Writing an eBook - The How to Guide
by Peter Dobler
Published on this site: July 18th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
Whenever you're listening to one of the big names in internet
marketing you hear the same speech over and over again when
it comes to viral marketing. The number one advice is, write
an eBook and give it away for free.
You might ask "What is viral marketing and why should
I give something away for free after I spend weeks to create
it?". On another note you probably don't even know how
to write an eBook and what to talk about.
First things first. Viral marketing is exactly what the name
implies. You create a marketing effort that spreads like a
virus. No, not the kind of virus you fear on your computer.
Here's an example.
You are running a home business and you're getting pretty
good in attracting new customers, but you're working more
and more hours to generate this traffic to your business.
Well, there are only 24 hours in a day and there's only so
much you can do.
No you have 2 options. Option 1: Hire an employee to help
you with your workload or motivate somebody else to promote
your product. I don't know about you, but the thought alone
having employees gives me the creeps. If you ever had to deal
with employees you know what I'm talking about.
That leaves us with option 2; motivate somebody else to do
the work for us. How do you do this? Easy, the number one
question you have to address is "What's in it for me?".
If you can give this person something in return for their
work you're off to a good start.
Now here's when the eBook thing comes into the picture. eBooks
and/or software are the perfect products to sell or give away
from a automated web site. No packing and shipping involved
and the system takes care of the transaction without you doing
anything. Don't you love this? I sure do!
What's in it for them? By giving away your eBook you break
the barrier for somebody else to actually look at your product.
Second, you give this person the right to distribute and reprint
your eBook. This means that you give the person the right
to give it to another person for consumption and the right
to reprint as well. This will repeat itself over and over
again. That's viral marketing in a nutshell.
Now there's the problem to create an eBook to begin with.
This seems harder than it is. First you need a topic. What
are your hobbies? Are you married for a very long time? How
did you do this? Are you good with home improvements? Did
you successful deal with the government? And so forth...
Now you take one topic and think about what you did to make
it successful or just something you enjoyed. This is the key.
People want to feel better about themselves. You give them
the roadmap on how to do something that they will enjoy at
then end or something they can be proud of.
Once you have a topic to write about, it's downhill from
there. Focus on your topic, outline the eBook first. Start
very high level.
- What's the problem
- What are the obstacles to overcome
- What are the goals you want to achieve with this
- How did you do it
- What are the lessons learned
- What are you doing next
You see having these high level outlines in place will help
you to drill down in each one of them. It might be a little
bit strange in the beginning, but after a while you get used
to it and the words just flow out of your hands.
Armed with this knowledge you should be on your way to write
your first eBook. In my forum I created a folder for first
time writers to advertise their eBooks.
Peter Dobler is a 20+ year veteran in the IT business.
He is an active Real Estate Investor and a successful Internet
business owner. Learn more about the concept of residual income
at http://www.fl-home-biz.com
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