Saturday, November 17, 2007

Use Google to find Content for your Book

Most people know about Google.com as the largest search engine in the world... however, few realize how powerful it is as a research tool.

The key is knowing how to tap into Google's research powers. One of the best ways to find content for your book is by using the search string called "allinurl." (pronounced all-in-u-r-l)

You can go to Google.com and type your keyword phrase in after allinurl: – and search its database for sites that have that keyphrase in their URL, either in the domain name or in a file name.

For example, if I was writing a book about Dog Names I could use something like:

allinurl: dog name articles
allinurl: dog name
allinurl: beagle dog names


You should find some excellent content using this method.

Let's check out the real world examples and take a look at what we would find.

#1) allinurl: dog name articles

• "A Dog Name is Something To Be Chosen Carefully"

• "5 tips for finding the right name"

• "Puppy dog name meanings"

Looks like great content for the book. Simply decide which section (from your outline) would be the appropriate section for it to go in.

Note: If you really want to use the content but don't currently have a section devoted to it, you want to consider adding one.

Now for the important question... HOW can you organize your search findings? Glad you asked...
Put the name of your idea and the Outline Section at the top of a piece of paper.

In the section below put...

Name/Title: The name and/or title of the content you've found
Link: URL to the content
Expert (Owner): Who wrote the content
Type: Is the content text, audio, video, etc.


If you have 6 sections to your outline, you should have 6 of these sheets with content information – one for each section.

This way you can quickly see how much content you've accumulated for each section. Once you decide you have enough content in a certain section you can stop searching and move on to the other sections in your outline.

After collecting all the content you want for your product, you have four options.

#1) You can contact the content owner and ask permission to include their content in your product. You can do this whether it's text, audio, video, etc.

The benefit of including other experts' content is that when it comes time to market it you've got ‘built-in' partners to help promote it and you are leveraging other people's credibility as experts in the subject.

#2) You can hire a ghostwriter to write on similar topics to those in your outline. selection.

#3) You could research and write content following the outline yourself.

I've come to realize the power and the effectiveness of using existing content from the experts.

Unless you absolutely have to have the entire product be your words, I'd suggest mixing in expert content with some of your own content. This might be as simple as finding a public domain book on the subjects you outlined and using some of its content as well.

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