Bitter about Information Products?
Tomorrow, I'm holding a free information product teleseminar and I asked attendees to submit questions that I could answer on the call. I received plenty of great questions and I'm looking forward to talking about them tomorrow (sign up, if you haven't already).
Still, there were a few questions that stood out to me. I actually sensed a sort of "bitterness" when it came to information products. Some people had tried it before and didn't think it could be done. Others thought you could only sell products about how to make money on the Internet and that market was too crowded. It's not the questions themselves that were bitter, but the way that they worded their questions that made me wonder.
They had phrases like:
"Most I've seen are colossal time wasters in my opinion."
or
"But because there is so much info out there, most people have becomed burned out. They don't want to pay for yet another info product."
Here's the thing...yes, information product publishing is a great business to be in. The costs involved are low and the profit is extremely high. But writing one ebook is not likely to make you rich and you will have to do plenty of hard work.
I'm going to be talking about product research and development on the call and you can also read a short article here. But let's get rid of the misconceptions when it comes to promoting your information product.
- If you haven't done your research, you can expect your product to flop. Just because YOU think it's a good idea, doesn't mean it will be a big seller.
- If you don't have a decent mailing list and/or a healthy number of website visitors from your product's target market, you'll have to either invest a decent amount of cash into advertising and/or you'll have to aggressively pursue affiliates. If you're not up for that, then don't do it.
This really IS the information age and people are buying information everywhere. They're buying books, courses and seminars on all kinds of topics. If it weren't true, there would be no bookstores (on and offline), private schools teaching specialized topics wouldn't exist and the word seminar would be wiped from the dictionary. Okay, I'm exaggerating on the dictionary thing, but just do a search on your favorite search engine for books, courses or seminars on a few popular topics...you'll see a ton of opportunities and many of them online.
So, if you tried the info product thing and it didn't work out for you, look back and see if you really did what you needed to do to make it a success. If not, that's totally okay because we can all learn from our mistakes...just go back and fix them.
6 Comments:
Alice, the bitterness you're sensing here may not be so surprising. Earlier this week, I was privy to a discussion between marketing luminaries Perry Marshall, Harlan Kilstein, and John Carlton. At one point, they alluded to the fact that the info marketing "guru de gurus," none other than Dan Kennedy, has decided that the Internet has rendered info marketing dead as a stand-alone profit center.
However, they went on to point out, it has awesome potential as a promoter of your core business.
The point they were getting at is that if you're trying to make a business out of info products alone, you're going nowhere.
On the other hand, they say, if you build a "Real Business" (i.e, a tangible product or service) and buttress it with good info products, you'll go far.
Wonder if you care to comment on the observations of these worthies? It seems to me that this is precisely the model you follow, and it helps explain, along with your commitment to your customers and your admirable communication skills, why you've developed such a robust business.
I would be wary of telling people they're going to rake in much money on info products alone. It's a huge grind, and you need to be a helluva writer.
But maybe you disagree?
Thanks for the great comments, guys.
Will, I absolutely agree...in any market, you should provide something of true value. You can have great marketing, but a crappy product...but that won't last long. I definitely want to see people with great products AND great marketing!
Tom, I agree to some degree and I would not likely ever take much online business advice from Dan Kennedy. He just hasn't gotten his hands dirty enough around here to understand it completely. Sorry, Mr. Kennedy.
As far as needing a "real" business to go along with the info products, I'm not 100% sure about that. Yes, if people are already selling physical products or services, adding information products to the mix is a definite must. Whether they sell the info products and/or give some away for free, these products will teach people how to CONSUME those physical products or services.
But I don't believe it's completely necessary to sell those produts yourself. In fact, I started my online business because I didn't want to deal with physical products and all the headaches and overhead that comes with it.
Still, my info product business doesn't really stand on it's own. It's coupled with my many information websites and many mailing lists --- which I guess if we can look at it from a different perspective is my "service" business.
Looking at it that way, I offer a free service by giving quality information and help to people. I make money by recommending products sold by other people and selling my own information products.
So if we could see that as my product/service...then I do agree with the "worthies". :-)
When people decide to enter the info product market without all those other assets (customer list, subscriber list, website traffic), it is much harder to make a go of it. It costs more to advertise and build up a solid reputation. That's why I think the "niche marketing" craze makes it even harder for people to create a longterm business. Spreading yourself thin amongst a bunch of markets, trying to sell them different products is a lot harder than creating a mass empire in one general market. Thanks to Jimmy D. Brown for really driving that lesson home for me.
I own a marketing firm and coach many clients on marketing strategies. There are VERY few clients I would ever recommend to take on the info product route because I agree with Tom. You have to be a prolific writer and you have to learn at least a bit of HTML and a LOT about the world of online marketing. The majority of people simply don't want to invest that much time.
That said, online marketing and infoproducts is an exciting realm for those of us who enjoy the diligence, years, and patience it takes to be an "overnight" success.
Best, Wendy
That's an interesting perspective Wendy, but I'm not just talking about ebooks or writing. I'm also talking about recorded interviews, instructional videos and so forth.
(And I'm DEFINITELY, just talking about online business. I don't advise offline businesses on anything...I'm just an online gal.)
It's certainly not necessary for the product seller to be the actual creator. If the subject is technical, there are plenty of technical writers. There are also great researcher/writers who can put together very useful products.
In the case of interviews, they are easily done with experts. It's easy to poll your target market with the questions they'd like answered and interviewing experts to deliver that information. These interviews can be recorded and transcribed...there's no writing skills involved.
There are just so many options to deliver information to people who are hungry for it and most companies have the ability to deliver it.
As I mentioned in my prior comment, information products can help people consume the products that your clients are already selling. That's what I think is critical. It's an extra piece of the online marketing puzzle for them.
Information, whether it's free or paid, helps establish expertise, builds relationships and sells more products. Although, I can't make a blanket statement that every online business needs information products, I haven't come across many that couldn't benefit from adding information products, in some form, to the mix.
To clarify, I include interviews, teleclasses, podcasting, instructional videos, articles, ebooks, e-reports, ezines, and certain forums as infoproducts.
I think that a person with the drive and patience can have a wholly online business or that infoproducts are an amazing supplement to an offline business.
That said, for a person who wants to become an online marketer, it is a commitment that takes time to learn how to do it effectively or it takes money to buy a professional's service to set up systems.
Alice, you are a saavy online marketer who understands HTML, how to set up a blog, how to write a mini-website page that sells, how to create a forum, how to effectively drive traffic to your site, effective AdSense placement, how to build a subscriber list, how to create and send out an ezine, how to create an ebook, the best types of software to drive these actions, how to create a teleclass, and how to manage an affiliate program.
I admire your blog and your products. I think you are a straight shooter and anyone interested in learning the infoproduct business is in good hands.
You've invested yourself in learning your business and becoming an exceptional resource. But, if people don't understand that an online business takes as much effort as an offline business, then perhaps they are bitter because they have been promised the "moon and the stars" and are under the assumption that there is an easy way to online fortune and fame.
I hear you, Wendy and I appreciate the kind words. I also appreciate the perspective for offline busineses.
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