7 Steps to Make Money from E-books

Since the rise of the internet, many thousands of people have taken what they know and converted it into e-books. Some have gone on to make money from this; a few have made a lot of money. The trick is to approach the whole thing correctly.

Here’s a quick guide:

1. Choose your topic.

Begin with something that you know the most about, feel quite passionate about, and that you think others will want to know. Take a look at what else is out there: if there are lots of information products already available on a particular subject, then there’s a market for more about that subject. Competition isn’t a problem: if potential customers bought one e-book on a topic, chances are that they’ll buy another.

2. Be specific.

Don’t just write about cars. Write about a particular brand. Don’t just write generally ‘about’ something - write a guide which shows, teaches and coaches people to do something for themselves. Break it down into a sub-niche as small as you like.

3. Write a sales page first.

Your first task after selecting a topic is not to write or create the e-book. Instead, write the sales page (the page people will read before they decide to buy your product). This will ensure that you’re not limited in what you say to get them to buy. It puts you in the potential customer’s chair before you write a word. That way, your e-book’s words can be exactly tailored to selling themselves.

Think about it: if you were writing, say, a book about the fabled MG sports car, which taught people how to refurbish such a vehicle, what would you need to offer so that a person would buy your e-book? Write the blurb, then write the book.

4. Write fast.

Your first information product should be an ebook, short and to the point, about 30 to 50 pages in length. Such is the joy of the age of independent publishing that you can add to it later. Same with the price: start low, and increase it as you add material and value.

5. Record it.

Don’t be scared. You don’t even have to make a video, though you can and probably should later. Just take the book and record yourself reading it aloud. Now you have another element of the product. You can sell the recording separately and add to your income stream.

6. Record a webinar.

Here’s a thing: many of the ‘webinars’ you see promoted on the internet are crafted and scripted carefully to appear as though they are given in front of hundreds of people, all watching on the web. They aren’t. They are simply recorded talks which take a basic idea and turn it into a lecture, with a hefty emphasis on selling other products towards the end.

You can do the same. You’ll feel more confident after your recording above. Embellish the script and make it look as though you’re giving a presentation to thousands. Then market and sell accordingly.

7. Set up automatic machines to do as much as you can.

Use PayPal; use Lulu.com; use any and every app you can think of to free up your time so that you can concentrate on creativity. Lulu, for example, will produce, deliver and collect the money for anything you want to write, then regularly forward the cash to you through PayPal. You just have to spend a little time setting it all up - no more than an hour or so- and then you can take your attention off it forever and watch the money appear in your account.

Once you have these basics in place, you can concentrate on the finer points of marketing.

Stay tuned for more!