Authors can write about Topics of their interest, solely for the purpose of sharing their views and opinions, while others can take advantage of this opportunity to enhance their Websites ability to sell their product, what better form of advertising, than the ability to " tout " your services and products by giving away a Ebook with your thoughts regarding a product--a product which you just happen to sell--a great " Plug " for your Site.

So give it a shot. Pick your subject, one that interest you, and that you feel you have a knowledge of that may help your readers. Their are many Sites you can find with info on Publishing your book--a simple search will yield many results, and have FUN!!!

Perhaps because this is so common, or perhaps because e-books are just made of "thin air" and electrons, it's easy to think of e-books as a no-cost way to dispense information. A common argument is that no trees were cut to produce them, and no ink was used to print them. Thus, they are free to make, so why charge anything to "distribute" them?

It's certainly very easy to give them away, and many marketers do so in order to please their customers, to attract customers, and to build their own credibility as an expert in a specific area.

But are they really "free" to create?

Hardly. No matter how much or how little time is spent producing one, it still is time spent. How much is your time worth?

Consider this: What careers, professions and jobs consist only of time spent without producing a product? Let's look at a few:

• Seating Hostess at a restaurant. What does this person do? Does she create a physical product that you can purchase and take home? No. Does she perform a service on you that makes you feel better? No. She shows you where to sit and brings you a menu. Should she do it for free? No. These people rightfully earn a salary.
• Department store greeter. These folks usually are older than the entry-level crowd looking for a way into a career. Greeters often are already retired and either want something to do, or may need to supplement a too-small pension income. Should they do it for free? No. They deserve their salaries also.
• Preacher. Now, just what do preachers produce? They neither sow nor reap, unless you want to think of souls as commodities. Yet they earn their keep as well. Should they do it for free? How would they live? How would they support their families? They must make a living, too, or they would have to go away. Hence, the collection plate, and the agreed salary from the church treasury.
• Author. These people spend uncounted hours researching, solving problems, organizing information, then writing it down. Should it be worth more if they write it or type it onto paper? Or is it OK to type it into a computer? The same amount of time and effort goes into it. Only the resulting product is different.

These digital products may be called books, reports, or articles. Should they do it for free if they appear only in digital form? Does paying for paper and ink products "pay back" nature for using up her trees?

Did you know that authors eat food, pay to live somewhere, buy gas for their vehicles, and wear clothes? Some of them even have kids to feed.

Now let's get down to some actual expenses incurred by digital authors. In order to show their ebooks on the Internet so people can find them, they must have a web site, or rent space on someone else's. Having a web site is an expense that varies widely, according to the levels and quality of the services available from the web hosting company.

Owning and operating a web site can be done by one person, if they have abilities in every area, and the time; but more often, one has to pay for the several layers of service, such as web hosting, domain registration fees, web design, web page maintenance, following up with emails from visitors, and providing information that appears on the web site (known as "content").

One may need to buy the different kinds of content found on the pages of the web site, whether it's music, video, text, pictures, or other forms of information. If one is not artistic or able to photograph, then one must buy these things from others who are. When was the last time you went to a web page that consisted only of text on a page? 1980 something?

While you can set up a blog for free, bypassing the need for a web site, per se, there is no way to store your downloadable product (the ebook) unless you have web hosting somewhere. Even if you have your own server, you still have equipment and hookup costs.

And let's not discount the cost of this equipment. You have to buy a computer and pay an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to connect you to the web. And let's not forget the telephone. You might get by without a phone, but let's be real: You need one to conduct a business.

Also, many authors maintain an office. Rent, utilities, office equipment, employees... office expenses. Sure, some beginners start out working at the kitchen table in their pajamas, but it's not a permanent business model to strive for. Is that how you want to spend the rest of your life? At the kitchen table in your pajamas?

I suggest to anyone who thinks ebooks should be free to try and make one themselves. Then figure out how to justify the time spent doing it, especially if you have bills to pay. Or do you feel that writing for the Internet is only a hobby?

If you need some information on, say, how to deal with a particular disease, would you want to get an ebook from someone who wrote it as a hobby? Or would you prefer or be willing to pay for the information from someone who is an expert in the field? And if you still think it needs to be on paper, then for gosh sakes, download it and print it off and quit complaining.

Dr. R.J. Peters is a retired health professional who is now exploring marketing topics on the Internet. See his website to learn more about writing skills.

I have 5 ebooks that I sell for a variety of prices, and those are the download prices. On the Cat Massage pack, I offer people the option to get everything on a CD for $5 extra so I can pay the postage, the packing and the CD itself, which comes to approximately 5 bucks for everything.

There was an article in PC World magazine a few months ago where people were griping about having to pay for ebooks. The general perception is that they are free to produce so why should anyone pay for them? Gosh, they only consist of electrons, right?

Well, no one ever stops to think of the time spent by the author. What kind of job would a person want where they spend all day writing, doing research, formatting, etc., all for nothing? Then, how are these authors supposed to pay the hosting company for hosting their web sites? What about the autoresponder company? They typically charge around 20 bucks a month. Then of course, there are domain registration fees. Luckily, those are pretty cheap these days... about 8 or 9 bucks a year. Used to be 35, until competition came into the game.

Again, there is the bottom line of what should a person get for a salary or wage? Even authors have rent to pay, utilities, food, gas, and all the same stuff as everyone else. So far, I'm spending a lot more than I take in, and Ed is so patient with me... keeping the hope alive that some day, I'll make enough so that he can quit trucking. Neither of us is getting any younger, so the usual job market is pretty limited for us oldsters. Frankly, I don't think I can make enough as a greeter at Wal-Mart to help with the mortgage. But if I don't sell a LOT more of my ebooks, then that will be my only option! Yikes!

Then, I always ask people, how much are they willing to pay to attend a speech, a concert or a movie? They don't take anything physical home from those things, either. And they're not even getting electrons that they could print off when they do get home. So, I guess I'd have to say, if I am not allowed to charge for my work, then why work? What is the reason to work at all? Of course, it's work I enjoy, but I can't afford to be a permanent volunteer. The rescue shelter already broke us financially.

I just spent 2 full days, about 10 hours each day, building that "catalog" page on my web site. It's a lot of work to program things. And I do it all myself. I'd love to pay someone to do it, but that's a very expensive service to buy... and can't afford just yet. Having you look it over and find the errors was a tremendous help and I definitely do appreciate it. We didn't have a work for hire agreement, but I wanted to share something with you anyway. Most authors on the internet do it this way, as I've done work for some of THEM myself... editing their files for them to be sure of good grammar and spelling. They "pay" me with downloads of their products. So, I was just doing what is considered normal online. And I'm still willing to print it off for you, but it's not only a direct cost, but could easily take a couple of hours to actually perform it.

Also, I guess the Cat-a-log illustration of the binder made me want the printed copy. That's nice to hear, actually, as it means I did a good job creating the image. I was afraid it looked too amateurish...

But that's part of the marketing procedure, too. Since the book doesn't really exist in the real world, we have to come up with something visual to make it feel real. Like a movie poster... it's not the movie... just a representation of it, to help people decide if they want to see the whole thing.

You must do a good deal more when selling e-Books than listing just a couple of auctions. Just to help you out here are the 10 most crucial reasons why the majority of eBay e-Book sellers go wrong and fail:

1. Selling Older Titles

   In a extremely competitive business environment you must stay in front of the competition. You have to be on the watch for fresh titles to be able to sell e-Books day in and day out.

2. Following the Crowd

   Don't try to be like or do what every other eBay e-book marketer does. You must make your auctions look and feel different, and produce sales pages and titles that are unique to distinguish you from the other sellers.

3. Miserable e-Book Cover

   People actually do judge an e-book by its cover. Check that your e-book cover has a professional appearance.

4. Inadequate Sales Copy

   Having a professional looking sales copy is very important. Poor copy naturally equals poor sales.

5. Selling Entirely Other Author's e-Books

   To become a successful eBay e-book seller you will need to be making your own e-books. Having your own e-Books with unique titles you have the means to control the cost and market.

6. Selling Non-brandable e-Books

   Sell e-Books that let you to "brand" certain links inside, to help you generate you affiliate revenue.

7. Without a Download Page

   You must not send your e-book as an attachment. Make a download page any time you offer additional products and/or services

8. Not Getting Your Customers Details

   You must have place tools tools that seek to capture your clients email. Offer free e-books in return for your clients contact details. This way you will be in a position to promote and offer products any time you have new products to offer

9. Being Without an eBay Store

   eBay stores are essential. They give you gives unique and your very own URL's that you can advertise to your potential clients. This result in the end in additional sales.

10. Attempting to Use eBay to Build Your Entire Income

    You must diversify. Once you have made an e-Book sale there are a lot of ways to make additional sales and earn even more.

There you go! 10 errors you must avoid as an eBay e-Book seller. Before I go one final piece of advice. Make sure that you have in place all the tools to capture your clients email details. By doing so, you may get a client for life and no doubt this deserves a good deal more than just a quick e-Book sale.

Master resell rights products enable one to replace all affiliate links with ones own and edit the e-book so that your own website links are incorporated, known as "branding". You may resell the book at any price and keep 100% of the profits. Resell rights on the other hand enable you to sell the product and keep 100% of the profits, however the e-book cannot be altered in any way, shape or form.

Holding these rights to other peoples e-books is all well and good if you want to start up your own online business quickly and without having your own product. However, everyone else is in on the act too. You are unfortunately competing with hundreds of other people trying to sell the same product and unless your price is the cheapest, you really don't stand a chance.

But what if you had your own product. Something that no-one else had. People would have to buy from you and you alone, wouldn't they? Not necessarily. If you have written an e-book on Internet marketing you are still in competition with hundreds of people who have written about the same subject.

Ah, but what if your book was different! Different in the sense that you are telling people in your book what they haven't heard before - things they haven't been told before - secrets! Secrets of internet marketing, secrets of making money online, secrets of gaining true wealth, secrets that they will not get anywhere else. This makes your book special; if they don't buy your book, they won't find out the *secret* and will fail miserably in their endeavors.

If you have a product that works, if you can give people what they want in a way that is different and tell them that they cannot get it anywhere else, you hold the monopoly. Internet marketing does work - you just need to know how to go about it the right way to achieve success.