Infopreneur

Brief Description:

Can you talk for days about travel? Hunting? Cars?  The green army?  Can you communicate your ideas in writing as well? Everyone has something about which they are passionate and extremely knowledgeable. You can share this valuable information with others who are interested in the same things via a pod-cast or in writing. Anyone can use this knowledge. Set up a basic website for your area of expertise. Download Word-Press (blogging software) for free, and then pack it full of compelling and useful information. This will help people find what they’re looking for, and earn you money in the process.

Startup Costs:

Initial costs will mostly be for buying a relevant and easy-to- remember domain name, and for the cost of web hosting. If you already have some understanding of Internet marketing and web building, you can save substantially on startup costs. Once you have built up a following, your site will earn money for you by accepting advertising, those which might be somehow related to your topic, and so interesting to your readers. The great thing about web businesses is that they are truly global, worldwide, with no borders and no boundaries.

License/Legal Requirements:

There are no special requirements to get started. Your current knowledge is enough, but you’ll want to continue learning and keeping up with all the changes and news in your field. This is to keep your site relevant to visitors there. Learning the basics of Internet marketing and SEO (Search Engine Optimization), is also important to help get the most visitors to your site.

Detailed Notes:

This business is closely related to publishing (See desktop publishing) except for the notion that modern publishing had become multimedia and print on demand (POD). With the advent of Amazon’s Kindle, the hand-held electronic screened paper-like, handheld gizmo that facilitates reading books, indoor or outdoor. You can download newspapers and even blogs and read them anywhere in the world. While traditional publishers and big bookstore chains are in dire straights fiscally, print on demand publishers and online book sellers thrive. It takes considerable time to build up a website that has loyal visitors and repeat hits. Fresh content, modern blogging software and decent presentation is the key. The ideal model is

• Develop a blog with or without a podcast
• Develop your content and visitors
• Publish a how-to book if you see the content has a chance to become

Get feed back on this book from the blog readers. You can even give some away for free to loyal contributors for review and feedback. Then self publishing it using my POD publishing strategies described in my book. While I originally developed this book for public domain publishing, smart Infopreneurs can mix developing original content and resell and repackage public domain information as well.

Desktop Publishing

Brief Description: If you have a neck for writing poetry, novels or just about any other venue Publishing may be a good business for you to consider. Whether you are going after consumers wanting to be published or publish free, public domain books this chapter may be interesting for all who are “bookish” and literary inclined. As most writers find getting a bona fide agent or publisher next to impossible to find, why not get around this and become one yourself?

Startup Costs: There is limited requirement for startup dollars if you already own a computer. Your direction and scope of this business will also dictate and determine the amount required to start up. Generally speaking a computer and internet access are prerequisite for this business along with software and office equipment that could come handy in this business. As always the biggest expense is in marketing and promotion. Be careful and spendthrift how you use your marketing budget. I will state a modest $2000 as startup cost.

License/Legal Requirements: There are no license issues or legal requirements beyond proper accounting and taxation practices, but you will need to be aware of copyright law and the penalties that infringement could bring on you. You should get some legal help in establishing your contracts you offer to your clients and get a clear handle on copyright laws and the concept of public domain.

Education/Experience: Although you do not need any writing education to be a freelance writer, it does help. Even if you will not write yourself, aesthetic appreciation of what is good writing and what would sell or become popular will be required to know and succeed as a publisher. Education or aptitude of design, layout, and book covers will also help. Further, if you have any artistic sense and aptitude it can help a long way in this business. Success will not happen overnight – good things will take time. You will find out soon enough if you have aptitude and good sense to be a good publisher. This is all that is required to get into this business.

Detailed Notes: New independent publishing houses are popping up left and right. This is good news for you as well as bad as you will at some level compete with these publishers. Even if your books and genre are radically different from the myriads of other publishers, you will compete with them for the attention of the reading public.

You will need patience if you are looking to be a publisher because it can take months to get to the point where you have enough books to cover expenses and turn a profit. If and when you attain this status you are lucky and the upside is that your residual income from books sales is there for you, whether you chose to expand your repertoire of books or not.  You can take a vacation and the royalty will still be there, provided that your books sell enough.

There are dozens of organizations and fairs geared towards publishers where you seek attention to your business get group marketing powers and find help if needed.

My book on Public Domain publishing might help you with this business…