04 - How To Make Money by Creating Info Products

[Vita_Vee]

If you landed directly on this page, please make sure you start by reading the 1st articles of this "how to make money online" series:

01 - What You Need to Know About Business Success
02 - How To Make Money Online With Affiliate Marketing
03 - How To Make Money Online By Selling Your Own Services

PART 4 - Making Money Online by Creating Info Products

We all are familiar with the term, information products, and what it generally means. It is usually talked about in terms of product creation as opposed to affiliate marketing. Although a great deal of affiliate marketing revolves around selling info products.

Millions of people have made the noble (or not so noble) attempt to make money online with info products.

Info products are not restricted to the classic ebook that has existed for so long.

In fact, an info product is any product that conveys information. And it does not matter whether the format is PDF, video, audio, Power Point slides, or physical books. That last point is a big hint because you should not confine your thinking about info products in terms of merely creating another PDF ebook.

Sometimes I read comments here and there in which people claim that info product creation and business building is not as effective as it once was. But to that I will tell you that it will help to realize the online business environment has evolved. That dynamic nature often requires changes with our marketing and general business strategies. But one thing will always remain constant.

People will always have an insatiable appetite for information.

I realize those who have been around a while have heard that one a million times. But for those who are new to IM, it is important to let that sink home with you. It is true that all information is not the same, in terms of monetizing it, but you can still find a way to monetize just about any kind of content.

It is just that some content, or information, has more "perceived" and (hopefully) real value than other kinds.

So I hope that answers any lingering questions about whether or not you can still make money online - lots of it - selling information. Another thing...

Life is constantly moving forward, even if you feel like you personally are not. Rest assured, you and everyone else are always moving forward. My point with that statement is there will always be a constant flow and introduction of "new" information. People have a natural tendency to produce knowledge and information. New discoveries about both new things and old things. Knowledge is always being updated in one way or another.

And that spells opportunity if you have the desire to make money online selling or monetizing information.

What is possible with selling info products?

Well, Eben Pagan makes in excess of 20 million dollars a year selling info products in one niche market. Some people have retired years ago after making enough millions selling info products. Mark Joyner retired and went to New Zealand, I believe. Then he came back a few years ago and opened up a new type of info business. Terry Dean is another who made millions selling info products, then he retired from that model. But he is still active with more specialized consulting services.

There was a woman from Baltimore Maryland, Monique Harris (co author of the free ebook "Make Your Site Sell"), and she created a huge business around info products. She sold info products, did the seminar circuit, and offered business consulting. Some years ago I read she sold her online info business for around 10 million. Then she opened a custom furniture shop in the Washington DC area.

We all know about the surfer dude, Frank Kern, who makes millions from a non-IM niche related to training parrots and other birds. He was successful before becoming well-known for his IM related products.

There is no limit to what you can do with selling info products. You are the only limiting factor.

It is ok to look at the above examples for inspirational purposes. This is a very real and serious business model. Like I said in the previous thread on affiliate marketing, you must be serious and treat this like a real business. Do you think Eben Pagan is serious about his 20 million per year business? I bet he was serious when he was making very little money in the beginning.

If you are just starting out, or have been in it a while and yet to make serious money, then keep things in perspective.

You are in the early stages of your business growth. But you need to know what you want to do, where you want to go, and how you intend to get there.

* You must establish daily action plans that will make your business grow.

* Establish milestones to meet on a monthly, semi-annually, and yearly basis.

* Know exactly how you intend to reach your milestones. There can be no guessing involved with this. Make yourself and your business grow. There is no other way.

Do you know about Japanese businesses?

The Japanese have many cultural characteristics that just work so well for business. I guess it was about maybe five years ago that I read the most startling thing about some of the largest Japanese corporations. Those huge global corporations have formal business plans that extend up to 150 years in the future.

Can you imagine that?

Think about the level of planning and thought that must have been put into place to do that. Food for thought and a new twist on the suggestion to take your business seriously.

How can you get started in the "info product" business? What is required of you to sell info products online?

Those are huge questions, and there is no one single universally applicable answer that would be satisfactory. So we will have to make some distinctions and do the best we can. But I think it's possible to give you some solid ideas. Then, as usual, you will need to fill in your own blanks because only you know about you.

I recommend you start by looking at your strengths, challenges, and areas of interest.

You know, lots of people try to establish themselves online in the IM niche. But very many of these people have either not made much money or they have not made any money. They have "heard" that there's a lot of money to be made selling products designed to teach others how to make money.

You will do what you want to do regardless of what others say, generally speaking.

But I will tell you to avoid trying to show others how to do something that you either have not done, cannot do, or have done to a very limited extent. That is my personal feeling about that. For me, I would not feel terribly confident about "learning" how to make money from someone who has not done it. I think many others share the same feeling.

But to get started, you have to look for profitable markets that spend money "on information."

You have to be careful to avoid researching too long and not taking any action. But you can find these markets, identify that you will not be the lone wolf out there trying to sell them info products, and then proceed from that point.

I am talking about performing the first phase of market research. Then you can further refine your knowledge about a market with appropriate keyword research. You can see what kinds of numbers there are on a monthly volume basis. You will also get a good feel for what people are searching for in that market.

I also highly recommend you work with the market first, rather than starting with your favorite keyword research program.

There are quite a few places where you can find people shopping online. Sites that get tremendous traffic volume. You can see the markets at these sites and even the products they buy. For starters think of Amazon.com and Magazines.com.

You are looking for ideas, inspiration, markets, etc. There are so many different ways you can get product ideas. Just a few that you may already be familiar with include:

- You can improve existing products in profitable markets you already know about.

- You can transform a product idea from one media format into another (Here is a list of 33 different product formats).

- You can take two similar products, in the same market, and create a brand new hybrid with improvements.

Those are just three powerful examples that you can use. There are variations of the above, and there are many more unique approaches you can take.

Never, ever allow yourself to feel or believe that there are no product ideas or that you cannot think of anything.

So that is where you start if you have never created a product in your life. Be extremely sure the market you choose to create a product for has money to spend and actually spends it. Overlook that consideration at your risk. But here is an interesting story for you...

A true life example of product creation and business failure.

I know a guy who created several info products in the money management market. He had about less than a years worth of experience as a financial consultant, and he had some certifications. But he was not a certified financial advisor. He created several video courses teaching people how to manage their money.

All of his products failed miserably. Huge ugly failures, and he spent about four months creating the first product. He was so sure that people would buy them. His marketing machine was adequate, and he had good sales copy and a solid plan.

I do not know exactly why he failed so badly. But I do know he promoted his products using Adwords PPC - I do not say that as a negative. He did not build a list, to my knowledge he did not. But I actually warned him that he may not do as well as he was expecting.

I told him there were plenty of basically free products that could do what his products did. He offered "nothing" really new to what already existed. Plus, all the existing products are made by highly recognizable names. This guy was a total unknown.

So... yes, his market shows a demand and spends money on financial related products.

But he did not offer anything new at all. He wanted to grab a small slice of a huge pie, and he thought there were enough people who would be willing to buy his products. He made assumptions, and he ignored warnings - my warnings. But his response sounded like he was highly confident, and he did not want to hear warnings.

Plus... the quality of his product "package" was not the best looking. I was shocked when I saw his videos.

All right, there are lessons in there for you.

You can find positive confirmation on criteria that can lead you to feel confident about proceeding. But there is more to the whole picture. You must be willing to walk away from something that just looks so good, but yet there are indicators suggesting dangerous waters. Or at the very least, figure out a way to do a test rather than spending months on product creation and spending money on business infrastructure.

- Do not make assumptions about anything. That guy assumed people would want his products. No one wanted his products.

- Do not allow your ego to do your decision making.

- His products were "me too" products. They offered nothing new in any way.

- He spent months creating a product that only made a few sales, literally just a few.

- He spent a lot of money hiring people for his "team." He hired a launch manager, copywriter, and others.

Do your research and be cold as ice in your analysis. Keep your ego out of it. If you feel like you have a green light, then start small and test.

Test your product on a small scale. You do not have to create the perfect product in order to test it. If your product sells at a decent conversion rate, then you can make it better. Once you are making sales, then you can spend money to improve everything if you want.

What are your marketing and business options?

You can market and advertise your info product in many ways.

- You can build an authority site around your product.

- There is PPC advertising, and you can send visitors to a squeeze page and build a list. You should build a marketing list to increase conversions, engage in back-end marketing, and generally build a long term business.

- You can promote your info product and business using article and video marketing.

- I recommend you test your product at social sites such as Facebook. As you may know, there are several advertising options at Facebook including paid ads. But do not overlook the strategy of creating a fan page, starting a group, and essentially using the multi-step marketing method of getting people into your marketing and sales funnel.

- You can find other businesses and think about doing joint venture deals.

There are so many ways for you to promote your info products. And I recommend you do as many as you can but not all at once. I recommend a variety for the sake of marketing diversity. Just as I will recommend you continue making your own info products. You will achieve security and increased longevity when you have as many info products on the market as you can create.

Information products related to creating and marketing information products.

The first product I want to introduce you to is called, Info Product Dashboard, and was created by Marlon Sanders. This man has been involved in business and marketing since before the internet was created. He got his start with direct response advertising and running ads in print media. He has been in this market since the beginning of the net.

Marlon is a real character and business workhorse. Of course he has made millions, and he continues to work hard because that is what he does. You will not find anyone who eats, lives, and breaths this stuff more than Marlon.

Info Product Dashboard is actually a concept idea that Marlon uses with other "dashboard" products he makes. They all reside on his servers, and you login and use them. I am familiar with some of his other dashboard products and have used them.

The process you find with Info Product Dashboard is basically a six week process in which you are shown everything you need to create an info product and get it up and running. There is literally so much in this system that I cannot do it good justice in this limited space. The thing about this product is that it is all based on Marlon's knowledge and expertise. He is a person who truly has just about done it all. He holds nothing back from you, and clearly explains and shows you how to do everything from A to Z.

The next product I want to share with you was developed by good guy, Kevin Riley. Kevin is truly one of the good guys in online business just like Marlon. Kevin has a product that is geared toward creating "how to" ebooks and reports. He shows you how to create these "how to" books in his highly unique way.

I must warn you about Kevin because he is a real character with an off the wall sense of humor.

This is a home study course that gives you highly detailed step by step instructions for selecting and building a how-to book business. "How to" is a search prefix that is used more times than you can imagine. It only makes sense because that is the one thing that all of us wonder about. How do you this or that? How can I _____ ?

Kevin's course is structured for those with limited experience. But I will say that anyone who has experience in IM, but has no experience with creating info products can benefit.

My concluding thoughts about info product creation as a business model.

First, have no doubts about your ability to create a viable, long term business from developing your own info products. Consider that once you create your own product, then it becomes yours and is (hopefully) unique. Yes, your product may overlap in some areas as others in your market. So that is why it will be to your advantage to give your product something different and not found in other products.

Remember the real life example I gave you above regarding info product failure. Learn from the mistakes of others.

I have a solid and highly favorable opinion of creating your own products. The thing is you need to decide if it is for you. A lot of people view product creation as a negative. You may even be turned-off with the thought that it takes too much time to create a product. There are too many risks involved such as the product not selling well. Plus many people are content with the affiliate model which removes all this "product creation" hassle.

That's ok, and it is always your decision. However, there are very strong pluses to be found with making your own info products.

1. You will have complete control over your business.

2. You can be in a position to explode your profits by recruiting your own affiliates.

3. There are just about no limits to the number of products you can create and sell. You will not have enough time in your life to "do it all."

4. You can still stay involved with affiliate marketing with backend marketing to your mailing list.

5. You can do joint ventures with your own products.

6. Once you have done the process you will become more efficient, faster, and better.

Do not let the thought of developing your own products intimidate you in any way. It is a process that can be replicated over and over. There really is no magic involved, but you do have to be willing to work at it. But I feel it is the kind of work that will liberate you rather than enslave you.

Talk soon,
Vita Vee

PS: If you enjoyed reading this post, please link to it from your blogs, from twitter, from facebook, from other forums etc... I would appreciate it a lot.

PPS: Click here to read the 5th article of this "How to Make Money Online" series.

[senom]

Thank you for this great approach. I think that create his product must be difficult.
I think that is needed experiment in the domain of IM.
Thank you to have taken time to draft this article !
Julien

[gurucrusher]

Great post, V. I think that so many people just want to chase the affiliate model because it's "less work" - but in reality I think that creating short reports and info products is really the best way of monetizing the internet - period. I know I'm guilty of it, and plan on doing more creation and less affiliation this year.

-Coty

[Vita_Vee]

(01-01-2011 10:23 PM)senom Wrote:  Thank you for this great approach. I think that create his product must be difficult.
I think that is needed experiment in the domain of IM.
Thank you to have taken time to draft this article !
Julien

You're welcome. Being experienced is definitely a plus, especially when it comes to marketing the product and getting some deals with JV partners. But in order to get experience you 1st have to create one, then two, then three products etc...

Experience can't be learnt. It has to be acquired.

(01-01-2011 11:24 PM)gurucrusher Wrote:  Great post, V. I think that so many people just want to chase the affiliate model because it's "less work" - but in reality I think that creating short reports and info products is really the best way of monetizing the internet - period. I know I'm guilty of it, and plan on doing more creation and less affiliation this year.

-Coty

Thanks Coty. If you create some great products don't hesitate to send me all the details!

[onlinewizkid]

VV,

I wanted to send you a private message related to this and some case studies I wanted to post dealing with product creation. How can I PM you or get you that information? PM with contact details if that works. Thanks.

[Nik]

You can use the support desk link at the bottom of this page to get a hold of Vita.

[onlinewizkid]

@niktodorov

Thanks! I will do that.

[Vita_Vee]

@onlinewizkid Thanks for your message, read it just today. Will organize this right now, it's going to be awesome for all the members!

Thanks again

[zamrie]

Thanks for sharing VV.. I learn a lot from this single article.

[papalott65]

WOW! A lot of great information here,thanks for this post!

[serenin]

It’s human nature to be curious and they are always hungry for new information. Therefore, selling info product is never out of date. I do agree with your post about people who are so keen trying to sell their info products while offering nothing new. Market research is important before you plan to sell them off.