One of the most important, most fulfilling and most effective things I have ever done affecting personal and professional aspects of my life in incredibly positive ways is to write my first ebook.

That first ebook led to another, which led to another and soon we had released 12 different ebooks with several other non-fiction training programs, coaching programs and the like to our name.

So effective has been this path that we now end up getting dozens of questions each week about everything from how to pick a market and book topic to how to publish and sell your books online…an pretty much everything in between.

One of the most striking mistakes that people make is that they fall in love with the IDEA of writing a book…of somehow striking it rich and only having to spend an hour or two a day writing while bucket loads of money fall effortlessly into their bank accounts.

While there certainly is an element of passive income, control and freedom that comes with writing ebooks, books, and information products – there is also effort, persistence and sweat required to get your business off the ground.

So when I get asked about niche markets, topics and titles – my advice is always to pick the market, topic and title that both you fall in love with AND that serves a massive need or desire in your marketplace.

Too many people make the mistake of writing a book on a topic they think will sell when the reality is that NO BOOK will sell without your passion, energy and effort behind it.

Here is just a sample of the effort we put into our ebooks and books during and after the actual writing takes place:

1. Build A Platform:  Often this starts weeks (sometimes months) in advance where we select our market, dig in to understand our market and begin to post content attracting our market toward us.  This means daily blogging, weekly videos, weekly articles (for syndication) not to mention becoming involved in discussions with your market through social networks, blog comments, forums, etc…  Our goal is to be getting 300-500 targeted visits to our sites daily AND a list of at least 1000 unique subscribers prior to launching any book or ebook

2. Reviews, Endorsements and Partners:  I put these 3 concepts together for a reason, as we explain in the 6-Week Fast-Start InfoProfits Video Course inside InfoMarketer’sZone, we have fine-tuned the process of finding, getting the attention and closing reviews, endorsements and partners who become crazy champions helping us sell thousands of our books when we hit the market.  These reviews, endorsements and partners are the very foundation of what will make your product sell like wildfire or sputter like a old engine.

3. Continued Promotion:  Even after a bang-up launch, we continue daily to generate content, look for syndication opportunities, seek out new partners, stay ahead of the technology as new areas for exposure and participation with our markets open up.

None of this happens without an incredible passion for both serving your market and your product – your place in the market.

When you have this passion, self-publishing your own information products and serving your market turns into FUN and becomes one of the best ways to earn profit – but only if your market detects that you are in it to help them, that they can rest their hopes, dreams and desires on YOU and your business.

Here’s a great article on Forbes from female entrepreneur Kristi Hedges that reinforces the notion, she points specifically to how important passion was to her success with the book she wrote two years ago.

If you are reading this now and have a desire to write your own ebook, self-publish a physical book or become a trainer or infopreneur, then STOP and make sure you know how to properly uncover and then research your target markets making sure you make your tie in your passions and interests along the way – your potential for success will be miles higher.

Do you have an idea now that you are exploring for your own book or ebook?  Leave a comment and let us know.