Right after I published my “Giving Away The Farm” post this afternoon, Heather called me because she “didn’t want to put me on the spot with a public comment” and asked if I’d be giving out the details of the actual niche site and product I create for that case study?

Yes, absolutely! What value would it have for people if they couldn’t take the simple step of visiting the site being exampled and see first-hand how I put everything together?

I’m also going to provide links to the exact articles I publish to promote the niche site and every other resource that gets used or mentioned in the study.

I want folks to be able to really get something valuable out of this.

Of course, some of that is why I’m only going to share the study with subscribers of my monthly newsletter, I don’t want to openly shout out all of the resources I use, or sites I’m building :)

And the newsletter is free, spam free and I only send 1 mailing monthly so there’s no reason for anybody who’s interested to not sign up and see the results.

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In addition, once I make my first sale from the niche site and have the results for the study, I’m going to refund the buyer and let them keep the product for free, then I’ll also remove the live purchasing link(s) from the niche site, though they’ll still be visible for you to see where and how I placed them, they’ll no longer link out to the payment processor.

Since this is a case study I think it would be unfair to keep the customer’s money as I don’t intend to continue with the product or niche after I publish the study results on my newsletter. I’m doing this strictly as a teaching by example exercise.

But, Let’s Take It Further

Since the June issue of the newsletter will be about this niche case study, and I really like the idea of sharing by example like this, while talking with Heather I thought why don’t we make every issue of the Leap eTips this summer about testing and learning for everyone?

So, here’s what I’m proposing:

- June issue: will be the niche case study of going from scratch to first sale after entering a brand new niche market, with a product created specifically for the example.

- July issue: let’s end some of the myths and misinformations surrounding duplicate content filtering and search engines.

Everybody has their beliefs and opinions about duplicate content filters and how they are used or applied, I’m no different. However, my thoughts on duplicate content filters are based on the actual results of sites I’m involved in and not just what gets tossed around (which is often regurgitated wrong information) on forums.

Still, any time I’ve shared my thoughts in discussions on blogs or forums there are always some people who seem to feel I’m pulling my opinions out of the air rather than basing them on facts because they read something different from someone else, so this will be a way for us (me and my newsletter subscribers) to test in real time and see through real examples exactly what does or doesn’t trigger red flags when repurposing content.

To be clear, I’m a big fan of creating and using original content for my own sites. However, if I enter a market where some specialized knowledge that I don’t have would be beneficial there are times where I think it’s appropriate to repurpose an article or white paper that has republishing rights attached to it.

For example, if I were building a niche site around some skin care product, then articles from dermatologists or even beauticians might be of benefit to my site visitors and to me ultimately.

And there are ways to repurpose this content, even though it’s technically duplicate content, that are entirely ethical and without suffering any filtering or penalties at all. I’ve done it numerous times, and this will be a great way to share my methods and experience with you by real live example that can be monitored.

- August issue: creating your own digital products. This is a topic I know a lot of people have trouble with. My experience with friends whom I’ve helped build their own products for the first time has told me the biggest obstacle they seemed to face was that they held the wrong impression of what a digital product is.

Honestly, more than once I’ve heard “I don’t want to write a cheesy ebook and scam people with it”. My reply is always the same, then don’t!

I’ve never written a cheesy ebook (that I’m aware of), and I’ve certainly never tried to scam anyone for anything. In fact, I’ve always tried to under-promise and over-deliver with every web property and digital product I’ve ever created. That’s just how I am.

But, because there are so many “make money gurus” and what-have-you out there who are constantly selling the hype of their latest digital products which typically fall short of the promised “goods”–they’ve caused digital products in this market to take on a sort of stigma with many people.

But here’s the real deal, first of all you can create fantastic digital products rather easily and not have to fear that they’re cheesy in any way… and not just ebooks, but audio and video materials too. Most of the tools you could need are available free to create amazing digital products with.

And secondly, if you stay out of the “make money online” markets then that dirty stigma attached to digital products won’t really apply to you because your market probably won’t have had the same experiences of digital products = “over-hyped junk” that the make money online market has.

In fact, when you get into niche markets that have nothing to do with making money online you’ll find that there are information seekers out there willing and happy to buy almost any ebook, graphics, audio or video products related to their topic of interest that you can offer them.

I have a friend who sold tons of videos on how to tie knots online about 2 years ago. He took most of the information from his old Boy Scout manual, created a bunch of short “how to” videos for each different knot and then sold them as a package on his site devoted to hikers and camping enthusiasts. And guess what? You could find detailed tutorials for every one of those knots online for free.

I have another friend who has been featured in several major magazines now because she’s created a 6 figure business from creating and selling Recipe ebooks. Seriously, you can search Google for any recipe in the world, and yet she still sells a dozen plus copies of her ebooks every day now.

Why can these people, and others make money with digital products when most (if not all) of the information is already available online for free?

Presentation.

Plain and simple, if you know how to put information together in a pleasing way that your market will connect with, then people interested in the topic(s) you cover will gladly pay to own a copy of your presentation of it.

So, for August I’m going to need a couple of volunteers and we’re going to create some amazing digital products together, documenting the process for everyone to share in the experience, and for those who volunteer you’ll not only get the experience and insights but you’ll also have a profitable product ready to take to market. Even though I’m going to work with you on it, you’ll own all rights to the completed product.

Please contact me here if you’re interested in building a digital product for the August issue with me.

Okay, I think that wraps up the summer of education idea. To follow along with all of this you’ll have to be a subscriber to the Leap eTips monthly newsletter which is free of cost, free of spam and only sends out 1 mainling per month (so free of abuse too).

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