Thinking about publishing an e-book?

I found an e-book example which IMHO looks like an e-book project template for e-book beginners.

Caroline Middlebrook has published (and maintained!) an e-book about 'How to Develop Money-Making Niche Sites with WordPress' (link below). Her e-book is not only an e-book but a whole e-book project! Three arguments why I like this specific e-book:

1. What makes this e-book so outstanding in my eyes is that the e-book shows a very concrete and practical approach instead of hammering out philosophic statements.
2. The great bookmark and navigation structure which makes it absolutely easy to pick out essential single items.
3. The e-book is accompanied by a live website. You can always go there and see live how the website looks. Creating a live website for an e-book is pretty outstanding.

What I don't like: Her approach to create a static website with the blog CMS WordPress. Reading my blog entries you will know that I do not recommend to use the blog CMS WordPress for static pages. For this task I would always use Textpattern which is not only a good blog CMS but handles static pages much better (Performancing.com: Tag Textpattern, Search Textpattern).

The reason for choosing WordPress is clear though. The goal is to get as many e-book downloads as possible. Why? The monetization aspect of the free e-book is to make money from the many affiliate links. Is that goal worth to choose the IMHO wrong CMS platform? From an affiliate point of view the approach is at least understandable.

Having said that here are some details about her e-book project...

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Niche blogging is an artform. And usually, the successful niche bloggers are the ones who love their topic. In fact, I have a friend from Performancing who ranks on the front page of Google for the word "candy" because he loves candy and he's networked with others who do too. People who love a topic know what other people who love the same topic want to talk about.

I've never been successful at niche blogging myself. Instead, I've been inclined to go after broad high-competition topics (mostly because I'm lazy and don't have the patience of niching). There's a little bit of envy here. I'd like to be good at niche blogging...I really would.

Well, recently, I was fortunate enough to interview Jesse Nachtigal the guy behind Cigar Jack, one of my favorite niche blogs. It wasn't until after the interview that Jesse and I became Twitter friends. Goes to show you the dynamics of networking... it just happens...make yourself available, and your network will grow.

Here's the interview. Enjoy.

1. How long have you been a cigar smoker? What motivated you to start blogging about cigars?

I've been smoking cigars for five years. I started blogging as a way to keep track of what cigars I smoked and what I liked about them. After awhile I noticed that other people were actually reading my site and commenting on my reviews. That is when I started to look at monetizing the site. The current version of my site only dates back to March of this year, but I've been blogging there since 2005.

2. There are quite a few cigar blogs. What sets yours apart? What do your visitors seem to like about your site?

I try and set myself apart by having new content on a daily basis along with featuring cigars that the typical cigar smoker might not know about. There are quite a few small cigar manufacturers out there that don't get the press or name recognition the big boys do. I have gotten quite a few comments on my weekly review of manufacturer's websites, taking them to the ropes for lack of information and out of date sites.

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We're all familiar with the oversaturated niches. Anything mainstream American is oversaturated. Cell phones, gadgets, celebrity. Anything mainstream techie is also oversaturated. SEO, PHP, web development, blogging.

Some of the oversaturated niches still have room to squeeze out decent profits. But many of you might be looking for alternative niches to explore. And rather than wrecking your brain trying to think of that one under-represented main-stream product, it might be worth thinking outside of the box a bit.

Before I move on, let me just say one thing: there's a reason for niche oversaturation. Niches that are oversaturated have at least two things going for them. First, they have high advertiser representation. Second, they have a proven readership/client base. In other words, there is excess money being thrown around in these niches.

If you're going to explore some alternative niches, you need to be aware that some of the value in conquering these newer niches lies in longer-term equity. Sure, there can be immediate profits, but when you explore alternative niches, you are partially betting that these niches will grow, expand, and perhaps become mainstream (along with mainstream advertisers).

One very nice way to do alternative nicheing is to identify a mainstream niche and then throw an ethnic spin on it. Think celebrity is oversaturated? Why not become a major player in the Latino Celebrity market? Having trouble breaking into the soccer/futball market? Why not do a blog on Latino futball players.

By adding an ethnic angle to any niche, you increase the level of specificity and decrease your competition. If you play your cards right, you can have a much easier time breaking into a popular sub-market for a popular niche.