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59 Steps to Starting and Building a Successful Info Products Business: The Ultimate Information Marketing Checklist
(This is going to be turned into a
“fancy” looking information marketing report. BUT, I wanted you to get
the information right away. You are seeing a FIRST DRAFT in this blog
post.)
Do you want to know how to start and run a successful info products business?
OK. Here are the steps.
They are in order. Some of them will be easy to understand and
implement without ANY other help, information or advice. Others you’ll
need to do some more homework. For that you may want to pick up a copy
of my upcoming book on the topic!
It will be out shortly.
For additional free resources, make sure and visit
http://www.FredGleeck.com. There are a lot of additional free e-books,
audios and videos for you there. If you need any additional help, email
me.
Take this list and print it out. Use it to make sure you’ve done all
the steps necessary to make your info product business work. The steps
are all here, I’ve left nothing out. Now, get to work and make them
happen!!
Here are the 7 BASIC steps in the process. I’ve then broken each step
down into sub-steps to make it super easy for YOU to follow:
The BASIC SEVEN STEPS:
1. Identify Your Niche
a. Figure out what niche you will go after. Do this by finding the
intersection of your passion and profit. Come up with 4 or 5
possibilities. Consider both your personal and professional background.
b.Test each of your possible niche ideas by going to the Google
External Keyword Tool to see if there are at least 5-10,000 people
searching for your “dead center” keyword each month.
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
c. Niche your topic down by making your keyword more specific if your search turns up more than 100,000 searches monthly.
d. Take any of your possible niche selections that fall in the
10-100k monthly amounts, and go to Google and find the top 20 sites.
e. Research each of the top 20 sites to see what, if anything they
sell and at what price point. Carefully examine the top 20 sites and
blogs in your niche of choice. Pay attention to the BIG issues being
discussed and the products being sold.
f. Research possible domain names to use for your site that you will
put up related to this niche. FInd the BEST domain name you can that is
still available. Best defined by one which contains the keywords in the
domain itself. If no “good ones” are available, consider buying a
domain name.
g. Reserve a domain name. Preferably at UltraCheapDomains.com. I make a quarter or so if you do!
h. Select ONE niche with which to start your work. If it doesn’t work, don’t worry, there are more. Learn the PROCESS first.
2. Write the Copy for Your Product or Service
a. Always START by writing the copy yourself – use Bob Bly’s book, “The Copywriter’s Handbook” to help get you started.
b. Stick with this STANDARD template to start.
c. Write your copy to sell the product you produce based on the
outline that you’ll be using to create the product itself. These will
form your BULLET POINTS. Although creating the product is the NEXT step,
writing the copy and creating the outline happen almost simultaneously.
d. Look at http://wwwFredInfoBootcamp.com site as your model. This site converts extremely well.
e. After you finish writing your copy, try and get testimonials up
quickly by giving out complimentary copies to individuals in your field.
f. Consider adding a video where you talk directly to your visitors.
Monitor your data to see if this improves your conversion rates.
g. If your response rates are low, consider getting a professional copywriter to improve your response rates.
3. Create the Product Itself
a. Your FIRST product should be one which solves the single biggest problem your niche faces.
b. Decide what FORM your product should take: audio, video, text, software, etc.
c. Create a COMPLETE outline of your process leaving NOTHING out
d. Go through each element of the outline and treat it as a separate
product, making sure you explain that element fully and completely as
you create it.
e. If doing audio products, refer to http://www.ExpertInterviewer.com for help to do them RIGHT!
f. If the product is a video, consider creating a storyboard for each element
g. Create additional products using all of the modalities of
learning, making sure to add seminars and workshops IF appropriate to
your niche and topic.
h. Always make sure that you have a FEW products together before you
START. That way you’ll have additional products to sell people when they
buy your first product.
i. Don’t skip ANY steps when creating your products. Assume people
know NOTHING. That way, EVERYONE who buys your product will understand
what to do.
4. Design Your Site to Sell Your Product or Service
a. Go to http://www.CoolHostingTool.com and sign up for a basic
account to host your sites. You must have a place to PUT your site and
this requires a HOST.
b. Point the domain name you have reserved in http://www.UltraCheapDomains to your hosting account.
c. Install WordPress on your site that is now hosted at http://www.CoolHostingTool.com.
d. The site you will be setting up will be a “blog” site. This will make it easy for you to change/add content.
e. Set up an opt-in section on the top right of your homepage. Offer a
digital bonus of high perceived value to get people to join your list.
This digital bonus will be delivered by WebMarketingMagic.
f. Make your site easy to navigate. No one should be confused when they are at your site.
g. Create 4-6 Featured articles (see FredGleeck.com for examples) of
750-1500 words. Choose the topics based on the MOST populate topics
people would be interested in in your niche.
h. Come up with a tag line that describes what your site is all
about. Mine at FredGleeck.com says: “Resources to Help You Build a
Thriving, Ethical Information Marketing Business.”
i. Consider selecting a theme for your WordPress site. There are many
unpaid possibilities. Also, you can go to
http://www.CoolWordPressTheme.com for more options.
j. Go to http://www.WebMarketingMagic.com and set up a professional
account. This will cost you around $100 a month but will be worth EVERY
PENNY you spend.
k. If you need help on the technical side of the business, Google
your question. If you can’t get a good answer, contact the
WebMarkketingMagician, Dave Hamilton to help you.
http://www.WebMarketingMagician.com
5. Drive Traffic to Your Site: Traffic comes from one of FOUR sources: Online Paid, Online Free, Offline Paid and Offline Free.
There are MANY of these items. Here are the top 2 in each area.
a. Online Paid #1: Pay per click advertising. Google adwords. Set up
an account but be VERY careful. It’s tough to make money these days. Use
it to see which keywords pull best. Then try and get SEO placement for
them.
b. Online Paid #2: Test advertising with well known Niche
blogs/publications in your field. See if they have a “test” rate. Start
small and track your results.
c. Online Free #1: SEO. Set up your site using WordPress and then
start blogging. Develop good content and get highly ranked sites in your
field to link to you. Blog regularly!
Take your dead center keyword term and go back to your Google
External Keyword Tool. Enter the term and you will generate a slew of
related keywords. These will serve as your blog post titles.
Write a minimum of 3-5 blog posts weekly. Each should be between 3-500 words.
d. Offline Free #2: Enlist others in your field to start selling your
products as an affiliate. Don’t try and get them on board until your
site is closing well. If not, they will be angry at you for “wasting”
their customers time.
e. Offline Paid #1: Test small ads in niche publications related to your topic.
f. Offline Paid #2: Print up business cards and flyers that get
people to go visit your site in exchange for a great digital “bribe.”
g. Offline Free #1: Get PR for your site. Talk to Burke Allen at Allen Media Strategies for more help.
h. Offline Free #2: Print up business cards and flyers that promote your site. Hand them out liberally.
NOTE: Do not start attempting to drive MASSIVE amounts of traffic to
your site before testing and tweaking the site to maximize conversion
rates. ONLY when you feel you have gotten your site to that point should
you “turn on the faucet of traffic.” Do Step #6 first before you drive
LOTS of traffic to your site.
6. Convert Visitors to Buyers/opt-ins
a. Make sure you have Google Analytics installed to be able to track
your efforts. The MINIMUM you’ll need to track is the total number of
unique visitors, the percentage of those who buy, and the percentage of
the visitors who opt-in.
b. Your website should only try and get people to do ONE thing. To
get people to BUY your product or service. Don’t confuse people with
your offer.
c. Remember that when you first start, your results may be poor. They can only improve from that point on.
d. Test adding video to your site to see if it increases buying rates.
e. Remember to get people to opt-in if they don’t buy. You can try and sell them LATER.
f. Once people buy, make sure and offer them an UPSELL at the time of
purchase. This is the best time to offer something, when they are
already buying.
g. Have a series of auto-responders ready to go for both buyers and those who merely opt-in.
h. Get those who opt-in to buy your initial product by demonstrating
your expertise with great free information like this report!
7. Get Existing Customers to Buy More AND More Often
a. Deliver a product worth at least 10 Times what people paid.
b. Stay in touch with customers with both great FREE and PAID offers via an ezine and auto-responders.
c. Use a variety of media to continue to stay in touch with prospects and customers.
d. Make sure that all products have bouncebacks in them to get additional orders.
e. Introduce your customers to a select group of affiliates. Screen
them carefully. Your customers will blame YOU if they have any problems.
f. Continue to produce products to maintain your “guru” status in the eyes of your customers.
g. Get as much PR as you can to help reinforce the idea that you’re “the one” in your field.
h. Treat your BIGGEST customers “special” in some way. This will thank them for their business.
i. Encourage your customers to refer others to you and compensate them as affiliates.
NOTE: Make SURE that you have at least one or two products available
to sell to folks AFTER they buy your first product. If you don’t, make
sure you’ve set up
RESOURCES:
http://www.WebMarketingMagic.com – Essential! Runs the “back-end” of your information marketing business.
http://www.UltraCheapDomains.com – Register domain names inexpensively.
http://www.SellDomainsForProfit.com – Perfect if you reserve more than 50 or 60 domain names a year.
http://www.FredInfoBootcamp.com – My bootcamp to learn the entire info marketing process.
http://www.FredGleeck.com/blog – Latest ideas and “buzz” in the field of selling info products
http://www.ConsultWithFred.com – To get individual consulting help from me.
http://www.LunchWithFred.com – Lunches I sponsor when traveling.
http://www.FredProtege.com – Personal mentoring program that I offer.
http://www.TheSpeakingSchool.com – Learn to speak like a pro.
http://www.PublishingSeminar.com – Learn the complete publishing process, A to Z.
http://www.WebMarketiingMagician.com – Need technical help? David Hamilton – David is the WebMarketingMagician. Go to him with any/all technical issues.
http://www.CoolVideoTool.com – The latest technology to help increase response rates.
http://www.CoolWordPressTheme.com – Make your WordPress site look good.
http://www.CoolSpyTool.com – Find out what your competitors are doing.
http://www.CoolStorageTool.com – Host your audios and videos on your site.
http://www.CoolMembershipTool.com – Set up a membership site quickly and easily.
http://www.CoolScreenCaptureTool.com – Allows you to record your screen (Mac folks only).
© Fred Gleeck 2010 – ALL RIGHTS reserved. PLEASE SHARE THIS DOCUMENT
WITH OTHERS! HOWEVER, it may not be changed or altered in any way. The
links must remain intact and the document cannot be shortened or
lengthened. ANY violation of these terms will be vigorously enforced.
Related Articles
Read more: 59 Steps to Starting and Building a Successful Info Products Business: The Ultimate Information Marketing Checklist
(This is going to be turned into a
“fancy” looking information marketing report. BUT, I wanted you to get
the information right away. You are seeing a FIRST DRAFT in this blog
post.)
Do you want to know how to start and run a successful info products business?
OK. Here are the steps.
They are in order. Some of them will be easy to understand and
implement without ANY other help, information or advice. Others you’ll
need to do some more homework. For that you may want to pick up a copy
of my upcoming book on the topic!
It will be out shortly.
For additional free resources, make sure and visit
http://www.FredGleeck.com. There are a lot of additional free e-books,
audios and videos for you there. If you need any additional help, email
me.
Take this list and print it out. Use it to make sure you’ve done all
the steps necessary to make your info product business work. The steps
are all here, I’ve left nothing out. Now, get to work and make them
happen!!
Here are the 7 BASIC steps in the process. I’ve then broken each step
down into sub-steps to make it super easy for YOU to follow:
The BASIC SEVEN STEPS:
- Identify Your Niche
- Write the Copy to Sell Your Product or Service
- Create the Product Itself
- Design a Website to Sell Your Product/Service
- Drive Traffic to Your Site
- Convert Visitors Into Buyers/Opt-ins
- Get Your Customers to Buy More and More Often
1. Identify Your Niche
a. Figure out what niche you will go after. Do this by finding the
intersection of your passion and profit. Come up with 4 or 5
possibilities. Consider both your personal and professional background.
b.Test each of your possible niche ideas by going to the Google
External Keyword Tool to see if there are at least 5-10,000 people
searching for your “dead center” keyword each month.
https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal
c. Niche your topic down by making your keyword more specific if your search turns up more than 100,000 searches monthly.
d. Take any of your possible niche selections that fall in the
10-100k monthly amounts, and go to Google and find the top 20 sites.
e. Research each of the top 20 sites to see what, if anything they
sell and at what price point. Carefully examine the top 20 sites and
blogs in your niche of choice. Pay attention to the BIG issues being
discussed and the products being sold.
f. Research possible domain names to use for your site that you will
put up related to this niche. FInd the BEST domain name you can that is
still available. Best defined by one which contains the keywords in the
domain itself. If no “good ones” are available, consider buying a
domain name.
g. Reserve a domain name. Preferably at UltraCheapDomains.com. I make a quarter or so if you do!
h. Select ONE niche with which to start your work. If it doesn’t work, don’t worry, there are more. Learn the PROCESS first.
2. Write the Copy for Your Product or Service
a. Always START by writing the copy yourself – use Bob Bly’s book, “The Copywriter’s Handbook” to help get you started.
b. Stick with this STANDARD template to start.
- Pre-Head
- Headline
- Post Head
- Salutation
- Opening Paragraph
- Bullet Points
- Testimonials
- Offer
- Price
- Bonuses
- Salutation
- PS
c. Write your copy to sell the product you produce based on the
outline that you’ll be using to create the product itself. These will
form your BULLET POINTS. Although creating the product is the NEXT step,
writing the copy and creating the outline happen almost simultaneously.
d. Look at http://wwwFredInfoBootcamp.com site as your model. This site converts extremely well.
e. After you finish writing your copy, try and get testimonials up
quickly by giving out complimentary copies to individuals in your field.
f. Consider adding a video where you talk directly to your visitors.
Monitor your data to see if this improves your conversion rates.
g. If your response rates are low, consider getting a professional copywriter to improve your response rates.
3. Create the Product Itself
a. Your FIRST product should be one which solves the single biggest problem your niche faces.
b. Decide what FORM your product should take: audio, video, text, software, etc.
c. Create a COMPLETE outline of your process leaving NOTHING out
d. Go through each element of the outline and treat it as a separate
product, making sure you explain that element fully and completely as
you create it.
e. If doing audio products, refer to http://www.ExpertInterviewer.com for help to do them RIGHT!
f. If the product is a video, consider creating a storyboard for each element
g. Create additional products using all of the modalities of
learning, making sure to add seminars and workshops IF appropriate to
your niche and topic.
h. Always make sure that you have a FEW products together before you
START. That way you’ll have additional products to sell people when they
buy your first product.
i. Don’t skip ANY steps when creating your products. Assume people
know NOTHING. That way, EVERYONE who buys your product will understand
what to do.
4. Design Your Site to Sell Your Product or Service
a. Go to http://www.CoolHostingTool.com and sign up for a basic
account to host your sites. You must have a place to PUT your site and
this requires a HOST.
b. Point the domain name you have reserved in http://www.UltraCheapDomains to your hosting account.
c. Install WordPress on your site that is now hosted at http://www.CoolHostingTool.com.
d. The site you will be setting up will be a “blog” site. This will make it easy for you to change/add content.
e. Set up an opt-in section on the top right of your homepage. Offer a
digital bonus of high perceived value to get people to join your list.
This digital bonus will be delivered by WebMarketingMagic.
f. Make your site easy to navigate. No one should be confused when they are at your site.
g. Create 4-6 Featured articles (see FredGleeck.com for examples) of
750-1500 words. Choose the topics based on the MOST populate topics
people would be interested in in your niche.
h. Come up with a tag line that describes what your site is all
about. Mine at FredGleeck.com says: “Resources to Help You Build a
Thriving, Ethical Information Marketing Business.”
i. Consider selecting a theme for your WordPress site. There are many
unpaid possibilities. Also, you can go to
http://www.CoolWordPressTheme.com for more options.
j. Go to http://www.WebMarketingMagic.com and set up a professional
account. This will cost you around $100 a month but will be worth EVERY
PENNY you spend.
k. If you need help on the technical side of the business, Google
your question. If you can’t get a good answer, contact the
WebMarkketingMagician, Dave Hamilton to help you.
http://www.WebMarketingMagician.com
5. Drive Traffic to Your Site: Traffic comes from one of FOUR sources: Online Paid, Online Free, Offline Paid and Offline Free.
There are MANY of these items. Here are the top 2 in each area.
a. Online Paid #1: Pay per click advertising. Google adwords. Set up
an account but be VERY careful. It’s tough to make money these days. Use
it to see which keywords pull best. Then try and get SEO placement for
them.
b. Online Paid #2: Test advertising with well known Niche
blogs/publications in your field. See if they have a “test” rate. Start
small and track your results.
c. Online Free #1: SEO. Set up your site using WordPress and then
start blogging. Develop good content and get highly ranked sites in your
field to link to you. Blog regularly!
Take your dead center keyword term and go back to your Google
External Keyword Tool. Enter the term and you will generate a slew of
related keywords. These will serve as your blog post titles.
Write a minimum of 3-5 blog posts weekly. Each should be between 3-500 words.
d. Offline Free #2: Enlist others in your field to start selling your
products as an affiliate. Don’t try and get them on board until your
site is closing well. If not, they will be angry at you for “wasting”
their customers time.
e. Offline Paid #1: Test small ads in niche publications related to your topic.
f. Offline Paid #2: Print up business cards and flyers that get
people to go visit your site in exchange for a great digital “bribe.”
g. Offline Free #1: Get PR for your site. Talk to Burke Allen at Allen Media Strategies for more help.
h. Offline Free #2: Print up business cards and flyers that promote your site. Hand them out liberally.
NOTE: Do not start attempting to drive MASSIVE amounts of traffic to
your site before testing and tweaking the site to maximize conversion
rates. ONLY when you feel you have gotten your site to that point should
you “turn on the faucet of traffic.” Do Step #6 first before you drive
LOTS of traffic to your site.
6. Convert Visitors to Buyers/opt-ins
a. Make sure you have Google Analytics installed to be able to track
your efforts. The MINIMUM you’ll need to track is the total number of
unique visitors, the percentage of those who buy, and the percentage of
the visitors who opt-in.
b. Your website should only try and get people to do ONE thing. To
get people to BUY your product or service. Don’t confuse people with
your offer.
c. Remember that when you first start, your results may be poor. They can only improve from that point on.
d. Test adding video to your site to see if it increases buying rates.
e. Remember to get people to opt-in if they don’t buy. You can try and sell them LATER.
f. Once people buy, make sure and offer them an UPSELL at the time of
purchase. This is the best time to offer something, when they are
already buying.
g. Have a series of auto-responders ready to go for both buyers and those who merely opt-in.
h. Get those who opt-in to buy your initial product by demonstrating
your expertise with great free information like this report!
7. Get Existing Customers to Buy More AND More Often
a. Deliver a product worth at least 10 Times what people paid.
b. Stay in touch with customers with both great FREE and PAID offers via an ezine and auto-responders.
c. Use a variety of media to continue to stay in touch with prospects and customers.
d. Make sure that all products have bouncebacks in them to get additional orders.
e. Introduce your customers to a select group of affiliates. Screen
them carefully. Your customers will blame YOU if they have any problems.
f. Continue to produce products to maintain your “guru” status in the eyes of your customers.
g. Get as much PR as you can to help reinforce the idea that you’re “the one” in your field.
h. Treat your BIGGEST customers “special” in some way. This will thank them for their business.
i. Encourage your customers to refer others to you and compensate them as affiliates.
NOTE: Make SURE that you have at least one or two products available
to sell to folks AFTER they buy your first product. If you don’t, make
sure you’ve set up
RESOURCES:
http://www.WebMarketingMagic.com – Essential! Runs the “back-end” of your information marketing business.
http://www.UltraCheapDomains.com – Register domain names inexpensively.
http://www.SellDomainsForProfit.com – Perfect if you reserve more than 50 or 60 domain names a year.
http://www.FredInfoBootcamp.com – My bootcamp to learn the entire info marketing process.
http://www.FredGleeck.com/blog – Latest ideas and “buzz” in the field of selling info products
http://www.ConsultWithFred.com – To get individual consulting help from me.
http://www.LunchWithFred.com – Lunches I sponsor when traveling.
http://www.FredProtege.com – Personal mentoring program that I offer.
http://www.TheSpeakingSchool.com – Learn to speak like a pro.
http://www.PublishingSeminar.com – Learn the complete publishing process, A to Z.
http://www.WebMarketiingMagician.com – Need technical help? David Hamilton – David is the WebMarketingMagician. Go to him with any/all technical issues.
http://www.CoolVideoTool.com – The latest technology to help increase response rates.
http://www.CoolWordPressTheme.com – Make your WordPress site look good.
http://www.CoolSpyTool.com – Find out what your competitors are doing.
http://www.CoolStorageTool.com – Host your audios and videos on your site.
http://www.CoolMembershipTool.com – Set up a membership site quickly and easily.
http://www.CoolScreenCaptureTool.com – Allows you to record your screen (Mac folks only).
© Fred Gleeck 2010 – ALL RIGHTS reserved. PLEASE SHARE THIS DOCUMENT
WITH OTHERS! HOWEVER, it may not be changed or altered in any way. The
links must remain intact and the document cannot be shortened or
lengthened. ANY violation of these terms will be vigorously enforced.
Related Articles
Read more: 59 Steps to Starting and Building a Successful Info Products Business: The Ultimate Information Marketing Checklist
