Everyone has an obsession or obsessions. This obsession is something that you have quite a bit of knowledge about or are building knowledge about. Why not turn this into an ebook that you can profit from? Quite simply, ebooks are one of the best online business ideas today and have been for a couple of years now. That's because it costs next to nothing to create an ebook and then turn around and sell it for 100% profit! This is far superior to the usual 10% - 20% margin that you would normally receive through a traditional business.

The first step in creating an ebook is to choose your topic. You can choose anything from fly fishing to digital cameras to the history of pez and pez dispensers. It's up to you, the sky is the limit. For the purpose of this article I'm going to use the Pez Candy and Dispenser.

Remember back in school when you had to write a short story and the layout would be Introduction, Body and Closing? This is the same format you should use for your ebook. The introduction should be anywhere from 1-3 pages in length and should be just that, an Introduction. For the Pez Candy and Dispenser I would write about when they were invented, where they were invented and by whom.

Next is the Body or the "Meat" of your ebook. For this I suggest you come up with 4-5 topics and write a minimum of 3 pages for each. I would write no more than 6 pages on each. For the Pez Dispenser my topics could be

What Pez is and what the first ones were like
Key Years in Pez History
Pez Facts
Collecting Pez
Patent Numbers and Tags

For each topic, I would have sub topics where possible. For example, Key Years in Pez history would have many sub topics that I would elaborate on, such as the year it was invented, the year it was patented, etc.

Once you have completed the Body, you want to put together a Closing. This would be ½ - 3 pages in length. It could summarize key points and draw together the topics from the body. Once this is done, you have the information for your ebook.

The next steps are

Create the ebook format (or Publishing). By this I mean .pdf or .exe files, etc.
Market/Advertise your ebook
Selling Your ebook

Create/Publish your ebook

There are many formats and software available to create/publish your ebook. I prefer PDF, but you can use Word, .exe files, HTML or others such as Embiid, Gemstar eBook or Mobipocket. PDF files are created by Adobe Acrobat. They can be read on many different computer operating systems, and will generally look about the same on each. Your ebook can include images, and there is even some limited support for audio or video clips. Links can be included both within the document and from the document to the web. The text is searchable and you can add titled bookmarks, and the user can add his or her own bookmarks and notes if that capacity hasn't been disabled by security settings. Page views are scalable, so you make the view as large as you need to have legible text. The pages can be printed if that capacity hasn't been disabled by security settings. So as you can see, PDF is quite flexible when it comes to ebooks. The only drawback to this is Adobe Acrobat can cost you several hundred dollars, but if you have it, I suggest you use it. Of course, there is also a free website that will create PDF for you. Check it out at http://www.pdfonline.com

When you are compiling your ebook don't be afraid to add images and links. You can also use affiliate links and potentially make even more money with your ebooks. Just be sure the book looks nice and flows smoothly rather than just a bunch of images and words slapped together without any thought. If it looks awful and doesn't flow properly you may end up with unhappy customers, which is never a good thing.

Market/Advertise Your Ebook

The next and a very important one is getting your ebook out there and marketing it to drive sales. There are various avenues you can use to do this.

Create a Website

You will need a place for people to read about and download your ebook. For this, I would register a website. Not too worry...this doesn't cost as much as you think. Over the years the cost of having a website and domain name has gone down considerably. Here's a few with low costs and excellent service:

Blue host
Host I Can
AN Hosting
Dream Host

Next you need to create your website. If you know a bit about html you can use programs like Microsoft Front Page or Macromedia Dreamweaver. These are both very good. If you nothing at all you get free hosting if you don't mind some additional ads on your website. Here's a few of those sites:

Yahoo GeoCities
Angelfire

You can find many more by doing a Google Search for "Free Websites"

Now that you have a website established you need to promote it and get lots of traffic. Remember, Traffic = Sales! First off you should find any forums or discussion boards pertaining to the product you are selling. Join as many of these as you can and start commenting on posts and place posts of your own. Become a local at these places so people begin to know you. Now you can't explicitly promote your website in a post, but you can have a link in your signature and once in a while refer people to your site when the topic directly relates to your product. DON'T just start telling people to check out your website or you will be banned.

Another way to get sales is by selling your product on eBay. This is a simple and cheap way to get sales. The one suggestion I have here is make sure you have a professional auction. Spend the extra time to create an eye catching template as you should be posting a number of times on eBay.

You can also post your items on free classified sites such as Craigslist or Kijiji. These have millions of hits per month and are completely free! Don't miss these.

If you know anything about Google Adwords, you should look into putting a campaign in place. This will cost some money and may not be a first option for you. Either way you should think about a campaign for down the road when you have some money. If you aren't familiar with Google Adwords, then you should go and read more about this. I will be posting about Adwords in the coming month, stay tuned for more on that!

Word of mouth is always a good thing. If you know people interested in your item, tell them about it and they may tell their friends. Once people start hearing about your item, if it's good the word will spread. You could also place a basic ad in your local newspaper or advertise on any free local boards (I.e. at the Supermarket), etc.

This should be enough to get you going. As time passes, you should also keep updating your ebook (if applicable) to keep the information current. You could have an opt in mail list on your site to keep people informed of new and exciting things with your product. This is a great way to build an email list for future possibilities. I will also be posting about opt in list in the near future. I hope this helps you get started on your ebook adventure and brings in many sales! Good luck and have fun with it.

About the Author

Stevie B is relatively new to the blogging scene and provide legitimate tips on ways to make extra money online and offline. Check out his blog at http://alittleextracash.blogspot.com/