Copyright 2006 Marisa Giancarla

If your business is selling information there are somethings that you need to consider when you make the move to online business development and product delivery. This article tries to shine a light on the facets of online information sales that may be overlooked at first.

Selling information online has a number of benefits there is no physical packaging and handling to worry about and no issues of having a product in stock. For the customer there is no waiting for a delivery or a delay in receiving their goods after the sale is completed.

So, you have decided to sell information online and want to present it in eBook format, what does this entail. Plain text could be used but it leaves a lot to be desired. Customers paying for information have an expectation that the information will be presented in a format that reflects the thought that has gone into it. A plain text document has the look of something that was rushed out the door.

EBooks also provide features such as bookmarking, highlighting, searching, etc.

Do you want to provide your customers a format that is mainly aimed at producing hard-copy (Adobe PDF) or cross-platform display. PDF files are an option when you are willing to let the purchaser print out the material and is a very professional looking solution.

The problem with PDF files is that they have hard copy as the intended primary destination and they are not well suited to viewing on small size screens. This is where certain eBook formats really shine.

Ideally a eBook format will automatically reformat the document to be viewable on different size and resolution devices while keeping in-line formatting intact. There are many different eBook formats to choose from but not all are equally viable for commercial redistribution of content. Along with the ability to view on different size small screens, it is also desirable to be able to view the document on a full-size PC display and make use of the extra screen real-estate.

Do you want to handle the sales and delivery of your eBook yourself or would you like a outside company to take care of those issues for you and just leave you with the job of marketing your eBook. Handling the sales on your own gives you a lot more flexibility but takes up considerable effort and finances (to handle credit cards, PayPal, etc.) to get going.

There is one company & eBook format that can handle these issues out of the box - MobiPocket.
* Broad platform support including most smart phones, PDAs, and PCs the same eBook file will display properly formatted on all these devices
* Books are based on the Open eBook standard and are a subset of the HTML markup language
* Ability to import from various formats including HTML and MS Word
* Many free books are available in MobiPocket format which you can then bundle in as sales closers
* Retail eBook sales through a large number of affiliate online stores requires no work on your part
* Free eBook reader application
* Purchased books are encrypted and may only be read by the eBook purchaser
* Minimum retail price is $2
* Funds can be in US$ or Euros

Once you have gotten a Publisher account (free) and the eBook publisher software you can upload your books to the MobiPocket server and all the financial & distribution tasks will be taken care of for you. Just take care of the marketing and pointing potential customers at the detail page for your eBook. Make the description text for your eBook catchy you may get sales from people who are just browsing and never thought to search for your eBook.

The sales of your eBook will pay you the wholesale price that you have set and which is 50% of the retail price. This means that you have to take into account how much you want to make on each sale vs. how much you want to charge people for your eBook. If you want to make $10 per sale then you must price your eBook at $20 which might cost too much and drive away potential sales. Its up to you.