The Mechanics Of Selling An Ebook

So you're considering writing and marketing an ebook.

You know lots of money can be, and is being, made in the field. You also know that it's not just internet marketing ebooks that are profitable but that lots more topics can be successful.

Whilst there are lots of quality resources out there about writing and marketing an ebook (my personal favourite at the present is Make Your Knowledge Sell) the subject seldom discussed is the mechanics of selling it.

How do you actually "make an ebook" once you've written the words, how do you accept credit cards with a merchant account and what about ecommerce fullfillment?

Whilst you can learn how to find profitable topics, write interesting ebooks and market them on the internet you still need a low-cost way of actually selling them.

The basic requirements of the system are to:

• Create the ebook for you in it's final form once you've written the text

• Accept credit card orders for your ebook and process them for you at low cost

• As soon as the customer's card is approved, ensure they can download their ebook

• Use sophisticated fraud-prevention systems to ensure your ebook can't be pirated by people downloading copies without paying, or distributing copies of your work to friends, colleagues or visitors to their websites without your permission

• You may also want to set up an affiliate program so that your affiliates can help market your ebook for you in exchange for a commission on sales made

And you need to be able to do all this on a tight budget, with little or no technical knowledge.

A tall order? Not really.

First off, let's discuss the individual software you need to use to create your ebook.

There are numerous formats in which you can distribute your ebook - the most common being in Acrobat Reader format (pdf) and the other is as a fully executable file format (exe).

If you're not sure of the differences between these two formats be sure to join our newsletter, the "Ecommerce Journals", whereup among your list of welcome gifts you'll find ebooks in both formats. This will enable you to download them and compare them on your computer to see which format you prefer.

Here are the main differences...

PDF's have the benefit of being able to be read on both PCs and Macs, with the Adobe Acrobat Reader software which you can download free from the net. They enable fast downloads. Unfortunately, whilst the reader is free, it is also a large program that requires quite some time to download from the Internet if your readers don't yet have it on their computer, and it uses up a lot of memory which may slow down those with less powerful machines.

On the other hand, most .exe ebook makers, or "compilers" as they are generally known, can only be viewed on PCs and are essentially a collection of webpages linked together and working without being connected to the internet.

Therefore, typical website features such as JavaScript, forms, animated gifs and so on will work in an .exe ebook and this is just one facet of the extra functionality available to ebook compilers over Acrobat Reader format.

Other important features include additional security as standard (for example, the ability to password-protect your ebook, or require registration at your website before the book can be read). Another useful security feature is that you can decide to allow or disallow printing or the "copy" facility while your ebook is open. This prevents people copying out the text for potentially unauthorised activities. However, I do like to print out and read ebooks offline rather than at my PC so I tend to disable the "copy" facility but enable the print facility.

As exe compilers are HTML based, you can essentially do anything to the pages of your ebook that you can do to a webpage and I, for one, prefer this control and flexibility in terms of layout and design.

There are numerous other features offered in these compilers not available in Acrobat format, but listing them all could be an article in itself.

Do you opt for greater security and much more functionality, or a system that works on both PCs and Macs?

I personally always use an exe compiler and have been very satisfied with my results indeed. The one I use is called Activ Ebook Compiler and is made by fellow Brit Sunil Tanna.

So far it offers the very best value for money I've found in a compiler, has more features than any other I have used and is very easy and intuitive to use. I was so impressed, infact, that I wrote to Sunil to congratulate him on his achievement - when you take a look around his site see if you can see my genuine testimonial for his software (it was Page 5 of his testimonials last time I checked).

I like the way it gives so much freedom in terms of customizing your ebook to your own specifications and have even created rebrandable ebooks with it in the past. I have to admit the incredibly low price also came into consideration when I was just starting out!

There's a free version you can try out and see what you think of before you need to part with any cash at all. Click here if you'd like to find out more.

The next piece of software I use to great satisfaction having discovered it is ClickLocker.

In essence, this software is very simple to use and understand, though like driving a car, there's an incredible amount of technology under the bonnet.

The software works with any ebook compiler at all, without exceptions. Clicklocker essentially allows you to "turn off" copies of your ebook by remote control.

So if someone asks for a refund, there is generally no way to prove they haven't just requested a refund yet are still using your ebook. In this case, you could deactivate their copy for security from the comfort of your computer using Clicklocker.

You find someone has been distributing copies of your ebook to others without your permission. No problem, you just deactivate all their copies at the press of a button. Genius. And exactly the sort of security software I simply wouldn't do business on the internet without.

It's simply not worth all the lost sales. You can find out more here.

So you've created your ebook and built in a host of security features. Now it's time to set up your order taking and fulfillment system.

Firstly, choose your payment processor from this site. Just about any of our recommendations allow you to sell ebooks online though our two most popular for ebook sellers are 2CheckOut and Clickbank.

Once you've selected and opened your account, set it up with the correct prices and product descriptions then it's time to decide on your choice of delivery systems.

Here are some options currently used by ebook publishers to fulfill orders...

1. Check your emails regularly for sales, then email a copy of the book to your customers. The problem here is that it is a time-intensive method - and one that doesn't satisfy the expectations of instant gratification after purchase

2. After the customer's credit card has been verified and charged, send them to a download page where they can instantly download the product. This method is the easiest to set up, but requires lots of manual work in terms of regularly changing the address of the download page to protect your digital product, and in between changes there is still the possibility of the theft of your product

3. Allow download of the product from your website but prevent it from working until the correct password, as issued by you, is inserted

4. Use a system which automatically emails the ebook or piece of software to the customer after purchase. This has a number of limitations - notably the potentially long download time, and the way some servers will reject overly large files or those in certain formats (such as the very exe files we discussed earlier) incase they contain viruses

5. Use a piece of software which creates a unique download page for each purchase which stops working as soon as the product has been downloaded

It is this last method of digital order fulfillment which I believe has the best of both worlds - almost bullet-proof security for your products (when used with ClickLocker) but also instant gratification for your customers.

The software works by integrating with your payment provider and is set running on the successful completion of a purchase.

At this point a unique download page is automatically created and the details are emailed to your customer. The fact it is emailed to them, rather than them just being to download it straight away, also helps to reduce fraud.

You decide how long you want the page to work - one day, a week, one download etc. and after this point the pages becomes useless and is deleted from your server.

So even if someone publishes the address of your download page on the net, it would have already stopped working before people visited it. Your product remains safe and it's virtually impossible to guess what the next download page generated will be.

Of those I have seen and tried, the best for use with Clickbank is MasterShopper which I have installed on one of my other sites and use daily. What I like most are the built-in security features making it almost inpenetrable, the way I can use it to sell multiple products from just one Clickbank account, saving me considerable sums of money and it's ease of everyday use.

For example, to add another product to the system, you just click a few buttons, fill in a few fields and you're away again.

If you're using 2CheckOut we're developing our own system for you at the moment - keep your eyes peeled.