You've Got To Be Joking!

I don't know about you, but I get a lot of joke stuff arriving in my email. I've got one buddy in particular who hardly lets a day go by without sending something. Sometimes they're side-splittingly hilarious, and other times they just don't make the grade -- it's a question of taste I suppose. Anyway, I was cleaning up my folders in Outlook Express recently to make some space on my hard disk (I've got a whopping Gb and I'm already getting low on space -- must be all those MP's...) Well, anyway, I knew that my 'Jokes' folder was taking up a lot of memory (it's full of images, video files and so on), so I decided that a major cull was needed. As I went down the list, I had no problem deleting the turkeys, but it broke my heart to delete the jokes that could still make me laugh second time around. And then it hit me. Why not make an ebook full of all the funniest stuff? That way, I can delete them from my hard disk and pack them all neatly into a single, compressed ebook file. And, thus, the idea for " Hilarious Jokes To eMail Your Friends" was born. It was never my intention to actually sell this ebook, (which is why you'll find it free on the BizzyDays website). However, it was never my expectation either, that it would prove to be such a resounding success. Sure, I knew it would be popular with visitors. After all a joke collection is always a popular idea and, if it's free, well hey, all the better. The point though is, I never fully appreciated just how much additional traffic this funny little book could generate. I get at least extra visitors EVERY DAY thanks to a book that I just put together to save disk space. Not bad for two hours of enjoyable 'work'. So what's the moral of the story? Well there are three of them: MORAL# : Free ebooks are a terrific way to promote any online business. You can read more about that in a previous article called "Are you using the -letter word?" which is available here: http://bizzydays.com/reprint_rights/reprint.htm MORAL# : People like jokes! Humor is always in demand and, yes, a lot of people are willing to pay for it. But here's a tip if you plan on selling joke ebooks -- don't make a general " Jokes" ebook. It would sell some copies, but not enough. A far better approach is to target SPECIFIC audiences. Instead of ' Hilarious Jokes To eMail Your Friends' why not " Hilarious Jokes For Expectant Moms", " Hilarious Jokes For Lawyers With A Conscience" or " Hilarious Jokes For Dairy Farmers". Okay, I admit, that the second title wouldn't have much of a market :-), but imagine the novelty gift idea value of the others. Okay, specialist joke books will take you longer to compile than general joke books, but think of the fun you'll have along the way. Once you've finished compiling an appropriate collection of jokes for the target market, all you've got to do is ensure that you aim your promotion at the right people and, hey presto, you're in the money! MORAL# : There is an infinite number of ideas for top-selling ebooks and coming up with those ideas is much easier than you may think. And, once you know how to pluck great ideas out of thin air, your success in ebook publishing is a simple matter of promoting your ebooks to the right target market. Have fun!