The Problem With E-Books

Home
>
E-Book
>
The Problem With E-Books

The Problem With E-Books

One of the most popular online ventures is selling e-books. People are hungry for information; that's why they're on the Web in the first place. And e-books are cheap to produce and distribute.

However, I've come across quite a few new online entrepreneurs thinking they're going to strike it rich selling a $20 or $30 e-book. They've failed to do some simple math.

Suppose you sell an e-book for $30. Deduct $5 off your $30 sell price to account for advertising and other costs. That leaves you with $25. You'd have to sell 1,000 copies a year to make $25,000. That's a lot of copies! Even if you did sell that many, 25 grand isn't exactly going to put you on Easy Street.

Another factor is competition. Many e-books with resell rights have also be purchased by hundreds, possibly thousands, of competitors.And if you're selling an e-book as an affiliate, you're usually limited to 50% or less of the sell price.

The key to making large amounts of money selling information products is that you need resell rights for at least one higher priced item.

Say you have duplication rights to a product that sells for $400. If you sold just 6 copies of this product a month, you'd be pulling in $2,400 in sales. That's $28,800 a year. If you sold 12 a month, you'd make $57,600 a year. Sell 24 a month and you're raking in $115,200 a year.

"Wait a second" you say. "What about my costs to duplicate, package and ship the product?"

Here's the beauty of the information marketing business: people pay for the value of the information, not the physical medium on which it's delivered (e.g. paper, audiotape, videotape, CD etc.)

It's dirt cheap to duplicate information products. It's easy to duplicate a CD-ROM on your computer and blank CDs are less than a dollar each.

I have an info product that I sell for $397. To duplicate, package and ship it via UPS, costs me $60. Subtract $50 for advertising. That still leaves me with $287. That's a huge profit margin.

So instead of concentrating all of your marketing efforts on low priced info products, be sure that you have one or two higher priced items that you're actively promoting.

Use e-books as a stepping stone to upsell customers. Once they've purchased a product from you, you've established a relationship with them. Someone who's already down business with you is five times more likely to buy than someone who hasn't.

About The Author

Dave Coyne is a copywriter, marketing consultant and president of DC Infobiz. Get his FREE REPORT on how to start your own Information Marketing Business at home. Send an email with REF006 in the subject line to dcinfobiz@GetResponse.com

____________________

Advertisement: Honest Riches - Click Here!

Advertisement: Lost AdWords - Click Here!

Advertisement: Get $1 Million A Month In Google Pay-Per-Click Ads Free! - Click Here!

Advertisement: Who Loves Money? - Click Here!

Advertisement: SEO Elite, the GrandDaddy of SEO Software - Click Here!

In The News:

CBC.ca
Barnes & Noble Planning Big Push to Increase Nook Sales
New York Times
While in the store, Barnes & Noble customers can read entire e-books free, just as they can with print books. “We've tried to replicate the physical ...
Two new Kindles: why e-readers just got easier to buyChristian Science Monitor
E-Books outsell hardback books on Amazon.comThe Depaulia
Is Kindle 3 a game-ender for e-reader wars?CNNMoney
Mashable (blog) -Wall Street Journal -InformationWeek
all 1,453 news articles »

CBS News
"Nixonland" Re-Released as Enhanced E-Book
CBS News
(CBS) The bestselling "Nixonland" has been re-released in a partnership as an "enhanced" book which will add visual elements into the original text. ...
E-Books Fly Beyond Mere TextNew York Times
Rick Perlstein Lands Simon & Schuster's First Enhanced eBookmediabistro.com (blog)

all 7 news articles »

The Guardian
Penguin boss has no problems with ebooks
The Guardian
Amazon last week announced sales of ebooks on its US site had outnumbered hardbacks for the first time, stunning casual observers, even if it had not been ...
Pick up a PenguinBBC News

all 4 news articles »

Hyperion and ABC Family Announce First Enhanced eBook Based on a Television ...
TVbytheNumbers
The first based on a television series on the iBookstore, this eBook is enhanced with video footage from Season One of ABC Family's top-rated hit television ...

and more »

Globe and Mail
Authors Guild Weighs In On E-Books
New York Times
Last week it was the big book publisher and the big literary agent who sparred over who gets to make e-books out ...
Conflict Widens In E-Books PublishingNPR
Authors Criticize Agency's E-Book Deal With AmazonABC News
US authors blame publishers for Wylie Amazon ebook dealThe Guardian
Examiner.com -Huffington Post (blog) -Business Standard
all 217 news articles »

hellomagazine.com
The first million seller e-book is....
ITworld.com
I knew e-books would be big. What I didn't know would be that they would get so big, so fast. On July 28th, Amazon announced that Stieg Larsson's The Girl ...
Source: Kristen Stewart "Not Likely" to Be Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (691)E! Online (blog)

all 749 news articles »

Telegraph.co.uk
Apple sued for Overheating iPads: eBook Reader Outrage
Product Reviews (blog)
Do you read eBooks regularly on your iPad? If so, let us know your thoughts on this – especially if you have received the overheating message.
The long wait for the iPad continuesMalaysia Star
How You Can Save Money on Software Purchases?Boosh News (press release) (blog)
Scott Cole & Associates Announces Class Action Lawsuit for iPad Overheating ...MarketWatch (press release)
WalletPop (blog)
all 133 news articles »

msnbc.com
GPS, ebooks and other technologies changing the way we travel
msnbc.com
Since then, the ebook market has taken off. The Kindle has worthy competitors, including the iPad, Sony Reader and Nook. While I consider myself a paper guy ...

and more »

UberGizmo (blog)
Copia readies $99 color e-book reader
Techconnect Magazine (blog)
If you think the $139 Kindle is cheap then think again as DMC WorldWide-owned Copia is planning to go big this fall by introducing an ebook reader priced ...
Here Come the Cheap EReaders and Most of Them Will Be JunkCrunchGear (blog)
Copia Plans Low-Cost 7″ And 10″ Tablets As Well As E-Ink DevicesCrunchGear (blog)
The Copia Tablet Is A Sub-$100 E-ReaderGadget Review (blog)
Wall Street Journal (blog) -Geek.com -CrunchGear (blog)
all 19 news articles »

The Guardian
Literary Agent Plans E-Book Editions
New York Times
In making the announcement Mr. Wylie opened a new front, and a possible negotiating tool, in a debate over e-book rights for what are called backlist titles ...
Amazon Says E-Book Sales Outpace HardcoversWall Street Journal
Superagent Wylie begins an e-book OdysseyNew York Post
Amazon Now Sells More E-Books Than Hardcoversmsnbc.com
CNN -NPR -PC World
all 1,780 news articles »

Google News

__________

Kingston, Sandisk, Viewsonic, Canon, Toshiba

The Problem With E-Books

E-Book E-Book