Turn your knowledge into profit: How to create an ebook and start selling online

If you intend to create an ebook and sell it online, you’ve come to the right place! For people who plan on investing and monetizing the use of the internet, online courses are a good opportunity.

The most traditional among them, the ebook is a book in digital format, that you can read in any electronic device such as computers, smartphones, e-readers (digital readers, like Kindle) or tablets. You can also print them and read as a traditional book.

With an ebook ready, it is possible to sell it online and make it a part of your revenue.

If you, too, want to create an ebook, check out step-by-step how to do it:

Before reading our tutorial, here are the main advantages of creating an ebook:

5 advantages of creating an ebook and selling it online

If you’ve got this far,you’ve probably noticed some benefits in creating an ebook and selling it online, right? Since we work every day with digital products we’ll mention all of them so you get more familiar with the market of infoproducts:

1. Price: With low production and promotion costs, a high-quality ebook can get to the buyer’s hands at lower prices than traditional books. This allows the seller to lower the price to sell more or just keep the price and increase
2. Portability: because it is in digital format, it can be distributed fast and efficiently through the Internet, to anywhere in the world. The buyer doesn’t need to go to a physical store or wait for the book to arrive after an online purchase. Delivery is immediate, right after payment approval, and the client can start studying as soon as possible!
3. Low production cost: Unlike a paperback book, which has expenses with paper, print, shipping, and storage every time it is print, the digital book has a cost that’s close to zero because the entire sale and consume process happens digitally.
4. Scalability: As we’ve mentioned, there’s also the possibility to make sales for people all over the world, regardless of date and time. If you have a system that automatically receives payments and makes the delivery, like Hotmart, you automate the entire process, scaling your sales and profit.
5. Possibility to work with what you love: If there is something you really love doing why not taking the opportunity to make money from your talents? You can teach your abilities to other thousands of people and, as a consequence, profit from it. Some digital Producers end up working only with their new online business and there are also those who make some extra income to add to their revenue.

How to create an ebook

To create an ebook, it’s necessary to follow some essential steps. In each of them, you’ll notice how the creation process is simpler than you imagine. They are:

1. Have a well-defined topic for the ebook:

This is one of the most important steps of the creation process of any book, especially for those who wish to make money online from selling the material.

Choose a topic that’s close to you and that you know well. Choosing a topic in which you’re an expert is key because you need to convey credibility to your reader.

It’s also crucial to find a market niche that’s big enough to provide a satisfactory number of sales. To understand more about the subject read our post on how to choose a niche for your first digital product.

2. Organize and structure the chapters of the book:

Decide which subjects will be the most important from the topic you’ve chosen. Draft them and organize chapters to grasp the meaning of your text.

It’s important to justify your ideas. So, research thoroughly online into what has already been written and what’s new in the discussion of the topic you want to talk about.

Research which topic your client cares about and, from them decide your content.

Keywords research tools, such as Google Keyword Planner, may be very useful to help with the selection of topics. They help you to understand your audience’s interests thus being able to organize your content more efficiently.  

3. Illustrate your ebook with pictures:

Using images favors the reading and makes the ebook more interesting. You have two options when using images in your digital book, with low costs.

The first is using images from your personal file, which will give you no problems with copyright. The second option is using image database.

On the Internet, there are countless image databases available, many with accessible prices and some are free. Here are some websites where you can find good images for your ebook:

• ShutterStock: search site that gathers thousands of pictures with royalty-free usage and accessible prices to illustrate your ebook.
• Public Domain Photos: offers more than 5,000 pictures and 8,000 illustrations for free usage.
• Free Digital Photos: it also offers a paid option for people who need high-resolution images.
• Every Stock Photo: gathers more than five million pictures from different image database.

4. Choose the format of your ebook (PDF or Epub):

The main difference between the two formats concerns how it adapts to the reader’s screen. An Epub ebook is reflowable, which means it offers the possibility to adapt the text and font size automatically according to the display area available. However, the ones available on PDF will always have the same format of the print version, whichever the display area is.

Features of Epub files:

• Allow resizing of texts and changing the font;
• Allow word search and to insert details;
• It’s possible to turn pages with a single touch;
• They’re ideal for simpler ebooks, without many images.

Features of PDF files:

• They’re an exact copy or the print version;
• Allow to zoom in or out the page, for better content view;
• Navigation bar can be used for turning pages;
• They’re ideal for more complex ebooks in which there are a substantial number of images and the format is more complex.

5. Put some effort into the design

Formatting and editing your ebook will make a difference. Besides being well written, your ebook must have good finishing, this will make your work look more professional.

If you don’t master formatting and editing tools, analyze the possibility of hiring a professional to perform this task. Regarding the costs of diagramming a paperback book, the costs of an ebook will be considerably lower.

A good presentation will exalt/praise the image of your book. You’ll find good freelance professionals in websites such as odesk.com or freelancer.com.

Great! You’ve finished creating your first ebook. Now, worry about editing the text. If necessary, hire an editor, to check for grammatical errors.

For your work to have credibility and positive repercussion, it is fundamental that it is well-written, your ideas are understandable, and English is right.

6. Register your work

If the intention is writing an ebook and selling it, it’s important to register your work with the ISBN. An identification system that includes authorship information and makes your ebook safer regarding copyrights. Information for the register can be obtained at the official International ISBN website, at the link https://www.isbn-international.org/.

7. Choose a distribution platform

Once your ebook is complete, is time to decide:

• How do I deliver my ebook after the sale?
• How do I receive online payments?
• How do I ensure my ebook’s online safety?

To answer these questions, it is ideal to choose a distribution platform, like Hotmart for example. The platform must provide all the tools and infrastructure so you don’t have to worry about minor details of the sales process. If you have questions, talk to the best info-entrepreneurs and ask them what distribution platform they use.

8. Promote your ebook

Set strategies to promote and spread your work. Tips to promote your ebook:

• Social networking sites: promote your work on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and any other social networking site your persona uses.
• Partnerships: Get in touch with websites with content similar to your ebook and offer articles for publication, also known as guest posts.
• Blog:  Start a blog on the same topic of your ebook to come up with a contacts list with people who are interested in the topic and use it to sell your book.
• Affiliate Program: Take part in Affiliates Programs to sell your ebook. Through Affiliates Programs you can offer a commission to any person who sells your ebook. So, websites with an audience similar to the topic of your ebook will affiliate to your product thus monetizing their websites.
• Email marketing: Build an email list with people who are interested in your content. From there you will be able to directly communicate to your audience and promote your ebook to make a sale. You can make a Newsletter form available on your website or blog.

With all our tips, it’s easier to organize your ideas and then create your first ebook, which will also be your digital product to sell online.

The higher the quality, the higher the perspectives of results. To learn more about this format and create your first digital product, download our free and complete guide that will show you step by step how to create your ebook:

*This text was originally posted in January, 2013 and updated to offer more precise and complete information.