<==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> 

            "The Ebook Marketer Ezine"

Issue 13 - July 2003 Published by Dirk Dupon

<==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> 
             
Here's a simple way to use Viral Marketing to drive a lot 
of traf'fic to your web site - so hurry, because they can
be with you in 5 minutes! :-) Plus... it's F'REE too...!
http://www.ebooks-made-easy.com/uts.htm 

<==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> 

In This Issue

==> Editorial
==> Article
==> E-Contest
==> Resources
==> Contact Information

<==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> 
                                Editorial
<==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> 

Hi,

Thanks for being with me again, and a warm welcome 
to all the new subscribers.

If you've ever asked yourself how an Ebook is created, 
here's a f'ree to download demo from Armand Morin's 
"Ebook Generator" that will show you exactly how 
simple it is to make one: 
http://www.ebooks-made-easy.com/ebookdemo.zip 

(The demo comes in .exe format, and is for Windows 
users only.)

You'll find more info about Armand's "Ebook Generator" 
program at:
http://www.ebooks-made-easy.com/ebookgenerator.htm 

By the way, if you're selling an Ebook -or anything else- 
via Paypal, then you should use the power of "Dynamic 
Pricing" to increase your sales fast and easy. 

The "Dynamic Pricing" software allows you to set the 
increment of the price increases and the time intervals,
so you have complete control over when and how much 
your prices increase. (Resell rights are included!)

See how the smart script works here:
http://www.ebooks-made-easy.com/dynamic 

To your online success!

Dirk Dupon

Your comments or suggestions are always welcome:
mailto:editor@ebooks-made-easy.com 

<==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> 
                                 Article
<==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> 

This weeks article is aimed directly at anyone doing 
business online. It is based on the Clickbank "crash" 
which just happened a couple of weeks ago. 

It explains what happened and what you can do to 
protect yourselve in the future. 

"The Clickbank Crash of 2003: Lessons Learned"

By Tim Kerber

I had a rude awakening recently. I checked the days 
worth of sales from one of my sites and there were 
none. This had never happened before and of course 
I was anxious to find out what was wrong.

I quickly found out that the credit card processor
Clickbank was under a hacker attack. Their service 
was effectively paralyzed by computers around the 
world flooding Clickbanks computers with bogus 
requests for information. 

They weren't the only web site being attacked. Similar
attacks have happened against Yahoo and CNN in 
the past.

This is the first one that effected me directly... right 
in the wallet.

============================ 
Time For Emergency Action
============================

Nobody knew how long Clickbank would be down. 

I wasn't going to wait around to find out! I had to take
emergency measures to cope with it.

I was not only losing sales that couldn't be placed, I 
was also losing money on online advertising. Pay per 
click accounts were sending people to my site which 
they couldn't order from.

The first thing I did was pause my pay per click 
accounts until I got things under control. This saved 
me from wasting money on useless advertising.

============================ 
Alternate Payment Choice
============================

I needed another credit card processor to handle my 
sales and quick! I was lucky that I already had a Paypal 
account in place.

I quickly created Paypal payment links so that customers
could pay for my products. It was a matter of creating the
links correctly and changing the webpages to handle the
paypal transactions.

I don't normally use Paypal because Clickbank's affiliate
program is exceptional. In this case, I did not have much
choice and it was easy for me to start accepting money
again.

Once Paypal was up and running, I reactivated my pay per
click campaigns. I was happily rewarded within the hour
with a sale... My first in a day.

Thankfully Clickbank was back on its feet after about 3
days or so. I then switched things back to normal.

============================ 
Handling My Affiliates
============================

By using Paypal instead of Clickbank, I was denying my
affiliates commissions on traffic they had sent me during
this incident. I wanted to make it up to them as I didn't
think it was fair to them.

I did this by averaging out how much commission they had
earned in the 30 days prior to the incident. I divided that 
total amount by 30 to come up with an average amount
per day they had earned. I then gave them 3 days worth 
of this commission with an explaination of what happened. 
Ironically, I sent them their commissions through Paypal 
so they got them instantly.

I received excellent feedback from appreciative affiliates.
Some of them stated that my commissions were the 
only money they made during the time that Clickbank 
was down.

================================= 
How You Can Prepare Ahead Of Time 
=================================

There is no guarantee that Clickbank or any other 
payment processor won't be attacked by hackers 
again. It is extremely difficult to defend against.

It would be smart getting a backup plan in place just 
in case. 

Here's a good back up plan:

* Get a paypal account in place now in case you 
need it

* Create your alternate order pages with the Paypal 
links and keep them ready "just in case"

* In the event something does happen, keep good
communication going with your affiliates. They will
appreciate it and will likely reward you with more 
loyal sales in the future for you

I am sure a lot of lessons were learned during this 
time. 

I still love Clickbank, but now I have the experience of
having a backup plan I can quickly put into place should
anything like this happen again. You may want to prepare
ahead of time also.

Article by Tim Kerber from the Small Business Web Site
Learn proven secrets to make your web site a p'rofitable
success. Tips, tutorials, videos, interviews and more:
http://www.SmallBusinessWebSite.com 

<==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> 
E-Contest
<==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> 

The winner of "Automatic Income Streams" is Miguel 
Briceno.

In "Autopilot Income Streams", you'll learn how to setup 
your own system that automatically brings in p'rofits 
around-the-clock:
http://www.ebooks-made-easy.com/ais 

This month you can win a copy of "Sublist Secrets 
Revealed". 

Just visit the web page at: 
http://www.ebooks-made-easy.com/sublists  
and let me know how much the Ebook costs via:
mailto:editor@ebooks-made-easy.com?subject=EBM_contest 

<==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> 
                              Resources
<==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> <==> 

HTMLtoRTF Converter 456 KB Shareware

Convert HTML files into good-looking RTF - format. 
You can convert HTML files in RTF files with tables 
or can transform tables to the text. Also it is possible 
to convert HTML files in a simple text format.
http://www.sautin.com 

===============

Clickcat-P2H 13 MB Freeware

Converts PDF to HTML fuly preserving original page 
layout to the best technically possible. Specially 
suitable to use paper catalog on the Internet. Article 
numbers on pages are automatically converted to 
links into database. Full page editor available.
http://www.pdf-to-html.com/details.html