If you are really serious about making money through selling information products on the internet, one of the best ways to maximize your profits, sustain your business – and do it quickly – is by writing your own information products, such as e-books. But there are so many things to write about that people often get overwhelmed and they give up before they start, because they just can’t decide what to write about.
It’s crazy to throw away the opportunity of an income from writing your own information products just because you find it difficult to start. So here are a few tips to get you started on writing your information product.
First of all, you should do some market research. Your interests are one really good place to start, but if you are going to make any money out of your information product then you need to know that there is a wider audience for it. To find out of people are seeking the information that you would like to include in an information product such as an e-book, do a keyword search on Google and/or Yahoo. That way, you will find out how many times a particular keyword or keyword phrase has been searched for.
This kind of will research will also let you know how many other websites provide this kind of content so you will know who you’re competing with. To do well in selling information products you should aim for a niche market which you can rise to the top of. That will help you rank higher and get more traffic to your website, where they will be able to buy your information product.
Whatever you are writing your information product about, you need to make sure that you are offering top quality information. Give customers a valuable product that will be some use to them, by focusing on what you discovered they were searching for.
From your initial e-book idea, you should put together an outline of things you want to write about within the e-book. That will give you a start and end point for your writing. It’s also a good idea to ask friends and family what they think should be included in an e-book on a particular topic.
Once you have your outline for the information product, it’s time to start fleshing it out. Don’t feel that you need to know everything personally that you should cover in the information product. You can always do research, and ask experts in the field for information. You can also get at least some of your information from PLR books or books in the public domain which are out of copyright.
This first e-book that you can write could be a winning formula to kickstart your writing of other information products in many ways. First, if it sells well, you can perhaps bring out a sequel or subsidiary book on the same topic, aimed at the same target audience. We’ve all seen ‘100 African Recipes’ and ‘100 MORE African Recipes’ etc. We may laugh - but they sell! Otherwise, you could perhaps tweak your initial e-book to make it appropriate for another audience, such as a different age range or a different country.
Once you have started to sell your e-books, keep in touch with your clients. Bear in mind customer feedback and find out what they want from future information products from you and you will have quite a little business going!
Building a relationship with clients in this way encourages them to trust you, and if they trust you they will be more likely t buy from you in the future. A loyal customer base is worth a lot when you are trying to build a business around making and selling information products.
You should have this sales kit ready for whatever information product you are trying to sell, but it is even more important if you want to get affiliates to sell your info product for you. The easier your product is to sell, the more likely that people are to want to sell it for you, because the more money they will make – as well as you. But of course, you will also need this sales kit to advertise your information products yourself too. All a sales kit comprises of is a collection of tools to help to advertise your information product or to help others advertise it for you.
What should be included in a sales pack?
Articles
Articles are a great way to market your information products because GOOD articles put your product or service in context and show people how they meet a need they may have: maybe even a need that they didn’t realize they have. Also, if you are selling an information product, it is even more crucial that your articles are informative and well written.
If you have an affiliate partner, you may want to allow them to change the by-line at the bottom of the article; instead of an advertisement for your website, it will be changed to their own affiliate link to buy the information product.
This means your joint venture partners get a few good articles to promote their website or article directory and they get paid for any sale – and so do you. This is free advertising, effectively – because you’re not handing over any cash. Of course, this is also the case if you advertise by yourself, but you can’t spread your marketing quite as far this way.
Try to create four of five articles at the beginning.
Endorsements
These are the real power-house of marketing. Nothing helps you sell better than an endorsement straight from your clients or partners themselves. Therefore, you should write example endorsements – written from your affiliate’s or client’s point of view, so they can easily use them or at least adapt them; they won’t seem rude or pushy and you’ll be saving them a job with not having to write the endorsement themselves – so they’ll be more likely to give you the endorsement.
These endorsements can be used on your websites, in any paper marketing you do, and in e-mails and ezines to publicize your information products.
Advertisements
By these I mean ads that are not attached to an article. Bear in mind there are usually word limits for these advertisements. That can make them tricky to write – all the more reason for you to write them for your joint venture partners. Check out the lengths of ads allowed in the most common and popular ezines in your niche.
Try to get a really compelling headline for your advertisement that makes your information product sound like something people absolutely must have and the rest should follow much more easily – and don’t forget your ‘call to action’. If the people reading your advertisement don’t know what you want them to do – like where to go to buy your information product – you’ll have completely wasted your time.
Having a good sales kit like this ready to market a specific information product will really help you boost your own sales or get more sales through affiliate partners too.