How to Make Your Information a Hot Commodity for Consumers

If tangible items don’t tickle your fancy, then you might want to embark on a mission to be a product owner of a different kind – digital production, where you sell eBooks and other multi-media creations, launch a membership site, or provide content for others to use.

 

Where Will Your Digital Base Be?

 

Being a digital product provider means you need your own home to host your business on.  You can register a domain at a site like GoDaddy or NameCheap and then get hosting through a provider like HostGator – all for under $20. 

 

What your site will look like will depend on what type of digital product you want to create.  If it’s an information product like an eBook, then all you need is a minisite, which is basically just a scrolling sales letter framed inside of a border.

 

If you’re launching a membership site, you might need something a bit more complex, where you have forums, chats, advertisements, and users get to create their own profiles and interact with others.

 

A PLR (Private Label Rights) content site needs to be set up with your shopping cart in mind, so that your visitors can add items to their purchase and fill their virtual cart with several things you have to offer.  PLR is content that is sold to many people, allowing them to change as much of the content as they want to and use it as their own.

 

The two most popular ways to sell digital products online are ClickBank and PayPal, using a tool like PayDotCom.  Both are easy to use and while PDC is free to set up, ClickBank charges a one-time processing fee of $49.95. 

 

In many cases, the product owner uses both sites to get maximum exposure to affiliates who wish to promote their products.  Both sites take a percentage of the sale as their share in the profitability of the site.

 

You can either design a website yourself, if you’re familiar with DreamWeaver or FrontPage or another tool that can help you, or you can outsource the task to a freelancer at a site like Elance or Rent-a-Coder.

 

Information Product Creation

 

            Being a pusher of info products can be highly profitable because the overhead costs are so low.  While a print book gets the author only a small fraction of the sale, an eBook delivers a 50-100% profit, and the price tag of the item is much more than what it would be offline.

 

            The most popular form of information products are eBooks.  These are digital books that consumers can purchase online and download and read immediately.  They’re generally non-fiction “how-to” products, although some, like King, have gone into the fiction genre with eBooks.

 

            An eBook can be created easily by writing it in Microsoft Word and then converting it to an Adobe PDF file.  Upload it to your server, and set it up through ClickBank or PDC, and you’re ready to start taking orders!

 

            If you want to up the price tag and provide something of even higher value, then you might consider adding or specifically creating audio and video files for your product’s prospects.

 

            You can just get a headset and go to Start à Accessories à Entertainment à Sound Recorder and make quick audio files that you post on the web, or use more advanced tools for editing and enhancement.

 

            Adding video can be a cinch if you use a tool like Camtasia.  This lets you capture your screen as you work, so you can create video tutorials to accompany your text eBook, and use them as your bonus material, or to virally bring in more visitors to your domain.

 

Launching a Membership Site

 

            Launching a membership site can be more work for some, because your members are always going to want frequent updates and fresh information. Since they’re paying on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis, you have to make sure you can provide for their needs.

 

            A membership site is great for you, because it can deliver recurring income, and increase exponentially as you gain more subscribers.  It also gives you direct insight into what your target audience wants and needs, because you can eavesdrop on their chats, forum posts, and contact them directly.

 

            Having a direct line to your consumers means you can produce exactly what they’re after – all you have to do is ask.  Just make sure you live up to whatever it is that you promise. 

 

            Pricing your membership site can be tricky.  There are some broad, generalized sites that charge very little, hoping to attract as many subscribers as possible.  Then there are some sites (like a stock tip site, for instance), that charge top dollar because the information is valuable.