eBooks...do they really sell?

Hey guys,

It seems like there's a lot of talk in affiliate forums these days about selling ebooks. I'm pretty skeptical at this point and had a few questions for you guys.

Anyone have experience selling these? If so, what's your target market (if you don't mind sharing), and how have you done?

What have your conversion rates been?



Thanks,
Sanzbar

 

Hi Sanzbar,

I sell quite a few ebooks through ClickBank, mainly on internet marketing, affiliate marketing and online business topics. I dont have any experience selling ebooks or information (guides, reports, audios) on other topics, though.

You can see my website here: http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com

The ebook sales are from a combination of newsletter subscribers, website visitors and forum members. I actually own almost every ebook or guide that I recommend (and several that I dont lol)... so I am able to offer personal recommendations. I think that makes a BIG difference.

 

I've been involved with Internet marketing for about 2 years now and I can tell you that eBooks do sell, but the game has tightened up significantly. A few years ago you could stuff a load of crap into a PDF, write a garbage sales page and still make some money. Those days (luckily) are gone...

If you find a good niche and have something of value to say (and can write good sales copy to convey it) you've got a fighting chance. I attended a conference in Australia earlier this year where a guy was writing eBooks on how to master various video games - and selling tens of thousands of them. Although he hired a professional copywriter and spent a mint, it paid off in spades.

Whatever you do, I wouldn't even attempt to write an eBook on the following topics: internet marketing, adsense, adwords, seo, keywords, picking stocks or picking up women . I think any of these would doom you to failure since the competition is thick with people who really know what they're doing...

 

Thanks guys...

How long is a typical ebook anyways?

 

Its quality rather than quantity.

Like stumpypete said, You can fill an ebook with crap and make it look like its worth the money when its not or you could create a highly relevent ebook with a few pages of useful information that your customrs would appreciate ten fold more.

 

Good answers!

I'll chime in and add that most of the marketing ebooks & guides that I have read have been between 50 and 250 pages in length. To be honest, there hasnt been a difference (in my mind) between a book as short as 50 pages and one as long as 250+ -- that has nothing to do with my perception of the value at all.

In fact, it's a relief to find the information cut down to 40-50 pages (and be *good* info) because it isnt overwhelming to try to read (or scan). I appreciate it tremendously when ebook authors dont try to pad the pages for length... and instead keep it fast, easy and on topic.

 

A great way to sell Ebooks is to create "review" sites of several ebooks on the same subject, that way whichever one the customer chooses - is potential profit for you, instead of promoting just one ebook.

 

I am just starting the learning process on all of this, seems interesting. These are great ideas though. Thanks!

 

Selling ebooks has been around for a long time, and they do sell! Just look at Clickbank to see how many ebooks on many different niches are on there and so many of them are doing really well. Thats not to say that everyone who writes an ebook will make sales, it depends on how you market the ebook. The top gurus pay huge amounts of money for professional writers to write their sales pages, they then launch their book to create a buzz around it and get affiliates to sell the ebooks for them. The more effort you put into it, the better results you will see.

 

I would much rather read a book that is 50 pages in length than one of 250 pages in length both discussing the exact same thing. I suppose it depends on who is buying the ebook and what their perception of value is.

 

Great idea!

 

Are you talking about selling your own ebooks or promoting them? As long as you can give the solution to their current problem or make them feel your their solution then selling ebooks will be easy. Find that market first though. You can start by seeing what ebooks are selling right now. Hit amazon and look at best sellers to get ideas.

 

A few years ago eBooks were all the rage, as their production costs were pretty much negligible, and many Clickbank products are information products, but now the market is just saturated with too many eBooks on the same subject, and chances are they are rehashed material on "How to make money online".
However if you can find an angle or niche no one has saturated yet then you can still do well