Sell the content or give it away

I have an ebook and am not sure how to monetize it

[adrock31]

I have created an ebook that I think has some good value. It's a how-to, very in-depth, lots of images, totally comprehensive. It's also on a topic that people are searching for, and there isn't really a single place with this information gathered (it's available, but scattered throughout the intarweb).

So, my question, is it better to sell the ebook, and make a little profit off those who are willing to buy the book, or give the book away and hope that I can monetize the traffic in another way?

One consideration is that if I'm selling something, I can drive traffic to the newly created site quickly through AdWords: drive traffic, hopefully convert sales, make money quickly.

However, if I give the content away, I imagine that I'd need a lot more traffic to make the same money with affiliate programs and AdSense, and that will take some time to build (the site and URL are new, so Google will be slow to get to them).

Finally, if you recommend giving it away for free, what avenues should I be considering besides Adsense (specifically please).

I thank you in advance for all thoughts, even if it is to open a whole new door, or set me straight on misconceptions I currently have.

[Simplesoft]

Personally I think that there are some issues that you need to address. One of the bigger ones... With respect to a "pay for" ebook. What audience does the ebook cater to? Ebooks can very quickly find there way around the Internet through P2P, Email, Usenet, Etc. So, do you think that your audience is large enough that if this does happen, you can still earn what you would like to from the "honest" parties?

Just my '2 cents'

[adrock31]

Y, I recognize P2P as a source of lost income, however:

1. I doubt the book would get so big people would search for it by name.
2. I doubt my audience is familiar with P2P. The people who are smart enough to use P2P for more than MP3s are probably not the kind of person to buy my book, they would just find the info they need directly, and fill in the gaps themselves.
3. A lot of this information is already available, just not put into a nice packaged distribution, taken to super-simple step-by-step procedures. So I kind of feel like anyone who would bother looking for it on P2P, would be able to find this information anyway. (did i repeat myself?)

[appi2]

Long term.
Set up a website on the topic. NO ADSENSE.(forget money for now!)
Do that whole getting people to the site thang.
Develop a user base, forums / comments on the subject.
Introduce targetted affiliates.
Rewrite your book, now that the world has helped review it for free through all those comments.
Publish and sell.

or print it out and sell it on ebay ;)

Oh and the whole P2P thing.
Release a watered down version yourself, which links to that website. You will never be able to beat the P2P theft. So why not give them something for free. After all your getting free advertising ;)

[longen]

I have just created a mini web-site, one long page, out of what was intended to be an e-book.
No adverts or clutter, submitted to Dmoz, and now i'll just forget about it for a year. Just following advice on this forum to create all kinds of different sites - so that a google dance doesn't wipe them all at once.

[onlineleben]

a) write a short, special report on your topic
b) give this report away for free (via collection their email address)
c) do some followup mails on the topic (using an autoresponder) always promoting the fantastic ebook you have written which gives the complete knowledge about your topic