Considering Writing an Ebook? Read This First
Ebooks (books and reports that you download over the Web in PDF form) have become popular. Many an aspiring entrepreneur looking to create a business leveraging the Web has either created an eBook or considered it. I know I have.
If this sounds like you, please read my 2-part interview with Aaron Wall, founder of SEOBook.com. In that interview, Aaron takes a stand about eBooks.
He says the eBook business model is dying.
What he says will seem controversial to many.
But the good news is, he also offers tips for those just getting started with their business models.
For anyone who does not know Aaron, let me tell you a little about him. He put himself on the map online by writing and selling an eBook — called SEO Book.
Aaron sold many thousands of copies of SEO Book for $79 over a period of 3 years. In the process he went from relative unknown, to one of the premier voices in the search engine optimization field. His SEO Book brand is widely known today.
Late last year Aaron changed his business model. He turned his eBook into an interactive training course online, in the form of a subscriber-only community.
He still has a blog that is open to anyone for free. He also offers a number of free tools and resources. But the bulk of the material from the eBook is now available online only to subscribers.
Part of that subscriber community consists of a vibrant discussion board, where I participate as a moderator. (Yeah, yeah, I know, I am no SEO expert, so what the heck am I doing there as a moderator? Well, I talk about building strong online communities and online advertising, mostly. The rest of the time I lurk and learn — and network with others there.)
I know few people who understand how to build a brand — and a business — online, from a clean sheet of paper with little or no startup capital, the way Aaron does.
This is one interview you will want to read. It’s published in two parts over at the OPEN Forum blog:
Senior Vice President, First Data
Daily Small Business News Feed
Producer of Small Business Trends Radio Show
Anita,
This is one of the best interview I’ve read this year. Nobody in SEO industry doesn’t know Aaron – for us noobs, he is an inspiration – from unknown to THE MAN.
Thanks for the great post, Anita!
Really great interview. I really enjoyed hearing his honest opinions about something that brought him so much success. Like Noobpreneur said, Aaron is a true inspiration.
Great interview. Learned a lot from it!
I was actually over at the forum today and caught the second part this morning. His interview was quite interesting and I thought he shared some wonderful – and incredibly sensible – tips and advice in it. Everything he said makes perfect sense. His expertise shows. And I guess if Aaron says the ebook is dead – that darn thing must be dead, huh? Great interview, and Aaron thanks for sharing so many wonderful tidbits of information, too.
First of all, much respect to Aaron who is definitely an inspiration. I’m in full agreement with his article. However…
It will be interesting to see if and how Amazon’s Kindle changes the profile of eBooks for the better. I’m optimistic because:
1) They have a great storefront: with a large catalog of good content, and an established / trusted way of handling payments.
2) Their device makes an ebook a pleasure to read, in most of the same circumstances as a paper book
3) eBooks are cheaper than regular books, more environmentally friendly, and you can carry 1000 books around with you. Just like you used to be able to carry 1000 songs on your 1st gen iPod.
Small publishers and prospective writers may be surprised to know that Amazon makes it very simple to publish an ebook on their service, and takes care of promotion, fulfillment, billing etc. We just published Friday Reflections as an eBook and it’s getting good traction
I think Aaron’s comments are going to be controversial — not everyone will agree.
But whether you agree or disagree, they definitely are thought provoking. And you can’t stand out in today’s world unless you are willing to take a stand and say what you think, even if some will disagree.
One thing that comes to mind is that maybe the name “ebook” is part of the problem as to why he thinks they are dying out. There are ebooks … and then there are ebooks. Some are very high quality. Some are very poor quality, and the poor quality ones can give the rest a bad name.
I still use the term “ebook” — for instance, I am displaying a couple right now on the sidebar of the site.
However, recently I have been experimenting, calling them different names: digital books, downloadable reports, special reports, electronic books, and so on. It strikes me that giving them a different name may be half the battle.
Just a thought ….
– Anita
Hi Neil, congratulations on completing your book!
You comments about the Kindle are very helpful. Thanks for passing those on.
– Anita
Thanks for the mention Anita. And thanks to everyone else for the kind comments.
I am not against ebooks as a whole, but mostly against paid ebooks as a business model (especially in saturated markets like internet marketing). I think making them shorter and calling them reports and giving them away as a lead generator is probably still a great strategy…just tough for people to appreciate the amount of effort that can go into writing ebooks.
Also as Kindle becomes more popular people will expect ebooks to be avaiable on Kindle, and probably for only $10…which is a price point far below what most marketing ebooks currently sell for. If an information product sells for only $10 one is probably better off making it free so it spreads widely. Plus making it free makes it easier for you to publish bits of it online to create blog posts and build a traffic stream.
Good interview Anita and the my out take is to always listen to someone who has done extremely well as this makes you think and provides good food for thought for your business.
I have been thinking of creating an e-pamphlet on my ideas on supply chain management, trader principle and theory of constraints, etc. It could be a lead generator, but also making it as a bonus with a special value price. I have been thinking of writing an short e-book on some my hobbies, e.g., chile pepper and other hot stuff, tea, and other things.
It was found many eBooks Space for download free in http://www.ebooks-space.com that topic .Net, PHP, MySQl, Oracle,
Java, ASP.net, C/C++/C#.net, Ajax, Network, SQL Server, XML, Windows,
Programming, Tutorial, Software, Google Adsense, Adwords, Ipod, Itune, Iphone
And website http://ebooks-library.blogspot.com as well!!
I’m secretly thrilled to hear this. We’ve built a platform online where authors can sell their knowledge in an instructional video form. I’m hopeful that online instructional video can supplant ebooks as an outlet for authors looking to monetize and teach in a virtual format. That said, I think it’s a big leap for people to overcome the transition from written to video format. I think this and a few other stumbling blocks will mean that the ebooks continue a gradual decline but don’t drop off precipitously for a while yet.
The ebook is NOT dead:
http://www.e-booksdirectory.com/
It’s nice to know that there are some quality ebook reviews out there. So much fake stuff, nice to find something worth actually reading. I’ll be back.