It used to be that writing an eBook, or having one written for you by an author with more experience writing on your topic, was the way to make money on the Internet. Things have changed quite a bit since 2005 or 2006, and this is no longer the best way to make residual income online. The industry has shifted, and now it is better to start off with a short report, in order to build a list of as many prospects as possible.
There are several reasons for this change in the way we now do business, but perhaps the greatest one is that there is just so much more competition these days in almost every niche you can think of. Instead of sending people directly to a sales letter for the eBook on your topic, you will want to send them to an optin page where they can exchange their name and email address for a short report that will tell them more.
You can then direct them to a sales letter for a product or course on your niche topic, and you will also be able to send them follow up emails that contain more information. Over time you will be able to build a relationship with your prospect based on trust and familiarity. This is extremely valuable to your business.
Take a look at what you would like to achieve with an Internet business. Set up an optin page that offers a short report in exchange for someone’s information, and then market to them over time. You will see that people will respond in a positive manner to this style of marketing.
I learned to write short reports from Jimmy D. Brown in his training course. You can find out more here on how to write short reports. I offer a phone consultation when you take this course and want to plan a strategy that will work for you, as it has for many of my students.
I guess I need to take the course and find out how many pages go into a short report. I have a tendency to rattle on and my reports and they end up being about 14 pages or so. Seems a little long for a “short report.”