6.Increase your existing sales channels, such as post cards, talks, book signings, or radio interviews where you do business with an 800 free order telephone number. Offer improved customer service and support because so many people like to buy Online.

7.Reduce support costs. You would spend far more on rent for a real office and need more equipment and furniture plus more support staff. Online marketing is far easier, cheaper and more effective than mail, telephone or fax.

8.Reduce cost of doing business. In your home-based virtual office, you will have much less overhead. For eBooks, you won't have to spend time or money on postage, packaging, or mailing. You reduce your dependence on other sales channels such as brick and mortar bookstore, which only take your book through a distributor or wholesaler. All of these folks take a hefty percentage to greatly reduce your profits--up to 90%. Online bookstores will accept your eBook or print book readily by your filling our a few forms and agreements.

9.Increase your profits up to ten times. When you sell your eBook or product to an Online Book-selling site, you may receive a commission up to 70%. When you sell your print books Online, they will give you around 30% royalties delivered by check every few months. These monies support author, not unwieldy publishing monolith who spends most of its time and money on big-ticket authors.

10.Reduce your marketing time because email communication is short, fast, and gets to point quickly. You don't have to spend time buying stamps and special envelopes and stationery. With a virtual assistant, you can look like Barnes and Noble reaching many thousands of Online buyers by putting ongoing attention and maintenance on your site.

If you are like me, you will enjoy keeping track of your increasing sales each month. You will enjoy staying in touch with your buyers. When they order on your site you can keep track of them, put them in your address book, and send them follow up information, free bonuses and requests.

Avoid lengthy paragraphs and make sure each paragraph deals with only one idea. Instead of long paragraphs, use bulleted lists containing short, high-impact sentences.

Another crucial point is to use “inverted pyramid” principle. This just means that you state your conclusion or most important information up front, and then use rest of body of your text to elaborate and explain. Kind of like a newspaper story.

And because Sam hates to scroll, break your text into logical stand-alone sub-parts of no longer than a single page (or screen) and then link (with a meaningfully-worded link) to next section which starts on a new page.

FEWER WORDS THE BETTER

Make sure your writing is not woolly. You need to write with precision of a surgeon wielding a scalpel. No superfluous words allowed. Write for effect, by all means, but get to point and fast! In other words, be succinct.

CREDIBILITY

Nothing gets that mouse finger itchier than perception that author of work lacks credibility. The top three culprits are hyperbole (avoid marketing hype at all costs and go for restrained objectivity instead), typos and grammatical errors. Sam likes to think you’ve done your homework too so make sure you include links to reputable sources elsewhere on web (but not too many or you risk losing him for good).

TONE

One of major differences in writing for web compared to other forms of writing is inherently impersonal nature of medium. Instead of holding a comfortably reassuring book in his hands, or getting black smudge on his fingers from newspaper, Sam’s only contact with you is your words on a computer screen. You need to overcome impersonal nature of medium if you expect to reach Sam with your words. It is for this reason that “write as you speak” is so much norm on Internet.

Be informal and conversational in your writing (note, this is NOT a license to churn out shoddy, unprofessional work- writing conversationally and informally is every bit as demanding as writing formally, if not more so) and be personal while you’re at it (use “you” and “your” a lot). Most importantly, allow your personality to come through. You need to connect with Sam before he will invest in you so make sure you reach him with your writing.

DESIGN AND LEGIBILITY

Finally, just because it’s less comfortable to read from a computer screen than a book or newspaper doesn’t mean you can’t make it less uncomfortable. Choose font you use with care. Times is a common default font for a lot of web pages but it doesn’t “pixellate” well. Better choices are Arial or Verdana.

Consider your choice of color and contrast carefully too. A dark font on a light background is best for lengthy reading sessions but a light font on a dark background can be effective if used sparingly.

So there you have it. Some relatively quick and easy steps you can take today to make it more likely Sam will get your message. And come back for more.