In This Chapter

With so much free information available online, it may be surprising to you that anyone at all, let alone a decent-sized market, would be willing to pay for it. Yet information products—e-books, courses, audio programs, webinars, teleclasses, special reports—are the hottest-selling items on the Internet.

The reason is that people who are looking for answers don’t want to spend hours sifting through search engine results and websites. They crave the information they need in the format they want, and are willing to pull out their credit cards to get it quickly. This chapter will show you all the basics of creating and selling profitable information products on your website.

An information product is any product that is designed primarily to convey information to the customer. The book you’re reading right now is, in fact, an information product.

My first info-product was a short handbook on writing case studies for companies. There wasn’t much on this topic available within the freelance writing community, which I found surprising. After all, as a freelancer myself for many years, I had written hundreds of case studies—also known as product success stories—for several clients. They were fun to create and paid very well. So I suspected that other writers would be interested in a how-to guide to this potentially lucrative niche market.

The handbook ended up being about 50 pages. A designer friend of mine created a nice-looking cover for it and I published my new information product as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file so it could be sold as a download. The title: Cracking the Case Study Market.

Although there were already some good articles available online for free on the topic—some written by me!—I was banking that many writers would be willing to pay $29 for a soup-to-nuts guide on the topic. I had no idea if I would sell even a single copy.

Within a few hours of announcing the availability of my handbook in my e-newsletter, it sold over 35 copies. I was grinning like a Cheshire cat most of the day! Over the years, that product has gone on to sell more than 2,000 copies.

My experience with creating and selling my first information product is fairly typical of even the most experienced web-based info-preneur.

Of course, not all information products sell as well as my first one did. (I’ve had a few flops, too!) A lot depends on how hungry your target audience is for the information and the availability of that information from other sources. For example, if there were several other e-books and audio programs on case studies, the stiff competition would have made my book much more difficult to sell. (However, it still could have been profitable.)

Then, of course, there’s the ultimate competition: free information. You have to create a product that people are willing to pull out their credit cards and purchase. If, for some reason, they feel the information just isn’t worth paying their hard-earned cash to acquire, then your info-product is going to flop.

Information products can be published in an astonishingly wide variety of formats, from e-books to CD sets to podcasts to online video. However, when you break all these down to their basic components, there are essentially three types: document, audio, and audio-visual.

Let’s take a look at each type in more detail.

A document-type information product is any product that is primarily meant to be read.

The format that has taken the Internet by storm in recent years is the e-book. This is simply a book published in electronic format, usually as a PDF file, although other formats such as Amazon Kindle are becoming increasingly popular. Although it’s called a “book,” it’s rarely as long as its print cousin. The typical length is 25 to 90 pages. Why not longer? Hey, no one wants to print off 300 pages or read them online! E-books are popular among web-based business owners that sell information products because they are relatively easy to produce. And, of course, if they’re published in electronic format, there are no printing and shipping costs to worry about.

But e-books aren’t the only format for information products of this type. Others include:

All of these formats can be published electronically and in print form. Many web-based business owners prefer to stick exclusively to the electronic downloadable format. They cite “fewer hassles” as the main reason. And that’s true. There are fewer issues to worry about. However, a significant portion of the population still prefers to receive something tangible rather than downloading electronics. So you’ll increase sales by offering a print version, usually by at least 20 percent.

If you’re as ancient as me, you’ll remember the days when audio programs came in just one format: a set of cassette tapes. These days, however, there are a variety of ways that customers can listen to audio: on a CD, on their iPods or MP3 players, on a web page that plays the sound automatically as a streaming audio, or as an MP3 that can be downloaded and played using the many free audio players that are available on the Internet.

Audio-type information products can come in many forms. Here are the ones that sell best on the Internet:

As people become more familiar with downloading and playing computer sound files, audio programs are becoming increasingly popular among web-based business owners. You can sell the audio on your website and then “deliver” it as a download. That makes it potentially very profitable. (However, you’ll sell even more if you also offer customers the option of receiving a CD.)

Ever dream of making a movie or TV show? Or starring in one? Then creating an audio-visual type of information product may be your best opportunity!

An audio-visual product can be created in a variety of forms. The most popular sellers on the Internet are:

Audio-visual products give you the chance to put on quite a show. However, they can be expensive to produce because they involve either the creation of narration and slides, as in the case of a webinar or web-based course, or the production of a video.

Yet, despite the production time and expense involved, audio-visual types of information products are becoming increasingly popular.

The most important decision you’ll make when creating and selling info-products is the topic. After all, if the topic of your e-book or audio program doesn’t interest your website visitors, few, if any, will purchase it. So you need to spend some time thinking about the topic and content of your information product and determine, as best you can, whether your target market will be willing to pull out their wallets and buy it.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when assessing whether an info-product topic is worth pursuing:

Here’s an example of how to use these questions to select an info-product topic.

Say your website caters to the information needs of snowboarding enthusiasts. You consider publishing a directory of ski clubs that have sick snowboarding runs. (By the way, sick means great in snowboarder lingo!) Would such a directory sell? Well, if you discovered that lists of snowboarding runs can easily be found in magazines and on websites, then your product would be destined to flop. On the other hand, if you found that good information on snowboarding runs is tough for the eager snowboarder to find, then your guide could potentially sell like a John Grisham thriller.

As with any product development project, there are no guarantees of success. Ultimately, you have to make the best decision you can and, should you decide to create the information product, jump in with both feet and make it the best you can.

Okay. So you spend countless late nights developing your e-book or audio program, and even more hours promoting the heck out of it, only to discover that it doesn’t sell well.

That’s disappointing. But all is not lost. Unlike a physical product, where you might get stuck with a garage full of engraved bowling balls, there are two ways you can leverage your low-selling information product to get some, if not all, of your investment returned to you.

One way to salvage it is to create other more sellable products. Often, rethinking how you’re packaging and presenting the information can transform an unprofitable product into a winner. A friend of mine once wrote a how-to book that didn’t sell well. So she divided it into a series of smaller special reports and made them available on her website for $10 each. Within just a few months, she was generating $5,000 per month in sales!

Another option is to give it away for free. (Sounds crazy, I know, but stay with me!) You can use parts of your information product as articles for your website and e-newsletter. Videos can be placed on YouTube.com and other similar sites. Audios can be made available as a free download on iTunes.com. You’re not making any money through direct sales, but by distributing free information you are, at least, generating interest in your website … interest that could very well turn into more visitors and sales of other products.

That’s the great thing about creating information products. Rarely, if ever, do you have to throw your hard work into the trash bin. It’s the most recyclable type of product there is!

Intimidated by the thought of publishing your own e-book or audio program? I know I was. In the days before the Internet, I dabbled with the idea of creating a set of CDs that I could sell at seminars. However, when I looked into what was involved in recording and production, I recoiled. I was facing thousands of dollars in costs and untold hours and stress dealing with recording studios, duplication services, printers, packaging, and storage. Ouch! It was more than enough to turn me off the project.

These days, however, producing an e-book, audio program, or even video to sell on your website is a lot easier. There are a myriad of services available that make the entire process relatively quick and cost-effective.

Let’s take a look at the basic steps of creating the three main product types: print, audio, and audio-visual.

Perhaps the easiest information product to create yourself is a document type, such as an e-book, handbook, or special report. You could probably create something that looks pretty good on your computer using your word processing program and some decent clip art. However, if you need a more professional-looking piece, you can hire a freelance designer to do the cover design and text layout for you.

The simplest format in which to publish your e-book or other document is PDF (Portable Document Format). The cost is near zero. All you have to invest in is software or an online service for creating PDF documents—and some of these services are free. Check out the following options:

You can also buy Adobe Acrobat software and get the full range of PDF creation features.

Selling just PDF documents on your website is tantalizing. However, you may still want to create a printed version of your e-book or other document-type product. And there are many cost-effective services available that will help you do just that.

When I decided to publish a print version of one of my handbooks, I opened an account with online printer Mimeo.com. They handled everything from printing my handbook to my exact specifications to shipping the orders to my customers all over North America.

In addition to Mimeo.com, there are many other services that specialize in helping “info-preneurs” print and ship information products.

Some of these companies also provide CD and DVD creation and duplication in addition to printing services, providing you with a full-service solution to your information product creation and shipping needs.

Good news! The days of having to spend hundreds of dollars per hour to hire a sound studio and engineer are over. You can create a good-quality audio product quickly and cost-effectively using the many services available on the Internet. Check out the list below. Some of these companies are teleconference services that offer good-quality recordings, while others specialize specifically in helping web-based business owners like you create audio products.

The service I use most often to create my audio products is AudioAcrobat. I simply log in, follow the simple on-screen instructions, and record my audio using a good-quality computer microphone. The system automatically creates everything I need to post the recording on my website, sell it as an MP3 file, submit it as a podcast, or create a CD. The sound quality is not at a professional studio level, but it’s pretty darn close! I’ve never had a single customer complain.

Another of my favorite ways to create an audio product is to do a teleclass. This is a class that you teach over a phone via a teleconference line. You can have dozens of students attending, who can ask questions and participate in group discussions. The recording can then be sold as an audio class.

An audio-visual product is, of course, something that your customer can see and hear: a webinar, an online video, a DVD. By its very nature, it’s more time-consuming and costly to produce.

A webinar is, perhaps, the simplest format to produce. If there are publications or associations in your industry that produce webinars, try to get yourself invited as a guest speaker. Then ask for a copy of the recording for your own use.

You can also produce a webinar on your own using the many online services available.

If you want to go Hollywood with a video product, then things get more complicated. Although information product buyers are forgiving of audio products such as teleclass recordings, they expect videos to be more polished. I suppose that’s because we’re so used to watching professionally produced television shows. So for video products, I suggest you hire a freelance videographer; someone who can shoot and edit your video so that it looks and sounds great. You can find videographers and other creative freelancers at www.elance.com or www.guru.com.

So far in this chapter, I have focused mainly on selling e-books, audio programs, videos, and other information products that you create yourself. However, you don’t have to self-publish to sell information on your website. You can do very well with other people’s products.

Say the target market of your site is cat lovers. Instead of creating the definitive guide to homemade toys for a tabby cat, you could research the Internet for books, audio programs, and videos on that topic. You’ll likely find several. Then you can investigate how you can sell these same products on your website.

There are basically two options for doing this.

Selling affiliate products is so common that Chapter 6 is entirely dedicated to this option. Basically, you sign up for the affiliate program of the website or company offering the product you want to sell. Then you are provided with a trackable link that you use on your website and in your e-mails. When someone clicks on the link and buys the product, you get a commission.

Selling affiliate information products is a smart idea, even when you create your own. Let’s face it—you can’t develop products for all the information your target market is looking for. Affiliate products are a profitable way to fill in the gaps.

As a product affiliate, you’re given a trackable link—not the product itself. Buyers are taken away from your website or e-mail and to the product’s website to complete their purchase and receive delivery.

As a product licensee, by contrast, you receive the product itself and are free to sell it under the terms of the licensing agreement.

For example, say you’re interested in selling the e-book Dog Training in 5 Minutes Per Day. You discover that a licensing agreement is available where you pay a flat fee of $1,000 and can print and sell as many copies as you wish for a three-year period. If the guide sells for $39, and you’re reasonably comfortable that you can sell about three copies per month from your website, then this might be an excellent deal for you. You will have earned more than $4,000 in revenue before the licensing period runs out—perhaps far more than you would have earned as an affiliate.

A customer purchases your e-book. He eagerly downloads the document, which you have published conveniently as a PDF. Then, impressed by your great content, your customer decides to e-mail a copy to all his friends … friends who may have been willing to purchase the product from you if they hadn’t gotten it for free!

Try as you might, you’ll never be able to prevent dishonest people from illegally distributing or stealing your information product. However, many of your customers will not even be aware that what they are doing is at best dishonest and at worst illegal. A fellow web-based business owner I was speaking with recently discovered a video he was selling had been placed on YouTube.com! When he eventually tracked down the culprit, that person was astonished that doing this was wrong!

So it’s important to educate those who purchase your product on how they can use and share the information.

In my information products, I have the following statement clearly printed on the main inside title page:

You’ll never stop thieves from being thieves. However, this statement does explain to the reader that the publication is protected by copyright and cannot be illegally reproduced or distributed. Many people innocently think they can.

The Least You Need to Know