Are eBooks Profitable?

The making ebooks profitable thing is surrounded in mystery usually from people trying to show you how to make money from ebooks.

But creating an ebook and selling an ebook will take some time and maybe some money. 2 factors that you must consider. We'll also discuss what makes it profitable and what can take away that profitability.

I won't talk about graphics. I'm poor at it- so go to UpWork and get someone to make you an ebook cover for $100 and it will be better than you could have done in the same time :)

What we need to figure out are a few things for the idea of making ebooks profitable.

These are the factors, the lens that each idea for this page is going to go through first:

Are Ebooks profitable in the first place?

It depends on how it is created and what are you thinking an ebook will do for you. Most ebook creators will make one ebook and then upload it somewhere. The problem with this method are many:

no-one knows it is there, therefore you need to promote it
unless the economics are right then you will need to sell many copies, or create multiple amounts of ebooks to make anything decent from the venture.

You also have to really ask the most fundamental question that every single person forgets:

Why on earth should I buy a book from you?

If you can figure that one out then you are plain sailing. You may do all the keyword research and buy in ads but at the end of the day have you made it your mission to actually convert that person on your main sales page and buy from you?

Then what happens when that customer walks away (well, clicks away), what do you do then? You need to figure out what comes in and what lands on your page and what then leaves.

If you are getting one person buying your book out of 1000 visitors then something has gone wrong. "You need 7 -24 messages before they buy"! Fair enough, but clearly people aren't going through that process- or that process is somewhere broken. You havent convinced them enough that your product is right for them.

So, you can do everything that you can, keywords, high SEO placement, spend tons on ads...but it won't make a blind bit of difference.

Making ebooks profitable is that step.

An ebook has a life

An ebooks profitability depends upon how many are sold compared to how much money it took to sell it right?

Therefore with electronic version you can sell sell sell without too much sweat reprinting :)

Logically the longer you sell for the more money you can get.

However, ebooks have a life span. Using the typical bell curve- they are gradual to build have a high and then reduce in sales. that is quite normal.

Most publishers know this, hence that is why you get different versions of a book. You also get books that are old, they slap on a new cover and revive it through marketing or someone who has "discovered it".

If your ebook is seasonal then it is only going to sell for a short period of time
If your ebook is about a certain point in history/ news piece then your ebook profitability is only going to be when that topic resurfaces/ discussed.

So some of those self help books, that were amazing and told people EXACTLY how to do it, now long gone. Which is strange because you would have thought whatever is evergreen actually is not.

That is why dieting is such a great income generator for many people because there is a new diet each year, people come back and try something else.

So an evergreen topic like dieting is a good one to go for, but Atkins diet might not be that evergreen.

Competition?

Competition generally means that there someone somewhere has said this market is good, lets jump onto it. Everyone else has thought- if they are in this market then it must be good?!

Competition blinds many people, especially those who havent been able to see what is really there.

Competition only works when:

if you are first and then can grab as much market share as possible
people clearly understand what is different about your ebook than another one

What people tend to forget in making ebooks profitable is profitability. If you are spending $100/week on Adwords and trying to get ahead of the market leader but you are only converting (with optimal conversion etc) 3 in every 100 people- making $17.97 (5.99 commission through Amazon)) then you are selling but it is not really profitable.

If however you go full niche where there is no-one and no where to manoeuvre and you make 3 sales a week (your limit) with no Adwords, then you have to ask, is it worth it?

You will find eventually competitors become stupid and they forget about business and try to find a dollar where there might not be one to be found. Huh?

If you are targeting keywords in Adwords, so will someone else and they will try to outbid you. Instead of going for the slightly more expensive keywords where there is fewer competitors, most go for the easy keywords
They will sell for cheaper

Eventually no-one will make money- or the person who has set up enough funnels to grasp back the cash they lost will make the most money. But at what cost?

You need to focus on business.

Anything else to make eBooks profitable?

I hope you have realised that in the title, ebooks, there is an "s" for a reason.

If you can only make 3 sales with a total of $17.97...

But what if you can sell 3 more books to the same people but on a different topic?
Or what if those 3 people then decide to buy what is in the book?
Or! You sell them something that is related but something that you know they want?

This is the problem with Amazon.

You don't really have access to who bought the ebook unless you direct people from your own website/ list. But it is what gives places like Clickbank an advantage. People who buy through you have to give you an email to get the book. You can also sell them on the thank-you page and invite them to your newsletter for free info.

All the platforms that sell for you have one major issue.

You have no idea what does and doesn't convert- they do.

You need repeat customers,
you need to know what brought that one customer there to buy in the first place
you need to add things, take away things and see what is right for your audience
Amazon and all those companies are sales channels not lone sites to do business because you are increasing their authority and trust- not really increasing your own initially.

Fiction works well with multiple ebooks- people go with the author, and if it is a cool series then people will buy more (especially if the previous book was good). However the price is lower. Charging $20 for a novel or a start of a series from an unknown is rare. They make up the money from selling multiple books for minimal amounts (99c-2.95). So spending years on a novel might not be the wisest move initially.

Non-fiction has a better chance of getting more money but you get the issue of commission and what do you include. The more valuable the book with bonuses the more money you can ask for. But then that is going to be a bulky book- so could you then chop it up into multiple mini books?

So, making eBooks profitable can be down to...

Lastly we have how to actually get your ebook out there.

We have already touched upon the idea of Adwords but the best are:

your own website through articles/ blogging
newsletter

Facebook, Snapchat etc are all good places to tell people of what you have to offer, but try your best not to make these places the only place you can be found. Your own website is your home base. Again, who holds the data? You are going to be investing time and effort in content generation and interacting with your audience. Do that on your website and allow Facebook to funnel people to you- not away from you.

You need constant contact with people about you and your ebooks to make it work, that is the cheapest way.

However Adwords and paid placement will work well if you figure out if the conversion is good for your bank account? Paid placement only works when the desired action gives you more money back then what is spent. It is not about brand awareness unless you can guarantee that what you paid out caused more money to come into your bank account.

Also remember that if you send an email out/ Adwords it, you are going to get a spike in possible sales then a reduction in sales. If you have multiple ebooks of similar content/ topic then that spike will ripple over to the other books.

It has been noted with Amazon or any ranking system for ebooks- even an older ebook will get some chart love if one copy gets sold. So never forget those older titles.

Anyway. Hope you enjoy this overview of ebook profitability.

Check out out to sell eProducts here. The blog? Check it out here.