Make Money Publishing ‘How To’ Information
This is all about selling information but not necessarily information that you have written yourself.
When I published my magazines I also sold various manuals on ‘how to’ subjects. I purchased some of these initially with reproduction and resale rights. All I then had to do was advertise them and photocopy the material when I received orders. I also wrote some of my own. This was prior to the Internet taking over our lives.
Believe me, the ‘how to’ business is massive. When my son was at university, for example, he sold manuals he had written on ‘how to’ pass exams and study plans. He also put the info onto CD’s. He made a nice sideline to cover his ‘beer’ money, and whatever else students spend their money on.
Exams and study plans are probably not your thing but we all have some knowledge that others may want. What we don’t know we can source from the Internet. It’s true that prospective customers could do the same but they don’t always do this. People are lazy and often prefer a ready made ‘how to’ package.
Once you have written a ‘how to’ manual you can then sell this over and over for years and years. It takes some initial effort but, once set up, it’s something to sell for life (with only perhaps occasional updating).
If you can’t do this yourself you’ll find lots of ready made material if you do a Google search. There are eZines, guides and the like, in various formats, that you can reproduce for profit. You simply buy ready made packages that you can duplicate and sell.
Manuals can be sold by mail order, on ebay, by email or transfer the info to CDs and DVDs or even use your web cam to illustrate what ever it is that you are writing about.
If you have created some exclusive material keep it to yourself, at least initially. After a period, if sales are dropping off, start selling the manual/CD etc with resale rights. This way you can normally charge more for virtually the same product. There’s plenty of customers within a worldwide market.
Quality information is gold dust!
