What is your opinion on writing an ebook and making it available on your website for download? Has anybody generated traffic or interest in their website doing this? Is it worth the time it takes to write an ebook? Also if it is worth it and will help then what software if any do you recommend for writing an ebook?
Yes, I think that adding free ebooks or any other type of free information adds trust and encourages people to buy your products or visit you website. Another possibility to help grow your list is to email them the ebook in exchange for joining your list. I think the most important thing is to make sure you are providing your customers with valuable information. I have never used any special software to create ebooks. You can prepare the book using Word (or a free version) and then use an online converter to convert the file to a pdf.
You can make some money but it entirely depends on your marketing methods. Ebooks + torrents + CPA was a great combination in the past but is not nearly as lucrative as it was.
Free ebooks are great as long as they're well targeted. Yet, they should not generate traffic, but trust. Consider a couple of small instructional ebooks with well-defined topics. Publish them and keep track of the results for one or two months. If you get good results, consider more ebooks. If not, go back to the drawing table and redefine your target audience.
eBooks are very very affective when it comes to generating traffic, if you offer information which is free and yet very useful, you're likely to score some good numbers. Further, once you get a few books published you can easily start to charge money on them.
Marketing with free or paid ebooks can be an effective way to get an effective email list and its a good way to get your name out in the public as well.
Thanks for the feedback guys. Might start writing one once I get the time. Seems I am always in a rush. Will keep everyone updated
One of the best ways would be to offer the book as a free download on Amazon for the kindle, and put links to the site through out the book. Just putting an ebook out there on the net probably will not get you any traffic. But if you market it on huge sites like amazon, then your market is unlimited.
I actually just started to try this method about a month ago for a new site I opened. I'm using it to build a newsletter list and then generate traffic from the newsletter. I've found that you need to very proactive market the ebook. This includes posting it as a free download (no email opt-in) on various forums, buying solo email ads, etc. I've even tried to create a viral component, which has worked well. I created 2 free ebooks, the 2nd teaching a really great trick for significantly boosting traffic. The 1st book can be downloaded through an email opt-in. However, to download the 2nd book, you need to refer X people to download the 1st. The 1st book includes a 1 pager advertising the 2nd book, to try and create this snowball effect.
Yes, it's worth it .. Everyone like free stuff.. So when you write an ebook and add it as a gift in order to generate more traffic to your site, be sure that it will bring you much traffic