E-books are electronic versions of printed material that can contain text, sound, and images. The profit potential from selling them is high because start up and operating expenses are very low. The biggest expense is purchasing books for sale.

You can earn even more money if you write some of your own e-books. Your writing skills don't have to be stellar. There are online sources that will take your research and craft an e-book for you. Some of these companies even take care of marketing, payments, and shipping.

Buying e-books for Sale

You can purchase e-books from authors online. eBay is another source for e-book buying. Purchase e-books with resell rights. This allows customers to sell the e-books they buy from you themselves thus providing an incentive for them to do business with you.

Make sure the e-books you buy (or write yourself) are full of useful information and resources. Some e-books are nothing more than ads and sales pitches for the writer's products. These "ad books" will turn off customers and decrease repeat business.

Do your research to determine what types of information people are seeking. Getting rich selling e-books will depend on the topics covered, customer base, and marketing campaign.

Before buying an e-book for resale, do an online search for the title. If lots of web sites are selling the book, it's probably a popular title and will be a good seller. It also helps to sell e-books that cater to a specific market niche. Search online forums and other group sites to locate potential target markets for niche titles. Contact these groups with a short email inviting them to visit your site. Offer an incentive such as 20% off first purchase to increase site traffic.

E-books about current trends or hot topics will generate more income. Your income will really get a boost if you can spot the "next big topic" and write or purchase e-books to sell before the competition saturates the market.

Marketing Extras

You can use a common template for your e-books web site or sell them on an existing site you already have. However, to stand out from the competition, create you own web site to sell e-books. Always add new titles to your stock to keep old customers coming back and to attract new ones. Use email to notify customers of new titles and special sales. Offer discounts on slow moving titles.

Affiliate programs are another way to get rich selling e-books. The affiliate pays you a commission for of its e-books you sell. To earn extra cash from e-books you write, start your own affiliate program.

There are plenty of online and print books that will help you learn how to get in on the e-book sales bandwagon. A good place to begin reading is "Make Your Knowledge Sell," by Ken Evoy and Monique Harris.