbworld.com site
>> and it  takes them to the shopping cart.  I've also got it sprinkled
>> around both my  sites in different areas as well since so many areas
>> of the sites are linked to  other websites.  It was easy to start
>> since I had the conference proceedings  already in the computer and
>> all I needed to do was reformat it and make it a pdf  file for
>> download.  I do nothing to market it except to create very key word
>> rich pages.  If you put "starting an herb business" in google I'm the
>> first to  come up and if you put in "herb business" I'm in the top 5.
>>   I know what  potential readers would put in the search engines.  I
>> also put a couple herb cookbooks I'd edited into a download format and
>> sell that as well. Don't push it  so don't sell as many.  My own
>> laziness there :-)  I think ebooks work best  for publications under
>> 100 printed pages.  Some people can't download large  documents (I
>> have that problem at least once every quarter) and it does take up a
>> lot of paper on their end for those that want to read offline.  I
>> handle all  the processing manually because it saves me money in
>> credit card processing but  if you do use a system like authorizenet
>> my shopping cart has an automatic
>>  ebook download function which is great if you're selling large
>> quantities.
>>
>> Maureen
>>
>> The Herb Growing & Marketing Network
>> PO Box 245, Silver Spring, PA 17575
>> 717-393-3295; FAX: 717-393-9261
>> herbnet.com and herbworld.com
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> gardenwriters mailing list
>> gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters
>>
>> GWL has searchable archives at:
>> http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters
>>
>> If you have photos for GWL, send them to gwlphotos@hort.net and they
>> will show up at:  http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos
>>
>> End of gardenwriters Digest, Vol 33, Issue 3
>> ********************************************
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 15:53:08 -0500 (CDT)
> From: <kent@herbgardeningtips.com>
> Subject: Re: [GWL] more specific info on ebooks
> To: <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID:
> 	<60003.201.154.33.126.1128545588.squirrel@www.herbgardeningtips.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Hi Maureen, congratulations on the success of your ebook.  Sounds
> great! For those of us who are strickly writers and don't know much
> about ecommerce, what do you mean exactly when you say that you're
> handling all the processing manually.  How does it save you money?
>
> I'm curious about this because it seems that more and more people are
> getting into ebooks publishing and I'm trying to see if it's worth
> getting into to expand my freelance writing work.
>
> Thanks again for your help!
>
> Kent
>
>> Send gardenwriters mailing list submissions to
>> 	gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
>>
>> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
>> 	http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters
>> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
>> 	gardenwriters-request@lists.ibiblio.org
>>
>> You can reach the person managing the list at
>> 	gardenwriters-owner@lists.ibiblio.org
>>
>> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
>> than "Re: Contents of gardenwriters digest..."
>>
>>
>> Today's Topics:
>>
>>   1. Re: Contents of gardenwriters digest Vol 33, Issue 2]
>>      (kent@herbgardeningtips.com)
>>   2. Re: Contents of gardenwriters digest Vol 33, Issue 2]
>>      (HERBWORLD@aol.com)
>>
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 1
>> Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 11:42:48 -0500 (CDT)
>> From: <kent@herbgardeningtips.com>
>> Subject: Re: [GWL] Contents of gardenwriters digest Vol 33, Issue 2]
>> To: <gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
>> Message-ID:
>> 	<3006.200.65.227.165.1128444168.squirrel@www.herbgardeningtips.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>>
>> Thanks Maureen, do you have a link directly to where you sell your
>> book? How did you get started? How did you do end up marketing and
>> selling it? Any other ebook tips?
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Kent
>> www.gardenplantcare.com
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 3
>> Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 11:53:23 EDT
>> From: HERBWORLD@aol.com
>> Subject: Re: [GWL] Book Proposals
>> To: gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
>> Message-ID: <79.4f1c924d.3073ff73@aol.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>>
>> In a message dated 10/4/2005 11:32:12 AM Eastern Standard Time,
>> kent@herbgardeningtips.com writes:
>> Do they
>> actually sell?  Amazon.com pretty much has dominated the print book
>> market, so maybe it's a good idea, but I still have my doubts that
>> people want to read a book on their computer and not curled up on the
>> couch with a cup of coffee.
>> I sell an ebook on starting an herb business for $10....it's about 70
>> pages  printed out and I get at least 10 orders a week for it.  It's
>> their option to  print it off and read it offline.  No complaints so
>> far and I've been doing it  for about 5 years.
>>
>> Maureen Rogers
>>
>> The Herb Growing & Marketing Network
>> PO Box 245, Silver Spring, PA 17575
>> 717-393-3295; FAX: 717-393-9261
>> herbnet.com and herbworld.com
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> gardenwriters mailing list
>> gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters
>>
>> GWL has searchable archives at:
>> http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters
>>
>> If you have photos for GWL, send them to gwlphotos@hort.net and they
>> will show up at:  http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos
>>
>> End of gardenwriters Digest, Vol 33, Issue 2
>> ********************************************
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> Message: 2
>> Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 13:10:16 EDT
>> From: HERBWORLD@aol.com
>> Subject: Re: [GWL] Contents of gardenwriters digest Vol 33, Issue 2]
>> To: gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
>> Message-ID: <19b.3dba5195.30741178@aol.com>
>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
>>
>> In a message dated 10/4/2005 12:45:07 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>> kent@herbgardeningtips.com writes:
>> Thanks Maureen, do you have a link directly to where you sell your
>> book? How did you get started? How did you do end up marketing and
>> selling it? Any other ebook tips?
>>
>>
>> The link to the book is off the main page of the herbworld.com site
>> and it  takes them to the shopping cart.  I've also got it sprinkled
>> around both my  sites in different areas as well since so many areas
>> of the sites are linked to  other websites.  It was easy to start
>> since I had the conference proceedings  already in the computer and
>> all I needed to do was reformat it and make it a pdf  file for
>> download.  I do nothing to market it except to create very key word
>> rich pages.  If you put "starting an herb business" in google I'm the
>> first to  come up and if you put in "herb business" I'm in the top 5.
>>   I know what  potential readers would put in the search engines.  I
>> also put a couple herb cookbooks I'd edited into a download format and
>> sell that as well. Don't push it  so don't sell as many.  My own
>> laziness there :-)  I think ebooks work best  for publications under
>> 100 printed pages.  Some people can't download large  documents (I
>> have that problem at least once every quarter) and it does take up a
>> lot of paper on their end for those that want to read offline.  I
>> handle all  the processing manually because it saves me money in
>> credit card processing but  if you do use a system like authorizenet
>> my shopping cart has an automatic
>>  ebook download function which is great if you're selling large
>> quantities.
>>
>> Maureen
>>
>> The Herb Growing & Marketing Network
>> PO Box 245, Silver Spring, PA 17575
>> 717-393-3295; FAX: 717-393-9261
>> herbnet.com and herbworld.com
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> gardenwriters mailing list
>> gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters
>>
>> GWL has searchable archives at:
>> http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters
>>
>> If you have photos for GWL, send them to gwlphotos@hort.net and they
>> will show up at:  http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos
>>
>> End of gardenwriters Digest, Vol 33, Issue 3
>> ********************************************
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 6 Oct 2005 09:28:13 -0400
> From: "DGreen" <dgreen@kingston.net>
> Subject: [GWL] ebooks
> To: "'Garden Writers -- GWL -- The Garden Writers Forum'"
> 	<gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Message-ID: <000001c5ca79$d3999b00$1915fea9@UpgradeBox>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
>
>
> Let me start this quick note off by saying that there's little
> difference between self-publishing an ebook and publishing a pbook.
>
> Anybody can do it.  It isn't difficult.  The software exists for both
> and is readily available on the net.  I'm working almost full time on
> writing my gardening websites and producing ebooks.
>
> Most of the steps are the same.  You have to write it, edit it, lay it
> out, graphics, etc etc.
>
> The publishing process is different.  In pbooks, you kill a bunch of
> trees and ink 'em up to produce a pbook.  In ebooks, you use some
> software (which one you use depends on your marketing / selling system)
> and click a button. You occupy a few electronic bits.
>
> Distribution is different.  Pbooks uses physical hauling.  Ebooks use
> wires.
>
> **But the major similarity is that if you don't market your book -
> nothing happens.**
>
> Any author will tell you that if you don't market your pbook, then you
> won't have a ton of sales. If you don't do speeches and flog the book -
> it won't sell.  If you don't send out news releases - it won't sell.
> The publishing company isn't really going to sell your book for you -
> most pbook authors will tell you horror stories of discovering this.  I
> learned this the hard way with the 7 pbooks I've had published.
>
> It's the same with ebooks.   Simply shoving an ebook up on the Net is
> no
> guarantee that somebody will come and buy it.   You have to market that
> ebook just as hard, just as diligently as any other book.   And the
> ways you'll do this are much different than in pbooks.
>
> **The need to market pbooks and ebooks is the same and takes the same
> amount of effort.**
>
> If you're not interested in working at writing, then you can delete
> this note now.  The hard cold reality is that there is no get rich
> quick scheme in ebooks for garden writers.  It is a business.
>
> It can be a profitable little business but never make the mistake of
> thinking its easy - it is a business and you'll have to work at it.
>
> Let me give you a bit of an example.  Direct mail marketers consider a
> 3% return on a sales letter to be an excellent response rate.  Most
> internet marketers consider 1% phenomenally good.   So if you can write
> an excellent sales letter, you might convert 1 visitor in a hundred to
> buy an ebook. (I'm currently less than that but getting better)  To
> sell 5 books a week, you need 500 unique visitors a week.   Let me
> suggest that those of you with author websites check out your unique
> visitor counts (not hits) and see how many individual visitors you get
> a month.  This will tell you how many ebooks you might expect to sell.
>
> This means not only do you have to have the skill to write an ebook,
> you have to have the skill to produce a website that attracts 500
> unique visitors a week, and the skill to write a sales letter that will
> convert at 1%.  These are three specific and distinct skills.  If you
> become competent at these skills, the above example will produce a
> gross sale of $35./week. Get those visitor counts up as high as mine or
> some other garden writers on this listserv who have even higher visitor
> counts - using the SBI system we use - and your numbers become quite
> attractive.
>
> Let me tell you that it can be done.  But it isn't as simple as shoving
> an ebook up on a website and counting your money.
>
> You'll have to produce tons of great content so the search engines will
> find your site and visitors will come to see what you're doing. (If,
> like me, you've been writing gardening articles or columns already you
> likely have tons of files to modify for articles.)  Once you have that
> traffic, once you've formed relationships with your visitors, you can
> put up ebooks for sale and some of your visitors will want more info
> than your site gives them and (if you've written the letter properly)
> will buy your ebooks.
>
> But it is a long term business strategy.  It is not get rich quick.
> But it can be done.
>
> Here's the system I use for my 8 websites.  I'm currently writing and
> producing ebooks as fast as I can along with taking courses on
> copywriting and producing tons of content for my websites.  You can do
> it with one website or, like me, as many as you think you can handle.
>
> I want to emphasize that I'm no web guru or understand how search
> engines work.  I let this software do it all for me.  I'm not an expert
> on all parts of figuring out what to write about that will attract
> customers, so I let this software figure it all out for me.  I know
> gardening so I let this SBI system do all the rest of the work.
>
> This system isn't for everyone.  If you think you want to learn all
> those Net techniques of creating websites and producing traffic, or if
> you believe the get rich quick folks that say you can simply create a
> page and the world will come, then this SBI system isn't for you.
>
> But if you're like me and want to write about gardening, something you
> really love, and don't want to worry about the technical side of
> things, then this might help you as it has helped me and several other
> garden writers on this listserv.
>
> Check out http://infopublishing.sitesell.com/review.html
>
> Let me be upfront with this - if you click on this link and purchase
> something (there's tons of freebies here too) I'll get a small
> affiliate cheque.  But having 8 websites using this system, I am a firm
> believer in what they're doing.
>
> If you want some of the freebies this company offers, check out this
> page:  http://freetrial.sitesell.com/review.html   You'll be able to
> see the kinds of things others are doing and try them out, get trial
> versions of the software, access the forums, the search tools, get the
> free reports, get the data you need to make a good business decision
> that works for you. (Even though it works for me, this system may not
> be what you want)
>
> Hope this helps a little bit in your decision making.  All the answers
> to questions I could answer are answered much better on these urls.
>
> Doug
>
> p.s. as I said, this is not get rich quick but it is an excellent
> system for those of us who love to share our gardening information and
> a great way to make some money doing it.  If you want to make your
> living writing (like I do) you really want to check out this system.
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> gardenwriters mailing list
> gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters
>
> GWL has searchable archives at:
> http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters
>
> If you have photos for GWL, send them to gwlphotos@hort.net and they
> will show up at:  http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos
>
> End of gardenwriters Digest, Vol 33, Issue 4
> ********************************************



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