Why is there a baby in this package? You'll just have to read to find out. (cc Mark Sebastian)
A few days ago, I got all inspired by an idea and immediately decided to tweet it for quick & dirty market research – Would anyone be interested in a course on how to make & sell infoproducts?
The answer kinda blew my mind:
@amyhoy: What’s an info product?
This. We cannot have this. Grab yourself a nice cup of cocoa, and settle in, because infoproducts are beautiful, wonderful, and wealth-giving.
And it’s time for a story.
Birds, Bees, & Info-P’s
When a mommy Info and a daddy Product love each other very much, they snuggle closer and closer! Then, magical sparkles happen between their bumpy bits! 9 months later, a baby infoproduct is born.
Now, Baby Infoproduct has the best of both his mommy and daddy. Mommy’s Info is stuck without a vehicle for delivery. Pure info can’t get anywhere on its own. But Daddy’s Product is only form — and form alone doesn’t sell.
But, thanks to the genius of sexual selection, Baby Infoproduct is the total package! Awww, ain’t love grand?
This time, without vomiting… What’s an infoproduct?
Strictly speaking, an infoproduct is a product that conveys info. But they’re oooooh so much more than that. A good infoproduct doesn’t just deliver info, it delivers results.
Types of Infoproducts
There are as many types of infoproducts as there are ways to persuade, guide, teach, and aid. Some of the most popular and successful types of infoproduct are:
- ebooks
- white papers
- screencasts
- videos
- guided audio programs
- recorded interviews
- workbooks
- self-guided courses
- cheat sheets
- diagrams
- research papers
- best practice guides
- helpful software / wizards (that teach)
- condensed notes / summaries
In short: digital goods of all stripes. The same “info” can be delivered in different forms for different purposes, audiences, and price points. That’s part of the beauty of an infoproduct.
You can even mix and match. Customers love it when they get video and a workbook, or a research paper and some interviews they can listen to on their commutes.
Why Your Strategy Needs an Infoproduct
Infoproducts are relatively easy (and dirt cheap) to create. They’re easy and cheap to sell — you don’t have to whip up your own ecommerce system. You can pick the form of a product that suits you and your audience.
And, if you get your offer and your audience right, you can sell them at a pretty premium: a windfall of income at launch, and then a small but steady stream of sales after that.
Oh, and, last and best thing: infoproducts usually don’t need much by way of customer support, so they’re even easy and cheap to maintain.
Let’s review:
- cheap & easy to make
- cheap & easy to sell
- cheap & easy to maintain
- can make a lot of money
Hot dog, that’s a lot of upsides without a lot of downsides.
Even if your long-term goal isn’t to live off ebooks, videos, workshops, etc., an infoproduct can help you stuff your coffers and get the feel for researching, planning, making, marketing, shipping, and selling.
Bottomline: Yay, Infoproducts!
Infoproducts are fun and profitable. I can attest to this one personally, having written (co-created) a technical ebook, lots of live training (a semi-infoproduct), and also a semi-self-guided launch class.
That JavaScript performance ebook alone has made us $45,823.00 as of yesterday, and all we had to invest was time.
And you don’t have to write a whole ebook to make a nice little chunk of change. Quaking with fear at the thought of writing the Great American Ebook? Then make a presentation and narrate it. Or screen cap yourself doing your thing with code or Photoshop. Or create 5 podcasts and package them with a little workbook. Or, or, or. Infoproducts are the very soul of flexibility.
Also: before your excuse-making machine starts churning up, “But Amy, you’re special” — no, no I’m not. I’m not the only one making a bundle off infoproducts in a tech/design field. Check out these other peeps: Peepcode, Lynda, Create Your Own Programming Language, the Envato network of sites, Sitepoint, UIE, Before & After, and Giles Bowkett. Even 37Signals used to sell expensive white papers on design ROI, until they made their fortune elsewhere.
These are a broad selection, but definitely not everything that’s out there.
So I urge you, consider an infoproduct. In return for procreation and snuggles, they’ll pay you handsomely.
What’re you thinking? What’s stopping you?
Write me, baby.
Tweet
Amy,
Excellent post – I think this is going to be an increasingly big area in the coming years. I see it eventually heading to a ‘micro’ economy where lots of small businesses and individuals will pull market share away from the large corporations. They will be able to do this through their reputation and trust built by doing a better job that the larger companies for a fairer price. Whilst it’s unlikely we’ll see this in highly regulated or complex industries such as banking or utilities any time soon, we are already starting to see it in industries such as publishing and software development.
I’ve literally (in the last day) launched a SASS site that for zero management digital delivery which may be of interest (http://www.digitaldeliveryapp.com)
George
Awesome, George!
I want to build a digital delivery tool as well, because I’m sick and tired of e-junkie and it’s the best (easiest) option for so many reasons. But it sure looks like yours is good enough to get my business now.
Yes, I believe that there is a revolution coming, as Amy has said in other posts. A revolution of one-man (or woman) shows, selling their own expertise and passion neatly packaged as various kinds of infoproducts.
And we need more role-models. Real, genuine, honest folks (not the internet-marketing-sell-your-soul-for-quick-bucks bunch), but people who really care about what they do and their customers (or even their fans
Another thing that’s slowing down this revolution is that it’s really all about acting on your passion (or at least your expertise, knowledge). And what you’re passionate about usually comes easily for you and you may think it’s not such a big deal, that it’s easy, even effortless, for everybody. In short – not believing that you have something special to offer. Especially if you have not been making money off of it before. It can be a big leap. And big leaps are scary for most people.
Amy, you’re my new heroine.
I’m building my fourth infoproduct right now and they really are nice. Here’s an example of the first one I built, it’s a free cheatsheet I used to promote some other services my business provides (as well as help cut down some common questions I get about Redmine).
It’s really surprising how effective products can be. So Amy, when is that course on how to make & sell infoproducts?
Hiiiii Eric! Nice numbers you got there. I freakin’ love cheat sheets as a promo tool. Riches shall be ours!
Thinking the course will be near the end of November, right before my Quit Everything Month.
Looking forward to the course. Let me know once you have something posted about it and I’ll help get the word out to my little nichi (plural of niche).
I want to live in a world where big companies are forced to compete with the little people, splitting up into teensier, tinier pieces, adopting lamer and lamer logos before finally becoming irrelevant and useless, which is when the little people will take over the world. Until that day comes, my information and my products will keep making sweet, sweet love, knowing every infoproduct created makes us little people that much stronger.
YES! Preach it! Let’s get matching berets printed and pose all revolutionary-like!
Not just “infoproduct” but also “info-by-product”. This year I’ve taught a bunch of workshops. Each one comes with a free workbook. After the class the workbook goes up for sale on my Web site. So I get happy students with take-away workbooks and I get free cash after the class by selling the by-product of the class. It’s good times I tells ya.
Hell yeah, Emma Jane. Very astute!
Believe it or not, I actually had a couple lines in my Long List o’ Future Posts that for exactly that. I even used the phrase “byproduct.” Like meat byproducts. Your metaphor is hereby stamped Amy Approved
What sort of price would you put on “specialty” info products though?
I have been considering making one on decoding captchas (I am the author of http://www.wausita.com/captcha/) but since its so specialised I doubt I would see more then 2 orders a month. Makes it hard to justify the time investment if thats at $19 a pop.