Have You Seen This Idea - Page Magnetizer?

Hi Derek,

what's the idea behind it?

It has much of a search tool but little of a book, or am I missing something?
In what way is it an info product? Would the publisher be able to add content to it? Or affiliate promotions?

Ralf

Thanks for the nice feedback, guys!

Ralf:

Here's the idea/thinking behind it.

Think of a physical book. Inside that book is a table of contents, with each section of that table of contents representing a focused discussion of a single aspect of the overall topic.

For example, a book about dog breeds would likely contain a table of contents which would simply be a list of individual dog breeds (german shepherd, boxer, etc.). Flip to that section of the book to learn about that breed and see pictures of it.

The problem with physical books is the limited scope of their content. In other words, a book can only contain so many pages, is usually written by a single expert, and the info is not only static (doesn't change) but can quickly go out of date.

The idea behind this 'Search Book' idea is to turn that table of contents into a dynamic list so that when the user selects an item on the list, they have at their fingertips the vast resources of the entire Web to locate content about that single item - websites, articles, videos, images, Wikipedia, etc., not just the few pages of content you'll likely find in a book.

Think of another example. Which do you think would be better: A regular print travel book about London that contained a few nice pictures and some info about each of the top 20 attractions, or a 'Search Book' (my idea) that put the names of those 20 attractions into a dynamic list that allowed users to quickly and easily discover Web sites, videos, and dynamic maps for each attraction?

To me, there's no comparison.

So, instead writing a book by taking a topic, breaking it into individual sections, and filling those individual sections with content yourself (very limited), my Search Book idea takes those individual sections and allows the vast resources of the Web to provide the content instead.

Let's face it - these days, there are articles, sites, videos, etc. for virtually any single question that needs to be answered about any topic. My Search Book idea simply puts related questions together in a single list and lets the Web provide the answers/content.

Why should I flood the Web with another ebook containing redundant content about something that's been written about and discussed already 10s, 100s, even 1000s of times already?

All I need to do is figure out the questions people have on a topic, and point them to quality resources on the Web that provide satisfying answers. That's the purpose of my idea.

I hope that answers your question.

If not, let me know.

Derek

Thanks so much for all the great feedback!

Mark:

As for monetizing, there are all sorts of ideas:

* Sell access to it - like you would a PDF ebook. Create as many as you like for different topics
* Create a site with one or more Search Books on individual pages (for different topics) and place ads for related products around the Search Book interface - kind of like what you do with articles now
* Offer it as an awesome incentive for someone to sign up to your list
* Create a course where each week you add more relevant keywords/keyphrases to the list, and explain how to discover the most information for each one.

Those are just a few off the top of my head.

These lists can contain searches for:

* How tos
* Top 10's
* People
* Places
* FAQS
* Historical events
* Endless possiblities

Just think of all the things that people write books about, then think of turning their table of contents into a searchable list.

For example, in probably less than 10 minutes, I could probably come up with a list of searches related to Photoshop that could easily blow away any print book you might find about it.

Remember, for every static, boring tutorial in a book, there's likely at least 10 times more interactive and dynamic tutorials online about the same thing. Online it's probably in video-form and there's a discussion board attached for support!

How can a print book compare to that?

Anyway, I'd love to continue hearing your thoughts!

Thanks!

Derek