Ebooks are a great source of passive income. And if you’re looking for a quick and easy method for generating extra cash, this is the guide for you.
In today’s article, I’ll explain how to create and market simple information products (like eBooks).
You’ll also discover several “insider secrets” for maximizing your profits and setting your sales to autopilot. More money for less work. What’s not to love?
Here’s everything you need to know before getting started.
1. Why Sell Ebooks?
This morning I woke up to two book sales. Each for 12.99. This might not sound like much, but it adds up.
Move two books a day, every day, and you’re making an extra $9,500 per year. That’s a pretty good chunk of passive income.
Especially since it’s rolling in while you’re asleep.
(Sales This Morning)
Ebooks are unique, because you only work on them once (writing and publishing), but collect your royalty checks for life. This means you’re getting paid for projects you did months, years, or (for some authors) decades ago. It’s a pretty nice source of recurring revenue.
Plus, eBooks often sell themselves.
With the right niche and sales tactics, you’re making money effortlessly. Your product sells itself while you’re off enjoying life.
2. Pick Something Niche (But Not Too Obscure)
Many writers make the mistake of penning books no one wants to read.
They’ll write a book like “How To Start Your Lawnmower” or “How To Poach An Egg,” then wonder why it isn’t selling.
As a rule of thumb, you’ll want to pick a topic that’s popular but niche. This means that your book teaches readers one specific set of skills.
A good example of this is Revolutionary Sex.
This covers a topic everyone is interested in (sex), while marketing itself to a niche audience (men looking improve their bedroom skills). If you want to make money selling eBooks, use a similar strategy.
3. Aim For 20,000 – 30,000 Words
How-to books are tricky. You don’t want them so short people complain, but you don’t want them long-winded either.
Because of this, it’s a good idea to make your titles between 20,000 and 30,000 words in length.
This is about 70 to 100 pages, perfect for covering most niche subjects.
Additionally, the concise nature makes it easy to drive your message home without overwhelming readers.
A good example of this is the Stopwatch Copywriting course. It’s shorter than most books on the subject, but skips needless details or repetitive examples. As such, you get a concise guide to selling products online, without having to slog through useless information.
It’s a win-win for you and your readers.
4. Price Your Ebooks Fairly (While Still Turning A Profit)
NEVER sell a book for $0.99. It screams “low-value” and the royalties are awful.
A $0.99 book earns $0.33 on Amazon. This means you’re making $33 per 100 copies sold.
Terrible.
Instead, choose a reasonable price that’s profitable. This is anything from $9.99 to $47, depending on how specific your information is and how much value readers gain.
Personally, when I sell a PDF eBook, I price it at $7.99 – $17.99. But, play around and see what amount works for you.
Lastly, if you think selling a product for under $20 is “small potatoes,” information marketer Mike Geary nets $1 million per month off his $10 fitness eBooks.
That’s quite the business model.
5. Set Up A Sales Vehicle
There’s a general sales rule that only 5% of potential customers will actually buy from you. And that’s if your marketing and sales pitch are on point. In reality, conversion rates are lower.
For example, I sell my $12.99 PDF eBooks off a blog. The site gets around 750 visitors per day. About 40 of them click the eBook link. And of those 40 clicks, only a small handful buy.
The good news?
All my traffic comes from other blogs or search engines like Google. So I’m not spending money on advertisements or marketing. Instead, my total expense is $25 a year for a HostGator domain, and a couple bucks per month for payment processing. Annual business expenses are under $100.
Owning a website is insanely cheap, especially once you realize just how many potential customers it can reach.
Buying ads in the newspaper, radio air time, or TV spots all cost a small fortune. Meanwhile, one simple blog with basic, search engine friendly content, reaches 273,750 potential buyers each year. And it costs virtually nothing to operate.
Everything after the first $100 is pure profit.
Closing Thoughts
(eBooks Paid For This Golf Trip)
Information products are a great way to make money online. They’re fairly easy to write, and offer a terrific return on investment.
This is due to the fact that they continue to sell copies forever.
It’s a nice source of passive income.
If you’re looking to move abroad, I’d highly suggest penning eBooks for long-term cash flow.
P.S. If you’re looking for a course or guide on how to write eBooks, I recommend Write, Publish, Repeat. Likewise, there’s ClickBank University, an in-depth program which helps you create best-selling information products. Give them both a look.