In
part 1 of this article, I showed you how to come up
with an idea for your ebook and find out if it would be profitable.
Like I said in article 1, there is no use in creating an ebook for
sale that no body wants or there is no market for it. While you
might have a hobby you love, it might not be the most profitable
market to tap into and in part one of this article series I showed
you how not only to come up with an ebook title idea, but how to
make sure it will be profitable for you, not only in the short term
but in the long term as well.
In
part 2 of this series of 4
articles, I covered the best way to write your ebook yourself or how
to get someone to write it for you, cheaply.
In part 3 of
this article I'm going to show you how to create your own ebook very
cheaply and how to have it up and ready to sell in a matter of
hours, if that!
So let's get started!
This is what
needs to be covered in this article.
* How to compile your
written words into an ebook
* How to setup your website
* How
to start taking orders
Years ago, people, including myself
thought that creating an ebook meant spending hundreds if not
thousands on the right software to do the job. Not so! One of the
best ebook compilers available today is free. That's right,
completely free, no catches.
Well, there is one catch, since
this piece of software is free, it comes with no technical support
so you pretty much have to learn everything yourself because the
creators of this software won't answer your tech questions and
that's fine, it's free for goodness sake.
The software I'm
talking about is called HTMLdoc. Just go to into Google.com and type
"htmldoc" into the search field and you will find many places you
can download it for free. Htmldoc creates ebooks in PDF format which
is the best format for an ebook as it can be read on both Macs and
PC's alike, where as if you create an ebook in EXE format like some
people do, only Windows users can view it.
EXE format does
have its advantages. EXE ebook compilers tend to make the books look
more professional and you can do a lot more with EXE format books
like let your readers brand them, which is great if you want to get
your ebooks to be viral. I do prefer however when creating my
ebooks for sale, to create them in PDF format.
Creating your
ebook with HTMLdoc is not hard, but it will take a bit of trial and
error to get it just right. It does also come with a tutorial and if
you do have any questions, any webmaster forum will have someone who
will be sure to be able to help you.
If you've never setup
your own website before, don't worry, it's not hard at all, but I'm
only going to go through the basics here. If you need help, forums
like Sitepoint.com/forums/ offer lots of free advice for newbies.
To start selling your ebook, you need two things, a
domain
name and a good
web hosting company.
A good web hosting company is
essential for success online. If your website is down all the time
and customers can't access your website, what good is your website
anyway? No good because it makes you no money. A good web host
doesn't have to cost a fortune. Infact, all you need to sell an
ebook is pretty basic web hosting package, and you can upgrade when
you need to. You
can get a good
web hosting plan for under $10 a
month.
Don't be suckered into buying an expensive web hosting
plan when you are first starting out selling ebooks, as you don't
need it. Upgrade when you have to. It's also an advantage to sign up
for a web hosting account that lets you host multiple domain names.
This saves you time and money when you want to start a new website
with a new domain name. You can now host multiple websites with
multiple domain names from the one hosting package.
Now you
have your domain name and your web hosting, you need to create a
sales letter to sell your ebook. The best way to create a sales
letter is to look at other ebook sellers and see how they do
it.
Go to Clickbank.com/marketplace/ and have a look at all
the ebooks for sale and all the sales letters there are. You don't
need anything fancy. Something
that highlights the benefits of your ebook, and instructions on how
to order. No one expects you to write your first sales letter like a
pro, just keep practicing.
The last and final step in this
article is to start accepting credit cards and taking orders. Most
ebook sellers either use Clickbank.com or Paypal.com. I highly
suggest you sign up for both of those services, but use
Clickbank.com as your main ordering option.
Clickbank.com
also allows you to accept affiliates to start selling your products,
but I talk more about that in part 4. To get started with
Clickbank.com is easy and only costs $49 to get started.
Clickbank will handle your orders, send you checks for sales
you've made, and pretty much do everything for you on that end. I've
been using Clickbank.com since 2001 with no problems at
all.
That's all for today, but look for
part 4 soon.
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