Hello. I have been selling ebooks that I have written myself about various woodworking techniques which I invented. Currently I have three of these available on my website. Sales are sporadic and increase around payday and beginning of each month. I have never had a marketing class in my life but would like to get some opinions from others who are doing the same thing on how to improve sales. I am thinking about making a lite version (free or pay anything) of each book so a potential customer can try it at no cost. This version would cover only the basics of the technique that they want to try while the full version gives all of the information about the technique if they want to learn more after trying the lite version.
Currently I don't have a lite version of any of my books so the customer has to make a blind leap of faith in whether or not they want to cough up the money for the ebook after just seeing pictures of examples of what I have done with the information. It's a hard sale. I also have them fill out a comment form on my site so I can learn a little information about who my customer is. They are mostly retired engineers, doctors, and other people who apparently have quite a bit of money. I don't want to cater to just them though. A few times I have sent a copy with the understanding that if they review the material and find it useful then they will pay for it afterwards - each time I did that they ended up buying the information and were happy with it.
I have tried offering discounts and have learned that the best kind of discount to offer is one where they only get a discount applied automatically if they buy more than one ebook. If I mention a discount somewhere on the internet they can find it with a search. I don't feel like people should be automatically entitled to a discount just because they know how to find a code with a google search. I quit offering discounts like that.
I have also decided to put out a lite version of one of my ebooks as a how-to type magazine article which will be available at the end of March 2012. The magazine has agreed to mention my website and show pictures of my woodwork made possible by the methods described in the full version. I am very curious to see how that works out.
Am I on the right track by creating a lite version? If anybody else reading this who has some experience selling ebooks has any suggestions I would like to hear about them. Thanks!
