Start an E-book Cover Design Business
If you have an eye for details and
interest in graphic design, then you may be
interested in starting an e-book cover
design business. Info products and
downloadable software products are hot
selling items online, and you can earn extra
income offering graphic design services
creating e-book covers and software box
covers online.
Skills and Software and Supplies Needed
You don’t necessarily need to be a professional graphic designer to start this
business, but rather just an eye for details and the ability to listen to your
customer’s needs. In order to start this business you obviously need a computer
and Internet connection, but besides those basics you will need to invest in
software to help you create your e-book covers and software box covers.
We recommend investing in
Adobe Photoshop CS3, and if you really want to expand your business
you can invest in Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended which is the ultimate tool for
film, video, and multimedia professionals, graphic and Web designers. These
programs are a bit pricey, but if you want crisp looking graphics and offer
top-notch e-book covers, then you will only want invest in the very best
programs and tools out there.
In addition to investing in Adobe Photoshop CS3, you’ll also want another
tool to help
you easily produce e-book covers and software box covers. For this job we highly
recommend using
Cover Action Pro software. Unlike other programs that
produce blurry and pixilated e-book covers, the
Cover Action Pro program
delivers crisp and professional looking e-book covers. Using the
Cover
Action Pro software makes
it easy for you to create your e-book covers by allowing you to work from a template, and
then customizing the template to your own specifications, easily! Also note, that you will need
to purchase or already have the English Version of Photoshop 7, CS, CS2 or CS3 installed on your computer in
order to use the
Cover Action Pro
E-Book software program.
Photos for your e-Book Covers and Software Box Covers
Once you invested in the software programs needed, you’ll need to find places to
obtain royalty free stock photos and graphics to use for your e-book covers and
software box covers. We like www.istockphoto.com and www.bigstockphotos.com for
obtaining professional looking photos. There are many other places online that
offer royalty free stock photos, but just be sure to read the licensing
agreement before purchasing and using the graphics and photos.
When setting up your e-book cover business website make sure to give your
potential customers the option of using their own photos and logo in the e-book
cover. This is great because then you don’t have to scour the Internet to look
for your own photos to use -- keep in mind that not everyone will want to use
their own photos.
Other Services you can Provide
Selling e-book covers and software box cover designs is a great service that you
can provide, but you really are limiting yourself if you just stick with those
two services to offer. You can also opt to sell:
- CD-Rom cover shots
- CD Jewel case designs
- Ezine binder designs
- DVD case cover designs
- Paperback e-book cover designs
- Business cards cover designs
- Membership card designs
- Banner ad design
- Flash banner ad design
- Website Header designs
- Website design
- Logo design
Costs to Start-up
If you include the top software programs to start this business, the estimated
cost to start this business is from $746.00 and up -- depending on what extras you
buy. If you include buying a domain name, and low cost website hosting, your
estimated total would be $761.00. It is also highly recommended that you
trademark your business name and copyright the work on your website.
Choose Your Business Structure
Just because you work online does not mean you should skip the legal
structure for your business. You will need to decide if you want your business
to be a sole-proprietorship, or if you want to form a corporation. You can decide
your
legal business structure with an accountant or a lawyer. Once you’ve
decided on a legal business structure for your business, you will want to open a
business banking account to separate your personal finances from your business
finances -- this will make it easier for you when you do your taxes.
Building your Online Business Website
Your website should look
polished and professional, because after all, you are in the business of selling graphic
design services. You can
register a domain name at very low cost at
GoDaddy.com and obtain
cPanel website hosting with Host Gator. The reason you may want to
obtain hosting elsewhere is because the GoDaddy hosting control panel is not
very user friendly. It is easy to purchase your domain name from GoDaddy and
purchase hosting elsewhere by simply changing the DNS (Domain Name Servers)
address in the GoDaddy control panel.
Create your Online Portfolio
You will want to make an online portfolio of your work so that potential clients
can look at your work. If you don’t provide sample or past work, you can
just forget about getting customers!
Obviously when you are first putting up your website, you won’t have past
customer e-book cover shots, but you can display work that you made from great
test samples you created.
Charging Customers
If you are just starting out, you may want to start out at a lower price compared
to your more experienced competitors. This is not a rule you have to follow but
rather to help build your online customer portfolio. If you feel you want to start at the same price or charge
more then your competitors, you most certainly can. You may want to play with the
price when you first start your business, but keep in mind if you start out
really high and then charge low, past customers may wonder why your prices have
fallen and may feel ripped off, or worse, want the difference back.
You could test your prices out by saying you are having an online sale or
special discount for a holiday. E-book cover graphics and software box cover
graphics prices can range from, $20-100.00 per design, and normally includes 4
different sizes. You could offer
unlimited revisions or a set number of revisions for customers. It is best you
work out all of these details before going live with your business.
1 Design + 4
Different Sizes = $_?_ Your price
Contact Forms and Order Forms
When creating your website you should include an order form so that customers
can give the details of their order. And even if you do you use order forms on
your website, you should include a customer support email address, or provide a
customer support help desk just in case the customer needs to contact you
further.
Marketing you E-book Cover Design Business
Once you have your online business website set up, and your e-book cover
creations down to an exact science, then you will need to advertise your
business online. You have a couple of options to start bringing in customers
online, and, they are:
-
Advertising via pay-per-click on all the major online advertising
networks, like Google Adwords
-
Bid on
projects at places like Guru.com and Elance.com (Note you will be charged to
sign up to use their services)
-
Word of mouth
-
Search
Engine Optimizing (SEO), which will take you months and effort. It’s best not to
rely on this method only
-
Advertising on
like sites. Not on another e-book cover business site, but perhaps a site
where there are internet marketers who might be looking for an e-book cover
designer
-
Advertise in
online newsletters
This is a great business for someone who is very interested in graphic design
and can listen to a customer’s needs and wants. This business has very low
start-up costs and can generate you a part-time or full-time income depending on
how much effort you put into your business. Most of the time, info and software
marketers develop more products online, and if they love your work, they will come
back for more business! Keep this in mind when creating their e-book covers
because you will have a customer for life.
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Check
out the
Cover
Action
Pro
E-book
Cover
Software
and get
started
on your
new
business:
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