I’ve been talking for months about my new free ebook, Getting Started in Blogging, and finally it’s here! Newsletter subscribers got a sneak peek last week, but now I’m launching it formally.

Everyone’s got to start somewhere with blogging and that’s how this ebook came about. It was based on a series of posts targeting those new to blogging, originally written for PiggyBankPie.

What’s Inside

The collected posts have been edited and I’ve added a few explanations plus a list of useful resources at the end.  Getting Started in Blogging covers:

• Hosting
• Platform Choices
• Free Themes
• Customization
• Getting Ideas
• Planning And Management
• Stats
• How To Improve Your Blog
• Linkbuilding
• Advertising and Promotion
• Monetization
• Blogging as a Business
• Resources

Grab The Ebook

Even if you’re not new to blogging, you’ve got nothing to lose by downloading it – after all, it’s free (though I don’t mind taking donations) . I’m also happy for you to pass it on to anyone who’s curious about blogging as long as you tell them where you got it.

Here’s what one of my newsletter subscribers said about it:

I’d love to get your feedback on it and to find out if there are any questions it hasn’t answered so I can continue to update the book and make it useful for you.

The Ebook Has Landed! is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

I created an ebook/ezine in about 20 minutes today – and I did it using Zinepal. This handy online tool (which you can try without even signing up) allows you to pull together recent posts from your blog (via the RSS feed) or from any web page to create an ezine. You can download this ezine as a PDF (which makes it a great way to create an ebook too) and you get mobiPocket, Kindle and epub formats as well. I decided to turn my SEO Your Website Series into an ezine/ebook and this was the result.

How I Created An Ebook In 20 Minutes

Here’s how I did it. I navigated to the ‘create’ tab and clicked on the ‘from any website’ link. I then manually added the URLs I wanted in the order in which I wanted them to appear. I clicked ‘ add to zine’, waited a minute or so, then clicked the big ‘I’m done’ button near the top of the page. You can check the stories and order in a drop down menu, and also add new stories at any time before you publish the zine.

Tweaking My Ebook

Clicking the button took me to a list of the stories which I could reorder via drag and drop. I was also able to edit each story individually (doing things like taking out ads and so on) and to make formatting changes. In the middle of the page was a box where I could set delivery options, keywords (space separated), add a logo, add ads and use templates. I chose to save my customizations as a template but since I was creating a new publication, they were not available the second time around.

Useful Features

I thought adding a logo, an introduction and a couple of keywords made sense. Once those were done I hit ‘create my zine’ and it was ready. Attention! Once your zine is created, it’s like a print magazine – you cannot edit it, so you need to be sure you are ready before you press that button. I found it useful to use the preview button, which showed the PDF and also allowed me to save a copy. This came in handy, as Zinepal pulls in everything from the feed, so your end of post subscription options will be included. It’s also worth editing the chapter titles, as you may not want them to appear in the same format in your ebook as they do online.

Still Needs Work …

Of course, there are a few niggles. Occasionally, Zinepal was unable to retrieve my text and I had to copy it manually. And at one point, it had a heart attack and appeared to have lost my entire ezine (but it hadn’t; it was a glitch). Also, your ezine has a created by Zinepal strapline on each page and I’m not sure why some of my ezines were classed as recurring and some not.

What I Liked

Those niggles aren’t enough to stop me from using it.  I love the fact that it creates different versions of my ebooks, that it automatically includes images from the original post, that I can have it sent by email and that people can subscribe to my feed. If you already publish quality content on your blog, this makes repurposing it very easy. Try it and see what you think. Did I mention that it’s free?

(Photo: Clarita)

An Ebook In 20 Minutes With Zinepal is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

I’ve been thinking a lot about ebook publishing recently, so it was a moment of serendipity when I happened to talk to one of the writers I work with, only to learn that he’d just started an ebook publishing company. Co-founder Garry Pierrepoint says that Ebook Library will ‘revolutionise the way online books are marketed, promoted and read.’

What made you start the new venture, Garry?

Through our parent site, www.writeitclearly.com, we received a lot of enquiries from talented writers who wanted to get their books and newsletters to a large target audience. Having read these books, we realized the enormous talent that is out there, but which for one reason or another, has not been recognized and published by mainstream conventional publishing routes. So we devised www.ebook-library.net, where contributors can submit their writing on whatever subject they like. We format it and provide a site where readers can browse through and immediately download what they like!

What books do you have so far?

We have an excellent self help book on how to beat gambling which is ONLY available online and the demand for that has been unprecedented. We have The Truth about Sales, which is THE invaluable guide on understanding the truth behind the sales mask. We also market fiction books; One Dog and his Man is an extremely humorous volume with illustrations by the late cartoonist, Larry, a view of the world through the eyes of a Labrador called Oberon. It’s coming soon.

Are you looking for writers in particular genres?

We are looking for contributors on ANY subject; that’s the beauty of the site! If you have something to contribute, then someone, somewhere will want to know! www.ebook-library.net is the ONLY place where such a diverse range of subjects can be accessed at the click of a button!

Is this the future of book publishing?

We see e-book publishing as the way forward; the vast majority of people have access to the internet now and rather than browsing through a physical library to find the right information, we can offer it through an easy to navigate and accessible medium.

This is going to be expensive, isn’t it?

The beauty of it is that it doesn’t cost the author an arm and a leg! Through www.writeitclearly.com, we can offer unbelievably competitive pricing for proofreading and editing that works out at 1p (approximately 2 cents) a word! After that formatting and marketing of the book is FREE! We publish the completed manuscript and 80% of all sales of the fully formatted e-book will then go directly to the writer! It really is as simple as that.

Will you publish absolutely anything?

We are confident that this innovative concept will attract interest and with a bank of experts working behind the scenes, we can offer the very best in grammatical accuracy and content for every book that is submitted. Of course we have to have editorial integrity and if we feel that the content is not suitable or there simply isn’t a market for it, then we will be honest.

www.writeitclearly.com was founded in 2005 by three UK based freelance professionals. Since then, the business has grown globally to include proof reading, editing, translation and now e-book publishing.

Want To Publish Your Ebook? is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.

When I signed up with Lifetips several months ago, I didn’t know what I was letting myself in for. Within a short space of time I had written on fruit, video chat and conversational Spanish. Spanish meshed well with my previous experience and fruit was general knowledge, but to do video chat I had to step out of my comfort zone and I mean way out. I’d just about heard of webcams, but had no idea, until I did this site, about their history and the many things you could do with them.

In the last month or so, I’ve done a couple more sites for them. I did an intro page to freelance writing (not live yet) and some tips on educational travel. Freelance writing was relatively easy, while educational travel was done late at night and in a hurry after my laptop trauma. (Not my best work, it’s safe to say, but it was competent and it was delivered on time.

But now I’m really happy, because I’ve become their expert on self-publishing. To do this, I had to assess the existing site, write 10 new tips and advise on how the site could be improved. In return, I’ve got a link to my blog and to my new ebook. It seems a good deal to me. Self-publishing, here I come!

For more on getting published, check out the Inspired Author blog.

Stepping Into Self-Publishing is a post from Get Paid to Write Online, copyright 2005-2010, owned by Sharon Hurley Hall.