I was on the phone today with a guy who was a 25+ year Hollywood veteran screenwriter. This guy knew how to analyze, create and sell content, within the Hollywood system.

But what he didn’t know was how take the vast knowledge and skill he had accumulated and create content to profit with.

There’s a disconnect.

You have Internet Marketers, and you have everyone else. Internet Marketers see content as something you use to create an action. Either a sale, or a word of mouth mention, or a subscriber, or a lead, etc… Content is a tool to reach a goal. Everyone else… they think content is content. It’s something you create and distribute, usually free, and that’s that.

That’s fine. There’s nothing wrong with creating content for free. In fact, more people should do it. However, there is a point in time when you finally say to yourself, “Wow, I really should be taking the knowledge and skill that’s in my head, and start putting it on the Web… and sell it.”

Let’s face it. Everyone needs money, unless you’re independently wealthy and or don’t care about food, clothing and shelter. You, yes you, the teacher, the artist, whomever you are, you will eventually reach a point when you want to take the content you’ve been creating for years and find a way to make some revenue from it.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. Let me stop you right now. Because you’re probably thinking that all content should be free. Here’s a question for you. When someone teaches someone else how to do heart surgery, should they get paid for teaching that skill? Everyone knows a lot about something. You know what you know, and you have millions and millions of potential customers out there who want you to teach them what you know.

Once you understand, and accept, that fact, you’re going to have a much easier time creating content that you can profit with, and remember, there’s nothing wrong with profit.

Here are a few tips to get you started.

1. Make it easy for them to buy. One of the biggest mistakes people make when selling online is not making it easy enough for their customers to buy from them. If you can’t afford a credit card merchant account at first, at least put some Paypal buttons in place.

2. So how do you deliver your content and get paid for it? A great tip is if you’re using WordPress, you can use a plugin for WordPress called Wishlist Member. It allows you to easily add a private area to your blog that only paying members can see. Then just hide your premium content there and give access to those that pay you.

3. Price accordingly. I use two criteria when setting prices. The first is determining how great the need is. In other words, how bad does someone HAVE to have what you’re teaching. If you’re selling them advice on how to pass the bar exam to become a lawyer, well, then that advice is probably worth a lot more than teaching someone how to create a killer paper airplane.

The second criteria to determining successful pricing is understanding your audience. Is your course for children? Guess what, they don’t have any money. Their parents do though. If you overprice a course to a target audience that is broke then you’re not going to sell anything. On the same hand if you underprice a course to an audience that has money then you’re going to lose the sale because to them, higher price = higher quality. Best advice: pick a place in the middle and start there.

About the Author:

For over 15-years, Jim Kukral has helped small businesses and large companies like Fedex, Sherwin Williams, Ernst & Young and Progressive Auto Insurance understand how find success on the Web. Jim is the author of the book, “Attention! This Book Will Make You Money“, as well as a professional speaker, blogger and Web business consultant. Find out more by visiting www.JimKukral.com. You can also follow Jim on Twitter @JimKukral.

I’m talking about:

* The words that make up the content of your product

AND

* The words you use to sell your product

Without these important words, your product is pretty much dead in the water. But once you’ve got those key items together, it’s time to consider your looks.

Because really, they do matter.

Let’s talk about a few key ingredients that will help you:

• Sell more by grabbing attention and making your digital product more tangible.

• Create more customer satisfaction through a professionally polished product.

Looks aren’t everything, as they say, but let’s face it, they do mean a whole lot in the info product world.

Use These In Your Info Product Recipe:

• Professional Formatting: Sure you can slap together a Word document and go, but formatting gives your product an instant advantage when it comes to customers being receptive and appreciating the content of your product. If something as simple as setting up a style sheet, creating headers and footers can give move you up the ladder of customer satisfaction, it seems silly not to go that extra mile.

• Images in Your Product: The addition of images helps you make your content more readable. They can create a more vivid mental image, elicit emotion and draw the eye in at key points. And once again, they give your document that professional look that gives your customers confidence in your ebook.

• eCover Graphics: An ebook is just a digital file that takes space on a hard drive. And while the world has become more digi-focused, people still want tangibility – to know something REALLY exists. An ecover design can do just that for you. Much like a cover design for a paper book, an “ecover” is simply a digital representation of your product.

• Video: Long gone are the days of the static web. Video is HUGE and businesses are cashing in. YouTube.com is world’s 3rd most popular website (source: Alexa.com), telling you something about the popularity of video. Videos on your sales page inspire confidence (think: more tangibility of the product and you, as the seller) and proven over and over again to increase sales conversions. Videos also get shared. Make a great promotional video and people will pass it around. How great is that?

If you’re like me, you don’t really want to mess with these things as you have more important tasks to focus on. I usually turn to others for formatting, graphics and making things look purdy. One of the people I rely on most in this department is Kelly McCausey at FreshNets. So when I heard she was putting together a great package to beautify your product and make it more marketable and satisfying to your customers, I wanted to share it.

Here’s What Kelly & Freshnets Can Do for Your Ebook:

They’ll take your ebook and not only make it more attractive, but more usable. They’ll also create a cover graphic, a promotional video and even throw in a custom Twitter background.You can even few a sample to see exactly what they have planned for you.

The package is already a great deal, but I asked if she could pass on an extra discount to our readers and she agreed.

Here’s what to do to learn more and get your discount:

#1 Go here for information -> Beautiful Ebook Treatment

#2 Purchase your “Beautiful Ebook Treatment” and enter coupon code: 15495 to save $20.

Then the Freshnets team will get in touch with you to get started on your project. Like I said, looks aren’t everything, but they sure can make a difference. If more customer confidence and satisfaction are your goals, looking good should definitly be on the priority list.

If so, chances are you’ve started or thought about starting an affiliate program to increase your marketing reach.

An affiliate program is a program that’s set up to allow ‘affiliates’ (salespeople) to market your products through their own websites, blogs, email lists, social media networks and more.

Starting an affiliate program is no small feat. It takes work and effort to put together a program that’s easy for affiliates to use and understand. One of the biggest components of a successful affiliate program is the content that is provided to inform, train, communicate and market.

Here’s What You Need – A Checklist:

1. Sign Up Information: A critical stage of a successful affiliate program is convincing potential affiliates that your program is worth their time, effort and money (yes, some serious affiliates WILL shell out advertising cash to promote your products). Make sure the sign up information is complete and detailed, convincing and clear.

2. Welcome Messages: Now you’ve got an affiliate signed up you’ll want to repeat the relevant information you posted on your sign up page. Tell them how much they will earn, when they an expect to be paid, where to find resources and how to get their affiliate links.

3. Training Manual: It’s a great idea to again put important information into a training manual that affiliates can download, print out and refer back to. You can also include more information  on how to make money as an affiliate and give suggestions on where to promote your products.

4. Promotional Materials: The more you can help your affiliates save time the better your odds of success promotions. Have pre-written ads, emails, blog posts, articles, product reviews and anything else that will help your affiliates sell your products.

5. Communications: While affiliates may be excited to promote your product when they first sign up to your program, that momentum may slow if you don’t keep in contact with them. Keep in contact with your affiliates via email or even by phone. If you use email you can write autoresponders messages that go out at certain intervals to remind them of products to promote, available resources, upcoming launches and more.

As you can tell content is an important part of your affiliate program plan. If you don’t want to create all the content yourself you could hire a writer or find PLR content to customize to your own program.

No matter how you produce it, providing great content to your affiliates will help you build long-term relationships and sales.

I know before I started my first information product I felt like I just didn’t have enough experience. I felt like only true ‘experts’ could be successful selling information.  I questioned who did I think I was to write something for the masses!

Maybe you feel (just a little) the same?

Well I’ve got a great solution for you. You CAN create your own information product without claiming to be a ‘guru’ or an ‘expert’ or any other label that makes you uncomfortable.

Here’s How: Create a case study product.

A case study product is one that chronicles your own path as you successfully complete a task.

People LOVE case studies. Too many times information products are full of theory, fluff and hype but no real substance. A case study allows the reader to really see something in action and learn by the results or failures of someone else. It allows the customers to gain your experience without having to actually do it themselves.

My very first information product was a case study.

I did something kind of crazy when I first started out online. I decided to sell my virtual assistant services for way cheap – $50 for 10 hours. In doing so I caught the attention of a number of online marketers and ended up with 11 clients within 24 hours. Not only that, I went on to quit my job less than a year later to work from home full time all because of my initial sale. I’m sure you can tell why many virtual assistants could benefit from this information.

The advantage to doing a case study is that you will write quick. If you plan your case study product in advance then you’ll have all the material you need, you’ll just need to piece it together in a high quality product that provides value to your readers.

You might be thinking: “but I don’t have an extraordinary story to case study!”. You don’t have to. You just need to hit on a topic that people really want to learn but are a little unsure about getting started themselves.

Here are some ideas:

• Creating an Information Product
• Launching an Information Product
• Creating an Affiliate Marketing Website
• Article Marketing

You’ll want to create some kind of result. Whether that be to successfully go from nothing to your first sale, or get hundreds of article clicks, etc. Don’t get intimidated by that prospect – big success IS made up of a series of small successess!

I know you can do it. Get going and pretty soon you’ll have your very first product.

One way you can add more usefulness to your transcript and convert it into a highly-usable workbook.

Not sure how to do that? Here are some tips…

1.    Transcribe the audio. It’s easier to work from print than from an audio recording. Plus, you’ll add more value to your information product by providing the full transcript as well.

2.    Break down the transcription into sections…much like you’d have chapters in an ebook or report.

3.    For each section, think of the main learning points. From there you can have your customers answer questions, do brainstorming and complete exercises on those main points.

For example, if you’re teaching your readers how to save money on their banking/credit fees, you can create a useful workbook by including:

•    A checklist for researching local bank fees.
•    Calculations on how much your customers are really spending.

Or if you’ve held a teleseminar on creating a membership site, put together a workbook with:

•    A checklist of membership software features.
•    A step-by-step planning guide to set up the site.

You get the point. Just taking the time to make your product more USEFUL and PRACTICAL to your readers can go a long way. It goes a long to increase your customer satisfaction and increase the price you ask for your product…and your customers will happily pay.

Don’t Feel Like Messing Around with Transcripts & Workbook Creation?

We can actually do it for you at All Custom Content and for the month of December, you can get a discount. All you have to do is use our transcription services and then we’ll convert your audio into a workbook for only $12 for each page.

To learn more about our transcription services, go here.

To get your workbook creation discount, simply complete the inquiry form on the page above. Be sure to mention in the comments area, that you are looking for “$12 per page transcription to workbook conversion December special”.

Get it started in December and you’ll be ready to launch your product for the New Year!

1. Is a proven seller.
2. Is sure to help your buyers get the results they want

…we’ve got it covered. No more worrying whether your product is up to snuff. This makes it EASY for you to sell your very own information product.

The other day, we told you about my making her Press Release Profits Course + Software available with PLR rights.

Well, we’ve got a few licenses left (only 150 will be provided) and you can still grab yours.

No more slaving away creating a top-notch course. It’s ALREADY done for you.

No more sweating and biting your nails with worry that your product doesn’t cut the mustard. This product has already proven itself.

Now you can get PLR rights to the whole shebang. That means you can edit, add your promotional links, brand it and more.

All the details are right here:

Click here for Press Release Profits Private Label Rights

But do it quickly…before all the PLR licenses are gone.