Becoming an Infopreneur - The Secret to Developing Information Products

If you look at the web and try to determine who is making money in
the internet marketing game you will find that the money is being
made by infopreneurs: those who sell information products. Every type
of information imaginable is being sold and tons of people are
cashing in on this craze in one form or another.

If you are new to the idea of starting your own online business, this
issue is for you. Even if you are a seasoned expert, I still think
there are some original tricks and techniques you may not have known
about or thought of before.

WHY DOES INFORMATION SELL?

People are shocked when they ask my wife and I what we do and what we
sell on the internet. I can think of the dialogue now:

Jack:
So what do you guys do in your business?

Marc & Terry:
We sell information on the internet.

Jack:
What do you mean information? Isn't that free?

Marc & Terry:
Some of it. However, a lot of it is highly specialized information
that only a select group of people are interested in. Furthermore,
many people do not even know that such information is available
online and those who do know, are unaware of how to go about
accessing it easily.

Jack:
But how can you make money doing that?

Marc & Terry:
We can because people want this information and in order to obtain
it, many will pay for it.

Jack:
I don't understand.

You know what, most people do not understand the business of selling
information. A lot of people who are already reselling various
information products for others do not even understand what it is
they are selling or how they manage to make sales.

If a market is interested in something, they will want information on
it and they will want it immediately (if not sooner). Those who can
tap into the information wants of a market and can provide them
instant (or very quick) access to that information are on their way
to a successful career as an infopreneur.

Why do so many people subscribe to our newsletter? Because of the
targeted information with which it provides them. Many want to know
about Direct Marketing and in particular Internet Marketing and we
are providing them with that information for free. Why FREE? Because
of the intense competition that exists online for marketing
information.

The point I want you to get from the last paragraph is that when
strong competition exists that is offering similar information for
free, it would be suicidal to try to charge for that information.

So what you need to do is find information that a targeted market
desires, and produce it in a format that they can obtain easily and
instantaneously, and you have a formula for your first or next
information product.

Please note that we are not saying to stop reselling other people's
products or to stop participating in affiliate programs. On the
contrary, these can create very nice income streams by themselves and
some can be simple turnkey businesses that can bring in lots of
money. I am simply describing the possibilities that exist for
creating and marketing your own info products which can also be very
lucrative.

Here is what I suggest you do to begin your process:

1. Research a market and find out what they want to buy:

Ideally, this is a market that you have an intimate knowledge of,
either through your participation (i.e. being an expert in a field or
having an intense passion for that field) or through learning as much
as you can about a field that interests you. The key here is that you
must at least have an interest or else the product will sit on the
shelf forever.

Take stock of your own interests and what you want to learn about in
general or in this field in particular and come up with at least 10
ideas that you have for an info product.

Get a few people in your area of interest and find out at least five
things that they would like to know more about.

Now, that you have your list of 15 possible topics, you should find a
way to survey your target market. Obviously, you are not going to
reach everyone. It is important, however, that you do reach a
fraction of that audience. This is what market researchers call
a "focus group".

Find a way to reach your focus group. You can participate in forums
or newsgroups. Do not just go on and announce your survey. Create
your survey, post it on a web site and then hang around these places
for a while. After you have established a reputation for yourself,
ask the participants to fill out your survey and offer them something
free in return for their help.

Your survey should concentrate on the 15 or so products that you are
considering creating. The product that receives the best response
(i.e. people indicate that they are interested in such a product and
would purchase it) is the product that you should concentrate on
creating.

You can create unlimited amounts of surveys using The Ultimate
Marketers Resource Survey Creator available only to members of The
Ultimate Marketers Resource. Find out how to join by visiting the
link in the resource box below this article.

Another great way to find out what people in your target market want
to buy is to go to Google Groups (a search engine for newsgroups) and
search for WTB, this acronym stands for "want to buy". This is people
telling you exactly what they are looking for and that they will pay
for it. How much easier than this can it get?

2. Now that you have found out what your target market wants, you
must develop it and offer it to them:

Product development is probably the most daunting task that a new
marketer can undertake. Many people hate to write and most people
believe that developing an information product requires writing,
therefore, they are quickly swayed from the idea.

Well, this is not necessarily so, especially on the internet, which
affords us a variety of ways to deliver information.

Here are three ways to create information products and here are some
of the internet tools that you could use to create your first (or
next) one.

A. Audio: Many people do not even consider this as an option but some
of the great information creators in the direct response industry,
both on and off the internet, have used audio to create fantastic
information products. This also adds to the perceived value of such
products.

Perceived value is how much people think your product is worth based
on the contents of the product. Statistics show that if a product
contains audiotapes and videotapes it can sell for a much higher
price than a manual because people perceive that it is more valuable.
Whether this is true or not is really a moot point, the fact remains
that people will pay a higher price for such products.

In the past, people have sat themselves down with a recorder and a
microphone and they have recorded their ideas onto tapes and then
sold them as the information product. This is still a fantastic way
to develop products, however, on the internet, you could utilize
tools available to you online to create downloadable audio files that
your customers could access instantly.

There is a tool known as Real Audio which I believe has not been
exploited by the infopreneurs yet. You could actually use this tool
available from Real.com and offer your audio information immediately
so that when customers buy your product, they can instantly access
it. This is key, and the future of product development and delivery
on the web will be centered around digital fulfillment of information
products.

When your customers can "hear" the information that they seek in
minutes instead of days or weeks, this will cause a serious sales
explosion for you.

B. Video: Another tool that has been used to avoid writing and assist
in creating greater perceived value is video. For many years, great
product developers have used video to demonstrate "How To"
information and to offer more visual and audio cues to their
customers.

Translated to the web, you can also use Real Video or Windows Media
Player to transfer your video content to the net.

The concept remains the same, you find a want, you create the product
and then you offer instantaneous access over the web. Your target
market will eat this up.

I suggest using Real Audio and Real Video because you can create
streaming presentations. What streaming means is the files (whether
audio or video) begin to play before they have actually been
downloaded to your customers computers. You should check with your
webhost to see if they offer the ability to host REAL products from
your web site. If they do not, I suggest that you find a host that
does.

C. Screen and Video Capture Software: The next really slick
alternative you can use to create information products is a piece of
software called Camtasia.

This software lets you "record" the actions you take on your
computer. You can also add voiceovers so when people view your
presentation, they can hear you speak as if you were right there. The
possible uses for this software are numerous. Here are a couple of
ideas off the top of my head:

I. Do you know how to configure software such as MS Access so that
people can use it to create fully functional databases that do
exactly what they want? You can record a presentation using Camtasia
and walk people through the process and also include your voiceover
telling them exactly what they are watching.

II. Show people how to set up CGI scripts for a web server.

III. Show people how to create HTML documents.

IV. Demonstrate tricks, tips and hints of internet marketing through
this software.

I think the uses are only limited by your imagination.

The next piece of software that can help you create info products is
Adobe Acrobat. This software is fast becoming the information
developers tool of choice. And this is why:

1. Acrobat is famous for it's cross platform abilities. What this
means is that anyone using any type of computer (UNIX, Windows or
Macintosh) can read your .pdf files without needing any special
software other than the FREE acrobat reader available from Adobe.com.

2. The newest version of Acrobat allows you to do many cool things:

Drag and Drop your files onto the program. Have you written something
in MS Word or a text editor? You do not have to rewrite it, simply
drop the file onto Acrobats software and boom, instant .pdf file.
Password protect your documents.
Include video.

There are so many features, this program is extremely versatile.

One more thing, Adobe's Reader is free, however, the software that
you can use to create Acrobat files is not. Look for the bargains on
software that are available on the internet.

The world of information product creation is growing more every day.
You would be shocked and surprised to know what people will pay for.
They will pay to learn and to better themselves. They will pay to
save themselves time and headaches. They will pay for your knowledge
and expertise. I suggest you think long and hard about what you know
best and put it to use in the form of an information product that
people want and will pay for and then create some more and some more
after that. You will love the results.