Selling information products can produce one of the highest return on investments on the internet. The amount of time and money required is relatively low compared with the possible financial returns.
Where else can you provide a product that effectively costs nothing to produce, is delivered to your customers automatically and at any time of the day, and is promoted by other people?
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
Find out what people want
Search the web and determine what people are interested in and what they are willing to spend money on. Knowing that there is an interest in your information, particularly from a group of people how are fanatical about their interest, and determining that these people have actually purchased products is essential.
I recommend: Questions and Answers lets you find out in real time what people are asking about. Start with a simple one word search term. Search through the questions and answers to determine what people are most interested in.
Find out what people pay for
Once you know what people are interested in knowing, determine if there are other people paying for advertising. If there is, then you know that the possibility of making money from your information product is possible.
I recommend: Use the
Google Adwords Keyword Tool to find keywords related to your subject.
Type in keywords related to people's interest in the text box and click on "Get More Keywords". After the results are returned, typically 201 related keywords, sort the table by clicking on the "Advertiser Competition".
Determine how much competition there is
See if advertisers are actually paying money for the top ten keywords. You want people to be paying for words related to your subject, this tells you that people are spending money to make money.
I recommend: Visit
Google and enter in each of the first ten keywords from your table that is sorted by "Get More Keywords".
Make sure there is at least one advertiser for each of your top ten keywords. Preferably, you want multiple advertisers for those top ten keywords. This tells you that there is money to be made in this field.
Create your product
Once you know what people want and have determined that people are advertising for the information that people want, create an informational product that answers people's most pressing questions.
I recommend: If you are the expert in the subject of interest, create a information document that answers people's most pressing needs.
If you need assistance, then consider hiring a freelancer from a site such as
Scriptlane or
Elance.
Once you have a document, create a
PDF version of your document for easy downloading.
Sell your product on Clickbank
Sign up at Clickbank for an account to sell your product online.
Clickbank takes care of the billing and has a built in affiliate program that allows anyone to promote your product.
Consider paying out more than 50% of your sales to affiliates to encourage affiliate sales.
I recommend: Start by visiting Clickbank's
Sell Online page.
Read the
getting started page that explains how to gain access to ClickBank's market place and their affiliate network.
Sign up and agree to their terms of service. Follow their guidelines for maintaining a
promotional web page and a
download page.