Are you dreaming of the day when you make thousands of dollars in passive income from your best-selling ebooks? Have you written your first ebook? Has your ebook been floating around in the cosmos, with nary a soul reading it?

It’s ok, if any of this has you shaking your head yes, don’t hang your head in shame. I promise you are not the only one! With so many marketing gurus webinaring about making plenty of money from selling ebooks you can write in 2 hours, it’s easy to get sucked into the hype.

Yes, I made up a word: webinaring. Definition: the verb form of webinar. I’ve been known to make up words. Anywho…

How To Brainstorm A Topic For Your First Ebook

Before you can start earning money from your ebook empire, you’ll need to brainstorm a topic.

Note: If you want to make more money from your ebooks, whether you’re working on your first or fifth ebook, this info applies to you. Who knows, it might be time for you to re-evaluate the content and audience for your existing ebooks. Now, let’s continue on with this post.

There are many ways to brainstorm a topic. We’ll go over a few of them here, but first things first.

Know Your Audience

What do they struggle with, what problems do they have, what are their needs and what ability do they have to pay for a product to solve those problems? If you’re not sure, but you already have an audience who are list members, you can ask them.

How should you ask? Send a survey, or invite questions that you’ll answer on your blog. This is a great way to get insight into what your audience needs.

Consider Your Area of Expertise

What do you already know? It’s likely that you already know a lot of things that can help others. Make a list of the things that you already know and could easily write a long eBook or report about given the time to do so.

Don’t leave anything out. Even if you only have a beginner level of knowledge, that’s okay, because someone else needs that knowledge.

Think About Things That Interest You

Are there things you don’t know yet, but that interest you that both you and your audience would be interested in learning about? If so, write these down too, because you can always hire someone to do the work for you. Ghostwriters can be found on sites like upwork.com that will be happy to write and create the products for you that you can put your name on and sell to your audience.

Keep a Running List of Ideas

Whether it’s an actual notebook you keep with you or a notebook app on your phone, it’s important to keep something with you at all times that you can input an idea into easily. Do not rely on your memory. You may wake up at 2 am with an awesome information product idea. If you don’t note it, you’ll forget it.

Sidebar: If genius strikes and you don’t have access to pen and paper, grab your phone and do a voice recording. Yes, this means talk to yourself. And yes, I do this all the time! You can transcribe your notes later, the point is to capture the idea.

Create a Brainstorming Mind Map

Mind maps can be used for many things, including brainstorming. If you can use the mind map, it’s a good way to get your thoughts organized and on paper, so that you can get started creating your information product.

What is a mind map? 

According to iMindMap.com, “A Mind Map is a visual thinking tool that can be applied to all cognitive functions, especially memory, learning, creativity and analysis.”

There are also a lot of ways to brainstorm an idea once you have it. Let’s say that through these exercises you came up with a subject matter for your information product. That’s just the beginning. Now, you need to flesh out your information product so that you can fully develop it.

Write Yourself or Outsource?

If you want to start making money from ebook sales then your options are to outsource the content creation to a third-party, or to try to write it yourself. If you can write the product yourself then this is actually the preferable choice, as it will mean that you retain full control over the outcome of the product and that you can offer some genuine insight and something truly new. Hiring a writer will usually result in a passable book that covers all the basics – but if you have something truly special to say you really need to say it yourself.

Writing a quality ebook is not easy though, which is why you should follow these ten tips that can really help.

Ten Quick Tips For Writing Your Own Ebook

1. Plan a Structure

If you’re writing a blog post then you can probably get away with making it up as you go along. With an ebook though, it really does pay to have at least a loose structure in mind first so spend some time planning this out. You probably have an idea of the main points you want to cover. Consider making the main points in to an outline, which can serve as a draft table of contents.

2. Read Other Books in Your Niche

This is a great way to get inspiration for your own ideas and to become better versed in the subject matter.

3. Write Every Day

Writing that much content takes discipline. Make your aim to write everyday – even if you only write a paragraph that’s better than writing nothing at all.

4. Add Images and Tables

If you want to add value to your ebook, consider adding visuals to break up the text and illustrate key points. Images and tables is a great way to give your product more bang for the buck.

5. Choose a Subject You Know

There’s no point in writing something you know nothing about, or some topic that you think you should write about. Pick a subject matter you’re an expert in – if that’s your career, then that’s fine!

6. Choose a Subject You Enjoy

More important still, make sure that the subject you’re writing about is one you enjoy. Passion matters. That way you’ll be more motivated and your enthusiasm will come across in your writing.

7. Pick a Small, Targeted Niche

For example, writing a fitness book will mean going up against every other ebook author on the planet. However, writing a fitness book for women over 50 is a smaller, targeted niche that will lessen your competition. Much like choosing a keyword, try to pick a niche that’s less saturated, with a clear route to market.

Related Article: What’s the Difference Between Short Tail and Long Tail Keywords?

8. Get it Proofread

Even if you are the best writer in the world, it’s very difficult to spot your own typos and errors. Hire a proofreader to ensure absolute professionalism. I repeat, do not proofread your own work.

9. Focus on the Value Proposition

Your value proposition is the way your book is going to change the life of the person reading. Will they be richer? Stronger? Smarter? Famous? Focus on this and tie each point you make into that value proposition.

10. Say Something New

Finally, make sure to say something new. I’ve heard the spiels to bloggers to package up old blog posts and turn this in to an ebook. This advice is usually related to creating a free email optin, NOT for a paid ebook. Don’t simply rehash old posts and ideas – come up with a fresh perspective, discuss relevant trends and give innovative insights.

In other words, something that’s completely your own!

Ciao,
Miss Kemya