Writing Digital Products: eBooks | Videos | eCourses

1) I always start with an idea, a topic that later emerge as a niche.
At this point "my idea/topic" is not a title or a niche, it is exactly what I said, an idea that can be a precise subject, or a vague one, or an entire domain.
It is a long way from this point to a physical product. But it is important to see your product with your mind's eye, to have a vision for your product. While your vision may change a little during the creation process, starting out with a frame helps to keep you focus.

2) The next step for me is to do a lot of research; I have to find out from research what the competition is doing.:

• If it will appeal to a particular market, or
• Be able to distinguish itself from the competition in some way
  • If it is zero competition it is strange
  • If already exists exactly the same product I have to refine the purpose of my product, as mine must be different
  • If the competition is too big, I don't give back but I'll try to narrow the scope of the product and search again
• It gives me an idea about the balance between popularity and competition. The balance is on my favor, or it is not, I have to find out.
• I'll use classical techniques to gather ideas about what people is interested to find out about my topic. The most effective are surveys and polls. I am reading people mind with them and in the same time this is the beginning of a process called "pre-sell your product". But in time you must develop the skill of putting the right questions otherwise surveys are not relevant

In the process I'll create a list of key words, and long tail key words (keywords which contains more then one word), and I'll decide a title which 80% is not going to be the final title, but I need one to focus, and discipline my work.

Doing research, and especial keyword research is not the subject of this lens but

• I'll touch the basics as it is part of the process of finding the balance between popularity and competition
• I'll give you a long list of tools you can use for keywords research
• All of them are good tools, but I'll tell you what is the minimum I do.

In the following list I put on top the first 4 software I use the most, and the rest of them are just on alphabetic order.

Free or trial Keyword tools:
1. Google External Keyword Tool:
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

2. Free key word tracker:
http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com

3. SEO Tools Keyword Suggestion Tool:
http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook

4. SpyFu, I like their motto "Succeed beyond survival"
http://www.spyfu.com/lp/us/

5. Apogee Competitors keyword tool
http://www.apogee-web-consulting.com/tools/keyword_tool.php

6. Free keyword software
http://www.keywordtumbler.com/

7. Google Sets (Find phrases)
http://labs.google.com/sets

8. Submit Express Keyword Suggestion Tool
http://www.submitexpress.com/keytracker.php

9. Trellian Keyword Discovery
http://www.keyworddiscovery.com/

10 Webmaster Toolkit Keyword Research
http://www.webmaster-toolkit.com/keyword-research-tool.shtml

Paid tool - Brad Callen's Keywork Elite:
http://www.keywordelite.com/index2.htm

It is useful to search:

• The ClickBank marketplace to see if there are similar information products, and look at the gravity score to find out how popular those products are
• Ebay and Amazon to see if people are buying related products

1. I go on http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/ and I get the following screen:



And I chose the key - Affiliate Marketing - I know it is to large in scope, but I do this on purpose to show you later how I am narrowing the scope.
You can chose a simple key, or what we call a long tail key which is a combination of minimum 2 words, maximum 4 words. In our case "Affiliate Marketing" is a long tail key of 2 words.
I click submit

2. and I get the following list:

"Affiliate marketing" is in the first row, I look at the figure in column "Google daily est.", 504 is too big. Usually I look for a long tail key in the range of 20 - 200, this figure is the number of clicks per day and represents "the popularity or demand".

3. Now I go on Google search and I use my long tail key on quotes as you can see in the next screen:



4. I click Google search, and I get the following screen:



In right top corner you can read 7,730,000 for affiliate marketing, this number represent "the competition" and it is huge. In general I pick up a long tail key in the range of 10,000 - 40,000 I also look to see if there are adds on the right column. For my example we have adds, this is a good sign, people spend money on those adds for Affiliate Marketing.

Following my logic we know that there isn't a good balance between popularity and competition.
In this case I come back to bullet 2. and I choose other long tail key from the first column.
I repeat 3 and 4.

I repeat this process how many time I need to get the balance between popularity and competition in the range I want. If I am not satisfied I came back to bullet 1. and change the long tail key I start with, and repeat the process.

The purpose of going through the research process is to find answers for these 4 questions for each idea/topic/niche that I consider:

• How big is the topic/niche?
• How competitive is the niche?
• How potentially profitable is the niche?
• Is there potential for back end products?

To go one step forward on my research I spy on the competition using the free Spyfu search tool: http://www.spyfu.com/lp/us/.
This research tells me:

• How many advertisers exist for my niche?
• How much traffic they are getting?
• How much they are spending daily?
• What are they advertising?
• Do any related advertisers have an affiliate program? (this will be potential back end promotions)

As you can see, Spyfu offers a different levels of details about my competition.
Sure you can go deeper then this but, if you do just that you are on a good start.

The search key research can be deeper then what I have described, but this is minimum which you should do, and I gave you an entire list of tools to experiment with.

You started with an "idea" and now you must have a "title within a niche, a list of simple keywords, a list with long tails key words." What next?

I arrange my desk and PC, I need my coffee mug, markers, and anything else that make me comfortable.

I display my "Title" on the wall, I want to see it all the time. Remember it is a title but not the final title.

I open my Word tool which is not Microsoft Office Word, it is the Writer from OpenOffice.org (free tool). I favorite this tool as it has more functionality including creation of PDF format with a click of a button.

First I create a document in which I put the title, and I start to brain storm to add ideas as bullets, what I want to write about. I go through 2-3 cycles of arranging them in a order which make sens, and each bullet being a logical continuation of the previous one.
Those ideas will be later my chapter titles.
If you did a survey for your "idea", and also search Yahoo-answer to find out what people want to know about your topic, these bullets came naturally to you.

Then you just take one bullet at a time from your list and write about it. Use competition as source or information, Wikipedia for correct definitions but distance yourself from the crowd. With the exception of a few niche, you don't get a content 100 original, in this case, it is a must, to have an original presentation.

Writing directly to a Word tool, is different then writing on paper. Please when start writing, write an idea from top to bottom, don't stop to correct grammar, answer the phone, you have to develop a style with a perfect fluidity, and interruptions will block your fluidity.

It will be enough time at the end of the process in which you will do just that - correct spelling and grammar. Please, pay a lot of attention to the fluidity of your writing.

I write one chapter at a time without interruptions, at the end I read the entire chapter just once, as I want to have some unity within the chapter, and move on.

When all the chapters are written I read every eBook from top to bottom without interruptions, now I am concern with the unity, integrity, balance of the entire eBook.

Happen frequently to do a lot of changes related with the balance:

• If a chapter is too long I divided in 2 chapters
• If I have repetitions, I solve them
• I switch paragraphs
• I balance the graphics and other visual elements
• If it is an important work I give the PDF format (not the Word format) to somebody else to read it.

Why is important to distribute the PDF format?

• PDF format is the most stable format among all computers and all browsers
• Word format is based on how you set up your PC defaults, browser defaults, and you can get big alignment surprises, I learn this from my own mistakes.

If you work on OpenOffice the creation or re-creation of a PDF format with a click of a button, it is free, and you can create how many PDFs you need.

I hear you - why I give you such a good advice when my own writing is not perfect. It is a reason why, English is second language for me, but you are writing on your first language and you must have a fluidity which I am struggling with.

Don't forget that you are writing for a generation of visual learners, this means that any visual effect must be used on your advantage:

• bullet lists
• pictures
• maps
• sound
• videos and so on

Just a remainder, you must monetize your product, don't create a heavy duty banner ad product but don't completely ignore the advertising; links, affiliation, AdSense and so on. We are living in web 2.0 revolution. Based on the type of the product you work on, you have to chose what make sens, and don't create boring novels, be as inventive as you can.
This is an example I used in other lens Traffic Do to illustrate an excellent inventive approach. Seth Godin has a book called Purple Cow, when you click on the link you expect a squeeze page, and you get one but it is not what you expect, please look it over Seth Godin's Purple Cow.
And is more, his title is intriguing and raise a lot of curiosity, the squeeze page maintain the level of curiosity as well. Excellent technique!

What if you decide you cannot personally write the info Product you have in mind?
You can outsource it. The places I recommend are:

• http://www.ScriptLance.com
• http://www.ELance.com
• http://www.RentACoder.com
• http://www.Guru.com

Personally I don't recommended ghost writers, but I recommend outsource for software, web design, and other time consuming functions.

Up till this point you were up burning the midnight oil, and you got a product.

The next steps must be:

• Split test to decide the final title, you already have a list with keywords, change only one word at a time and see which is the most powerful title you can come up with, this is a mandatory process, please don't use a cute of funny title. A customer has only 10-20 seconds to decide to click or go away
• Learn Marketing strategies to promote your product:
  • Create Squeeze pages
  • Create a Sale Page
  • Pre-sale your product with e-mails using an autoresponder
• Don't work alone, try to acquire Joint Venture and affiliates
• Create a program for affiliates
• Create a good plan for promoting using Web 2.0 applications
• Create a Website for your Product
• Review your new product in Blogs or create a dedicated Blog only for this product
• Package your product for launch day

All the bullets from above list are marketing techniques, I enumerate them to suggest a plan of action for you but marketing techniques aren't the purpose of this lens.

To accomplish the above list and finalize your product, you need a couple of tools and services.

1) You need a domain to use for squeeze page, for landing Page, maybe for your blog. I use NameCheap.com the price is affordable and they have a good support service.

2) You need a reliable Host for your domain, blog etc,
I use HostGator they have cPanel with Fantastico utility which will make your life easier when you create a blog with WordPress in your domain, and an excellent support service - this is priceless!

3) You also need auto responder,AWeber Email Marketing Tool is the most used but you can use GetRespons.com as well.

4) If you aren't familiar with squeeze pages I suggest to use a software: Wordpress Squeeze Page Plugin The squeeze page is extremely important for you and it is a serious learning curve until you will get it right.
If you need templates use Squeeze Page Templates
If you need a bundle with more Graphics including Opt-in Templates, click now to get Professional Graphics and Template Packs, Squeeze Pages, Affiliate Landing Pages, Premium Website Templates, Wordpress Themes, Minisites, Sales Page Graphics, Banners, Headers, Photoshop Ebook Cover Software, Opt-in Templates

5) From the beginning you may outsource the Sale Page, just for the first 2-3 products you create. If you write your sale page be careful with:
5.1. Title
5.2. Subtitle
5.3. Use videos and testimonials
5.4. Talk about benefits not features
5.5. Always publish your picture
5.6. Create a readable text with spaces, bullets, use tables with invisible border for good alignment

At this point the product is not published yet.
This is the way to obtain some testimonials. Chose 4-5 persons from your list of your affiliates and/or JV, write a short letter telling that they get your product for free in exchange of a testimonial, it is working. If you don't have a solid list with affiliates, then publish the short letter in Warrior Forum and you will get a lot of offers.

Important Note: How you get a list of Joint Venture partners? Easy! When you get a lot of emails in your in-box, what you do? probably delete them and unsubscribe. Instead of doing this, create a couple of folders, one folder per niche, and save the e-mails. In no time, you will get lists of people per niches you are interested in. When you are almost ready with your product send a letter to the right list and invite people to be your Joint Partner for your new product, describe the benefits of your product and create incentive for them. Usually I offer 75% for JV and 50% for affiliates.

For affiliates, as you created an affiliate program for your product, the people will chose to sign in based on the value you provide on your product.

The Biggest Mistakes are:

Don't be a perfectionist!

"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new" Albert Einstein

I am serious, a perfectionist is one that never finish a product, don't wait, the time will never be just right.

Believe in yourself and never give up!

This is a quote I love by George Bernard Shaw:
"Other people see things and say, WHY? But I dream thinks that never were - and I say, WHY NOT?"

You find all my lenses and more about me and my life, please go to my Lensography.
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