The Magic Formula For Selling E-Books
I read a lot of blogs posted by seemingly knowledgeable people telling others how to sell e-books, and it amazes me how lacking many of these recommendations are. Typically, half of these experts advise simply signing up with Clickbank or using E-junkie for a shopping cart on your site. That's it, that's the magic formula? Sounds more like a pitch for those paid services than truly helpful advice.
Assuming you have an e-book that contains useful information or entertainment and is not a waste of money, you want to sell it everywhere possible online, e.g. your own website, major retailers like Amazon, etc. I prefer these later options since they don't cost any money. But to keep it even simpler, the vast majority of your sales can be accomplished by selling e-books from three locations: your website, Amazon and Smashwords. What about Apple and Barnes&Noble, you might ask? I'll explain.
I sell more e-books from my own websites than anywhere. Plus it runs on autopilot and I keep 100% of the profits and grow my email list. Setting up your website with a PayPal button that automatically sends buyers to a URL for download after the purchase is a piece of cake. Now you can sell and fill orders while sleeping. Keep simple stats of download visitors with a free company like StatCounter, and you'll know if any pirating is happening, which can be fixed with a simple URL change to your download page.
You must sell with Amazon Kindle because they sell more e-books than any other retailer. Sign up at DTP Amazon where you'll be asked to create an Amazon account if you don't already have one and start making 70% on sales. Finally, upload and sell with Smashwords because they convert your document into multiple formats and then upload it to Apple, Sony, Barnes&Noble, Kobo and Diesel (Amazon too, but you're already there). And yes, you make good royalties when selling from those companies via Smashwords.
That's it, that's the magic formula. Upload and sell e-books from these three locations and your bases are covered at no cost to you.
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