Is anyone making a living from ebooks?

Yeah, those who knows the dos and don't..

I will like to categorically say, i have worked with over 50 Amazon Kindle Users within a very short period of time and have gotten a little tips or commendation after working with them.

It depends on your strategy. I have a small list of subscribers who value my stuff so they buy the few e-books I release.

On another note, I also make money by creating kindle books for others, so like I said, it depends on your strategy.

Yep. If they weren't, people wouldn't still try to write them.

The majority of people don't make a living.

Some people make extra money (you know, $500 a month or so)

A lot of people don't make anything outside of a sale or two.


Don't go writing something you know nothing about.

If you aren't rich yourself, don't write an eBook on getting rich.


That kinda thing.


It also takes a lot of work and you have to consistently update/write new eBooks.



With all of that being said...


I know a few guys who sell 5,000+ copies of their eBooks at $15+ each.

But I also know guys who can't even give their eBook away.

As long as you are passionate for your job-hobby or everything you write for you are going to make money.
The more you work on it the more you will make.
Making ebooks (or lets call them products) can be a very profitable business.

In short words
Create product
Create list
profit
sell website and product together

yes there are a lot of people making money from fiction and nonfiction ebooks. Those authors with a sales rank above 3000 are probably making at least $100 per day. There are a number of ebook authors on Clickbank who have made well over 6 figures from a simple ebook.

I sell quite a few ebooks but not enough to make a living at it.. not yet anyway. Luckily I diversify doing CPA, Amazon and other affiliate promotions.

The eBooks I sell, I make sure to put links in them to my blogs to get affiliate commission from related Amazon products.

I do if from list building and affliate programs, and getting traffic from forum ads, and ppc.... it works for me.... however its bloody hard work! That is what no one will admit, its takes hard work, but I do not want to sit in some stuffy office and answer to and overweight smelly boss...

If you are well-organized you can make a living. I’m making money by selling my own ebooks, in combination with a related service. Whoever buys my ebooks, usually cares about my service, or those who care about my service end up buying my ebooks. However, it was very hard to be trusted by the public. In the beginning everything was extremely hard.

I've made a high six figure income since 2002 from ebooks.

Of course, i'm also not a beginner by any means. I've been online since 2001 and have learned quite a bit about copywriting, marketing, and getting traffic. (all 3 are needed to make this amount with ebooks)

A few keys to my success....

1. Knowing which markets are most profitable and spending a lot of money
2. Knowing how to write copy
3. making enough money to buy a lot of traffic.

I was slapped by Google in 2009 or so, but was lucky enough to have more than enough to do media buys, bypassing Google altogether.

And yes, it's much, much harder to make a good amount of money with ebooks today. I was selling 30 to 40 ebooks a day at $39.

But that was before Kindle conditioned a lot of people to want $3.99 ebooks.

Oh, and it takes more than just an ebook... you gotta have a back end to sell after the ebook. THAT is where the money is made.

So yes, it's possible to make a great living with ebooks... but it's not "get rich quick" by any stretch of the imagination.

Like any business, it takes work and focus on the 20% of things that produce 80% of your results.

Two to three years ago, and beyond, there were a ton of success stories that emerged. There names are escaping me right now, but I recall reading about the success of a couple--I believe they were from the UK--they realized HUGE success with producing and marketing their own eBooks. Since their success, I believe there has been a natural onslaught of hundreds/thousands of people attempting to replicate their success. I've had alot of success with eBooks....however, it has become extremely saturated in just about every niche and micro-niche. That doesn't mean there still can't be opportunity. I do think it is becoming increasingly difficult, for the unskilled, to gain traction. Unfortunately, that is the great paradox here: usually it is the great success stories that are the greatest lure to the newcomer/unskilled, however it is the lack of skill and experience that can lead to certain failure if the person isn't dedicated or resilient enough.

I just see so many people try, and, eventually, get burned out from seeing little fruits of their labor. Again, it's not that it CAN'T be done, but I definitely think it has grown to be a bit more of a challenge than previous years.

I've sold a lot of products over the years, but I've been selling ebooks online for over a decade and it's been a very consistent money-maker, just like Shawn mentioned you're not just selling one ebook. You have to approach it like a real business where you find a market that has a specific need and an ebook is just one of your many products that you are going to market to them.

There are a wide variety of strategies on how to market your ebook. Some people set up a squeeze page, buy traffic, and then test the hell out of their conversions until they get a winning campaign or they move onto the next campaign.

I've seen others set up an authority website with a bio link, products link, coaching link, article link, etc. and they send traffic there with press releases, media buys, social media, etc.

There are so many ways to market your ebook(s) which is one of the many reasons why I like to create them (or have others create them, depending on the niche / topic / whatever).



If you want to make money selling ebooks you have to keep the following in mind:

• Find a market with a real need, the most desperate the niche is the more likely you'll be able to sell information there.
• Don't be afraid of the competition. Market saturation in most niches is a myth. You don't have to outrun the bear, you only need to outrun the next person. Find a way to do something better than your competition and you'll be able to compete. If you don't believe me pick up a copy of Brian Tracy's Create Your Own Future. He goes indepth into this topic, some of which he calls "luck factors".
• Don't get discouraged if you create an ebook and you're not breaking even; this is where most people drop the ball. You need to test, test, test, track, and tweak until you've hit your optimal levels.
• Don't be afraid to change drastically different price points. For example: maybe you have a 100 page ebook that sells for $27 and it's not selling. Well, write a 20 to 40 page report and sell it for $5, 6, or $7 bucks as a loss leader and at the end of that report, give people compelling reasons to spend $27 if they want more indepth information.
• Always have a back-end strategy. I won't even dive into a niche unless there are plenty of products that I can market. Sure, I like creating and selling my ebooks, but remember, people buy other stuff.
• Don't believe that Kindle is retraining people to spend $2.99 on ebooks. You can sell a small ebook for $2.99 or even 99 cents and then use THAT small ebook in Kindlle to lead people to your website / blog / etc. Kindle is a GREAT way to generate bonafide leads. People will stay pay top dollar for information they really need.
• Study copywriting. One of the most under developed skillsets that I see in marketers today, even some veterans, is that they don't understand the copywriting fundamentals. Pick up the free ebook by the late Job Robson over at Make Your Words Sell! . I paid over $30 for it over 13 years ago and now it's free. It literally forces you to write better sales copy.

Amazon is just the beginning, ebooks are in a growth phase right now and people who know how to bundle their content with ebooks, videos, podcasts, etc. are going to make a lot of money.

RoD

I started in IM with this. I still do it, It's a good business model. I have own product launched about list building.

Don't call your product an ebook unless you want to compete with the $2.99 Amazon kindle ebooks. Call it a report, a guide, a training manual, a tutorial, anything but an ebook. Better yet, separate it into sections and call them modules.

It's like asking if anyone is making a living from writing. Yes, many people are but many others don't or can't.

For many, ebooks are a nice income stream on top of something else they do.