So, yesterday I teased the concept of creative content as a means to generate revenue. Today I am going to be more specific, and since Chari has been nice enough to keep the conversation going, I’m going to pick on her 
To me, creative content is material that is subject matter appropriate, engaging and increasingly, interactive. Yet another truism – the people who profited the most off the gold rush were the shopkeepers and folks selling shovels and services to miners.
Chari, someone as experienced as you on building templates or customizing MT has a lot to teach some of the new tech savvy marketers and freelancers entering the arena – I am sure there are techies out there who’d like to know how you did something, or learn how they can tweak their own blogs, and while I am *well* aware that the tradition is that it is openly shared, there is nothing wrong with doing a free post on a technique and then offering a longer, narrated how to video of the process.
Sound expensive? Nope. You can go pick up the new ScreenCamGenerator for $197.00. Given the dearth of available visual guides, I’d say you’d have an easy time getting $49.95 for a fairly comprehensive one, but I suspect you could go all out and get up to $97 each if you properly packaged it and marketed it towards the corporate set.
Just for giggles, though, let’s say you sell them for $49.95 each, and that it takes you 20 hours to create it. You need to calculate your hours at a minimum initially of $13.20 (living wage average); that means your “investment” in this project is $461.00. Do you think you’d sell 10 of them? 100 of them? That is part of the research puzzle; sizing your market properly is a key success factor. Personally? Create it and let me know – I can think of at least 10 people who would be seriously interested in buying it. There is a whole crowd of DIY type people out there for virtually *every* niche market.
Admittedly, I am glossing over a lot of details here; I think, however, that you get the idea.
So, you want to get more creative? You can get started on podcasting and create your own broadcasting empire; combine audio with workbooks and you can create entire courses or how to systems. Using Flash you can create interactive websites – what types of things can you incorporate to make it interesting? Engaging? You could include recipes and images from a meal, cooking techniques – the options are pretty limitless once you find a target market that resonates with you.
Don’t have a creative bone in your body? Go find someone who does; there are literally thousands of subject matter experts out there – just keep it within your niche.
