eBooks are a great way to build trust with your buyers and get more leads to sign up for your email list through your website. The only thing? It can take a long time to write them.
How are you supposed to write an entire eBook when you have a business to run and a blog that needs your attention?
Book writing group marketer thinks you can make great eBooks without taking time away from your blog. And in his course, Extending the Value of Your Content through Repurposing, he explains a 5-step process you can use to write your first eBook easily.
Everything starts with a subject:
#1: Choose a subject
When Content Marketing Institute CEO Joe Palazzi decided to write another book, he wasn’t sure what it would be about. After years of writing a blog post every week at CMI, he had trouble coming up with new ideas.
But instead of spending hours trying to figure out the puzzle in his head, he decided to be smart. He just asked the people who follow him on social media what kind of eBook they wanted to read.
We love this way of coming up with ideas because it shows exactly what the goal of content marketing is: to solve the problems of your buyers.
First of all, when you’re thinking of a topic, you should always look to your audience for answers. Don’t guess what they want to know; instead, talk to them to find out.
But what if your business is new and you don’t have any clients yet?
You still have a few ways to find great ideas for topics that will appeal to the customers you want to get.
- Visit online groups or sites like Reddit and Quora to find out what kinds of questions people have about the topic you’re thinking of writing about.
- Use Google’s free Keyword Planner and type in a few key phrases to find out how many times each of your ideas are searched for each month.
- Use Google’s Search Engine Bar to type in your idea for a topic. Then, look at the suggestions Google makes automatically (yay, Google!) to see what words people use to find information about your topic.
Once you’ve determined your topic, you can begin to spread out.
#2 Break your main topic into smaller ones.
Not long after Joe posted on social media, he knew for sure what the title of his book would be: How to Use Content Marketing as a Business Model.
That’s a pretty big subject. He knew that if he ever wanted to finish this book, he would have to cut it up into small pieces that he could work on over time.
So, he sat down and made a list of all the ideas his audience would need to know in order to “use content marketing as a business model:”
- How to find a sweet spot in the content market How to find a way to stand out from the crowd
- How to grow a following?
- How to get their content out there?
- How to make connections with influential people?
- How to make money off of their content, and a lot more.
Now Joe had a lot of ideas for what to write about, maybe even too many. So, adobe web designers decided to get rid of a few things.
#3 Write about the strongest subtopics.
“Long-winded” writing is the worst kind of writing there is. So, when you write your eBook, you should try to include only topics that are very important to your main idea.
This was something Joe already knew. He had been writing for a long time. So, after a few cuts, he put his eBook together in 6 main sections:
- Trying to find the “sweet spot.”
- Find the “Content Tilt.”
- Putting together the basics of content.
- Getting people’s attention.
- Changes in the content.
- Monetization.
Think of your subtopics as the chapters of your eBook as you narrow them down. Joe had thought out everything he wanted to write about in his book. Now, all he had to do was blog (yes, blog).
#4: Write blog posts about your subjects
After narrowing down his subtopics, Joe used this new list as an “editorial calendar” for his weekly blog series at CMI.
Writing chapters of your eBook while also putting up posts on your blog:
In the first week, he wrote a blog post about how to find a “content tilt” using different tools on the internet. In the second week, he wrote about how to build relationships with people who have a lot of power. In the third week, he wrote about making money. …et cetera.
Isn’t that smart?
Joe kept doing this until he had written a blog post about each subject he wanted to cover in his book. Then he put everything back together.
#5 Put your posts together and write the rest
At this point, Joe had finished writing all of the main parts of his book.
Now, all he had to do was put his posts into a Word document, divide them into chapters, and write an introduction and conclusion to finish the whole thing.
In other words, Joe made book chapters out of his blog posts.
Writing an introduction and ending wasn’t easy for Joe. For his conclusion, he had to start with a much longer text, get quotes from guest authors, and put together hundreds of sources.
But it’s much easier for you!
It’s easy to write introductions for short eBooks:
Grab your reader’s attention with a good hook, tell them what they will learn, and then get to the point. Your conclusion, on the other hand, might be harder.
Before you write your conclusion, you should ask yourself, “What do I want my buyer to do after reading this eBook to become a better lead or customer?”
Once you know the answer, you can write your conclusion and set up your writing so that it leads directly to that action. Make them think it’s the only next step that makes sense.
And once you have your introduction and conclusion, have someone else proofread it, make one last change, and you’re done!
How to Use Your New eBook to Get Leads?
You should now have a good idea of how to make your first eBook and content for your blog at the same time. Here’s the thing, though:
Making the eBook is just the beginning. Now you have to get people to your site and get leads: Most business owners don’t have time to promote their content or make their calls-to-action (CTAs) more likely to lead to sales. Some websites because of this book writing usa and others.
