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Home » The Famous Blog » Getting Rich from Ferrets, or How to Make Money with Free eBooks

Getting Rich from Ferrets, or How to Make Money with Free eBooks

February 26, 2011 - Last Modified: February 26, 2011 by Tristan Higbee 7,162

This Ferret Can Make You Money

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?

This ferret can make you money!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?
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Filed Under: Books, Money, Online Business

About Tristan Higbee

Follow @tristanhigbee

Tristan Higbee just launched Blogging Bookshelf, where he dispenses smart blogging tips for smart people. Subscribe to the Blogging Bookshelf newsletter and get his ebook, 101 Ways You're Killing Your Blog, for free!

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{ 40 Responses }

  1. Gene J. Horton says:
    Great tips & nice ideas Mr. Tristan. I could not agree more! E-Book is an inexpensive way to package your ideas and share them with others. It’s easy, quick, cheap to produce, and quite profitable potentially. I have been creating e-books from quite some time now & I am satisfied by what I am getting in this part time business.
  2. raunek says:
    I read it somewhere that placing Amazon affiliate links in eBooks is against their policy. Is that true? Here is the link. Thanks a lot. Raunek k
  3. Donna says:
    Excellent and new info - I have written several ebooks - one has been downloaded over 200 times - pretty cool - and it has affiliate links and a retweet button - some of your points mentioned.Thanks for the great post! Coach Donna Laree Ward PS had a hard time getting this submitted - wouldn't let me put my whole name in - I am persistent.
  4. Theodore says:
    Could I create an affiliate page in a scifi/Fantasey eBook? I'm writing a novel (Using my eBook version to bring in money) but idk how to throw in affiliates into my scifi/Fantasey eBook...
  5. Mark says:
    I definitely agree with you, Tristan. Free ebooks are a great source of affiliate link clicks. I have personally found success with document marketing using ebooks that are "How To's" People love these because they are free, teach them something, and they don't get "annoyed" with emails if emails annoy them. Thanks for the reminder. I haven't done this in a while. Mark
  6. Xekeno says:
    Great article, tips on how to make money with an ebook. I've just recently wrote an ebook and I am giving it away on my site. It's basically a beginners eguide on how to start making money online. I'm not sure if anyone's downloaded it yet, but I guess I'll wait and see. The ebook also has links to free software and programs you can find on the net that are useful in helping you out. I actually wrote the ebook with some of that free software called open office. Man that works great, otherwise I'd have to pay for adobe pdf creator or something like it. soo.. have you ever had a pet ferret? I'm actually looking for people to download it, and if they like it give a testimonial and I'll mention you and your website in the ebook =)
  7. Stella Anokam says:
    Thanks for these 'to dos' especially coming up with that creative idea of adding ads in free ebooks. I have used one of the methods you mentioned - adding affiliate links to free eBooks and the links get good click through rates. I seem to like the idea of adding newsletter links in the eBooks - I should try that soon.
  8. Alexander W says:
    Thanks for this article. I have written ebooks myself, though I did not include advertisment int it. I wrote the ebook so that I would get referrals to a website. I then handed out the ebook on several forums and to my surprise I have 96 new referrals the next day and over 200 downloads of the ebook. Just imagine if I had published the ebook on more places with ads in it! Writing an ebook is not that hard at all, just be sure to no misspell anything and keep it to the point and with a structured design. Also an ebook cover picture will increase the downloads. =)
  9. Anne Sales says:
    Hi Tristan, I think I've seen this technic with John Chow and Ewen Chia a couple of years ago when I started learning about blogging and internet marketing. Back then I thought "It takes an expert to write an ebook" and I really thought they were real published books that have been transformed into pdf files. :D Daft eh? Anyway, thank you for the additional knowledge you have just imparted to me.
  10. Mavis Nong says:
    Hey Tristan,Wow! Awesome tips you're sharing here. The timing is just perfect as I have just started writing my 2nd ebook.Thanks so much for your amazing tips as always.All the best, Mavis
  11. Timothy Arends says:
    I am offering a free ebook on my site, and I did use your affiliate links idea. I still need to increase my ebook's circulation, however, to start making income from it.
  12. Jeevan Jacob John says:
    Hi Tristan, These are some great days to make money out of free e-books. I haven't actually tried any of these, but I will sure do, in the future. I hope that I can make some money of it. Anyway, I have a question for you : How do we implement the ad system on a e-book (isn't a word doc ? Is it just about using images ?) Anyway, thank you for the awesome post !
  13. Dennis Edell says:
    Have advertising inside your free ebook - brilliant! And I think you're right. I've been online for years, and don't recall seeing something like this. You could charge a pretty penny too, it';s a one time charge that could pay off for years to come. Oh FYI: Funny you mentioned Ferrets; illegal to own in certain areas of the US, like near me. LOL
  14. Vijayraj Reddy says:
    Adding affiliate links in ebook is a good way to earn money from the products the user buys from the ebook...
  15. Shiva says:
    Now this what I call a sleek tutorial post for making money by writing an ebook. Certainly the tips you have mentioned here are great and will surely get an ebook author a lot of extra money. I have tried my hand on ebook writing but I am certainly going to use your tips to monetize my ebook. Thanks a lot Tristan
  16. Tinh says:
    Nice idea but the fact is that many one who share free ebooks are trying to spam their subscribers by sending a lot of offers and the result is that they all unsubscribed to their list or reported as spam. I think free ebook is a good way to build brand and build up list but we should be careful with our list too as readers are now smarter than ever :-)
  17. TJ McDowell says:
    I've never written an e-book before, but the idea of writing an entire e-book just for extra traffic (instead of for cash) makes writing the e-book unappealing to me. For you guys who have done this, has it really paid off? I'm just finding it hard to justify the time investment.
    • Tristan says:
      TJ, I've written ebooks in a day before. At the end of this post on my blog, I talk about writing an ebook in a day: http://www.bloggingbookshelf.com/free-ebooks/blogging-tips-confucius-ebook-in-a-day/None of any one of my ebooks (I've done 6 or 7 now) has brought me blockbuster traffic, but I think the cumulative effect is worth it. My free ebooks get retweeted more than any of my other older posts. And when they're initially released, they get shared and retweeted more.Would it be worth it to spend months working on an ebook just to give it away for free? No. But if it's something you can churn out pretty quickly, go for it.Remember that an ebook doesn't have to be 100 pages long. A 7 page report can do just fine. Good luck, man, and feel free to email me with any questions or if you'd like to bounce any ideas off of me.
      • TJ McDowell says:
        Hmm - I could see spending a day. That's not too much invested time. I guess when you said e-boiok I was thinking full length e-book. I'll have to think about your suggestion then.
  18. Sandeep says:
    Nice post! I've tried this method before - but it was a free book with no licences so i could dristribute it without any copyright issues.... PLR if i remember right.. yeah - this method is good, but first u need to bring up your blog to a certain level in terms of reader base and traffic to make this work. Cheers to your good post
  19. Alex says:
    I always wondered why people are creating ebooks and offering them for free, later I noticed and learned that they are actually making money even with that free ebook. Also, I noticed a lot of big so called gurus selling an ebook that is literally filled with affiliate links for all kinds of products, many that could have free alternatives. I don't say it's wrong but if I paid for the product I expect at least to save me some money, not to convince me to buy every product on the market. I also know that free ebooks can be used with great success to make people into buying a premium version of the same ebook (the free being actually only a small part of the premium one), a premium version that costs money but practically has the full information. Also, some of the reports I downloaded actually tried to convince me to subscribe to a membership website. It had all the steps but, each step had only a summary of what it could include if you would sign up for the membership website. Ebooks are great for both blogger and reader, but I think it favors the blogger a little more :)
  20. Alex says:
    Tristan, As usual you have presented excellent information in an entertaining way and still managed to put random in the title. Brilliant. I really think that mentioning tips 3 and 4 helped define this article and make it stand out from the crowd of 'make moneywith ebooks' posts I have read. Great stuff, but then mate, I expect nothing less from you. Brilliant
  21. Georgie McNeese (ArtByG) says:
    Great ideas. I hadn't thought of writing an e-book. Thanks!
  22. Daniel Sharkov says:
    Hey Tristan, Great job with the article mate. And a good reminder that it is about time for me to start writing an ebook to offer as a freebie. Considering that people are going to get the book for free, I don't see a problem in including affiliate links. As long as those are relevant, they won't do any harm. In my opinion putting advertisements goes a bit too far though. I personally wouldn't do it. This doesn't mean that the idea itself is bad though.
  23. Tuan says:
    They are normal ways to make money from ebook. However, it is still a long way for me, the first thing we need is writing an excellent ebook providing valuable knowledge for readers. Anyways, thanks for sharing those tips.
  24. Bob says:
    I released my first e-book yesterday (2/26). It contains no adverting or automatic harvesting of email addresses. But, there are lots of links back to my blog to encourage traffic. The project was fun and not difficult. I found a fellow on fivver to design the cover. Converting a Word document to PDF is simple with free software. Now, I'll see if the traffic increase and book requests justify the time and effort.
  25. Mani Viswanathan says:
    What will be the difference between an Affiliate link & ads in an Ebook. I guess most Ad Companies do not support such kind of placements. Do you mean to say we buy a text link ad from a sponsor and place it there ?
  26. Darren Scott Monroe says:
    Tristan very creative man I would say number 4 is combined. I send people to my weekly newsletter automatically. And I did a FREE ebook in 2009 that was downloaded for FREE over 20,000 times around the world so I definitely agree with you there. PS Great headline! I am going to have to go over to your blog!
  27. Lennart Heleander says:
    Hi Tristan, A very good article that show exactly how to make money with a free eBook and that’s why I almost never registers me for all these free eBooks’; often do you don’t get any new information at all, only a lot of bl.a, bl.a and you have to buy an additional eBook for get the information or tips they talk about from the beginning. And from that day will it come a lot sales e-mail every week that you are not interested.
  28. Adam Gottlieb says:
    Tristan, Some excellant tips! I've never thought about trying to make money off of ebooks with this kind of model and will definitely take your advice Thanks for the heads up. Adam
  29. Harsh Agrawal says:
    That's a nice idea Tristan... Most of the bloggers who offer Free eBooks because they need more Email subscriber.. promote their affiliate product and none the less their premium services... I have been in process of writing an eBook but I must say it's not an easy task... Find it really tiring.. Hopefully soon I will be able to write something..!!!
  30. Eric D. Greene (artist) says:
    Sounds like good ideas. I am working on an ebook and will consider it.
  31. The Bad Blogger says:
    Just the right time... I mean I just finish writing an report that I'm going to give it away... and you just remind me a few steps that I miss out such as the one "including affiliate links" thanks for all the awesome tips...
  32. Henway says:
    While I think selling ebooks is a legit way of making money online, I dun think it's the best way. I mean, once you sold that ebook, that customer is done. He's happy, and he won't bother giving you any of his free money afterwards. As opposed to a subscription model where the user pays you over and over for a service.
  33. Mukundan Srinivasan says:
    I haven't tried to make an ebook so far. Reading ur post I feel that ebook has lot of money making potential. I think we can spend a little money for hiring a freelancer and make a quality ebook.
  34. Brankica says:
    Tristan, you are just the best source of tips and tricks when it comes to books. Not only I have picked up some of your ideas and working on them all the time, but after this post just added several more to a list.I guess if I ever write a book, I will have to save a free advertising spot for you :) cause it will literally be "This book was made using Tristans brain". Thanks again for this awesomnes :)
  35. Bjorn Johansen says:
    I have not written a e-book yet, simply beacause I dont have the content.. I wold like to write a e-book on wordpress theme design and seo when I have the content for it. I assume it is possible to use blog posts as fundament for the e-book. You show some good ways to make money from a e-book here, so it looks like good idea..
  36. Bican Valeriu says:
    I agree with these....many bloggers place ads in they ebooks...

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