Can you make money writing eBooks? We all want to make money with our blogs, but we’re told that we need a ton of traffic if you want to make money with ads.
While I am a huge believer in having multiple income streams on your blog. If you browse around on my blog, you’ll see that at this time I am monetizing my blog with ads, affiliate marketing, and my ebooks and my Pinterest Templates.
It’s important to use different income streams if you want to create income from your blog. You never want to have all your income coming from just one source.
If you started your blog with the hopes of turning it into a full-time business, then you’re in the right place.
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Maybe you haven’t started your blog because you don’t know how to begin? Well, I have a step-by-step tutorial that will help you get your blog started in just 5 minutes.
Can You Make Money Writing eBooks Absolutely
Even if you never thought you had it in you to write an ebook and sell it online. You’re wrong.
If you can write a blog post, then you can write an ebook. In this post, I am going to share how I wrote my first ebook and how I sell it on my blog as well as selling on the Amazon Kindle platform.
You’ll have everything you need to write an ebook fast and hopefully, start making money.
Let’s get started.
How to Write An eBook
One of the reasons that most bloggers refuse to write their first eBook is because they don’t think that they have it in them to write a full-blown eBook.
It’s funny how we all tend to focus on our limiting beliefs of what we can and can’t do. I’ve done it too and it took me a while to get my first eBook published. I think I waited a year before publishing my first eBook.
The truth is that you already have everything you need to publish an eBook. If you’ve been writing blog posts, then you can turn those blog posts into an eBook.
Now I know what you’re thinking, people can read that information for free on my blog. Why would anyone pay me for the same information in an eBook?
Method #1 Use One Existing Blog Post and Expand On It
The first method is to turn a blog post that is already proven to be popular and turn it into an eBook. All you have to do is check your top blog posts in Google Analytics to find out which posts your audience loves.
Once you find out which blog post is popular ask yourself these questions:
- How can I make it even more valuable?
- What can I add to the content to add value?
I know this can be confusing and you might think that no one is going to pay for an ebook that you used already written blog posts.
But the truth is that you’re not going to just be turning your blog posts into an ebook as is.
Most blog posts are around 1,500 – 3,00 words long, especially, if you are writing long-form content.
This means that you already have what it takes to turn your blog posts into an eBook. An eBook is nothing more than a piece of long-form high-value content about a particular subject in your niche.
Method #2 Create a Bunch of Related Articles and Put Them Into An eBook
If you have been writing blog posts for awhile, this means that you already ready have a huge blog archive. Chances are you already have several blog posts that are related to each other.
For instance, let’s say that your blog is about running and you did a series on how to get in shape for your first marathon.
You most likely have some articles that are related like this:
How to start training for your first marathon
What you should eat to get into shape for your first marathon
Marathon training schedule for beginners
I’m not a marathon runner so I have no clue what it takes to run a marathon. But you can see that all the articles are interrelated.
Well, instead of having your readers browse your blog archives for all the information. You can take all the blog posts that are related and create an eBook from them.
Either method works for turning your blog posts into an eBook. You just want to make sure that if your readers are getting something valuable for their money.
How to Turn Your Blog Post to A PDF
Once you decide which post or blog posts you want to turn to a PDF, it’s time to get started. You can use a site like www.printfriendly.com to create your pdf for free. Or you can use something like Designrr.io that makes it so easy to turn a blog post to a PDF.
Make sure that everything looks good. Not everything is going to look good when you convert it to an eBook.
Create Your Table of Contents
Use the post titles to create your table of contents. If they are too long, cut them down the character length.
Make sure that organize your chapters for easy reading and proper flow. Your table of contents will show you whether you are covering the topic in depth or not.
You may realize that you might need to write an extra chapter to help you cover an entire topic or cover something more in depth. That’s okay, it happens to all of us who sell an eBook.
Add Content to Your eBook
- Cover/Title Page
- TOC and Page Numbers
- What your reader will learn
- A little bit about you
- Copyright Information
- How to use the book
- Resources and links
- Disclosures (if you need any)
- Footnotes (sources if any)
- Additional Resources
Revise and Edit Your eBook
If you are like me, you love writing. I personally love publishing new blog posts and writing eBooks, but suck at proofreading and editing. That’s actually why I personally love using Grammarly whenever I sit down to write a blog post.
It’s nice to have someone watching my back and looking out for Grammar Errors. Now you can use Grammarly to help you write your eBook as well.
But the truth is that you want to make sure that your eBook makes sense and flows well. This can be hard to do if you’re the one proofreading your own eBook.
Your Blog Posts May Have Grammar Errors
Turning your blog posts into an eBook is not as simple as just copying and pasting the information into a PDF and converting it into an eBook.
Most of us have grammar issues in our blog posts. (I know I do)
Your eBook needs to be a little more formal than your blog posts. I am not saying that it needs to be stuffy and boring. But since people are handing over their money for it, you want to make sure that it’s not just a bunch of fluff.
Creating An eBook Cover
Before you can start selling your eBook on your blog then you need to create an eBook cover. The cool thing is that you can use Canva as they already have some pre-made covers that you can use for your new eBook.
Of course, you can outsource your eBook cover to Fiverr. I’ve personally never done that, but I know there are people who will be happy to take care of it for you.
Either way, you need to remember that your eBook cover will play a huge part in whether or not you make any sales.
If your eBook cover sucks, then you will struggle to make it a bestselling ebook.
Where to Sell Your eBook?
Once you have everything completed and your gorgeous ebook cover created, it’s time to tell the world about your new ebook.
Do you sell it on your blog or do you sell it on the Amazon Marketplace?
Well, the truth is that you can do both if you want. Today, I am going to discuss how to sell your eBook on your blog and on the Amazon Kindle Marketplace.
Even if you have never self-published your own ebook on Amazon, trust me it’s not hard. If I was able to figure it out, so can you. Check out this site as it has a ton of valuable information to help you get started with your first Kindle ebook.
How to Sell Your eBook On Your WordPress Blog
You already have a place to sell your eBook. Chances are you have been blogging for a while and may even have started building your email list of subscribers.
Well, why not just sell your ebook from your blog? If you are using WordPress, there are several plugins that will make selling an ebook so easy.
Of course, you can use a third party solution like Gumtree or SendOwl.
It’s really not hard to find a third party solution that will help you sell your ebook. Personally, I have only sold my ebooks on my blog and at Amazon. So I can’t say which third-party solution is the best to go with.
You’re just going to have to do your due diligence and find the right one that doesn’t take a huge chunk of your commissions.
I personally use Easy Digital Downloads to sell my ebook on my blog. Maybe I’ll create a step-by-step tutorial later to show you how easy it is to set it up.
Why I Love Easy Digital Downloads
I am a control freak and I don’t really like using 3rd party solutions to sell my products if I can find a reliable plugin to help me sell my products.
With Easy Digital Downloads, I just set up the eBook once on my blog and that’s it. Then all I have to do is focusing on promoting my blog and work on growing the traffic and the sales start to come in.
I love the fact that Easy Digital Downloads allows me to accept payments via both Stripe and Paypal.
If you need help growing your traffic, here are some articles to help you out:
- How to Grow Your Blog With Pinterest
- How to Promote Your Blog The Truth About Blog Growth
- Blog Post Checklist: 12 Things You Need to Do After Publishing A Post
Selling Your eBook On Amazon
One of the cool things about selling your eBook on Amazon is that it’s a huge marketplace. Once you get your eBook added to the marketplace, you have the opportunity to start making sales right away.
Now from my personal experience on selling eBooks on Amazon is that the sales don’t come in as soon as you upload your eBook.
Just like anything else you do online, you need to promote your ebook and let others know about it. When I released my WordPress Complete Beginners Guide I ran an experiment to see if I could get the word out about my new book.
You know what I found?
If you want people to know about your new eBook, you’re going to have to give it away for free for a couple of days.
There are several sites that you can list your eBook for free. I personally don’t have that time to list my ebook to a bunch of free sites. So I used this service to help me get the word out about my new eBook.
Now I know what you’re thinking, why would you pay to give your eBook away for free?
Well, it helps get the word out about your ebook and hopefully, you’re using your ebook to help you grow your email list.
Plus once the promotion period is over, then the sales come in without you having to do a lot. I now make passive income from my blogs on the Kindle Marketplace without doing a whole lot.
What to Do If My eBook Doesn’t Sell?
Converting your blog posts to an ebook does take some work. You’re going to have to make sure that everything looks good and proofread and possibly add some content.
This might take you a couple of days or a week to write your first ebook. No one wants to put in all that work and not make any money.
Unfortunately, it’s going to happen. Not ever ebook that you create is going to sell like hotcakes. We all create dud products every now and then.
But you can’t scare that from creating your first info-product.
If you create your ebook and it doesn’t sell, then here are some things you can do to see if it sells:
- Create a fresh ebook cover (maybe people don’t like the one you have)
- Change the price of the ebook
- Work on improving the sales page of your ebook
If it still doesn’t sell and you’re doing the proper promotion. Then maybe you should stop selling it and put it inside of your resource library to help you grow your email subscribers.
Either way, it’s not a waste of time converting your blog posts to an ebook. You can always give away your ebook for free and add value to your subscribers.
Final Take Away
If you have been blogging for a while, then you have a ton of blog posts that you can turn into an ebook. Why not take some of your best content and repurpose it into an ebook that makes you money.
You’ve already done all the hard work of writing the content for your posts. Now it’s time to start earning passive income from your blog by selling ebooks.
Just remember that your ebooks will not sell unless you are getting out there and working the promotion and growing your traffic to get in front of your readers.
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Have you ever wondered if you can make money writing an ebook? Now that you know it’s possible, do you think you will write one? Let me know, I’d love to hear about it.
