Re: How does someone go about choosing a subject?

[Andrea21]

Hi,

I know that I seem to asking the same type of questions. However, I really want to start an internet business with an idea that I think is whorthwhile pursuing. Therefore, I hope someone can give me some good advice about how to go about choosing subjects to write ebooklets or several ebooklets about when they haven't got appropriate knowledge or experience to write about and they have really tried to come up with something appropriate to write about.

I did intend writing an ebooklet about 'Training dogs' and so on. However, I have never owned a dog. So, I feel that it wouldn't be right to write about something that I have no experience in. Obviously, I could interview various people. However, there are many different approaches to training a dog.

I could go and use the public domain information.[b] However, if I don't know what subject to write about, I won't know what to search for.

[b]Do you agree therefore that I should stick to writing about subjects where gaining the knowledge would be enough, without having to worry about writing about something out of experience

If that is the case, can anyone come with some good subjects to write about? I have thought about various careers, historical subjects. What else is there?

I appreciate your advice.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Regards



Andrea

[Lynn Terry]

First, see this post I just added in reply to your other thread:
http://www.selfstartersweeklytips.com/f ... 0018#30018

That should give you a good start in finding and researching topics to write about. Now, let's break down the options for writing ebooks & ebooklets...

- You can write a guide based on your own experience

- You can reprint a guide that is in public domain

- You can interview people who are experienced in a certain thing


Anyone else want to add to that list?

[Tom Fosson]

Andrea,

There are many ways of deciding on a subject, but by far the best is to figure out just what you are interested in. What are you passionate about? What are your hobbies? What things do you collect? What kind of work do you like to do?

Make a list of everything that makes you tingle. Everything that, when you hear it mentioned, or see it on T.V., or hear it on the radio, or run across a web link, it makes you 'stand up and take notice' - it captures your focus.

If you're creating from scratch, nothing works better than something you love yourself - you can point out things to lesser passionate readers that they may have never thought of. And readers will sense your sincerity and knowledge just from your inspired presentation.

If all you're wanting to do is whip up a bunch of 'quick & dirty' ebooks, there are many ways of collecting material and putting together entirely new ebooks from the material collected.

There are private membership sites that provide the latest 'big thing' in marketing - Private Lable Rights! One I belong to provides over 200 new articles in three or four different 'niche' categories per month.

You can use tools like Copernic and Search Automator to perform complex searchs on specific keywords and narrowing the results down to just what you are looking for - articles, tutorials, ebooks, member sites.

Another tip is that with today's enormous hard disk storage, get organized and collect info you run across on the web in a way that you can find it later. I do this with email, web pages, software, music, pictures, newsletters, ebooks, purchases, etc. My computer is more organized than my home.

Good luck with your endeavers. Write about what makes you happy - you'll have a lot more fun doing it.

[Andrea21]

Hi,

Thank you again for your replies and for your advice. I do really appreciate the help that is being given.

I will try and do what you suggested and go over to wordtracker and try and see what comes up within the searches. I hope that the free trial version will be enough to do this.

I am actually interested in writing 'Careers for ------'type ebooks, since I have researched quite a lot of information on different careers. I am very interested in reading up about 1940's and 1950's hollywood actors and actresses and reading historical novels.

Regards



Andrea

[KathleenGageSpeaker]

The question I would have is, "what is the purpose of the eBook?" Is it merely to write something or is it to achieve an end result such as provide a service for clients?

Depending on the topic, an eBook may involve a great deal of research. Especially if it is a topic you are not familiar with. Even with topics you have a great deal of knowledge on there can be a considerable amount of time that goes into the research and development of the end product.

I base my eBook topics on my market. What is it that would be of great benefit to them? In that I am a marketing and promotions advisor as well as a keynote speaker and trainer on the topics of sales, marketing and promotions, the majority of my writing addresses those topics.

I have written eBooks for some of my clients addressing the needs and concerns of their market. One client is a computer security company so his eBook deals with statistics and information about computer theft. The eBook also offers information on how to reduce the risk of computer theft.

Another client is a dentist. I wrote an eBook for him on how to build a successful dental practice. Target market - other dentists.

The eBook size is determined by whether or not I am giving the product away or selling it. Often, I have mini versions of the eBooks I sell available at no cost as a way to introduce people to my writing style and encourage them to go beyond the free to fee.

Hope this helps. Good luck.
Kathleen

[Rose]

[jbsmith]

Hi Andrea - I've written over 20 different ebooks and reports as well as
numerous other workshops, trainings, courses and seminars - and more
than a few audios/videos along the way.

An interesting thing to keep in mind about ebooks, because people purchase
them online, they typically find them when they are looking for an answer
to a specific desire, passion or need AND they typically purchase based on
emotion.

In other words, they HAVE to have the information now, otherwise, they would go a browse around a bookstore, perhaps spend a few days looking
for free sources of information, etc...

So - you will do best selling ebooks that a) address a specific and proven
desire within a given market and b) that focus on urgency, uniqueness,
and benefit to the reader aligning with what they want badly.

As such - topics such as "The Complete History Of..." will typically not
sell as well as "How To..." or "Insider Information On..." type topics.

Here's a recent article I wrote on how to structure your ebook - it
gets you thinking in terms of providing answers to critical questions
rather than just writing for writing sake.



Take your interest in creating ebooks on careers.

What do people REALLY desire about careers:

1) More than 80% are unsatisfied with current career - so something
that helps them find careers that will make them happier AND helps them
to secure that career will be in large demand

2) The single hottest product/service that sells into the career seekers
market is resume writing services. There is HUGE demand for these
services - while the demand for ebooks on how to write resumes is very
poor (I've had more than 1 coaching client fooled by this seemingly
lucrative market).

A logical extension might be to interview a few resume writing experts
to understand their techniques and advice - front end the ebook with
back-end links to their resume writing services.

3) I always suggest that anyone looking to seriously build their own
information product publishing and marketing business pick one marquee
market that they are very passionate about and will want to build into
a thriving information product empire - that's their core business and
future exit path (should they so choose). This is the market where you
will brand yourself THE expert, conduct interviews, develop multiple products, build a large list, basically turning it into your automated money
machine over time.

Once you are set in your core market, you can experiment with other
niches, try capturing some other markets, etc...

You really do want to farm your core market though - the money and time
you spend developing your first product can pay off 10X bigger if you
turn that original group of customers into lifelong customers - spending
more on additional products you create.

Further, you turn your subscribers and customers into your own product
development "ecosystem" that continues to feed you opportunities for new
products through interactive forums such as this one, surveys you conduct,
feedback directly from your customers, etc...

I'll stop writing now, its great to see you are taking the front end of your
business so seriously - each day I get emails from subscribers or visitors
to my site who have already spent months developing products that are
just plain taking the wrong approach to a market.

Hope this helps...

Jeff

[Andrea21]

Hi,

Hi,

Thank you for replying.

I am glad to hear that you don't have to have experience in a subject to write about it.

However, I am still stuck about finding things to write about.

I am trying to think about what I enjoy doing.

I like reading historical fiction and searching for ways of earning an income online.

I am finding it difficult to choose a subject and then find a niche to write about.

I have already written an ebook about Careers and shyness. I was wondering what other type of career ebooks to write?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Regards



Andrea

[Jeff Casmer]

Hi Andrea,

In my experiences with different businesses offline and online which covers 20 years I have found that most people who find a subject that they truly "love" they seem to do better at. E-books, websites, whatever they choose to use as a "format" pick a subject they love.

For example I have a blog title "Fettucine Recipes".

http://fettucinerecipes.blogspot.com

Now....the purpose of this blog is to give people access to the best fettucine recipes in the world......dont get me wrong....my little blog isnt going to make a million dollars because other than some google adsense and links to my other sites, the purpose of the blog is to write about something I love......

My google adsense now brings me almost $80 per day......now....think of 10 more things I love to do and similar results? You will find me on a beach 12 weeks a year.....lol...

Do what you love!

Good luck!
Jeff Casmer

[jbsmith]

Hi Andrea - I would suggest a more in depth inventory of your interests.

Many people find that when they really think about it, there are many
things they are interested in, however they dismiss them too early as they
pre-judge them as areas where there is no interest.

Second, if you want to write an ebook that sells, it is much less risky to
tap into a market where it is evident that people are already spending money - and preferably on information.

Try a few things...

1. Keyword research - someone already mentioned wordtracker, do search
under your keywords (for each topic you are considering) and specifically
include words such as "book", "course", "ebook", "workshop", "manual", "report", "newsletter", "cd", "dvd", etc... to your keywords to get specific metrics on searches for information as opposed to generalized searches on a given market.

2. Head over to Amazon and search for books on your various considered topics. Find out what is out there, check the Amazon sales rank - a little number halfway down the page of the product description. This is a relative number that will indicate if the product is selling. Narrow the list to a few of the better sellers and note their approach to the topic. In Amazon, you can often drill into the table of contents and even see sample pages. Tables of contents are idea generators in themselves - each chapter in a traditional published book can often be turned into its own ebook looking at more detail on a particular sub-topic.

3. Search eBay for ebooks, courses, manuals, reports, books, on your topic. Once you see a few, drill into the auction and look at the history of the seller - you will get a feel for how many copies are selling by the amount of feedback against the actual number of products posted for sale over a period of time.

Andrea - if you really want to succeed marketing information products - you need to put most of your effort into fnding demand. What you will find is that actually writing the content is actually less important than identifying strong pockets of demand, and coming up with a good outline for fulfilling the desire in the market you choose.

There is no magic pill, no simple answer - however the answers are there, it just takes a few days of dedicated detective work on your part.

Hope this helps...

Jeff

[Andrea21]

Hi,

Thank you for your replies. I agree with what you're saying.

It is better to write about something that you are really interested in and that actually finding topics that will sell is an important factor to concentrate on.

I will certainly take your advice and do some more searches in wordtracker.

In the meantime, if anyone can think of any subjects that would be interesting to write about, I would really like to to know what they are.

I appreciate your advice.

Regards


Andrea

[Jeff Casmer]