How To Create An e-Book

I wasted loads on money on all sorts of courses & programs trying to figure out what to do online. It seems everyone has an answer but everyone wants your cash!

Every time you think you've worked out what to do you hit a wall and need to spend more to find the answer.

And there was me thinking running a business on the internet was a way to make money not spend it!

So having written my e-book, which was requested by one of our members at Blogging Beginners I decided it was time to help some other people who might like to know how to create an ebook but haven't got funds available or the inclination to buy a book or course that explains everything.

Although a really good blog post may well encourage your visitors to bookmark your site or even sign up to your RSS feed you do not have any real control in what they get to see.

The objective of any business (apart from making money) should be to build a database of targeted, interested and motivated potential customers. If you have that and build a relationship with those people your have an above average chance they will listen and take action when you have something important to say (or sell!)

As an online marketer your objective should be to collect the email addresses of your site visitors so you can contact them at a later date to develop the relationship and ultimately encourage them to buy into whatever you are selling.

Writing an ebook on the subject of your site or a relevant related subject does at least two things:-

1) It can establish you as an expert in your field (who has written a book and isn't by association considered something as an expert?)

2) It can be used as a "giveaway" to encourage your visitors to subscribe to your list

Provided the book is of interest, contains good solid information and is of good quality you should easily achieve both of those objectives.

As obvious as this may sound it is vital you understand what your market wants.

Before you rush to put pen to paper / finger to keyboard it is essential you do a bit of preparation. Of course, you're keen to get on with your book but that thinking and planning time up-front could be the difference between success and failure of your project.

People rush into projects all the time with only a vague idea of what it's really all about. Books are half finished, or run out of steam part way through or basically have no real message simply because the whole project wasn't thought through properly from the outset.

Understanding your market and what it wants will save you a massive amount of time. You could spend ages perfecting an e-book about a subject that nobody is interested in. The consequences of that could be disastrous - you'd become disillusioned and may even give up whereas a little research up front could prevent all that heartache.

Identify what it is that your market is looking for - do some keyword research and find out the number of searches for words relating to your subject. Consider doing a poll on your site or if you have good traffic already ask your visitors what they want or ask their opinion on what you are thinking of doing.

Always plan your ebook out first.

I use the tried and tested 3 step approach...

Step 1 - Tell them what you are going to tell them
This will usually be an introduction and possibly a contents page.

Step 2 - Tell them
The main body of the book, the contents, is then broken down into manageable sections or subjects and each should move logically into the next and ultimately into the conclusion.

Step 3 - Tell them what you told them
After the contents have been mapped out it is sensible to provide a summary which serves as a reminder of what has been said. If you are looking for your readers to do something as a result of reading your book you'd highlight the major points here and why you can help or provide a solution.

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The easiest way I've found of doing this is to write out a list of contents - perhaps they are sections or chapters and make sure you have included everything you need here before filling in the content.

To write your ebook you really only need a word processor.

I use Microsoft Word - probably the most widely used processor - and this is just perfect for the job.

With just Word you can create an outstanding looking document, particularly if you use some of the more advanced functions that you don't normally use in day to day letter writing.

The functions to think about are Text Boxes, WordArt, tables, and the wide range of formatting facilities.

In addition to Word you may like to use some form of graphics program to manipulate photographs and images or perhaps create your own text graphics but this is by no means essential.