A Touchy Subject.........need some advice on marketing an e-book

As a long time sufferer of Tinnitus I wrote an e-book called "My Best Friend Tinnitus" and I am selling the book on my homepage tinnitus-online.com.
The book is selling well and I spend 12 - 18 hours daily giving my personal support to some of the people that contact me, some of which ring me up in complete desperation. I have many people on my list at the moment and so far I have built some good customer relationships whilst helping at the same time.

My question is, would it be a better idea to NOT SELL the book online and let people download it and donate a sum if they are happy with the support I am offering them?

Most of the people that write to me have been promised all kinds of cures and remedies which dont really exist. I therefore dont want to feel like someone who maybe be offering them "just another shot in the dark" but would rather give them a chance to read the book in advance before deciding to donate a sum or not.

I know its a touchy subject and I dont want to stirr a commotion but I feel like changing my site and thus let people try the prooduct before "buying" it and was hoping to get some feedback from any authors who have tried the same approach.

Anyway,,,,,,,I dont want my page to look like this: http://www.buymystupidebook.com/

 

I think its absolutely wonderful that you are thinking about your visitors rather than your pocket. Why not give it a test run. Maybe even set up a support forum and try and implement some non intrusive ads. Then other users can donate their time to helping more people leaving you free to do other things.

Just try it, it it doesn't work out, you can always switch back.

 

This website about stupid ebook really unique idea I think Also I am sure they make more money via Adsense than you working oh my God.. 12-18 hours per day. I hope your ebook sells pretty well for such work. However let's see what people will say about such trick. Cause usually it SELL, not DONATE.

 

Cianuro, yes I thought same, but what to do with current good customer relationships if he will run that test ?

 

Depends on if you want to make money or not, asking for donations is not the most effective revenue model and if you have had a positive response and people think that the ebook is worth it than I see no problem with your current sales techniques.

Also, that link made me ride in a roflcopter

 

However support forum sounds really good. That way you will free your time and let people interested in your product support each other without you most of time

 

yes....I know. If I said I didnt want to make monye I wuold be lying. Every docotr needs money to exist. I know I will never make enough money with a simple e book to exist but helping someone to overcome something like Tinnitus is also helping myself in a way. I sis not write the e book witht he soul intention of myking money. Having said this, setting the site up and doing all the marketing, ad words, Logos etc costs me a lot of money and it would be nice to make sure my costs are covered. I even have a load of affiliates maling 75 % off each sale.

I think I would just feel better knowinf that Tinnitus sufferes are being forced to buy "yet another" product that is supposed to help them. I have been through the same. I have spent tens of thousends of dollars looking for a way out of a seemingly hopeless situation so I know what it feels like to have to "dip" into the pocket once again.

Thanx for all the advice though.....much appreciated

 

Well do what you think is best then, if you want to go towards the non-profit idea I would suggest finding a tinnitus charity to fund your expenses though.

Good luck with helping tinnitus sufferers, but can you explain what tinnitus is? I have never heard of it before.

 

too funny


As for your question; If you truly want to give the info to help others, then go ahead and offer it for free.

If you want to know if you could possibly make more money offering it for free and relying on donations then you will just have to try it to see.

Or drop the price to see if it entices more sales.

A cheap price, call it "wholesale pricing" plus a donation could also work. Sell the book at a "non-profit" price and some may still donate.

But you need a reason for people to return to your site after they have bought and read the ebook, otherwise there is no real incentive for them to make a donation. Add a forum, perhaps.

 

Thanx axe,

75 % of all purchases made so far are still incontact with me. I have a blog up too which I thought would be better than a forum. Im not sure how many people are willing to post their problems on an open forum for all to see. as I said, its a touchy subject and most tinnitus sufferers have all one thing in common............mega stress in their lives.Not something yuo want splashed out on a forum. This is why most of my friends tend to lean to a more personal method of contact.

I have often thought of reducing the price but I am not sure whether or not that will harm the project. At the moment the book stands at $ 14,95.
Other people ahve advised me the book is too cheap ( yeah...like wow)

 

"Good luck with helping tinnitus sufferers, but can you explain what tinnitus is? I have never heard of it before"

errrrm...try to imagine a kid blowing his new whistle in your ear......24/7.
Or even better, listen to it yourself. On the top of my site there is a sound file for u to click on. This a recording of my own Tinnitus

 

A forum offers anonymity. Pick any user name you like. And is far more interactive that a blog you simply add comments to.

 

true....I never thought about it that way. I was just wondering though (please allow me the question ) would you still tend to sort things out in an open forum or would you rather have personal contact with who ever is trying to help you ?. All the same, I think you are right and I will start a forum. The good thing about blogs though is that they attract a lot of back links and shoot good PR ranking in matter of months only.

 

Ya forum after all sounds more reasonable then others. And about donate and price... as for $14.95 , well I don't know probably it's a bit too low. If you get such a feedback that also may means that some people don't bother order cause they may think that is another "super puper cure or info about" for just $14.95. Higher price will bring more respect to the product in that case. Based on that that the doctor who asking for donation... well nothing personal but I hope you understand. After all you know your product better than we do.

 

"buy my stupid e-book" llink

You know what I hate the most on some of the other sites you can buy e books or software on?
The bit about "buy now, even if its 2 am in the morning". I dont know why...it just bugs me.

 

personal contact can be achieved through Private messaging. This is more for users who are talking and helping each other through the forum. You of course can have an email link for them to directly contact the site admin for personal advice.

Keep the blog too. It will help pull new traffic. Once they are on your site they may check the forum and buy the ebook. After they read the ebook they will come back to the forum to discuss things. If they keep coming back to a forum they will be more prone to drop a donation.

The forum discussions will also provide you tonnes of ideas for blog articles.

 

I hate most "Price $xx only for today, tommorow will be $xxx" and "There are left only 57 copies, buy now!" also faked testimonials and so on.

 

lol. dont worry..I didnt mean it like that. I would never directly ask for a donation. I would leave a pay pal link to anyone who feels the book and support they received is worth a donation regardless of the sum.

I myself would rather donate a sum I choose than buy over priced e books or support. If the advice is doing me no good then I obviously wouldnt donate a cent. If however, the support I get was really helping me then I would be more than glad to make a donation.

I see all kinds of sites offering "lifetime Money back Garantees if not satisfied" and I am not sure that the right thing to do when selling e-books.

Oh well...I suppose its mind over matter then

 

Look into self publishing the ebook into a real book and offer it as an alternative - I think you can use a service like LuLu.com and they will make a real book for you for a reasonable price. Doesn't matter if it turns out thin.

This will make you look more legit, since you hardly ever see e-book marketers that offer a real "published and bound" book out there.

I would make the real book more $$$ than the e-book. Twist the pitch to sound like there is an advantage for you and the customer - you save on printing costs while they save on purchasing the information.

I wouldn't think that you would need to keep very many copies on hand, but then again I don't know your audience - I would test it though.

Sounds like a lucrative biz...I hope you are making money on some AdSense with this.

You shouldn't feel bad about making money on something that ailes you - you are just taking the lemons life gave you and making lemonade.

PurplePeeps

 

thanx purple...anyone who quotes Dale Carnegie has most probably made his own lemonade already. I would have ad Adsense if that hadnt banned me already for illegitimate clicks ( still havent a clue from where ) I even have a Chitika account but I dont like the look of the ads and there are not theme relates like the adsense ads are. Having said that having adsense on a page that sells a product only sends traffic to my competition. There all kinds of sites devoted to selling "miracle cures" and "secret remedies". I can relate to these poor people though who pay hundreds and hundreds of $ just to try something new in the hope of some relief.

I ve never thought about converting my book into print though.....I ll have to give that some thought.

thnx