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Guest post by: Teresa Bohannon Become an Author

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The following is a true story that reflects this entire online marketing scenario and how and why it actually works.

There is a fairly new author down in Australia named Simon Haynes whose hilarious Hal Space Jock books (think Han Solo before he met the Princess and turned legit) that my sons and I have really come to enjoy. I accidentally discovered Simon and his flagship characters Hal and Clunk a couple of years ago. This occurred because Simon is a very smart, very customer-oriented, very Internet-savvy online marketer.

#1 Simon happens to be a programmer who gives away a few handy software products for free as a way of drawing traffic to his site and attention to his books.

#2 Simon originally advertised his first three Hal Space Jock books by offering a couple of free chapters to hook his audience. Just for note, in order to advertise his Fourth book “Hal Space Jock, No Free Lunch” he is giving away a free electronic copy of his entire very first Hal Space Jock book.

#3 Simon also does a random drawing each month to give away free copies of his books, which keeps people on his mailing list, and allows him to announce new Hal Space Jock books and other related events and promotions to an audience who has a proven interest in his novels.

After stumbling on Simon's Website when looking for free Ebook software—which is how I found him in the search engines—and after subsequently reading the free sample chapters of the first Hal Space Jock book, I was hooked. Simon had, in a very friendly low-key and memorable manner achieved his goal. This is a very important point because if you want to make money online that should be your goal too.

Simon had—probably while peacefully sleeping the night away—used a hands off, set-it-and-forget-it automated process to turn a random surfer half a world away, who had no idea or intention of purchasing anything remotely like his product...into a customer with credit card in hand ready and willing to buy.

So, once hooked, I hopped on over to my favorite online book retailer to purchase all of the first three Hal Space Jock books. To my surprise the retailer was going to charge me a separate shipping charge for each of the three books. To them it was policy, to me it was unacceptable shipping-price gouging.

Then I thought, Gee if I am going to have to pay that much for shipping, I might as well order autographed copies. I checked the current AU / US exchange rate, which as it happened was very favorable that day. Then I emailed Simon and asked if he would just directly sell me autographed copies of his first three books. Good customer-service oriented marketer that he is, Simon answered me within hours. He was not allowed to sell me the books directly because that would be a violation of his agreement with his publisher; but he did happily agree to autograph copies for me and then personally directed me to his local bookstore, where he was going to be doing a book signing. This bookstore also happened to be offering a 20% discount on his books in honor of the event.

So within a few hours of deciding that my favorite online retailer was shipping-price gouging, I was able—due to the combination of a favorable exchange rate, a quick and friendly response from the author, and a 20% discount—to order three autographed copies directly from Australia, including shipping for less than $5.00 more than the total cost to order from my favorite mega-retailer.

True, due to the high cost of airmail shipping from Australia I did not save any money; but I did receive autographed copies, a bit of a grand adventure and a great story to tell. The moral of that story is, Value is in the eyes of your customer. Ignore that maxim at your peril; because the Internet offers even ordinary people a variety of previously undreamed of comparison shopping options!

Just for note: When the Fourth Hal Space Jock book No Free Lunch came out, I ordered it and another book from a favorite American author (James Rollins, The Last Oracle) from my favorite online American retailer...because they offered free shipping for orders over $25.00. At today's gas prices that meant it was cheaper than driving to my local bookstore...and besides my local bookstore very foolishly does not carry the Hal Space Jock books.

So to finish up.... To make money online:

#1 Be generous with free incentives.

#2 Give good value.

#3 Give good customer service.

I firmly believe in the advice I give and I practice what I preach. Almost every one of my websites offers one or more free products.

For example:

LadyWeb.Biz offers free SEO and webmaster tools to make sure your website is optimized to attract natural, free or paid search engine traffic.

MyLadyWeb.Com offers a free monthly membership that offers a free self-installing AdSense and Affiliate Website including brandable ebooks to giveaway. It also offers free viral software and other free Ebooks.

LadyWeb.Info offers free content and free links to your website.

LadyWebSoftware offers a free Webmaster's toolkit and several different 15 day free trial softwares.

SpunSilk Domains and Hosting all offer links back to MyLadyWeb for the free membership.

LadyWeb.Com offers a large selection of vintage Ebooks, and the myths and legends and children's story websites that I do for fun, all offer a beautifully woodcut illustrated copy of Nymphidia the Court of Fairy. Just for note, I have a list built from these sites, but I do not consider them members of my IM marketing niche so the only time I ever send them an email is when I am offering something free that might interest someone who likes vintage Ebooks. These sites are actually more community service websites than anything because I firmly believe that the greatest gift you can give a child is to take time to read “with” them.

****
It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one’s dignity, to work unhampered, to
be generous, frank and independent.
– W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965) Of Human Bondage, 1915

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