And you're right. It is that simple.

But it all takes time.

You won't upload your site today and have it indexed by search engines tomorrow. You'll send first issue of your ezine to maybe 10 people. Or fewer. Your first attempt at ad writing will bring you zero sales. It takes you three months for it to actually sink in that you have to run your ad for a minimum of seven times before readers will act. And that it's seven times to SAME audience.

And then, when your site is *finally* indexed by search engines, it doesn't appear in first three pages of search results for your keywords. In fact, it doesn't appear in first *thirty* pages. So you learn about importance of high-profitability keywords and you create new web pages just for those keywords. And submit them to search engines. And then wait until they're indexed. And then check again.

In meantime, four months have passed, you now have over five hundred subscribers to your ezine and you're starting to see maybe fifty site visitors a day. And not a one of them is buying anything.

You've been working hard, long hours in your business but, quite frankly, you consider it a good month if you can (just) cover your web hosting fees with what you're bringing in.

So you start feeling like it's just not worth time and effort and sacrifice. You're spending at least half your waking time on this thing and you're not getting anywhere.

A few more weeks pass with no results and you start getting seriously dejected. You're disillusioned and disappointed. You're frustrated and generally P.O.'d that everyone else seems to be able to do this but you.

Your day job, which you detest with a passion, starts to feel like not such a bad way to spend 8 hours. Hey, it beats sitting before a computer screen day in day out trying to market to a bunch of ingrates with nothing to show for it.

So you petulantly start watching TV in evenings after work instead of tending your garden. You completely miss tender young shoots that suddenly appear in corn patch. You don't see that birds are picking off strawberries and that carrots and broadbeans need watering. You don't notice you have a whole field of potatoes that are ready for harvesting or that soil needs to be turned where silverbeet was planted six months ago.

Finally, corn is ready to harvest but half-formed cabbages and asparagus are rotting because you didn't notice it was time to water and protect them from parasites. Soon corn will join them.

You don't see any of it because you're busy watching TV. If you'd just hung on a little bit longer, you'd be starting to reap a healthy crop from your efforts by now. But you didn't hang in there. You gave up too soon.

Don't let this happen to you. Don't let your business die on vine. Continue to feed, water and protect it. Even when you don't feel like it. *Especially* when you don't feel like it. Success in this business has as much to do with patience and perseverence as it does about creativity and talent. Success could be just around next corner. Just wait and see what's waiting for you before you flip switch.

Weight Loss Jobs Prom Dresses Travel Recipes Dogs Baby names

Now, I'm not passionate about any of those, but I can clearly see how any one of them could be turned into an information-packed special report that would sell for 10 bucks or more. Can you?

Weight Loss: What are most popular diets in America today? Go to newsgroups, find out what people are saying about them. Find two or three people who have succeeded in losing serious weight on each diet. Interview them. Package whole thing up as an 'insiders guide to today's diet plans.'

Jobs: How about a state-by state analysis of unemployment figures. A regional plan for optimizing your chances to find a new job. A directory of job- seekers resources. A book on 101 thing you can do if you are laid off. A report on 'home workers guide to surviving recession.'

Prom Dresses: Now I know nothing about dresses, and I've never been to a prom, but this subject is not only highly important to those involved, it is also emotionally charged, and perennial. What more does a business need? Subjects that could be included: this years styles and colors. How much should you pay? The best suppliers. It is highly researchable and I'd bet, very much in demand. This search term came 28th out of 500 so market is pretty big!

Travel: Where do you live? Folks come there. They want to know best places to go. You can tell them. I'm not going to labor this one, scope is so huge, but you could do a lot worse than visiting Mike McGroarty's board at www.homemadebooklets.com/boards/webbbs_config.cgi to see what he has in mind for future of travel booklets. Very exciting!

Recipes: This is a big field, but you can narrow it down. Everybody loves cook books. Take a look in any bookstore. And there is a world-wide market. The secret here is to link it with something else that people want. So, to use our example above, you could produce a series of recipe books for each of top diet plans. See where I'm going?

Dogs: Dog lovers are obsessed. If you own a dog you'll understand. If you don't, you will be baffled. Yet canine = cash. You can write about breeds, training, behavior, exercise. Just go to library, or search on google and facts will fall at your feet. Pick them up and put them in your book.

Baby names: Okay, there are books in stores with lists of names. SO WHY ARE PEOPLE SEARCHING ONLINE? There is a market. People want answers NOW. Not next Saturday when they can get to a bookshop. What can you do that is different? How about a list of all names celebrities have called their kids in last 5 years? What about a list of names with all meanings, plus numerology forecast for each one?

See what I mean? You may not be passionate about any of these things, but if I told you that when you have finished writing your book 1000 people will pay you $10 each to read it - will that spark a little passion in your belly? It does in mine!

"I can't write that well."

That is really just an excuse for not doing it.

It doesn't matter one little bit if you can't spell - software will sort most of it out for you.

So what if you don't understand grammar? Most ebooks are written in a very conversational style. Can you talk to your friends? Write like that. Totally correct grammar is often a disadvantage online.

When your book is written, give it to a few friends to read over for you. Listen to their suggestions because no matter how good at writing you are, other people will always spot your mistakes. You can even post on forums for people to review/critique your work.

"It's not that easy. I have been trying for six months or better to find something to develop and cannot seem to find that one big hit-that home run."

The problem here is that you have paralyzed yourself by wanting to see end result before you have put pen to paper (or finger to keyboard). That is where you have gone wrong. If you tell yourself that you can't do it, then GUESS WHAT? You CAN'T!

The only way to finish a project is to start it.

To summarize:

# Create your own ideas bank. # Find out what people are interested in. # Find a subject that you like (passion is optional). # Write your 7-question outline. # Research until your eyes hurt - looking especially for facts that are not easily accessible. # Write, write, write. Don't even think about if it sounds good, or reads right. Just get words on paper. # When it is done, read it over and then put it aside for a week or two. # When you come back to it, re-read it and then start to rewrite it. # At point that you feel you can't do any more, ask other people to chip in. # Then, if you have done a little each day, you will have a product to sell.

There is an old writer's mnemonic: WRITER

Write Read Ignore Trash Edit Rewrite

Do you want to have an information product of your own to sell? Then congratulations, it is right there for you to take.

Or do you want to find more excuses for not doing anything? It is your choice.

Go and get you book started. You know you can.