EBooks are digital products that are usually in the form of a PDF file that your readers can download. With the popularity of Amazon’s Kindle reader today, they’re even more profitable. You can pump out title after title that shows your expertise in your niche and build quite a little empire. They can be sold for profit or offered as a freebie for people when they sign up to your list.

You can check out some of our own digital eBooks by clicking on the tab saying “Digital Publishing” – go there now and check them out, any queries just email me, also let us know what you think.

Unfortunately, a fair number of eBooks available are garbage. Marketers slap them together without thinking about their quality or they use recycled PLR content that you can find elsewhere. Creating title after title is a great way to build a profitable self-published empire, but it needs to be done right. Your eBooks need to have solid focus.

Listening to Your Audience

Creating a good eBook starts with listening to your audience. As a basic foundation, start with their ideas and questions. You may have what you think is a killer idea for an eBook, but if there’s not demand for it from your customers, it won’t sell. Do research on your customer’s wants, needs and problems by listening to them on online forums and social media sites. You can also come right out and ask them. I’ve asked my list before the blunt question – ‘What would you like an eBook on?’

Write for Buyers

Before you get started, you also need to consider why you’re writing the book. Is it a free giveaway or something you’ll sell? If you’re selling it (or giving it away and you want them to sign up like crazy), make sure there are not only readers but buyers. Are people spending money to get the information you’re putting into your eBook? You can use sites like Amazon and ClickBank to see what’s selling.

Don’t Slap it Together

There’s quite a bit of bad advice out there on how to write your eBook. Contrary to what many marketers say, simply slapping together a bunch of old articles and blog posts doesn’t produce a great eBook. It may be something you can use, but it won’t be the excellent quality you should be shooting for. The reason is that there’s no common thread running through it. It will feel like a collection of articles.

A good eBook, just like any good fiction book, has a plot. It starts with a conflict (the reader’s problem or question) and works its way to a resolution (the solution they’re looking for). Storytelling is just as important in marketing as in the world of entertainment. This is why you need to start with a central question or problem and devote the whole book to it.

The Kitchen Sink Approach

The ‘Kitchen Sink Approach’ is what I call it when a marketer writing their first eBook tries to cover absolutely everything related to the topic. They’re throwing in everything but the kitchen sink. This produces an eBook that’s not only difficult to write, but not focused. It’ll go off on tangents and that breaks our rule of sticking to only one problem or question.

Whenever you find yourself adding extra information or going off on a tangent, save the idea for the next eBook. Each of your books should be compact and focused. Plus, when you start working on researching demand for your next book, you’ll already have some ideas.

Don’t Edit

Finally, don’t edit… at least, not while you’re writing. This is a nasty habit most of us have and even some professional writers do it. You’ll catch yourself saying, ‘No, I should reword that,’ or deleting bits of your text as you go. Don’t do this. Let that nagging inner perfectionist take a break while you work on getting the ideas down. Then later, and preferably another day, go through and edit it as a reader.

And here’s my book written from personal experience that offers up help & advice for others getting into property investing.  Note: I used a pen name for both of these)

Define Your Focus

Start out each eBook by writing a single sentence explaining what it is and what it will do for the reader. Put this sentence somewhere you’ll see it as you work on the book. This helps you keep focus and prevents you from going off on tangents.

Tony

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