I need your help please - sell my book or sell an affiliate's one

[BloggerDownUnder]

Hi,

I've been rattling my brain for some time now and need some guidance please and if necessary a slap around the face!

I have written an ebook ("From Struggle to Abundance") to help small business owners attract, convert and retain customers. It has 90 pages and has taken me some time. My internet strategy has taken a different direction since starting writing the book - I spend about 50% of my time in my business consulting offline business but my passion is now in IM.

I wouldn't write a book myself again and would outsource the writing to a ghostwriter. I am currently considering having a landing page written and will outsource this, depending on my decision.

Instead of promoting my own book should I become an affiliate of someone else's products and use their marketing materials and I'll drive traffic to that site? This would allow me to focus on other niches (I currently have a few non business/off line marketing related projects on the go) as well as cross sell marketing affiliate products via my own marketing blog, which I have not dedicated too much time to.

If anyone else has experienced similar dilemmas, I'd appreciate your feedback please...even if it's brutally honest!

Thanks. Mark

[TrafficGuy Claude]

Hello Mark,

You're on to something quite big and your book could be a hit. That market you're targeting is a very rabid one, and it loves to consume information, and best of all its used to buying information online in the form of digital downloads.

An easy way to get started would be to give your best parts of the book away for free in the form of a short report, video, or audio in exchange for your prospects email and first name.

Then with your list in hand, market your full product to them, and drive them to a sales letter site. Make them opt-in in order to receive the product via eMail, and if you're using Aweber or similar service you can segregate your lists from your buyers and your freebie list. Then you find other related affiliate offers and sell those to your buyers.

You then continue to offer your freebie list, those who have not yet bought from you,free quality content and pitches for your product on a ratio of about 80%/20% until they become buyers or unsubscribe.

That's what I would do if I was in your position.

[Pace07]

Hey Mark,

I agree with the traffic guy! You should also find out what your list liked and disliked about your product and edit and make it better. This way you can get testimonals, free information and hopefully your list will like it enough to promote it for you. 2 birds with one stone if you ask me!

Cheers,
Emma

[BloggerDownUnder]

Thanks TrafficGuyClaude and Emma (Pace07)...very constructive feedback.

I had planned to give away one of the chapters free and then "up-sell" the rest of the eBook. My concern is the extra time and cost to design a sales letter, etc vs using an affiliate product

[MustafaKamal]

Yes, give away your a chapter for free to entice readers how value-added your book can be. It'll definitely increase your credibility as a writer as well.

[BloggerDownUnder]

Thanks Mustafa - my concern is whether I should promote my eBook or use someone elses and add mine as a bonus. Cheers, Mark