(The Walking The Talk series was created to show an ebook launch from idea to salesletter to marketing. Here’s Part 1.)
In Desperate Buyers Only I offer details about taking free information that you find online, and using it as the basis for a fee-based product.
The concept is often hard for people to grasp.
The logical thinker asks, “If information is free online, why would people actually pay for it?”
I say…
- Because everyone’s not a pro at finding the exact information they need.
- Free information isn’t always optimized as well as fee-based information, so it might be harder for people to find.
- Sometimes the free information found online isn’t enough to solve a particular problem.
Let me give you an example.
As you remember from my first post in the Walking The Talk series, I’m working on an ebook that’s tentatively titled, No More Smelly House.
Besides some ideas I culled from my dear Granny, I also began researching the Internet potential solutions for stinky houses.
Using STEPs #2, 3, and 4, on pages 13-19, in Desperate Buyers Only, I found that bad house odors affect more than just the people living in the apartment.
It also affects apartment managers.
They have to get rid of overwhelmingly bad smells in order to rent an apartment. So their interest in this topic is even stronger than an apartment dweller.
(And here’s where it gets juicy.)
Instead of basing my search on ideas I find from apartment dwellers - (like sprinkling baking soda on the carpet, for instance) - it might be way more efficient to see how property managers solve the smelly house dilemma.
I bet there are a bunch of tricks property managers use that the general public is clueless about. I’m sure I can snag a few free ideas for my fee-based ebook using this strategy.
See how painless that was?
Keep reading to see how my search goes.
Alexis Dawes
(Questions, comments, suggestions? Talk to me right here.)
February 25th, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I think that the same logic that applies for buying informational products also applies for doing e-courses. I have recently signed up to a couple of e-courses about developing a blog and getting traffic and another one about using the latest developments in Web2.0 social media sites to generate traffic and conversions. A lot of that information is out there for free if you have the time and aptitude to search for it. Even if you can locate it the information is never enough. You need to know how to apply it as an experienced person would do, i.e. know the setbacks and pitfalls and common mistakes and so on.
E-courses, just like e-books are filters to avoid wasting scarce time and expensive effort getting nowhere slowly.
I think that it’s a total misnomer that “Knowledge is power” only through the application of knowledge can you increase your personal power. Most free information can never do that. Gathering knowledge and creating solutions and systems for implementation creates massive value and I think that is one of the prime benefits of your (or anyone else’s practical) e-books.