Before the advent of blogging, writers needed to either write a book or have access to an organized platform before they could share their experiences or thoughts. Well, long gone are those days. These days people earn a living from blogging (posting content on the internet). However, even at that, people are still looking for avenues to boost their income. One of those avenues is converting their blog to an ebook. 

Putting out a book appears a lot more difficult than putting up content on the internet whenever you want to. The apparent difficulty associated with writing a book as compared to blogging has made lots of people shy away from actually writing books. So, they now opt to write blog posts and convert them to ebooks later.

Well, if you are interested in publishing a book, it is not compulsory to write one from scratch. There are ways to convert your blog to an eBook. Contained in this article are steps to help you comfortably convert your blog to an eBook.

What is a Blog?

A blog is often referred to as a mini-website. Well, it might be a mini-website. Nonetheless, it is more than just a mini-website.
A blog is a kind of website in which its newer contents appear at the top and the older content can be seen by scrolling down. Contents on a blog are known as blog posts. Furthermore, they are usually managed by an individual or a group of people known as bloggers.
Blogs are very much like websites. However, a major difference between them is unlike websites, blogs are updated very frequently.

What is an EBook

There are several ways to define an eBook. However, in its simplest form, an EBook is a file that was optimized to be read on digital devices. These devices include computers, smartphones, and tablets. While eBooks might simply be given the above definition, they are a lot more than files that can be read on digital devices. That’s because other files that are not eBooks can also be read on digital devices.

Also, read Self-Publishing a Book: 18 Powerful Steps to Becoming a Best Seller Author

As a rule of thumb, an eBook should have texts that cannot be edited. This is important as certain people can alter the text of a digital file and this will alter its content. So, a digital file does not qualify as an eBook if its content can be edited.
Beyond simply coming in a format that cannot be edited, eBooks should always fit into every screen irrespective of its size. This means a digital file needs to be reflowable to be considered an eBook.

Why you should convert your blog to an eBook?

At this point, you must be wondering what you really stand to gain when you convert your blog to an eBook.
If your blog is not doing well as you would expect. Then, you might simply be excited by the idea of trying out something new.

However, if your blog is doing well already, why then should you convert it to an eBook?
Converting your blog to an eBook, no doubt is a great deal of work. However, there is a lot you can benefit from by doing this.
The first thing you stand to gain when you convert your blog to an eBook is that your readers can access information from your ebook instead of visiting your blog. That’s if you have an eBook on such topics curated from your blog. All they have to do is get an eBook on the topic in question.

Making Money from old contents

Furthermore, when you convert your blog to an eBook, you have the freedom to recycle your old content and still make some money from it. 

How is this possible? Well, when a piece of information has been on your blog for a while, it might stop getting a lot of attention. If this happens to your blog, you can make its content visible again by simply converting it to an eBook. This is in addition to the fact that people do not have to be online before getting access to your work. They can access the information offline via ebook.

Additionally, unlike a blog that does not necessarily help you with leads, each time your eBook gets downloaded, you actively generate leads which can go a long way in helping you find out those that are really interested in your work.
Converting a blog to an eBook generally helps people gain more access to your content.

Also, blog contents that are struggling to get attention can be easily noticed when they are sold as eBooks.

Steps in converting a blog to an eBook

Now that you know the many reasons while bloggers convert their blog to an eBook, let’s walk through the steps to take when looking to convert your blog to an eBook.

1. Pay Attention to your Analytics

Writing an eBook is never an easy process. However, you can make this process less difficult if you take advantage of the work you have done on your blog already. Although the idea of writing an eBook from a blog is like taking advantage of what you have on your blog already, however, your blog analytics will give you an overview of which contents to convert to an ebook. 

Also, read Book Funnels: 8 Powerful Strategies to Generate Book Leads

When you go through your blog’s analytics, you will come across the queries that attract the most people to your blog.
Take time to look out for the most frequently asked questions in the comment section. This will give you an idea of what your readers are most interested in.

Once you figure this out, you can go ahead to expand on it in your eBook.
While the queries that your readers type in might be difficult to find out if you simply rely on analytics, take time to go through your blog posts and find out the posts with the most attention. This will help you understand what your readers are most interested in.
That’s not all. People get to different pages when they ask certain questions. As a blog owner that is looking to convert your blog to an eBook, you need to find out the keywords that users search which bring them to your blog.

In essence, you need to identify your most ranking keywords. 

2. Decide on the Most Suitable Structure

If you want to convert your blog to an ebook, you need to have an understanding of what to write, how to write, and the areas you need to focus your attention on.  It is a major step towards converting a blog to an ebook.

It is important that you come up with a structure for your eBook. In the absence of a proper structure, regardless of how good your content is, you just might strive effortlessly to make people pay attention to your eBook.
You do not need to get worried about structuring an eBook as this is not a difficult step in converting a blog to an eBook.
When trying to structure your eBook, there are two methods you can take advantage of.

They are the excerpt method and the chapter method.

The Chapter method involves creating an ebook outline based on the most successful pillar posts on your blog. That is creating an ebook based on your most popular content. However, what if you have many pillar posts. Then you will have to make use of the Excerpt method. 

The Excerpt method is like summarizing your existing content with an eye on organization. Using this technique, you will pick your points from different articles and join them together based on the overall themes. Most people prefer this method because it talks about the key points in the blog. 

3. Copying the Blog Posts to Text Editor

This step is for writers that already know the exact content of their ebook and has finalized the ideal structure.  
Once you have finalized the ideal structure you want, the next thing is to create your ebook. There are different ways you can convert your blog to an ebook. You can copy the posts to a text editor and format them or you can use a tool for it.

Also, read How to Create a Book Podcast: Step by Step Process and Tools

There are tools that can help you to get this done without any struggles. Some of these tools are book widgets, beacon, and convertkit’s eBook template, etc.
With a beacon, you can make your eBook work as a lead magnet. This is possible because it comes with a lead magnet editor. This tool can help you with the intricacies of getting your eBook ready for your readers.

If your blog is not much, the best way is to outline the structure, copy the posts to MS word, then arrange it properly. 

4. Proofread/Edit Your Ebook

Once you have copied the posts you feel like turning to an ebook, the next step is to proofread and edit it. You have to edit it and ensure that it is in line with your ideal content structure. Also, editing helps to ensure that the ebook is free from grammatical errors. Most of these errors might come when you are moving the content from blog to text editor.

 You can also hire a book editor to proofread your ebook before publishing it or you can do it yourself.  I have a post on 16 Genuine Websites to Hire a Book Editor if you are looking to hire someone for it.

5. Formatting and Cover Design

Once you are done editing your ebook, the next thing is formatting it and designing a cover for it. You can format your ebook in MS Word or hire someone in Fiverr or Upwork to format your ebook for you. Since it is a blog post, it might be a bit complex formatting it if you copied it from your blog directly to the text editor. However, if you are using MS Word, I have a post on How to Format Ebook Using Microsoft Word.

In the area of book cover design, you can design your cover using Canva or hire a graphics designer to design your cover for you. I have a post on Amazing Step by Step Guide on How to Design a Book Cover. However, if you don’t know how to design a cover, it is best to hire someone to design the cover for you. 

6. Give Your Target Audience some Freebies

This stage comes after you have converted your blog to an ebook. At this stage, you have an informative ebook with your target audience in mind.  However, to market your ebook, you can offer an extra package beyond just what your audience is paying for.
Since the idea of the eBook is to make content from your blog available offline, you can write a fresh article that does not exist in your blog and sell it as an extra package to your readers. Adding freebies to your ebook will boost your ebook sales.

7. Sell Your EBook

This is the step for everyone that has successfully converted a blog to an eBook. After getting your eBook ready, marketing could be a bit challenging. If you find marketing your eBook to be challenging, you can make use of Convertkit commerce. 

However, once you have finished converting your blog to an ebook, the best thing is to publish the ebook. There are many book publishing platforms where you can self-publish your ebook for free. One of them is Amazon KDP. I have a detailed post on how to set up Amazon KDP account as a beginner. Note that if you are publishing your converted blog posts as an ebook, you will need to submit proof of ownership of your blog. 

Another avenue to market your ebook is through social media. I have a detailed post on 13 Best Social Media Platforms to Promote Ebooks. You can choose the best method you like.

The Takeaway

There is a lot you can do to convert your blog to an eBook. They are so much, it will be difficult to follow them all. However, sticking to the tips in this article will help you make the best out of turning your blog to EBook.

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