What you -don't- want to see in an ebook or report?

I dislike ebooks that are outdated and talk about the author. Reports should provide information of value.

Definitely a good point. Reminds me of a video I once watched. It was supposed to be informational but the speaker kept rambling on about nothing. I mean he really liked listening to himself talk.

I guess I should add a couple of obvious ones just for the sake of doing it:

Big blocks of text=bad
Being vague or unclear=also bad

I dislike coffee stains in ebooks. LOL

No, seriously, do not take it too serious.

Just write up some stuff and publish it. As long as it is your stuff and not some kind of regurgitated stuff from somebody else, it should be fine.

I once bought an ebook from a really good, popular marketer which had notes to his VA for editing left inside it... that ticked me off.

I can handle spelling mistakes and grammatical errors (I'm buying for the content) but that was just sloppy. I think it even had duplicated chapters.

Personally, I like something that is well organized and has a logical sequence. Make sure it is easy to see what is being covered in a table of contents and clear sections with sub-headers.

No matter what the subject, I like to have very clear actionable tasks to complete. Even better, include any checklists, tools, worksheets, etc. that are helpful.

Having a little backstory that gives you credibility is nice, but shouldn't go on for pages. That's just self-aggrandizing and annoying.

What I hate: Paragraphs and paragraphs on end that aren't broken up. I just won't bother reading it if I don't know what's being covered. Then there's misspellings and slang everywhere. It's good to be personal and casual, but I read one report that used the word "gotta" in practically every paragraph. Drove me nuts, but then that may just be me.

Just go outline your report and start writing. You can go back and edit later. As Bob Jenkins says, "Take Action, Revise Later".

Good luck!

There are a couple of comments I've seen that I take issue with. First, I do agree you don't want to make this thing all about you.

But for the topic you're going to have to talk about yourself to some degree. You're trying to come across as a motivational expert so it's impossible not to talk about some of your experiences. If you do it well you'll weave in little stories about how you came to realize how important mindset and the rest is. People learn better and relate better to short stories than just a bunch of dry narrative.

Someone also suggested you use 18 point font. Ugh. That immediately smacks of the "fluff" or padding mentality. Most people see right through that and they often feel cheated.

Pick a clean seriff font like Times New Roman and keep it at 12 or 13 point. I very much like New Century Schoolbook because it's already nice and readable at 12pt.

One other thing. Don't refer to your work as an ebook. eBooks are considered cheap, a dime a dozen. They're all over the Internet for free. Call it a report or a guide or a program or a tutorial or whatever. Anything but an ebook. Good luck.

Good stuff here. I will keep these things in mind. I should be getting into the first phase of this thing soon.

I expect this project to be time consuming. I also expect it to be a learning experience. So even if my first report turns out to be a dud I'm fine with it as long as I gain new knowledge out of it (though I may not feel that way a few months from now...). Then it will be a matter of reanalyzing and adjusting my methods.