How to Create and Sell Your Ebook Online with WordPress

One surefire way to make passive income is to publish and sell ebooks online. Creating a high-value ebook can fetch you some cool cash. And the most intriguing part is that the process is quite simple.

Of course, putting a quality ebook together would require work–nobody wants to invest their money in low-quality products. But in the end, the efforts pay off because once you publish your ebook online with the right tools and platform, make sales seamless.

This article will explain why you should create and sell ebooks online and the best place to do that. We’ll also show you how to sell ebooks online for free and give you tips on how to maximize profit while selling ebooks online.

Why Create and Sell eBooks Online?

We’ve explained that selling ebooks online is one of the best ways to earn extra cash. But let’s dig deeper into why you should consider selling ebooks online.

1. They’re easy to create

Creating an ebook will require some time and effort. But compared to other digital products like comprehensive online courses, ebooks are easier to make. They’re even much easier to publish and sell than hard copy prints.

You’ll also find several paid and free templates online that can make your ebook design process seamless. All you need to do is insert your content in these templates, and your ebook is ready.

2. They’re great lead magnets

Offering ebooks is a great way to generate leads for your business. You can easily collect details of your site’s visitors when you offer them a free ebook with valuable content.

When creating ebooks for sale, it’s important to ensure that the content you put together isn’t just for the moment. Creating content that people will always need is the only way to ensure that your ebook generates sales in the long term.

3. They’re an excellent way to make passive income while sharing knowledge

There’s no gainsaying that the world’s economy thrives on knowledge. Well-structured content in various areas of expertise is in high demand. While some are put together as online video courses, some are straightforward enough to be packaged into ebooks. If you have such knowledge or skills, you can impact knowledge and increase your earning power by packaging and selling them as ebooks online.

Now that you know why selling ebooks online is important, let’s discuss the best place to do that.

Where Is the Best Place to Sell an eBook?

There are several platforms for selling ebooks online. While they may have excellent prospects for getting your books around the globe, we believe the best place to sell your ebook is on your website.

Most popular platforms for selling ebooks online require a lot of technicalities to get your books formatted and uploaded. Some need special training or even professionals to set your book up, and some have payment structures that reduce the profit you can make.

However, it’s easy to incorporate whatever eCommerce tools you need to sell ebooks online on your WordPress website using a powerful plugin like ProfilePress.

ProfilePress is a feature-rich WordPress eCommerce and membership plugin that makes giving and selling ebooks and digital products hassle-free. With ProfilePress, you can easily upload ebooks and monitor their sales.

Some of its unique features are:

• Connection to payment gateways like Stripe, Mollie, and PayPal and hassle-free paywall setup
• Easy account management
• Conversion-optimized checkout
• Different affordable membership plans
• Visually striking customizable themes
• Customized frontend forms
• Customizable user profiles and searchable member directories
• Content access control

Several people are selling their ebooks on their websites, so why not you? If you’re looking to maximize profit from your ebooks, then third-party publishing platforms aren’t the best option.

Selling your ebook on your website also makes it easy for readers to access them in formats like PDFs that are compatible with multiple devices. You also easily connect with customers because their details are sent directly to you, not a third-party platform. That way, you can always keep in touch with them and update them about future offers.

Let’s look at five third-party platforms to see why you should stick to your website to sell ebooks online.

1. Payhip

Payhip allows you to sell ebooks and various digital products. But a downside to using this platform is that it deducts a charge fee for each sale made on the free plan and the subscription plans are also quite expensive. This doesn’t even include the transaction fees for payment gateways like Stripe or Paypal.

2. Sellfy

With four different subscription plans, Sellfy is a perfect platform for selling various digital products. The challenge is that you can only sell digital downloads with a paid plan. So, you can only offer readers downloadable ebooks if you’re on a paid plan.

3. Fiverr

Fiverr is a great platform that offers many rich features for selling your ebooks. However, you have to manually send ebooks to buyers because none of its features takes care of that. You also have to keep logging in to your profile so your gigs (product listings) don’t get deactivated.

4. Amazon Kindle

If you aren’t familiar with any online marketplace for ebook sales, you definitely should know this one. Amazon has built authority over the years as an excellent platform for selling ebooks online. Even so, the technicalities of getting your book uploaded can be a headache. The ebooks are also offered as kindle ebooks which, in a way, restrict access outside the kindle app.

5. Feiyr.com

This is also an excellent platform for selling ebooks online. You only have to pay a one-time activation fee to get Feiyr.com working. However, you don’t get to have total control over your profit because they get some commission off your ebook sales.

How to Sell eBooks Online for Free

We’ve shown you how it’s possible and preferable to sell ebooks on your WordPress website. So, let’s see how you can sell ebooks online for free in 6 simple steps using ProfilePress.

1. Install and activate ProfilePress

The first thing you need to do is get ProfilePress running on your WordPress site. Once you get the plugin here, you can download the ZIP file.

On your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New and click Upload Plugin.

Select the plugin’s zip file and click Install Now.

Once installation is complete, click Activate Plugin.

Next, you need to activate your license key to receive updates. To do this, launch the License panel in the plugin settings menu.

Next, insert your license key in the License Key field and click Save Changes.

Finally, clear the permalink by going to Settings > Permalinks and clicking Save Changes.

2. Setup and configure ProfilePress

On your WordPress dashboard, go to ProfilePress > Settings > Payments > File Downloads.

Select a file download method and set the download limit, download expiry, and access restriction. To enhance your file’s security, check the box beside Append a unique string to filename for security. Save changes once you’re done.

3. Protect your uploads directory

WordPress protects your WordPress uploads directory by default. This, however, does not guarantee 100% protection for your directory because it depends on the server’s configuration. Check this ProfilePress article to see how you can protect your uploads depending on your server.

4. Upload your ebook

To create a downloadable ebook, you need to create a new membership plan or edit an existing one. Go to ProfilePress > Membership Plans > Add New Plan.

Name the new plan, fill in the required details and activate the necessary settings.

Next, go to Downloads & Integration > Digital Products.

Click Add file to add a new file and then name the file. If your ebook is hosted on another platform, insert the URL. If not, click Choose File to choose from the documents in your Media Library or upload the file from your device. Once you upload the file, click Insert.

You can enter the download limit and expiry if you wish. Then, once you’re done editing, save the changes.

Each membership plan comes with a checkout link. You can either add it to your website’s pricing page or send it to customers via mail for payments.

5. Managing Downloadable ebook orders

To access downloadable ebooks, users can check the “Order” and “Downloads” sections from their “My Account” dashboard.

To view or edit downloadable ebooks attached to orders, an admin can go to ProfilePress > Orders.

6. View download logs

To view details of downloads and customers who downloaded the ebooks, go to ProfilePress > Dashboard > Download Logs.

There’s also a download URL placeholder on invoice/order templates. As an admin, you can insert it as a link or a button on the templates. Customers can click on the link to go straight to their downloads.

8 Tips for Maximizing Sales While Selling Books Online

While you may use ebooks as a lead magnet for your business, you still want to profit from them. So, you cannot afford to be nonchalant about how you create and sell your ebooks.

Let’s dive into eight tips to help you make the best of your ebooks.

1. Understand your audience’s needs and make a plan

Your ebooks must provide quality information to readers if they would sell. Always ensure that your content offers timeless information. If you want to write on trending topics, you must pay extra attention to updating your ebooks regularly.

Use research tools like Answer the Public, Google Trends, and Quora to find out what information people want. Then make a plan on how you want to achieve your writing goal.

2. Organize your writing, write, and proofread

We would suggest that you draw an outline before you start writing. Then, break down your content into sections to give you a perspective about what you want to write. This eases your flow while writing. Please make sure to make your writing as engaging and practical as possible. And when you’re through, please proofread.

3. Get an ISBN for your book

This may not be necessary if you sell your books on your website. But most publishers require that your ebook has an International Standard Book Number (ISBN) before they can sell them. The ISBN is a unique identifier for your books, and getting one is a plus for your ebook sales.

4. Pay attention to your ebook design

The design you choose depends on the type of writing and your audience. Illustrations make ebooks more appealing, but you should use them with caution.

You can either design from scratch or use pre-designed book templates. While designing your ebook, make sure you pay attention to the font types and sizes, margins and spacing, pagination, visual hierarchy, and color palette.

5. Create a visually striking cover

A well-designed book cover can set the tone for your ebook sales. Your ebook may not go far if you have great content but a shabby cover. Ensure that all the elements and text are in the right places. You can hire a professional to help with your cover design.

6. Save and publish your ebook

Once you’re done with the design, save the ebook in your preferred format. You can add the file to a cloud storage platform to share links with others. A WordPress website also allows you to upload the file to your website and generate a link.

7. Price your ebook appropriately

It’s important to understand the psychology of pricing and do some research when fixing your book price. Ensure that your price is worth the time and effort you put into the ebook creation. Also, pay attention to the transaction fees on publishing platforms and what your target audience can afford.

8. Promote your ebook and track sales

It’s not enough to create and upload your ebooks on your website or other platforms. You need to get them out by promoting them. There are several ways to promote your ebook online, like sharing via social media, setting a landing page and popups on your website, and emails or newsletters.

You also need to monitor your sales. Most publishing platforms have analytics that tells you how your ebook is fairing. And with a plugin like ProfilePress, you can track your sales when you publish ebooks on your website.

Start Selling Your eBooks Today.

You should create and sell ebooks online if you have sharable knowledge and skills. Fortunately, the Internet has several platforms and resources to help you sell ebooks online. But while they may be helpful, they also have some downsides.

The best place to sell your ebooks is your website. And thankfully, ProfilePress makes the process seamless by providing all the tools you need to set up your site to sell ebooks online for free.

In this article, we’ve explained why you should consider selling ebooks online and shared the best place to do it. You’ve also learned the practical steps to sell ebooks on your website. In addition, we’ve given you some tips that will help you maximize your ebook sales.

We hope you are convinced that your website is the best place to sell ebooks online to maximize profit.

Get ProfilePress Today.