How to Create the Perfect Information Product and Make Money Doing It
I know you have at least one idea for a product. Maybe you haven't made a product yet or you've made many products in the past.
How do you know that your big idea is something that everyone else is going to pay money for? We're going to figure out right now if your idea will be profitable in two stages – the research stage and the creation stage.
Stage 1: Research
I don't believe in doing more than 30 minutes of research to figure out if your idea will make you money. I say this because I know of too many marketers who have spent a month or 6 months or a year researching as an excuse not to do anything. Let's spend 30 minutes and figure out if your idea is worth it.
The first thing you should do is check forums. What's the hot topic inside the #1 forum in your niche? When I go to my favorite marketing forum, I find that the threads with the most replies are about articles, membership sites, and ClickBank.
When I go to my favorite programming forum, most of the replies are about PHP frameworks, WordPress plugins, and outsourcing.
Don't bother making a report about something unless it's a hot topic that a lot of people in your small niche are talking about. I'm not a believer in going mass market unless you have a lot of money to invest. If you're just starting out on a niche, start in the niche.
Now that you know what everyone is talking about, figure out what people are paying for. You have friends in the same niche you're in, right? What have they all bought recently? What big launches are going on in your niche? What have you personally paid for? There's no point in getting into a niche unless people are willing to spend a bare minimum of $100 on you.
I have bought products showing me how to make a software outline, how to write faster, how to create video, how to make audio products, and they have all accelerated my path towards getting things done.
The final part of your research now that you know what people are talking about and what people are buying is finding out what your competitors are doing. Go to Google and search for the niche you're in.
If you are thinking about creating a course on how to sell on eBay, search the forum you're on for the word "ebay." Search Google for "eBay eBook," "eBay guide," "eBay course," "eBay video." Go on amazon.com and look for books in that niche and DVDs in that niche as well. This is good because not only does it show you what areas to target but also what your price point should be.
You should match your price point fairly well to your competitors but price slightly higher, that way you will have a higher perceived value.
Stage 2: Solve It
Now that you've done your research, you should know how to adjust your idea to deliver the best solution by answering people's questions on forums, figuring out what they're paying for and duplicating or doing the job better than your competitors. Now, it's time to create the product.
I have never spent more than a few days making a simple lead generation product, and by lead generation, I need a product that's $100 or cheaper. Your product will be a lot better if you write it without distractions and write it as fast as possible. You can always go back and make version 2.0 later.
What's more important than spending or wasting a lot of time on creating a product is to add your own "how to" information. I can go online right now and find lots of tips and advice about placing an eBay ad.
I can find lots of videos on YouTube showing me the mechanics of placing an eBay ad, but I want you to show me what makes an eBay ad profitable. I want you to tell me exactly what steps I should take from start to finish from having something to sell on eBay to actually placing the ad and making the sale and what to do after that.
Also think about what simple problem can you solve for them. For some people, an eBay problem might be that they cannot get people to read their ad.
The sooner you make your info-product not just "how to" but also problem and solution-based, the more people are going to benefit from your book, the better reviews it's going to get and you'll have an easier time making a sale. And finally, what success stories can you gather from the people who use your product?
Here's something to think about. If someone has not yet bought your eBook or home study course, all they have to go on is your pitch page or sales letter.
That's why you need to make your sales letter as best as it can possibly be and the way I like to make a sales letter better is to gather testimonials or proof and show that on the sales letter – so, people who have not yet bought can see that others have benefited from this training.
And that's how you're going to create the perfect info-product and make money doing it. First, researching it in forums by what's making money, what your competitors are doing, and then create that product by offering your own unique how to, solving a problem, and gathering success stories from those people whose problems you have solved and place it back on the sales letter.
Did this help you make your next info-product? Where have you been lacking?
In the research stage or in the creation stage? And how will you get better? Leave me a blog comment below right now while it's still fresh on your mind.
Filed in: Niche Selection • Product Creation
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I think the research stage is the place where most of us fail. I agree with your principle that ½ hour should be enough to decide whether the idea is worthwhile.
But certainly your second principle about getting things out of the sandbox is a good idea. When people know they will get version 2.0 they are more tolerant of a minor flaw in version 1.0, and getting things into the field is indeed the best way to get user feedback to make final adjustments.
So not that flawed products should be released, but you’re bound to find a minor bug once something lands on thousands of desktops globally.
But next time I’m doing research, I’ll follow the 30 minute rule and move on to either another research, or getting the product ready for launch in as short a time as possible.
Hi Robert,
Thanks for outlining your product creation strategy.
What I find particularly difficult is coming up with the right plan that will ensure me getting to the ‘finish-line’ with my product creation.
There are so many details you need to take care of. Here’s how I do it:
*Research- write down as many characteristics as I can about a particular topic that’s in-demand.
*Extend every characteristic with 3-4 sub-topics.
*Product creation – I extend every sub-topic by writing 1-2 pages about each.
This way you can have a ready-made infoproduct in a couple of hours because you are focused and you know what you need to do. You’re not guessing. You are focused!
I think research is fun to do and it never bores me. i love to tackle into topics and sub-topics and find out more about what people’s needs are.
Concluding that the product creation faze is the most difficult and the one that gives marketers headaches 🙂
Regards, Remi
I’m catching up on reading blogs this morning. Yours, as always, is thought-provoking and informative. It’s still taking me too long because I get bogged down with the tactics of how all the pieces fit together. But, I’m better than I was 3 months ago, so I will continue and be even better yet.
Happy Sunday, Robert!
Jeanne
I have been lacking on the research part, but on the pro site, this has meant that I’ve created a lot of products. My flaw was to go from my own point of view, like when podcasts started, I thought “Wow, what a great idea”, and I saw that there were no books about it in Danish, so I wrote the book.
But I was too early out. The people who like me had started to podcast, all figured it out themselves, and the non-geeks hadn’t started to podcast, so they didn’t want the book. Eventually sales started to come in, but a lot slower than I had expected.
I’m not good at doing forum research. It takes me far too long to find something, and then I’m not even sure it’s the right facts I’ve found.
And then there’s probably a question about being known or not known in a niche. I’ve written an ebook about how to get fresh and free content on your blog, it has really good reviews, and it’s been selling some, but far from the number of copies it would have sold, had the author name been somebody else, like e.g. Robert Plank 🙂
So I guess the way to go is to brand my name more.
Makes sense to me. I haven’t created my first product yet so now I’ve got an outline of the appropriate steps to take.
I get bogged down when I’m trying to research something. Maybe it’s that I’m not entering the right key words or key word phrases to get to the right places. Or maybe there’s additional info I should be typing into the search bar along with the key words to direct me to the desired destinations.
I honestly don’t know who my competitors are, so now I know I better find out!
Thanks, Robert.
Melanie
*My niche is “Single Mom Entrepreneurs”
Yes, I’ve been guilty of “analysis paralysis” in the research phase…:)
And been infected with “perfectitis” in the product creation phase also LOL. But it’s weird…those less than perfect products sell better than the unfinished ones every time 😉
Helpful post, thanks Robert.
Mtn Jim
Robert, please say you are going bundle up this whole series of articles for a nice little PDF or something. I’ll buy it. I’ll pay in advance. I’ll print it out. I just don’t have time to execute on it at this very moment. Dammit.
In the past I’ve been stuck in the “analysis” mode for many months, with no product to generate revenue. I’m now taking action and creating my first product – it will be complete within the coming week. It won’t be perfect, but I will get feedback and create a Version 2, like you suggest.
Thanks for the reminders Robert and showing us your outline for creating an information product.
Hey Robert -sound advice as usual. I have the problem of not having testimonials for my products (because I haven’t sold them yet) and I think that holds me back some.
I also know that sometimes we get hung up on what we perceive as a need for quantity rather than quality and thus we skip the “simple solution” part.
Thanks for bringing me back to baseline.
Terrie
You make a very good point – get it out there fast and make version 2.0 better. Why spend months creating the first version just to find out no one wants it anyway? That’s the purpose of creating a customer list for people who have bought your product, so you can send them the next version.
You give great advice.
Gwen
Robert,
As always your posts are insightful and seem to hit the problem nail right on the head. I have several “less than perfect” products and one I have been striving to perfect. Seems like I would learn from experience because I have to agree 100% with Mtn Jim. The less than perfect products sure seem to outsell the unfinished ones everytime.
Thanks again for rattling our collective cages,
Clyde
Great post Robert … and I’ve only recently discovered how important it is to focus on products that can make you $50 plus per sale if you want an income to really change your lifestyle.
And if it’s $100 I’m guessing affiliates would love to drive you some traffic to get their cut.
Really good – thanks.
What is your favorite marketing forum Robert ?