How to create an eBook
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We asked this question and set off on a mission to find out if we could create an eBook. Here is what we learned.
You can make money creating eBooks by
(1) Writing on a topic that people want to know more about.
(2) Solve a problem people in your niche need solved
(3) Create your eBook using free software.
(4) Sell your eBook in a marketplace that is set up for digital product sales
(5) Market your eBook through your social media channels and website
The short answer is yes, creating eBooks is one of the ways digital creators are making money online. Making money online has a multi-prong strategy that you have to learn in order to become more economically independent. Check our our post that helps explain this further. If there is one thing that the global pandemic has taught us, it is that working for someone else can be fragile. When hard times are ahead, the first thing companies must cut is worker salary and generally the only way to do that is through lay-offs. That means your company paycheck is dependent on the current global economic situation, which is always changing. The global lock down has shown how many people are living paycheck to paycheck.
However, what it has also shown us, is how everyone needs to rethink how they make money. You must find a way to use your laptop or desk computer to generate cash, at home, while you sleep to insulate yourself from the threat of layoffs and economic uncertainty. Creating eBooks is one small part of that strategy.
Can you make a living just selling eBooks? Well, you could if your eBook content happens to be part of that very, very small percentage that goes viral. You know how hard that is. However, you don’t have to go viral to make enough to be comfortable. You can do it the slow steady way. For this you need a strategy. It is reasonable to make $100,000 a year with a full digital asset strategy in place. This is more than eBooks. It is for example : eBooks, courses, masterclasses and other digital product sales just to name a few.
Let’s decode this process. eBooks are considered one part of digital product creation. We dove in, head first into the tools that are being used for each piece of the digital asset strategy. We will be sharing these in individual posts. Check out our companion post that introduces the topic of a digital asset strategy.
We set a goal of figuring out if eBooks can each be created with less than fifty US dollars to start. Yep, fifty dollars in total cash outlay was the challenge we set. Because let’s face it, when you are starting out you have very little expendable cash. We wanted to make sure we could implement each section of the strategy without a huge cash outlay. That 50 bucks covers the web hosting.
We also wanted to try to figure out if you need a huge following on social media to build your financial independence. The truth is, when you first start out you probably have your immediate circle of friends and your mom. If you give her the access. Learning how to become digitally independent from square one was important for us to figure out for you and us…….and we did! Let’s dive further into some detail.Let’s take it step by step.
Starting with step one - finding a topic people want to know more about.
You could use a topic you are currently working to master.
Write down the pain points as you go
Record everything you have a problem with
Write the solutions to those pain points you found.
Done. Great….but maybe there are not a lot of people seeking more information on the same topic you currently are trying to master. How can you find out if there is a market for your knowledge base and what you want to write about? Here is where your market research comes into play. Check out this Step by Step Guide to New Market Assessment.
Step two - solve a problem.
How do you know what problems others are having? You can start simply, by using Google’s wild card “*”. Let’s say your niche is gardening. You want to know what people are searching for in the gardening niche because you want to answer those questions.. Type “How to * in garden“ into the Google search bar. Take a look at what pops up in the drop down menu of choices. How to garden in the city, how to garden in raised beds…..you are viewing the most searched topics in that niche. And they change! As more questions are asked you will see this change giving you even more ideas. Sweet!
Use Google’s Wild Card Feature
Let Google fill in the best result from it’s huge database of questions that are being asked.
There lies the title of your new eBook and/ or your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) keywords! Click on one that interests you the most. Here you will find the section entitled “People also asked”, these are more of the top questions.
These questions can be your chapters. Determine if the information you have to offer can add to and enhance what is already there. Is the niche saturated and it will be hard to find your book among the sea of titles. In the Google search bar click “more” and “books”. You will find the books and titles on the subject. Can you answer the question with a fresh take? If so, You are all set to start writing. If not, and you need more inspiration:
Head over to Answer The Public and get a treasure trove of information to help you create and give you inspiration. Try to find a niche or sub-niche where you can make an impact. Now that you know what the competition is doing. What you see here is just a small taste of the information you get when you type in gardening for example into Answer The Public. I highly recommend the site for your niche and topic research. If you have a blog post, each and every spoke can be made into an article. Each spoke can be an eBook or chapters in your eBook. Nice!
Finding your topics
Using Answer the Public
Step three- Use free software to create your eBook
The next logical question is how do you go about creating eBooks to sale? Using free tools to create the eBook from the start will help you get your first product out the door and up for sale at a cost of just your time. As you become more experienced and sophisticated in your digital asset portfolio, you will find your time becomes more valuable and you will begin to make some adjustments spending more time on the digital products that generate the most revenue for you. For now, you got nothing but time, so let’s use it to start to create your digital products to generate that cash flow. Like your eBooks.
What is important is that the products you create such as eBooks are as evergreen as possible. You don’t want to spend the time to create the eBooks and then have to go back and update every week. This becomes important as you build more and more titles into your collection. Version control can become difficult.
Try to create a product that can stand without changes for at least a year. Links change and information can become outdated after a year. This is plenty of time to find out if the eBook is worth updating or should be removed or replaced. Once a year you can go through your titles and update them. Reasonable right?
My favorite software to create an ebook and all your marketing materials is CanvaPro. Canva comes as a free version and the paid Pro version. Personally, we started out with the free version and loved it. We found going for the paid Pro version gives you access to the best graphics images and templates. Well worth the small fee. Here is a quick video we made to show you how quick and easy it is to make an eBook using CanvaPro:
You wrote the eBook, now what?
Now, you are probably wondering how do I market my new eBook? We gotcha covered. Check out the free eBook from our friends at SEMRush: Content Marketing Checklist- 25 things You Should Really Try in 2020 a nice gift for you!
There is so much to unpack here, that we are creating an eBook series that covers how to create eBooks and all the other parts of your digital asset strategy! Links coming soon (We are testing everything to make sure it works and makes sense before we bring the How to guide to you). In it we get down to the details of the parts of a digital asset strategy and how to create each part step by step.
We break each part into its own eBook to keep them as brief as possible so you get straight into the build in each book without it being a huge War and Peace compilation. Ain’t nobody got time for that. We wrote the eBooks in the way we want to have an eBook. To the point. We can’t wait to share them with you when we are done.
We want our community to be safe and economically stable. We are here to help make your life better in any small way that we can.
Before you go….Get your creative marketing team
We want to share a link from our affiliate friend that we hope you will find valuable. We use Placeit to create mock ups for our products and love it so much we reached out to become an affiliate because it is a product we can stand behind. When you don’t have money to hire models and set up expensive photo shoots to showcase your digital products, this is the solution for you!
Put your designs on t shirts, create professional images to help market that new eBook you just created! The annual plan is the best deal and well worth it. Try it for free! Like having a whole creative marketing team to give your products a professional look for social media and sales.
Thanks for taking this journey with us! Hit us up in the comments and let us know what has worked for and your best tips. Thanks!