http://www.kevindohertyonline.com/creatinginfoproducts/digital-information-products/

Most online entrepreneurs assume that it will take weeks, months, or years to create their first information product.  Because of this belief, they procrastinate on implementing this highly important aspect of their online business.  Regardless of your niche, creating your own line of information products is one of the most intelligent and effective steps you can take to differentiate yourself, diversify your income, and effortlessly attract clients.Let’s see if we can dispel some of the myths that you may be harboring around information product creation so you can take advantage of the many benefits that your product line can offer your business.

Why Digital Information

Products Are the Way to Go…

If you want to create a product in one week or less, it’s going to have to be an online product.  Digital information products are inexpensive to set up and can be created much faster than you think.So, what kind of digital information products should you create?You have several options:•e-books•audios•video tutorials•e-courses•membership programsAfter having created all of the above digital information products over the past few years, allow me to share the one that I believe to be the best way to go if you’re just starting out.  E-books are very difficult to create in a week or less ( I know there are e-books that will teach you how to do this, but most people could not pull this off.. that’s just the way it is).  Audios are easy to create, but in my experience they have less of a perceived value than the alternatives.  E-courses are largely becoming outdated; people seem to prefer consuming information in other ways.  Membership programs are fabulous, but they definitely will take the average person much longer than a week to build out.With that said, the winner is…. the video tutorial.  In 2010, I designed a product called The New Paradigm Client Attraction System that teaches service-based business owners how to use Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube to build a 6 figure business.  The course was a hit and my customers shared a lot of positive feedback on the online video format.  Before I go into how I created this course in one week, let’s review why online video is a great medium for product creation:

The benefits of online video tutorials:

1.  Higher perceived value ~ The average consumer prefers learning from video compared to reading books or listening to audios.  Because of this, your customers will associate a higher value to videos and will be willing to pay more for an online video product.2.  Ease of learning ~ People love convenience.. and if they can absorb information without having to ‘strain their brain’, they will be much more likely to actually implement what you are teaching them.  The more they implement, the better feedback you’ll get, and the more your reputation will spread as someone who delivers real value.3.  Ease of creation ~ It took me 2.5 years to write my first e-book and about 6 weeks to write my second one.  It took me 5 days to create my online video course.  It’s much easier and faster to speak than it is to write, at least for most people.

4.  Depth of information covered ~ You can offer a lot more step-by-step detail in a video course than you can in an e-book (unless your e-book is 300+ pages).Here’s what you’ll need to create your own online video course:

•Screen capture software: Camtasia is your best option for recording your voice and capturing your screen. I use Camtasia for Mac and it works great.•Powerpoint: I use Keynote for Mac, but you can also get Powerpoint for a PC.•Membership Software: You’ll need this to have your clients log into a secure online membership area to access the video tutorials.  I highly recommending using Wishlist for this purpose.  This is what I use for all of my online memberships and it works great.  Wishlist is a paid plugin that integrates with WordPress to easily set up online memberships.•A Kodak ZI 8 or Flip Camera (if you want to be seen on your videos)•A virtual assistant to set up your membership (I recommend outsourcing the set up, as you won’t be able to create your product and take it to market within one week if you’re the one fiddling with the technical set up).•A graphic designer who can design the logo and layout for the product ( I prefer the folks over at Killer Covers ; they do great work)•Amazon S3 video hosting ~ This is a great place to store your online videos.  It’s your best option by far.  The problem is that there is some technical set up involved.  For this reason, I highly recommend investing in Easy Video Player as it takes all of the hardship out of uploading video to the internet.  Plus, Easy Video Player is a great product to use to promote your video course, as they have some very powerful features to create awesome video sales pages, drop down ‘add to cart’ buttons, sales tracking, and graphic overlays.  I love this product and use it all the time.  Their customer support is awesome as well; I have used it many times.

That’s pretty much it!  For about $5-700, you can invest in the above resources and find a good V.A. to build out your online video course.  This is why digital information products are such a fabulous asset to anyone who wants to create multiple passive income streams through the internet.  For such a low entry point, the risk is very low and the potential ROI is through the roof.Now that you have all the tools you’ll need, I recommend that you start with the most simple strategy possible to get your product created.  If you’re new to all of this, the best way to go is to create a low-cost product ($17-27) that has about 3-4 hours of video training.  This way, you won’t get overwhelmed trying to create a more expensive and extensive product.  You can build up to that over time.It may take you some time to get the hang of using screen capture software and doing power point presentations.  The first time you do something like this will be the hardest.  But think about it — all you have to do is get 3-4 hours worth of quality material that your market would perceive as useful and informative.  You can definitely do this in one week or less!Just be patient and don’t stop until you have completed the job.  Even now after doing so many screen capture videos, I still screw up all the time.  I have to re-record things a lot.  Sometimes, I’ll forget to trim the end of a video after uploading it to my Amazon S3 account, then I’ll have to render the video over again.  Doing online video is great, but it definitely takes patience.Before you start working on your videos, you want to make sure that your graphic designer has created the visual components of the product and that you have a V.A. in place who can design your membership area while you are creating the product.  This way, there won’t be any delay once you’re ready to go live.With my online video course, the total time from idea to product release was 12 days.  It took me 5 days to design the course.  It took my VA and graphic designer about that long to build out the brand and membership area.

How do I Market My Digital

Information Products? 

This is a whole other conversation, but let’s go through some of the basics.  You would really only want to create an information product this quickly if you have a built-in network to promote it to, such as an email list or JV partners.  Otherwise, you should likely just wait to release your product until you have a decent network who will be interested in it.

1.  Your email list ~ The most obvious choice.  The bigger your email list gets, the faster you can get at product creation, as you know you have a responsive group of potential buyers, which will motivate you to keep coming up with new offerings.

2.  Joint ventures and affiliates ~ One of the best ways to get instant exposure is to have someone else promote your products.  This is a big topic, but just know for now you want to be thinking of compiling a list of JV partners.

3.  PPC advertising ~ Costs some cash, but it can work very well if you know what you’re doing.

4.  Content Syndication ~ The tried and true free methods:  Blogging, article marketing, videos, social media, and so on.

I hope this information helps you to take action so you can start creating your own line of digital information products in the next few weeks!

It really is easier than you think.  While product creation requires patience, motivation, and focus, it is also a lot of fun and can be a huge asset to your business on so many levels.  Good luck.. and keep me posted!

http://www.kevindohertyonline.com/creatinginfoproducts/digital-information-

products/