It’s easy to throw everything and the kitchen sink into your ebook. And it’s just as easy to go the opposite route and fail to incorporate some really cool additions that can make your ebook shine! So when you are writing that ebook, start thinking about what you can add to spice things up a bit and add value.

Here are a few ideas:

- throw in your bio; Okay, this isn’t an “extra.” It’s a must have. You wrote the book, now make sure you introduce yourself to your readers and go the full mile. Let them know all about you (especially how it pertains to the ebook), give them contact information, a picture and info on upcoming work-related things.

- add a checklist; checklists are great for condensing your information to one page…something that can be printed out and used. (Just don’t forget your url in the header or footer of that checklist page!)

- provide discounts…have a discount to your services/products. Think of it as a gift to your readers. Perhaps you can work out a discount or some sort of special deal with a colleague on their services.

- add testimonials; no, not a kazillion of them. People don’t want to read page after page of how great you are. But a single page with a few testimonials of you and your product/service is nifty. (and it feels good, right?)

- add statistics; do a little research and find some stats out there to support your claims, to bolster your ebook. Make sure you state clearly where the stats are coming from. Or, you can even conduct your own surveys (check out Survey Monkey or Easy Internet Survey).

- add trivia; quotes, fun stats or interesting little tidbits of information that help augment your book can be sprinkled throughout, or added on a bonus page. Here’s a post with a bunch of trivia site links.

- add a FAQ page on your products/services; you get asked the same questions all the time, so head some of your prospects off at the pass by providing a “Frequently Asked Questions” page in your ebook.

- include a “Thank You” page; there are people who have supported you in your work. And here’s where you can acknowledge them. If they have a business and url, mention it and spread the link love!

- add a list; this is different than a checklist. You’re listing a “top ten” or some other number of listed items. You can add a list of web sites that would be useful. You can add a list of possible software resources.

- top it off with some graphics or pictures; some people like to print out their ebook…so I don’t typically recommend overloading your ebook with graphics that suck up a lot of ink. (Sprinkling throughout – good, overload – bad). But, if you have a subject that could use some picture or graphic representation, think about creating specific graphic pages and then referring to them through the text (as in, “see Picture 1-A on page 52″ or “Check out all the photos on page 52″). By having a page or two of the heavy graphics separate from the text, your prospects still get the visual element but can choose whether to print those pages out or not.

What do you think would make a great “extra” for an ebook?