Giving away free ebooks is a great way to drive traffic to your blog, and it’s something that all bloggers should do. These suckers (ebooks, not bloggers) are retweet magnets, and the chances of you seeing a corresponding increase in traffic are high.

But in addition to getting extra traffic, did you know that you can make some extra money with those free ebooks?

Here are 4 ways to do it:

1. Include affiliate links inside your ebook

This is probably the most common way of making money with free ebooks. You simply include affiliate links to products you use or products that are otherwise helpful. When someone clicks on that link and buys that product, you make some money.

Let’s dive in to a real word example, and we’ll use this throughout the rest of the post. Let’s say you’ve got a blog on how to train pet ferrets to do tricks. And we’ll say that you write a free ebook called, “10 Quick Ways to Train Your Pet Ferret.” If one of the ways to train a ferret is to reward it with ferret snacks every time it obeys you, include some Amazon affiliate links for ferret food. Whenever someone clicks through to Amazon and buys those snacks (or anything else on Amazon, for that matter), you make a commission.

See how easy that was?

And as a side note, it’s always best to disclose affiliate links.

2. Have advertising inside your free ebook

This is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before and I’ve never done it, but I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Before you come out with your new ebook, see if you can find people or businesses that would pay to have their advertisements in it.

How would you find advertisers? You could ask your blog readers or newsletter readers. You could cold call (or cold email or tweet) potential advertisers. Your best bet would be to state the number of readers, followers, and online friends you have (the potential number of people who could see the ebook and the ads) and that advertising with you would benefit that company.

Where would you place the ads? For maximum exposure, you could place the advertisement as a footer or header on every single page in the ebook. Alternately, you could just have it at the front of the ebook (“This ebook is brought to you by…”) or the end (“If you enjoyed this ebook, please show your support for our sponsor”).

How would you charge for the ads and how much would you charge? Obviously, this depends on ad placement and size. It also depends on your audience. One option is to have a flat rate fee for including the ad, or you could set up some sort of CPD (cost per download) system.

So our ferret-loving blogger could partner up with the company that makes hammocks for ferret cages. The blogger could either charge a $50 flat rate fee, or something like 10 cents per download.

(By the way, I think that an ebook advertising network would be a great idea for the entrepreneurial-inclined out there!)

3. Promote a premium version of your free product

A free ebook is the ultimate sales letter.

Continuing our ferret story, let’s imagine that the blogger has created an entire “how to train ferrets” course and is charging $77 for it. To get people interested in the course, the blogger releases a “5 Easy Ways to Train Your Ferret Today” free ebook.

At the end of that ebook, the blogger cleverly mentions, “If you liked this ebook, you ain’t seen nothing yet! There’s plenty more where this came from! If you really want your ferret to dominate and be the ultimate obedient ferret, be sure to check out my FERRET DOMINATION course.”

Slick, eh?

4. Send readers to your newsletter

“The money is in the list.” It’s up there with “Content is king” as far as internet marketing clichés go. But that doesn’t mean it’s any less true.

While you can make people opt in to your newsletter in order to receive your free ebook, that’s not what I’m talking about here. This is similar to method #3 above, but instead of upselling to a premium product, you’re upselling to have people join your email list.

You could say something like, “If you enjoyed these 5 ferret tips, you’ll love the 10 more that I talk about in my other free ebook! All you have to do is sign up for my newsletter here.” And then include a link to a newsletter opt-in page.

How to make money from your email list is beyond the scope of this post, but just Google “make money email list” to find all the information you need.

What are you waiting for?

There’s no reason NOT to offer a free ebook on your blog. It’ll be fun to write, and your readers will gobble it up. Now that you know that you can make money with these suckers (even if you blog about ferrets!), you’re out of excuses not to do it.

And now for some questions that I’d LOVE to see your answers to (and note that I will respond to every comment, so please comment!):

• Have you ever tried making money with free ebooks? Did you succeed?
• Have you ever written a free ebook? If so, how did it go? If not, why not?

Artical source from: http://www.famousbloggers.net/make-money-free-ebooks.html

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Pay-Per-Click vs. Search Engine Optimization

At SES Chicago, there was an interesting session in which a group of search marketing profes+sionals debated the issue of which is better between PPC and SEO. Participants included Dave Naylor, Chirstine Churchill, Michael Gray, and Karen Weber, and Rand Fishkin.

Does PPC have more benefits than SEO?

Churchill pointed to a study from Engine Ready on conversion rates by source of traffic (PPC vs organic). The study found:
- Conversion rates: PPC just barely beat SEO
- Average Order Value: Paid won
- Average time on site: Paid won

She gave the following as advantages of PPC:

 
- Gives immediate online presence
- Have a new site? Have ads in an hour
- Start getting ROI sooner
- No ramp up time
- Great for seasonal items or time sensitive promotions
- Great for testing
- Easily test effectiveness of new marketing message or site design change
- Quickly gather feedback
- Regulate traffic volume
- Sales pipeline empty? Use PPC to push traffic
- Overloaded? Pause campaigns or cut back spend
- Have limited sales season? Saturate market while demand is high

“PPC is very agile. It’s also has targeting advantages,” said Churchill.

For targeting, she says PPC provides opportunity for high visibility in multiple channels (search engines, content sites, mobile phones), expands results beyond search results, and gives you control over placement on SERPs and better control over landing page/message.

It’s often easier to sell PPC to management because the concept is similar to traditional advertising, and provides for direct accountability. It’s easy to track measures of success. It’s an effective way to drive qualified traffic to your site, and it allows you to expand your opportunities.

 Weber says the top five reasons why “PPC rules,” are: speed, flexibility, it’s unlimited, it’s goal-driven, and it’s controllable. You can quickly manipulate keywords to those that drive conversions, you can quickly change bid prices, and you can quickly get in and out of the market. You can turn your campaign on and off, and change ad copy, keywords, etc. You can target a much wider range of keywords, adhere to a budget, and have an immediate impact on sales.

Fishkin pointed out that PPC gets 10% of clicks, but 90% of spend. He said SEO is more challenging and less controllable, but the spend is there and the fact that people click organic results.

Gray said he believes that PPC could make SEO better, but Google is banning people now, so it makes things more challenging. Naylor said he believes SEO is more “open.” Weber and Fishkin both said they would outsource PPC over SEO.

 Gray said it’s important to get in the top during the early part of the research phase, especially since Google is personalizing results for everyone now. Churchill noted that Google’s personalization is a better argument for PPC. Like iEntry CEO Rich Ord recently noted, the addition of personalized results could “make people less reliant on organic search results for their traffic and in turn increase their use of Adwords.”

Another point was brought up as we recently discussed - that the search engines are pushing organic listings down with mixed media (blended, universal) results.

Certainly there are many advantages to both PPC and SEO, and they can compliment one another. Actually, a recent study from a couple of NYU Stern professors found that organic search engine results can play a direct role in whether or not a paid listing is clicked.

Which do you think is more important - SEO or PPC?

WebProNews reporter Abby Johnson contributed to this report.

About the Author:
Chris Crum has been a part of the WebProNews team and the iEntry Network of B2B Publications since 2003. Twitter: @CCrum237

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