You have thought about writing your own eBook for months now, but you just can't seem to decide on an idea that will get you started?

Don't be discouraged, you are not only one to face daunting task of choosing a profitable topic for your information product.

As information product developers, we are always seeking opportunity triggers. Always looking for clues as to what problems we can solve or desires we can tap into.

Sometimes we try too hard. We spend weeks researching, discussing, testing and pulling our hair out over that next blockbuster topic for our products.

As usual, obvious escapes us as we make things too complex. Current events satisfy requirements for providing a terrific source of high-profit potential (HPP) ideas. Unless you live in a cave, on international space station or work in a university or government (sorry couldn't resist!) you can't help being exposed to hundreds of potential product ideas each and every day.

Here are some excellent sources of current events that you can easily spin into your own infoproduct ideas:

There's masses of free information on Web - all you have to do is gather it together and package it, and you have an E-Book that people will pay for.

"But if there's so much free information on Web, why would anyone pay for my E-Book?", you may be wondering.

The answer? Convenience!

They'd rather buy your E-Book and save themselves hours, days and weeks that you spent researching it and putting it all together.

------------------------------ STEP 1: Writing Your E-Book ------------------------------

Pick a Topic. It could be 'How to accept Credit Cards on Web without having a Merchant Account'. Or it could be '25 Free Resources For Getting More Traffic', or it could be about Cooking, Gardening, Dog Breeding, etc.

Write down Title of your E-Book in center of a blank page and circle it. If you can't think of a title yet, just write down subject that your E-Book will be about (e.g. Dog Breeding).

Then jot down 8 or 10 Basic Ordering Ideas (BOIs) in a radius around your E-Book title or concept.

If you're having trouble coming up with BOIs, hold in your mind title or concept of your E-Book and then ask yourself these questions: WHO, WHAT, WHERE, HOW and WHEN.

Now connect Basic Ordering Ideas to E-Book title with outward-pointing arrows, like spokes of a wheel.

Under each BOI, draw a vertical line and against that line, jot down sub-ideas that belong under that Basic Ordering Idea.

Now turn your Mind Map into an outline. Take Basic Ordering Ideas from your Mind Map and order them, 1 to 10 (or 1 to 8, 1 to 12 etc); These are your Chapter headings. Now take sub-ideas and write them down under each BOI; these are your Chapter sections.

I recommend you write text of your E-Book as a single Microsoft Word document. This allows you to get a feel for overall structure of your E-Book, and it also makes spell-checking much easier.

------------------------------ STEP 2: Creating Your E-Book ------------------------------

Now divide your Word document into single pages; these will become HTML pages of your E-Book.

There are well over a dozen different E-Book compilers on market.

Here are two compilers that are free:

- SbookBuilder: http://www.jansfreeware.com/jftools.htm#sbookbuilder

- eBookIt: http://www.cottagemicro.com/ebooks/

However, if you want to make a good impression with your customers, I highly recommend that you use a commercial E-Book compiler.

Here is a list of commercial E-Book compilers:

- Activ EBook Compiler: http://www.ebookcompiler.com

- Document Publisher: http://www.fuguesoftware.com

- EBook Pro Compiler: http://www.ebookpro.com

- E-Book Publishing Wizard: http://www.successarsenal.com/

- EbookPaper: http://www.ebookpaper.com

- E-Publisher Gold: http://www.ebook-software.com

- ePublish Now: http://www.ebookgraphics.com

- FlipBrowser V. 1.0: http://www.flipbrowser.com

- ExeBook: http://www.exebook.com

- HTML2EXE: http://www.html2exe.com

- HyperMaker HTML 2000: http://www.bersoft.com

- Illuminatus v4.51: http://www.digitalworkshop.co.uk

- Infinite Ink: http://www.infiniteink.com

- NeoBook V. 4.0: http://www.neosoftware.com

- WebCompiler: http://www.webcompiler.com

- WebExe 1.3: http://www.aw-soft.com/webexe.html

- WinEbook: http://superwin.com/