One of the most important and ongoing search engine marketing strategies (aka off-page SEO) is to create incoming backlinks to your website. One way to do this is to create value-packed ebooks that include links to your various website pages.
However, digital publishing has a reputation problem. Thanks to the minimal barriers to entry and nominal costs of publishing work, there’s a distinct lack of real quality amongst the internet’s most popular titles. Marketers are especially guilty of pushing low quality content onto the internet, often paired with aggressive sales tactics and a buyer-beware attitude.
But that relative lack of quality is actually a blessing for quality e-book producers. With the bar set at a minimal height, the potential for a truly great e-book to gain attention is greater than ever. From career guides to unusual takes on business, the most effective e-books tend to succeed due to the distinct lack of quality that’s endemic to the industry.
Does an e-book have to generate income directly?
No, and for many marketers it shouldn’t. While most e-books are promoted via an aggressive sales letter and a series of Adwords advertisements, there’s no need for your content to use the templates or standards by which others promote their work.
Free gains attention. Free builds links.
Ask people to opt in and you’ll gain their email addresses, some of which will be fake and many of which will be of people unwilling to buy things from you. Ask people to buy your e-book and you’ll need to market it aggressively, each time losing a large portion of your potential readership.
BUT….Give it away for free and you’ll gain thousands of inbound links, each connected to a page that’s all about your idea. If your goal isn’t direct income generation or list building but direct link generation, then there’s no greater strategy than spreading a piece of information free of charge.
Now, I’m not saying all your ebooks have to be free, or that you don’t ever collect email addresses, but consider trying this strategy out for one of them. See how it goes.
Stir the pot.
Offer over-the-top information and people will talk. Be a bit controversial or provocative, if that’s how you typically write and it’s within your comfort level. Take a commonly known concept and discuss some counter thoughts about it. Not every concept is perfect, you know. Be the one that talks about the downside, the negatives, the stuff that’s looked over and tossed aside like it doesn’t really matter. And then possibly offer an alternative solution or idea. You don’t want to necessarily be tagged as a “negative Nancy”, m0re like the the person who talks about the bad along with the good. Create the no-holds-barred report. Show your passion about the topic.
My favorite idea is to create something that you haven’t been able to find online for yourself. If you’ve gone searching for an ebook or report about a particular topic, yet cannot find anything, this is an indicator that the market might be ripe for it. Especially if it’s on a mainstream topic. Could you be the first to offer what others are looking for? Someone has got to be first, right? Or what if all that is out there is mediocre, at best. Be the one to offer the first valuable resource. Make 2011 your year to SHINE!
Bland e-books are everywhere. They’re given away for free on blogs, passed around on forums, and thrown at crowds by online marketers that simply don’t care. They’re ineffective and utterly boring, both for inspiring action and for generating links back to their authors’ websites.
For some ideas on what to write about in your ebook, check out Darren Rowse’s list of ideas for linkbait content. It may be a few years old, but it’s still very, very relevant and offers great tips.
In many ways, it’s best to treat your e-book as you would a linkbait article. Make it something that generates attention. If your goal is viral link generation, there’s no greater way to achieve it than to release something ground-breaking or a bit edgy, while at the same time offering immense value to your readers.