Be the Product Creation Incredible Hulk in 2009
Robert Plank here to disspell myth number 5 about making products and that's... people think creating products is hard.
Infoproduct Myth #5: Creating Products is Hard!
(Hint: It's Not! It's Only in Your Head!)
False. If you can get into the correct mindset, you'll actually have fun making a product. That's why you need to learn how to "hulk out" into a writing frenzy, or record a webinar and get the audio transcribed by your assistant.
I use a combination of time-boxing and question formatting to write articles quickly, and if those articles run over length then guess what? Those become the chapters of my e-book.
The days of the 600-page, 200-page, or even 100-page e-book are long over. Shoot for a goal of 10 to 30 pages and sell it for 7 dollars. Add a bonus to that product and now you can sell it for 17. Record just an hour of video and now it's worth 27 dollars. Throw a webinar on top of that and now you have a 47 dollar product to sell... in a single day.
Video is pretty easy too, as long as you don't script it. Whip up a PowerPoint presentation then stand it front of a Flip camera, web camera or digital camera and advance the slides using a clicker remote or even your mouse if you want to keep it simple.
The two factors that make you "think" prdouct creation is hard are confidence and completeness. Fortunately, if you can get excited about your topic you can overpower that confidence problem pretty easily, and your need to get that thing launched as quickly as possible before anyone else does will override your need to make it "complete" -- because no product ever will be.
At this point you might be wondering what this is all leading up to. Lance Tamashiro (who was a top student in many of my classes) has now graduated to become a co-host.
Lance and I have teamed up to provide you something very soon that has to do with product creation, but it is very different than the offers you've seen from me and unlike anything you've seen from anyone else. Keep your eyeballs peeled and I'll pass more details onto you as I get them.
What can you do right now? Leave me a comment below so that I can share myth number 4 with you once I get my ten comments...
Filed in: Seven Things
Subscribe
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to receive more just like it.
So when you are standing in front of your Flip, you’re reading a PowerPoint/FreeMind screen on your computer?
I have a couple of times. Other times I ad lib.
Other times I have a couple of notes on my desktop computer screen to the left of me. Other times I’ve read off a note card or piece of paper, and no one cared!
Well I had always wondered why you looked like you were intermittently staring off-camera. Guess I know now why academe has Communications degrees. And all these years I thought that field was completely worthless.
Haha, sometimes I stare off camera even when I don’t have notes to look at.
Great stuff, as always!
I keep putting off getting started because I’m afraid I might not have enough material initially, but your comments about not needing more than 10 to 30 pages makes me realize I can definitely pull that off!
By the way,what is “time-bozing”?
Oops, that’s supposed to be time-boxing… I’ve fixed the typo. Run a countdown timer while you complete tasks to make sure you do them quickly.
Well, I have pretty much finished an ebook for those in dire straights from the recession searching for information on making money online. I just finished library school and am currently a career counselor. I have seen a lot of dreck out there, but also have been studying this sector for some time and I am hopeful that I can inspire trust and from a totally independent space show them what to stay away from and where to start legitimately and learn on the cheap. I am stuck on the keyword research and the fact that my dept. of three have seen 6000 people wanting to go to school this month. I want to keep it cheap, was going to let it go at $9.95, free report first and some bonuses, quality ebooks they can learn from and then sell as affiliates. But with bonuses, you think it would sell for $17? Also stuck because I have lots of good products I got Resell rights for and could give them cheap, but coming up with a list of autoresponders also holding me back. Worried about the sales copy and no time to read the stuff I have on that.
Flo, don’t load it up with a bunch of resale rights. I personally don’t think any make money online product will sell, that niche is way too cheesy.
Even if you look at the gurus, they aren’t selling in the make money online niche.. Filsaime is list building, Kern is relationship building, Reese is traffic, etc.
But the only way to know for sure is to test. So launch it for $17 and send traffic to it using whatever warm leads you have… call in some joint ventures or post forum special offers.
How about using the powerpoints as the visual in the videos?
Looking forward to finding out what Lance and you got up your sleeve…
Elisabeth, using the PowerPoint as the visual works too if you’d rather do that. That’s what I use if I’m creating membership site content need to crank out 40-50 videos in one sitting.
It’s not a question of churning out 20-30 page “products” and selling them to whoever would buy it. I do believe that product creation is easy. The trick is to create QUALITY products that will not result in endless refund requests and at the same time not making your good name to be synonymous with crap information. This can happen very easy and quickly if you are not careful.
More on this at JustGitOverYourselfAndFreakingDoItNOW.com 🙂
Rallen, it’s just like I told Flo. Let the market decide.
You might spend months laboring over an e-book to make it “quality” and then find out no one wants it.
Or you might write an e-book thinking it’s full of beginner level stuff everyone already knows, but people buy it and love it.
You just don’t know if what you think is “quality” is what other people value… let the market decide.
I have a digital camera that every time e want to use it the batteries are dead. Had some rechargeable ones but haven’t found after the move. A few more things haven’t found yet.
Great information
Starting out as a newbie would using PLR products be a great way to start and do the creating my own products at a later date after I have more experence
James
I’ve spent months, years over articles, even winning award for writing (link and article available on request).
None of which has made me a single, solitary penny.
The whole notion of PLR makes me want to puke into coffee cup.
But I just spent $150 picking up a suite of domain names. They’re sweet. Not even going post the name pattern until I’m sure I’ve mined it out. But they’re sweet, and one is *killer*.
And I don’t plan on writing a single word frickin for *any* of these domains. Ok, I’ll have to write a little… now I’m willing to try something new.
There are a couple of ways to re-state what RP is saying. One I’ve seen before is to “fail fast”. As someone with a comp. sci background, I’d say you want a breadth first search(BFS) over a depth-first search(DFS). A DFS mentality probably also goes in hand with the problem of never releasing a product until its “perfect”.
Ok, how do I get a pic next to my comment?
Dave (Fobare), you sign up at gravatar.com to get your picture to show… and I would prefer if you used your real first and last name instead of a keyphrase…
Dave Doolin: What’s good about being a writer who also has PLR, is there are a bunch of ways to rewrite it quickly to make it better than the original, and faster than if you had done it on your own.
James: If using PLR will get you to make products sooner, then do it. If you can’t find the rechargeable batteries then buy new ones, before you find some excuse to talk yourself out of it.
Great post – very informative!
My comment on creating products would be to just get off your rear end and do it.
I know of people who will create a product and then spend months trying to make it “perfect”.
The result … they never make any money as they never launch anything. The perfect product does not exist.
My opinion is to make it as good as you can and then release it. You can always improve on it later on and add to it. This technique works for Microsoft (look at Windows) so it’ll work for me.
I’ve never had any complaints from my customers and they are usually over the moon that they get updates and extra bits that I throw in later on.
Works a treat 🙂
All the best
Jason
Robert,
I’m starting to see the benefits.
Given my background, I could never use my real name (academic, reputation is *critical*, don’t want to burn bridges), but posting without attribution, or under an avatar name might be just the ticket. Have my cake and eat it too.
I just thought of something…
I have a *killer* edge I can use on PLR: I do technical reviews for http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-NAG.html
Reviewing for NAG means I’m a real smart dude. Instant credibility.
I can leverage that to put my “stamp of approval” on any PLR material I use.
So obvious.
Haha I can turn these 4 comments of mine into a blog post in 5 minutes on at least one blog, maybe another with a bit more work.
These comments and the other two little techniques guaranteed to build credibility (which I didn’t post here).
Product creation is not hard at all. You know, after you learn how to create your first one the next one is a breeze cause you know what to do and what not to do, even how to do it quicker or more effective.
Really, getting graphics, writing your salesletter, domain name, your PDF product and autoresponder all tied in is simple, it only takes me about 4 – 7 days to create a FULL product so you can do it too, it just takes TIME if anything, money isn’t the issue on most products, you can create a product for about $50 if you do most of the work yourself.
Robert,
Very thoughtful post as usual.
I’m a firm believer of small/short reports of 20-25 pages and selling them at $9-$15 each. If you are a newbie or a relative unknown, small reports and freebies are probably the best ways to build your reputation.
Resell Rights (RR) products initially sound like a good idea but you’ll find yourself in a price war with hundreds of people. I’ve seen some RR sites selling products at $5 or less.
IMO, PLR can be a very good starting point but you do need to spend the time to change it up quite a bit to make it truly unique. Probably the quickest way with them is to change the name, cover graphics, the headline and the graphics of the sales page.
Your suggestion of using PowerPoint presentations is really good and they can easily be turned into videos. Drive traffic by posting them to YouTube and other video sharing sites, if you are banned from YouTube ;-).
P.S. Thanks for the gravatar.com tip. I just signed up.
Robert, I create a product almost just like this…
First I wrote an outline(mindmap)
then recorded a long video explaining everything,
then I created short videos explaining important parts of the product, then I wrote a quickstart/checklist finally, I added a bunch of resources I used into an ebook.
It didn’t take long and it was fun…
Thanks for the great series of tips, I need to work on writing sales pages better and faster.
Hi Robert,
As always – very thoughtful posts from your nonstop brain and some extremely thoughtful replies as well.
Here’s a question for you: How does a person who has no following (you have a HUGE following, for example, and so do Kern and Reese and Morin, etc) effectively test a new product?
This is assuming they have no budget, no list, but a kick-butt product to promote… maybe someone just getting started?
Maybe it’s been mis-named and therefore gets less interest in it. Product creation itself is not difficult, but naming it, knowing how to effectively promote it, etc… can be daunting.
Thanks for any insight you might offer.
Ad thanks for creating and running your very helpful and informative blog,
Donna
Donna,
What you need is traffic.
The way I got started was forum marketing. I saw what people were asking for over and over again but no one was providing as good as I can… I made a product about it and sold it to that forum at a better deal than they could get elsewhere. (Then kept providing free info about other stuff to get my signature link shown in other threads.)
When you build a list after the sale, now you have another traffic source to send to test product #2.
You can apply the same formula to JV’s, make friends with someone else in your niche (or a complementary niche) and solve their problem, or get them to ask their list and solve their list’s problem. If you have to cut the person in for half, do it, you’re building a list.
I give my products stupid names all the time and they still sell. Plus, to be honest, do guys like Kern and Morin REALLY have very great product names? Mass Control, (insert noun here) Generator? Product name is one of the last things I worry about… I’m only concerned if the .com for that name is available so people can find it when they hear about it.
So you’re advice is write short books and do video?
Rick
Rick,
To start, yes. That’s the quickest and easiest way to prove you’re an authority.
Years and years ago I used to struggle getting freelance jobs, and as soon as I had a couple of products, I was flooded with more work than I could handle until I quit freelancing.
Hi Robert,
I follow your blog posts, with interest, not just at your site, but when you guest for Michel Fortin and others. Always interesting.
You’ve been instrumental in helping me to up my game and be a more productive content creator. I agree that valuable content does not need to be the length of “War and Peace” and if it is, in most markets, it won’t be read. Short, bite-sized learning works best.
Where I don’t like to scrimp, however, is in research. I want to make sure that what I do is as original as possible and actually contributes to the conversation rather than just reiterating it. If I’m not able to contribute to the conversation in a productive way, I find a freelancer who does have the expertise to do the writing for me.
Liz N.
Elizabeth,
The best kind of research you can do is whether or not people buy.
For a very long time this was my formula in creating products: people asked me to write a simple script for them. I said I don’t want to be paid, just let me put this in my next book.
If people are asking for it, it’s not easily accessible and you should write about it.
Very good advice once again Robert!
I’m actually in the middle of creating a product myself, and have been getting sidetracked from it for the past few days… so now today I will make sure to continue on with it!
P.S. It looks like this was your 99th post… got something big planned 100? 🙂
Joel, I’ve got nothing big planned for post #100. I’m too humble for that 😉
Hi Rob,
I have just finished all the text work on my first product, and i am just starting to add still screenshot illustrations throughout the chapters complimenting the written word, have you got any traffic and promotional tips please?
Thanks Rob….John.
Elizabeth, I agree with Robert.
I can already do every kind of research there is except figuring out what people want to buy.
Donna, how do your organic search rankings look? Have you done any keyword analysis or SEO on your site? I’m curious because my site doesn’t get into the top 100 Google results for most pages, despite having objectively better content. But it’s new, and the niche is crowded…
Blatant shameless plug: somebody hit my link, and grab my last “coupon” for a WordPress article.
As a partner in a growing PLR membership site I get the benefit of seeing others use PLR to create and empower their own product creation.
I often give the advice to focus on building your brand (niche) by sticking to a core theme at first.
While I find it hard to follow my own advice as I’m a total spaz ADD all over the place kinda person. (Working on this as we speak)
Your great training does not make it any easier mind you 🙂 as I now have a superman level ability to create new products at will!
Whats your take on this based on your opinion or rather experience should one FOCUS on one area then expand after having more success or should we blast the shotgun and wish for the best?
Hi Robert… just listening to the tail end VideoSalesTactics – thanks for the webinar (even if it is 2am in the UK : )
I’ve been able to find out more about Time Boxing online but nothing about Question Formatting. Are you able to elaborate on this for maximising time management or is it in that new product course you’ve mentioned?
Thanks