Why would an author give you a chapter for your book?

Because you will encourage them to include their contact information and links to their web pages, that's why. The more copies of your book that you sell or give away, the more traffic they get to their sales sites. More traffic equals more sales.

Here's how I used this technique.

At our weekly mastermind meeting, I cracked a joke about The Myth of Passive Income. I was whining because I had spent two whole hours filling orders and answering customer service emails.

This was the internet age-I was supposed to be sitting on the beach smoking a Cuban cigar and drinking espresso while the money magically appeared in my bank account, wasn't I?

The reality, as most successful internet marketers will tell you if you catch them out of the public eye, is that most successful internet marketers work long hours to create passive income. Especially in the beginning of your internet marketing career, passive income is a myth.

Joe Vitale laughed at my joke, and then decided it would make an interesting book. So he contacted several of the top internet marketers and asked them to write a chapter about their passive income experiences. In a couple of weeks, we had over twenty chapters, from some of the biggest names in the business.

This technique will work for almost any subject. For example, if you wanted to write a book about running a successful E-zine, you could email the authors of the most successful E-zines and ask them to contribute a chapter.

I suspect most of them would jump at the chance. Every copy of your e-book will be an advertisement for their E-zine.

When it came time to approach Joint-Venture partners for the e-book, we approached the co-authors. They were happy to make money from the e-book. Of course, it would be interesting to their lists- since they're in it.

This generated a lot of sales, but more importantly, each person they sent to our site had the opportunity to sign up for our list. This is a great technique for "creaming" another marketer's list. We were able to identify, and gain access to, the members of their list that were interested in our products.

This has led to some great relationships with our new subscribers, and subsequent sales of other products.

Get the idea?

Use Interviews To Write An E-book

A variation on having others write your book for you is to use interviews.

This is just a little more work, but there are a lot of benefits to this method. Remember that the interview can be conducted by phone, in person, by email- sometimes, the method you use to interview the expert can be a selling point. Be creative!

People who might not take the time to write a chapter are more likely to have a conversation with you, especially if you entice them with an ethical bribe-in this case, you can offer to include their contact and sales information in the chapter you create from the interview.

Remember, these interviews can be done over the phone or through email.

For example, suppose you wanted to write an e-book about the best way to buy a used car. You could arrange to talk with a broad range of used car salesmen. What are their tricks? What techniques do they use to get customers to buy? What should a customer ask? What should a customer be afraid of or concerned about?

Most salesmen will happily talk about their business, if you can convince them that it will attract more customers.

In this case, I'd ask them about the dirty tricks other salesmen use.

If you're writing an e-book about a topic you're very familiar with, you can interview yourself!

Once you've got your interviews, you've converted your authoring problem to a typing problem. You can even hire a transcription service to type it for you.

Writing your book from interviews has a hidden benefit-you now have an audio product to sell! You can use your interview tapes as the source material to create CDs or you can convert them to MP3s and sell them as digital products.

I interviewed Dr. Joe Vitale on the subject of e-book production and marketing, converted the interview into mp3s and put them online. After listening to that interview, you should be able to come up with a topic, write the e-book, get it online, and sell it. The whole production took less than four hours to create- and was a lot of fun.

Right now, the most popular e-books are the ones that explain how to do something: how to save money, how to make a web page, how to fix a car, how to satisfy your lover, how to bake a great cheese-cake- even how to write an e-book!

You're looking for an expert, but don't get in a rut about what constitutes an "expert." Here are some potential subjects for your interview. I'll bet you can think of many more.

Real Estate Agent-real estate is the most expensive purchase most of us will make. People want information about how to make these purchases intelligently. how to finance your first real estate purchase, how to rent to own, how to sell your house yourself without an agent, how to prepare your house to get the best price when you sell it- here's a hint- bake bread before the prospective buyer shows up!

how to qualify for a mortgage

how to get the most house for your money

how to make money on rental property

Insurance Agent-Insurance is a subject that is mystifying and scary to most people.

How to buy life insurance

How to buy health insurance

Different types of life insurance, who should buy what?

Major medical versus full coverage

Day Care Center worker/owner-

How to find a safe day care center

What are the dangers?

Licensing of day care centers

Montessori vs. traditional

There is no limit to this- find a problem and solve it. Then sell the solution.

Coffee Shop employee-

How to make the perfect cup of coffee

The best beans

Easy mistakes everybody makes

Eco-Friendly coffee-why it's good for you and good for the planet.

Grumpy customers-nightmare stories from the coffee shop

Internet Gurus-this is an area that is saturated. If you're going to write about making money online, you need to have a unique perspective. One of the most popular e-books right now is a series of interviews with "unknown" online marketers. Find an angle that nobody else has exploited.

Here are a few I've come up with.

Secret lives-what's unusual and unknown about internet marketing celebrities? Do they play guitar, paint pictures, climb mountains, write children's books, work for charity?

People are interested in the human side of celebrities.

Rags to Riches- this one always works.

Unusual success-everybody markets information products. Can you find someone who markets something really unusual online?

Riches to Rags-Mistakes are how we learn. It's less painful to learn from someone else's mistakes.

High-School Students-this is a big market. When you add in their parents, it's one of the biggest.

How to make great grades

How to use high-school to prepare for college

Social games and how to win them

How to be yourself and survive high-school

Fashion secrets for high-school students

College Students-

How to make money while you're in college. See if you can get Michael Dell! How to start your career while you're still in college. Many industries, including banking, financial planning, sales, and CPAs have mentor programs for students studying their field.

How to survive college

99 ways to pay for college

How to get a grant, scholarship, or loan for college

Retirees-

Just because someone has reached the mandatory retirement age in their industry that doesn't mean they immediately lose their value. And because they are retired, they probably will welcome the opportunity to help you with your book!

Industry survey- what jobs provided the most satisfaction?

How to retire with a comfortable income

How to survive retirement

Insider secrets to (whatever industry they retired from)

I hope you're getting the idea that almost anybody can be an expert, and a resource for a profitable e-book, if you create the right questions.