The free content you already shared can make a great freebie or digital product. You can turn blog posts, videos, and even social media posts into an ebook to grow your email list or increase passive income.

In this post, I share several tips on finding the right content to repurpose into an ebook.

Determine your strategy and research your current content.

First, you need to decide what the goal of your ebook is: 

Will it be a product that you sell for passive income? 

Will it be a lead magnet to grow your email list? 

Will it be a tripwire?

Your goal will determine which content you pick because if you want to create a passive income product, you might start with your most popular piece of content. However, suppose you’re going to lead people to purchase a tripwire or an upsell (because your ebook could be your tripwire). In that case, you want to pick a popular piece of content that also directly relates to the product you are leading your customer to purchase. 

For example, if you want to get sales for your course on meal planning for busy moms, your ebook might be a week’s worth of easy healthy dinners for busy moms. You could package seven recipes you’ve shared on your blog into one ebook.

Or, if you have a course on the best way to market with Pinterest organically, maybe your ebook is about five current Pinterest myths or how to set up your Pinterest account for success. 

But getting back to our topic of How to turn content into an ebook, chances are if you are selling a product like the ones I mentioned, you have already created content that will relate. And you can repurpose pieces that fit into your ebook topic. 

So if your goal is to create a passive income ebook, maybe you take your three most popular posts on the same subject and combine them into one ebook. 

Organize and Prepare Your Text

Once you decide which content you will use, it is time to draft your text in one document for easy access. Google docs is an excellent option for this. Preparing your ebook will be easy if you are using a blog post because you can copy and paste, but you will need to transcribe it if you are using video content. Don’t worry about the style of your text just yet; get it all organized with section headings. 

Next, I would give your ebook an enticing title. If you are drawing a blank, you can check a headline generator for some inspiration: https://www.title-generator.com/

Write Your Sales Copy

When the content is written, and you have a headline, shift gears just a bit to create some sales points. Even if this will be a freebie, I would list out the benefits and transformations that your book will help your reader accomplish. 

I include this in the creation process because many times I have finished a product, I’ve worked hard on it, and it’s done! Then I set down to create a sale page or opt-in page, and as I am thinking about how this will help my audience, I think of another great idea that could bring it home. Now I am not saying that you need to add another day’s worth of work to your book. I am a fan of done is better than perfect, but you may add one more thing into your ebook that will skyrocket your sales or opt-ins. 

Back to the recipe ebook “a week’s worth of easy healthy dinners for busy moms,” maybe you want to say this ebook will take away the stress of planning dinner next week, complete with a shopping checklist. 

Or for the 5 Pin Myths, maybe you say, These 5 Pinterest Myths could be tanking your traffic plus the number one tip to increase traffic on Pinterest. 

With either one of these ideas, it wouldn’t take much work to add in one more page of information. And again, chances are, if this is a topic you are passionate about, you probably have already created that one extra tip or piece of information before. 

We sometimes get into creation mode and forget the golden nuggets we’ve already created. 

To do this exercise, I would come up with at least three benefits and transformations for your ebooks. 

If you decide to add something extra to your ebook, add that to your document, and then go ahead and proofread it all. I am terrible at proofreading, so it helps to get someone else to read over it too.

Design Your Ebook

Now it is time to format your book for publishing.
I am a fan of Canva, but there are many options.

When it comes to formatting an ebook in Canva, you can save so much time with templates. Check out Easy Ebooks, a set of Canva templates. All you have to do is choose a page, then copy and paste a section of text into it. You can also swap out photos and change the colors. Once you have all your text in, you can add page numbers, create a table of contents and then lastly, create a fantastic cover.

Once you are done, download it, then proofread it again to be safe.

Lastly, set it up as an opt-in or product on your site, in your shop, or an ebook distributor.