How to create ebooks and bring viral traffic to your blog

From the last year I’ve been creating ebooks and experimenting with my blogs. Since I learned the technique about creating viral ebooks with my older blog posts, this has become a successful technique to spread your content and bring on new and interested visitors.

Weeks ago I wrote a guest post for MrJavo.com: How to recycle your article -there I mentioned about creating an ebook as a way to re-use your older blog posts. Ebooks works well because I can create one with a set of similar articles in it and readers can download it and read it. They can read it offline or even on their cell phones and can send it to friends via email.

All ebooks links back to my sites so the more it gets distributed, the more exposure I get. A blogger should give away ebooks for free because you’re not an established writer and no one will pay you for that. Use it as a free resource and you know people loves to get free stuffs! Now let’s see how I created my latest ebook, “A step by step guide for new twitter users

Step 1

First you need the content and word processor software. I used my article content and images + Microsoft Word as my word processor. Create a new word file and add and edit content. Each of the word pages are the pages of your ebook. I used the first page as the cover.

ebook creationYou can drag and drop your article and images just from your blog. Please note that the blog version and ebook version are different. I removed additional parts from the articles like, “Please leave a comment; this is the 4th part; grab the RSS etc.” Please also remove any internal links and un-necessary links from the ebook version. Remove images and only use it when needed to keep the ebook size small.

Now you can see, I have added a special footer on the bottom of each page,

To do this go to Menu > View > Header and footer of MS word. Now write your header and footer text. I only added footer in my ebook and kept the header blank.

After you create your ebook word file, don’t forget to add your links and credits. I wrote a “Thank you” message at the end of my ebook. Now save your word file and begin Step 2.

Step 2

Now you’ll need a professional PDF writer. There are plenty of ebook makers available but I prefer creating a PDF file because it’s universal. I used Adobe Acrobat 6 professional for this job.

Adobe acrobat 6 professional for PDF ebook creation
-Ha-Ha! That’s a goofy looking office guy!

Importing

On your PDF panel, create a new PDF file by accessing, Menu > File > Create PDF > From File. Select your word file that you created earlier. Now the software will render the file into a PDF file and the time will depend on the file size. This is the easiest way to render a PDF file. If you create a PDF from a web page or HTML file, then all of the contents will split apart and it will look messy!

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After that you’ll see your word file in a PDF look. You’ll see a simple quality loss of your images.

Linking

Now we have to edit those links. Yes, by rendering from a word file, adobe acrobat has created an image and it doesn’t have to ability to read links. Don’t worry, we’ll fix it!

Click on “Advanced Editing” -located at the top right corner and you’ll see a toolbar like that.

Now to add links, click on the “Link tool” and draw a box around your link,

You’ll see the Create Link box. Select “Open a web page” and add the URL. Click “OK

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It’s done but the box is still visible. Double click on the box again and you’ll see “Link Properties“; Select “Invisible Rectangle” as the link type and click “Close” Do the same for each link you want to add and use copy-paste if you want to use the same link in many spots.

eb11

Last minute editing

If you want to edit text on the ebook, then selcet the “Touchup tool” from the “Advanced editing” toolbar. Now select any text from your ebook and edit it.

Security and restrictions

You must secure your ebook. I prevent printing, copy and editing for all of my ebooks. If I don’t do that, anyone would print it to create their own hand book or edit it to make it their own. You can restrict the usability with adobe acrobat.

Go to Menu > Document > Security > Restrict opening and editing.

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Now on the box you can set a password to read this ebook (Not recommended!) From the “Permissions” set a password, and select “None” as “Printing allowed” and for “Changes allowed

eb13

With that password, anyone on the world can edit and print your ebook. Keep that password in a safe place so that you can sell the printing rights in the future or you can even create a printable version of your ebook!

Save and distribute

After you created and secured your rights, it’s time to save it. Save the file just as you save any other files and start marketing it. You can add the file on your server to let your readers directly download it. I used a third party server called MediaFire which allows me to know the number of downloads. If you know any other cool places to share and submit an ebook, then please tell me about it!

So what are you waiting for? Create your own ebook and bring more viral traffic. Please Grab the RSS feed to get more useful updates like this one.

If you loved this article and want others to read it too, then please promote this article by using the Share/save button!

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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }

1 @krjx February 5, 2009 at 6:32 pm

Cool. This has already inspired me to start working on my first ebook!

@krjx’s latest blog post..Olive Tapenade

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2 @krjx February 5, 2009 at 6:37 pm

There are some easy free alternatives to convert office files to pdf. Eg. you can email them to pdf@koolwire.com, upload them to http://cli.gs/4pJDSg (Doc2Pdf) and edit it with http://cli.gs/pNMeGj (PDFHammer). Not sure about they advanced editing however I am sure there are other alternatives to edit pdf files.

@krjx’s latest blog post..Olive Tapenade

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3 Geoserv February 5, 2009 at 7:07 pm

Thats one thing I have always told myself I need to do but have never taken the time to do.

Thanks for the tips.

Geoserv’s latest blog post..Pliggs Twitter followers

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4 Tamal Anwar February 5, 2009 at 7:50 pm

@krjx: Hey that’s a lot more informations for ebook creations, thank’s and I’ll check it out later :D

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5 @JimLittlefield February 5, 2009 at 9:10 pm

Thanks for the tips on creating the PDF. What do you do to make the eBook viral?

I’ve created a Printable Pocket Calendar (http://budurl.com/ItsFree) and am happy with the search traffic I get but want more viral traffic as well.

@JimLittlefield’s latest blog post..Layoffs in 2008 and 2009 are Opportunities to Reinvent Lives

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6 Tamal Anwar February 5, 2009 at 9:18 pm

@JimLittlefield: I use my blog to give away my ebook. You can ask some other people’s help to put it on their site. You can try some free ebook directories, I’m thinking about that and will search some cool places to submit.

Ebook will go viral because it’s free and easy to share!

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7 @krjx February 6, 2009 at 12:37 am

Hey. Saw your twitter. Congratulation on getting stumbledupon.

@krjx’s latest blog post..Olive Tapenade

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8 Tamal Anwar February 6, 2009 at 12:51 am

@krjx: This post got extremely hot on Stumble within the first hour of submission. You can help me with a little bit of re-tweet, digg or reddit for this post and I’d be thankful to you!

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9 Sean February 6, 2009 at 1:04 pm

Thanks so much for this great guide Tamal :) Although I think I probably need to have a few more blog posts before I can start to make one.

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10 Tamal Anwar February 6, 2009 at 1:15 pm

@Sean: Post regularly and post useful quality contents, ebooks are most desired things online and it makes a blog more attractive.

By the way keep updated to have my twitter ebook, it’s free off course :D

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11 Aminul Islam Sajib February 6, 2009 at 1:35 pm

What should I write on eBook :(

Will it do if I write a bangla eBook on any matter?

Aminul Islam Sajib’s latest blog post..The Bloggers – whose writings know no bound

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12 Tamal Anwar February 6, 2009 at 5:39 pm

@Aminul Islam Sajib: There are two things you can do. Writing ebook with new content, or creating an ebook from your old blog articles. It doesn’t matters which language you choose, you’ll need to know how to market it.

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13 @krjx February 9, 2009 at 4:56 pm

Tamal, have you explored any opportunities to embed advertisements in your ebooks? Might be a good way to monetize them.

@krjx’s latest blog post..krjx: Twitter background designer at PrettyTweet – http://cli.gs/7VUY4m

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14 Tamal Anwar February 9, 2009 at 5:11 pm

@krjx: Yes it’s possible to monetize an ebook by putting clickable banners on it, just like the ads you see on books and magazines. But I thought I should give an ad free clean ebook to my readers.

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15 Hamdani February 11, 2009 at 11:57 pm

Great article. I found that using openoffice will be much easy to create e-book since they came with a built in option to save in pdf.

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16 Robert March 5, 2009 at 11:34 pm

With the many subjects out there how do you still create original content?
There are many ebooks out there, with some covering similar material.
Maybe I’m thinking too much and limiting myself.
I should just start writing and not worry what others have done.

This is good information to start with.
Thanks

Robert

Robert’s latest blog post..What is Mike Dillard up to now… PPC what?

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17 Tamal Anwar March 5, 2009 at 11:52 pm

@Robert, Original contents will come and will keep coming forever. The topic may be the same but the aspect will be different. This is why we love to read the same thing all over and over again :D

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18 morgan ebook May 7, 2009 at 4:40 pm

If you have a plan to make ebook for commercial purpose, you can firstly use your free ebook to promote it. But don’t set too many steps i.e. put many links to your ebook sale page before the readers can access the free ebook. It will annoy them.

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19 Cartoon Bears July 3, 2009 at 3:59 am

is there any free website site or tool that can help me bring traffic to my new website ? I am planning to sell beauty supplies online.

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20 Karo Itoje August 5, 2009 at 12:38 am

Hello Tamal,

Thanks alot for this timely information.I am just planning my first ebook and this information came at the right time. The part that i can secure my ebook from printing and editing and even sell printing right in future is really an eye opener.

More grace to your elbow

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21 generic August 27, 2009 at 12:30 pm

This is very good information to start with.
Thanks

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22 Rx Guy August 31, 2009 at 9:47 am

Hi Tamal,
After finishing this ebook, where will go?
I mean do you post it on your blog? Do you need a website? Any info will be helpful thanks.

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23 Bill Bartmann September 4, 2009 at 3:20 am

Excellent site, keep up the good work

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24 PSP Go October 4, 2009 at 4:09 am

Thanks once again for this step by step guide. Your site is so useful.

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25 Esanubi Maurice October 23, 2009 at 4:06 am

I love your concept, it has open a new chapter in my presentations and how I intend rolling out my ideas from now on.
……………………………………………………………………………..Thanks.

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26 PSP Go November 17, 2009 at 11:18 pm

Getting people to sign up to your blog by using free ebooks as a carrot works really well I find.

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