Advantages of Cheap Ebooks

There was a time when the idea of ebooks taking the place of hard copy books seemed far-fetched and impossible. Now, however, with electronic reading becoming more and more popular by the moment, people are beginning to get a glimpse of the future of reading, and it mostly involves electronic books.

There are many reasons why cheap ebooks became widely accepted and are slowly becoming the dominant medium in literature. These reasons may help convince you to invest in an eBook reader and take up an eBook reading habit.

1. Availability. Cheap ebooks are so easy to find, with them being so rampant on the Internet. It is now possible to find copies of any title on the market without even leaving one's home. People can browse through lots of online libraries and download their selected titles for a fee. It certainly beats having to go to a bookstore to look for your desired titles, and since you can easily jump from one online library to another, you don't have to go through the hassle of not finding the book you want after driving all the way to the bookstore.

2. Accessibility. Cheap ebooks are also highly accessible. Once you find the title you want, getting a copy is as easy as making a few clicks. That is, if you are buying from the bookstore that supports your ereader. But even if you seek for ebooks from other online sources, getting access to the digital copies is as easy as connecting your ereader to your computer and transferring the files.

3. Affordability. Electronic book copies are usually offered at lower prices online due to the competition among different online booksellers. With a lack of monopoly, the booksellers have to find way to bring in more customers than their competitors. One strategy to ensure this is by lowering the prices of books. And since online bookstores that sell digital copies do everything electronically, they have very little expenses in maintaining their businesses. This puts them in the position to offer lower prices.

4. Convenience. The biggest reason, however, that convinces people to start reading cheap ebooks rather than their hard copy versions, is the convenience of electronic reading. Since ebooks don't take up any space at all, you can store them in your ereader or on an online storage service. In one ereader or one memory disk, you can store up to thousands of electronic books already. Not only is this logistically convenient, but it also allows you to access your books wherever you may be. This makes it a joy to read while commuting or even when you're traveling.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   

Benefits to Purchasing eBooks Over Paperback or Hardbacks

One of the major questions asked about the latest eBook readers, what with their long-line of impressive features, is whether or not they are worth buying over the physical paper or hardbacks. Electronic book readers are simple to use and operate and are becoming more and more common place as the technology advances. Here are some of the main advantages of purchasing eBooks -

Instantaneous - an eBook is delivered almost instantaneously to your e-reader, laptop, tablet or similar device. It is quite possible to go through the entire process of purchasing and downloading an eBook within a matter of minutes, which eliminates a need to shop in store or wait days for delivery if purchasing a physical book.

Save Money - although there is the initial cost of purchasing the eReader, most of the eBooks available are priced very competitively, and often lower than their physical counterpart. Also, it is quite easy to pick up a nice collection of free eBooks, with a lot of the classics available to download free of charge. Published and indie authors also offer their eBooks as specials or daily deals to help with promoting their work. An avid reader is soon able to fill their eReader with a varied and impressive selection of books at free to minimal cost.

Less Clutter - a typical eReader has the memory to potentially hold 3000+ books in a very compact device, which means you no longer have to be concerned with sizable bookshelves or having space to hold countless physical books. A passionate reader might well create a massive stockpile of books, which is easily eliminated with the latest high-capacity eReaders.

Environment-Friendly - although it might be true that the eBook devices themselves will contribute a small amount to your carbon footprint, it is believed that the long-term use and take-up of these electronic readers will ultimately assist the environment as a lot less paper-based books will be manufactured.

Self Publishing - it is significantly easier for the amateur or part-timer to get published using the e-reader format than going to the expense of publishing in paper format. Due to this, the users of the eReader have a far wider choice of authors and books to read. Also, another great positive to the self-published author is that they often price their books at a low-rate when first starting out.

As you can see, there is a wide-range of great positives to come from purchasing an eBook reader over the more traditional and bulky paper and hardback books available on the market.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Avoid The Biggest Mistake Made By The Overwhelming Majority Of Aspiring E-Book Publishers   Writing an eBook - The 5 Most Important Tips for Newbies   

How to Publish an eBook on Amazon - 12 Simple Steps to Getting Published

Writing your own eBook is an effective and an essential tool for establishing credibility. The truth of the matter is whether you are a speaker, writer, teacher, trainer, coach, professor, internet marketer, or whatever your title is...your choices are: "publish" or "perish".

Traditional publishing has changed drastically over the years. Here are the facts:

Traditional publishers are looking for authors who have "already-made platforms", a list, an audience to purchase their books and products; Traditional publishers want evidence of sales and promotion/marketing ability; Traditional publishers take on very few new authors and are only offering large advances to established authors that have demonstrated sales; The old days of writing a manuscript, querying agents and publishers, then waiting for a response and receiving lots of rejection slips are over! The new way of getting a publisher to notice you is to build a large platform online and then they will pay attention to you. Publishing an eBook is very low-cost because there are no printing expenses and the profits are all yours! Online eBook sales are exceeding hardbook cover sales!

So now that we agree, to be successful and to gain worldwide exposure, you MUST publish on Amazon's Kindle (which, by the way is "FREE"), then here are the 12 simple steps to get started:

Set up a free account at Amazon. To get to the right link, simple go to Google and type in" KDP Amazon and then click on the appropriate link (usually the first one that comes up); Login to your account; Go to: Bookshelf and then click on "add new title". From here, Amazon, walks you through the process by asking you to complete certain fields, however, I am going to review the fields because there are a few pointers I want to give you. Book Name and Description should have strategically placed "keywords" in them so that people searching for your topic can find your eBook. So make sure you do your keyword research prior to publishing your eBook on Amazon's Kindle. I suggest using Google's free "keyword tool" to analyze appropriate keywords and use them naturally in your title and description. Book contributor; obviously if you are the author, then you list yourself, if you have a co-author then you list that person as well. You do not need a publication date and I don't recommend putting one in nor do you need an ISBN number to publish. If you are self-publishing this, then under publisher, you can use your own name or what I recommend is putting your website address in this field to help drive traffic to your site; Categories; this is very important that you select the right categories for your eBook. Make sure you do your keyword research and that you aren't in a highly competitive category. There are a lot of sub-categories and you should find the right one for your eBook. Upload your cover; I have a graphics designer do all of my covers and she formats them to the right size, but you can create your own or not put anything at all and Amazon will put a placeholder in the image field if you don't have one; Enable or disable DRM is a field you have to complete; DRM stands for Digital Rights Management and has to do with people sharing your eBook with others; click on the "what's this" link for more information on this. I always "enable" the DRM for me and my clients; There are fields you have to complete like verifying your publishing rights, etc. Those are self-explanatory so I am not going over those. Royalties. I recommend choosing 70% vs. 35% for obvious reasons. Kindle Select is a new program that has to do with Amazon's Premiere membership program. Click on the link to read more about it. I do recommend going with the Kindle Select program if your eBook is exclusive to Amazon.

There you have the 12 steps to getting your eBook published on Amazon, however, I would be doing you a dis-service if I didn't review formatting as this is a critical piece on how your eBook will look to readers. I create my manuscript in Microsoft's Word, however, here are some of the detailed instructions that can be found on Amazon's site:

File Format: Save your content in DOC (or.doc) format, not RTF (.rtf) or DOCX (.docx) as the latter do not translate well to Kindle. Save your work periodically as you make changes to ensure all changes are recorded.

Layout: Use indentations, bold characters, italics and headings, as they will translate into your Kindle book. However, bullet points, special fonts, headers, and footers will not be transferred, so be sure to avoid those.

Page Breaks: Enter a page break at the end of every chapter to prevent the text from running together. To insert a page break in MS Word, click "Insert" at the top menu bar and select "Page Break."

Image Placement: Images should be inserted in JPEG (or.jpeg) format with center alignment (don't copy and paste from another source). Select "Insert" > "Picture" > then locate and select the file. If your book has a lot of images, it can be viewed in color by readers using our free Kindle apps for PC, MAC, iPad, iPhone, and Android. Otherwise, remember that images on Kindle are displayed in 16 shades of gray for great contrast and clarity.

Spellcheck and Grammar: This tool is always your friend to ensure a professional presentation free of typos. Use this tool, but also manually proofread your file to ensure no errors are missed by the automated checker.

Creating Front Matter: Front matter is the beginning pages of a book, which may include a Title Page, Copyright Page, Dedication, Preface, and Prologue. For a stylish and professional presentation, you should add a Title Page at a minimum.

You can find more instructions on the Amazon/Kindle website as you go through this process.

I encourage you to get your eBook published now and start generating new leads and income for your online business!

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   How to Write an eBook Fast and Not Fail in the Attempt   How an eBook Makes You an Expert in Your Field   

WordPress for Beginners Tutorial

In this WordPress for Beginners Tutorial, you'll learn how to start your very own WordPress blog. It doesn't matter if you want to use WordPress as a blog or a website, basic setup is similar.

This WordPress for Beginners tutorial exists of 5 steps:

Get a domain name and hosting Install WordPress Select your theme Install plugins Promote your blog

Step 1: Get a Domain Name and Hosting

The first step is to search for a domain name and hosting.

There are 2 kinds of hosting that are very interesting, shared hosting and managed hosting. Shared hosting is interesting because it's quite cheap, managed hosting is more expensive but also offers a lot more!

Examples of companies offering shared hosting:

Hostgator Dreamhost Bluehost

Examples of companies offering managed hosting:

Zippykid Page.Ly WPEngine

Which one is best for you? I think managed hosting is great for companies, otherwise it's better to pick shared hosting.

Step 2: Install WordPress

Installation of WordPress is very easy (WordPress is famous for the 5-minute installation!). Most hosts even offer a 1-click installation!

For more details on installing WordPress, check the official WordPress Codes on WordPress.org.

Step 3: Installing your theme

The third step in this WordPress for beginners tutorial is installing your theme.

There is a very great choice of themes: you could create a theme, buy a theme, use a free theme, or use a theme editor.

Creating your theme is the hardest work, but it guarantees the most unique theme.

A great option is to buy a premium theme. There are a lot of websites selling great themes at a low price. Mostly at around $40! For that price you can't design your own theme!

Beginning bloggers probably will start with a free theme. The best place to find free themes is the official WordPress.org website.

Another option is using a theme editor. The theme editor I use the most is Artisteer, because with Artisteer it's possible to create themes very fast without any technical knowledge.

Step 4: Install plugins

One of the greatest things of WordPress is the possibility to extend it the way you need. You can do this with plugins, which will extend the basic functionalities of your WordPress installation.

There are plugins for almost everything:

Better SEO A faster blog Creating a membership site Building a CMS website

Step 5: Promote your blog

In the last step of this "WordPress for Beginners Tutorial" I'll show you how you can promote your blog.

There are several options to promote your blog:

Comment on other blogs Buy ads to promote your site (Google Ads is a good start!) Distribute press releases Distribute an e-book Build an e-mail list Create a video and publish it on Vimeo and Youtube Submit your blog or site to web directories Provide a RSS feed Start a Facebook fan page Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Success Is Subjective When It Comes to EBooking the Author of the Article Explained   Why There Is a Need for Creating Information Products   

Online Article Directories Should Get Into the E-Book Business, Let Me Explain

With the deluge of information, it is getting harder and harder to find the information you need, or the information you seek regardless of the area of human endeavor. If you are in business for yourself you need this information to make good decisions, and you need to stay up on everything and ahead of your competition when any new innovation comes into your field.

This is why most business people like myself have virtual radar for information in their sector, take Google News alerts, and surf the news in their industry almost on a daily basis. Wouldn't it be better if we can get all of this information consolidated and available to us so we can read it all at once? I believe so, therefore I would like to display a new concept I have, but before I do I would like to enlighten you as to how I came about this thought.

You see, there was an interesting article published on October 15, 2012 in The WRAP (covering Hollywood) titled; "Chicago Tribune Launches Ebook Initiative - but L.A. Times Opts Out," by Alexander C. Kaufman which stated;

"Tribune Company has kicked off an ebook initiative in partnership with Agate Publishing, collecting stories and photos from the Chicago Tribune and two other newspapers and selling them as digital long-form features. Tribune, has already released about two dozen e-books since spring, has strung together archived work from its namesake paper and the Orlando Sentinel and sold the e-books for $4.99."

Is this a viable concept? Sure, and I believe they should be taking this to a whole new level. You see, I myself clip articles out of magazines, newspapers, and save electronic news articles to my "favorites" or "plus them" on Google for instance. Now then, for my e-reader wouldn't it be nice to pick all the articles with certain key words and then have them compiled for me into an eBook format on my topics? It's a natural.

What if the top online article directories which had over 1 million articles on a multitude of different subjects allowed an e-reader customer to specify certain authors, in certain categories of subject matter, along with certain dates to search through their directory and collect all the articles which fit into that criteria, and then make them into an e-book. What if each title of each article became a chapter on the table of contents, and each article was listed in the e-book, perhaps 100 to 150 articles in each e-book?

What if they sold those e-books for $2.99 in formats which might be available on Kindles, Nooks, tablets, or iPads? Wouldn't that be a good idea, and solve the problem which I discussed in the first paragraph? Wouldn't that be an excellent business model to pursue? How hard would it be? The whole thing could be automated. People could order an e-book on demand with the information that they wanted, leaving all the other debris behind. Please consider all this and think on it.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Learning Some Lesser Known Facts About EBook Conversion   Write and Cash in on Short Ebooks Now   

E-Books - Have They Changed Anything in Modern Day Life?

This article has been written to describe some of the key benefits of e-books and their impacts in our daily life.

Historically books have played a very important role in development of human civilizations and are also a key tool for enhancing human knowledge over the centuries. With the world wide web and internet peaking its boom in late 90s and trending to have electronic versions of many day life functions, it would have been quite unrealistic to see paper books not being overshadowed by e-books. However, it was not only the internet that played its part on promoting e-books, rather there have been a tremendous variety of gadgets ranging from good resolution smart phones to isolate and sophisticated e-readers that have enabled the modern day people to carry almost their own library of the size bigger than many national libraries in the world in their pockets or hand and should bags. If you were able to tell this to a person, of an era about 100 years ago, he would perhaps imagine that all these forms of e-readers might prove among a few great inventions of the modern day world.

E-books not only make you save a great deal of your shelve-space or in some cases an entire room in your house but they prove to be more useful when it comes to portability, imagine if you are a resident in America and visiting Australia for a business trip for about 3 months, would you carry a set of 10-12 paper books with you to serve your appetite for book reading? With all the hectic issues of carrying increased weight of your luggage and in many cases your suitcase space, not many people would answer in a 'big yes'. With the great rate of e-books availability of your choice, the answer shall be a 'yes I'll keep even more than that and that because I have all those in my e-books reader'.

It is not just the space and portability that makes the case of e-books very strong; availability factors make it even more suitable and popular choice. Imagine, all the major books sellers in your country or continent, or even of entire world sitting outside the door of your house for anxiously waiting for your order for a book to be bought and available today. It's even more than that cause you can find the book you are interested in, over the internet, simply pay for it and read it in your e-book reader, be it a smart phone, your PC, office laptop, a personal net-books or a sophisticated e-book reader.

Amazingly, e-books have not only increased the availability factor of books for buyers in different parts of the world, as the benefits are not just unidirectional; it has been quite helpful for writers, publishers and sellers to make their book products, researches and piece of art available for appreciation from all over the world. Economy of scales have played its part too as now the publishers will not be limited to gain financial benefits from a limited stock, it opens up a giant market just by publishing e-version of the book while publishing a paper book.

Wrapping up the discussion, it would be quite true to claim that e-books are proven beneficial for not only the readers, writers, sellers or intermediate parties; but are also a very useful tool of protecting our environment too. The argument for this statement is not a new one, we all know that from ancient times human have produced papers using plants and trees as a source and with increasing use of papers in modern day life there have been several campaigns every year to protect environment by reducing the tree cutting activities. E-books have allowed to keep sharing knowledge, ideas and researches without the cost of cutting trees or and hence played their part in saving environment.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Avoid The Biggest Mistake Made By The Overwhelming Majority Of Aspiring E-Book Publishers   Writing an eBook - The 5 Most Important Tips for Newbies   

How to Create Your Own Quality E-Book In Lightning Fast Time

In this article you will learn how to create your own quality e-book in lightning fast time. That title might sound like hype but it is true. I was able to create two quality e-books in less than a few days without even having to type. How did I do this?

The first step is to focus on exactly what you want to offer inside of your e-book. If you need some inspiration go to your target niche and start looking around on the threads of forums. You will see all types of repeat questions and issues that your target audience needs to solve.

This will allow you to get market research to be able to come up with the content that your target audience is in demand for. The next step is to create a sizzling title for your e-book that will give the main benefit of what they will get from reading your e-book.

An example might be "The seven steps to creating an automated Internet business for newbies." That statement would only appeal for somebody that is un-experienced with Internet marketing and wants a step by step plan. That statement would be very appealing for your target audience because it speaks directly to them.

The way that I was able to create my e-book in lightning fast time was by using a software called Dragon speech recognition software. Don't worry I'm not trying to promote any sort of affiliate link to the Dragon software. I am simply letting you know that this cut off hours of time because it types up to 120 words per minute. I have tendonitis in both of my arms and rely on the software to be able to produce content online.

I was able to produce my content in lightning fast time by staying extremely focused. Many people have a huge problem with procrastination and take time for granted. I stopped watching television. I no longer went around the internet aimlessly without a core intent.

I decided that I was going to produce two high quality e-books and nothing else. Once you decide that you're willing to cut out all of your distractions you will notice how easy it is to produce content in lightning fast time. Having the ability to produce content in fast amounts of time will allow you to produce a large amount of content to get more and more traffic to your website. So now you have my secret on how I was able to create my two quality e-books in lightning fast time.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   How to Write an eBook Fast and Not Fail in the Attempt   How an eBook Makes You an Expert in Your Field   

How to Sell An eBook - You Can Do It

Do you want to work online from home? Learning how to sell an eBook online is a valuable skill that can generate handsome profits or round out the services offered by home-based business owners.

Every day people go online to buy information in the form of an eBook about topics that range from how to do magic tricks and build model airplanes, to how to write a song or pitch a fastball, or how to dance the tango, and more.

How do you sell eBooks online?

The process is not complex but, if you want to succeed, you should know what you are doing. There are two major components to becoming a successful eBook writer and learning how to sell eBooks online: writing and marketing your eBook.

What are eBooks?

Well-written eBooks are similar to paper books in that they deliver the promised information in an easy to read style. In contrast to most paper books, eBooks are pamphlets or shorter books sold online and downloaded from a computer; in other words, they are digital products.

eBooks differ from paper books in that you do not need to have a publisher or agent (or split profits with them) and you do not need to promote them in bookstores because the internet is your marketplace.

Generally,an eBook is written in a word processing program and converted to a PDF file once it is ready for sale. The next step is promoting it with informative articles and the use of social marketing and other options.

You don't have to be a writer to publish and eBook.

It isn't necessary that you have experience as a writer in order to produce an eBook. If you are not a writer and you have a particular skill or information to share on a topic such as how to train a horse, you can hire someone at a very reasonable rate to write you eBook for you.

Write for Others or Yourself.

If you are a writer with information to share, with a little bit of orientation to writing eBooks, you can do well. Even if you don't' have a hobby or interest to share, you can put your research and writing skills to work for others to put real money in your pocket.

If you don't fit any of these categories, there is still an option for you.

We test-drove the services of a company named Niche Profit Classroom. The owners have used their more than ten years of experience in internet marketing to create a comprehensive array of programs covering all aspects of internet marketing.

The eBook Kit:

Relative to eBooks, they offer training in writing eBooks and, on a monthly basis, they release an new eBook kit that can be customized by the user.

The eBook kit contains all of the elements you need to create a website and promote the eBook online: website photos, drafts of articles, keywords, and images. In addition you have access to their keyword and website building software and to support with 24-hour turnaround.

We found this an excellent way for a newbie to learn and a great way for a more seasoned individual to make use of their talent.

Our Review of Niche Profit Classroom:

We spent more than 45 days evaluating this product. We found the programs to be very good and found their clear step-by-step approach to be consistent throughout. We were particularly glad to learn that all recommendations are updated on a regular basis to meet Google's ever-changing standards.

Initially, we experienced a delay in customer support turnaround time, but this was corrected once we brought it to their attention.

They offer a 14-day trial for $1. The trial includes access to every one of their products and programs.

Conclusion:

eBooks cost very little to produce and once you have written them the profit is yours to keep.

The information age is still very new. It is pretty much a given that the internet will continue as the most important platform created for information marketing for many years to come.

We give Niche Profit Classroom a strong 'thumbs up' for those looking to learn how to sell and eBook online for profit. Don't let your fear stop you. Learning how to sell eBooks online is an easily learned step-by-step process.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Why There Is a Need for Creating Information Products   

Preparing to Write Your First Ebook

You've got a great idea for an eBook and you'd like to share your knowledge with the public. You're in good company. The market for informative online content is exploding and new titles appear online every day. Before you can join the ranks of successful eBook writers, you have to create quality content that delivers value to your target audience. Fortunately, with a little preparation, you can deliver the quality product your readers are searching for.

If you have an idea of which topic you'd like to write about, you must determine who your target audience is. Successful eBook writers tailor their topic to their target audience. Do some research into your target audience to find out what topics they're most interested in and what unmet needs they may have. If you've chosen "Party Planning" as your topic and your target audience is women getting married; you'd want to narrow your product to a specific niche of party planning that would be useful to them. One such topic would be, "Planning Your Perfect Engagement Party."

Once you have refined your topic to fit your target audience, the next step is to create an outline for your ebook. Outlines are an important tool for eBook writers as they provide a road map for your ebook. In addition to briefly covering the introduction and conclusion, you'll want to include a brief section for each of the major sections/chapters you'd like to cover. A simple heading followed by bullet points for your key insights is all you really need. At this point you might want to consider doing some basic research to get a better overall understanding of the topic you're writing about and the main points you'd like to cover. A basic outline can be anywhere from 2-4 pages, depending on the intended length of your finished work and the amount of information you'll be covering.

Now that you have your framework ready it's time to flesh out the outline you created. This is when you'll want to do more extensive research into your topic. Remember that your outline is a guideline. It's okay to add information or revise and re-arrange topics. After you've done more research into your topic, your outline may look completely different from when you started. The most important thing to keep in mind is to find good, accurate information for your readers. Keep a record of all sources you end up using so you can provide a comprehensive bibliography and resource section.

You've researched your target audience, honed your topic to fit your readers' needs, crafted a brilliant outline and done your research. Congratulations! You're now ready to begin writing your first ebook. All the preparation you've done will enable you to write with confidence and a clear sense of purpose. With a little preparation, writing your first eBook should be a fun and exciting process, resulting in a great book that will have your audience eager for your next piece.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Avoid The Biggest Mistake Made By The Overwhelming Majority Of Aspiring E-Book Publishers   Writing an eBook - The 5 Most Important Tips for Newbies   

What Should You Charge For Your E-Book?

Now that you have spent valuable time and effort creating and writing your e-book, you will now be wondering how best to price it. Some writers feel they have to sell their first e-book at a low price, just because it's their first attempt, but you need to consider that a low price can give the impression that it is of little value. You know that is not the case, so think carefully before you set a price.

When planning the marketing stage of your e-book, take time to carefully consider this crucial step. Try not to under-price - as I said in the introduction, readers will perhaps judge the value of your book because of its price. Some sellers suggest that you start with a fairly high price, then embark on your marketing campaign and promote it at every opportunity available to you.

A well-known strategy used is to do your own type of survey. Some sellers survey their customers directly regarding pricing. If they have already bought from you, their opinions are valuable and realistic. Others test prices by creating a few sales pages, all running at the same time, but displaying different prices. Each sales page would contain exactly the same sales copy - the price would be the only difference. This then allows you to check and compare the conversion rate between visitors and sales for each price. Many find this an easy way of working out the optimum price for your product and this is a method you may want to put in place.

Because the e-book is a digital product, it can be particularly difficult to actually put a price on it. When you buy a printed book, it is a hard copy you can read and pass on to others and its cost is determined by paper, design, printing and production costs as well as marketing. These costs are not reflected in the production of an e-book as readers are downloading them digitally. However it is important that you do not underestimate the value of the time you spent collating your ideas and the quality of the information you have produced.

A lot of successful information products provide readers with solutions to their problems and they are willing to pay for this service with the facility of being able to download it right away. If they see that you are providing realistic, valuable and informative material, you will find that they will order from you again and again. Don't forget to capture their details to form your own mailing list which you can use for further promotions.

Quite a lot to consider when pricing your e-book!

I wish you every success.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   How an eBook Makes You an Expert in Your Field   

Effectively Promoting Your Ebook on Social Networking Sites

Ebooks and social media are two strong symbols of today's digital world. Those of us exploring the new territories of ebooks understand that there is a growing market for them, and we feel intuitively that social networking can be a good way to reach a larger readership.

But how does one use social networking sites for eBook marketing? Is it just a matter of having accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn? Well, it helps to have a good eBook promotion strategy and here are some helpful hints:

Look Beyond the Gadget

As Brian Solis, who is an established thought leader on social media marketing, puts it "Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology." This is a critical piece of advice for anyone trying to promote anything on the web.

So, while the idea is to sell a new format for books, social networking is all about building connections and establishing relationships.

Think Beyond the Number

"If you can't sell to 1 in 1000, why market to a million?" asks Seth Godin, the author of Linchpin, as he helps us navigate the marketing potential of social media. This is an important admonishment for those of us who start fretting about the number of likes, followers or retweets.

Yes, it is helpful to build an audience but ultimately social media networking is about making each connection count.

Move Beyond the Sale

It is true that you are promoting your ebook, but it is not necessary to be crassly focused on peddling. Think like a connector - one who is bringing people to your ebook, a group of like-minded folks who'll appreciate what your eBook has to offer.

You can use Twitter to find others interested in the themes of your eBook and engage in public conversations via retweets or comments.

You can draw people to Facebook by posting links to topics similar to those covered in your ebook.

LinkedIn offers groups, which are a great way of establishing connections with professionals likely to be interested in similar topics.

Google+ circles also allows you to create communities around themes or ideas. In each of these platforms, you should think way beyond the sale.

It Really is about the Social!

By thinking beyond narrow parameters, you can successfully build a community. When you engage with each member of this community you'll find your potential readers, and also your best marketing tools.

As social media strategist Jay Baer says, "Focus on how to be social, not how to do social." Social networking works best when friends make recommendations. Create a circle of influence via regular comments, replies and engagement and you'll find the impact on the eBook sales!

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Understanding How Ebooks Resell Rights And Private Label Rights Work

If you want to use eBooks you need to know what the terminology being used actually means. Resell rights are generally referred to as RR and private label rights as PLR. You will generally find the acronym that will indicate to you, which category the eBook falls under in the title. The rights indicated on the e-Book will indicate the level of permission you may have to alter or distribute the e-Book.

Electronic books by their nature are intended for instant downloaded direct to your computer. You purchase the e-Books from your internet source and providing it falls under the resell rights category. You will be able to resell the e-Book. However, you cannot sell or pass on the resell rights to anyone else. Many in this category are provided free of charge from their original source.

Resell rights should not be confused with master resell rights (MMR), which allow you to buy and download an e-Book. You then have the right to resell or give away the e-Book and the master copy to your website visitors. However, some e-Books will have other restrictions on the master resell rights so you do need to check the criteria set, on each e-Book.

Private label rights are electronic books that can be purchased and download instantly to your computer. You may then more or less do what you like with the e-Book. You now own the e-Book and the master copy so you can resell or give away both to your website visitors.

You can choose to sell the eBook in its current format, or have it rewritten to produce a completely new eBook. You can combine with content from other e-Books, or you can divide up the content to provide the basis for additional e-Books. Perhaps most importantly if you are trying to raise your internet profile, you can add your name as the author. It is important to note that the criteria used for the private label rights may differ from one to another, so it is best to read the small print.

Private label rights e-Books are usually available in a format that allows for ease of editing. You can find step by step instructions on how to turn your document into a PDF file on the internet if you are new to this experience. You will be able to add your affiliate links to the electronic book to help generate more income. You keep all the money made from the sale of your private label rights e-Books.

Using eBooks with resell rights and/or private label rights can save you time because you do not have to do loads of research on a subject and then sit down and write the eBook. Alternatively, you could spend a fortune getting someone else to do the writing for you. Both options are hard work and will take up your time and can prove to be very expensive with sometimes little to show in return.

You can find an almost unlimited supply of eBooks on every subject on the internet. You can pick up some for free and many others very cheaply. Providing you get them with rights to resell and/or private label rights you will soon see a return on any investment you make.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Learning Some Lesser Known Facts About EBook Conversion   

Ebook Marketing Strategy: Best Selling Ebook Topics

What makes an eBook Author Sell? Marketing ebooks.

The answer is in answering the need, which is a truism of all sales. It is very hard to sell a steak to a vegetarian and Eskimos don't need ice.

So what does a reader want? To answer that question is a huge part of the selling solution.

Genre is also a part of the need. Each genre is a target market in itself. As with steaks and ice, it is an up hill battle to sell a love romance to a male.

The good news is there is a huge target market in all genres.

Buyers of books go through a sequential process when buying, which is all driven by not wanting to pay for something they DON'T want. That's why so many readers read by authors. What they are really doing is trying to find another author they TRUST.

Familiarity with an author is the first driver of sales. The dilemma happens when they finally read an author out.

When forced to find a new trusted author, readers take very little notice of personal reviews. What my mother or brother raves about does little for me. We have totally different tastes.

Readers do take notice of new books that are selling in big numbers, working on the assumption that all of the people buying can't be wrong.

Here is how it goes.

After finding out about a new hot author the reader does what the old saying says not to - they judge the book by its cover. To have a poor cover kills book sales.

Next, the prospective book buyer turns to see how many books this author has written. A shelf full of titles builds initial trust; again, everyone can't be wrong.

The fear is that they may spend half a day reading only to be disappointed instead of ENTERTAINED (a reader's need). Yet if they find the entertainment they want then that author will sell them every book on their shelf. What they are really doing is not book buying but buying an author.

Next, readers turn to the synopsis. If this is not well done, goodbye to many book sales. Then we turn to, "about the author", which if not engaging will also kill sales.

Now it is time to read a sample, usually the beginning. How many people looking for a new author spend a lot of time on this step? The motivation again is fear-based as they don't want to waste time and buy something that will not fulfil their NEED - an author they are entertained by.

To address this problem I use a gifted narrator to read 70 pages, free of charge, as a "try before you buy" sales strategy. The advantage of listening to a MP3 is being able to do something else simultaneously. And most buyers purchase well before finishing the audio as they want to read, not "listen", to a book. They know quite soon whether or not they have found the new author they want.

Have you heard of the 10,000 hour or seven year rule? Most authors need that amount of time to make it. Many write a million words before being published. (My web site has less than half that.)

Another observation I have made is that best-selling authors have vast life experience. They are able to draw from this internal well, which is the best source to produce quality writing.

The wonderful thing about the shift to ebooks is that an eBook is forever, whereas paper books only have a print-run life.

Marketing in the forest of ebooks makes it hard to find your special tree. Ebooks have time on their side and the quote on my book "Dream Bouncing" is only true in an eBook world. "A GREAT NARRATIVE WILL ALWAYS MAKE ROOM FOR ITSELF." Quality work will, in the end, always rise to the top.

A huge advantage to books sold online is that sales will come over time. eBook writers report wild fluctuations in sales numbers. Sales will nearly dry up then months later take off again.

In conclusion, if you want more sales build a bigger shelf of work. If it is within your ability, change genres. A buyer may like your well-published shelf but not like all the kinds of books on it.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   

Two Ways To Increase E-Book Sales

How would you like more e-book sales? Here are two ways to do this. You'll be able to use these methods continuously and you will sell more.

Affiliates

If you don't already know, affiliates are people who will go out and promote someone's product in return for a percentage of the sale. So an affiliate would promote your e-book and when someone buys they would get 50-75% of the sale and you would get the difference. Why would you only want a percentage when you can sell it yourself and keep all the money?

The reason is say you sell your eBook and could get 50 sales a month as an example. If your eBook sells for $17 that's $850. Not bad. But if 50 affiliates each get you 50 sales each a month then that's 2,500 sales valued at $42,500. If all the affiliates are getting 75% of this then they get $31,875. But you get $10.625. That's without you doing anything. So which is better $850 or $10,875.

So, as you can now see, getting affiliates is the answer to a lot more money. Simply list your product on ClickBank.

JVs

The second way of increasing e-book sales is by doings JVs. In case you don't already JV is short for Joint Venture. This is where you would get another internet marketer to promote your e-book to his list of existing customers. Quite often successful marketers have literally got thousands of people on their list.

Would they would do is send their whole list a promotional email recommending they take a look at your e-book. This often results in a huge amount of money. Once again this is often split 50/50 between you and the person promoting you.

The thing to remember is that the e-book must be about the subject people on this marketers list would be interested in. So if your e-book is about puppy training it makes sense the other marketer is selling information products around this subject. If it's about fitness the they should also be selling information about this.

When contacting potential JV partners don't expect an answer straight away. These people often get many people asking them for joint ventures. The secret is to not just contact them once but two or three times.

I know of one marketer who has a rule to never respond to the first email. This is because he wants to find out how serious the other person is.

Be expected to provide a sample of your e-book as the marketer would want to make sure they're happy promoting it to their customers.

So these are two very effective ways of getting a lot more sales of your e-book. So get out there and start using them.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Learning Some Lesser Known Facts About EBook Conversion   Write and Cash in on Short Ebooks Now   

Traffic Tips For Self Publishing A Book (or Any Other Product)

You have a product like an eBook that you want to self publish on Kindle, as you know, nothing will sell without traffic. Websites and products need to be seen and being seen is often the hardest part of any on line venture. So how can you drive traffic to your website or product?

Here we shall cover a few great methods of getting those all important 'eyes' on your products.

Social Media

Social Media is one of the most used ways today to generate traffic to a website; all the top blogging sites use Twitter and Facebook. There are many great ways to use these two sites to create a buzz for your product. And the great thing with these is that they are interactive, so you can talk to your potential customers.

Facebook Pages

One of the best ways of using Facebook is to set up a dedicated Fan Page for the book and invite your friends and family to it asking them to share your page, this could start to increase the page likes. This is good as it could have a viral affect with people suggesting their friends to like the page too. You could put on there in the form of notes along with an image a couple of chapters or extracts. Make the page inviting by adding a landing page and maybe get someone from Fiverr.com to do some graphics for your book to use as images on the page. The books introduction or first chapter should be pre-loaded for people to read when they come to the page then maybe over a couple of weeks add another chapter, then reduce it down a little by adding extracts of a chapter with a call to action like 'To read the rest of this exciting book please go to...' and direct them to your Kindle store. You could do this on your website and just use a Facebook page to create a buzz about your book then direct them to read extracts or chapters on your website before sending them onto Kindle.

Facebook Shop

There is also a great free ecommerce app where you can sell your downloadable and physical book directly inside your Facebook page. It is called Ecwid. We have it on our page for you to take a look at. You could also use Facebook ads to direct people to your blog site or Facebook page. Sending people outside of Facebook is more expensive than sending them to a Facebook page so the advice is to send them to a Facebook page then send them to a website/ blog site later.

Twitter

Twitter is the same, you build up a large collection of followers who love to read books covering your style of writing then post Tweets with a short message saying a chapter/extract has been posted on your Facebook page/blog site. Many companies now use these two Social Networks to create a buzz about their products which then goes viral and creates an increase in traffic.

Videos

Turning chapters or extracts into video and placing them onto YouTube is also another great way of getting people to see your book, again they can be directed to your site, Facebook page or directly to your book on Kindle. There are other video sites to share to and not just YouTube. Create short PowerPoint slides with some wording and imagery on them then read extracts of your book into a microphone creating a short audio book. For videos over 5 minutes you will need to invest in some screen capture software like Camtasia by Techsmith or for a series of short videos you could use Techsmith's free version called Jing, there is also a great free online video service by the Twitter people called Screenr.

Podcasts Audio Books

Once you have recorded your videos they can be used again by turning the audio into a Podcast or audio book which can be sold in many places such as iTunes and Amazon or shared on sites like Podbean.com. If you have professional screen capture software you will no doubt be able to separate the visual from the audio and convert straight to MP.3 ready to upload to your Podcast sites. If you haven't got access to that kind of software then not to worry, all is not lost. There are Websites where you can place the URL of your YouTube video into their search bar and it will search for the video, rip the audio from it then allow you to down load it for free as an MP.3 straight to your computer ready to upload to your chosen sites. Just like the other methods here, you can then verbally direct people to where you want them to go to get the rest of the book or audio book. ListenToYouTube.com is a great place to start.

PDF Sharing

There are many free eBook and PDF share sites where you can upload your books for everyone to read and share, you could write a revised short version or simply convert a couple of chapters and excerpts into a small PDF and upload for free again with a 'To read the rest of this book please go to...' They can be sent to either Kindle or your website. Scribd.com is one such site. A Google search will give you a great list of places to start.

Article Marketing

Writing short articles around 500 to 800 words long based on the topic then shared with article directories is also a well-used traffic and branding method. The articles could get shared around the web giving your site much needed backlinks (helps with getting your site higher up the search rankings) and points potential traffic to your site and gets yours and your books name known. EzineArticles.com is the best known article directory. Again a Google search will give you a list of great article directories.

Satellite Sites

Another traffic method is to create satellite sites, these are free webpages that have similar content to that which is on your site and directs the readers back to where you want to send them. Satellite sites are pages in places like Squidoo, Hubzpages and Google's Blogger. Make sure that you do not just duplicate the content from your site, change it up a bit otherwise some of these sites will not allow it to be published and it could also harm your Google ranking.

Authors Blog

A little trick that a successful self-publisher once did which got him a ton of traffic was he wrote an article about a sportsman from his favourite team, he used a specific keyword which put his article into the top search results in Google. The article had nothing to do directly with the book but resulted in a lot of traffic from people searching on that keyword and topic; they visited the site, read his article then looked around his site to see what else he had written. So your books dedicated site could have an 'Authors thoughts of the week' style blog designed for the sole purpose of traffic generation. This could cover anything and everything, as long as you plan your article making sure it has good long tail keywords written into it and is based on very hot topics of the moment. Your rants alone could get you a great following!

Press Release

Consider having a Press Release, this is a powerful trick often used by big companies but can be costly. You write a descriptive article about your product then pay a company like PRWeb who will blast your article out to the four corners of the internet. Your article can be picked up and put onto other peoples websites like article marketing but on steroids creating backlinks and potentially a lot of traffic.

Paid Advertising

Finally the main and final tip is if you can afford to spend some money and have advertising done such as Google AdWords and banner ads made to direct your target market to your site. This is a science in itself and can be costly if done bad. Facebook does have a better advertising system that allows you to target people who might like your product as opposed to Google's which is based on what people search for. If you set an ad in Google on the keyword 'science fiction' and a lot of people did a search for 'science fiction' they would see your add and possibly click on it, but science fiction covers a lot of sub genres and a huge amount of people who clicked on your ad (you will pay for that click or per thousand impressions) might find that you are not offering what they are looking for, this would cost you a lot of wasted money. It can be an expensive learning curve. However, be warned, the normal cost of a Kindle eBook could easily be the same price you pay for a couple of 'clicks' and if they do not buy it is wasted money.

Self Publishing for Book Publishers With Print-On-Demand   2 Ways To Monetize Your Ebook   Have You Thought Of Creating Your Own Information Products?   A History of E-Books   Learning Some Lesser Known Facts About EBook Conversion   How to Write an eBook Fast and Not Fail in the Attempt