Are Your E-books Truly Viral?

By Andres Munoz

The purpose of distributing a free e-book is to get your readers to pass it on and create a viral marketing effect with no effort. However I have downloaded a number of e-books only to delete them immediately after opening it. The two golden rules broken by the majority of “viral” e-books is less than useful content and terrible e-book layout.

The worst e-books are those require the reader to figure out the navigation. Every e-book should have a “Table of Contents” so readers can easily identify which sections they wish to read. The main page of any e-book must include some sort of navigation the reader can access and understand. Any e-book that fails to address this basic rule in layout will not benefit from viral marketing. Any e-book whose main page contains numerous banner ads quickly dilutes the e-books message and wind up in the trash bin. Likewise e-books with harsh backgrounds and fancy fonts are no help.

The most important aspect of a truly viral e-book is CONTENT. Providing useful, relevant and valuable content is vital in creating a successful e-book. E-books that provide valuable information to it’s readers are 10X more likely to be highly valued and in return passed on.

The 3 Golden Rules For Viral E-books:
1) Content. You must provide content that is useful and valuable.
2) The e-books must be 100% free.
3) Give the reader an incentive to pass it on. Allow your readers to “re-brand” your e-book with their URL. The obvious incentive passed on to the reader is free publicity. Also allow your visitors to pass it on as a bonus or in their newsletter.

Creating e-books for maximum exposure will require an e-book with valuable information, easy to understand navigation and content revolving around your product or service. For example: If your company offers autoresponders create an e-book that give the reader valuable information on e-mail marketing strategies and techniques on creating a successful e-mail sales letter. Your ultimate goal is to get traffic to your site, include text links (no banner ads) back to your site. The key is to tie the content in with your product. This tactic will only be successful if it’s presented in a subtle matter. Never create an e-book that is nothing more than an extended ad for your product, you’re providing nothing in value for the reader.

Creating and distributing viral e-books is not difficult as long as it’s done right. An e-book that only reveals 2 out of twelve chapters is not a viral e-book, the viral effect evaporated when you required payment from the reader to unlock the entire e-book. No one will pass on an e-book requiring payment. At best such an e-book qualifies as a lead generator.

As with any viral marketing product you wish to promote it must be 100% free. Furthermore it must be a quality product or service. A quality product will inspire trust in your visitors and it’s that trust that will earn your site repeat traffic.