Regarding Kindle Publishing, people ask me all the time, “Suzanne, how long should my Kindle book be?” In this video, I explain how to determine how long your Kindle book should be.
If you are following my training, then you might be writing a book to solve a problem. In that case, your Kindle book should be as long as it needs to be to solve your target audience’s problem – and no longer!
Please leave a comment or question below – thanks!
Every single week I get at least one email from someone who says, Please help me write a book. The truth is, it’s really not that difficult to write a book once you decide on a topic and stick to it. I made this video in response to the common plea: “Help me Write a book”
For many small business owners, writing a book is the best way to establish themselves as an expert in their industry. And some may even choose to write books under a pen name in a totally different niche. I will explore these topics in another video, but for now, enjoy this one answering the common request: “Help me write a book.”
Please leave your comments or questions below.
Hot off the press! I just put the finishing touches on my new e-book called “Quick & Easy Kindle Profits”. This free Kindle Training is perfect for business owners and entrepreneurs who are looking for a way to add recurring revenue to their business.
Here’s what included:
Go ahead and download your free copy below:
Download your Free Kindle Training today!
When I mention to people that I wrote and published 7 books in 2012, people are always curious about how to write a book. Honestly, it’s not that hard, and in this post I am going to give you step-by-step instructions on how to write a book. I promise, you can do this!
Before I get into how to write a book, let me ask you a question that I always ask my workshop participants. I ask them, Why do you want to write a book? Here are some of the answers I typically get:
And here are some reasons you may not have thought about:
In this post on how to write a book, I am going to focus on non-fiction books, because those are what I have been writing and selling online. “How to” books are great sellers because everyone wants a solution to a problem these days. They go to Google to find free resources on how to solve their problem, but they go to Amazon to BUY a book that will solve their problem.
So the first step in how to write a book is to choose a subject matter. What are you good at? What are you interested in? What is your profession? Here are some ideas for you to ponder:
If you are a… real estate agent… why not write about: How to Sell Your Home in 30 Days, How to Stage Your Home For a Quick Sale, How to Choose Your Realtor
If you are a… marketing consultant… why not write about: How to Find Your Next 10 Clients Using Free Marketing Techniques… Top 10 Online Marketing Resources… What You Don’t Know About Marketing is Hurting Your Business
If you are a… Daycare Owner… why not write about: 5 Steps to Choosing the Right Daycare…. How to Start a Daycare Business… How to Market Your Daycare Business
… You get the idea. The first step in how to write your book is to pick a solution to a problem. You want your readers to appreciate your advice and you want to solve their most pressing problem. What keeps them up at night? Solve that and you’ll have a winner.
Now that you know what to write about, you need to create an outline that makes sense. Readers do not like to read a book that is not logical, it’s subconsciously stressful to read a book that jumps around from idea to idea and is an endless blather of weird musings. Here’s how to write your outline:
I bet you didn’t think that learning how to write a book would be that easy!!?? Honestly, this is exactly how to write a book. You can do it in ONE WEEK my friend. The first 3 or 4 books I wrote were written at night after I put my kids to bed. I would write from about 9 o’clock until midnight every night. Yes, it was exhausting but as a working mother of three I’m tired anyways!
The length of the book doesn’t matter and here’s why: If people are looking for a solution to a problem, do you think they want to spend hours and hours reading a long book, or would they prefer just getting to the meat of it and solving their problem as fast as possible?
The first step is writing your book. Get started writing your book, even if you just do a little at a time. As they say, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” I can’t tell you how many people call me and ask about my publishing services before they have even written a book. I always ask them, “Is your book finished?” And they say, “No….” Don’t put the cart before the horse. Do not worry about marketing it – that’s easy! – just get your book written. Once you start writing, you will be amazed at how it all flows. I give advice all day about how to write a book but guess what? It’s only the action takers that succeed. Lots of people can learn about how to write a book but how many of you will take action and actually start writing? I hope it’s YOU!
I encourage you to take what I have shared above and think of a topic you can write about. What sort of questions do you hear from your clients? What sort of problems do they have? What would make their life easier? Choose your topic and then take 20 or 30 minutes to write your outline. Then start fleshing it out by writing three supporting points under each main point. By the time you start writing, it practically writes itself!
I hope this has been helpful learning about how to write a book. Please leave a comment or question below and let me know if I can be of help to you.
Why would you need an elevator pitch template? Well, imagine that you are in an elevator and the person next to you asks, “So what do you do?” You have exactly 10-30 seconds to position yourself as someone they should do business with. What do you say? Do you freeze? Do you use as few words as possible? Do you use the one noun associated with what you do? (I.e. teacher, realtor, nurse…)
It happens to all of us. We are given an opportunity to introduce ourselves at a function and we freeze or we just blurt out something that we think will sound great but turns out sounding silly or, even worse, rude. Don’t let yourself lose an opportunity for new business just because you are not prepared.
Using an elevator pitch template can help you create a 10-30 Second Elevator Pitch that will immediately differentiate you from your competitors and make you the logical choice to do business with. Let the real you shine! This free elevator pitch template will help you create a compelling message that forms the core message for all your future marketing and advertising. So, the next time someone asks you, “So… what do you do?” using the elevator pitch template below, you’ll easily be able to paint a clear picture for them.
A young realtor once established herself quickly in her career by avoiding saying, “I sell houses.” Instead, she said, “I sell homes in 30 days or less or I work for free.” Do you think she got attention? And tons of listings? You bet. Take a look at the Elevator Pitch Template below and let me know what you come up with.
| Elevator Pitch Template | Suzanne | You |
| Do you know how…? | Do you know how…? | |
| Who is your Ideal Client? Parents, business owners, dog-lovers, grandparents, etc | Moms who are business owners | |
| Use negative emotions: Frustrated, overwhelmed, struggling, concerned… | …can feel overwhelmed, | |
| Challenge: looking for an honest mechanic, looking for lasting pain relief, looking for answers… | Trying to juggle kids and their business? | |
| But they… 3 major frustrations: no time, alone, confused, waste money, worried, don’t have the skills | And they feel guilty when they’re working and they desperately want to be making more money? | |
| What I do is: Action words: help, guide, teach, provide, give | What I do is I provide… | |
| Overview of Solution: A tested and proven method, quick and pain free solution, | tested and proven sales and marketing help | |
| So they can… | So they can… | |
| 3 Benefits (not features): live a pain free life, spend more time with their kids, enjoy life, take a holiday, find a life partner, feel joy, have confidence, fully experience life! | Work less hours, make more money and spend more time with their kids. |
Now it’s your turn to use the elevator pitch template to design your very own elevator pitch to separate yourself from your competitors. You want to stand out right? Help people remember who you are when they ask, "So, what do you do?"
If you have been reading my articles for any length of time, you will know that I am a big fan of follow-ups.
A “follow-up” is simply an email you send to a customer once they’ve purchased something from you. It’s an excellent way to stay in touch with your best leads; that is, the people who have already bought something from you. It’s also a great way to generate more sales!
But your success with follow-ups depends on how you present your offer. If you do it the wrong way, you run the risk of having your email come across as more of a cheesy sales message.
Today I’d like to give you my top five tips on how to create follow-up offers that are sure to generate sales without ever making your customers feel like all you want to do is make more money off them.
Follow-Up Tip 1: Start with a Mention of Their Recent Purchase
A good way to make sure your customers read your follow-up – instead of dismissing it as just another commercial message – is to start it off by referencing the purchase they recently made. This reminds them of the relationship they have with you and shows them you have an important reason to be getting back in touch with them.
I would recommend you include mention of their recent purchase right in the subject line and say something like:
How Are You Enjoying Your [ENTER PRODUCT/SERVICE NAME]?
Or, if you recently delivered a service such as massage to your customer, you can use a subject line like:
How have you been feeling since your massage?
By asking them a question that refers to their previous purchase, they will be far more likely to open your email and read your message.
Follow-Up Tip 2: Keep it Personal
Make sure you use your customer’s name in the body of the email. You already have an existing relationship with this person and should acknowledge that fact. Also be sure to use your own name in the email, both in the “From” line and in your sign-off.
People prefer to conduct business with other people, not companies, so if your emails are sent from a real person instead of “info@yourcompanyname.com” and you sign the emails as coming from you instead of a company “team” you will deepen the sense of personal connection your customer has with you.
Follow-Up Tip 3: Show Genuine Interest in Them
Your customers should feel like the whole reason you’re emailing them is to make sure they’re getting the best possible results with their previous purchase. Ask them how they’re enjoying their product and if there’s anything you can do to increase their enjoyment in any way.
If they email you back with their feedback, make sure you respond whether the feedback is positive or negative. Don’t be afraid of complaints – they’re not a bad thing. They provide you with an opportunity to address a dissatisfied buyer’s issues and retain him or her as a customer. They might even give you some good ideas on how you can improve your product or service – and that kind of information is invaluable.
Follow-Up Tip 4: Make Sure Your Offer Relates to Their Previous Purchase
Once you have asked your customers how they’re doing with their previous purchase, it’s time to present your offer to them. Now, this one is important: Make sure your offer closely relates to the product or service they bought from you.
For example, if your customer just bought a sewing machine from you, a great follow-up offer would be for one of the many software programs they can use to upgrade their machine’s functionality. Or, if you offer classes at your shop that teach people how use their machine’s built-in advanced features, these would also make a great follow-up. Both of these offers help your customers get better use out of their new machine and so they’re bound to be very appealing.
Follow-Up Tip 5: Give Them an Exclusive Discount
A great way to make your follow-ups even more compelling is to offer your customers a generous discount on their next purchase. And why not… if they bought something from you then you should reward them for that and a discount is a great way to say “thank you.”
By offering your customers a nice discount, you also increase the chance they’ll take you up on your follow-up – and a customer who buys from you twice is far more likely to become a lifelong loyal customer. These are the people you should treasure because they will end up being responsible for 80% of your sales.
Plus, they’ll also become great word-of-mouth promoters for your business – and that’s the best advertising you could possibly hope for!
Take Care of Your Best Customers, and They’ll Take Care of You…
So those are my top five tips on how to grow your sales with compelling follow-ups. Remember, if your message is authentic and keeps your customers’ best interests in mind, and if your offer closely relates to their previous purchase and helps them get even better use out of it, then many of your customers will happily take you up on your offer.
In fact, I find that whenever I present my customers with a valuable and relevant follow-up offer, 30 percent jump at the chance to take me up on it! That’s an incredible conversion rate and shows you how powerful follow-ups can be.
The other day I sat down with a local business owner who wanted me to teach her basic Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
It was a great opportunity to find what she didn’t know! You know how sometimes it seems like what you know is very basic and everyone else knows it too?
I decided right then and there to offer a very low cost workshop in my hometown so that other local business owners could learn a thing or two about getting themselves indexed (and found!) on Google. We also talked a lot about how to get traffic to your site. Most local business owners have nice looking sites but they don’t get much traffic at all. Often they are not aware of which keywords people are using to find what they offer, or they are using keywords that only 3 people a year actually use in their searches. Stay tuned to workshop details or shoot me an email if you’re keen to learn this stuff.
Like many of the clients I’ve recently spoken to, you may be planning big changes to your website and online marketing efforts. That’s great!
But you don’t want to overhaul your entire online presence just for the heck of it… all of the changes you make should be done with only one purpose in mind: to convert more of your visitors into customers.
And in order to make sure you accomplish this goal, you need to test every change you implement in order to make sure each one has a positive impact on your bottom line.
Here are five important testing tips to help you do this…
1. Make Sure You’re Tracking These Two Important Numbers
To accurately gauge your website performance, you need to know TWO main numbers for any given time period:
These two numbers tell you what the conversion rate for your website is, so you can work on growing that number. It also tells you exactly how many visitors you need to attract to your site in order to make a sale.
Here’s what I mean…
Let’s say you got 200 visitors to your site in one day and you made 10 sales. Divide the number of visitors by the number of sales to get your sales conversion rate: 200/10 = 20.
For every 20 visitors you got that day, you made 1 sale. (Expressed as a percentage, this means your conversion rate was 5%, as 1/20 = 0.05)
If that conversion rate remains steady, then you can expect to make one sale for every 20 visitors. If you get 100 visitors, you’ll make 5 sales. If you get 1000 visitors, you should make 50 sales.
This is pretty simple math, but the information you get is incredibly powerful.
It helps you understand how well your website is doing its job of converting visitors into customers. If that conversion rate goes down, it could mean there’s a problem with your website — and you should do a thorough examination of it to see what’s causing your sales to dip.
If, on the other hand, you see a sudden spike in sales, you should try to determine why more visitors are suddenly buying your products — so you can repeat this success again in the future.
2. Test Only ONE thing at a time
This is the best way to discover which change is causing which result.
If you do much shopping or surfing online, you’ve probably noticed how many websites feature video these days. Many companies have turned to video as their primary online conversion tool, using short or long video messages to introduce themselves, encourage their visitors download a giveaway, and even sell their products and services.
And the ones who know how to use video the right way are seeing their revenues skyrocket!
Today we’re going to look at how you can easily add a video message to your site that will increase your conversions and sales. But first, let’s take a moment to consider WHY it’s so important for you to get video on your site, sooner as opposed to later…
Video allows you to present a more compelling message to your audience. Most people retain information better when it appeals to more than one sense. Some people are better at remembering information they’ve read, while others find it easier to remember information based on the visuals they see or the words they hear. So when you present your message in a way that appeals to all these senses, you’ll get better results.
How much better, you ask? 
Check out these stats from Borrell & Associates:
Adding video to a sales website or small business profile…
… With stats like these, why would you NOT want to add video to your site?
It was Mother’s Day and we were enjoying lunch in Bucerias, Mexico at a little restaurant right on the beach. I mean, literally, a thatched umbrella (called a palapa) overhead and our toes in the sand. Our kids Hana, Alexa and Trey were eating the freshest, most delicious fish and chips I have ever tasted and James and I were munching on prawn tacos. They were sweet and juicy and paired with cilantro mayonnaise – delicious!
As you may know, when you’re sitting on a beach in Mexico, many vendors come along and try to sell you their jewelry, handicrafts, hats, hammocks and even fresh mangoes or prawns on a stick!
Most of the time, you end up saying, “No gracias (no thanks)” over and over again. This is what I was mentally prepared to say when I saw a heavyset Mexican man approaching us. I noticed his many gold chains around his hairy neck and his dashing outfit of a white undershirt and khaki cargo shorts.
Imagine my surprise when he approaches our table and says, “Massage?”
This is the last person on earth I would expect to be selling massages. He really and truly looked more like a mechanic or a timeshare salesman than a masseuse. So obviously we said, “No gracias” immediately. He persisted. “No gracias” again we answered. If I had known how to say, “No chance on earth buddy” I would have, but my Spanish is very limited.
So here’s the funniest thing: He suddenly says, “I’ll give you a free sample!” and before I know it, he has spread cream on my back and is massaging my shoulders.
Woah!
OK, how do I get rid of this guy? I’m thinking…. But, hey, wait a minute… This is… ahhhh… this feels really good….
Well… a little free sample wouldn’t hurt right….? Keep going, keep going, I’m silently screaming inside my head.
So after a few minutes when he says, “It’s $17 for a 30 minute chair massage or $30 for a one hour table massage right here on the lounge chair,” I was already sold.
My husband says “It’s Mother’s Day! Of course she wants a massage!”
The point of this story is to remind you of the power of samples or free trials. They really work! If your potential customer does not know you or what kind of service you offer, the best way to introduce yourself to them is with a free sample of your work. Whether it’s a muffin, a massage or a free 30 minute consultation, free samples really work! Give it a try in your business today and let me know how it goes.
Happy selling!