People want information, they want it
quick, frequently in short form, and straight
to the point. Its no wonder that they
go straight for a computer connected to
the internet to find anything from how
to grow tomatoes to choosing a web host.
As a home business owner, this "information
revolution" as I like to call it, is only
to your benefit. After all, you are in
the business of trying to give people
what they want time and again. So, give
them the information they crave.
Now, e-books are a wonderful way to ,
but in the spirit of the Infopreneur,
short high content reports which I like
to call info-reports are perhaps even
better. If formulated carefully, they
can even be put to use to literally explode
the size of an opt-in list of subscribers.
To proceed you simply develop several
high content short reports, targeted at
a specific market which you would like
to add to your subscriber base, and give
it away free just for subscribing to your
newsletter. With content, and the word
"free", many people will flock to subscribe.
Best of all this is a win-win situation:
You pick up valuable subscribers to interact
with on a weekly basis, and your subscribers
receive valuable information from you.
So, how is it done you ask?
Report Ideas
Almost any idea you have can be made
into a short report. However, not every
idea is in demand.
Try this out.
Sit down with pen and paper in a quite
location. Yes, you read correctly. I said
pen and paper. It is easier from a work
perspective to sit in front of your monitor,
but past experience has taught me that
the creative side of my brain works better
with pen and paper. Of course it is up
to what ever works for you.
Now, write down a short list of topics
that you are semi-familiar with. I say
"semi" because you can always perform
a bit of research to learn more. These
topics can be on anything: gardening,
cooking, computer programming, specific
hobbies, construction, research, medicine,
etc.
After you have made your list, weed out
the topics that are not associated with
your business. For instance, if your business
is computer programming, you probably
don't want to focus on creating a short
report on gardening. The reasoning here
is to target your market. Gardening info
is not targeted to the computer programming
market.
Now pick one or two topics, open a word
processor, or even your notebook, and
start writing every little bit of information
you know on the subject.
Putting It Together
I recommend structuring your report similar
to a book report. Remember writing those
in school? Why a book report? The focus
here is short and informative. This isn't
creative writing. You don't want to go
off on some tangent about literary prose.
Short, concise, and highly informative
information to guide others is what works
here.
Format And Packaging
Format is somewhat of a personal preference.
But, keep computing platform in mind.
There are numerous e-book compilers, many
free, that can be used to create a small
exe file of your report. The advantage
here is that it can be created in web
page format and then compiled with links
that when clicked will actually open in
the e-book window. One downside however
is that as far as I have been able to
tell they only compile in PC format. So,
anyone with a Mac will not be able to
view the file.
I have used Easy e-Book Creator for several
short reports. It is simple and easy to
use. I create the pages in HTML format
using Microsoft Frontpage and then compile.
If you want the full version without the
Easy e-Book Creator logo and with added
security features, you can purchase a
license for about $20. The resulting e-book
is in exe format. e-Book Compiler also
has a free trial version. I however was
not as happy with it.
PDF is essentially universal. Just about
anyone these days can open a pdf. The
problem is that pdf file creators are
rather pricey. An alternative is the Microsoft
Reader plug-in for Word. Microsoft is
attempting to compete with Adobe in creating
a new standard. The software is free to
download from Microsoft at http://www.microsoft.com/reader/developers/downloads/rmr.asp
.
Distribution
After all else is done, its time to get
your report to market. Now, there is not
a single definitive way to do this. I
use e- zine advertising, classified ads,
pay-per-click, and traffic exchanges to
advertise short reports in the hopes of
pulling interested readers to sign up
for the e-Kinetic E-Zine. What is great
about this method is that it truly is
win-win. I gain new subscribers who I
get to share interact with through the
e-zine, and subscribers receive valuable
information at zero cost.
Dan J. Fry ©2004, All rights reserved
This article was posted on June 01,
2004
