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Ebook Creation Product Creation

Ebook Answers #11 – How to KickStart your Big Money Ebook

I used to think that the biggest problem with writing ebooks is getting started. We all have dreams, and passions, and knowledge — or simply a desire to sell something online — but a whole bunch of us have trouble actually writing those first words.

It turns out, though, that I might have been wrong.

The biggest problem is NOT writing those first words.

The biggest problem is writing those first words FIRST.

Okay, that’s got to be a bit confusing to you, so I’ll explain.

There’s a big difference between writing a small-money (or no-money) ebook, and writing an ebook that sells continually, throws off lots of money, and builds a business for you — what I call a Big Money Ebook.

Because, look, quite honestly, writing just any old small-money ebook is actually easy. Just type what you want to say into Microsoft Word. Tap. Tap. Tap.

You may feel fulfilled that you got it all down on "paper", but you’ll spend all of your time struggling to make it sell. It won’t.

(I just got an email the other day from a reader in Africa. He said, " I have several ebooks on a $18,000,000,000 yearly industry and yet i cannot seem to find the people (to buy it). " Sheesh.)

Great example. But just typing the words is not what we’re talking about here.

We’re talking about

Categories
Ebook Creation Product Creation Traffic & Conversion

Ebook Answers #8 – One Way to Build Marketing Into your Ebook (and Guarantee it will Sell)

My good friend Joel Comm interviewed me for his live Internet TV show on Wednesday. I was apparently his guinea pig for some split-screen magic he was doing. Cool stuff!

And Joel started asking me about Big Money Ebooks.

So I explained that a Big Money Ebook is a book that has the marketing built into it, so that it makes its own sales. He asked me to share a few "Big Money" secrets with him and his viewers.

And then he made a joke about how "First, you put up a sales page and sell it….THEN you write the ebook."

He thought he was so funny.

But he was right.

One of the MOST effective ways to know if your ebook will sell is to

Categories
Ebook Creation Product Creation

Ebook Answers #7 – How Can I Stay Motivated to Finish My eBook?

I listened to an audio a couple of weeks ago, and what I heard was kinda funny. The recording was of John Reese and Jonathan Mizel talking about creating an online business.

And one of them (I think it was Jonathan) told a story about how one of his students called him up and said "I finally finished my Book! It’s Perfect!"

And so Jonathan asked "That’s great. How long have you been working on it?"

"Two Years," he replied.

Ugh.

And just today, I listened to a recording that Perry Marshall sent me of an interview with a guy who took 10 months to write his bodybuilding book.

Okay, so I’ve got a few things to say about that.

First, what the heck are

Categories
Ebook Creation Product Creation

Ebook Answers #6 – How Many Pages Does My Ebook Need to Be?

If you’ve never written anything longer than a letter to grandma, the idea of writing an ebook must seem daunting.

A huge barrier that you need to overcome…

And I think a lot of that fear comes from the idea that your ebook has to be 100 pages long, or more. (I just heard an audio recording of a guy that took 10 months to write his book…LOL!)

I got this question from Donahue just a few days ago. He wrote…

Someone already asked my question…what is a good rule of thumb for length. I have seen 16 pages to 97 pages. My favorite is Triumph of the Stupid. (not just cause you wrote it).

Thanks, Donahue!

One thing I noticed instantly about this question was that the page count was relatively low. Several of the other questions had the count much higher.

And some of the other comments I received, from people who had actually finished writing their books, was that they had written over 200 pages. And I was on the phone with someone today who said the same thing!

200 pages!

I was astounded, actually.

Why?

Because

Categories
Ebook Creation Product Creation

Ebook Answers #1 – $300 software for Ten Bucks

Note: This is the first in a series of articles about ebooks. We’ll be discussing how to write them, produce them, and build them in a way so that they sell far more easily and quickly than "regular" ebooks. Got an ebook question of your own? Write me here: ask (at) trafficandconversion.com

Back in December, I asked my readers for questions about creating content. What did they need to know?  Here are some answers to some good questions about creating content that I think will help you.

The first one will save you a bunch of dough.

Denny L wrote…

Hiya Mark,
I’ve started putting my 1st e-book in writing to organize it and put the finishing touches/changes to it.
My first question concerns converting it from Word doc. to .pdf Don’t really want to pay Adobe $250, do you have any suggestions for who/what to use?

Well Hiya right back atcha, Denny.

Actually Acrobat is up to about $300 to $450 at retail now, and there’s not a heckuva lot of good reasons to