• By Yuwanda Black
• Published 06/24/2011
• Writing

I wrote my first ebook in 2004. Since then, I’ve gone on to write more than twenty. In 2010 – for the first time ever, I made over half of my annual income from writing and selling ebooks online. Following are six things I did to get my sales to become more consistent. You can too. 1. Develop a List of Titles to Write: One day, I sat down and brainstormed a list of titles I wanted to write. That initial list had 72 titles on it. It’s grown significantly since then because I constantly tweak it; adding new possibilities, and deleting those that I think won’t be good sellers. 2. Create a Marketing Plan: I hashed out a marketing plan – some things that I do for every title published. I like to systemize things so that it runs like a factory, eg, set up a writing schedule, create a marketing plan; work it; then move on to the next title. 3. Create Affiliate Programs: When I signed up with e-Junkie, an immediate download delivery service, one of the options they offered was setting up an affiliate marketing program. I took advantage of that. Note: While the vast majority of affiliates won’t make any sales (this is very common), just having my ebooks listed on their site, their blog, in their newsletter, etc., introduces them to their audiences. And fyi, all you need are a few rock-star affiliates to make it worth your while One day, I had an affiliate sell close to $1,200 worth of my ebooks. Of course, half of that came to me. Another affiliate outlet I use is Clickbank. I can count on a few sales from that site per month as well. One theme I hope you see developing here is what I call “sales pockets.” It’s rare to get a tsunami of sales from one source – unless you’re a big-name author. As a self-publisher though, if you can log a few sales from your site, a few sales from affiliate sites, a few sales from social media, etc. – at the end of the month, what it adds up to is a nice living. 4. Develop Offshoot Products: As a result of selling ebooks, ideas for e-classes presented themselves. Where possible, I ran with them. To date I have three e-classes/workshops that have been developed as a direct result of my ebook writing. All of these boost sales, and vice versa. It’s a symbiotic relationship. 5. Expand Distribution: The last thing I’ve done to increase sales is to publish ebooks on Amazon. It reaches a much wider audience, of course, than my website (my primary mode of distribution) ever could. Some other outlets like this are Smashwords, Barnes and Noble, etc. 6. Schedule Writing Time: Time and time again, I’ve gotten off track with my ebook writing. To combat this, I swithched my schedule to writing first daily. This way, no matter what else happens during a given day, I know I’ve gotten one of the most important things out of the way.

Writing and selling ebooks online is fun. You can do it from anywhere and you can write on any subject that strikes your fancy. So, if this has been a goal of yours, now’s never been a better time to pursue it.