I had a question from one of our ebook writing membership students earlier today around pricing and positioning his idea for an ebook about a popular video game.
His specific questions were:
1. Should I create a digital ebook strategy guide or print guidebook?
2. What price should use for an ebook strategy guide?
3. Should I write the ebook or package my content inside a paid membership site?
These questions are more common than you may think…you may have one or more of these questions in your own head about your market or infoproduct idea?
Here is some quick, but powerful advice to answer these important questions.
MARKET RESEARCH
Many people think about keyword research but how many actually think to do a thorough search for products similar to what they are thinking about developing?
For each of the 12 successful information products we have developed, market research has meant more about determining what products are already selling than keyword research. We want to know about the BUYING activity more than searching activity.
If people are buying then you know they are searching…we want to make damn sure that they are buying before we sink a few days of our valuable time into putting together an ebook or information product.
In this case, sure enough – searching his video game + strategy guide on Google brings up several results that include strategy guides and membership sites at various price points, positioned in their own way.
Specifically we want to look for…
- What the pricing for their information looks like
- Is this their own product or are they selling someone else’s product (affiliate product) If it is an affiliate product you likely want to study the actual product sales page and may even want to test offering that product on your own website to learn more about sales activity
- How the product is packaged (ebook, report, membership site, home study course, etc…)
- How the site is put together (how are they getting traffic, what does the sales page look like, what are the key benefits being listed, etc…)
With this information you can make a decision on positioning your own product, pricing strategies and key marketing messages as well as format and content.
START MODESTLY AND GROW AGGRESSIVELY
Having operated information publishing businesses for years we know that they are living entities – your first product can be a report or ebook which can evolve to back-end products over time.
What happens is you get a very passionate group of buyers (may be half or just 20% but they always surface) that want more information, more access to you and your knowledge – -willing to buy additional products, membership sites, or coaching programs from you.
So when you start, keep in mind that you can begin modestly (a 20-30 page report) and grow your collection of products over time to include multiple products including higher-end, back-end products. Your customers will guide you and even help you create the outline for these advanced products with their questions and feedback.
Make sure you take the time and carefully look at your top competition – it will guide you directly to a much more profitable, successful online business.
