If you’re an information product seller, then you’re going to be creating a lot of products. This includes lead magnets, tripwire products, core offers, bonus products, upsells, cross-sells, backend offers and more.
Now here’s the problem…
All of this product creation takes a lot of time. You need to do market research. You need to go through the process of actually creating the product. You need to proof, edit and format it.
Whew. And that doesn’t even count marketing it when you’re done!
The good news is that you have three really good options when it comes to creating products. These options include:
- Doing it yourself.
- Outsourcing it to a competent freelancer (or a team of freelancers).
- Getting other experts to create it for you for free.
Which one should you use?
Hint: use a combination. Sometimes you’ll want to create a product yourself, sometimes you’ll want to outsource, and sometimes you’ll get others to create them for you for free.
Let’s take a look at each of these three methods…
Doing It Yourself
Most people who are new to the information product business do all or most of the product creation themselves. That’s okay. Just keep these tips in mind:
- Do your market research first. This should ALWAYS be the first step of creating a product, no matter which option you choose. Find out what your market is already buying by checking marketplaces like ClickBank.com and Amazon.com, and then create something similar yet better.
- Create an outline. Don’t just wing it. Creating a solid outline will help you create a useful product.
- Schedule specific blocks of time to work. In other words, take your work time as seriously as you schedule any other time, such as appointments. Then create a daily to-do list, and don’t stop working until you’ve accomplished what you’ve set out to do on that particular day.
Next…
Outsourcing Products
A lot of people think they can’t afford to outsource. However, you may be surprised at just how affordable it is.
Take this example…
Let’s suppose your goal is to build a $100,000 business this year working 20 hours per week for 50 weeks. That’s 1000 hours worth of work, which makes each hour you work worth $100 per hour.
Now consider how long it takes you to do a particular task. For example, how long would it take you to write a 5000 word report? Perhaps ten hours’ worth of research and writing?
If it takes you ten hours, and your time is worth $100 per hour, then it “costs” you $1000 to create this report yourself. Meanwhile, you can easily find a really good freelancer who’ll produce that same product for you for a fraction of that price. In turn, that frees up your time to focus on high-value tasks such as marketing.
Just keep these two tips in mind:
- Cast a wide net when looking for a freelancer. You might go to freelancing sites such as elance.com and upwork.com, ask for recommendations on business forums and in groups, and even post want ads.
- Do your due diligence. Careful research upfront will save you a lot of time, money and frustration down the road. Don’t shop around based on price. Instead, be sure the freelancer has an established history of producing good work in a professional and timely manner.
Next…
Getting Others to Create Your Products – For Free
How is this possible?
Simple – you crowdsource your product. What you do is gather experts together in your niche, and ask each expert to contribute a piece of content. This might be an article, a tip, or even the answers to a set of interview questions.
For example, maybe you’re creating a product about how to lose weight. You could ask a couple dozen experts the best way to lose 10 pounds. To create variety, you’d ask a variety of experts, such as personal trainers, dieticians, bodybuilders, aerobics instructors, doctors and more.
In return for providing an answer, you’ll give your contributors perks such as:
- Free exposure in the form of a byline and link at the end of their article.
- Free exposure on your website.
- 100% commissions on any products they sell.
Just be sure your partners get a big reward for a small investment of time.
So now that you know three ways to create a product, the next question is this: what kind of product will you create?