Lesson 1: Finding And Positioning Your Ebook Topic
I get asked quite often, what topics sell the best?
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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Pings on Lesson 1: Finding And Positioning Your Ebook Topic
Comments on Lesson 1: Finding And Positioning Your Ebook Topic
6:33 pm
My subject is understanding the human condition other than that of spirituality or religion. In a way I go against the grain because I think most of what we have been conditioned to believe is simply a ploy to smoke screen the reality of who we are. My work leans toward science. I am finding it difficult to spot a key word to address this.
8:33 pm
Hi Amy – my advice to you is to focus on what end result you can bring to people. The fact that you have a different approach is terrific, but first, figure out what suffering, pain or challenge that your approach can help people cure or overcome (to be more happy, overcome stress, find a purpose, etc…) – that is where you will find relevant keywords.
3:30 am
hi Jeff –
Good stuff. I have lots of ideas – but I tend to procrastinate…usually by finding TOO MANY GOOD IDEAS to pursue. I know you promote finding the hottest markets. BUt for those of us who like to procrastinate do think its a good idea to start with a topic we are well versed in – and write the ebook, and build the website for the experience? and then research the hot topics later?
Or is it better to do it the right way first, and eliminate the disappointments and potential minimal sales for a topic with a limited audience?
thx.
9:21 am
Great question Bernie – the age old challenge of passion versus commercial value. The answer is you can almost always find both. Two of my markets I have found by starting with passion/experience and then digging in to find/validate hot topics within that area of interest. That works – believe me! Another approach is to look for areas where there is big opportunity and come up with a list until you find one that you think would be both fun and profitable at the same time. I have two other markets I operate in that I found using this approach.
What I don't advise is to jump into a market you are passionate about without doing any up-front digging to find the topic that appeal most to the audience – it almost always fails.
Here's an example – let's say I am passionate about piano playing…great. But, what information do piano players want – what do they spend money on? Could it be tips on buying a piano? How to play certain songs on the piano? How to become a concert pianist? How they can make money as a piano musician?
Do you see what I mean? Start with an area you have experience in – ok – but then dig in and figure out where the demand and proven buying activity is around that topic.
Jeff
12:54 pm
I'd love to find a way to help small business and retailers who don't know much about marketing and advertising, and therefore, have no plans, waste a lot of money etc. I'm not about internet marketing or building websites, etc – that's not my forte.
7:59 pm
I am very interested in learning to write Ebooks! I will make the time for this…
2:41 pm
Hi Jeff
I thought a good idea was to look at forum boards concerning my professional subject that I worked & taught in for over 25 years (which is diy' & wall/ceiling texturing & plastering) as I was answering questions to poster's problems I felt a need to create information guides to aid other interested diy'rs to attemp texturing themselves. Although I left school at thirteen & didn't have a clue concerning writing/laying out etc; I learned as I went along anyhow. And that is how I started becoming an information publisher. And best of all, the information that I provide is totally unique. So this may also be a good start to the newbie of creating info products.
Wheras on how to create a book is concerned, I didn't have much of a clue at first, so I downloaded other e-books, & followed their layout formula.
As you have said in your report, starting to write about what one knows so much about is a great idea for creating info products.
But earlier this year I invested in a camcorder, created a unique diy DVD, created an advert on youtube, & the response of hits to my site has been fantastic.
Thanks for allowing me to share my experience. Dale Ovenstone. http://www.lookreadlearn.com http://www.diy-ceiling-wall-texture.com
Ps, looking forward to your articles (because I like to learn all of the time)
pps, thanks, your previous articles have aided me immensly.
6:31 pm
Jeff, I’m playing catch-up. I didn’t fall off the wagon – it was hijacked. LESSON 1 is great. I’m targeting several niches … down the road, but want to begin with teenage dating (ages 14-17). Two years ago, I developed a PowerPoint presentation and have presented it (along with workshop materials) primarily to teens at an inter-faith organization.
The thrust of the ebook is to develop confident, savvy, fully-informed teens capable of making good dating choices (before, during & after their date). I’m attempting now to develop an eBook using some of the workshop material and updating where necessary. (I’ve also outlined an ebook for parents of dating teens.) My question: Which group is my market niche – the Parents, the teens, or both? I ventured over to ClickBank and ran a dual search – using “Home/Family” (category) + “teen dating” (keyword) + “Parenting” (subcategory). I got 60 hits but not one ebook FOR teens. Found five for parents dealing with teenager issues, but not one on helping teens succeed at dating. (I’ve narrowed the niche more specifically, but wanted to see what ClickBank would turn up if I ran a “general” search.) Jeff, how should I interpret my ClickBank results?
7:24 pm
Hi Sheila – I think we need to pay close attention to your Clickbank findings…here's an explanation for why the books you have found are targeted at parents of teens…
One of the golden rules of marketing info products is that you must aim at a market that has the capability and desire to buy what you produce. I've seen many markets that NEED the information people can provide, but only those that have the money to spend and the desire to buy will be successful. In this case, parents have more money than the teens do, so they are more likely to spend it. Second, I remember back to that point in my life, I was not looking for answers to my questions in books – teens don't tend to do that. Finding answers in books is something we learn as we grow – so that would explain the targeting at parents.
What I would recommend you do is 1) Focus on the parents of teens as the main channel to reaching teens 2) Create the book or course to primarily help parents communicate and help their teens with this issue and 3) Create a companion report, guide, checklist, manual or section in your ebook that is designed for the parent to hand to their teen to read – that way you reach the teen through the parent who is both more likely to desire your information AND more likely to spend money on it.
Having the companion "For Your Teen" guide would also make your offering unique – it would stand out as the only guide that is for parents AND teens.
Jeff
7:27 pm
By the way guys – I've had a few of you contact me and ask "How can I get more personal help and training on the topic of info product creation and marketing" – my recommendation is this site – http://www.infomarketerszone.com where there are tons of video training sessions, tools, templates and a personal mentoring forum where I and other info preneurs can help you every step of the way.
It's a great way to fast-track your info marketing business growth.
Jeff
11:48 pm
Jeff, your response is awe-inspiring! I especially appreciate the three bullet points – clear and concise. Your instructions leave me feeling enlightened, lighthearted, and inspired. I love the notion of creating a unique product offering. I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel …Sumo-Grazie!!!
2:09 am
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your replying and linking me to here on the warrior forum
Keen as to make this work.
I think i have a good idea for a topic, renewable energy. specifically getting a house off the power grid, or still connected but putting clean power back into the system effectively eliminating the power bill. how ever im definitely not an expert in the field. a distinction in first semester University physics is about as close as i come.