Book Description
Why Information Products?
If you have been pulling your hair out looking for a way to make
money online, the search is over! One of the easiest ways to make
money is by writing and selling information products in electronic book
form. This is the ultimate product for online sales, simply because the
potential is enormous!
An electronic book, as you may already know, is not a traditional book
that you can turn the corner of one page down to mark your place.
(Yes, I am guilty of that!) It is a regular computer file, no different
from the hundreds of other files you may have on your hard drive
except that it is structured to look and read like a traditional book. You
can either read an electronic book on the monitor of your computer, or
print it out so that it is portable.
An electronic book can be viewed on any type or brand of computer.
You can send them as email attachments or download them from the
Web. Electronic books are extremely versatile! They take up very little
room on a hard drive. Some people have hundreds of eBooks on their
computer – a library that they personally chose.
Digital Self-Publishing
Digitally self-publishing an eBook is quite different from publishing a
traditional book. With a traditional book, you have to pay the costs of
any printing yourself if you choose to self-publish. Then, if the book
does well and you need to reprint, you have to pay those costs again,
which eats into your profits. If you have the goal of having your book
published the customary way by a big-name publishing house, get
ready for a long wait.
First, your book has to be approved. That can take a year or more, if it
happens at all! Most people who have the dream of publishing their
book have a folder full of rejection letters to show for their efforts. If
by chance your book is approved, it is not published right away.
There’s a wait for that, too. All told, it could be several years before
your book hits the market, and even more time before you see any
profit from your labor!
There are no printing costs, and very little waiting time involved with
publishing an eBook. Statistics show that eBooks sell better than audio
books and paperback books, and information eBooks sell best of all.
What Makes Information Ebooks
Such A Special Product?
Information is extremely profitable.
There is an unlimited quantity of information in the world today.
Information is easy and inexpensive – close to free at times - to
deliver to your customers online.
Any information produced by you in written form for your eBook
is yours. You own it fully and control where it goes.
Information that is new to people, or presented to them in a new
manner will have very little competition.
Your item is different from anyone else’s because you wrote it!
(It goes without saying here that you can’t copy someone else’s
work and try to pass it off as your own!)
Information lends itself quite well to cross-selling, a type of sales
technique where you would offer a more profitable product at the
same time you are pitching your main information product.
Cross-selling can make even more money for you. Selling a
product that goes well with the theme of the information product
can double or even triple your profits sometimes. Say you wrote
an eBook on dog training. If you offered training collars, leads,
clickers, and other items used in your book on the same web
site, your customers would be quite tempted to buy them.
Consider cross-selling as a way of offering accessories to your
eBook. Often, an eBook is given away free with the purchase of
an item in order to entice the customer to buy the higher priced
products.
Information also can be used in up-selling. This would be when
you had two versions of your eBook – a regular version that sells
for one price, and a “deluxe” version with more information that
sells for a higher price.
There is really only one product in the world that can meet all of these
criteria that are listed above, and that’s an information product.
What Are Information Products?
“But what exactly are information
products?” you may be asking. “Where do
I get all this information from? I’m glad
you asked that question! Information
products are one of my favorite things,
simply because there are such a variety
of subjects to write about! An infinite
number, really! Let me explain to you
just what an information product is.
Information products are fact and data based reports that are one of
the hottest things on the Internet today. Take a look at the eBook
listings on EBay, if you want proof of this. Do a search for terms like
“eBook” or “how to”, or even “information Product” and you will see
that there seems to be an eBook for every subject imaginable!
Why Are They So Popular?
Why is the online buying
public so gung-ho over
eBooks? Because information
sells! In fact, it could be said that information is one of the best selling
products of all time!
How can that be, you might wonder. Not everyone in the world is on
the Internet, and there are an awful lot of products for sale floating
around both on and offline. Why do people buy information?
Simply because information:
Helps people in many ways
Educates people about things that interest them
Solves problems that people run into in their everyday lives
Entertains people
Makes them think
The Perfect Product…
When it comes to writing an
eBook, your imagination is
about the only limit you will
have. Think of all the different
subjects you could cover! The
possibilities are truly amazing!
All things said, in my mind, an
informational eBook is THE perfect product. Why have I come to that
conclusion?
The information in that book is your information. It came straight
out of your brain. You, and only you, are the master of this
information! You, and only you, can decide on what price you
want to ask for your eBook.
When selling information products, you are never going to find
yourself low on stock. Write it once, and sell it for years has been
my motto ever since I started writing and selling informational
eBooks!
These eBooks are easy to create (okay – I hear you groaning!
Never fear – I am going to explain a technique to you later in this
book that will enable you to crank out your own information
products in less time than you could imagine!
Some information never goes out of date. Depending on the
subject you choose for your eBook, you could sell that same
finished product for years!
The price of a finished information product is NOT based on how
much it cost you in time and equipment to produce it! The price
you choose to ask for your work is based upon how much value
the eBook can deliver to your customers.
There are ways for you to deliver information products to your
customers automatically, without having to be in front of your
computer to do it by hand. That means you can be asleep and
sell eBooks at 3AM, sell eBooks while you are watching television
– even sell eBooks while you are on vacation! You will be able to
make sales 365 days a year, 24/7, with the right informational
eBook.
The Domino Effect
I’ve always found that writing
an eBook has a domino effect.
Once you have written one, you
always seem to be able to come
up with another subject that
you think would make an
information product that people
would be interested in buying.
Take that book on dog training I
mentioned above. After writing that, suppose you decided to write
additional eBooks that would outline how to train specific breeds of
dogs?
The training method is no different really, but by using the same
training information, then adding the breed’s history and some breed
specific information to it, all of a sudden you have a new information
product!
And with more than 800 different dog breeds recognized by the
various kennel clubs around the world, suppose you wrote an
information eBook for each of those breeds? See what I mean? The
domino effect in action!
Think about it this way. One of the main reasons people have and
want an internet connection in their homes is because of the vast
amount of information available to them on the internet. People of
today are information hungry!
Finding Your Niche
Audience Over and
Over Again
In order to write information
products that sell – eBooks that
people will flock to your web
site to buy, you are going to
have to go by the wisdom – or
wit – of popular radio and
television comedian Red
Skelton. “Give the people what
they want, and they will come.”
This sage sentence has been
changed by many an eBook writer to go something like this – “If you
write it, they won’t necessarily come and buy it.”
Truer words were never spoken! You may think you have got to do a
little research and decide on a niche, or target audience. The audience
is the group of people who you will be addressing in your eBook. But
you somewhat limit yourself by writing only to a target audience. Many
eBook writers would question this theory and think it was a rather
radical thing to say, but I think that you need to provide information
products that do not fit into one single category.
Let’s suppose you decided that your target audience was going to be
quilters. You write a smashing eBook about your own easy quilting
method and include several original patterns you designed. You place
this information product on a web site you created for the express
purpose of selling it, and your sales go pretty well; for a while,
anyway. Then, it seems like all of your sales potential has dried up and
blown away.
Why did you all of a sudden stop selling your eBook at a fairly brisk
rate? You’re down to just a few sales a month now!
Your sales have slowed to a crawl for one simple reason. You
exhausted the market for quilting. Not everyone is a quilter, or even
knows a quilter to buy your eBook as a gift for. Someone who is
interested in Texas Hold ‘Em Poker, or how to arrange flowers, or how
to give a great baby shower, is not going to buy your eBook about
quilting!
Or suppose you are just passionate about healthy eating. Everyone
has to eat, you reason. And so, you write an eBook extolling the
virtues of fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, design a web page for
it, and sit back and wait for the orders to start rolling in.
You sell 15 or 20 copies before the orders start to slow down, and then
grind to a halt. Yes, everyone has to eat, but some people are not
going to give up their junk food diets, no matter how persuasive your
eBook may be.
So much of the advice available for would-be eBook writers urges
them to write about what they love, or what they know best.
Sometimes, eBooks like this will do quite well. And sometimes, their
authors are very disappointed in their sales.
Why Do Ebooks Fail?
The reasons that most people
fail at being a successful online
eBook distributors are threefold.
They write their eBooks
about topics that are much
too general in scope.
They pay attention to what someone else says is a hot topic
instead of going with their own instincts.
They go by what most of the online gurus are telling them, and
write about “what they love/what they know.” You saw the
results of that theory above.
So, how do you write eBooks that everyone will be interested in at
some time or another? Your eBook has to have something different
from the general “how to” eBooks that are being sold all over the
Internet. You may well be writing about the same topics, but you are
going to have a bit of “Bait” in your book that is going to make your
potential customers jump like a fish jumps for a baited hook. What
topics are there that every person on earth will have a need for at
some point in their life?
Writing For a Desperate Audience
There’s not a soul on this earth
who hasn’t had some sort of
problem to overcome. Problems,
big and small, are in our lives on
a daily basis, whether we want
them there or not. Yet somehow,
we are able to overcome most, if
not all of them. We learn from
our mistakes and move on.
Sometimes, the solutions to the
problems I have faced have been
pretty simple. But, it took me quite a while to figure out just exactly
what the solution was, and how I would implement it.
It’s that way for most people. They are desperate to solve life’s little
and big problems, and yet it seems to take forever to figure out the
steps needed to do so. That’s where you are going to step into the
picture.
These people will be the best eBook audience you could ever hope to
have. They have problems, and they want solutions… now!
What sort of problems that are common among people would be
suitable for an eBook?
1. People who are having financial difficulties, such as facing
bankruptcy, poor credit, bad credit, foreclosure. These people
are pretty desperate. They would be extremely willing to pay for
information that could help them.
2. People who have rowdy pets who need training. Dogs who bark
all night long or won’t come when called. Cats that refuse to use
the litter box, or scratch up the furniture. That sort of thing will
have people combing the internet for a solution that you can
supply.
3. People who are looking for a way to lose weight. This is always
going to be a hot topic, because it’s always going to be a
problem that people want to solve. There are a lot of different
diets, and a lot of reasons why people are willing to do almost
anything to take off the pounds. You can mix and match the
diets and ideas and come up with a real winner of an eBook.
4. People who want to save money. EBooks about saving on your
energy bill, spending less at the grocery store, finding the best
online shopping discounts, living frugally how to budget– all of
these are issues that some people must face often, and each
would make a compelling eBook that would help many people
out of a tight situation.
5. People who want to get started selling on Amazon.com,
Amazon’s new Kindle store has made a lot of people rich in both
the Fiction and Non-Fiction markets. Any vital tips and tricks to
help them reach that goal can make big bucks for YOU.
6. People who are having legal issues. It may be someone who is
trying to collect child support. Perhaps it is someone who is
facing a court trial and is desperately seeking information about
what to expect. Or maybe it is someone who was arrested for no
reason and wants to represent himself in court. The law is vast
and varied, and there are many topics that you could write
about that could save someone a lot of time and trouble.
7. People who are looking for information on how to improve their
luck in the stock market. New investors are especially eager for
all the information they can get.
8. People who are having trouble with their love life. You’d be
amazed at how many people get online searching for ways to
revive a lost love, start a new relationship, keep their present
relationship from crumbling, or improve a so-so relationship.
They would snatch up an eBook written with them in mind.
9. People who want to quit smoking, clear up their acne, tame their
frizzy hair, or solve other personal problems. There are a ton of
these that would make great eBooks that people would be
thrilled to buy.
This is but a tiny sampling of all the topics that are what people want
to know about. Also consider that different age groups want to know
about different things. Teen boys are looking for help with video
games. Teen girls want beauty hints and relationship helps.
Young working people would pay dearly for eBooks on how to conquer
stress on the job, move up the corporate ladder, or even how to go
into business for themselves. Young parents would eagerly purchase
books on how to care for their colicky newborn. Baby boomers worried
about retirement would welcome eBooks on preparation for that time
in their lives.
There is definitely a need for this information! When you write about
topics that people just have an interest in, they may or may not be
motivated to buy an eBook that tells them about it. But, when you
have written something that details a way to help them solve a
problem that has been keeping them up all night with worry, you can
bet that most people are going to be very interested indeed!
Interested enough to buy your eBook!
Come on – haven’t you yourself Googled a problem you are in the
midst of to see if you could find an answer? I know I certainly have,
and so have a lot of other people. But many of them will give up out of
frustration or lack of time after looking at a couple of web sites.
These people are the ones you want to reach with your eBook. All the
information that they need will be gathered together in one easy-toread
format that they can refer to over and over again, online or
offline if they take the time to print it out – which they more than
likely will!
I know what you are asking yourself right about now. You’re
wondering how you are going to be able to get the information to write
about problems other than your own. While your own problems can be
a good place to start, it wouldn’t hurt to do some research to try and
pinpoint the types of problems that are most common for people in
today’s world. One way to get data to use is to –
Become an Information Detective
The Internet is full of information – we
both know that. And now, you are going
to make use of it to research the subject
of your first eBook. The search engines
are sitting there waiting to do your
bidding. Did you know that different
search engines can bring back entirely
different results? That’s why you need to
use more than one of them for some
really through research. Besides Google,
which I think nearly everyone knows
about, you also have these search
engines to help you in your task ahead:
Ask.com
Live Search
Yahoo Search
Dogpile
The search engines are where you will go for the detailed information
you need to write your eBook. But there is also another source of
information that is a fairly untapped source for aspiring eBook authors,
and some of these sources are not always found on a regular search
using one of the above search engines.
These are the blogs, newsgroups, email lists, online forums and
newsletters. There is a virtual goldmine of information related to your
chosen subject just sitting here waiting to be tapped. You can find
these sources by using a certain set of terms on your choice of search
engines. Just take the word that represents the subject you have
chosen, and match it with the source. For example, if you are looking
for information on insurance, simply type in –
Insurance email lists
Insurance newsgroups
Insurance forums
Insurance newsletters
You can get a handle of what would be the most popular topic for your
first eBook just by taking a little time to read some of these message
boards, email lists, and all the rest. These are real people talking
about their problems on these forums and such. You never know when
you might run across a posting that would spark an idea for an eBook,
so it’s a good idea to jot down notes as you are reading.
Now, what do you do if for some reason you can’t find the information
you are seeking by using the search engines? Then you have probably
chosen a topic that would not sell very well. If people are not
discussing it, they are not apt to buy an eBook about it! Try with
another subject until you get a match. Once you do, it’s time to write!
The Best Information Source on the Planet -
Public Domain
Writing the content for
your eBook is not all
that difficult – Really! It
will make your writing
go a lot faster if you are
familiar with the subject.
You won’t need to do
much, if any research in
order to get the
thoughts out of your
head and onto the
screen. But even if you
are going to be writing your first eBook about a subject that you don’t
have a whole lot of personal experience with, rest assure you can write
about it, and write well, too. Right now, this may sound difficult, but
with the right research techniques, you can craft a wonderful eBook.
Remember back during your school days when you had an assignment
to write a report about a subject you didn’t know too much about?
What did you do in order to equip yourself with the needed
knowledge?
You probably went to the library and read up on the subject, or
consulted the set of encyclopedias you had at home, in order to learn
all about Saturn or the Civil War or whatever subject your teacher
assigned to you. And, you wrote your report based on the knowledge
you had gleaned from books.
While I wouldn’t advise choosing to write an eBook about a topic that
you were totally unfamiliar with, you can write very well about almost
any issue with the help of your best friend the search engine. There is
information on the web on any subject imaginable that would amaze
you.
What Do You Want To Achieve?
One of the first things you must do is decide just exactly what
you want to accomplish with your
eBook. Yes – I know you are hoping
to make money with it! But, what is
your motivation for this book? What
do you want it to do besides boost
your bank account? Think about
how you would answer the
questions below.
Does the information in your eBook
serve a real need or impulse that
people have? An eBook on how to
train your dog to stop barking, or
how to painlessly lose 20 pounds
would be two examples here.
When someone has finished reading your eBook, what kind of
new understanding, knowledge, or set of skills, problem-solving
or otherwise, do you want for them to have gained?
Is the information you have given in your eBook useful to
people? Better still, is it unique? Does it offer the reader
something that other eBooks on this same subject more than
likely do not?
Will those who read your eBook know what to do to accomplish
the goal it addresses? Will they understand how to avoid
bankruptcy, train their dog, or whatever your chosen topic is all
about?
If you can answer these questions, your eBook is well underway
already, even if you have yet to type the first line of text.
Target The Book To The Audience
You should think about how to
target your writing style toward
your audience. An easy way to do
this is to imagine who you are
talking to – and talk to them! Are
you writing about video game
codes? Your audience will be
teenage boys. Is your eBook about
how to soothe a colicky newborn?
Then you’ll be talking to mothers or
perhaps even fathers. Explain your
subject matter, and write in a
simple, conversational tone, but do
not talk down to your audience. Picture your audience in your head as
you are typing, and you’ll find it makes “speaking” to them a lot
easier.
As I said earlier, it’s always easier to write about something you know,
but even then, you need resources to flesh out your book. I suggested
that you make use of the wonderful internet search engines to do
research to enable you to write an information product eBook.
But, suppose you have come up with a great idea for a problem
solving eBook, yet you are having a hard time compiling the data. Or,
suppose you just don’t have the time to do the research? There is a
perfect solution for you! Simply turn to the massive selection of public
domain works that are online.
What Is The Public Domain?
You’re probably wondering what I’m talking about. The public domain
is a humongous range of many different types of materials or “creative
works” that are all lumped together and given the title of “intellectual
property.” Anything that is intellectual property is not owned or
controlled by any person.
Also, these materials are no longer under copyright, for it has expired.
Copyright expires -
Whenever a book was published for the first time before January
1, 1923.
If a book was published at least 95 years before January 1 of the
present year.
If person or persons who wrote the material died at least 70
years before January 1 of the present year.
No perpetual copyright has been placed on the material.
No copyright extension has been granted on the material.
It’s estimated that about 15 percent of all the books ever written are
now in the public domain and no longer under copyright, and this
figure includes 10 percent of all the books that are still in print. What
this all means is that ANYONE can use these materials.
Any material that is or was from the United States government and
several other governmental bodies in this world is excluded from
copyright law. It is considered as public domain property as well.
You’re probably thinking, ‘Well, that’s all very nice and very
interesting, but what does it have to do with me and the eBook I want
to write?
These public domain materials are treasures to anyone who wants to
create an information product! Not only are will you find written
materials available for your use in the public domain, but also images,
audios, and videos!
Okay, I hear you. You’re wondering how in the world could anything
that old be something that the people of today would care anything
about reading… right? Here’s a little trivia for you that may make you
think. I’m sure you’ve heard of the Disney movies Snow White and The
Little Mermaid, especially if you have kids. Did you know that these
movies were once written works languishing in the public domain? A
wise Hollywood producer found them there, put a bit of a modern twist
on them, and turned them into movies that were a hit with old and
young alike – and made a lot of money for the Disney Company! If a
big conglomerate like Disney can use public domain material, you can
certainly capitalize on it as well.
Here is a tiny sample of some of the public domain information that is
available online for you to adapt into a superb information product!
Mind reading
Accounting
Treating High Blood Pressure
Copywriting
Herbal Remedies
Learn to Draw
Staying Healthy at 50+
Occult Studies
Marketing
Food
Walking for Exercise
Stock Trading
Games
Wrestling
Home and Garden
Movies
Interior Decoration
Needlework
Sports
Astrology
Fashion
Hobbies
Pets
Travel
Disabilities
Nutrition and Diet
Sexuality
As you can see, the vastness of this information is absolutely mind boggling.
It’s hard to believe that all of this information is free for the
taking and is most definitely NOT considered plagiarism, but it is
gloriously true.
Don’t you think you could find a topic for an eBook just from the listing
of rather broad subjects above? All of them break down into further
categories, by the way. What a rich resource of information, and it is
all waiting for you to turn it into eBooks, articles, reports, how-to
manuals, or any other type of information product you can dream up.
I think that perhaps one of the best things about using public domain
works to create information products is that not too many people are
even aware that this material exists.
They have no clue that there are millions upon millions of pages of
well-written, interesting knowledge and gathered facts that they can
freely use in any way they want without having to ask anyone’s permission.
Anyone can reproduce public domain works, distribute and sell them,
and adapt and modify them. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it?
How To Use The Public Domain
The only caveat to using
public domain material is that
you must check to make sure
that the material you want to
use is definitely in the public
domain.
You need to insure that you
are using the original public
domain work as later versions
of this work may possibly
have been revised or annotated, and that adaptation could have been
protected by copyright.
To explain this in an easier to understand manner, think of the original
public domain work with a fresh layer of material added to it, and not
just the same material written in a different way. The fresh layer is
what has the copyright – NOT the public domain material.
So, to be on the safe side, it is wise to have and keep a printed copy of
whatever original public domain work that you use for your information
material so that if you are ever questioned about your eBook source
material (which is highly doubtful) you have proof that you used the
original works.
There are four main categories of public domain material that you can
choose from to create your information product.
1. Plain, everyday “generic” information such as blank forms, titles,
facts, ideas, numbers, etc.
2. Any written material that is still under copyright that has been
donated or allowed to be used by permission of the author.
Sometimes, out of the goodness of their heart, or for reasons
unknown, authors will allow their work to be used regardless of
whether or not it has a copyright.
3. Anything written or produced by the Federal government or
anyone writing information and/or materials FOR the Federal
government.
4. Any material that previously had a copyright, but lost it for one
reason or another and is now in the public domain.
I well remember how excited I was when I first found out about public
domain material. It was as if my fairy godmother had waved her magic
wand and spilled open a treasure chest in front of me! I spent several
hours that first evening in mute fascination, just looking through the
lists and lists of books on every subject imaginable, articles,
pamphlets, and other information that I could hardly believe I could
actually use to develop into an information product.
Then, when I discovered that there were several online libraries
containing more public domain material than I could ever read in a
lifetime, I was hooked. I knew I was onto something really big, and
the very next day I was galvanized into action.
I selected a public domain work and developed it into a short but
information packed eBook in just one day. I chose this particular
information because it blended beautifully with another information
product I already had on my web site for sale.
I used it as an upsell (remember our definition of this term above?) to
this information product that had been selling for me on a fairly steady
basis. I offered this upsell for $9.99, in addition to the $39.99 for the
eBook already on the site, and sat back to see what would happen.
In a couple of days, I was shocked and very, very pleased! Sales of my
eBook had not only picked up dramatically, but 45 % of the people
who bought it also bought the upsell eBook for an additional $9.99! I
actually got emails thanking me for the information in the upsell
eBook!
I then did another experiment. I chose another public domain book
and gave it out for free as a bonus along with another information
product I was selling. That free bonus was irresistible, I guess, and
since the only way people believed they could get it was to buy my
eBook, sales for this one soared as well. To say I was thrilled is an
understatement indeed!
But, enough about me and my success with using public domain
material. We’re here to help YOU use this material to craft an
information product that will make a ton of money for you! In a
shorter time than you ever dreamed possible, you will have an
information product of your own all written and ready to sell. Are you
ready? Let’s get started!
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