So how do you assess the popularity of your chosen topic? Here’s a simple three-step process:
1. Identify keywords for your book idea.
2. Conduct a search of your keywords to determine how many people are searching for the information you’re putting out.
3. Run your keywords through the search engines and look for the following information:
a. The number of ebooks already available on the subject.
b. The number of paid sponsor ads for the search. This indicates that there is interest on the subject—otherwise big companies wouldn’t be wasting their marketing budgets to sponsor the searches.
And what does all this information tell you? First, it tells you whether there is a market at all; and secondly it tells you whether the market is saturated.
9.2.5 Choosing the right topic
We discussed earlier the importance of choosing the right topic or your ebook. The Internet is primarily used to communicate, entertain, educate and research. It is thus no wonder that nonperishable, information-intensive products - including books, travel guides, magazine subscriptions - are the most popular online products at present. Content-rich sites, subscription-based sites to advertiser-supported sites focusing on a wide range of topics, have been sprouting all over the Internet.
Ebooks and guides on various subjects have been prospering in the recent past. Anything you can put in a physical book, you can put in an ebook. You can sell just about any content — as long as you have an offering that has a market and an ability to get it (legally) to your customer. Yes, there are exceptions. In some cases you might be competing with big companies with a chunk of the market share.
Here are some categories that you may pursue:
Personal advice, motivation and self help sites
There are several sites aimed at the individual - mainly motivational and self-betterment sites. Such sites offer tips, articles, advice and counseling on how to build self-esteem and self-confidence and reduce stress for a happier life. You may also provide great inspirational quotations, inspirational stories, motivational poems, and other resources to motivate and inspire your visitors. It could include psychology tests, IQ tests, emotional intelligence tests and personality tests for self-help improvement.
The market for personal advice and counseling, especially for students is pretty big. You can provide educational counseling through such sites. Professional advisory information and training is covered in a subsequent category.
Fitness and health, diets, weight loss sites
These sites provide complete guides, articles, tips and counseling on proper eating and exercising habits, benefits of diet and exercise, fitness techniques, diet articles and diet tips, weight loss, as well as some of the popular diet plans. It includes tips from fitness experts, reviews of fitness and diet programs, message boards, forums and discussions on health and fitness.
Information of various nutritional and diet supplements, healthy and non-healthy foods can be included. Some of the popular fitness and health sites are eDiets.com and WeightWatchers.com.
