How to Make Money from Information Products

by Stacey Morris

Published on this site: July 23th, 2005 - See more articles from this month

What is an information product?

The simplest definition is an info-product is any product that teaches something, or provides information.

That could include a book, audiotape, class, seminar, computer program, or report. Before the internet, information products were expensive to develop and extraordinarily difficult to distribute. Publishers, agents, engineers, classrooms, advertising all had to be taken into consideration.

The internet streamlines the process of distribution. Books and courses can now be downloaded immediately, without the costs of middlemen, production, and mailing. The upside is greater access to information to everybody. But because virtually anyone can create a product, the quality of all this information is less controlled. Caveat emptor. Thankfully, our discussion today is not about ethics or quality.

The goal here is to get you thinking about what you could create.

Online types of information you could develop and sell include:

• Electronic books or e-books
  
  
• An e-course-which consists of a series of email lessons people receive over a period of time
  
  
• Teleclasses or teleseminars-which are group seminars held over a telephone bridge line.
  
  
• Audio CDs, data CDs, or multi-CD programs of seminars or interviews you've given
  
  
• Special reports available for download from your website
  
  
• Combinations of the above

Why would a service professional want to create an information product?

First, to increase their credibility. A personal injury attorney fights an uphill battle to appear ethical. A complimentary report to all inquiries on how to identify if a case has merit would begin to establish the attorney as credible and competent. It might also shorten the lead and intake time, while providing a valuable service to the client.

I took a class years ago in basic auto mechanics, just to avoid getting scammed. The man who taught it had his own shop in auto maintenance. Who do you remains my mechanic 18 years later? By giving away "trade secrets," Mike proved his trustworthiness to me.

And of course we know a published book immediately establishes its writer as an expert. The online equivalent, or e-book, is generally self-published, but still goes a long way toward enhancing expert status.

Second, an info-product can help you create multiple income streams. Because most of these can be downloaded any time of the day or night, without any input from you, you could literally make money while you sleep. It takes time to advertise and promote your products, so you may not want to quit your day job just yet. But the idea is that once you've got the product out there, 90% of your work is done. There are 3 questions you want to ask if you're thinking about creating something?

One, who is your target market?

For example, although women in transition includes about 50% of the planet, women who like to develop gardens on their fire escape is a bit more targeted and therefore far easier to market. Make sure your information is relevant and interesting to your market. In 1995, this article would not have been perceived as worthwhile to most people. But had someone implemented the information, they would have become very wealthy.

Two, what does this audience want and need? If they don't want it, it doesn't matter how much they need it-there's no sale. You should not only know a lot about what your audience wants, but you should love it. It's truly no fun to write about something you're dispassionate about. I did it for years, and I'll never choose or need to do it again.

Three, what are the specific benefits you want to provide your reader? I'm going to be so bold as to suggest there are only ten benefits anyone actually wants, if that, so you don't need to rack your brains here.

What are the benefits?

Jim Daniels listed them in his great e-book entitled "E-book Secrets":

• Make money
  
  
• Save money
  
  
• Save time
  
  
• Avoid effort
  
  
• Increase comfort
  
  
• Increase cleanliness
  
  
• Increase health
  
  
• Escape pain
  
  
• Increase praise
  
  
• Increase popularity

Once you've figured out your target market, the benefits you want them to receive, and the appropriate delivery format, you need to think about presenting your information in an original way.

How can you present what you know in a way that is unique?

You're not expected to create ground breaking information, but try to present what you know in a different way from others. Sometimes we need to read the same information a dozen times before we get it. What causes something to resonate with someone could be a variety of things: the voice, the style, the format in which it's presented. Experiment with what works for you.



Stacey Morris, Self-Employed Professionals: For more information on building your business using the internet, see www.ServiceBusinessCoaching.com