How To Select a Great Topic For Your Book or Ebook Part 2 of 5
There are groups of people who are willing to buy nonfiction
ebooks: hobbyists. At any given time, these people are looking
for ways to spend their money on their hobbies. Their passion is
your financial gain. What avid hobbyists want will always make
great ebook material. Note that I did not say what hobbyists
need. You may have certain opinions on what exactly certain
people should need or should read. But those are not necessarily
good topics for immediate ebook profit. Those topics may be
areas for you to dabble in at your leisure. However, if you want
to make money at this, find out what niche groups want, and hit
those groups with your ebook.
Find hobbyists and niche groups by searching the web for
"popular hobbies," "enthusiasts," or "what America is buying."
Or, you can search specifically for forums and discussion groups
for hobbyists. In the forums, people talk with each other to
share ideas with one another. Often, they will exchange
testimonials for equipment, upcoming events, and books.
One popular site where hobbyists go to talk to one another
online is Yahoo!. Check it out. Go to www.yahoo.com. Click
"groups." On the groups page you'll see a list of categories
such as Business & finance, and Religion. For demonstration
purposes, click on "Games."
On the games screen, game subcategories are listed followed by
numbers. The numbers indicate how many discussion forums are
available for that subcategory. These numbers reveal a lot.
Notice how "role playing games," and "video & computer games"
have factors of ten or in some cases factors of 100 more forums
than other subcategories. "Wargaming" and "paintball" don't even
come close, although those categories are much more
discussion-laden than "horseshoe pitching."
For fun, one day I continued selecting subcategories until I
arrived at a list of over a thousand (yes a thousand) discussion
groups on Yahoo having to do with vampire role playing. Here's
how I got there: Games>>Role Playing Games>>Live Action>> World
of Darkness>>Vampire: The Masquerade.
Some of the forums are open to new members, and you can join to
read what everyone's discussing. Once in the forum, you can
review discussion threads from today, yesterday, or a year ago.
Don't go back too far if you want to find out the hottest
possible ebook topics. You can participate in discussions if you
like. FYI, do not drop into a discussion group just to market an
ebook; hobbyists consider this spam and will drop you from the
group.
When you read and/or participate, you'll find out what this
group is buying. All you have to do is skim to find out what
questions they are asking each other about products or traveling
or information. What they are interested in buying is a key
piece of information because passionate consumers love to
research before they buy. This is an immediate ebook market. Write a book on how to
select the best this or that on the market, related to the
current wants of the enthusiasts.
Enthusiasts come in all shapes and sizes. Think brides-to-be,
golfers, whitewater rafters, people who collect vintage baseball
cards, wine connoisseurs, gardeners, frequent vacationers, video
gamers, and parents who put their children into private
tutoring, ballet, and violin lessons before age 3.
There are some hobbies that seem to continually attract
enthusiasts, like playing golf, watching football, restoring old
cars, and listening to music. These are classics. Then there are
some hobbies that seem to come and go in waves, such as Red Hat
Societies participation, snow boarding, or line dancing. Pick
either a classic hobby or a fluctuating hobby in its peak season
for your best odds.
A big market on the Internet is the 20-30 set. Here's what they
are doing right now, according to one survey. They're
snowboarding, wakeboarding, traveling, camping, listening to
music, taking photographs. They're drinking gourmet coffee, rock
climbing, playing guitar, camping, dancing, looking for online
love, shopping for computers and other electronics, attending
sports events, studying the Bible, exercising, trying to find
jobs, and watching movies. Any one of these subjects would make
a great ebook with a buying market standing by.