The Information Product Explosion
After the internet became a mainstream phenomenon in the late 1990s, it changed life as we know it. Communications, travel, music, government… shopping. Yes, retailers large and small have embraced the Internet as a way sell to customers across the country… and around the world.
E-commerce has grown exponentially over the last decade and shows no signs of slowing down. Consider that 40 percent of the world’s internet users, that’s more than 1 billion people, have shopped online at least once. And worldwide business-to-consumer online sales were $1.7 trillion in 2015… and that grew to $2.35 trillion at the end of 2016.
Large e-tailers like Amazon and eBay, as well as traditional retailers like Walmart, have embraced the online business model wholeheartedly. But even though they may dominate the industry, that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for small operators like you.
In fact, there’s never been a better time to get involved in selling online as a solo entrepreneur. It’s so much easier to make money with an online business than have a bricks-and-mortar store. The risk, the investment, and time spent are so much smaller.
Along with all this e-commerce activity has grown a whole new way to create and sell products. And it happens to be the easiest, most cost-effective, and oftentimes most profitable way to operate an online business. I’m talking about selling information products.
The Information Publishing and Marketing Industry
Before we dive into digital publishing specifically, let’s take a step back and look at the information marketing and information publishing industry as a whole.
Though selling information products online is relatively new the industry is not. The idea of packaging knowledge, information, and expertise into a sellable product has been around for ages. When print publishing first appeared people would write “how-to” books, when audio cassette technology became available they would record their information in the form of audios, etc.
The idea of creating informative content and packaging it into something you can sell isn’t new, but the idea of being able to do it online has opened up access to this industry to many more people and has made the opportunity much more accessible.
What Are Digital Information Products?
An information product can come in all sorts of formats, but at its heart, a product like this must pass on useful advice to the consumer. Despite the name, people don’t want simply information. They crave tips and strategies for making their life better. They want guidance. And that’s what the best information products provide, whether it’s a video, an ebook, an audio, a webinar, a membership website…
Keep in mind that in this case, although a CD or DVD or a printed book is technically an information product, we want to focus solely on those products that are delivered electronically, usually via download or some secure membership website. For example, an ebook in PDF format, a video on a password-protected site, or an audio recording downloaded from your website.
The reason for this is because this way your customers can order products anytime day or night, from anywhere in the world, and get their product instantly, without you being involved in the transaction. It’s money while you sleep. And because you are not physically printing or shipping anything; there is virtually not cost on your end.
Sure, you will have to handle customer service and keep an eye on sales. But it’s much less hassle than having to keep track and send out orders.
Why You Should Sell Digital Information Products Online
There are several more advantages with digital information products.
- They are easy and cheap to create. You can make a digital information product using nothing but your time and mental energy. That’s free when it comes to your investment money-wise. You just need ideas. Then you write your ebook, film your video, record your audio, create your webinar… whatever you plan to do. This also means that if the product doesn’t sell as well as you like, you haven’t sunk any money into the project. That reduces your risk and financial exposure because you don’t have to committ to creating physical products or purchasing and storing large amounts of inventory.
- It’s virtually free to store them. Because these products are digital, they are simply space on a server, on your computer (make sure to back it up), or on the cloud. For people with physical products, if they’re not doing online drop shipping, they have to carry large inventories. That costs money to store and manage all that product if you have a warehouse and have hired a fulfillment house or other provider to oversee it. And don’t even think about doing it at home — you’ll quickly become overwhelmed. Much better to stick with digital in which your products take up basically no space. You can store large amounts of video, audio, and digital files online at very minimal expense to store and deliver those products to your end users.
At this point, you might be worried. You’re thinking that if you have digital products being sent to customers… what’s to stop them from sending copies to their friends or selling it on their own? Nothing really. But rest assured that 99.9 percent of your customers won’t do this. And for the most part information marketers aren’t too concerned about this issue cannibalizing sales.
Another way to look at this is even if someone did get access to one of your products without paying for it, they may love your stuff and become a true fan who purchases all your other products, services, etc.
How to Find a Profitable Market for Information Products
So how do create your own information products… and make sure they’ll be bestsellers?
The first step is research. You need to follow the trends and figure out what the most profitable niche markets online are right now and what format would work best to meet that need. A great place to start is with your own interests. If you can match a profitable business with a passion, you’re all set.
So start with an interest you have. Then start checking around online to see whether you are the only one who loves… online poker, for example. Look for blogs, Facebook groups, and online forums for discussions about this niche. Look at the mainstream news — is it mentioned? Look at retailers like Amazon or eBay to see what products they have for sale in this niche.
For information products in particular, you should check out the site Clickbank.com, which used to specialize in information products although it has branched out into other areas.
You’ll find many categories in all of these places, from yoga to dog training to travel planning to weight loss and fitness… there’s sure to be something that you’re interested in.
From all these sources you’ll get a good sense of whether or not this a viable trend with sales potential. You should also research what sorts of products are offered, the topics they cover, the prices… this is also vital market data you can use to guide as you create and sell your own similar information products. You’re not plagiarizing or ripping off — you’re getting inspiration.
It may seem counterintuitive to seek out thriving markets and then try to join in. But that simply means that there is a ready market for your products. It’s not good to be a pioneer and try to create a market from scratch — that’s often a recipe for failure. Your prospect’s follow trends and latch on to fads… you should too. At least until the next trend comes along.
Once you’ve found a market that you are passionate about and is also profitable, it’s time to actually create a product for this market.
How to Create Digital Information Products
As far as creating your information products, that’s easy too. Remember that the content, whatever the format, should be useful advice. You could create how-to guides, strategies, tips, and tricks… provide something the prospect can’t get on their own.
For ebooks, magazines, and similar products, you can create them in Microsoft Word or Google Docs and then save them as a PDF. For the cover, find a freelancer on a site like Fiverr.com to create a professional looking cover for you for very little money — as little as $5. This will give your product a very professional look and feel to it.
To film videos you can use your smartphone or a simple point-and-click camera. Once you have the “raw” movie file, you can use an intuitive video editing software like iMovie (if you have a Mac) or Windows Movie Maker to create your own cleanly edited video.
A very popular option for making videos is to create a PowerPoint or Keynote slide presentation then use a screen recording software to video your slides as you go through and narrate a presentation. You can also show your web browser or other software applications as well. This is great for people who are too shy to get in front of a camera but want to leverage the power of video. Popular software options include Camtasia and Screenflow.
Audios are simple too. Just use GarageBand (if you have a Mac) or the Sound Recorder app on Windows Media Player to record your voice. You will need a microphone. You can also simply use a voice recording app on your smartphone to record audios as well.
If you’re worried that you’re not an expert you can always outsource this information. There are two ways to do this.
First, you can hire a ghostwriter to write an ebook for you, you can interview others using something like Skype or GoToWebinar to help you create a product.
Second you could buy the rights to products that already exists and rebrand them as your own. These types of products are called private label rights products and you can take the orginal files and put your name on them, and make many additional changes or updates to them as you see fit. The key is you don’t have to be an expert to create and publish information products.
How to Market Your Information Products
In many ways, no matter how far we’ve come when it comes to technology and online selling… the same principles of marketing and consumer psychology hold true. And that’s definitely the case with your online venture.
The name of the game here is direct-response marketing. Back in the day, this was done with snail mail flyers, letters, magalogs, catalogs, and other printed material. Yes, so-called “junk mail.” But they wouldn’t send it out by the millions if it didn’t work. These days this sort of content is sent out electronically. And it still works like a charm to get customers to open their wallets.
The good news is that you don’t have to spend a ton of money when you engage in direct-response marketing online. Email marketing is a virtually free method to reach sell your products. And that will be the basis of your marketing efforts.
