E-books have been around for several years. They are simply electronic versions of printed material. E-books can be purely informational, or promote a sales messages, or even be a short story whether it be fiction or non-fiction. 
Can you get rich writing e-books? Probably not, but you can build a nice income and create some nice links for your website. In addition to giving customers information, e-books can be used to create residual income.
Writing an e-book can be time consuming. But once written, the sales and marketing are automated with companies like Amazon or Smashwords. They keep a percentage of each sale and send you the rest. Voila - you've created residual income.
E-books can be given away on your website as a way to build traffic. Or if you choose to sell them, there are software packages that make it possible to accept credit cards and have each customer download your e-book as soon as the payment transaction is complete.
With the popularity of Kindle and the many other tablet computers available today, more and more people are opting to read via e-book. It's a growing market and even some famous authors are making their books available for download.
If you are an authority on a subject - but are not a writer, you can hire freelance writers to write the e-book for you. Check out various Virtual Marketing or Outsourcing sites to find good writers. Interview a few and make sure you pick someone who has the same ideals and philosophies as you do. You are, in effect, hiring a ghostwriter to represent your views and opinions.
