E-books are one hot marketing tool. For those of you who don't get out much, an e-book is basically a collection of HTML documents that have been compiled into an executable (.exe) file. The concept is that of an electronic book that can be downloaded, read page by page, and passed around easily online.

Some e-books are sold where as others are given away freely. Those who download free e-books are encouraged to give them away to their friends or business associates. The "give away" part is what makes e-books such a powerful marketing tool. Also known as viral marketing, when done right your book can be passed around to thousands of people all over the world.

For this reason it is my opinion that e-books work best when there is no charge involved. Think about it: Who doesn't like getting something for free? So if you've been thinking of jumping on the "e-book bandwagon" my advice is to give it away and let it do what it does best: Generate traffic to your website.

Once your book is written, it has to get out into the mainstream of the Internet. You need to heavily market and promote the book yourself to get the ball rolling so it can do its magic. This is where a lot of folks get stumped.

I have written two e-books myself, so I've done a lot of research and have found out what works and what doesn't. If you have included any other websites in the book, your first step is to contact their owners and let them know about it. Also, tell them it would be great if they offer the book from their site or mention it in their newsletter. Most will be happy to comply; since their names are in the book, they benefit from promoting it as well.

If you have sold banner ads in the e-book (which is a great idea), make sure you supply your advertisers with text link ads and/or graphics they can use to help get the word out. Your job is to make it as easy as possible for them "to pass the word." This is viral marketing at its finest.

Your next step should be to add a page on your site where visitors can download the book. If you have any graphic skills at all, whip up a book cover to add along with a description that stresses the benefits they'll receive from reading it. If the book's content is good (and it should for all of this to work right!), you will soon receive feedback in the form of compliments. Make sure you put them on this page as well. Testimonials are very powerful.

If you publish an ezine you can use the book as a bonus for your subscribers.

There are many other ways to promote your new book. Contact ezine publishers that you think would be interested in your subject matter and send them an e-mail stating how nice it would be if they mentioned it to their readers. Most publishers are always looking for content and will be happy to help out.

Some websites do e-book reviews and then publish them online or in their newsletters. Here are a few to get you started:

ZD Net 4 Star Review
http://www.upload.com/public/default.htm

For reviews of e-books that relate to Net marketing send them to Lee Benson mailto:lee@c...

E-book Junction- Linda does reviews for her ezine send to mailto:linda@a...

There are also sites on the Net that house e-books of all types and function as e-book libraries. Your book can be submitted to any of the following;

E-book Net
http://www.ebooknet.com/

Carver's E-book Library
http://carver.bizland.com/submit.htm

Success Library
http://allaboutsuccess.com/successlibrary.htm

EbooksNBytes
http://www.ebooksnbytes.com/submit_ebook.html

Ebook Palace
http://www.ebookpalace.com/newlink.shtml

Stealth Promotions
http://www.stealthpromotions.com/e-library.htm

The E-book Directory
http://www.ebookdirectory.com/addebook.html

If you do a search on the major search engines you're sure to find many more e-book libraries you can submit to.

E-book discussion lists are two way communication where you can announce your book once you subscribe. Some are;

E-book Chat
mailto:anebookchat-subscribe@onelist.com

E-book News
mailto:ebook-news-subscribe@onelist.com

E-book Talk
mailto:ebook_talk-subscribe@onelist.com

Another tip is to visit any of the websites that house free software and submit your book to them. Most include e-books, since they are .exe files. Do a search and you'll find these sites by the thousands. There is free software that can submit your e-book to 50 sites in one shot: Go to http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/program/ssubmit.htm and download "Soft Submit" which will upload your book to 50 sites at once.

Don't forget about including the download URL in your signature file. You are using one, right? I thought so. You could always write a press release about your e-book and e-mail it to the media. Discussion boards are another great outlet but don't post inappropriately. If you have the book in your sig file you could just post a comment or answer a question and your signature line will do the rest.

Use your imagination and you'll find hundreds of ways to utilize your e-book in your marketing campaign. After all, this is one viral infection you want everyone to catch!