There's a reason that online publishing is profitable. It's a fantastic reason and it's one of the things that makes earning income as an online entrepreneur so enjoyable.
People want to learn.
They want to know how to be a better gardener, a better dad, a better soccer coach, a better entrepreneur too. Anyone who can provide that information can make some money -- and help others too.
And anyone can do that. You might not be the world's best gardener, best dad, best soccer coach or best entrepreneur but as long as you know more than most people about something, you can make money out of sharing that knowledge on a blog.
People will come to your blog to read it, they'll click your ads to read more and they'll buy the affiliate products you recommend because they trust your opinion.
Like I said, that's a fantastic way to make a living.
But a blog is only one way to communicate that information. It's probably the easiest way to communicate it - just as placing ads is probably the easiest way to earn from it - but it's not the only way.
Another method is to create information products.
Instead of squeezing your knowledge into a bunch of 350-word posts, you can put it in the form of a short book. It doesn't have to be a 300-page long opus. Twenty pages can be enough. You can then sell it for a sum of money that reflects how valuable the information is and most importantly, how much people are willing to pay.
A twenty-page guide to soccer coaching might only go for a few dollars. A 200-page home finance manual might go for several hundred.
The advantage is that you'll be setting yourself up for passive revenue. Once your information product is ready for downloading with the marketing streams in place all you have to do is kick back and enjoy the sales.
The disadvantage is that there's no way of knowing whether you'll make any money until you're done. And you'll also have to market it when it's ready. That can take effort... and, of course, some specialized knowledge too.
It's Del.icio.us!
Furl It!
October 20, 2008 12:11 PM
That is all true. But the hardest part is to get traffic to your site. And secondly building an email list. People ar getting desperate, and frustrated that they can't make money from home. They sell at ebay, buy prodycts, and still struggle to make money.
October 20, 2008 12:17 PM
One of the best ways to drive traffice is to write and submit articles to ezines. Internet is a vast field. You need to be focused with what you do. It is very easy to get distracted with every new product that comes in the market. Take one step at a time, put it on auto pilot and move on.
October 20, 2008 02:27 PM
Excellent information. Ironically, I just realized this on my own. Especially during a bad economy, information sells.
October 20, 2008 06:25 PM
Those are some good ideas, Joel. What I've found to be easier (especially if you're going to sell what would be a 100 page ebook), is to imagine you were presenting the material at a teleseminar, than write down everything you would say at this teleseminar exactly as you would say it as though it were a real teleseminar. Than after you get the whole "transcript" written down, record yourself "reading off" the script with all the points you want to cover. It would be best not to read the information exactly as you wrote it even though you should write everything you plan on saying in the recording word for word so you can have something to fall back on should you forget what you wanted to cover when doing the audio recording of the material, however, it would probably be best not to read right from the script because it might sound canned, but if you write it as though you were transcribing the recording as you intend for it to go, than you shouldn't have to worry about it sounding canned if you read right from the script, as long as you inject your emotions and personality into the recording (in other words, just because you're reading a script, doesn't mean it has to sound like an audiobook, in fact, it shouldn't sound like an audiobook, you should do whatever you can to keep the listeners' attention and when writing the script, that should be kept in mind).
October 21, 2008 03:52 PM
Good point, Joel. Looking at it from another angle, sometimes you don't even have to know more than most people about a topic. You just have to get the conversation started. As far as informational materials are concerned, some that I've seen have been very profitable for those who bothered to write good content. Think of a blog as a preview of what your eBook might be like. Thanks for posting!
October 23, 2008 04:53 AM
Building a big email list is a great way to to promote anything you have to sell etc. It is that personal contact that you are creating, people will trust you and in the end they will also buy from you!
October 31, 2008 07:54 AM
Hi,
Internet Marketing is not just selling products, software and services. Marketers want to drive traffic to their site. Traffic is what we want, and it is not an easy task to do. You need to do a dreaded and repetitive task. But some have an auto pilot software that lets you drive traffic to your site by submitting your website to its affiliated video sites, podcast sites, social bookmarking sites and blog sites.
Best regards,
Aurelius Tjin
November 11, 2008 06:02 AM
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November 23, 2008 12:48 PM
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