  |
Creating and selling info products is a homebased / online business that virtually anyone can start with very little money and develop into a very profitable business. For the purposes of this article, "info products" will refer to reports, booklets, books, newsletters, audio tapes, video tapes, and diskettes. Info products can be used for profit in two ways: Creating and selling info products is the "perfect" homebased / online business for several reasons.
Now, you're probably thinking, "but I don't know enough about anything to create an info product". Virtually everyone knows enough about some topic to create info products_ or you have enough interest in something to research it and become an expert on it! Two bits of advice on choosing a topic for your info products Once you have chosen your topic, jot down the main aspects of your topic that you'd like to cover. Ideally, most of your information should come from your own knowledge or experience. However, it certainly doesn't have to. Either way, your topic should be researched on the web (using search engines), at the library, etc. Now it's time to write. PLEASE don't get hung-up here! Just jot down a rough outline and then START WRITING! This is where so many people give up. Don't sweat it. It doesn't have to be perfect and you'll be revising it a few times_so just start writing. Get something down on paper. You can "fix it" later. The best advice I can give you about writing is to just write like you're talking to a friend. There are books written about how to write, but our purpose is just to effectively convey the information we have. It doesn't have to be a literary masterpiece_.my writing certainly isn't! Your primary concern should be to be effective at conveying your information to your reader. That's it! Of course you'll need to do several revisions. Once you're done, have someone else read it. You want to be sure that everything is easily understood. Let's talk more specifically about producing specific info products. Reports, booklets, and books. Information that consists of a few pages of information is usually referred to as a report. Larger info products are referred to as booklets or books. The original document can be produced on your computer. Reports can be as simple as a few pages stapled on the upper left corner. Booklets and books can be bound in several ways_ saddle stitching (11 x 17 sheets folded and stapled along the crease), spiral binding, and perfect binding (a typical soft cover book). 1. Saddle Stitching - Leesburg Printing Company in Leesburg, Florida specializes in printing saddle-stitched booklets. Their quality is top-notch and their rates are very competitive. Their turn-around time on an order is five working days - pretty quick! They will print 500 or more booklets_maximum number of pages per booklet is 32. Call and ask for their "booklet printing price list" and samples_1-800-828-3348. Or you can go to their web site_ http://www.newsletters-print-mail.comor email them_ NewsletRus@aol.comFor rough comparison purposes, 500 copies of a 32 page, 8 .5 x 11 booklet from Leesburg Printing would cost $1.09 each. If you don't want to print 500 copies of your booklet, you can go to your local "quick copy" type place and produce one-at-a-time if you want to. You would simply make 11 x 17 copies, fold them, and have the copy shop staple them (saddle stitch) with their long stapler. The disadvantages to this are that your price per booklet will be considerably higher and the quality of copies will not be nearly as good as having them printed. You will also be limited to only black ink. For comparison, one of these booklets (32 pages, 8 .5 x 11), copied and saddle stitched a few at a time at my local Kinkos copy center would cost $2.33 each. 2. Spiral Binding - You can have this done at your local copy center or if you plan on doing this for the "long haul", you can purchase the equipment and do it yourself. This type of binding (and perfect binding) would typically be used for booklets/books over 32 pages. For purposes of comparing spiral and perfect binding, we'll use an 80 page booklet/book example. To produce them locally, you would simply copy your originals and have your copy center spiral bind them. At my local Kinkos, an 80 page, spiral bound booklet would cost $8.10 each. You could also have your local printer do 500 or more of these for you. However, if you are going to produce that many, it would be cheaper to have them perfect bound_and they would look better. If you're interested in purchasing your own spiral binding equipment, it starts at about $200 and goes up from there. Copy machines are also fairly affordable now_some for as little as little as $250 at places like Home Depot. Taking this route, you could do everything "in-house" and just produce your booklets as you need them. After the purchase of your equipment, Your cost would drop to about $4.00 per 80 page booklet. Here are sources for spiral binding equipment_
3. Perfect Binding - This is how a typical "soft cover" book is bound. It looks VERY professional but you'll have to spend a few hundred dollars at a pop to get these produced. Still, for most people that are producing booklets/books over 32 pages, I would recommend this route_.especially if you are ready to produce a few hundred of your product. For less than 500 booklets/books, I would use Roberts Graphics and Printing in Brunswick, Ohio. They will print as few as 50. For comparison purposes, you could get 150, 80 page, 8 .5 x 11 booklets/books, printed and perfect bound for $5.25 each_.or you could produce 350 for $3.52 each. Both of these are considerably less expensive than the spiral bound example above_ $8.10 each_.and they'll look much more professional. You'll have a "real" book! Their turnaround time is about 5 working days! That's really quick! For more information, contact Dan at booklets@apk.net or 330-273-3021. You can find their web site (including pricing information) at_ http://www.robertsgraphics.com For 500 booklets/books or more, I would use Whitehall Printing Company of Naples, Florida. They produce top quality perfect bound booklets/books and their rates are VERY competitive nationwide. Their turnaround time is about 15 working days. For comparison purposes, you could get 1,000, 80 page, 8 .5 x 11 booklets/books, printed and perfect bound for about $1.60 each. 5,000 would be about 85 cents each. Call them at 800-321-9290 and ask for their "price schedule" for perfect bound books. Now, a few words about producing audio cassettes. Audio cassettes are fairly easy to produce and inexpensive to duplicate. You can actually do the recording yourself with an inexpensive tape recorder from your local electronics store. For a great explanation of how to do your own recordings, see http://www.aamedia.comClick on "how to make a tape". Audio tapes can be duplicated for around $1 per tape, give or take a little. You can buy the equipment and do it yourself or you can have it done for you. For tape sets, you can purchase albums for 1 to 3 dollars each, depending on size. Here are two excellent resources for audio tape duplicating or for the equipment to do it yourself_.. A & A Media can be reached at 800-326-0386 or http://www.aamedia.com Dove enterprises can be reached at 800-233-3683. Both of these companies can also provide albums for tape sets or you can usually get them less expensively from Blackbourn Media Packaging. Contact John Theissen at 800-842-7550. Videos can be much more expensive to produce if done professionally_usually thousands of dollars. Or, you can produce a moderate quality video with an inexpensive video camera. Remember, your goal is to convey the information. One of the most informative "how-to" videos I ever purchased was done with a $500 video camera. The quality wasn't great, but they did a great job at conveying the information that I needed. Videos can be reproduced by the audio companies listed above for 4 to 8 dollars each depending on size and quantities. Publishing on diskettes. Many people promote this because they say it's so inexpensive. True, it is, but I believe it ends up being an inferior product for one main reason. Many people, if not most, would not want to, or know how to, use the diskette the read your material. My experience has been that your sales will be drastically reduced if you only publish on diskette. Enough said. Newsletter subscriptions can be sold or used as a promotional tools for your other info products_or any type of products or services. To reach people who are not online, you must use a "paper" newsletter. However, if you can publish an "electronic", online newsletter, your costs decrease dramatically! For example, It would cost about $2,700 to send out one issue of an 8 page "paper" newsletter to 5,000 subscribers versus $0 to send an "electronic" newsletter to 5,000 subscribers. The drawback is that it is VERY difficult to charge for an online newsletter. There are some exceptions in niche markets but they are few and far between. For the most part, online newsletters should be used as a promotional tool. I think one of the most effective things you can do to market your business online is to start an online "newsletter". Now, a "newsletter" can be as simple as a few paragraphs emailed to your list once a month or it can be more extensive if you prefer. The goal is just to develop a list of people who are interested in your products/services and want "news" from you on a regular basis. I publish a short, weekly, online newsletter in each of the two areas I market to. The sole purpose of my web pages is to get people to subscribe to my free newsletter. Then, I can communicate with them on a weekly basis....provide them with valuable information on a subject they're interested in....build credibility, and hopefully sell them something at some point. I ONLY email my newsletter to people who have asked to be on my list! In my audio tape set, "How To Start A Homebased Business, Creating & Selling Your Own Info Products", I go into much more detail on publishing an online newsletter. I've just set up a web site with links to a few great sites for "info publishers"_.. http://www.freeyellow.com/members/homebased-online/infolinks.html Have fun! Greg Landry, M.S. publishes a free, weekly, online newsletter, "HomeBased & Online". To start your free subscription_ Homebased@Landry.com For information on Greg's audio tape set, "How To Start A Homebased Business, Creating & Selling Your Own Info Products", TapeInfo@Landry.com Greg can be reached 7am to 5pm central time_ 504-766-1004
|
 |
 |
|
|
Click Here to Email Bob Smith