Can you really make money selling ebooks?
If you write well, that might sound pretty appealing.
Find a niche you know about, crank out a few ebooks, sell them, make a profit.
Pretty easy, right?
Well, not really. You have to market and promote your books, too.
So if you don't already have a pre-existing audience via your blog or social media accounts, it can feel like an uphill battle.
But what if you've already got a blog, and you're looking for a new way to monetize it?
A recent article from Copyblogger points out that around ten years ago, writing and selling a couple of ebooks was actually one of the best ways to monetize a blog, beyond just using AdSense ads.
Today, the landscape has changed, but ebooks and other info products are still something that you can use to create a new revenue stream.
Copyblogger mentions a couple of different ways you can approach this.
The low-cost introductory product
With the explosive rise of Amazon’s Kindle, readers have become accustomed to paying just a few dollars for ebooks.
(Note that isn’t always the case — Brett’s pricing, mentioned above, survived because of that book’s excellent reputation and quality.)
If you’re trying to make your entire living with ebooks, a low price point can be tricky. But you can also use the lower price point to your advantage by using ebooks as ultra low-risk entry points to your business.
The thought leader
For a long time now, writing a book has been a way to open many more doors beyond the revenue you get from the book itself.
Given enough time and exposure, an excellent ebook (or series of books) can provide both revenue and a doorway to greater things.
The relationship builder
Many have written about using an ebook as an opt-in reward. In other words, you can use an ebook as an “ethical bribe” to get people to sign up for your email list.
And it works really well for that — but it’s smart to understand the deeper business reasoning.
Offering something valuable, like an ebook, is a reward for taking action. But it also needs to become the cornerstone of an ongoing business relationship.
As any competent sales professional can tell you, before they make a purchase, buyers need to:
- Know you,
- like you, and
- trust you.
An ebook that only gets the prospect to sign up for your email list isn’t living up to its potential.
You can learn more about how to weave original ebooks into your blog monetization strategy over at Copyblogger.
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