When it comes to creating income streams, information products have many advantages over advertising or affiliate sales.
They allow you to control the aesthetic of the products you sell ,and to provide the value that your visitors actually want. They also let you build up a business that’s not dependent on Google or the fluctuations of other companies.
But how do you know what sorts of products to create? Which are the most lucrative? How do you know what will sell?
Your readers are obviously your most valuable source of information. When readers ask questions either through email or comments on your blog, keep track of them. These reader questions are the building blocks to your first and subsequent information products. When you notice a pattern, you will have hit on a good topic for a paid information product.
A next step is to survey your readers. The key to creating information products is to provide solutions. What are you potential customer’s problems? They may be asking you about some of them, but a survey can help you to dig a little deeper and ferret out problems they have not yet told you about. It can help you find out their big questions, and from there you can determine how you can help them with the knowledge you possess.
Think about the convergence between what you’re really excited and passionate about, and what your readers get excited about. If you can answer a pressing need that you’re also passionate and knowledgeable about, you’re on the right track.
Focus on the key benefit that is going to be delivered to people that purchase your product. How is it going to change the world for them? How is it going to create some radical difference in their lives?
It’s key to establish a clear, direct relationship between your customer’s problems and the solutions you can offer. Once you know this, practice making a clear statement of your offer that specifically says exactly what your customers will receive for what price.
When brainstorming a title for your first product, keep this idea of a clear, direct benefit in mind. Ideally the title will convey how this product will give your customer specific solutions they are looking for.
Creating a digital product can be thought of as a 3-step process.
1) The offer. It’s important to spend some time crafting this so you know what you are offering your customers right from the beginning. The language of your offer needs to be crystal clear: In exchange for X amount of money, the customer will receive these specific items – a 75-page ebook, a 10-lesson course, whatever specific digital items you put together. Be sure to mention any other deliverables you are providing in your offer.
2) The research and creation. Your research will depend on the nature of the product you are offering. You’ll need to gather data, whether it is through interviews, compiling your own resources or another method. After gathering the data, you will put your energy into the actual creation of your product. This might be writing content, making videos, creating podcasts of audio interviews, or a combination of all of these and more.
3) The outsourcing. There will likely be aspects of your product that you will be outside your expertise or capabilities. For example, many bloggers hire a designer to pull the package together. Or you may need to hire assistance in the technical arena, such as with creating transcripts or video. Figure out which aspects you need help with to get the product done, and hire that help. You can find reasonably priced professional services at Elance or Odesk.
An ebook is a fine first product, but keep in mind that the word ‘ebook’ has a relatively low perceived value in your customers’ minds. People have a preconceived notion of what an ebook should cost, and it’s usually less than $20.
The secret is to add value. Think about creating a project, an experience. Then think about what the experience or project needs to have. An ebook can be one component, but what else can make this into a complete experience for your customers?
If you want to sell in a mid-range price point – for example, in $39 to $97 range – you need to do more than just an ebook. You need to create an ‘information product’ with additional components such as a workbook, interviews, perhaps audio or video, and bonuses. All of these add value because people have different learning styles.
Consider making an audio mp3 file to accompany your ebook so your customers can listen to the content instead of reading it. On the other side of the coin, if you have a podcast you can add tremendous value by creating a transcript to accompany it for people who prefer to learn by reading. VerbalInk.com is an affordable service for this. For about $1.00 a minute they provide a complete transcription.
When you create a multi-format product, your customers have no preconceived idea of what the price should be. You’re the one who tells them, whereas if your product is just one specific thing, they will come with an expectation. Think about if you made a CD. Everybody expects a CD to either be $10 on iTunes or $15 in the stores. It would be difficult to charge more than that.
With multi-format digital products you’re the one who gets to educate the customer on what the price is.
Digital product creation is really a two-sided effort. One side is the actual creating of the product and the other side is the marketing of the product. They require equal amounts of time and effort.
Some people balk at the word ‘marketing’, thinking it has a sleazy, sales-y feel to it. Think of marketing as just another way of connecting with people. It’s building relationships, providing education.
The launch process is integral to the information publishing model. It’s a big project, and we’ll get into more specifics elsewhere in the course. For now, be prepared to expend a similar amount of effort on your launch as you do on creating your product. You will need to prepare your audience, let them know what’s coming, anticipate and address objections to your product and more. It’s all about education really.
Ideally you will have a minimum of 500 subscribers before you embark on your first big launch. If you have not reached that level yet, your energy might be better spent on building a larger audience through guest posting and the other techniques described in the course “Skyrocket Your Subscriber Count”.
If you don’t yet have that size of audience, but you’re keen to get going with launching a product, one suggestion is to partner with someone who does have a larger audience. If you do launch your product to a smaller audience, don’t get discouraged if sales don’t meet your hopes just yet. An advantage to including products on your blog right from the beginning is that people will be educated and preconditioned to the idea that this is a place where they can buy products.
The sales page or ‘landing page’ is a crucial component to product sales. The three most important components of the landing page are benefits, stories and social proof.
Just like when you’re creating the product, you want to focus on the benefits when you design and create content for this page. Whether your reader is a subscriber or somebody who surfed in from somewhere on the Net, you want to make sure that the benefit of your product is really clear.
The story behind you and your product is also important. People like to hear epic sagas, they like journeys, they like to know the background, they like the history. This applies to both launches and landing pages. Tell a compelling story and you will keep potential customers on that page.
Social proof reassures your customers that others believe in your product. People don’t just want your perspective on how great this product is, they want to know if it’s going to work for them. They’re asking, how does this apply to me? Is it going to make a difference in my life? They want to see how others just like them have benefited from this product. A tried and true way to provide social proof is through testimonials.
The longevity of the sales potential of your product is known as the ‘long tail’. Some products burst on the scene with a big splash, garner lots of sales, then fade away. This is okay, but wouldn’t you rather create a product that will bring you steady sales for months, or even years?
If you have an audience that is loyal and will stay with you, the potential for long tail is good and can even be exponential. In some cases you can earn more in subsequent months and years then you will during the launch. The key, of course, is to create products that are ‘evergreen’.
Try to think in the long term when you are brainstorming product ideas. Think about what’s going to be a need not only right now but a year from now, five years from now.
It’s best to create products that don’t need a lot of updating because that makes for a lot more work. The types of products that will return the most bang for your buck are the ones that will still be relevant a few years from now – without needing a major overhaul to stay with the times.
One way to keep customers and your audience engaged with your product is to send a follow up series of emails to people who purchase. These are not sales pitches for other products; rather, they give regular reinforcement on how to use the product they have already purchased. For example, ‘Here’s what you’ll find in Chapter 3 and here’s how you can apply it.’
This practice reduces refund requests, and encourages people to actually use the product – which is, of course, a major goal of creating the product in the first place!
The above information is distilled from an interview with Chris Guillebeau. Click here to download the podcast. Or listen to it below.
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Author: A-List Team