How To Package Your Ebook For Free

This is a particularly important step. And the reason is because you want to make your ebook information product available to as many people as humanly possible.

Statistically, most internet users are running on a Windows Operating System format.

That means statistically, most internet users can benefit from executable formatted products, or those that come in the ever popular .exe file extension.

Now that’s fine, but if you decide to only use the .exe format, you’re leaving out a good chunk of potential customers that run on non-Microsoft operating systems, such as Macintosh or Red Hat.

There is a solution to offer your ebook to almost every potential customer no matter which operating system they run on.

And that is by using…

The Portable Document File, or PDF, made possible by Adobe.

The genius of this particular file format for information products is that because the .PDF files run on an independent  program that can be utilized from any operating system, it then makes the document files platform independent themselves so long as the customer has the program to run the .PDF files  from.

Adobe Reader itself is also completely free for anyone to download and use. Now,  several years ago Adobe Acrobat was the only product to create such a file format. 

At a cost of $300 it wasn’t very cost effective for the entry-level marketer to take advantage of it.

Now, however, there are free ways to create a PDF file for your products.
One of them is: http://www.cutepdf.com/Products/CutePDF/writer.asp
 
Download the PDFWriter software and install it on your computer.  Then from your word processing program simply choose it as your “print” option.
 
You’ll then be asked where you want to save the file.  Pick a location and save the text document as a PDF file.
It’s as simple as that to create a high quality text-based infoproduct for you to promote.
Another one I’v mentioned before is http://www.openoffice.org:

To use it as a PDF compiler, all you need to do is open it up by creating a New Document.

Then when you finish writing up and formatting your original product as far as font settings, line spacing, adding images, and things of this nature are concerned, all you need to do is hit the Export as PDF button and it’ll be exported in .PDF form.

Now normally, the links inside the document won’t be clickable when you open up the finished PDF file in Adobe Reader.

There is a way to work around this. Two ways actually. The first, and easiest, is to simply add the entire link within the document so that your readers can copy and paste them themselves to their own browsers.

The second and a bit more complicated way is to download a PDF editing program.

One free option can be found at: http://www.pdfedit995.com.

However, if you are going to use this option, you’ll also need to download the PDF995 program at http://www.pdf995.com.

This works like an additional printer and creates the PDF files this way. Sounds complicated, but it’s not really.

All the information you could ever need about using the PDF995 line of software can be found right at their website.

Another tool you want to use is WinZip at http://www.winzip.com

All you really need to do is create a specific name for your zipped file, something like myproduct.zip etc., add the files, and they’ll be ready to upload.

Simply open up the WinZip program, choose the Use Evaluation Version, and if you aren’t already using the Classic interface, then just hit the WinZip Classic button at the lower left corner of the program window that opened up.

Once you’re there, a different screen will appear.

Choose the New icon at the top. When you click the new icon, a new window will pop up. In the File name: area, put the name of the file you’d like your zipped product to have. Say, myproduct, then be sure it’s inside the folder you want it to be in, or make note of where it is going, and then click OK.

Now, find the files you want to add inside your zip file for your product.

For instance the MyProduct.pdf, any related graphics like ebook covers, generic sales pages and hit the Add button.

If you want to add multiple files at the same time, hold down the Ctrl key when selecting the files.

Once you’ve finished, release the Ctrl key and then hit the Add button. All the selected files should upload inside the zip file together.

If you have a specific folder you would like to add to the zip file, then you will need to hit the Cancel button to close the Add window.

Once closed, you will be taken back to the original window. Now, you will need to open up the My Computer area and navigate to the folder you wish to add.

Highlight the folder, then drag it over to the empty white space under the top icon menu on the WinZip window that is open. Then you should see your files appear there. You will not see the folder, but rest assured when you open up your newly zipped file it will be there.

Close  the WinZip Program and find your myproduct.zip file inside the folder you placed it in, that’s all there is to this.