Although ebooks are one of the most common entry vehicles into Internet business a very small percentage of them actually make money. It's not necessarily the content of the ebook but the venue in which they are sold. Since there are so many ebooks on the market you need a different twist to your marketing message to gain attention.
What Are The Alternatives?
You could pack up and leave town, with your tail between your legs or think about how to better position your literary masterpiece. Your purpose was not to give the eBook away but to sell it at a fair price and make a profit. In this article I'm suggesting a twist to the traditional marketing of your information product. Give it away! No I haven't lost my mind. Giving your Book away can take a number of interesting turns and in fact is a common Internet marketing tactic.
Giving your ebook away is becoming a very popular method of indirect marketing or soft marketing as it allows you to provide something free to your customers, the payoff is in the details, let's explore them.
1. Resale Rights: Sell the re-sale rights of your eBook individually. Let the reseller charge their own price with your specified minimum floor, which only you set. Selling the re-sale rights will allow you to give more value to your offering and at the same time provide you with a co-branded e-Book. This is a great affiliate strategy!
2. Embedded Links: Give the book away with all of your own affiliate links embedded in the eBook. Each affiliate link will still have your specific coding. Each time the eBook is passed on to another individual your coding will remain intact and each time a product or service is purchased, with your link, you will receive the appropriate commission.
3. Teaser Software: Another idea is to give a partial eBook away as a teaser. This is done by creating your eBook and distributing the first one or two chapters for free. If your customer likes what they read they have the option of unlocking the entire ebook upon payment. To date you are unable to do this with simple .pdf software. (Although you can lock your pdf with a password you can't issue different passwords to each customer.) You can however invest in ebook software that will allow you to provide a specific number of pages or chapters to be viewed. If the customer wants more they will be brought to a payment page to buy the book. In this way if your ebook is pirated off of your site they will not be able to unlock it. There is available ebook software that allows you to do this for a nominal fee.
4. eBook Branding: If you don't sell ebooks and want to get and edge you can write an ebook extolling the benefits of your product with brandable links within. This is a great way to attract affiliates to sell your products. They can brand the ebook with their own affiliate links and distribute them to their customers. You provide the ebook and the branding software to your affiliates. It's very easy and cost effective to implement.
5) eBook Compilers: A good eBook compiler can also issue individual passwords to each customer to unlock the ebook once it's been downloaded. If the customer wants a refund after your initial guarantee period you can easily issue the refund and discontinue the password making it impossible to open after you have refunded the money. A top rate compiler is expensive though.
The main point is that you shouldn't be confined by one way of doing things. You could spend a lot of money attempting to sell your eBook through PPC or eZine advertising yet it may not appeal to your target audience as a stand alone product. But when you offer the same book as a product and not an end sale you open the field up for potential buyers.
Giving your eBook away isn't a philanthropic act but it will get you exposure and with your links embedded into the book may even provide you with some residual income. There are a number of sites that allow you to list your ebook for free within a given category. This is great free exposure as everyone loves a freebie.
Rick Carbone has been the principal editor of Home Business Research
since 1999. Home Business Research is a top home business informational website focused on the development, management and marketing of online home business and work at home opportunities in addition to extensive information on ebooks and specialty software
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