- Mar 10, 2010
- 41,211
- 102,388
One of the easiest ways to increase your reach, and thus your income, is using a free eBook. I've been doing that for years and have literally made well into 7 figures from just this simple idea. It is such a simple idea many think nothing of it and so few take advantage of it. It is also one of the easiest ways to promote something that even a caveman could do it.
I really came upon the idea of marketing via eBook by accident about 5 years ago. I came upon a process that ranked websites and in my quest to get my wife involved I wrote the method out and saved it in PDF format. I thought that laying out the idea and the process would make it easy for her to participate in my little IM ventures.
WRONG.
She had a little bit less than no interest at all in doing what I laid out.
At the same time I gave the eBook out to anyone that wanted it... I shared it here and on a few other forums in which I participated. My thought process was to just share what I learned so that others could do the same and rank their sites and make money from their efforts. I don't recall any affiliate links in the eBook but there may have been a couple to tools or services that were applicable back then but any revenue I would have received would have been in the joke range as I did not push any monetization to speak of in the eBook.
The real vision was to just help out the few that downloaded it rank their sites. It turned out that over 20,000 people downloaded it after all was said and done.
Once I realized that this was a way to "get eyes on a product", I asked for some advice on what to do with the process/idea and I received some great input from GreyWolf and another member, Topsytips. I do not even know if either one of them remembers helping out a total noob in IM back then.
One other person that is significant to this who downloaded the eBook is Babypar who ended up coding my process and we turned a free Ebook into a little JV that turned into a 7 figure business.
OK, BTB, enough pre-story, how can I make money with an eBook?
I now offer a free eBook of some sort for 80% of my sites and brand them accordingly. All of the ebooks are unique in content, written by me and shared very liberally in areas where people that are interested in my niches (business, finance and employment). There are at least a million places you can share one without any issue and many of those million places will eat them up if you do the following. Facebook and other social media groups and forums specific to your niche do an excellent job in getting the eBook out to TARGETED groups.
1) The eBook has to offer real value. Putting together some rehashed mishmash is a poor attempt at the idea; if you are not offering real value it will not get shared by others (go viral). I've seen a lot of eBooks in my day and many of them are just milk toast efforts or are remixes of something else that has been shared a couple dozen hundred times. Don't be that guy. Take the time and put together content that has real value and can help the reader make money, improve their life, achieve their goals etc. So, in your planning be sure to have "Offering Value" front and center. No value guarantees your eBook will go absolutely no where.
2) Don't make the content too hard to understand. The average person that will pick your ebook has to be able to grasp your principles and if they do not understand what you are writing, then you are offering no value to them. I know that when I write I have to adjust some of the way I communicate as it does not always get through to my audience so I understand this aspect very well. The average level of reading comprehension in the USA is low, about the level of a 12 year old so you need to keep that in mind. Also, many of those that will pick up your giveaway do not have English as their primary language and there is a fall off there as well. So, write for that audience, don't over do the big multi-syllabic words, don't use real technical terms and don't use large paragraphs. All of those can chase your readers and cause them to not go to your site and not share the eBook and that is your end goal.
3) Don't make the eBook super long. People just do not read super long things these days and it will again not get you your intended result. I rarely share an eBook that is more than 6 pages as it starts to become ineffective and does not get read. A 6 page or so eBook is a very nice size, can be read in a short period if time and can cover enough points to give you credibility and also give your reader a reason to go to your site. It is also something that the reader can say when they share, "Hey, check this out, it has some good info and does not take forever to read." Remember, the more you make the eBook "work" to read, the less it will get read and the less it will get shared. Make it easy to read and a pleasant experience and it will have more opportunity to do both for you.
4) Images, images, images. Images make a difference when you put out an eBook so that it has the feel of something more than 1997. Back in the day, an eBook would be all writing and no images and that was fine for then but now that sort of thing is a fail. You want nice imagery in your eBook and you want a super nice cover as well. The cover is real important considering first impressions and all that. A nice cover will convert to a person reading the content and decent content will convert the person to go to your site. Don't ignore this aspect as the images will tell a story that most cannot put in writing and it also makes the eBook look more alive. Free image sites are fine for this, BTW, I use them all the time and vary them a little so they are not exact duplicates.
5) Without a call to action all you are doing is sharing free information in an altruistic way. Nothing wrong with that, in fact I encourage you to share freely without expectation of anything in return as that is important in your corner of the world. But this is a money making venture you are embarking on here and you need that call to action. I don't do an aggressive CTA as that is not how I operate. I was very aggressive when I was younger but have found that to not be a long term way to build a client base so the "{I'm the best|I'm the only|I'm the <insert bragging here>}so you have to buy from me" is not the way I approach my targets when I share an eBook (or any other way in marketing for that matter). That chases a lot of people away so what I do is just put a link to the site I am promoting in the header and the footer. That is all I do as to a CTA and it looks very natural and does a real nice job driving traffic to your site. It is not overly promotional, does not make you look like a used car salesman and that give the reader piece of mind when sharing your eBook with their friends that they are not sharing a sales piece. That is huge as people are less inclined to share a sales piece as opposed to an informational piece.
I don't put links to affiliate stuff in my eBooks, although you can, I try to send everyone to one of my sites so that I can sell them there. The eBook is a sort of presell, warms them up to the idea that I have something of increased value on my sites (I ALWAYS DO) and gives them the feeling that spending money on my sites makes sense since there is quality content in both the ebook and the site. After all the name of the game is to get the user to spend money on your site in one fashion or another and trust is a huge part of that.
The eBook begins building the trust and your site offers more reason to trust you and trust is a major factor in conversions.
I really came upon the idea of marketing via eBook by accident about 5 years ago. I came upon a process that ranked websites and in my quest to get my wife involved I wrote the method out and saved it in PDF format. I thought that laying out the idea and the process would make it easy for her to participate in my little IM ventures.
WRONG.
She had a little bit less than no interest at all in doing what I laid out.
At the same time I gave the eBook out to anyone that wanted it... I shared it here and on a few other forums in which I participated. My thought process was to just share what I learned so that others could do the same and rank their sites and make money from their efforts. I don't recall any affiliate links in the eBook but there may have been a couple to tools or services that were applicable back then but any revenue I would have received would have been in the joke range as I did not push any monetization to speak of in the eBook.
The real vision was to just help out the few that downloaded it rank their sites. It turned out that over 20,000 people downloaded it after all was said and done.
Once I realized that this was a way to "get eyes on a product", I asked for some advice on what to do with the process/idea and I received some great input from GreyWolf and another member, Topsytips. I do not even know if either one of them remembers helping out a total noob in IM back then.
One other person that is significant to this who downloaded the eBook is Babypar who ended up coding my process and we turned a free Ebook into a little JV that turned into a 7 figure business.
OK, BTB, enough pre-story, how can I make money with an eBook?
I now offer a free eBook of some sort for 80% of my sites and brand them accordingly. All of the ebooks are unique in content, written by me and shared very liberally in areas where people that are interested in my niches (business, finance and employment). There are at least a million places you can share one without any issue and many of those million places will eat them up if you do the following. Facebook and other social media groups and forums specific to your niche do an excellent job in getting the eBook out to TARGETED groups.
1) The eBook has to offer real value. Putting together some rehashed mishmash is a poor attempt at the idea; if you are not offering real value it will not get shared by others (go viral). I've seen a lot of eBooks in my day and many of them are just milk toast efforts or are remixes of something else that has been shared a couple dozen hundred times. Don't be that guy. Take the time and put together content that has real value and can help the reader make money, improve their life, achieve their goals etc. So, in your planning be sure to have "Offering Value" front and center. No value guarantees your eBook will go absolutely no where.
2) Don't make the content too hard to understand. The average person that will pick your ebook has to be able to grasp your principles and if they do not understand what you are writing, then you are offering no value to them. I know that when I write I have to adjust some of the way I communicate as it does not always get through to my audience so I understand this aspect very well. The average level of reading comprehension in the USA is low, about the level of a 12 year old so you need to keep that in mind. Also, many of those that will pick up your giveaway do not have English as their primary language and there is a fall off there as well. So, write for that audience, don't over do the big multi-syllabic words, don't use real technical terms and don't use large paragraphs. All of those can chase your readers and cause them to not go to your site and not share the eBook and that is your end goal.
3) Don't make the eBook super long. People just do not read super long things these days and it will again not get you your intended result. I rarely share an eBook that is more than 6 pages as it starts to become ineffective and does not get read. A 6 page or so eBook is a very nice size, can be read in a short period if time and can cover enough points to give you credibility and also give your reader a reason to go to your site. It is also something that the reader can say when they share, "Hey, check this out, it has some good info and does not take forever to read." Remember, the more you make the eBook "work" to read, the less it will get read and the less it will get shared. Make it easy to read and a pleasant experience and it will have more opportunity to do both for you.
4) Images, images, images. Images make a difference when you put out an eBook so that it has the feel of something more than 1997. Back in the day, an eBook would be all writing and no images and that was fine for then but now that sort of thing is a fail. You want nice imagery in your eBook and you want a super nice cover as well. The cover is real important considering first impressions and all that. A nice cover will convert to a person reading the content and decent content will convert the person to go to your site. Don't ignore this aspect as the images will tell a story that most cannot put in writing and it also makes the eBook look more alive. Free image sites are fine for this, BTW, I use them all the time and vary them a little so they are not exact duplicates.
5) Without a call to action all you are doing is sharing free information in an altruistic way. Nothing wrong with that, in fact I encourage you to share freely without expectation of anything in return as that is important in your corner of the world. But this is a money making venture you are embarking on here and you need that call to action. I don't do an aggressive CTA as that is not how I operate. I was very aggressive when I was younger but have found that to not be a long term way to build a client base so the "{I'm the best|I'm the only|I'm the <insert bragging here>}so you have to buy from me" is not the way I approach my targets when I share an eBook (or any other way in marketing for that matter). That chases a lot of people away so what I do is just put a link to the site I am promoting in the header and the footer. That is all I do as to a CTA and it looks very natural and does a real nice job driving traffic to your site. It is not overly promotional, does not make you look like a used car salesman and that give the reader piece of mind when sharing your eBook with their friends that they are not sharing a sales piece. That is huge as people are less inclined to share a sales piece as opposed to an informational piece.
I don't put links to affiliate stuff in my eBooks, although you can, I try to send everyone to one of my sites so that I can sell them there. The eBook is a sort of presell, warms them up to the idea that I have something of increased value on my sites (I ALWAYS DO) and gives them the feeling that spending money on my sites makes sense since there is quality content in both the ebook and the site. After all the name of the game is to get the user to spend money on your site in one fashion or another and trust is a huge part of that.
The eBook begins building the trust and your site offers more reason to trust you and trust is a major factor in conversions.
