Dirty Little Secrets 2 – The Investigation
April 29, 2008
The most time consuming aspect of writing an ebook or information product is the research. And if you’re going to produce something useful, you’ll need to immerse yourself in your topic. So it makes sense to choose a subject you already enjoy, or something you’re keen to learn about.
Choosing a Topic
1) Make a list of all the subjects you enjoy and all the ones you’d like to learn about.
2) Highlight the topics in your list that would be easy to get started on because you have knowledge, experience or access to specific information.
3) Out of those highlighted, choose the one that appeals to you most and make a list of possible sub-topics. For example, if your chosen topic is Caribbean travel, you might come up with the following: Caribbean travel on a shoestring, island hopping in the caribbean, live and work in the caribbean, dangers to avoid in the caribbean, luxury travel in the caribbean.
Make sure your topic is in demand:
1) Check out Amazon to ensure there’s at least a couple of books on your broad topic – Caribbean travel in this case.
2) Visit and participate in discussion forums. What sort of questions are people asking? What sort of information are they looking for? This will help you to choose a sub-topic. And don’t just limit yourself to forums that cover the broad topic. In the case of the Caribbean travel – you could also look at budget travel forums, moving abroad, luxury travel, working overseas etc.
3) Discover how many people are searching your subject online. There’s a few tools you can use to do this. I prefer Wordtracker, as it will give you hundreds of different keyword searches for particular phrases. You can get a free trial of Wordtracker here.
Related Reading: The Dirty Little Secrets Of An Informer
How To Write And Publish Your Own Ebook In As Little As 7 Days
This is a series post. If you’re interested in writing and selling an ebook or information product, click here to subscribe in a reader and make sure you don’t miss the remaining articles in the series.
Do you read ebooks yourself? What makes you choose an ebook over one that is published traditionally? Do you usually find that the information in ebooks and information products is of lower quality? Or is it more up to date than the info that can be found in traditional books?
Comments
11 Responses to “Dirty Little Secrets 2 – The Investigation”
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Successful And Outstanding Blogger
For me, one of the biggest factors in deciding whether to buy an ebook is who wrote it. If I’ve read other stuff by the author, and I know that they know their stuff, I can be pretty confident that their ebook will be a good buy, and quite possibly better than a traditional book . Plus, it’s a way of supporting them. Like making a donation, but you get something in return.
Hunter Nuttall’s last blog post..Mastering The Most Powerful Force In The Universe
Cath,
I’ve enjoyed this post and part 1 as well. I’m following along with you as I have (I think) a nice idea for an e-book that would appeal to a niche market.
I’d like to have a chance to create a few, as I’ve been purchasing and enjoying quite a few of them. My turn to give back to the community.
Thanks for the words – Brett
Brett Legree’s last blog post..do what you love, and the underpants will follow.
Hi Catherine,
I enjoy researching, so this will be a fun process for me.
Now I have to get busy and make my list of ideas.
One thing I do like about ebooks is that they are usually short and concise. If they are well written, they become a great source of information.
Years ago I bought one. The author bragged how it was “X” number of pages, but many of the pages were duplicate information. I fell for his sales pitch, and ended up being disappointed.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..NBOTW Finds Harmony
Hi Hunter – that is a great point and I know exactly where you’re coming from. Some folks give so much info away for free, so you want to support them and you know the info will be good because you’ve seen the quality of their work.
Hi Brett – thanks. It would be great if you could create a few. Length isn’t always important, so long as you’re giving your customer exactly what they want.
Hi Barbara – it is annoying when that happens. Often people are looking for ebooks to save them time and they just don’t want to read a heap of padding. I’m looking forward to reading your first ebook.
Hi Cath,
That’s what I’m thinking. Sometimes short and to the point is best. Give people exactly what they want with no padding.
-Brett
hey… thanks for the great advice. This is something I am working on and the Dirty Little Secrets
are really helping me out
And I’m with Barbara- I love to research.
JEMi | Tips for Life, Love, You’s last blog post..Self Fulfilling Prophecies: Getting Your Life Back
Hi Brett – Definitely. I think you should just write enough to teach people what they want to know. Longer ebooks on a broad subject are fine. But if you’re writing about something like – How To Save $1000+ On Your Wedding – you should stick to the money saving bits and avoid including irrelevant stuff.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Dirty Little Secrets 2 – The Investigation
Hi JEMi – I’m glad it’s working. I’m looking forward to reading the ebooks you’re all planning.
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