October 13, 2008
The Death of Ebooks
I’m sorry to inform you but creating and selling ebooks as a viable internet marketing business is dying a slow and lingering death! I’m not sure how long it’s got to live, but it ain’t looking good.
OK, I’m being just a little over the top here, but this is a very important message that you NEED to know right now.
Don’t get me wrong, I STILL sell ebooks. I sell them in various niche markets, whether they are my own product or as an affiliate.
But, sales are down and they are down quite dramatically.
Here’s one of the reasons why…
MOST ebooks are too darn long!
The last time I bought a stand-alone ebook was from Joel Comm. It was his Adsense Secrets 4.0.
Now if you know Joel you’ll know he is a real expert with Adsense and his material is quality, cutting edge stuff.
I bought his book for 2 reasons: To learn how to cretae a successful Adsense campaign and to review the product for this blog.
So went went wrong?
The ebook is 235 pages long!!
Now I’m not lazy. I don’t mind reading good quality information. I even knew how long the book was before I purchased it.
But after reading the first 50 pages my eyes started glazing over and I started losing the will to live! To be honest I got bored.
And I never returned to finish the book! It’s still sitting in my documents section, under ‘internet marketing ebooks’.
So What’s The Answer If Traditional Ebooks Are Too Long And Becoming Much Less Popular?
Here’s the good news!
Ebooks are dying…Long live the Short Report!
Short reports are more popular than ever and they are easier to produce.
Today’s online buyers are looking for specific answers to their problems.
Here’s an example of what I mean…
“How to improve your internet marketing business” could be an old-school style ebook that could easily be hundreds of pages long. There’s just so much information you could write about.
A ‘Small Report’ however could be something like; “The 10 Most Successful Methods To Get Your Emails Opened”.
Do you see how specific and targeted that title is?
And how long do you think it would take you to write a report like that? - I would say you could create it in just 1 day.
How many of these short reports do you think you could create, in say a month? - 10, 15?
Before you know it, you’ll have a mini, short reports empire, all selling for around $7 - $15 a piece!
You can read my earlier post about short reports here: the-small-reports-business-model
The Next Level - Audi and Video
These 2 techniques are another reason why long ebooks are dying a slow, lingering death.
Audio and video are simply better products to market. They have a greater perceived value and are more enjoyable as a means of learning.
A simple method to create that extra perceived value to your short report is to turn it into an audio and/or video product as well.
You can read your report into a basic audio capture software such as Audacity and package them both together. Or you could create a video product using Camtasia or CamstudioPro.
These methods are dead easy to do and will make your products far more attractive to a potential buyer.
Conclusion
Forget about creating a long ebook. It will take you way too long to produce and people don’t want to read them!
Create a short report. You can write one in just 1 day… And be selling it the day after!
Turn your report into an audio and/or video product. This will give it more perceived value and appeal much more to today’s market.
~ Peter Tremayne
Filed under Blog, Internet Marketing by Peter Tremayne
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Comments on The Death of Ebooks »
I have found that short reports are easier to read and often do pack a punch.
They are a quick read and your prospect is more likely to get to the end of it without losing focus as well as take action too.
Just like you mentioned Peter I too have some good ebooks that even run up to 500+ pages! I just read them as you would eat an Elephant. One piece at a time.
I still think they have their place though. Just make sure you are sitting comfortably before you start to read them. That's my advice.
willfred
@ Willfred - Hi Willfred, you made a good point there; "as well as take action too".
Short reports hold readers attention and often provide just enough for them to take further action, like purchase an upsell offer etc.
~ Peter Tremayne
Can't see the correlation here. If you want to learn about something in depth you've got to have a book unless you have dozens of short reports which then might as well be a book. Personally I think short reports are rubbish - usually they have nothing of value in them - there's no time of space to properly explore a subject. Also video and audio drive me nuts when I'm trying to learn. I need to be able to digest the information. It's a hell of a lot easier to re-read a sentence or paragraph that rewind a video.
You're looking at this from the 'what's easier for the marketer' point of view and not the recipients point of view.
For me Peter, you're not making sense with this at all!
Dave
@ Dave Sewell - Trust me Dave, I am looking at it from the recipients point of view equally as much as a marketers.
I even gave you an example with the last ebook I bought.
Sure, long ebooks still have their place if you want to learn a complete subject. AND I appreciate that everyone is different and learns in different ways.
But based on my own sales and how I now acquire most of my information; video, audio and short-reports are the prefered choice.
If the majority of people didn't think the same, then there wouldn't be this massive shift we are seeing right now toward videos.
Like it or not my friend, video marketing (video ebooks) will soon be the NO.1 method for marketing info products.
~ Peter Tremayne
Peter, who is shifting towards video and audio? The marketers are because it's easier and cheaper for them and they can peddle their wares to ever more people. The punters have little choice but to follow if they still want the information. This is not a customer-driven phenomona.
I don't see many short reports and 8 minute videos on the shelves of waterstone and WH Smiths. Businesses that spend a LOT of money on researching the markets and looking for the latest trends….
Video and audio has it's place but soon people will get fed up with it. That's the way of the world. Personally they do nothing for me but that's just me. I'm 44 not 24 so I'm more used to books than other mediums.
A thought - we're about to enter a perid of serious economic downturn. Who is going to have the spare money to spend on information products in the days to come? Is it going to be young people who love the medium of video but who have limited incomes or is it going to be people who are older and more familiar with the written word in book form. People who naturally and automatically migrate to a book when they want to learn something..
Time will tell.
Dave
@ Dave - Why do presume that making video and audio products are cheaper and easier?
My gudness, I've tried and it aint easy! It takes much longer and more knowledge to do so.
Of course video and audio is consumer driven! How can it not be? That's the way of the world. It's happening because people want it and are prepared to pay for it.
It's like the internet; why do people source the internet for information when they can trudge off to their local library and try to find it in books? - Easy of use, instant, greater source of info, etc.
The same with video/audio products. People can download them onto their mp3 palyers and listen to them when going to the work, driving the car, at the gym, walking the dog etc.
This way of marketing and consuming information has only just arrived and will soon be expected rather than as an added bonus.
But I digress slightly!
WH Smith make the vast majority of their sales through magazines and cd's/dvd's. Not books. That's why the magazines are the first thing you see when you go into any of their stores. Aren't magazines just a physical version of small reports?
We haven't got fed up with television yet. Or music.
I appreciate that these media do nothing for you, and you prefer books. But as an internet marketer you have to understand that to keep abreast of marketing techniques, you need to be where people are spending their money.
This 'economic downturn' could actually be a great opportunity for us. More than ever, people (young and old) are looking to start an online business because of job insecurity, travel costs etc.
I'm sorry but a video 'showing' them how to do it, will sell better than an ebook 'telling' them how to.
As you say Dave - time will tell!
Thanks for sharing your views.
~ Peter Tremayne
I bought $1600 worth of lighting and a backdrop along with mic and camera so video ain't cheap. First of all, some things lend themselves to video like guitar lesson - things that demostrate. And the sad reality is people don't like to read. Most people don't finish one book. That's why there's a huge explosion in audio and video. And audio is convenience for listening in the car or working out.
It's not just to make marketers' lives easier that's for sure. It's about teaching using the most effective tools available. Text may be the way to go for some - actually customers usually have different learning styles so you want to provide information in various formats.