Many ebooks describing how to get started selling ebooks greatly under-play the amount of time you need to get started. I'd like to detail for you some of what is needed, as well as the time involved, so that you can have a more accurate idea of what is needed. I started my plans to begin an ebook business on Ebay with perhaps more tools that the average person - I already had over 1,400 in feedback, with over 3,000 sales on Ebay - so I already have a good grasp on what is needed from an Ebay point of view. However, my Ebay store needed a radical overhaul, and many other things had to be accomplished first. The first thing I did is purchase many of the 'How to sell Ebooks on Ebay' ebooks that are offered by different sellers. I knew in general how to go about the business, but nothing beats what an experienced seller can tell you. Sadly, the majority of ebooks I purchased were quite useless to me - I only found a couple of them that gave information that I was previously unaware of. (I'll certainly write my own ebook in the future.) I also purchased a few ebook packages, only one of which proved to be worth what I spent. This particular package had 50 ebooks, of which I determined that 43 of them were worth selling. I won't sell anything that I think isn't worth someone's time, so there were a few ebooks that I would not sell out of that package - but they all came with 'resellers websites', which I used to create my auction listings. I also belong to a few 'membership' website clubs, (in fact I actually run a membership website) I have a good selection of other 'resell' ebooks that I can sell. A major goal that I needed to accomplish was to determine how best to deliver the ebooks - I knew right away that I wanted everything to be as automated as possible, yet have enough security so that I could eventually sell ebooks that I wanted to write without anyone being able to pass around a download link. That requires a decent PHP script running on your server to handle these functions. Automation is important, all the work is done upfront - and then all you need to do is answer emails, and add new ebooks from time to time. I only have a limited amount of time, and automation allows me to 'multiply' the amount of time I have - since work I once did long ago is still earning me money! Already being a webmaster with a number of websites was a great help - as I already had a web hosting package, as well as an unused domain name. I long ago decided that having the domain name that was identical to my Ebay name would someday come in handy - and sure enough, it has! I wanted an website ebook store that was outside of Ebay in order to eventually double my traffic - Ebay sending people to my website, and search engine traffic to my website being able to send people to my Ebay auction listings & Ebay store. My website also hosts all of my ebooks that I'm selling, as well as all of the photos used in my listings. No reason to pay Ebay extra for photos! One thing I knew right away is that the garbage many people sell on Ebay for 'ebook stores' wasn't what I wanted. Has anyone here ever tried to purchase an ebook from an osCommerce store? While I'm sure that osCommerce must be capable of being set up so that customers don't have to enter an account name, address, credit card, etc - I haven't seen it. Plus too, I'm a firm believer in looking at what successful sellers are doing. Who's the most successful Ebook Seller? Many people would immediately think of 'PlanetSMS' - and guess what? He doesn't run an osCommerce ebook store - his is a 'hand-crafted' original website store. So I looked around, found a nice '3-column fluid' template, and put together my website store. If you go to my website - you'll discover that you can click on any ebook for more information, or you can click once to order it, and click a second time to go to Paypal and pay for it. Simplicity, speed, and ease of use is what I want, and I'm sure that others appreciate such ease as well - never make it difficult for a customer to purchase from you! Starting a Profitable eBook Business by Louise Balle. Take the time to make your eBook one of the most complete and authoritative resources on your subjects. Find out how to make an eBook in a. For blog updates and get instant access to a 10,000-word guide on how to start a blog and build a sustainable business. Nov 07, 2009 How To Create An Ebook - Fast, Easy and Free. Brand your business and sell your ideas online. Learn how to create your own ebook. Next, I took a look around at scripts to automate my ebook delivery - I didn't consider for even a minute the silly scheme that you can still find being sold about using Outlook. There's far too many problems with such a solution. There are at least a half-dozen good scripts, but I finally settled on 'EW Portal' - as it does what no other script does - it allows you to change your auction titles to anything you want without updating its database. This script relies on a small snippet of code that you put inside your auction listing. It verifies that someone has paid at least as much money as you specify - so you can change your price anytime you wish, as long as it's over the minimum that you've told your script. It allows a single destination for all ebooks - the URL you send your customer for product 'A' is the same URL you send them to for product 'Z'. In fact, you can figure out what my website address must be (Ebay forbids me from linking to it here), or go to my page to find my website, then add '/portal/download.html' to my website URL, and you'll see the exact same download URL that is given to all of my customers. You'll note that they are asked to enter their primary Paypal email - and then the program checks it's database to see if Paypal has told it that this customer has paid, and if so, for what. While there are other 'download solutions' available - this one is by far the best, in my opinion. It also handles sales from my website, or indeed, from anyplace - as long as the payment processor is Paypal. That perhaps, is it's only limitation - you can't use multiple payment processors as you can with other script solutions. Most other download handling scripts rely on the 'auction title' of the item you're selling. Change the title, and you have to change your database to reflect it. Nothing wrong with this, it's just that the script I finally settled on does the things I want in a smooth and effortless way. It even allows me to cost out my products in several different currencies, so if I expand to other Ebay sites around the world in the future, I'll already be set to go. I also installed the 'Peel-Away' Ad script - which I purchased on Ebay for a few dollars. I'm always looking for ways to 'upsell' a customer to buy more products, or to join my mailing list, and the 'Peel-Away' ad script is a pretty slick piece of work. It's really nothing more that a 'pop-up' ad, but it teases the customer's curiosity, and many people will click on it just to see what it does. While examining other ebook sellers, I discovered one quite successful lady who uses a comic character to 'brand' her auctions and store - I thought that this was a brilliant idea - and after a great deal of looking around, finally settled on purchasing a comic character for $29. (None of the free stuff was worth what it cost). So I now own the non-exclusive rights to the 'Dibber Dare' character. Check out my page, and move your cursor over the graphic to see an interesting effect I created just for the fun of it. I'm not a believer in figuring things out myself. If someone is selling hundreds of ebooks each month - I'm more than happy to copy what I see them doing. Why bother to re-invent the wheel? Look for successful sellers, see what they are doing. Sometimes however, it's a smart idea to order from them, because not everything a successful seller does is immediately visible. You might think that an Ebay seller is losing money - but after ordering from them, you discover that they are 'upselling' customers to higher end products. Never trust what you see completely - feedback never gives the total number of sales, and prices might not be what they seem. But still, you need to watch what others are doing in order to learn. Setting my website up, installing the server scripts, and filling up the 'EW Portal' database with 43 preselected ebooks took me about three full days of labor. Considering that I'm quite competent at putting together websites in raw HTML, and have installed many scripts before - the average person could well double or triple that amount of time. I already had a good autoresponder script, EmaPro - and naturally, my ebook selling business is set up to entice my customers to join my list - for the real money is made by upselling and reselling to your mail list - not all those '.99 cent' ebooks you'll be selling! (If you get nothing else out of this guide, please make sure it's my last sentence that you understand!) So I put together a good landing page to use for my download URL which fed into my autoresponder - and set up a package of over 30 Ebay Selling Ebooks to use as an incentive to join my list. I spent another day or so (actually, an entire weekend) - putting together the graphics and layout of my Ebay store - along with the 'header' and 'footer' for all of my auction listings. I'm no graphics artist, and I seriously considered purchasing the services of a good graphics designer on Ebay - but most serious graphic artists will tag you with a several hundred dollars to do a decent store - and I figured that my time was worth what they were charging, so I did it myself. Nothing fancy - but it works. Next of course, was testing. I should have tested with just one listing - but noooo. That would be too easy. I put everything into Turbo Lister, uploaded everything into my store, and then I discovered that I'd made an error on my code snippet, one word was supposed to be 'ebidpal' and I'd typed it in as 'ebidpay'. This was the code snippet that 'EW Portal' needed to send the right file - so my automated downloads weren't working! That error cost me a few hours of rework. I hope you learn from my mistake, and test everything thoroughly with just one listing. I set up my account with 'Seller's Manager Pro' - which, as of the time of this writing, costs an additional $15.95 each month. But the amount of time it saves is well worth it - the automation features, and automatic feedback handling capacities have to be seen to be believed! Another feature I really like is the automatic sending of an additional email 'x' number of days later to remind your customer to leave feedback. If you want to sell ebooks, my personal opinion is that both an Ebay store, Seller's Manager Pro, and your own website are a necessity. As well as a good autoresponder and download script. It took me several hours to figure out how to upload my listings to Seller's Manager Pro. Each time I tried uploading my listings - it kept kicking back that my location wasn't valid. Turns out that digital items (which ebooks are), require the 'location' field to be a 'custom' field. It took an email to Ebay Customer Support to discover the answer to that particular problem. So here I am - approximately 35-40 hours of work later - finally ready to list and sell. This is quite a bit more time and labor than you'll be told about by any of the 'How to Sell Ebooks'. But people rarely sell ebooks based on their advertisement of how much work is going to be involved - they sell ebooks based on how 'easy' it's going to be. By the way - why am I writing this guide? While researching the successful ebook sellers, I occasionally came across those with a 'Top 5,000' Reviewer icon. Clicked on one of them and discovered that one particular seller had written a guide, and had just under 6,000 viewers in the past year. Now, how many of those 6,000 viewers clicked over to the author's auctions? Who knows. But even a low percentage would be sending traffic that you'd not ordinarily have. So I sat down and wrote this guide, and hopefully, I'll write a few more too. After all, if writing guides seems like a good idea to long-time ebook Powersellers - why wouldn't it be a good idea for me as well? I do hope you liked this information, if you're getting started in selling ebooks, perhaps you've picked up a trick or two. Please vote 'YES' below if you've found this guide useful! Everyone has something they’re passionate about and has some expertise in. Whether it’s business coaching,, nutrition, fitness, or writing, it doesn’t matter – someone will value your expertise and want to find out more about it. One of the simplest and most effective ways to turn your passion into a business and to monetize your skills is to. Creating your own ebook is surprisingly simple, and this article will walk you through the essential steps. While you can sell your eBook on marketplaces like Amazon, you should also be selling it directly from your own website, and here’s why: Selling direct gives you the greatest control, independence and percentage of sales. It also helps to build your authority and engagement with your audience, and helps you create that all-important of people who want to know more from you. To know more about why you should sell direct, check out this by author Laura Powers. Step 1: Creating your eBook This may well be the most challenging, but also the most fun part of your journey. Decide on your topic Think about what you’re passionate about and what content would help. You also need an original edge. The best ebooks share a personal story or experiences. A personal story is engaging, builds authority and creates empathy with the reader. Tip: a great way to gauge what your audience responds to is to look at which of your blog posts and social media updates currently get the most comments or shares. Before finalizing your topic, do some research on your market by looking at potential competitors who might already be selling eBooks on Amazon or their own site. Consider ways in which your story and view on things can help you to stand out. Get creative, and consider how to approach your unique perspective. To be known, you don’t have to be a subject matter expert. But you must have the determination and patience to become one. A professional is simply an amateur who didn’t quit. Extra reading: • • • • Come up with a killer title Make it specific – Ramsey, from talks about a successful post he wrote called “How I sold a Blog for $20,000 in 8 months” that could have been easily been called the less interesting “How to Sell a Blog”. Joanna Penn, of talks about her own experience with this. Joanna changed her book title from “How To Enjoy Your Job” to “Career Change” and suddenly sales took off. ( collated by Kindlepreneur Dave Chesson to help generate your very own killer title, or check out.) Writing the eBook The key to sharing your knowledge is to write simply and clearly. People will buy your eBook because they want to learn how to do something. Start with the desired result first and then work backwards. Set yourself deadlines and focus on one chapter at a time – you can find more tips on cultivating an eBook writing workflow. Here are some great tips for tackling the writing of your eBook by Jo Gifford, in the post.” Overcoming writer’s block At some stage, this is going to happen. You’ll sit down to write in front of your screen, your brain goes blank, and you don’t know what to write next. This is a great piece of advice from a more experienced writer on how to overcome writer’s block: Stop writing mid-sentence to ward off writer’s block – Kevin Purdy on Extra reading: • • • • If you need some free tools to help you be more productive with your writing, here are a couple of our favorites: • • • Step 2: Formatting the eBook Keep your eBook exciting and interesting for the reader by using consistent formatting and use a simple font like Ariel or Verdana at size 11 or 12. Less is more, so don’t go overboard on the formatting. Stick to a Stick to a simple color scheme. Try to keep two to three types of headers, plus use lots of short paragraphs and lists. Use great images When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later. () If you’re creative or an amateur photographer you can take your own photos easily enough with your smartphone or DSLR Camera. But if you’re like me and know that your photos would look pretty awful, you could buy them from a image library. Be careful of the license on each image. Some places for free images with no attribution to check out are,. Step 3: Proof reading Check your draft before you get your eBook proof read. Check for spelling mistakes and do any necessary editing. Then read your eBook out aloud. Reading it aloud helps pick up on things that you might otherwise miss. I miss things when proof reading my own work that others see – almost as if my brain automatically seems to fills in the gaps, corrects typos or the wrong words. Extra reading: • • • • Eliminate grammatical errors and enhance your writing with So you’ve poured in your sweat, blood and tears and now have your draft finished. Don’t make the mistake of giving it to your partner or mom to edit. Find someone that will help you amp up your eBook and is objective (i.e. Someone who doesn’t love you, and therefore wants to avoid hurting your feelings). Don’t be offended if they suggest deleting paragraphs of your book. Their goal is to help make your eBook even better, so trust that. Step 4: Get a cover that sells your eBook Book covers help sell books. It is a cliche but also a fact. Prospective buyers will judge your eBook by its cover. This something that publishers have known for a long time. Here are a few examples of excellent book covers: A good book cover can make people feel it is a professional quality book that is worth buying. Look at your competitor’s book covers if you want to get some ideas, but here are some of the elements of a good eBook cover: • Make the title a different color than the background • The title needs to be a large, easy to read font • Images or artwork should be 300 dpi • Beware of copyright – don’t use images or design elements that you don’t have permission to use • Use good images – avoid cheap standard stock photography I would suggest that you look at getting someone to create the eBook cover for you. You could try a service like whose professional eBook covers start from $99. Or you could try a freelance designer on prices start from $5. If you really want to give it a go yourself, I’d recommend a tool such as, or (also free). Extra reading: • • Step 5: Converting your eBook For Amazon Kindle, the file format is Mobi. For other readers, the universal eBook format is Epub, which is accepted by Barnes & Noble, Apple iBookstore, Kobo or good as an option for selling it direct yourself. You can also sell your book direct as PDFs as this is convenient for readers. If selling direct, you can easily have all three formats available for the person to choose which format they want. If you fancy doing the conversion yourself, first check out this good introduction by Kobo books on Alternatively, pay someone on to do the formatting it for you. Step 6: Adding your eBook to your website with Selz Now it’s time for the seriously simple part. You can upload and then start to directly from your website, blog, or via in the time it takes to grab a coffee. Using, you simply need to upload your eBook with an image of the front cover. Add a description, set the price, and then add the product to your site. One way to do this is to do ten to 20 guest posts for sites that your niche read. This isn’t for the purpose of SEO links, but to generate interest. You don’t have to directly mention the eBook, but the subject of the post should relate to something about your book. The aim is to get someone interested enough to land on your website and to then consider buying your book.eBook, but the subject of the post should relate to something about your book. The aim is to get someone interested enough to land on your website and to then consider buying your book. Give away some copies to bloggers in your niche if you have a relationship with them or if it’s where you already hang out. Simply request that if readers enjoyed the book, could they share it with their network. Don’t bombard people with requests for reviews or to share your book without getting to know them first. Try some to create a buzz around your latest work. Use visual content channels like and to get traction with your audience, and of course, don’t forget your as an invaluable resource. This is an excellent source of by the awesome Peg Fitzpatrick, who is co-authoring The Art and Science of Social Media with charismatic Guy Kawasaki. Another great source of tips is by Mary Jaksch and Jim Kukral Need more? We have a list of over. Last, here are by Kimberley Grabas, Step 8: Keep track of your sales This isn’t as hard as you might think. If using Selz to sell an eBook, you can log in to Selz and see how many sales you’ve made and where they are coming from on your Analytics Dashboard. For more details about more details about. If you’re into your data, you can connect Selz to Google Analytics for more in depth analysis. Wrapping up Creating your own eBook does take some work, but it also a fantastic way to share your passion and expertise. Don’t forget it’s also a great way to increase your passive income. For more advice on publishing and selling your own eBooks, I would recommend checking out: • • • • • Each of these sites offers a wealth of tips and advice on every step of creating and selling your eBooks, so are well worth a read. Over to you – do you have any good tips to share on creating and selling your eBooks? ——————————————– Interested in what people have to say about Selz? Hello Kristen, I am glad at first sight of your services and I’d like to know how you are remunerated for them, after the free trial period. I’d like to launch an e-book I made, starting several months ago, following my passion for natural products and medicine. Since I didn’t like to have my buyers going through the commercializing methods suggested by the Academy where I learned the process: passing for up-sales, down-sales etc. That annoy me a lot, I was looking for alternative methods! I made a website with the title of the book (not yet online) but I preferred to have some more experience and I launched two other websites, advertising them on Google and Bing adwords. Now I’d like to move forward with my e-book and I am learning some basics of advertising through Facebook; which I sense is the best way for me. I’ll appreciate your information and suggestions at your earliest convenience. Best regards Gregorio. Hi Gregorio, thanks for stopping! Every new Selz account gets 14 days to try out all our features for free. After that, a seller can choose one of, adding apps as necessary. Sellers pay for these plans on a monthly basis by credit or debit card. If you wanted to, having a. Then, your audience can buy your ebook directly from Facebook, without having to go anywhere at all. While advertising on Facebook can be effective, there are other ways to market your ebook and we have a that I definitely suggest checking out! Hi Daniel, thanks for your comment. There are certainly risks to selling products, especially ebooks, online. While we believe the majority of consumers would gladly pay for a product, the reality is that not all people behave the same way. When a customer downloads an ebook to their computer, the ebook file becomes like any other file on their computer that they can email to someone else. The way that we help prevent this is by that includes the name and order number of the customer. We also have custom download settings that can prevent customers from sharing the download link around. Additionally, selling an ebook strictly via Kindle can help prevent sharing as well. Read more about for more tips and ideas. I was so engrossed in reading this copy, I didn’t realize why I started reading it at all, until ‘step 6’. Yes, I lol’d. This is exactly how an ebook should be written. Start with your subject matter and stay the course. What I mean is, don’t jump around, like telling tales or adding money issues, then going back to original subject. I tend to get lost reading like that. My opinion is most people like to read cohesively. Was there a error? Sure, but it didn’t matter. The content is great, written clearly for various education levels, and is in sequence, not scattered.
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