Your Questions About Email Marketing Reviews

Jere answers:

It is in the best interest of new novelists to spend some of their advance money in basic marketing of their first novel. Until a writer is established, a publisher is unlikely to spend more than a standard minimal amount on marketing a first novel.

There are a few inexpensive/free things you can do to get the word out about your book:
Set up a website. Spend a little money to have a professional design it. The more professional and attractive it looks, the better. Update it frequently.
Set up an email list (on your web page or blog) for readers to “subscribe” for news.
Conduct contests and give away copies of your book. Word of mouth is a great way to advertise.
Set up a blog and/or a Myspace page for your book. Update frequently.
There are TONS of small book groups and review sites online. TONS at Yahoo. Contact their moderators and ask if you may post a brief synopsis of your story or if they’d like to review it (this will involve giving them a free copy of your novel.)
Send press releases to your local/community newspaper. Totally free!
Buy ad space in writers publications to publicize the novel.
Contact local bookstores and set up book signings.
I know many authors who have bookmarks made up with the cover design of their book jacket. They give them away whenever they can to whomever wants them. It’s a good way to get your name in front of the reader constantly.
Attend conferences where authors sign books. Bring your books and your bookmarks.

These are just a few ideas. You’ll have to be very proactive in marketing your first novel. Don’t assume you’ll be able to sit back and let the publisher do it all and then the money will start rolling in. Your work doesn’t end with the writing when you’re starting out, I’m afraid.

Best of luck.

Jere answers:

Don’t use any of the links in the emails that you get–in fact, block that sender right now. Go directly to the website (www.angieslist.com) and get the information directly from the website. I was able to find membership pricing for my area just by entering my zip code. (Detroit area is $78/yr, plus $10 signup fee, for the Contractor & Doctor bundle). As far as the service itself, I don’t use it because I don’t shop for services that often, but I take all online reviews with a grain of salt. There is always a way for the service/product provider to either submit false positive reviews, or pay off the review service with advertising or kickbacks. On the flip side there are dummies out there submitting a negative review because they didn’t understand the service/product before they bought it.

Jere answers:

Alison:

There is not really anything called a “patent review”… I know some AWESOME patent attorneys that will draft an ENTIRE non-provisional for less than $3,500 but getting them is tricky.. PM me if you are serious!

Perhaps you have written up something?

Do you know about the Provisional Patent Application? It only costs $125 and was designed by Congress to give individual inventors a chance at bringing their inventive ideas to market easily. It is SUPER EASY to do..

To see the top 10 reasons to file a Provisional Patent Application please watch the second video in this blog.
Http://www.filepatentapplications.com/blog/

If a provisional patent application looks like the right thing for you to do then take a look at another website that shows EXACTLY how to file one using a video format.
Http://provisionalpatentvideo.com/

If you need to know how to get your product sold on TV or to Costco, or Home Depot, or Target and the like then you might also enjoy reading this information by the Ginsu Knife guy! It is pretty cool. He gives you all his contacts and personal email!
Http://bit.ly/GinsuKnifeGuy1

Of course you could ALSO just go to the US Patent Office and figure out how to file a patent yourself. Here is the link..
Http://www.uspto.gov/patents/process/index.jsp
The flow chart there is pretty nice to give you an idea how to do what you want to do!

Their patent search is hard to use and you need special programs to look at the patents… Instead, consider using Google Patent Search!

Here is how you can use Google Patent Search to search for an “Oscillating inertial microbalance”
http://www.google.com/patents?id=M5GRAAAAEBAJ&pg=PA6&dq=Oscillating+inertial+microbalance&hl=en&ei=vrbGTvGeDoXhiAKWpfXxDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

Just type the term you want to search for in the search box. Play with MANY variants of your inventive idea.

Also, for a more global patent search look here:
http://worldwide.espacenet.com/advancedSearch?locale=en_EP

Remember… Patents are MOSTLY “Improvements” on other inventions.. So, while you may see something SIMILAR to your inventive idea it does not mean that you cannot patent your IMPROVEMENT.. Example… A tire is an IMPROVEMENT on a wagon wheel. A radial biased ply tire is an IMPROVEMENT on a non radial biased tire. There are over 10,000 patents on tires… Nearly every single one is an improvement!

And… a special gift for you is a sample Non Disclosure (also called an NDA) that you would have folks sign when you show them your inventive idea. You can change it up and use others but if you have NOTHING now it is a very good start written by my lawyer who charged me a TON for it!
Http://www.4lowprice.info/images/NDA_GeneralMutual.doc

For EXTRA credit take a look at getting a free website widget here. DO NOT BUY ANYTHING. Just use the FREE widget thing..
Http://CBproAds.com/refer.asp?id=50245 It will allow you to put adverts to eBooks on nearly ANY subject. If you had a store that sells horse blankets then you would include a widget that featured an eBook on how to stop horses from biting! You get 50% of whatever book folks buy. Pretty nice!

If you like my answer can you vote on it?

Thanks,

Dave

Jere answers:

Hello Annie, firstly there’s no point in getting the new 3G Kindle now as they limit what web sites you can access (only Amazon store and Wikipedia are allowed.) Then, you need to understand that Kindle Touch ($139 without ads) or Nook Simple Touch ($99 without ads) are e-Ink devices for reading and not video/web/apps while Kindle Fire or Nook Tablet are LCD/IPS screen devices for video/web/apps but not too much for reading.
Non-touch screen Kindle models are such basic stone age devices (with page turn lag, buttons, and black blinks/flashes on each page turn) that I would not even speak about them – when you read a book do you flip pages or press buttons? Nook (unlike Kindle) supports eBooks in ePub format that is the universal format most used in the world. Current e-Ink Nook Simple Touch has the latest generation touch screen display, no page turn lag, it weights less, its battery lasts twice as long (two months on one charge), it has microSD slot and it doesn’t blink on each page turn – much better than current Kindle 3 or Kindle Keyboard. Nook Touch is still better designed than even the new Kindle Touch with battery lasting two months with ONE hour reading a day with Wi-Fi off thus it’s still twice as long as new Kindle’s two months with HALF and hour a day with Wi-Fi off. Nook Touch and Nook Color and Tablet (unlike Kindle) have microSD card slot to take a card (class 6 or above) up to 32 GB.

For entertainment, Nook Tablet is $224 if sign up for Barnes & Noble membership or $250 without signup. Nook Tablet is clearly the superior device over Kindle Fire. Not just 11.5 hours battery life but 9 hours of video playback time – that’s vs. 8 hours for reading and 7.5 hours of video playback on Kindle Fire. 1.0 GB RAM Vs. 512 MB RAM of Kindle Fire, 16 GB content capacity plus 32 GB via microSD card vs. 8 GB capacity of Kindle Fire with no expansion slot. Fully laminated HD screen for reduced glare vs. No lamination of Kindle Fire. Bulit-in and optimized Netflix and Hulu plus with millions of movies/shows vs. 100K movies/shows of Amazon store. Nook Tablet has built-in mic for Skype voice conferencing and dictations to speech recognition software and physical volume controls on the side (Not on Kindle), very smooth video playback with excellent screen, and very fast apps load. Nook already has Cloud as all eBooks in your online library are stored there as well as downloaded to your device.
Also, If you walk in with the Nook to Barnes & Noble store, you’re allowed to read ANY available eBook for free while in the store via free provided in the store Wi-Fi and you get free technical support in case of issues in any of the store.
You can buy Nook’s at Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Millon, Walmart, BestBuy, Staples, OfficeMax, Fred Mayer, P.C. Richard, Radio Shack, Target, Fry’s, Kmart, Sears etc. Stores and web sites.
Sample pro review:
PCWORLD:
The Nook Tablet’s unique display has less reflectivity than the Kindle Fire’s, and so is easier to read. In addition, some fonts and videos render more sharply on it than on the Fire. The dual-core 1GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4 CPU and 1GB of RAM made switching from app to app a breeze, with little lag or stuttering. Movies played smoothly and stutter-free in Netflix, and the high-definition images re-rendered for Nook’s 1024-by-600-pixel display looked lovely, with terrific contrast.
The Nook Tablet’s display was dazzling overall. The screen’s glare was minimal, thanks to what Barnes & Noble calls its VividView display. The IPS display is laminated and bonded; so unlike on other tablets’s displays–including the Kindle Fire’s–there’s no annoying, visible air gap between the glass screen and the LCD beneath.

Jere answers:

Maybe you should try something a little different than just promoting the link. Maybe you should try promoting yourself first. You know, as someone people can go to when they need help or information. Instead of placing an affiliate link, try promoting a webpage with a product review for your affiliate product. Then give them a chance to join your mailing list by adding a contact form, requiring there name and email address. This take’s a little while , but once you get a nice list of people, then you can earn there trust by delivering some solid info, and I promise they will by whatever product that you are selling.

Ive used this trick and alot of others to to convert prospects and traffic into solid sale’s , sale’s that turn into repeat customers. I learned most of what I know from Ewen, http://tinyurl.com/4cop6z