Making a Website into a Book

16 replies
I plan on making a website with multiple larger articles over time. Once I am done I will likely have enough material for a book..

In order to maximize my income, I thought, it would it be good to compile this information into a book and offer it through Clickbank..

Has anyone else tried this? Would there be any complications doing this?

I am going to use the exact same material on the website as the book, so it will be duplicate content, but the book will not be indexed on google, so hopefully it will not be a problem?
#book #making #website
  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
    Banned
    Something I don't think you are considering:

    Why would I (pretend I'm a prospective customer) want to pay for the exact same information that I can go get at your website for free? It doesn't make sense.
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  • Profile picture of the author IGP
    Banned
    I thought about doing the same thing. In regards of Joe, you should ask for donations and give it away. Build trust and then offer a better product for a price. If your website is massive, then yes it would be a good idea to create a book and sell it (for a small price). Allot of books are sold and consist of nothing but articles found online.
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  • Profile picture of the author ashloren
    I agree that in most cases it won't make sense to turn your website content into a printed book. However, there have been some internet marketers who have successfully done just that. Seth Godin is one of the best examples.

    Of course, Seth was already well known and people were willing to buy his book (which was a compilation of selected posts from his blog) because he had previously established himself as an authority. He had a definite advantage over newer authors/bloggers, so you should take this into consideration.

    That being said, you may want to consider instead simply adding your blog to Amazon's blog subscription service. It works the same way as Kindle, but just charges Kindle owners 99 cents per month to receive your blog updates on their devices. This is an attractive option because the pricing point is low enough that you can likely find some subscribers who are simply after the convenience of reading your content on their Kindle eReaders.

    Otherwise, you can play around with the idea of making eBooks from your blog content. Try making a free eBook and see how many people opt-in or sign up to receive it after you've built up your blog a bit. I suggest trying Zinepal.com for this purpose.

    Hope this helps.
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  • Profile picture of the author Simmeon
    Not the best idea - What would you gain from doing this?
    Unless you generate traffic to the website. Somehow gain a loyal audience. Build and nurture your audience promoting your own products. The issue is when you dont see the traffic you desire, you will quit.
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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Franklin
    Steve Pavlina published a book which is a collection of many of his blog posts. Granted he has a huge following and thousands of blog posts. If you really want to attempt to create a book, head over to his site and see the kind of dedication you will need to your material and audience!
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  • Profile picture of the author Joseph Robinson
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    So wait, people are actually doing this? Boggles my mind at least. I wouldn't pay for a book when I know that the same information is just a typed URL away.

    There's a market for everything I guess.
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    • Profile picture of the author SpicyRobby
      Originally Posted by Joe Robinson View Post

      So wait, people are actually doing this? Boggles my mind at least. I wouldn't pay for a book when I know that the same information is just a typed URL away.

      There's a market for everything I guess.
      When someone lands on your website, they don't see what your whole website entails!

      Currently I'm working on the same thing - I've published nearly 200 blog posts on my blog, so now I'm going to wrap those posts up as free eBooks. I've been actually asked by my visitors if I have compilations of blog posts so that they can be downloaded and viewed on other devices, so I can see why people would do it.
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      • Profile picture of the author nvs74191
        Use a plugin called kalin's pdf creation station. Generates good pdf ebooks.

        I use another plugin called easyfileshop, to automate the payment and delivery process.

        Originally Posted by SpicyRobby View Post

        When someone lands on your website, they don't see what your whole website entails!

        Currently I'm working on the same thing - I've published nearly 200 blog posts on my blog, so now I'm going to wrap those posts up as free eBooks. I've been actually asked by my visitors if I have compilations of blog posts so that they can be downloaded and viewed on other devices, so I can see why people would do it.
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        Swaminathan

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  • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
    Here's an example of a site that does just what you ask about.

    Blood Sugar 101

    If you scroll down that index page to the second last line, you'll see the link to the book version.

    The site does get a lot of positive recommendations and links back. It is a bit of an authority in the diabetes area.

    The key to selling it as a book seems to be the clumsy navigation of the site. There is no site map, and if you start reading it, the links to most of pages just appear in the text.

    I assume the book version has an index that is clickable.
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    • Profile picture of the author Mike Hill
      Originally Posted by Lloyd Buchinski View Post

      Here's an example of a site that does just what you ask about.

      Blood Sugar 101

      If you scroll down that index page to the second last line, you'll see the link to the book version.

      The site does get a lot of positive recommendations and links back. It is a bit of an authority in the diabetes area.

      The key to selling it as a book seems to be the clumsy navigation of the site. There is no site map, and if you start reading it, the links to most of pages just appear in the text.

      I assume the book version has an index that is clickable.

      But that website in your example needs to be in a book if you want to make any sense of the information. On the website it's a complete and utter disaster.

      Yikes..
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  • Profile picture of the author nvs74191
    It is a good idea because you can monetize the pages of your site for additional income besides the sales of your book.

    If you have a wordpress blog layout that is clean, you can take advantage of it - set the home page to be the sales page, and ensure you link from each post to the home page - wwsgd plugin helps you position attractive links on each post to your home page, like a banner ad. People find your inner pages and slowly it generates sales.

    I used to sell the method as a WSO, and I can let you have it - you have to watch a few videos though. The method is explained in the videos, but you can refine it to your needs.

    I make a bit of sales in non IM niches with this method. This is of course only for pdf ebooks, though I suppose it can be used for kindle etc. with some modifications.

    PM me if you want this.
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    Swaminathan

    I am a Jack Duncan Fan!

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  • Profile picture of the author Michael Meaney
    Old timers will remember when Ben Mack did something similar in 2003 or 2004, he had a great deal of success.
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  • Profile picture of the author J Bold
    I think it's all about convenience. Sure, it would have to be A LOT of blog posts, and they'd have to be real quality.

    But if I loved someone's blog and instead of having to go and load page after page to read some old posts I loved, I could have it in a Kindle book instead and access it with my Kindle reader for a few bucks, well I just might do that.

    If the information warrants it, and you have a strong, loyal following, this definitely is viable, in my opinion. All about convenience and making the information more readily accessible for those who want it.
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  • Profile picture of the author SpicyRobby
    Originally Posted by qwerty101 View Post

    I am going to use the exact same material on the website as the book, so it will be duplicate content, but the book will not be indexed on google, so hopefully it will not be a problem?
    I can't see why that would be a problem as far as you're the creator of that content!
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  • Profile picture of the author Takuya Hikichi
    Believe it or not, I have sold 120+ units of ebooks
    that were simply converted from web pages once.

    Did receive one refund request but I don't think
    it was due to the matched content.

    My publishing partner thought this idea and I was
    against it. But since it was his sight and his list of
    maybe 100,000 so I thought why not.

    Anyway, to do what you want to do, simply
    paste your URL and click to change into ebook.

    One click and tada!

    Zinepal | Online eBook Creator
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Long
    As much as we all want to believe otherwise, not every single item we publish is pure gold

    If you are a prolific writer, and you have a blog with say, 1,000 posts, doesn't it make sense to pull all of your "best" material together into a coehsive book and offer it to your devoted readers?

    There are a number of sites on the web where I would glady pay 10 bucks to get a consice, organized "Best Of" version of 100 of the best 1,000 posts, so I don't have to waste half the day trying to dig out the best 10-20% of the site.

    -Mike
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