Viral Traffic Building
When I started my website, one of the first things I did was place a few free eBooks up for download in order to have something for free.
Now, a couple of years down the track, 60% of my traffic is untrackable. I deduct that this has something to do with the thousands of eBooks which have been downloaded from my site.
I am the author of one of these eBooks, (How to Autorun a CD) and the others I used content from one of my old reports with reprint rights CD s.
I used the same eBook template for all the eBooks and inserted about five links at the top and bottom of each page which point directly to my main website.
One of those links points to my free eBook index which could be the reason this page is high on the "top entry" list but low in terms of search engine rankings.
The Brandable eBook
I have noticed around the Web that Internet Marketers were offering custom brandable versions of their eBooks in order to encourage distribution. The idea is that more webmasters would offer the eBook for download from their site if their URL could be branded within the pages.
Affiliate programs use this method of traffic generation along with webmasters like me who have content sites. What this means is that this technique can be used by any webmaster regardless of how big or small their site is.
How To Create a Brandable eBook
If you already know how to build simple HTML pages, all you need now is an eBook compiler (also called HTML compiler) with the capacity to brand the output file.
If you do not know how to build HTML pages but know how to edit them, then you might like the original eBook template that I use which is available free from: http://www.ezau.com/latest/articles/free-ebook-template.shtml
Selecting the Correct Compiler
In terms of right and wrong, any ebook compiler which comes with branding software can be used. So right and wrong cannot be used to describe correctness. What I mean by correct compiler is plain and simple ease of use for me, but most importantly for the end user.
You see, we need to make it as easy as possible for the end user otherwise they will put the whole project in the "too hard" basket.
I own several eBook compilers costing me from $30 to almost $100 and I find the cheapest one which is "Activ E-Book" to be the best one to use for the creation of custom brandable eBooks.
Activ E-Book creates rebrandable eBooks which means that the file can be re-branded over and over. This makes it really easy for the end user because if they make a mistake, they can start start again with the same file.
With some other HTML compilers, if you overwrite the master file, it cannot be rebranded. This could cause problems for the end user because if they make a mistake they will need to go and download the master file again. You can get around this by creating a readme file which explains not to overwrite the file but to save the file under another name. Now this could be getting into the "too hard" area for both the end user and the original author.
Offer Brandable eBook Downloads
I have started to convert my ebook downloads to brandable ebooks. I give both the master file and the branding software away for free. My stats indicate that there is no shortage of takers for my custom brandable edition of How To Autorun A CD. Now these webmasters have something to offer from their site like I did at the start without any expense of time and money.
Pitfalls To Avoid
My early eBooks had a resources page where I placed ads which pointed to my affiliate links. After some time I realized that this would not encourage other webmasters to offer the eBooks at their site.
The Solution? The resources page contains only links to other free eBook downloads. Also, I now have one sponsor ad which can also be branded with the users ClickBank Nickname. So if you want to go "viral", do not riddle your brandable eBooks with affiliate links because not many webmasters will offer them at their site.
Copyright 2004 Ed Zivkovic
Ed Zivkovic owns his own website which contains articles with all sorts of tips for work at home webmasters. Here is the site: http://www.ezau.com