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Today is the age of information. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, there continues to be an incredible demand for information. There is an astronomical demand for information whether packed in to newsletters, reports, manuals or books, of almost every imaginable kind.
People want short-cuts, information that will educate, enlighten or simplify their lives. Simply by putting your own specialized knowledge into a newsletter, report, manual or book, that information can help add value to your existing business, or even start a completely new business.
If you can explain an idea, a concept, how to do something that you know about to another person, you can learn to write about it, and start to profit from your know-how. You don’t have to be an expert, but you have to deliver value, so be interested enough and prepared enough to get all the information required so your readers come away having learned something and wanting more.
There are thousands upon thousands of websites, and “old school” printed magazines using and promoting all kinds of written material by people just like you, who discovered they could make money writing and publishing their work.
The first step is to pinpoint your target audience, being a specific as you can be. Look through print magazines and online in the field you are interested in to start looking for ideas. Read through all the advertisements you find to see what popular topics and subjects are being written about. Then ask yourself if you can come up with a better way, or have equally interesting information you can present from a different angle, or with a different twist that would be of interest to the readers in that market. If the answer is "yes," then you can enter that market and start to build yourself up as the go to person for that kind of information.
Be creative in developing your material. Perhaps you know some techniques that allows people to accomplish their goals faster in a certain field. Maybe you can think of a better way to cash in on a current fad.
The bottom line is that people are hungry for information and ideas, and you can become the writer or self-publisher of information people want to buy. People are eager to buy information that can help them improve their lives
If you can fill any of those needs with information that can be put onto a written page, there are millions of people waiting to hand over their cash to get it.
After you have written your material, you will have to decide on how you will package the information to make it saleable. Depending on your market, some packaging will sell better than others. For example, selling online, downloadable PDFs are very popular. You could also produce printed newsletters, reports, manuals (there are several “print on demand” services out there that could accomplish this for you without the need for any investment), create audio recordings, or videos. The great thing is that once you have started to create a following, you can start offering seminars when people pay to hear you “live” – which is really where the big money is.
You can focus on one area, or cover a broad spectrum. One thing is certain, people are prepared to pay to obtain well packaged information! There are reports that consist of 10-12 pages that can sell for £10, £20 or more, while you can charge £100’s per person for a seminar.
It may sound incredible to the average person, but people are willing to pay real money for information. But the information has to be real and offer genuine value, otherwise your business will be short-lived. But before you decide on how to package your information, you must first consider who your primary audience is, and cater to those people in everything you do.
Your job is to either find a need and fill it, or create the need and supply it. One of the best ways to get started is to sit down with some paper and write down every subject you have some degree of knowledge about.
Your list of subjects doesn't have to be in any particular order. Don't force it. When ideas for headings no longer come easy, stop and start up again at a later time. It is often the ideas that appear when you thought that you had exhausted all possibilities that are the best.
When you feel comfortable that you have covered most of the areas you know, start picking out the topics that interest you the most. Then you can start researching more material for your writing projects.
There is loads of free information out there. Whittle down your subject area down to a word or short phrase that correctly identifies the field of expertise you are targeting. Focus on providing your targeted market with simple, understandable, and helpful information.
It must overwhelmingly appeal to your customers' wants and desires ... Always remember that this is the age of specialised information. People are always willing to spend their money for the right kind of information – the information that matches their immediate needs.
Many new writers fail to understand that it’s not about them, it’s about the people that will buy their products. If you want success, you must come to realize early on that a big part of your job is to arouse the emotions and desires of your potential customers.
Your product, whether a book, manual, report or newsletter, must be portrayed as being jam-packed with self-interest benefits. Millions of pounds in failed business ventures are wasted every year simply because entrepreneurs fail to understand that what customers want to hear is not necessarily what they have to say. You should never forget this valuable lesson. It can make you a success.
Your Material Must Stir Emotions and Desires
Emotions are what move people to buy anything, therefore, the job of your products and advertisements is to move your prospect to buy. You have to stir enough emotions, not only to cause desire, but the rationalisation that provides an excuse based on logic. Even after a prospect makes a commitment to buy your guide, etc., they may think they have acted logically.
None of your customers will ever admit that emotions had anything to do with their purchase. What you must always be aware of however, is that logic probably had little to do with the buyer's decision. That is because human actions are often caused by instincts and compulsions that most buyers are unaware of.
As you write your material for publication in any form, or as you develop an ad or other sales package, always think in terms of how a particular benefit will stir a reader's emotions and desires. Try to understand how your product might be perceived by reader's by focusing on your own feelings.
The success of your advertising will ultimately depend on the saleability of your book, manual, report, newsletter, etc. Good advertising will make a good book sell better, but it cannot transform a poor book into being successful. Advertising is vital to any business venture because:
Basic Advertising Rules
Effective marketing is a vast field. It includes using marketing tools such as: internet advertising, direct mail; space and classified ads; signs; radio and TV commercials; business involvement, and more. In fact, the approaches you can take and the methods you use are only limited by your imagination and resources. There are basic rules however that do not change however. They are as follows:
In order to avoid making careless advertising decisions that can cost you money, it is important that you understand and participate in your own strategies. That means getting involved and researching what strategy will produce sound advertising. It is essential that you have a plan before you take action on developing an advertising strategy.
Your plan must be based on an objective analysis that results from your knowledge and it doesn't matter what your background is, you can learn to master the type of advertising that is needed to launch a self-publishing business. Through research and careful planning, you can become familiar with the writing skills you will need to create effective ads.
Obtain all the information you can from the masters in the business. Read and study every book, manual, report, newsletter, sales letter, ad, article, and publication you can get your hands on that will help you in developing your own successful strategies and techniques. Then bring all of that knowledge together to obtain winning results.
You become a "self-publisher" by taking your material (book, manual, report, newsletter, etc.) and by-pass all the middlemen. You by-pass the middlemen, by either publishing online at very little cost (downloadable products), or going directly to a printer and handling all the marketing and distribution of the product yourself.
As a self-publisher you invest your talent, time and energy and money. The benefits you receive are complete control over your product and all the profits~ Here is a condensed version of 10 good reasons why you should self-publish:
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