MORE INFORMATION THAN EVER
The Internet has long been known as a source for information of all types. We turn to the Internet for research of all types. After all, there is more information online than ever and that information is free. All you have to do is find it. The problem is that the information you want to find may be lost inside all of the web pages you are not interested in. Search the web for for anything and you will find one page of useful information for every hundred pages of worthless information. Sure, the pages you find might be about what you are search for, just not exactly the type of information you wanted. Not to mention that the information might not be reliable.
IF IT IS ONLINE, IT MUST BE TRUE - NOT!
The growing trend online is to create bogus information in order to influence your purchasing decisions. A web page that looks like honest customer reviews of products may actually have been produced by the company that the reviews tend to favor. Try searching the web for two or three brand name products and you could end up reading a great article on why one service is better than another, but the links in the reviews are all affiliate links and the author gets paid when you click on them. The author is not trying to give honest information, the author is trying to sell you the service he makes money on. The real truth is harder to find than ever. And the more people rely on online information, the more of a problem this is going to become.
THE IMPACT IS TO OUR ADVANTAGE
People who search online are getting more frustrated than ever. People are willing to spend money online more than ever. Solving problems for frustrated people is a great business strategy. If you can answer their burning questions, they will pay for it. Sometimes they will pay a fortune, depending on what information you have to sell. Information products on dating, travel, investing, real estate, or whatever topic are growing in popularity. There are countless success stories. This market is growing. The key is to simply sell what you know to people who want to know it. The more valuable the knowledge, the more you can sell it for.
WHAT’S IT ALL WORTH
Information products can range in price from free to thousands of dollars. Free products typically are designed to sell other products or to build credibility, which helps to sell other products and services. Expensive products are usually products that generate income. After all, if I can share just one tiny little secret that helps you earn an extra $1000 on that next real estate transaction, that should be worth $1000 or $2000 just for that one tip. Teaching someone how to bake a cake would not be worth that much. Teaching someone how to startup a bakery would be worth a thousands if the information is good enough to really help the reader be more successful.
WHAT IS AN INFORMATION PRODUCT ANYWAY
Information products are really just anything with information in it. Your product could be an eBook, or a printed book. It could be a newsletter, either printed or electronic. It may include DVD’s or access to an online video library. Some products come with free coaching calls. Again it is up to you. An expensive product should probably be a physical product and will probably include DVD’s, audio CD’s, one or more binders filled with printed materials, coaching calls, and a few free bonus products as well.
If I were selling a product that teaches you how to be successful with an Internet business, then I would include sample web pages, walk through guides, walk through videos, coaching calls, and printed materials covering all of the related topics to help you be successful. What would it be worth to a business startup if I gave them three courses, several DVD’s, training video walkthroughs, three one hour coaching calls, and a written guarantee of success? What if I threw in bonus materials that helped you launch your new online business and drive traffic to it? What if I gave you free advertising packages as well? The whole package would be quite valuable.
WHAT INFORMATION DO YOU POSESS?
Everyone knows something that other people would like to know. Pretty much anything you are good at is valuable to someone who is not good at it. Are you a good kisser? Build a kissing product. Are you good at flipping houses? There is always room for more real estate products. Maybe you are the local expert on something else. It doesn’t matter.
An alternative is to learn a new subject by interviewing other experts and researching books, web sites, and other materials. You may be able to learn enough about a topic to be able to create a useful product from it. Just pick a topic you care deeply about and get to work. Do you love Paris? Great! Read everything and talk to everyone and learn how to plan a tremendous Paris vacation. Forget the typically travel guides. Create a niche product such as, “Paris for Romantics”, or “Paris for Cheapskates”. Travel to Paris, take videos and photos and create a multimedia product. You can write the whole trip off and create a product that could put thousands of dollars in your pocket.
The key is to get as much information in video as possible. From video, you can create transcripts, work books, and other materials to build out the product. You can use freeconferencecall.com to create and record audio interviews. You can record voice over PowerPoint to create training segments. There are transcription services and writers overseas that can take your audio and video content and reconstruct it into a book. Sure, it is still work. But it is easier and less expensive to create than you might think.
SELLING THE INFORMATION PRODUCT
This is a big topic. There are several ways to go here. The easiest way to start is to sell the product on eBay.com. You can also use an affiliate network to help sell your products, such as ClickBank.com. Build a decent marketing web site and you can promote it using pay-per-click advertising. There are dozens of popular strategies and I can’t get into all of them right here. But rest assured, if you have a quality product, there are plenty of ways to market it.
