Time to Think Again About InfoProducts?
Stewart Hutton
stewart@practicalselling.com
InfoProducts, E-Books, electronic publishing, virtual books.
Is it just my imagination, or have we been talking about these
things for about 10 years already? And yet I continue to
squeeze more and more bookcases and shelves into corners of my
home to accommodate more and more chopped up trees and ink. I'm
obviously spending way too much money with a certain on-line
bookseller.
So what happened?
Well, reality has been a long time catching up with the early
hype, but people are now starting to make money out of
electronic publishing, and there are some good reasons why I
think NOW is the time for YOU to consider how it applies to
your business.
In The Past ...
===============
Over the last 8 years, I have published 10 specialist books by
various authors (yes - on paper!), and I was keen to produce
electronic versions of those books as early as 1995.
But I just couldn't justify it - relatively few people had
computers or were using the internet, they hadn't heard of the
publishing formats, and anyone I talked to just thought the
whole idea of reading a book on a computer was, well - weird.
But Now ...
===========
Several key things are happening *right now*:
:) Computer access is at an all time high - that's ownership +
access at school, library, etc.
:) Same for internet access - including via webTV, WAP etc.
The "big guns" are getting behind e-books - see Microsoft
Reader technology.
:) Standards such as Adobe Acrobat are widely accepted.
:) New hardware solutions are competing in the marketplace (not
just the lab).
:) Major distribution routes are appearing - see FatBrain and
Barnes & Noble.
:) On-line payment systems (including micro-payments) are
maturing.
:) Digital download is accepted as a delivery mechanism.
Who Me?
=======
So, we have the recipe for a powerful business model - take 3
cups of restricted information, stir it into a digital format,
and distribute it over the internet. And of course the basic
recipe can be flavored a thousand (million?) different ways by
different people. Just a few examples:
:) Home workers - put your knowledge, skills and experience to
work for you, with no inventory or production overheads to
worry about.
:) Small business owners - your specialist knowledge and
expertise, how to buy ...
:) Netpreneurs - fast start, low overheads, digital products.
:) Existing "paper" publishers and authors - reduce costs,
extend circulation.
:) Authors with unpublished manuscripts - unlock that
investment of time, be your own publisher.
:) Coaches and trainers - pass on your hints and tips,
how to ...
:) Professional and technical workers - tricks of the trade,
users guide to ...
But how to start? We need a plan.
Action Plan
===========
First: Identify your Subject
It has been said that everyone has a book in them. That may be
true, but getting it published and printed is another matter.
However, digital infoproducts don't have to impress a publisher
or justify a 100,000 copy print run.
There are only two things that matter:
1) Choose a subject that other people will be interested in.
2) Choose a subject that you can write about honestly and with
conviction.
I firmly believe that every single person reading this (yes -
that includes you!) has at least one subject like that
within them.
What will vary is how much valuable information they can
document - 10 pages or 500 pages - and how many people will be
interested in it - 100 or 50,000.
But no matter how specialized it may be, the power of the
internet can be used to reach that market.
Not only can you surf for ideas, you can also sound out your
target market, get feedback on sample sections, and create
demand for your infoproduct even while you are writing it.
Off-line, you can use any idea-generation or brainstorming
technique to come up with subjects, but just to start you
should consider:
:) Employment - current or past
:) Hobbies and Pastimes
:) Sports and Recreation
:) Local Area - tourism, history
:) Family - children, parents, lifestyle
Then: Create your InfoProduct
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There are a number of free (or nearly free) products available
that will help you produce electronic books - usually either
compiling a self-contained .exe program or using a modified
browser and html-style files to reproduce your material.
The only format currently established as any kind of standard
however, is Adobe Acrobat's PDF format. The key advantages of
this are cross platform (PC, Mac, UNIX) compatibility, faithful
reproduction of your page layout and graphics, good navigation
options through links, bookmarks, thumbnails, indexes and
searches.
For many people the clincher is that Acrobat can be almost
transparent to use - it's "Print to PDF" printer driver lets
you use your favourite software to produce your material rather
than having to get to grips with a new package.
The downside of Acrobat of course is that it costs a deal more
than the average shareware program, so you need to be sure you
will re-coup the cost through sales of your infoproducts.
Finally: Sell it Effectively
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
While finding a marketplace to sell a 10-page booklet to 100
people is not feasible in the "real" world, it is the kind of
niche marketing that the internet can be powerfully used for.
A complete sales strategy for any infoproduct is likely to
involve newsgroups and forums, e-zines and newsletters, and
intelligent use of search engines - all designed to channel
targeted, qualified traffic to a website that sells the
infoproduct benefits and closes the sale.
There are many free resources available on the internet to help
you through this process - including an email training course
that will take you step by step through creating and selling
your first publication.
Of course there are also resources worth paying for, and you
will decide how much time and money you can invest according to
your circumstances and ambitions.
Suffice to say in closing that there has never been a better
time to consider infoproducts as part of your on-line business.
--INFO-BOX----------------------------------------------------
| Stewart Hutton has been selling in the "real" world for 20
| years, and on the internet since 1994. His internet business
| "Practical Selling" is designed to help every business sell
| more - on and off line. http://www.practicalselling.com/
| He also wrote the free e-book "Practical DotCom Business":
| http://www.PracticalDotComBusiness.com
This article provided by the InfoZone Archives at: http://www.MakingProfit.com