It is generally agreed that the way to make the most money from internet marketing is to have your own product(s). Now whether this is your own original work or a private label rights (plr) product, which you are re-vamping to produce your own unique product, one of the challenges you will face will be how to make your digital product LOOK good. Your new ebook, say, may be chock full of quality information, but you’ll only be able to give a taster of that in your sales letter. You’ll also need a quality image - an ebook cover - to graphically represent your product.
Now the old adage “you can’t tell a book by its cover” is still true. After all, how can you hope to convey in one image, on one page, a true representation of the thousands of words that follow? Having said that, though, prospective buyers are now accustomed to seeing images of digital products. So if you use a dull, boring, ebook cover are they less, or more, likely to buy your product? Point made, I think.
So what are your options: well, you either buy, or make your ebook covers.
Now buying is fine when you have more money than time, and when you know just what you want so that you can describe your project accurately on elance or any of the other freelancing sites. But, initially, it’s a bit of a leap of faith, when you’re starting out, to entrust something so important to someone you’ve never met before.
So, how do you actually MAKE ebook covers. Well, if you’re not worried about quality, you can probably get hold of some “off the shelf” templates and try to personalise those. I must confess to having used these in the past, albeit as a stopgap until I had finally mastered the finer points of a decent graphics package. Three problems here, though: which package? (everyone tends to think of Photoshop, which leads to number two), HOW MUCH? and thirdly, how much time will it take to learn all the basic stuff before you get on to the important bit of making quality ebook covers?
You’ve probably gathered by now that I’ve discovered a solution to this problem. Click here to see my first attempt at using it!
Now, I know it’s not perfect, but I must confess that I’m pretty pleased with it as a first effort. (After all, I did fail my art o-level twice(!) with a grade 8, the next to bottom grade).
The ebook cover I made uses the free Gimp software; now that’s been around a while and has its own tutorials but I’ve never gained any level of expertise with it. What’s made the difference for me is an ebook product (with accompanying video tutorials) that is specifically tailored to the art of making quality images for ebook covers, software boxes, cd/dvd cases and even order buttons.
The basics of Gimp are covered very quickly (but thoroughly for the skills you need to make ebook covers) and then it goes straight into a step by step guide to making a “sample” ebook cover. Just download your copy of Gimp and follow along. That’s all I did, just once, before making my own original design.
I admit that I couldn’t remember all the detailed techniques, so I played the video tutorials again alongside Gimp as I created my masterpiece and that kept me on track. I reckon the final product took me about 3 hours to do. But that included, at least, half an hour to register and wandering about on a site giving access to royalty free images, until I found the coloured graph image, which I decided to use. I believe that I should be able to knock off my next ebook cover in about 90 minutes.
A lot of thought has been put into this product: quality step by step info in 2 formats (ebook and video) to give you all the detail you need when you are learning, but also a 24 point quick reference guide for when you are comfortable with the general process but need reminding of specifics.
The resources section includes no less that 13 sites where you can get quality images, many of them free. This in itself is invaluable; I have to admit that, no way, could I have designed that coloured graph myself.
The package also includes a number of good looking templates to get you off to a good start, if you are happier beginning with an existing design and making minor changes to it. Also in there is a bonus video series showing you 3 ways you can make money with this product. Whether you choose to go down any of those routes, is, of course, up to you - you may be happy enough with all the money you’ve saved by making your own ebook covers, all for practically nothing.
I highly recommend this product. If you want to find out more, CLICK HERE.
then you might be left with the impression that the product was difficult to use. This is far from being the case!