Ebooks vs Websites

SigilBear · 03-01-2017, 08:41 PM

Can anyone point me to some good discussions or articles focusing on the differences between websites and ebooks, with particular emphasis on how people choose one or the other?

A little background: I started writing and creating websites long ago. I also self-published a couple books.

My websites were doing pretty good; I was getting 20,000 hits a day and earning $500 a month about fifteen years ago - and that was in January; my traffic doubled in the spring.

But I then got hit by a barrage - the dot.com bust, technical problems, etc. My biggest problem was that I simply over-extended myself; I was writing about a wide variety of topics and created one project after another that was never truly finished. To put it in perspective, consider Wikipedia's infamous "stubs," which mark the inevitable unfinished page.

One thing I like about ebooks is that they help me focus on something and finish it. Also, I think ebooks are in a sense more respectable. Any clown can create a website or a blog these days. Of course, the same can be said of ebooks. However, I think most people have a little more respect for books. That may be largely due to the fact that books were traditionally vetted by publishing houses, which made sure they were properly researched, edited, etc.

Merely being able to say that your book has an ISBN number and is in the Library of Congress may carry a little weight.

But I really like the idea of developing ebooks and websites together, using them to support and promote each other.

Another thing of interest... Some people in these forums have commented that they wouldn't buy a book if the same information online.

How true do you think that is? [Edit: I mean, in general; do you think most people feel the same way?]

You could probably find 500 published books about elephants and several ebooks focusing on elephants at the same time. And there are websites that focus on elephants. They obviously fill various niches.

My tentative thoughts: Given the choice between a website that covers topic A and an ebook that covers the same topic, I would favor an ebook 1) because of my general perception that books (including ebooks) are a little more "professional," and 2) I'd be able to read it even when I'm offline.

I would also expect the navigation to be a little better, and I wouldn't be bothered by dead links, pop-up ads, etc.

On the other hand, there are certain things that would draw me to a website, including a greater variety of technical things you just can't do with ebooks.

It would be interesting to write a manuscript and publish it as both a website and an ebook and see which one gets the most attention.

Anyway, can anyone point me to some really good articles you've seen that address some of these things?

SigilBear · 03-01-2017, 09:01 PM

I just thought of another advantage of ebooks over websites: The competition among ebooks, though stiff, isn't as hopeless. Most people who get on the Internet head straight for Facebook, Google, YouTube or Wikipedia. Type just about any word or phrase into Google, and there's a good chance that Wikipedia will be among the top three hits.

I don't see that kind of domination (or quasi-monopolism) with ebooks.

Cinisajoy · 03-01-2017, 10:04 PM

I don't know of any articles. I doubt there are many because the only thing websites and ebooks have in common is HTML.

Also there are 3,910 ebooks that come up when one types in elephants.
Now you might want to reread my post.
I said I would not buy an ebook if the information in it was going to be constantly changing. G M said the same thing.
Now if the information remains the same I would buy the book. Heck I own thousands of books with the same information one can find on the internet.
Big difference.
Oh and I can't even guess what most people do on the internet because I don't know most people.
You are making an assumption.

Hmmm, I do searches everyday and it depends on the words what pops up. I rarely get Wikipedia.

Cinisajoy · 03-01-2017, 10:06 PM

Oh and they only advantage to an ebook over a website is if you have a good, easily findable ebook, you could make more money.

SigilBear · 03-01-2017, 10:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I don't know of any articles. I doubt there are many because the only thing websites and ebooks have in common is HTML.

Actually, I asked about the DIFFERENCES between the two.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Also there are 3,910 ebooks that come up when one types in elephants.

Exactly. People have created countless articles, books, videos, movies and websites focusing on elephants, with no end in sight.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Now you might want to reread my post.
I said I would not buy an ebook if the information in it was going to be constantly changing. G M said the same thing.

Actually, I've several posts where you or others said you wouldn't buy an ebook if the same information was available online.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Now if the information remains the same I would buy the book. Heck I own thousands of books with the same information one can find on the internet.
Big difference.

BINGO.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Oh and I can't even guess what most people do on the internet because I don't know most people.
You are making an assumption.

??? OK, I'll bite - what assumption am I making? I asked for information about comparisons between ebooks and websites. How is that making an assumption?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Hmmm, I do searches everyday and it depends on the words what pops up. I rarely get Wikipedia.

You've got to be joking. I just typed in the words bird, mammal and city. Wikipedia ranked #1, #2 and #4 or #5, respectively. I then typed in lust, China, toy, and Google ranked #1, #2, #1.

If you're using a search engine other than Google, then you will get different results, though I suspect Wikipedia is still going to rank high on the list.

I've been doing online research on a wide variety of topics for two decades, and I learned long ago that Google and Wikipedia are online vacuum cleaners.

Cinisajoy · 03-01-2017, 11:59 PM

I still don't know of any articles about the differences because they are not comparable. (Websites and ebooks).

You said most people go to a, b, c and d sites.
How do you know this? Do you know most people.

And again I said if the information is constantly changing I wouldn't buy that book if the updated information is always available on the web. Example a book about gold prices and how now is a good time to buy. That book may or may not be relevant next week. I would just go to kitco.
Now a cookbook is another story. I might buy 10, 20 or 30 depending on what and the price.

As to searches, it may be I don't do generics example stamps but specific like limited edition Elvis Presley stamps. So Google may be guessing what information I need.
Many times it is a specific brand, item and model number. Those I usually get Walmart, Amazon, Home Depot or Harbor Freight first. Depending on who sells the product.

Oh 2 decades ago, it was yahoo not google. Google is only 18.

SigilBear · 03-02-2017, 12:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I still don't know of any articles about the differences because they are not comparable. (Websites and ebooks).

Yes, they are comparable. If you can't understand something as simple as that, then please stop posting on this thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

You said most people go to a, b, c and d sites.
How do you know this? Do you know most people.

1) The biggest websites BY FAR are Facebook, Google, YouTube and Wikipedia.
2) Google owns YouTube.
3) Type a word that ordinary people use into Google, and there's a good chance Wikipedia will be one of the top three hits.
4) I've read articles that say most people go to these sites.
5) I've been designing websites for more than two decades, and I've experienced the changing dynamics of the Internet. It isn't rocket science.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

And again I said if the information is constantly changing I wouldn't<snip>

Yes, we've heard your invaluable opinion(s) about that. I'd like to hear from people who haven't chimed in yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

As to searches, it may be I don't do generics example stamps but specific like limited edition Elvis Presley stamps. So Google may be guessing what information I need.

Yes, I'd venture to guess that ordinary people don't do a lot of searches for "Elvis Presley stamps." I'd wager that 90% of the people who use Google type in the names of countries, animals, people, etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Many times it is a specific brand, item and model number. Those I usually get Walmart, Amazon, Home Depot or Harbor Freight first. Depending on who sells the product.

OK, so now you're searching for specific brands of Elvis Presley stamps. Believe it or not, the world doesn't revolve around Elvis Presley stamps. Most people don't care about Elvis Presley stamps, and I certainly don't care about them. My interests are biology, political science, geography - the same broad topics that account for the majority of the traffic on the Internet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Oh 2 decades ago, it was yahoo not google. Google is only 18.

Thanks, but I'm really not interested in twenty years ago. I was kind of hoping to gain some insight into the relations between ebooks and websites TODAY.

gmw · 03-02-2017, 08:19 AM

When it comes to fiction I am not interested in participating in a work-in-progress, I have my own. So when I pick up a book of fiction I expect it to be finished. I do not expect to have an update come along next week with a new character/ending/whatever. And if the update is just fixing errors then either I missed them and so they didn't matter, or I saw them and it's too late to make me happy about them now.

Websites of supplementary material may sometimes be appropriate for fiction, but that is quite different from offering updates to the books themselves. And I certainly don't want to read a novel on a website.

Non-fiction is a very wide field and much harder to discuss, because any statement I may make about one subject is almost certain to be contradicted by another. But even in this instance I would say that an EBook is best used to represent some static/snapshot view of the information, presented in a manner suitable for offline reading.

The distinction for me is fairly simple: a website is a moving target, an ebook is a static one. And I much prefer that this distinction is maintained. In general, the usefulness of an ebook reduces in correspondence with how often it updates. If an ebook updates so often that it is no longer practical to discuss some particular edition, then all it has become is a backup of the website (which may have its uses but I would still consider it a backup/snapshot rather than an edition, whatever form it takes).

As for:
"I would favor an ebook 1) because of my general perception that books (including ebooks) are a little more "professional," and 2) I'd be able to read it even when I'm offline."

The first is dependent on who you are talking to, and which ebooks. On MR there is a widely held view that the majority of independently published books are rubbish - and this independently published author cannot argue that the view is not justified (I just don't think it applies to me!

).

The second I agree with to the extent that my Internet connection is tenuous and expensive; I would not want to be reliant on it for access to reading material. But there are various ways to save some website material for offline access if you want that.

But this little gem:
"The competition among ebooks, though stiff, isn't as hopeless."
made me want to weep.

Copied from Amazon earlier this evening:

New Releases
Last 30 days (189,777)
Last 90 days (558,875)
Coming Soon (51,176)

Four years ago the "Last 30 days" figure was around 86,000.

Sure the figures pale in comparison to the millions of new profiles being created on Facebook every month (a 2012 figure available here, suggests it was then around 13 million in 30 days), but after a certain point the increasing magnitude means little to an individual's position within it.

Publishing is pretty hopeless. No sane person would do this unless they also enjoyed doing it for its own sake.

By all means, use both ebooks and websites, their respective advantages can complement each other. But I believe your best success will be in using the right tools for each part of the job. For lengthy, relatively static reading material, ebooks are great (epub or mobi for reflowable material, PDF for fixed layouts). For short and/or dynamic and/or interactive material, websites are usually a better choice; ebook technology just isn't up to dynamic or interactive use yet (or not with support across all common devices).

Krazykiwi · 03-02-2017, 08:23 AM

I have to agree with Cinisajoy on the static vs changing.

I buy books (e or not, realise they are books to most people) for:
a) Novels I want to read. Probably once, maybe more.
b) Reference material and textbooks that are not freely available on the web, and are static.

Portability has nothing to do with it for me. I live in Europe, if i have something to read an ebook on, I have free 3G and probably wi-fi so I could just look at a website.

I am not interested in an ebook that is constantly updated, because it's pointless to me - that's what websites are for. I can't easily cite a book in a standard format that isn't static unless it's got very clear edition information. Citation formats simply point to a website per a specific date. Citing books don't, reference material I can't actually reference in a manner other people can look up, is not useful to me. The Wayback machine, for instance, lets people look up an older version of a website, or I can snapshot it. A ebook, on the other hand, will likely have only the current version available, and no way for others to look at what it said in the specific edition I cited.

(ETA: You mention ISBN's giving some kind of impressiveness? Realise, if you make each new update a new edition, you'll have to give it a new ISBN, if you are in fact using ISBN's. Amazon allows new editions without changing the ASIN, but they don't use ISBN's for ebooks anyway. An ISBN doesn't mean anything, it's an identifier for distributors, and a way to differentiate editions, it's not a stamp of approval in any way.)

Further, very few readers are set up to deal with books being updated, because... books don't get updated much. Kindle can push them out, but it's opt in, and unreliable. It's not the expected use case, so the infrastructure is not there for readers. I don't know of any other stores that even has the possibility (and I have books from several). This is probably the biggest problem, one of expectation and access to your readers. Readers going to a website, expect it is up to date with current information, and that it might have changed since their last visit. Readers of an ebook, realise it may be out of date, but deal with it, and are not expecting it has been updated - and you very likely have no way to tell them.

crich70 · 03-02-2017, 09:50 AM

One difference between ebooks and websites is that ebooks are easily downloadable for offline viewing where as with websites if you download one page you may end up with a lot of broken links (when offline at least) but that doesn't happen with a self contained non-fiction ebook. Likewise there is a difference between reading one chapter of a book (on wattpad or a fan fiction site for example) and having a self contained book made up of the text. Again if you are offline for some reason you can't access the text of the website but you will still have the full text of the ebook.

SigilBear · 03-02-2017, 12:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gmw

The first is dependent on who you are talking to, and which ebooks. On MR there is a widely held view that the majority of independently published books are rubbish - and this independently published author cannot argue that the view is not justified (I just don't think it applies to me!

).

But this little gem:
"The competition among ebooks, though stiff, isn't as hopeless."
made me want to weep.

Copied from Amazon earlier this evening:

New Releases
Last 30 days (189,777)
Last 90 days (558,875)
Coming Soon (51,176).

Yes, the competition is ferocious, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. (I hope to have my first two ebooks finished in two or three months.)

But the key word is NICHE. There may be a gazillion ebook publishers out there, but there are also a gazillion customers, all with different interests. And, as far as I know, none of the competitors have the stature of Facebook, Google or Wikipedia, which are virtual vacuum cleaners.

My theory is that IF 1) I can write a good book, and 2) I can somehow get the attention of people with an interest in that particular topic, I can succeed. That's probably going to entail more than dumping a book on Amazon. I'd plan on promoting it on various websites, especially targeting bird clubs if the books is about birds, for example.

I have no illusions about becoming a millionaire, but I'm fairly confident I earn enough to make it a profitable hobby. If I can't even accomplish that, then hopefully I'll at least earn enough money to get drunk.

P.S. I forgot to mention, the shameful quality of so many ebooks that you mentioned is another cause for hope. It's a pain in the butt, because prospective customer have to sort through a mountain of crap before they find a good book. But if you can write a good book and somehow get the public's attention, that should move you past the bottom 430,000 books.

SigilBear · 03-02-2017, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Krazykiwi

(ETA: You mention ISBN's giving some kind of impressiveness? Realise, if you make each new update a new edition, you'll have to give it a new ISBN, if you are in fact using ISBN's. Amazon allows new editions without changing the ASIN, but they don't use ISBN's for ebooks anyway. An ISBN doesn't mean anything, it's an identifier for distributors, and a way to differentiate editions, it's not a stamp of approval in any way.)

That reminds me of another question I should probably post in another thread, but I'll mention it here: Does the Library of Congress add ebooks to their collection? In other words, if I publish an ebook, is there a process I can follow to get my ebook into the Library of Congress?

Cinisajoy · 03-02-2017, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SigilBear

Yes, the competition is ferocious, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed. (I hope to have my first two ebooks finished in two or three months.)

But the key word is NICHE. There may be a gazillion ebook publishers out there, but there are also a gazillion customers, all with different interests. And, as far as I know, none of the competitors have the stature of Facebook, Google or Wikipedia, which are virtual vacuum cleaners.

My theory is that IF 1) I can write a good book, and 2) I can somehow get the attention of people with an interest in that particular topic, I can succeed. That's probably going to entail more than dumping a book on Amazon. I'd plan on promoting it on various websites, especially targeting bird clubs if the books is about birds, for example.

I have no illusions about becoming a millionaire, but I'm fairly confident I earn enough to make it a profitable hobby. If I can't even accomplish that, then hopefully I'll at least earn enough money to get drunk.

P.S. I forgot to mention, the shameful quality of so many ebooks that you mentioned is another cause for hope. It's a pain in the butt, because prospective customer have to sort through a mountain of crap before they find a good book. But if you can write a good book and somehow get the public's attention, that should move you past the bottom 430,000 books.

Hi. Two things.
Make sure the websites you are thinking about allow self promotion.
And where did you get that number? Just in the Kindle Unlimited program there are 1.5 million books and quick addition on the genres show about 4 million ebooks total.
So that 430,000 is only the bottom 10%.
I think get drunk money starts at about the middle.

Anyway good luck.

SigilBear · 03-02-2017, 01:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

And where did you get that number?

I just made up a big number. 2 million, 6 billion, a trillion - we'll get there soon enough.

Penforhire · 03-02-2017, 01:52 PM

Like others mentioned, I see an e-book as a static thing, once and done. Websites can be static but their value is in being dynamic and timely.

I wrote a niche topic blog some years ago. Looking at the stats now I see I got to around 60K views a year for three years while I stayed active on it (years 2010-2012). It dropped to roughly 30K for two years right after I stopped updating it and a decline started in 2015 toward, my guess, 15K views this year.

The information there has as much value today as it did when I started (detailed a specific vintage vehicle restoration) but websites need to stay fresh. You have a real dialog with your readers, or at least you can. E-books do not have quite that same burden.

If I wrote an e-book instead I'd expect sales volume to depend entirely on my marketing of it.

03-01-2017, 10:04 PM	#3
Cinisajoy Just a Yellow Smiley. Posts: 19,161 Karma: 83862859 Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Texas Device: K4, K5, fire, kobo, galaxy	I don't know of any articles. I doubt there are many because the only thing websites and ebooks have in common is HTML. Also there are 3,910 ebooks that come up when one types in elephants. Now you might want to reread my post. I said I would not buy an ebook if the information in it was going to be constantly changing. G M said the same thing. Now if the information remains the same I would buy the book. Heck I own thousands of books with the same information one can find on the internet. Big difference. Oh and I can't even guess what most people do on the internet because I don't know most people. You are making an assumption. Hmmm, I do searches everyday and it depends on the words what pops up. I rarely get Wikipedia. Last edited by Cinisajoy; 03-01-2017 at 10:19 PM.

03-02-2017, 08:19 AM	#8
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,818 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	Ebooks are for reading, Websites are for viewing. When it comes to fiction I am not interested in participating in a work-in-progress, I have my own. So when I pick up a book of fiction I expect it to be finished. I do not expect to have an update come along next week with a new character/ending/whatever. And if the update is just fixing errors then either I missed them and so they didn't matter, or I saw them and it's too late to make me happy about them now. Websites of supplementary material may sometimes be appropriate for fiction, but that is quite different from offering updates to the books themselves. And I certainly don't want to read a novel on a website. Non-fiction is a very wide field and much harder to discuss, because any statement I may make about one subject is almost certain to be contradicted by another. But even in this instance I would say that an EBook is best used to represent some static/snapshot view of the information, presented in a manner suitable for offline reading. The distinction for me is fairly simple: a website is a moving target, an ebook is a static one. And I much prefer that this distinction is maintained. In general, the usefulness of an ebook reduces in correspondence with how often it updates. If an ebook updates so often that it is no longer practical to discuss some particular edition, then all it has become is a backup of the website (which may have its uses but I would still consider it a backup/snapshot rather than an edition, whatever form it takes). As for: "I would favor an ebook 1) because of my general perception that books (including ebooks) are a little more "professional," and 2) I'd be able to read it even when I'm offline." The first is dependent on who you are talking to, and which ebooks. On MR there is a widely held view that the majority of independently published books are rubbish - and this independently published author cannot argue that the view is not justified (I just don't think it applies to me! ). The second I agree with to the extent that my Internet connection is tenuous and expensive; I would not want to be reliant on it for access to reading material. But there are various ways to save some website material for offline access if you want that. But this little gem: "The competition among ebooks, though stiff, isn't as hopeless." made me want to weep. Copied from Amazon earlier this evening: New Releases Last 30 days (189,777) Last 90 days (558,875) Coming Soon (51,176) Four years ago the "Last 30 days" figure was around 86,000. Sure the figures pale in comparison to the millions of new profiles being created on Facebook every month (a 2012 figure available here, suggests it was then around 13 million in 30 days), but after a certain point the increasing magnitude means little to an individual's position within it. Publishing is pretty hopeless. No sane person would do this unless they also enjoyed doing it for its own sake. By all means, use both ebooks and websites, their respective advantages can complement each other. But I believe your best success will be in using the right tools for each part of the job. For lengthy, relatively static reading material, ebooks are great (epub or mobi for reflowable material, PDF for fixed layouts). For short and/or dynamic and/or interactive material, websites are usually a better choice; ebook technology just isn't up to dynamic or interactive use yet (or not with support across all common devices).

03-02-2017, 08:23 AM	#9
Krazykiwi Zealot Posts: 137 Karma: 2156958 Join Date: Jan 2013 Device: Too many random androids to list	I have to agree with Cinisajoy on the static vs changing. I buy books (e or not, realise they are books to most people) for: a) Novels I want to read. Probably once, maybe more. b) Reference material and textbooks that are not freely available on the web, and are static. Portability has nothing to do with it for me. I live in Europe, if i have something to read an ebook on, I have free 3G and probably wi-fi so I could just look at a website. I am not interested in an ebook that is constantly updated, because it's pointless to me - that's what websites are for. I can't easily cite a book in a standard format that isn't static unless it's got very clear edition information. Citation formats simply point to a website per a specific date. Citing books don't, reference material I can't actually reference in a manner other people can look up, is not useful to me. The Wayback machine, for instance, lets people look up an older version of a website, or I can snapshot it. A ebook, on the other hand, will likely have only the current version available, and no way for others to look at what it said in the specific edition I cited. (ETA: You mention ISBN's giving some kind of impressiveness? Realise, if you make each new update a new edition, you'll have to give it a new ISBN, if you are in fact using ISBN's. Amazon allows new editions without changing the ASIN, but they don't use ISBN's for ebooks anyway. An ISBN doesn't mean anything, it's an identifier for distributors, and a way to differentiate editions, it's not a stamp of approval in any way.) Further, very few readers are set up to deal with books being updated, because... books don't get updated much. Kindle can push them out, but it's opt in, and unreliable. It's not the expected use case, so the infrastructure is not there for readers. I don't know of any other stores that even has the possibility (and I have books from several). This is probably the biggest problem, one of expectation and access to your readers. Readers going to a website, expect it is up to date with current information, and that it might have changed since their last visit. Readers of an ebook, realise it may be out of date, but deal with it, and are not expecting it has been updated - and you very likely have no way to tell them. Last edited by Krazykiwi; 03-02-2017 at 08:26 AM.

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03-01-2017, 08:41 PM	#1
SigilBear Banned Posts: 244 Karma: 2112680 Join Date: Jan 2017 Device: iBooks	Ebooks vs Websites Can anyone point me to some good discussions or articles focusing on the differences between websites and ebooks, with particular emphasis on how people choose one or the other? A little background: I started writing and creating websites long ago. I also self-published a couple books. My websites were doing pretty good; I was getting 20,000 hits a day and earning $500 a month about fifteen years ago - and that was in January; my traffic doubled in the spring. But I then got hit by a barrage - the dot.com bust, technical problems, etc. My biggest problem was that I simply over-extended myself; I was writing about a wide variety of topics and created one project after another that was never truly finished. To put it in perspective, consider Wikipedia's infamous "stubs," which mark the inevitable unfinished page. One thing I like about ebooks is that they help me focus on something and finish it. Also, I think ebooks are in a sense more respectable. Any clown can create a website or a blog these days. Of course, the same can be said of ebooks. However, I think most people have a little more respect for books. That may be largely due to the fact that books were traditionally vetted by publishing houses, which made sure they were properly researched, edited, etc. Merely being able to say that your book has an ISBN number and is in the Library of Congress may carry a little weight. But I really like the idea of developing ebooks and websites together, using them to support and promote each other. Another thing of interest... Some people in these forums have commented that they wouldn't buy a book if the same information online. How true do you think that is? [Edit: I mean, in general; do you think most people feel the same way?] You could probably find 500 published books about elephants and several ebooks focusing on elephants at the same time. And there are websites that focus on elephants. They obviously fill various niches. My tentative thoughts: Given the choice between a website that covers topic A and an ebook that covers the same topic, I would favor an ebook 1) because of my general perception that books (including ebooks) are a little more "professional," and 2) I'd be able to read it even when I'm offline. I would also expect the navigation to be a little better, and I wouldn't be bothered by dead links, pop-up ads, etc. On the other hand, there are certain things that would draw me to a website, including a greater variety of technical things you just can't do with ebooks. It would be interesting to write a manuscript and publish it as both a website and an ebook and see which one gets the most attention. Anyway, can anyone point me to some really good articles you've seen that address some of these things? Last edited by SigilBear; 03-01-2017 at 10:53 PM.

03-01-2017, 09:01 PM	#2
SigilBear Banned Posts: 244 Karma: 2112680 Join Date: Jan 2017 Device: iBooks	I just thought of another advantage of ebooks over websites: The competition among ebooks, though stiff, isn't as hopeless. Most people who get on the Internet head straight for Facebook, Google, YouTube or Wikipedia. Type just about any word or phrase into Google, and there's a good chance that Wikipedia will be among the top three hits. I don't see that kind of domination (or quasi-monopolism) with ebooks.

03-01-2017, 10:06 PM	#4
Cinisajoy Just a Yellow Smiley. Posts: 19,161 Karma: 83862859 Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Texas Device: K4, K5, fire, kobo, galaxy	Oh and they only advantage to an ebook over a website is if you have a good, easily findable ebook, you could make more money.

03-01-2017, 11:59 PM	#6
Cinisajoy Just a Yellow Smiley. Posts: 19,161 Karma: 83862859 Join Date: Jul 2015 Location: Texas Device: K4, K5, fire, kobo, galaxy	I still don't know of any articles about the differences because they are not comparable. (Websites and ebooks). You said most people go to a, b, c and d sites. How do you know this? Do you know most people. And again I said if the information is constantly changing I wouldn't buy that book if the updated information is always available on the web. Example a book about gold prices and how now is a good time to buy. That book may or may not be relevant next week. I would just go to kitco. Now a cookbook is another story. I might buy 10, 20 or 30 depending on what and the price. As to searches, it may be I don't do generics example stamps but specific like limited edition Elvis Presley stamps. So Google may be guessing what information I need. Many times it is a specific brand, item and model number. Those I usually get Walmart, Amazon, Home Depot or Harbor Freight first. Depending on who sells the product. Oh 2 decades ago, it was yahoo not google. Google is only 18.

03-02-2017, 09:50 AM	#10
crich70 Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,310 Karma: 43993832 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Monroe Wisconsin Device: K3, Kindle Paperwhite, Calibre, and Mobipocket for Pc (netbook)	One difference between ebooks and websites is that ebooks are easily downloadable for offline viewing where as with websites if you download one page you may end up with a lot of broken links (when offline at least) but that doesn't happen with a self contained non-fiction ebook. Likewise there is a difference between reading one chapter of a book (on wattpad or a fan fiction site for example) and having a self contained book made up of the text. Again if you are offline for some reason you can't access the text of the website but you will still have the full text of the ebook.

03-02-2017, 01:52 PM	#15
Penforhire Wizard Posts: 2,230 Karma: 7145404 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Southern California Device: Kindle Voyage & iPhone 7+	Like others mentioned, I see an e-book as a static thing, once and done. Websites can be static but their value is in being dynamic and timely. I wrote a niche topic blog some years ago. Looking at the stats now I see I got to around 60K views a year for three years while I stayed active on it (years 2010-2012). It dropped to roughly 30K for two years right after I stopped updating it and a decline started in 2015 toward, my guess, 15K views this year. The information there has as much value today as it did when I started (detailed a specific vintage vehicle restoration) but websites need to stay fresh. You have a real dialog with your readers, or at least you can. E-books do not have quite that same burden. If I wrote an e-book instead I'd expect sales volume to depend entirely on my marketing of it.

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