From Blogging to Information Publishing
2006 is the year that blogging basically grew up … in a business and monetization sense.
Those who started blogging in 2004 and 2005 and have stuck with it are more savvy than ever in monetizing their blog(s). Apart from AdSense there are many ways one can make money from their blogs – for me Text Links Ads has been a real winner this year – a stand-out performer.
Those new to blogging have never had it better with the ways on offer to make money.
But there’s one way I think bloggers can reap the rewards of their blogging efforts: by creating information products.
Yes, the old ebook. But not just that. There’s audiobooks, screencasts and videocasts. The ways to present and distribute information to a ready and willing audience are numerous. And if you select a niche topic and a target audience that is time-poor and desperate for a solution to a problem (ie: they “want” answers to a problem so bad that they’re willing to pay) then you’re well on your way to ultimate success.
A blatant plug here – I run ePublishingDaily, which covers the information products industry. You know: ebooks, audiobooks and so on. Well a recent survey, which I posted about, spoke volumes. More and more bloggers are eying the information products route as the way to produce income, and not just income today or tomorrow, but income for years to come – and in a passive way.
Too good to be true. Well I personally know of a handful of well-known bloggers taking the best of their blog posts and molding it into an ebook. And the best part is that the marketing process has been built up over time – via their blogs. And you can do it too.
The information market is huge, there are a ton of niches out there and there are desperate buyers … what are you waiting for?
Martin Neumann is publisher and editor of ePublishingDaily
Touche! I have several business blogger friends who’ve done just that — Denise Wakeman, Andy Wibbels, and Debbie Weil. Andy ended up writing a print publication based on the ebook. Debbie wrote a book as well, The Corporate Blogging Book. Oh, and, well, so did I…a little tome called Realty Blogging, co-written by Richard Nacht.
Your idea and advice is spot on!