SEO Blog: Making Money With Small Reports

Before I share this incredibly profitable business model, let me first explain the concept. Here’s the idea: Write a small report (approximately 7-15 pages) to sell online and, over time, grow that singular small report into a huge information empire consisting of reports, full-length products, membership sites, high-ticket premium products, e-coaching and more. Everything hinges around being able to write small, 7-15 page reports. Throughout EVERY stage of this business, you will NEVER be required to write anything more than 7-15 pages.

⇒ As you grow your business into full-length products, you’ll never write anything more than 7-15 pages!
⇒ As you grow your business into a membership site, you’ll never write anything more than 7-15 pages!
⇒ As you grow your business into high-ticket products, you’ll never write anything more than 7-15 pages!
⇒ As you grow your business into premium-priced e-coaching, you’ll never write anything more than 7-15 pages!

It starts with a 7-15 page small report and - despite the numerous streams of higher-priced income you’ll develop in this model - you'll never have to write anything more than 7-15 pages. Now, it is with that foundation that I want to quickly share my system with you - “5 Steps To A Big-Profit, S.M.A.L.L.™ Report Business” … I use the acronym “S.M.A.L.L.” to illustrate the five steps. Each letter of the word SMALL (S – M – A – L – L ) represents one of the five steps…

S – SELECT a market.
M – MEASURE interest.
A – AUTHOR a report.
L – LOOK to repeat.
L – LEVERAGE your assets.

Let’s begin with the “S” of the S.M.A.L.L.™ Report Business Model which is... Step 1 - SELECT A Market The first step in this process is to “select a market”. That is, you’ll want to identify a group of people that you want to sell to – a “target audience”. A “market” is simply a body of existing or potential buyers for specific goods or services. Just a few of the more popular markets include – • Weight loss • Home business • Relationships • Parenting • Retirement • Personal Growth We’re going to briefly look at each of these steps so you can get a good overview of how to build a successful “small report” business. • Wedding and Marriage • Computers and Technology • Motivational • Leadership The list could go on and on, but I think you get an idea. You want to choose a “market” that you’ll center your small reports business on. If you’ve been following events over the past couple of years, then you know that “niche” marketing has been the big craze. People have been (and still are) scrambling all over to find these tiny, untapped niches (Ex. Teaching a parrot to talk) to create businesses around. I’ve got two words for this kind of business model – Big mistake! Let me caution you that while that is an approach that certainly works, there is another strategy to use that I have found to produce even greater results. Instead of identifying niches, identify target markets Here’s the common practice...

Identify a red-hot niche with hungry customers.
Create a product that's highly sought after by those customers.
Setup a web site to sell the product.
Rush off to buy pay per click listings and Google Adwords to promote the site.
Find another red-hot niche and repeat the process.
Now, that’s a good plan. There’s no doubt that it’s a profitable system.

But, it’s not a great plan. Really, that system is setup for leaving money on the table, for just throwing away money that you could be depositing into your bank account. So, what is a great plan? Selecting a market so you can generate multiple sales per customer. It’s very similar to the way most people approach niche marketing, with a critical extra “profit-boosting” step...

Identify a market with hungry customers.
Create a product that's highly sought after by those customers.
Setup a web site to sell the product.
Rush off to buy pay per click listings and Google Adwords to promote the site.
Find another market and repeat the process.

Do you see what I added there? There’s an extra step there that is so critical to your bottom line, and that is “Create additional related products to sell to your existing customer and lead lists.” 1. You’ve already got customers who have bought a product from you, so instead of moving on to other “niches” where you have to go out and find additional customers, why not offer your customers additional, related products before you move on? 2. You’ve already begun building a lead list, why not offer them additional, related products before you start looking for other “niches”? So, you simply feed them other offers that are highly related to the one that they’ve already identified as being important to them. Instead of looking for tiny “niches”, you look for larger markets and feed them multiple, highly related offers. The idea here is to find customers who make repeated purchases from you. And when you take into consideration what we’ll be talking about momentarily -- creating 7-15 page reports as these various “offers” -- it really is an easy thing to accomplish. First step, “select a market”. Then we have the “M” of the S.M.A.L.L.™ Report Business Model… Step 2 - MEASURE Interest After you’ve determined what “market” you want to target, it’s simply a matter of finding out what to offer them. If you want to put things into a practical setting, it’s time to get some ideas for what topic you’ll be writing about in your first 7-15 page small report. You’ll want to “measure interest” among your market. Take their temperature. Identify the current hottest topic of interest. Basically, I have three “diagnostic” questions that I use in measuring interest in any particular market that you can put to the test yourself for your market... “What do they want?” It all begins and ends with the persons that make up your “market”. What do THEY want? Based on your own history in the market, researching the market or inquiring among existing individuals in the market, it should be easy to determine the wants and needs of the group as a whole. (More on this in a minute). “What is available?” Next up, you want to determine “what is available”. In other words, are there existing resources in place that are being sold to this market that you’ll be directly competing against? What do they offer? What’s good about their offer and what’s not so good? “What can I offer that’s different?” And, thirdly, “what can I offer that’s different?” Is there something missing from existing resources? Something that could be explained better? Are more ideas and examples needed? Is there new information available? Can you package, present or position content in a more user-friendly way? Are their tiny segments that could be broadened? By focusing on these three diagnostic questions, you’ll be able to measure the interest of your market and determine an “in-demand” topic to write about in your first 7-15 page small report. Now, before we move on, I do just want to give you a quick way to find ideas to write about. You’ll still need to use these three diagnostic questions, but this will give you something towards which you can direct the questions. One of my favorite places to brainstorm ideas is Amazon. Amazon.com is the web’s largest bookstore. It’s also a community center for new product ideas. I use it as one of my brainstorming resources. Again and again I visit this site to come up with topics to write about. What makes Amazon.com so useful as a research tool for getting new ideas is their searchable database of books. There are thousands of great ideas lurking in there if you just know how to use it. And that’s what I’m here for. I’m going to show you how to find hot product ideas with Amazon.com anytime you want. It’s really a matter of three simple steps … STEP 01: Decide Upon A Broad Category. When brainstorming ideas, you must begin with a broad category to work with. Some examples might be: weight loss, marketing, dating, travel, baseball. Basically, whatever “market” you’ve chosen. As an example for this article, I’m going to choose GOLF. STEP 02: Search Amazon’s Database. After picking your broad topic to research, it’s time to visit Amazon.com. Specifically, you’re going to SEARCH their database of books they are selling. Upon arriving at their site, locate their SEARCH form. At the time of this writing, it was in the upper left hand corner of their main page. Pull the menu down and select BOOKS from the options. In the space provided, type in whatever broad category you chose. I’d type in “Golf”. (You don’t need quotation marks). If you did indeed start with a broad category, then hundreds (or even thousands) of book listings should appear as a result of the search. STEP 03: Brainstorm Ideas From The Listings. Let the brainstorming session begin! Now it’s time to look at the books that are listed and write down as many possible ideas as you can find. Look for the different TYPES of books written about the subject, identifying different THEMES, STYLES and SUBCATEGORIES. Let’s look at an example … When I searched for “Golf”, I was able to immediately spot dozens of great ideas. Here are a handful … 1. Becoming a Better Golfer There are many golf books available in this area, covering everything from “A-Z of Golf Shots” to specific topics such as “Improving Your Short Game”. There were lots of different themes from “learning to break 100” to “shaving 10 shots off your score” to “7 shots that will change your golf game forever”. 2. Guides to Golf Courses Again, we have many different ideas here. Specific golf guides like “Florida golfing”, “golfing in Tennessee” and “golfing the Robert Trent Jones trail” appear, as well as books on “the best golf courses in America”, “best kept secrets: great golf courses you’ve probably never played”, and “golf vacation guides”. 3. Profiting from Golf More ideas pour in with “opening a golf repair business”, “becoming a golf retailer”, “learning how to caddy” and “buying & selling used golf clubs”. What about “running an online golf auction”, “organizing a golf tournament for profit” or even “writing information products about golf”! 4. Golf and Business There are millions of dollars in business deals negotiated on the golf course every single year. And there are books available to teach folks how to get it done. “How to negotiate business deals during golf outings”, “Legal golf tax deductions for businesspeople”, and “business seminars and golf: how to mix training and fun for maximum profit” are just a few more ideas worth exploring. 5. Golf Products My, my, my there are so many ideas floating around in here! Everything ranging from reviews of the latest golf equipment to ratings of golf courses to discounts on golf packages. Resource guides to finding the best deals on golfing products, how to negotiate discounts, and how to find the best products for your specific golf game also come to mind as product ideas. One Broad Category (Golf) + Amazon.com Searchable Database of Books = 28 Potential Product Ideas See how easy that was? I found TWENTY-EIGHT potential small report ideas (and there were MANY MORE that I didn’t mention in this report) from a simple brainstorming exercise using ONE “idea hangout”. Not bad, right? So, you measure interest and then on to step 3, the “A” of the S.M.A.L.L.™ Report Business Model… Step 3 - AUTHOR A Report After you’ve selected your market and measured interest you should have a topic for your first small report. So, now it’s time to “author” your report. It’s time to write that first one. Now, what I want to engrain in your head concerning this small report is simply this … It only needs to be 7-15 pages long. Now, for obvious reasons (I.E. I want you to buy my Small Reports Fortune™ course ☺), I can’t give you my proprietary system for writing these small reports. That’s reserved for my paying customers only. I couldn’t, in good conscience, give you privileged information that others have paid me to receive. But, I do want to give you a simple strategy that will dramatically help you write easier, faster and better as you create these small reports. It is simply this – Compile and refer to a “Starter Swipe File” One of the things that you’ll find invaluable to you as an information writer is what I have labeled as a “starter swipe file”. DEFINED: “Starter Swipe File” A “starter swipe file” is a collection of ideas to write about written in a single sentence formatted template. Example: One of the biggest reasons people fail in ___ is ___. I could use this starter sentence to create paragraphs of content about virtually any topic in the world – ƒ One of the biggest reasons people fail in marketing is... ƒ One of the biggest reasons people fail in dieting is... ƒ One of the biggest reasons people fail in reaching goals is... ƒ One of the biggest reasons people fail in homeschooling is... ƒ One of the biggest reasons people fail in relationships is... These starter sentences allow me to quickly find something to write about anytime I want to build content into a document – 1) At the beginning as I outline it, 2) During the writing process as I struggle for ideas, or 3) At the conclusion of the document when I find portions of the document need more information. Do you see how this works? I encourage you to compile a set of these “starter sentences” – templates – that you can plug in anywhere you want to kick-start your writing. I use these all the time and it makes my writing so much faster, easier and, ultimately, better! The writing part of this business is obviously the most important piece of the puzzle. If you don’t write your small reports, then you don’t sell them. And that brings the profit to a grinding halt. Step 4 - LOOK To Repeat Remember when I told you earlier about choosing a “market” so you could make multiple, related offers? That’s what this step is all about. Let’s face it, selling one small report for $15-$20 isn’t going to make a lot of money. After all, you’d have to sell 1,000 copies just to make $20,000. But … What if you created a second 7-15 page report and sold it to your existing customers and leads? What if you created a third 7-15 page report and sold it to your existing customers and leads? What if you created a fourth 7-15 page report and sold it to your existing customers and leads? What if you created a fifth 7-15 page report and sold it to your existing customers and leads? If you sold 1,000 of each (same customers!) you’d suddenly have made $100,000 instead of $20,000! In the typical time (8 hours) someone else spends a day on the job that they get paid once to work, I can create a stream of income that pays off handsomely for months and even years to come. ⇒ We were on the way to a skiing retreat recently and I finished up a 19-page small report on "how to beat any tennis player at your skill level" on the drive there. Another income stream. ⇒ My in-laws live about 45 minutes away and on a couple of drives to and from their home to visit, I wrote a small report on "how to lose weight by making tiny, healthy changes". More income streams. These small reports are so easy to write that you'll find even in your sparest of time you can crank them out. That's what I love about them - it doesn't take much time at all to write a dozen or so. But, to the point, it’s all about “looking to repeat”. That is, creating multiple, related 7-15 page reports to sell to your market. Let me give you an example: Marketing Exhibit™: “Weight Loss” Weight loss is a billion dollar industry. There are literally millions of potential customers out there who are looking to lose weight and get in shape. So, let’s say that anyone looking to “lose weight and get in shape” is your market that you want to receive your offers. Let’s say you create a small report entitled, “How to Lose 10 Pounds in 10 Days”. That’s a good start because we’ve got a lot of potential customers out there. You setup your site and go to work marketing. And you get a lot of customers and sales. Now, instead of moving on to some tiny niche like “Teaching Your Bassett Hound to Play the Banjo”, you create some related small reports for the customers and subscribers you’ve already started collecting. So, what is your market interested in? They are interested in losi weight and getting in shape. So, we could create these 7-15 page small reports… • How to Tone Up Your Tummy • One Minute Exercise Routines • 7 Ways to Boost Your Metabolism • Low-Calorie Mealbook • Walking Your Way to Better Health • Yoga for Beginners I mean, we could go on and on here with ideas. These small reports are all decidedly different from each other, but they are all related to your market’s interest – that of losing weight and getting in shape. Anyone who buys your "How to lose 10 pounds in 10 days" small report would likely be interested in one or more of these additional products, because they are highly related. Some of your customers will buy them all. Your customers ultimately make multiple purchases from you. And if you question whether or not this strategy works, look at your own computer. Chances are, if you’ve been involved in doing business online for any amount of time at all, you’ve bought products related to... • Affiliate marketing • Driving traffic to your site • Building email lists • Creating your own products • Using pay-per-click search engines • And so forth. These are all specialty products that are related to a larger target audience, that of those interesting in doing business online. Now do you see how this works? It’s a surefire system for getting multiple purchases per customer. So, that’s the first “L”. What about the second “L” of these 5 steps… Step 5 - LEVERAGE Your Assets Now, here’s where it gets interesting. I mean, really interesting. This is where you go from making a decent amount of money selling small reports to making a LOT of money selling small reports. After writing a few of these small reports (you can easily write several in a month’s time) it’s time to begin doing three important things that will quickly escalate your profit… Re-Packaging This would include taking several of your related small reports and bundling them together into a $97.00+ offer. Re-Publishing This would include enhancing and then converting the information into different formats. (I.E. “Physical products”) Re-Profiting This would include adding more content and developing high-ticket (e coaching) and continuity (membership site) offers. With a few strategic steps you can –without writing anything more than 7-15 pages of content at a time – create offers that sell for $997 and beyond! It’s all about leveraging your assets. And every bit of this requires that you write no more than 7-15 pages of content at a time. That’s the beauty of the way I have it set up. It requires very little time or effort in creating the content for this business. No more getting bogged down trying to write hundreds of pages! Like I said, it’s all about leveraging your assets. And that’s all about learning the system.