eBooks are the future and the future is now. The printed word on paper and bound into books used to be the only way information was given and received. They were great, you could take them with you and put them on shelves and they do still exist and will continue to for the foreseeable future but the time of the eBook has arrived.

The marketing eBook is a slightly different animal from just an eBook. Marketing eBooks contain text, images, links to web pages and navigation controls. The marketing eBook has become a very important part of marketing on the Internet.

With a marketing eBook you can present your story in an effective way and include links to your web sales pages. Your eBook can become your best salesman.

First, your eBook needs to be interesting and informative. It always has links back to your web site and to your sales page.

Next, be sure that you have a prominent section telling readers that they are free to give your eBook away. Let them know that they can post it on their site as a free download, that they can use it as a bonus, and that they can bundle it with other products. This is the way to create viral marketing for your products or services. Remember those links back to your site contained in the eBook?

Last but certainly not least before you send your eBook out to the world, double check spelling and grammar and be sure that you have tested every link to verify that it goes where it is supposed to go. Obvious errors will reflect badly on you and will not be of much value to you, it could even by damaging.

Post your eBook to some of the eBook directories. Many let you post it for free, or will let you post a link on their site to your eBook.

An eBook that includes your marketing message and a link to your website is a proven technique in viral marketing. This method uses the multiplication effect to “explode” the distribution of your message by willing participants.

This is the basic principle that was used by Hotmail to get established. When the two founders set up their free email system, all the messages that were sent by subscribers had a text message at the bottom which identified Hotmail as the origin. People who sent emails to their friends advertised the free email site.

Using viral eBooks as a marketing method is cheap. It doesn’t take long to set up and it’s even quicker if you use rebrandable eBooks that have been written by others. Just use your favorite search engine and do a web search. You will find many rebrandable eBooks that are available on whatever subject you are interested in and that apply to your e-business. One method of distributing the eBook is to offer it to visitors in exchange for subscribing to your newsletter. If they pass it on to their friends and family it will promote your business for you.

eBooks are capable of reaching a large audience and are limited only by the enthusiasm of the participants.

eBooks are fairly easy to create. It’s possible to produce your own eBooks by combining articles that you have written or have gotten from public domain sources, such as directories.

A common approach is to use material that has Private Label Rights, including articles and reports that have been written specifically for that purpose, for that niche. Using a portion of a larger work that you have prepared such as the first three chapters of a large eBook could also be used as a viral eBook.