Sitting down and putting together a single article or page of writing can be difficult enough, no wonder writing a report, e-book, book or course can seem so far from most people’s reality.
So, what happens when you have a dream or desire to author and publish your own information products, but can’t overcome this sense that it’s too difficult or near impossible?
It’s true, I’m hit with this question almost everday from my subscribers, coaching clients Private InfoMarketer’sZone members or on forums. It got me thinking how do I turn thoughts, questions or ideas into well organized, meaningful, in-demand information products so quickly and easily?
Here are the 3 keys to success when writing information products or developing any course or workshop “how to” products:
1. Be sure you have identified a problem or set of problems that you have proven an addressable market wants. Notice I’m not talking about identifying a niche market here – it goes deeper than identifying a group of people or generic market category. What you need to do is find specific questions, opportunities, desires and signs that your market are paying to solve very detailed queries they have. How-to products such as informational e-books, coureses, most books, teleseminars, audio training and videos teach people how to solve problems and fulfill demand – they SHOULD NOT simply educate someone as the traditional non-fiction or textbooks did in school. There’s a big difference, and if you can understand the opportunity associated with solving problems, your future will be bright in infoproduct marketing.
2. I talk through my outline and content. There’s nothing worse than getting 1-hour of non-interrupted time to spend on writing your information product only to get stuck about how to start, or have to chuck out the entire hour’s worth of work because it just isn’t valuable.  Instead, talk out loud – ask a series of questions that your customer would ask on the way to solving their problem.
Imagine you are on a 2-day car journey across the country, so you sit down and chart your course using a map, perhaps using the internet to help you along the way. To get from point A to point Z, there are 25 steps you may need to take on the way to get there.
How does your brain figure out the steps? Subconsciously, you ask yourself, how do I get from my house to the first big highway? Then, where do I have to cross to another major highway? What is the exit I must take to get to the next major highway? About how far will I get before it’s mealtime? Where can I stop to eat? How far will I get before I stop to spend the night? Where can I spend the night…and so on.
You may not know you are asking these questions, but in your mind you are.
Now, take any topic where there is an overriding desire to accomplish something, simplify achievement, avoid pain or accomplish something easier – it may seem obvious to you, but there are many (typically hundreds) of questions that must be answered to get your reader from point A to Z.
Not to jump too far ahead, but here’s another twist. Not only is it your job as an infoproudct entrepreneur to get your reader from Point A to Point Z, it’s in your best interest to organize the steps in a unique or better way than others making your solution to the problem unique.
I’m sure I don’t have to explain the value of uniqueness, only that it can make the difference between a struggling and a super-charged business.
So, back to talking.
Once you have your list of questions identified and organized, writing your article, report, e-book or other infoproduct becomes an exercise in talking through the questions you have. This method is so effective that you could outline your entire product or course in a series of questions and have someone interview you (or another expert) to completely create your entire product in just a few hours.
Of course, you may want to add some additional research or content into the mix, but most of your product will be finished fast if you follow this approach.
3. Now we are going to REALLY rock. Using the approach of finding in-demand problems to solve and talking through their solutions will get your products developed – but if you really want to rock and roll, turn a six-figure income into a full-blown enterprise, then you need to sprinkle in a strategy for offering multiple products and services that will multiply your customer value (the profit generated by each customer) by factors of 4 or 5.  Imagine turning a $50K e-book business into a $200K information publishing business or a $200K information publishing business into a $1Million online marketing venture – that is truly possible by understanding how to put together a series of products and services based on incremental customer demand and value.
Where can you get help walking through these steps – over at Information Prouduct Marketer’s Zone we put together the culmination of 10+ years of knowledge, working systems, videos, expert interviews, tools, templates and ongoing coaching and support into a completely accessible site that is turning infoproduct publishing dreamers into full-time infomarketers every month. Take a look at the rich area of free content – that will get you started.
Jeff
