Here are a few ideas:

- throw in your bio; Okay, this isn’t an “extra.” It’s a must have. You wrote the book, now make sure you introduce yourself to your readers and go the full mile. Let them know all about you (especially how it pertains to the ebook), give them contact information, a picture and info on upcoming work-related things.

- add a checklist; checklists are great for condensing your information to one page…something that can be printed out and used. (Just don’t forget your url in the header or footer of that checklist page!)

- provide discounts…have a discount to your services/products. Think of it as a gift to your readers. Perhaps you can work out a discount or some sort of special deal with a colleague on their services.

- add testimonials; no, not a kazillion of them. People don’t want to read page after page of how great you are. But a single page with a few testimonials of you and your product/service is nifty. (and it feels good, right?)

- add statistics; do a little research and find some stats out there to support your claims, to bolster your ebook. Make sure you state clearly where the stats are coming from. Or, you can even conduct your own surveys (check out Survey Monkey or Easy Internet Survey).

- add trivia; quotes, fun stats or interesting little tidbits of information that help augment your book can be sprinkled throughout, or added on a bonus page. Here’s a post with a bunch of trivia site links.

- add a FAQ page on your products/services; you get asked the same questions all the time, so head some of your prospects off at the pass by providing a “Frequently Asked Questions” page in your ebook.

- include a “Thank You” page; there are people who have supported you in your work. And here’s where you can acknowledge them. If they have a business and url, mention it and spread the link love!

- add a list; this is different than a checklist. You’re listing a “top ten” or some other number of listed items. You can add a list of web sites that would be useful. You can add a list of possible software resources.

- top it off with some graphics or pictures; some people like to print out their ebook…so I don’t typically recommend overloading your ebook with graphics that suck up a lot of ink. (Sprinkling throughout – good, overload – bad). But, if you have a subject that could use some picture or graphic representation, think about creating specific graphic pages and then referring to them through the text (as in, “see Picture 1-A on page 52″ or “Check out all the photos on page 52″). By having a page or two of the heavy graphics separate from the text, your prospects still get the visual element but can choose whether to print those pages out or not.

What do you think would make a great “extra” for an ebook?

The WAHM Agent has been reviewed…as a series and as separate ebooks and I am tickled pink!!

So revel in my tickled pink status along with me…here they are:

Review of 1st ebook – The WAHM Agent: Becoming a Work At Home Real Estate Agent – on WAHM Cafe

Review on Blog Talk Radio – The Frugal WAHMs Talk Radio show – (about 11:40 min in…):

 

Review of 1st ebook on Organized Life by Design

Review of 2nd ebook – The WAHM Agent: Working Your Real Estate Business – on WAHM Cafe

By the way…if you’re done reading and ready to start buying…then do it now! The price is going up as of November 15th! You can get the ebooks over at The WAHM Agent now!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Current Real Estate Market Perfect Time for Work At Home Moms to Become Real Estate Agents

While most experts are hyping the depressed real estate market across the United States, there are a few optimistic real estate professionals who look at this time as an exciting chance to get back to basics and cull the competition as the less dedicated real estate agents flock to other careers. Author of The WAHM Agent, Tina McAllister, claims that moms who have ever considered entering the real estate industry should do so now. “There is no better time,” Ms. McAllister states. “Instead of the real estate frenzy of a couple years ago where everyone and their uncle became licensed and had clients fall into their laps, this current market is the perfect time to learn the real estate market from the ground up.”

In her WAHM Agent series, Ms. McAllister helps guide moms who want to work from home as real estate agents navigate their way through becoming licensed and finding a broker. Logical appointment tips are balanced out with marketing ideas specifically geared for Mommy real estate agents. The books also provide samples of sales letters and other marketing materials from the author’s real estate career.

Why a book targeting Mommy real estate agents? Ms. McAllister says, “Many mothers look to real estate as a career where they can make a decent income and have a fairly flexible schedule. They want to have a healthy balance between family and work. And I truly believe that a Mom real estate agent can build a successful real estate business while raising her family.” She points out that there are still plenty of buyers looking for homes to purchase and that there are foreclosures and short sales for a new agent to cut her teeth on. “It really is an excellent time for a woman who truly wants to build a successful real estate business over time to enter the industry and learn the ins and outs of real estate.”

Packed with real-life examples of Ms. McAllister’s own struggle to balance family and real estate, the WAHM Agent ebooks provide a unique insight into how working from home and prospecting for clients as a “Mommy Agent” can be fun and integrated into every-day life. “I took my baby to appointments and my clients loved him!” Ms. McAllister states. “But just going through each day as a Mommy, I was finding clients and building my business without even realizing it. I never even thought of children playdates as a way to network…but it is…and a great way at that!”

Tina McAllister is owner of Beyond The Pen LLC, a full service writing company. While Ms. McAllister is actively licensed as a real estate agent working with exclusive clients, she is expanding her writing business and specializing in ghostwriting books for busy professionals. She also runs WAHM Biz Tips, a website providing business and marketing tips to work at home moms.

For more information on The WAHM Agent ebook series, visit www.TheWAHMAgent.com.

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My less-tame version of this controversial stance on entering the real estate industry? Here goes:

1)  Moms make great agents. Especially moms who have a partner bringing a steady income into the home. That way the mom can concentrate on building her real estate business without stressing out too much about that first golden commission check.

2) In the current real estate industry, the fly-by-night real estate agents who swooped in during the market frenzy and had clients drop in their laps? Most of those have flown the coop. They can’t hack the cyclical nature of the real estate market (and it is cyclical…always has been) and haven’t developed the skills necessary to build a successful business for the long haul. Translation: competition between agents is down.

3) There are things to be learned, and time enough to learn! In a down cycle, yeah, you’ll work hard. But you learn the basics of prospecting, marketing and building a LONG TERM real estate business. You learn how to truly find clients and KEEP them. You learn the business inside and out as you really work (oh my gosh, actual work! gasp!) to earn your money.

4) Many of the successful women in real estate have been at it for YEARS. They started when the kids were young and kept at it. Over time, they built a successful business. None will say it was easy. But I bet you that 99%  (or more) will say it was worth it.

Don’t believe me? Think I’m full of crap?  Bring it!

Remember my post on how to prevent idea theft? Uh…yeah…the irony….I was a victim of such an occurrence just in the past week. (I became aware of it yesterday). But you know, there’s so much more to that story, that I plan on hashing that out in a whole ‘nother post.

Then there was also my post on testimonials. About needing testimonials. Oh, the drama that has surrounded the testimonial situation. Again, for perhaps a series of posts…detailing the drama and also posting some tips on how to handle the situation if you are ever so lucky to be either 1) asked to provide a testimonial or 2) in the position of needing a testimonial.

I also created my first lenses on Squidoo and now have a full on love/hate relationship going on with that site, how lenses are built and whatnot. If you’re a Squidoo expert, by all means, I could use your comments, suggestions and maybe just a smack upside the head because I am sure I’m making it harder than it really is.

If you’re interested, my three lenses are about (and they’re clickable!):

- How to Become a Work-At-Home Real Estate Agent

- Working Your Real Estate Business

- Marketing Strategy for the Work-At-Home Mom Real Estate Agent

Actually, I will just come on out and beg you to take a look. Because my lenses are lonely and need visits. They are hungry for some eyeballs to give ‘em a look. Maybe you can even rate them…pretty please???

The high point of yesterday (other than actually being able to crank out three Squidoo lenses while “camping out” in my office …aka bed with my laptop in my lap…and watching movie after movie with my munchkin- YAY!) was the launch of my new site – The WAHM Agent. I finally have my ebooks available for sale!!! I am so excited I could spit! I put a lot of work into these babies and to have them available to the public is just an awesome feeling.

But again…so much going on…and each of these subjects deserve their own posts. And so they shall have their own posts. Because I’m a giver like that.

Want to see what I wrote? I won’t pretend it’s a masterpiece. Because it’s not. But it gets the point across.

Here it is:

As a real estate professional, you know how important it is to establish credibility with your prospects. In this age of information, you want to be on top of your game! You want to be the one who people turn to as the authority within your real estate niche.

Whether you work with investors, first-time buyers or another specific niche, you need to establish your expertise! And there is no better way to do so than to author an ebook!

An ebook is…

 - A fantastic marketing tool

 - A terrific way to establish your expertise

 - Easy to update as information changes

From 5-page e-reports to 100-page ebooks, you can market your real estate business and present yourself as a top-notch Real Estate Professional and Author.

How does it work?

 - Determine your topic based on your real estate niche

 - Create an outline

 - Compile your information (notes, urls, research)

 - Hire a professional ghostwriter who understands the industry and can produce quality  ebooks  

Who am I? 

I am Tina McAllister.  My professional writing, editing and ghostwriting skills have served several other professionals in the industry. I specialize in writing ebooks for busy real estate professionals such as yourself. I have ghostwritten books on everything from mortgage professional profiles to HUD homes. I have edited articles for professionals submitting to REALTOR Magazine and written marketing copy for both web and print.

Email me today and take a step closer to becoming an author and expert in your niche!

info@beyondthepen.com

P.S. For a short period of time, I am offering a discount from my rate of $20 per page. Contact me about your project and mention this email and you will receive the discount rate of $15 per page!

www.BeyondThePen.com

www.TinaMcAllister.com

*If you would rather not receive an email from me, no problem! Just hit the reply button and type “unsubscribe” in the subject line* 

By all means, rip it to shreds if you like. Or, make suggestions for the next email I send out (which will be in a few weeks). I’m listening…

Yes, I did my research. I looked into Contant Contact and iContact and a few other online services that produce email marketing campaigns with beautiful html messages with all the bells and whistles. They are also FREAKIN’ EXPENSIVE.

If I had a smaller list, then maybe, just maybe I would consider one of these services. But I already knew that I had a list of 50,000+ emails for real estate professionals in Arizona alone. With that amount, I’d be looking at a few hundred dollars a month for a service. No thanks.

So instead, I used a software. It’s called Atomic Mail Sender and the site looks so much cooler than the interface of the actual program. But it was easy enough to set up, import the email addresses and then get the message typed up and all that.

What I went with is bare bones, people. And depending on your business, this may or may not work for you. HTML messages are pretty. They have color and graphics and snappy taglines. Me likey.

But I don’t need all the bells and whistles. I’m a writer. And really, my writing needs to speak for itself. No amount of html prettiness can clean up sloppy grammar and piss-poor writing.

So we’re talking a text message. Yep…a plain ol’ text email with a little about me and what I can do.

And I didn’t track the emails. You can pick your jaw up off the floor now.

I really don’t care about conversion rates and who opened what and how long they looked at it and all that crap. What it boils down to is that some people will look at my email and come up with one (or several conclusions:

- What the hell is this crap? And why did I get it? (hitting delete button)

- I don’t even work in real estate anymore. The market sucks! (hitting delete button)

- Well, this is one ugly piece o’ crap email. Boring! (hitting delete button)

- I don’t need this. My marketing ROCKS! (hitting delete button)

- Well, that’s a good idea…providing informational products and establishing my expertise in my niche…but I 1) don’t want to spend money on that, 2) don’t have any money to spend on that, 3) can do it myself (setting the email aside to think about it)

- Holy crap! You know, that could really work for my business. I should look more into this… (hitting the reply button and asking for more information)

Obviously, I am most interested in those Holy Crappers. I can help them. I can help grow their business. I can make them authors and experts. Yes, it can be done!

But I also want to get to know those Good Ideaers…because at some point, if they truly realize how great providing detailed information to prospects and establishing one’s self as an authority  can be for their business, well, they’re probably going to want my help at some point because they will come to the realization that 1) they need to spend some money on marketing materials and they want that money spent WISELY, 2) they are going to realize that in order to build their business they MUST spend money on marketing and 3) they are going to realize that even if they do have an innate writing ability, they won’t have the time.

So, no, I didn’t track emails and such…but again, I don’t need all those stats and junk. I just want to my peeps – my future clients!!

Wanna know what my email said?? Check in tomorrow!

I want new clients. I need new clients. I, of course, am my favorite client. But I don’t pay myself nearly what I’m worth.

Besides, new clients are fun! They have new ideas. It’s fun to help them with their business. I get a kick out of working with clients and creating products for them that promote their business, perpetuate their brand, establish them as authorities in their respective fields.

Email marketing is much like direct mail. Though for some reason people seem to take it MUCH MORE personally when you send them an email than if you sent them something to their home. To me, that’s weird. Got my address? I’m freaked. Got my email address? You and Lord knows who else!

But hey, I probably bit off a little more than I could chew anyway. Since I’ve been having a run of real estate writing (ebooks, web copy and such) I figured I would market myself to real estate professionals. And where better to start the campaign than here in Arizona where almost everyone’s sibling is a real estate agent?

So I emailed the 50,000+ agents in my spreadsheet. Yes, you read that correctly. 50 freakin’ thousand emails.

It has taken over 7 days to email them all out. And the program has crashed twice.

About 20% (maybe a bit more) of the emails are useless. Completely undeliverable. So that leaves 35-40,000 deliverable emails.

Then you’ve got your spam filters with their auto-respond features. When I could, I would actually respond so I could show that yes, I am a human being. But many wanted you to fill out information that make it clear that you should be a personal buddy of the recipient or something. Those I deleted.

And so far I have about 260 people who have asked to be taken off the list. (Don’t worry, my friends, you will be off the list this week!!)

As for leads? I’ve had about 15 people contact me. Some are warmer leads than others.

Where to go from here?

Work the current leads.

Create another message for Arizona real estate professionals that provides some information and a call to action…and generate another weeklong email campaign. But not for about 4-6 weeks. Email marketing (much like direct mail marketing) is about getting your message in front of the prospect on a consistent basis.

Without ticking them off.

Which I really, really don’t want to do. Because, like I said, I want new clients. New clients = FUN.

So…I’m at a point with a series of ebooks I am writing called testimonial time. I’m still tweaking the books but plan on having them completely ready for the purchasing public in two weeks or less.

So imagine my feeling of fate as I came across Copyblogger’s multiple posts on testimonials. And then another one at The Golden Pencil.

A co-inky-dink? I think not.

By the way, if you’d like a draft of one ebook (or the collection of three!) I’d love to send you one (or three!) in exchange for a testimonial. Translation: You read my ebooks, whip up a lovely (but sincere) testimonial and I’ll throw your testimonial, your name, link and a thumbnail of your pic or logo on the sales page.

The ebooks are aimed at work-at-home moms (“WAHMs” for those of us in the know) who are thinking of a real estate career (or perhaps are newly licensed).

The titles:

- The WAHM Agent: Marketing Your Real Estate Business

The books will be sold individually and also as a complete set at a discount.

So…wanna review a book and get your testimonial, name, link and logo on my web page: TheWAHMAgent.com?

Send me an email at words at tinamcallister dot com and you got yourself a deal!

Yes, Chad, the boy-child real estate agent with a really bad Beatles haircut.

If you want to know exactly how you should NOT deliver a quick elevator pitch when you’re networking, then just listen to how this guy talks. It’s scary. Of course, it’s scary enough when a monotone, non-personality speaks of finding his zen place.

Scary Chad talks Zen

Only in Los Angeles can a person have no personality and talk like he’s reading from cue cards as he pitches a prospect…and still walk away with a deal!

Of course, it helps if you have cameras follow you around.