Need your opinion: Alternative methods to monetizing Ebook besides selling it outright?

15 replies
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#alternative #ebook #methods #monetizing #opinion #outright #selling
  • Profile picture of the author wfhblueprints
    Split it up into chapters and sell it at $7/9 per chapter.....
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  • Profile picture of the author ladida
    You already named a few good options but in addition to those let me ask; are you asking the reader to purchase anything to help with their weight loss? Could you become an affiliate of said product and embed that link into your ebook?
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    • Profile picture of the author MarketingVet09
      Originally Posted by ladida View Post

      You already named a few good options but in addition to those let me ask; are you asking the reader to purchase anything to help with their weight loss? Could you become an affiliate of said product and embed that link into your ebook?
      Oh yea I forgot to mention, one of the main themes I have going in my ebook is that you dont need like a "fad" diet and things of that nature. So basically it'd sort of be contradictory telling them to 'go buy this' when Im letting them know they can do it on their on, so that really wouldn't be an option, but I did think of that.. Can you tell me out of the ones listed, and the one the other guy suggested of selling it in chapters, which sounds best to you?

      thanks
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  • Sell them on a back end 'accountability' membership, where they can provide details of their progress and get help through a membership community. You can give the ebook away free with the first payment for the subscription.

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  • Profile picture of the author ladida
    Even though you may not hard sell any product you can still recommend a few. For example, you could give the reader three ways to accomplish a task... the hard way, the easier way and the easiest way. One or more of those options could be connected to an affiliate link.

    In regards to the other options mentioned you could do a combination. You could offer the ebook for free but only after they fill out a CPA offer, then embed a bunch of affiliate links in the ebook. You could charge per chapter and then follow up each sell with an upsell of a related product...

    There are many ways to go about it.

    Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author markowe
    I am also working on a quality ebook from a non-IM field and have a similar dilemma to you.

    I have pretty much decided that I won't sell it as a book at all, but rather market it as an 'ecourse'. What you do is, break it up into logical units like 12 weeks-worth, or 3 months of daily lessons and turn it into a series of mailings using aWeber or another autoresponder. You could maybe create worksheets for each day with a nice-looking template and attach them as a PDF, with exercises like a daily exercise plan, calorie plan, whatever. It would mean a bit more work, I think you would have to give a little more value that way, but that wouldn't be the bulk of the work (you could even outsource it) and you would GET far more mileage out of it too because once you have it set up, all you have to do is market it, or let affiliates market for you (even let members become affiliates after a certain time) and every new 3-month subscription is another $47, $67... hm, well, how much do YOU think it's worth in that form..? A lot more than an ebook, I reckon (any takers for $97?), and it would be more effective too because the users get daily encouragement! And the whole thing still runs itself, off the autoresponder.

    Also, of course, you could create a members' forum like you said, maybe give people lifetime membership with their initial subscription, or charge them some small monthly rate once they have finished the course, provided you can continue providing value there. There you can promote other related affiliate products too - not fads, I mean gym memberships (lots of those programs around, some on CJ I seem to remember that pay quite well), sports equipment, whatever. Then the next step is to develop a new course for those that have lost weight and now want to take things further and start getting fit, toned, abs (sigh...) and all that. i.e. keep upselling them and building your empire

    Well, those are just ideas, but this model is working very well these days and can be done with JUST an autoresponder (and a sales script of some kind) if you don't want to get too technical.

    Anyway, I will be going in that direction with my ebook. I just have to write it, ha ha. It's all 'up there' though..!
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    • Profile picture of the author MarketingVet09
      Originally Posted by markowe View Post

      I am also working on a quality ebook from a non-IM field and have a similar dilemma to you.

      I have pretty much decided that I won't sell it as a book at all, but rather market it as an 'ecourse'. What you do is, break it up into logical units like 12 weeks-worth, or 3 months of daily lessons and turn it into a series of mailings using aWeber or another autoresponder. You could maybe create worksheets for each day with a nice-looking template and attach them as a PDF, with exercises like a daily exercise plan, calorie plan, whatever. It would mean a bit more work, I think you would have to give a little more value that way, but that wouldn't be the bulk of the work (you could even outsource it) and you would GET far more mileage out of it too because once you have it set up, all you have to do is market it, or let affiliates market for you (even let members become affiliates after a certain time) and every new 3-month subscription is another $47, $67... hm, well, how much do YOU think it's worth in that form..? A lot more than an ebook, I reckon (any takers for $97?), and it would be more effective too because the users get daily encouragement! And the whole thing still runs itself, off the autoresponder.

      Also, of course, you could create a members' forum like you said, maybe give people lifetime membership with their initial subscription, or charge them some small monthly rate once they have finished the course, provided you can continue providing value there. There you can promote other related affiliate products too - not fads, I mean gym memberships (lots of those programs around, some on CJ I seem to remember that pay quite well), sports equipment, whatever. Then the next step is to develop a new course for those that have lost weight and now want to take things further and start getting fit, toned, abs (sigh...) and all that. i.e. keep upselling them and building your empire

      Well, those are just ideas, but this model is working very well these days and can be done with JUST an autoresponder (and a sales script of some kind) if you don't want to get too technical.

      Anyway, I will be going in that direction with my ebook. I just have to write it, ha ha. It's all 'up there' though..!
      wow, thanks. I'll definitely consider some of this. What you said about the gym memberships etc is really eye opening, I never even thought about that, I was only thinking about upselling other ebooks (which I still might do, maybe some that are specifically targeted at abs or something like that)...

      Everyone in this thread has given me great Ideas and I appreciate it, and you can keep them coming! I'm going to soak it all in and maybe do a combination of different things like a previous poster said.


      Thanks a lot guys!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Zabrina
    Have you thought about selling it on Amazon? It's pretty easy, as long as you have more than 48 (I'm pretty sure that's the number) pages.
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  • Profile picture of the author Harmony
    woah316,

    hiya! If I had a book I thought would really help people, I would find a sponsor like Brendon Burchard talks about. According to him he made beaucoup dollars when a company paid him for a book that complimented their mission statement. I'll put a link below. (and yeah he's pitching something but the info is worth watching.)

    brendonburchard.com Blog · How Sponsors Help
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  • Profile picture of the author frankm
    Another good way to do it is to find some people offline who would like to lose weight.

    My sister went to Weight Watchers and now has taught two of her friends how to do the same as she's done but without WW.

    Same with giving the book away for free... once you have some success stories it becomes so much easier to sell.
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  • Profile picture of the author markowe
    I think the problem with selling it as an ebook, as the OP obviously suspects, is that there may already be way too much competition in the niche. I have a great idea for a health product myself, but I just wonder whether it's worth putting the effort in not because of a lack of demand but just because of the competition. It's not enough just to put it on CB, you have to draw the affiliates, and that's a whole marketing problem in itself. There are plenty of (probably reasonable-quality) products on CB just dragging along the bottom without a sale to their name for that reason. I think some of the smart approaches mentioned above have more mileage.
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  • Profile picture of the author Mark Singletary
    There's a famous story that Allen Says (admin) shared with us several years ago. The moral of the story was to sell what you would want to buy. Give people what you need because they need it too. Sell how you would want to be sold to.

    So look at your own story. I doubt at 150 pound weight loss that it was just some information and off you went without any problems. 150 pounds of weight loss takes a lot of dedication, focus, consistency, overcoming temptations, etc. (unless your method is you got a gastric bypass or something like that).

    Yes MAYBE people need the "life changing information" but there is already tons of that out there. Buying the information doesn't help much of anybody. Applying the information is what helps people be successful at anything.

    Help them do that - really do that - and you can't hardly go wrong. Because most authors don't.

    My 2 cents.
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