e3ab3UJ3GeVnZxSavpkJYorsSfmgpWk: December 2012

Sunday, December 2, 2012

Information Product: How to Create Your First Product

Want to create and sell an information product? It's a great way to make money online. Others are doing it, and you can do it too.

Here's how.

1. Decide on Your Area of Expertise

Everyone's an expert on something. Make the most of your life experience. Someone once said that if you've survived your childhood, you have enough material to write about for the rest of your life.

If you imagine that you have NO area of expertise, decide what you want to learn. Learn it, and share the fruits of your knowledge.

Several years ago I made the switch from Windows computers to Macs. At the time, I couldn't find even one information product for switchers. It was hugely frustrating -- and it was an opportunity, too.

Unfortunately I was busy creating other material at that time, but I knew that if I had a need for switcher information, so did others. I could easily have created a guide in a week or two which would still be selling today.

You can develop information products from many of your current enthusiasms. A friend, who's a keen amateur photographer, is developing a photographer's guide to enhancing images taken with smartphone cameras.

2. Create a Blog to Build Your Readership Platform

Once you've decided on an area of expertise, create a blog to build your readership platform.

Write one or two posts a week, and promote your blog to your online friends. Let your blog's readers know that you're creating an info product, and ask them to post comments, with questions, on your blog.

Your readers can help you to create something which they're eager to buy.

3. Fill a Need: Give Your Buyers What They Want

Visit forums related to your area. What concerns do forum members have? The same questions come up over and over again in any forum related to special interests.

Answer those questions in your product: you'll be filling a need, and you'll have buyers.

4. Create Your Product Quickly: Give Updates Free

Here's the big danger in information product creation: procrastination. You'll hesitate and dither for any number of reasons. Self-doubt is usually behind it.

The solution is to create your product as quickly as you can. Your product doesn't need to be perfect before you sell it; you just need to give your buyers value for money.

Since it's easy to update an info product, you can post updates if you see that your buyers need more information on a topic. Give buyers updates for free, and make it clear on your sales page that you appreciate feedback, both good and not so good.

Get started creating your first information product today. You'll find that it's fun, and very exciting too.

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How to Create an InfoProduct From Recordings

Are you currently offering phone and live coaching programs? Do you offer seminars and live training sessions? If yes, do you want to make more money from these? Then, get your programs recorded and create more info products like ebooks, reports, and CD/DVD series that you can offer to your first-time buyers.

People who are offering high-end info products like coaching programs and seminars usually run out of time to create low-end and middle-end products. Needless to say, high-end programs take so much time and energy. However, you need to ensure that you have fresh, inexpensive products for your first time buyers as these people wouldn't buy something ultra expensive on their first purchase.

So, I recommend that you create ebooks, reports, and newsletters just so you can get them started on your product funnel. If you can't find time to write new ebooks, here's what I suggest:

Invest on getting high quality but not necessarily ultra expensive recording tools that you can use to record your coaching programs, seminars, and training sessions. Then, get freelancers who can transcribe them. You can hire reputable transcribers on freelancing sites. These people usually charge $5-$8/hour so you can expect not to burn your pockets by going this route.

Next step is to hire editor to check the transcription. It's important that this is different person from the transcriber. Just like your transcriber, professional freelance editors will also charge $10 or less per hour. Hire somebody who's got the needed skills and expertise.

After that, hire a professional ghostwriter who'll help you organize your ebooks, newsletters, or reports. This person will make sure that the content will flow smoothly and that it is easy to understand. It's important that you hire English speaker so you can be assured of the quality.

Before you sell your low-end products, check them out first. Remember, these will represent your business. People who buy them will expect the same quality for your middle-end and high-end product. If they're not impressed with their first purchase, there's no way that you can get them to come back for more.

Aside from ebooks, newsletters, and reports, you can also create CD and DVD series from your recordings. All you need to do is hire reputable audio and video editor to do the legwork for you. Again, take time to check the quality before you offer these products to your potential clients.

You see, making more products from your recordings is relatively easy and fast. The secret here is finding the right group of people who can help you out. If you intend to do this for a very long time, I would suggest that you take time in finding your regular transcribers, proofreaders, and editors. Pay them based on the skill level and ensure that you make them feel that they're part of your team. You see, finding people that you can truly trust these days is extremely difficult. So, once you find the right partners, hold on them like gold. They can definitely be the ticket to your online success.

How to Create an InfoProduct By Recording 12 Interviews With Experts

There are different ways to come up with content for your infoproducts (ebooks, reports, newsletters, CD/DVD series, etc.). You can do it the old fashion way and conduct thorough research. You can also use the content of the articles that you've published online or make use of the information you have previously given out on your coaching programs and training sessions.

However, if you want an easier way and if you'd like to try another approach, I would recommend that you interview industry leaders. I'm pretty sure that you can get exciting and useful information from doing this.

Here's a step-by-step guide on how you can easily create info products by recording 12 interviews with experts:

1. First step is to identify those people who are considered authorities in your niche. Get their names and their contact information. Then, locate their website and send them an email to tell them your intention to interview them for your info product. Keep in mind that there's no 100% assurance that they'll all agree so try to contact more than 12 experts just to be sure.

2. Create a list of questions. Just like you, the experts that you would like to interview consider time as gold. In order to ensure that you will not waste their time, prepare for the interview. Create a list of questions that will allow you to squeeze out the kind of information that you need for your info products. Ensure that they're not redundant and that they're written carefully.

3. Set the time and decide if you're going to this over the phone or in person. It's crucial that you consider the preference of your interviewee.

4. Record the interview. It's not enough that you take down notes when doing the interviews. To ensure that you will not miss out any important information, get the whole thing recorded with the permission of your interviewee. Ensure that you invest on high quality recording tools. Use microphone if you feel that there's a need for it.

5. Keep it short. You don't want to take so much of their time. So, find ways on how you can make the interview as short as possible. I suggest that you focus on one topic per expert so you'll get as much information as possible.

6. Transcribe the recording. Get quality transcription software to make the whole thing easier for you. Then, simply put everything you've talked about into writing. If you think that this is something that you can no longer add to your plate, go ahead and hire a transcriber from reputable freelancing sites. You can then use the content for your ebooks, newsletters, and reports. You can also use the audio files for your CD/DVD series.

You see, creating infoproducts is a lot easier if you go this route. The key here is finding several experts who are willing to be interviewed and freelancers who can help you out in transcribing and editing your audio recordings. It's that easy!

Sample Sales Funnel Product Sequence

This article will give you an example of how to structure your product funnel. A product funnel is like a kitchen funnel in two ways. First at one end you have a wide range of products and at the other end just one or two. The other way it is like a funnel is that you "pour" in a large number of potential customers who naturally get filtered and flow down through the different product levels so that finally it might only be a handful or even just one or two. I'll start from the wide end and take you through the typical types of product and price levels in my sample sales funnel product sequence.

1. Free but Valuable

Most online businesses start by offering something of perceived value to their visitors in return for providing their details and joining their email list. This should be your main aim as moving your potential customers through your sales funnel is much easier and smoother if you are able to market to them using emails. You want to offer something that gives them a taste of what you have to offer and leaves them wanting more. This is often an ebook.

2. Low-priced Product

The next step is to promote a low-priced product which could be a more extensive ebook, a mp3 or a video. Depending on your niche the price would be between $37 and $97 - products sold online are generally priced in dollars regardless of the country of origin as this is the global currency.

3. Mid-priced Product

The next level would involve a product in the $197 to $497 price range. This could be a home study course or a short coaching programme with limited access to you, the seller.

One little aside is that not everyone who ends up investing in your high-end products and programmes will go through all these intermediate steps so once a subscriber has bought from you don't be afraid to promote all of your higher-priced products but not all at the same time.

4. High-ticket Product

The price range for this bracket is from $1000 to $5000 and aimed at those who are really serious about learning and mastering your niche content. This could take the form of a coaching programme with regular access and support from you on a small group basis such as weekly Q & A calls. The aim would still be to deliver the training via digital products such as audio or video lessons that students work on at home but with the added bonus of being able to get a more personal level of support in some way.

5. The Sky's the Limit

At this stage there is no limit on the price you charge for your programmes and services. This could take the form of an exclusive mastermind group or even one-to-one support.

So there's my sample product funnel which starts with something as simple, yet powerful, as an ebook.

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Using Teleclasses To Quickly Expand Your Product Line

I'm often asked "what's the quickest way to make an info product?"

One of the ways is to do a teleclass. Not only can you make money by charging people to be on the call, but you can record it and quickly add to your inventory of products. These days there are more options than ever for getting this done, from bridge lines and online services that will do it for you, to getting the equipment and doing it yourself to using a computer with recording software and a "VoIP" service over the Internet. Each approach has its advantages and disadvantages; the services are great for non-technical people, but the "do-it-yourself" approach gives you a much greater measure of control over levels and call quality, without the uncertainty of relying on another party that may or may not get it right.

Teleclasses require a certain amount of preparation - not to mention promotion to get others on the line - but if you're going into this with the intention of creating product, it doesn't much matter whether your promotion efforts are successful because at the end of it, you've got a new product which you can sell from then on.

Basically, you've got a few options as far as the content goes: either it's you talking by yourself, you interviewing someone, or someone interviewing you. Perhaps the easiest option is to find an expert on your chosen topic, get them to agree to be interviewed & recorded and give them a copy of the recording when you're done. Then all you have to do is come up with 10-20 open-ended questions, get them on the phone, start the recording and an hour later, you've got a new product.

Decide if you're going to offer your recording as an MP3 download, an audio CD, or both. Whether you choose a digital or physical format, it's important that you have some artwork designed since having a good visual is going to be a big influence on whether or not your product will sell.

If it's an MP3 download, you can have it selling on the web almost immediately. If it's an audio CD, you'll need to have the artwork prepared for the CD box and CD surface in order to get some copies duplicated.

Conceptually, this is very simple: do a teleclass, record it and sell it as a product - but there are plenty of details to pay attention to so that the process goes smoothly.

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Using iPad Applications to Strengthen Relationships With the Customers

The busy schedule and hectic routine of the customers has been a major obstruction for companies to create a connection with them. Every business is looking out for a way to bridge the gap with their prospective customers. In order to make that possible, they are utilizing the power of iPad so that they can spread their message with the help of interactive and engaging applications.

Therefore, interactive and engaging iPad applications are developed to help iPad users to connect with the business. There are many iPad development companies that are coming up with new and interesting ideas to meet the competitive business scenario.

If you own an iPad, you can get applications for various categories like games, movies, business, finance, sports, social networking sites, traveling, navigation maps, books, education and much more. Irrespective of thousands of existing applications, it is impressive to note that the craze for new applications is still at its peak. The iPad users are looking for newer and better versions of existing applications to make their work simpler.

This is the foremost reason of rising demand of iPad development services across all the sectors. But, the best part is that there are various iPad companies that are providing quality iPad development solutions to meet clients' expectations. They have different plans which can be further customized to ensure quality solutions at the time of project deployment.

If you have any requirement related to designing and developing iPad applications, you can contact a reliable iPad company to fulfill your requirements within your estimated budget. You will need to explain your requirements in detail to the iPad developers so that they can come up with a solution to cater your varied solutions.

Many businesses have realized the potential of custom iPad development services to cater a wider target market. You can also make investment in beneficial services that can widen your market share with entertaining iPad solutions. Only you have to remember one thing while hiring an iPad development company is that the company must have good reputation in the industry. If they have a good past record, they will be able to come up with apt solutions for your business too.

So, don't hesitate in asking for achievements and reading testimonials of the chosen company. Once you are sure, you need to sign a Non-Disclosure Deal (NDA) deal with the client to ensure security of information, idea and your company details.

How To Create A Brand New Product In The Next 3 Days Create New Programs For Your Sales Funnel How to Make an EBook Cover for Free Sending Personalised Greeting Cards

How To Build Your Information Marketing Business - The Process

Many people want an information marketing business because of the great profit margins and the lack of 'copycats', but building an information marketing business is no easy task. That's why it's important you understand the process first of how to build the business before you actually start building the business.

The first thing you want to do is outline your core material. Everything you do and everything you create will be based upon this outline. You can use something called a 10x10 matrix, where you write down your 10 main topics, then you write down 10 subtopics for each main topic. That should give you 100 topics overall, but it will also give you a great start to your outline.

You want to outline your coaching program, you want to outline your home study course, you want to outline your ebook, your low end products, everything. When you complete the 10x10 matrix, all of your products will be derived from there. Maybe your free or low cost eBook is just about the 10 topics, but not any of the subtopics. Maybe your home study course is the entire outline, but it doesn't come with weekly calls or unlimited email access to you. Maybe your low to middle priced products are a combination of topics and subtopics. You can do virtually whatever you want.

The next part of the process in building your information marketing business is to plan your work schedule for working the business. I recommend creating a 4-hour work period 5 days a week. That'll give you 20 work periods in a month, which is 80 total hours of production. In a months time, you should be able to create 40 hours of new products, have 30 hours of writing time and driving traffic time, and 10 hours of content submission.

You obviously will repurpose a lot of the content you create into many formats, but look at what your business will look like in 1 year if you spend only 80 hours per month on your business. You should have a minimum of 12 ebooks, 12 home study courses, 3 to 4 coaching programs, 12 products, and 1000 emails in your auto-responder. This is what's possible by outlining your business first. This is what's possible by only spending 4 hours per day on your business.

How To Create A Brand New Product In The Next 3 Days Create New Programs For Your Sales Funnel How to Make an EBook Cover for Free Sending Personalised Greeting Cards

How to Write a Return Policy - A Return Policy Example

Let's talk about how to write a return policy for a minute. As I established the other day, I'm selling my new product through ClickBank AND DigiResults. One of the reasons I went with DigiResults as well as ClickBank is because they put you the product owner in charge of refunds as opposed to say an affiliate like ClickBank which handles refunds and can go above your head to issue a refund of your product without your acknowledgement or awareness many times.

With DigiResults, you the product owner are in charge of granting or denying refunds on a case by case basis. Note that if you grant a refund, DigiResults will automatically handle the refund, taking the commission gained by both you and your affiliate, and will issue it to the customer.

It's important that you come up with and establish an official return policy and include at least the gist of it on your sales page while possibly linking to your complete policy on another page so that you can use that when necessary to back yourself up and safeguard yourself against any complaints which come your way.

You don't have to get all technical with legal mumbo jumbo when writing and detailing your return policy. Unless you're actively trying to trick your customer (in which case you'd probably want overly verbose language and legalize), keep it simple and outline the terms of your policy as I showcase in this return policy example.

Return Policy Example

"As mentioned on my purchase page, you are entitled to a full money back guarantee for 60 days. If at any point between the date of purchase and 60 days elapse the customer decides that they are dissatisfied with the product, they may apply for a full refund.

If applying for a refund, the customer must detail their reasoning for requesting the refund at which point the merchant has the opportunity and right to attempt to resolve the customer's complaint. If the merchant is unable to resolve the customer's complaints, then the customer will be issued their refund in full.

Requesting a refund at any point beyond that 60 day window voids the money back offer."

This return policy example is direct and to the point and clearly outlines the terms and details of the guarantee. The exact terms of the policy are entirely up to you the merchant, so while you can use your return policy to help motivate sales with language like "no questions asked", be sure to simply come up with terms which you feel comfortable with and be prepared to stick to them in the case of a dispute in case it comes to that as your return policy will play a role in deciding any disputes which arise.

Information Publishing - Is It for You and How Do You Create a Product?

Most people do not like the idea of working for someone else but that is what the majority of us do. You work hard and all you get is another day older and deeper in debt. Job security is at an all time low, and you could have no job at all tomorrow. People are looking at different ways to make money.

Many people think of starting a business as an alternative to working hard for an employer, but in all honesty, starting a conventional business in this current economic climate is a big risk to your investment. Even those who are looking at a franchise business are wary - anyway what is a franchise? To me it appears that you are basically buying another 9-5 job!

So is there any way that I can make money in these difficult times?

Information publishing is a good business choice for many people because it offers a relatively easy way to make good money by working smart, NOT hard.

The start-up costs are minimal. Write an e-book or guide and convert it into pdf format. Then you need to sell your product. For the beginner, writing sales copy can be daunting but you will get better with practice. If you have a good topic you may well be able to produce an audio CD or even a video/DVD, so you could potentially derive several products from one project.

I would suggest that novices list products on Amazon and/or EBay to start with as they have good user-friendly tools. You will also get a feel for whether there is a market for you product. If you find there isn't, you have only lost your listing fees which are minimal.

If people are buying your product, you may want to think about hosting your own website. Once again, hosting costs and registering a domain name are not expensive.

So, as you can see, information publishing is a legitimate business with very little start-up costs and minimal risk. If you take it slow and steady, it can really work for you. It does take time but it will definitely be worth it in the end.

If you have decided to try information publishing the next (and probably most daunting) hurdle is to find and produce an information product. Most people believe that it is difficult to create an information product. But it isn't if you follow a few simple rules:

Research: The first thing you need to do is find as much information as possible on your chosen subject. There are a myriad of resources, such as books, websites, articles, videos and other information products. If possible try to pick a subject you are passionate about as this will come across in your writing. Don't just think "how can I make money from this?" Focus on your subject and it will be reflected in your product.

Write: The next thing you want to do is get the information that is in your head onto paper as soon as possible. Don't worry how good or bad it is - just get it onto paper in your own words. During this process try not to do anything to distract yourself; don't look at your notes, don't try to edit your work. Perfection is your enemy here - don't worry about spelling, punctuation or layout at this time. If there is something that you don't know then just make a note to look it up. You can do all this later when you are editing.

Edit: Now that you have written you first draft, now is the time to go back and edit your work. You want to go through your product and start correcting spelling mistakes and grammar errors and looking up what you did not know. Take your time, this is very important.

Layout: Now that you have edited and corrected your product, you can start thinking about laying out your information product in the way that you want, adding graphics and putting the page together the way that you want your customers to see it.

Produce: Now you can produce your product. If you plan on creating a printed manual then you will need to print it. This could be done by yourself with a good quality laser printer to keep costs down but always use at least 100gsm paper. If you're creating an e-book it would be best to convert it into a PDF format. If you are creating an Audio CD you will need to record the content and produce the CD etc.

Remember that researching, writing and editing are very different processes and if you try to do them all at once you will hinder your progress.

Will this business make you a millionaire? Whilst it is true that a few people have made millions in the information publishing business, I don't think that everybody can become a millionaire so be realistic in your objectives - this doesn't mean that you have to aim low. If the question was: can this business secure your financial independence then the answer is a resounding yes! Just remember that in any business you will need to develop a thick skin and NEVER give up. This is the real difference between the successful entrepreneur and the rest. If a product fails to produce interest or sales, they just let it go and start a new one. This can be very difficult for the novice as they have probably invested a lot of time in their product and find it a personal slight if nobody is interested. But try to let it go and start a new product - this could be the one which will change your life.

How to Create Content for Your Information Product Quickly and Easily

You don't have to be a professional writer or speaker to quickly make an information product, especially if you are knowledgeable about the subject. The simplest way to create your content is to ask your buying audience. This is particularly simple to do if you already have a list in your target market, as all you have to do is to send out an e-mail survey. There are many online survey systems to use, and I have found that the majority are quite user friendly, but it is personal preference I think, so go to Google and search for "Online Survey Systems", and choose the best for you.

Most of them let you see your survey results tallied by the most popular entries first.

Even if you do not have a list to survey yourself, you can always use somebody else's by offering a commission or even giving them 100% for selling your info product to their list. Another way to find out what the biggest challenge is in your particular niche is to simply ask other people by conducting an interview with a relevant expert over the phone, or correspond via e-mail.

To finish your information product content all you need to do now is to make notes of your strategies,tips,tricks and techniques that solve the most pressing questions and challenges that your surveys and/or interviews have established to be the biggest challenges facing your target audience. A good number to aim for when devising your solutions is to go for approx ten specific challenges and come up with about three strategies, tips or techniques for each one. But remember always keep in mind that the majority of your clients will not need ALL of the information now, they may only be looking for a place to start, or for a solution to move them out of an area they are currently stuck in, and your information will help them do that. If they need to find out more they can always purchase additional information from you, and will be glad to do so if you are cultivating a good and trusting relationship with them.

So What Sort of Information Product is it Best to Create First?

For your first information product it is best to create a simple 20 to 50 page report, an audio CD or a workbook, and it is quite easy to create multiple products, without having to do too much extra work, once you have the first format complete. One of my favourite methods for product creation is to first do a Teleseminar or webinar and have it recorded onto a CD and transcribed into PDF format. This way you can have a one hour webinar turned into multiple products in a few hours. For example see how a simple one hour Teleseminar can produce the following:-

•A short PDF Document you can give away as a FREE report. •A CD Audio program for the front-end of your marketing funnel. •A detailed workbook to sell separately, or to include with the CD to increase the perceived value and therefore increase the price. •A sample MP3 Audio to place on your website. •An article created from the workbook to distribute to online ezines for traffic generation purposes. •A sample audio to be placed on video & audio distribution websites for traffic generation purposes.

This process can be repeated quickly and often so you can soon build up a library of information products that people will want to purchase, and of course once you have created multiple audio programs you can always bundle them together into a home study course for the back-end of your marketing funnel.

Remember the more different types of media you include in your information product, the higher its perceived value, and therefore the more you can charge for it.

Write a Book and Get Published: Why Kindle Publishing May Be in Your Future

Amazon's Kindle platform has made writing and publishing a book a breeze. Everything is in your hands. It's never been as easy to become an author. Let's look at why Kindle publishing may be in your future.

Here are the primary reasons.

1. Traditional (Also Known As "Legacy") Publishers Are Hurting

Margins are dropping throughout the industry. eBooks may, or may not, save traditional publishers. This means that at this time, you need to be wary of signing contracts with companies which may not be in business a year from now.

When a company winds up, it's a long process. After you've signed a contract, you've made a deal. It may be years before you can legitimately publish your book elsewhere if you're caught up in a company collapse.

Additionally, book publishers are mere shadows of what they used to be. It's hard to get a contract, and trying to get a contract can take years.

2. A Huge Market for Your Book: Millions of Keen Readers Own E-Reader Devices

The big benefit of eBooks is that you can read them on any digital device. You don't need a Kindle. I own a Kindle, but I prefer to read my purchases on my iPad, iPhone and computer, using Amazon's apps.

Most readers believe that they need a dedicated e-reader, but this just isn't so. As buyers become more comfortable with reading anywhere they choose, the already huge market will expand.

Interestingly, Amazon reports that sales of print books, both softcover and hardcover, have risen too. The eBook market isn't cannibalizing print, it's expanding the book market.

For me, and for many other writers, the huge market for eBooks is the primary reason we self-publish.

3. Publishing Your Books Is Simple on the Kindle and Other Platforms

New writers worry about formatting for e-readers, but it's simple. Basically, write your book in Microsoft Word, or any other word processor which can create DOC files. You need a couple of additional steps, these are described in Amazon's Help files.

For most books, formatting will take around half an hour, depending on the speed of your computer.

If you don't want to format your manuscript yourself, you can hire someone to do it very cheaply. Just email your manuscript, and you'll receive a beautifully formatted eBook in return.

4. Self-Publishing Is Profitable

The market's huge, which means that there's room for you, too. Top-selling authors are making millions of dollars. You may never reach these heights, but you can make a decent income, and most importantly, your book will be published.

If you want to write a book, the world has changed. Is Kindle publishing in your future? It's in mine.

How To Create A Brand New Product In The Next 3 Days Create New Programs For Your Sales Funnel How to Make an EBook Cover for Free Sending Personalised Greeting Cards

Info Products - How To Get Started

Trying to create your own info product when you've never done it before can be intimidating. There are all sorts of things to consider from the title, structure and content, to what format to choose - not to mention all the technical issues like recording, production, design, packaging and manufacturing. The good news is that since there are many different ways to put together an info product you can choose something simple and relatively easy to produce, like an e-course, e-book or teleclass, and as you get more comfortable with the process, you can make more sophisticated and comprehensive products. The first thing you'll want to do is pick a niche, then a topic within that niche, then a title for your product. If you're just staring out, the simplest and most basic information product you can create is an e-course. All you need is a word processor. When you're done, you can load it into an auto responder which will send out your course based on a specific input (like someone entering their name and e-mail address on your website), which is a great way to capture leads. If you like, you can make a multi-part course and deliver one part each day.

The next easy and fast product to put together is a teleclass.You can make money by charging to be on the call - and you can also record it and turn the recording into a product, which could be an MP3 download or a physical Audio CD. Many teleconference services offer a recording feature and will allow you to access the recording as an MP3, which you can then post on your website.

If you do any public speaking, each time is an opportunity to create an information product. Buy a lavaliere microphone and a small recorder (which stays discretely in your pocket) and at the end of your talk, you've got something that can be turned into a product. Be sure to start the recorder at least 5 minutes before going on stage (you don't want to be seen fumbling with the controls as you're being introduced, which would be very unprofessional). When buying a recorder, get one that has a mic input jack (not a "line input" jack) and a "hold" switch, which will allow you to lock out the controls after you've started the recording.

Recording yourself doing a live talk isn't ideal because you've got no-one monitoring the recording while it's happening, but it's better than nothing. Just make sure if you do choose this approach, that you don't touch the microphone while you're on stage because the noise that makes will most probably ruin the recording. A better situation is if you've been asked to speak at a seminar and the seminar promoter has paid a professional person or company to record the event. In that case, you can get a copy of the recording, which will (hopefully) be professionally done - just be sure to be clear with the seminar promoter in advance and make it part of your contract.

Another product that's relatively easy to create is a coaching program. Many people don't think of this as a "product", but the truth is that anything for which you can charge money can be marketed as a product. The technical part of product creation is what many people find intimidating, so having a few options that are simple, like the ones mentioned so far can be helpful. Another "non-tangible" product could be a seminar.

Once you get into the realm of audio and video products, the technical requirements increase. Audio is easier to work with (not to mention cheaper) than video, so it's a good idea to create a bunch of audio products first, before venturing into video. This way, you'll learn a bit about the production process and then when you start making video, many of the things you've already learned will be applicable to video production as well. One of the things I like the most about audio production is that (unlike video), you can't see where edits were made. If your audio editor is competent (or if you learn how to do it yourself), then the edits will be seamless and it will sound like there was no editing done whatsoever. If you're making a physical product, you'll end up with an Audio CD or DVD and if it's digital it could be an MP3 File (for audio) or MP4 File (for video).

As far as the content of audio & video products, you'll either be "live" or in a studio and either talking by yourself or being interviewed (or maybe you're interviewing someone else). You'll need to devote some thought to creating a catchy title, the structure of the content, the selling price of the product and the graphic design. Finally, you'll need to decide how many copies you'll need and whether or not to go for short-run duplication (for small quantities; i.e. 500 or less) or "replication" (for quantities over 500).

Whatever you choose, it's important to learn the process first so you know what you're getting into, and choose competent people to help you create your info products.

Create An Ebook - How This One Strategy Can Help Your Business

Create an e-book how this one strategy can help your business

Most people look at the idea of creating an eBook and instantly dismiss it from any real form of making money online. Others look at the idea of creating an eBook from an optimistic point of view and think that this is the greatest idea to generating income since sliced bread.

You see if you have the skill set to create your own ebooks, than you can really put yourself in a position to not only help anyone seeking information on the subject your writing about, but your also helping your business to grow at an exponential rate.

Ebooks are the number one type of information selling products online, and there is so much that you can achieve by creating one. Not only are they very accessible but they are extremely easy to assemble and you can write an eBook about practically any subject matter and gain an audience.

Let me explain in two different approaches how ebooks can instantly improve any business.

Creative Ways To Use an Ebook:

Well the most obvious way to use an eBook is to build a list. Ebooks are one of the most effective ways to build a list. Now your eBook do not have to be 100+ pages long or even 50+ pages long in order to be considered valuable. An eBook can be as little as 7 to 10 pages long these are considered Quick Reports that you can give away or sell for profit on your website or blog.

Experts have been building huge list for years using these quick PDF reports, that they'll give away or sell on their website. So let's take Network Marketing for example, let's say you've discovered a very effective way to recruit distributors into your MLM and you explained these skills inside of a 15 page report and offered it on your blog. This report will show anyone who's thinking of joining a network marketing company or even part of a network marketing company how to recruit at will. Now how many people do you think will download this report.

So for instance, if 50 people download this report, you've just collected 50 solid name and email addresses of people who directly want to learn what your teaching. Leads don't come any warmer than that my friend. Since now you've taught these people a valuable lesson on recruiting, what network marketing team do you think they are going to join.

Another example would be this. Let's say you just started you own Internet Marketing company, and you have been online trying to sell affiliate programs and products for quite some time. you've literally had no luck, I mean maybe a sale here or a sale there but no real substantial income. You suddenly realize you have a unique talent of teaching anyone how to create and monetize blogs or websites. This goes for anyone like large corporations even down to small business owners, if someone wants a website your their guy.

So you compile your skills, your special talents into an easy to use step-by-step how-to guide or eBook and decide to sell this guide to anyone who is wanting to learn how to do this. You write an article explaining you have this eBook for sale which will teach this, this and that and you realize all types of people want to know how to build their own site. Be honest with yourself if your reading this article don't at some point you want your own website if you don't already own one.

So you put your ebook, which only took a couple of days to create, you put in on your website for sale instead of some affiliate product and when you make a sale you get to keep all of your profit. And so 75 people buy. It's at a fair price of 37 bucks, but my friend, you've just netted yourself a quick 2775.00 off a 37 dollar eBook showing people how to assemble a blog or a simple webpage. Now this was just a quick illustration of what an eBook could do for your business, and so much more.

So you see, if you are running any type of online business and you haven't made the decision to create an eBook and incorporate ebooks into your marketing campaigns, you are really missing out on the pie my friend, and might I add that it is a really big piece of pie.

Product Creation: Create a Free eBook As Your First Product

One of the most scary things about creating a product to sell online is that you worry, "will anyone buy what I'm selling?" And it is a very valid worry, especially if it is your first product. You want to make to make money from it, but if it doesn't sell, well you could actually lose money!

An easy way to test the waters in your niche or target market is to create a free product. This can be a short eBook or PDF report that you give away on your website or Facebook or Twitter pages.

Here are a few tips for making the most of out giving away a free eBook or report so that it will benefit both you and your customers. Use your freebie to:

Build your list

A popular marketing method is to use freebies for list building. This means that you won't simply provide a link to download your free report or ebook. Instead you exchange the product for your customer's email address so that you can contact them again in the future using an opt-in form.

Demonstrate your expertise

In your free report, you want to provide your customers with some insight on your expertise in your niche. You can do this by discussing some of the top issues facing your target audience or providing a list of high-level tips they can apply immediately. Refer back to previous articles or blog posts you have written within any free report you share with your customers so that they can see you have experience writing and discussing your topic.

Show the quality of your information

Even if you give away a free report, don't skimp on the quality. Use every opportunity to make a good impression and introduce your potential customers to the quality they can expect from you. Then strive to maintain that quality in all communications with them. This means more than adding nice graphics and a few visual touches in your product. This means making the content you offer top-notch in quality as well.

Get feedback from your customers

Who are the best people to tell you what information your customers want? You guessed it! Your customers. Solicit feedback and comments from customers on the last page of your report. You can ask simple questions such as, "What other information do you want to receive on this topic?" or "Did you enjoy this information? Please feel free to write me and give your feedback."

7 Affiliate Marketing Tools to Offer Your Affiliates and Improve Conversions

As I have mentioned before, one of the best ways to get affiliates is to supply them with plenty of affiliate marketing tools which they can use to promote your product for you and get better acquainted with it. Let's go over 7 affiliate marketing tools which you might offer to your affiliates:

Keywords

First, you should think about giving your affiliates a list of good keywords to target which are relevant to your niche/product. Put together a list of relevant low competition keywords which your affiliates can target and rank for on their own while promoting your product through good old fashioned organic SEO traffic.

Articles

Articles are important as it gives your affiliates both copy which they can use to rewrite or leave it as is and distribute it on their sites but it also educates them on your niche/product so that they can get better acquainted with it themselves in case they're not familiar with it previously.

Graphics/Banners

Your affiliates are likely going to want to display your product on their websites. You can design or pay someone to design lots of various buttons, banners, and other graphics with your logo or a relevant message on them. If nothing else, you should be able to supply your affiliates with your product's image or cover.

eBook

This takes the article concept one step further. I've seen a few merchants offering a free eBook related to their niche which contains affiliate links. The affiliate can replace the affiliate links with their own then distribute the book to any visitors who come to their sites for free as a great way to get your product and their affiliate links in front of a ready and willing potential customer.

Email List/Autoresponder Copy

Some affiliates even supply copy for their affiliates' email lists. The affiliate can make an autoresponder out of those messages which is something I've done before, or they can just blast out broadcast messages to their existing subscribers if they already have a list. I've even turned sample articles from the merchant into an effective autoresponder, so make the most of what the merchant gives you.

Videos

This one's pretty straightforward but some merchants offer video content which affiliates can put on their websites if it helps the cause.

PPC Ad Text

A lot of affiliates like to use PPC as one of their traffic sources, so you might give them some well performing AdWords ads which they can use to get up and running by throwing up an effective ad and getting the traffic and hopefully sales coming in right away.

Sunday, December 2, 2012

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