Writing an ebook OTHER THAN internet marketing has found success. Particularly in weight loss and other popular markets.
The problem is the time it takes (or the cost to hire it) isn't worth it. There are products in these same categories that pay better (or way more popular and sells way more quantity) than a $27-$47 info product AND you have far less customer support (I call it, listening to customers bitching at you) to deal with. I'm not talking about selling other ebooks in this market either...... other real products.
Therefore, the foundation of WF is like a pyramid scheme. Some have found success writing ebooks for niche markets so they find it necessary to explain how they did it (which they learned from another 50 ebooks). As they sell more ebooks to the lower pyramid, they write more internet marketing ebooks about the same shit all over again and promote other internet marketing ebooks that have the same shit as their own ebook. They lose all interest in their niche marketing info products and decide to only use their 1-5 niche info product websites as a marketing ploy that "shows you how" even though by the time you get this info, their niche market info product sales went to crap. Get the drift? They only share when there is no money left in that particular niche product. So when other people attempt to join the same niche market with their own products and unsurprisingly fail, we get to watch the fallout while the scumbag heads to the bank.
This is why I have come to enjoy this forum more and more. The founder, Jon, instead of writing another damn ebook about the same shit, decided to put together a forum to help others succeed, for free! He obviously brought some very knowledgeable people along with him here because some of their posts here are worth far more than a $97 ebook.
Personally, my dream is to become friends with these people on this forum. That's why my title is "Networking Whore." It won't happen anytime soon, but a guy can dream. These friendships are far more valuable than any $2997 personal seminar.