After reading digital point forums for a while, I've finally decided to join up. I basically just got an idea yesterday to make an eBook about my online success journey. Here's what I've accomplished. I was 17 years old. The domain was bought in 2007-06-26. Next year in March, I've received a $2,925.34 deposit from adsense for that ONE MONTH from ONE SITE ( I've signed up for deposits instead of checks ) I've never had any sales or making money experience before this. And it was my DREAM to own a successful site. My site was the first on Google for VERY competitive keywords. And very high for other niche-related ones. I really want to write an eBook about it and just explain exactly what I did and how I did it. And what I did to ruin it. And what I did to monetize my website in a different way (Without adsense). Which made the income even more stable. My traffic info just copied from Google analytics. Site Usage for May 2009 85,553 Visits 668,247 Pageviews 7.81 Pages/Visit As I write this. I'm not rich, nor do I think I'm some super smart dude, but I am 19 years of age about to buy myself a 2008 BMW M3. (Those things look awesome!) I would just like to hear your guys' thoughts/advice on this and if it's even worth writing an eBook about this. Is this something you would be interested in reading? Please note that I had never tried to sell an eBook before. (I've sold other digital goods) I am a complete noob when it comes to eBooks, so any help will be appreciated. Looking forward to talking with you guys.
Go ahead and write it, detailing the steps on how you achieved your success. Make sure it's informative, and can be used as a tool to help others achieve the same success as you, the info market is alive with possibilities, and there are plenty of free tools out there to convert Word or MS Office documents into PDF format. Just be sure that the info you supply is relevant the the market you are targeting. This could be another lucrative source of income for you in the form of affiliate sales once you've got it up on you own website and registered with CB as an Affiliate product, that way you get other people to market it for you.
Yup, Go ahead and write it, it may be quite usefull to many of us, are you planning to sell the same or to give it away for free?
If it's interesting enough, and the methods can still be used, I'm sure some will check it out. If you keep the pricepoint low, you can probably sell a good amount
Yes, definitely do it. Those are always money-makers. Providing you do it right, that is. John Chow, JohnChow.com, got a lot of repeat traffic because in his blog he explained how he made money with his blog.
OF course hes going to sell it.. No hes going to give it to the homeless see what they can do with it.. Seriously hes writing an ebook to make a profit why else.
Well your idea of an ebook is good but you're just going to join the 4 million other people who write about online success. How are people going to distinguish you from everyone else? I'd like to see your web site...
Make sure your eBook is informative and has a lot of concrete information. Don't make it just another biography of your "success" story. I have heard so many complaints of people promoting their eBook that turns out to be "Hey I did this and made $X. Sign up domain, click this link, post these links to these sights *end*". Don't rush through the writing process. The more time you put into writing your book, the better and more informative it will be, and all this will make your book sell itself. Congrats on the success of your site.
You say you have little knowledge about making money. How about you save the $40,000+ for the BMW M3 and put it into an annuity. http://www.freeannuityrates.com/annuities/calculators/futurevalue.php If you open an Annuity today, with a principal of $40,000 and contribute $500 monthly at an interest rate of 3% (quite low), in 10 years you will have $161,000. In 20 years, $391,000. In 30 years, $830,000. And 40 years (Age 59), $1,677,000. Sounds like a pretty good choice to your money, considering when you buy that BMW, drive in, park it in your garage, and wait 5 years, it will depreciate from $40,000 to less than $20,000 in the best case scenario.
Thanks to everyone who replied. I will definitely think about writing an eBook and offer review copies. Meanwhile, I want to invest a little more time into growing my site as I see a lot of potential for future growth. Wouldn't want to bring it to the ground. Thanks again guys!
Consider how you will sell it once you are finished writing it. Instead of just listing the PDF or other digital document on your site for sale with Paypal IPN, you could always upload it to a service like scribd.com/partners or payloadz.com or e-junkie.com or something similar. Even with free versions and excerpts of your book you can still make money with file sharing websites that earn pennies for each download. Let us know what you do, and if you get further on actually writing it, I'm sure plenty of people here would love to proofread it or give you feedback before your big sales effort. Thanks!