Running Dynamic Drop Down Menus with WordPress
by
Brett Bumeter
Over the last couple months I have learned (in a very painstaking way) how to create Dynamic CSS Drop Down Menus with WordPress(example). It was not an easy process and I suddenly find myself in a situation that I have not previously encountered as a blogger.
I don’t want to share the knowledge. 
Typically, when I have learned how to do something, I almost always share everything. I write it up, create a video, build a tutorial or all of the above. But this wasn’t something easy or simple that would fit in a 5 or 10 step blog article process like formatting a flash drive or something.
This time however, the process was so involved and the time and effort spent so great that I do not want to just give away the knowledge for free. It kind of runs counter to my philosophy of blogging and so I have been sitting on the information for a couple weeks wondering if maybe this will just be a passing thing with me, or if maybe I am now preparing to venture into the world of ’selling know how’ directly.
I’ve never put together a white paper for sale before. Always seemed pretentious at best and a scam at worst. But this time around, I suspect that the value of the information might be worthy of a direct sale of the information and maybe this is the situation to cut my teeth on once and for all.
I’m going to investigate other bloggers efforts or evolutions in this direction and try and query people to see what made them make the leap from writing a blog article to writing (and selling) a white paper.
Brett, when I write tips about how to select a good cantaloupe on my food blog, I’m not exactly breaking new ground. But this is a project you’ve worked hard on for quite awhile now. I really think that if you want to sell your discoveries and experiences with it, you should. It’s not a small effort you put into it and I figure there are others who would be willing to pay for the information you now have so they don’t have to go through the same rigors you did!
Hey Ann,
Thanks for the encouragement. We keep a garden hear at the house and from my limited gardening experience, there seems to be a lot of ground breaking going on all the time.
Seriously, I think you helped to remind me of one of my own philosophies. All knowledge has some value.
I’ve always tried to find ways to bring knowledge to my blogs for my readers in a way that is free for them to consume (usually supported with a couple forms of advertising).
The advertisers foot the bill for the knowledge that my readers receive for free.
In this case, I think the main difference is twofold
1. The knowledge is more complex and therefore worth a bit more than my normal wisdom and experience.
2. The delivery of the knowledge is going to be more intense than just writing a 500 word article and maybe including a couple minutes of video.
So in that regards, my current vehicles for knowledge delivery and the business models and revenues associated with them don’t really match up.
Thanks Again! Hope I can return the favor some time . . .