There are at least 3 reasons that make the demand for information products (ebooks, reports, memberships sites, books, courses, DVD's, etc…) massive –
1. Too much information, we need someone to break it down for us. When we want to learn about something that will bring about a highly desired result in our lives, we don't want to spend hours pulling together little pieces of information – instead we are willing to pay money to get the answer fast. So, as someone who wants to publishing and sell information online, as long as you are tapping into a niche market where there is ongoing demand for answers to questions, you have an excellent chance of making money marketing information
2. Less and Less Time — not only is there more information available to the average person today, they have less time to find and interpret that information – so information that guides them closer to their desired outcome quickly and easily is high in value
3. Electrong information – immediate gratification. When we want answers to critical questions in our lives (how a bride can lose 10-lbs before her wedding in 6-weeks, how an 18-year old can beat their acne in 7-days before they go on a hot date, how a spouse can save their relationship after going through a major fight, and so on…) – the fact that we can now find a downloadable ebook, report or video series makes the immediate gratification a major factor in what product we will buy
For these reasons (and others…) the demand for information products is huge…and those that work through The Ultimate Information Entrepreneur Success Package are finding life-changing abilities to tap into this demand and create online profit centers for themselves in as little as 6-weeks.
One of the questions that often comes up when someone decides they want to publish their first ebook, report or online info product is "where do I find the content?"
Sources of Content For Your Own Ebook or Info Products
Remember, the main purpose of an information marketer is to match a desired outcome within a niche market to a set of steps, system or process that will help your prospective customer reach their desired outcome.
The outcome could be losing 10lbs, gaining enough confidence to approach women to ask for a date, reduce the pain associated with various medical conditions, help grow their business in a painless way, turn their hobby into a profitable one, etc…
So the important thing to think about in developing content for your info product is that the organization of information is as important as the content itself.
You want to walk your prospect through a set of steps that will help them achieve their desired outcome. One step may come from an article you read about, another step may come from a recent research report published online, andother step may come from your own knowledge or an interview with an expert — but together, these become your unique "SYSTEM" for satisfying demand in your niche market.
In addition to looking at leading books, articles & information that already exists…
1. Look at current and past research studies. One of the main values you can provide as an infoproduct creator is to pull together the latest research on a topic (say weight loss, improving memory, fighting acne, stay motivated, etc…) and pull out the most useful and applicable parts of that research.
In other words, you look at 10 of the most recent studies done on the link between stress and weight loss, summarize the findings and then draw some conclusions that are useful for your prospects.
2. Ideally you can draw on some personal and/or expert opinion. Once I put together a training or step-by-step system for an infoproduct, I will look for validation – sometimes that means interviewing an expert(s), other times it means trying something myself (in the case of a marketing system or health system), or it could mean trying it out on some early adopters who can then give you endorsements based on results.
3. What is CRITICAL when you create your info product is to a) begin with a desired outcome in mind b) research content (websites, blogs, magazines, existing books, research studies, etc…) to help develop a step-by-step process that will work best to help them acheve that end result (it doesn't have to be perfect at this point, but based on research is good), c) get support for your unique system by either getting expert opinion or content through interviews, getting endorsements, trying it yourself, etc…
Remember – what you are developing here are mini-systems or mini-courses that can be sold as introductory ebooks, reports or teleseminars but may also be expanded into full-blow courses, tutorials, manuals or workshops giving you the opportunity to grow your own multi-million dollar information publishing enterprise.
Have a question about starting or growing your information product marketing business – leave us a comment and we will help…
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Is there another stage of starting your own online business or information publishing business that causes more confusion, delay or trouble than finding both a niche market and a business or product idea to sell on the internet?
The internet has opened a massive new opportunity for commerce allowing people of all ages and abilities to enhance their existing income or start brand new careers by starting their own businesses and because of that, some of the fundamental steps involved with starting successful businesses and developing hot-selling products have not been learned.
So, what we get is a confusion of marketing methods and research methods.
What I mean is that 9 our of 10 people that seek our help at InfoMarketer'sZone are struggling to find niche markets and product ideas using keywords without taking into account what people are buying.
Instead, keep this principle in mind…
Research what is selling to find market & product opportunties, use keyword research to understand how to reach those markets in a cost-effective, profitable way — NOT the other way around.
What has worked very well for us is actually ignoring keyword in the first stage of analysis and then working our way back there during the validation and actual marketing stages.
Here's what I mean…
1. When we are either looking for niches or have one in mind, I always start with looking at what is selling first — if infoproducts is your end goal, then you want to look at clickbank, amazon, commission junction, seminar portals, etc… to see IF and WHAT is selling in that field.
2. After getting a good handle on what is selling…we then reverse engineer the ultimate challenge or desire behind the consumer demand for that information product…what questions are they looking to find the answer to? What outcome are they seeking?
3. Now you have a target niche, armed with what it is they want – keyword research is the next phase where you have one main objective 1) Finding the right combination of cost-effective keywords that lead you to the best Return on Investment you can get — in other words, which keywords are the "buyer" keywords…that process is part art and part science (process of testing).
Using this approach, we assure ourselves that we are tapping into the "commerce" that is massively growing online – rather than trying again and again to match keyword demand to e-commerce.
Are you struggling to find your niche market? Having trouble coming up with an infoproduct topics that have built-in demand? Leave us a comment and let's hear about it.
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It seems so simple to explain and understand – targeting niche markets with highly relevant products is a surefire to gain wealth with your own internet business.
Why then do we all struggle so much when it comes to putting such a simple principle into action?
No doubt this principle works…
1. When we targeted stressed-out, middle-aged men with a simple-to-use, step-by-step system for not ONLY reducing stress, but improving their self-confidence and success in life we hit a home run with a Clickbank product last year
2. We created a killer system for developing information products back in 2002 that ROCKED, we update it twice each year and it STILL The Ultimate Information Entrepreneur's Success System is the de-facto standard system for ebook writing, infoproduct publishing and infoproduct marketing on the internet today
3. We have 15 information products now generated daily profits online at price ranges from $27 up to $1000's – and have more in development right now
4. Using the same approach, we helped a technology company add $10M to its bottom line by developing a training system for their customers that turned out to be MORE profitable than their softrware.
5. Then, there are the dozens and dozens of people we have personally helped to launch their own full-time infoproduct businesses using the exact same system
But… there are very common mistakes that most people make and we want to avoid those – right?
One of those mistakes is how to mix one's interests and commercial potential of niche markets on the internet.
Instead of yet another explanation of how to find and mine niche markets to generate cash – let me try and explain what you MUST do to make big profit with your online marketing.
Let's say you constantly find yourself drawn toward brain research or psychology – you have a real interest in understanding why people act the way they do. You have a dozen books on around the topic in your bookshelf at home, find yourself drawn to Pyschology magazines, discuss this with others, etc…
So, you have an interest.
Now, what you want to do is put that interest on the shelf for a few days.
Go into that market – look at the books you have, the magazine articles, blog posts, examine other products, seminars, etc… that are being sold around that topic with an aim to learning 1 single thing…what OUTCOME are people passionately looking to get out of their interest in that market?
Do they want to…
1. Become a more confident people with a better job and more friends?
2. Do they want to control their emotions to be better around the opposite sex so they can get more dating activity?
3. Are they looking to overcome the pain associated with being embarassed constantly and want to know how to overcome that?
4. Or is it that they are so stressed out is is having negative impact on their health, job or relationships so they BADLY want to learn to control stress…
And so on…
You can find these BIG desires by looking at what people are already buying…then you can apply your interest in helping to come up with solution to help them get what they want.
This way you are coming at the niche from your customer's perspective then applying your interest, passion, and knowledge to help them reach their end objective.
Believe me, this WORKS!
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We have all wondered about how long it would take us to make a substantial income on the internet if we were to begin taking action right now.
Is it reasonable to think we might make $100/week within the first few months?
How about making $1000/week, when could we expect to make those types of sales and profits from our internet business?
Of course, there are no guarantees, but we can share a system that we have personally used across 12 different products, dozens of websites and 4 major niche online businesses…and they have all been started and grown using the same 45-Day Information Profits Formula.
Wondering what the formula looks like? Even better, in this video we share the 4 key pillars of the 45-Day Formula used by hundreds of our coaching clients…and it can work for your internet business profits too:
Now wasn't that cool?
The same 4 steps have been used by one internet business entrepreneur after another to launch their very own 6-figure and 7-figure online ventures…do you have questions, post them as a comment and we promise to give you an honest and realistic answer.
Filed under internet business, internet marketing, make money online by
I learned early on in my career that no matter how well I thought I knew a market, no matter how close or far away I was from that market or how badly I was sure they needed a product or service – especially information – a market match could never be assumed!
We are often asked by new menbers of InfoMarketer'sZone – "do we really have to follow the steps in the 6-Week InfoProduct Profits system" if we really know our market and our customers…my answer is if you are thinking that you 100% KNOW your market then you especially have to follow the process because it is this assumptive thinking that has burned many information marketers I've coached and worked with in the past.
Because of the processes we follow, we have not had a product flop , but believe me, we have had lots of idea flops!
What do you think costs you more time, energy, and money – an idea that turns out to be a flop or a fully developed product and business that ends in a flop?
AVOID INFOPRODUCT FLOPS!
I was lucky when I first started out to be coached by someone who kept pounding into me "start with your gut, but don't trust it completely" – who urged me to constantly ease my way into markets with specific methods of website design, advertising, mini-products and then expand when you hit something the market goes for.
Even having done this 12 different times, we still follow the same system and it works everytime – but stray from it and your chances of success with your own infoproduct fall to below 1 in 5 in our experience.
Why risk it?
The system we outlined is contained and frequently updated inside the Infomarketer'sZone InfoProduct Guru Resource Site…in short you want to:
1. Design a simple, quick website that is built to test the preferences of your prospects
2. Build a list quickly that you can get to tell you exactly what they want to buy
3. Turn that feedback into a product idea, outline and "living product concept" that can be validated with your market BEFORE you sink any time or financial investment into the business
4.Quickly pick out the winners and turn them around into high profit infoproducts without missing a beat.
That's what I've done and I have to say I get people coming to me constantly who have NOT followed that path, where they went with their gut and put load of work and time (and sometimes money) into a business or product only to find out it is a flop.
Test, test, test builds trust, trust, trust in your idea.
Do you have an infoproduct story you want to tell us about or are you considering a topic that you would like feedback on…leave us a comment.
Filed under info product, info-publishing, infoproducts, information marketing by
Picking a niche market that will make money on the internet is a tricky exercise, and more often than not, people are getting outright FOOLED!
Each week I have dozens of people come to me within InfoMarketer'sZone looking for advice on how to find a niche market or how to turn their chosen niche market into profit…and therein lies the critical success factor for choosing niche markets.
NICHE MARKET DEAD-END's
Your goal for picking a market and starting an internet business is presumably to make money – and ideally, lot's of money without killing yourself right?
And it stands to reason that you want a crowd of hungry people that are eagerly interested in something to target as your niche market…may as well tap into demand, correct?
Right so far…but here is where the mistake is often made.
Just like a dog chasing his tail, you can chase hot niche markets until you are frustrated, broke and dejected and still not make a buck, and unfortunately, that is what many people do.
Here are a few examples of niche markets that may "seem" like good targets, but will most likely result in a Dead-end result:
1. World Cup. Millions and millions of people are hot about the World Cup – searches are extremely high and websites are popping up everywhere, so it seems like that would be a good trend to ride correct? No – for two main reasons. First, do you know how you would monetize hundreds of thousands of users who have an interest in the world cup? What would they buy? Are you sure they aren't just looking for game information? And second, how long will that trend last…about another 3-4 days in my estimation…that isn't even enough time to begin to draw in traffic even if you could get your site up today.
Bad IDEA!
2. Summer niches – swimming, sunbathing, etc… Again, lots of searches but extremely unclear how you would monetize these niches – you would be better to target specific things that people BUY in the summer like jacuzzi's, pools, barbecues, etc…
3. Weight loss…what is the challenge here? No it is NOT competition, it is that your niche market is not specific enough. Don't get me wrong, I love the sub-niches within weight loss, but targeting overall weight loss is not what people have in mind when they jump on the internet. Instead, they have in mind "toning their legs", "getting rid of belly fat", "building six-pack abs", etc… Ask yourself, is your niche too general? Can you target a more specific RESULT for a subset of people within your niche?
NOW…GETTING GREAT AT PICKING HIGH PROFIT NICHES
You may be seeing the pattern from reading about the niches that turn out to be BAD ideas…
To succeed wildly your niche market MUST be organized around:
1. An existing desire for something that costs money…
A hot niche to me is not a topic that is just seeing a lot of buzz or search activity, you can go poor VERY quickly chasing after these niches — instead, go after niches where there is evidence of MONEY changing hands.
What is selling? Either physical products or information products – what is moving and what is not – THAT will tell you which niche is hot from a money-in-your-pocket perspective.
Or — you could choose to go the ad route, in which case you want to study where ad spending is happening. If you check Google Adwords and see that people are spending 3$, $4 or more per click, then it stands to reason there is more ad revenue opportunity in those niches – cha ching!
Go where the money is flowing NOT just where the traffic is going…follow the money trail.
The first several trainings in the 6-week Information Product Profit Secrets training course inside InfoMarketer'sZone walks you through a dozen or so ways to uncover existing buying patterns on the internet so you know exactly what people are spending money on…a massive advantage for you to step in and immediately begin to take part in an active niche making profit right away.
2. A specifc desire for a RESULT
We humans are peculiar creatures, we constantly long to be different, better, experience less pain, overcome limitiations we are convinced we have…and we will go to the ends of earth to make that happen!
When we work with ebook writers and information product creators they are often amazed at how irrational and strong the desire is for their products once they tap into the right niche and hit the right marketing buttons – it all comes down to targeting a result that a particular market wants backed by strong emotional attachment.
Believe me, for anyone that has tried everything to market a product or service on the internet and can't muster more than a few sales, you will be amazed when you put the right product in front of a hungry audience how easy making money really becomes.
What result do you target with your information product or online niche business?
If you can't answer that question easily, don't undersatnd fully how to identify these emotionally charged desired results within markets or can't undersatnd if your targeted result is missing the mark, then I highly recommend that you step inside Infomarketer'sZone, take the InfoMarketer's Product Profit training system and you will have a skill that you can use forever to identify and monetize hot niche markets.
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Could you create and market a Million dollar ebook like the top sellers within Amazon and Clickbank do?
How about your own private membership site that charges between $17-$69/month for access to information within niche markets as diverse as Running a Restaurant Business, Financial Planning to Relationship or Health advice?
Or maybe you could develop 4 powerpoint training modules and operate a home-study program delivered on DVD or via webinar/teleconference coaching sessions – these commonly range from $97-$997 depending on the content & target audience.
THERE IS MORE MONEY IN INFORMATION MARKETING THAN EVER BEFORE
The number of top selling ebooks continues to rapidly increase, we have dozens dn dozens of members over at InfoMarketer'sZone that have launched brand new careers for themselves with their own infoproducts – and now, for the first time in years – have a viable business that earns them ongoing income from products they developed once.
Not every information product is a success of course, but understand and apply these 3 tips and your chances are extremely high:
1. Narrow your search for a market & specific problem down by looking at existing demand for information. To start with, focus on topics within health & wellness, business/finance, relationships, or certain hobbies where there has been proof of people buying information
2. Make sure you target a highly desired RESULT expected by your niche market…in other words, don't author an ebook about Losing Weight, but be specific about exactly what ugly fat your prospect is wrestling with emotionally – arm fat, belly fat, "get rid of thunder thighs"…etc Think about it, the first thing someone thinks about is not losing weight but rather how do I get rid of these ugly…
3. Begin by putting up a website/blog now and start building traffic & a list so as you create your infoproduct you can survey your market, get some early testimonials & reviews and have a base to launch your product when it is done.
Here are several free/open articles, tutorials and videos on infoproduct creation and marketing you may find helpful. Create & market infoproducts.
Filed under info product, info-publishing, infoproducts, information marketing by
As human beings we come loaded with beliefs that tend to define and limit our view on life. That's ok, the fact that we have learned and experienced life is a good thing, but it does sometimes get in the way of how we personally develop and how successful we are at growing our businesses.
When you start a business, you have an idea of who you are targeting, what that market wants and the messaging required to get that market to take an interest and buy what you are offering.
The smallest error in either your assumptions around market, their desires or their "hot buttons" can mean a massive difference in your sales, profits and future in your business.
So why are we so confident that WE know the market, what they want and how they want to hear about it?
TOUGH LESSONS LEARNED
When I first started my own information product business I wrote an ebook that bundled a ton of knowledge into a guidebook that helped others put together their own products highly focused on the creative process…but after several reviews and being hit over the head enough times I was told "You have one really GREAT chapter in your ebook which talks about packaging that information into info products so people can leverage their time & energy by packaging their knowledge for profit – why not just go with that?"
You have to understand, the entire book was my baby, I didn't WANT to give up the other chapters, but as time went on it became more obvious that I had to fit my knowledge to the market instead of the other way around.
SO…AFTER ALL, IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU THINK
Just this morning I was speaking to another marketer who had yet to learn the same lesson…
He mentioned how much he hated a certain subject line that marketers often use in broadcast emails out to their list, the subject line was "If you are reading this, chances are…"
The fact is there are many email subject lines that may personally dirve me nuts but one thing I've learned to do in marketing is to trust the results…
So, I would not dismiss using any email subject line unless a) It were obviously offensive or would hurt someone or b) Test results showed it was abismal in its response.
There are two aspects to email marketing that are important…
1. Getting people to open the email
2. Getting people to read and take action on your post
It may be that the subject line you mention will do neither OR it could be that it accomplishes both, do we really know?
If not, then I would be willing to test it with some solid content relevant to the post.
Look – if you have a list of 5000 people and what you are writing about is highly relevant to those people, AND the subject line "If you are reading this, chances are… gets them to open and read your email at a rate 1.5 times higher than other subject lines, would you still think it is stupid?
When it comes right down to it, there are two extremely important factors that will improve our business results:
1. Getting to know our market at a deeper and much more comprehensive level…who they are, what is causing them pain, what they badly want and why. The more we know about our market, the more we will be able to speak their language in terms of product offerings and marketing
2. Suspend disbelief long enough to test. One thing I have learned in my decades creating information products and marketing is that more than half the time my gut is wrong…so it is much better for me to dig in and know more about my market and then suspend disbelief until I have tested.
Could you have missed something in your product planning or marketing because of how YOU feel or beliefs YOU have instead of taking guidance from your market? Leave us a comment, it may help others to expand their thinking and breakthrough current limitations.
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We've tackled 4 different niche markets in which we have positioned dozens of different products and helped countless others target their niche markets with niche products.
Without a doubt the most important element to how much profit you make on the internet and how easy it is to attract traffic and customers who pay for what you offer is understanding what it means to find niche markets.
Knowing how to find profitable niche ideas means:
- You will naturally (without even trying) attract a storm of traffic and eager buyers without having to "sell" or "market" your product to an audience that just doesn't seem to be listening or responsive
- Customers, partners, publicity and profit comes to YOU instead of you scraping the bottom of the barrel trying to pay your monthly expenses
- There will be an endless number of niche product ideas and opportunities because there are millions and millions of people that want more and more information about how to achieve their desires or overcome their challenges
- Business is FUN and exciting because customers like you…they are looking for you…and appreciate that you understand them and offer them the niche content and niche products they are looking for
And…the coolest thing of all is that the internet makes niche research so fast and simple, watch this video as we show you IN DETAIL a free way to find niche markets that are RED hot with existing buying activity…
Do you have a niche market, idea or topic you are thinking of turning into a website, business or product that you want to ask about or a question about finding niche markets – post a comment, lets hear from you.
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Logged into my Paypal account to pay my affiliates earlier today and checked out the latest Policy Updates and found this one that indicates a new Refund Fee for sellers that comes into effect August 10, 2010:
- Amendment to the PayPal User Agreement
Section 8.5 (Additional Fees) is amended to add a new refund fee. If you refund a Purchase Payment, we will retain the Fixed Fee portion of the Purchase Payment Fee. The buyer’s Account will be credited with the full Purchase Payment amount and the Fixed Fee portion of the Purchase Payment Fee will be deducted from your Account in addition to the amount of the refunded payment. The Fixed Fee will depend on the currency of the Purchase Payment and is listed in 8.4(c).
Can't say I am totally shocked, though I would have preferred to have seen accounts that experience an exceptionally high rate of refunds penalized rather than all of us
We've worked hard to keep our refund rates extremely low over the last few years, even as sales have gone up by a factor of 10X – measures such as…
1. Gone to higher priced infoproducts where the refund rates are actually quite allot lower
2. Moved to recurring revenue (membership, coaching program and paid X of the month) programs where there is little or no refunds, cancellations may occur for future payments, but requests for refunds are pretty much non-existant
3. Sell physical infoproducts – as long as the quality is good, refund requests are exceptionally low
4. Over-deliver – I like to add surprise bonuses post sale so the customer rarely requests a refund
5. Spread delivery of the product out over 30-90 days where they get the main product right away, an additional bonus after 30-days, a coaching call 45-days later, etc… this both deters fraudsters because they are looking for everything for nothing right away and don't like these periodically delivered programs AND keeps legitimate customers plugged in
6. Finally – if there is an error or a problem with delivery or some aspect of your product (occurs from time to time) – then I make it right by offering additional products, free access to a membership site, etc… quickly – it was our mistake, so we own up and give them more value to make up for the fact which means they likely will not request a refund.
More fees are never good, but it may be more positive for your business if you think a little about how to lower your refund rate – if you lower your rate by just 1%, then the .30 (depending on currency) fee will be nothing…
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