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How To Create and Market Your own E-Book

The Internet presents an amazing opportunity foranyone who knows how to research and write.

There's masses of free information on the Web - allyou have to do is gather it together and package it,and you have an E-Book that people will pay for.

"But if there's so much free information on the Web,why would anyone pay for my E-Book?", you may bewondering.

The answer? Convenience!

They'd rather buy your E-Book and save themselves thehours, days and weeks that you spent researching itand putting it all together.

------------------------------STEP 1: Writing Your E-Book------------------------------

Pick a Topic. It could be 'How to accept Credit Cardson the Web without having a Merchant Account'. Or itcould be '25 Free Resources For Getting More Traffic',or it could be about Cooking, Gardening, Dog Breeding,etc.

Write down the Title of your E-Book in the center of ablank page and circle it. If you can't think of atitle yet, just write down the subject that yourE-Book will be about (e.g. Dog Breeding).

Then jot down 8 or 10 Basic Ordering Ideas (BOIs) in aradius around your E-Book title or concept.

If you're having trouble coming up with BOIs, hold inyour mind the title or concept of your E-Book and thenask yourself these questions: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, HOWand WHEN.

Now connect the Basic Ordering Ideas to the E-Booktitle with outward-pointing arrows, like the spokes ofa wheel.

Under each BOI, draw a vertical line and against thatline, jot down the sub-ideas that belong under thatBasic Ordering Idea.

Now turn your Mind Map into an outline. Take the BasicOrdering Ideas from your Mind Map and order them, 1 to10 (or 1 to 8, 1 to 12 etc); These are your Chapterheadings. Now take the sub-ideas and write them downunder each BOI; these are your Chapter sections.

I recommend you write the text of your E-Book as asingle Microsoft Word document. This allows you to geta feel for the overall structure of your E-Book, andit also makes spell-checking much easier.

------------------------------STEP 2: Creating Your E-Book------------------------------

Now divide your Word document into single pages; thesewill become the HTML pages of your E-Book.

There are well over a dozen different E-Book compilerson the market.

Here are two compilers that are free:

- SbookBuilder:http://www.jansfreeware.com/jftools.htm#sbookbuilder

- eBookIt:http://www.cottagemicro.com/ebooks/

However, if you want to make a good impression withyour customers, I highly recommend that you use acommercial E-Book compiler.

Here is a list of commercial E-Book compilers:

- Activ EBook Compiler:http://www.ebookcompiler.com

- Document Publisher:http://www.fuguesoftware.com

- EBook Pro Compiler:http://www.ebookpro.com

- E-Book Publishing Wizard:http://www.successarsenal.com/

- EbookPaper:http://www.ebookpaper.com

- E-Publisher Gold:http://www.ebook-software.com

- ePublish Now:http://www.ebookgraphics.com

- FlipBrowser V. 1.0:http://www.flipbrowser.com

- ExeBook:http://www.exebook.com

- HTML2EXE:http://www.html2exe.com

- HyperMaker HTML 2000:http://www.bersoft.com

- Illuminatus v4.51:http://www.digitalworkshop.co.uk

- Infinite Ink:http://www.infiniteink.com

- NeoBook V. 4.0:http://www.neosoftware.com

- WebCompiler:http://www.webcompiler.com

- WebExe 1.3:http://www.aw-soft.com/webexe.html

- WinEbook:http://superwin.com/

------------------------------ STEP 3: Formatting Your E-Book------------------------------

There are many sites that offer ready-made E-Booktemplates, some free, some you would have to pay for.

Here's a site that offers free E-Book templates.

http://stickitsoftware.freeyellow.com/neobooktemplates/

And here are 2 sites where you can buy ready-madetemplates:

http://www.web-source.net/ebookstarter/ebooktemplates.htmhttp://www.msinc ome.com/Templates/covers.html

If you decide to create your own format, here aresome basic formatting tips. Your E-Book shouldcontain:

(i) an Index page that serves as the entry point toyour E-Book. It should contain a Welcome message, yourcopyright statement, and a link to the 'Contents' pageof your E-Book.

(ii) A 'Contents' page. This should be a list ofall the chapters in your E-Book, with Section titlesfor each chapter. The Chapter titles should behyper-linked to the first page in that chapter, andthe Section titles should be hyperlinked to the firstpage in that section.

(iii) A link at the top of each page of your E-Bookthat says 'Contents' and which takes the reader backto the 'Contents' page.

(iv) The Chapter title at the top of each page, sothat the reader knows which Chapter they are reading.

(v) A set of links at the top of each page thatallow the reader to jump back and forth between thedifferent sections of the Chapter.

(vi) Forward and Backward arrows (hyperlinked) atthe bottom right of each page which take the readerback one page or forward one page.

------------------------------STEP 4: Selling Your E-Book------------------------------

There are basically 2 ways of selling your E-Book:either you have a merchant account and accept creditcards yourself, or you use a '3rd Party Credit CardProcessor'.

Here are two 3rd Party Credit Card Processors that Irecommend. Neither of these 2 companies chargesmonthly fees.

Each has advantages and disadvantages, which I havesummarized below:

---------------------(i) Clickbank

http://www.clickbank.com---------------------

- To sell your E-Book through Clickbank, you will

have to pay a one-time joining fee of $49.95

- Clickbank charges 7.5% per sale plus $1

- With Clickbank you will only be able to offer

payment via Credit Card.

- if you use Clickbank to sell your E-Book(s), you

also have a ready-made affiliate program. Clickbank

will track your affiliate sales and send out checks

every 2 weeks to your affiliates.

- Clickbank will send you an automatic email every

time you (or one of your affiliates) make a sale.

- Minimum amount before a check is issued is $5

---------------------(ii) Ibill (Internet Billing Company)

http://www.ibill.com/---------------------

- ibill does not charge a joining fee.

- ibill charges 15% per sale (more for telephone billing).

- ibill allows your customers to pay in a number of

different ways, such as online check, telephone

billing, or credit card. Many people don't have a

credit card, so offering your customers alternative

ways of paying can significantly increase your volume

of sales.

- ibill doesn't operate an affiliate program.

- ibill doesn't send you an email every time you make

a sale.

- Minimum amount before a check is issued is $150

The possibilities with E-Books really are endless -you're only limited by your own imagination.

And remember: how ever obscure you think your E-Bookconcept is, there will be a market for it. In fact,that's the essence of 'niche marketing': the morenarrow your focus, the more customers you will find.

Wishing you every success!

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Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3
years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this
simple technique to build a successful online business. Click
here to find out more: http://ezine-writer.com/
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