Insha’Allah, by the end of this post you will know how to create, market, promote, and sell an eBook online. This untapped potential is beginning to catch on, so read on and learn how to benefit others through your work.

Recently, ProductiveMuslim put together an awesome eBook about the Qur’an and Ramadan.  I highly recommend you download it – it’s free, beneficial, and was a collaborative work by a group of blogs (including Muslim Youth Musings). It’s no longer a weird idea to read a book on the computer or on your Kindle.  This is something that needs to be utilized to get our information out there.

Here are some ways to for Muslim bloggers to create eBooks and make money selling them:

Gather Your Most Popular Posts

You don’t have to write a brand new book to produce a beneficial product.  Gather together your top 10 posts and edit them to fit an eBook format.  From there you just add a cover, an introduction, and a table of contents.

The benefit of this is that it allows you to repackage the best material you have and present it to your readers – thereby freeing them of having to search your site for the content they are looking for.

Get Your Book on the Kindle

If you haven’t already participated in this, do it now.  Publishing your book on the Amazon Kindle could potentially introduce your ideas to thousands upon thousands of new readers.  As a matter of fact, you can even simply publish your blog’s RSS feed. Oh yea, and it’s 100% free.

Publish Your eBook
Publish Your Blog

Use E-junkie As An Affiliate Platform

Muslim eBooks deserve to be propagated as widely as possible – assuming they are legit and within the framework of the Qur’an and Sunnah.  In addition to marketing the eBook on your own site, why not sign-up for an affiliate program?  This way your book reaches more people and other bloggers can make money.

Head over to E-junkie to get your eBooks digitally distributed.  If you do publish one, let us know here at The Muslim Blogger and I can write a post about Muslim eBooks available for free, purchase, or resale E-junkie Affiliate Program

Get the Word Out On Your Blog

This is clearly a given since you want to sell or promote your own eBook.  But, marketing should not be limited to a blog post that is pushed down when your latest piece is published.

Make the eBook visible and tell your readers why they should buy it.  Simply trying to push your eBook by saying “Buy this eBook today” won’t do.  It’s a business transaction and the better it is marketed, the better it will sell Insha’Allah.

Pray Istikhaara

Your blog may be full of wonderful advice but that doesn’t mean you should use your time and efforts to publish an eBook without first praying istikhaara.   Turn to Allah (swt) and do your best to utilize your time in the most efficient and beneficial way.  If your blog covers topics of deen make sure you have your facts straight, the ahadith verified, and that the post as a whole is in line with two Ayat we recite at least 17 time a day:

Keep us on the right path. The path of those upon whom Thou hast bestowed favors. Not (the path) of those upon whom Thy wrath is brought down, nor of those who go astray. (Al-Fatihah: 6-7)

Bonus: Give It Away For Free

Giving away a free eBook can also make you money. One of the best ways to attract and keep readers is by offering them content they want. It also builds your credibility – which places you in a better position to market and sell a product in the future.

At the same time, the information you are handing out for free can result in a much greater reward on the Day of Judgment. The eBook you wrote might help others to grow in their deen or inspire people to do good – the more people who have access to this, the better. Whether you decide to sell or give for free, be sure to purify your intention in hope that Allah (swt) will accept our actions and forgives our shortcomings and transgressions. As Allah (swt) tells us in the Qur’an:

And keep up prayer in the two parts of the day and in the first hours of the night; surely good deeds take away evil deeds this is a reminder to the mindful. (Hud:114)

If you’d like to have a better understanding, you can read the tafsir of this Ayah by Ibn Kathir.

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If you have any more advice on publishing an eBook or how to make money from this digital format, please comment below.  You’re also more than welcome to contact me if you need help preparing an eBook and/or are ready to have your eBook published.

On a side note, is anyone else as excited as I am about the possible upcoming launch of the Apple iTablet/iSlate?

(Photo: BMeunier)

Did you know you could filter out certain Google AdSense ads from appearing on your blog or website? AdSense has a feature called “Competitive Ad Filter”.  It has been around for a while, but is one that is not often used.  Originally, this was designed so that you can filter out businesses and services that compete with whatever it is your site (blog) is offering.  However, as Muslim bloggers we can use this feature to filter out ads that we should not be advertising for.

The majority of Muslim blogs that are using Google AdSense tend to have advertisements for dating or matrimonial services.  This is not something that is done intentionally but it is definitely not something that happened by chance either.  Businesses pay money to advertise their services on sites with certain keywords such as “Muslim” or “halal” or “haram”.  Muslim blogs often include these keywords and so these AdSense ads will then pop-up on your blog.  Some of the ads that show up may in fact be legit, but my research into this has shown that most of these Google AdSense ads are either haram or, at the very least, questionable.

When it comes to dating sites,for example here’s what I did to find potential problems:

1. Google “Muslim dating”
2. Copy all the links of businesses that advertise
3. Paste them into the Ad Filter in AdSense

Remember that it is against Google’s Terms of Service that you click your own ads for any reason at all.  So if the site’s address isn’t listed in the ad, then you’ll need to use Google for more information. Of course, new sites will always be popping up — so you really have to stay on top of things.

If you are willing to go through this process once in a while, then I recommend you go ahead and use AdSense.  For example, I know that this post includes words such as “dating”.  So for quite some time I will be monitoring the ads that are displayed so that I can add them to the list. On the other hand, if filtering ads is something you just don’t want to deal with then I highly recommend you stay away from advertising – especially content related ads from Google AdSense. Why?  Because the last thing you want is to earn money from haram sources. Do you really want to earn even one penny from someone who clicks on some dating site that advocates haram methods for establishing a relationship?  I’m sure none of us do as it would be something displeasing to Allah.

I’ve compiled a list of sites that you can just copy and paste into the “Competitive Ad Filter”.  Click the icon below to download the file with the list of sites I’ve found questionable so far.  There is also a short tutorial video showing you how to find, search for, and filter site that may be questionable or haram.

Let me know where you stand on the issue of AdSense and targeted ads.  Do you use AdSense on your blog?  If so, have you had a chance to look at the type of ads being displayed?  Did you already know about (and use) the “Competitive Ad Filter” feature before reading this blog post?

(Photo: cgfan)

Readers + Ads = Money….right? Not always.

This is the position many of us are in. We have blogs, we have readers, we have ads…so why aren’t we making money?

Some think that making money on the internet is as simple as quickly logging into AdSense, copying and pasting the code into WordPress, and then sitting at home just to stare in amazement as the money comes in.  When your blog becomes popular and you have a strong following then, Insha’Allah, this might work. In the meantime, for those of you who don’t fall into that category still want to know what you can do to pull in some revenue.

Today I want to give you 3 reasons your ads might not be doing exactly what you want them to do.

1) Placement – Where you place your ads is perhaps the single most important factor when it comes to advertisement. It doesn’t matter whether you are using AdSense, Chitika, or have cut individual deals with certain businesses. Whatever you decide to do, do not make the grave mistake of overcrowding your blog with advertisements. Your visitors are smarter than you think and can quickly tell the difference between a sincere author and greedy one.

My Recommendation: Limit ads to a few spots in one of the sidebars. If you want you can use the top banner area for a slim advertisement. Do not overcrowd. Do not overcrowd. Do not overcrowd.

2) Timing – This point is more dependent on how new your blog is. If you just started out and people see that your ads overshadow the content then you might lose some credibility.  Remember that your credibility is what will bring the readers back to your site.

My Recommendation: Unless you’re sure your readers won’t mind advertisements in their face from day one, I recommend holding off a little bit. This gives you the opportunity to build a reputation as a blogger and not a person who’s out there for the money.

3) Types of Ads – One thing you should look closely at is the type of ads that are being rotated on your blog. In many cases, having random advertisements being displayed will get you no where.  As a matter of fact, it may do just the opposite.  Too many irrelevant ads leads to readers avoiding your ads all together.  If your blog is one that is trying to cover a wide variety of topics (a.k.a. lack of focus) then you should expect that your ads will also cover a “variety of topics”.

My Recommendation: Pay special attention to the types of ads are being displayed on your site. If those ads don’t reflect the demographic you are trying to reach then you need to consider refining the ads you allow on your blog or even start looking for other advertisers.  This would also be a good time to ask yourself what your blog is all about and whether or not it is focused.

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You can make money blogging – many have and many will in the future. The question is whether or not you will be one of them. Insha’Allah, with the help of Allah (swt) and hard work, you will being to pull in a decent cash-flow.

Do you guys have experience using AdSense? If so, has it been a good experience so far? Is there anyone that has tried anything other than AdSense? Let us know what has worked for you in the past (and what hasn’t).