How to make money online selling information products
Selling information products is one of the most popular ways of generating passive income online. If you can find a way to convert the information in your head, your expert knowledge, or your experiences into products and services that people could use to help solve their problems or make their lives easier, you could build a highly successful online business.
According to the experts, there are over 100 million active websites on the internet (or something like that). That’s a lot of webpages and information. And thousands of people trawl the World Wide Web every day in search of specific information, which they do primarily using search engines like Google and Yahoo.
Information is freely available online. Why would anyone want to pay for it? Well, let me ask you this: “Would you pay an experienced guide to take you on a 100-km journey through the Amazon rainforest, or try your luck with a compass?” The internet is a jungle of information. Good, helpful, concise, and reliable information is what people are after, and they will pay for it if presented with the right offer.
Furthermore, we all have problems that need fixing today or needs that have to be met as soon as possible. Consumers are impatient creatures, and they are more than willing to get their hands on neatly packaged information that will help them a.s.a.p. rather than spend hours searching the internet for the required info.
Guys, would you rather read a 10-page report on ‘Five simple steps to supercharge your sexual performance’ by sex therapist Dr. Love Maker or spend hours searching for information that you think is reliable?
An information product makes life easy for the user. It is a digital product sold through a website. One can access, download, and start using the product almost immediately. This is a massive benefit, as there is no need to wait around for someone to deliver the goods. Service is basically instantaneous and on demand—the way consumers like it!
Your job as an information product owner is to provide neatly packaged and usable information to people who need it. So, how could you package your hobby, passion, or expert knowledge into a digital information product? Something you could sell online and earn an income from.
The first step is to establish whether online users show any interest in your specific area. In other words, are people currently performing online searches for information you have to offer? If there are a sufficient number of searches, you are one step closer to creating a product that could sell online.
Let’s demonstrate with an example. Suppose you have a major interest and deep knowledge of various diet plans. Could you sell an electronic book (ebook) or other online course on the topic?
Start by visiting the Google Keyword Search Tool to determine the average monthly number of searches for the keyword ‘diet plans’. Search numbers should be at least 10,000 and not more than 100,000 per month. Searches exceeding the latter indicate that the market is too broad and that the search topic needs to be narrowed.
Open the Google search tool and type your keyword into the tool’s search area. The keyword’ diet plan’ receives over 1.8 million searches per month. This is too broad and will have to be narrowed down to more specific search terms, where the numbers range between 10,000 and 100,000 per month.
The good thing about the tool is that it also gives you the search results for related keywords. Two keywords stand out as other potential areas to target, ‘diet book’ with 201000 searches and ‘better sex’ with 90500 searches.
Therefore, it may be possible to offer a product related to better diet plans, for example, due to the interest shown in these search terms.
Keyword searches represent the first step when creating information products. It helps you select a niche market, provides alternative product ideas, and gives you a good idea of whether your ideas are financially viable. The next step looks at determining whether people will actually pay for your intended products, but I’ll leave that until the next article.
