Frequently Asked Questions
Andrew and Daryl’s ebooks
Question:
How many ebook sites do you have going at the moment?
Answer:
Daryl and Andrew currently have 7 ebooks selling - they all perform differently and you'll see case studies of them further on through the mentoring program. The skin cancer one has been running since March 2005. The practical report writing one has been running since December 2004 (it was the first one we did, and we had lots of "learnings" on this one!).
Question:
What are the spread of sales over your 7 sites?
Answer:
The 80/20 rule definitely applies (as it does in everything in life!) but we got better at picking the 20% that make 80% of the income. That's why our members do better than we did in the early stages.
Question:
How many ebooks do you sell a day?
Answer:
20-30 ebooks would be an average day.
Question:
Are most of your customers from the USA?
Answer:
Our customers are from all over the world. The main markets would be USA, UK and Canada, but we have also made sales to Ireland, Austria, Switzerland, Singapore, Barbados, Jamaica, Luxembourg, South Africa and Thailand.
Question:
How did you discover the ebook process in the first place?
Answer:
Daryl and Andrew are members of Mal Emery's Platinum Group mentoring program, and learned the process from him. You may wish to have a look at Mal’s site through the following link: http://www.malemery.com
Question:
I can’t find your Google ads for your sites – are you still running them?
Answer:
Daryl and Andrew have turned off their Google ads for some sites. Sales through these sites are mainly generated via affiliates (through clickbank) or from the free side of Google.
Questions Regarding Mentoring Program
Question:
Is it network marketing/multi-level marketing/pyramid selling?
Answer:
No, it's not network marketing or MLM. Because the volume of traffic on the internet is so huge, you really don't need to be part of a network to sell your info products. Daryl and Andrew have developed (or paid someone to develop) all most all of the products. The mentoring program simply teaches you to do the same thing that they did to end up making US$250,000 in their first year.
Question:
How long do you have to sign up to the mentoring program for?
Answer:
You can stay a member of the mentoring program for as long as you want. You get an eclass every week, so when they stop being useful to you, just let us know and we will unsubscribe you.
Question:
Can I get access to some of the later classes as I want to fast-track the process?
Answer:
Thanks for your enquiry. You may find that the standard or deluxe pack may be of more benefit to you. Please email us at info@andrewanddaryl.com if you'd like some more info about these options. These are generally the more suitable options for people who want specific information or want to fast track the process to suit their personal needs.
Question:
Can I access previous eclasses regardless of when I join?
Answer:
When you join our mentoring program, you start at the beginning and receive emails every week which link you through to the online eclasses. You always have access to them, so you can view them as many times as you want to.
Question:
Do you have a non-compete/confidentiality policy regarding information that I share with you?
Answer:
We have a policy that we don't compete with our members. We wouldn't stay in busienss very ling if we did! We know that it's important that you feel comfortable sharing the details of your projects with us. Most of our members do, but there are some who prefer to discuss things in more general terms - it's entirely up to you.
Perhaps to reassure you - Andrew and Daryl worked as management consultants for 15 years. In that time they worked on some highly confidential projects, such as security audits for government departments and business plans to commercialise new technologies for universities. So they appreciate the importance of confidentiality.
You may find that after working with us for a while you will begin to feel more comfortable sharing more details. Please be guided by your own feelings - we won't be offended if you don't feel like sharing!
Question:
Do you provide technical help?
Answer:
We have developed a "deluxe pack", since people have been asking for more hand-holding than the mentoring program provides. The deluxe pack is designed for newbies, and includes vouchers for website building and copywriting. Please email us at info@andrewanddaryl.com if you'd like some more info about this. If you prefer the weekly eclasses, here is the link http://www.andrewanddaryl.com/signup.html
Question:
Please explain more about how the program works.
Answer:
The eclasses are structured in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step logical sequence. It’s not "here is lots of information – now figure out what to do with it yourself", as several other programs seem to be.
If you join the mentoring program and apply the information in the eclasses as they come out each week, you should have your first money-making ebook up and running in about 8-10 weeks. These days it takes us about 6-8 weeks to have a new topic up and running (the longest time is spent getting the book written - we allow about a month). After this comes lessons in fine-tuning your website and ads to improve sales, then we move onto advanced topics such as sourcing further products, back end sales, joint ventures etc.
The following is a sample list of topics which are covered in the eclasses.
- Find potential hot topics
- Short-list your ebook topics
- How to build a survey site
- How to set up your Google ad campaign
- Run your survey site for 3 days
- Analysing your survey site results
- Refine your niche
- The most profitable type of niche
- 6 easy ways to build your product
- How to use rentacoder to get your product built
- How to write a winning sales letter
- How to write a great headline
- Setting up a clickbank account
- Are you ready to make your first sale?
- Test and measure
- Getting more sales
- Adding testimonials to get more sales
- Make it easy for customers to buy
- How to reduce refunds
- Review Your Google Ad Campaign
- Improve your Google ads
- Improve your Google key words
- Getting free traffic
- Planning your next steps
- Upselling on your order page
- How to build a database
- More creative ways to build a database
- How to structure a successful email marketing campaign
- How to write good emails for an email marketing campaign
- How to get your emails opened
- Sourcing back end products
- Using Joint Ventures to build your back end
- Joint venture agreements
I hope that helps. If you'd like to join the mentoring program we'd love to have you as a member. You can join by visiting www.andrewanddaryl.com/signup.html .
Question:
Whats the difference between the packs and the monthly mentoring program?
Answer:
The basic and deluxe packs include the monthly eclasses, but provide a lot more additional support (eg CDs, camtasia videos, vouchers for some parts of the process such as website building).
If you would just like the monthly eclasses please use this link: www.andrewanddaryl.com/signup.html. The monthly eclasses are a monthly payment of $49 for as long as you are a member of the program.
Questions Regarding One on One Sessions
Question:
Can I ring you for a chat?
Answer:
Thanks for your enquiry. Unfortunately, as we get many requests like yours every week we don't have time to follow up everyone by phone. We save whatever spare time we have for the 1-1 time with members of our mentoring program. We do have a 90 minute DVD of Andrew and Daryl talking about their process if that would help. Please send us your postal address (to info@andrewanddaryl.com) and we’ll post one out to you.
Questions Regarding eBook Business
Question:
How does the income tax work - do you just declare it in the usual way?
Answer:
You just declare the income as normal. As it's earned overseas there is no GST to remit if you live in Australia. You may want to get professional advice about earning the income via a company or trust structure to provide some legal protection and tax relief.
Question:
What happens to copyright?
Answer:
If you get the product written for you by a freelancer, say on rentacoder, then part of the agreement is that you own the copyright.
Question:
Are you on kickbacks for other websites, products you are promoting on your site?
Answer:
We promote other products and sites because we believe that their information is beneficial for you to have. Sometimes we earn a small affiliate commission, most times we don’t.
Question:
What about affiliate programs?
Answer:
If you want to set up affiliate programs it's quite easy. An affiliate program allows other people to sell your product, and you pay them a percentage. Clickbank (the company we use to process the payments) has a built-in affiliate program, so people will often pick up our books and onsell them. You can also sell other people's products and earn a commission if they have an affiliate program, and if you are good at marketing.
Question:
Why isn't everyone doing it then?
Answer:
Why isn't everyone doing it? Great question! Although a surprising number of people are. If you go to www.clickbank.com and select "promote products" or “marketplace” you can browse through the thousands of ebooks that people are selling. It's a great way to get a feeling for what's working. The best thing about it is that the books are listed in order of popularity, with the best sellers at the top in each category. Really useful research.
Question:
Do you believe in today’s online market that this concept is still viable?
Answer:
Yes, the concept is still very viable. The number of people searching for information on the internet is increasing daily, and people are becoming more and more confident about using their credit cards online. We think it's still an untapped market.
Question:
Is the ebook market saturated?
Answer:
We firmly believe that the ebook market is nowhere near saturated. Think about the number of new people getting online every day. And the dollars spent online are increasing exponentially every year. Daryl and Andrew’s ebook sales are steadily climbing - which is not a sign of a shrinking market!
Question:
Is it possible to make money from ezines and adsense?
Answer:
The only problem with it is getting enough return (from Adsense ads and affiliate sales) to pay for your Google adwords ads. Since you are earning only a few cents per click on your adsense ads, and 50% commission on the affiliate sales, often it's hard to break even if you are driving traffic to your site using Google adwords. Many of the people that make money using this strategy do so by being high on the free side of Google (so they get free traffic) - which then requires expertise in search engine optimisation. Not impossible, but a lot of work. The reason we like ebooks (our own, not affiliates) is that they are quick and easy to set up to get a good return. We see them as an "80/20" strategy, ie one of the few strategies that gives good return for little effort.
Questions Regarding Developing Ebooks
Question:
Do you need to tailor the book for different countries?
Answer:
As ebooks generally sell all over the world, it is important not to use local slang and colloquialisms. Remember if quoting weights and measures to provide conversions.
Question:
How long does one project/product take you on average, ie 1 x e-book?
Answer:
These days it takes about 6-8 weeks to have a new topic up and running (the longest time is spent getting the book written - allow about a month).
Question:
How many words are the books?
Answer:
A typical ebook is about 30-50 pages (10,000 to 16,000 words).
Question:
What is the cost of setting up an ebook business?
Answer:
The cost depends on a couple of things:
1. Do you already have your website built?
2. Have you written your sales letter yet? (or are you able to do it yourself?)
3. What is the cost per click of the Google ads and the size of the market (ie number of clicks per day), based on your survey site results?
Once you have answers to these we can give you a more accurate idea.
Here are a couple of examples of costs Daryl and Andrew paid, to give you an idea of the overall cost of setting up an ebook site. They are pretty typical.
Example one: www.practical-report-writing.com
* Survey site - $100 - includes domain name
* Website hosting - US$4 per month with godaddy
* Google ads for survey site - US$40 (250 clicks @ $0.16)
* Sales letter - initially free (Daryl wrote it herself, based on a similar site written by Brett McFall for his copywriting Adpack). She had Pete Godfrey edit it for $800
* Product - free (She turned the manual from a 1 day training course she ran into a pdf file, and added a few bonuses which she also created herself)
* Clickbank account - US$50
Total - about US$1000
Example two: www.skin-cancer-advice.com
* Survey site - $100 - includes domain name
* Website hosting - US$4 per month with godaddy
* Google ads for survey site - US$20 (240 clicks @ $0.08)
* Sales letter - initially free (Daryl wrote it herself) then had Pete Godfrey edit it for $800
* Product - US$500, written by a rentacoder
* Clickbank account - US$50 Total - about US$1500
The only other cost is the ongoing Google ads. You may need to put aside a bit of cash to cover the cost of the ads while you refine your sales letter. It also takes a while for your first Clickbank cheque to come through. We would normally put aside about $2,500 to put up a new ebook these days.
Question:
Do you worry about people stealing and onselling your ebook?
Answer:
There is really nothing stopping people from emailing your download page or your book to their friends (except their conscience). I guess it's the same way that you would lend a good hard copy book to your friends to read.
If you are concerned about this, the Internet Market Centre has a product called Ebook Pro, which enables you to restrict access to your ebook to the person who actually paid for it. It's US$197 and also has a lot of other bells and whistles. You can find out more about it at www.ebookpro.com - about halfway down the webpage, with the heading "How to prevent nasty thieves from stealing your ebook". Although we have bought it, we haven't used it because we are concerned that the restrictions that the software puts on your ebook are likely to cause more administrative hassles than it's worth.
As an aside - check out the great examples on the Ebook Pro website of people making loads of money from their ebooks - inspiring stuff!
Questions Regarding Ebook Subjects
Question:
Are all the best opportunities taken?
Answer:
We have put together a couple of products that may help you with your search. Just go to www.andrewanddaryl.com/kirtbonus.htm
It's bonus #3 that we thought would help. It's a camtasia video showing you how we research and find a new ebook topic. You may also find that bonus #1 helps you with your feeling that "all the best opportunities have been taken". If you hold this belief at a subconscious level you will be much less likely to find a winning topic, than if you believe "great opportunities are everywhere". Bonus #1 shows you some techniques to change your subconscious beliefs.
Question:
What about Private label ebooks?
Answer:
Daryl and Andrew have tried private label content before without much luck. The main issue is that lots of people buy the same rights, and so you end up competing with a whole lot of other sites that look the same and offer the same thing. If you are going to use existing products and sales letters, you need to find a way to differentiate - change the look of the site, add bonuses, change the price, etc. At best they work for a short time, if you get in early.
Questions Regarding Google Ads
Question:
What are Adsense sites?
Answer:
Adsense is a Google program that allows you to earn an income by putting other people's ads on your site. It's used by people who have sites that are high on the free side of Google. You get about 25% of the cost per click, every time someone clicks on an ad on your site. Some people set up sites who's whole purpose is to earn Adsense income. Google tends not to like these sites very much, as they don't usually have much useful content. So they are difficult these days to get listed. A couple of years ago they would make a few hundred dollars a day if you had a bunch of them. You'll recognise one when you see it - it has "sponsored links" and a list of Google ads fairly prominantly in the middle of the site.
Question:
Is Google the primary focus for your PPC advertising?
Answer:
Google is definitely the main focus for our PPC advertising - it's by far the biggest search engine. There are others, but we haven't used them yet.
Question:
What would your average yearly costs be?
Answer:
Advertising costs (using Google Adwords) are about 30% of income. |
