Here is the deal. It is true, you need to keep a lot of effort once and then you can relax. As long as the readers are happy and feel informative, you can keep collecting money.
You might think videos are more prominent than books. Yes, it is true. But there is still potential for e-books. Many people prefer physical books to e-books. Yes, it is also true.
Everyone is different from everyone's point of view. E-books along with Audio and Versions are more likely to get purchased in a bundle. If you don't have the resources or time to make them, you can simply create an e-book to understand the sales and sentiment of the readers. Then you can venture into other things like audio version and video version.
E-Books are another way of making a passive income. Do You remember "Diversification"?
Don't put all of your eggs in one basket
Simply by creating your existing blog content into an e-book and making some money out of it is not a bigger deal. Just you need to keep some efforts, in the beginning, that's enough.
It s a Long term game. So don't give up too soon.
How to create an E-Book and make money
Creating an E-Book is like creating an article. But you need to make it more and more readable and more with more information in one place. Did you ever write an essay at your school or in college? It is like that. You need to start with the Heading/Headline and move on to the rest.
Yes, it takes some time to maybe a week or two just to draft an e-book. But designing and making it available to the readers might take a month.
You can also make it an Audio version. In recent times audio versions of books are selling like hotcakes.
You need to ask a few questions before thinking to start an E-Book. Is this purely for making money or want to provide valuable content to the readers in one shot? If it is Money you need to re-think. Proving valuable content is very important.
Once if you have the customer base you can sell anything. as on as the customer is happy about eh money that he/she spent on you.
Here is the list of the questions that you might have in your mind, Right now.
I myself have this list of questions when I thought of creating an E-Book. After doing some research I understand what are those. Now you can save time searching those questions and find them in one place.
- How to create an E-Book?
- What to write in an E-Book?
- How can I make money by writing an E-Book?
- What Steps Do I've to follow to create an E-Book for the first time?
- How to sell E-Book? What platform should use to sell?
- How much money can you really make?
Let's find out more about these questions and try to understand more about creating an E-Book making money out of it.
1. How to create an E-Book?
It not a Magic, or you need to have very expensive software. You just need your mind open and will to make it happen.
You can make all your existing blogs into one easy ebook as well. You can design an Ebook on Google docs or on Microsoft word. It is not that hard. Yes, it sure takes time. On average 20,000+ word book takes 27 to 30 days.
First, you need to select a Topic. Do you remember "Niche", you need to niche it down.
Then do some Keyword research.
Once you decided what to write then start pouring all of your thoughts into a blank word document. Do not look back.
What you should do was, simply spend daily 2 to 3 hours writing all the stuff related to that particular topic in a word document. Once you have nothing to write about or else you feel like you covered everything then start editing.
Yes, Editing itself takes some time. But it's worth it. If your work doesn't look good there is no way it could be successful.
Then give away a free sample or the first 20 to 30 pages or first chapter for free. Then ask for feedback, then release the rest for rock bottom price. Once you have enough customer base then start monitoring the book.
2. What to write in an E-Book?
If you ever wrote a blog or any type of Original content you would have known what it takes to write a Book. E-Books are more preferred than videos. You and I can watch a video only for some time, later we kinda feel stressed out. But not with books.
E-Books are easy to read. You can save them to any device. Max, it would take 2 to 5 MB. You can also share them with any number of people.
Once you niche it down it's up to you.
Always think End in the mind. If you do it just for the sake of doing it, it might not help. Just like any other textbook, or Book, start with
Master page,
Index Page,
Copy writes and Disclaimer,
Chapters ( 1 to n) "It's up to you.
Note page at the end, and
Quick summary or fast track guide at the end.
This format works well. I also would suggest, if you're able to add a summary page for each and every chapter would be very nice and easy to understand.
If you're writing a Book about anything try to cover A to Z about that. Initially, it might not look attractive, but your next book will. Because you would have solved all the errors that you might have made previously.
3. How can I make money by writing an E-Book?
If you're a starter or new to the content creating the world, you need to face the hard truth. It is hard to make any sales online. If it is an E-book it is much harder. But, there is a catch. If you have the follower bases you no need to worry about anything.
Since you have all the followers you need, you simply need to focus on promoting and converting those readers.
A. Start with a Free sample. Like 1st chapter or the first 10 to 15 pages. Give them a freebie.
B. Do email marketing, give a gist about the book, and offer discounts for the first 100 buyers.
C. Send in messages to the close circle and give them for free, and ask for references and also take feedback.
D. Most of the time you need to give away your first book for free.
E. Once you have the followers "Emails" focus on those who bought your first book and try to upsell.
F. Promote on social media and on your landing page about the book.
G. Average new book takes at least 3 to 6 months to get traction. Just like google ranking once you have the base then the sky is the limit.
You can also promote affiliate links via E-Books. Where you can cover all the stuff about the product.
If you like to know more about promoting affiliate links via ebook make sure you check out this link.
4. What Steps Do I've to follow to create an E-Book for the First time?
After you Niche it down and selecting a topic that you want to write an e-book, you can design your own flow of work.
What I would do was, I would first make a blog post where I would cover each chapter in one article and so on.
This way you would be giving a brief explanation about the topic and able to build a Digital presence. You know the SEO.
a. Select a Topic after doing Niche research.
b. Write an article on each of the chapter heads.
c. Promote those blogs on regular promoting platforms.
d. Create an e-book, where you have to cover all the blog content and the extra content.
e. Read it yourself first and give a free sample to your friends and ask them to read.
f. Ask for feedback and try to improve where ever necessary.
g. Give free samples via the Free download option of via email list.
h. Do flash sales or Bundle sales where you can build a bunch of your products and sell them.
i. Ask for feedback and try to give other stuff for free to those who are first to buy.
j. Build second email list "those who bought the Book"
k. Do Upsell. and also focus on building a follower base by giving premium access to your premium works.
l. Don't forget your "First Customer", "First comment" and "First Remark"
5. Where to Sell? How to sell?
You can sell your work/E-Book anywhere. Primarily you can sell from your website. This is the best way. You can simply place a link to the buy option anywhere. "Where ever it is relevant".
You can also place the same book on Amason Kindle or any other E-Book seller site. But they will collect a certain amount "Commission" of money on every sale.
You can also sell by your social media as well. while promoting, give coupon codes, for tracking. You can also sell via Whatsapp. You can receive payment from anywhere, if you do go the receipt, you can simply share the link of the e-book.
6. How Much Money Can You Really Make?
One word more than you can make by placing Google Ads, or by placing Affiliate links on the Blog.
If you have a larger customer base you can make a good sum of money. If you're relatively new to the field, you might take some time to see results. But this is a long term game.
You need to remember a few factors like currency and location.
For example, you priced an E-Book at $99, which is okay for the US, Canada, Australia, Uk, and Europe. But if you multiply with the local currency, Let's take India, 99*75= 7425 Rupees. Which is a lot more than the income of few people in India and no one would buy it.
If you Price the same book at say 399 INR and if you do convert it into USD, 399/75= 5.32 USD, which is very cheap and you might have sales but it would make more sales.
You need to decide all these factors before think of releasing an e-book. Quantity wise you can focus on India or populated countries. But if you want to make good money even with fewer sales you can focus on Other countries like The USA, UK, and AUS.
Note: Don't play Double game. By placing different pricing strategies for each region.
Since it is a One-time effort you no need to worry about updating the book any time sooner. But it is suggestible to start working on the second book immediately after releasing your first book.
Steps to follow while Preparing an E-Book
Here is the list of 10 steps that you need to remember every time whenever you think of publishing an e-book.
Step 1: Topic, Selecting a topic is a key to success. Right. You and I know about that. Just like that, you need to do thorough research about the topic that you want to write a book about.
Your book represents your self. So make sure you select the best topic.
Step 2: Outline, Simple take a Piece of paper, and write it down what you need to show in the book. Just try to write down the Topic names and Chapter names. You can also write about the ideas that you need to highlight in the ebook.
Step 3: Draft, I definitely can say you're the first article or your first article won't be the perfect one. It is true in anyone's case. But second, third you can perfect what you do. So write down all the stuff, without skipping anything.
Step 4: Define and Design, Look and Feel is the second important thing that you need to remember. The first one is content. Thay you and I know very well. The design of the Book is an important selling factor. So try to design it in a way that it looks like a modern and professional-looking book.
Step 5: Inner circle, After you complete your initial draft, give a sample to your close friends or by one who is closer to you and ask them to read it once.
Ask for Feedback, and if necessary change the stuff according to the suggestions.
Step 6: Samples, I'm not talking about that food sample that you might get in the supermarket. I'm talking about the samples of your work.
Step 7: Outer circle, Here the outer circle represents the Buyer, Reader outside of your close/Inner circle. These are the people who will pay you. Make sure you collect the emails.
Step 8: Feedback, from the other circle, is the most important thing. Because they are the people who spend some money on the stuff that you sold.
Their feedback is the important thing that you need to know. This will help you in many ways. Like identifying the mistakes or scope for improvements etc.
Step 9: Rectifying mistakes, In one shot you can not become a scholar. It will take some time and experience to perfect the task that you do.
Remember those feedbacks that you got from the Inner circle and the outer circle, they are the stepping stones.
Step 10: Upsell, is one of the best marketing strategies that you can implement in any kind of business. Because you know who is the customer and what he/she wants from you. You simply need to understand that cash the opportunity.
Tools that will Help your Journey
There may be 100's of tools out there but these are the tools that are more than enough to make your e-book dream come true.
Note: Some are free tools and some are paid tools.
1. Grammarly: I'm not Shakespeare. If you're one that's great. Since I'm a dyslexia person, I definitely need Grammarly help. So I always use Grammarly. You know what I mean right.
2. Google Docs/ Microsoft Word: Word or Docs both are good to start with writing content. Since they are easy to store and edit, you need not go to the editor.
3. Canva/ Adobe Photoshop/ Google Drawings: Professional looking books are more likely to get more traction than old and clunky looking books. So try to make those books both exterior and the interior look more professional.
4. Pixabay/Unsplash: One Picture says a thousand words. So you need to include relevant images where ever required.
5. Fiverr/Upwork: If you feel like you don't have time to write such a lengthy book, you can hire a professional writer from these websites. Sometimes you can find more and more knowledgeable people at the best price.
6. Amazon Kindle/ E-Book Store: You can sell books from your website as well. But the reach would be more if you try to sell on Amazon Kindle or any other prominent e-book store.
These are the tools that are more than enough to make your life easier and can make some money every month.
Here is the list of tools that will help you in creating your first e-book. 13 Useful Softwares by Harsh Agrawal from Shout Me Loud. Do check out the link.
If you've difficulty in designing or understand the temple, then check out this interesting blog from Hubspot.
Final thought
When it comes to sharing knowledge Books are the best. However videos are preferred, but many people go for Books rather than Videos. Especially with the Digital Revolution E-Books are getting more and more popular.
Amazon would be the Big Dasy for creating and revolutionizing the e-book world. But there is no imitation to knowledge right.
If you're an OEM "Original Equipment Manufacturer" I'm kidding. If you're an original content creator "OCC", then you can have the upper hand. There would be trillions of data/Books but there is still scope for the fresh content. So does the internet.
E-Books are the easiest way to provide large quantities of informative data in one short. There is no alternative. If you have the content on your blog, then make an E-Book giveaway free sample and then price in a way that anyone would like to buy it. You can also sell the same book on Amazon/Kindle and any other online medium.
"Gave it a shot, and I can bet you won't leave it any time sooner"
Follow with me