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December 20, 2002 Yes, You Can Still Earn Large Profits from Information Products ( http://www.infoproductcreator.com) jeff@infoproductcreator.com Subscribe via Email by Clicking Here Subscribe via Web: http://www.infoproductcreator.com/ezine1.html
Update from Jeff... Seasons Greetings to all of you reading this ezine today. Wow! Where did 2002 go? I don't know about you, but the end of the calendar year always makes me philosophical about the year that was. Looking back is not a luxury most of us have in this busy world today - if there is one thing I KNOW we all have in common, it's that most of us are over-stressed, over- busy, moving at a pace that would make a Formula-1 race car look like it was standing still! I hope that you take some time this holiday season to reflect on what you have - after you've read this issue of course :) You can't expect to move on, to better your lifestyle, improve your situation until you clearly understand where you are today, and be thankful for what you have - even if this has been the crappiest year ever! Accepting where you are, coming to peace with yourself and your place on this big circular planet is step 1 to launching the next stage in your life - setting the stage for an even better 2003. A BIG personal thank you to all of you who have made this newsletter a huge success in 2002 - and to all who have been with me since day 1, you ain't seen nothing yet! Be sure to catch today's Feature Article on A Sure Fire method for turning your personal experiences into profit- making infoproducts. Don't skip over today's Usable News and Recommended Sites - I've included some personal reviews including the Good, Bad and Ugly on an important product you will come across. I want to extend a very personal and warm Best of the Season to you and your family from my family. See you in 2003! Until next time... Jeff jeff@infoproductcreator.com
FEATURE ARTICLE Copyright 2002 - Jeff Smith How do you get your piece of the profits marketing information products online? You know that you could change your lifestyle IF you could just find that "Perfect Idea" or "Perfect Topic" that people will buy at almost any price! The good news is, you don't need the "Perfect Topic", all you need to do is to take something you've already done and discover the hidden profit factor that will position your experience for maximum profits. So how do you find that elusive hot selling topic for your infoproduct? First, if you haven't already been through the Amazing Information Product Profit Secrets 7-Part Ecourse on finding hot topics for your own infoproducts, take a minute now and signup - it's free and chalk-full of useful content. You can signup here: ==> http://www.infoproductcreator.com/minicoursenew.html But you want a technique to use RIGHT NOW! Here's a dead-simple way to translate your experiences into profits. Step 1: List Your Experiences Take a few minutes and write down all of important things you have done over the last 2 years. You can go back further, but these will be the freshest in your mind. Here are some examples:
You get the idea. I bet you can inventory at least 20-30 of these if you really put your mind to it. You have your list of at least 20? Great. Now, here's how to suck the profit out of your experiences. Step 2: What Turns You On! Place the list in order of how excited you feel about the experience. Which ones would you like to share with your friends, family and peers the most? Which experiences do you find yourself talking about over and over again? Step 3: The Internet Is Wild About Keywords Now, beside each experience, create a list of 10 keywords that best describe your experience. For instance, keywords that would apply to your travel experiences are: travel, Europe, vacation, family, bed and breakfast, etc... Step 4: Here's The Fun Part - What Sells? Determine the "keyword popularity" for each word by doing the following: - Search Google for your keyword+ebook or keyword+book to find out what infoproducts exist - Use the Overture Search Term Suggestion Tool: http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/ which will give you various related keywords and their popularity. - Search Amazon and Barnes and Noble websites to find out what comes up under your keywords You goal is to discover a set of specific, popular keywords that will help guide you in the direction of what people are demanding TODAY on the internet. Step 5. Shazam! Instant Infoproduct Ideas Based on what you have found from steps 1-3, narrow your topics down to 3. You can either jump ahead or do some additional testing through surveys or asking for feedback on discussion groups, etc... This will only take you a few extra days, and could mean the difference of hundreds of orders and thousands of dollars. Probably worth the time, what do you think?
Jeff Smith - "How To Create Hot Selling Infoproducts" Part 1 of 2 Special Interview Excerpt Today Ouch!! I recently responded to an interview from Jason Anderson of http://www.achievenetprofits.com and I thought it would be super to share it with you BECAUSE... HE GRILLED ME with some of the BEST questions any interviewer has ever asked! This guy KNOWS how to get the most out of his interviews. From Soup To Nuts - I have included responses to Jason's questions that will get you on the FAST TRACK to creating your own infoproducts. You'll find a fair mix of my own experiences and those of the high-income earners I've got to spend time with this last year. You'll want to print this one out folks, and keep it in your reference file. This interview was quite long, so I'm publishing it in two parts, half today and half in my January 3rd edition. If you missed the last few powerful interview segments with Yanik Silver, Marc Goldman, and Willie Crawford then you can find them in our new online newsletter archive available at: http://www.infoproductcreator.com/ezine1.html Now, for this week's interview excerpt! Jason [Question] Thanks for agreeing to this interview Jeff. First off, in your opinion what are the advantages of selling an info-product on the Internet, compared to selling a physical product? Jeff [Answer] Great question Jason, because the answer really means that *anyone* can publish their own products as opposed to only those that have allot of up-front money or those that have special knowledge. Here's some advantages I've discovered selling information products online: 1. You can get started within weeks. You can literally write your own infoproduct about something you already know in mere days. Convert it into Adobe file format, create a mini-site with a sales letter and be in business taking orders. 2. You get to keep more *profit* for yourself. Selling tangible products means you need to pay a printer setup fees, and a royalty and material fees for each book printed. With your electronic product you simply convert your book into a common digital format and you keep all the profits 3. You get *instant* feedback. Selling your products online means you can develop a completely automated system for lead generation, marketing, order taking, follow-up, and customer support. You can immediately begin to gauge support for each area of your business allowing you to improve as you go to earn even more profits. All that said Jason, there are also opportunities to take successful online products and convert them to physical products that can open new offline markets up to the publisher. The great part is you can use the low cost online distribution system to test first, limiting your risk if you do eventually go with a physical product. Jason [Question] A common answer from people when you tell them that they should write an ebook is that they can't write, or that it's too difficult. How do you respond to that? Jeff [Answer] There are a couple of very common mistakes people make about what it takes to really make it producing your own information products - I go through these in more detail in my Ultimate Information Entrepreneur's Success Package, but here are a couple... First, the hardest - and most important - task in creating your own eBook is developing a topic that you know will sell. My advice is always start with what you know or what you have done. Have you traveled? Chances are others will want to know the details of where you went. Have you overcome a hardship in your life? If so, how many others will likely go through the same experience. What are your hobbies - will others share your interests? Inventory what you know and *then* focus on how you can use your knowledge to do one of the following: help people have more fun, help people to make more money or help people to save money or time. These are the key motivators for why we badly want information on certain topics. Second, people assume that their writing must be a work of art or the next Shakespearean tragedy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The most effective writers are those that write like they talk. So - pretend that you are talking with someone as you write your eBook. You can even develop a series of questions you would want answered if *you* were to read a book on your topic, then have someone ask you the questions while you respond into a tape recorder. Transcribe your responses and BOOM - you have your eBook. Third, break your eBook into approximately 10-12 key areas of coverage. Then for each area develop 10 key questions you would want answered about that area. If you follow this simple outlining technique, writing your eBook is as simple as answering many questions. Everyone can do that! Jason [Question] How do you go about getting ideas for your ebooks? Jeff [Answer] If you don't mind Jason, I would like to make the point that the #1 mistake I see being made by new information product developers is that they write about ideas or topics that *they* would like to write about. That doesn't mean anything if people don't want to spend $29 or $39 for it. So - I focused an entire product... ===> http://www.infoproductcreator.com around idea generation techniques that have built in profit generators. For example, one of the techniques I mention is to take a magazine in your area of interest and get hold of 5-6 back issues, search for recurring themes - what problems are the articles addressing? What titles pop up again and again? You should be able to identify at least 4 or 5 of these that could very well be the idea for your next eBook. You can do the same with the table of contents for best selling books in your area of interest - each chapter could be an eBook in itself. By using these techniques, and over 40 others I point out in my Ultimate Information Entrepreneur's Idea Guidebook, your idea generation is focused on *proven* hot markets - otherwise these articles or books would have never made it to market in the first place. Jason [Question] Once you have an idea, how do you determine if the topic is a viable one? (in other words, that there are people out there who would be willing to buy your ebook)? Jeff [Answer] As I mentioned in the last question - there are many idea generation techniques that will help you develop and position your ideas based on proven, in-demand desires. There are other methods you can use to test your product ideas such as online keyword ranking sites - Overture.com and Lycos both have one. Or you can test using online surveys - which I use constantly. You can also test out your idea by writing articles and smaller Special Reports on your topic and see how well they do before spending extra time on writing an entire eBook. Another suggestion is to bounce your ideas off of ezine publishers in your area of interest - I've always found that they have a very keen sense of what will well and what won't for their market. A final point on this - every idea, topic, title, format, pricing, main benefit statement, etc.. should be tested - no matter how good you are, you are still often surprised by what people will buy or how they will respond - that's just the mystery of human nature. Jason [Question] Once you have finalized the idea for the ebook, how do you actually go about writing it? In other words, you have an idea and a blank computer screen. What do you do between the blank screen, and having the finished text for your ebook? Jeff [Answer] The blank screen is a surefire way to fail when trying to first write you own information product. I, and I know several other infoproduct developers, always start by outlining the book. I begin by taking the perspective of the customer who I am going to help with my product. What are the key subjects you will need to deal with to help bring them the fulfillment you seek with our infoproduct? Once you have these, each one will become a chapter, you can then develop 8-10 questions that your customers are likely to have about that area. Once you have these questions (total of 80-100 for your entire book) you can then write in 10-15 minute blocks answering each question. This way, if you can only find 10-15-minutes in a day, at least you are making progress every day - getting that much closer to completing your own book. I learned many of these techniques from one of the top courses on writing fast and effectively called How To Write A Book on Anything in 14 Days or Less by Steve Manning. Jason [Question] Great advice! The two common formats that seem to be used for ebooks are PDF files, and ebook compilers (PC programs that display HTML documents). What are the advantages and disadvantage of each format? Jeff [Answer] I've always preferred pdf files - they work on all systems and I have yet to have one single complaint or customers service issue - everyone understands how to run them and Adobe runs on all systems (Windows, Mac, Unix, etc...) Ebook compilers can produce some pretty fancy eBooks, but they also come with their share of issues including the fact that they only run on Windows, are prone to conflicts with other programs on your computer and executable file formats are somewhat less trusted in the face of today's virus-laden internet. Jason [Question] You have the text for your ebook, and you have decided on the format. What tips do you have for people on how they should lay out their ebook so that it is easy to read, appealing to look at, etc? Jeff [Answer] I've read a TON of eBooks and produced quite a few. Here's a few tips: 1. Get your cover designed for you - unless you are a graphic artist. 2. Go at least 1.5 spacing - double is even good. 3. Allow good margins on both sides of the page to allow for easy reading. 4. Keep each chapter to no more than 10-12 pages. People begin to lose interest after about 10 pages. 5. Include links to sites and examples you use in your text - people like to be able to click through to examples in your eBook. 6. Keep your writing as simple, clear and concise as possible while still throwing in your own personality. I've read many 250 page eBooks that could just as well - and should have been - 60 pages. I want to personally thank Jason for letting me re-publish his interview with me here - be sure to check out 15 other interviews Jason has completed with some of the biggest names in infoproduct marketing at: http://www.achievenetprofits.com [Editors Note] Check out the January 3rd Issue of Amazing Information Product Profit Secrets for the remainder of my discussion with Jason.
** Tis The Season - Business Up Or Down There are two times a year when information product developers find their businesses can see a significant slowdown - the last 2 weeks in December and the entire month of August. Don't Panic! It's normal. And thank goodness these times come, this gives you the chance to work on other projects, setup joint ventures, re-write your sales letters, or develop your own newsletter or e-courses. Whatever you do, don't get paralysed by fear, buck up and get busy. ** Product Review: Affiliate Mistakes Ebook from Affiliate Master Chuck McCullough You can see his sales page here... ===> Affiliate Mistakes I've read allot of so called "expert" opinions from those who say they understand how to make money with affiliate programs. Now, I've found an excellent one that's risen to the top. Chuck's book is chalk-full of **EVERYTHING** you need to know to make tons of money with affiliate programs. He's done everything but cash the checks for you. For those of you who don't know Chuck - he's got the credentials as operator of the net's premiere affiliate directory sites on the internet - he see's em all, good, bad and super successful. From deciding which affiliate products to promote, to how you set yourself aside from 99% of the other affiliate promoters to how you build long-term fortunes using affiliate programs - Chuck has bared it all. This one has my full endorsement - if you want to make money with affiliate programs - either as your sole product or as your back-end follow-up, then this book will put more money in your pocket. Check it out at: ===> http://www.infoproductcreator.com/part/affmistakes/ ===> http://www.infoproductcreator.com/part/doe/ Directory of Ezines has made me thousands of dollars by connecting me with top ezine publishers in my target market. Not only does it contain tons of up-to-date listings, but it also maintains the most detailed list of information by ezine (when it started, subscriber base, description, sample copies, publisher contact information, where to send free articles, advertising discounts, etc..) If you want to put your business on the FAST TRACK in 2003 - then there is no better way than pursuing joint ventures and DOE will make this much simpler. ===> http://www.infoproductcreator.com/part/swarm/ Lead, Leads, Leads, and more Leads. That's what Traffic Swarm is all about - and it gives them to you for free. This system runs on a "credit" system where you can earn credits a number of ways including simply clicking on other TrafficSwarm member sites. It will take some time to build a large number of leads from TS, but you will begin to get some right away and get a 10-20 unique, targeted hits per week more than you get today - for nothing! I'm now up to 50-60 hits a week and have generated sales directly from TS hits, it will work over time. ===> http://www.dynamicdrive.com The best site I've found so far for high quality dynamic scripts you can use to do everything from add a functioning clock/date to dynamic image effects all the way to really "In Your Face" text and image effects. You certainly don't want to overuse these scripts, but one of them may be exactly what you were looking for to make your website more Dynamic Happy Holidays to Everyone...See You in the New Year! See if you can set yourself a goal to have get your next product idea or product completed - at least to a draft stage - by the end of 2002. If you do, you may just shock yourself with what you can accomplish in 2003! As always... I love to hear from you, this newsletter is for you so speak up and let me know what you like or dislike - any and all suggestions welcome You Can Mail Me Here Jeff Smith http://www.infoprod uctcreator.com ATTENTION: There is only one way that you could be receiving this ezine, that is you, or someone using your email address, subscribed. There is no other way of being added to this list. We do not make this list, or your address, available to ANY other companies or individuals. We value your privacy. Although we work hard to make sure that all of the information in the Profit Secrets newsletter is accurately and genuine as possible, neither the publisher, nor the editor assume any responsibility for the accuracy or otherwise of the information presented. By reading this information, the Information Product Profit Secrets reader assumes all responsibility for an inaccuracies or other risks associated with the information within this newsletter. Jeff Smith Editor Information Product Profit Secrets webmaster@inf oproductcreator.com http://www.infoprod uctcreator.com |