Product Creation-
Part Two
by:
Pat O'Bryan
Another strategy for
producing an e-book is to ask others
to write it ror you. Some of the
most successful e-book promotions
have featured e-books with multiple
authors.
Why would an author
give you a chapter for your book?
Because you will
encourage them to include their
contact information and links to
their web pages, that’s why. The
more copies of your book that you
sell or give away, the more traffic
they get to their sales sites. More
traffic equals more sales.
Here’s how I used
this technique.
At our weekly
mastermind meeting, I cracked a joke
about The Myth of Passive Income (www.mythofpassiveincome.com).
I was whining because I had spent
two whole hours filling orders and
answering customer service emails.
This was the internet
age-I was supposed to be sitting on
the beach smoking a Cuban cigar and
drinking espresso while the money
magically appeared in my bank
account, wasn’t I?
The reality, as most
successful internet marketers will
tell you if you catch them out of
the public eye, is that most
successful internet marketers work
long hours to create passive income.
Especially in the beginning of your
internet marketing career, passive
income is a myth.
Joe Vitale laughed at
my joke, and then decided it would
make an interesting book. So he
contacted several of the top
internet marketers and asked them to
write a chapter about their passive
income experiences. In a couple of
weeks, we had over twenty chapters,
from some of the biggest names in
the business.
You can see the final
product at
www.mythofpassiveincome.com .
This technique will
work for almost any subject. For
example, if you wanted to write a
book about running a successful E-zine,
you could email the authors of the
most successful E-zines and ask them
to contribute a chapter.
I suspect most of
them would jump at the chance. Every
copy of your e-book will be an
advertisement for their E-zine.
When it came time to
approach Joint-Venture partners for
the e-book, we approached the
co-authors. They were happy to make
money from the e-book. Of course,
it would be interesting to their
lists- since they’re in it.
This generated a lot
of sales, but more importantly, each
person they sent to our site had the
opportunity to sign up for our
list. This is a great technique for
“creaming” another marketer’s list.
We were able to identify, and gain
access to, the members of their list
that were interested in our
products.
This has led to some
great relationships with our new
subscribers, and subsequent sales of
other products.
Get the idea?
A variation on
having others write your book for
you is to use interviews.
This is just a little
more work, but there are a lot of
benefits to this method. Remember
that the interview can be conducted
by phone, in person, by email-
sometimes, the method you use to
interview the expert can be a
selling point. Be creative!
People who might not
take the time to write a chapter are
more likely to have a conversation
with you, especially if you entice
them with an ethical bribe-in this
case, you can offer to include their
contact and sales information in the
chapter you create from the
interview.
Remember, these
interviews can be done over the
phone or through email.
For example, suppose
you wanted to write an e-book about
the best way to buy a used car. You
could arrange to talk with a broad
range of used car salesmen. What are
their tricks? What techniques do
they use to get customers to buy?
What should a customer ask? What
should a customer be afraid of or
concerned about?
Most salesmen will
happily talk about their business,
if you can convince them that it
will attract more customers.
In this case, I’d ask
them about the dirty tricks other
salesmen use.
If you’re writing an
e-book about a topic you’re very
familiar with, you can interview
yourself!
Once you’ve got your
interviews, you’ve converted your
authoring problem to a typing
problem. You can even hire a
transcription service to type it for
you.
Writing your book
from interviews has a hidden
benefit-you nowhave an audio product
to sell! You can use your interview
tapes as the source material to
create CDs or you can convert them
to MP3’s and sell them as digital
products.
One example of an
interview mp3 product is at
www.e-bookproblemsolver.com. I
interviewed Dr. Joe Vitale on the
subject of e-book production and
marketing, converted the interview
into mp3s and put them online.
After listening to that interview,
you should be able to come up with a
topic, write the e-book, get it
online, and sell it. The whole
production took less than four hours
to create- and was a lot of fun.
Right now, the most
popular e-books are the ones that
explain how to do something: how to
save money, how to make a web page,
how to fix a car, how to satisfy
your lover, how to bake a great
cheese-cake- even how to write an
e-book!
You’re looking for an
expert, but don’t get in a rut about
what constitutes an “expert.” Here
are some potential subjects for your
interview. I’ll bet you can think of
many more.
Real Estate
Agent-real estate is the most
expensive purchase most of us will
make. People want information about
how to make these purchases
intelligently. how to finance your
first real estate purchase, how to
rent to own, how to sell your house
yourself without an agent, how to
prepare your house to get the best
price when you sell it- here’s a
hint- bake bread before the
prospective buyer shows up!
how to qualify for a
mortgage
how to get the most
house for your money
how to make money on
rental property
Insurance
Agent-Insurance is a subject that is
mystifying and scary tomost people.
How to buy life
insurance
How to buy health
insurance
Different types of
life insurance, who should buy what?
Major medical versus
full coverage
Day Care Center
worker/owner-
How to find a safe
day care center
What are the dangers?
Licensing of day care
centers
Montessori vs.
traditional
There is no limit to
this- find a problem and solve it.
Then sell the solution.
Coffee Shop employee-
How to make the
perfect cup of coffee
The best beans
Easy mistakes
everybody makes
Eco-Friendly
coffee-why it’s good for you and
good for the planet.
Grumpy
customers-nightmare stories from the
coffee shop
Internet Gurus-this
is an area that is saturated. If
you’re going to write about making
money online, you need to have a
unique perspective. One of the most
popular e-books right now is a
series of interviews with “unknown”
online marketers. Find an angle that
nobody else has exploited.
Here are a few I’ve
come up with.
Secret lives-what’s
unusual and unknown about internet
marketing celebrities? Do they play
guitar, paint pictures, climb
mountains, write children’s books,
work for charity?
People are interested
in the human side of celebrities.
Rags to Riches- this
one always works.
Unusual
success-everybody markets
information products. Can you find
someone who markets something really
unusual online?
Riches to
Rags-Mistakes are how we learn. It’s
less painful to learn from someone
else’s mistakes.
High-School
Students-this is a big market. When
you add in their parents, it’s one
of the biggest.
How to make great
grades
How to use
high-school to prepare for college
Social games and how
to win them
How to be yourself
and survive high-school
Fashion secrets for
high-school students
College Students-
How to make money
while you’re in college. See if you
can get Michael Dell! How to start
your career while you’re still in
college. Many industries, including
banking, financial planning, sales,
and CPA’s have mentor programs for
students studying their field.
How to survive
college
99 ways to pay for
college
How to get a grant,
scholarship, or loan for college
Retirees-
Just because someone
has reached the mandatory retirement
agein their industry that doesn’t
mean they immediately lose
theirvalue. And because they are
retired, they probably will
welcomethe opportunity to help you
with your book!
Industry survey- what
jobs provided the most satisfaction?
How to retire with a
comfortable income
How to survive
retirement
Insider secrets to
(whatever industry they retired
from)
I hope you’re getting
the idea that almost anybody can be
an expert, and a resource for a
profitable e-book, if you create the
right questions.
****************************************
Pat
O'Bryan is the CEO of Practical
Metaphysics, Inc
He can be reached at
pat@patobryan.com,
www.patobryan.com
This
article may be reprinted in its
entirety, including contact
information, freely.
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