Today I want to talk about Info-Products. I’ve made quite a bit of money from the many I’ve created over the years… a handful of them you can find at the very bottom of this page under “Some of my stuff.”

If you’ve followed my stuff for very long you’ll notice a trend of short, to the point products. Most have been short PDF’s because I just didn’t really need anymore words or documents to get my point across and help people. But guess what, they very often result in very high refund rates and I KNOW for a fact if I filled them full of fluff, like most others do, I would make more money directly at launch time (many people actually ask specifically how many pages the product is before they buy it) and indirectly because more affiliates will promote a “bigger” product… I would also of course save alot more sales.

I’ve even lost some BIG affiliates. One of the most recent was a guy who swore he could do something like $40,000 in sales to my Easy Review Cash report, but he said it was just too short… he wanted me to rewrite the entire report, including all of the important information, but adding in about 50 pages of fluff! Yes, that is a true story!!! I respectfully declined with about 1 second of thought!

I don’t do it because the few people who know that the true value of a product isn’t shown by the number of pages it consists of will benefit more from it… not having to figure out what content is important and what content is fluff. Those few people also trust me much more! And probably the biggest reason is because I just refuse to do something that makes no sense at all! I guess what it really comes down to is that although I definitely like making money, there are more things in life I put a larger value on like truly helping people and gaining their respect.

You have to make a choice… do you want to “sell your soul to the devil” as they say, or do you want to help others and build trust? I’m here to tell you, that trust is much more valuable in the long run!

To be honest with you, I don’t know what my point is I think I just need to “vent.” But I also want people to know… people DO judge books by the cover… in the IM world they judge it by the number of pages, which should have Z-E-R-O weight on a person’s decision to buy an info-product or not, but unfortunately in most cases it has ALOT of weight… and it also has alot of weight on a their decision to refund or not.

However, there is a solution and that is video! My most recent product, “The Offline Guru” is composed of a bunch of videos… they contain some REALLY valuable content that will help alot of people and it has the lowest refund rate of any product I’ve ever promoted so far! I believe the reason is that people put more value in video… actually seeing your face… seeing you talk… observing your personality… it’s a great teaching tool and it’s something I’ll be doing alot more of… instead of short PDF’s, it will be Videos from now on from me.

So that’s it. Just a little rant/insight. And look for more frequent blog posts from me in the near future!

No, I haven’t been pouting over that issue for the past two weeks I’ve been busy looking at homes and organizing the development of 3 different Internet Marketing related products. Ironically, much of the money I make from my products will be paying for the home that I’m about to buy.

So today I sat here at my desk trying to come up with a good blog post for you and I realized this is a great time to talk about what it is that has enabled me to provide for my family in the way that I do, with a nice car and home in a great school district/area, next to a huge, beautiful lake… and everything else that comes along with this lifestyle.

So what is it? PRODUCTS! Ebooks, scripts, software etc. Of course I use my “Info-Product Success Formula” and have for several years now, but what it all comes down to is developing good products that help people and finding good products from others to promote as an affiliate while my own products are being developed.

Now that just sounds fine and dandy, but of course talking and doing are two different things. That’s exactly why I laid my info-product guide out, step-by-step and packaged it for you. But for many people their biggest road block and motivation killer hits before they even begin…

If you’re not a “Guru” how do you come up with good product ideas?

That’s the question many people have. It’s the question I had in the beginning too. Here is my answer: Don’t try so hard. I know you’ve been told and you’ve heard in forums and on blogs that your product needs to be unique and special. Bull! I’ve sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ebooks, scripts and software and I’m telling you right now, that’s not true.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying anything will sell. Here’s what I’m getting at. As long as your product will either solve a problem or make something easier for others, it will sell. I’ll give you a great example:

The first ebook I ever wrote was “Article Marketing Domination” (it has obviously been updated several times since first released.) When I first wrote that ebook I asked someone who shall remain nameless, what he thought of it. This is someone who is still to this day considered by many to be a “guru.” This “guru” told me there’s no way it will sell. He told me it doesn’t “change” anything… there isn’t a need. It’s nothing special. I’ve lost track of how much money that ebook has generated in sales, but I know it’s closing in on 6-figures. (UPDATE – I no longer own Article Marketing Domination…the rights have been sold.)

So why did this “guru” say that and why was he wrong?

He said that because “AMD” was very simply an article marketing guide. It shows people how to effectively market with articles from A to Z. I learned the right way and it was working for me, so I wrote a guide teaching exactly how to do it. It didn’t change anything I suppose. It didn’t/doesn’t contain “Ground-Breaking” info. It didn’t/doesn’t contain any super top secret info that will generate millions of dollars for you. But you know what it does contain? It contains accurate, proven, solid, real-world advice that someone who doesn’t really know what they’re doing with their article marketing campaign can take and benefit from a great deal.

He was wrong, and everyone else who gives the same advice are wrong, because more and more people, especially Internet Marketers, are learning to sift through the hyped up “secret squirrel” high-priced garbage to find the down-to-earth, SOLID, real-world products that will truly help them build a solid business.

So now when I’m thinking of product ideas I brainstorm a list of problems and obstacles that I face in my own business. I then think of potential ways in which I can fix them. Some will be so easily fixed that they will not make a good product. Others will be too difficult and/or expensive to fix. But there are always some that fall in between. Those are the the money makers.

Once I find my money makers, I DON’T worry about whether or not my solution is already out there on the market because I obviously haven’t found it if it is and if I haven’t found it then I know there are alot of other people who haven’t either!

Do you think when I released “AMD” it was the only article marketing guide on the market? Heck no. There were hundreds, if not thousands.

All that matters is your product is genuinely helpful to some sort demographic.

So if you’re one of the many who are stuck on the whole product idea thing, stop worrying and start developing! It MAY NOT be a winner, but as Wayne Gretzky once said “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” and if you have a product idea that you’re confident will help people, chances are it’s going to sell!

If you want a solid, real-world, proven system to profit from electronic products (ebooks, scripts, software etc.) and you haven’t already, grab a copy of my very popular “Info-Product Success Formula.”

But whether you use my formula or another, don’t make your own product idea’s brick walls on your path to success. If your idea(s) truly helps people stop wondering, worrying and thinking about it and take action on it!

img credit: Sean Dreilinger

So instead of editing that post, I decided to write a new one for you.

What I’m about to explain to you is actually one part of my overall Info-Product Success Formula, the exact formula that I’ve been using for years to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. But, the free report part can be done separately in many different models, so I’m going to give you that little nugget for free.

Lots of people give away free reports, ebooks, scripts etc. but I’d say 90% of those people are leaving alot of money on the table, just like I was for a long time, before I realized the multiple ways in which I could leverage my freebies for much more money.

The #1 thing that comes to mind when thinking of freebies is a “lead.” In other words getting names and email address to build your list. That’s good because that’s the #1 advantage, but if you stop there you’re leaving ALOT of money on the table!

Here’s what I do and don’t underestimate ANY part of this process, because it will ALL make you alot of money:

Give away something of value for opt-in – It could be a report, ebook, script, software, plan etc. (build your list)

Set up a One-Time-Offer – that appears directly after opt-in. This should be a VERY relevant product! Something that goes with that product very well (*Important – if it’s not relevant it’s not going to make you any money.) Makes sure it’s a good, quality product and offer a deep discount! A good, relevant OTO can convert at 40% or more! That’s alot of money to be leaving on the table for those who don’t offer OTO’s on freebies!

Set up an affiliate program! – This is something that very few people do. Affiliates get 50% commission on all OTO sales. Not only does this boost your opt-ins because now it’s not just you promoting your squeeze page, but it increases your direct income as well! People love freebies, so it’s an easy money maker for affiliates because they make money by giving their list/blog/audience something of quality for free.

I still like to sell products from time to time. Typically products that require a large initial investment and provide an incredible value, but in most cases my free reports/products earn me much more money both directly and indirectly than my paid products.

So, do ALL three of those things! I promise you, they will all add to your current and future income if implemented properly!

How to Create and Market an Ebook Part 1
How to Create and Market an Ebook Part 2

By now, you should have your domain set up with a small sales-letter, including nice looking graphics, and an opt-in form to capture potential customers. You’ve also registered at a few related forums and made some relevant comments with the link to your sales-pages in the signature of each of those forum replies…Now it’s time to actually create the product!

How to Create the Ebook

Go to OpenOffice.org and download their free “Office Suite.” It’s very easy to do, free and it’s excellent software! This will be used as your word processor (optional) and it will convert your ebook to PDF as well (mandatory.) There are other options to convert to PDF, but OpenOffice is free and does the job perfectly. You can, however, write the ebook in Microsoft Word, then use OpenOffice to convert it, but you will probably have to do some format editing once you open the Word doc in OpenOffice.

Once you have OpenOffice you’re ready to get started.

Open the OpenOffice “Writer” and insert your title. I won’t go too deep into OpenOffice, as I’m not a pro myself, but it’s much like Microsoft Word in it’s primary functions. The only difference is, in my opinion, it’s much more stable. I’ve lost a countless number of documents when Word crashed on me and I’ve yet to experience a crash with OpenOffice. And it also converts documents to PDF unlike Word.

Once you begin there are a few things you’ll want to include. For instance – an index (Table of Contents,) about the author, introduction etc. But don’t worry too much about having a format that is perfect. Remember, the purpose of this ebook is to teach others something. As long as it looks decent and your customers aren’t confused you should be good to go.

Inserting Page Numbers and Copyright Statements into the Footer:

Click the “Insert” tab at the top left of your OpenOffice screen. Select “footer” then “Default” (above.) This will open your footer up for editing. To insert Page Numbers click “Insert” once again but this time select “Fields” then “Page Number.”

You should now see the page number appear in the footer of the document. You can now center or move it to the left or right. It should look something like this:

Don’t worry about the shades of Grey. That goes away once you convert the document to PDF form.

This page number will automatically change for each new page you create and it will be outside the editable region, so you won’t have to worry about it’s format etc. for the remainder of your project.

To insert your Copyright Statement just type it in the footer before or after the page number. You can hit “enter” to place the copyright statement above or below the page number and it will not effect the format. You have a certain amount of space to play with for the footer. I couldn’t tell you how much space because I’ve never exceeded it, but you have plenty of room to insert page numbers and a copyright statement.

Converting the Ebook to PDF with OpenOffice

You’ll notice a button with a PDF image on it. DO NOT USE IT. If you use this you won’t be allowed to edit the security settings and people will be able to copy and paste your content and they will! If you haven’t noticed, there are alot of idiots out there who don’t care much about copyright statements.

Instead, click “file” then “export as PDF” (below.)

You’ll then be shown the following screen:

You can generally leave all of the settings at default except for the one within the security tab. So go ahead and click that “security” tab. Now put a tick mark in “restrict permissions” then click the “set permission password” button and insert a password that you’ll remember then select OK.

Now select “high resolution” for printing (many people like to print out their ebooks) and select “not permitted” under “changes.” Be sure that there is NOT a tick mark in the box next to “Enable Copying of Text.”

Click “export” then save the file where you want it and your ebook is now complete

Click here to go to Part 4 (coming soon)

Now that you’ve come up with an idea and title, it’s still not time to actually write the book.

The next step is registering the domain. If this is going to be a quick report for some quick cash, you can use a domain you already own, which is somewhat related to the topic of your product and just create a subdirectory for your sales page. This is what I did with “Advanced Article Directory Profits.” However, I think there is much more potential so I will eventually improve the product and move the sales page to it’s own domain.

If this is something you’ll be going “all-out” on, I highly recommend registering a domain solely for the your ebook. It’s only $9 or so a year, so you really can’t lose.

Many people need more than one look before they purchase. They will take a look at the sales page, then come back later on if they decide to go through with it. That’s why it’s very important to use the title of the product as the domain name.

For instance:

My “Article Marketing Domination” ebook is at http://www.articlemarketingdomination.com/

My “Ultimate Blogging Blueprint” ebook is at http://www.ultimatebloggingblueprint.com/

Capturing Potential Future Customers and Creating a Buzz

This is something that I have to admit, I haven’t done with all my products, although I should have.

The main reason you want to do this is because you’ll be indirectly generating income before your product is even launched. When something big is in the works, whether online or offline, do you hear about it ahead of time? In most cases yes. If your product just pops up out of nowhere, it’s just like all the others…take it or leave it. You want people to know about it before it even exists because you KNOW it’s that damn good!

Capturing potential Customers

After registering your domain, you’ll have a plain page. Nothingness in the WWW. You don’t necessarily need to write the sales page right away, although you can.

What I’ve done, and it proved to be an excellent idea, was have a nice looking header graphic and cover graphic done (Sean Lowery does most of mine, I highly recommend him) and place them on the sales page. Come up with an intriguing title that captures peoples interests and a short description of the best product to hit the market since whatever in your niche (your new product). At the bottom you’ll place an opt-in form where visitors can subscribe to the “notification list.”

Of course you’ll need to have a good auto responder like Aweber or GetResponse (both are excellent,) but the small investment is worth it.

Now you can actually start promoting your new ebook right away, capturing potential customers and building a list at the same time.

Creating a Buzz

If you already maintain a popular blog, newsletter etc. then obviously you already have a means of creating a buzz and getting the word out.

However, many people do not. Your product may also be irrelevant to the interests of your current means of exposure so you wouldn’t want to promote to them. This was the case with my latest product. My list was targeted and I did promote it to that, but my blog is composed mostly of those of you who already maintain a blog. My product is aimed toward those who have never started a blog, so I didn’t promote it on the blog.

If this is the case, this is where forums come into play. I’ve literally captured thousands of opt-ins for upcoming products etc. JUST through forums and it’s actually very easy to do. Keep in mind easy doesn’t always mean quick. It does take some time.

Just sign up to some of the more popular forums in your niche. If your product is Internet marketing related, sign up with Warrior Forum, SitePoint, DigitalPoint etc. if you haven’t already. If your product is not IM related, do a Google search for “Niche + Forum” and come up with a few popular forums in that niche. You would be surprised how many non-IM niche-specific forums there are.

Be sure to include a link to your new sales page the signature of each account. Find every thread that is related to the topic of your product and reply with smart, well-informed answers and contributions. Even if a thread doesn’t require an answer, write a good reply that could help others.

As simple as it seems, forums have the potential of driving alot of traffic! It’s all about creating a reputation and helping others!

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As I stated before, I may add to this as time goes on. Part 3 coming soon! Any questions or misunderstandings will be added when presented. If you have any questions please comment below and I’ll add the answer to the main body if needed.

With that being said, I’ve decided to create a series of posts that will prove to be an in-depth, “everything you need to know” guide to creating and marketing an Ebook for long-lasting residual income.

I like the way Caroline organized the Twitter Guide at her blog, so I’m going to do something similar.

The series of posts (not sure exactly how many yet) will be split up and when completed, added to a page (not a post) on this blog. This guide will always be freely available. The only thing I’m going to do differently, is how I deal with comments. I’m going to leave comments open on each part, so people can ask questions, say thanks or anything they like for each individual part.

OK, let’s get started!

Part 1 – Coming up with an Idea and Titling your Ebook

I’ve had several people, who are considered “gurus” tell me that you first have to make sure there is a market for your product. I agree. Of coarse there has to be people that would buy it. But what many of them also say is something along the lines of this “If there is already a million and one products out there on the subject, then it may not be a good idea.” That, I disagree with!

When I’m looking for ideas I simply think of the topics in which I have a good amount of knowledge in. So far I’ve only written Ebooks in the Internet marketing niche, but I may go outside of IM sometime in the future.

Just because there are many other ebooks out there on the subject, DOES NOT mean you can’t do well with it and here’s why:

1. A good majority of the ebooks online never get mass exposure and the few that do, are not seen by EVERYONE in that market and even if they were, many people purchase multiple products on the same subject. The online market is huge and it’s growing day by day. That goes for the Internet marketing niche as well as non-IM niches. More people are buying online and it doesn’t look like it will be slowing down anytime soon.

2. Everyone absorbs information differently and everyone provides information differently, so even if your product is similar to others, you provide a different view. You and I could have the exact same level of knowledge on any given subject, but if we both wrote an ebook on the subject, I guarantee some people would prefer mine, while others would prefer yours.

You don’t have to have a Masters Degree on the Subject!

A few months ago I was chatting with a friend, a fellow Internet marketer who hasn’t yet created an ebook. I know he has a passion for building things with wood ie. bird-houses, chairs etc. so I asked him if he had ever thought about writing an ebook on the subject and selling it through ClickBank. He said something along the lines of “I’m not Bob Villa, man… I’m not THAT good.”

That brings me to a common misconception when it comes to ebook creation and that is “you have to be an expert in that niche in order to do well with it.” The only problem with that is it’s absolutely false!

Do you need to have knowledge on the subject? Absolutely! but theres one important thing to remember, there are different skill levels in every niche.

If his book was on advanced techniques for wood carving, he may not be able to cut it. But, I guarantee there is something in that “niche” he can teach others! And that’s what it’s all about!

There is no set law stating that one cannot use a title that someone else has used, unless it’s trademarked, but obviously you want your book to stand out.

The first thing I do, once I’ve decided on a topic, is write down 3 or 4 ideas for the title on a piece of paper or in a notepad document.

You want the title to be catchy and unique, but most importantly, you want it to be lazer targeted and relevant to the topic of your product.

For instance, my latest ebook is titled “The Ultimate Blogging Blueprint” and it is just that – a blueprint for those brand new to blogging. It shows people exactly how to create and market a blog. When thinking of the title I wanted to make sure that people wouldn’t get the wrong impression of the product.

For instance, I pondered the idea of “The Ultimate Guide to Blogging Riches,” but the ebook doesn’t teach you how to get rich with a blog, it simply teaches you how to get one going and how to do it correctly.

Once I have all the titles written down I do a Google search for each one. Those that return sales pages of products with titles that are very similar, I discard. Those that don’t I keep. If there are more than one left after that process I silently argue with myself (and sometimes my wife) until I’ve decided on the most catchy, relevant title.

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That’s it for Part 1. I’m very well known for forgetting things, so I’ll probably be back to add to this later on down the road.

Click Here to Continue with Part 2