Sell Ebooks and Make Money

Yes, you can make money online by selling ebooks. And although it sounds like a more active procedure compared to simply making money fast via AdSense, it holds the potential of being your largest source of online revenues. Here's a quick overview of how you can get started creating and marketing your own ebooks or infoproducts, and how you can accept online credit card payments.

Okay, let's get rid of the scary notion that you have to do a lot of writing. While it is true that a typical value-for-money ebook contains around 20 pages of text (assuming a reasonable font-size of Arial 12 and margins all around of not more than 1.5 inches), it does not mean you have to be a writer to sell downloadable products on the web.

Ebooks fall under the general category of electronic infoproducts. Any file that can be downloaded (yes, even a JPG image file) can serve as an e-product. You can sell photos, for example. Or even an MP3 audio recording of an interview. Or perhaps a video of a screen tutorial, if you're too shy to show your face.

That's the power of the internet: people are searching for information and solutions, and the web makes it easy to get that information in the form of a downloadable file no matter where they are in the world. You can be in the United States and your customer is in Europe, but you won't have to deal with shipping charges since your product is an electronic file.

How do you create an ebook? You can use MS Word or even OpenOffice and save your document as a PDF file. Some people don't even bother to create a PDF file, because there are cases where the paying customer wants the product in the form of an editable Word .doc file (as in the case of PLR ebooks, or books with Private Label Rights).

How do you create an audio book? That's just a fancy way of saying "audio recording." You can use software such as Audacity to record yourself answering the Top 10 Questions Newbies Ask About [your area of expertise or personal experience].

What? You think you're not an expert? You're think you have nothing to share? Nonsense. You have lots of things to share. And lots of people need your help.

Let's assume you spend your day walking along Roxas Blvd in Manila, Philippines (when you're not typing in front of your computer). Why not record a walking tour? That's right... Just walk at a leisurely place and record yourself talking about the things you see. Describe the popular tourist spots, or duck into a corner and talk about the places not often explored. Wouldn't a tourist want to buy your audio recording, load it into their MP3 player, and then personally take a walking tour themselves, with you as virtual tourist guide in their ear?

How do you create a video? You can use a videocam, or a Flip video, or even your cell phone. It's similar to the previous paragraph about audios, only this time you can show your customers where you are or what you're doing. And if you prefer to display only the contents of your computer screen (as when you are performing some task on the computer), then you can record screencasts or video tutorials using Camtasia or the more affordable CamStudio.

The thing is, you can end up with a file (AVI, MPEG, MOV) and sell that online. Think knowledge transfer. Think virtual one-on-one coaching. Think mentoring. Now, do you see the picture?

So you create your product. In different versions, if you wish: a short trial version, and the full-blown one. Offer the trial version in your blog (at the bottom of every post, if you like), and see if people are interested. It will probably take you one whole day to create a simple audio or video recording, which is definitely much faster than blogging for at least six months in hopes of making money with AdSense, right?

Now, you might be wondering "How exactly do I make money online?" Well, you will need to find a way to accept online payments.

And the great thing about this is you can have another company handle the online order-taking, and automatically deliver your electronic file to the paid customer. The payment then gets remitted to you via your Paypal account. Yes, you can get them to work for you for free... up to your first $100 in total sales.

This is a wonderful way to test the waters because you don't pay anything (until the first $100). After your e-product takes off and you make several online sales, the online credit card payment processor will charge you a certain percentage of your total sales. In addition, they will also provide a way for other people to promote your product via an affiliate program.

You can find the details in Payloadz.

TIP: Try the Basic Account (free trial) and you will see how this simply works!

Yes, there is something in you that people are willing to give you money for: your knowledge, your stories, your insights, your experiences. All you need to do is package it, and make it easy for people to pay you for that file. Thanks to the internet, this is now a viable and profitable reality for you.

Remember, making money online isn't all about AdSense and advertising. It's about giving people what they want. So get ready to sell your own ebooks and make money today!