How Infoproducts Help Your Customers - A Different Information Marketing Perspective

By not having an information product to sell, are you letting down your followers?

A few weeks ago, I read an article about money management in a business journal that made more sense to me than anything else I'd run across on the topic. I visited the author's web site and liked the additional articles I read there. Next I clicked on the author's "Products" link, but at that point frustration set in.

Aside from two little ebooks, whose topics didn't fit my interests, there was nothing I could buy to get a deeper understanding of this expert's perspective. Nothing that connected the dots of his tantalizing comments. Nothing that helped me go from a feeble grasp of certain important issues in my life to a firmer, more confident way of sorting out my thoughts.

I wanted to learn and was prepared to buy, but I found a void instead of product choices. Most of the time we hear about information products as beneficial to a business owner, but in this instance, I probably feel the loss from their non-existence more keenly than the expert does.

So let's take a look at the advantages that information products have for customers.

1) As in the example above, they enable interested people to benefit relatively systematically from what's in your head. Without the money coach's course, I am not sure what questions to ask, which priorities to put first and whose guidelines to trust. After buying and studying his course, I'd be better oriented in his sphere of knowledge.

2) With downloadable products, people can learn what you know immediately, without having to set up an appointment and wait for it. If they're worried about a problem in the middle of the night, they can buy a downloadable product with answers that allow them to calm down and sleep.

3) People can learn from you in private, which may be especially important for introverts or for anyone where a sensitive topic is involved. Years ago a local TV anchor attended an adult education class I taught in Boston. She sat in the back row, slouched with a hat partly over her face, and when we went around the room at the start of the class, introduced herself with just her first name and that she worked "in the media business." I'm sure she would have preferred buying the home-study version of my course, had it been available then, to avoid this exposure to the curiosity of others.

4) Information products eliminate the impact of time zones and distance. From the U.S. East Coast to Western Australia, for example, it can be difficult for expert and learner to find a time to consult on the phone or participate in a teleclass.

5) People can follow the steps you lay out in the learning mode that works best for them. Those who learn best by watching buy videos; those who learn best by listening prefer audios; those who learn best by reading purchase PDFs.

6) Infoproducts offer a lower-cost, lower-risk way to learn from you than by signing up for one-on-one coaching or consulting. The money coach who frustrated me offered coaching for $895 an hour. Perhaps I'd end up working with him on that basis, but logically, learning from his products made sense first.

Don't make prospective customers find someone else with information products when they'd rather buy your perspectives and guidance. Instead, learn how to create a systematic plan for products and services at a range of price points, thus helping both your customers and yourself.

Working With Top iPhone Developers for Best Solutions   How Gamification Can Turn Businesses Into Winners   Easy Ways to Find Content For Your Audio Products   5 Simple Steps To Creating A Digital Information Product Using A Resource Report   

How Can I Create an Information Product That Isn't Boring?

Do you have an idea for an information product, but are a bit concerned that it might seem boring to customers? Fact is, most individuals who purchase ebooks or other informational products don't even consume them! There are probably several reasons for this, including busyness, procrastination, even laziness. However, I believe one reason is that the information is not packaged in an interesting way. Every info product needs at lots of variety. In this article I'll provide you with a few tips to teach you how to mix things up a bit and make your next product pop.

Tip 1 - Use a Mindmap to Introduce Your Product Mindmaps are creative diagrams used for presenting words, tasks or ideas. I love to use them at the beginning to provide an overview of what I'll be teaching. They are also great to use during a pre-launch email campaign as teasers to give your prospects a taste of what they'll learn if they purchase. One way to do this is to send your prospects an email with a link to a video demonstration of you walking through the mindmap. Of course, you'll need video screen capture software to do this. In addition to the video, give them a PDF of the mindmap.

Tip 2 - Use Video for Your Primary Instruction Anyone who has heard me teach on product creation knows how much I believe in video. It's such a powerful method to not only teach content, but to also demonstrate how to implement your training. People love seeing demonstrations. Video also has a high perceived value. The type of video you use will depend on the content. For example, if your product is on setting up a blog, then you'll need to use screen capture software to create a video of you setting up a blog. On the other hand, if your product is on a less hands-on topic then you can create a Power Point presentation video. In some instances, you can record yourself conducting whiteboard training. Regardless of what type video you choose, do your best to make it as professional as possible.

Tip 2 - Convert Your Mindmap to Audio This is an extra component of your product that can be created in about 15 seconds. Using free audio software, such as audacity, upload your mindmap video, export it to mp3 and you're done. I love buying info products that include mp3s because I can listen while I'm doing other things like house cleaning (yuck!) or running. Including an mp3 may also inspire customers to consume the rest of the product and take action.

These are just three tips out of many. Hopefully, this motivate you to think of other creative ideas for packaging your info products. Variety is the key!

Working With Top iPhone Developers for Best Solutions   How Gamification Can Turn Businesses Into Winners   Easy Ways to Find Content For Your Audio Products   5 Simple Steps To Creating A Digital Information Product Using A Resource Report   

The Hunger First Then The How to Create An Information Product

I've been in business for myself since the early 90's. Back then I was hungry and needed to find a way to feed my growing family. I started a cleaning business and developed fliers that I distributed to neighborhoods that looked like they could afford my services. It was a good strategy since within a 30 day period we were living off the income from that business alone.

The reason that I was so successful in such a short time is because I was hungry. I don't mean my belly ached but I needed to provide for my family. That hunger allowed me to focus and do what was necessary to succeed. That hunger is what you need to create an information product for your business. If you don't have it you need to develop it before you attempt to create your product.

How to develop that hunger. Short of quitting your job and spending all of your money on lottery tickets you can develop a hunger and deep desire to have a profitable business by doing what I have done.

Before I started my online business I operated two brick and mortars and was doing ok. We lived in a nice house with land and a lake we didn't have car payments and we always had money in the bank. I say this not to brag but to let you know I didn't have the same hunger as before to start a new business. In fact I was starting to get bitter about the negative side of my business and there is a negative side to every business.

Every day I would go to work and do my job and deal with employee problems and deal with customer problems and nothing ever seemed to change. I was there to provide a service and I did that very well but to what end? The bills got paid, the employees got paid but it just wasn't enough. Like I said we made a pretty good income but I just wasn't moving forward. I needed something more.

I began to realize that I had hunger. My hunger or desire had turned into something that wasn't necessarily satisfied with more money. I had developed a desire for a more fulfilling lifestyle or career whatever you want to call it.

This new-found hunger had me searching for something that would fill it. And that's where I found the online world. I started with an eBook about what I did for a living and grew it from there.

From then I started looking around and found out what other people were searching for. Everybody's looking for something we are all at different stages of development. And I found my niche, my place that I could be happy, at least for a while. I found teaching. Teaching really excites me because I love to learn and the more I teach the more I learn.

These are the 5 steps I use to create an information product.

1. Find a problem that needs solving. This is something that many people desperately need solving Like: How to find true love, How to get promoted. Choose one of the main topics people are searching for.

2. Research how to solve the problem. Thank God for the Internet, there are so many resources, some free, some pay that can answer almost any question.

3. Write an outline. The best way to write an information product that I've found is to start with an outline. An outline can start with a summary that states what you plan to tell the reader.

4. Write the Body. The different chapters that first describe the problem and how others have had to live with it and what they have done to cope. Then chapters that deal with the solution. You should include as much pertinent information as you believe is necessary to solve the readers problem without too much trash. An information product is about one thing and that is solving the readers problems. You must find your own imaginative style but don't fill the pages with anecdotes about yourself that they could care less about. But if your experiences with this same problem or the solution to this problem are helpful then by all means put it in there.

5. Write the Conclusion. The conclusion should reinforce the solutions to the problem and possibly prove other effective strategies that may not have been covered in the body, either for lack of space or because you didn't want to detract from the main solution.

Creating an information product isn't all that difficult. The difficulty lies in differentiating it from the millions of other products out there and the way to do that is through online marketing.

Working With Top iPhone Developers for Best Solutions   How Gamification Can Turn Businesses Into Winners   Easy Ways to Find Content For Your Audio Products   5 Simple Steps To Creating A Digital Information Product Using A Resource Report   

The Primary Characteristic of the Best Information Products

Here's a remarkable statement: There is a dearth of quality information products on how to create information products. I did a search a moment ago on the exact phrase, "how to create a quality information product," and there wasn't a single result. That tells me that few people know how to do it. In this article, I'm going to share with you how to get started.

I've read a lot of material and listened to a number gurus talk about how to create information products and, with the rarest of exceptions, nearly all of them have talked around the subject, but not about it. And I can only imagine that this is because they themselves don't know how to do it.

Of the few that do seem to know what they're doing, there is characteristic that is the best information products all have, and that is that they are evergreen.

What does it mean to have an evergreen product? Well, think about trees. What is the one thing that makes an evergreen what it is? Obviously, it's that it's always, barring a drought, green.

And the same thing is true of evergreen products. They always are and remain relevant. And for some reason, the majority of people struggle to create products that are.

You'll see all manner of products that are designed to solve an immediate problem - one that may only be with us for a few months.

For example, search engine optimization. I've lost track of the number of products that are designed to do this. But the truth is that Google, the number one search engine, changes the way it determines which sites ought to be at the top of the returns on a regular basis. By the time you've implemented one "trick" technique, the ground rules have changed, and the product is out of date.

The problem seems to be that those who want to create products have become fixated on what's already been done. Instead of thinking of something new or a new way of doing something that's evergreen, they adopt a "get rich quick" approach and look for a way to make something that will sell.

If you want to create products that will continue to sell over weeks, months, or even years, then you must take the time that's necessary to think about how this could be achieved.

What would your evergreen product look like?

Working With Top iPhone Developers for Best Solutions   How Gamification Can Turn Businesses Into Winners   Easy Ways to Find Content For Your Audio Products   5 Simple Steps To Creating A Digital Information Product Using A Resource Report