Comments on: eBooks, are they worth it?

By: Scotty

Scotty — Sun, 07 May 2006 10:33:50 +0000

As an addicted ebook buyer I have to say that 90% of them are not worth the price they charge …. it’s the other 10% that are fantastic with the right information at just the right time can be priceless. I even wrote a couple on adsense keyword optimization as a free give away (that way no one could complain they weren’t getting their money’s worth) ;)

By: Jamsi

Jamsi — Thu, 23 Feb 2006 05:52:55 +0000

No problems Martin, I’m sure people will benefit by watching the Pro’s at work :)

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 13:50:19 +0000

Aaron, you are a legend :-) and I’ll definately be touch with you for a short interview request (via email – so shouldn’t take too much of your time) – I’ll leave it for after your conference.

Sorry Jamsi/Work Boxers for conducting a semi-private conversation here ;-)

By: aaron wall

aaron wall — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 02:54:21 +0000

>Aaron â€¦ thatâ€™s some interesting observations there. I thought the long sales copy was getting tired – I might have to stand corrected.

Forgot to add this to the last comment… I am an SEO consultant, and lots of people contact me for tips on that stuff…some of them are ebook authors making far more money than I do. Many of the one page sites are starting to get driven out of the organic serps (at least at Google)…but many are still rocking in MSN and Yahoo! and in Google AdWords.

By: aaron wall

aaron wall — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 02:51:43 +0000

Hi Martin
feel free to ping me sometime. I am always doing like a thousand different things, but I am usually pretty quick to reply to questions.

Next week there is a conference, but before then or after then might be ok.

Sorry for sorta hijacking this blog post :(

To be fair though, I think as more authors realize that people like bite sized knowledge and more real authors and artists carry a dialog with prospective customers their brand values will increase and it will be harder to sell to sophisticated audiences because people will expect more free and there will be many great alternatives to the one page sites. I still think that is at least 2-3 years off though.

Cory Doctorow had a great post about Amazon’s book author blogs which realy points that things will likely head in the direction you mentioned in your post
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/01/01/amazons_authorblogs_.html

By: Martin

Martin — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 02:06:53 +0000

Aaron … that’s some interesting observations there. I thought the long sales copy was getting tired – I might have to stand corrected.

You now know I gotta get you in for an interview for my blog? ;-)

By: aaron wall

aaron wall — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 01:59:38 +0000

>There are some real masters out there that I have a lot of respect for, one of them is Aaron Wall

Hey thanks for that!

>I think the days of the quickly slapped together ebook with free articles mashed together, dozens of affiliate links, shoddy design and a neat 3D cover are coming to an end.

To some extent I would like to agree with that, but from what I have seen it is not the truth. There are people making 10 to 100 times what I make by using affiliates and PPC to push a one page sales letter. Create 20 one page websites and get each of them to make a few grand a month based on great conversions due to long sales copy and hypertargeting.

The long sales copy works so well because those who are the most inclined to buy really tune into it. Many people creating ebooks just read a physical book on a topic like weight loss, condense and repackage it, and sell a bunch of them. Then they read another book and create one for after pregnancy weight loss. Then they create one for teenage weightloss. Then they create one for losing weight after adulthood. Then they create one called kicking the sugar habbit (I just made those titles up..so no offense meant if any of those titles match real ebooks or books).

When I increased the length of my salesletter my sales went up too. It is really hard to balance profitability and longterm credibility when competing in hyper competitive marketplaces where exposure is often determined by margins and conversion rate.

By: Martin

Martin — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 01:00:55 +0000

I hear you on those horrible cookie-cutter long sales pages – to me it’s like the longer and indepth the sales push is the less likely I’ll buy – because any book should stand on it’s own merits and not have a million bonsues and constant PS, PPS, PPS PPPPS.

It seems the longer the sales pitch the more they’re trying to hide something.

I think the days of the quickly slapped together ebook with free articles mashed together, dozens of affiliate links, shoddy design and a neat 3D cover are coming to an end.

But what you’re missing here is that not every book is for everyone – so for example a novice would like a eBook on AdSense whereas you don’t – doesn’t mean the eBook is junk. It’s just meant for a different market.

And of course, everything can be found on the Internet for free, but that’s why people are prepared to pay a premium if it’s delivered to them.