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http://www.robertplank.com/information-product/
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Robert, money, sales, posts, marketing, Robert Plank, Jeanne, video, niche, ebay, product creation, forum, Terrie Wurzbacher, bought, information product.Summary:
You have at least one idea for a product in you. Maybe you haven't made a product yet you are poised on bye verge of a product breakthrough.
But I hear you ask, "How do you know that my big idea is something that everyone else will pay money for?"We're going to figure out right now if your idea will be profitable in two stages â¬" the research stage and the creation stage.
Let's spend 30 minutes and figure out if your idea is worth it.The first thing you should do is check forums.
I don't believe in doing more than 30 minutes of research to figure out if your idea will make you money.
I say this because I know of too many marketers who have spent a month or 6 months or a year researching as an excuse not to do anything.What's the hot topic inside the #1 forum in your niche?
When I go to my favorite marketing forum, I find that the threads with the most replies are about articles, membership sites, and ClickBank.
When I go to my favorite programming forum, most of the replies are about PHP frameworks, WordPress plugins, and outsourcing.
Don't bother making a report about something unless it's a hot topic that a lot of people in your small niche are talking about. I'm not a believer in going mass market unless you have a lot of money to invest.If you're just starting out on a niche, start in the niche.
Now that you know what everyone is talking about, figure out what people are paying for.
You have friends in the same niche you're in, right?
What big launches are going on in your niche?
There's no point in getting into a niche unless people are willing to spend a bare minimum of $100 on you.
I have bought products showing me how to make a software outline, how to write faster, how to create video, how to make audio products, and they have all accelerated my path towards getting things done.
The final part of your research now that you know what people are talking about and what people are buying is finding out what your competitors are doing.
Go to Google and search for the niche you're in.
If you are thinking about creating a course on how to sell on eBay, search the forum you're on for the word "ebay."
Go on amazon.com and look for books in that niche and DVDs in that niche as well.
This is good because not only does it show you what areas to target but also what your price point should be.
You should match your price point fairly well to your competitors but price slightly higher, that way you will have a higher perceived value.
Now that you've done your research, you should know how to adjust your idea to deliver the best solution by answering people's questions on forums, figuring out what they're paying for and duplicating or doing the job better than your competitors.
Now, it's time to create the product.
I have never spent more than a few days making a simple lead generation product, and by lead generation, I need a product that's $100 or cheaper.
Your product will be a lot better if you write it without distractions and write it as fast as possible.
You can always go back and make version 2.0 later.
What's more important than spending or wasting a lot of time on creating a product is to add your own "how to" information.
I can go online right now and find lots of tips and advice about placing an eBay ad.
I can find lots of videos on YouTube showing me the mechanics of placing an eBay ad, but I want you to show me what makes an eBay ad profitable.
I want you to tell me exactly what steps I should take from start to finish from having something to sell on eBay to actually placing the ad and making the sale and what to do after that.
Also think about what simple problem can you solve for them.
For some people, an eBay problem might be that they cannot get people to read their ad.
The sooner you make your info-product not just "how to" but also problem and solution-based, the more people are going to benefit from your book, the better reviews it's going to get and you'll have an easier time making a sale.
And finally, what success stories can you gather from the people who use your product?
If someone has not yet bought your eBook or home study course, all they have to go on is your pitch page or sales letter.
That's why you need to make your sales letter as best as it can possibly be and the way I like to make a sales letter better is to gather testimonials or proof and show that on the sales letter â¬" so, people who have not yet bought can see that others have benefited from this training.
And that's how you're going to create the perfect info-product and make money doing it.
First, researching it in forums by what's making money, what your competitors are doing, and then create that product by offering your own unique how to, solving a problem, and gathering success stories from those people whose problems you have solved and place it back on the sales letter.
Did this help you make your next info-product?
In the research stage or in the creation stage?
Leave me a blog comment below right now while it's still fresh on your mind.
I think the research stage is the place where most of us fail.
I agree with your principle that ½ hour should be enough to decide whether the idea is worthwhile.
But certainly your second principle about getting things out of the sandbox is a good idea.
When people know they will get version 2.0 they are more tolerant of a minor flaw in version 1.0, and getting things into the field is indeed the best way to get user feedback to make final adjustments.
So not that flawed products should be released, but you're bound to find a minor bug once something lands on thousands of desktops globally.
But next time I'm doing research, I'll follow the 30 minute rule and move on to either another research, or getting the product ready for launch in as short a time as possible.
Thanks for outlining your product creation strategy.
What I find particularly difficult is coming up with the right plan that will ensure me getting to the 'finish-line' with my product creation.
There are so many details you need to take care of.
Here's how I do it: *Research- write down as many characteristics as I can about a particular topic that's in-demand.
*Product creation - I extend every sub-topic by writing 1-2 pages about each.
This way you can have a ready-made infoproduct in a couple of hours because you are focused and you know what you need to do.
I think research is fun to do and it never bores me.
i love to tackle into topics and sub-topics and find out more about what people's needs are.
I'm catching up on reading blogs this morning.
Yours, as always, is thought-provoking and informative.
It's still taking me too long because I get bogged down with the tactics of how all the pieces fit together.
But, I'm better than I was 3 months ago, so I will continue and be even better yet.
I have been lacking on the research part, but on the pro site, this has meant that I've created a lot of products.
The people who like me had started to podcast, all figured it out themselves, and the non-geeks hadn't started to podcast, so they didn't want the book.
I've written an ebook about how to get fresh and free content on your blog, it has really good reviews, and it's been selling some, but far from the number of copies it would have sold, had the author name been somebody else, like e.g. Robert Plank
Maybe it's that I'm not entering the right key words or key word phrases to get to the right places.
Or maybe there's additional info I should be typing into the search bar along with the key words to direct me to the desired destinations.
Robert, As always your posts are insightful and seem to hit the problem nail right on the head.
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