Now that more and more organizations are asking employees to return to the office full-time, entrepreneurial-minded professionals have begun asking themselves, “So what’s next? What can I do to earn a living while enjoying the lifestyle I’ve become accustomed to in the last few years?”

Content creation may be the ideal path for you. The obvious choices: Social media influencer. Marketing strategist. Blogger. Ezine publisher. Copywriter. Book editor. Graphic artist. Comic book illustrator. Keynote speaker. Trainer. Corporate technical writer. Online course designer. Workbook creator/designer. Software developer or coder. Creator of “content” merchandise (screen-savers, slogan t-shirts, custom cups, greeting cards, calendars). The list goes on.

How prolific and profitable can you become? Very. Consider one illustration….

The Typical Life Cycle of Content

In case you’re wondering how one book—or even 50 books—can lead to an entire career built totally on content, let me give you one example regarding the “life cycle” of a book. I’ll use my first business book, Would You Put That in Writing?, to illustrate:

• Hardcover book (Published by Facts on File, which was then a reference-book publisher, hoping to add a line of business books for the future)
• Paperback book (Published by Harper Business with the title How to Write Your Way to Success)
• Excerpted articles in major magazines (Earning fees in magazines such as Working Woman, Cosmopolitan, Entrepreneur, and so forth)
• Software sale (Licensed to the Jacuzzi companies for their “David Software” business series)
• Audio sale (Licensed by Nightingale-Conant Audio, entitled Write to the Point)
• Video sale (Licensed by Britannica Training, a division of Encyclopedia Britannica, as part of their “Britannica Celebrity Series.” An off-the-shelf, sixteen-hour training program titled Basic Steps to Better Business Writing, including video, workbook, and leader guide)
• Video sale (Licensed by America Media Corporation. A 28-minute video, with leader guide)
• Software sale (Licensed by InterCom, Inc. Created in a 16-hour online course and web-enabled for use on a client’s intranet)
• Software sale (Licensed by ModelOffice. Created in five smaller independent software packages: Model Business Letters, Model Sales & Marketing Letters, Model Personal Letters, Model Speeches & Toasts, and a “best of” compilation package. All sold through Best Buy and other big-box stores)
• Software sale (Licensed by IKP, Inc. and intended for individual users, but purchased by corporations as part of their corporate training offerings)
• Software sale (Licensed by M3, Inc. as part of their corporate training offerings)
• Off-the-shelf corporate training programs (Content from the original book developed into 2- and 3-day business and technical writing programs offered in person by Booher consultants)
• Custom training programs (Corporate clients purchased custom programs to be developed by Booher Consultants and offered either by Booher Consultants or the client’s own internal trainers. Clients for such custom programs have included those across a broad spectrum of industries: Exxon Mobil, British Petroleum, Shell Oil,  Federal Reserve Banks, Library of Congress, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Novartis, Walmart, JC Penney, Hill-Rom, Texas Instruments, Bayer, and many more)
• Independent corporate licenses for specific concepts (Short extracts from the book or training programs licensed to corporate clients to upload to their intranets for employee use—such as model letters or emails)
• IBM custom training programs (all of these programs to be developed by Booher Consultants under additional contracts and fees and based on concepts from the original book)
• Primedia video sale (Contracted to develop and appear in custom video programs based on the book’s content. Video programs were broadcast to their satellite subscribers, including PBS audiences.)
• Software sale (McGraw-Hill / Zebec licensed the book’s content to create online training programs to be delivered in eight countries. The Zebec programs were then merged with those offered by Thomson/NetG)
• Books24X7 corporate online book platform (Licensed for their online platform offered to corporate subscribers)
• SkillSoft corporate online video-based courses (Licensed as part of a merger between Books24X7 and SkillSoft to offer short-form online video clips)
• Key concepts sale (Licensed by MemCards for their line of 52-card decks of key principles from bestselling books, to be sold to corporate and individual buyers as a supplement to internal training programs. Also offered to individuals through “push-training” via their phones)
• Bearing Point sale (Licensed the book’s content to be developed as both in-person and video-based training programs offered in 32 countries, translated into the local language/dialect)
• E-Writing: 21^st Century Tools for Effective Communication paperback sale  (Published by Pocket Books/Simon and Schuster. Content from the original Would You Put That in Writing? hardcover, expanded and combined with a new 60-page introductory section on email etiquette and tech tips)
• Faster, Fewer, Better Emails paperback book sale (Published by Berrett-Koehler. Content taken from the earlier two writing books and expanded with updated email productivity tips)

Considering this book’s life cycle, the original four days invested in drafting that first manuscript during that summer break (even before incorporating my “business”) has netted millions of dollars through the years. Of course, some of the above sales to offer the book’s content in varying formats required extra time. But not much. Designing a handout, workbook, leader guide, or a customized program goes rather quickly when you already have the basic “content” at hand.

Even so, most content creators would agree that the total time makes for an exceptional return on investment.

Granted, all content doesn’t enjoy such a long life, but enough do that working with words has hooked me for life.

The best part: As a social media influencer, a marketing strategist, or an entrepreneur developing products and services of all kinds, you can repeat this same process from your own ideas and content.

Read the latest iteration for yourself with Faster, Fewer, Better Emails

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