How Publishing An eBook Can Push Your Blog To New Levels

Note: The book referenced in this post has been revised, expanded upon, and turned into my blogging course.

I recently published my first eBook ever. Not only was it an incredible learning experience, but it has helped my blog in so many ways. In fact, the benefits that have come from publishing this book far outweigh the money the book has actually made.

The benefits have been so numerous that I have already written another book for another blog of mine, and plan on publishing several more in 2015. If you haven’t yet published your own eBook, this article may just change your mind. Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of publishing an eBook for your blog.

1. Can You Say Authority?

Nothing says authority like releasing your own product. In today’s competitive market, if you want to be noticed you have to go above and beyond what most people are doing. You have to do something to separate yourself out from all of the other bloggers out there. You want to be a leader.

Writing an eBook is a great way to do just that.

Now let me say, I don’t try and pretend I’m one of the top bloggers out there. I’m no Adrienne Smith, Donna Merrill, Ryan Biddulph or Darren Rowse just because I wrote and published a book. Not even close. But what publishing an eBook did was separate myself out from all of the other bloggers that were in my league and push me a little bit higher. And when there’s a ton of bloggers out there like me, that says something.

Plus (and maybe it’s just me) there’s a nice ring to “I’m a published author.” People seem to take you seriously when you say something like that.

2. Lead Me To Your Opt-In Box

“The money is in the list. The money is in the list.” It’s almost as if it’s a mantra circling around my head 24/7. So let me tell you, I did not hesitate to get people on to my email list when they were reading my book. In fact, it was the primary call to action at the end. Because the truth is, the leads I have gotten from the book have made far more than the book itself. Far more.

Let’s think about the nature of the book for a second. The people that purchase this book have no prior experience blogging. None. They are relying on my book to teach them everything they know. What does that mean for me? It means I put them on a special mailing list unique to those who have purchased the book, and market the stuff they need to succeed right to their face. And let me tell you, by the time they’re done reading my book, they already trust me enough to hop on my list with no questions asked. And that’s where the real money is made.

The book sells for $2.99. I see about $2.05 out of that. However…

A HostGator affiliate sale is $100.

A Genesis affiliate sale is another $50.

A GetResponse affiliate sale is another $6 a month.

Plus anything else I decide to market to them later.

As you can see, this gives a lot of potential for additional monetization on top of the book sale itself. Which is great, because the book isn’t selling well at all. But it’s still making more than many Kindle books because of the nature of the audience.

3. Another Passive Income Stream

Every blogger knows that blogging is anything but passive. Yes, you’ll continue to make money off of old articles but the website itself requires a lot of upkeep. Kindle books aren’t this way.

Amazon has hundreds of thousands of shoppers each day ready to purchase with credit cards in hand. Amazon search does a good job at displaying the products available to the consumer. This means your book has the opportunity to be seen and purchased without any marketing whatsoever on your part.

Now, that’s not to say you shouldn’t spend extra time marketing your books (you absolutely should!) but Kindle publishing comes far closer to ‘passive’ than blogging ever would. The books you publish will pay you royalties for the rest of your life. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty cool.

Plus, all of this extra money (and free time) you’re getting can be invested back into your blog.

4. Publishing A Book Makes You A Better Writer

I covered this point when I published, “What Writing A Book Taught Me About Blogging” here a while back. I recommend giving it a read when you have the time because there’s a lot of great info packed in there.

The truth is, writing a book is a heck of a lot different than writing a blog post. They’re not even comparable. Book writing forces you to stay organized, stay focused, and write clearer. On top of that, writing a book makes you better at editing because editing a book is so darn challenging. Ever since I published my first book, the quality of my blog posts have improved. I’m able to explain things more easily and my writing suffers from far less spelling and grammar mistakes.

Let Me Hear Your Excuses

I wrote and published my second eBook in less than a month. This surprised a lot of my friends and family, which confused me. Why was this so surprising? What did this mean to them? Why weren’t they willing to do the same if they knew it was possible?

I quickly learned that a lot of people like to make excuses as to why they can’t make an eBook. I suppose it makes sense – it’s easier to be lazy, but being lazy does not drive results. No exceptions.

The truth is, making an eBook isn’t difficult. Not at all. If you can write a blog post, you can write an eBook. It may take longer, but the process is almost exactly the same. Come up with a topic, come up with some sub-topics, write in detail, format, edit, and publish. Rinse and repeat.

So if you haven’t published an eBook yet, why? Seriously, now’s the time to confess. Post a comment letting us know why you haven’t created an eBook yet, and let’s see if we can fix that. Heck, you’re even welcome to email me and I’ll work you personally to get you on the right track. It’s my job to help you succeed, so I want to make that happen.

Don’t wait until tomorrow, start today.