Writing eBooks – Survey Your Market, Watch Out For This!
Should you survey your market to discover topics and content when writing ebooks?
It makes me chuckle to see some well known ebook writers and online marketers that swear by surveys as the single method to develop a sense for hot selling topics and outlining for your ebooks.
This just provides another great example of guru's spreading crap without fully understanding the impact – we discuss the real methods to use to discover information people really want and will pay big money to get in the Ultimate Information Entrepreneur's Success Package, and believe me , there are many other ways other than surveys to discover opportunity for writing ebooks.
The reason I chuckle is that surveys, focus groups and other methods of asking your market what they want has been around for decades – in that time the overall impact of such information gained from surveys has been highly critisized.
Plain and simple, most survey's don't really work – and for good reason, people buy within emotion, not logic right?
If you agree with that statement, then it is impossible for them to accurately tell you what they will spend money on in the future. It's not a big shock for any seasoned marketer – people will often not do as they say, they say as they do.
So, what does that mean for those of you interested in writing ebooks that sell like wildfire?
Look at the dozens of other techniques that demonstrate what people are doing – buying behaviors, trend analysis, product test runs and other methods of testing what buyers will do all the while building momentum and income for your business.
Truly folks, this is the most misunderstood concept and source of mistakes when writing ebooks and other information products – its critical you understand the difference between what people say they will do versus understanding what they are doing.
By positioning your product in front of a tidal wave of activity that is already building in momentum, you will assure yourself of your own information product marketing empire.
Jeff
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Comments on Writing eBooks – Survey Your Market, Watch Out For This!
Jeff,
What I'm finding frustrating about e-courses and newsletters is that they have a little bit of very general information with a lot of rah-rah attitude but mostly are trying to sell something of their own or someone else. Is anybody in this business of infoproducts selling programs that actually teach you something?
Hi Anita, I hear your frustration.
Two points that may help…
1. Recognize that e-courses and ezines are really just marketing vehicles to "warm" up a prospect and introduce the concepts and value (hopefully) that particular person or company brings to the market. And you would be right in assessing that over 90% of the offers are either not worth your time or not right for where you want to go.
2. Your ability to generate a vision, a goal and a set of questions around how to get there will help you pinpoint the exact sort of help you need to get to the next stage. I know many big name online marketers and they will tend to help anyone who is really dedicated, enthusiastic, has thought through their plan and demonstrates the willingness (even a history) of action. You see, many of us get allot of requests to assist over a week, and most truly want to make a difference, but we know that 8 out of 10 will never implement the tips.
So – to make a long story short, if you really want to succeed in this business, have thought through your strengths and what you like to do best, and have a list of questions you need answers to – then fire away – this is a great place as is just about any forum out there.
Cheers…
Jeff
Jeff,
I'm a firm believer in what you just said and not only that, I personally don't like doing surveys just because they are a pain in the ass. You have to create the survey and come up with some kind of bribe for them to take a survey and for what, to find out what they say they might buy.
You are 100% correct when you said that there are a lot of other ways to find out what people are " actually " buying. It doesn't take rocket science to search the net and your local bookstore
to see what's hot. In a nutshell, all you need to do is add your own twist to a hot seller and you have a top notch info product.