LESSON #47: How to Create an Ebook

By | August 4, 2009

In the previous lessons we’ve been talking about how to create an information product. Today we’re going to take a closer look at creating an ebook…

(Watch this video…)

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Main points:

  • Ebook = digital book

    Possible formats…

    -PDF (Recommended)
    -Word Doc
    -Text file
    -HTML page
    -Exe file
    -Kindle and other special formats

    Recommended Free Software: www.OpenOffice.org

    Open Office is an open source software suite, and their Writer program can create high quality PDF’s… for free!

  • Ebook Formatting

    – 8 1/2 x 11″
    – 12-14 point font
    – Times New Roman (most common for printed books)
    – Arial (great for reading on-screen)

    Tricks to take up more space…

    (This is not about adding fluff, or filling it with too much white space… your ebook should consist of high quality content. But it can be helpful to make your ebook seem longer to add perceived value. Also please note: keep your target market in mind. Some audiences prefer short, concise information, in which case a shorter ebook is better.)

    – Margins (just don’t increase them too much)
    – Line spacing (I like 1.5)
    – Arial font instead of Times New Roman
    – Chapter breaks

    Components I include in my ebooks:

    -Title Page
    -Legal Disclaimer Page
    -Table of Contents
    -Chapters
    -Resource Section

    (See video for demonstration of me creating an ebook by rebranding and tweaking another PLR ebook)

    PLR Tip: If you can’t find PLR for your topic, consider finding someone with a product in your niche that you think is good quality, and simply ask them if they’ll private label it to you.

  • 3 places that I like to put links in ebooks…

    1) At the beginning
    2) Integrated throughout
    3) At the end (resource section)

    Linking Tip: Always use use redirects on your own domain, rather than embedding your affiliate link in the ebook. That way you can change the destination later on, without having to update the ebook. See also link cloaking

    Advanced Tip: Creating brandable PDF’s for your affiliates is a great idea. I’ve used ViralPDF

    Advanced Tip: Always keep your source documents! You might want to boost your income by selling PLR to it some day.

    Recommended resources:

    PDF Ebook Templates

    Instead of DULL, PLAIN, BORING documents, now you can easily create
    BEAUTIFUL and PROFESSIONAL looking ebooks in a matter of minutes.

    PDF Templates
    Ecover Engine

    This is a very cool software tool which enables you to create great looking E-covers for your products… even if you have no graphics experience at all!

    PDF Ebook covers

    Action steps:

    1) If you’ve chosen to create an ebook for your information product… do it!

    For many of you, this product will be just the tip of the iceberg. Ideally, it will be a front end product that leads to bigger products, and bigger income as you build your business. We’ll be talking about your marketing funnel in the next lesson.

    As always, you are welcome to post your questions and comments below.

    Have a great day!

  • 168 thoughts on “LESSON #47: How to Create an Ebook

    1. Randy Whitehorne

      Thanks for the great information I write articles and recently looked at creating an ebook
      You should always rewrite and edit to brand yourself. You provide great tips and information

      Randy

      Reply
    2. Tom

      I recommend you use a spell checker for every email. – “diffently” (definitely) unless on purpose which makes no sense.
      Tom

      Reply
    3. Floyd

      Hi, Eric:

      Your courses have been quite informational. You mentioned that one could “run” an affiliate program through Clickbank. Please let me know the procedure to do this. Thanks and accept my appreciation for your sharing of information.

      Kind regards,
      Floyd

      Reply
    4. Mah

      Hi Eric,

      Thanks for this great lesson. My congratulations!!
      This is one of the most timely things I got in life. Just when I am in the middle of writing my very own ebook I get this tutorial from you.
      The major issue that I face is not the actual production of the product but with the marketing. How do I market my ebook effectively and then get people to buy it eventually.
      Any tips, Eric?

      Reply
    5. Sean

      Eric todays tip was a winner for me! Liked it a lot. I’m divver-ing on the content though!

      Reply
    6. bruce

      Great video Eric. I agree that inserting affiliate links within your ebook are not going to make much difference on click throughs. Overall, this video is pretty complete. I have to get into my hard drive and get more of my PLR ebooks out to the public!

      Reply
    7. Eric Post author

      That’s what the majority of the rest of this 100 lesson series is all about 🙂

      You’ll learn about sales copy, list building, web traffic, etc. All the things you need to market your ebook.

      Reply
    8. andre

      thank u so much.How did you become so knowledgeable in internet marketing.I am having a hard time promoting other pepoples products,I am FAIRLY NEW AT this affilate.I now decide to release my own website.I in the process of having Clickbank to promote my website.I in the process of working on releasing 150 software products and 250 ebooks.I just need to come up with that many domain names.Couuld you please help me with this situation.

      Thank You ANDRE

      Reply
    9. Bruce

      How likely is it that one person will be two versions of the same PLR book? I think I’d be pretty ticked off if I bought two books that were essentially the same.

      Reply
    10. Eric Post author

      I’ve bought and sold tons of PLR, and it’s never really been an issue. If it did happen and they complained, it would be as simple as giving a refund. The sad thing is that most people who would buy the same book twice are the same type of people who would never actually read it anyway, so they wouldn’t even know.

      Reply
    11. Jorge Dutra

      Hi Eric, Just to mention, I am enjoying every minute of the program. My plan is to go through the program daily and then start all over in detail.

      Reply
    12. Ray Cowie

      Hi Eric, I’m on the side of not calling a PDF an eBook, especially on your sales page.

      Thanks to sites like Amazon, people don’t expect to pay above $17 for something called an eBook. However, they’re more inclined to get ttheir wallets out for a ‘Digital Download’ or ‘Report’.

      Great tips, by the way.

      Ray

      Reply
    13. Eric Post author

      Good point Ray, I think that perception is really being solidified by Amazon. I often like to call my products “courses”, “systems”, “programs”, “blueprints” etc.

      Reply
    14. Joe

      Eric, please help me, I signed up for your classes, and you said at the start, not to buy anything. Then you said buy copypaste/traffic, and I did. Should I work on getting this site going, or continue with your classes to help me finish my website with CPT? Unfortunatly, it is costing me money I do not want to spend, until I can start making some. Thanks, Joe

      Reply
    15. Micah

      Hello Joe,

      We recommend that you only buy products when you know that you will be able to use them in your business right away, or very soon. If you purchase items on impulse, they tend to collect dust on your computer or bookshelf.

      Why not devote some time to your purchase! Completing this business project could prove rewarding for you.

      Reply
    16. Berend de Groot

      Hello Eric,

      I have placed a comment about my website, but now I can’t find it anymore….. I would like to know what I should change on my site, and how to make it full-screen (right now it doesn’t fill the whole screen). Thanks, also thanks for your helpful videos. Berend.

      Reply
    17. Prue

      Hi Eric,

      Can I use the PDF templates for microsoft word? Or, is it just for open office?

      Thanks again for your tips

      Reply
    18. Mark

      Thanks for the tips. There are several good nuggets even for someone who has written e-books before.

      A couple of little tricks I’ve found for watermarking one of the corners of a PDF with someones name or their e-mail address is to fulfill with e-Junkie or use PDFStamp. For the programmer-types, PDFStamp comes with a command-line version and you can write a simple program that will take an incoming e-mail message, watermark your PDF through the command-line, and e-mail it to the customer automatically. But even just the command-line tool makes it easy and not distracting in the e-book.

      Reply
    19. Nedra

      Oh, how I wish I had this information BEFORE I had launched my ebook. This would have made the process a walk in the park in comparison.

      Reply
    20. jaco

      hi eric

      great lesson. i realy needed this one. just want to know, if i use open office, how do i create a source file within open office,if i want to give plr to my ebook?

      i opened a plr ebook with openoffice, made changes to it, and exported it as pdf, but i tried to save the contnt as .doc for plr reasons but i cant seem to get it to safe in that format. should i do all the changes again in office word?

      i did try to copy and paste from openoffice to office, but i wasnt happy with how it came out in office?

      any advice would be great. thanks for your great content.

      Reply
    21. jaco

      Or do you suggest that i use viral pdf? Will viral pdf make it easy for plr reasons?

      thank you eric

      Reply
    22. Micah

      Hello Jaco,

      You can still use Open Office to create your source files. It just doesn’t work when you try to convert back from a PDF.

      When you’re working in the software, simply be sure to keep an original copy before saving a PDF version.

      Reply
    23. Micah

      Hello Jaco,

      Open Office will work just as well…no need for other software!

      ViralPDF is good if you want to have rebrandable PDFs, that you sell to other marketers.

      Reply
    24. Kurt Pedersen

      Thanks Eric!
      I learned a lot from this lesson.
      Since I am European, I am glad John Counsel said:
      * Yes, use US Letter (11 x 8.5 inches) — but be aware that this format is standard ONLY in the USA and Canada. EVERYWHERE else in the world uses ISO-A4 paper size (297 x 210 mm). You can increase downloads by offering your publication in BOTH formats.*
      – If it wasn`t for his comment I wouldn`t have a clue what you meant where you wrote -11 x 8.5 (not inches behind those numbers)
      – This is lesson number 47 – all the others are on my computer. I have always thought that these lessons I could come back to, read later, but now I how valuable these lessons are for me.
      They will NOT be collecting dust on my HDD! 🙂
      -Kurt Pedersen

      Reply
    25. Mike

      Hi Erik,

      I tried to join your Real Coaching Club, but it won’t let me.
      Have a better way?
      Thanks
      Mike Zeid

      Reply
    26. Doreen

      Good day Eric before this lesson I just wanted to bring to your attention that the link you sent for 40% of hosting with hostgator has a fault on it thought you might want to take a look will you forward a link to me before the offer ends thank you have a great day to you and your family

      Reply
    27. Nzeribe

      Hi Eric.
      I am just a newbie. I have not yet understood how to apply this redirect. Do you have any ebook on how to get this done step by step for newbies like me? I have read the link cloaking still I don’t get it. Plese help.
      Thanks again

      Reply
    28. Eva

      Hi Eric i created ebook in open office 3.1 saved as a pdf file , but i have to make small changes and now i have problem to open this book in open office again , it opens great in adobe reader , but when i try to open in oo gives me this scramble stuff .
      Can you help ?

      Reply
    29. Micah

      Hello Eva,

      Do you still have your original source file, before saving the PDF version? It should be named with an .odt extension at the end.

      You might want to open Open Office, and check the recently opened files, to access your source file again.

      Reply
    30. Patch

      Is there a way to include a script or something so that when the person clicks on the link for your ebook, they get the download/save as dialog box instead of the pdf opening up in their browser? That way they don’t really see the file url and can’t share it…Just something I thought about as I uploaded my 2 newest ebooks today, yay!

      Reply
    31. Sean

      I sat down and viewed the entire video. It was very informative. Thanks Eric. I learned so much

      Reply
    32. Ken Klug

      I did not understand finding a product I like to make a PLR document that you purchase from the owner. Do they write it or do I write it from their material?

      Reply
    33. Micah

      Hello Ken,

      This lesson focuses on creating your own product from scratch.

      However, if you purchased some PLR content from someone else, you wouldn’t have as much to do.

      In that case, you would probably just want to change the name of the product, and any sales graphic, so it will reflect your brand or business.

      Reply
    34. Richard

      Hi Eric,

      I have my Kindle eBook ready for publish and have lots of hyperlinks to external sites. I do not know how to redirect url eventhough I checked your other post “Cloaking Affiliate Links…”. How and where should I set it up your html coding?
      Let’s say I link it to Clickbank in my eBook,
      http://1234567890.hop.clickbank.net/

      and my website url, let’s say is http://www.abcdef.com

      I am a newbie and appreciate your advice. Thanks as always.

      Reply
    35. Jorge Garcia

      Eric thanks alot for this incredible information I start working on my first ebook best wishes Jorge

      Reply
    36. Brad

      Wow. Eric the amount of info you offer through these free videos blows my mind. Can I ask, what do you offer in the monthly coaching that surpasses what you have in these 100 lessons?

      Reply
      1. Micah

        Hello Brad,

        Here is what is included in the Coaching Club:
        – 2 Live Coaching Webinars Per Month with Jeff Wellman, Paul Counts, and Eric Holmlund
        – Access to the Archive of All Coaching Calls
        – Monthly High Quality PLR Product
        – Massive Video Training Library
        – Community Forum (JV’s, Support, and More)
        – Articles, Bonuses, and More
        http://www.realguysrealmoney.com/go17/

        Reply
    37. Brad

      Two more things:

      I went to the previous lesson you mentioned which allowed me to download your legal templates. Which particular template of yours did you use for the EBook you create in the video? There’s 5 documents I see in the zip file: http://i.imgur.com/ZutEVO5.png

      ‘Always use redirects on your own domain’ Are you recommending I go to my WebHost and create a redirect from there in CPanel? I’m not quite sure how to make an affiliate link be a link related to my domain unless I actually create the page on my site? Am I making sense? Thanks again

      Reply
    38. Scott Freeman

      This might be obvious, but I just want to be sure:
      I’m creating children’s books in which the full color artwork will be an important part of the ebook. My source docs will be created in Photoshop and Indesign at 300dpi. When I create my multi-page ebook file, I assume I should rez everything down to 72dpi? But then will the image quality still be optimum on all devices if I’m using an 8.5×11″ format? I couldn’t see a dpi setting on the program Eric was using in the video.
      Thanks…

      Reply
      1. Micah

        Hello Scott,

        It’s really up to you, how much clarity and quality you would like in your ebook versions. You’ll notice that there is incredibly high resolution imagery in content available for Kindle and Nook.

        Storage space, and download times aren’t as big of a consideration anymore.

        Reply
    39. Rich

      Hi Eric,

      I’m not sure how I came across your lessons; but I’m really pleased that I did!

      Every time I watch one of your lessons, I learn something new. Thank you so much!!

      You are definitely one of the IM marketers that believes in giving a lot to your viewers, and I hope to follow in your footsteps with my new project that I am just getting off the ground

      Peace
      Rich

      Reply

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