How to Create a Product: Part 1

Creating information products is a popular model of running a business online. The major advantage of it is that you get to keep all the profits from your sales. Now that is pretty compelling 🙂

Previously I recommended thinking about a pipeline of products. Firstly, a lead-in free offer in exchange for an email address. Then a trio of products based on a good – better – best concept to offer for sale at different price points. A key element in the plan is to logically align the product range.

Actually, I walked into Good Guys the other day to buy a new TV. I noticed Samsung had lots of products for sale: laptops, DVD players, as well as TV’s. mobile phones, fridges and more. Lots of product lines.

But I was only interested in TVs. No worries: lots of tv choices. Different sizes, different features, and of course there were accessories. Then of course I was offered wall mounts, cables, surge protectors and additional warranty. I had plenty of opportunities to buy 🙂

I bought the tv. And the wall mount and surge protector. Interesting. 3 products. Hmmm.

Now, I know when you’re running a small online business, you don’t have the resources of a major appliance store or electrical goods manufacturer. But the same principles apply.

People sometimes have a challenge with my “free plus 3” concept. “It’s too difficult”. “It’s too intimidating”. “I don’t have time”. “There’s no point producing before I know if it sells”. “There should be more.” ” There should be less.” Choose your own comment.

If you followed my post from before, I simply asked you to do three things:
– know your target market
– know what they want
– map out the product range

All I suggest is to plan – a little, not in depth. Yet many people jump ahead for the reasons something won’t work before they’ve gotten to first base.

I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt and assuming you’ve thought about those three points.

So let’s have a look at what those “free + 3” could be. They don’t have to be huge. They don’t have to be in place from Day One. They don’t have to be expensive to produce.

Let’s start with compiling the free offer.

What if you’re in the wealth niche? Your free offer could be a PDF short report on “7 Biggest Mistakes People Make When Selling Their Property”.

if you don’t have a free offer, think about the 7 Biggest Mistakes people make in your space, the 8 Best Ways to… or the Top 10 Habits they have … you get the idea.

My free offer in one niche is “Top Ten (Niche) Questions Answered” and it’s a 48 page report. Yours might be 10 pages, or 7, or 22. It doesn’t need to be huge and it ideally talks about the ‘what’ or ‘why’ rather than the ‘how’.

Today’s task:

– pick a number … 5, 10, 7, 12 …
– using that number, can you think of x things related to your niche? Mistakes, habits, best ideas, methods, beliefs, strategies, questions …
– put a headline together and start writing! Do an intro section, a paragraph or two for each point, and a concluding section. Finish with what the reader should do next to benefit from the info provided.
– if you really can’t think of any content, do some research. Use an online headline generator to spark some ideas.

Once you’ve written a draft, layout your report with an intro, disclaimer, table of contents, an about you section, how to connect with you, links back to your sites and affiliate links if you have them. If you have testimonials, include them. Have a call to action. For the moment that might be to visit your site or connect with you on social media. In future, you’ll progressively add links to your product sales pages, perhaps with a special offer.

Pro Tip: think about branding your publications with a consistent look and tie that in with your website branding.