How to promote your ebook

You’ve written an ebook, but that’s just the beginning. Like all products, ebooks must be marketed well. Otherwise, nobody’s going to buy your ebook, and you’ve basically wasted all your time and effort on something that nobody will ever read.

With the proper ebook marketing strategy, you’ll be able to boost your readership (and your profits!). Here are some very simple ebook marketing tips that even a beginner can follow.

Set up a website

Before, aspiring writers had to go around looking for someone to publish their book—or spend thousands of dollars of their own money publishing and distributing it themselves. Today, all you have to do to bring your ebook to the public is to set up a website. You can do this with just a few dollars a month, thanks to the very affordable rates for web hosting packages. Ideally, your ebook should have a dedicated website, unless you are using it to draw traffic to an existing product or service that you already are selling.

Of course, it goes without saying that the website for your ebook should be informative and user-friendly. Be sure to answer the question, ‘Why do I need this ebook?’ and ‘What information can I find in it?’ You may also want to include a short, free excerpt, to give your readers an idea of what’s inside.

Set up a mailing list or e-newsletter

Consumers are getting smarter about where they spend their money. Many of them will see a product and decide to ‘think about it’ (which often means they will forget about it). By offering a free weekly or monthly newsletter, chock full of tips and ideas, you will be able to keep in touch with them, building their trust and proving the quality of your content, until you can pursuade them to pay for your ebook.

Find a marketing partner

You can sell your ebook through companies like Clickbank which can help you promote it to an existing base of affiliates, and als otake care of details like payment processing. However, be sure to do research on the company. Find out how long it’s been around, the number of authors it has, and the kind of feedback that it gets from buyers.
You can also partner with related websites, and give a percentage of the profits you make on any ebooks they sell.

Promote content through article marketing

Submit excerpts of your book (or write on a related topic) to article directories. Just add info about yourself and the ebook at the end of the article, with a link to the website where your ebook can be found. This is great for driving traffic to your website, building your reputation, and of course spreading the word on the ebook you are selling.

photo from learnhowtoearn.net.