Where to start with putting together an Ebook

[NewbieGal]

I am not sure if i am posting in the right section, but as i posted in the main IM section i need to make $1000 a month for the next several months.

I was told the best thing to do was to put together an information product to sell via Cb. Not sure where to start and what needs to be done. Any suggestions?

[sidsavara]

I think there are a lot of ebooks that cover this, I can recommend the one I like.

I read "The Rich Jerk" which doesn't have any new information in there, but does contain a lot of information about clickbank, affiliate sales, etc. I never got into it, but if you are looking for information on how it's done, that's a great introduction.

That said, I never applied anything in the ebook to great success. It is very competitive, the best I did was breaking even or a little better. I think the strategies are all legitimate, but there is just a *ton* of people out there trying to make money doing the same thing, so it's not a quick road to riches (from my experience)

[jschop]

Clickbank might be a little complex for someone new to IM.

Why not search for forums that are very active. Then write an ebook about something that would appeal to that forum. For example, if you found a forum about people traveling to Boston, you might make an ebook about offbeat places to visit in New England.

Become an active member of the forum and put a link to your ebook in your signature.

Then, when you're comfortable writing ebooks and salespages, and comfortabe designing sites to sell your ebooks on, you might want to try to tackle CB.

[jrmnlitt]

If you are creating a ebook try using openoffice.org. It converts your ebook to pdf form for you.

[jbsmith]

The place to start is finding a topic that shows evidence of strong demand and consistent buying activity.

You can start by looking at the major retailers/directories that sell ebooks and books such as Clickbank.com/marketplace and Amazon - both will list ebooks and books within categories by popularity, with Amazon you can also get a relative sales rank against other books in that category.

What you are looking for are patterns of markets and topics where there is a hungry market already paying for information.

Once you have some examples, then you can pick out the exact question or desire behind those products and quickly put together your own product to sell. The product could be a report, ebook, book, audio, etc...

Here is a video we recently did on 5 potential hot niche markets and how to turn those into money-making information marketing businesses - you can use the same approach to find other ideas and markets:

YouTube - Writing ebooks - 5 Top Selling Topics

Jeff

[NewbieGal]

Thanks! This information is really helpful.

[Jillian Slack]

Microsoft Word also lets you convert your document to PDF.

I start out in MindJet MindManager.

Brainstorm in MindJet using the bubbles to capture my thoughts and move them around. Helps me think in a logical manner.

When I get to a certain point and feel like I'm ready to expand, I export it to Word and it takes everything over and makes subheads for me.

Then I round it all out, and save as a PDF as the final step.

[Jason Johns]

Hi there,

The first thing to do is identify a market. You need to find people who have problems that need solutions (in the form of your e-book).

Check out forums, apply your own expertese, listen to what peope are talking about and you will find a niche.

Then create a high quality product solving their problem and market it.

It's pretty easy putting it on Clickbank and you benefit frm all the affiliates on there, so is worth while.

All the best

Jason

[TracyNeedham]

You've received some good tips but I would not start out with Clickbank before testing out the ebook yourself. Or trying it out on another network--maybe Paydotcom though I'm not 100% sure how I feel about that one yet. (Testing it now)

I'm actually putting together a report Burned by Clickbank as a bonus to an info product product (not a typo!) I'm doing because it's a bit more complicated to succeed there than it looks.

One way to test it yourself is to put up a landing page where people can opt-on for a freebie on your topic--then drive traffic to the page. You'll see not only if it takes off, but you'll also develop a list you can market the product to when it's ready.

If you're interested, I have a free audio on the 9 Secrets to Ebook Success (but it applies to all info products) at www.myebooksuccess.com.

Tracy