Copyright Ellen Finkelstein, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Contents Chapter 1: The Two Approaches... 4 Chapter 2: Why I Love E-books... 5 Chapter 3: Plan and Organize Your Content... 8 Chapter 4: Write and Format Your E-book... 10 Chapter 5: Set Up Your E-book for Sale... 14 Chapter 6: Market Your E-book... 17 Chapter 7: Go and Do It!... 20
Chapter 1: The Two Approaches There are two ways to make money on the Internet. I do both, so I m using my own experience as my guide. Here they are: 1. Earn income from ads 2. Sell electronic products A third way, selling products of others as an affiliate to get a commission, is a blend of these two. I highly recommend that you create and sell your own electronic products. And one of the best ways to start is with an electronic book, or e-book. In this guide, I ll explain how you can easily write and sell an e-book.
Chapter 2: Why I Love E-books Selling an e-book is the quickest, easiest way to sell a high-profit-margin product online. It s that simple. Over 10 years ago, I published my first e-book. Let me tell you why. I typically get about 10% royalty on the wholesale price of my books published with major publishers. For example, my AutoCAD Bible, a 1300-page book, sells for $49.99. Wholesale is about half, which is $25, so I get $2.50! People told me that they were selling fewer books but making more money if they selfpublished. I decided to go electronic. On a $15 book, I make over $14. It s quite a difference! Selling an e-book doesn t mean you don t have a book in print. You can make the digital form (in color! with live links to your website! perhaps with video!) your lead product, with a printon-demand book available on request.
There are few upfront costs, no expensive print runs, and you can expand as necessary. You can also sell video courses, webinars (live and recordings), and more. You can also sell live events, such as a workshop. But the easiest product to create is a selfpublished e-book, in PDF format. An e-book makes a great first product for a new infopreneur. Once you set up the system, it works automatically. The first time you make a sale without you actually doing anything is amazing. I still find it thrilling! You can also publish the book in Kindle format and sell it on Amazon. I don't cover that process here. The entire process is 7 steps: 1. Write your e-book 2. Create an attractive cover 3. Proofread and edit 4. Convert to PDF 5. Create a sales page 6. Create a product in your shopping cart
7. Add a Buy Now button to your sales page Of course, after that, you have to market it. I'll give you some great ideas for that phase as well. Don t spend too much time on your e-books. Spend 1-6 months maximum, then start on the next one. In fact, if you repurpose existing content, it's possible to get out an e-book in a week! People flock to something new, so you need something new all the time. The quicker you are, the more money you'll make. Perfectionism can be a virtue in some fields, but not usually in Internet marketing. Update existing e-books and people will buy the update. When I updated my 101 Tips for PowerPoint e-book from PowerPoint 2003 to PowerPoint 2007, I sold over $700 worth in one month, just from my e-mail list. On the other hand, sometimes I offer the update free to people who bought the original.
Chapter 3: Plan and Organize Your Content Before writing your e-book, you should go through a few steps: 1. Decide on the goal of your e-book. A common goal is lead generation, regardless of whether the e-book will be free or paid. 2. Write out your main message in a few sentences and keep this in mind as you write. 3. Create a broad outline each item will become a chapter. 4. Drill down and add headings. You can add second-level headings if you want. I highly recommend that you create your first e- book from existing content that you've written. This is called repurposing and it's a very convenient, efficient way to create products. Creating your first e-book can seem overwhelming, but when you start with existing material, it's MUCH easier!
Two easy sources for repurposing are: A series of related blog posts A webinar script (or slides with text on them) Even if you use existing content, you'll do some editing. Here are some guidelines for your writing: 1. Use simple, clear sentences in active voice (not passive) and present tense as much as possible. 2. Your e-book should be between 20 and 100 pages, more or less. If you have more material than that, create a second e-book. 3. Use lots of images! They really help keep your readers engaged and interested. 4. Break up your text with chapters and headings. If you work in Microsoft Word, be sure to use the Styles feature for your chapter titles and headings so that you don't have to reformat your text for each item. This will save you lots of time and hassle!
Chapter 4: Write and Format Your E-book Now it's time to start your e-book! Write it in Word, nicely formatted. If you're using existing content, copy and paste. You'll make sure that the formatting is clear and consistent afterwards. I use a 6x9 page size, but you can use the standard 8-1/2x11. Be sure to number the pages. (You don't do this for Kindle books, by the way.) Put each chapter on a new page. This helps readability and also makes your e-book longer, increasing its perceived value. Create a table of contents, a dedication, acknowledgements, an introduction, just like in a printed book. Find a good copyright statement from a professionally written book and rewrite it to suit your needs. (While there are ways to protect an e- book, for the most part, people can make copies of the file and give it to others. You just have to be okay with that.) Break up your content into lots of paragraphs. If you have a list of items, use numbers or bullets. The only exception would be for fiction.
Add bonus material at the end. Put links to other products and your website at the back and in a footer. Offer discount codes to these other products. In other words, create a funnel to other products and your website. Be sure to add lots of images! Tip: When you insert an image in Word, you'll see a Layout Options icon; choose Square or Tight for maximum flexibility in moving your images. Create an attractive cover Unless you re a designer, I recommend getting a professionally-designed cover; it s often the biggest expense. I paid $250 for front and back covers, but the next best offer was $400, then $800. You don t need a back cover if you ll never print it. You can re-use your cover for other e- books if you re handy with the software used. I ve modified mine for three other e-books already. The best deal these days for an outside designer is fiverr. It's unbelievable, but you can get a good cover for $5! However, I recommend getting the original Photoshop file, even if you don't have or know Photoshop. It gives you ownership of the source and makes it possible for you to make changes inexpensively. Yes, you'll probably want to make changes. That will cost you about $10 more.
That's still a far cry from what I paid for my first e- book's cover! Another low-cost option is to find a design student who is looking for something to put in his or her portfolio. When you have the image file for the cover, insert it at the beginning of your Word document. Proofread and edit Don t skip this step! You don t want typos in your e-book. Keep your standards high. If you can afford it, hire a proofreader; it s always good to have a second set of eyes. If you want to print an e-book for proofreading purposes, I recommend Lulu. In a second pass, review the book for formatting it should be pleasing to look at and consistent. Convert to PDF Adobe PDF is the standard format for an e-book. Adobe Acrobat is ideal, but it s pricy. Microsoft Word can save to PDF. Otherwise, check out the free PDF995 or PrimoPDF. Once you create the PDF, check it carefully. Pay special attention to the hyperlinks, because the free tools don t always
keep them if the text doesn t spell out the URL. If the file size is large, try zipping it to compress it. If you're using a custom page size, you may need to do some research to get the PDF to be the same custom size.
Chapter 5: Set Up Your E-book for Sale Before you can sell any product online, you need a shopping cart, gateway, and merchant account. Here s an easy and inexpensive way to start. Sign up for a shopping cart I started with e-junkie (http://www.ejunkie.com) because it s inexpensive and works well; I used it for several years. They specialize in electronic downloads; some shopping carts charge extra for this. Your shopping cart should offer discount codes and an affiliate program. If you have a WordPress website, you have several options for shopping carts that are WordPress plug-ins. One that is often used is WooCommerce and it's free. Set up a gateway and merchant account to process credit cards I started with Paypal and still offer it as an optional method of payment. Make sure that your gateway works with your shopping cart. They all work with Paypal.
Create a sales page After your financial infrastructure is set up, you're ready to set up your product for sale. Create a compelling sales page with a catchy headline, a list of benefits, and an image of the cover, testimonials (give out some free copies to get them), a table of contents, an About the Author section, a money-back guarantee and whatever else you can think of. You can see the sales page for my first e-book at www.ellenfinkelstein.com/estore/101tips.html. Create a product in your shopping cart In the shopping cart, create a product (give it a name and product number) and upload your e- book as a PDF or ZIP file. You might also be able to store your product on your own storage solution, such as Amazon S3. Set the price and other options. For example, you can specify the content of the email buyers get and of the webpage they go to after they make a purchase. The email and web page contain the link to the e-book so buyers can download it. Add a Buy Now button to your sales page.
The shopping cart provides you with the code for a BUY NOW button. Add the code to your sales page (you ll need to display the HTML of that page). You ll have an option for create a discount code that people can use to get a discount. Be sure to test everything by buying a copy of your e- book! When people buy your e-book, they go directly to a page with a download link. They also get an e- mail with the link. For each sale, you get an e-mail from your shopping cart and from PayPal or other gateway. That s how you know you made a sale! Be sure to provide good customer support. Sometimes people have problems with the download. Give them the help they need; otherwise, they may complain to your gateway or to everyone they know online!
Chapter 6: Market Your E-book When you sell e- products, you have to market them, constantly. There are 3 phases, prelaunch, launch and ongoing. Here are some marketing ideas: Pre-Launch 3-4 weeks before you launch the e-book, begin promoting it in your email newsletter to create interest Create a contest giving away a couple of copies, to make it seem valuable 3-4 weeks before the launch, start a social media campaign 3-4 weeks before the launch, ask others to mention the e-book in their newsletters Create a blog post discussing one of the points in your e-book to create some buzz around it Launch Give a free webinar on the topic of your e- book
Send a press release to bloggers. Get to know others in your field and they ll usually be willing to post about your e-book. Send a notice to your e-mail subscribers. Offer an introductory discount using the discount feature of your shopping cart. Announce your e-book in related Facebook and LinkedIn groups; continuing with social media posts Ongoing In your email signature, add a link to your product sales page Gather testimonials for your e-book to add to your sales page. If you don't want to wait for initial sales, send out "preview copies" to people you respect and ask their permission to publish their review as a testimonial. You can then put the testimonials on the e- book's sales page. Offer excerpts for free to people who might want to send them out. Include a link to the sales page for the full book. Offer excerpts for free to Twitter followers, with a box that says, Full version available at
Market free reports or white papers with links to your sales pages Get others with e-zines to mention your e- book; offer their subscribers a discount Create a banner ad and put it on your site. Put a banner ad in your e-zine Create an affiliate program to get others to sell the e-book for you. Speak at events and mention your products or sell after your talk Periodically offer specials, with discount codes Tell your previous customers about your e- book
Chapter 7: Go and Do It! Being an infopreneur is pretty easy and the possibilities are unlimited. The cost to start is very low, but be prepared to be in it for the long haul as you build your reputation and your traffic. If you think you have something to say, give it a try! I wish you success! Need help? If you would like expert guidance, I can coach you through the process of creating and selling your own e-book. I invite you to contact me for coaching. You can read more at http://changetheworldmarketing.com/services/. Do you want to get started right away? Complete my coaching application at http://changetheworldmarketing.com/welcomeconsider-coaching/. If you have a question, go to www.changetheworldmarketing.com/contact/.
Special offer! To get the most people to buy your e-book, you need a great website. I have a product, Make Your Website Rock! that will give you specific guidelines to create a website that attracts and converts customers. Go to the Make Your Website Rock! Page and use the rock20 discount code to get 20% off!