Noah defines it as this mathematical equation: number of people you reach divided by time.

Publishers don’t care how you reach them–radio show, podcast, Twitter, email list.

In fact, they prefer you have a combination of all of the above.

The easiest place to start, however, is

an email list.

Despite how spam has wrecked email, it still remains the “workhorse” of marketing, as Noah said.

Tired as we are of spam, we still do read the emails that matter to us.

You want your emails to be in that list of emails people eagerly read.

So how do you do that?

Well, over the past 5 years I’ve made a study of online marketing and have come up with just a handful of people whose systems truly work, who offer them at a very good price, and who themselves operate in integrity.

(These are the only kinds of people/programs I recommend.)

One of those who make the list is Jimmy D. Brown, who has been around the Internet since 1997, and who has made a six-figure living at it since 2000.

In fact, Jimmy practically invented list-building online!

And Jimmy has just agreed to let me post an except from his course “List PROFIT System,” which is a fantastic course for beginners. It really should be recommended reading for anyone starting an online business, in my opinion!

After you read this excerpt, be sure to grab Jimmy’s FREE report “Six Steps To Six Figures With List Marketing.”

But, first — I’ll share a few pages of the actual paid course.

Excerpt from List PROFIT System
by Jimmy D. Brown

PART 3: Seven Opt-in Triggers That Get Subscribers Like Crazy

You can have all the right “ingredients” to an opt-in page (the things we just talked about in the previous section) and still not get great results. It’s how you put everything together that counts.

So, that’s what I want to share with you now.

You’re about to get the benefit of results from more than five years of tweaking and testing (and tweaking and testing some more!) the opt-in process. I don’t know if there’s anyone who’s been doing THIS longer than I have. I was using a mini-site to get subscribers since back in 1999 – back when list-building pretty much meant having a link on your site that said, “To join my list, click here.”

While there are a gazillion variations and distinctions, there are some basic “triggers” that I’ve found really do dramatically improve your opt-in rate.

There are seven of them…

Note: The first three are very basic, but I’ll be revealing some ideas that you’ve probably not considered before…so read them anyway. The final four are more “advanced” in nature. You’ll find that only those “in the know” are using them. Add your name to the list.

1. Offer Real Perceived Value. Years ago I went to the late Corey Rudl’s web site and he was giving away a free subscription (like everyone else) to his newsletter. What made his different than the rest? It had a simple notice near the subscription form reading, “$197.00 value”.

Instant perceived value at the time. (That’s not the case now with everyone putting inflated “values” on their free offers).

The point is this…you can CREATE perceived value. Here’s how.

- UNIQUENESS. One way to do this is through your own “unique” approach to your free offer. You can say the same thing as someone else in a totally different way and see a marked difference in responses.

For example: “$600 cash back” is NOT the same as “A year’s worth of free gas” to someone about to buy a car. (Especially today with gas prices rocketing skyward in leaps and bounds!) “A year’s worth of free gas” has a much higher “perceived” value even though its monetary value is the same.

What makes your list unique?

I *highly* recommend you grab the FREE report “Six Steps To Six Figures With List Marketing.”

It’ll give you an overview of the essential pieces involved in profitable list marketing. He’ll show you how to build a big list that responds to you–this is the key! Numbers don’t mean a lot; loyalty does.

A strong author platform is made up of people who love your message and your style. Jimmy will show you how to do it.

Check it out.

In this case, he’s talking about what makes information sell in an age where, as you well know, we’re all inundated with too much information. What he says here is an important piece of what I call “the new era of publishing.”

Please read the article and my follow-up suggestion. (Jimmy is always practical, and offers great resources.) I also included comments on Jimmy’s ideas in a couple of places.

I want you to add a new word to your business vocabulary…

The word is “specialization”.

A new age has dawned in information marketing. And it’s the age of “specialization.”

Before I explain how this will help you create information products that sell like crazy, let me give you a very brief history lesson. Click to continue reading.

This is especially true about your author platform. Hyatt points out all the ways a publisher can tell how many people visit your blog, or how many previous books you’ve sold. (By the way, the tool he mentioned, Compete.com, is something you can use to track your own progress. Especially if you take the “Develop Your Audience” class.)

One thing I’ll add that’s also part of this “New Era of Publishing”: we’re all so connected now. If I want to check out a person’s integrity, I have a whole network of people I can ask who probably have had dealings with the person or product. While I always give the benefit of the doubt to people, if several people say a company, person, or product did not live up to expectations, then I take note.

Hyatt gives excellent advice. Read it and take it to heart, and you’ll sleep well at night.

Publisher Thomas Nelson just announced a new program called NelsonFree, which “allows readers to receive content in multiple formats—physical book, audiobook and e-book—without making multiple purchases.” With NelsonFree, the price of the hardcover book includes both the audio download and the e-book, available in several formats, including EPub, MobiPocket and PDF.

Once readers purchase a book with the NelsonFree logo, they are directed to a Web site where they register and answer a security question. They then can download an audio MP3 file and choose the format of e-book.

Interestingly, Joel Miller, v-p and publisher, business and culture, said Nelson will not raise the price of hardcovers in the NelsonFree program. “I only see the price going up if a particular project has unique added expenses in producing the audio and digital books,” Miller said.

Nelson president and CEO Michael S. Hyatt said, “I believe that the industry is shifting and we, as publishers, need to explore new methods of getting our content into the hands of customers. NelsonFree will give readers a new level of value and flexibility. It will enhance their literary experience and allow greater employment of the content without breaking the bank.”

I applaud Nelson for being proactive here and leading the way. As an author’s advocate, I can’t help but wonder, do authors get any added royalties for the digital content? My guess is not, if the publisher is not charging extra.

On the other hand, making the content available in many formats should only boost sales and gain an author more exposure and reach. And isn’t that what we want as authors?

It’s difficult even to get any literary agent to take on your book, let alone one of the top literary agents in the country.

Yet one author managed to do both.

On Thursday, I’m going to grill this author, Noah St. John, on how he did this.

And YOU also get a chance to ask Noah your question as well.

I plan to ask how long it took him to find an agent, what his book proposal was like, how he made contact with his agent, what it was like to have his book go on auction, what he’s doing now to promote his book, etc.

The “etc.” means YOUR questions.

So go ahead, ask Noah and sign up for the very first “great author promotions” teleseminar, in which we’ll learn from successful authors what their proven secrets are.

The teleseminar is at the usual Publishing Coach Weekly time: Thursday at 1 pm Eastern, noon Central, 11 am. Mountain and 10 am Pacific. There will be a replay is you miss it, but attending live means you can ask Noah questions that occur to you during the interview.

One more thing: No doubt a big part of Noah’s success is his actually doing what his book is about. Title: The Secret Code of Success. It’s not your typical “success/self-help book”; there’s real meat here beyond the kind of “believe it and it will happen” advice so prevalent today. You can get his great insights for less than $14 at amazon.

Then, you’ll be eligible to attend his free bookinar and really put into action what you learn. We’ll tell you how to access the bookinar on the teleseminar.

(By the way, he got a six-figure advance for the book from a major publisher, no doubt on the strength of the content, the platform he’d already built, and his marketing plan.)

Noah is currently doing a “bookinar” in which, over the course of 4 or 5 modules, he is being interviewed by Alex Mandossian about the content of the book. The book is your “ticket” to attend the webinar, which makes sense, since the book is the curriculum. On the bookinar Noah explains the book, and gives exercises that will enable you to get the most out of the content.

It’s a lot like a Virtual Book Tour, but it goes a step beyond by becoming an interactive course, based on the book.

Brilliant. This is “New Era Publishing” strategy at its best. Noah is providing a way for readers to connect with him, via the “marketing intimacy” of hearing him explain and expand upon the book.

He also interacts with readers via the bookinar. You may ask him questions before, during, and after each session. The content is recorded and made available so that you can listen when you like. There’s an Action Guide along with the audio.

I encourage you to get a copy of his book and attend the bookinar. (He’s already 2 modules into it, but you can always go through it at your own pace.) The book itself is revolutionary. (I’ve been following Noah for years, and think his approach is ground-breaking and brilliant. His concept of “afformations” alone will change your life.)

As you experience the book through reading it and attending the bookinar, pay attention to not only what Noah says, but what he as an author does. For instance, look at what he does in “Act III,” chapters 11-13. (Hint: Keep your receipt. It’s worth $2,990.) What do you think of this approach, as a reader? If you have a nonfiction book yourself, especially if it’s not yet published, how can you incorporate this approach yourself?

(Noah’s publisher, Collins Business, a division of the major publisher, HarperCollins, has fully backed this approach. Publishers are “getting it.”)

I urge you: Get the book. (It goes well beyond any “success book” you’ve ever read.)

Attend the bookinar to experience the connection with the author and take action on the great content of the book.

Finally, study Noah’s approach as an author and come up with a plan for your own book. It’s a winning approach, and I believe this book will very soon become a best seller. (Not only because of brilliant marketing, note, but because of great content.)

By the way: If you want to do a bookinar with me as interview, let me know! Check out www.virtualbooktourexpert.com for background on Virtual Book Tours that I’ve done.  A bookinar would be set up in a similar way.

My answer is usually two-fold.

First, once you have your words down on paper, you are protected by copyright law. So if you sent me (or a literary agent or an editor) your manuscript, you are already protected from anyone stealing your idea. If someone put out your exact words with their name on it, you’d have a pretty strong case for their plagiarizing your work.

However, remember that copyright law protects only your expression–the exact words-not the ideas. (Note too: You cannot copyright book titles. So someone can use your exact book title.)

Second, you have to realize that people you would send your book to–a publishing coach like me, or an agent, or an editor at a publishing house–have no reason to steal your ideas. We are way too busy doing our work (if we’re reputable, and most of us are), to take your work and run with it–especially if you’ve already developed it and are known somewhat for your idea. (There’s that platform thing again. If you already have a following around your idea, how on earth could I or someone else compete? Why would we want to?)

Also, we do have our reputations to protect. What’s in it for us if we take your idea?

Seth Godin, in his recent blog post, makes another excellent point. Book publishing is an industry based on buying ideas. “A company that likes buying ideas has a process,” Seth says. “They make it relatively straightforward and they have no upside in stealing from you. A company that isn’t in that business puts up barriers. They troll around trade shows looking for ideas to take.” (Seth adds that he doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with that, legally or morally.)

The people who might steal your ideas are not those in publishing, but people in your own industry. If your idea is complicated, patent it, Seth says. If it’s simple enough to dream up in a week, Seth says “the only way you’re going to protect it is to build it, fast and well.”

That is, develop it, get it out there to your following (through ezine articles, blog posts, or podcasts, for example), and get known for it. Then you can organize it into a book format you can publish (either by convincing a traditional publisher to publish you, or by self-publishing).