This is the eighth post on what is a series of posts on the reasons Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks.  They will all come together in an ebook I will be using in future giveaways.

Writing Your Ebook

The hardest part of writing anything is the first sentence.  When you look at the whole project it seem like an impossible task.  That’s why you need to break it down into manageable chunks.  For your ebook these would be the chapters.

Imagine you are going to climb Mount Everest, you are standing at the bottom looking up at the summit disappearing into the clouds.  How can you possibly climb such an immense and dangerous mountain?

There is only one way to climb any mountain and that is: step after step after step after step.

Now think of writing your ebook the same way – one step at a time.  You must create it step by step and one day you will take the final step and will have your complete ebook finished.

The first thing you have to do, just the same as a mountain climber, is to get yourself organised.  Instead of climbing gear you must organise your thoughts.  There are some some steps you must take before you begin.  When you have worked through the list, detailed here and in following posts, you will be ready to start writing your ebook.

Beginning steps to writing an ebook.

Step 1 – think of a working title for your ebook, don’t worry you can always change it later.  Jot down a few different titles and eventually you will find one you like.  Titles help you to focus your writing on your topic.  They guide you in anticipating and answering your readers queries.

Many Non-fiction books along with some ebooks have subtitles but these are not essential so don’t worry about them.  Aim for clarity in your title although cleverness always helps to sell ebooks as long as it’s not too cute.  Some examples of titles are: Remedies for sleeplessness – 20 different ways to count Sheep.  Or Get off that couch – 15 exercise plans to whip you into shape.

Step 2 – Write out a thesis statement.  Your thesis is a sentence or two stating exactly what problem you are addressing and how your book will solve that problem.  All chapters will spring forth from your thesis statement.  Once you have it fine tuned you have built your foundation and from that foundation your ebook will grow chapter by chapter.

Your thesis statement will help keep you focused while you write your ebook.  Remember all chapters must support your thesis statement.  If they don’t they don’t belong in your ebook.  If your thesis statement gives a number of ways to do something then you should have that number of chapters in you ebook.  You might have only 5 or 6 chapters or you might have 20 or more it doesn’t matter as long as each chapter is relevant the number of chapters is irrelevant.

One method to help in setting out your ebook is mind-mapping software or alternatively you could use index cards.  By writing your suggested titles on a series of cards and then your chapter titles on more cards using one card for each title.  You can then select the ebook title which you feel is the best and rearrange the chapter titles into the order you feel the chapters should come in the ebook.

This series will be continued in part 9 coming shortly.

Your comments are always welcome and if you have anything you would like to add please do so below.  I look forward to reading what you have to say.

Richard

Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks – Part 8 is a post from: Richard Moloney's Blog

This is the seventh post on what is a series of posts on the reasons Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks.  They will all come together in an ebook I will be using in future giveaways.

Marketing and Promotion – Contd.

You can extend the value of a single ebook by breaking the book down into chapters for an email course or membership site, into special reports available on your website or into MP3 audio format or even video format if it is suitable to do so.  Ebooks can also be broken down for use in several different promotional materials by splitting into articles and using them to promote your product.

You can include a resources catalogue in your ebook to promote all the other products or services you sell.  You can include a thank you note for reading you ebook and an invitation to download a trial version of another product.

Or you can include a link for your readers to contact you for further information or to answer any questions they may have.  This helps build your business relationships and your mailing list.

Using ebooks in this manner cuts the costs of individually producing separate promotional materials.  You can use a single ebook to entice new prospects and to sell new products to your current customers.

No other medium has this kind of flexibility for expansion.  Think of your ebook like a spider spinning a beautiful and intricate web.  Now go and create that web and see how many customers and prospects you can catch.

This series will be continued in part 8 coming shortly.

Your comments are always welcome and if you have anything you would like to add please do so below.  I look forward to reading what you have to say.

Richard

Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks – Part 7 is a post from: Richard Moloney's Blog

This is the sixth post on what is a series of posts on the reasons Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks.  They will all come together in an ebook I will be using in future giveaways.

Marketing and Promotion

There are a large number of different ways to use ebooks to promote your business and drive quality traffic to your website.  Once posted on your site you can turn them into a daily course which brings your customer back to read the next installment.

You can use them as a free gift for someone making a purchase, filling out a survey or in giveaways.  You can also convert your ebook into an audio or video recording which you can use as an up-sell for customers who have got the written version.

The most effective marketing products are those that are unique.  Copyright your ebook and immediately you have a powerful tool that you and you alone can offer to the public.  People will have to visit your site to acquire your ebook which increases the flow of quality traffic and the potential of sales and affiliate contacts.

Make sure that you keep you ebook current.  Update it frequently as the market and trends change.  Add new advice and techniques to show your prospects how you goods or services can enrich their lives.

By saying update it frequently I do not mean every day / week / month just when and if it needs to be updated.  I.e. if your ebook covers a software program which is updated every couple of years then you need to update when the program is updated.  Or you could write a new version based on the updated program and keep the original version available for those who haven’t got the newer version.

By constantly keeping abreast of new trends and techniques you can continue to see profits from your ebook for years after you originally created it.

Another massive advantage of ebooks is that you can test their marketing potential without spending a fortune.  Your ebook should be available as a down loadable product so that your customers can get it 24 / 7 / 365 without you having to be personally available.

By Keeping your ebook current you can gauge its saleability and make adjustments as necessary until the orders start pouring in.  Ebooks allow you to learn about your market,  customer habits and motivation over a period of time without risking your precious financial resources.

They also provide you with an invaluable way to gather marketing information that you can use in many different facets of your business.

Use your ebook to discover what the specific goals and problems are in your niche.  Then figure out how to solve these problems and publish another ebook with the answers.  This will increase the value of your business, upgrade your reputation and get you known as an expert in your field.

Marketing and Promotion will be continued in part 7 coming shortly.

Your comments are always welcome and if you have anything you would like to add please do so below.  I look forward to reading what you have to say.

Richard

Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks – Part 6 is a post from: Richard Moloney's Blog

This is the fifth post on what is a series of posts on the reasons Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks.  They will all come together in an ebook I will be using in future giveaways.

Ebooks Are Promotional Powerhouses – Contd.

Ebooks are interactive.  This is one of the most unique and specific qualities that ebooks offer. You can add pages for a survey that needs to be filled out, an order form for customers to purchase your other products or services, sound or video clips that draw your reader into the virtual world of your ebook.

You can even add direct links to relevant sites that will allow readers to get other products (yours or another marketers).  The potential is virtually limitless.  These addons are not necessary for you to write a great ebook so don’t worry about them.

Ebooks have a particular kind of permanence that other mediums do not possess.  Television and radio shows air once, may rerun a few times, can now be found on the station website for a limited time after the program has run.

Ebooks remain on your or your customers computer for as long as you / your customer choose.  They can be read and reread whenever needed.  You can even print them out and store them on the shelves of your traditional home library.

Another wonderful quality is that ebooks have no barriers in terms of publishing.  You don’t need to go through the endless process of submitting your manuscript over and over again.  You also don’t have to shell out thousands of dollars for printing.  All that is required for ebooks is to decide on your market, write your ebook, post it on your website and with the right business savvy your audience will come to you.

Finally you have creative control over your ebook.  You don’t have to compromise with an editor or the current publishing trends.  You don’t have to haggle with a designer or wait for the copy edited proofs to arrive by snail mail.  You are in complete control of the design and the text.

This series will be continued in part 6 coming shortly.

Your comments are always welcome and if you have anything you would like to add please do so below.  I look forward to reading what you have to say.

Richard

Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks – Part 5 is a post from: Richard Moloney's Blog

This is the forth post on what is a series of posts on the reasons Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks.  They will all come together in an ebook I will be using in future giveaways.

Ebooks Are Promotional Powerhouses

Ebooks are now a large part of cyberspace.  They are currently one of the best and easiest mediums to use for sharing marketing information, ideas, techniques and your expert knowledge.  Each day the number of people accessing the Internet grows, causing the exposure of your ebook to increase incrementally.

In my opinion there are some topics that will always be better for offline publishing, so I believe the publishing industry does not intend to forever banish the printed word to the dustbin of history.  These types of book would include all fictional story books as I think they would not be suitable for ebooks.

I may be wrong and with the way the Kindle and other book readers are getting more and more common with a lot of the fictional books available on them I possibly am.  To me books in print have their own special qualities and merits and the world would be diminished by their disappearance.

Having said that let’s look at what makes ebooks so important and so unique.  Ebooks have certain abilities and quantities that other mediums do not possess.

For example ebooks are fairly easy to produce and their production cost is practically Zero.  Just Think about it:

• You don’t need a publisher
• You Don’t need an agent
• You don’t need a printing press
• You don’t need paper and ink
• You don’t even need a distributor
• You just need a great concept, the ability tio write the ebook or to hire a writer, and the right software.

Additionally ebooks are easily and rapidly distributed online. They are also easily updated, they do not require a second print run.  All you need to do is to go into your original creation and modify the text or graphics.  Because of this flexibility ebooks can change and grow as fast as you can type.

Ebooks are also immediately obtainable.  You don’t have to go to a bookstore or search through endless titles at an online bookstore.  All you have to do is download it from a website and hey presto it’s on your computer ready to be read.

This series will be continued in part 5 coming shortly.

Your comments are always welcome and if you have anything you would like to add please do so below.  I look forward to reading what you have to say.

Richard

Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks – Part 4 is a post from: Richard Moloney's Blog

This is the third post on what is a series of posts on the reasons Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks.  They will all come together in an ebook I will be using in future giveaways.

What Price Should The Ebook Be – Contd?

Let us now look at the specifics of how the print and cyber publishing industries differ and the many reasons why you should take the plunge and get your fingers tapping across those keyboards.

Submitting a print book to a conventional publishing house  or to an agent is similar to wearing a very uncomfortable piece of clothing 24 / 7.  No matter how good your book actually is or how many well known writers tell you you’ve got what it takes, your submitted manuscript keeps coming back to you as if it is a boomerang instead of a valuable mine of information.

Perhaps in desperation you’ve checked out self publishing and found out just how expensive it can be.  Most ” Vanity Presses” as self publishers are called require a minimum print run of 500 copies which will cost you thousands of dollars.

Some of the bigger printers require a print run of 1,000 or 2,000.  Add in the costs of distribution, shipping, advertising and promotional costs the the total price comes to – well you do the math.  Even if you wanted to go down this route you may not have the funds available to pay up front.

A small local printer quoted me $4.00 per copy for a 116 page ebook with a minimum of 250 copies.  This $1,000 would have been payable on collection of the printed ebook.  If I went for 1,000 copies the price would have been $2.50 per copy.

The printed book would then have had a sale price of around $30 which seems to give a good profit margin, but by the time you add in the costs of advertising, post and packaging and other promotional costs could actually result in an overall loss especially if all the copies were not sold.

An ebook on the other hand costs nothing to print and very little for distribution, you only need to set up a website to promote it and people world wide can download it immediately 24 /7.  You can also list it on the Amazon Kindle and similar sites where a large audience can see and buy it.

Let’s assume you already have an Internet business with a quality website and a high quality product.  An ebook is one of the most powerful ways to promote your business whilst educating people with the knowledge you already possess as a business owner of a specific product or service.

For example, let’s say you have spent the last 20 – 30 years breeding Siamese cats, and you are now ready to share your knowledge and experience.  An ebook is the perfect way to reach the largest audience, around the world, of Siamese cat lovers.  The information may also be useful to breeders of other types of cats or even dogs.  It will not be directly applicable but can easily be modified and you then have other ebooks to sell as well as the first one.

This series will be continued in part 4 coming shortly.

Your comments are always welcome and if you have anything you would like to add please do so below.  I look forward to reading what you have to say.

Richard

Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks – Part 3 is a post from: Richard Moloney's Blog

This is the second post on what will be a series of posts on the reasons Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks.  They will all come together in an ebook I will be using in future giveaways.

4.   How Many Pages Should My Ebook Have?

The answer to this is as many as it needs.  You may be able to cover all the necessary information in 10 – 20 pages or you may need over 100 pages to cover everything.  When you have answered the questions in No. 3 (in my last post) you may have a better idea as to how many pages you need.

If the final ebook only has a smallish number of pages it will most likely be suitable for a giveaway whereas if it has a large number of pages it will be more suitable to sell.

The choice is up to you but do not pad out the pages with irrelevant information just to make it into a larger ebook for selling.  Doing this will degrade the quality of the ebook and people will not want to buy your future offerings.

5.   What Price Should The Ebook Be?

This is like asking “How long is a piece of string?”  The answer depends on the size of the finished product and the value of the information contained within its pages.  If their are similar products around check their prices and set yours in a similar range.  Again your answers to the questions in number 3 (in my last post) will help you decide.

It has been said that everything that has already been said has also been written.

The above statement is not true as there is plenty of information that was lost through never having been written down.  This happened because people hoarded the information to themselves so that competitors could not make use of it and when they passed away it went to their graves with them.

Since that saying first came into use the whole universe has changed.  Technology has changed, ideas have changed and the mindsets of entire nations have changed.

The fact is that this is the perfect time to write an ebook.  What the publishing industry needs are people who can tap into the world as it is today – innovative thinkers who can figure out how to solve old problems in a new way.  Ebooks are a powerful tool for original thinkers with fresh ides to disseminate information to the millions of people who are struggling to find out how to do a multitude of different things.

Let’s say you already have a brilliant idea and the knowledge to back it up that will allow you to write an exceptional ebook.  You may be sitting at your computer staring at a blank screen wondering “Why?  Why should I go through all the trouble of writing my ebook when it’s nearly impossible to get anything published these days?”

This above question Why may well have been true in the days of print book only but, let me assure you, publishing an ebook is totally different from publishing a print book.

This will be continued in part 3 coming shortly.

Your comments are always welcome and if you have anything you would like to add please do so below.  I look forward to reading what you have to say.

Richard

Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks – Part 2 is a post from: Richard Moloney's Blog

This is the first post on what will be a series of posts on the reasons Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks.  They will all come together in an ebook I will be using in future giveaways.

An Introduction

Before you start to write your ebook there are some things you need to think about.  These include:

1. What is the subject of your proposed ebook?
2. Do I write the ebook myself or do I pay someone else to write it for me?
3. In what way am I going to use the ebook?
4. How many pages should it have?
5. What price should it be?

The answers to the above questions are totally up to you yourself but I will try to give you some pointers.

1.   What is the subject opf your proposed ebook?

The subject should be on a topic which is popular with customers in your niche.  There is no point in writing an ebook about Cricket and then trying to sell it to your Golfing customers as the majority of them will have no interest in Cricket.  If your niche is Internet Marketing then pick a small part of that niche to concentrate on.

2.   Do I write the ebook myself or do I pay someone else to write it for me?

If the subject is something you personally know a lot about then write it yourself, if it is a subject about which you know a little but maybe not in great detail it may be best to get someone else with more knowledge to write it for you.

Another point to consider is the time you have available to spend writing, could you put the time to more productive use, by this I mean is the time you sopend writing the ebook going to cost you a loss of income from other parts of your business because you have not spent the time on them?

3.   In what way am I going to use the ebook?

Some points to consider here are:

• Am I going to give the ebook away in giveaways to build my list?
• Will I giveaway a chapter to entice customers to buy the full ebook?
• Will I use the ebook as an upsell or OTO for another existing product?
• Is the ebook going to be a standalone product or part of a series of ebooks?

By asking your self these and any other questions you can think of you are well on the way to making your mind up on writing your own ebooks.

This will be continued in part 2 coming shortly.

Your comments are always welcome and if you have anything you would like to add please do so below.  I look forward to reading what you have to say.

Richard

Why YOU Should Write YOUR Own Ebooks – Part 1 is a post from: Richard Moloney's Blog

As this is my last post for 2011 I wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year, may all your dreams come true.

These are my plans for 2012:

1. To launch my own giveaway event towards the end of January running into February.
2. To get some articles published in article directories.
3. To get my autoresponder messages properly set up so that I start to make an income from email marketing and have an average of $500 per month before the end of the year.
4. To post 2 – 3 blog posts each week.
5. To write or compile at least 1 information product each month so that I have 12 by this time next year.

There may be other things I will do as well and when I do I will publish them here.

Recap of 2011 for this blog

1. Blog relaunched in July after about 15 months offline and to date have 50 posts published here.  The more important ones I’ve listed below along with a link to them.
2. Joined IBCX Coaching and Mentoring program which is the best I’ve ever seen.
3. Wrote an ebook about Diabetes which I use as a giveaway product.
4. Wrote a short report on list building also for giveaways.

Recap of some older posts on this blog:

To go to any of these posts just click the link “Click Here” at the end of each post

1. IBCX posted 21st July Click Here
2. Internet Business CodeX posted 31st July Click |Here
3. The WordPress Classroom posted 2nd August Click Here
4. IBCX Update posted 8th August Click Here
5. Overcome Writers Block posted 11th August Click Here
6. Overcome Writers Block Contd posted 15th August Click Here
7. 5 Reasons Why Your Next Big Idea Might Fail posted 24th August Click Here
8. Online Marketing posted 1st September Click Here
9. Why Is List Building Important posted 9th September Click Here
10. Ways To Get More Blog Readers and Commenters posted 16th September Click Here
11. JV Giveaways posted 23rd September Click Here
12. Social Bookmarking posted 27th September Click Here
13. Article Writing posted 5th October Click Here
14. Why Spend YOUR Time Writing Articles posted 10th October Click Here
15. 5 Things To Consider Before Starting An Affiliate Marketing Program posted 13th October Click Here
16. How To Write Quickly posted 16th October Click Here
17. Earning Money From YOUR Articles posted 19th October Click Here
18. Web Video Mastery posted 4th November Click Here
19. Bulk Emails posted 28th November Click Here
20. Joint Ventures posted 4th December Click Here
21. Make Money With Internet Marketing posted 7th December Click Here
22. What Do All Successful People Have In Common posted 16th December Click Here
23. Viral Ads And Safelists posted 19th December Click Here
24. Information Overload posted 22nd December Click Here

Whilst I have posted other posts here the above are the ones I consider to me the most important and informative during the last 6 months since I relaunched this blog.

Your comments are always welcome and if you have anything you would like to add please do so below.  I look forward to reading what you have to say.

Richard

New Year Plans and Recap For 2011 is a post from: Richard Moloney's Blog

What is Information Overload and do YOU suffer from it?

This post follows on from an email I received from Suzzanne Howarth http://www.monkeyheadcafe.com and it is with her permission I repeat it here.

Suzzanne wrote:

Most people who try their hand at internet marketing are disheartened early on because of information overload. I know, this is exactly how I felt and still do sometimes.

 It is a jungle out there, with a lot of competition and you can become quickly overwhelmed.

You are constantly receiving downloads and offers, left, right and center, from other internet marketers. They all claim that if you read “this” or buy “that”, you will finally succeed.

I have been guilty of subscribing to”everything” and spending a lot of money on products and programs that didn’t provide that “magic formula”.

To overcome this, I found I needed to take a deep breath, step back and use my best judgement. What will work for someone else may not work for you or me.

Here are some tips that I would like to share with you, this is how I started to sort through the “mess”:

* Only subscribe to those lists that are beneficial to your style of doing things. Get rid of the rest.  Nothing is worse than an overcrowded email inbox that takes you hours to get through each day, when you could be doing something more productive.

* Stop spending what money you have on every gimmick that comes your way. There is NO magic plug-in software that will do all the work for you, while you rake in the riches. Like everything in life, in order to succeed you need to put in the effort and work to reach success.  After awhile, you will soon be able to glean what works for you. There are many worthwhile, helpful programs and software out there, free and paid, you just need to do a bit of research to find what suits  your personal style.

* Don’t try to get involved with everything at once. I was very guilty of doing this. For example, I discovered pre-launches. I had some small success with one product which led me to signing up as a JV  to everything that came along. I spread myself too thin and did not succeed with any of them. It doesn’t make for a happy list when they are constantly bombarded with new offers.  You need to be selective with what you promote. Ideally, concentrate on one (no more than two) promotions at one time. Get to know your list. Find out what interests them the most and where they are having difficulties. Most important of all, KNOW what you are promoting …would you see the value in it if it was recommended to you?

* Prioritise and organise your life. I found, for me personally, it is not much fun coping with a neglected husband and children.

 Here is a report that I found helpful when I started feeling overloaded with information and things were building up beyond my control. It is aptly named “Get Your Freedom Back – 38 Ways To Live, Breathe and Work Better On the Internet!” by Ewen Chia.

You can dowload it for free (no opt-in required) here:

http://www.monkeyheadcafe.com/freedom.pdf

If you have any questions about information overload or would just like to share your own experience with me, please leave a comment below or send me an email by using the contact me form on this blog.

Richard

Information Overload is a post from: Richard Moloney's Blog