The self-publishing market has exploded in recent years. It seems almost as if every web user has an infoproduct out there, and the world and his wife are all looking to create eBooks on anything from self-help to online marketing.

For the intrepid web entrepreneur, infoproducts and eBooks offer a spectacular opportunity:

They are almost 100% pure profit, and require NO investment to create!

For those who were looking to the web for instant profits, risk free - eBooks and Infoproducts fill the gap, so long as three steps are followed and rigidly adhered to. Without having each part in place, the entire endeavor is useless.

Step #1 : Research

Research is important. Even if the whole project is unique enough that the author strongly believes that there is nothing like it out there already, if it doesn't answer somebody's pain, then it won't sell.

Step #2 : Create

This is the easiest step, as long as Step 1 has been correctlyundertaken. Honestly, it is. As long as it is undertaken in the correct way, of course.

Step #3 : Market

No marketing = no sales. So, unless the author is creating an eBook for the sake of the act itself, marketing is going to be vital. The marketing really starts from the moment that the author decides to create the product - if not before.

As long as the author has knowledge that is of use, then building and marketing an infoproduct will be a logical step by step process of taking that knowedge and packaging it in a usable format.

The actual eBook creation is the easy part. The hard part is knowing what to put in it.

Know the Market

Information has a market. Before just doing a brain-dump of everything the author knows on a subject, they should look to see what the market needs, and satisfy that demand. This applies to length, price, and medium as much as it does to the content.

List the Benefits

People buy benefits, not features. Benefits are things that address their pain - the kind of pain that Knowing the Market will highlight.

Create the Sales Letter

This is an exercise in keeping focus on the Benefits. One of the best techniques is the 'Bunch of Fives'. The content creator should list 5 Benefits, 5 Features and 5 Offers. When it comes to create the actual product, each of the groups of 5 should be addressed - not in order, but globally through the project.

Test the Concept

Create a small report - 5 pages or so - that elaborates on the Sales Letter, and make it available for free (or a small charge). Create a squeeze page that captures the email address of the visitor, and deliver the report to that address.

Find Content

An infoproduct or eBook creation can run to many thousands of words. Not all of them will be original; business moves too fast for one person to create masterpieces (the average author can turn out a single 350 page book per year) and so getting free content to offer additional value to customers is a vital part of the research process.

There are multiple steps in the Creation process. Going into it, the author should have pages of notes from the research phase, as well as their Bunch of Fives to keep them on track.

Tip : Tape the Bunch of Fives to the wall, and each time a topic is introduced, ensure that it is is on track.

Write

The writing process is part creation, part re-use. The first phase is to make a Table of Contents. This should give a logical step-by-step flow through the eBook. The author should start with broad headlines, and then link them together with a single phrase.

Within each of these chapters, between 5 and 7 sub-headings can be generated, and then linked together with a single phrase. For each of the sub-headings, between 5 and 7 points can be made. More than this will lead to information overload for the reader.

With the extended Table of Contents to hand, the gaps can be filled in with prose - either created by the author, or gleaned from free article sources.

Respect copyright - never pass off these as your own, but give proper credit and a link to the original author.

The format of the eBook will be dictated by the tools used. For example, a simple OpenOffice document, exported to PDF will need a little more care (Table of Contents, cover, layout, etc.) than one built with a tool like eBook Compiler.

Edit

Re-read, re-read, and re-read the final copy. At some point it will be impossible to massage the content any further, and the Review can begin.

Review

The market has been tested, and so the author already has a list of people to whom the first version can be circulated. Pick groups of 5, and aim to have around 5 reviews come back. The comments can then be incorporated.

Distribute

The final document can then be distributed to the target market. In return for money, usually. Again, it will help the marketing if the author can build up a collection of testimonials - so actively ask for them!

There are whole books on marketing. People have devoted their lives to trying to establish the best way to market products to people. The time that it would take to become a guru would leave you no time to enjoy the results.

So, here's a three step programme that covers the absolute basics.

Squeeze

You need to squeeze every drip of contact time out of your prospects. Each opportunity that you have to push some more content their way will build a relationship. It will build confidence. It will help you to sell products.

The first kind of squeeze is easy enough to understand - "If you give me your email address, I'll send you a free report". The report in question is the author's Bunch of Fives from the Research step, and the call to action is to buy the eBook.

Promote

Squeezing your vsitors will build your list in a passive way. However, promoting the Bunch of Fives report actively will help grow the list more quickly. Once it reaches a tipping point - at which the anticipated conversion rate makes it profitable to do so, other products can be promoted to the list.

Up Sell

The eBook creation is just the start. The author should be actively looking at ways to upsell the customers on new benefit-laden offerings. This way the list will benefit from much a higher value relationship, which will be mutually beneficial as long as the trust is kept high.