Brian Basilico: How To Use eBooks To Grow Your Business

Image courtesy of phasinphoto at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I have a confession … I was a book snob. As a self-published author of a best selling, award winning book, I thought I was the bee’s knees.

I viewed publishing like some kind of a rock-paper-scissors. Authors with a hard cover book by a traditional publisher, trumps a soft cover self-published book, which in turn trumps an electronic book or eBook.

Even this old dog can learn a new trick, and boy was I mistaken. eBooks are so much more than electronic counterparts to their printed big brothers and sisters.

eBooks are all that, but they are also marketing tools unto themselves. They can enhance or augment print books, or they can be stand-alone tools that can help you sell programs, courses and more. Even bigger than that, eBooks can be stand-alone products that you sell through Amazon and other publishing platforms.

Online education and business concept eBooks come in many flavors. There are Kindle versions of printed books, some that are published directly to Kindle, Nook and Apple, and some are just stand-alone PDFs that sit on your website or are downloaded from emails. Each of these serves a different purpose and attracts a different audience.

As with most content, this can be original PLR (private label rights) or repurposed (audio transcriptions). There are many ways that you can create and repurpose content into eBooks. Quality is important and depends on your audience’s expectations. So, it pays to hire an editor or proofreader before publishing.

The cover is important too. You can’t judge a book by its cover, but in this short attention span theater world, you have to do your best to intrigue the person browsing though books on your topic.

Top eBooks Tips

Writing an eBook is just the beginning of the process. You then have to publish it with a plan to take people further down your sales funnel. It all starts with a GREAT eBook, and ends with a plan to keep the interested parties in the loop. Here are some tips to get and keep people interested:

Great Title (keyword) – The title of your book is so much more than a title. It’s a way for people to find you through a search (Amazon and Google), and it will make or break if and how you get found, perceived and downloaded.

Catchy Cover – You should not judge a book by its cover … but I GUARANTEE you people will. You have 8 seconds to make a first impression, just like with your webpage. Make your cover “Click Worthy”.

Table Of Contents – This is what links people to your content. Next to your title, and cover, this is the gatekeeper to people reading your information.

Write Great Content – If your first paragraph says “I have no experience and no reason to even be telling you what I know”, they will never see the “Bear with me” in the next sentence. Come out of the box swinging and don’t stop!

Link Back To Website – eBooks have links … use them. Would you drive a Maserati and keep it in first gear? Don’t just link back to a web page or a blog. Have a plan that guides people through a process.

Have Bonus Content Ready – When people click those links, give them what you promised and then offer more. If they give you their email address or watch a sales video, prepare them to take the next step. Have a plan and work it!

The key thing is to have an audience that wants the information that you are serving up. As with any content creation, you can have the greatest stuff in the world, but if no one knows where to find you, or cares about your topic, you might as well focus your time and energy elsewhere. Also, where most people fall short is, they get people to the eBook (or other content) and it just ends there. Never leave the next communication in the users’ hands. They tend to have short memories.