I get asked this question a lot by people who have no idea about this business of ours — this info-marketing business.
They don’t get it about ebooks.
And so they ask this question, very naively…
"Why write an ebook?"
Okay, so the obvious answer — the one that comes to mind immediately for us — is that you write an ebook so you can sell the ebook!
Right?
Of course! High profit. Low costs.
Yeah, everyone knows that. But what not everyone knows is that there are 11 OTHER reasons to write an ebook, BESIDES just making money from the sale of the book. So, here’s the list — I’ve cultivated it over the last few years. Some of the reasons are filled with money. Others are filled with purpose.
(And I’ve actually got another 7 reasons tucked away for later.)
But all of them are important reasons to write and market an ebook.
In no particular order, they are…
1) As a Lead Generator for other info products.
Low priced or free ebooks are great ways to build and measure interest in more expensive information products. Your $10 or $20 ebook sale pretty much pays for the lead you are acquiring. Make the book good enough, and your $20 will turn into an eager $200 or $2,000 customer.
2) As a Lead Generator for your physical products.
Selling a commodity product can be very difficult. But if you’ve published an ebook on "How to save $100 on every widget purchase, and avoid being ripped off by widget scam artists" then you’ve now become the person who informed your potential customers about how to catch a crook — tools they know they don’t need to use when they’re dealing with you. If you’ve got a physical product to sell, an ebook is a great way to sell more of them.
3) As a Lead Generator for your service business.
There’s really no better way to get more customers to your accounting practice than to sell an ebook on "12 Little-Known Deductions that can each save you $5,000 or more on your personal taxes in 2009." What do you think the customers for that book will think of the authors? And who do you think they’ll call when they’ve got a question about one of those methods?
4) Pure List Building
If you think it doesn’t make sense to give away an ebook for free, you’re about to learn something new. Giving away something for free that other people would charge for is a great way to steal their customers. If you can monetize the leads — by upselling to a higher priced product, your list will build fast, and your bottom line will build faster.
5) As a Bonus for your other products
Simply said, people are greedy. All of them. And if they can get something for nothing — especially if it’s something they want or need (or satisfies a guilty little pleasure that they wouldn’t normally spend money on) then they’ll jump at the chance. Many people buy products ONLY because of the bonuses they get. Example: If you’re selling Family Vacations to Disney World, offering the parents an "Adult’s Getaway Guide to Disney World (and where to park the kids while you’re having your own kind of fun)" might be a real motivator for a certain kind of customer.
6) To Become an Author
Being an author carries a certain amount of prestige. Still does. Always will. If you’re looking to become more famous in your field, and to earn more money because of your fame, then becoming an author is the way to do it.
7) To Land a Job
I love this one, because it’s going to help so many very smart people. And look, I realize not everyone wants a JOB, but some people do. So if you’ve just been told by your employer of 10 or 20 years that your services are no longer needed, and you find yourself in the job market, competing with 100 other candidates, there’s a good chance — a VERY good chance — that you can land yourself an even BETTER job by writing an ebook.
Imagine, for a moment, showing up for an interview with a dozen other candidates for a Manufacturing Engineering position. All your resumes look pretty much the same. But yours also says: Author of "How to cut manufacturing costs and increase product quality using Just-In-Time Inventory Control"
Who do you think that Manufacturing VP is going to hire? (And who do you think can demand a higher salary?)
8) To Become a Recognized Expert
There’s no quicker way to becoming a recognized expert than to put your name on a book — ebook or printed book. It’s just that ebooks can be written and published so much faster than regular books. If time is a concern for you at all, then an ebook is the way to go. To this day, people still recognize me as the "Landing Page Guy" because of my book "The Landing Page Cash Machine." And from this first book, I’ve written 22 others (and counting).
9) To Profit from Your Months or Years of Blogging
My friend Dave Taylor does this. Dave blogs every day about Techie stuff in response to readers’ questions. He has noticed that he gets a lot of questions about related topics: Sony PSPs, Facebook, iPods, and so on. So every now and then, he’ll package up all his posts on one topic, put them together in an ebook, and put it up for sale. I don’t know how many he sells, but I know that he keeps doing it because it makes money for him. If you’re a blogger, and you don’t have an ebook, you’re losing money every day.
10) Sell Products as an Affiliate
No topic lives in a vacuum. Everything is related to something else. And so it’s natural to make product or service recommendations in your ebook. In fact, you can even write an ebook for the sole purpose of making those product recommendations. And it’d be more helpful to your readers if you gave them a link for each product you’re recommending.
Oh, and there’s not a reason in the world why those links shouldn’t pay you every time someone buys from them. That’s called an affiliate link, and almost every ebook has them. And some make thousands of dollars a week — just on affiliate commissions. (By the way, there’s a right way and a wrong way to put affiliate links in your ebook. In my upcoming Ebook webinar, I’ll show you the right way — the difference could mean thousands of dollars a year to you.)
11) You have a purpose and a message, and it’s time to spread it.
For many people, the money’s not the important part. Their MESSAGE is the important part. And that might just be you. If you’ve got a new way to help children alleviate pain, or a way for people to pursue their passions, or a way for people to have more fun, or a way to keep seniors from being ripped off by dishonest companies, or a way to help everybody become healthier — or a way to promote world peace — then it’s time you get writing, my friend.
Your message is being searched for by thousands or maybe millions of people EVERY DAY. And every day they look and do not find you, or your message, is a day they will continue to suffer.
When you give value to others, value will return to you, 10 or 100 or 1000-fold. It’s time, my friend, for you to be heard.
And that’s my 11 OTHER ways to make money with your ebook…BESIDES making money from the sale of your ebook. Can you think of other ways to make money with your ebook? Post your thoughts below.
And…if you are planning on using any of these methods for making your money online, let me help you refine it. Post your idea below.
To Your Success,
–Mark Widawer
P.S. IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT: My Ebook Kickstart Course will become available Wednesday (tomorrow) at 12 noon PST, 3pm EST.
And I’ve got some special gifts for the first 50 and 100 people who register. Priority goes to those who have downloaded my Free Ebook Template, which you’ll find here:
http://www.BigBucksEbook.com/freetemplate
Get the template, and you’ll get priority notice about the Kickstart course.
You’ll be off to a faster start with your ebook than you ever thought possible, which will help you no matter what your reason for writing your ebook.
-M