Perfect or Detailed. Mutually Exclusive?

As an acquisitions editor, I see many different types of writers.  For almost eight months, I've been emailing and occasionally speaking with an author who “talks” like she has a terrific book—even more than one book. Despite my encouragement to send the material, this author has never completed her proposal or a sample of her manuscript.  In her view, it still needs more work and isn't ready to send to an editor or agent—despite the multiple requests.  Her perfectionism is keeping her from taking action and moving forward. Know anyone like that in your own life?

In contrast, I often see submissions which are unprofessional and missing elements.  Maybe the proposal doesn't have the word count for the manuscript or the author's contact information including their mailing address (or skype if they are outside of the U.S.). Or when I read the material it has no pattern or cohesion like it was thrown together and sent off to an editor or agent to sort out the details and see if it is a fit to be published.

The balance is some place between these two extremes. You want your submission to be complete and professional.  Many of us in the publishing community have created terrific resources so you can learn what a literary agent or editor expects with a submission. I often refer writers to my free book proposal checklist (use the link).  I want to encourage you to take action on your book or book proposal. What are you doing to keep moving forward?

Do you already have a book and want to sell more copies? Then what actions are you taking to make that happen? Are you reaching out to book reviewers or writing a press release or the dozen other ways to stir book sales? If you want this information, follow the links in my last sentence because each one goes to a free teleseminar that I've created.

From my years in publishing, it is important to take action every day. The details are important but it is also important to constantly be expanding your network of people.  You will never reach the right person by yourself. I encourage you to attend conferences and meet new people. Last Friday and Saturday, I was at the Castle Rock Writers Conference meeting writers and editors.  As I spoke with others, I freely gave out my business cards (yes plural because I have two—my Morgan James Publishing card and my local Colorado business card). 

While giving my own cards was important, I also made a point to ask for a card from each person—or at least wrote down their basic contact information if they didn't have a business card. Why? Because I want to continue to work at expanding my network and connections to others. You can take the same actions.

Here's a reality of the publishing world: you only need one connection. It's like the realtor reminding me when we sell a home, you only need one buyer. For your writing, you are looking for the right agent or the right editor to champion your cause. This connection is out there—but you have to be taking daily action to make this connection.

Our world is full of dreams, joy and hope. Notice the image I included with today's article—a pile of rocks with words on them. Take action today and let me know how I can help you.

What's Holding Back Your Writing?

I've got a new dog in my house. Well, she's not really new but acting in a new way. We've had Sophie, our Yorkshire Terrier for over four years and she's an integral part of our daily lives. Yet I'm not the “alpha” in our house but my wife fills that role.

For years, Sophie has had this annoying behavior of barking like crazy each time I come into the house or speak with my wife. We've tried many different things to correct this behavior—and nothing worked until this week.

We learned about the Pet Corrector. This simple red can makes a hissing sound with air. Whenever Sophie barks or misbehaves, I blast it toward her and she immediately stops barking. In fact, she's lost this barking habit. It is like we have a new dog in our house—one that has much better behavior.

This Pet Corrector is an amazing tool and we learned about it from a family member who used it with their dogs.

I thought about this tool in relation to my writing life. What is holding back your writing? Is there some missing tool that you could pick up which would move your writing in a new direction?

The correction process has several parts. First, you need to take some time and think about what is holding back your writing?

Maybe you need to learn to write a query letter. Maybe you need to learn the skill of writing a book proposal. Maybe you need to attend a writer's conference with different editors and agents (people you've not met in the past). I'm speaking at a number of conferences in the coming months and you can check my schedule at this link.

Possibly you need to purchase a new book which will stir ideas. In each chapter of my Jumpstart Your Publishing Dreams, I include resources so you can dig deeper into the material in that chapter.

Or maybe you are missing a critical skill that is holding you back. Or possibly it is financial and you need to make more money with your writing. I have a free teleseminar that you can access immediately along with my Ebook, Buzz Your Book Marketing That Matters.

Possibly you have a blog yet few readers and you aren't making any money with it because you've not set it up right and monetized it. I suggest you get my 31 Day Guide to Blogging for Bucks. You can get this resource any time day or night and it comes with my 60 day risk-free guarantee. Begin to use it right away.

After you determine what needs to change and locate the resources, the final step is critical: change your behavior. If you don't change your actions, then you will still be in the same spot a month or six months from now.

You can determine what is holding back your writing, find the resource and make a change. I believe in you and look forward to hearing about the results.

How to Write Articles That Sell Your Short Reports

I wanted to follow-up on my article about 5 Keys to Writing and Selling Small Reports. Some writers create products and then use loosely related articles to sell those products. You might sell a few using that method. But you’ll sell a whole lot more if you use closely related articles to market your short reports.

Here’s how it works…

Step 1: Choose a Topic

If you want to sell a lot of “feature length” articles (i.e., short reports), then you need to choose a proven topic. That means you should sell reports that are similar to solutions that your market is already buying.

You can find out what your market is buying by visiting marketplaces like the Amazon.com marketplace (and their bestseller lists) and the Clickbank.com marketplaces. In both cases, look for products appearing at the top of the search results and/or at the top of the categories when you browse.

These are your most popular, best-selling products. You’ll want to create a short report on a similar topic. Ideally, you should give your report a special twist or make it unique in some way.

Example: If you see a lot of bestsellers on the topic of helping brides-to-be slim down in the three months before their wedding, you can create a report and accompanying article about how to slim down safely and quickly in two months.

Step 2: Write an Article on the Topic

Once you’ve chosen your topic, then your next step is to write a 400 to 600 word article on this topic. Your goal is to provide useful yet incomplete information. That’s because you want your readers to solve their problems by purchasing your report.

Example: In continuing with the weight loss for brides example: You might create an article called “Three Secrets to Getting in Shape for Your Wedding.” Those three secrets will prove useful to the reader, but she won’t be able to lose enough weight unless she knows all the secrets contained in your report.

Step 3: Craft a Compelling Conclusion

Next, you need to craft a conclusion that gets readers to click through to your short report sales page. To do this, offer a benefit to those who click through, such as the quick and easy to solution to their problems.

Example #1: “Who else wants to look stunning on her wedding day? Click here now to discover how to lose all the weight you want before your big day!”

Example #2: “Whether you fit into your wedding dress or not depends on whether you know these seven fat-melting secrets – click here to ensure you too look drop-dead gorgeous on your wedding day!”

Step 4: Create a Short Report on the Same Topic

Next, you need to write a short 7-15 page report on the same topic. While a short report can’t solve all your prospects’ problems, it can solve one specific problem.

Example #1: Your short report could teach future brides how to drop 20 pounds before their wedding day.

Example #2: A marketing report could show people how to make money using Twitter.

Example #3: A dog training report could teach readers how to ease separation anxiety in their furry friends.

Once your report is complete, you need to select a payment processor such as Clickbank.com, PayPal.com or 2Checkout.com. Then write a sales letter, include the payment button and upload the letter to your domain.

Step 5: Submit Your Articles… and Sell!

Now you’re ready to use your article to drive traffic to your site!

You can:

• Submit this article to EzineArticles.com, ArticleCity.com, GoArticles.com, ArticleAlley.com and Buzzle.com.

• Use it as the basis of a HubPages.com or Squidoo.com page.

• Post it on niche forums (where allowed).

• Upload it to your blog.

• Recruit affiliates and let them use it to market your report.

• Post it on social media sites.

Summary

You too can make money online, just as quickly as you can write an article and a “feature length” article. And the sooner you get started, the faster you can use this simple strategy to drop money in your pocket!

In this article, I’ve given you some of the key factors about how you can write and sell small reports. For many more details and dozens of ideas, check out my risk-free Ebook, The 31-Day Guide to Making Money Writing Small Reports. You have nothing to lose and a world to gain in my view—if you take action.

5 Keys to Writing & Selling Small Reports

Almost daily I speak with writers who have great passion for the printed page. These writers have dreams of getting their books published and building an audience. They have invested time in writing their story and getting it on paper. Yet they lack something critical: financial resources to be able to publish their book. They are stuck--and often unable to see that they are stuck and how to earn more money and get out of their situation to move forward and achieve their dreams.

I want to show you a different route to achieving your passion. It might not be an obvious path but it is a tried and true one which will allow you to get your material printed, touch an audience and earn the money to get your books into print.

Your dreams can be accomplished through writing and selling small reports. I've pulled together a new 84-page resource to teach you step-by-step how to do it. This Ebook is called The 31-Day Guide to Making Money Writing Small Reports. If you follow the link, you can immediately go to a page where you can instantly receive this report. It is backed with my no questions asked 60-day guarantee so it is a risk-free offer.

You don’t need to spend months creating a home study course in order to make money online.

Instead, you can make money in as little as 24 hours, simply by creating small reports. You can then sell them quickly to your own list, on your blog, using affiliates, by posting ads on sites like the WarriorForum.com and so on.

Here are five keys to making a fortune with these small reports…

1. Choose a Current Hot Topic

If you want to make a lot of money quickly – and if you want to build your customer list fast – then choose a current hot topic.

Doing so will help your report attract attention on niche forums, blogs, social media sites. You’ll even bring in traffic from the search engines.

How do you find a hot topic? Like this:

• Follow conversations on niche forums to see which ones are getting a lot of views and passionate replies.

• Read niche blogs to see which topics are getting plenty of comments and discussion.

• Keep an eye on the Clickbank.com marketplace to see what types of products are flying off the virtual shelves.

• Go to Amazon.com and look at the bestsellers in your niche.

2. Use “How To” In Your Title

The words “how to” are like a magic trigger that draws people to your report.

Just look at the difference between these titles:

• House Train Your Dog in Three Days vs. How to House Train Your Dog in Three Days

• Make Money Online vs. How to Make Money Online

• Get Rich vs. How to Get Rich

3. Offer Plenty of Tips and Examples

Choosing a hot topic and a great title will draw prospects to your order page like metal shavings to a magnet. But once they crack your report open, you need to wow them.

That’s because satisfied customers become repeat buyers.

How do you satisfy them?

a) First, you better deliver everything you promised on your sales page (and more).

b) Secondly, you should make your content easy to understand and digest by providing plenty of tips and examples.

So instead of simply telling someone to “write a good headline,” you should provide examples of good headlines (e.g., “The secrets of…”). Or instead of telling someone to cut 250 calories from their diet each day, you can give them ten tips and examples of how, exactly, they should do that.

4. Write a Part 2

One way to attract a flood of new buyers for your small report is by creating an enticing “Part 2” that you give away for free to all who purchased Part 1.

If Part 2 is even better than Part 1, you’ll have customers raving about it all around the niche… and you’ll have new prospects lining up to buy.

Example: You create a report called, “How to Get 30,000 Visitors to Your Blog.” You can then create Part 2: “How to Get Make $30,000 From Your 30,000 Visitors.” Part 1 offered your customers a desirable result (getting 30,000 visitors). But Part 2 offers an even more desirable result, because now your readers will find out how to turn those customers into cash!

5. Create a Tiered Pricing Structure One way to increase your conversion rate is by creating a sense of urgency. You can create this urgency by offering a tiered pricing structure.

Here’s an example:

• The first 100 customers get the report for just $10. • The next 100 customers get the report for $15. • Everyone after the 200th customer pays $20.

To make this tactic even more powerful, be sure to use a script that continuously updates the number of copies left. That way people really feel the fear of loss as they see the low-priced copies being snapped up.

Summary

You can make a lot of money by providing solutions to a hungry niche in the form of a small report.

You can further increase your income by using the five tips you just discovered! And the sooner you get started, the faster you can start pocketing that cash! I encourage you to take action on these five tips and your situation will begin to change.

Also check out The 31-Day Guide to Making Money Writing Small Reports. I believe it could be a valuable turning point to achieving your publishing dreams.