How to create your own profitable ebook in days, part 3

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 nobody 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. In part one of this article series I also 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 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 or Paypal. I highly suggest you sign up for both of those services, but use Clickbank as my main ordering option.

Clickbank also allows you to accept affiliates to start selling your products, but I will talk more about that in the part 4. Get started with Clickbank is easy and it 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 them since 2001 with no problems at all.

That's all for today, but look for part 4 soon.