Heading into 2011, we get asked how to start an online business that will really work and be worthy of the valuable, limited time we all seem to have in our busy lives these days.
My answer is pretty simple, all of the 6, 7 and 8 figure profit earners who build an online business sell information products online.
In some cases that is their main internet business product, in other cases marketing information is but a portion of their online business profits with the remainder being made up of affiliate marketing (marketing other people’s products), providing services such as consulting, advice or design or creating additional profit centers using content and advertising monetization techniques.
Info Product creation and marketing continues to be a massive opportunity for almost anyone who really wants to kick-start their online business results — not only can each info product bring you $40 or more in profit (doing the math quickly tells you that a $2K/month business can be had by simply selling 10-12 ebooks or info products each week – a very achievable goal for anyone who uses the techniques shared on InfoMarketer’sZone as part of the 6-Week Info Product Profit Formula), but the leverage having your own info product gives you in terms of licensing and attracting affiliates is the key to building a 7-figure internet business.
So what are the keys to creating information products?
How To Write An Information Product
By information products we are referring to the multi-Billion dollar industry of reports, ebooks, books, seminars, home study courses, webinars and membership sites that share advice, knowledge and experience to different markets from beginner material through advanced strategies and techniques.
Some of the most profitable websites on the internet are run by individuals who share their knowledge in simple 15-page reports, 60-page ebooks or 6-figure membership sites where they provide a few hours of content each week on topics that range from…
- Amateur sports such as golf, baseball, soccer and hockey
- A wide range of different health & wellness topics from losing weight to overcoming fears or phobias
- Personal development topics including stress management, goal setting and alternative therapies
- Business and career advice – there are thousands of topics filled with hungry online searchers looking for advice and hope
- Hobbies & entertainment – skateboarding membership sites through jewelry making and scrapbooking, cooking and collecting…the opportunities are near endless
- Finance, real-estate and estate planning are huge markets with tens of thousands of topics and niche markets where info product creators do extremely well
- Relationships such as dating, saving and improving existing relationships is a huge market for info products
- Parenting & life planning – another treasure trove of Million dollar info product opportunities
- This is only the tip of the iceburg – there are new topics and markets emerging daily, we share these regularly to members of InfoMarketer’sZone
Many people step back and never start or finish their info product creation because of 3 primary obstacles:
- Fear that they do not have the time or experience required to succeed with their own information products
- Lack of knowing where to start or get started in the wrong direction
- Have had a bad experience creating an infoproduct that does not sell…this typically comes down to a badly chosen market, topic or angle and rarely has to do with the content itself
The good news is that the formula for creating information products has been virtually the same for hundreds of years — that information products foll0wing the formula are always successful while infoproducts that do NOT foll0w the formula are 99% iof the time NOT successful…
The steps involved are:
- Choosing a market and topic that are proven sellers (not just in demand from a search point of view, but have proven buying activity clearly demonstrated) – needs to be the basis upon which you lay the foundation for your info product creation
- Match existing sources of information with a hot topic and you improve your chances of succeeding substantially. Those sources may be your own knowledge and experience, content available in the public domain or available through low-cost licenses, simple research content, outsourced content or through 3rd party via interview. We have created products in as little as 2-days that were the result of 3-4 hours of interviews – one product sold for more than $400.
- Develop a unique angle on how you present your information. We give some of the most valuable ways to do this within InfoMarketer’sZone, you can leverage different formats, organization of your information or bundle case studies to really set your content apart from competition even in the most competitive infoproduct markets
- Collect advanced testimonials, proof, reviews, case studies and feedback that fuel a massive market launch that can literally put a year’s worth of job salary in your pocket within 7 to 14-days in your info product launch
- Know the proper way to structure your web pages. I am constantly amazed that not 1 single person we have helped with their internet business has understood the simple, yet very powerful way to structure just a few webpages for optimal profits (basically this means translating a resistance-free sales funnel into a well designed website that converts visitors into customers like crazy)
- Using some basic content creation and SEO principles to begin the flow of traffic to your sales funnel websites
- Testing, tweak and improve your money-making website so that your info product marketing business becomes a highly automated profit generator as you move on to creating more
- Pull in feedback from your first info product into developing and growing your opportunities for additional products and services – if you do it right, your customers and subscribers take care of telling you what products they are willing to buy next…plug that into your info product creation system and viola — you have the makings of an information publishing empire
Yes, there are pitfalls and mistakes you can make along the way and yes, there are some clear starting points as you quickly move from one step to another in writing an information product and launching it as part of your own online info publishing business…but make no mistake, if you have the desire, have an open mind to learn the proven systems and how/why they work AND take action – you will succeed in 2011.
