The key in [my] ebooks is, I am solving a very precise problem. In other words, if someone wants to know how to put crown molding up, I have the step by step photographs, and I have the supporting text to show you how to complete the job. That is it.

They are not interested in door trim. They are not interested in cutting the grass. They are not interested in laying a brick wall. If they are, then fine. Write a separate e book for that.

Tim gets it.

He understands the art of thin slicing content. When you thin slice your content, you focus on a very narrow topic and provide exactly what your customers need to know about that topic. You do not give them a lot of extraneous information they have to wade through to get what they need. And you do not give them a little bit on a lot of topics. You give them everything they need to know about a very narrow subject.

As an example, let’s say you are creating products about training your dog. (The products could be ebooks, videos, print books or other formats.) Instead of creating “Everything You Could Ever Want to Know About Training Your Dog,” you could create one about housebreaking your puppy, one on teaching your dog to obey basic commands, and others on controlling aggression in your dog, the proper way to walk your dog, teaching him to do tricks, dealing with separation anxiety, curbing destructive behavior, etc.

The same principle applies when writing articles and blog posts. If you try to write one blog post about training your dog…well, that is going to be one loooooong blog post. Instead, you would slice the content even thinner than in the above example. For example, each trick would be a separate post as opposed to an ebook showing how to train your dog to do several tricks.

When you find that the content you are creating is getting larger than you expected, it may be time to do some thin slicing. Choose one thing that you will explain in depth, and leave the rest to future content products.

To learn more about creating a profitable information product, see http://CashContentFormula.com/.

The information-marketing world suddenly took notice in 2004 when John Reese publicly credited Jeff’s teachings after he launched a new home-study course and sold over $1 million in the first 24 hours.

Since then Jeff has helped other famous marketers such as Yanik Silver, Brian Sacks and Frank Kern, and multi-million dollar launches have become almost common. However, many not-so-famous students of Jeff’s Product Launch Formula have had great success in all kinds of niches from massage therapy to software training to baseball coaching.

The following is an excerpt from an interview I did with Jeff where we talked about how to build an email list, create products and generate profits with your content.

Cathy Stucker: Jeff, tell us a little about how you got started.

Jeff Walker: I started publishing about the stock market. I had very humble, humble, humble beginnings. I think the first time I published was for 19 email addresses. One of them was my second email address and one was my wife’s email address, one was my in-laws and my parents. If you really got down to it I probably had about four or five subscribers for that first email. And that was back in 1996, the summer of ’96.

But I just started publishing. And I published high quality stuff and I didn’t charge for it. I didn’t have advertisements, I just started publishing it. With no money, no income, no revenue at all. But I just had this inkling that if I started publishing then good things would happen.

And sure enough, word started to spread through word of mouth and in fairly short order I had hundreds of subscribers and then thousands of subscribers and then tens of thousands of subscribers. And then from there it’s almost like the revenue started to just show up. It’s almost magical how that happened.

Once I had built up this audience of people, they had been following my stuff, then I started to create products for them. I took that newsletter that had been free and I added stuff to it and I made it a paid newsletter. Then I published paid newsletters about different aspects of the market.

I think I published, I am going to guess, about four or five different paid publications, paid newsletters. And these were all email based newsletters so my cost was like virtually nothing. And then I also started to create home study courses. I created membership areas. I started to put ads in my free newsletters. And often the newsletters would track people back to the website. And that would drive more advertising on the website and all of a sudden it became a nice little business.

Cathy Stucker: And I think that’s important too that all these different things that you do kind of fit together and generate different revenue streams. It’s not doing one thing and expecting that one thing to provide all of the income.

Jeff Walker: Well, you know, I am a big believer in growing a group of fans. I think, we are talking about content, and there’s lots and lots of ways you can use content. It’s unbelievable, I am a huge fan of what I call information marketing. And that’s using information to market. It’s not necessarily just selling information. There’s so many ways you can use it, but one of the things that I’ve always focused on is growing a list. If you do it right, it becomes a list of fans, hopefully a list of raving fans.

I’ve now achieved unbelievable success. When I first got that product in 1994, one of the things that you need to do is sit down and write down all your goals, like really big wild dreams. I actually have that still sitting around. I look at that list. Those goals that seemed unattainable to me then, are humble to me now. I had this number, $100,000. To me, the thought of making $100,000 a year was — people couldn’t possibly make more money than that. That was as big as I could think. Last October, I made $100,000 in one hour. I don’t mean to brag here.

Cathy Stucker: No. I think it’s important that people understand what the possibilities are. There is a tendency, sometimes, to think very small. I know my dreams keep getting bigger the more I achieve. I want to do more because I want to reach more people. I want to have more personal success. I want to do more. Your dreams do get bigger.

Jeff Walker: Basically, if you start publishing and you publish good content, this is how I’ve always driven traffic to my website. I’ve put good content on my website. Then, all of a sudden, I get people passing it around. I get word of mouth. I would put together a really good study about the stock market. I would put up my website. Then I would send an email to my list telling people about that.

Those people, they would be like my army. They would go out and they would tell all their friends. They would post about it on bulletin boards. Then all of a sudden I’d have a ton of new traffic coming in. I’d add 1,000 new subscribers to my newsletter in just a couple days.

Then, the next time I did that, I just had that much bigger list. I put out another study, and boom! All of a sudden, I’d get more traffic to the website, more subscribers. I’m just building this list. That list got up to 80,000 people at one point in pretty much every country in the world.

———-

The complete, one-hour interview with Jeff Walker is one of twelve expert interviews that are part of the Cash Content Formula course. Learn more, and get a free one-hour audio about making money with your content, at http://www.CashContentFormula.com/.

My interview of Jeff is also available at ExpertTeleseminars.com, on CD or as a downloadable PDF transcript.

First, create or obtain products you can sell after your talk. The fastest way to do this is to buy products from someone else. For example, if you are a expert on personal security, you could offer a few security devices (such as hand-held alarms or pepper spray).

You can also develop information products. Put together booklets of personal security tips for women, security for travelers, keeping your home secure, etc. They don’t take long to write, and can be produced in small quantities for less than $1 each. Additional information products would include books, posters, audio CDs, DVDs, t-shirts, etc. An audio program can be created simply by recording one of your talks.

Always provide a handout when you speak. One page is fine. Include some of the important points from your talk, or some tips related to your topic. Make sure you include information about how you can be contacted. On the back, put a brief bio and/or information about your products and services. Include a special offer or coupon, with an expiration date, to encourage the audience to contact you.

Customers often need to see you more than once before they make a buy decision, so keep yourself in front of the audience. Collect names and addresses of the audience members, and mail to them after the talk. Remind them when and where they heard you talk. The organization may give you a list of attendees if you ask. Or, you can collect the information. Offer a drawing for a prize (such as one of your booklets or other products) and collect business cards for the drawing. Or offer to send additional information to those who provide a business card.

Encourage audience members to sign up for your email list. Do not just add people to your email list because you have their email addresses. Make sure you also have their permission to email them. Doing otherwise makes you a spammer.

After you have been speaking for free for a while, you will get asked about your fee to speak. This opens the door to a whole new set of opportunities. If you are asked about your fee for speaking, it means you are ready to become a professional speaker—a professional expert on your topic.

Learn more about creating information products and making your speaking more profitable here.

Some people deal with this by adding fluff: They make the margins extra wide, double-space everything, use a large font and make what they have written take up more space. Others add pages of useless garbage, such as one product I bought that had page after page of photocopied junk that added nothing of value. Or they bonus the offer with a collection of ebooks that have nothing to offer. People see through these stupid content tricks.

Several years ago, I coined the phrase “useful fluff,” meaning stuff you can add to fill out a product and make it larger, but only if it is useful and of value to your customers. One client who used this advice doubled the price of her manual, and doubled the number of sales, too.

The idea of useful fluff is to add more volume without adding a ton of extra work. Here are some examples of useful fluff:

Resource lists. List books, products, organizations, websites and other resources that will help your customers reach their goals.

Table of contents and index. Make it easier for customers to find what they are looking for.

Content produced by others. I gave my client a special report I had written, and told her she could include it in her manual. I didn’t charge her for this, as I considered it good exposure. You could ask a number of people for their best tips or advice and include a roundup of wisdom from other experts. If you see an article (in print or online) that you think would fit well in your product, ask the author for permission to use it.

Content produced for other purposes. Do you have an ebook, teleseminar recording, article, or other content you already created that would fit into this project? Use it!

Transcripts. Many people like audio and video, but others prefer to get it in writing. With transcripts, they can quickly scan through to pick up the important facts, or refer to the transcript to find a piece of information without having to re-listen to an entire audio. If your product includes audio or video, include transcripts to increase the perceived value.

Bonuses. Most of the products offering resale rights are not worth much. They are old and out of date, or nothing but advertisements for the original offer. However, there are a few that are worthwhile. Make sure they are also relevant to your audience.

Public domain content. There is a lot of great information in the public domain, meaning that it is not covered by copyright. Get your hands on public domain material your audience can use, and include it as part of your product or as a bonus.

Personal access. Include access to you, via a personal consultation over the phone, email questions, teleseminars, forums or other. Some of these can be time-consuming, so be careful about what you promise. However, many customers will find the personal attention very attractive.

Adding one or more of the above types of content will not increase the amount of your work (with the exception of personal access) but will increase the perceived value of your product.

I have been giving this a lot of thought lately. My conclusion: Investing time in tasks that create long-term value is the way to go.

That might seem obvious to you, but is that how you operate? Or do you spend your time on “right now” tasks–going from doing repetitive jobs, such as filling orders and paying bills, to putting out “fires”? When you do productive work, is a large portion of it work for which you will only be paid once? If so, you need to make some changes.

Someone once told me she could not spend 15 minutes setting up a page on her web site with affiliate links because she was so busy with her work. Well, that single page probably wouldn’t make her rich, but it might bring her $20, $50, $100 or more (possibly much more) every month.

Let’s say she bills $100 an hour. Doing her regular work and billing for15 minutes earns her $25. If putting up the affiliate page brings in $500 or $1000 (or more) a year, every year, what is the better use of that 15 minutes? I’m not a math whiz, but I can figure that one out.

Commit to spending at least a portion of each work day creating long-term value. That means doing something that can help you prosper for years to come. Here are just a few ideas.

Create content for your web site, and monetize it with ads (such as Google AdSense) or affiliate links.

Develop material you can present again and again. There are workshops I have been giving for 14 years. I long ago amortized the time I spent in development. My preparation time is now near zero, and my only time involvement is the actual presenting time.

Better yet, turn that workshop into a product, such as an audio or video recording and eliminate the presenting time, too.

Create other products, such as books, ebooks, audio programs and more. Sell them yourself and recruit affiliates to sell for you. Set up automated downloads for digital products, and get an assistant to ship physical products for you, or hire a service such as http://www.SpeakerFulfillmentServices.com/.

The best part? Each of these will make money for you for a long time to come.

Want more great ideas on how you can generate streams of passive income?

In fact, most major publishers will not consider a book from an author who does not have an established platform. Even if you do not plan to seek a traditional publishing contract, however, having a platform will make it easier to profit from the content you create.

So how can you create a platform for yourself?

Elements of a platform may include:

• Speaking engagements
• A newspaper or magazine column
• Internet presence, including a web site or blog
• Online social media presence (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Digg and other social sites)
• A mailing list (online and/or offline)
• Media exposure through your own television or radio program, a recurring segment on a show or many guest appearances on a variety of shows
• A high-profile job or political position
• Prominence in professional organizations (e.g., board member)

Although you do not have to have all of these things to have an effective platform, the more visibility you have, the better.

Consider what pieces you already have in place. Perhaps you have been active in your professional association. If so, you are probably well-known and highly-regarded in your industry. Perhaps you have a great web site, and regularly write articles that appear in trade publications. You are well on your way to building a great platform.

As you look for ways to build your platform, consider which elements will be most valuable to you. For example, having a lot of contacts within your industry, through holding an important job or a position in your professional association, could be useful for getting blurbs and testimonials or arranging joint ventures to market your content.

The people you know could also help you to get speaking engagements at conferences or with local chapters of your association. They may know media or others who can help to promote you.

Whether you plan to sell your expertise through products or services (or, ideally, both), you should definitely have an online presence and a mailing list. They are critical to your platform. If you do not already have these, start building them today.

1. Upsell to another product or service. Use your ebook as a preview of something you have for sale: a longer ebook, a printed book, consulting services, a workshop or event, an audio product, etc. Give customers a sample of what they get in the paid product.

2. Drive traffic to your web site. Then convert that traffic into cash through product sales, affiliate links, advertising revenue, etc.

3. Include affiliate links in the ebook text, so readers click and you earn commissions. If your ebook tells them how to do something, link to relevant resources they can use.

4. Build your expert reputation. If your ebook goes viral, a lot of people will learn who you are. If your content is valuable, you will develop a legion of fans.

5. Grow your mailing list by giving your ebook to subscribers. A bonus ebook can motivate people to sign up for your mailing list. When they read your great content, they will be hooked!

6. “Bonus-up” an offer. Add value to a product offer by including your ebook as a bonus with purchase. It costs you nothing to deliver it, but has a high value to customers.

7. Create relationships by letting others give away your ebook. Allow a related site to give away your ebook to their mailing list. Encourage other experts in your niche to give away your ebook as a bonus when customers buy from them. Offer it as a bonus during a bestseller promotion.

There are many other ways to profit by giving away your content. For more ideas on profiting from free and paid content, claim a free one-hour audio about turning your content into cash at http://www.CashContentFormula.com.