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Don Nicholas, Kim Mateus, and Amanda MacArthur

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How Fred Gleeck Uses Mass Market Books to Build His Email Subscriber Database and Sells Millions in Information Products

Discover how information-marketing guru Fred Gleeck uses a steady stream of mass-market soft cover books to drive subscriptions to his email newsletter database and the online media network for his vast array of information products and services.

Executive Summary

  • Fred Gleeck has shifted his information marketing business 80 percent online
  • Fred Gleeck's Media Network now includes more than 150 profitable websites
  • Fred Gleeck's Fast Forward Press publishes four or more books each year designed to drive traffic to his network of websites and build his email database

Before I met Fred Gleeck, I thought that you were just supposed to make money authoring and publishing books—regardless of the book's price. As the author of several mass market books, I know they are great for your image and can lead to other business opportunities. After Secrets of Successful Subscription Marketing was published in 1997, people just assumed I was an expert on subscription marketing even if that was the only thing they knew about me. I still have people walk up to me trade shows and ask, "Are you the Don Nicholas who wrote the book on subscription marketing?" Other than the $10,000 advance I got for Secrets, or any of the other mass market books I've written, none has ever generated a check beyond the initial advance, even though one was translated into German, Spanish and Portuguese.

So you'd think I would have figured it out sooner. I didn't. Even though I've been working on the Internet since 1995, I didn't get how mass market books and the Internet were really connected until Fred Gleeck explained it to me.

The Fred Gleeck Approach: For his massive 150-website media network, paperback books are a "negative acquisition cost" lead generation source for his weekly email newsletter: Fred Gleeck Insights. He authors four-plus books per year with the goal of driving prospects to one of his many websites (he creates a new one for every book) and getting them to subscribe to his weekly newsletter. Some of his books include:

Fred Gleeck's Epiphany: Fred Gleeck's early mass market books all include a section at the back that is a mini-catalog of his other information products: seminars on CD and DVD, Web Marketing Magic (a turn-key web marketing system that he uses) and information on how to contact him about consulting. His most recent books now include an offer like this on the footer of every page:

To collect your free gift worth $77, send an email to tips@DoubleWebSales.com

When you do (and you should), you'll get an immediate email confirmation like this:


    Hi Don,

    It's Fred Gleeck Productions writing you to confirm your subscription to our mailing list.

    You can confirm your subscription by simply clicking the link below:

    http://www.webmarketingmagic.com/app/optin.asp?j=0&c=48439419&pg=das&nc=0

    If you received this message in error, or do not wish to be included in future mailings, you do not have to do anything. Simply, delete the message and your information will be removed by our system automatically.

    You can contact us at FredGleeck@mac.com, for more information on our service.

    Regards,

    Fred Gleeck Productions


Results: Each year Fred Gleeck now generates thousands of new email subscribers from his books, and actually makes money on his books, too. Over the past three years, Fred Gleeck's revenue has gone from 80 percent offline to 80 percent online, and his business is growing at a rapid rate as he produces more mass market books and more high-priced products to sell to his free, $77 email newsletter subscribers.

Lesson: Mass market books, newspaper columns, TV and radio shows all represent great mass market opportunities for special-interest information marketers to leverage their valuable content, build their brand and drive qualified prospects to their Mequoda Internet Hub and free email newsletters.

Then you can sell them your wares without spending a dime on expensive external media. The Internet is the perfect nexus of mass media and database marketing for special-interest publishers in every field.

Mequoda Library Members Only: For in-depth reporting on Internet Strategy visit the Internet Strategy for Publishers and Authors TOC Page, or check out these related reports:

America's Test Kitchen Internet Strategy Case Study, by Jane Zarem
Motley Fool Internet Strategy Case Study, by Peter A. Schaible
Mequoda Method Habit #4: Organize Content Around the Customer, by Don Nicholas and Jane Zarem
Your Traffic Building Checklist, by Alexandria K. Brown
Publishing for Maximum Profit by Fred Gleeck; a Book Review, by Kim Mateus

Other Resources

COMMENTS

Another advantage to self-publishing that I have learned from Fred is that you have much more editorial control over the book that you write.

And it makes more financial sense to self-publish.

Sure, you finance the manufacture of your own book, but you also reap the profits. And collecting the names of readers isn't always a negative cost acquisition equation. You can make a few bucks on each book you sell. Those are dollars that would otherwise go to a traditional book publisher instead of to you, the author.

-- Peter

Comment by: Peter S | October 19, 2005
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