eBook Publishing and Back End Sales

By Daniel Collins
Posted Saturday, October 23, 2004

Introductory example of how back end sales in your ebook can be and excellent income supplement.

It seems that everyone these days is cranking out ebooks and the clever publishers are making sure their back end sales links are primed and ready to earn them commissions. Whoa… Just what are back end sales? For those of you that are unfamiliar with the concept of back end sales here's an example for your enlightenment.

"Jimmy" writes an ebook on building model cars and types up a great book, he also puts a few ads in his ebook so he can make a commission or two through his favorite affiliate programs. Whenever someone is reading Jimmy's ebook and clicks on the link to his advertiser, Jimmy stands to make a commission from any sales that link generates.

Most model car enthusiasts would never know that Jimmy made some money from them when they ordered supplies at that web site they found through his ebook.

As Jimmy is really clever, he gives his ebook away on his web site (and through other sites) and gets thousands of copies into circulation. Now that Jimmy has over 2,000 copies of his ebook floating around he's starting to generate a decent income from the affiliate programs. Jimmy is one smart customer or in this case marketer.

One day Jimmy gets another great idea. To help his distribution numbers, he comes up with a plan to give everyone else the rights to sell his ebook for a profit. He comes up with a suggested price and lets everyone know that they can sell his ebook and keep all the profits. He suggests a price of $9.99. He even makes a simple sales web page and some neat graphics for his resellers to use. Of course he packages it all nice and tidy and includes it all in his ebook. In a matter of a few months, Jimmy's ebook is being sold on hundreds of new sites and the back end commissions are growing.

So what do you think of this concept? I think Jimmy should be writing another ebook!

Jimmy is one clever cookie, but who can actually make an ebook? What are the skills and tools needed? These are questions I get asked everyday. Anyone with knowledge of a particular subject matter is a great candidate for an ebook author. For most part, the skills are simply researching, organizing and typing information in a word processor. It doesn't really matter how obscure your knowledge is, because the Internet is diverse as the world we live.

Here are a few tips for those considering writing an ebook with back end sales in mind.

- Make sure that you include a link for readers to download the latest edition of your ebook, in the even that your affiliate links change. It seems they always do!

- Seek out commission sources from companies that have been in the business for a while and will likely be in business for at least two years. Your ebook may be a permanent fixture on thousands of computers, so stability in this area is important.

- Try to keep your back end (commission) links relevant to the subject of your ebook.

- Give your ebooks away in exchange for testimonials from readers. Testimonials and good natured comments of all sorts are great marketing resources.

I hope to read your masterpiece soon, so go forth and type!

Dan Collins

About the Author
Daniel Collins is a freelance writer, web marketer and co-founder of DotStartUp.com (http://dotstartup.com/) DotStartUp.com features free ebooks and tutorials on web based business start up.