Hi there my friend, this is Ra. I'm an information marketer, entrepreneur, investor and and I have been making money online writing, researching and selling information products (ebooks) for the past two years.

This story begins back in 2010, and I had just overcome a 2 year-long depression, and I was ready to not only get back into online entrepreneurship, but I also desperately wanted to change my life. I wanted to create a life that was meaningful, powerful and above all, successful, not only for myself but others just like me. People who were looking for a way to better their lives through entrepreneurship and online business. I didn't know how, but I knew that somehow, someway, I was going to be successful in this regard.

At the time, I was making very little money from a terrible part time job, and it was then that I made the decision to change.

The first thing I did was get back into e-commerce. Which was fairly easy, since I had prior experience with building web stores and e-commerce sites; but despite the ease of success I'd managed to achieve, I could feel that something was off. I no longer had a passion for e-commerce and sales, or at least, not in the sense of running a traditional online storefront. I wanted to do something else. Something that would allow me to make more money, in less time, doing less work. I wasn't looking for a pipe dream or a "get-rich-easy" scheme, but I was looking for something that would allow me to make more money than I was currently making.

I knew that it was possible, because there were plenty of other entrepreneurs who had managed to successfully launch their online careers working less, but earning more. One of the ways they were able to do this was through affiliate marketing and information marketing.

Affiliate marketing is a kind of marketing and selling where an existing business rewards its affiliates for each new customer or client the affiliate is able to bring into the company. In other words, it's earning an income selling other people's products. Many online entrepreneurs use this as a means of generating revenue and passive income through their blogs or niche websites. Since there is no product for them to store, manage or ship, affiliates can easily earn an income simply by passing customers to the products and services of other businesses.

Information marketing, on the other hand, is the sale of information. The most common form of information marketing comes in the form of ebooks and ecourses and lectures. An information marketer either sells the information products of other sellers as an affiliate or create and distribute his or her own material.

I felt this was the best choice for me to maximize revenue and earnings without having to sacrifice more time. So I sat down at my desk one evening, and began writing my first ebook. It was an introduction to entrepreneurship, and it took me a little over 5 days to write, edit and publish. I sold the ebook through Facebook, and though it didn't make much money (I earned less than $100 selling the book over the course of 4 months), it was proof that I could create something people would buy. And for the next 3 years of pain and struggle trying to figure out how to leverage this opportunity to maximize my income.

I first got started selling affiliate products from Clickbank, then later I branched out to writing info-products and ebooks for other people, until finally, I'd had enough of working for everyone else and decided to write and publish my own material.

I'll be honest, marketing and selling my own material was very difficult at first. Though at the time I had 10+ years experience in e-commerce, marketing ebooks was nothing like marketing iphones, tablets and laptops. There was a learning curve involved, but I figured it out and my sales numbers began to increase.

To start, I sold products on sites like Clickbank, Barnes and Noble and Amazon as these options allowed me to setup shop and sell without much upfront investment or having to maintain another website or store. Clickbank requires a $50 setup fee to sell on their sites, but Amazon and Barnes and Noble are free to set up, but it takes them a full 2 months to begin paying authors. After a few months of that, I'd earned enough and began setting up my own site to sell my ebooks, which allowed me to keep more of my profits.

Today, I earn an average of $2,000 a week from writing and selling ebooks. I've included a screenshot of my recent deposits. The deposits are from my credit card processors that handle transactions for me. You don't have to do this. You can just as easily set up a Paypal account or use another third-party service to process your payments and facilitate your sales. You can even set up accounts on sits like Amazon to sell your ebooks, but I'm not sure how well that will work for many countries in Africa.

I'm far from being a millionaire, and I make a lot less than other online entrepreneurs and marketers, but I'm a long way from being broke.

I posted this message because I want to find other interested and motivated entrepreneurs and marketers who are looking to earn more and establish a business online. I want to use what I've learned to not only build a new business for myself, but to also create something to help people start and build the businesses and obtain the results of their dreams. I'm going to reach out to people through Facebook and social media, through web forums, messageboards, and anywhere I can to connect with those who not only wanted to learn how to grow an information business online, but are motivated beyond words and ready to act on their intentions.

Starting an information business is far from easy, but if you're determined to make it happen, and willing to put in the work, I can ALMOST guarantee you'll be able to achieve some degree of success.

If you have questions for me, feel free to message me via the Nairaland forums or send me a private email. If you're looking for more information beyond a simple answer or two, and would like to subscribe to my private updates where I teach the lessons I've learned and reveal the marketing strategies that help me sell almost $2,000 worth of product every week, let me know and I will send you the link for you to subscribe to the product and join the membership.

Be blessed in your endeavors!

~ Ra

Am more interested in writing. Do you write for clients or you write information products and sell?

I write and sell my own products. To expand my online business dealings, I've recently begun helping others write, publish and sell their own ebooks and information products. In the beginning, I used to write for clients, but earning a substantial income from that took more time than I was willing to commit.

radragan:
I write and sell my own products. To expand my online business dealings, I've recently begun helping others write, publish and sell their own ebooks and information products. In the beginning, I used to write for clients, but earning a substantial income from that took more time than I was willing to commit.

OK. So how will you help me achieve that. Am interested but I don't know how to write ebook

Writing an ebook is not a very difficult process. Once you've written and published your first ebook, you'll see just how easy it is to do. Essentially, I will walk you through the process by writing an ebook and allowing you to be a part of the process. This way, you can see how I do it, and it will allow you to discover and get help with potential challenges with writing your own ebook. If you are still interested, would you mind filling out a quick survey for me? This will help me determine how to best help you with your ebook and information product business.

You can access the survey here: /1im1Fgw

GETTING STARTED

For many people, writing is a gift that comes naturally. For others (people like myself) it's a skill to be learned and refined over time; which is why we may need a bit of help getting started with our first ebooks. (Personally, I never did, but I do realize that many do, and for that reason, I am writing this thread.)

But whether you're looking to write a few ebooks or information products to make a little money on the side, or looking to launch a career as an independent author, know this: You need to be dedicated.

Dedication is key when it comes to ebook publishing (or any form of writing for that matter) because you need to be able to sit down, focus and concentrate on what your going to write about, before you can truly begin to write an ebook. Most full-time writers spend a portion of each day writing a specific number of words. The average is about 1,000- 2,000 words per day. (I, myself, follow a similar ritual, but instead of ONLY writing 1,000- 2,000 words a day, I make it a point to write a MINIMUM of 1,000 words a day.)

Writers do this because they know that their success with writing is tied to the amount of time they devote to their craft. If right now, you invest more time in trying to figure out how to start or write an ebook, than you do writing one, then I hate to tell you, but chances are, you'll never make any money from your writing. The simple truth is that writers, WRITE. Whether professionally or as a full-time income or part-time, they spend a portion of their day writing material to sell and distribute.

Once you have a plan for your writing, you can start to think of an idea for your first ebook. Ebooks are no different from any other book (or any form of writing for that matter). The only difference between a print and bound book and an ebook is the medium of distribution, which for ebooks means they are delivered as downloadable files instead of physical, paper-bound manuscripts. But the process of writing them is the same nonetheless.

Once you have chosen a particular topic, genre or niche for your book, the next step is to outline the manuscript. This will vary depending on whether you are writing fiction or non-fiction, but for the sake of debate, we are going to focus on non-fiction for the purpose of this article.

Regardless of what you are writing, organization is key, so it's a good idea to keep your thoughts and ideas together someplace. Preferably a notebook, word processor document, or an app on your smartphone if you have one. I use Evernote, and it works GREAT! It also allows my to sync my notes to the cloud, so that I can access them from any device I have previously installed the Evernote app or software. It's also free.

Keeping a written record of your ideas will prove invaluable the further you venture down your writing journey.

As for which word processor to use, I use Microsoft Word, Open Office Writer, Evernote and Scrivener. Whichever you choose, be sure that your programs have ability to at least export documents to PDF format, as most platforms require ebooks to be uploaded in this format when converting to .mobi, .epub and a number of other formats that are required to deliver the final ebook product. Scrivener has this functionality built in, and makes it easy for writers to switch up and export their document files, depending on which platform they are selling their work through.

Once the first draft is complete, now it's time to edit your manuscript. Be sure to re-read your work slowly, carefully and efficiently. Do not rely on spell check and grammar check alone. The programs check for basic sentence structure, spelling and syntax. Just because a word is spelled correctly, or a phrase placed in the right part of your sentence, does not mean it will be understood by your readers. So always, always, ALWAYS re-read your work before publishing. Personally, I like to hire one or more editors for this part, because I don't trust myself to edit my ebooks as thoroughly as they should be. You can find freelance editors on sites like Elance.com, Freelancer.com and Fiverr.com. My personal choice is Elance, with Freelancer.com as a back up. Fiverr, while cheaper than the previous two, tends to be hit or miss option. Sometimes (and very often) You get what you pay for on Fiverr. So be cautious when choosing this as your alternative to self-editing.

And that's really all that is required when writing your ebook. Once it's edited, formatted properly for your chosen distribution channel and uploaded, there's nothing more to do than sit back and monitor the book's sales volume and any feedback received on your work. Sometimes, comments will present opportunities to discover future topics, or issues to address in the revision of your book.

There is A LOT more to ebook publishing than mentioned in this post. As promised, in future updates I'll do my best to provide as much information possible to help you earn a living from your writing.

Take care, and be blessed in your endeavors!

~ Ra

Nice write up man! Following

burkutu:
Nice write up man! Following

Thank you! I'm trying to provide as much detailed information as possible without triggering the spam bots on here. I'll have a new update for this thread today or tomorrow. Hopefully it will be just as good.

Reg