If your goal is to eventually get your book published or build your own online information publishing empire then consider getting started writing with a local or non-profit newsletter in your area.
As our members at Information Marketer’s Zone know, developing your own information publishing business is within the reach of most people, we even give you a 45-day workplan to follow to get there.
One of the first steps outlined in the 6 Week Information Product Profits Formula is to research and understand your target market identifying a red-hot, high-demand topic to write about.
I was speaking to a successful author of 2 books recenty published about life in his rural small-town America – he got his start in writing with a community column where he could test his writing style and different topics to see how much interest there was.
Turns out for him, there was a great deal of interest and the column turned out to be a perfect way to get started writing.
There are 3 benefits of getting started writing in a local newspaper or newsletter:
- You get writing practice – especially practice writing to keep your reader’s attention
- You get feedback from your article to assess how popular your topic and title are without spending a fortune on generating products
- You begin to build readership and a "brand" – you can simultaneously build a website where you can send your readers for more of the same kind of information and have them sign up to your list.
Most of us have smaller, local newspapers in our cities and towns that you can tap for interest on your topic.
For example, in my town we have a free weekly local paper that goes out to tens of thousands of homes – you can contact the editor and ask if they could use a weekly column about your topic. In many cases they are looking for outside writers – it may take some time or you may be put on a trial for a few columns first to guage interest in your topic.
What topics are of interest?
- Food and wine
- Real estate
- Finance
- Travel
- Local community
- Bird watching
- Weight loss
- Health overall
- Alternative health
- Sports
These are just some of the topics I’ve come across in the recent past – the number of possible topics are more numerous.
If you are just starting out or want to drive more promotion to your website, want to test an information publishing market or are actively developing an ebook or infoproduct, then consider getting started writing with a local newspaper column.
