How To Create Your Very Own Info Product In 5 Days Or Less! (Part Two).

Day 1

Okay, up and at ‘em!  Time to get started.  Make sure you have 4 hours today to work on this chapter and nothing else.  It’s important to focus on this one task till the end of this chapter.  Go ahead and answer your emails and do your daily routines…then come back here and be ready to get going.

Alright, you’re back!  You’ve got 2 lists lying there someplace…the first was your list of ideas you had been consciously kicking around in your head…the second was the list of words, phrases, paragraphs that came out of your timed writing exercise…go get them and let’s take a look at what we have.

When you look at your first list, and then compare it to your second list, do you see any words or phrases in common?  You probably won’t right off!  But, look at each idea on your first list and THEN, try to apply the words from your second list to that particular idea.  You’ll be surprised at what pops out at you!

Somewhere in there, you’ll run up on an idea that has a lot of interchange between the 2 lists…that’s the one your subconscious was working on hardest!

Pluck that idea out of your first list, take all of the applicable words/phrases out of your second list and set them aside.  That’s probably a keeper!

You’ll find that you probably know a lot about this subject already.  It may be one of your hobbies or interests or something you’ve read or heard a lot about.  The fact that your subconscious has called it up says that you need to take a greater interest in it and DO something with it!

So, you’ve spent 30 minutes and come up with an idea that means something to you, personally.  Whether you know it or not, you belong to a niche.  That niche covers the subject of your idea.  That’s pretty straightforward.  But, now we need to find out if there’s any money to be made in that niche.

You need to come up with one phrase…2-4 words…that sums up your idea.  It may be something like, “indoor water gardens”, for example.  You have to make it as clear and concise as you can.  A good trick is to think of what you’d type in to the Google search bar if YOU were looking for information on the subject.  That’s your keyword phrase for the next part of today’s task.

Before you spend a bunch of time writing, you need to see if anyone is even interested in your subject.  The whole idea here is to make yourself some money…not just write a book!

So, your next step today is to become a private investigator…a P.I. …just like Magnum or Sam Spade!  You’re going to be doing some researching online…sorry, no guns or car chases today!…in the niche which covers your subject.

My good friend, John Taylor, has just written, what I consider, THE resource book on ways to investigate a niche in order to determine if it may be profitable or not.  He really pulls out all of the stops and gives you very specific, very useful sites where you can do your research easily and quickly.  The book retails for less than $50 and is worth, at least, 20 times that in the time and effort it will save you!  You really NEED to grab a copy right now since, for my readers, he’s added 2 great bonuses that build nicely upon his book to thoroughly educate you in niche research.  Click Here To Check It Out.

That’s something we need to talk about right now. You ARE going to need to spend some money!  Not much…but some!  There are specific tools and resources you HAVE to have in order to have an ongoing e-book business.  And, that’s the whole idea here, isn’t it?  Having many e-books out there all selling 3-4 copies a day?  THAT’S a TRUE business you can count on since all of your eggs aren’t in one basket.  The tools and resources I’ll be recommending are the ones I use myself everyday.  They save me time, effort and a TON of money!  I’ve been able to arrange special pricing for my readers on most of them.

I’ll always try to offer you free alternatives whenever I can, but sometimes, that just isn’t possible, and others, the freebies just aren’t worth a darn.  I just want to be straight with you here.  My goal is for YOU to have a growing and profitable online business, NOT to sell you stuff.  I make my money from e-books…and I want you to be able to say the same thing one day soon!

Here are some great, free places to get started on your keyword phrase research.  The easiest to use is WordTracker.  It has a web-based free trial that use can use over and over.  The free trial doesn’t offer you the full statistics that the paid version does, but it’ll allow you to get started with your research.

Go to www.wordtracker.com and click on “TRIAL” on the top Nav Bar.  You’ll need to give them a name and email address.  Don’t worry, they don’t swamp you with emails, as a matter of fact, I barely hear from them!  You’ll get an instruction page next…and then the page to start your work.

Type your phrase in the text box and follow the steps clear through.  You’ll come up with a page that gives you an analysis of your phrase.  To understand it, let’s hear what WordTracker has to say:

“What does it all mean? This is where you spot your niches in MSN. The figure you want to take note of is the ‘KEI Analysis’. The higher this figure, the more popular your keyword is and the less competition it has. This generally means that you will find it easier to reach the top of this keyword. Now you need to make sense of the KEI figure. Generally, a poor keyword to target will have a KEI of between 0 – 10. It’s not wise to target keywords with this KEI as there is too much competition and you will probably end up on page 34 and no-one will notice you! Good keywords to target have a KEI of between 10 – 100. These are good value bets and you have a good to medium chance of reaching the top. Between 100 – 400 are your best bets and anything above 400+ is a gift!”

The free version of WordTracker only lets you look at MSN search which only accounts for about 22% of the daily searches on the Internet.  If you like what you’ve come up with, then great!  If not, go back and try again by scrolling clear down to the bottom of your results page and clicking the “Give It Another Go” link.

You’ll be using something like WordTracker almost every day as you’re developing your e-books.  It may pay you to buy a membership…they have several different price levels.  I use mine every day at least 3 or 4 times!

To sum all of this up, you need to see if your idea is being searched for…and if it is, how much competition is out there.

You really don’t need to worry too much about competition.  I know that sounds stupid!  But, you really don’t!  You’re going to learn a method that takes that competition and makes it work FOR you instead of against you!

So, your first day has been spent on research.   You’ve found your best ideas and you discovered how often that idea is searched for each day.  That’s important stuff!  Tomorrow, you’ll learn how to pick up ideas that are already out there.  Then, the next day will be spent on actually writing your book and the final day you’ll learn how to put it all together and start selling!

Good work today!   Get some rest and be ready to roll tomorrow!

Day 2

Well now, you’ve learned a powerful technique in the last chapter.  It allows you to tap into your subconscious and drill for ideas.  If you use that technique consistently, it will only get more powerful…just like a bicep muscle does when you exercise it!

The “Kumar Method” is excellent for generating your own, original ideas…one’s that may be VERY profitable…or ones that may be a big flop!  That’s why we spent so much time and effort on learning about niche research.  With an original idea, you MUST find out if there is, not only a market for your idea, but if the market is willing to pay you for that idea.

I hope you’re thinking…”There HAS to be an easier way to do that if I’m going to eventually have dozens of products out there for sale!”

Well, there is!  But, please don’t discount your subconscious.  Even if you decide to use this second technique I’m going to teach you, that “drilling for ideas” thing…the “Kumar Method”… will help you refine it, put a new twist on things…and…make you a LOT more money!

A friend, and exceptional marketer, John Reese, is famous for saying, “Sell what people are buying!”  Now, that’s so simple, you may just miss the power of the statement.  Let’s put it another way:  Don’t re-invent the wheel…just make it roll better.

Today’s work will help you do just that.

Think, for a minute or two, where you’d go to find out what people are, first of all, looking for…and secondly, what they’re buying.  The first part is pretty simple. There are several sites that will show you the top 100 or 500 or 1000 searches for that week.  WordTracker has a free service that you can sign up for…they send you a great list once a week.  The list has the “trendy” searches, as well as the searches that are continually in the top of the rankings.

The trendy list is highly influenced by holidays and news events.  WordTracker calls this list its “Surge Report”. If Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston are in the news, you can be sure they’ll be in the trendy list.  Same with hurricanes and mine disasters.  All of these subjects spark very high search numbers, but they’re almost impossible to predict…and usually go away so quickly that it’s just as impossible to create a product and get it out in time to capitalize on them.

The second list is where the smart ones go to drill!  WordTracker calls this their “Long-Term Keyword Report”. These are the traditional, everyday top searches.  That’s the list you want to work with!  If a keyword is continually in the top 200 searched for items, doesn’t it make sense that a LOT of people are searching for it every day?

Let’s take a look at a typical Long-Term Keyword Report…this one is for November 1, 2005 and covers the 130 days prior to that date.

4       159537        Paris Hilton

10       129888        eBay

11       129087        poetry

15         97960        dogs

22         90441        top 100 baby names

The #4 position goes to the keyword phrase Paris Hilton.  In the 130 days prior to November 1, 2005, 159537 searches were done for that phrase.  That means that each and every day 1227 searches were done!  Since that phrase is a real person, writing a book with her name in it may get you in trouble, but the phrase is instructive because it shows you how to evaluate and interpret the list results.

The # 15 result is a good example for us to work with.  Its in the top 20…it’s a big, wide niche…and there are a lot of sub-niches there.

If you go to the WordTracker free trial and just type in the word “dogs”, you’ll find a gem!  It has a KEI of 385!  So, maybe an e-book about dogs isn’t such a bad idea!  That means that people are searching for information on dogs…AND, that there isn’t a lot of competition out there in this case!

If you do the same thing with the word eBay, you’ll find another gem…a KEI of 703…but with a BIG number of competitors…34 MILLION!  Is that something that should scare you off?

Absolutely not!  In this case, for a couple of reasons.  First, the KEI is so high, and secondly, the number of searches in a 24 hour period is so high!

So look, out of those 5 WordTracker list results, we’ve found 2 gems…and maybe more!  See what those lists can do for you?

WordTracker isn’t the only tool to use to find out where the action is, by any means!  A friend of mine, David Guindon, has developed a tremendous tool for examining another widely used site that you’ve probably heard of…eBay!  What better place to see what people are interested in buying?   And…if they’re interested in buying something, could it be that they’d be interested in getting some information about that item?  You know, how to take care of it…how to use it best.   There’s your e-book!

David’s program is called Hot Item Finder…and that’s EXACTLY what it does…easily and quickly!  It’s VERY inexpensive and pays for itself with one use.  If you’d like to find out more about it, you can click here.  I use it almost daily.

There are a TON of free places to do your market research.  Just take a moment and think about where you’d go to see what people are buying.  Did you come up with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, CNET, Tucows and a host of others?  Then, good on you!

You’re thinking along the right lines.

The whole idea here is to find out what types of things people are already buying…and buying a LOT of!  Once you know that, you’ve taken a giant step towards your first e-book!  That’s a good place to stop today.  Tomorrow, we’ll refine your research even more!

Day 3

Good job so far!  You’ve learned a lot and have started to put that knowledge into use.  Hopefully, you’ve learned how to get ideas out of your mind and down onto paper, while at the same time, you’ve learned how to step back and take a look at an overview of what’s actually being bought out there in the market.

Maybe, you’ve been smart enough to try the “Kumar Method” out on your market research.  If you have, you’re really way ahead!

Last chapter, you found out ways to see what people are buying.  The chapter before that, you learned about tapping your subconscious.  Let’s put those two techniques together for a moment and see what happens.

Do a little market research and come up with 5 keywords or phrases that apply to things that people are already buying…and buying a LOT of!  You just learned about how to do this…check WordTracker, check eBay, check the best sellers…all of those things!  Come up with a list of 5 potential keywords or items, or topics.  ONLY 5!

Now, just study that list of 5 for a few minutes.  Think about each keyword or phrase and then write down ideas about each one of them.  As fast as you can…with no editing (you ARE using that pen, right?).  That’s your conscious mind working.  Now it’s time to get your subconscious kicked into gear!

Us the Kumar Method to focus your mind on those 5 items…the last 5 things you were thinking about.  Relax like we talked about earlier and just let things flow out of your mind and onto the paper.

Do a 30 minute session.  Most people find that after 30 minutes or so, it becomes more difficult to keep their minds focused on just the things they want to work on.

Again, you’re going to end up with 2 lists…your conscious list and your subconscious list.  Compare them like before and find which one of the 5 items comes out with the most things scribbled down about it.  That’s probably the one you should pick to write about for your first e-book!

That’s an important step you just took there whether you knew it or not.  You did some good research, you put some quality conscious thought into it and then, you turned it over to your subconscious to work on.  If you TRULY went through those steps, then you are definitely in the 5% of e-book authors (or soon-to-be authors!) who will turn out an excellent product…one that people will LOVE , get a LOT out of…AND, tell their friends about!

Pat yourself on the back and grab a cool refreshment, but, don’t close this chapter yet.  We have more work to do today!

The very next thing you need to do is go out and find everything you can on your subject.  Let’s say you came up with “diets for dachshunds” as your topic.  You need to go out and find what’s already been written on that subject.

Here’s an excellent FREE way to do just that.  Go to Google and type in your keyword or key phrase.   Take a look at the statistics there, but don’t worry too much about them right now.  The important part for you, at this point, is the bottom part of that page…all of the website URLs you’ll see there.

Click on some of the top rated sites and see what information they have on there.  See what they have to say…what they have to sell.  See what price points they set for their products…if it IS their own product!  See what affiliate products they’re selling.  If it’s a popular product, don’t you think that people may be interested in learning how to best…or better…use that product?  Or maybe take care of that product?

What you’re trying to do here is check out your competition…get the lay of the land…do some reconnaissance!  Not with the idea of talking yourself OUT of writing a book about the topic, but with the idea of getting you excited about it!

While you’re searching, make sure you find some sites that have free articles about your chosen topic.  Copy those articles into a folder on your desktop entitled, “Resources”…we’ll come back to them in just a bit.

Also, while you’re searching, try to find forums that deal with your topic.  That’s easy to do.  Just go to Google and type in   forum: dogs  or forum:dachshunds …you get the idea.  These forums are a treasure trove of great information!  Make sure you bookmark the ones that closely fit your topic…you WILL be coming back to them!  Add them to your resource file.

Take a little time on each of the forums to read a few posts…see what questions people are asking…see what people are talking about.  Find a forum topic that has a lot of responses and read through them.  What you’re doing here is getting a feel for your market…what they want to know…what they already know…what they buy…what they don’t buy…how they talk.  This will help immeasurably when tomorrow rolls around and you start actually writing!

Now, let’s get back to that file you put on your desktop.  You should have quite a few articles in there by now if you’ve been copying and swiping.  That’s why it’s called a swipe file!  Everybody who’s really serious about marketing keeps one.  If they see something that looks really cool or interesting or applicable, they just add it to their swipe file.

This is NOT a file to steal content from.  That’s just plain dumb…and illegal!  It’s pretty hard to make a decent living from the state pen! It’s your resource file.  A resource for ideas, methods, techniques that you may end up using in the future.  The best way to use a swipe file for your first e-book is to read through the applicable content…articles, web pages, whatever …and internalize that information.  Think about how you could use that information in what you’re accomplishing.  Think about what the information means to you and how you’d tell your wife, best friend, mother all about it without any notes.

So, during this session, you should’ve spent nearly all four hours with your nose in Google.  Getting a TON of information in your swipe file… and more importantly, in your brain!

Tomorrow, we’ll get to work on getting all of that information you’ve just put in there back out in an orderly and readable manner.  Remember what you’ve done here.  This is one of the vital steps to writing a great e-book.

If you have any spare time tonight, get yourself buried in your swipe files and get your brain really filled up with information about your topic.  Don’t worry…we’ll get it out of there tomorrow!  Good job today!

Day 4

Well…today’s the day you actually start writing!  Now’s a good time…before you get all involved in the writing…to think back and see what we’ve covered since day one.  You’ve covered a lot of stuff…learned some techniques that were new to you…and, probably were a little strange to you as well!

You may be getting tired of all of the review we do at the beginning of each chapter.  I’m doing that for a very good reason!  What you’re really trying to learn here is the process…the process of how to write a book!  Sure, this time around I’m sort of holding your hand through that process, but the next time, you’ll be on your own.

It’s sort of like when you were first learning to drive.  You had to concentrate on each step as you took it.  Put your foot on the brake, put it in reverse, check and see if anything’s behind you…you remember having to think about all of that. After a while, you just jumped in the car and took off!  That’s what I want you to be able to do when you start your next book.

So, up to this point, we’ve talked about what you think about your writing ability…and given you some powerful reasons to think more highly of it.  I’ve also given you an exceptional tool to grab ideas out of your sub-conscious and get them on paper where you can work with them and make them come to life.  You’ve learned ways to work in niches, to find out if your ideas are profitable, and to start filling your head with the first thoughts of your new e-book.  Man!  That’s a lot in just 30 pages.  Now it all starts to pay off…it’s time to write!  Let’s get going!

First of all, wipe that sweat off your forehead, wipe those sweaty palms on your jeans and stop feeling that knot in your stomach!  This is going to be a lot better…and easier than you think it is.  Remember that “stinkin’ thinkin’” thing and look up at the side of your computer monitor and see that piece of paper with those promises you made yourself back a few days ago.  Relax!  This is gonna be fun!

First of all, let’s think up a catchy title for your new book.  Grab that legal pad…and pen!  For the rest of this book, we’re going to say that your book will be about diets for dachshunds.  Whatever your topic is, write it down at the top of a blank yellow pad page…right in the middle…and in BIG LETTERS.

DIETS FOR DACHSHUNDS

Although that phrase alone may be a good title for a book, we’re looking for a title that will make people want to read this book…not even want to…HAVE to read this book!

The best way to do that is to insert some other words in there to grab their attention.  Words like, delicious, easy-to-do, cheap, healthy, …can all go before the word diets.   Words like your darling, your fat, overweight, older, …can go in front of dachshund.  Here’s what you need to do.

Right below that big topic title write a list of descriptive words that will work with your topic…make it at least 10 words long.  Then, right below the big lettered topic, start writing the new titles.

Delicious Diets For Your Darling Dachshund…Easy-To-Do Diets For Your Fat Dachshund…Healthy Diets For Your Older Dachshund…and so on.

Do that with your title.  Have some fun with it.  You probably will come up with some really funny ones, and some really smelly ones!  Doesn’t matter.  Just put them down on paper till you’ve used all of your words.

Now, sit back and read each of them out loud!  One or two of them will really sound good…really sound like the title of a book that you’d probably buy.  Those are the ones to work with.   All you have to do now is pick your favorite and you’ve just come up with the title for your first book!

Here’s a little trick that always gets me really going when I’m first starting a book.  It may work for you as well.

Go to Google and type in your topic…dachshund, in our example book.  Then, click on the “Images” link right above the search box.  You’ll find all kinds of pictures of dachshunds.  Take a few minutes and pick one that really catches your eye.  You have to know right here that you probably won’t be able to use that exact picture for your book cover since it probably is copyrighted…I’ll tell you a couple of places to get some great pictures that are copyright free here in a minute…but just having a picture helps this process along tremendously!  Leave it up on your screen and continue.

Your next step is to start an outline.  How do you do that?  Well, the best way to show you is to refer you to the Table Of Contents for this book.  Just click on the link and you’ll be taken there.

That’s what we want to end up with…a list of chapters.

But for now, we need an outline before we get it in that shape.  The first shape your outline will take is just a list of everything you want to tell me about diets for dachshunds.  Do you want to tell me a little history of dachshunds?  Do you want to tell me how many dachshunds are registered in the US?  Do you want to tell me about the different kinds of dachshunds?

How about health problems that dachshund routinely suffer from?

Just write down everything you can think of to tell me about dachshunds right there on your legal pad.  Put each thing on a separate line and leave a few…3-4…lines between them.  We’ll fill those spaces in momentarily.  Don’t edit yourself here!  Just write everything down for now!

If you look at my Table Of Contents, you’ll see that I ended up with 10 chapters.  (There’s more there, but I always use an introduction, a summary chapter, and a resource chapter in every book.  We’ll cover that tomorrow in greater depth.)

What you don’t see there is that my list of things I wanted to say was about 30 lines long rather than 10.  So, keep writing!  Don’t try to put anything in order right now.  Just throw all of your ideas down on the page.

You should be able to come up with 20-40 things you want to say about dachshunds.  If you don’t have that many, go back to your resource file and read some more.  Try to get at least 20 lines filled up on that legal pad.  This will take you some time, so I’ll go get a Pepsi while you’re happily writing.  I TOLD you this wasn’t going to be so bad, now, didn’t I?

That wasn’t so hard…he said between chugs of Pepsi…now was it?  You’d done your research, you’d read about your topic, you’d read articles on the topic, you’d visited forums that talk about the topic…there was a LOT of stuff in your brain that you didn’t even know was there!

If you’re REALLY smart and really want to have a great first book, you’ll use the Kumar method on your list of things you want to tell me to see if there is anything in your sub-conscious that needs to be added to the list.  You might just be surprised here!

Okay, you’ve got a page full of things to say now.  Each thing is on a separate line with several lines in between them. All you need to do is fill in those blank lines between each thing you wanted to say.  Those are the details.

For example, if your first line was the history of dachshunds, then your detail lines would be something like, Came from Europe, Used for hunting, Hunting ferrets, used by royalty, brought to US in 1813, good natured dogs, loyal, protective, weak backs.

Now, you see that some of those things don’t fit under the history of dachshunds, do they?  Weed those out and put them under another main topic.  Keep doing that until you have 8-10 things under each topic.  Anytime you need to refresh your ideas, go back to the resource file or do the Kumar thing again.  See why those things are so important now?

Ideally, you want to end up with about 10-20 main topics with about 10 sub-topics below each one.  Do you see what you’re doing here?  You’re actually writing the book!

Each of those main topics will probably end up being a chapter.  The points below them will be the individual paragraphs in that chapter.

One last thing before we call it quits for tonight.  You have quite a few main topics there.  You need to get them in some kind of logical order so the reader…your reader… won’t feel like you’re jumping around all over the place.  The absolute BEST way to do that is to read the topics out loud!  See if the way you have them ordered makes sense to you when you’re talking them.  Pretend you’re talking to your beloved Uncle Gus.  Read him the topics and see what he thinks…he’ll let you know!

Can you see this e-book thing starting to come together?  Can you see how close you are to having it done?  That ought to REALLY excite you!  I know it excites me.

You did a good job today.  By the way, have you forgotten those sweaty palms and that knot in your stomach?  I thought you might!

Tomorrow, we put it all together.  Be there!

CONTINUED HERE……..