How to Create and Sell Your First E-book (part 2)

In this guest post, counselor and consultant Clinton Power share how to put the finishing touches on your E-book and how to get the word out and sell your book. (Read part 1 how to create your first E-Book)

Use a graphic designer to make your E-book stunning

If you're planning on creating a PDF version of your E-book to sell through your website, you definitely want to get it professionally designed. Your designer can then employ visuals, highlight quotes, and use attractive fonts and graphic design elements to draw the reader in and make reading your E-book a pleasure. Your designer will also create a compelling cover page, which is essential as it will make a big difference whether people are attracted to your E-book or not.

If you're going down the Amazon route, you won't need a designer to design the inside, but you will need an awesome cover design so you stand out from the thousands of books in Amazon.

One other consideration is to make sure you have your e-book proof read once it’s complete. I employed a professional copy editor to make sure my book was grammatically sound with no spelling errors. This was a good investment.

Create a dedicated landing page for your E-book

It's worth creating a dedicated landing page on your website for, or creating a stand-alone website just for your E-book.

Even if you're selling it through Amazon, it's helpful to direct people to this page to read more about your book.

Include attractive images of the cover (3D preferably), testimonials and a bio of you, the author.

Options for selling your E-book

I chose the Amazon route and more specifically, a product called KDP Select. If you use KDP Select you have a 90-day agreement with Amazon that you won't sell your E-book anywhere else on the internet.

KDP Select also allows you to have up to 5 promotional days within the 90 days where you can give your book away for free on Amazon. This was a great strategy for getting more exposure, and helped me get over 2000 downloads. In fact, over 1,800 downloads happened in one weekend during one of my free promotions when my book went to the top of the free list for its category.

If you want more flexibility, you can just join KDP and then still sell your E-book in other places.

If you're selling your E-book through your website, I recommend using E-Junkie or Gum Road. E-Junkie will allow you to have affiliates so other people can sell your book and earn a commission, and Gum Road is very simple software where a beautiful pop-up appears on your website and guides the purchaser through a checkout.

Begin promoting your E-book

Now your E-book has been created, it's time to start promoting it. That's probably a whole other post on it's own, but one tip I'll share is I sent advanced copies to readers on my newsletter list for free, in exchange for Amazon reviews.

This was very helpful in getting reviews on Amazon just as I started to make sales. And the more positive reviews you get, the more Amazon will promote your book in its marketplace.

Don't forget to talk about your E-book on a regular basis on social media and get creative about sharing your message.

Another strategy I used was I created attractive images in PicMonkey with tips from each chapter and shared them on social media and on my blog.

Track your results

Finally, you want to track your results to see how you're doing with your sales.

Amazon makes this easy through Author Central, so make sure you create an account there. You can track the ranking of your book in the Amazon Marketplace and read all your reviews, as well as edit your author profile.

If you're selling your E-book on your website, use Google Analytics to see where traffic is coming to your landing page, and then increase your marketing efforts in those areas.

Creating an E-book has never been easier, so what's stopping you? Get writing!

Clinton Power is a Gestalt therapist and the owner of Clinton Power + Associates - a private practice dedicated to helping singles and couples move out of relationship pain in Sydney, Australia. Clinton is the author of the E-book 31 Days to Build a Better Relationship, which is available in the Amazon store. He is also the founder of Australia Counselling Directory, a free directory for finding counselors and psychologists in Australia. Follow him on Twitter @sydneytherapist

Simplify Your Social Media Life With HootSuite

I have wholeheartedly embraced social media to build my therapy practice and to educate the public on important emotional health and family relationship topics. Technology and social media have allowed me to grow my private practice free of managed care during difficult economic times. Facebook is the #2 referral source to my private practice website, topped only by Google. A common  challenge for private practice therapists is learning to effectively manage social networks in a way that maximizes their time and draws people to their practice.

People often ask how I stay on top of posting and interacting regularly on my social media networks. Just to give you an idea, I manage  3 Twitter accounts, 8 Facebook pages/profiles, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Ping.fm, 3 Ning accounts. One of my favorite social network management systems is HootSuite, a social media dashboard. Although I can't manage all of my accounts from HootSuite, I can manage the largest networks. I pay only $5.99 per month which includes the ability to add one "team member" to can access and manage my social network accounts.

Here's a list of social networks that you can manage from Hootsuite:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Foursquare
• Ping.fm
• WordPress
• MySpace
• Mixi

I'm hoping they'll add Facebook groups, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest very soon.

Here's my 5 minute tutorial walk through of HootSuite's basic functions so you can see the dashboard, functions, and how easy it is to use.

Here are some of the reasons I like HootSuite:

1) Save drafts

You can save drafts of updates, posts, links, etc. to post at a later time, or to repost which saves time.

2) Schedule posts

If you find an article link , quote, or other resource that you want to share on any or all of your social media networks, you can schedule a post in the future by setting the day and time. You can set aside a certain amount of time every week and schedule your posts for the week on all of your networks.

3) Interact directly from the dashboard

Not only can you post updates, photos, links, etc. for HootSuite, you can interact, comment, "like", retweet, and many other options on several networks from one place. You don't have to login to each site separately which saves time.

4) Selectively post to networks

You can send or schedule an update to specific social media pages and not to others. For example, one of my Facebook Pages is a "Music/Band" page for my performing and songwriting. I post more music related links, stories, etc. there and I don't post those on my  private practice Facebook page. You can select which updates to send to each social network depending on the interests of your audience on any specific account.

5) Add team members

HootSuite allows you to add team members to your accounts to help manage your social media. I recently added a team member to assist me. The dashboard shows which team member responded to certain social media posts so you can track the other member's interaction and avoid duplicating responses.

How do you manage your social media networks to build your therapy practice?

5 Common Website Mistakes And How To Fix Them

Your most powerful tool to build your private therapy practice in the digital age is an effective practice website. The Internet allows us to talk directly to potential clients who are seeking mental health information and services. The majority of Americans, 62 percent, use the Internet to find health care information (Pew Internet and Family Life Study, 2009). Few therapists have training in website programing and design, but as technology evolves, more options become available to create a cheap or free website that looks professional and accurately represents your practice. My websites are built on Wordpress, a fairly easy platform on which to build a website or blog. There are thousands and thousands of free Wordpress themes that you can use to customize your practice website. Therapy Sites, another website resource for therapists, allows you to select a template and customize it for your practice based on a monthly fee.

As I've consulted with therapists, developed my own websites, and done a lot of internet research, I've noticed some common mistakes that therapists frequently make when it comes to building websites.  These are the top five mistakes I've seen and suggestions for how to fix the problem to make your website more effective.

Mistake #1: Contact information is difficult to find

How to fix it --> Put contact information on every page in a prominent place

Even if you are starting small with a single page site, your contact information is the most important information to feature. After all, you want clients to actually contact you to schedule a session, right? I suggest putting your contact information on every page of your website with a "call to action".

Mistake #2: Feels too Impersonal

How to fix it --> Write website text in first person and include a photo

When potential clients visit your site they should have a feel for who you are as a person. Always include a photo and a personal statement. While your bio can be written in third person, the rest of your site should feel like you're talking to your potential client.

Mistake #3: Too much "psychobabble"

How to fix it --> Focus on benefits of your service in layman's terms

Most potential clients aren't going to be familiar with psychological acronyms or detailed information about every credential and training. Your potential clients care less about your training and more about if and how you can help them. Write your website text with your ideal client in mind.

Mistake #4: Confusing site navigation

How to fix it --> Feature the the four topics above in your site navigation

Your website should be easy to navigate. You don't want your site to be an additional source of stress for potential clients. Visit other private practice therapist's websites and notice what you like and don't like, what works and what doesn't. Put yourself in the client's shoes. What information are potential clients looking for? Here are the top 4 things potential clients want to find on your website:

• who you are (your basic information)
• what you do (services)
• how you can help them (benefits of your services)
• how to contact you (contact information)

Mistake #5: Bad design

How to fix it --> pick one or two fonts and stick with a consistent theme throughout your site

Simple and clean is best when it comes to websites. Unfortunately, many therapists with "do-it-yourself" websites, in an attempt to be creative, end up using too many design elements. When designing your website, keep in mind who you're ideal client is, and let your basic message guide your choice of colors and fonts to create a cohesive feel that represents who you are as a therapist.

Are you guilty of making any of these mistakes on your private practice website? Post the link below and I'll give you feedback about your site.

photo credit: twm1340