OUT - Giving away all of your valuable content.IN - Selling it!
I've been selling information online for 4+ years now. Manuals, e-books, special reports, etc. That's how I make my living. (And "no" I'm not telling you this to brag, or make my operation seem larger than life.)
I'm telling you so that you'll know that it can be done in a consistent and steady manner. So that those of you who constantly give your information away will understand that you don't have to.
If your information is good... tried and trusted by readers... then I advise you to build up
courage this year to sell it.
Start with a 15-20 page special report for $10-$30, if you don't want to open floodgates with anything big. (C'mon, you can write a 20-page special report in less than a week!) Take $100, secure a new domain, and pay for a few megs of Web site space for a couple of months. Promote heck out of your new report.
Seeing something small sell will give you kick in butt you'll need to create and promote other infoproducts. The point is you gotta start somewhere.
OUT - Publishing your own free e-zine.
IN - Syndicating your content.
You want truth? Okay I'm gonna give you truth. There are too many e-zines in existence, ESPECIALLY in business industry.
Yes... in past I recommended that you start your own e-zine for promotional purposes. But after looking at how jam-packed market is getting, I'm singing another song.
The truth is you'll probably receive more attention getting your articles seen in already established and well known e-zines, than you will starting your own publication. (Unless you're already a 'famous' personality who has a following.)
Content syndication - (allowing other Web sites and e-zines to feature your articles) - gives you power to be in several places at once. Plus syndicating your content means you don't have to worry about hassles of running your own e-zine.
Where can you syndicate your content? Check out iSyndicate , and The Syndicator .OUT - PDF.
IN - Wireless content.
Okay Adobe Acrobat isn't entirely 'out.' But there is something that you forward thinkers may want to keep an eye on... advent of wireless content.
I was just over in France where it seems like everybody has a digital telephone. I've heard that in China not having a cell phone is like not wearing underwear.
And they don't just use them to talk. People are actually using them to access information on Net.
Granted I don't think I'd want to read a novel on my cell phone. However certain types of content, like news or specialized data, is currently being accessed by people with digital telephones and Palm Pilots.
