So I was going to start up a website involving either an eBook or a Blog, so before I go ahead and open a site I was thinking, which one is better in the long run and would make me the most money? Selling eBooks or slapping google ads on a blog and making worth the read articles?
eBooks would sell nice in the begining than it would stop. A blog can make money "forever" if you keep adding unique and interesting content
Why not both? A blog is a great way to market an eBook you are selling on the same site. Having many potential streams of revenue is also never a bad idea. If you can get money from both eBook sales, and blog advertising, you are likely to get more revenue overall.
Go with ebooks...build a mailing list and market your ebooks to them...you'll make much more then with a blog. You can still use a blog to market your ebooks and you could post your emails provided they are valuable on to your blog.
I second that - Plus a blog would be a very good way to presell the contents of your book to potential customers. Have you heard of SEOBook by Aaron wall? He has written the No.1 book on Search engine optimization and is ranked 2 or 4 for the keyword "SEO". He uses the Blog which has a loyal following of a few thousand people. many of whom would have ended up his buyer. check it out : http://www.seobook.com I am replicating the exact strategy he is using to promote his book in a different niche.
you know what's even more effective? blog, and create an ebook from your blog postings and market that ebook as a freebie on your blog.
Yeah I think you should not limit yourself to one or the other. Do both and use the blog to promote your ebook about promoting ebooks thru blogs. hehehe. Anyway I think you get the point
Thank you for your feedback everyone. I will most likely be opening a blog and ebook store together. Thanks again.
Blog or similar type of site. Unless you could create a site that is continually updated by its members, then you'll have to keep updating (with the exception of content automation scripts and such).
Depends who you're marketing the site to. Personally I am always skeptical of paid ebooks, but that comes from reading a lot of useless junk in my formative internet years. Blogs make it easier to keep up with the times and also offer a lot of ways for visitors to keep track of your posts, leading way to return traffic. You also have more options for monetizing your blog than you do for your ebook - however depending on your market I would tend to agree with suggestions about doing both - using your site to pull in traffic and build a steady stream of visitors, and then once you have them hooked market your ebook to them. Whatever you do, good luck =)
Good idea, only make people sign up to receive the free ebook. Just name and email address, so you can then build your list to promote your blog or other products to.
ebook is not a long term commitment. You need to write a great ebook then set up an affiliate system for your ebook, ask for a review in DP and then sell it. Blog is a long term commitment, you won't be likely to make money in your first week. I'll say if you can write a really good eBook (not the usual hype and crap) then do both. Start with the eBook first and set up everything to get it up and running. Then start the blog.
The fundamental difference between a blog and an e-book is that an e-book is one form of information. There is one thing in that e-book and unless e-books were made over and over with different information then it would be ridiculous to think you coud make as much money selling something that thousands others are selling than on origina content that you update daily in a blog. A blog... an effective blog should be one with content that is updated on a regular basis that would allow you to build a user-base that would then allow you to make advertising on the traffic you have acquired. A blog is definately the way to go, not selling e-books that are a dime a dozen (actually some you can buy for pennies)... just check e-bay... there's actually e-books on how to sell 1¢ e-books for profit on ebay.