"Designing the PDF Sampler" - Internet Marketing Article

By:Howard Hopkins

After recently signing a six ebook deal with Atlantic
Bridge Publishing (www.atlanticbridge.net), I quickly
realized promotion would be a whole different ball game.
I was used to promoting my Lance Howard print westerns to
certain areas, and, indeed, I would be able to adapt a
number of techniques to ebooks: bookmarks, promocards,
postcards, etc. Having a bit of experience with ebooks
previously, however, I soon realized I would need a
somewhat different mindset for the novels, which spanned
the range from horror to ripper/western and YA series
horror. Many avenues used for print wouldn't work as well
and would have to be modified, with many new ideas
instituted.
The first of these new ides was the PDF Sampler.
After a little thought, I decided why not take a print
technique I'd used, that of printing out a number of
pages and binding them together with a color copy of the
cover as a give away, and transpose it for online
promotion.
To make your PDF Sampler, you will need either your
word processor or Powerpoint, or some program that allows
you to use text and graphics together. The sampler will
be nothing too complicated or fancy so MS Word will do,
if you are comfortable using that.
The Sampler should be short, to the point and snappy
enough to attract attention to your new ebook release. My
short story horror anthology DARK HARBORS had what I
considered the most eye-catching cover, so I chose that
book. I used the cover for the first page.(In Word use
insert picture from file) On the second page I wanted a
teaser, something short and mysterious to go along with
the tone of the book, something that would encourage a
reader to keep going. I came up with the phrase: "Where
the sins of the past are never buried..." and gave it a
page of its own. On the next page I listed the publisher
url, then on the next the title and author.
The meat of the Sampler came next. I used a excerpt
from one of the stories in the book, just a short few-
page passage to whet the appetite of potential horror
readers. By that point, I was hoping the reader would be
hooked, but for good measure added a page of review
excerpts and a listing of the other five books I had
available. I capped it off with another placement of the
ordering url and a brief author bio, then hit the PDF
button. (If your don't have the adobe software, Adobe
offers five free conversions on their site:
www.adobe.com)
I would suggest trying to keep the file as small as
possible, so you can send it a number of places and not
ask too much of the receiver's time for downloading. Big
files can be intimidating, especially on machines using
lower BPS modems. Once finished, offer your Sampler free
to anyone interested. Uploaded it to your webpage, and
offer it in press releases.
Anyone interested in taking a peak at mine and using
it as a blueprint can download it straight from my
homepage in the ebook section
(http://howardhopkins.com) or request
it from me at Yingko2@AOL.com.

About the Author

Howard Hopkins is the author of six horror and western
ebooks from Atlantic Bridge Publishing
(www.atlanticbridge.net) under his own name
and more than twenty print westerns under
the penname Lance Howard.
His novels can be purchased at bn.com,
www.amazon.co.uk and amazon.com and he lives in Maine.

Digg del.icio.us Blink Stumble Spurl Reddit Netscape Furl

Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

Top Internet Marketing Articles
1). The Fly & The Window Of Opportunity By : Rick Davies Copyright 2006 1stPromotion.com One afternoon after going through a small backlog of emails, I was daydreaming about how it shouldn't be tough for absolutely anyone out there to make that first online sale and then to go on and make more and more sales. I feel bad for people that have paid money for some of the programs out there that promise to "stuff their wallets effortlessly" only to find that there is no free lunch.
2). Sign Our Guestbook – How Signing Guestbook’s Or Creating Your Own Helps Your Website By : Anton Cheranev Guestbook’s are some of the most popular areas on websites. Before a consumer does business with you, they are likely to check out your guestbook. Guestbook’s are somewhat like testimonials in that they offer real feedback on your site, your business, and your products. They are honest and are created from those that have had some sort of experience with your business or those who simply visit your site.
3). Where To Find A MySpace Friend Adder By : PaulG MySpace friend adders have become a great tool in maximizing the MySpace experience. Since MySpace has become popular, so has the importance of having tons of MySpace friends. This can benefit the causal MySpace user, the MySpace Music artist, and even the web publishers and marketers that use MySpace as a stepping stone toward success. Now MySpace friend adders have gone even further by adding other MySpace abilities to their programming.
4). How To Monetize A 1,000+ Page Site In 5 min. Or Less Without Violating Google's Adsense Policy! By : D Dean Hall As webmasters, writers and authors we all want to find ways to maximize the profitability of our content. We employ a variety of methods such as Adsense, Yahoo Ads, links to affiliate products of all types but there are a couple of problems. There is the sheer time involved in creating these links and then keeping them updated to the most relevant and profitable products.
5). 'Social Bookmarking' As An Aggressive and Acceptable Blog Marketing Tactic By : gregw Social bookmarking websites are becoming more and more popular. They allow you to save bookmarks online and Tag/Categorize them with keywords instead of saving them as bookmarks in the favorite's list of yourbrowser. This is particularly useful when your browser based bookmarks have become unwieldy. It's also help since you can access your bookmarks from any computer where you have an internet connection.
6). The Four Big Adsense Secrets By : Iszuddin Ismail Is there a BIG secret to the huge Adsense checks? Yes, you’ve seen those screen shots of 5-figure Adsense earning … so have I. And that made you thinking, why are some people earning those huge income, and you are not. Whatever people may say, I only see these are the only factors that make the difference between your earning and those ‘big-guns’. 1 - Adsense Placement Yes, putting your Adsense in a special way can be the difference between 1% click-through rate (CTR) and 10% CTR.
7). The Downsides Of Reciprocal Linking To Increase Search Engine Rankings By : Brian Gilley Reciprocal linking is still a highly sought after method for many companies and webmasters hoping to increase their web site’s ranking in the search engines. Back in 2002, when reciprocal linking firmly took its place as a real way to boost your rankings, many webmasters and sites started using it to quickly and frantically get the upper edge on their competition and the search engines.
8). One of the Quickest and Easiest Way to Dramatically Increase Your Website’s Page Rank By : Tim Wright This is one of the easiest and fastest ways that you can increase the number of one way links to your website and dominate your competition.
9). Spy on the Competition, Stay on Top By : Jay Chirino Just when you thought you had this whole online business thing mastered, it turns out that now you must become a secret super spy, break into your competitor’s databases and steal important documented information that you can put to use for your own benefit. So get your rope and mask ready because we’re going in! Oh, and by the way, I’m just kitting.
10). Let's Start! Create A Business Plan By : Helen Chow Let's Start! Create A Business Plan

New Internet Marketing Articles
1). 5 Tips for Making Mounds of Money on the Internet By : Michael Gulbin Make sure you are doing everything you can to make money on the web.
2). Are You Costing Yourself Money With This Common Article Marketing Mistake? By : Chris Ellington The Article Marketer editorial team reveals the worst mistake an internet marketer can make when submitting royalty free articles.
3). Learn To Market From A Child By : Clint Pollard A marketing lesson I learned from my grand daughter.
4). How To Maximize Your Profits From Backend Sales By : Jason Oickle The truth is with backend sales, you can gain additional or continuous profit without having to do any extra work.
5). Web Site Promotion Guides For Newbies By : Obinna Heche If you are new to the internet world you are not alone. There are a lot of people who are not too familiar with the internet but want to join in on the profits that are available.
6). Network Marketing for Overall Growth By : Sanjay Johari Network marketing provides tremendous opportunity to learn and earn. Those willing to learn have unlimited potential to earn and grow.
7). What Should You Know Before You Start A Home Business By : Arun Pal Singh As 2006 dawns on earth I am quite thoughtful. Many persons started their business in 2005. Some succeeded and some left disappointed.
8). Internet Marketing: Give Me Good Content By : Virginia Bola Have you ever considered how much boring, poorly written, superficial, and totally uninteresting stuff there is in those billions of web pages floating in the ether?
9). Internet Marketing: Give Me Something New By : Virginia Bola Give me freshness, variety, and a taste of greatness. I am totally frustrated by the lack of vitality found in the majority of websites.
10). Why Everyone Needs a Mentor. By : Gary Muller Why do you need a mentor and what could they possibly offer to help you grow your business? Discover why even successful marketers utilize the skills and expertise of an internet marketing mentor.