Have Your Own Voice Through Creating Special Reports

You're probably searching for additional revenue streams to keep your business solid and secure in this contracting economy and uncertain world. Producing specialized content for sale is one of the fastest, most reliable methods of making extra income fast. Writing a "white paper" or a special report, is a great way to set yourself up as an expert in your field, and share valuable information with your prospects.

You may already have most of the ingredients for an e-book or special report in your files or archives. Find out which ingredients make customers willing to pay you for material available from other sources, and what elements you should include in your marketing copy to spark their interest in buying now.

Here are the steps to take when writing your special report:

· Have your end goal in mind before you start.

· Do you want to find a way to increase sales, while reducing your cost to acquire those sales?

· Who are you trying to impress and what is important to them?

· What distribution method will be best?

· How many people do you want to impact with this report?

· Make sure the layout of your special report looks pleasing, and is very easy to read.

· Keep in mind that it’s basically salesmanship in print.

· Keep your facts accurate, very brief and to the point. The denser your information, the more valuable and more likely to keep the interest of your reader.

· Write an attention getting headline. 95% of your readers will decide if they will read your special report based totally on your headline, so make it great and make it benefit driven.

Get it on the web. When emailing others, include your white paper URL in your SIG line of your Email or include the URL when promoting your special report on Email discussion lists.

Choosing the Right Product

When you first start your online business, the first and most obvious question you will ask yourself is…what am I going to sell? Points to consider when deciding the answer to that question are:

· Is it light and easy to ship?
· Is it a digital good that is downloaded (e-book or software)?
· Is it perishable or fragile?
· Does it have to be seen and held (designer fabrics, perhaps)
· Is there enough demand to make your venture profitable?
· Does it have little competition from large online companies (niche products)?

The last two characteristics are the ones that can be hard to pin down. Here is a generally accepted method of arriving at an idea of how heavy the demand and competition is for a product.

If you have a special interest in some products that meet the above criteria, great, but don't limit your investigation just to items you like. You are looking for a niche product with relatively good demand (enough to make it profitable), but without heavy competition.

One way to see what the demand is for products you are interested in is to look at search engines to see how frequently people search for the product you are considering.

The result of all this research should be that one or more products will fit into a niche market - products with some demand, and relatively little supply. For the best results, focus on one niche product category, and offer a wide selection. That way, you can become the best online source for that particular category. For example, instead of offering general craft supplies, offer the widest possible selection of needlepoint kits. This strategy will also allow you to rank higher in search engines because you can optimize your pages for fewer, more specific, keywords.