Make More Money From Your Ideas

"I can speak easily. Writing takes me some time - even though the outcome is reported as good. What is the quickest and easiest ways to creat a saleable ebook as a speaker?"

1. Find out what problems your audience members have (just hand out a simple survey at your presentations)
2. Figure out which problems you can solve, and jot down some notes about the solutions
3. Record yourself talking about the problems and the solutions
4. Get somebody to transcribe the recording
5. Hire a ghostwriter to then make this into an e-book
6. Finally, sell it to your audiences (either directly in your presentations or bundled as part of your speaking fee) before you go out aiming to sell it to the masses.

Find out more about publishing e-books.

Labels: e-books, writing

"How do I prevent people from ordering my eBook (which I offer a money back guarantee), and not have them download the eBook and cancel their order 5 minutes later?"

First, congratulations on offering a money-back guarantee. This will certainly increase the number of orders.

To answer your question: There really isn't any way of stopping them, and you shouldn't worry about it. After all, you're offering a money-back guarantee anyway, so you've already decided to take all the risk out of the customer's purchase.

A few people will abuse your guarantee, a few will legitimately ask for their money back, and most will be happy enough not to ask for a refund. Offering the guarantee will probably get more sales than you will lose from unethical customers.

Find out more about eBooks.

Labels: e-books, e-commerce, guarantee, money-back, shopping cart

"How do I create leverage most quickly and effectively in the SPREAD of my upcoming free e-book around the world? How do I make it like an idea-virus?"

First, make sure it's interesting and applicable to a lot of people (or at least a lot of people in a particular niche). If it's good enough, you won't have to ask people to copy it - they will do so anyway.

Next, make sure you clearly state that it can be copied and distributed. If you don't say this, some people will copy it anyway, but most won't.

Next, make a direct approach to the leaders in your field, particularly those with big mailing lists. Offer it free to them, and make it easy for them to share it with their own readers and Web site visitors. This will probably generate the most buzz.

Find out more about e-book publishing.

Labels: e-books, e-mail newsletter

"Can the creation of a an E-Book be done by purchasing some "off the shelf" software?"

There are a number of software products available for creating e-books. However, I recommend that you stick with Adobe Acrobat (PDF). If you don't have the full Adobe Acrobat software for creating PDF files, get the free pdf995.com software that does it for you.

Find out more about creation of a an E-Book.

Labels: e-books, pdf

"If I am using an e-book or special report to give away, as an incentive for potential customers to come back to me for further services or advice, how much information should I give them to make the e-book useful, but not too useful? Obviously if I tell them everything they need to know to do the job themselves, they won't need me any more!"

I'll give you a different perspective on this question ... Some people would rather learn how to do something so that they can do it themselves; others would rather have somebody do it for them.

Aim to get your clients from the second group. They don't care how much information you throw at them - they would still rather have you do it for them.

In contrast, people in the first group do resent you holding back information. Even if they do hire you, they will always be thinking of ways to do it themselves, so they will be less loyal.

So, when writing your e-book or special report, focus on the things that will help that second group. Talk about strategic things, and help them make a decision, and help them make a decision to choose you. Don't worry about holding things back - they're not going to do it themselves anyway.

Find out more about marketing on-line.

Labels: e-books, internet marketing

"It is easy to create an ebook from 10 or so articles but does this mean that the ebook lacks the quality of one that is written from start to finish without using previous articles?"

In general, yes, a compiled e-book will have less perceived value, especially if it's a compilation of material that's already available free.

However, that doesn't mean that it has no value at all. This sort of compilation product is an ideal give-away, which you can use to promote your business.

Find out more about creating an e-book.

Labels: e-books, product creation

"What is the most effective way of actually creating an e-book and then selling it? (How to do it simply and effectively?)"

This is a broad question, so here is an overview of the answer:

1. Find out the problems, fears, concerns, questions and challenges in your target market.
2. Determine the solutions to those problems.
3. Write an e-book that provides the solutions.
4. Sell it!

That's just an overview of a more detailed process.

Labels: e-books

"I have just published my first book which sells on Amazon.co.uk for £14.99 and I am thinking of either giving it away as part of a series of bronze, silver and gold programmes (1,2 and 3 months long) or offering the book in e-format. How would you 'value' that ebook? Would it be more than the published actual book? I just want the value they perceive in the programme to be as high as possible."

Because you've already published the book, its value is already established at £14.99. Even if you convert it to e-book format exactly as it is, it's hard to justify any higher value.

However, if you take an extract of the book, and expand it into an e-book, workbook, manual or self-study course, you've got an entirely different product, which doesn't have an established value. In that case, you can put a higher value on it.

Labels: e-books, pricing

"How can you prevent people distributing e-books or copying sections without crediting the author? I guess the book can be in PDF format - but there are ways around that. My intuition (based on the comments in your email) tells me that perhaps one shouldn't worry about this and use the ebook (free or paid for) as a lever to promote deeper services."

Yes, no matter how hard you try to protect your valuable information, somebody will find a way to rip it off. There are various sophisticated copy-protection schemes available, but they sometimes cause more problems to the reader.

In most markets, most people will do the right thing. So don't let the fear of copying stop you from getting your material out there.

Labels: e-books

"The ebooks that I have read/bought/had seem to be quite thick with good ideas and I doubt that I have enough information to put into them. So how can I ensure that I am giving value for money (even if they are free) so that I expand my list?"

Ask your customers, clients and readers for their most important questions, challenges, problems and issues. Then answer them in your products. That's the best way to ensure you're giving value.

Labels: e-books, free products, providing value, survey

"We have come up with a number of titles for the freebie e-book, and considering your much greater experience we'd really appreciate your advice on what you believe might be the best e-book title.

E-book titles should be strongly benefit oriented, like this:

HOW TO ACHIEVE WHAT YOU WANT, WHEN YOU WANT

This one, on the other hand, is more about the "how" than the results, so it is weaker:

DIFFERENT THINKING, DIFFERENT LIFE

Having said all this, I think the best way to know which title
works is to ask your customers! In other words, why not select
two of them and publish the e-book under both titles. Promote
them both on your site and check which one gets downloaded more
often. Then after a while, remove the weaker one, replace it
with another title, and repeat the process. Your customers will
soon tell you which one they are interested in.

Labels: e-books

"I'm writing an e-book that will be sold in Australia and the USA. Should I format the document as A4 or US Letter size; or do I do two versions?"

I suggest you choose either A4 or US Letter, and then make sure your margins are wide enough so that it will print correctly on the other size paper. That should cater for both types.

Labels: e-books

"How do I know the e-book I write is going to sell?"

The bad news is: You don't - until you actually offer it for sale! The good news is: There are some things you can do to improve its chances.

Make sure you research your market first to check that there's a demand for it already. It's much easier to meet an existing demand than to drum up interest in a new product that nobody realises they want.

Then write the e-book with that market in mind, and answering their specific problems, challenges, worries and questions.

When you sell the e-book, get targeted traffic to your Web site, so that you're pitching it at the people who actually require that information.

Labels: e-books, market research

Tom Murrell, one of my clients and colleagues, told me about Killer Covers, a paid service for creating e-book covers. If you're looking to create professional covers, consider using such a paid service.

Labels: e-books

"What software do you use to create e-book covers?"

We use www.ecovergenerator.com to create e-book covers.

Labels: e-books

"I'd like to give away an e-book to people who sign up for a consulting session, and I'd also like to give them permission to distribute it to their friends. What is the best way to do this?"

If you're giving away "reprint rights", you just have to make sure that it's "re-sold" properly. I suggest you say that it can be give away free, but if it's sold the MINIMUM price is $97 (or whatever retail price you put on it). That way, you allow them to share it with their database without having $19.95 copies floating around.

I suggest you also put a value on the reprint rights. A common figure I've seen is 10 times the retail price - e.g. $970 on a $97 product.

Labels: e-books, free products, sales conversion

"I have a new website going up and am going to put my book as an ebook rather than have in hard copy as I don't have any left to sell. What is the best way to get an e-booked marketed and how do I know there is a market for it in the first place? Thank you for your help."

The first question to consider is whether there is a market for it. It's best to ask this BEFORE writing the e-book. However, it's still not too late now. You can do some simple market research on the Internet to find out whether there's a market for your e-book.

Then you have to figure out the best way to promote it. The easiest sale is to people who are already on your mailing list, or who are already your clients. So consider making a special offer to your e-zine subscribers. Then consider other ways of marketing it, and perhaps even offering it in different formats.

Labels: e-books, e-mail newsletter, market research

"We've created an e-book, but how do you go about selling it, both electronically and physically?"

This is a big question.

To begin with, much of the process is exactly the same as selling anything else. In other words, you have to have the right product for the right customer at the right price. If you're selling to a non-responsive market, or your product doesn't have value in the customer's eyes, or they can get it at a better price elsewhere, you're already fighting a losing battle.

So, assuming that you do have the right customer, product and price, you then have to convince them of the value of buying it. Make sure you can answer these questions:

• What problem does this e-book solve?
• Is it a big enough problem for them?
• Does this e-book really solve this problem?
• Why should they buy from you?
• Why should they buy it now?

There is, of course, a lot more to know about writing profitable e-books, but this is a good start.

Labels: e-books, providing value

"Are e-books typically priced higher than printed books or booklets? My tips booklet is priced at £5 but I've converted it to an e-book and thinking of seling it for £7 - is that about right or way off?"

Here's the simple answer: Pricing depends on the value you offer; the more value you offer, the higher the price you can charge.

There are a number of ways of demonstrating the value of your e-book - e.g.

• Showing them how much money they can make from it
• Offering a money-back guarantee
• Adding relevant bonus products to boost the value

Here's a video that demonstrates the money-back guarantee idea.

The other thing to remember is that if you charge a low price, it's easier to get people to buy it, but you require more customers! So if your marketing is great, you can afford to charge a lower price.

Pricing is just one of the factors in writing profitable e-books, but it definitely is important.

Labels: e-books, pricing, providing value

My Profitable Information Products Master Class is starting next month in Sydney. I've also been running a free 21-day mini-course on creating information products. This is one what one of the course participants had to say:

"I can really see why you say now that creating an e-book can be quite easy and simple. You have opened another world of possibilities here!"
--- Jasbindar Singh, Business Psychologist and Executive Coach, SQ Executive Management Consultancy Ltd, New Zealand

Sign up for the mini-course here (it's free!) or find out more about the Master Class.

You can also fast track the process of writing your own e-books.

Labels: e-books, writing