Page 72 - The $100 Startup_ Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love

failure—author royalties would have brought Brett only around $18 a day. But
since Brett was the sole owner and delivery was digital, the $300 that arrived in
his PayPal account every day was almost entirely profit.

In an odd twist, the executives who developed Evernote got word of the guide
and sent Brett a note that they wanted to talk. Brett was worried they were upset
about him making money from their free product, but the opposite was true: The
CEO loved it and wanted to hire him. Brett left the boring full-time job and took
on a new role at Evernote, with the understanding that he could continue to sell
the guide and retain all profits while working at home for the company. Sweet!
Here’s how Brett describes the end results:

The unreal success of this project has not only freed our family from a
decade of debt and financial instability but has also given us the freedom to
pursue the kind of life we want. Since I now work from home and Joana is
a stay-at-home mom, we spend far more time with our kids than most
people could hope for. There are times when I still can’t believe it’s actually
happened, and I couldn’t be more thankful.

Brett’s project had all the predictors of success we’ve considered thus far: It
began with something he was both passionate about and skilled in, and then he
forged his knowledge into a useful package that could be acquired instantly by
users. If you wanted to learn about Evernote but didn’t want to spend the time
surfing around, a $25 investment could solve the problem. The choice of price
was also perfect: Brett could have priced much lower, as some digital publishers
do, but he chose to take a stand and provide a clear value proposition to his
potential customers.

Become Your Own Publisher
Follow these steps to enter the information publishing business. Each step can be
made more complicated, but they all relate to this basic outline.

1. Find a topic that people will pay to learn about. It helps if you are an
expert in the topic, but if not, that’s what research is for.

2. Capture the information in one of three ways:
a. Write it down.
b. Record audio or video.
c. Produce some combination of a and b.

3. Combine your materials into a product: an e-book or digital package that