Tim Castleman wrote "The 2kH Formula: How To Instantly Write At Least 2,000 Words Per Hour" and "The Creativity Checklist- The 11 Step System That Instantly Pulls Million Dollar Ideas Out of Your Head". Tim teaches a method for coming up with ideas for Kindle books. Those books teach this method very well. Basically you take what you already know, do a brain dump and turn what you know into a profitable product you can sell for money.
This is how it goes:
Tim Castleman notes that "One of the biggest mistakes I see new authors make is thinking that they have to have life-changing and amazing results before anyone will listen to them."
To come up with ideas you can sell to someone for $3 he suggests you draw up a brainstorming template as follows:
When you are focused and away from any distractions fill up this template with ideas. You can just fold a blank page in four and use the squares for these headers: your previous and your current job, skills you have, any accomplishments you have had in your life, or people you know (from your family or your friends). Spend 5 minutes writing under each header – whatever comes to mind. Don't think; don't edit; just do it.
Here is an excerpt from Tim's own list.
When you have completed your own list ask yourself which of these things/experiences/skills would someone else be willing to pay you $3 to learn?
Here is what's very interesting when you read this section in the 2kH Formula; that people are more likely to believe a small result than a big one. So, if someone came to you and told you they knew how they could make an extra $100 a month you would find that easier to believe than if they told you they knew how to make an extra $100,000 a month!
"People are looking for small wins in their lives than major makeovers," Tim Castleman observed.
Over 80% of books, courses and programs bought online fall in these 5 markets – health, wealth, relationships, business & investing, and hobbies. These are broad markets and you should drill down deep for personal experiences.
So, for example health – do you know how to make your own natural beauty products, or did you finally manage to shed 20 pounds after a long struggle? Wealth – did you manage to start a successful small business against the odds during the COVID crisis? Relationships – have you gone through a painful divorce, and how did you cope with the fallout? You get the idea.
So, if you have any experience or something you have achieved in these niches, you should be good to go.
But if you have nothing noteworthy from your list then you can look around at your family and friends. One or more of them may have done something remarkable in their lives that others in the world might be interested to learn. You have an idea for a book right there.
Or, failing all that, do you have something you have always wanted to accomplish? Maybe you have wanted to lose weight, or have a better sex life, or create a business, or write a book, or to learn coding?
Then, what do you know? Create a list of all such things and chose the one thing that excites you the most and run with it. Go ahead and focus on that one thing for 30 days. Buy books and programs, listen to podcasts, or watch videos on YouTube, etc. Study all this info and take notes purposely and then go ahead to actually start DOING the THING.
Since you want to write a book about your experience, record everything you do – books you read, videos you watched, etc as well as your successes, failures, frustrations, victories. Before you know it you have an experience, and a book, you can sell for $3!
The lesson here is that you went from being a newbie and in just 30 days you've accomplished something, or you are well on your way to accomplishing it. There are thousands of other people in the world who will want to hear from you.
The big advantage with coming up with product ideas using this Tim Castleman method is that content creation is much easier when you write about something you know or have experienced.
Learning something fast to become an expert may look like a lot of hard work, and it is, but if it's something you know will make you big bucks, it can quickly become fun. In his book, the Ultimate Secret: Is it possible that there is one single, super-powerful secret of success of far greater importance than all others?", Dan Kennedy shows you how in "The 7 Ways To Get Smarter About Virtually Any Subject – Fast"
He recounts his experiences. Dan Kennedy if you don't know, is a guru in marketing and advertising, and he built an information product empire. Here's what he says in the section, "A serious student at work."
"When I became earnest about using more humor in my speeches and seminars, and getting good at using it, for example, I found no shortage of assistance out there. Beyond simply observing and analyzing great humorists and comedians, I found plenty of books on the subject, Esar's Comic Encyclopedia, videos, seminars, newsletters, and audiocassette courses. I learned 'timing' from listening to a fantastic humorous speaker, Dr. Charles Jarvis, from comedian Shelley Berman, and others, over and over and over again.
"I read all the classic masters – Benchley, Thurber. I read all the contemporary humorists, I read everything Steve Allen ever wrote. I found "old" comedy records, I subscribed to humor services like Orbens. I became a very serious student of humor. Gradually, I transitioned from picking and telling jokes to creating original material, from jokes to humorous stories. I did a whole lot of homework.
"When I got involved in teaching advertising, marketing and sales to doctors of chiropractic, I became a serious student of the chiropractic profession. I subscribed to the profession's journals, I got and read books, I visited offices, I went to seminars, I asked questions of doctors. In a few months, I knew enough and sounded so much like a chiropractor, that we had to continually correct doctors who called me "Dr. Kennedy" and convinced themselves I was one of them.
"To this day, I'll be walking through a hotel lobby, airport, mall, and have a chiropractor yell out, "Hello, Dr. Kennedy!" And, although I would never give an adjustment, I can do a decent exam, a good report of findings, I can sell people on chiropractic better than most chiropractors, and I could operate a practice. I could go to a convention and easily pass myself off as a doctor, if I chose to. I'll bet I could go to an office and get myself hired as an associate doctor.
"Some years back, I worked closely with a client in the retail theft control business. His company dealt with employee and delivery man theft in supermarkets, convenience stores and drugstores (where it is an immense problem). Then, I subscribed to all the trade journals of the supermarket, convenience store and drugstore industry, and assembled articles about theft from several years of back issues.
"I read what books I could find on the subject. I studied my client's materials. I learned the language of retail finance. To this day, I can walk into any such store or restaurant and, in 5 minutes, tell you whether or not the employees are stealing and, if so, show you the 'hidden evidence' that proves it. And I could give a seminar to retailers on the subject and no one would question my status as an expert."
You too can become an expert at anything and fast, if you put your mind to it. Don't underestimate yourself.
That's it for this method of coming up with profitable ideas for information products.
