How to Research Your Information Product

After being an affiliate and selling other people's products for
what seems like an eternity, you are finally ready to write your
own information ebook. The first step is going to be research.
No matter what your ebook is going to be teaching people, you
want to know exactly what kind of information they are looking
for and would be willing to pay for.

For instance, if you are writing an ebook that shows how to
budget and save your money, you want to find out what problems
and concerns people have and need information on. Things like
how to save money on utilities, cutting your grocery bills, best
ways to invest and so on.

You want to be very organized in your research because this is a
very important process in developing your product. If you follow
these simple steps, you can obtain all your information and turn
it into a very successful information product.

Step 1 - Gathering Information

In this step, you want to gather information and data that will
help you decide on the relevant content of your ebook. There are
several ways you can do this:

Discussion Lists: Ask questions to the members of all the
discussion groups that you are a member of. See what concerns
them in regard to the subject matter of your ebook. With most of
these groups the members are very happy to help a fellow group
member.

You can find all kinds of discussion lists here:
http://www.topica.com http://www.yahoogroups.com

Ezine Subscribers: Write up a little survey and ask your
subscribers to fill it out and see what you come up with. Of
course, if you do not publish an ezine, this will not work for
you. ;-)

Message Boards: Visit message boards and again ask the members
what information they would like to have access to and would
possibly pay for. You can find boards of all kinds here:
http://www.ezboard.com/ http://www.delphi.com/dir-delphi/

Popular Ezines: Subscribe to and read some popular ezines and
see what information they are publishing. Expand on it and
provide a more in depth study in your ebook.

Surf the Internet: Find out everything possible that you don't
already know about your subject matter so you can provide even
more information for your readers. I find a lot of my info here:
http://www.excite.com http://www.google.com

Step 2 - Recording Information

As you receive or find pertinent information, you want to be
saving it on a floppy or CD and also in folders in your email or
on your desktop or wherever you would prefer. This will help
make your research easy to get at and having a backup disc will
provide insurance against losing all your work.

Step 3 - Organizing Information

After you have gathered and recorded all of your information, it
is time to start organizing. Go over all the data and group it
together in separate files or categories. For instance, if
several people commented on wanting to find information on how
to make a weekly budget and tips and tricks for sticking to that
budget you could categorize all this type of data as budget
keeping.

Step 4 - Outlining Information

Once your data is all organized you can begin outlining and
separating into chapters. This is the beginning of your ebook.
Making an outline helps you organize and develop your ebook by
providing an easier way to format all the information you have
gathered. When you have finished your outline, you can fill in
each chapter with all the details and content.

Example of an Outline:

What is a budget? a) why do you need a budget b) how can a
budget help you How to make a budget? a) how to figure your
expenses b) how to figure your income c) comparing income with
expenses Tips for sticking to your budget. a) how not to impulse
buy b) allowing for fun & entertainment What to do when you run
short. a) rearrange your budget for extra cash b) trim the
excess Ways to save money. a) saving on utility bills b) cutting
your grocery bill c) having fun without spending a fortune Where
and how to invest your money. a) safe investing b) mutual funds
c) stock market Hey, I think I have an ebook here! ;-)

Add as many categories and subcategories as necessary. The more
you organize the info, the easier it will be to fill in the
blanks. So, use what you are interested in and know about,
expand on it with some research and you have the makings of a
money-making ebook!