Beyond Customary Ebook Publishing

Marketing on the Internet requires more than a standard ebook and here's why.

When I first set out on the Internet, to make money, the best way to get started was to write and publish an ebook and sell it on your website. Are those days gone? Is it still possible to make money from an ebook?

The fact remains that writing an ebook and self publishing it on the Internet has become easier and cheaper. There are literally thousands of PLR (Private Label Rights) ebooks for the taking so that you don't even have to be concerned about actually writing an ebook. Ebook software is easily accessible and a lot less expensive, and if you don't like to write or don't feel that you have the talent (Just about anyone can write an eBook) you can have a freelance writer do it for you, if you can afford to job it out.

That being said, why even take the time and trouble to write and publish an ebook? There is most definitely a place for single purpose eBooks on the market today. I would categorize them as highly defined and technical information based ebooks. That is they discuss in great detail how to manage a specific task or function. A good example would be how to utilize RSS feeds on your website, and how they can become a silent marketing tool for your products or services.

Niche marketing strategies such as technically based ebooks present a different challenge to the Internet Marketer as they require specific knowledge of a given subject to write. So how can the average person make money with an ebook?

A good example would be to create a free give-away ebook that discusses the merits of other products that you may be selling. This is done quite often and has increased sales and conversion rates for products and services. Within the ebook you discuss the rational for the use of your product or service and create active links to your sales page.

Another method of non-traditional ebook publishing is the "branded" or viral ebook. This is when you create a similar ebook to the above example but allow your affiliates to brand it as their own ebook and distribute it to their customers. The ebook can be branded so that the sales links can be personalized for each affiliate.

Viral ebooks have been around for sometime and the software to create them is well within reach of the average Internet marketer. For example the Adobe PDF format is the worldwide standard for creating an ebook. There is no question that Adobe Acrobat® is the premiere tool for creating pdf ebooks, however there are alternatives that are less expensive that will create and convert to the pdf format. Viral PDF ebooks are very attractive because they provide an unusual way to distribute an information or software product, that is easy and inexpensive to produce.

The process is simple. Let's say that you have a great widget making software program. You decide to write an ebook that explains all of the benefits of widgets and how they will change the world as we know it. Instead of selling this ebook you give it away with free software that creates proprietary links for anyone who joins your affiliate program. (Affiliate programs are very simple to implement and little or no cost to you.) This means that your affiliates can now offer an ebook that is branded with their name and their affiliate links to anyone that they choose to send it to. This means that whenever someone purchases through those links you get a sale and the affiliate gets a commission. A win-win situation.

The answer to the question of "are ebooks still a viable marketing resource?" is a resounding yes.