Another thread posted this morning raised the question of whether to sell an ebook or give it away. Having just finished writing mine I would like to know the views of the many knowledgeable people who frequent this forum. I have deliberately chosen not put any affiliate links in my book, other than for products which I personally use, which is why I am somewhat reluctant to go the giveaway route, but I am willing to listen to your thoughts.
Personally what i would do is a JV with some other marketers and do a proper product launch, with an affiliate program the whole works. To drum up interest sell it to a limited number of people at a cut price on forums (such as dp maybe?) and get them to give you a testimonial. Which you can use on your product launch website, and also show to potential jv partners.
Gee, puplehaze, I'm impressed with the speed at which you answered - I'm almost tempted to say "Get a life!" (Just kidding) Seriously though, thank you for your constructive comments, which I will take on board. I was thinking of selling a few on DP, but the new rules on getting testimonials worry me. Any testimonials I got would have to be completely unsolicited - would that happen? Also, who reads testimonials anyway? Not me, I'm afraid, most of them (including mine) are just vehicles to promote the giver's site.
I have written 2 hard copies and 3 e-books, and there is no way in hell that I would give the e-books away. Even if you have affiliate links in there, you would still make more money selling the books. I can't explain properly why in a post. You can also make twice the money: Selling the book, and making money off of the aff. links in there too. You can also show your aff. links in your site, along with your book, so maybe sell both products? You also have their e-mail address when they buy, so maybe down the road try to sell them again??? If you do a good job at showing quality, giving free tips, samples, you can move your e-book. But test it, to see for yourself.
Doesn't it depend how much effort you put into writing your ebook? I have written an ebook in a day (but it was written so I could give it away for free) to entice people to subscribe.
Hi Michelle, I have spent two and a half weeks of hard slog on writing my 50 page book, so as I said I'm not too keen to give it away.
Try six months. Ugh. That was the minimum for me. But it was worth it. Then you have so many who are looking for free stuff. Moochers, basically. You can just imagine how many of those would click on an affiliate link in that book. You give away so many books, so you think to yourself: Wow, I should be seeing some good sales soon. But in the end you see very little. Talk about a trick on the mind! So you have to think about that also.
Since I know nothing about the content of your book, I'm not sure if this will work or not. You could take the first chapter, or one technique from the book, separate it out as a giveaway, or sample for JV partners to use. Make sure the mini-book includes a link to buy the full book. (Or possibly a customizable link so your partners can put in their own affiliate code.) You could then be dual utilizing your work, having something to give away, and the up-sell to the full product.
You must give some content away free first then link this to the main product, this should work as long as you are solving a problem for the buyer.
You Give away your most valuable information... give them the secrets to your niche, identify yourself as an expert, let them know you are there to help them by identifying their problems and coming up with a solution to why your product is worth paying for... most importantly, Give away your best stuff!!! so when people see your best stuff is free what do you think their respect value of "Buying" your product will be worth to them? You must value your product to what its worth to you... I have a scale level i grade myself every time i release free products and i make sure i am giving away 6-8 times of valuable information that i believe is worth... 1-10 Where does your Information Stand... 1 being lowest 10 being the best value you'd ever achieve... I try to hit 10 every time, but my customers are satisfied with my 6-8 and then i bump them to 10 when they buy my product
I think you need to give something away for free in order to help build the relationship with your prospects before buying anything.
Hmm. Hard to assess without knowing what the ebook is actually about and what your overall purpose is in the end. I can tell you what my IM coach did. He has a membership site and charges a monthly fee. And he created a 118-paged ebook with some great content. He made the book rebrandable using a tool called Viral PDF. This allows him to either put the link to his membership site on the bottom of each page of the ebook, or it allowed his affiliates to put their own affiliate link to the membership site on the bottom of the ebook. He allows this ebook to be given away as a free gift whenever people opt-in to his or his affiliates' opt-in lists. Either way, he's getting people to come to his membership site and building lists at the same time. Consider if your ebook is designed for that purpose. Or is it it just straight up useful information in and of itself. If it's just straight up information in and of itself, you may want to just sell it for a price. Create a sales page, Put a PayPal Button on it and collect money.
Well, even those free ebooks aren't really "given away". There's always a catch. Generally you have to give them a working email address so that they can spam you to death to buy other types of products related to the ebook you downloaded. For example, you might download a free ebook on dog training, but then you'll receive periodic emails about dog products. It works for a lot of marketers if you can drive enough interest in your free ebook.
It depends. You can sell your e-book and make money one time from the direct sale. (not what I would do). What I would do is... Give it away for free and build a list and make money month after month from your list. Plus you could allow others to give who get the e-book for free to also give it away and allow them to re-brand it so they would get the commissions from any links inside the book. This will help build your list and help create long term profits for you.
Do both - I give mine away and I sell it. Use one domain for a give away (make sure your e-book has affiliate links in it) and use the other to sell it as a CB product.
Thanks for all you input - unfortunately I'm just as confused as I ever was. Seems there are perfectly valid arguments on both sides. I think I said before that I haven't included any affiliate links, mainly because I know I never click on any in the free ebooks I read, and I have a distinct aversion to seeing books with more links than content. I know the purpose of giveaways is to create a list, but is that the Holy Grail any more? People are much wiser than they were ten years ago and will not put up with incessant emails. I know I use the "unsubscribe" button right after I've got what I wanted, so I presume others do too. This is especially true of those JV giveaway promotions, where I have to sign up for fifty newsletters, one for each "gift". Therefore I'm still leaning towards an outright sale over a giveaway.
Great responses here. I am on the fence here. Selling it obviously makes you money right away. Giving it away has a good potential to get buyers for your future. If you give it away so people signup for your responder then you have potential leads for the future. I like both.
If you're providing them a good quality product they can count on over and over in the long-term, you don't have to worry about people going away. Yes, people are getting smarter about these things, but people also have to understand the business. If we all decided to do things for free, no one would make money in the long term, would they? A big lot of the problems, in my opinion, has to do with poor training from the experts. I actually saw a video on You Tube by two big-named gurus who ran over to motivational speak Tony Robbins's place to ask, "Why are people leaving our programs? Is it a mindset thing?" If people are taught a take-it-and-run mindset, people will do just that. They'll begin not to invest where they should. They'll piece-meal this and piece-meal that. Then it becomes a vicious cycle. I'm a big believer, (Now. I never used to be) that there is enough to go around for everyone when done right.