eBooks
Why would anyone want to write an ebook?
It seems like a lot of work, doesn't it? Writing an entire book, making it look good, and posting it online.
The truth is, it's not. Ebooks are put together to deliver a finite amount of information, and that information might be coverable in no more than 30,000 words, or less than a hundred pages.
The advantages of selling or giving away an ebook on your site include:
- Low investment, high profit returns
- Establishment as a guru
- Promote sales
- Keeps you in front of your customers
Low Investment-High Profit
When you write an ebook, what you're essentially doing is disseminating your knowledge into an easy-to-follow form. Say you're an avid and talented gardener. You know how to design flowerbeds, what to plant where, how to use wood and brick to enhance your landscaping, and how to set in water gardens.
Many people would love to do this themselves, but there aren't any simple-to-follow books out there. Or the books available are expensive. Or they just happen to be at your website and you're selling an ebook perfect for what they're planning to do.
Your ebook costs only your time, the investment necessary for producing it, and download space on a server, which you should already own if you have a website. Other than the download space, it's a one-time cost. After the initial investment has been recouped, every download of your ebook is 100% profit. How many businesses online or off can say that?
No staff, no further investment of your time, no production or storage costs. Just profit.
Establishing Yourself as a Guru
If you're selling anything online, the very best position to sell from is that of Guru. A guru knows everything about a topic, or at least appears to. Would you prefer to buy from some fly-by-night company out to make a profit, or from a guru?
The secret is proving that you know what you're talking about. And the key here is taking advantage of the mystique inherent in having written a book about the topic.
If you know enough to actually write a book about it, then clearly you're qualified to sell it, right?
Promoting Your Sales
One of the best ways to sell the products you're vending online is to write a free ebook and reference your products in it. This is why so many advertisements for food have recipes in them, and why Toll House Cookies are such a big deal to the Toll House chocolate chip company.
For example, let's go back to the master gardener example. What if you are a talented gardener, but you're also selling seeds, seedlings, and specialized gardening products? There is no better way to sell them than to sell or give away an ebook with good information that also references your products with easy hyperlinks back to your website so that you can sell the product immediately to the consumer who's gotten interested in it.
This is the point at which you need to decide whether you want to give away or sell your book. There are benefits either way.
Keeping You In Front of Customers
Your ebook is an ideal sales tool for you. A primary rule is to reference your website and company name in the top or bottom margins of every single page; this reminds your customer subliminally of exactly where he or she downloaded the book.
Whether you run an informational website, a sales website, or a site dedicated to selling ebooks, you should always remember to keep your name high in the customer's radar.
Drawbacks of Ebooks
Ebooks aren't for everyone. They require a significant commitment of time if you write them yourself. And not every site needs an ebook.
And many people, while talented businesspeople, don't have the experience necessary to write an ebook.
But the types of websites projected to be most lucrative in the near future - for instance, gardening, health foods, diet, dietary supplements, and natural healing - are the sorts of websites that are ideal for ebook sales and marketing techniques. You should give serious thought to whether your online business could benefit from one or more ebook.
If for any reason you can't or don't want to write one yourself, Imand can help. Our staff of experienced writers can prepare your ebook for you from start to finish, or edit the one you've written yourself into a polished and professional product.
What About Plagiarism?
This is a legitimate fear, but an overrated one. Most people aren't going to plagiarize your ebook. But Imand has tools to check for plagiarism, and the way we package your ebook makes it very hard for anyone to steal its content short of typing the whole thing in.
Imand also has a number of ebooks to which we own all rights, and which you can load onto your website to resell to visitors.
Creating Ebooks and Reports from Existing Material
If you have great site content, a long-running customer newsletter, or other existing content you'd like to turn into an ebook, Imand can help you with this.
Our staff of writers can organize and streamline your articles, filling in any informational gaps, so that you can sell them in ebook form as either a report (a compilation of articles) or as a full-fledged book.
Imand can also help you develop a complete web content program for your business, including:
- adding articles to the site to enhance search engine placement and customer satisfaction;
- creating newsletters with additional articles and links to your on-site articles to drive traffic to your site;
- and finally creating ebooks with all-new material or using your existing content.
This is a proven method to increase your site traffic and maximize your sales.
How Do You Get Started?
Contact Imand to discuss your needs and to get a price quote for creating your ebooks. Imand has easy software packaging to turn your existing ebooks into a PDF, and can provide you with editorial and writing help to create a new ebook for your website.
Imand can help you with all your content needs.
|
