Newbie help

Gisele,

First of all, I must commend you for your writing skills. You are a very good writer by my standard.

I just prefer Wordpress because of its popularity and flexibility.

All you have to do is to make sure that your ebook will give the readers the much needed value for their hard earned money, time and so on.

Don't leave any vital information behind no matter how insignificant it might appear.

These are good questions but all with very long answers.

Here is what I did when I was in your position 3 years ago.

1. Decided on the subject matter of my ebook having ensured there were people looking for the information I had
2. Write the book - completely finish it with ecover graphics
3. Set up a simple sales page on your own domain - yourebooksubject.com. Do Not Use Wordpress. plain old html will do
4. Use paypal to provide for getting paid
5. Promote the sales page with pay per click for 2 weeks to ensure you have a system/product that works - i.e. makes sales
6. Promote the website constantly and without a break for 3 months

This was all I knew to start with. I am only now learning A B testing and the rest. Do not make things too complicated with your first project

Kenj

I would use wordpress, I am not sure of the split testing, but I would probably just create the two pages with the different offers and change which one I activate as the main page.

Hey Gisele,

I'd recommend using WordPress as well. It's very easy to work with, and gives nice results without you having to be a code expert. As far as replicating the site, you could easily find a theme you're happy with and reuse it. Some WordPress themes are designed to be used with products, so one of those should be a natural fit.

For clarification's sake, I'd recommend using your own domain name and hosting rather than the free WordPress option. It's more professional-looking to prospective buyers, and gives you more options. If the product really takes off, you can build a blog or forum right into your WordPress site later, without losing your sales page.

As for your split testing, WordPress also has a free plugin called ShrimpTest. Once you've got WordPress installed on your site, you can install this in seconds without having to run outside software.

For tips on your product creation, I'd highly recommend you check out Pat Flynn's "eBooks the Smart Way." It's free, and packed with good information on getting your product together. Pat's big money-making e-book is also education-based, as it was written to help people preparing for the LEED exam.

Good luck with your product launch!