The latest updates on information selling and running an online infoproduct business

If you make your visitors feel comfortable at your web site they are more likely to trust you and are therefore more likely to buy from you. So, make sure your web site includes your main business address. Your visitors may not trust you if you're using a P.O. Box. If you want to make them feel really comfortable, give them your phone and fax contact numbers as well as your email address. Then they will know they can get hold of you if they need help. If you have a really popular site, you could also add 'live help' systems, a support page and so on to help people feel at ease with your business. That way you'll gain trust and increase sales.

I've been told today by a web site designer that my site 'looks very amateur' and 'lacks credibility'. Naturally I disagree because my web sites make money by selling infoproducts every day. The designer's web site simply provides a 'brochure' and has no sales mechanism for the 'search engine optimisation' services they offer. Their site does look much prettier than mine - but so what? What really matters is results. For instance, many people are able to get to work quickly, comfortably and easily on their bicycle. For others, this is 'amateur' transport and what you really ought to have is a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce. But you don't have to have the best available means of transport in order to travel. The same is true in web sites - you don't have to produce the best designed site on the planet in order to make sales. Goodness knows, there are enough information selling sites with truly dreadful design that make millions of dollars each year. So, don't waste all your time on design. Instead, focus on results. If that means for your market you need great design, go for it. But don't waste your time and money if your market will buy from you even if you had a text only page.

Content on your web site is important - that's a 'given' that anyone selling information knows, I guess. Fresh, keyword rich content helps you gain search engine ranking and helps your web site get noticed. Also, the more content you provide, the more you get people revisiting your site. And the more visits they make, the more likely they are to buy from you. However, there is another reason for ensuring your site has valuable content and that is you can make money from it. Indeed, you can make money from good content even if nobody buys anything from you. The reason is GoogleAds. If you display GoogleAds on your pages which are full of content you get relevant adverts displayed on your site. If the adverts are relevant to your audience, they click on them. And Google pays you money for each click. However, if your site has little content, or variable or weak content, Google doesn't know what ads to display. The result is that your site shows adverts, but they are less relevant to your users and hence your click through rate is very low. If you stuff your pages with good content, GoogleAds picks up what your page is talking about and displays highly relevant adverts to your users, enhancing click throughs. As a result you earn money from your content, even if nobody buys anything from you. To set up your own GoogleAds account go to

You can create useful publicity for your web site if you think about the opposite to what you are doing. By this I mean consider the reverse of your proposition. As an example, consider what you might do if you were selling an ebook on preventing spam. The problem is there are dozens of web sites all telling you how to prevent spam, so you are up against serious competition. But what if you promoted your ebook along the lines: 'How to attract spam: make sure you get all the spam emails going'. Curiosity alone would send people to your site. Once there, they discover how to attract spam - and then you reveal your solution to preventing this from happening, your ebook. Reverse psychology frequently works, so try to think of the opposite of what you are trying to sell and you could well attract additional sales.

There is always debate about the format you should use for your online information products. Some people suggest you should only use Adobe Acrobat PDF files others suggest you should use proprietary EXE files. So what are the pros and cons of each?

PDF Advantages
1. Solid, reliable system from major company
2. Worldwide acceptance
3. Works on all computers including PCs, Macintoshes and handhelds
4. Digital security system to prevent unauthorized access/copying

PDF Disadvantages
1. File sizes can sometimes be large, slowing download times
2. Your customer needs a 'reader' which they must also download
3. Newer PDF files will not work with older reader software

EXE Advantages
1. Small file sizes can be created
2. Your client does not need any additional software to read your product
3. Security measures can be applied to your file

EXE Disadvantages
1. Only works on PCs - eliminating around 15% of your potential customers
2. Some customers will have security systems preventing EXE downloads
3. Your client cannot control page size of other viewing preferences
4. Some of the ebook EXE creation products are not compatible with newer versions of Windows XP
5. Some EXE ebooks are not compatible with newer versions of Windows XP, unless your customer downloads additional 'fixer' software

There is no doubt in my mind that PDF files are the only form of ebooks you should be producing. Anything else, no matter how fancy or well produced, limits your potential client base. Adobe Acrobat PDF files are accepted internationally and even the tightest company security systems allow them to be downloaded. The result is that you have access to all your potential customers with PDFs but with EXE files you are limiting your audience. Why do that?

Creating your own affiliate program is essential if you wish to boost your online sales. Your web site can only reach so many of your potential customers. People who might buy your products may well not be looking for them. They may be looking for something else. But if they are on one of your affiliate sites, they may be attracted to what you sell. For instance, if they trust the affiliate they are more likely to look at what you have to offer because it is promoted by someone they trust. Hence you boost your sales potential if you have affiliates.

There are several ways you can set up an affiliate program, but once set up make sure you follow through. That means, treat your affiliates like your sales force. Keep motivating them, give them ideas, provide support and give them free information products which will help them boost their sales. In other words, be a constant source of help and advice for your affiliates. That way they'll be more likely to promote your products, in which case you both win.

Personally, my affiliate program is part of my shopping cart and autoresponder system. This means I can run my entire online business with one system. I highly recommend www.1ShoppingCart.com.

And don't forget if you want to sign up as one of my affiliates go to: www.grahamjones.biz/affiliates/signup.htm.

Just because most people use Google as their favourite search engine does not mean we should spend too much of our time worrying about it. It seems that most people fail to find what they want on their first search. That's either because their search term wasn't specific enough, or becuase the results were too varied, from the wrong country or just generally unsastisfying.

What people do next is crucial to your web site success though. A recent survey shows that only 40% per cent of people try refining their search term. What's important for your promotional success is that 60% of people try another search engine - mostly Yahoo and MSN Search. It is therefore important to make sure your web site is optimized not just for Google, but for these other search engines. Also don't spend all your time trying to get to the top in Google. You might get better results by being at the top in Yahoo and MSN - picking up all the secondary searches.

Ecademy is an international online network which has tremendous power in being able to boost your ranking in the search engines. All you need to do is set up an Ecademy account and then start contributing articles and weblogs. If you do that - and you have included your web site address in your signature - you will gain plenty of external links to your web site, thus boosting your ranking.

See: www.ecademy.com

There is a little-known benefit of using Amazon to help your web page rankings. Amazon is a highly ranked web site by Google and therefore gets lots of revisits by Googlebot (the automatic system which ranks the pages). If your web site is listed in Amazon, it automatically gets bonus points in terms of page rank, because an important site is linking to you. Hence if you could get your web site address listed in Amazon, you would get better ranking for your own site. If only there was a way of doing it. Well, there is!

Firstly, you need to visit Amazon.com (not Amazon.co.uk) and you need to set up your own account. If you do not already have an account, simply click the 'start here' link. Once you have set up your account you need to make sure that you click on the tab marked 'About You Area'. Once inside the next page you need to enter a description of About You - and here's the important thing. In the first 12 words make sure you include your web site address. For instance, in my 'About You' section it says: "I run WebInfoSelling.com, the web site dedicated to helping you sell your knowledge online."

All very well. Now the bit that gets your web site linked by Amazon. What you need to do is review books. Simple as that. Every time you review a book, your profile is included. And if you have included your web site address in your profile, you get a link from Amazon to your site. This is an external link from a highly ranked Google site, giving you extra ranking points for your own site. This will increase your rankings within Google.

However, you will need to start reviewing plenty of books. Also, be aware that Amazon has human editors which check all reviews. They will not publish any reviews which clearly do not come from the readers of books. Also, any attempts at spamming by writing 'non reviews' will be halted. So you have to write real reviews, not just say anything to get your web address used. But if you can do this, your web site will gain higher rankings in Google. Hence it is worthwhile.