How to Make Money Online by Selling Short Reports ~ Make Money Online

Selling short articles online on specialized topics is a simple, easy and effective way to make money online. You can write a short article every week and offer it for sale atSmashwords or similar websites. In time, you can have a collection of articles resulting in multiple income streams. Besides the income from selling reports, you can make money from affiliate links embedded in your reports and sale of republication rights. You can also use these reports to attract traffic to your website and build your email mailing list. Since short reports usually sell for less than ten dollars, many people are likely to buy them.

A simple and effective way to make money online is by writing and selling reports aimed at niche audiences. You can write a short report of 5 to 30 pages and sell them as an instant download at a price of 5 to 15 dollars. Since each report is just a few pages, it’s possible to write at least one report every week. Gradually, you can build up a sizeable collection of reports for sale, which has the potential to generate a full-time passive income.

Five advantages of selling short reports:

Free and instant access after payment
Accessible to all internet users worldwide
Available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
PDF format can be read on all computers using free Adobe Reader
Attractively priced, usually less than ten dollars

How to Write Your First Report

You can write a short report within a few days, especially if you know the subject well. Before you start writing, define your target audience and make sure that your report provides answers to their most important questions and solves their biggest problems. Also, it is advisable to start with an outline and a list of the main topics before writing the report so that you don’t miss anything important.

Your report should have a title page, table of contents, information about the author and an introduction. In addition, you should include the following:

Cover: An eye-catching image of your cover on your sales page can dramatically increase the sales of your report. Make sure that the main title on your cover can be read even in its smallest size.

Copyright statement: This should be a simple statement on the first page.

For example,

No part of this report may be reproduced in any form without permission from the author.”

Disclaimer: This is usually placed after the copyright statement and will vary depending on the content of your report. The disclaimer should state that results may vary and you cannot guarantee success of anyone who reads your report.

Images: Relevant and colorful graphics can explain a concept more clearly than words. They help to break up the monotony of text and make the report more attractive and interesting.

Once you have completed your report, you can convert it into PDF format by usingPrimoPDF, a free online file converter. After you enter your email address and upload your file, PrimoPDF converts it into PDF format almost instantly. The best feature of PrimoPDF is that the hyperlinks in your report continue to be active after conversion.

How to Sell Your Report Online:

The final step is to upload your report and offer it for sale to your prospects. Among the various online options, Smashwords is the best for short reports.

Smashwords is an e-book publishing website that specializes in publishing and selling e-books and reports. Smashwords converts your report, which has to be formatted in Microsoft Word, into multiple e-book formats, which can be read on any e-reader, including Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and the iPhone.

Best of all, unlike ClickBank and E-junkie, you don’t have to pay any upfront charges to Smashwords to publish and sell your reports. Instead, Smashwords charges 15% of the net proceeds of your sales as its fee.

Smashwords offers four additional promotional features:

An Author Profile Page and a Sales Page offers information about you and your report to prospective buyers.
The Smashwords Coupon Generator enables you to issue limited-time money-off vouchers as an incentive for people to buy your report
The Smashwords affiliate program offers affiliates a commission for promoting your report. You can choose to pay them a commission ranging from 15 to 80%.

Additional benefits from your report

1. Affiliate sales of recommended products within your report:

An easy way to make additional income from your report is to include a list of related products with your own affiliate links. Many readers are likely to click through your affiliate links if the product is truly useful to them. However, you must take care to recommend only those products that you have tried yourself and found useful. Also, you must inform your readers that you are likely to earn a commission if they buy the product by clicking through your affiliate links.

2. Increased traffic and email list subscribers:

You can include links to your website in your report and motivate your readers to join your email list by giving them a free gift in exchange. You can also provide links to your other products and services and give a discount to your readers. If they find your report to be high-quality, they are more likely to buy your other products. In this way, you can convert buyers of your report to long term clients.

3. Social media buzz:

One of the most effective ways to promote your report is to add Facebook, Twitter and other social media buttons and request your readers to promote your report by clicking on them. You can also embed links to your YouTube videos on related topics.

4. Resale or republication rights of your report:

You can sell the rights to republish or resell your report to your readers. Many people may be willing to pay extra for the right to sell or distribute your report to the readers of their website, blog or newsletter.

Another option is to offer free reproduction rights as an extra incentive to buy your report. If you let others sell your report, you may lose a few sales but this is compensated by the viral spread of your report and also helps to build your online brand. In addition, you may make additional money whenever people buy products through your affiliate links in the report.

Whether you sell or offer republication or resale rights, make it clear what your buyers can and cannot do. For example, if you have embedded your own affiliate links to recommended products within your report, you will want them to be unchanged.

In conclusion, you can create multiple passive income streams by selling short reports and earn a tidy lifelong income but only if your reports are free of errors and contain useful, relevant and updated content. If you sell a low-quality report, your readers are likely to ask for their money back and write negative reviews on their blogs and forums. Once you lose their trust, it is very difficult to regain it. Therefore you must make absolutely sure that your reports are excellent and provide great value.

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