10 Must Haves for Your Best-Selling Ebook

Content People Want

This is where most people get it wrong, right out of the gate. Before they even start they're destined to fail, because they create a product that nobody wants. You don't want to just make money with your product (otherwise, you won't be making money for long), you want to fulfill a want/desire of your customers or satisfy an obsession of theirs. You want to genuinely help them, satisfy their "craving" so to speak. Having content that people want is the #1 must-have for having a potential best-seller on your hands.

An Online Audience Willing to Buy

Even if you have content that people want, those people have to be online and easily accessible. You're going to be selling a digital book, after all. People may want the latest Harry Potter book offline, but that doesn't necessarily mean they'd be willing to buy an ebook about the subject online. Some things just don't do well online.

That's why it's important to test to see if you have an online audience and if that audience is willing to buy what you have to offer. One of the easiest ways to do that is to find ezines and forums that reach your target market and survey their subscribers/members. You could have several product ideas in the survey and ask their opinion on each. Go to www.google.com and type in "(target market/niche topic + ezines"). For example, if I wanted to see if there were any ezines for tennis enthusiasts, I'd type in "tennis ezines".

Professional Image

Whoever said not to judge a book by its cover must have said it before the Internet was invented. A picture really is worth a thousand words here. Just like you wouldn't be tempted to buy from a clunky-looking website, so you wouldn't be willing to buy a product with a cheap graphic. (Or would you)? Either have a professional looking graphic, or don't have a graphic at all. Your sales will only hurt with a poor-looking ebook cover.

Either way, don't kill yourself or waste your time trying to create a graphic if you aren't the best artist in the world, or don't know a lick about web graphic design. Either use a cover template, buy some ecover software, or hire a professional online graphic designer.