Part 5 – How To Make Money Blogging With eBooks
Now we’ll talk about how to make money blogging with eBooks. I’ve been creating eBooks since 2009. The best part about eBooks is they are easy to create, and you can sell them for a long time.
The eBook I wrote in 2009 was bundled with some other products. I didn’t have to update it again until 2014. I sold it for five years! That particular product generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for my business.
Here are some common questions and answers about creating an eBook.
How long should my eBook be?
As long as necessary. 🙂
Your book should be at least 40 pages so the buyer will see the value in it. That doesn’t mean it has to be 40 pages, single spaced, a 10-point font in an 8.5“x11” page size. Format it how you like – big fonts, pictures, charts, lots of white space.
Ask yourself this question:
If I bought this book, would I feel like I got a good deal?
How do I format an eBook?
eBooks are delivered in PDF format.
You can do it yourself by printing a Microsoft Word file or Google Doc to PDF format. It takes about 2 seconds.
If you want a nice cover you can hire a graphics artist on Fiverr or Upwork to create one for you. You will pay anywhere from $5 (Fiverr) for a simple cover to $299 if you use a service like 99Designs.
I used 99 Designs for the cover of my book 99 Minute Millionaire (just noticed we share a similar name). I was very pleased with the service. If you have the money to spend (which you will someday if you keep blogging) – they are worth checking out.
How much should I charge for my eBook?
I’ve paid $10 for eBooks that were 30 pages long. I’ve also paid $29 for eBooks that were 100 pages long.
How you price your eBook is based on the value you provide, and how your book compares to similar products (if there are any). A good price point is less than $10. Most people are willing to part with $10 for a book.
If you are an expert in a particular field, you can get away with charging more. For example, the $29 book I mentioned was a workout and diet program by someone that placed second at the Mr. Olympia contest. He obviously knows what he’s doing, so he can charge more for his eBook.
How do I sell an eBook?
Selling an eBook is as simple as setting up an account with PayPal and slapping a PayPal button on your website.
When Katie & I started selling our first digital products in 2007, this is what we did. When we started making more money we moved to a custom shopping cart.
Thankfully technology has improved since then. Here are a couple of great choices:
Gumroad is a popular service that connects to your blog and allows you to sell digital products. It’s only $10 a month for the service, and they take a small percent of each sale to cover the credit card transaction fees.
e-junkie is another great service which can have you up and selling in minutes.
Can I make money selling an eBook?
Have you ever bought an eBook or a Kindle book?
There’s your answer.
I own hundreds of Kindle books and have bought nearly 100 eBooks over the years. I’ll share with you some of the titles I’ve purchased to give you an idea of what people are selling (and making money on):
• Podcast Legal Survival Guide by Gordon Firemark
• Double Your Guitar Speed by Tom Hess
• Ultimate Sweep Picker’s Guide by Zack Uidl
• Phrasing Concepts for Rock Lead Guitar Soloing by Nick Layton
• Specific Carbohydrate Diet Lifestyle by Jordan Reasoner
• Road to Olympia 2015 by Ryan Terry
You can see I buy a lot of guitar books. There are some pretty obscure titles and topics in that short list. And I’m just one buyer!
Which brings me to my point – yes, it’s possible to make money selling an eBook on pretty much any topic.
Someone out there is willing to pay you for your expertise if you can do one of two things:
1. Solve their pain
2. Bring them pleasure
Turning Your Blog Into an eBook
Here’s something else to consider – people don’t necessarily want to read all your blog posts. You may write one blog post on a topic and then six months later write something else on a similar topic.
People will pay you if you consolidate your blog posts and turn it into a book.
Of course, you’re probably wondering – why would anyone pay me for an eBook when they can get it on my blog for free?
One word – convenience.
You’re saving them time because they don’t have to dig around your site for all of the information. It’s no different than if you’re searching the Internet to learn about something. What’s easier – searching out ten different sites, or finding the one site that has all of the information in one place?
Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche took all of her blog posts on budgeting, and rolled them into a best-selling book on Amazon! It was the same content, but people wanted something that had all of the information in one place that they could easily read front to back.
Action Items
1. Start writing! If you haven’t started writing in your blog yet – start writing. Sit down and write 500 words today about your blog topic.
The eBook you’re going to want to create for extra income can come right from your blog posts.
Now we’ll talk about how to make money blogging with eBooks. I’ve been creating eBooks since 2009. The best part about eBooks is they are easy to create, and you can sell them for a long time.
The eBook I wrote in 2009 was bundled with some other products. I didn’t have to update it again until 2014. I sold it for five years! That particular product generated hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for my business.
Here are some common questions and answers about creating an eBook.
How long should my eBook be?
As long as necessary. 🙂
Your book should be at least 40 pages so the buyer will see the value in it. That doesn’t mean it has to be 40 pages, single spaced, a 10-point font in an 8.5“x11” page size. Format it how you like – big fonts, pictures, charts, lots of white space.
Ask yourself this question:
If I bought this book, would I feel like I got a good deal?
How do I format an eBook?
eBooks are delivered in PDF format.
You can do it yourself by printing a Microsoft Word file or Google Doc to PDF format. It takes about 2 seconds.
If you want a nice cover you can hire a graphics artist on Fiverr or Upwork to create one for you. You will pay anywhere from $5 (Fiverr) for a simple cover to $299 if you use a service like 99Designs.
I used 99 Designs for the cover of my book 99 Minute Millionaire (just noticed we share a similar name). I was very pleased with the service. If you have the money to spend (which you will someday if you keep blogging) – they are worth checking out.
How much should I charge for my eBook?
I’ve paid $10 for eBooks that were 30 pages long. I’ve also paid $29 for eBooks that were 100 pages long.
How you price your eBook is based on the value you provide, and how your book compares to similar products (if there are any). A good price point is less than $10. Most people are willing to part with $10 for a book.
If you are an expert in a particular field, you can get away with charging more. For example, the $29 book I mentioned was a workout and diet program by someone that placed second at the Mr. Olympia contest. He obviously knows what he’s doing, so he can charge more for his eBook.
How do I sell an eBook?
Selling an eBook is as simple as setting up an account with PayPal and slapping a PayPal button on your website.
When Katie & I started selling our first digital products in 2007, this is what we did. When we started making more money we moved to a custom shopping cart.
Thankfully technology has improved since then. Here are a couple of great choices:
Gumroad is a popular service that connects to your blog and allows you to sell digital products. It’s only $10 a month for the service, and they take a small percent of each sale to cover the credit card transaction fees.
e-junkie is another great service which can have you up and selling in minutes.
Can I make money selling an eBook?
Have you ever bought an eBook or a Kindle book?
There’s your answer.
I own hundreds of Kindle books and have bought nearly 100 eBooks over the years. I’ll share with you some of the titles I’ve purchased to give you an idea of what people are selling (and making money on):
• Podcast Legal Survival Guide by Gordon Firemark
• Double Your Guitar Speed by Tom Hess
• Ultimate Sweep Picker’s Guide by Zack Uidl
• Phrasing Concepts for Rock Lead Guitar Soloing by Nick Layton
• Specific Carbohydrate Diet Lifestyle by Jordan Reasoner
• Road to Olympia 2015 by Ryan Terry
You can see I buy a lot of guitar books. There are some pretty obscure titles and topics in that short list. And I’m just one buyer!
Which brings me to my point – yes, it’s possible to make money selling an eBook on pretty much any topic.
Someone out there is willing to pay you for your expertise if you can do one of two things:
1. Solve their pain
2. Bring them pleasure
Turning Your Blog Into an eBook
Here’s something else to consider – people don’t necessarily want to read all your blog posts. You may write one blog post on a topic and then six months later write something else on a similar topic.
People will pay you if you consolidate your blog posts and turn it into a book.
Of course, you’re probably wondering – why would anyone pay me for an eBook when they can get it on my blog for free?
One word – convenience.
You’re saving them time because they don’t have to dig around your site for all of the information. It’s no different than if you’re searching the Internet to learn about something. What’s easier – searching out ten different sites, or finding the one site that has all of the information in one place?
Tiffany “The Budgetnista” Aliche took all of her blog posts on budgeting, and rolled them into a best-selling book on Amazon! It was the same content, but people wanted something that had all of the information in one place that they could easily read front to back.
Action Items
1. Start writing! If you haven’t started writing in your blog yet – start writing. Sit down and write 500 words today about your blog topic.
The eBook you’re going to want to create for extra income can come right from your blog posts.
Check bact tomorrow for more
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