High profits... the goal of every business owner. Possibly the most lucrative products to sell today are information products. There is an insatiable demand for information, especially in smaller, niche categories.
Everyone has information that is of value to others. It’s a matter of putting it together into a marketable product.At a recent entrepreneurial meeting I mentioned this idea and was met with overwhelming opposition. All of the objections centered around two perceptions: that there is very little profit in information products and that certain skills are needed to create these products.
Wrong on both accounts.No matter what is your business model (i.e., high price/low sales volume or low price/ high sales volume) people are willing to pay for the convenience of knowledge at their fingertips.
There are lots of ways to create an information product…• Write your own manuscript. All that is required is brain power and time.
Channel your experience, knowledge or passion and become an “infopreneur.” Provide quality information about the topic you know and love on your Web site. (http://infopublishing.sitesell.com/)
And… create and publish your own e-book about your subject matter. People are willing to pay for the convenience of having much-needed information at their fingertips. Use what’s inside your head to generate income! Need some direction? Visit http://myks.sitesell.com/ for more how-to details.
• Turn your speech into a book. Author and speaker Mark Nolan relates how he was paid $1500 to make a speech. The speech was taped so Mark had it transcribed by a secretarial service, tweaked it a little bit and published it as a book.
• Use a “teaser” to attract customers. Intellectual property can effectively be used as a “teaser” to get interested parties to your Web site. For example, you might have a garden site and during the middle of the summer, you offer a special report on plants that thrive in blazing hot sun. You offer enough information for your prospect to use but you let them know that there is more... much more. Where? On your Web site, naturally.
• Find a local class. If you are scratching your head and thinking that you don’t know anything worth writing about, then find someone who is teaching an interesting subject in your local area. Speak with them about making an audio or videotape of their class and turn it into an information product.
You don’t need to limit your product to printed or electronic material. You can successfully sell cassettes or video-tapes or do video/audio online productions.
• Use a ghost writer. If you are not sure of your writing abilities and/or don’t have much spare time, hire a…
… ghost writer. You provide the content. Your ghost writer provides the style. Often it is possible to hire a non-professional or a student for a very modest price.
• Review government publications. Take advantage of some of that tax money you pay to the Feds. The U.S. and Canadian governments have reports written on all kinds of amazing subjects. And none of them are copyrighted!
Of course, you wouldn’t want to try to sell them “as is” because they are dull, duller and dullest. But you can take the information and flesh it out, add your own personality, and create an interesting piece.
Go to Consumer Information Center (http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/) for ideas.• Find a partner. Another possibility is to work with someone else and split the profits. They do the writing and you provide the knowledge, experience and research for the information product.
• Interview an expert. A very simple method is to get a telephone recorder and interview an expert. From your notes, develop a print or electronic product, or both. If you decide to use the tape recordings, create a simple guide to go with them.
• Encourage people to tell their story. The “Chicken Soup” books are composed of a collection of stories written by different people. Each inspirational book is geared to a certain target group. The success of this brand illustrates the profit potential of human interest stories.
• Make money from research. Another great possibility is to compile a directory. Perhaps you want to research Web sites that deal only with crafts. You could divide your product into various categories (knitting, crochet, cross stitch and needlepoint) and find relevant sites and annotate each one.
Or you might compile an anthology or a collection of interviews of other people. In this case, you would create a guide or questionnaire, give it to each person you are interviewing to complete and then you simply edit the collected information.
Cookbooks are a great example of this kind of product. Think of the infinite possibilities of cookbooks... special occasion books, books for specific targets, books with cultural cooking, books for specific foods, books for special diets like low-fat or high fiber. In other words, the combinations are almost infinite. And as an added bonus, cookbooks can be produced cheaply.
When the copyright on a book expires (or perhaps it never had one in the first place), the book becomes “public domain” which means that it is available to anyone who wants it, with no restrictions or strings attached. These two sites are great resources for public domain books… http://www.promo.net/pg/ and http://www.ipl.org/reading/books/
For free legal advice on copyright law, consult this Web site at... http://www.freeadvice.com/OK. Your mind is racing -- so many possible directions to go in. Before you spring into action, use these tips to ensure success…
1) Copyright your intellectual property. Here are some copyright protection techniques…
i) Write the idea down, get it notarized and mail to yourself via registered mail.
ii) Have the envelope seams date-stamped by the Post Office. Don’t open the envelope but keep it sealed and put in a safe deposit box along with the postal receipt.
iii) You can have an attorney write letter saying they have a copy of your idea on file in their office as of such and such a date and are keeping it in a sealed file for you.
2) Vary your format. You will skip over huge profits if you assume that your customers only want information in one format! Multiple formats accommodate different learning styles. People have a dominant way of processing what they hear and see. For example, I am a visual learner and I much prefer to read. The audio books that are so popular now hold little appeal for me.
If you have a written product, you could broaden its appeal by adding…Electronic versions
Videos
Audio
Teleconferences
CDs and diskettes
Seminars
Games
Calendars and daily inspirations One-on-one consulting
Small elite-membership groups Radio and TV presentations Retreats
Monthly newsletters
Hard goods like mugs and T-shirts
You can create different formats, too. Why not on-going study courses with weekly lessons or more in-depth, advanced material? Or what about licensing products? Stand out from the crowd and be seen and/or heard.
