"7 Tactics in 7 Chapters To Help You Build and Increase Your Online Income."
Informational products are also very easy to create and require little specialized skills. All you need to be able to do is research a subject and present the information in an interesting and easily understandable way.
There are many different types of informational products, ranging from streaming videos to audio files. However, unless you are already experienced in these areas, it is best to start with something simpler. Let’s look at some of the advantages of creating your own ebook:
There are no added costs involved with printing pages or shipping orders. Your product can be available as an instant, digital download.
You don’t have to actually be physically present in order to take orders. The process, including product deddvery, can be 100% automated.
There is a big market for readable and useful information. There is no limit on the number of ebooks you can create within a given niche.
You get to build a reputation as a respected author in your field. This can be very beneficial to any other online marketing efforts.
You can use your product to promote other business ventures or affiliate programs by embedding links in them.
The process of finding a profitable niche is covered in detail in Chapter 7. However, let’s summarize the steps involved:
Jotting down any keyword that is related to your field of expertise or the niche you are interested in.
Using tools such as Good Keywords to come up with new key phrases related to the keywords you generated before.
Weeding through your ddst of keywords and key phrases to determine which ones you want to keep and which ones you want to cross out.
Using tools such as Overture to determine search volumes and level of competition for each of your final keywords/key phrases.
Essentially, what your niche research should achieve are answers to the following questions:
Once you’ve decided on your niche, it’s time to get down to actually creating the ebook. One strategy that is utilized is putting together a collection of free reprint articles on the subject. While this does free you from the task of doing any writing yourself, the information you present is freely available elsewhere so people probably won’t want to pay for it.
It’s not that difficult writing an ebook, especially if you are familiar with the material. There are some steps that you should follow which will help you streamline the process.
Unlike an outline, a brief consists of a few simple statements that serve to focus your mind on the task at hand. You will be looking at things like the general subject matter of the ebook, the number of pages, and the length of time for completion.
Once you have done your research and defined your main topic, you can now go ahead and specify the sub-topics. Include any points that you think might be important. If you’re not sure what those might be, try visiting relevant forums see what areas are being discussed. It may be a good idea to come up with a draft of your Table of Contents. You can always refine this at a later date.
You may be wondering why you should be taking this step when you’re concentrating on the actual ebook. Simply put, just as you’re getting your points together for the ebook, it will be easy for you to list its main benefits for the sales page. It is best to do this while everything is fresh in your mind, and it will save you time.
By now you should have an extensive list of sub-topics relevant to your main subject area. Put yourself in the place of your potential customers. If you were considering buying such a product, what would you be looking for?
Start fleshing out the sub-topics using the points that you identified in the previous step. The objective here is to just write. Get your ideas down as fast as they come to you. This should be easy once you’ve chosen a topic you’re familiar with or have done a lot of research on.
Once you have compiled all the information together, you’ll need to ensure that your ebook is free from spelling and grammatical errors. You’ll also need to organize your content so that the wording flows and is easily understandable.
If you’ve followed steps 1 to 6 closely, you’ll now have a completed text document. However, you cannot distribute an informational ebook in this format. The best format for ebooks is as a PDF. This is preferred since it will retain the look of your document so you don’t need to make any adjustments to characters, fonts or graphics.
Unfortunately, the best software on the market for converting text files to PDFs is manufactured by Adobe and this is quite expensive. There are cheaper alternatives and you can even source free software in the form of PDF995. This is a free program that allows you to do a complete conversion.
The first things that your potential customers will see regarding your ebook are the sales page and the ebook cover. It is therefore crucial that you make a good first impression. A poorly done cover will not only fail to grab attention but can also make your product seem cheap and tacky.
If you are familiar with graphics packages such as PhotoShop, you can easily create your own cover designs. If not, it is well worth it to employ the services of a reliable freelancer.
Here’s a tip. The first thing you’ll need in order to create a great sales page is a great place to put it. You will need a reliable hosting account for your webpage. Some people may choose to use a free host. This can actually hurt your credibility since most of the URLs offered by these services are long sub-domains.
Your hosting service doesn’t have to be expensive since you really don’t need that much space. Once you’ve signed up for a hosting package, it’s time to create the sales letter that will become your content.
Create a compelling headline. Try to include the biggest benefit of your product within your headddne. The purpose of doing this is to give your potential customers a reason to keep reading.
No one likes to read long paragraphs. Try to break blocks of text into shorter paragraphs and bulleted points. This will be more visually appealing.
Communicate directly to your potential customers. By all means, include some information on yourself in order to establish your credibility, but avoid overdoing this. Instead, outline what your product has to offer.
Don’t look at your customers as just paying clients. Write as though you are talking to a friend. Be personable. This will help you build a personal connection.
Include contact details. Some people may not be comfortable putting their personal address onddne. You may wish to use a P.O. Box instead, but you should at least have a phone number and an email address.
Don’t forget to include your Unique Selling Point. You will most ddkely have some level of competition within your niche. You must have something which will set you apart from the others. Whether it’s the price of your product, or bonuses that you are offering, you can’t afford to leave this out.
Many people are daunted by the task of advertising their product themselves. You can hire a professional to do this for you at a reasonable price, especially if you post the project on freelance job sites. However, quite a few others would like to try this task for themselves. There are numerous inexpensive ways to advertise your product online.
Forums are gathering places for like-minded individuals to discuss topics that they’re interested in. Therefore, forums centered on your niche product are great places to advertise your ebook since you already have a targeted audience.
Articles are an excellent way to share your expertise and build your credibility as an expert in your field. An added advantage is the fact that most article directories will allow a link your sales page to be placed in either the body of the article or the author’s resource box.
This is similar to having your own website, except that you don’t need to pay for hosting. There are many sites, such as Blogger.com, that will allow you to set up your blog for free. You can post your own articles, links or advice and most blogs are picked up by RSS sites, so you’ll reach a larger audience.
Here you will essentially be bidding on keywords that you think visitors would use to search for your site. The higher your bid, the higher your ad will appear. This can be quite expensive for very competitive keywords, but can also be an effective advertising tool if used properly.
One of the best ways to market your product is to have others promote it for you. You may be wondering how you can achieve this. The answer is by setting up your own affiliate program.
With an affiliate program, you recruit others to do your marketing for you and they are rewarded by a commission for each sale they make. There are a number of ways in which affiliates can do their advertising but it usually involves placing some HTML code on their website.
Of course, none of this will matter if you can’t set up your affiliate program to start with. You have two choices when it comes to this. You can work through a third party who will set up the program for you but will take a hefty monthly fee, or you can invest in affiliate software that you can run on your own computer.
The problem with most affiliate software titles is the price. For example, MyAffiliateProgram, which is a hosted solution costs $2495. Similarly, the popular AllAffiliatePro sells for $449 ... and that’s not even the basic package. One alternative solution is EasyClickMate which costs $67. It's specifically designed to work with Clickbank and once you have you it set up, you’re ready to get some affiliates and make money.
Finding affiliates is not difficult, once you have a program that offers a great product and a fairly high commision. The problem is finding quality affiliates who will actually boost your sales. A good place to start is on affiliate forums. Four of the busiest and best affiliate forums online are, Associates Programs Forum, ABestWeb, Wikedfire and Affiliates4u. Introduce yourself and state exactly how your affiliate program can be beneficial.
Another crucial step is submitting the details of your program to as many reliable affiliate directories as possible. This is where serious affiliates will come to look for new, potentially profitable programs. Ensure that you choose the right category for your program.
In recent years, certain internet information marketers just seem to be everywhere. Three of the most prominant and three of the most successful are below:
Mark Joyner is often refferred to as the Grandfather of Internet Marketing. Depsite dropping out of high school he went on to sell millions of Dollars in products and services both offline and online.
Joel Comm has been online for over 20 years. Joel's book, The AdSense Code is a New York times, best seller. Joel is currently producing the internets first reality TV show, The Next Internet Millionaire.
Mike Filsaime is the founder and CEO of PayDotCom. Mike's company MikeFilsaime.com, Inc. did nearly $4.5 Million in sales in 2006.
