When I first started this UpperMoney.com blog I promised that I’d actually show you how to make money, not just talk about it. Well, guess what… in this post, you’re going to see making money online in action!

The last few days I’ve been busy writing a short 20 page report, doing exactly what I talked about in my previous post. The product took me about 2 days to write. Then I grabbed a domain name for $20, and I posted a sales letter for it on the Warrior Forum’s Special Offer section, which cost me another $20.

(Click here to see the actual post live. If the link takes you to the Warrior Forum in general, then the post has expired, so click here for a screenshot of the original post).

So far after about 24 hours, I’ve sold 18 copies and generated $116.30. After Paypal’s cut, it probably works out to around $100.

To some of you, that sounds great… to others, it might not sound like a lot. However, there’s a few important things to really notice here.

First, since I bought a domain name ($20) and paid to post on the Warrior’s Special Offer forum ($20), my profit is only $60 (but I’ve paid for the domain name for 2 years now, so that’s only an initial expense).

However, this is just after 24 hours! My post will remain on the forum for about 2 weeks. Plus, for another $20, I’m allowed to “bump” my post  back up to the top of the forum again once it gets to Page 3, which I’ll certainly be doing to give it more exposure… and I’ll keep doing it as long as the report makes a profit!

In other words, in the space of 2 days, I’ve just created a small income stream!

True, I’ve “only” made $60 so far (if you like to look at things from a negative point of view), but the key words are “so far”. Every time I “bump” that post (it costs me $20 to do that), the report will get more exposure, and hopefully generate more sales.

Third - and this is the really important point - there’s a reason I wrote this report.  I’m “testing the waters” as it were, to see if there would be an interest in a “membership site” based on the same topic as the report.

After each sale of this report, I invite the new customer to sign up to be notified of updates to the report, and a few extra tips. So far, about 90% of my new customers have signed up to my notification list.

Now, If I want to see if there’s an interest in a membership site on the same subject, guess who I’ll ask?

That’s right… my new customers!

And if there is an interest… I have a ready-built list of potential customers! If not, then no harm done, I just won’t bother creating the membership site… but I’m still making money on the initial report.

Incidentally, you might be wondering what my new report is about. Well, I call it “Reverse Engineering The Gurus”. I’ve selected one particular expert in his field - in this case men’s dating guru, David DeAngelo - and I’ve taken the reader through his sales and marketing process, to show them how his information publishing business has turned into a $20 million empire in 7 years!

Plus, I give an in-depth analysis of 2 of his sales letters, so the reader can see precisely what he’s doing in those letters. (He’s using some pretty persuasive techniques, I can tell you!)

The report was fairly easy for me to write because I simply took advantage of my 10 years experience in writing sales copy, creating products, marketing and selling.

Then I just put it for sale in front of a mass audience - in this case, the Warrior Forum’s “Special Offer” section.

OK, I’ll admit… I make it sound easier than it is.

It was only easy for me because I’ve done it before - several times. Plus, I had enough knowledge to be able to write effectively on the subject.

What about you? Where can you start?

Well, first of all, if you don’t think you know enough on any subject to be able to write even a short report (mine was only 20 pages, excluding the sales letter analysis), then become an expert on a topic!

Find a problem people are having, do some in-depth research to find the solution - on this blog I’ve already given you some great advice on how to do niche research - then write your report!

And then, put it in front of a relevant mass audience.

Remember what I said in my previous post. Short reports are not necessarily going to make you huge chunks of money by themselves. But they can be great for building up a customer base for a potentially larger product, such as an ebook.

And once you have a customer list - even if it’s from a short report - you can ask them what they’d like to see in a future ebook of yours!

Incidentally, just in the space of writing this post, another 4 sales of the report have rolled in - that’s about another $32. (I’m not telling you this to boast, but rather to inspire you.) This is from a report I wrote just 2 days ago!

I really do want all of you reading this to be making money from the Internet, whether you’re just looking for a bit of extra cash to enjoy life just that little bit more, whether you want to earn the equivalent of a full time income on the Internet, or whether you want to build a virtual empire - it doesn’t matter.

This blog will help you to get there, I promise it. So stick around, and above all make sure you’re subscribed to this blog.

If you have any questions about the report, or just want to discuss the stuff we’ve talked about in this post, please feel free to use the comments section below. If you’ve never created an information product before, I appreciate there’s a lot of technical questions you might want to ask, and I’ll try and give a brief answer to any questions, but I promise I’ll go into the “nuts and bolts” of it all in future posts.