Study Brad Callen’s lesson titled “The 7 Simple Steps To Writing Your Very Own E-Book…”.


Brad Callen’s lesson is reprinted here.

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The 7 Simple Steps To Writing Your Very Own E-Book…

Writing your own info-product can be a highly rewarding experience if you know what to do and how to do it . Unfortunately, most people go about this the wrong way. They make silly mistakes, such as writing about a topic with no demand, or marketing their product in the wrong medium. Info-product publishing is not rocket science, but it isn’t the land of “anything works” either. You need to know the inside rules; in other words, you need to know what works .

In today’s lesson, I’m going to present to you my personal system for turning out info-products painlessly (but not effortlessly ““ nothing worth doing in life is ever effortless, is it?). It’s a series of steps that I’ve developed over the past few years and I have improved it to the point that these days, I can usually put out an info-product within a couple of weeks , from picking a topic to packaging and putting up the e-book for sale online.

Start to finish, idea to reality, in 14 days.

Before you start though, you have to ask yourself some very important questions.

Are you ready to:

Commit to improving your financial situation?
Provide a unique and useful solution to other people?
Create a new stream of income for yourself in just 2 to 3 weeks ?
Notice that I haven’t said anything about being ready to work hard or being ready to dedicate enough time for your writing. Those are byproducts of a bigger decision.

Once you choose to make your future the most important thing in your mind, you’ll discover that you will automatically work harder and you will always find time to write. It’s just a matter of readjusting your priorities .

Enough “personal development” talk for today. Down to business.

Do Your Research

If you can develop an efficient system for doing research, you will not only drastically increase your chances of success, but you will also make sure that you reduce your chances of “giving up”. Once you know that a market for your idea exists, and once you know what they really want, it becomes elementary to put that knowledge into words and to start making money out of it.

Step 1: Find a Topic

The first thing you should do is to write down those topics that you feel you can write confidently about using your own knowledge . For example, I have always been interested in fitness and a healthy lifestyle, so it was natural for me to get started online with an info-product based on the subject.

What do you know?

If you have read my earlier lessons, I have often covered keyword research and how you can judge whether a niche is going to be profitable for you. Once you have identified the niches you can write about yourself, it is time to do your keyword research and find out which niche will be most profitable.

Typically experts might tell you to go after a niche with little competition. That is very good advice, but part of the reason there is good competition on a topic in the first place is because it is a very profitable niche! If your strength is the stock market, don’t be scared away by the competition. In some cases you will find that a market is totally saturated, but in the information business insider tips and knowledge can often get old and outdated.

That is where you can cash in.

Tip ““ If you’re interested in keyword research, then make sure that you take a look at our brand new Keyword Research software: Keyword Elite.

Step 2: Find the Seven Year Itch

It is not enough to find a topic ““ you must also find the right angle to it. What is your market’s most important problem? What bugs them the most? What irritates them?

What is their seven year itch ?

If you can position your info-product as a solution to your market’s most pressing need, you have done half your work. A lot of people see their info-products flop because they fail to tap into their niche’s most important problems. Your writing, and your e-book, must have a precise focus .

For example, if you are writing a buyer’s guide on computer notebooks, find out what the common questions and problems are for first-time notebook buyers.

Having such a precise focus also helps you evaluate how big your final product is going to be. There’s no harm in producing
20-30 page reports on specific topics in your niche ““ provided that they are focused.

Step 3: Prepare your material

Gather everything you think you will need for your e-book in one easily accessible place (like your PC or your workplace). If possible, organize the information a little in sub-topics to help your sort through it better.

If you have to do some research, take the time to make a list of topics you need more information on, then set aside a couple of hours to research and acquire that information. It can be through the Internet or from your local library, but the important thing here is that you have most (if not all) of what you need in your hands when you start writing.

Write, Write, Write.

Apart from a few basic skills (such as the ability to write simple English sentences, basic knowledge of word processing software and Internet access for research), you don’t need anything special to start writing. In fact, I’d advise you to keep your writing process as simple and uncluttered as possible. Use extra/new tools only if necessary.

Step 4: Start Writing

Once you’ve completed your research, it is time to start writing. Actually, let me rephrase that…

It is time to stop thinking and start writing.

A lot of time is wasted in procrastinating over a project. Writing a book takes a long time, and when you’re writing to a deadline, it may seem almost impossible.

Stop worrying about it. Stop thinking about it.

Break it down into small, manageable portions , and start writing.

Take action. The rest, if you have built a strong foundation (done your research well) will take care of itself.

Step 5: Don’t Stop

When you write, make sure that you are in a place with no distractions or time constraints. Set aside several hours at a time and commit to working only on your e-book during that time.

Whatever you do, don’t stop writing . If you cannot write one day, use that to motivate you into writing more the next day; the best way to write a long book is to break it down into chunks of 4-5 pages and commit a few hours daily to write them.

Step 6: Revise and edit ruthlessly

You don’t have to send your drafts to a professional editor, but you should at least review and reread your e-book a couple of times to make sure that there are no inconsistencies and that it flows smoothly from chapter to chapter.

Cut out everything that is not needed. Tangential topics are great, but not if they take you too far off-topic.

And absolutely no fluff to increase the page count. The best example on this is Joel Comm, the man behind the most famous AdSense book, AdSense Secrets. His book on Kontera (a contextual advertising system targeted at high-traffic websites) is only 30 pages and yet so chock-full of information that it seems under-priced at $47.

Step 7: Know when to stop

On a different note, don’t obsess over getting your e-book perfect. The key here is that you manage to provide your customers with the information they are looking for in an easily understandable way.

When you feel your e-book does that (it’s always good to get a second opinion though), stop editing and start working on the next phase (packaging and promotion). Your book does not have to be perfect ““ it just has to be remarkably useful and valuable to the people who need it the most.

Ask Me Questions.

I am getting some positive feedback from some of the readers, and it’s encouraging to see how many of you are interested in taking the big step up to info-product publishing. If you have any questions on the topic “Launching an Info-product Business” and especially on today’s lesson, write to me at infoproduct@seoelite.com. I’ll be answering these questions personally for the next few days.

In the next lesson, I’ll talk about how to package and promote your info-product. This information will help you re-launch any “flop” e-books that you’ve written and will also give you the tools necessary to earn a nice passive income off your next e-book.

All the best,

Brad Callen
Professional SEO
http://www.seoelite.com

Click here to sign up for a free copy of Callen’s 7 Days To Massive Website Traffic!.

*IMNewswatch would like to thank Brad Callen for granting permission to reprint this lesson.

 

 

 

 

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