The Alchemist's Dream Discovered on the Web

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The Alchemist's Dream Discovered on the Web

By Stephen Bucaro

Two hundred years ago, the alchemists dreamed about
finding something that they could turn into gold. Today
that something has been discovered on the Web. It's
traffic. Every marketer knows that sales is a numbers
game. The more eyes you put your offer in front of, the
more sales you make. But how do you get traffic?

On the Web there is one thing that draws people like moths
to a bug zapper. It's free information. The juciest free
information is that which can be downloaded. When you
download information, you don't have to worry about it
moving or disappearing like what frequently happens on the
Web. You don't have to be online to read the information.
You take possession of it.

Writing your own ebook to offer as a free download will
draw considerable traffic to your Web site. But I'm not
talking about writing an ebook, and I'm not talking about
"considerable" traffic. I'm talking about an explosion of
traffic.

There are thousands of ebooks available on the web that
give you free distribution rights. I propose that you
create a free ebook directory.

How does a free ebook directory turn traffic into gold?
Here are just a few ideas:

1. Sell affiliate products or services.
2. Sell general advertising.
3. Publish a newsletter.
4. Sell ebook promotion.

Here's how to create your ebook directory:

- Put an ebook submission form on your Web site. Ebook
publishers will provide information about their ebook and
the URL to download the ebook. You don't really need a
CGI form. You can use an email submission form. (see
"Submit Forms Without CGI" in the bucarotechelp.com Web
Design section.) This means you can put your directory on
a free host.

- Don't host any ebooks on your website. When a publisher
submits an ebook URL, you should download a copy. Make
sure the download URL works and that the ebook is not just
advertising, a scam, or worse yet - pornography. You have
to accept a certain amount of advertising in an ebook.
After all, that's the purpose of offering a free ebook.

- You don't really need a database. Create a section of
your Web site for each "category" of ebook. Cut and paste
the information you are sent into a page in the
appropriate category section. Put only five ebook
descriptions per page. Link the pages of each category
together.

- The reason you put only five ebook descriptions per page
is because on each page you will also put affiliate
advertising or general advertising. As visitors browse
through the free ebook directory pages, you want to
present a good amount of advertising to them.

- Use the front page of your Web site to feature ebooks
from publishers who are willing to pay $10 per month for
that extra service. If many publishers inquire about
featuring their ebook, you can devise other special
feature methods, such as search engine positioning.

Free ebook publishers are always looking for directories
to submit their ebooks to. The more ebooks you have
listed, the more traffic you will receive. It's a very
symbiontic relationship. This is a Web business you can
start with very little risk. You can start with a free Web
host, get free hit counters, and a free search engine.
Yet, the potential income from a free ebook directory
could be considerable.

Only a few good ebook directories exist on the Web. Below
are examples of good ebook directories:

http://www.ebookdirectory.com
http://www.ebookpalace.com
http://free-ebooks.net
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