Let’s get this one important part out of the way first. We truly believe that the best type of online business to start is one where you sell digital products.
It means you have no inventory and they are infinitely scalable.
However, creating digital products can feel intimidating to people who don’t know what they’re doing. We’re happy to say that they aren’t as hard as you might think.
In our signature program, the first offer that we suggest our students create is an ebook. It’s the perfect offer for many different reasons and we’ll get to that in a bit.
So if you’re looking for how to create an ebook then this is the guide for you. We’ll even show you where and how to sell them so you can build a business that offers you the freedom that you deserve.
Why Should You Create an Ebook?
It might sound strange that an ebook is one of the first offers we suggest that our students create. Doesn’t it take a long time to write an ebook?
That depends.
We prefer to do 12-hour ebooks that we create with the help of AI. The goal of these books isn’t to be the most comprehensive things on the planet. That’s not what people want when they buy an ebook from you.
People buy ebooks because they want to achieve an outcome. That’s all your book needs to do.
Some outcomes take 20 pages while others might take 80. But you don’t have to create a 300-page tome to be successful with your ebook.
If you can help people achieve the outcome that they want then you’ll develop the trust and authority required to sell more stuff to them. And that’s what makes ebooks so valuable.
They can walk your readers through a journey so that they can reach the desired destination.
Plus, if you create a book by default people will look at you as the authority on the topic because who would create a book on something they don’t know about?
How Much Money Can You Make Creating eBooks?
Before we dive into the actual creation of an ebook there is an important distinction that we need to make. The ebooks that we talk about are the ones that you sell on your own site.
Why would you do that?
To make more money and control the experience.
Yes, you can sell on different ebook publishing platforms like Amazon or Etsy, but you’re limited in what you can charge for the ebooks.
When you get to sell ebooks on your own site you can package them up with other offers and charge $49 or more. That’s very hard to do on Amazon.
As you can see just because you aren’t charging $1,000 for a book doesn’t mean you can’t make great money with one. With a good ebook sales funnel, you can make money 24/7 with your ebook without having to live on the computer.
So through this guide when we talk about creating ebooks we are talking about the ones you can sell on your own site to make great money. They aren’t different from the ones you can sell on Amazon, Etsy, or other places, but we figured we’d let you know.
How to Create an eBook That Your Audience Loves
When people think about creating any type of digital product they tend to forget that they’re creating it for an audience that needs to love it. Just because you’ve created it doesn’t mean that people will buy it.
So before you create an eBook you need to understand who you do you want to help. That’s the first step.
Step 1. Know Who You Want to Help
If you want your book to sell then you need to make sure you’re creating something that people want. Please note that there is a difference between what someone wants and what someone needs.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of creating a book that you feel people need but that’s much harder to sell than giving them exactly what they want. Now, there are times these two things go hand-in-hand and if that’s the case with your book then you’re in luck.
However, if you’re creating How to Live a Happy Life then it’s important to understand that some of your audience might be more concerned about how they’re going to pay rent today.
So the first step is to think about the person that you want to help. For us here at Odd Noodle, it is Creators who want to spend their lives creating but need a means to make that happen. We show Creators how to build an online business that allows them more freedom and time to create.
Step 2. Figure Out What They Want
After you know who you want to help you need to figure out what they want. What’s the outcome that they are looking for?
This can be easy or it can be hard but the outcome is always something tangible.
Do they want to make a wedding dress by hand? Do they want to learn how to budget their finances? Do they want to grow tomatoes in their backyard?
What do they want? The more concrete the better.
Step 3. Outline the Problems
Now it’s time to outline the problems that prevent them from achieving the outcome. Why are we outlining the problems? Because these are the gems of your ebook.
If you don’t have these in your ebook then it will fall flat. People need to see solutions to these problems to feel like they are making progress.
Yes, you can give the history of knitting or explain the science behind fertilizer, but none of that will matter if you don’t have the big solutions to the big problems in the book. Solve these and people will look for the next one. Don’t solve these and people will wonder why didn’t you just write a blog post.
Step 4. Write the Book in Google Docs
There is no reason to write the book in paid software and while there are a ton of great ones, Google Docs (or Word or Apple Pages) will work just fine for you. We go with Google Docs because it means we can access our books from anywhere and share them easily.
Write, Don’t Edit
Something to be mindful of is that when you’re writing you can’t also be editing at the same time. That’s how a book that should take a weekend to create ends up taking 15 months.
When you sit down to write only focus on writing. Get as much out as possible. Then, when you feel you are done you edit.
But never write and edit at the same time. You’ll only stress yourself out.
Tips on Writing Your eBook
- Add images, tables, and diagrams to break up any walls of text that you might have in your book. It can be intimidating to come across a giant wall of text which can easily deter people from reading.
- Shorter paragraphs. People are getting used to shorter paragraphs due to reading online. You’re not writing a book for Harvard Law (if you are then make long paragraphs). Focus on short paragraphs that get the point across.
- Add a table of contents. Because it’s an ebook you can create a table of content that contains links to the different chapters of the book.
- Have fun with it. This is one of your chances to have a one-on-one conversation with your reader so be sure to inject your personality into the book and have fun with it.
Creating Beautiful eBooks With Google Docs
Step 5. Create the Book Cover in Canva
Head to Canva and create your book cover. You can do a search for book covers or create your own from scratch. Once you’ve created the cover all that you need to do is export it and then plug it into your ebook in Google Docs.
Step 6. Export as PDF and Upload to a Platform to Sell
Once you’re done editing your book and you have your cover image there you can export the document as a PDF and you have an ebook! Congratulations!
From there you can sell it on varying platforms such as Shopify, Etsy, ConvertKit, or many others.
How to Sell Your eBook
Creating your ebook is the easy part. Selling your ebook is a little harder than the easy part of the process. So how do you sell it?
There are hundreds of ways, but if you’re reading this there is a chance that you want to sell your ebook without feeling sleazy about it. We get you and feel the exact same way about this stuff.
Your best bet then is to create an ebook sales funnel that allows you to sell without selling. That might sound like an oxymoron but it’s true. You can hook people into where they’ll be dying to give you money for further help.
You just need a system to implement.
Everyone Should Learn How to Create an eBook
The beautiful thing about creating ebooks is that they can be valuable assets for your business. You can create them and you don’t have to sell them.
You can use them as lead magnets or as a bonus in another offer. Creating an ebook is never a waste of time and it’s why it’s one of the first digital products that we teach our students to create.
