Five Reasons I Read and Respond to Email--And You Should Too

In various online and print articles and from time management experts, I have read repeatedly that we should take control of the number of times we read our email. Some people recommend you do it only once or twice a day rather than checking your phone or email many times during a day. I understand the reason for this suggestion since most of us check our email too much—to the annoyance of our relatives sometimes. You do have to be controlled about when you check it—but in this article I want to give you a contrarian type of answer—about reasons you should be reading it”

1. Opportunities come in various emails. Recently another author asked me to write the foreword for their book. I looked at the book and agreed then wrote my foreword and sent it via email.  I have a new forthcoming writing book and I've been gathering endorsements for this book and a foreword. I've done this work through email. Edtors ask authors to write articles for magazines and much more via email—provided you are faithfully reading them and responding in a timely way.

2. Book contracts come via email.  Years ago, contracts were sent in the regular snail mail. Today with secure servers and such, contracts are often sent via email. You can also print, sign, scan the pages and return the contract to the publisher through email. It is how I have been working with authors on their book contracts at Morgan James for the last several years.

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3. Money comes in email. As I've mentioned in these articles, I am involved in affiliate marketing. Some of the emails that I send through my email list promote others and their products. If you attend their event and buy their products, then I get a percentage of the sale as an affiliate. I explain more about affiliate marketing in this free ebook, You Can Make Money (use the link to get it and learn more and become one of my affiliates for my products).

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4. I learn about writing reading my email. I'm on other people's email list—and I have an email list. I believe every writer needs to be growing an email list. If you don't know how to get started on an email list, I have a little product called The List Building Tycoon After you have an email list, you need to be using it on a regular basis.

5. I communicate with authors through email. As an editor, I send a lot of email to authors. It's how I set up phone meetings and for some people, I send them book contracts from our Morgan James publication board.

I'm certain there are more than five reasons why I read my email and respond but these will give you ideas for your own email reading. It's why I read my email and respond to it throughout the day—every day.

Do you have boundaries for reading and responding to your email? Let me know in the comments below.

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Six Platform-Building Short Cuts

For years, platform has been a buzz word throughout the publishing community. Every agent and editor is looking for authors who have visibility or a platform in the marketplace. I've written a free ebook on the topic, Platform-Building Ideas for Every Author.

One of my key mentors in this process of building an online presence has been Internet Marketing Expert Jimmy D. Brown. Several years ago, it was through Jimmy I learned how to create a membership site like my Write A Book Proposal course. His insights and teaching has been incredible and helped me in many different areas. I continue to learn important lessons from him his information.

In the last week, Jimmy started giving away a series of six one-page documents that he calls Cheat Sheets. Each of these documents are packed with information for every author. In this article, I want to call to your attention each one of these resources and explain why author's need to study each Cheat Sheet. I've made these cheat sheets easy to download. Just click the link in each section and it will open to the resource.

List Building Insights

While there are many different ways to market your books, I believe every author should be building an email list where you are collecting names and emails of people who care about you and your work. Jimmy has created The 1-2-3 List-Building Cheat Sheet which helps you understand the steps and gives specific information about how to do it.

Product Creation

Besides selling books, as an author you can create other products to sell to your audience. I've got a series of ebooks and other products that sell all the time such as Blogging for Bucks or the Simple Membership System. I encourage every author to create such products and create their own income stream which is separate from their books and other aspects. You need to get The 24–Hour Product Creation Cheat Sheet and study this information, then take action in your writing life.

Turn Content Into Income

You may be a blogger or write magazine articles but how do you turn your content into money? The details are in The Content Into Cash Cheat Sheet. Yes the information is in brief but this resource will certainly get the idea wheels turning.

Get Others to Create for You

Most of us as writers operate alone. How do you find competent people to assist you and get more accomplished and make more income? Study The Hands-Free Outsourcing Cheat Sheet and you will begin learning these details.

Is Earning Six-Figures Possible?

Many writers are struggling financially yet The Simple Six-Figure Cheat Sheet provides the step-by-step insights for every author to achieve success. This resource gives five different models to reach the six-figure mark. Study this cheat sheet and take action then six-figures becomes do-able.

Drive Traffic to Your Content

Your website can look fantastic but if you don't learn traffic techniques to get people to see it, that beautiful website is worthless. You need The Traffic Master Cheat Sheet. Study the words on this page then apply them to your writing life.

While each of these cheat sheets contain seasoned guidance, there is no easy fix. You need to take daily action to achieve success. These pages contain rich knowledge and make it well worth saving to your hard drive, printing and study. Jimmy D. Brown's newest course is at Earn Income.com. He's a master of  marketing and every author can learn valuable insights from his teaching. I know I have learned a lot and continue to learn a lot from him.  

Let me know what you think of these cheat sheets in the comments. 

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An Important Marketing Tool

This weekend I'm headed to my first conference after my move to California. One of the most important marketing tools to take to conferences are business cards. From attending many conferences, I'm always surprised when an editor or agent only has a few business cards—and they quickly run out during the event. 

Or I will meet with a writer and give them my business card. As I extend the card, I always ask, “Can I get your card?” At every conference, there is a high percentage of first-time attenders. They will say, “No, I don't have a card” or “All I have is for my business.” 

I will pull out my notebook and get their email and phone number for follow-up. Often I suspect, I'm one of the few editors who make this effort. It has repeatedly paid off from my perspective with additional opportunities and connections.

If you are going to a conference or any face-to-face type of event, get some business cards. You can make your own cards with a package of blank cards at some office supply place and a simple Microsoft Word template. There is no need to be without business cards if you are taking some simple preparation steps for the conference.

In preparation for the conference this weekend—and also for my other conferences this fall (see the link for my schedule), I made a new personal business card. Yes I have my Morgan James Publishing Acquisitions Editor business cards and will use them throughout the events. In this article, I'm focused on my own personal business card. 

Because I moved, I needed new business cards. Since I was printing new cards, it gave me the opportunity to think through my information on the card. Yes I changed my office address but what about the other elements on it? Were they the right elements for the audience (the people who will receive them)?

This week I received a new book from a new author. It included her business card. From hard earned experience, I've learned to not throw away the envelope before I look at what is inside the package. Why? The author's business card included her name, phone number and email—but not her address. The only place her mailing address appeared was on the outside package. I suspect it was an oversight on her part. The most difficult thing to proofread is something not on the page.

Here's the front of my new business card:

It includes my business mailing address, my personal email, my website to purchase my latest book and my twitter name. I added www.askterrywhalin.com to this card because I hold regular teleseminars with a different focus at this website. 

Did you notice what is missing? I did not include my phone number but the information is on the contact page of my personal website. I'm not hard to find.

Now look at the back of my card:

My target audience are writers or authors or would-be writers or would-be authors. I'm giving away my free ebook, Straight Talk From the Editor, 18 Keys to a Rejection-Proof Submission. Anyone can get this free ebook, 24 hours a day at www.StraightTalkEditor.com. 

I purchased my cards through Epic Print Solutions. Please check out their site because they can help with any printing need at a reasonable cost.

Finally, think about your own business card. Is it complete? Are you thinking through how the audience will use your card? Does it include something to help others such as a free Ebook? Are you using the card to build your list and connect with others? If not, can you take steps today to begin to put together such an action plan? I recommend you consider my Ebook, The List Building Tycoon or get the Amazon Kindle version of this Ebook. Read it and follow my advice in it.

Your business card is an important market tool for your arsenal. Are you using it?

10 Tips to Sell Your Photos Online

For a moment, stop and think about the photos you've snapped on your digital camera or on your computer’s hard drive right.

Now consider your answers to these questions:

• Are there are any photos of dogs, cats, birds or other pets? • Are there any photos of other animals, like wildlife? • Are there any photos of people, like cute babies? • Are there any photos of nature, such as forests, mountains, and beaches? • Are there any photos of landmarks? • Are there any other interesting photos, like bridges, rainbows, sunrises, waterfalls, buildings, etc?

If so, you could be sitting on an absolute fortune!

That’s because people love buying photos online, especially through stock photo sites and photo product sites.

And you can get your share of the money by following these 10 tips for selling your photos online…

1. Find out what people want. The easiest way to sell your photos online is by focusing on the photos that people really want to buy.

Example: Go to istockphoto.com to see what’s popular. Then create something similar.

2. Focus on one subject. People who buy photos on products (like t-shirts) or those who buy photos to upload to their websites don’t want cluttered photos. So when you take a picture, be sure to focus on one primary subject.

3. Edit the photos. Of course sometimes clutter is unavoidable – and that’s ok, as long as you crop and edit the photo using software like Gimp.org.

4. Create transparent or white backgrounds. This is particularly important if you’re selling your photos on stock photo sites.

Example: If a person wants a photo of a laptop, they want JUST the laptop – they don’t want to see the table it was sitting on when you took the photo.

5. Upload photos to stock photo sites. Want a quick and easy way to start selling photos TODAY? Then upload your photos to sites like istockphoto.com.

6. Put your photos on photo products. This one takes a little more time to get set up, as you’ll want to proof the products before you start selling them. But you can charge more for these products, which makes photos products (like t-shirts and coffee mugs) very profitable.

7. Create themed packages.

Example: Create a package of 25 photos of poodles. Or create a package of famous landmarks. Point is, photo packages will sell better if the photos are related.

8. Offer exclusive licenses. Sometimes you may sell the same photo to hundreds of different people. At other times, you may consider selling exclusive licenses so that just one person has the rights to this photo. You may charge hundreds of dollars or more!

9. Market your photos. Sure, you’ll make some money by uploading your photos to stock photo sites and photo product sites. But you’ll make even more money if you cast a wider net by advertising your photos.

Example: You can start a Fan Page on Facebook.com or post an ad on CraigsList.org.

10. Create an email list. Finally, be sure to keep in contact with your prospects or customers by starting an email list. If you don't have a list, then take my free 21 lesson course (follow this link) or get my inexpensive Ebook The List Building Tycoon to learn this important skill. Then with your own email list, you can turn buyers into repeat buyers!

Whether you’re new to selling photos online or you’re a seasoned pro, you can make more money by using the above tips. But to make even more money, then you need to get your hands on The 31 Day Guide to Selling Photos Online. You can get your copy right here: http://www.moneywithphotos.com/

A Key Tool For Every Author

From my years in publishing, I've learned authors are a stubborn bunch. Most of us have huge dreams for our writing. We want other people to read it, publish our work, pay us fairly for our work—yet we don't want to actively be involved in marketing our work and telling other people about our writing. We want to create and write more words. I've been consistently teaching writers to add regular marketing to their writing life. These skills are something that everyone can learn—and it's not too early (or late) in the process for you to begin building your audience.

Recently I met with a much-published author who had a stack of proposals and ideas for books that he wanted to write. I admired his drive and desire to write new books. He does have some websites and I checked out those sites. During our conversation, he mentioned that he didn't have a platform or visibility in the market.

As I looked at his website, this author was missing a key tool in his arsenal of reaching his audience. He had no list-building device on his website. There are many different forms of this list-building device. In general, the author offers a free Ebook or a free audio or a free special report—in exchange for the reader giving their first name and email address. In the last few years, I've created a number of these types of offers.

For example, my Straight Talk From the Editor, 18 Keys to A Rejection-Proof Submission is a free Ebook. I promote this Ebook on my name website, my blog and a number of other places including twitter.

When you create one of these tools, you are gathering names and emails for an email list. Each time you send an email (whether a single offer) or an e-zine, you include the removal or unsubscribe links so the reader can no longer receive your mailings.

Everyone begins with a small number of subscribers then through providing consistent quality materials, your list grows and your audience grows. To me, List Building is a key tool for every author or would-be author. It doesn't matter if you are writing nonfiction or fiction, poetry or novels or magazine articles, every writer and author should be working on this regular communication tool.

To help you with more of the details about how to build a list, I've launched The List Building Tycoon. This step-by-step guide will teach you the various elements of list building and start today to gather your audience. This 76–page resource is backed with my 60 day risk-free guarantee.

Whether you get my List Building Tycoon ebook or not, I hope you will begin to take action and develop your own audience. It's a key step for every author.

Why I Updated An Older Ebook

There is an old saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Most of the time this saying is true but not always.

Recently I updated and reformatted my most popular free Ebook, Straight Talk from the Editor, 18 Keys to a Rejection-Proof Submission. About three or four years ago, I wrote this book for the Amazon Short program where short books were sold for 49 cents. For the first six months, I had an exclusive relationship with Amazon per their contrat. After those six months, our relationship changed to non-exclusive. If you aren't familiar with those terms, it means I was released to be able to use the Ebook in other places.

I appreciated the chance to use this ebook other places so I reworked the format and updated my information in the bio of the book and began to give it away to people--in exchange for their first name and email address. I've been using this ebook as a list building device and I've received a lot of positive feedback about the contents of this book.

As a writer, I continue growing and learning about how to make Ebooks. For example, I purchased this inexpensive product called Easy PDF Templates which provides 150 different Ebook templates. One of the great features is the built-in Table of Contents links which allows the reader to go to a particular chapter with a simple click. I've used these templates to make several new ebooks--like the one I gave away in the teleseminar about how authors can make money with books. If you would like to hear this teleseminar and get the free Ebook, you can get it here because it is on replay mode.

With a new Ebook template, I took a fresh look at Straight Talk from the Editor. Since I had not read it for several years, I immediately began doing more than pouring it into a new format. I updated the statistics plus I saw something key that I was missing--application for the reader. I added a section for each chapter in the Ebook called Where The Rubber Meets The Road. I added questions and action items for every reader. Then I relaunched the book with an email to everyone on my mailing list who had requested it. I told them about my revision and sent them a link to download the new version.

Time is an amazing revealer when it comes to writing. As I looked at my entries on The Writing Life. I realized I had a picture of the cover, but no form or information that the Ebook was free. I've changed this element in the last couple of weeks and moved it up toward the top of The Writing Life.

Also I looked at my personal website and it did not offer the Free Ebook to people with an opt-in form (something easy and simple to use).

If you haven't requested this Ebook, I hope you will do so. Then you can see for yourself why I updated it.

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Meet A Need--Build A Quick Audience

It's a rather frequent conversation that I have with authors about their visibility in the marketplace. Whether you write fiction or nonfiction, publishers and literary agents want to work with writers who have a direct personal relationship to their audience. In these entries on The Writing Life, I've encouraged you to build that relationship through regular communication, such as starting a blog or electronic newsletter.

One of the keys to building that connection to the audience will be finding a need and filling it. While this aspect is critical for nonfiction, it can work on the fiction side as well. In this entry, I want to tell you about Peter Shankman. He found a need, filled it and built a quick audience in the process. Also every author or publisher will be interested in what he has built because you can tap into this resource.

Peter has a number of reporter friends who were regularly calling him to tap into his large database for story sources. To meet this need of reporters to be connected to specific people, he launched Help A Report Out on Facebook. It quickly grew beyond the limit of 1,200 emails and launched it on the HARO website. If you visit this site, you will see that it is simple to subscribe--and free. You will receive three emails a day from Peter which contain the different reporter needs he has received. If you have a story or a product or something to help the journalist, then you contact that person directly.

Peter makes it clear that individuals should only contact the reporter if they have something to meet their particular need. It is not a way to collect reporters email addresses for more SPAM. If he gets complaints about you, then he can boot you off the list. He has built an impressive series of contacts with a number of high profile outlets in radio, print, television and the Internet.

HARO also makes the reverse service available. If you are writing a book or a magazine article and need a certain type of person, then you can use his other site to broadcast your need and locate a certain type of person.

In a short amount of time, Peter Shankman has built a list of almost 15,000 emails that he writes three times a day. Each one of those emails gives Peter a chance to talk about what he's doing in a paragraph or two before he gives the queries from the last few hours. I've been fascinated to see how he found a need, filled it and is using that need to build relationships--and a quick audience.

Can you do likewise with the topic that you are passionate about?

Help For Audience Building

I'm involved with a couple of online group discussions. Recently several authors mentioned they had been spending a lot of effort on their marketing over the last few years yet now they had decided to cut back on that marketing activity and instead pouring the energy into their writing. I can appreciate these author's desire to improve their storytelling and writing craft. Every book will have to have good writing as the basic foundation. Yet at the same time, there are great books which never make any traction in the marketplace in terms of book sales because the author has not committed the effort and energy into building their audience. In my view this audience building doesn't have to be all consuming--but it does have to continually be a part of the process.

This process of building an audience involves a consistent effort and vision. No matter where you are in the process of publishing a book, are you writing a newsletter and adding to your list of subscribers. I've mentioned in the past the free 150-page Ebook which gives lots of advice about how to get content and build your list. Also I've mentioned that New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber has over 75,000 readers on her electronic newsletter list. She understands the power of this information to influence readers. You can follow this link to one of my older posts (then follow the links inside the post) for more information.

If you have no idea how to promote--or even if you do and need some fresh ideas, check out Joan Stewart's Publicity Hound materials. On this link, you can download four free ebooks with a wealth of ideas and information. Just click on each book cover to go to the download page. You will discover a wealth of material and ideas.

Finally I want to encourage you to sign up for a valuable FREE email course that I got from Jimmy D. Brown. Jimmy has created a number of courses online that he sells but this one is free. Just follow the link, go to the bottom of the page and add your first name and email address. Then for the next 21 days you will receive an email each day with Jimmy's insight. I set it up at this location and hope it helps you build your own audience.