If ever you have wanted to learn how to make money on the internet by selling e-books, then this could be the most important article you will ever read.
Here’s why:
You are about to learn how I went from not knowing a thing about making money on the internet to selling over 856 copies of an e-book for $39.95 that has so far made $34,197.20 in sales... and growing.
Before I get into it, I would like to tell you a little bit about myself.
I first logged onto the internet way back in 1995. To make it clear, this was before Google was even born. Back then I was just a consumer of the internet. That means I wasted my time surfing from site to site and didn’t make any money.
Then in 2002 I created my first website. This website was selling a downloadable e-book for $27.77. Since that time I have read countless e-books and reports about how to make money on the internet. I have gone to many expensive internet marketing seminars. I have met countless online “guru’s”. But most importantly I have been in the trenches applying all of this knowledge to find out what works online and what doesn’t.
The model that has made me the most money online has been selling information products. An information product is just a product that gives people information about what they want to know. This can be a an e-book, an MP3 audio file, a C.D. recording or even a video. The products I like to create are 'How To' information products that can be instantly downloaded. The reason I like downloadable products is that I don’t have to worry about shipping.
Having said that, there are places online that can ship physical products on your behalf if you want, such as http://www.IFulFill.com. However I don't like the hassle of shipping physical items for now.
So what downloadable information products could you sell?
That depends. You see, there are courses out there which teach you to scour the internet to find ‘hungry’ markets with few competitors and then create an information product the market wants.
There is nothing wrong with this strategy and it does work.
The only problem is that if you are a beginner at creating information products on the internet then I would suggest you start with a market that you either know a lot about or that you are interested in. That is how I first started out and now I make hundreds of dollars online every week.
For example, what if a beginner found that ‘Crochet’ was a hot market but had no interest what-so-ever in crochet? And what if they weren't successful at the start? I think they would not only quickly lose interest in this market but perhaps internet marketing all together. However, if they stuck with a niche they were interested in and stayed with it, I think they would be more likely to make internet marketing work for them.
What I teach beginners on the internet is to brainstorm at least 101 ideas for their first information product and then narrow it down to say the top 5 ideas before choosing one to run with.
To do this, firstly list down as many ideas of things that you are interested in.
This could be sports you play, hobbies you have, stuff you know a lot about or perhaps things you spend a lot of time doing. You may get say 20 ideas doing this initial brainstorming session. Just keep writing down ideas of things you are interested in, even if you don’t think you could create an information product out of it.
After you have brainstormed as many ideas as you can, you can then use a free tool on the internet to ‘reverse brainstorm’ even more ideas. The key here is to find at least 101 potential ideas for your own information product to sell on the internet.
The place I go to ‘reverse brainstorm’ ideas is at KeywordDiscovery. You can get to KeywordDiscovery by cutting and pasting the following link into your browser:
http://www.KeywordDiscovery.com/search.html
For example, if you type in the word ‘Crochet’, you can see how many times people searched online for crochet in a given month. Pretty cool, huh?
Now, the way I ‘reverse brainstorm’ potential ideas for niche markets to enter is to type a generic word into the search bar.
For example, you will see that the second most searched term (at the time of writing) is ‘Free Crochet Patterns’.
What I do to 'reverse brainstorm' is type the generic terms such as ‘Free’ or ‘Pattern’ into the keyword search bar and see what niche’s appear that also contain that term.
For example, if you type ‘Patterns’ into the search bar you will find the following niche’s appear within the search results:
Pumpkin carving
Knitting
Sewing
Cross stitch
Quilting
Stained glass
Scroll saw
Jack o lanterns
Weddings
Embroidery
Costume patterns
Wood patterns
Purse patterns
Woodworking
Bead patterns
Afghan patterns
Tole painting
Fishing
Celtic patterns
Prom dress
Teddy bears
Celtic patterns
Mosaic patterns
Wood craft
Hemp
Necklaces
Tattoos
Curtains
Puppets
Bridesmaid
Yarn
Dolls
Ceramic tiles
Beading
Doll clothes
Halloween
Handbags
Henna
Camouflage
Pillow patterns
Drapes
That's is 41 potential ideas just by typing one generic word into the Keyword Research Tool. Sure, you're probably not into 'Celtic Patterns' or 'Ceramic Tiles', but it shouldn't take you too long before you have brainstormed at least 101 potential ideas.
This 'reverse brainstorming' technique saves you the hassle of having to think about markets to enter. The keyword research tool does all the thinking for you and each of these ideas is a potential niche to enter. This is not to say that they are all profitable and likely to produce sales online, but it lets you create a list of ideas you probably wouldn't have otherwise thought of.
As you scroll through the list and find topics that you are interested in then jot them down in your folder until you have brainstormed at least 101 ideas for your information product.
Once you have a list of 101 potential product ideas, the next step is to find out whether these niche ideas could be profitable. The reason for this is that not all markets are the same. Some markets such as making money, saving money or personal development to name a few are lucrative, whereas others such as 'How to wear a hat', 'How to tie shoelaces' and 'How to brush your teeth' for example are not.
The reason for this is that to do well online you have to add value to your potential customer. Some markets add massive value to your customer and they will be more likely to buy your product. However, other markets add less value to your customer and you may struggle making a sale of your product.
You can find out more to see if a market is potentially profitable by picking up your free 35 page e-book ‘How To Do The Work Once And Make Money In Your Sleep – LT Edition’ by clicking on the link below. It pays to find out in advance if a market is profitable before launching a product and a website. The reason for this is that you will save yourself a lot of time and frustration down the track when you wonder why the market isn't buying your product.
Talk soon,
David Styles.
Marketing 
