Solving Problems – Great Ebook Topics

I still get emails every day from people who want to start an online business. I don’t mind – although our recent house fire has neutered my available time to assist somewhat – but most of the people who write are truly stuck, and therefore it is harder to help them.

So as I sit here, day after day, waiting for the new house to build itself so I can get back to work, I thought I’d write a series of blog posts on starting an internet business. What to sell, how to sell it, the variety of website types, and so on.

First, we’ll talk about ebook authoring and sales.

More often than not, this is what my subscribers desire more information on. Back to the very basics though – they don’t even know what to write or publish a book on!

Here’s how to find ebook ideas….

Look around you and determine your own and your friends’ interests. Write a list. Think of the problems you or your friends have solved – relative to those interests. Any problem that has been solved in your own environment, surroundings and network, could easily be a subject of a new ebook. People love to read and resolve how others have solved the problem that they are currently experiencing.

Brainstorm a list of problems in your life and in the lives of those around you. Your friend Joan recently lost her job? Your niece just had mumps without vaccination? Your best friend discovered an easy way to create a hobby table for his train set?

What were the issues, the solutions, the concerns? How did they cope or resolve their troubles?

How to lose the last ten pounds. The straightest path to becoming a millionaire. Cutting your grocery bill or fuel costs in half. Fixing a leaky faucet for good? These are problems waiting for ebook solutions!

Keep in mind that you don’t always have to know the solution or be an expert – you just need the topic and a little time to research or a little money to hire an author. You could get someone else to do the research and write the book for you. You will not actually be writing one word.

DIY Research for Your Ebook

The internet is a great way to find out what people are looking for at any given moment. You can search for almost anything. Googleâ„¢ is a popular search engine you can use, or you can try any of the others like Yahoo!® or DogPile.com.

And while you’re online researching, be sure to uncover the most popular nonfiction book titles and sub-titles from the New York Times bestseller list or Amazon. You’ll quickly uncover exactly what book subjects people are buying right now.

Try this. Go to www.amazon.com. From the tabbed menu running along the top of the Amazon home page, click “Top Sellers.”

I did this one day and found several nonfiction books with titles such as Natural Cures “they” won’t tell you about, how what you wear can change your life, How to profit from the decline of the dollar, and so on.

I’ve paraphrased, but you get the idea.

Here’s what I learned just from spending a few minutes on Amazon. People are reading good fiction from already-best selling authors. Secondly, Amazon buyers are interested in nonfiction topics such as improving their lives and making more money. For these books, just about any author will do, even virtual unknowns or people who went to prison for lying to the American public.

Remember that the straightest route to ebook profits is in the nonfiction ebook market. This is for a number of reasons.

• Fiction readers tend to like to curl up in a chair with an actual book.
• Some of them attend book clubs where the physical books are brought around someone’s kitchen table with wine and cheese.
• Fiction readers tend to purchase from authors they’re already familiar with.
• Fiction can be more difficult to write and deliver well.
• Also, many of the classics in fiction are available as free ebooks. A reader interested in fiction could just download those.

Stick with nonfiction unless you’re feeling particularly bold and experimental.

Also, don’t get caught up on copyright. Not that it isn’t important, but just because someone else wrote a book on saving money on income tax doesn’t mean that no one else can write about it! Ideas are not copyrighted, therefore any idea you see, hear, or read anywhere anytime, is yours to use. You can create books around the same ideas that are covered in the Amazon best seller list, and turnaround and create an ebook on the exact same subject!

Now, copyright law does protect the way ideas are expressed, so you want to make sure your hired author does not plagiarize or copy book text outright. You cannot use the title verbatim either. But there’s nothing stopping you from creating another book or ebook that covers the same subject with a different voice. It’s all as completely legal. This is why looking at bestseller lists is a great way to get topic ideas.

Writing for Hobbies

There are groups of people who are willing to buy nonfiction ebooks: hobbyists. At any given time, these people are looking for ways to spend their money on their hobbies. Their passion is your financial gain.

What avid hobbyists want will always make great ebook material. Note that I did not say what hobbyists need.

You may have certain opinions on what exactly certain people should need or should read. But those are not necessarily good topics for immediate ebook profit. Those topics may be areas for you to dabble in at your leisure. However, if you want to make money at this, find out what niche groups want, and hit those groups with your ebook.

Find hobbyists and niche groups by searching the web for “popular hobbies,” “enthusiasts,” or “what America is buying.” Or, you can search specifically for forums and discussion groups for hobbyists. In the forums, people talk with each other to share ideas with one another. Often, they will exchange testimonials for equipment, upcoming events, and books.

I will write more on this topic later. For now, start investigating, journaling or researching your ideas and their solutions – even if to simply secure a ghostwriter.

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Tags: ebook, make money online

This entry was posted on Friday, February 22nd, 2008 at 12:35 am and is filed under Niche Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.