Time to Think Again About InfoProducts?

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Time to Think Again About InfoProducts? ======================================= 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 Hudson 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. The main site is at: http://www.PracticalSelling.com/ Resources specific to this article are at: http://www.PracticalSelling.com/go/to.cgi?myksezin0001