How To Write A Dating E-book

Writing imaginative, informative and unique e-books can be a profitable alternative to standard affiliate marketing. In this article I will cover the basics of writing a dating e-book to be published on Click Bank.

Choose A Subject

Dating and relationships cover a multitude of sins. Endeavor to choose a topic with the most juicy subject-matter. How To Pickup Women has distinctly less appeal than Sure Fire Tips To Attract Hot Women! and yet both could be identical books. Be mindful that you’re trying to attract buyers as well as affiliates. It must be something that certain people will be desperate to know - and, of course, it goes without saying you must know enough to write authoritatively on the subject.

Research Your Niche

Knowing more about your subject than you will ever write is my advice. It makes for a well-informed tone and allows the writing-process to flow smoothly. There is no set time to devote to research because it depends on your existing knowledge. To give you an idea, the shortest time I spent was 4 days, and the longest was 2 months.

Plan Your E-book In Detail

I use a stack of three by five cards for the planning stage. Each card represents a chapter. I aim for fifteen to twenty chapters at 5 or more words a page in order to come in at around 100 pages (I’m not a fan of short ebooks; there’s more perceived value in 100 pages than 40). Each card represents a chapter, so give them a topic and scribble down the basic info you want covered. You can then switch around the cards until a logical order appears. Once you’re comfortable with the chapter-order you can create more lengthy notes for reference while writing. At this stage - research and planning actualized - your book is virtually finished.

Adding Words To Your Plan

Writing an e-book is easier than you might think. A trick I often employ is imagining that I’m sat in a bar talking to a friend. He wants to know something and I’m explaining it in terms that he can readily understand. Here are some more tips :

• Deliver the information you promised in the first place
• Eliminate unnecessary words
• Write at a standard high school level (not all your readers will have PHds)
• Use keywords because search engines can read your uploaded pdf files
• Enliven your writing, make it fun to read
• Use a thesaurus to avoid word-repetitions
• Keep to the point (be ruthless, delete anything that does not contribute to the subject)
• Ask people to offer constructive criticism on the finished book

A Simple Website

Find a reliable host like webair.com and register a domain name (namecheap.com is a good registrar). Choose a memorable, easy to spell keyword domain (ajaxwhois.com makes brainstorming a snap). If your article is entitled SureFire Tips To Attract Hot Women! you could register AttractHotLadies.com, longer than I would like but not bad (and currently available).

You now need two pages : a Pitch and a Thank You page. I suggest learning how to write effective sales pitches or employing someone to do it for you. Site design can, likewise, be done by yourself or outsourced to a professional designer. Some of the most effective pitch pages are very simple - you’ve likely seen dozens yourself - so throw something together yourself for the first few books.

E-book Covers

I highly recommend outsourcing this to a professional. It can be inexpensive too. I’ve paid $200 for a design; I’ve also paid $5. I was thrilled with them both. Ask for quotes in your favorite forums and see samples and testimonials before making a decision. You might also setup forum competitions (say for 20 bucks).

Selling Your E-book

You have a book and a website. Now you need a way to process orders, receive payment and, preferably, setup an affiliate program. The answer is Click Bank.

Click Bank will process your orders 24/7 and you even get a managed affiliate program. Here’s a closer look at what you get :

• Real-time stats and sales tools
• Fraud protection
• A source of motivated affiliates (over 100,000)
• Easy setup (3 days maximum)
• Excellent customer service
• No programming experience required (just throw up a link to the payment page)
• Payment of all affiliates

There is a signup fee but it is only a one time activation amount of $49.95. They take off about 7.5% of retail sales totals and the rest is yours.

My next article on writing dating e-books will cover how to promote your book to buyers and affiliates. In the meantime, give this a go and report back here with your experiences!

Extra Info (added Aug 20th, 2007)

Your word processor

I received a question by someone on a forum today who, having read this article, wanted to know the most common word processor used to write e-books and if my mentioned 100 pages was the equivalent of 100 pages in print. I should have explained this in the article and this, to me, is the beauty of blogs and the internet as a whole : nothing is set in stone, hence my little edit. My software of choice is Open Office (found at openoffice.org). The reason being, it’s free, feature-rich and comes with an enhanced PDF export feature. The PDF format is the best method to deliver your downloadable product. And, finally, a page of an e-book is the same as a page in print. Any more questions, please ask and I’ll slot the answers in down here.