How To Start Your Online eBook Business For $16

Itching to create your own eBook and sell it online? Hamstrung by a tight budget that's keeping you in "thinking" mode as opposed to "doing?"

There's no need to withhold your talent from the world. It's possible to create a quality eBook or information product with an out-of-pocket expense of $16.

Modern technology is benefiting budding entrepreneurs worldwide, leveling the playing field even among citizens of impoverished nations.

Writers from all corners of the globe can acquire the basic tools of infoproduct creation for less than the cost of two movie tickets in the United States.

The first step is to commit yourself to taking action. If you've conceived the product but haven't written it yet, take the first step by downloading the Open Office tool suite from OpenOffice.org.

Open Office is free, open-source software; it's the equivalent of Microsoft Office. It's a critical tool — and not just because it has a feature-rich word processor that rivals Microsoft Word.

One of the best things about Open Office is that it includes a built-in PDF Creator. You can compose your infoproduct and save it as a PDF — right from within Open Office.

Selling PDFs as opposed to a traditional paper report keeps costs low. More and more publishers — from Wall Street to Main Street — are turning to the digital model because it is much more efficient than the traditional publishing model.

As the Internet expands, more and more "average people" are coming to realize they've delayed their dreams of writing and selling a book or report for far too long.

Regardless of the topic of your information product or the market niche you seek to enter, it's important to have a basic set of tools. Open Office fills the bill nicely.

Because reader convenience is a key, you'll want to make sure you make the chapter titles of your eBook "clickable" from the Table Of Contents (TOC).

This saves wear and tear on your readers, who may need to return to your eBook to freshen their memory about something important. Making the TOC chapter titles clickable is something they'll appreciate.

If you're new to Open Office and aren't well-acquainted with time-saving word-processing "tricks" using Open Office, "How to Create Infoproducts In A Flash" by Case Stevens is a fine resource.

What would you think if you knew "How To Create Infoproducts In A Flash" cost only $9? Would you guess the next tool needed would cost $7?

Well, you'd be right. You started with a budget of $16, committing yourself to taking action. Next you acquired Open Office for free. Spending $9 to educate yourself about using Open Office to create an eBook leaves you with $7 remaining in your budget.

You'll need a way to deliver your product and collect payment after you've created it, right? And what if you want to start your own Affiliate program, one that helps you and people who'd like to distribute your eBook make money?

It just so happens that a $7 solution is available. It's called $7 Secrets.

Seven Dollar Secrets is a php script that enables you to deliver products to customers, collect payment via PayPal and start your own Affiliate program.

Included with the $7 Secrets script are templates to help you get your sales operation up and running.

A PayPal Premier or business account is required to use $7 Secrets. Open a Premier account for free at PayPal if you don't already have one. It can open the doors to a world of possibilities.

Making your own information products and offering them for sale through your own website is an enjoyable experience. Many people purchase a domain name and a hosting account, but do nothing to monetize the site.

Sometimes it's because they lack the basic tools. If you have an existing website but aren't taking advantage of it, this $16 plan can get you started.

Using Open Office, "How To Create Infoproducts Products In A Flash" and $7 Secrets in combination gives you the foundational tools to enter the business of making and selling eBooks online.

Take the first step today by envisioning the publishing power you can have at your instant disposal tomorrow.

Patrick Pretty is a co-author of "20 Ways To Make $100 Per Day Online," a product created with Open Office.