Want to make money with an ebook? One way is to sell it. But you can also do well by giving away your ebook, if you do it right. Here are seven of the best ways to profit by giving your ebook away for free.

1. Upsell to another product or service. Use your ebook as a preview of something you have for sale: a longer ebook, a printed book, consulting services, a workshop or event, an audio product, etc. Give customers a sample of what they get in the paid product.

2. Drive traffic to your web site. Then convert that traffic into cash through product sales, affiliate links, advertising revenue, etc.

3. Include affiliate links in the ebook text, so readers click and you earn commissions. If your ebook tells them how to do something, link to relevant resources they can use. [Read more…]

A question I get asked a lot is how to come up with enough content to create a product or a line of products and services that can generate passive income. Often, when I dig a little deeper with the questioner, I find that they are sitting on a veritable content goldmine.

One person told me about having a file cabinet full of print newsletters he had produced for more than five years. Another had been putting out an email newsletter for at least as long. Others have told me about writing a column for their association newsletter or local newspaper, or having a collection of teleseminars they produced and recorded, or books they have written (published or unpublished), etc.

Beyond that, there are many other sources of content they-and you-may have overlooked. Consider these possibilities: [Read more…]

Here is Part Four of my series on how to quickly and easily create an information product.

Part One showed you how to get ready to create your audio product.
Part Two detailed how to produce and package the recording.
Part Three showed you ways to sell your audio product online.
Part Four will give you ideas to market your new product, including pricing.

Let’s start by talking about pricing. The biggest factor in choosing the optimal price is what your customers see as the value of your product. What does your audio program do for them? [Read more…]

Here is Part Three of my series on how to quickly and easily create an information product.

Part One showed you how to get ready to create your audio product.
Part Two detailed how to produce and package the recording.
Part Three will show you ways to sell your audio product online.
Part Four will give you ideas to market your new product, including pricing.

If you have been playing along at home, you have recorded and produced an audio program. In next week’s lesson we will talk about pricing and marketing your audio, but here we are going to talk about how to make your audio available online. [Read more…]

Here is Part Two of my series on how to quickly and easily create an information product.

Part One showed you how to get ready to create your audio product.
Part Two will detail how to produce and package the recording.
Part Three will show you ways to sell your audio product online.
Part Four will give you ideas to market your new product, including pricing.

In Part One you assembled the tools you will need, including:

• A free conference calling account. One I have used is http://www.thebasementventures.com/. They will record the call for you.
• Audio editing software. Whether you use Windows, Mac OS, or Linux, you can use Audacity. It is a free download at http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
• Someone to interview or to interview you. This can be a friend or colleague, or an expert you invite.
• A list of questions. These are the outline for the interview.

The next step is to do the interview and record it. [Read more…]