The world of books is changing and changing fast. Anyone who is looking for new ways to make money online must realize that the shift from paper books to electronic books (eBooks) is an exciting development.

There is no doubt that the younger generations easily embrace new technology and this is what is happening with eBooks. You couldn’t get my Dad to read an eBook if you paid him to do it but people in their 40′s and below are quick to adapt.

Last week Apple came out with iTunes U and iBooks 2 which is no doubt going to revolutionize the world of high school and college text books. Yes, soon your kids will have all their textbooks on their computers and iPads and they will think that is the way its always been! I do think there will come a day pretty soon where all books will be published online first and this will become the norm. The days of reading real books that have real pages to flip are numbered.

Apple has also just released the iBooks Author app which will allow regular people like you and me to write anything we want (fiction or non fiction) and get it published in iTunes. Similarly, you can also self publish in Amazon and get your books listed for the Kindle. There are a couple other places where you can list your ebooks for sale and one of those is a site called SmashWords.com.

No longer do writers or anyone hoping to become a writer have to go through the long process of having their work accepted by a mainstream publisher. In the past, this has been the #1 hurdle prospective writers have had to deal with. Once rejected, writers who still wanted to be published had to fund things themselves which can be quite costly and impossible for most. Now though, with all these recent developments in the eBooks arena, anyone can write and get their works published at almost no cost! And if what you write sells, you will make money. It is truly a new day and we are just at the beginning.

Whether you decide to write and publish your eBook(s) on Apple’s platform or Amazon’s, you can choose to either sell your books or distribute them for free. They can be as short or as long as you want and no one is going reject them because you are in control. Each platform will take a cut of the sales price (of course) but that is to be expected because everyone has to make money. Since your costs are zero (other than the time and effort you put into writing the book), I can’t imagine too many people being upset with giving up a percentage.

Pricing your ebook is something you also control and depending on its length and quality, you might price it anywhere between 99 cents and $9.99 or even higher. If you want to make money selling eBooks, experimenting with the price would be smart because you might actually be able to make more money by lowering the price. The nice thing is that you can change the price of your eBooks anytime you want until you find the right price point. Again, you are in control which has never been the case in years past.

To get started with writing and publishing your own eBooks you might find the two following links helpful:

1) Amazon Self Publishing

2) Apple Book Publishing

No matter how old you are, you probably know what a gold rush is: thousands of people converge upon an area where gold has been found in hopes of getting some for themselves. The California gold rush was the big one in America during the mid 1800′s when more than 300,000 people from all over the world flocked to the state.

It turned out that one of the best ways to make money in a gold rush was NOT to look for gold (as few found any) but instead to sell the equipment needed to look for the stuff. Everyone who looks for gold needs to buy shovels, pans, buckets, scales, knives, food, tents, clothes, etc. and THAT was where the real money was made. At least the guaranteed money.

It isn’t much different in the game of making money online even though the Internet has been around for 15 years and the big rush is over. Today, as in years past, a lot of people make money online by selling software, instructions, programs, systems, eBooks, and other things that are the tools to help you make the money. Just like in the gold rush days, it seems the best way to make money on the Internet is to supply the tools to do it and not actually go out and do it yourself.

The problem is, just like with hunting for gold, it is really hard to “find” money online. It takes time, hard work, and a lot of knowledge before you can actually start a successful online business. For many, it is just easier to sell some crappy blueprint or system that they rehashed from someone else doing the same thing. That is why you find so much instructional material for sale online and why it seems like there is a never ending line of people wanting to sell you things.

So, if you want to make money on the Internet, one of the best ways is to figure out what other marketers need and try to sell it to them. To figure out what is in demand a good plan is to go and hang out in different marketing forums and read all the posts. This is exactly what Shawn at TheContentAuthority.com did. He was never successful at making money the way that others were doing it but he realized everyone needed writers at affordable rates. He then started his website that now employs hundreds of writers and it has become a successful business. In effect, he is supplying all the gold diggers (people looking for money online) with the tools (articles) they need and are willing to buy.

Of course not everyone sells a legitimate service like Shawn’s Content Authority and there are lots of scammers out there. Sometimes it is hard to tell the real ones from the ones that are just trying to take your money. But if you can set up a service that genuinely caters to the needs of others, you can make money online.