Let Your eBook Sell for You with a call to action

As per yesterdays post, I've updated my eBook with a call to action at the end. This is a critial point because without it I've left my readers hanging, and I want them to come back for more. If you want people to come back for more you have to tell them to do it (nicely).

The following is the final chapter of the eBook, the call to action. The formatting is a little messed up here, but you get idea. Keep in mind that there is nothing on this site that makes me any money at this point. These are links to other peoples things that I think could help my target market. Right now I'm just trying to provide value. The call to action is essentially "come back to my site". I need to get them to come first. The money part comes later.

Sidebar: I've also added a front and back cover to the booklet printout format to make it look more professional. I want this to be something I'm proud to put my name on after all.

<---- start of excerpt from eBook ---->
Staying on Top
Building on the Fundamentals

Now you understand the fundamentals of why business is organized the way it is. At this point you are probably thinking that this is all very elementary, and you’re right. It is very basic. It is also so fundamental that you can’t excel as a manager or business leader without it.

Addition and subtraction are very basic concepts. If you try to learn calculus without knowing how to add and subtract you are in for a very rough time. The only difference with learning how to run a business or manage a department is that we are very often not taught the fundamentals before taking on management and leadership roles. The problem compounds itself when the same people who were never taught the fundamentals of business go on to lead and train new managers. Large companies often end up with whole layers of middle management who don’t really understand what it’s all about. They run around doing what they’ve been directed to do without ever taking the time to understand why. You already have a leg up on many of them because you have taken the first step to understanding the “why” and not just the "how”.
So how do you turn this into something that makes a visible, practical difference in your life? You choose to continue to learn. At this point you can do one of two things.

Option 1: You can file this away as something learned and go back to your daily routine. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this if you are happy with where you are.

Option 2: You can look for ways to continue to learn including books, courses, seminars, mentors, and personal experience. Your choice of how to learn depends on how you like to learn and how much time you can dedicate to the task.

Take the initiative. Expand your mind. Expand your opportunities.

Continuing Education Options from Boundless Thinking

Boundless Thinking is dedicated to providing business learning materials for Engineers. Here’s a sample of what you can find at BoundlessThinking.com

Articles

• Tips and articles on business topics for Engineers (Eg. Business Basics, Financial Statements, Leadership Tactics, Time Management)

Free Boundless Thinking Business 101 newsletter: a combination of training material and news

Books

• eBooks


• Physical Books

Courses

• Links to on-line courses specific to business training


• Links to college and university programs

Visit BoundlessThinking.com and continue your education at your own pace.

<--- end of exerpt from eBook --->

You can get the whole thing from here if you like Business101forEngineers.com

How to Give Away an eBook

I have a short eBook now that I am giving away called Business 101 for Engineers. Here are the important points on how I've got it set up:

1. the eBook is free. It is the first proof of value.

2. the eBook is essentially the first 5 articles in my blog (Business 101 for Engineers Blog). If you remember, this was the plan when I started writing the blog.

3. I will be shortly revising the eBook to have a call to action at the end (first it will be to sign up to my newletter to learn more. I can change this to order my next book, or course once I have that stuff ready). The sign up call to action will always direct people to my main page so that when I add new offers they will see them, even if they weren't there when they got the eBook.

4. you can order the book from my main page (BoundlessThinking.com) under the Books link. If you go this route you get a very short and to the point order form since you have already clicked on a "Free Download" button to get to the order form.

5. The main page website has been cleaned up with the sole purpose of making it possible for people to actually order something on-line. At this point there is nothing up here that I make money on, but the basic structure is there in the books section now. Overall, what I do now is recommend some books that have helped me, and point people directly to some place they can buy it. I also removed any placeholders that are not ready for action yet so that everything on the page works.

6. the eBook has its own domain and landing page. The domain name is the title (Business101forEngineers.com). If you go here you get a longer sales letter explaining the benefits you can get from reading this book. This cost me $10.

7. On the long copy sales letter there are multiple calls to action ("Get it now" links) that all jump to the order form at the bottom. You should have 5 to 7.

8. The long copy page has only one purpose, to get people to download the eBook. There are no links or references to anything else. After they download the book I can distract them with other stuff. Sales copy must have a single clear purpose and focus. There are only 2 choices given: get the eBook, don't get the eBook. Don't muddy the waters.

9. Since I don't have any testimonials yet I decided to have some fun with that in the mean time. Take a look and you'll see what I mean. I'm not really sure if this is a good idea or not.

It occurs to me that maybe I should explain the 3 types of web pages: Branding Page, Sales Page, Contact Gathering Page. I'll try to make that my next topic as its rather important.

That's it for today

First 5 Articles Done - now what?

Ok, I finally completed my 5th article yesterday for Business 101 for Engineers (Basic Business Organization). I got so excited I put them all together into a little e-book. This needs some polish, but here it is. This is basically all 5 articles, plus a little teaser to watch for what's coming next (the real meat of the subject) . If you're interested you can get it here for free, no strings. Business 101 for Engineers Booklet Format (right click and save as)

(Its formatted to be printed and folded like a booklet. You need to ensure your printer is set to print on both sides, pages turning on the short edge of the paper. This is probalby a pain in the butt for some people, but that's how it is for the time being.)

I need to go back to my plan now and get on the next part. Let's see...
1. Create a Contact Gathering Web Page
2. Create a Sales Letter to sell this booklet (probably part of the sales letter)

Things are starting to come together.

Final note: I'm going to an internet leads generation seminar in Atlanta Apr 20-22. I want the skeleton done before this. My stretch goal is to make one sale on-line before I go to that seminar. Wish me luck.

Another Article Done: Why People Get Help

I finished another article today. I think I'll need to go back and edit these at some point, but the idea right now is to get some good content up. There will always be improvements that can be made.

I need to write 2 more articles before I start promoting this site. That's when the real fun begins.

This is the article if you're interested: Why People Get Help, The 5 Fundamental Benefits

How to Do An Outline

I've spend the last few days refining my articles outline (or course outline as I'm starting to think of it) to flow better. I'm not done yet, but I am now happier with the overall flow, and I've written one more article. I cannot stress the importance of getting this outline right up front. It makes the writing part so much easier, I can't even tell you how much. It will save you a lot of rework in the end.

Here's a tip from a public presentations course I took about a year ago that will save you a lot of time, and ensure your articles or presentations flow.

Do an outline.
Lay it out like this picture. The blue circles show the order to write each part.



This means you write it in this order
1. Subject
2. Conclusion (what do you want people to do or remember as a result of this)
3. Agenda (3 main points is generally best)
4. Body
5. Summary of each agenda point
6. Any opening remarks (more for presenting live than writing articles)
7. Optional creative opening

The red arrows show the order you present it in.

I also got one more article written and posted, "Why People Buy Things, The 6 Fundamental Reasons". Check it out.

My First Article: Welcome to Business 101 for Engineers

On Monday I layed out my to do list. If you go back and look, you will see I was working on planning 25 articles and writing 5.

Well yesterday I planned them all out and started writing the first one.
Today I finished it, and posted it to the web (business101-bt.blogspot.com)

It's written with the intention of getting people to come back looking for more articles in the future, and outlines the topics (the 25 or so articles) I plan to cover in the upcoming weeks. When all the articles are done, I will re-edit them all into an e-book and start trying to sell it on-line. Right now the focus is on getting the first 5 written. Once 5 are written, the focus will shift to driving traffic to this site and continuing to write at least one article a week.

On the main web site, BoundlessThinking.com I also added a link to this under Courses. I will promote this as a free on-line course while I continue to write it. You can post comments to the author and ask me any questions you want after you read any section.

That's it for today. In my new-found lifestyle of flexibility I am going to spend the rest of the day doing some much needed work around the house.

8 Steps to Starting a Business: my To Do List

Mar 16, 2006: I'm posting this the following monday, but here's what I did on friday.
First of all, I dug out my to do list and gave it a read. Then I wrote down the next 2 things I need to do on the back of a cracker box, and put it beside my PC (you could also use regular paper, cracker box is what I had handy)

I've decided to focus on the Buisiness for Engineers site first. Here's what the To Do list looks like now. This is a good template to follow.

1. Define your Target Market (Done)

• Engineers wanting to move into management

2. Research & validate the top needs of the chosen market (Done)

• Time Managment - lots of stuff available already (project managment resources)
• Responsibility without Authority - lots of stuff available on that (leadership by influence)
• Lack of Business Understanding - very few good resources (this is my chosen niche)

3. Create a Web Site (In Progress)

• Content Page (good enough to start driving traffic to, don't go too crazy here the objective is to get to market ASAP, not to get it perfect before you tell anyone about it)
• email Gathering page (I have an email newletter subscribe button, this should become a separate opt in page at some point)

4. Create Newsletter Content (In Progress)

• plan at least 25 articles
• write 5 of them

5. Create/Find Free Stuff - 3 Items (perhaps this step should be later)

• Excel templates may be a good place to start
• Good, screened articles could also be good
• Research professional looks - what makes something look professional?

6. Create a Budget and Deadline for Spending (Promotion & Content Generation)

• This is to force some action in this area, not get to it when I get to it.

7. Publish your Site

• Register a domain name (I may or may not keep it under BoundlessThinking.com)
• Find a web hosting service

8. Start promoting your site (this one still needs some flushing out when we get here)

• Re-read the five best way to get leads to a site (see Product Launch Tips.xls)
• Buy Advertising
• Go to newsgroups and talk about the issues
• Buy an Autoresponder to keep in touch with subscribers automatically
• Submit your newsletter content as articles on-line
• Do press releases online

Here's my complete To Do list as it stands today (an excel spreadsheet with this list and a little more detail, comments and tidbits on resources to help with upcoming stages)

As you can see we are working on steps 3 and 4 right now. 3 is almost done, it just needs a few tweeks. 4 needs to be organized so I am writing articles that matter to this niche market, not just things that interest me. That's what I'll be working on this week.

Daryl

One last thing, here's an archive of how the site looks today so we can look back and laugh later. Cheers.