The brass ring in Internet Marketing is to have your own product to sell and I have just recently stumbled my way through creating an e-book. I wanted to pass along some thoughts about the creative process that you might find useful incase you decide at some point to reach for that brass ring. Here is my ebook if you want to see it: ‘A Beginner’s Guide To Website Design.’Layout and design is king, so do your research on how e-books are put together. There is a huge difference between an e-book on the internet and a book on the shelf at a bookstore.
We all seem to do a lot of it and yet reading anything on the internet can get really boring after a few paragraphs. A good ebook will be spiced up with some interesting photos or graphics and adhere to good web design basics to keep the reader’s attention. The photos and graphics break up the monotony of several pages of text and offers relief to the reader’s eyes.
Most of the materials on the internet are written in some form of how to do this or how to do that. A great way to break up the dry monologue of how to instructions is to offer personal stories. While it is important to make sure those personal stories are relevant to the text, they will add the entertainment value to an otherwise dry text. Information exchange is what an internet book is all about so make sure your content is supreme while spicing it up with some personal anecdotes, an occasional joke or witticism and a little bit of dramatic expression.
It is important to know who your target market is and write with that in mind at all times. Who is it that you want to reach 
with your work? By staying true to your niche, the questions that come up later like ‘how to market this puppy,’ will be far easier to answer. Also by being clear from the beginning, you will avoid making your topic too general. An overly general topic will not address anyone’s needs by being too basic for some and way too complex for others. If your e-book is about a basic knowledge of …., ensure that you write using basic concepts, not using rocket science babble. If your ebook is for an advanced user, while it is prudent to provide basics, an overly long explanation of them would not be useful.
It takes a bit of time to get an e-book designed and written but eventually it will get finished. Then there is a whole list of other questions to consider like: Where do I promote it? What do I charge? How do I get past myself to believing that someone might actually want to buy my book? These are just some of the unanswered questions that popped up for me. What I learned and would like to share with you is ‘take it one step at a time.’ Talk to others that have created an ebook and see what they did to promote etc.
Have a good friend read your material to see if it is a smooth read and makes sense. Ask another friend to run your ebook through a spell and grammar check and modify what needs to be modified to honor the flow of the book. With the tools available on our computers these days, anyone that is even marginally gifted with language can serve in the role as editor; a professional editor is no longer necessary.
Added value is a powerful way to sell a product on the internet. Be sure offer something that adds value to the dollars spent to your potential buyers Maybe offer up a free chapter along with some other gift(s). Even the most established authors of the hard copy book world need to and do offer a free chapter or some kind of trailer when they are marketing their books on the internet. Extra gifts and added value are an important marketing strategy on the internet.
Add a sign up box for a newsletter so that you can send these people further information from you. A newsletter, if well handled, can be part of your added value strategy (by offering useful information to your subscribers) as well as giving you the opportunity to develop a relationship with your subscribers for future releases of other products.
Create a limited time special offer with clear and concise dates. Allow some of your purchasers to acquire your ebook at a discounted price so that you can begin to develop a following to your work. This will serve you in the word of mouth ‘viral marketing’ aspect. There is no marketing strategy more powerful then a happy customer or client telling their friends.
Above all else, be very accurate, open and honest in all you do. People will pick up on your level of authenticity and integrity and it will determine if your customers wish to continue a relationship with you. A single happy repeat customer is worth far more then ten one time unhappy customers.
Last but not least, create from a place of passion and all the other concepts and questions will fall into place for your amazing ebook.
Peace and Love
Wayne
