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Have You Written An ebook Yet?
- 07/09/2011
- Posted in: Marketing,Media
- 12 comments
Have you written an E-book yet? If not why not? I come across lots of bloggers out there who never consider it and a lot more bloggers giving away these same old 7 day bootcamps that are all carbon copies of each other. Writing an eBook can make you stand out more and especially if you give it away on your blog you can eventually get more and more traffic as well as subscribers to the blog.
Also writing an eBook people can get a ‘Feel’ as to what you’re about and if your blog is for them or not! I myself have written 3 eBooks and all can be downloaded from my ‘TheEpicBlog.com’.
Out with the Old and In with the New
For the past 4 years as a blogger I always wanted to move with the times and update as well as grow so with that I am ditching the 3 books and writing a completely new one from scratch utilising the best bits from the old books as well as adding more nuggets of info I have learned since! The internet is continually evolving and changing so we as bloggers should always evolve and change with the times otherwise we will get left behind! The way I look at blogging as a business is this – the more value you provide the more traffic and subscribers you can get and the more traffic/subscribers you get the more money you make!
But in order to get this more traffic to buy your affiliate products, cpa’s or to click on the ads on you site is getting increasingly difficult, yes there is twitter and Facebook but if you stand out from the crowd you’re not going to get anywhere! Which is why people should write an eBook to get traffic? You may think that me taking down my 3 current eBooks as lunacy but I have recently changed blogs and I don’t feel they represent my current blog well anymore plus I want to portray my blog as a more professional blog that has moved on from the old days when I first started.
But I’ve never written an eBook before
And don’t know how to start. Well dear reader it’s easier than you think but do remember that eBooks have what I call a shelf life and I consider the shelf life to be 3 years (depending on the subject material) which is why it’s time for a change for me! First off you want to think about where you want you blog to be in a years’ time think of how your visitors view it and if you was a visitor to your blog and wanted to have one like it where would you start?
That’s how I started and wrote my first book explaining the process of building a blog like mine, put simply I wrote the book very simply and guided the reader on how to go about buying a domain name and installing wordpress to a hosting provider but most of all I took my time, try and set aside 3 or 4 hours a day writing the book and before you know it you should have an excellent book, also write the book in word so you can use their excellent spelling and grammar tool.
Another thing I recommend if not to write it too impersonal and generic but put a bit of your personality into it after all blogs are like personal places to share your thoughts. Don’t think also that the book should be hundreds of pages long as some of the best ones I have read are as little as just 16 pages. Once your happy with it send it to a trusted friend or subscriber to review it for you! Also to get more credibility ask readers to leave you a comment/testimonial about the book you have just written!
Lastly don’t think that writing a book as a chore but make sure you have fun with it as if you don’t the reader will pick up on it and probably unsubscribe from your blog. What are your thoughts guys? Discuss, comment, and share!
Note from publisher
:
Phillip Dews has compiled an excellent resource for marketer, bloggers, and general copywriting. Blog Interact would like to acknowledge the fact that he has dedicated this compilation to the memory of his mother (who, like most great mothers, has taught him well).
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Bryan P. Hollis
Sat 09th Jul 2011 at 11:34 PM
Phillip,
This is something that I have been wanting to do myself. In fact I am about 1/2 finished with my first book, which of course is strictly SEO. However, with so many changes to SEO and social media, I decided to virtually “scrap” the outline and start anew, incorporating social media into SEO, the importance of having a blog on any site, including Brick and Mortar, etc., etc. Thanks for your knowledge-base and adding great content to Blog Interact!
Bryan
TheEpicBlogg
Sun 10th Jul 2011 at 4:55 AM
Hey NP buddy, glad you liked it, that’s the thing with the internet and social media it is always changing so us as bloggers need to change with the times, and so with eBooks, Like i say i think everything has a shelf life which is why i am writing this new one.
Thanks for the opportunity for writing here again Bryan I look forward to writing here again!
laters
-Phillip
Jmpruitt
Sun 10th Jul 2011 at 12:40 AM
I agree. When I wrote my first Ebook, I learned a lot myself. I think what stops a lot of people is that they don’t think they know enough. That was one of my stumbling blocks. But as the book started taking shape, I found that it was actually harder to stop writing than it was to get going.
Bryan P. Hollis
Sun 10th Jul 2011 at 2:45 AM
Jim,
I agree with this (quoted from your comment) ” I think what stops a lot of people is that they don’t think they know enough.”
Bryan
TheEpicBlogg
Sun 10th Jul 2011 at 5:01 AM
HearHear to both of you, it’s like blogging once you start you cannot stop, thanks for your comments both!
-P
Jane | Find All Answers
Sun 10th Jul 2011 at 10:38 AM
I am winding up with stuff in my first ebook. I’ve sent it out to my friends for a review. I completely agree with what you say. It had been a great experience to me.
Of course, I was nervous when I started to think about writing an ebook. But when I broke the ice and started writing, it was just piece of cake
TheEpicBlogg
Sun 10th Jul 2011 at 3:06 PM
Hi Jane, that’s what a lot of people find when writing an eBook as it does become a piece of cake eventually, I look forward to reading your book and good luck with it!
Thanks for taking the time to read my post and leave me a comment.
All the best Jane
-Phillip
Gebeleizis
Mon 11th Jul 2011 at 10:59 PM
Well, I do consider writting one myself, as soon as I have enough short stories to fill one. That’s why I have started my blog. So far, four stories, when I reach 30+ I plan to improve them and post the result on Amazon in kindle format
.
Nick Stamoulis
Wed 13th Jul 2011 at 9:59 PM
EBooks are great for brand building and link building. If you create an EBook that’s useful, it will be shared by others. One thing that you need to watch out for is EBook overload. Publishing a few is OK, but if you churn them out the quality of the content will be put into question.
Clint Cora
Fri 15th Jul 2011 at 12:02 AM
I’ve written five ebooks. The first two were complilations of articles I’ve written and I give these out for free at a native art website. Very popular downloads. The next two were actually meant to be digital versions of printed books and they are both on the market now.
Since they were bigger projects, they did take a few months to write but printed book #1 was harder since I was my own editor and the editing took four times longer than the writing! So for the #2 printed book, I used an editor which shortened the process.
For the digital versions, I need to change the fonts and the structure since they would be different from the printed softcovers.
The last one was pretty easy since it is meant only as a digital resource and is also on the market.
As for reception, I find that it depends on the market and topic. For technical topics, ebooks do well. For more touchy, feely personal growth type of topics, people tend to want the real physical books instead.
Peppy
Tue 26th Jul 2011 at 5:11 AM
Hello SocialPhil,
You have answered some things about writing an e-book that I’ve wondered about – for instance:
If there is a minimum to how many pages it has;
Does the writer need a lot of experience under his belt before attempting to write one;
Can it be written in something like Word … my personal preferrence
and then, of course, just getting past my own insecurities to even start … however, I appreciated you experienced the same hesitations only to end up enjoying the process so much that you have written several.
Thanks for your insights!
Peppy
Ruan | Ebook Tutorials
Sat 14th Jan 2012 at 9:51 PM
I have just finished my first eBook a couple of days ago, and to show physical proof and from experience (no matter how old the experience) that I agree with “once you started, it’s harder to stop than it is to start in the beginning, I am already busy with my second!
Great blog you have here Phill; I’ll be following you and test your advice to generate some targeted traffic and enthusiasts that converts.