1. They wonder how well it will sell, is it really worth the effort?

2. It seems like too much work, I can't take it on right now.

3. It costs too much money to write an ebook and get it to market.

We have 12 ebooks on the market – one of which has been selling steadily now for almost 10-years (launched in 2000) – the system we use is fully outlined along with an in-depth training program inside Information Marketer'sZone, let's try and answer these 3 questions here though.

IS IT REALLY WORTH WRITING YOUR OWN EBOOK?

When I put together my very first ebook back in 2000 I had no idea that it would sell beyond a year or so…for the 6-8 weeks of effort I put in and a few days each year to update, this is largely passive income.  I still see daily sales of that ebook package which now sells for $47 with an upsell to $65 that nearly 70% of my customers take.

The key is to center in on a topic that is really intriguing to the readers you serve – a deeply held, emotional topic where they have big dreams or desires to be, have, do or become something they are not today. That could be overcoming limitations or getting ahead.

You may have a goal of $500, $1000 or $3000/month for your ebook – assuming you have chosen a topic with high desire all of these are possible…but what really makes it worthwhile is that you can still make this kind of money with your ebook 2, 5, or even 10-years out – now that makes it very worthwhile putting a few weeks work into writing an ebook.

WRITING AN EBOOK SEEMS TOO HARD AND TAKES TOO MUCH TIME!

The process of writing the ebook doesn’t have to be that onerous – start with collecting questions around your topic, then organizing them in an order that makes sense for the ultimate outcome you are helping your reader achieve.

Once you have that outline done, it is just a matter of answering each question – adding in some case studies or personal experience and there you have Edition 1.

If you think about it – information products such as "how to" ebooks, reports, training systems and home study courses are all guidebooks that answer questions, outline systems for how to achieve  a desired outcome.

We work on this allot within Information Marketer's Zone – making sure your topic is targeted at a highly desired outcome is 90% of the secret behind writing an ebook that is both simple, but extremely HOT in terms of selling power.

DOESN'T IT COST TOO MUCH TO WRITE AN EBOOK?

Many people have the conception that writing, publishing and releasing an ebook will cost thousands of dollars — that is just not the case.

Here are the main cost items associated with writing and marketing ebooks:

1. Writing the ebook – we write all of our ebooks in either MS Word or OpenOffice and use tools such as the one bundled with OpenOffice to render the final ebook into Adobe PDF format – that really costs you nothing.  You may decide to outsource part of the writing of your ebook – that may cost you a few hundred dollars, but this is completely optional.

2. Web hosting, html editor and autoresponder.  Factor in $50/month to cover your webhosting (account that allows you to host your own website) and autoresponder (which allows you to build a list of followers and manage that list automatically).  We use this webhost and this autoresponder which have terrific reputations and great services and low prices.

3. Advertising.  I am a big fan in using some initial advertising to drive "test" traffic to your website as you lead up to launching your ebook and for the first few weeks after it has launched.  Why?  You want to quickly begin to build a list and you want to test your webpages, sales pages, and list building "opt-in" pages – these sometimes need to be tweaked, but you need to know how they convert first.  I would factor in $200 for advertising – I like to use Google Adwords where you send traffic to your site within hours of setting up your account.  Again, this is subject to budget – if you can only afford $50, then that is what you do.

4. You will need a payment processor.  Payment processors allow you to take payment, handle any returns, and give you access to the money you make from selling your ebook.  You can use Clickbank (benefit is built-in affiliate management program so other people can promote your products too), eJunkie, 2Checkout.com, etc… Factor in a $50 one-time sign-up fee for these payment systems.  After that, they take a small commission (between 5-8%) of your selling price with no additional up-front costs.

5. Copyright review.  Lets face it, most of us are not expert sales letter writers.  The bottom line of how well your ebook will sell has to do with how well your sales letter is written.  You may try initial versions, but it is always good to have a professional copywriter review your work and suggest improvements – this can get expensive – $500-$1000 or more…but the return you will see is usually always MORE than worth it.

6. Ebook cover.  Most of us are not experts at developing graphical ebook covers – so we want a professional to do that for us.  The good news is that you can have a very professional ebook cover for under $100 – let's factor $80

So, what is the grand total?

You can easily produce and release your own ebook for $250 up-front and $50/recurring per month.  We're talking about selling between 5-10 ebooks to recover costs – that can happen within the first month.

Yes, you could go more aggressive and up the advertising and outsource more of your development and marketing and still come in under $1000 up-front with $150/month recurring – the benefit being that you get your ebook released and earning more profit faster.

Either way – you can typically begin to show a profit within 1-3 month of releasing your ebook, not a bad business decision.

To get a proven system for going from idea to launch, expert interviews, templates and tools and a full private mentor's support forum for ebook writing and publishing, visit us at Information Marketer's Zone now.

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In lesson 1, we learned how to Find and Position our Ebook Topic, in today's lesson we are going to cover how to get rolling on developing your first (or next) information product and how to make writing and development simple and painless. 

The goal is to help you get your first info product on it's way – even finished within the next 7-days. 

As you know, having your own report, ebook, audio course or other information product is a terrific way to help boost your monthly income – yes that means making money – but is also a terrific way to brand yourself and your business in the most competitive markets. 

AVOID THESE INFO MARKETING MISTAKES

Before we jump into some tips for getting your info product completed, let me make the following important points about mistakes people make when developing their own info products (BIG HINT ** You want to avoid making these money losing mistakes):

1. Trying to do too much in their first info product.  I know many ebook authors who have built up so much tension about their project that they will NEVER get it done.  Instead of trying to write 150-pages in your first ebook, instead think of it as a "mini-ebook" or even a report where your main purpose is to bring about a desired outcome with somewhere between 40-60 pages (if it is a written product) and approx 1-hour(if it is an audio product). 

To put that into perspective – imagine writing 10 articles on a topic over the next week – could you do that?  Could you write 10, 3-page articles over the next week if you really put your mind to it?  That's two articles each workday or 1 article each workday with another 5 on the weekend.  Assuming each article takes you 30-minutes to write, we're talking about 5-hours total to get your first information product draft completed. 

Is that something that seems possible?

Even in the most extraordinary of circumstances, that should be something you can accomplish within 2-weeks, still meaning that you can have your own product finished and earning you money within the next 30-days.

2. Aim for incremental improvement…not being perfect on Day 1.  Yes, your product must answer the question and deliver on the promise that you are committing to in your marketing, but that doesn't mean you need to tackle ALL of the problem at once. 

For instance, let's say your goal is to develop an ebook on a complete weight loss program that incorporates diet, nutrition, exercise, motivation and mental aspects into the leading weight loss system for new mom's. 

It's ok to start with the ultimate, "New Mom" diet for weight loss as a first edition and entry into the market. Once that product is released you can build additional feedback mechanisms into your customer follow-up sequence and find out what "else" your customers want – then in 3-months, come out with a 2cnd edition that is even more complete and for which you can increase your price. 

Software developers have a model called "incremental development" where they bit off chunks of their project over multiple releases – improving as they grow their business rather than waiting and waiting until they have the perfect product…this model works extremely well.

3. 95% of time wasted on developing info products is wasted! What I mean by this is all the times people spend re-doing their products, stuck with writer's block, stopping and starting new projects, avoiding the really poroductive work of writing or creating audio or video for your products instead opting for answering email, Twittering or other time wasting activity. 

Look, if you really want to have your own information product making you money in the next 30-days, you will have to block out 1-hour each day for uninterrupted, focused product development time…nothing short of a 9.0 earthquake should take you from this dedicated time. 

Pay attention to when you work best.  I allocate the first hour of every day to product development, because that is when I am freshest – I'm MOST productive and most creative…the words just flow.  Leave it until 8PM at night and it is very hit or miss for me given the type of day I've had. 

4. Laser-focused on targeted systems for bringing about desired outcomes.  Don't waste time writing general information about your topic, instead, stick to answering "what does my customer want to be,have,do, achieve or avoid by buying my ebook or info product?  Then, stick to outlining a system that takes them toward that achievement. 

Too much time is wated in ebook writing with general information, background, story telling and general dribble that really adds very little value to your product, but takes weeks and weeks of your time needlessly. 

Use the outlining system we discuss below to keep you on track and watch as you complete your ebook or info product in record time.

SECRET OUTLINING TECHNIQUES OF MIILLIONAIRE INFO PRODUCT PUBLISHERS

It's no secret as to why many of the top information publishers are also trainers, speakers and consultants…it's because they have figured out the REAL value of information is in producing testable, verifiable, systematic training toward achieving a desired outcome. 

General, fluffy books are for bookstores – they are the books that get read once, make their authors a few thousand bucks in royalties (if they are lucky) and then are quickly forgotten. 

Highly desired, high-priced information products where your customers become raving fans, repeat buyers and hand you 10's of thousands of dollars each month are laser-focused, systems and course-based "how-to" products that help your reader answer their most pressing questions on the road to realizing highly desired outcomes. 

So, let's start with two HUGELY important techniques involved in outlining your information product:

1. Outline With Questions:  This one single technique was the #1 factor in getting my own writing and info product development from months down to days.  Specifically, the outline of your "how to" ebook, report or any info product should be a series of questions your market will need to have answered prior to achieving their end goal. 

For example, we have decided to target new mothers in their quest to lose 10-lbs taking into account the following:

 - They need to be able to fit their exercise into 1-hour each day
 - They want something they can do with other mothers or friends around them
 - They can't jump right into high-impact excercise – it must be low impact
 - Exercise is a good all-around approach since it will also help emotionally deal with being a new mother

So – what sorts of questions might our mothers have?  Here are some that come to mind:

a) Can I look like I did before having children?
b) How long will it take?
c) Do I need to diet or do painful exercise?
d) How about low-impact exercise like walking or swimming?
e) How much walking will I have to do to lose 10lbs?
f) What makes walking such a healthy activity?
g) How does the speed of my walking impact weight loss?
h) Can I use a treadmill?
i) What should my activity level look like on the first week?
j) What should my activity level look like in the second week?
k) Should I make any changes in my diet? 
l) What about the third week, what should I do then? 
m) What results should I expect after the mid-point?
n) What should my activity be in the fourth week? 
o) What if I miss a few days? 
etc…

Let me ask you this…could you sit down and write 2/3 to 1 page in answer to each of these questions (or similar questions you would use for your own topic area?)

With roughly one page per question, you structure 10 questions per chapter and within a few weeks you will have 5-6 chapters totally 50-60 pages and viola – you have your own top selling ebook first draft completed. 

By structuring your outline using questions, you trick your mind into making the entire exercise of product development and writing so simple…no more stress, no more avoidance, no more writer's block, just rapid progress toward your goal. 

Ok, so what if you don't know what questions your audience want answered?  Or, you need help filling out your list? 

Watch this 15-minute video I have temporarily made available from inside http://www.infomarketerszone.com – this will help you identify a rich supply of the most asked questions in your niche market…

Click To Watch The Video

2. Step-by-step Outline:  While so many of us are taught to write stories in school, what we really want to do with our information products is to share a series of steps with our readers that will allow them to progressively learn and apply your techniques to reach a desired outcome. 

So, the second powerful tip I have to give you is to structure your information, tips, steps, strategies, and advice in terms of a "SYSTEM".  Just as a course has a carriculum, a training program has a schedule, a Powerpoint presentation has a series of steps — you want to organize your "how to" information into a set of actionable steps that will both enhance the value of your info product and make it easier to measure success. 

Follow these two tips and you will suddenly find yourself able to create reports, ebooks, articles, courses, workshops, home study packages, manuals and other "how to" info products with ease — no longer will the process be painful and boring but rather writing your ebook will become exciting, fun and quick. 

Still stuck or have a question about planning, outlining and developing your info products?  Post a comment below and let us know what you need to keep making progress.

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The reality is that the list of topics with high profit potential when you write and market your own how to ebook or info product are endless…I see new ones each week. 

Here is just a small list of the topics that have sold like wildfire!

• Health topics such as How To Cure Yeast Infections, How To Stop Tinnitus, how to lose weight naturally, From Skinny To Muscular, How To Conquer Menopause
• Self-improvement topics such as:  How To Stop Panic Attacks, How To Overcome Stuttering, How To Bury Fear, Take Action Now
• Weight loss:  Six pack abs, diabetic diet, How to be funny
• Relationship:  How To Win Back Your Ex, How To Be The Best Lover Ever,
• Entertainment:  eBooks about specific video games
• Other Ebook Topics:  Chicken Coop Living (How To Build Chicken Coops And Care For Chickens), How To Train Your Dog In One Evening…

Where To Find 1000's of Hot Ebook Topic Ideas…

1. Clickbank Marketplace…is a great place to look since they organize their category listings by popularity with the hottest sellers appearing earlier in the list.  They also measure thinks like average selling price and something they term "gravity" which is a measure of how many "affiliates" are making sales of that product – another indicator of how popular that topic is. 

2. Ebook Mall…same idea as Clickbank with a growing list of very interesting ebooks.   Again, you can find the most popular title by category to help determine which topics and titles are outselling the others. 

3. Amazon.com…most of these will be physical books, but certainly perusing the titles of Amazon books by category and ordering them by popularity can give you a sense of the top selling titles in your area.

4. All Conferences… This is but one conference, workshop and seminar directory we like to monitor to find highly profitable info product topics.  Why look at conferences and seminars when considering writing an ebook? If a target audience of several thousand people are willing to pay $300, $500 or even $1000 to attend a conference on a particular topic, do you think they would be willing to spend $67 or $97 on your information product?  You guessed it…by looking at high-end info products you can choose a topic that has the potential for much greater profits and more wealth than you ever imagined. 
Before we go any further – please take a few minutes and watch this very important video where we walk through the Clickbank directory and point out 5 Million dollar info product topics and WHY they are top sellers…Go ahead and watch and then carry on below. 

WHAT ABOUT COMPETITION

A common concern from new information product publishers is how to target markets with lots of potential that also have lots of competition.  A good example is weight loss or certain health niches. 

Two points that should help you overcome this fear quickly…

1. Don't be afraid of competition – you should look at it as the "holy grail" of information marketing.  If you want to surf, you don't go looking for calm water, you want big waves.  Just as a surfer puts himself or herself in front of a wave, you want to do the same thing with your ebook.  The good news is that the "waves" of demand for ebooks, report and info products tend to be consistent over time.  90% of the topics that sold well 20-years ago, still sell well today.  What that means for you is that you can write a book today and still sell it 5, even 10 years from now – a concept we will get into further later in the course called "leverage"

2. Have confidence in your marketing.  Even though there may be hundreds of books on your topic already, we are going to cover techniques in this course that will help you "out-position" and "out-market" the vast majority of your competition – so don't be afraid. 

REALLY IMPORTANT STUFF

OK, so there are thousands of high-potential topics for your own how-to information guides out there…what REALLY makes the difference in what sells and what doesn't then?

Here it is…the positioning of your topic must target a highly desirable, sometimes irrational desire to BE, DO, HAVE or to AVOID something in their life.  Frankly, your info product must target something BIG and IMPACTFUL in someone's life.  What makes a basic info product into a top seller is the ability to promise a desired OUTCOME not just inform. 

So, what does this mean.

Let's say you want to write a book about how to use the latest $2,000 digital camera.  Here are two alternative ways you could target that topic:

1. You write to inform the user of all the features and operations available on the camera – a comprehensive guide to all the features they could use — OR –

2. You could write an ebook about how to use this $2,000 camera to become a top Wedding Photography Professional or how to use the $2,000 camera to take the best night exposure shots…etc

The difference is that in #1 you are "informing" whereas in number 2 you are delivering a desired RESULT to someone's life through the information you provide. 

Big difference right?

If I happen to jump on the internet and begin searching for information on how to be a Wedding Photographer because that is my irrational, highly desired dream for my life and come upon your ebook that tells me exactly how to take Wedding Photo's with this affordable camera – I'm going to buy it at almost any price! 

TO CONCLUDE…

So, to summarize:

1. There are thousands of potential topics upon which you can base your own six-figure information publishing business
2. The criteria is to target powerful, irrational desire to BE, DO, HAVE or AVOID an outcome in your audience's life
3. There are many places online where you discover topics you KNOW are top sellers – start with those
4. To position your information in a way that promises to help your customer BE something they are not today, Do something exciting they cannot do today, Have something they currently wished they could have or Avoid a pain or situation that they are scared to death of facing. 

What about you…do these give you new topic ideas or help you determine if your how to ebook topic is in-demand or not? 

What questions remain about finding and positioning topics for your own ebook, report or info products? 

Leave us a comment and we'll help you pick your topic so you can move on with us to the next step in just a few short days.

In the next 5 days we will post Lesson 2 of our 5-part "Mastering Ebook Profis" Free Workshop posted to this blog.  Until then, get cracking on finding your ebook topic so you can take advantage of the real fun coming up.

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What if you could research topics within health, travel, relationships, business, psychology, consumer electronics, sales, pet care, alternative health…or 10's of other market segments and develop your own personal, automated profit center on the internet in the next 30-45 days? 

Believe me, there are ebooks, reports, home study guidebooks, training programs and membership sites within these markets (and many others) that earn their creators 5 and even 6-figure per month sales. 

Could you use an extra $5,000/month, $20,000/month or even $50,000 month?  The top how-to products inside Clickbank earn MORE than that amount…so yes it is possible.

My name is Jeff Smith, author of the top selling Ultimate Information Entrepreneur's Success Package , operator of the highly respected Information Marketing Zone - two of the premiere places top information publishers and marketers spend their time to grow their businesses ever bigger.    We also operate 4 different niche market, info product businesses with more than 12 products currently being sold.

With more than 10-years experience developing Millions of dollars in information-based products, we've seen just about every success story and many failures too…that gives us unique insight into what makes one ebook a 6-figure seller while another barely generates enough interest to sell a few copies each month. 

WHAT THIS EBOOK WRITING WORKSHOP WILL DO FOR YOU

Today, we are launching the 5-step Info Marketer's FAST START program – where each week we will have a new installment with the 5 key steps you need to succeed with your own how-to, informational ebook, report or info product. 

And…we will support you too!

Under each blog posting we want you to post your challenges, your questions, your progress and yes, your successes too.  We will be as interactive with this as you want to be.  This takes time, but as long as we see that you are interested in learning this powerful system and applying it to your own business, we will be happy to help you get the most out of this course. 

So, over the next 5 weeks (starting with Lesson 1 later today), we will be covering:

 
Week 1. Developing ideas that have high commercial appeal – this is a science (and artform)- in itself, believe me, 98% of my clients are missing the mark because they have not chosen a topic that hits the "sweet spot" for their marketplace

Week 2. How to outline, organize and target the information they have into an ebook that not only will appeal to customers, but will position their information in a way that is percieved as higher value – thereby placing them into a higher range price opportunity that will attract more affiliates, sell you more ebooks and bring you in higher profits

Week 3. Creating a website infrastructure for marketing, selling and following up on your ebook e-commerce business

Week 4. Advanced marketing techniques that will drive more traffic and make more sales for their ebook

Week 5. Advanced info product marketing techniques that will help them move beyond ebooks into a real info publishing business.

WHY ALL THIS FOR FREE?

Look, I understand that starting out is nerve racking, sometimes a little scary and often you are skeptical about people pushing products and services on you…instead you would like to give this a real try before you seek more help from anyone. 

Creating and marketing information products has given my family and I more freedom, satisfaction and joy than I could have ever imagined…not only is this a very financially rewarding business, it is also fun and exciting – a refreshing change from the boredom and frustration most of us have endured over our previous jobs and careers. 

So yes…in a way, I'm saying this can be your way out of living a "normal" life and entering into a period of your life that is extraordinary, fulfilling and highly rewarding.  A lifestyle where YOU own your own product, YOU call the shots, YOU create your own wealth and security and YOU decide how hard and when you want to work. 

Ready to get started?

Go ahead and let us know more about you, where you are in the operation or planning of your own info product marketing business and what challenges or tips you would like to see through this course. 

Remember…you'll get much more out of this if you are interactive. This is your chance to tap my brain (normally I charge $250/hr for consulting) and I promise I don't bite. 

Leave us a comment below…and get ready to begin the exciting journey of becoming an information product publishing entrepreneur.

Okay – let's continue to Lesson 1 where we cover "Finding And Positioning Your Ebook Topic"

Lesson 2 "Outlining And Producing Your Info Product" is available here.

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