One of the ways to monetize your blog we’ve mentioned recently is creating your own products, specifically ebooks. I really hope that physical books never completely disappear. There’s nothing like curling up in a cozy spot with a good book that you can hold in your hands and enjoy the tactile pleasure of turning the pages. That said, the chances of you or I getting our own physical book published are slim.

Ebooks are a viable alternative. Yes, ebooks have something of a bad reputation in some people’s eyes. Sometimes, they deserve it. Since it is so easy and inexpensive to publish your ebook, you find as many bad ones with old rehashed information as you do great ones with new quality content (if not more).

If a physical book needs to be revised or updated, it means a second printing with all the time and expenses involved. If you’re updating your ebook, it’s a matter of a couple hours work in the original file, and it’s ready to offer your customers again. Conceivably, you could update your product several times a year with minimal time and money invested.

Have you ever gone to your local bookstore for a book and had to backorder it because it is out of stock? It’s frustrating to wait, and it means yet another trip to the bookstore. I don’t know about you, but with current rising price of gas, anything that requires a return trip annoys me greatly. Even if you order online and have it shipped, you still have that waiting time between the order and when you have the book in your hands.

With an ebook, you can instantly download it… even if you’re up in the middle of the night. You can read it right away. Or, it can remain on your harddrive for as long as you like. If you work daily from your computer, it can be there in an open window for you to reference in seconds. You can even print it out and take it with you in a physical form. You have a choice of a digital or a physical form with an ebook that isn’t available with a physical book.

Ebooks also have the ability to be interactive. Some are even crafted to allow you to search within the book. A boon to any researcher: just try that with a physical book! Anything you can put in your blog you can add to an ebook, audio, video, polls, and surveys. There are even video ebooks. You can add links to virtually any other site on the web you desire. Of course, if these links are to your blogs and websites, you have the roots of a viral product.

Tomorrow, I’ll show you that when you write your ebook, you’ve planted the seed which grows your marketing funnel.

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