Tag: ebook
How to Market and Price Your Ebook
You’ve written and compiled an ebook. Now you have to
decide how much to charge for it. Finding the right
price is essential to the success of your product. If
you charge too little, people will think it’s of
little value, and they won’t purchase it, or even it
they do buy your book, you will have to sell thousands
of copies to get to the point where you can begin to
see a profit. If you price it too high when compared
with your competition, you will find yourself steadily
lowering the price, which will cause you all kinds of
new problems in the future. For example, if you sell
your ebook at first for $39.99, and later reduce it to
$24.95, don’t you think the people who bought it for
$39.99 are going to be PISSED?
Choosing the right price for your ebook is one of the
most critical parts of the marketing process. The
first rule of pricing ebooks is to never underprice.
Determine the highest price your audience can afford,
and then if you find your book isn?t selling, you can
always reduce the price. Before you take that step,
make sure you are promoting your book like crazy on
the Internet and on websites. The price should be
aimed at bringing in profits, but you should never
forget that price is one of the factors that people
use in judging the value of your ebook ? before they
buy it. So always start with the highest price, and
then launch a mega-marketing campaign.
Pricing an ebook is particularly difficult because
ebooks are a fairly new commodity. Since they are
digital, the value of an ebook is as confusing as the
understanding of what digital actually is to the
average layperson. This means that we must look at
ebooks in a different light in order to determine
their actual worth in this brave, new cyber world.
Let’s look at the difference between a book in print
and an ebook. A printed book is an object you can hold
in your hand, store on your bookshelf, even hand down
to the next generation. It is priced on factors such
as paper stock, design and production costs, and
marketing.
But the fact that unites ebooks and print books is
that they are composed of ideas. It is the ideas in
these books that have the ability to change, or
possibly transform, people’s lives.
What do you think an idea is worth when evaluated
against the cost of paper and ink?
It is the IDEAS that are valuable! That is how you
determine the cost of your ebook.
What should I charge for my ideas?
There are all different formulas and methods for
determining the correct price for your ebook. Let’s
begin with honing in on your ultimate goals.
Decide if your goal is to get wide distribution and
maximum exposure. This goal is aimed at drawing
customers to your business or service, or to
establishing the credibility of your reputation. If
this is your main goal, you should aim to keep your
price on the low side. Some authors have even priced
their ebooks at a profit loss to draw a high number of
new customers. The key is to find a price that
maximizes your profits and the number of books you
sell.
This is an excellent pricing strategy if you are
looking to acquire long-term customers. Long-term
customers are extremely likely to buy from you again
and again ? as long as the first ebook they buy is of
exceptional quality and beneficial to the customer.
However, if your book contains valuable ? and more
importantly NEW information, references, or techniques
? then you should aim to price it on the high end.
After you figure out your goal, you must figure out
what your audience’s need is for your ebook. For
example, does your book solve a particular problem? If
it does, and solves it in a way that hasn’t been
written about in one hundred other ebooks, you will be
able to achieve high sales at a high price. If your
book solves a problem or answers questions in a new
and unique way, you should price your book as high as
you can go. You will achieve larger profits this way,
but bring in fewer customers. Just make sure the
question or problem that your book solves is one that
is important and relevant to the majority of your
market audience. If your ideas are not common
knowledge, or you are presenting a brand new
technique, you will be able to sell books at a high
price. Just be prepared for your competition to
undercut you on price as soon as they hear about your
book.
Keep in mind that the above pricing strategy is
temporary. Eventually, you will cease to sell books at
this high price. So figure out in advance how long you
plan to offer your ebook at this high price, and when
that time is up, change your pricing strategy.
If you want to see large profits over customer draw,
aim for an audience that is looking for easy solutions
to their problems at a low price. If your book is
aimed at solving one particular problem rather than
general advice, then you can charge more. Start at the
highest price the market will bear to bring in the
largest profits, and plan to discount the book a
number of times throughout the year.
Marketing Strategies
The key that unlocks the sales potential of your ebook
is to find a single sentence that becomes your selling
handle. This sentence states what question or problem
your book answers and the benefits your ebook can
provide. Then be sure to use that sentence in every
piece of sales and promotional material, and every
time anyone asks you about your ebook.
Besides promoting your books assiduously online, there
are several other strategies that can help you sell
more books.
One is to give something away for free with your book,
such as a valuable bonus item. Or bundle several
ebooks under one price, which lowers the price for
each ebook if they were sold separately.
An effective technique for figuring out a price is to
send out a survey to your current customers. If these
customers have already bought an ebook from you, ask
for their opinion in terms of price. Do this by
creating a sales page for the new book, but don’t
include a price on that page. Instead, add a number of
links to survey questions that ask pointed questions
to aid you in assigning a price to your ebook.
Another strategy is to test out prices by creating a
number of duplicate sales pages with different prices
on each page. Make sure your sales copy is exactly the
same on every page, and includes your selling-handle
sentence. Then figure out for each page the conversion
ratio between visitors to your site and sales of your
book. This will tell you what your optimum price is.
Ultimately, if you’ve written a book that solves a
problem or presents a new technique, your book will
bring in both traffic and profits. So be sure to write
that selling-handle sentence that sums up what problem
your book solves and what the benefits of your book
will be to the customers who purchase it. And then
watch your market come to you!
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Ebooks Are Raking It In
Have you always wanted an unlimited income that you didn’t have to leave the comfort of your own home for? Have you ever thought about becoming a writer, and publishing books? Well, many people have become well-known authors, and have made quite a bit of money writing books, but it seems that even more are making a lot more money writing ebooks.
Ebooks can be a very valuable asset. Let me just list a few of the reasons why they have become so popular. First of all, paper books take what seems an eternity to get published, not to mention that it costs quite a bit of money in printing, and postage, and handling, and stuff. Ebooks do not have a publishing cost, plus ebooks are digital. They can be emailed to your client directly, or they can download the ebook from your website, giving them instant gratification, which everyone loves. They are also digitally stored, so you don’t have all kinds of books cluttering up your house.
Ebooks also stay there, on the internet, indefinately, if you will, making money for you, while you sit back, on the beach, contemplating what you will be writing your next ebook about. That’s right, you can just relax while your ebook sits on your website, making you money. Many people are just raking in the dough from ebooks today. But, you will need to use some tools (there are links on my website to access these tools) to make sure that there is enough traffic being directed to your site.
There are all sorts of ways to bring traffic to your site, like writing articles, (like the one written here), using autoresponders, and buying mailing lists. My mentors, whom I have links to on my website, offer many tools and tips for driving traffic to your site. One tip is to build the customers trust, by offering plenty of free stuff. Free PDF files are a hot item to offer for free, because people can pass them around freely, appealing to more of a mass market. And any computer with Adobe Reader, (which can be downloaded for free), can read these types of files.
PDF files are also considered valuable to search engines, thus making it easier for customers to find your site.
There are many other ways to get traffic to your site, and many other methods of making money online, but writing ebooks is one of the easiest, and most profitable ways. For more information, please go to my website, and check out my links. If you register with my site, I will send you some simply amazing reports, with tons of invaluable information, all for FREE! Go there now! Take the step, learn something new. Learn something proven to make money!
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How to Write a User-Friendly eBook
Right now, someone, somewhere will be embarking on the writing of an eBook. Why? Some do it to make some money; itís one of the easiest ways to start an online business.
Others do it to share information they may have for those in similar financial, social or medical situations; maybe you want to share how you beat cancer or how you got out of debt.
Whatever your reason, there are some basic rules to consider that will make the final product more professional and. So, let look at some of them.
Anyone that embarks on writing an eBook will undoubtedly have read many as well. You will know from this that you must write in an appealing way that maintains the readerís attention. After all, you want them to read ALL your eBook donít you? Plus, youíll want them to come back for more if you are building an online business.
There are many tricks you can use to keep your readersí attention.
Anecdotes give practical examples of what you are trying to explain. These give readers confidence that what you are saying really does work. They are also a great way of explaining complicated topics.
Images are also a powerful tool. They can make topics clearer and they will stick in a readerís mind longer than 5000 words of text. They also break the eBook up and give the reader ìmarkersî to parts that interest them.
Note-boxes or sidebars are also good for summarizing a point or providing additional information. Like images, they break the text up and make the reading experience more enjoyable.
Write in a conversational style so the reader feels that you are talking just to them. This way they feel that they are the only one benefiting from your information and that makes it more valuable to them.
Donít write long sentences or paragraphs. They become difficult to read and detract from the experience. Your eBook is more likely to be put down and not picked up again.
You should also change the length of your paragraphs and sentences so you donít send your readers to sleep. Blocks of text that are all the same length will lose the readerís attention and youíll be lucky of they are awake by Page 10!
We mentioned earlier the use of images as a way of breaking up text. It may be that you canít use images to any great extent; but there are other tricks.
A very powerful one is the use of numbered and bulleted lists. Even with the most basic of word-processing programs you can include different types of bullets and even use custom pictures as bullet icons. These make your topic easier for the reader to absorb and also to give them a mental break from blocks of text.
Finally, think about the design of your eBook. Select a font that’s easy to read, and stick to it. You may be tempted to change fonts as a way of trying to make it more interesting. Donít. All it does is confuse your readers and they will switch-off.
I recommend either one and a half or double line spacing. Spacing the lines too far apart make it difficult for the reader to track where they are. Too close makes it dull.
Also, choose a font size that is in proportion to the line spacing you are using. You can get away with a larger font (say 14 point) with 1.5 line spacing but 8 point will look weird. Experiment with different combinations to find one that suits you but remember – what looks OK on the screen may look dreadful in print. Think about how your readers are probably going to read the final eBook (most print PDF eBooks ñ the idea of the paperless world is myth!).
Lastly, add page numbers and a header to each page with the title of your eBook. Iíve lost count of the number of times I have been infuriated by the number of eBooks that donít have page numbers. Also, adding a title in the header is a good way of reminding the reader what they are reading and who wrote it. Donít overcrowd headers and footers but use them wisely to give branding to the eBook (your company name or web address if you sell online).
Most importantly, don’t forget to do a proper spelling and grammar check. You can even go to somewhere like elance.com and get someone to proof read it for you (for a fee). Itís worth it to end up with a credible eBook.
Like it or not, you and your topic will be judged by the standard of spelling and punctuation. Donít shortcut on quality for fear of some criticism. Itís better to find out before it is published.
That’s it! By following the simple steps above you have just written your eBook. All that is left for you to do is publish it online and get visitors to your website so they can read it. But those topics are a whole new ball-game and best left for another day.
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How To Write Lightening Fast Ebooks
The quickest way the write you own eBooks is by using the expert interview process. What I mean by this is, approaching some experts in the field your writing the book on and asking them to agree to do an interview.
If you approach these experts correctly, they will provide you with expert responses to all your questions. You will find these experts by checking search engines or related niche forums.
The easiest way to contact these experts, is by email with a list of questions. Before you submit questions or contact your expert, do your research on him/her. You need to approach these experts correctly therefore you need to consider the following points.
Keep your questions short and too the point: You will turn the person off if you are asking long winded questions, long questions lead to long answers and you donít want your expert to spend too much time.
Give a good introduction of yourself at the start of the email. You will have a better chance of reply because the respondent can evaluate you.
Take care of spelling and grammar: One spelling/grammar mistake could destroy your chances of getting the interview.
Have a deadline: You must have a deadline. This will help you plan your writing better and it will force your respondent to reply quicker.
Object of the interview: You must let the respondent know what the interview is for. For example is it for an ebook to resell or a free bonus to give away.
Appreciate the respondent: Let the expert know that you are a fan of his/her business or website etc. This helps get a much more positive response.
Something in return: The responder has to get something in return. He/She is not going to give time to do the interview for nothing. An example of an offer would usually consist of offering to share the profits of the ebook.
So believe me when I say this, if you approach these experts correctly you could get a huge volume of feedback and enough material to combine a best selling eboook
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Old Reference Works Revived
Why are people so interested in outdated and outmoded reference, typically rendered obsolete by subsequent research?
There is no source of reference remotely as authoritative as the Encyclopaedia Britannica. There is no brand as venerable and as veteran as this mammoth labour of knowledge and ideas established in 1768. It numbered the likes of Einstein and Freud among its authors. Dozens of classic articles written by such luminaries are available on the Britannica’s Web Site and included in its CD-ROM and DVD editions.
This is the tip of an iceberg of revival of old reference works.
The full text of the venerable 1911 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica is now available online and is in the public domain. Regrettably, there is no CD-ROM or DVD to be had of this opus magnum written by the best minds at the turn of the 20th century. Nor can one download the Encyclopedia as separate compressed files. Additionally, the transcription is far from perfect with many an article either truncated or mysteriously divided. Still, it is a grand and welcome undertaking.
Another sorely needed contribution is the Jewish Encyclopedia online. The only other project of this scope, the Encyclopedia Judaica on CD-ROM will be withdrawn from the market by January 2006 and is anyhow incompatible with any operating system later than Windows ME.
Exactly like the Britannica, the Jewish Encyclopedia was compiled at the turn of the previous century and, therefore, lacks any coverage of the important events that took place in the life of the Jewish people – from the Holocaust to the State of Israel. But, with 4000 years of history to go on, the Jewish Encyclopedia is still a vast, indispensable, and deeply researched resource. It is also better adapted to the technological constraints of the Web. Still, it, too, offers no way of acquiring the whole work: no CD-ROM or DVD, no downloadable compressed files.
By far the best among the three is the Catholic Encyclopedia. The 1904 edition of this magnificent work of reference is fully and freely available online. The commercial CD-ROM includes all 11,600 articles (which I found to be surprisingly objective and free of religious bias). But both the Web site and the CD contain reams of additional material: from the writings of the Church Fathers to numerous foundational texts in the history of Catholicism.
The Web site itself is rich, easy to navigate, expertly done – but not cluttered or cutesy. The CD is a faithful rendition of the Encyclopedia’s Web presence – yet not a mere mirror. It takes advantage of search and other CD-only features and is user-friendly, not resource-hogging, easy to install and to run even on the Windows 98 SE 1996 laptop I used as a worst-scenario test bench.
Why are people so interested in outdated and outmoded reference, typically rendered obsolete by subsequent research?
Nostalgia is part of the answer. These works of reference are refreshingly direct, politically incorrect, opinionated, and innocently naive. They are reminiscent of another, more promising, age. Curiosity is another reason. What did our forefathers know or thought they knew about heredity, nationalism, the atom, the Jews, and germs? It is startling to discover both how far we have progressed and how much we have forgotten.
Then there is the trivia. Mountains of little-known facts about long-forgotten people, countries, politics, arts, and crafts. It is the closest we can get to time-travel and, so it seems, equally exciting. By exploring our roots, we get to know ourselves and in this narcissistic age and civilization – who can resist such a proposition?
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The Real Secret to Earning Serious Cash selling eBooks
The best way to start an ebook business is to target a niche market. Starting a niche ebook business is a great way to earn serious cash. This is because it combines the advantages of starting an ebook business (i.e. no inventory, no shipping and instant deliveries) with those of targeting a niche (ie. less competition in the market and so more profit for you). The main steps to starting an ebook business are:
1) Find niche ideas
2) Research and Develop your ideas
3) Create a website for your niche
All this takes time and money to achieve so a great place you can find ready made niche ebook packages with FREE web template from which you can start your own niche ebook business.
The ebook market is hands-down one of the most profitable market to enter. Think about it – NO inventory, NO shipping, INSTANT deliveries and so many other advantages makes this industry one of the fastest growing markets available.
So what is the problem? The problem is that many of the businesses in the ebook market have ecommerce websites which sell a wide range of these ebooks. Many of these ebooks are old and out of date and to compensate for this problem, the ebooks are sold at low prices. To successfully compete, new businesses must sell these same ebooks at even lower prices and will therefore make little money. The best marketing tip is to start an ecommerce niche ebook business. This will help to differentiate your business from the other ones in the market.
What is a niche?
A niche is a small, specialised area within a market. The main thing to remember when starting your niche ebook business is to target a narrow customer base because this is your key to success. The idea here is to find a niche and then you either buy or create ebooks related to that niche area. For example, you could be a stay-at-home mom looking to start a home business. A good niche idea would be to start a business selling ebooks about babies. You could write your own ebooks or buy best-selling ebooks about babies and sell them to new mothers online. Narrowing the ebook market in this way will make you seem more of an expert in your field.
Once you have a list of possible niche ideas, you should do a lot of research. This is important even if you donít intend to write your own ebook because you will need to understand your market in order to successfully promote your business. Great places to gather information are online forums and websites related to your niche idea and ask questions about your niche idea. Find articles and other ebooks related to your topic. Research, Research and Research all ideas.
The next step is to narrow the list down to the ones you have enough information on. You must now determine whether there is actually a market for your chosem ideas i.e. whether there is enough customer demand. If you are starting a profit-making business you need enough people to buy your product so that you can make a profit. A great online resource to use is Nichebot (www.nichebot.com). This online keyword tool is great for helping to find out how many people are particularly interested in a particular keyword or keyphrase. You enter your keyword or keyphrase and you will get a list of related terms people searched for in the last month. As part of the results, you will also get the number of times people searched for your term and the related terms. This can be taken as a measure of demand.
You then need to determine the level of supply in the market. You do this by going to a search engine such as www.google.com and entering any of your keywords which had high demand. The number of search results found should be taken as supply. You should try to focus on niches which have relatively low supply. But, one important point to remember here is that some competition is good. Competition means that profit exists within that niche otherwise there would be no businesses operating there. Furthermore, competition means that there will be partners around for you to use in affiliate and joint venture programs. Also, you will be able to advertise on their sites and forums to seek traffic to your site. So supply should be low but it should not be non-existent. It should be low relative to consumer demand.
The niche idea which has relatively high customer demand and relatively low supply should be your new niche. U can now start writing your ebook. Once this is done, develop your website. If you are a beginner and you donít know how to do this.
Many of these steps to building a successful niche business such as research and web building, if done probably, can take a long time to do. So why not go to www.ebookpackagedeals.com to find some quality ready made niche ebook packages. These packages also include free templates that you could use to sell the ebooks.
Once you start selling and gaining some revenue, you can then start writing and publishing your own ebooks. You can develop your niche business even further by joining affiliate programs and joint venture schemes to sell other peoples products. You can establish your business so that when anybody wants some information from your niche market they would think about you first.
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— How to Write an Ebook —
The hardest part of writing is the first sentence. When you look at the whole project, it seems like an impossible task. That’s why you have to break it down into manageable tasks. Think of climbing a mountain. You are standing at the foot of it and looking up at its summit vanishing into the clouds. How can you possibly scale such an immense and dangerous mountain?
There is only one way to climb a mountain ? step by step.
Now think of writing your ebook in the same light. You must create it step by step, and one day, you will take that last step and find yourself standing on the summit with your head in the clouds.
The first thing you have to do, as if you actually were a mountain climber, is to get organized. Instead of climbing gear, however, you must organize your thoughts. There are some steps you should take before you begin. Once you’ve gone through the following list, you will be ready to actually begin writing your ebook.
Beginning Steps to Writing an ebook
First, figure out your ebook’s working title. Jot down a few different titles, and eventually, you’ll find that one that will grow on you. Titles help you to focus your writing on your topic; they guide you in anticipating and answering your reader’s queries. Many non-fiction books also have subtitles. Aim for clarity in your titles, but cleverness always helps to sell books ? as long as it’s not too cute. For example, Remedies for Insomnia: twenty different ways to count sheep. Or: Get off that couch: fifteen exercise plans to whip you into shape.
Next, write out a thesis statement. Your thesis is a sentence or two stating exactly what problem you are addressing and how your book will solve that problem. All chapters spring forth from your thesis statement. Once you’ve got your thesis statement fine-tuned, you’ve built your foundation. From that foundation, your book will grow, chapter by chapter.
Your thesis will keep you focused while you write your ebook. Remember: all chapters must support your thesis statement. If they don’t, they don’t belong in your book. For example, your thesis statement could read: We’ve all experienced insomnia at times in our lives, but there are twenty proven techniques and methods to give you back a good night’s sleep.
Once you have your thesis, before you start to write, make sure there is a good reason to write your book. Ask yourself some questions:
* Does your book present useful information and is that information currently relevant?
* Will your book positively affect the lives of your readers?
* Is your book dynamic and will it keep the reader’s attention?
* Does your book answer questions that are meaningful and significant?
If you can answer yes to these questions, you can feel confident about the potential of your ebook.
Another important step is to figure out who your target audience is. It is this group of people you will be writing to, and this group will dictate many elements of your book, such as style, tone, diction, and even length. Figure out the age range of your readers, their general gender, what they are most interested in, and even the socio-economic group they primarily come from. Are they people who read fashion magazines or book reviews? Do they write letters in longhand or spend hours every day online. The more you can pin down your target audience, the easier it will be to write your book for them.
Next, make a list of the reasons you are writing your ebook. Do you want to promote your business? Do you want to bring quality traffic to your website? Do you want to enhance your reputation?
Then write down your goals in terms of publishing. Do you want to sell it as a product on your website, or do you want to offer it as a free gift for filling out a survey or for ordering a product? Do you want to use the chapters to create an e-course, or use your ebook to attract affiliates around the world? The more you know upfront, the easier the actual writing will be.
Decide on the format of your chapters. In non-fiction, keep the format from chapter to chapter fairly consistent. Perhaps you plan to use an introduction to your chapter topic, and then divide it into four subhead topics. Or you may plan to divide it into five parts, each one beginning with a relevant anecdote.
How to make your ebook “user friendly”
You must figure out how to keep your writing engaging. Often anecdotes, testimonials, little stories, photos, graphs, advice, and tips will keep the reader turning the pages. Sidebars are useful for quick, accessible information, and they break up the density of the page.
Write with a casual, conversational tone rather than a formal tone such as textbook diction. Reader’s respond to the feeling that you are having a conversation with them. Break up the length and structure of your sentences so you don?t hypnotize your readers into sleep. Sentences that are all the same length and structure tend to be a good aid for insomnia!
Good writing takes practice. It takes lots and lots of practice. Make a schedule to write at least a page a day. Read books and magazines about the process of writing, and jot down tips that jump out at you. The art of writing is a lifetime process; the more you write (and read), the better your writing will become. The better your writing becomes, the bigger your sales figures.
In an ebook that is read on the screen, be aware that you must give your reader’s eye a break. You can do this by utilizing white space. In art classes, white space is usually referred to as “negative space.” Reader’s eyes need to rest in the cool white oasises you create on your page. If your page is too dense, your reader will quit out of it as soon as their eyes begin to tear.
Make use of lists, both bulleted and numbered. This makes your information easy to absorb, and gives the reader a mental break from dissecting your paragraphs one after the other.
Finally, decide on an easy-to-read design. Find a font that’s easy on the eyes, and stick to that font family. Using dozens of fonts will only tire your readers out before they’ve gotten past your introduction. Use at least one and a half line spacing, and text large enough to be read easily on the screen, but small enough so that the whole page can be seen on a computer screen. You will have to experiment with this to find the right combination.
Of course, don’t forget to run a spell and grammar check. You are judged by something as minor as correct punctuation, so don?t mess up a great book by tossing out semicolons randomly, or stringing sentences together with commas. (By the way, that’s called a “comma splice.”)
Last of all, create an index and a bibliography. That’s it! You’ve written a book! Now all you have to do is publish your ebook online, and wait for download request from your website visitors.
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