Information Products – A No-Brainer ‘Net Success Story

Information Products are easy to produce, simple to ship, and can enjoy high markups because people are not paying for the physical form the product is delivered in. They are paying for the information.

Written Apr 10, 2008, read 167 times since then.

There are products that are sold on the Internet today from cast iron skillets to luxury airliners. The upside is that technology makes it easy to promote products for pennies on places like ebay or on a dedicated website. The downside is that selling a conventional product involves conventional headaches like shipping, handling, and other inventory-related chores.

Enter the information product.

Informational products come in many forms. An info product can be a digital book (an e-book), a digital report or a white paper, a piece of software, a web site or a newsletter. Any product that's informational or informative in nature can be considered an info product.

Information Products are the ideal business to start if you are looking for an online business...They are easy to produce, simple to ship, and can enjoy high markups because people are not paying for the physical form the product is delivered in. They are paying for the valuable information contained within.

Most people think of reports and books when they think of information products, but the market is bigger than…much, much bigger. You could produce software, videos, audios, newsletters, secret sites, and more. The only limitations in this business are the ones you create yourself.

What makes information products so ‘net friendly? There are several answers to that question:

The “Zoom” Factor -- Fast to create, fast to market.

Many big companies take years and spend thousands of dollars bringing a new product to market. For you however, a product development cycle that's years in the making just isn’t feasible.

So forget about it! Forget an intense design and costly manufacturing process. For people who have been in the “game” for a while, creating an information product in as little as two hours…and turning it into a revenue generator the next day…is common.

If you have an appealing topic and a computer, you have all the tools you need to create an info product.

The “Cheap” Factor -- Startup costs are low.

When you sell information, you can literally create a product for next to nothing. If your product is an e-book, the only investment required is the time it takes to put words to digital paper and the modest costs of a web page to sell your product.

The “Lazy” Factor -- Automated sales and delivery process.

Thanks to Internet technology, you can sell info products around the clock without ever having to lift a finger. You can be diapering your two-year old, sitting by the pool, or snoring in your bed and still make money!

There are literally thousands of successful info entrepreneurs who are getting rich despite the fact that they work as little as one hour a day. They log-on to the ‘net once a day to check their website and their email…and their income.

After that’s done, all that’s left is to go out and enjoy themselves on the tennis courts, with the kids, or spending their not-so-hard-earned dough.

You can completely automate the sales and delivery process so your site does everything for you. An automated site is the equivalent of a staff that never sleeps and never stops selling your product.

Your site delivers your sales pitch, takes the order and processes the payment. Then it delivers the product by e-mail, and even sends a follow-up in a few days to make sure the customer's satisfied…sand to offer additional products for sale. Sweet!

I Want It NOW -- Customers get immediate access or delivery.

Consumers aren’t known for their patience. When they’re ready to buy, they want it NOW. That’s the reason they’re so crazy about the Internet and why having a product that you can deliver immediately via download is so desirable.

Selling information is the best way to give your customers immediate satisfaction. As I discussed a moment ago, an automated site instantly sends the product (or download link) as soon as the order is processed. You can’t get faster than that!

Hands-Off -- There are no shipping and handling charges

A lot of people make a lot of money online selling products on their website on through eBay, for example. They do a lot of work, too. They process the order, run the credit card, and place an order with a wholesaler or drop-shipper.

If they’re selling an item they already have or something that they’re purchased as inventory, they have to find a box for shipping, package the item, print a label, prepare it for mailing, and drag it to the post office or an auction drop store.

Exhausting! And expensive. Every minute spent filling orders is “lost” time because you’re not being paid for your efforts. If time is money (and it IS, believe me), your profit gets smaller with every minute spent on shipping and handling.

Informational products require no shipping and handling since most will be delivered via e-mail. Your automated site delivers the info product into your customers' hands.

The More The Merrier -- Information products can be reproduced in any quantity. I assume you don’t want to open a factory. Hard goods have to be manufactured from raw materials using machinery. You'll probably have to hire someone to oversee the production. You'd have to have a system for keeping inventory - and again someone to run that. You'd have to ship the products - with someone to oversee that - or outsource the shipping function to someone else.

These overhead costs make it difficult to be competitive.

Even if you sell a million copies of your ebook, production costs stay zero. All you have to do is copy a file. And if you’re selling CD’s or audiotapes, the only recurring cost is the very small cost of the tapes and CD’s themselves.

Information products are cheap, easy, convenient and fast. The kind of thing you can create and sell all by yourself.

That’s why we love ‘em!

Learn more about the author, Debbie Feldstein.