Saturday, September 15, 2007

How To Come Up With Ebook Ideas That Will Sell Like Crazy!


From a purely business perspective, selling Information Products (for a small business this usually means E-Books) is one of the best (if not the best) opportunities for generating profits on the Internet (in fact over 20% of all Internet sales are for Information Products). Even though you may have doubts now, let me assure you that it’s well within the capabilities of almost anybody to make and sell Information Products - really. So the next question - is what kind of Information Product that can I create? (Incidentally - if you already have an idea, it’s worth considering the idea in depth, before you start writing: there’s no point spending a lot of time developing an idea that turns out to be a lemon). Assuming you want to create E-Books to sell for profit: The number one stumbling block for most people is picking a topic, but actually, if you know how, finding a hot topic is surprisingly easy. There are a number of approaches, all of which can work, that you can take:Knowing What You Know: Use information or knowledge that you’ve already gathered (or at least partially gathered) as the basis for your product. The main issue with this approach is that it can be very hard to list all topics you already know something about. Fortunately though, some innovative techniques can help you with this. Market Research: Find topics that people are demanding information about - and supply the answer. Find a “need” and solve it! Another great approach is to first find the motivating factor that will encourage people to buy. Once you have this, you work backwards, initially towards how you will deliver this benefit, and then to what your E-Book will contain. Competitive Research: Find topics for E-Books that people are buying right now - and enter the market yourself. The more established your competitors, the the more ground work (educating prospects about why they the products), will have been done by them. This can make it easier for you, as they’ve already established interest, but also can be can risky, as an entrenched competitor may crush you like a bug! Rather than going head-to-head against a strong competitor it may be better to find a small niche, and occupy it. For example if your competitor is selling an E-Book about operating a Small Business, make your E-Book a specialist book on Small Business Taxes, or Small Business Marketing, or Small Business Accounting, or any other Small Business topic on which you have sufficient expertise.The best approach, in my experience, is to generate a lot of ideas as quickly as possible. Don’t review them initially - just make a note of every single idea. Some of the ideas will be lemons, some will be diamonds, and some will spark further ideas that might themselves be diamonds. Once you have a lot of ideas - then go through each one, and look at the following:Are you interested in this topic? If you’re not sufficiently interested, you may get bored, and have trouble finishing. Even if you can force yourself to finish an E-Book about a “boring” topic, your lack of enthusiasm will show both in the content, and your sales pitch. My opinion: forget any topic that you can’t work up some enthusiasm about! Do you know enough about this topic? If not, would you be ready to learn more (research) the topic? Additionally, the more information that you’ve already gathered about the topic (if the topic is a subject that really excites you, then you may have tons of material, or at least Internet Bookmarks), the less time you need to spend on research. The less time you spend on research, the sooner you can create the product - and the sooner you can start selling and bringing in money. Can you find motivating factors that will motivate people to buy? People will buy products that deliver them benefits they want. If you’re product has no benefits for readers - don’t expect them to buy! Can you reach people who are interested in this topic? If you know how to reach prospective customers already, this is a huge advantage. Perhaps you already have an Ezine or Web Site about the topic - or if it has an audience - you already have a stream of prospects! On the other hand if you don’t know how to reach prospects, your task is not necessarily impossible, but you will need to take into account that you need to spend more time, effort, and possibly some money on marketing.

How To Come Up With Ebook Ideas That Will Sell Like Crazy!


From a purely business perspective, selling Information Products (for a small business this usually means E-Books) is one of the best (if not the best) opportunities for generating profits on the Internet (in fact over 20% of all Internet sales are for Information Products). Even though you may have doubts now, let me assure you that it’s well within the capabilities of almost anybody to make and sell Information Products - really. So the next question - is what kind of Information Product that can I create? (Incidentally - if you already have an idea, it’s worth considering the idea in depth, before you start writing: there’s no point spending a lot of time developing an idea that turns out to be a lemon). Assuming you want to create E-Books to sell for profit: The number one stumbling block for most people is picking a topic, but actually, if you know how, finding a hot topic is surprisingly easy. There are a number of approaches, all of which can work, that you can take:Knowing What You Know: Use information or knowledge that you’ve already gathered (or at least partially gathered) as the basis for your product. The main issue with this approach is that it can be very hard to list all topics you already know something about. Fortunately though, some innovative techniques can help you with this. Market Research: Find topics that people are demanding information about - and supply the answer. Find a “need” and solve it! Another great approach is to first find the motivating factor that will encourage people to buy. Once you have this, you work backwards, initially towards how you will deliver this benefit, and then to what your E-Book will contain. Competitive Research: Find topics for E-Books that people are buying right now - and enter the market yourself. The more established your competitors, the the more ground work (educating prospects about why they the products), will have been done by them. This can make it easier for you, as they’ve already established interest, but also can be can risky, as an entrenched competitor may crush you like a bug! Rather than going head-to-head against a strong competitor it may be better to find a small niche, and occupy it. For example if your competitor is selling an E-Book about operating a Small Business, make your E-Book a specialist book on Small Business Taxes, or Small Business Marketing, or Small Business Accounting, or any other Small Business topic on which you have sufficient expertise.The best approach, in my experience, is to generate a lot of ideas as quickly as possible. Don’t review them initially - just make a note of every single idea. Some of the ideas will be lemons, some will be diamonds, and some will spark further ideas that might themselves be diamonds. Once you have a lot of ideas - then go through each one, and look at the following:Are you interested in this topic? If you’re not sufficiently interested, you may get bored, and have trouble finishing. Even if you can force yourself to finish an E-Book about a “boring” topic, your lack of enthusiasm will show both in the content, and your sales pitch. My opinion: forget any topic that you can’t work up some enthusiasm about! Do you know enough about this topic? If not, would you be ready to learn more (research) the topic? Additionally, the more information that you’ve already gathered about the topic (if the topic is a subject that really excites you, then you may have tons of material, or at least Internet Bookmarks), the less time you need to spend on research. The less time you spend on research, the sooner you can create the product - and the sooner you can start selling and bringing in money. Can you find motivating factors that will motivate people to buy? People will buy products that deliver them benefits they want. If you’re product has no benefits for readers - don’t expect them to buy! Can you reach people who are interested in this topic? If you know how to reach prospective customers already, this is a huge advantage. Perhaps you already have an Ezine or Web Site about the topic - or if it has an audience - you already have a stream of prospects! On the other hand if you don’t know how to reach prospects, your task is not necessarily impossible, but you will need to take into account that you need to spend more time, effort, and possibly some money on marketing.