Making Money With eBooks vs. Blogs
If you’ve been following along with my goals for 2014 (a new year’s resolution, actually), you’ll know that my main goal is to write an eBook on Stock Market Investing for Beginners.
Making Money with eBooks vs. Blogs – Why Another Stock Market Investing Book?
There are dozens of books out there on stock market investing for beginners, and tons of eBooks as well. So, why would I try my hand at writing yet another one? Well, some are great, but on the expensive side. Some are complete crap, and I could write one better with my eyes closed. I think I can come up with an inexpensive option that will do a decent job of getting more folks into investing by building a simple knowledge of how stock market investing works. But, all of this isn’t really the main point of this post.
Making Money with eBooks vs. Blogs – Does it Have to Just be the Book?
So, I’ve planned out my whole book with an outline, broken it down to six chapters, with each chapter having four main topics. I’ve even knocked out the preface! So, 24 topics to write about total. Well, then I got to thinking (dangerous – I know). Could I just post each section of the book here on MoneyAhoy.com under the investing section? I could even create a master content page with all of the articles linked.
I know I’m not going to get rich with this book, but I thought it would be a fun, challenging goal that would bring in some amount of money for me. Would it reduce sales of the book if I copied verbatim each section of each chapter and put them up as posts?
Making Money with eBooks vs. Blogs – What Are Customers Actually Paying For?
If you sit back and think about it, what are folks actually paying for when they purchase an eBook? How are we (as writers) to determine the best way to make money with eBooks? You’d think that when someone buys as eBook their paying for information.
While that’s partially true, I think that there’s a little bit more to it. From my simple research, it’s become clear to me that when folks buy an eBook they are paying for convenience. Think about it, most of the information in how-to books can be found on the internet for free. The only problem is that the internet isn’t the most organized thing in the world. It isn’t always accessible all the time either. When people purchase an eBook, they are paying for the convenience of having all of the answers to their topic of interest in one place, nicely organized. For how-to eBooks, this is something that holds their hand and walks them through the topic which they can access from anywhere.
So, it would seem to me that based on the research, putting the same information out there on MoneyAhoy.com wouldn’t really hurt sales.
Making Money with eBooks vs. Blogs – Final Thoughts
So, will it hurt eBook sales to put the exact same verbatim information on one’s own blog? I don’t think so, but I’d like to hear other’s take on it. Are there any out there that have tried it? What do you think?
We haven’t tried it (yet), but based on the experience of other bloggers that we know, it seems to be worth it! I think you hit the nail on the head, people are willing to pay for the convenience of having all the information organized in one place. Also, your blogging audience and e-book audience will differ some, so exposing yourself in that market will make it worth it to reach more people.
Sher@knsfinancial.com recently posted…He Continually Delivers Us! – Devotion
Sher,
Thanks for your thoughts. I think I’m going to go ahead and post most of the sections as normal blog posts. I haven’t figured out if I’ll make a main hub pages that brings all of the details together, or leave that to the book. One downside could be that it hurts book sales. As long as more folks learn about investing and develop good habits then I’ll consider the work a success.
I would suggest making it anecdotal based on the bad experiences you had as a day trader in your 20s. People much prefer reading stories than straightforward how-tos.
Bobby @ Making Money Fast and Slow recently posted…Market Recovers from Sell Off: Earnings in Play
Bobby,
Thanks for stopping by! I think you have some good advice here. I’ve gotten similar from many other folks. I’m already part of the way along in the “how-to” book, so I think my first book is going to just be the “how to”. I will then follow-up with a second book about how I royally screwed myself by trying to day trade!
I myself enjoy how-to books as opposed to reading stories. I guess it’s a personal choice. I too have thought about writing an eBook, but am looking to build up an audience first on my blog. In my opinion any time you can create value and put it all together in one book that should be helpful for both current followers and new readers. Best of luck!
Brian recently posted…Debt Is The Mother Of Four Letter Words
Brian,
Thanks for the different perspective. I am finding out that writing an eBook is very hard work 🙂 I think it’s best to really wait until you have the full motivation before jumping in. Thanks for stopping by!
Can’t agree more with you Derek. E-books are the most organized places to find information on a certain topic. Yes, internet is not the best of organized places but it does offer almost all kinds of information, more or less. Great blog to summarize the distinction between E-books and Blogs.
Derick Branson recently posted…Daily Analysis Briefing 2014-04-17