Each article that you write can serve more than one purpose--it can be a free reprint article that drives traffic to your website, but it can also be used in the creation of an e-book.

If you're an article marketing veteran, then you probably already have enough content for an e-book. If you're just starting out, then you can follow the steps below and use them as a guideline for creating articles that are suitable to put in an e-book.

Either way, you're just a few steps away from morphing your articles into an e-book:

1) What will your e-book be about?

When you're creating an e-book, you need to have a topic that correlates to your website (just as your articles are always on the topic of your website), but you need to pin down a specific topic.

If you're a financial adviser, perhaps your e-book would be about how to get out of debt.

If you're a dietitian, perhaps your book would be about transitioning to eating a heart healthy diet.

You get the idea--pick a theme that is broad enough that it's worthy of being the topic of a book, but narrow enough that you can cover all your points without writing hundreds of pages (unless that's the type of e-book you'd like to create!).

Sometimes it helps to think in terms of titles--come up with a working title for your book to help you decide what the topic will be.

2) Create an outline.

Before writing a single word, create an outline and use it as your guide.

Professional writers use outlines as a means of organizing their work. An outline is basically a road map you can follow as you're assembling your book, and it can save you major time in the long run.

3) Organize your articles to fill in your outline.

You probably already have articles you can include use in your book, but if you don't that's okay. Just write an article for any topic that you haven't already covered in your article marketing and include it in your book.

(And of course you can get double duty out of that article by submitting it as a free reprint article too.)

You may have to tweak some of your articles and flesh them out for your e-book. You will also need to add some transitional sentences so that each chapter flows into the next one smoothly.

4) Tell readers about your own business.

Now, talking about your business is not something you'd normally do in an article, but you are welcome to do so (and should!) in your own e-book.

I would advise you to make it subtle and remember that the point of the book is to convey educational information to your reader, rather than to make a sale (although sales are a natural by-product of the e-book).

5) Write an introduction.

In your introduction to your book, you will tell the reader what they can expect from the book and what is to be gained. I usually advise the reader to print the book out so that they can read it like a real book (it's easier on the eyes and also makes it so the book is an easily accessible resource later on).

6) Write a conclusion.

In your conclusion you would invite readers to ask you questions, give contact info for yourself, and give a link to your website. If you're selling anything related to the topic of the e-book, then give a link to that product.

7) Then, all you need to do is put the book into PDF form, and decide how you'll use it!

There are many uses for an e-book:

*You can offer it in your resource box as a reason to click through to your website. For example: "Claim your free e-book on this topic at [your URL]"

*Offer it as a free download on your website. That way, you have a gift waiting for any visitors. This is also a great way to build your list--before delivering the e-book you could capture the visitor's email address and send the e-book to their inbox.

*Send the e-book to people already on your list--I'm sure they would appreciate it!

*Possibly sell your e-book (if it's really good, why not?).

It makes sense to get double duty out of your marketing efforts--if you've already taken the time to create the article, why not take it to the next level and create your own e-book?