Macon

Motorcycle chopper kits are a growth industry. But what does that mean to you and me? Well one thing that we know is that we will have more choppers to ogle at. There is not a single day that goes by without more and more pictures of chopper bikes that have just been finished showing up in all the motorcycle magazines. Then at the weekends, when we are on our hot rides, we will see four or five show finish level bikes. There are more choppers around now than there have been in the last twenty five years.

Most of these choppers have been built from motorcycle chopper kits, the bike in a box approach. But hey, dont knock it! Building your own chopper has never been easier. There are rolling chassis kits, complete bike kits, and frame manufacturers give you a multitude of choice when it comes to take the plunge and buy a motorcycle chopper kit.

Thirty years ago, the old school chopper builders had to start with a stock bike off-the-shelf and literally chop it to pieces. With the modern chopper kits, there is a viable alternative to taking the cutting torch to your favorite soft tail!

Nowadays, you have a cheap and easier way to build the bike from the ground up. When you take the cost of buying a new bike and the expense of chopping it, it works out much cheaper to start from step one, and your chopper kit. Instead of tossing away the parts that you'll never use again, you can start building your own bike with the parts that you really need. All the parts are included in the motorcycle chopper kit, along with comprehensive instructions.

One of the first questions that people ask when considering buying a kit is how will my bike stand outs from all the other chopper kits? Well think of it this way, you are going to buy a chopper kit. A pile of unassembled raw metal. No paint, no real finish, just a blank canvas. Is your taste in paint jobs likely to be the same as the next guy, who buys the very same kit? I don't think so. What about your taste in bolt-ons, seats, exhausts? Just because you buy the kit doesnt mean every little thing has to be just so. That is the whole point isnt it? It's very easy in this way to build your own custom chopper from a chopper kit.

Another big question is, How long? The answer to that is as long as it takes. Even on the kit bikes, which are supposed to be designed to fit together like a glove, you are going to run into some snags. It cant be avoided!

If you want a more concrete guide, try this. An experienced kit builder (though not a professional) I spoke to reckons it took 10 full days to build his last chopper from a kit. For someone less experienced it could take a couple of days longer. Twelve 9 hour days works out at 108 hours. Over evenings and weekends, this could drag out to three or four weeks of living in a pile of motorcycle parts! So be prepared to literally live the experience if you are going to take the plunge.

What about the practical side? Well, there is no substitute for experience. The place to start building up your experience with the mechanical side of building to kit bike is with your current ride. Make sure all you can do the basic maintenance on your motorcycle, and then start to do some simple disassembling. Take off the tires, take off the exhaust, real basic stuff; all of this will help to build a new confidence in the shop side of things. You can also get some great videos on maintenance, and even on building the custom bike of your dreams. Read the books, watch the videos, and buy the t-shirt! Believe me, all the preparation you make will stand you in good stead.

If you really are hopeless at the mechanical side of things, why not pay someone else to help you build it, or even get them to build the whole thing for you? The cost of the kit plus labor could well work out cheaper than buying a chopper off the shelf.

And of course, when that beautiful chopper is standing on your driveway, and your friends are asking you Was it worth it? you can turn to the chopper, drag your hand across the flames on the tank and the polished chrome, turn back to them and say, What do you think?

Michael Holmes is a enthusiast for all thing motorcycle. His website, http://www.motorcycleparts-accessories-andmore.com, is a great resource of articles aimed at motorcyclists of all levels, and includes a page specifically about the motorcycle kits resources available online.

Speakers, coaches, professionals and other small businesses are great at getting their books written and launched. They want their targeted audience to know about their book so their visibility is strong.

But after the initial one-year honeymoon, sales and contacts slow down. To counter this make sure to let your audience know about your book's benefits and how it can help your them in their lives. Keep your book and business alive for years when you write a sales letter.

What Every Book Sales Letter Needs to Get the Most Visibility and Sales

So you can take that needed vacation, purchase a home, invest, or send your son or daughter to college.

1. Start the letter with a benefit-driven headline and include these headlines throughout.

For instance: "Want a Quick and Easy Way to Quadruple your Online Income in Four Months?

If you answered "Yes" to yourself, the headline succeeds, because you will keep reading. If you said "No, I don't believe this, but I'm curious about where this is going," the headline still succeeds. You win when your headline seduces your potential customer to read on in your sales letter to discover your book's benefits and features along with some fine testimonials. If you don't give your web visitors enough reasons to make their buying decision, they will drift away to some other site.

2. List the top five benefits of your book in bullets.

To define your top benefits start with a list of challenges your client or customer wants solutions for.. If you are not rock sure of who your audience is and what they need, your sales copy won't work. Essentially, you need to say how your book will make someone's life easier or richer in time or money; how it will entertain or inspire; how it will make readers be more successful, more attractive, healthier; how it will help them feel better and avoid catastrophe, sickness, or surgery.

Once you have identified the challenges your readers face, you can identify the books responses to these challenges as the benefits. Place these near the top of your sales letter.

Remember to highlight your book's ultimate benefit above the others. This one is usually the top headline of your letter. And if you list more than five benefits use the strongest three to five as your bullet points and sprinkle the rest throughout your copy.

3. Address your potential buyer's resistance.

Share a background story about where they are NOW so they will connect emotionally with your solutions. Since my book is designed for people who want to write, my sales letter focuses on the fact that many people don't write books because they doubt that their books will sell well enough to justify all the effort; they worry that a book may not be significant enough, that writing it will take too long and publishing it will cost too much; and besides, they really aren't writers." One, by one, a good sales letter will address a potential buyers major concerns.

4. Provide a quick overview of the books features.

One client wrote a book on ways to live a successful life. Her top features included *a do-it-yourself approach, *real-life coaching examples *mastering the art of moseying and *practical tips and strategies that can immediately be implemented into your everyday life. Include these below the important list of benefits. Remember, benefits sell. Features explain.

You can impact your letter more when you combine your best benefit with a feature such as Balance work and home by mastering the joy of moseying. While benefits do sell, your letter needs to mention features so your potential buyer will know whats inside your book.

5. Sprinkle testimonials throughout your sales letter.

Since people who learn about your book are more likely to buy it when they think other people already have, its important to offer testimonials from experts in your field, relevant celebrities, and satisfied users who have profited from your advice. To learn the easy way to ask for these testimonials read reports, eBooks, or contact a book coach. You don't need to send the book for a testimonial.

6. Offer your potential buyers three or four chances to buy.

They may have already decided to buy before encountering your sales letter, so put "Buy Now" information near the top and present more buying opportunities along the way after your list of benefits, your summary of the books features, and your testimonials. Many visitors complain that the price is not clear early on. While some copywriting experts disagree, go with your knowledge of your audience and include that upfront if you like.

7. End your sales letter with a 100% money-back guarantee.

When you offer an iron-clad guarantee--"This product comes with a 100% Money Back Guarantee. Read the book cover to cover, and if the strategies don't work for you within 60 days, we'll cheerfully refund your money, and you can keep the product too!-- people see your book as valuable enough for you to put yourself on the line for it. They will be more likely to buy and be satisfied with their purchase.

Don't worry about return rates. With sales in the thousands each month over five years, only one person asked for his money back referring to my guarantee. His return actually benefited me, because I needed to update a few pages of URLs for Web book sellers. When I sent the free biyearly book update to former customers, they sent back many appreciative emails.

8. Share the downside of your book.

Being up front about limitations can increase your credibility and create empathy. One client refereed to his book as a start up motivation for sales managers. He shared that consulting and coaching could put the ideas into practice with top effectiveness.

9. Include your credentials.

Obviously, your experience and savvy expertise is important. One author wrote a book on stress and how it affects relationships. Her sales letter included I interviewed 30 couples and included their answers to my what do you do daily to keep your relationship alive and joyful? My 20 years background as a marriage and family therapist includes 10 years coaching, consulting and presenting 25 seminars a year.

Since you have written a book and want your audience to read its message, take some time to check and correct your web site sales copy as well as check out the number one way to get your targeted to your web site to buy your book. Remember, writing a book doesn't bring readers and visibility. Marketing, promotion, and publicity do.

Judy Cullins, 20-year Book and Internet Marketing Coach Bk The Fast and Cheap Way to Explode Targeted Web Traffic free 2 monthly ezines, "The Book Coach Says. . .," and "Business Tip of the Month." at http://www.bookcoaching.com