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This is a guest post by James Adams. If you want to guest post on this blog, check out the guidelines here.

Online marketers often want to offer something tangible to visitors and potential customers that offers value, establishes credibility, and makes them want to come back for more. Often an eBook meets those criteria. If you want to offer an eBook as a free incentive or as a product for sale, you should first recognize that creating an eBook does not guarantee success.

To give the eBook you write its best chance for success, learn from the following eight characteristics of a successful eBook.

1. Write About Something You Know

Writing about topics unfamiliar to you does nothing to help your readers and hurts you in the long run if readers complain to the online world. Readers usually want to learn something from an eBook they have downloaded and possibly purchased, so do not disappoint them.

2. Get Unique Material

Let’s face it: anyone can scour the net and get commonly available information. Go the extra mile to make your eBook successful by getting original sources and uncovering new facts. Doing this can be as easy as visiting your local library or contacting a highly respected expert in your field for an interview. Often, libraries have a wealth of material online that you can use, and many experts will gladly be interviewed via email, so you can improve the quality of your work without even leaving your desk.

3. Make An Effort

If you go to the trouble to get unique material, you probably will be willing to make an effort to produce a quality product. Even when writing an eBook that you will give away free, take the time and do the work to do it right. Simple things like logical organization and a table of contents will set your eBook apart.

4. Cite Sources

Some writers avoid disclosing their sources because they fear readers will abandon them for those more knowledgeable. Although that might happen, you gain a lot more because you give readers a chance to delve further into your subject if you want. Furthermore, it really looks bad when a writer resorts to plagiarism to create an eBook. Citing sources also boosts your credibility in that you can prove that other experts support the things you say.

5. Offer A Sample

Rather than rushing to trap readers into buying your eBook, let them read a chapter or two for free. This puts pressure on you to produce a quality product and it assures the buyer that they will get a worthwhile product.

6. Build Up Anticipation

Learn from the big companies that hype up their product weeks or months before they become available. Apple, for example, announces its new iPhone versions months in advance and let the news and anticipation snowball to the point where it cannot satisfy the demand for the product. Do the same thing for your eBook. Use your blog, social networking sites, and forums to let people know about your eBook project. By whetting the appetite of your friends, customers, and visitors, you will have a whole customer base ready to buy as soon as the eBook is released.

7. Encourage Comments On Your Download Site

Successful eBooks will have a lot of positive feedback from those who have read it. When prospective buyers see the number of people who are happy with your product, they are even more likely to buy it.

8. Get Third Party Reviews

Find a well respected Web site in your niche and get the owner to review your eBook. This not only creates a new back link, but it lets people know that someone else has read your eBook and likes it. Readers can also learn why the reviewer likes your book, an opinion that may play a part in the purchasing decision.

Online marketers love eBooks because they attract people to a Web site, increase revenue and contribute to a lot to the lives of others. Go get started on your eBook now, keeping these 8 characteristics of a successful eBook in mind.

This is a guest post from James Adams, a product analyst and tech writer for a leading UK-based online ink supplies specialist. His days are spent covering tech news, analysing and reviewing products such as the T0715 and, if he finds a spare minute, posting from time to time on their blog.