Making a Successful Ebook…might be easier than you think!

June 16, 2012

Home

Making an ebook was easier than I thought.

I was inspired to write this post about making a successful ebook after reading a very touching story about a man who had gone through a miserable divorce and had finally found a way to come to peace with it.

He was so grateful not to be suffering anymore, that he decided to write an article about his experience for others who might be going through the same thing he had just been through.

He had so many wonderful responses to his article that his friends suggested that he write an Ebook.

So with a little help from his friends, he was able to make an Ebook and send it to a targeted audience that he thought might be interested.

To his total surprise they bought it like crazy!

He had turned what was a miserable experience into an opportunity that was helping others…and he was making money!

There was something about the way the story was written that really touched me and gave me goosebumps!.

I felt waves of appreciation for how much access we have to learn about other people’s experiences, challenges and resolutions.

And how the Internet has given us a way to support one another from anywhere in the world…how cool is that!?!

So what exactly is an Ebook, anyway?

And Ebook a digital vehicle that lets you take an idea that’s in your head and turn it into a product that you can offer on the Internet.

And if you are anything like I was, you are inspired and motivated to get on with doing it!

And wondering what you need to get started!

Well, what you need to make an Ebook  is:

  • A healthy desire to provide a solution for someone’s problem…for a person “out there” that desperately needs what you have to offer…a desire to connect and provide a solution for  your “ideal customer”
  • A willingness to tap into that person’s head and imagine the key words or phrases that your ideal customer might be typing into Google as a way to find a solution to what they desperately need help for (ie…the solution that YOU have to offer!)
  • A good way to test your Ebook to see if your solution is connecting with the people that are desperately looking for it. You also want to test to see if the solution you are providing is working in such a way that they can understand and implement it.  Once you have this information you will know how to tweak it to make it a better product and easier to find on the Internet.
  • Good tools to make your product

Healthy Desire to provide a solution for my “ideal customer”:

Now you might be wondering, “How do I figure out who my ‘ideal customer’ is?”

Well, a good place to start is to think about the biggest challenges and/or the most uncomfortable (or downright miserable) experiences that you’ve had in your life.

Think about and have brought peace and resolution to those experiences.

Or maybe you are still in the middle of it…and are discovering what is and isn’t working to and can share about that.

To get more clear on what I’m talking about, ask yourself:

  • What have been the conversations in my head when I had this problem?
  • What’s were my conversations with other people?
  • Did I keep it a secret and try to fix it myself…and how did that work?
  • What worked and what didn’t work?
  • Can sharing what I went through support other people in not feeling alone in their experience?
  • Can I be a catalyst for helping them create new conversations in their heads that help them come to resolution?

Other ideas that you might have in your head for an Ebook may include information that you have on:

  • How to make… or accomplish something
  • Resolving a relational problem with yourself or another person
  • Resolving any another kind of issue… by interviewing different people on what they think about resolving the issue… ideas and tips on how they have dealt with those issues themselves.
  • Developing skills and talents
  • Health and Wellness
  • How to raise children
  • Having pets
  • Tips and information on travel
  • Making choices on products and other things that people like to buy
  • Creating a different life style
  • What NOT to do around a certain topic or what you learned about having a certain experience
  • And…whatever 🙂

If you decide that that you want your ebook to be very profitable, be sure you have a product that not only useful, but is one that your ideal customer is desperately looking for.  You can always go back to the drawing board, and look for ways to tweak things so that your idea fits that criteria.

The key is to narrow your focus as much as you can to fill a very specific urgent need. For instance, if you tell me you’ll fix my fear of heights I’ll try to fit you in next Tuesday. But if you me you’ll fix my fear of flying when I’m just about to take the trip of a lifetime around the world and, I’ll cancel whatever I’m doing!

Tapping into your ideal customers head:

Close your eyes for a moment and pretend that you are your ideal customer.

You have a problem and you are desperate to find the solution (i.e…you have a very painful ache in your shoulder and you can’t sleep at night).

Pretend that you can’t go to sleep, and start typing in key words into the Google search engine to desperately find a solution (i.e…”how do I fix my aching shoulder?” ).

What keywords and phrases did you come up with as you were pretending to be your ideal customer?

So, as you are making your Ebook be sure that you include those keywords and phrases in your writing, so that when you put it out on the market they can find your solution!

Testing:

Testing can stop you from wasting too much time on products that no one wants and can help you to focus on creating products that have a better chance of success.

Publish a short version of what you want to do and wait for feedback.

You can put out your idea out on different forums where people are hanging out talking about the specific issues and topics you are writing about.

You can google blogs and other platforms like Facebook, where you think your ideal customers will be looking…and add comments…and ask questions (question create engagement…which is what you want!)

You could do a survey with www.monkeysurvey.com on Facebook and ask people if they would be interested in what you have to offer…or offer them a free test run copy…and ask them what they think of your idea… and if they would give you a testimonial to use in your advertising.

Watch for their the reaction.

Remember the two magic ingredients: desperation and urgency. I need it and I want it now!

Once you have their feedback and it looks like your product is something that your market is starving for, then go ahead and keep on working to make it even better!

How to create your product quickly:

“Burning desire is intertwined with urgent desperation. It’s the same feeling, inverted. If you’re dying to write it, and they’re dying to read it, you have the magic combination. The rest is a question of reaching your market and meeting expectations by delivering excellence.” 

Just like the man who had a difficult divorce, his original article was an opportunity for him to share his experiences and help others, and then by turning it into an Ebook he had the opportunity to help even more people, in much more detail.

If you are truly inspired and really care about your customer, then you will connect with your customer in a way that will be a very rewarding for both of you!

Some tips on starting to write it:

Spend some time creating an overview of what messages you want to convey in your Ebook….jot them down and funnel it down to the core message that you want to get across…and make an outline of how you imaging it all coming together.

Then start writing and….

  • Don’t stop
  • Don’t edit
  • Don’t trying to fix or correct anything
  • Just write until you know it’s time to quit
  • When you are ready start writing the same way again…just let it flow…don’t try to stop and fix it
  • When you get to the end, leave your work alone for a couple of days.
  • A couple of days or so later, find some quiet time to work in and start editing
  • Edit your work once, twice at most.

If you are always stoping to edit your work as you write, you will be interrupting your flow and you invariably get stuck in details and loose your authenticity. Creativity is spontaneous and you can always go back and correct any grammar and/or make it more readable in the editing stage.

Tell the ideas and stories that are in your head as if you were talking to your best friend…as as if you’re helping out somebody you care about.

Listen to what you would be saying, and them write it down.

Tools that you will need:

  (1) A place to write or add you Ebook into that is user friendly.

  • Start a blog and use your “pages”.  That’s how I to wrote my Ebook.  I wrote the the chapters on separate pages and turned it into a 5 day long sequence that I put in my Awber autopresponder system so my customers receive a lesson a day with the intention that they will have time to digest and assimilate the information in between each lesson. People tell me that they have loved receiving it that way… and look forward to getting it in their inbox each day.
  • Open Office (www.download-free.com/Office-Suite) is another option if you don’t have a blog and are going to advertise it on Facebook or another platform. This is free software. I haven’t used it myself, and I’ve heard that it is simple to use… and has an “Export to PDF” function which is a fantastic feature when publishing your Ebook.. If you already have Microsoft Word and you prefer to write with this, stick to what you’re comfortable with…and just turn it into a PDF file. (Note: Open Office currently supports the Windows Operating System only. If you’re looking for Mac Software I recommend using Download.com
All that said, if you want to learn more on how to use Open Office, go to YouTube and type in “How to use Open Office” and you will find lots of video tutorials that will support you learning how to use it. 

(2) Somewhere to publish your books to and sell from:

  • You can start a blog. (Click here and go to my website  www.CrystalPresenceOnline.com to find out more. Look under New Possibilities tab and go to the section on “Tuning Your Skills and Talents Into an Online Business” Opt in and it will take you to a page where there is a very clear and FREE ebook on how to start a blog…and more!)
  • Lulu.com is free.  This is a printer on demand. Create an account, upload your document and you’re done. You get a page for your book plus a shopping cart, and nothing to set up. Lulu handles all the sales and the delivery, and sends you a check quarterly for all your sales and take a tiny fee for their service. But more importantly, with Lulu.com  you retain all the copyrights to your work. This is key. I’ve heard that people have looked at dozens of print on demand services over the years and lulu is the only one that doesn’t seen that doesn’t attempt to steal your copyright in any way.I would be sure to check it out before you start thought…just to be sure that nothing has changed. The person who made this suggestion to me, has only praise for them.
             There are also some good tutorials on Youtube…just type in “How to use Lulu.com to publish an Ebook”…or something similar to that!

(3) Making your Ebook pretty and looking professional: 

  • There is a resource on Lulu.com…I haven’t used it myself but I hear that it is user friendly.
  • You will also find cover artists and graphic designers on www.Elance.com, Fiverr or www.Odesk.com ( I use www.Fiverr.com and they’ll make a cover for $5.00!).
  • I also know a website designer who uses Photoshop…his name is John Christensen at www.johnchristensenwebdesign.com…or call him at  608- 432- 2814. He is a personal friend of mine and fun and easy to work with!
  • You can make one yourself for a free cover for your book at www.myecovermaker.com (you can also upgrade to a paid version)
  • And I’ve also had a good experience with www.Killercovers.com
  • Alot of marketers are also using www.99designs.com…they send your idea out to many different designers and you get to pick the one you like best…and just pay for that one!
(4) Adding images or Pictures to you Ebook is an option:
I personally like seeing images or pictures as I am reading a report or an ebook…and it makes it more fun for me to write them 🙂
You can google “stock photos and images” and see what comes up…you’ll find places where you can find free and paid ones .
A couple of resources that I like are:
  • www.Dreamstime.com:       I like them because it is an easy system to use… and I can keep a running “lightbox” of images or pictures that I particularly like and go back and purchase them  whenever I want or need them. They have free images and paid ones in a variety of price ranges.
  • http://photoxpress.com (someone that I know and trust just gave me this one which is her favorite!).
  • www.Photobucket.com is great for cropping, editing and getting the link you might need for some of your own photos.
(5)  Deciding on the cost of your Ebook:

When you are deciding on the cost look online and see if there are any products similar to yours so you can get an idea of a starting point. Studies have shown that using  a “7” in the price make a product sell better.

  1. $27
  2. $37
  3. $47
  4. $67
  5. $97
  6. $99

You can use the more standard looking prices such as:

  1. $9.99
  2. $19.95
  3. etc

Pricing a product and putting it out on the market will be a test in itself, and of course be affected by the quality of your product. Price it quickly…see the results…and  then be prepared to tweak it!  The market will let you know how much they are willing to pay for it!

More on the Maketing part:

If you want to learn more about attraction marketing for:

  • Selling your ebook
  • Marketing your business
  • Selling other products you or others have.

I highly recommend that you find yourself a good marketing team to support and guide you.

I am grateful every day for the team that I am partnering with. If you want further information on any of this please make an appointment to talk with me at http://crystal-presence-online.genbook.com

I welcome your comments and questions.

With intent for your success,

                                       

 


 

 

 

, ,

2 Responses to “Making a Successful Ebook…might be easier than you think!”

  1. Martina Says:

    I love this article Crystal, it has all the basics wrapped up in a succinct format. I will share this with my fans on Facebook. Thank you for putting it together…

    Reply

    • Crystal Presence Says:

      Thanks Martina.
      Ebooks are such a wonderful way for people around the world to express themselves.
      It’s awesome how much technology is supporting us all in that freedom.

      Reply

Leave a Reply