How Do You Promote Your Free Ebooks?

[Revolves]

Hello,

Apart from publishing content online, I tried publishing the content I had written as Ebooks/Reports. There are a number of ebook directories. I see that, in few of the directories I submitted, my reports received only around 100 downloads each. That is over a span of 1 month.

There are reports that can go viral, giving a huge surge in downloads.

So, how do you guys promote your free reports, if at all, or other alternatives you stick to rather than free reports?

Also, any suggestions on "maximizing profits" from a low number of viewers? I.e., kind of topics which are "buyer ready"?

I initially thought of creating some kind of a "buying guide" for products. But it's still in concept, and I'd like ideas from you.

[AcePlayer]

You can promote your ebooks as torrents.... in p2p networks

[Dana_W]

There is so much content out there available for free these days that "free" isn't that much of a temptation for me, and for a lot of other people.

If someone is a well known, well respected internet marketer I am likely to take a look at their free content.

If a free report isn't written by someone well known, it needs to have a really compelling headline that explains the benefits of the report so I know I'm not wasting my time.

"How I Drive Thousands Of Targeted Visitors To My Site Every Week For Free", or something like that. The headline has to be believable - not, how I drive millions of visitors to my site, not, how I made 2 million dollars last month - and it has to tell me how I can benefit from reading this report.

Also - if the report has a great headline and then it doesn't deliver the goods...if the information in there is lousy...I'll never read anything by that author again.

If it's a good report but I already know all the information in there, honestly, that's okay - I'll give the author another shot. I've been doing IM for a while, I am always looking for new tips and methods, and as long as an author is giving me good, solid, usable information, I'll check back to see what else he or she has got.

[Loren Woirhaye]

Dana hit on some good points - to get people to read your
stuff get them to read a little, then a little more, then they'll
want to read your ebook.

This sucks - but it's reality. You first need to establish yourself
as someone who can help them with your information - which
means you will want to actually SELL your ebook - even though
it is free you should be writing copy or making video commercials
to create excitement.

There is an onslaught of FREE information available today online
on a wide range of subjects... but others are under-served and
if you can locate them you will find you can grab a lot of
subscribers by offering free information on a subject lacking
online. I know this seems hard to believe because there is
so much information out there on many topics.

Here's an example which won't work for you but illustrates the point:

Suppose you knew how to repair pipe organs and you put
out a free ebook about how to do it. This topic is
understood by a very small number of people today - the
only book I found easily on the topic sells for nearly $70
on Amazon - so if you were to write a free report don't you
think it would be easy to capture some of the people who
want to know more but chafe at the price of the book?

This may seem like an outlandish example - it is intended
to make you THINK!

If you are having a tough time giving away your ebooks maybe
you are writing the wrong kind of stuff.

[Nic Lynn]

Here's some additional steps to take:

1. Hit the newsgroups (binaries) and post it
2. P2P
3. Relevant forums
4. email to webmasters/owners of relevant blogs
5. document directories
6. Yahoo groups

[Andy LaPointe]

A lot of good idea's in this thread. Here is my two cents:

1: Mention it in your Twitter profile
2: Give it away on PLR membership sites
3: Partner with another IM and give away your book to their list

[Earl Smith]

post it as a giveaway and or any social sites you belong to, get the word out to them and ask them if they would take a look at what you have and if they like what they see to spread the word.

If you ask people help cause they know that they might need your help later

[jeremiasmunn]

It's really competitive out there, you can try using torrents for marketing your ebook.

[Andyhenry]

Hi,

A while ago I decided that I didn't want to charge people for information products any more unless they were something more than just a pdf - I don't do any of the normal promotional things, they're not in any ebook directories - I just give them to Warriors and they spread the word.

Since I'm not trying to make money from Warriors, there's really no reason for them not wanting to spread the word, and it also means that if I do want to make any money in the IM niche I need to create something more than just a pdf information product in order for me to want to sell it. I fundamentally believe that information should be freely shared and so I don't tend to sell this stuff unless the money is going to a charity or for some cause.

I'm not normal though - so you probably won't want to do this yourself

Andy

[greenprop]

Yahoo answers is a good place to interact with your target market. try answering some relevant questions and offering the reports as a free download.

[JayMachado]

I would advise you to step back a little bit. The issue isn't the report itself but how you're going to help your target market, right? We get so obsessed with the numbers of people who have read something that we forget each and every one of those numbers is a real living person.

Focus first on people - not directories. Find where the people are, make a good introduction, be helpful, and then offer them something, especially if it's going to solve a problem.

[Tyson Faulkner]

You can take your report and for each key point in it write an article that will get the reader's interest. Then point your articles to your website where they can download the report to read the whole thing.

The articles can be really short as long as they capture interest and provide a little solid content. This is a good way to get someone to read a little, then want to read more, as mentioned above.