photo credit: edans

Do you have a burning desire to write an ebook or novel, but not sure where to begin? Well, look no further as I’ve compiled a list of books that will help motivate you and get you up off the couch and writing the next best selling ebook. Can the ebook be a source of residual passive income? This will not be a “How to write an ebook” post, but an opportunity to look at some successful business ebooks for motivation. An ebook can be an opportunity for residual passive income, because it can be distributed for little or no cost. Besides your time the only other cost would be marketing the ebook. If you have a popular blog or website, this cost could be minimal. I must be honest and say that I am a bit jealous of writers who have managed so successfully market and sell thousands of ebooks. Maybe you have an idea for an ebook or have already written one, how has it done? Are you marketing your ebook yourself, or utilizing a site like ebooks.com or lulu.com?

Before I get to the top 10 business ebooks, I wanted to give you some ideas for ebook topics.

1. Write a mystery ebook. This is a great niche market and if you have an interest in mystery novels, this could be a great opportunity to start writing.

2. Economics ebook. Yes, I macro and micro in college and it was filled with examples of widgets, guns, and butter. Writing an economics ebook could allow you to be creative with your econ analysis of Keynesian theory and supply-side economics. Maybe you could substitute ipods for widgets.

3. History ebook. Do you have a passion for history? Maybe you’ve wanted to write a book on the history of surfing or history of blogs?

4. How about ebook novels? Do you have a deep desire to write a romance novel? The type of novel willed with passion and desire? Fabio won’t be on the cover, but it can still be full of steamy romance.

5. Psychology ebook. This idea came to mind as I was thinking about writing an economics ebook. You could create a personality test for bloggers and ask them a series of questions. Report your findings in your psychology ebook and market it to bloggers. You might have some interesting findings like 70% of bloggers have 100 online friends, but only 3 offline friends.

Since this is a personal finance blog, I thought I would highlight the top selling business ebooks currently being sold at ebooks.com

1. Getting Things Done by David Allen Published by Penguin Group Inc

2. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell Published by Brown Little

3. Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

4. The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss Published by Crown Publishing Group

5. 2600 Phrases for Effective Performance Reviews by Paul Falcone Published by AMACOM

6. Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by Harv Eker Published by HarperCollins

7. Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon L. Lecter Published by Warner Books

8. The Coming Economic Collapse by Glen Strathy and Stephen Leeb Published by Warner

9. The Ten-Day MBA by Steven A. Silbiger Published by HarperCollins US

10. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber Published by HarperCollins

ebook books and other resources:

Squawkfox wrote a free ebook: Frugal Food & Fitness: How to get fit and fab without spending a fortune
Seth Godin’s You should write an ebook
Lulu.com
Clickbank
Simple Mom’s Spring Cleaning for normal people
30 free ebooks from Mint.com

What has been your favorite ebook? Do you have one that you read that has been a source of motivation and inspiration for writing, investing, or being a better parent?

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The bankruptcy filing from Lehman Brothers over the weekend will not only impact thousands of employees, families, students, foundations, and stock holders, but it will be felt by small and large companies that will have millions lost in residual passive income. Lehman will be different from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that will continue to operate and provide loans to thousands of households across the country. Lehman may have assets sold off to other investment firms, including the asset management firm Neuberger Berman who will be sold to the highest bidder. I don’t want to gloss over the significant loss of income for thousands of families who will be looking for work after the bankruptcy or the investors who had assets in Lehman stock and bonds. Since this is a personal finance blog with an emphasis on passive income, I do want to look at the impact the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy has for other companies. Thousands and millions of dollars will be lost with this bankruptcy to companies that earn residual passive income through software licenses, research, suppliers, and even vending sales. Microsoft, Cisco, Bloomberg and even small mom and pop vending machine companies will all feel the financial impact of the Lehman bankruptcy.

So how will the Lehman Brothers Bankruptcy impact these companies residual passive income?
1. Microsoft will lose millions through lost license revenue from windows vista, xp and server sales. Each computer, laptop, and server running Windows software must have a valid license. Lehman is probably just one of Microsoft’s many licensees, so the impact would not be as significant as the others down this list.

2. Cisco, Nortel, or Juniper are also going to lose out on lost server revenue from Lehman Brothers. Lehman must have spent thousands, if not millions on network servers and security for client data.

3. Bloomberg, the company founded by Michael Bloomberg will also lose thousands if not millions from Lehman Brothers. Traders and brokers utilize the Bloomberg terminal on a daily basis for bond prices, news, and even researching mortgage backed securities and municipal bonds. These terminals are a tremendous source of residual passive income for Bloomberg and Lehman probably had hundreds of them worldwide.

4. Staples or Officemax, two of the countries biggest office supply distributors may be impacted by the Lehman bankruptcy as well. Staples may have lost thousands of dollars in passive income from sales of pens, paper, toner cartridges, and office supplies.

5. Xerox, Fuji, or Konica Minolta. These large printing companies could also lose thousands for lost revenue from printing supplies like toner cartridges and ink for large color copy machines. Lehman Brothers probably had a copy room on every floor and would print thousands of color copies each day.

6. Office Lease. Lehman Brothers had numerous offices around the world and landlords will feel the impact of the loss in passive income. Real estate can offer a tremendous passive income opportunity for investors once the initial investment is purchased.

7. Stock research. Lehman Brothers probably spend thousands of dollars each year on stock research updated daily from Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, or even Bear Stearns. Research material would have been utilized for clients and website information. Stock research or analysis can be an incredible source of residual passive income for other brokerage firms. In fact some smaller websites have profited from stock research newsletters, showing this to be passive income to the writer.

8. Coke, Pepsi, and vending machine companies. Even the big two Coke and Pepsi, will feel the impact of the Lehman bankruptcy. A vending machine can offer passive income as the cost of running the business is very little and cans of Coke and Pepsi sell themselves.

9. Newspaper and magazine subscriptions. The Wall Street Journal, Barrons, New York Times, and others will all be impacted by the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Thousands of subscriptions were probably delivered daily to brokers, traders, and analysts and will not be suspended. If these Lehman employees move to another firm, the residual passive income for the newspapers would be reinstated again.

10. Service industry. With thousands of Lehman Brothers employees being impacted by a bankruptcy numerous service industries will feel the impact from lost income. Many service companies offer subscription based models that will certainly feel an impact on residual passive income streams. Cable companies like Time Warner, At&t, Comcast may have a reduction in subscriptions. At&t wireless, Sprint, and Verizon may not sell as many phones and might even have Lehman customers cut back on cell phone plans.

The impact from the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy will be felt not only by the thousands of employees, but by businesses around the world. Fortunately for companies like Microsoft, Cisco, AT&T, Coke, Pepsi, Staples, Xerox, and The Wall Street Journal, they will be able to offset the loss in passive income with new customers. But what about the small business owner or catering company that held exclusive contracts with Lehman Brothers?

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