I thought that some people might find it interesting to hear the story behind the creation of my first E-book “Using Twitter for Business” and the development of the accompanying website – twitterguide.com.au.

Concept

As I move more and more into developing my own projects I wanted a way to still offer my knowledge to those who would find it useful – without having to pay my consulting fees.

I’d been thinking about product vs. service business models and realized that my knowledge could be perfectly packaged as an information product – an E-book.

Through listening to those around me – my clients, blog readers, my twitter network and colleagues I saw the need for a practical guide to using Twitter for business – something that I’m an advocate of because of the incredible benefits it’s offered to me.

The E-book is targeted at Business Owners, Marketing Managers and Web Designers – all people who don’t have time to read lengthy documents and who need to get up to speed and implement the strategies quickly.

I’ve designed the E-book to be simple and concise guide – giving readers essential information and simplifying the processes for easy implementation.

E-book Design & Creation

When selling online THE most important factor is trust. My reputation means everything to me, especially in a time where every man and his brother is a self proclaimed “online marketer”.  The last thing I want to be associated with is “Get Rich Quick” or hyped up products with no guts.

I carefully considered the content and look and feel of the book – from the title page and throughout and also the webpage I designed to illustrate, promote and sell the book – ensuring that elements of trust building were included throughout.

I used Adobe Illustrator to design and create the pages and combined the PDF pages using Adobe Acrobat.

E-book Distribution

Once I was happy with the E-book, I signed up to E-Junkie for a trial account. It was incredibly easy to setup and will be using it again for my future E-books.

It offers a simple PayPal transaction process that is intuitive and familiar and delivers the E-book via an emailed download link.

Website Development

The website has evolved from a simple one page website to sell the E-book to a combined guide for beginners and information resource for more experienced users.

I had a couple of reasons for this –

1. It’s become a good resource for me to send people to when they ask me about Twitter – saving me time and also introducing them to the E-book
2. I felt like there is so much information available online about Twitter but not one place to go and see a collection of links and resources
3. It’s no secret that adding a blog helps bring search traffic
4. I wanted this blog to become more of a documentation of my various projects etc and felt like it was becoming a bit too much of a Twitter blog itself!

I used Wordpress (installed) to build the new website and created a unique theme to keep the look and feel of the site consistent with the branding of the E-book.

I added the TweetMeme button to each page and each blog post so that others can quickly and easily share the information with others in their Twitter network.

Affiliate Program

Another feature that made me choose E-junkie as my digital distributor was its simple affiliate program setup and management.

At this stage the affiliate program is invitation only – this is to protect my reputation and that of the E-book and to keep the management of the program to a minimum.

That’s it

I’ve got a few more phases and marketing activities in store for the twitter guide website and E-book but that’s a rundown of what’s happened so far.

E-Book Discount – $10 Off

If you’re interested in purchasing the “Using Twitter for Business” E-book you can do so here.

I’ve made a $5 off discount so my blog readers can purchase the book for $9.95 (it’s selling for $14.95) valid until the 30th of April, 2009. Use the code “Blog” upon checkout.

Related posts:

1. Twitter for Business E-book Review
2. Using Twitter for Business – A Guide for Beginners
3. Twitter scenario #1 – too much, too soon.
4. Affiliate Site Experiment
5. Is Following a Business on Twitter the Ultimate Opt-In?

Filed under: Behind the Scenes, Twitter