Sell Information - Create and Market an Ebook Part 2

Ok, I didn't get this posted over the weekend as planned as an emergency came up. I apologize for that. Now here's Part 2:


Market/Advertise Your Ebook

The next and a very important one is getting your ebook out there and marketing it to drive sales. There are various avenues you can use to do this.

Create a Website

You will need a place for people to read about and download your ebook. For this, I would register a website. Not too worry…this doesn’t cost as much as you think. Over the years the cost of having a website and domain name has gone down considerably. Here’s a few with low costs and excellent service:

Blue host
Host I Can
AN Hosting
Dream Host

Next you need to create your website. If you know a bit about html you can use programs like Microsoft Front Page or Macromedia Dreamweaver. These are both very good. If you nothing at all you get free hosting if you don’t mind some additional ads on your website. Here’s a few of those sites:

Yahoo GeoCities
Angelfire

You can find many more by doing a Google Search for “Free Websites”

Now that you have a website established you need to promote it and get lots of traffic. Remember, Traffic = Sales! First off you should find any forums or discussion boards pertaining to the product you are selling. Join as many of these as you can and start commenting on posts and place posts of your own. Become a local at these places so people begin to know you. Now you can’t explicitly promote your website in a post, but you can have a link in your signature and once in a while refer people to your site when the topic directly relates to your product. DON’T just start telling people to check out your website or you will be banned.

Another way to get sales is by selling your product on eBay. This is a simple and cheap way to get sales. The one suggestion I have here is make sure you have a professional auction. Spend the extra time to create an eye catching template as you should be posting a number of times on eBay.

You can also post your items on free classified sites such as Craigslist or Kijiji. These have millions of hits per month and are completely free! Don’t miss these.

If you know anything about Google Adwords, you should look into putting a campaign in place. This will cost some money and may not be a first option for you. Either way you should think about a campaign for down the road when you have some money. If you aren’t familiar with Google Adwords, then you should go and read more about this. I will be posting about Adwords in the coming month, stay tuned for more on that!

Word of mouth is always a good thing. If you know people interested in your item, tell them about it and they may tell their friends. Once people start hearing about your item, if it’s good the word will spread. You could also place a basic ad in your local newspaper or advertise on any free local boards (I.e. at the Supermarket), etc.

This should be enough to get you going. As time passes, you should also keep updating your ebook (if applicable) to keep the information current. You could have an opt in mail list on your site to keep people informed of new and exciting things with your product. This is a great way to build an email list for future possibilities. I will also be posting about opt in list in the near future. I hope this helps you get started on your ebook adventure and brings in many sales! Good luck and have fun with it.