In the web, it’s not just because you’d have the bragging rights of being a generous person that ought to be kept an eye on, but because you can use that ‘free’ item for a lot of things – branding, promotion, marketing of an existing product, tribe building, authority establishment etcetera.
That’s a nifty list isn’t it? If you’re looking for a way to achieve all of that on the best possible way, the answer is simple. Create a free report that’ll showcase your expertise.
Previously, I’ve released a blog report entitled Blogging Blunders. Now, at the bare minimum, making an ebook would take from a week to a whole month (depending if you still need to research or to collaborate with people). The trickiest part, of course, is writing the report in the first place. After that, it’s just going to be a checklist of things in order to launch and distribute the report.
On this post, I’ll show you a guide on how I do it – from start to finish.
Stage 1 – Writing the Report
First stop is choosing the report topic. It doesn’t need to be comprehensive (like the usual ebooks on your niche). A report is just a targetive case study to a specific problem or area. That being said, your first step is to figure out your topic. You can also get ideas/inspiration from your previous posts (see the categories that you frequently write about).
Once you’ve chosen the right topic, the next step of course would be the hardest – the actual writing.
To make things easier, you would need to create an outline of your report (from Introduction to conclusion). It doesn’t need to have chapters as long as you can write in a sensible order. Tackle the easiest/basic concept first and work from there.
IDEA: Search at DocShare and Scribd.com for similar reports about your niche. These might give you more hints on creating your own report.
Always finish a report with a conclusion (otherwise, you’re leaving it hanging). In the conclusion, you have to synthesize everything you’ve written.
Stage 2 – Polishing the Report
Proofreading is an essential step to making a report. No matter how perfect your grammar is, mistakes are inevitable so you might want to do an extra check. If you have an extra cash, consider hiring a professional proofreader to do the job.
Copyright Policies - always write your copyright policies (also see license policies) in the report. If you give it away for free, I recommend that you allow sharing and disable modification or any other forms of use. You can see an example of this in my Blogging Blunders Report.
Convert to pdf. This should be the easiest step. There are lots of free pdf converters out there. You can try this one for example.
Stage 3 – Releasing and Spreading the Buzz
When your report’s ready to go, upload it immediately on your web server or to any file hosting site. You need to get the download link for others to get it.
First of, consider doing a pre-launch. Write a post about it – could be anything as long as you’re spreading the message to your readers that you’re working on something. This should build a sort of anticipation.
On the launch date, create an enticing post about your report (write details) and along it, include the download link. It could be a direct download link with no opt-in (meaning no newsletter subscription), or with opt-in. if you want to sell it, then that’s another matter entirely.
How to spread the buzz. Your first target should be your readers/followers and the bloggers directly inside your circle. These are your primary agents to help spread the buzz. Start a social networking campaign on all sites (Twitter, Facebook, Digg etc) that you have. Spread the word far and wide.
More ideas. Think of creative ideas, it can range to contests, giveaways, promotion offers and many more. The sky is the limit on how you can promote the report.
Stage 4 – The Aftermath
Once the launch fever has settled in, it’s time to just let your report be visible in your blog homepage. Allocate a special section in your blog homepage so your readers can still see. That report will have so many future uses you just have to wait and see. For example, chris garret uses a free report to increase RSS subscriptions in his blog. You might wanna try and do the same thing!
That’s about it. Now how about downloading my free report – The Blogging Blunders.
