Information products, generally known as reports or e-books, are one of the most profitable products you can sell online. There are many reasons for this – development price, printing costs (or rather lack of printing costs) and ease of distribution. Internet users have become very accustomed to e-books and short reports as a form of online product, and are more than happy to pay for the information they want. As everyone has something they know more about than others, this puts you at an advantage. Let’s learn more about how you can profit by creating an information product.
Here are the basics to creating an information product. First, pick a main topic, something you’re at least somewhat familiar with. Next, search online and find any forums, communities, or question boards that deal with your topic (or a subset of your topic). Read through some of the questions that are asked, and attempt to nail down a specific problem that many people need the answers to. Research the topic more, discover the answers and other, related information that may be of use to these people. Open Microsoft Word (or something similar) and write your report, e-book, or whatever you’re creating. If you are a programmer, you may actually be tackling problems by creating a program to do so. Complete your product, place a sales page online, and drive the people who want the answers in your product to your site.
If you are creating an e-book or short report, you may well wish to create it in Adobe .PDF format. This is simple enough, as there are several free or inexpensive options. Try PDF995, which is free, easy to use, contains no watermarks or penalties for not registering, and creates a professional product. If you already own Adobe Acrobat, so much the better! Users are far more accustomed to downloading a PDF than a DOC file, and many people don’t have Microsoft Word, nor realize that there is a free DOC reader available online.
If you are creating a software package, debug it until the point where you can’t break it to save your life. You may not get a second chance to maintain your buyers, and if your program crashes or appears unstable, many of them may immediately request a refund. They may also be wary of any products you release in the future. Make sure your program is stable, works properly and answers the basic needs of your target users.
Finally, it's a good idea to have a refund option. Many people will not buy without one, as they don’t know you from John Doe and have no way to know if you are peddling gold or peddling crap. A refund guarantees, in their minds, that there is no risk involved with purchasing your product. In my experience, refund requests are nonexistent, although if you do not satisfy your customer with your product, I’m sure refunds would be more frequent. However, even really terrible products have a relatively low refund rate, so always offer one.
