Writing an E-book – Would You Buy?

[mikethedrummer44]

Hey guys,

I've recently been getting a lot of questions from some people I know regarding my online money making activities. It's a bit of a pain to explain what I do, which led me to thinking.

I could fairly easily create a high-quality e-book on the subject of going from earning $0 online to earning $4,000+ monthly income. It would come from a different angle than most books, by giving people a way to build fundamental internet marketing knowledge AND make money at the same time.

A lot of e-books focus on affiliate marketing, or adsense marketing, but they don't really give you an info you can use tomorrow to potentially start earning $1k+ a month. My book would do this.

The focus would be freelance writing, but would also branch off into affiliate marketing, SEO techniques, how to sell yourself, passive income by being a middleman, and a bunch of other stuff.

Target market is college students, stay at home moms, but basically anyone who wants to make some extra money on the side. Benefits are being your own boss, working when you want, controlling your income.

I think I would sell the book for around $25-50, depending on a few factors. Obviously, it would be written extremely well, because I'm awesome.

Would any of you be interested in purchasing such a book, provided it delivers on the content? Thanks!

[GreenSmoothieGirl]

I definitely would buy it - now you've got my curiosity peaked and I wish it could be finished already! Seriously.

[Indiana]

Would that $4000 be passive income or does it require effort after the initial input? If so, how much maintenance effort?

Otherwise, my only question is why you haven't written that book yet.

[danthony]

It could definitely be done but you need to put some kind of unique spin on it, especially in the make money online space.

[mikethedrummer44]

Originally Posted by Indiana

Would that $4000 be passive income or does it require effort after the initial input? If so, how much maintenance effort?

Otherwise, my only question is why you haven't written that book yet.

The $4,000 figure comes from one of my better months, from simple SEO article writing. So no, this isn't passive, although about $1,000 of it was, since I had an independent contractor working with me.

The book isn't about passive income so much, basically just a way that anyone can do what I did and open the doorway to more online money making opportunities.

I haven't written the book yet because of the bad reputation e-books have. I posted a similar message to this on another forum, and instantly everyone called me a scammer.

It would be a bit of work, but I'm pretty sure I could do a good job. Thanks for the feedback so far guys.

[mikethedrummer44]

Originally Posted by danthony

It could definitely be done but you need to put some kind of unique spin on it, especially in the make money online space.

Yup, that's what I'm most worried about. I've got some ideas on how to get around this though.

[Curtis2011]

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

I haven't written the book yet because of the bad reputation e-books have. I posted a similar message to this on another forum, and instantly everyone called me a scammer.

One thing to realize is that anyone who stigmatizes you for writing a how-to-make-money online ebook, is not even part of your target market for the ebook itself, so there is literally no reason to worry about those people.

Don't try to sell to people who label you a scammer before they even read your sales page. Sell to people who are already looking for an ebook about what it is you do. Freelance writing is already the method of employment for thousands, possibly millions of people around the world.

Perhaps you could gear your ebook not to a total noob, but to a person who's making less than $1000 a month freelance writing, who wants to make it their full time job and perhaps triple their income? You could give them advice on how to achieve that, and also you wouldn't have to "persuade" anyone to believe you about making money online, because they'd already know it is possible.

[mikethedrummer44]

Originally Posted by Curtis2011

One thing to realize is that anyone who stigmatizes you for writing a how-to-make-money online ebook, is not even part of your target market for the ebook itself, so there is literally no reason to worry about those people.

Don't try to sell to people who label you a scammer before they even read your sales page. Sell to people who are already looking for an ebook about what it is you do. Freelance writing is already the method of employment for thousands, possibly millions of people around the world.

Perhaps you could gear your ebook not to a total noob, but to a person who's making less than $1000 a month freelance writing, who wants to make it their full time job and perhaps triple their income? You could give them advice on how to achieve that, and also you wouldn't have to "persuade" anyone to believe you about making money online, because they'd already know it is possible.

Yup, I realized it before posting. Was assuming I'd get different responses than "scam" due to the way I worded the post. I wasn't planning on selling it to that market, was just gauging interest from basically everyone. Helps me actually decide to write an e-book. Lol

Maybe, but I think a huge selling point would be the fact that anyone can use the system to get started right away. It's not get rich quick, but it's money that you can start earning as soon as you get a decent grip on the English language.

Also, I've heard of a few e-books focused on freelance writing for people who already know about it, so it would be more competition in that area. Although my book would be better, so competition isn't much of a problem.

[serialfish]

Have you been on any Internet Marketing forums (Warrior Forum, BlackHat World, Digital Point, etc)? I would suggest getting on these and downloading a few of the programs from their downloads section.

Yes, a lot of them are adsense, affiliate marketing, etc., but you may find some that have some of the themes you are wanting to hit on. Not to say it won't work. It's all about the packaging, IMO. They keep selling the same ideas recycled, so selling something even slightly different is sure to create a buzz if done correctly. I think you it might give you some ideas of how to get on the right track of packaging your program for greatness. Kudos.

[Mounds]

You know I love what you do Mike but I gotta say... are you actually going to sell this? The problem I foresee is that this is a massively competitive market. Once in a while, I go to the Warrior Special Offer's forum and my head spins. Everyone is basically trying to sell what you are talking about. I'm sure it'd be an awesome product and I might even buy a copy but are people actually going to see it? How will they find yours and then decide to buy it? I'd take that into consideration.

What I would absolutely, 100% buy is an e-book on how to write articles (with info on the research, writing and editing process) and where to submit them, either to free directories or to paid directories. I would make that my primary e-book and have an income report for added value.

See, I'm a lazy man with limited attention. When I search for writing articles and all that stuff, I get a lot of trash that I have to sift through. I'd much sooner buy the book from you (a guy who has proven himself) than waste a lot of my time and energy.

That's just my opinion I'm not a marketing expert or anything but I am a consumer of the materials you are talking about selling. I pass over 99% of the offers that come my way and the 1% I do buy is on impulse. An e-book on writing supreme articles is something I'm actually looking for.

[SnerpGoodWord]

Wow, selling an e-book online about how to make money selling ebooks about how to make money selling ebooks about how to make money selling ebooks about...

Bet y'all can guess what I think of this

[Andrew Brunelle]

Sure, maybe I'd buy it. I'd have to get some more details first. If it is the famous SNL Sketch about a book for $50 called, "How to Get Someone to Pay $50 For a Book," then no thanks. I've bought many a book that was supposed to give me thousands of dollars per month, but the steps to get there were so complex that I often just gave up. And my current website is low in traffic ranks and doesn't earn me a dime, and I work 32 hours a week at a job (used to be 40), so I could use a little extra income, like $1000-$2000 or so a month in a passive way, so that I can retire before my 90th birthday. And what a shame that would be, retiring at 90. Unless I love the work.

[mikethedrummer44]

Originally Posted by Mounds

You know I love what you do Mike but I gotta say... are you actually going to sell this? The problem I foresee is that this is a massively competitive market. Once in a while, I go to the Warrior Special Offer's forum and my head spins. Everyone is basically trying to sell what you are talking about. I'm sure it'd be an awesome product and I might even buy a copy but are people actually going to see it? How will they find yours and then decide to buy it? I'd take that into consideration.

What I would absolutely, 100% buy is an e-book on how to write articles (with info on the research, writing and editing process) and where to submit them, either to free directories or to paid directories. I would make that my primary e-book and have an income report for added value.

See, I'm a lazy man with limited attention. When I search for writing articles and all that stuff, I get a lot of trash that I have to sift through. I'd much sooner buy the book from you (a guy who has proven himself) than waste a lot of my time and energy.

That's just my opinion I'm not a marketing expert or anything but I am a consumer of the materials you are talking about selling. I pass over 99% of the offers that come my way and the 1% I do buy is on impulse. An e-book on writing supreme articles is something I'm actually looking for.

I definitely get what you're saying. In fact, the warrior forums is the single biggest factor preventing me from writing an e-book before. I go to that place and literally feel sick to my stomach.

I think I could sell it, but I would definitely need to do some exploring with different marketing tactics. Not completely sure what these would be, but I have some ideas in my head.

Biggest problem with writing an e-book about writing articles is that I haven't really been doing too difficult of writing until recently. Most of my money came from writing articles that anyone could write– I just knew how to get the work.

I was planning on having the book be in two parts.

Content Creation - Freelance Writing Guide: basically, I would give them a method that they could use immediately to earn money as a freelance writer. This allows them to make money, while learning the skills of content creation.

Part 2 - SEO, Affiliates, Adsense, "middle-manning," and some other tips for making money.

Basically, I think where my book would stand out is that it teaches you how to make decent money each month working as a freelance writer, but then also gives you the skills necessary to make a lot more money. I think this COULD appeal to a lot of people who have never thought about making money online. I know that I first got started using someone else's system.

People are always asking for step-by-step guides to making money. I could give them one that actually worked.

Problem is, most people have the built in spam-filters, so selling this type of product to a broad audience would be difficult (as I discovered while posting on another forum).

I appreciate the feedback, though. This whole idea hinges on my ability to market a product in an already vastly over-saturated market. Is it worth the time? Not sure.

At the very least, though, I could have something to give to people who ask me how to do what I do.

Wow, selling an e-book online about how to make money selling ebooks about how to make money selling ebooks about how to...

Bet y'all can guess what I think of this crap

Thanks for the feedback. I am aware of the market's reputation.

[Rebecca800]

Originally Posted by serialfish

It's all about the packaging, IMO.

This sounds like good advice to me.

Can you describe your ebook in 10 words or less for us? Any working titles?

I think "making money online" is too broad, you may as well call it "how to get a job"... without actually specifying the industry or skills required.

If you made the majority of your income freelance writing, then I reckon that should be your ebook topic. I once bought an ebook called 100 Ways to Make Money Writing (or similar), that was interesting. How about a spin on that?

Or is your book teaching people how to write for the web? That is a book in itself once you consider the applications... which naturally lead to income generation.

I think your plan so far is perhaps a little too ambitious -- in a market where your audience is either already partially knowledgeable (and therefore skeptical of MMO schemes) OR complete beginners (and therefore don't actually know they need your book).

It could be tricky addressing that... Unless you package it right.

You would also be competing with Site Build It by going the whole hog (see how they've packaged their product for complete beginners).

So - in 10 words or less please. Then we can see what we're actually dealing with

[mikethedrummer44]

Originally Posted by Rebecca800

This sounds like good advice to me.

Can you describe your ebook in 10 words or less for us? Any working titles?

I think "making money online" is too broad, you may as well call it "how to get a job"... without actually specifying the industry or skills required.

If you made the majority of your income freelance writing, then I reckon that should be your ebook topic. I once bought an ebook called 100 Ways to Make Money Writing (or similar), that was interesting. How about a spin on that?

Or is your book teaching people how to write for the web? That is a book in itself once you consider the applications... which naturally lead to income generation.

I think your plan so far is perhaps a little too ambitious -- in a market where your audience is either already partially knowledgeable (and therefore skeptical of MMO schemes) OR complete beginners (and therefore don't actually know they need your book).

It could be tricky addressing that... Unless you package it right.

You would also be competing with Site Build It by going the whole hog (see how they've packaged their product for complete beginners).

So - in 10 words or less please. Then we can see what we're actually dealing with

The topic of the e-book would be content creation, and how to translate that into making money.

Content creation is the most important skill to have with internet marketing, as everything else revolves around it. This is how I could have my book have a focus on freelance writing, affiliates, etc, without being too broad.

It would begin with freelance writing, which (if you use my method), can generate a few thousand each month fairly easily. This then leads to more profitable methods of freelance writing, and also opens the door to selling affiliate products, and other stuff that can potentially make you A LOT more than a few thousand.

Just curious– out of those 100 ways to make money writing, which ones actually worked?

My book would explain the methods that I have used to make money, minus all the mistakes I had to make to reach that point.

I definitely agree with you, though. Packaging is everything. I haven't even started writing the book yet, simply because I don't know if I'm actually going to be able to package it correctly. I think I could, but I'm not getting started until I'm sure.

I'm not overly concerned with competition. I'm not going to write a book unless it's going to be better than any other product out there (for whomever I actually target).

Thanks for the feedback!

[Angelique]

What about coaching sessions? What do you think about that? Instead of or in addition to a an ebook.

[mikethedrummer44]

Originally Posted by Angelique

What about coaching sessions? What do you think about that? Instead of or in addition to a an ebook.

Hmm... I'm not too sure about that.

I don't think I have enough value to offer that would make coaching effective. Basically, I would need to charge a lot more than what the e-book would cost to say the same things.

[danthony]

Actually, you have a lot more knowledge to give than you give yourself credit for. If you can write about a subject - a whole ebook mind you, you have a fair bit of knowledge in an area. You could offer your coaching in the 'backend' after someone has purchased your book. Coaching will be a way to keep them on track. It can be based around the concepts of the book and you just drill down these subjects and keep your clients accountable. Offer a lower cost coaching until you get some experience and good testimonials and then you can come up with a higher price point. They are millions going through coaching as we speak and you just may help someone reach their goals much faster, so it's a win-win.

[Lucidism]

Mike, you should teach a course at Learnable.com. I think you could do great.

The Warrior Forum sucks. It flat-out sucks. There are some good people there, but overall the place is so scummy.

[Andrew Gubb]

I personally don't feel like an ebook is ever worth 50$. I'm used to physical books costing 15$ for the same product, and minus printing and distribution costs the price would be 1 or 2 $.

To be honest, any information nowadays is available online for free (and even if it's not, it can be pirated). An ebook makes the research a bit more convenient by putting everything you need to know in one place. That's not a 50$ service.

I hope you don't take this as directed at you specifically but just generally, I think internet marketers need to get real.

[bluestar]

I bought a book a few years back about how to make pots of money selling on ebay. Of course what was said was just common sense, and even following it wouldn't make you an overnight power seller, but hey! guess what? I bought the book! Most likely a lot of other people did too. It was quite popular. The knack was the title, and of course the marketing of the book. Also it sold at 12.95 (not 50 dollars)
BTW....course I never did make pots of money selling on ebay....but the book was an interesting read for a newbie to ebay.
My advice would be -do your research into marketing your e book, then why not just go for it? It might be a hit. If not, well you tried. Better than staying up laying in bed at night awake, wondering "what if"

[Mounds]

I wonder if the reason many e-books have such a high price is because they don't expect to sell many copies? I have some very high-quality entomology books (in the $200+ range) where very few copies are printed. On the other hand, I could buy a high-quality nature book, geared toward a much larger market for around $20.

[DanFromSeoul]

Hey Mikethedrummer44,

After writing and launching my 2nd e-book I would like to
share some nuggets of wisdom.

/1 I'd recommend starting with an e-booklet and see how that sells first.

If there's demand there then selling a proper e-book afterward would make more sense.


/2 Plan writing and selling the e-book to take twice as long and twice as
much money.

/3 Make sure you have distribution systems and marketing plans already
in place. That could mean 'having a website' or getting affiliates on board (or both.)

These are just my .02 cents.

Good luck!

Dan

[Rebecca800]

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

The topic of the e-book would be content creation, and how to translate that into making money.

Content creation is the most important skill to have with internet marketing, as everything else revolves around it. This is how I could have my book have a focus on freelance writing, affiliates, etc, without being too broad.

It would begin with freelance writing, which (if you use my method), can generate a few thousand each month fairly easily. This then leads to more profitable methods of freelance writing, and also opens the door to selling affiliate products, and other stuff that can potentially make you A LOT more than a few thousand.

Just curious– out of those 100 ways to make money writing, which ones actually worked?

My book would explain the methods that I have used to make money, minus all the mistakes I had to make to reach that point.

I definitely agree with you, though. Packaging is everything. I haven't even started writing the book yet, simply because I don't know if I'm actually going to be able to package it correctly. I think I could, but I'm not getting started until I'm sure.

I'm not overly concerned with competition. I'm not going to write a book unless it's going to be better than any other product out there (for whomever I actually target).

Thanks for the feedback!

Ok, thanks for elaborating. I think content creation is a good angle. My advice is not to get too carried away with the idea that affiliate marketing is easy and anyone can make millions with it. Cos it obviously ain't that simple But I can totally see why you want to add online marketing insights to a book about online writing.

My dad, after hitting retirement and finding himself ridiculously bored, just spent around $600 on a writing course in the mail that's supposed to teach you how to write well and access relevant markets. I'm sure he could have learned it all from a library book and a little bit of real life experience (plus his own daughter with 7 years journalistic / freelance writing / blogging experience!) But that just goes to show there are a lot of aspiring writers in the world - and some will pay a lot for a course that looks the business and virtually guarantees their new career and gives them a new focus. Maybe that's your angle. Build a new career in online writing.

The book I mentioned covered a lot of ways to make money by selling your written work and basically gave you an entry point to each market - greetings cards, paid articles like magazine features and press releases, blogging, etc. So in some way they all work but not everyone is going to get rich by following the advice, and I wrote off many of the markets because I'd already tried hard to access them and been rejected, such as magazine fiction, everyone wants to do it but truth is they have their favorite writers and it's hard to break in with no experience. It takes a lot of persistence and a lot of luck. In the end I got a refund on that book because I felt the advice was too generic - and it wasn't cheap, so I felt ripped off... It was still an interesting topic though, and I still think I can be done well.

If you do make such an ebook it'd probably be a good fit for Career Evolution so I'd be interested to review it one day.

[Harmonium]

I would probably buy it if I felt safe in doing so.

I'm interested in learning to make $1k-$4k a month. I can't really design, but I can code designs down to the pixel. Not sure what I could do to make that much a month, but I don't want to bust my ass doing it. If I turned myself into a robot I could probably do that freelancing :P

But that work isn't too fulfilling. It's rewarding to accomplish something new and surprise myself... but doing the same old work gets boring. I want to use the skills I'm learning freelancing. Not sure what I'm gonna do yet. I have good knowledge of xhtml/css, and I can accomplish some ok stuff with php/mysql, as well as some decent jquery

[SnerpGoodWord]

Originally Posted by mikethedrummer44

Thanks for the feedback. I am aware of the market's reputation.

And actively choosing to participate in the pyramid scheme, no less.

[mikethedrummer44]

Originally Posted by danthony

Actually, you have a lot more knowledge to give than you give yourself credit for. If you can write about a subject - a whole ebook mind you, you have a fair bit of knowledge in an area. You could offer your coaching in the 'backend' after someone has purchased your book. Coaching will be a way to keep them on track. It can be based around the concepts of the book and you just drill down these subjects and keep your clients accountable. Offer a lower cost coaching until you get some experience and good testimonials and then you can come up with a higher price point. They are millions going through coaching as we speak and you just may help someone reach their goals much faster, so it's a win-win.

I could probably work something out with the coaching, but I just don't like the overall idea of it. With the e-book, at least, I can create a product which can "sell itself" essentially. I'm looking to get more income streams that don't involve my time, as I'm already fairly busy as is.

Definitely something to think about, though. I'll keep it in mind!

Originally Posted by Lucidism

Mike, you should teach a course at Learnable.com. I think you could do great.

The Warrior Forum sucks. It flat-out sucks. There are some good people there, but overall the place is so scummy.

Wow, whoever created that website is a genius. Thanks for the suggestion.

Originally Posted by Andrew Gubb

I personally don't feel like an ebook is ever worth 50$. I'm used to physical books costing 15$ for the same product, and minus printing and distribution costs the price would be 1 or 2 $.

To be honest, any information nowadays is available online for free (and even if it's not, it can be pirated). An ebook makes the research a bit more convenient by putting everything you need to know in one place. That's not a 50$ service.

I hope you don't take this as directed at you specifically but just generally, I think internet marketers need to get real.

I look at price as a factor of how much value I received from the book, not the production cost. I do think my original price might be a bit high, but the final price would depend on how much value I've delivered within the pages.

Originally Posted by bluestar

I bought a book a few years back about how to make pots of money selling on ebay. Of course what was said was just common sense, and even following it wouldn't make you an overnight power seller, but hey! guess what? I bought the book! Most likely a lot of other people did too. It was quite popular. The knack was the title, and of course the marketing of the book. Also it sold at 12.95 (not 50 dollars)
BTW....course I never did make pots of money selling on ebay....but the book was an interesting read for a newbie to ebay.
My advice would be -do your research into marketing your e book, then why not just go for it? It might be a hit. If not, well you tried. Better than staying up laying in bed at night awake, wondering "what if"

True. I don't really care if it flopped, as I'm sure I would've learned a bunch in the process, plus I can have something to give to friends who want to know how I got here.

I definitely don't want to sell a book that's useless, though. Unfortunately, a lot of skills required to make money are common sense. Sometimes people just need a wake up call, I guess!

Originally Posted by DanFromSeoul

Hey Mikethedrummer44,

After writing and launching my 2nd e-book I would like to
share some nuggets of wisdom.

/1 I'd recommend starting with an e-booklet and see how that sells first.

If there's demand there then selling a proper e-book afterward would make more sense.


/2 Plan writing and selling the e-book to take twice as long and twice as
much money.

/3 Make sure you have distribution systems and marketing plans already
in place. That could mean 'having a website' or getting affiliates on board (or both.)

These are just my .02 cents.

Good luck!

Dan

Thanks for this, Dan. I will definitely keep each point in mind.

Originally Posted by Rebecca800

Ok, thanks for elaborating. I think content creation is a good angle. My advice is not to get too carried away with the idea that affiliate marketing is easy and anyone can make millions with it. Cos it obviously ain't that simple But I can totally see why you want to add online marketing insights to a book about online writing.

My dad, after hitting retirement and finding himself ridiculously bored, just spent around $600 on a writing course in the mail that's supposed to teach you how to write well and access relevant markets. I'm sure he could have learned it all from a library book and a little bit of real life experience (plus his own daughter with 7 years journalistic / freelance writing / blogging experience!) But that just goes to show there are a lot of aspiring writers in the world - and some will pay a lot for a course that looks the business and virtually guarantees their new career and gives them a new focus. Maybe that's your angle. Build a new career in online writing.

The book I mentioned covered a lot of ways to make money by selling your written work and basically gave you an entry point to each market - greetings cards, paid articles like magazine features and press releases, blogging, etc. So in some way they all work but not everyone is going to get rich by following the advice, and I wrote off many of the markets because I'd already tried hard to access them and been rejected, such as magazine fiction, everyone wants to do it but truth is they have their favorite writers and it's hard to break in with no experience. It takes a lot of persistence and a lot of luck. In the end I got a refund on that book because I felt the advice was too generic - and it wasn't cheap, so I felt ripped off... It was still an interesting topic though, and I still think I can be done well.

If you do make such an ebook it'd probably be a good fit for Career Evolution so I'd be interested to review it one day.

Of course. I would only be 100% behind the figures I've made myself. In other words, I wouldn't promise that this book can make you anymore than $4,000 a month, because that's how much I've been able to make so far.

My biggest worry about writing this book is if people will gain value out of it. Sure, I could write my exact process, but I worry that people would look at it, and then after reading it, realize they could've figured it out all on their own. They wouldn't have had my experience of actually trying to figure it out on their own, so it would be hard for them to feel as if they've gotten their money's worth.

Originally Posted by Harmonium

I would probably buy it if I felt safe in doing so.

I'm interested in learning to make $1k-$4k a month. I can't really design, but I can code designs down to the pixel. Not sure what I could do to make that much a month, but I don't want to bust my ass doing it. If I turned myself into a robot I could probably do that freelancing :P

But that work isn't too fulfilling. It's rewarding to accomplish something new and surprise myself... but doing the same old work gets boring. I want to use the skills I'm learning freelancing. Not sure what I'm gonna do yet. I have good knowledge of xhtml/css, and I can accomplish some ok stuff with php/mysql, as well as some decent jquery

Agreed. One of the chapters of my book would be about semi-automating the work you get from freelancing so that you don't need to spend all day doing the same stuff.

[Andrew Gubb]

I look at price as a factor of how much value I received from the book, not the production cost. I do think my original price might be a bit high, but the final price would depend on how much value I've delivered within the pages.

The whole value thing is all well and fine. I believe in it myself. But if something costs nothing for you to produce, how much is it worth?

Air, for example, is more valuable than anything else. If you had none, you'd die. Wow, that's value. But... as it's so abundant, it costs nothing.

It's not like people wouldn't pay 10,000$ for air if they had to. But imagine you had control over the air in the world. Would you force people to pay 10,000$ each just because you're granting them that much value?

That's not business, that's extortion.

In the same way, I think that charging people more than necessary for a book is not "value", it's a subtle form of extortion. You have control over the world's supply of that book, so the price you set is what people will have to accept.

I think honest business is setting the price at something that respects your value and your effort, but not higher.

I tell you, I've pirated and paid for 50$ books but none of them have ever given me 50$ of value. I've used good information and changed my life, but *I* did it, not the book.

I have more stuff to say on this topic, so maybe I'll write a blog post or something. But anyway, my barometer for pricing is, "what feels joyful for me to offer? what would feel joyful to pay?"

For me it's joyful to pay for a cup of tea in a lovely café. It's joyful to pay 25€ for a gorgeous, big, colour book. It's joyful to pay 3€ for a powerful electronic format book that will change my life. Or to donate 5€ to a blog which has provided me value for a long time.

For a book which has cost the author nothing to distribute except a certain amount of marketing effort, 50$ feels like I'm feeding their greed, not contributing in return or expressing my gratitude. Hey, it's not like I don't identify with their plight of not having enough money (if they don't), but I'd rather not donate to their welfare in such an indirect way. Maybe they should just come out and say that they're starving and need some money without going through the ritual of social exchange. It'd be more honest.

[Lucidism]

I think it's all about how you perceive fairness. IMO - How much is a book worth? The highest amount people will pay for it. That's business. Supply and demand, and all that.

Is it extortion for some people to charge $5,000/hr for speaking to a group of employees about "how to set goals" - the same stuff you could learn for free from the Internet? Nope, not extortion if people are willing to pay it.

Charging for air is a good example of extortion. But $50 for an eBook is a fair price if the information contained within can be used to create a business that generates thousands of dollars. Are most eBooks worth $50? Heck no. Many aren't even worth a penny -- they're actually a waste of time. But there are some great ones out there, I'm sure.

[mikethedrummer44]

Well, let's just say this.

When I first started internet marketing, it took me one year to earn $14.

What if I had worked a minimum wage job for just the weekdays of that year? Assuming it's a part time job of around 5 hours, thats $10,000+ right there.

Once I started making money, my hourly rate was close to $4 an hour. Since it wasn't even minimum wage, we can add an extra $4 on top of that to add to our total.

I don't really want to do that calculation, so let's just say that I "technically" spent $10,000+ producing this e-book.

Yeah, it's a bit of a stretch, but your comment on value is also quite a stretch, so that's the answer.

Regarding air, everyone NEEDS air to survive. Therefore, controlling it and charging people would be extortion. Is it dishonest to allow a customer to buy a book for $50? I see no dishonesty at work here.