Rich Sage’s 11 Elements to a Best Selling E-Book

It’s rather presumptuous of me to proclaim and blurt out 11 elements of a powerful and even “best selling” e-book, when I have yet to publish such a product. However, after mulling for 3 years on various subject ideas and writing a few shorter e-books, I feel that I’ve hit upon something that’s very powerful in my e-book that I am about to release. Let me discuss that and the many other aspects of an e-book that I am publishing this month, via ClickBank.

Content: First of all this obviously is the most important -the content of the e-book. My content is special because I’ve addressed the issues that help people build a business while keeping costs *very low* –as low as possible. In fact, my advice to readers is to never spend more than $100 starting an online business, and always reaching cash flow in the first month of work. The $100 start up costs include the cost of the e-book! The rest of the content keeps going with the cost cutting theme, and not trying to “buy your way into business lessons” and hoping one of them will resonate enough to start doing.

My advice is quite different –get started with a good idea and what’s around –mainly free software and then address the issues that are needed to grow. In fact, when cash flow is there and money is spent on lessons, that is an investment in the business and a business expense. However, if you are BUYING endless lessons and cash flow has gone nowhere, that is DEBT –usually, personal debt.

Linking: I decided not to throw a whole bunch of links all over the place. Instead, I’ll limit the number of links I’ll have in the content so that readers can focus. I am moving the links area to a resource chapter at the end of the e-book. The resource area will also need constant updates. Thus, it will be duplicated in the free membership download area so that readers can acquire the latest copy and have up-to-date links.

Another linking note –the links don’t lead directly to any resource. They first are directed to my “hop link” file that forwards the link from the RichSage site to the final destination. That way I can carefully control the links and keep an eye on the traffic generated.

Back-End Buyers Area: Part of the e-book effort is to find new members for the Free Rich Sage Make Money Online Membership Area. The private area and forum are there to help members learn, ask questions from experts and generally find people to help them resolve their problems. I will be there offering not only free advice, but to also come up with new products that are given to members for free to help them build their own businesses. My motive is that when I help people via these resources, a small percentage will always become large clients and end up doing much more with my tools and services.

Download Area: It’s nearly impossible to keep an up-to-date e-book. Things change very fast online. I have created a special membership for the e-book buyers, and allowing them to access a download area that has perhaps, monthly updates of the e-book. This will allow them to get the best lessons for their money and I’ll be able to provide the value that I am comfortable with.

Videos: I plan to add a publication, an online addendum to the e-book that links to various training videos on YouTube and at the Rich Sage Membership area providing extended “How To” lessons on everything from WordPress to Joomla to several other activities that help my members make money online.

Updates: As I’ve discussed, updates are essential. But, doing regular updates also provides a good line of communication between the e-book buyers and my online world. Regular communication is essential to a good relationship, and by updating my materials and notifying members I’ll be able to help them make the decisions and use my network in an efficient manner.

Part of this process involves the buying of the e-book. When a purchase is done, the buyer is asked to “Opt In” and receive update notifications. This part is built into the buying process, and I suspect a good number of those who purchase, also will opt-in to the update notification list.

Resource List: I’ve already touched upon this, but to stress it again, the idea is to maintain a resource list that can be easily updated. I will do that for the e-book in two ways -first by using an online copy of the e-book that can be downloaded at any time by previous buyers. And a separate “Rich Sage Resource List” that is available as well. This will have many of my recommendations, in addition to vital links that everyone should use.

Good Graphics: This is a must. I am using professional graphics to convey a many of my messages. The old adage that a picture speaks a 1,000 words is true, and I want to make sure that images help convey all my lessons in an efficient manner. I am sure this will also greatly aide the sales effort. Not only the professional cover, even the inside images matter as I’ll “flip through the e-book” in the sales video to show part of the content to potential buyers.

Embed Video or Link to Video Examples: This is something that I think Adobe will implement one day where we can have an embedded video in a PDF file and play it while reading the e-book. Actually, that might already be there. Anyway, even if it is not, I’ll just put a picture of a ’screen grab’ that links to a YouTube video or a membership area video.

Some of the basic content that I link to will be on YouTube. However, special content that I don’t want none members to see will be put in the membership area and be private.

Have a Good Review by Writers: Lastly, before all this “goes to press” I am planning on a through review by a few writers to make sure that what I say is understandable and accepted by the masses. I will then have a special sale in the forum I frequent the most.

Frequent Updates: I’ve mentioned this several times, but I also need to point out that once the FIRST EDITION is done, I’ll upload the e-book to Google Docs allowing outside writers to make contributions. I reviewed Google Docs here. It’s an application that should tremendously improve the quality and speed of the collaboration effort. This is no dobut lead to a much better and much more thorough product.

All this talk about writing a book is great. However, just as important is to finish an e-book that’s over 60 pages at this time and will most likely be 70 pages when done. I do keep in mind that only a page or two is left to non-business issues. Mainly my philosophy. The rest is FULL of CONTENT that serves one objective: To build the reader businesses online. Let me now get to finishing it.

Rich Sage