Pandia guest writer John Alexander looks at how to write a successful e-book. Note that e-books can also be a useful ingredient in an efficient search engine marketing campaign, as they can lead to a lot of useful quotes, reviews and inbound links.

By John Alexander

One of the most important aspects of writing a great selling e-book, is to choose a useful topic that serves a purpose.

This introduction is the first of a 3 part series that I’d like to share on how to write an e-book that sells extremely well. Whether you already have a topic in mind already or not, these first few steps are exceptionally important.

a) Be Original

Make sure that you put a little bit of your own heart into the topic. So many writers take the approach of examining what has already been done before, then spin off another version of something that’s been done.

When considering your first e-book, I encourage you to make it something very
original or something that will be useful.

Example:

My very first e-book was about how to use a specific SEO tool in a way that very few people had ever used it before. I discovered that in the early years, this particular tool had very little help or instructional information - so it left a pretty big learning gap. The primary purpose of the e-book was to show people how they could quickly get the best information without spending endless hours.

b) Consider the various “interest triggers” that might apply to your Topic.

There are lots of reasons why people buy information. For example if an e-book teaches you something like:

- How save money
- How to save time
- How to stay safer
- How to live healthier
- How to improve one’s appearance
- How to become more skilled in a specific area
- How to become more creative
- How to improve a specific process
- How to study smarter
- plus there are many others

The key is to find something that satisfies a need and also appeals to a very specific niche audience. When you are researching topics for your first e-book, resist the urge to just go with the first thing that enters your mind.

Choose a topic that you are knowledgeable about, something you’ve had first hand experience with and something that you enjoy writing about. That way, you’ll never run out of ideas for content and if it is a topic you really enjoy, it won’t seem like work, to write it.

c) Exploring topics for your first e-book - based on a current trend.

For example, my wife has a hobby of collecting decorative items from the local dollar store. The current economic trend being slow means people are looking for ways to reduce expenses and stretch their dollars further.

It can be surprising how just original creativity that she has for taking ordinary items that cost a dollar or two and turning them into surprisingly beautiful home decor items. Eventually, I encouraged her to start recording her ideas and displaying them on a Web site that she made by herself. The next thing she knew, what started as a hobby is turned into a business. She had an invite to start Blogging for AOL and is now creating a new e-book.

Is there a current industry trend or even a seasonal trend you could be writing about?

d) Be watchful all around you for products and services that seem to be somehow incomplete.

Is there something more that you can bring to fill in the missing gap? Are there common misconceptions about a topic? When you research the type of topics that are in demand, try to cultivate your research to explore opposite extremes. In this fashion, you’ll often discover opportunities that others have missed.

Your goal is to research and come up with something original so if something has been done before, you may want explore exactly opposite to what you think people want. If there is an audience interested in starting something new, be sure to explore the audience that is interested in something old.

This is the single most important step for your new e-book.

Coming up next:
Part 2. Easy and Inexpensive Mechanics of Creating Your First E-book
Part 3. How to Write an Influential Sales letter to launch your book

John Alexander is Director of Search Engine Academy with live community training centers located globally in North America, Asia and Australia. John also is author of the Free SEO Tip of the Day and teaches SEO Training online with his partner Robin Nobles.