Choosing the right topic for your How To Video is the single most important decision you will make in order to insure success. In this chapter we will look at what constitutes a good topic. A great topic (or field of interest) for a How To Video needs to have these three
features:

1. Passionate Fans -- Passionate fans for a topic, whether it's a topic on a hobby, a
   business, or a lifestyle, is the number one requirement for your topic. Without
   obviously passionate fans, it will be much harder to sell your How To Video.
2. Adds Value -- If there is a high cost associated with a specific area of interest,
   chances are people will be more likely to spend further to enhance their investment. Also,
   if you can show people how to make or save money, that's a huge added value.
3. Teaches New Tricks (Training) -- Teaching someone new tricks or a new application is perhaps the best How To Video idea. There are countless videos that teach people a certain aspect of a program or a trick for accomplishing a task. People will pay to shorten the learning curve.

Here are a just few topic ideas to put to the Great Topic Test. Circle the ones you think would make a great topic for a How To Video. We'll do a full exercise later to get your inner Guru to show itself, but for now we are just looking at how broad the topics are and how to go about brainstorming.

I think it is safe to say that you could find passionate fans for each of these topics. Look at points 2 and 3 for some of these to see if they would make great topics.

If you, as an expert on the topic, can provide valuable information, then you have a potential winner on your hands. Valuable information can be defined as:

• Complete
  
• Targeted -- niche market
  
• Not easily found elsewhere
  

Looking at a few of these topics a bit more in depth we can determine if they would make great How To Videos.

Fishing -- There are a large amount of passionate fishermen and women. While it costs very little to get involved in fishing, there are some who spend a great deal in the hobby. A good bass boat can cost upwards of $20,000 for example. By segmenting this topic further we may begin to see some potential. For example, I would target fishermen that own a boat or a particular type of fishing where a boat is required. Fishing is usually a very localized endeavor.

Here are some topic ideas. I show you this so you can see the thought process of getting a lot of ideas and narrowing them down. :

• Buying A Bass Boat
• Tying a Fly
• Tying a Specific Fly
• Tying a Fly for Beginners (etc)
• Start a Chartering Business
• Becoming a Fishing Guide
• Fishing the Great Lakes
• Fishing the Mississippi
• Fishing in Mexico
• Fishing the _________
• Secrets of _________
• Top 10 Fishing Holes in _(Your State)_
• Rod and Reel Maintenance

Day Trading -- Adds Value, has passionate fans and Teaches New Tricks - this an excellent How To Video topic. People who risk their money will usually spend money to limit their risk. There are always new companies coming to market and new trading techniques developed. This How To Video topic has excellent potential for an entire series or even weekly videos for someone who is successful in this area.

Boating -- Like fishing, this is a broad topic. I would narrow the focus down to a sub-niche. For instance, I own a few boats of different kinds. A ski boat to pull skiers - It's a utility and not a passion. A small sailboat -- Lots of fun when we go on vacation. However, I have dreamed of living on a sailboat and sailing to the Caribbean. Now here we start to get into some very interesting ideas. Sailing in open water (blue water or offshore sailing) is not for the novice. It requires a lot of experience and knowledge. Living aboard a boat is a huge lifestyle change. There are certainly many aspects to planning for living aboard a boat, not to mention many things to consider in the purchase of such a boat. Come to think of it, I'd REALLY like to test out the waters (pun intended!) to see if I would like this kind of lifestyle and if my stomach could handle blue water sailing.

As a matter of fact, cruising of any kind would make an excellent topic. Videos that cover traveling by RV, motorcycle, and private plane, would have excellent potential. Valuable content would include reviews of equipment, destinations, itineraries, money making ideas, how to manage your bills on the road, etc. Here are some ideas I brainstormed:

• Small Boat Safety
• Buying Your First Boat
• Selling Your Boat
• Dinners On The Water
• Overnight Trips on __(Body of Water)__
• Gunk holing on __(Body of Water)__
• Sights to See on __(Body of Water)__
• Boating With Kids
• Mars / Venus on the Water

Real Estate - I think this is another great topic. With the current downturn, agents are looking for new tricks to help them sell. Buyers want to know how to leverage this opportunity and sellers want to get as much from their investment as they can. Brainstorming this I get these ideas:

• How to Sell in a Down Market
• Stage Your House Yourself
• Buying in a Down Market
• Secret Agent - The Top Realtor Trick of a Down Market
• Real Estate Selling Teams - Build Yours Now
• To Producer Tricks - Tips from the Million Dollar Club
• Market Your Home Online
• For Sale By Owner - DIY Home Sales
• Pass That Test - Study Guide for your Real Estate License
• Etc.
  

Which brings me to the last unspoken key -

4) Guide/Guru Passion. A successful topic needs a passionate guru at the helm.
Someone to explain each step to near perfection (don't let the good fall prey to the perfect). Someone to talk the details and explain things clearly. The video's guru/expert must have passion for the topic. It shows in little ways that make a huge impact on the success of the video and videos to come.

I'll talk more about finding your inner guru or your local guru in chapter 4. But begin looking around your home, your workplace, and your local haunts and start mentally cataloging what it is you do and what you are interested in. Stuck? Go down to your basement and list off the projects you have started that have stalled.

Market from Day 1

If you are thinking of creating a How To Video without doing any pre-marketing tests, don't do it! There are a lot of variables that go into marketing a successful How To Video that you want to start with known quantities. You want to know:

1. How and where to locate Passionate Fans?
2. Where do you send them?
3. How to you communicate with them?
   
4. How do you sell to them?
   

If you can't find passionate fans, then how are you going to get them to find your product? If you can find people to visit your site but they don't convert to buyers, you've
wasted a lot of time and money.

Where do I find Passionate Fans?

Existing List
If you are a guru or expert that has collected a list of people who like the info you tout, you already have a built in audience. Poll your audience by sending them a survey that asks THEM what they would look for in a How To Video and how much they would value (pay for) such a video.

No List (Build Your List)
If you do not have an email list of potential buyers and you want to test your topic, there are a few approaches you can use. One of the easiest is to create a sales page that you drive traffic to via Google's Adwords or other advertising such as banner placements and expert postings. A sales page is a targeted selling page with the goal of signing up as many people to your free email list as possible. If you can capture names, you have a huge advantage. You will be creating your list from scratch and you can get an idea of your marketing and topic's effectiveness.

Web surveys are a great way to test the waters especially if you already have a following. SurveyMonkey.com offers an easy to use and free survey tool.
http://www.surveymonkey.com

Create a survey, send it out to your list and review the results. You can craft your site development to match the desires of your best fans -- the ones you already have.
If all your subscribers say they would not be interested in a How To Video on this topic, it's time to rethink your topic.

One of the best place to find a topic that people are passionate about is at your local magazine rack. Just look at all the magazines that cater to niche topics! Browse through the magazines that interest you and see what is currently being offered.

Another great place to find passionate fans is on Forums for a topic. Go to Goggle and search "Your topic forum". For example Goggle Fly Fishing Forum. People that love their hobby and their avocation hang out on these sites and are RABID fans. I hang out on 3 major sites and love the interaction and the passion for the topic. Begin posting on these forums, get involved with the community and ask some questions and give some answers.

I'll go into great depth on marketing but I wanted to get you thinking about marketing from Day 1. I sometimes have the most fun researching a topic! I love looking into a particular niche and finding what fans like, how they think, what cool gear is available and what their needs are. By hanging out on a busy forum site, you will quickly get some ideas of how to bring value to them via a How To Video. The number on rule is this: The easier it is to find and engage your target audience, the lower your cost of marketing your How To Video will be.

But Where do I send them?

If you already have a web site, that's the best place to send people. Google has probably already indexed the site and you can easily add a sales page or a signup form. There are many examples of simple sales pages on the internet. Choose one that appeals to you and modify it to suite your needs. Modify the text to match your sales pitch and topic. For How To Videos I want to develop I use language similar to "Coming In April-- sign up now for to be notified of release and a free sample chapter". This kind of reciprocity (give something to get something) will help you build your list. I also include a counter indicating how many days until launch.

If you do not already have a web site or you want to go into a new market, you can start a blog for free over at Wordpress.org. I love Wordpress as it allows you to quickly get a site up and running that is very Search Engine friendly.

To collect names and email addresses, you will need to sign up for a mailing list tool. I recommend AWeber http://www.aweber.com. AWeber is a fantastic tool for collecting addresses. AWeber lets you set up a sequential autoresponder. This means that once someone signs up, they get a new letter every week (or at whatever interval you want). This is a fantastic way to send out announcements about your product. AWeber gives you code to insert into your sales page. Starting with AWeber is a good idea even if it is initially for testing purposes.

If your advertising and marketing are driving people to your site but have not resulted in sign ups, change the copy, change the offering, and/or change the color. Test out different copy on your sales page. Try offering a free Tip of The Week AND a free report. Measure everything. Putting a simple counter on the page will track you hits but not much else. Adding Google Analytics to your page can help you track unique visitors and conversion rates.
http://www.google.com/analytics/

NOTE: Google has changed the way it looks at sales pages or "single page web sites." The best place to host your sales page is on a full web site.

Conclusion

A good topic for a How To Video will be a subject that brings value to people. A great topic will bring value and help people attain a dream. The perfect topic will be something that you yourself are already passionate about and want to share with others to bring them value and attain their dream.

Action

Right this minute write down everything that you are interested in and everything that you are good at. Also write down things you want to learn yourself. Write for a full 15 minutes without stopping. Do a brain dump. Come back to it later and write another 15 minutes. This exercise changed my life and I believe will open up many doors for you as well.

Watch this short video to help get your ideas flowing.