7 Ways You Can Use E-Books to Build Your Business

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E-books can be dynamite marketing tools as well as a unique digitally-delivered products you can sell to earn money. But the success of your e-book depends on how well you're able to market it. First, let's consider the e-book phenomenon.

What's So Great about E-Books?

There's a lot to be said for e-books:

1. Flexibility. Available for multiple platforms so you carry library of e-books with you on a laptop or PDA.
2. Functionality. Depending upon the platform and particular document, you can search, annotate, resize, highlight text, increase font size, create bookmarks, use navigational links, and print. Microsoft Reader now offers a text-to-speech add-on. Interactive games and activities plus sound and video are options.
3. Convenience. You can search online for exactly what you want, purchase, download, and be reading in a few minutes.
4. Pricing. Mass market e-books are usually priced lower than the printed version, especially when counting shipping costs.
5. Space. You save shelf space with many e-books on a computer and whole encyclopedias on one or two CDs. Libraries conserve space and consume less time and money in inventory, weeding, repair, and replacement.
6. Availability. Low-demand books needn't go out of print since warehouse storage is no longer a requirement. Out-of-print volumes books can be converted to e-books quickly and cost-efficiently.
7. Self-publishing. It's cost-effective for writers to publish their own e-books, increasing the quantity and variety of technical and narrow-niche information available.
8. Conservation. E-books save trees and avoid pollution caused by inks and dyes. You can probably argue somehow that they help save the whale, too -- always a biggie. :-)

Why People Still Prefer Print Books

But to tell the truth I'd rather have a print book if I had the choice -- to fill my already stuffed-to-overflowing bookshelves and to gather dust. Many people don't prefer e-books because:

1. E-books don't stack neatly on the toilet tank and are awkward to read lying down.
2. E-books are harder to read at 72 dpi screen resolution. Many people must print them out for reading ease, nullifying many of an e-book's inherent advantages.

I don't expect e-books to replace print books in our lifetime. But in spite of their disadvantages, e-books are in demand. In 2000, Andersen Consulting predicted 10% of all book sales by 2005 will be in e-book format. Though that number may be high, e-books are growing in popularity and many e-marketers attest to the demand.

Ways to Use E-Books in Your Business

Let's consider how can you utilize your own e-book. Let me count the ways:

1. Bolster your reputation as an expert. If you can say with Rodney Dangerfield, "I don't get no respect!" then why don't you write an e-book? A poorly executed e-book will cause you to lose respect, but an excellent e-book will develop your reputation as an expert among both colleagues and customers. While it usually still takes a "real" print book by a known publisher to be considered a "real" author (Life isn't fair!), e-book authors do gain recognition, especially in niche markets.

2. Earn income. You hear stories of fabulous sums earned by e-books about how to market or how to make money. And they're probably true. Your experience, however, is likely to be much more modest. Yes, you can earn decent money from selling e-books. I do (www.wilsonweb.com/ebooks/). E-books take time and effort to write -- and time is money. But once they've been written and published in an electronic format, the cost to distribute is negligible. Of course, there's a marketing overhead in both cost and time, so it's not pure profit -- no matter what anyone says. But e-books do make outstanding products with a substantial profit margin. Later in this article we'll be discussing how to market an e-book.

3. Provide a valuable bonus. E-books make great free gifts to offer when you want people to take a particular action. For example, I give away two free e-books when people confirm their subscription to my weekly e-zine Doctor Ebiz (http://doctorebiz.com/offers/2ebooks.htm). When I began to do this, the subscription rate went up dramatically. Surveys get a huge boost when you offer a valuable bonus for those who complete it -- though it is possible to skew the results if your reward selects for a certain kind of respondent. When selling other products, valuable e-books provide an ideal free bonus, since they can be delivered electronically at no cost. I'm currently offering huge e-book bonuses to those who subscribe to my Web Commerce Today newsletter (free e-book value $123, www.wilsonweb.com/wct/) and my Doctor Ebiz Internet Marketing Seminars and Videos ($271 in free, outstanding e-books, www.wilsonweb.com/seminar/).

4. Viral marketing tool. E-books given away free can serve as effective viral marketing tools designed to earn revenue through affiliate links within the book, speaking engagements, or sales of other products on your site. Yanik Silver wrote Autoresponder Magic (2000, Surefire Marketing, $17). Though Silver sells resale rights, you can also give away his e-book free of charge to customers who will give it to others who will give it to others. This creates a viral marketing expansion for the author, who makes his money by means of various affiliate programs sprinkled liberally throughout the book.

5. Repackage and highlight information. I've learned that site visitors can be impatient. They might disdain reading the back issues of your newsletter, but they'll sit up and take notice when you repackage the very same content as an e-book or report which you can sell, give away, or both.

6. White paper sales pitch for a high ticket item. Many Fortune 500-priced products and services are sold through classy-looking "white papers." Most companies also get your name and e-mail address when you register to download their classy sales pitch.

7. Educate your customers. Your e-book can be a great tool to educate your customers about a particular subject. I wrote my short e-book "How to Develop a Landing Page that Closes the Sale" (www.wilsonweb.com/ebooks/landing.htm) because I observed that some of my advertisers weren't getting the full benefit of ads in my newsletters because the landing pages on some of their sites were so awful. I give my advertisers a free copy to help them succeed, since I know they'll advertise with me again if they can close sales effectively.