You’ve written your eBook. You’re ready to share it with readers. What is your next step? Promoting your ebook requires some marketing creativity and tenacity. Roll up your sleeves and put on your marketing cap. These marketing basics will get things moving in the right direction. You can always customize and build on them once they’re in place.

Start with an ebook mini-marketing plan. It doesn’t have to be fancy or deeply detailed to start. Just a nice, tidy outline that answers some key questions and lists some of your primary objectives with your ebook. For instance, who is your audience? Where is your audience? How many downloads are you aiming for per month? You can easily outline this in a simple one-sheet, but make sure to put some thought and consideration into your questions and answers, as well as realistic and attainable objectives.

Use what you’ve got. Take the resources and tools that are already available to you and use them to your advantage. For instance, if you have a blog, use it as a vehicle to build a marketing campaign for your ebook. Create an editorial calendar and start planning your blog posts around themes directly related to your ebook. Tie in a link to your ebook and a call-to-action for ebook downloads in each and every post. Make sense?

Here’s where your social media profiles come in handy. Update your Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts with ebook mentions and links. Get the word out that your ebook has arrived and  that you’re ready to share it. Consider putting together a download contest and challenge fans and followers to try and be the 100th person to download. Award the winner with a prize like an iPod that includes an audio version of your ebook.

Make your ebook front and center on your website. Feature it prominently on your homepage and use starbursts and call-outs on subsequent pages to remind visitors to download a copy of the ebook. You’ll also need to drive traffic to your website. Write articles and press releases announcing the launch of your ebook and start posting and distributing them on ezine sites.

With a little effort, you can create momentum and generate buzz about your ebook and do it all with out breaking your bank.