It is a small set of simple, mostly free steps done in the right order. Here is the whole thing — no jargon, nothing hidden, and yours to keep.
The months on the older PCs taught you a lot — keep that. But for selling your ebook, none of it is needed. There is no model, no graphics card, no special processor anywhere in this plan.
Selling a book does not run on a machine. It runs on the internet — a page people can reach, a way for them to pay you, and a way to stay in touch with people who aren't ready yet. Almost all of it is free. The only thing your computer needs to do is open a web browser.
So set the AI experiments aside completely for this. They are a separate hobby. The plan below is the actual path to money.
This is most of what matters. It is all sweat and no spend — it works, but only if you actually show up.
Everything above, plus a little money to push more of the right people toward what is already working.
A real business, not a side project. Only sensible once the cheap version has proven the book genuinely sells.
This sequence matters more than any single step. Doing it out of order is how money gets wasted.
One selling page, the free-chapter email box, the best articles gathered in, a working Buy button. No spending.
Make absolutely clear who this book is for and why they'd pay. A weak offer can't be fixed by spending money on it.
Through being useful in communities. One genuine stranger paying is the proof that everything else is worth it.
Move to Route 2 and do more of exactly what produced that first sale. Never the other way around.
That's all there is. Four parts, three of them free, none of them living on your computer.
Something like yourbookname.co.za. People type it in and land on your page. If you already have a domain registered, you're done with this step — we just use the one you have.
Cost: ~R80–R150 per yearNeeds from you: the login to wherever the domain is registered (for example domains.co.za), so it can be pointed at the page.
The page itself is a single, simple web page — no database, nothing to maintain, nothing that can break or get hacked. It sits on Cloudflare Pages, which hosts this kind of page free, permanently. You upload the page once and it stays live. No monthly bill, ever.
Cost: R0 — genuinely free, foreverNeeds from you: a free Cloudflare account (just an email and password). If you already have one, even better.
A signup box on the page where people enter their email to get the first chapter free. This is handled by MailerLite, free for up to about 1,000 people on the list. Their emails are saved automatically — you don't touch anything technical.
Cost: R0 until ~1,000 subscribersNeeds from you: a free MailerLite account (email and password).
A "Buy" button that takes the customer's money and gives them the ebook file automatically. Payhip does this with no monthly fee — it just keeps a small percentage of each sale. For local buyers paying in rand, PayFast is the alternative. Either way, the money goes into your bank account.
Cost: R0 monthly — a small cut per sale onlyNeeds from you — and only you can do this: your ID and your bank details. Payment companies are legally required to verify the person being paid. This is the one part nobody can do on your behalf.
In plain terms: roughly the price of a loaf of bread a month keeps the whole thing running — and most of that is just the domain you may already be paying for anyway.
The page, the hosting, the email box, the Buy button — built, connected, and put live for you. It ends up entirely in your name and your control: your domain, your accounts, your bank, your list. You're handed the keys. No catch, no fee, not dependent on me afterward.
wentzel.dev@gmail.comJust email that address. The only thing I can't do for you is the payment account — that legally needs your own ID and bank details — but I'll walk you through that part too.
One ebook plus 6,000 articles is not the same as one ebook plus a reason to buy. Before anything else: is the book genuinely good, and is there a specific person who would happily pay for it? If that is shaky, no page and no advert fixes it — you'd just be paying to show a weak offer to more people.
The plan is not "send people to 6,000 pages." It is "find the 30–50 that actually get visitors, make those genuinely good, point them at the book, and quietly ignore the rest." Volume here works against you with modern search, not for you. Keep the work — use the best of it.
With a one-off R2,500 and people depending on the outcome, spending on advertising before a single free sale is the wrong risk. Prove it works for nothing first. Then, and only then, spend a little to do more of it.
"Anyone can offer to build you a website. The plan above is the part that actually decides whether the book sells — and it's yours, in your name, whoever builds it."