Several Newbie Questions..

[crazyfangear]

Hello All Again,

I have a few questions concerning a plan I have and would like to garner some experienced opinions. First, I am getting ready to create a website that is going to be about my LOVE for Hawaii.

I travel there frequently, and have tried many of the activities offered on the various islands, as well as know which companies offer the better entertainment value for the dollar. Like one Para-sail outfit tends to give longer ride times than another for equal price value. Items like that, as well as tips for travel to Hawaii.

First, I have a question concerning hosting. I have a hosting account, and, while not an expert, I know a few things concerning SEO for my new site. However, I have been intrigued by the sales site for SiteBuildIt and the PR and natural search rankings they promote. Can anyone tell me what makes them successful is it the product makes SEO easier, or are the individual success stories because of old fashioned effort? Not trying to duck the work that is necessary for SEO, but am always looking for more efficient tools.

Second, while thinking about the subject, I thought why couldn't I also right an e-book for travel to Hawaii or individual books for travel to each individual islands, of course having various links to the products and activities I promote. I was searching ClickBank, and found there weren't any travel e-books on Oahu or Hawaii there, so I thought it might be good to promote my affiliates yhtough that means as well. My two questions on this are 1. What software do you use to create e-books.. Word, Adobe or others? and 2. If I have a free website with out there with much of this information, would someone feel cheated if they bought the e-book, and then found my site?

Thanks, in advance, for your input!

[Lowell Rieger]

crazyfangear,

That's a great idea. You have insider info that most all Hawaii travellers would be interested in.

Site Build it works because it is a system you plug into, and if you do the work and pick the right keywords you should do well. But there are other ways to go. I'm big on blogging, and use Wordpress blogs. Others like XsitePro, Dr. Andy's SEO site builder, or whatever their favorite html editor is. And there are loads of content management systems like joomla, mambo, drupal, etc.

It really depends on how you work and what you want the end result to be.
You can only find the right tools for you by trying a few and seeing how they fit with what you want to do and your base skills.

As to writing an ebook, I use Microsoft Word, which I then convert to Adobe pdf format. If you want to convert your hyperlinks from word to pdf, most of the free solutions won't work.

pdfMachine White is free and will allow clickable hyperlinks, but only if the hyperlinks are standalone, i.e. the entire url is visible. It's really painless, and it works. The paid version converts the embedded links as well. Also ABC Amber Text Converter will make proper embedded links in a pdf, in the very reasonably priced paid version only. The free one puts blatant ads for the paid version on every page of your pdf.

You can google either of the above programs to find them.

Regards,

[RPort]

Hi Troy:
Since you have visited the islands yourself and are a sho'nuf' expert you should have plenty of info for a site as well as ebooks. Of course, if your ebook is just a duplicate of the site there is no added value. But if you give plenty of good solid information on the site it will act as a teaser to prompt people to buy your books for even more detailed information.

Got this from Charles Heflin just today...
Quality free information + patience = trust
Trust + Affiliate program = Sales

Or in your case Trust + Ebook

And of course affiliate sales too since you will probably have affiliate links in your book.

I agree that pdf files are the way to go. Some of the old ebook compilers like Activ Ebook and E-ditor Pro would do a good job too but Adobe is my choice for making pdf files.

Hope this tidbit helps.

[NewbieOnTheNet]

Hi crazyfangear

Your Hawaii project sounds like it could be amazing fun and proiftable too. I have used SBI and would not reccomend it to others. The process of using the sitebuilder itself is very pernickity and tedious. I compare the whole interface to "Soviet Era" technology! And at $300 it ain't cheap!

As far as resuts go I dispute the image that SBI sites are successful. Ken Evoy is a very accomplished marketer and copywriter and of course he will give you the impression that his product is successful. Andy williams software is superior and XsitePro is even better.

Simple effective SEO does not need much technical knowledge.

Since you have hosting already, just start!Use free sitebuilders like Mozilla or NVU if you need to. The important thing is to take action.

Work on your book once you have 10 pages on your website and have started to collect email adresses.

Good Luck!

Alex "Newbie" Newell

P.S. One reason that many marketers will reccomend SBI is their excellent affiliate program. a marketer with a busy list can make quite a lot of income by pushing SBI.

[vartov]

Hi crazyfangear,

First thing I want to tell you, never say what is your niche to the open public, because someone could take your idea, it's like a public domain, pay attention to it. You can ask your question clearly but without revealing your niche.

Getting ranked in SEO is very difficult and takes time, you should concentrate your attention in the information you are going to give and you should build your site keeping it in mind, you have to give information and then sell. Don't try to build your site thinking to sell your e-book. First you tell your story about your experiences in Hawaii for free and then you introduce your e-book.

If you want to make money first you have to spend, you'll need an autoresponder a professional web hosting where you'll pay around $25 a month with a lot of features, for example Fantastico that allows you to create and host your blog with a few clicks and some other things. What happens if someone comes to your site and they can access or it is down? I don't know what free hosting server you are using, but they use to advertise in your site. People can get distracted with these ads.

If you are thinking to set up your business forever you have to have clear many things.

What I mean is that make money online is not a hobby, it is not about having a website, posting some ads, writing some articles and collecting your money. It's a business and you have to treat it as such.