Avoid This Common Mistake When Creating Information Products
Archives: Daily Issues
- WEALTHY: How to react to market news (Rick Pendergraft)
- HEALTHY: A diet-friendly snack (Craig Ballantyne)
- WISE: Joan Welsh on taking the easy way out
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Are you a lazy product creator? (Bob Bly)
- Would you blow off a tete-a-tete with me? (MaryEllen Tribby)
- It’s Fun to Know… a number trick to amaze your friends
- Add “self-effacing” to your vocabulary
== Highly Recommended ==
The Truly Wealthy “Fish” in a Different “Lake”
These days, it seems everyone is out to make a quick buck. But they are all fishing in the same pond, so to speak. The real money is in a nearby lake… actually, more like an ocean of profits that almost no one knows about.
Take a walk with me and let me show how you can follow a few simple steps and lure more profits to you on a consistent basis than anything I’ve ever seen.
You’ve heard the old saying, “Give a man a fish, feed him for a day… Teach him how to fish, feed him for a lifetime.” Well, friend, this is that lifetime of profits available to you. Up to you how long you want to “fish” there. Personally, I’ll be there a long while… If you want to join me, click here… and learn how fast you can start making money.
Jack Be Nimble, Jack Be Quick
The stock market is always driven by news. A better-than-expected economic report sends the market higher. An earnings warning from a big blue-chip company sends the market lower.
The current market environment is exceptionally vulnerable to news. One day the market is up 300 points as the government bails out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the next day it is down 300 points because of some dire employment numbers.
If you are a long-term investor, my advice is to ignore most of the news unless it directly affects a stock in your portfolio. If you are a short-term trader, take profits quickly and cut losses just as quickly. Have your targets to take profits and stick with them – and have your stop-loss points and stick with them as well.
The market is not a place for emotion. Now, more than ever, knowing this is critical to your success as a trader.
[Ed. Note: Seems like every other day there's some big economic scare ready to trample your portfolio. But if you keep your emotions out of it, as investment expert Rick Pendergraft recommends, you'll be able to make solid decisions that keep your investments safe. Rick has created a surprisingly simple system that can help you make the best choices when it comes to your money. Get the details here.]
“If you’re coasting, you’re either losing momentum or else you’re headed downhill.”
Joan Welsh
Avoid This Common Mistake When Creating Information Products
By Bob Bly
As I said in my last ETR article, the best way to prevent customers from illegally copying and sharing your information products is to create content that gives the buyer more than his money’s worth.
Selling great information products gives you several other advantages. For one thing, it minimizes refund requests. It also helps you build a base of loyal fans. These fans keep buying additional products from you and recommending them to others.
However, many information product marketers make a serious mistake that results in less quality – and lower customer satisfaction. Let me explain…
What your customers want is solid information that tells them how to do something, whether it’s saving money on a new car or becoming a freelance copywriter. The mistake many info marketers make is that they develop a “what-to” product instead of the “how-to” product their buyers want.
To live up to the customer’s expectation of getting great how-to information, your product has to tell him exactly HOW to do the thing that it’s about. That means specific step-by-step instructions… recommended tools and resources… and strategies, tips, and techniques for doing it better and faster.
But too many info products I see tell the reader what to do – but not how to do it.
For instance, one small-business advertising guide recommended advertising on billboards.
That’s advice on what to do, which is fine. But it’s not enough.
When a reader buys that specialized information product, he also wants to be told HOW to advertise on billboards.
What are the dimensions of a typical billboard? What’s the most effective word length for billboard copy? The recommended size of the letters painted on the board for maximum readability? How can he find billboards in his area where he can advertise? Who does he contact about renting them? What’s a reasonable cost he can expect to pay? Can that be negotiated?
Why do so many information product marketers produce “what-to-do” instead of “how-to-do-it” e-books and reports? It’s because “what-to-do” is so easy to write. All you have to do is present the big picture, and not the niggling details.
But that cheats the reader.
In most instances, the reader already has some idea of what to do. He is buying your specialized information product on the Internet – often at a premium price compared to books available in bookstores on similar topics – because he expects you to go into depth he doesn’t get from “bookstore books.”
I hire a lot of freelance writers to write e-books and reports for my small online publishing business, CTC Publishing. One of my pet peeves – and a classic example of what-to instead of how-to – is when I read a sentence in a first draft that says, “For more information on X, just search the keyword X on Google.”
I tell the writer: The reason the reader is paying for our e-book is because he expects us to have done the research and presented the results.
Telling your reader “Look it up on Google” is the sign of a lazy writer who has not done his homework – and a sin I always ask my writers to correct.
One more point…
Even though information product buyers want “how-to” instead of “what-to-do,” you can often take the quality of your content to an even higher level. You do this when, instead of (or in addition to) telling the reader what to do, you actually DO IT FOR HIM.
For instance, instead of saying “Here are some points to keep in mind when writing a collection letter to a customer who owes you money,” you actually include sample collection letters in your product.
Listen, everyone is lazy. Me. You. Your customers. And your writers. But the information product buyer has paid us to provide him with shortcuts. As the customer, he has the right to be lazy.
As the seller in this transaction of information publishing, we – the information product marketers – give up the right to be lazy. Our customer expects us to do the work, so he doesn’t have to. If we don’t, we are of little value to him. And he will let us know this by asking for his money back.
Read the latest information product you wrote or published… or, even better, the one you are working on right now. On every page, ask yourself: “Is this text telling the reader merely what to do, or is it actually showing him HOW to do it?”
If you are merely telling him what to do instead of how to do it, rewrite to correct the oversight. The result: a top-quality information product worth the premium price you have every right to charge.
[Ed. Note: Copywriting master and experienced info-marketer Bob Bly is coming out of his self-imposed retirement from public speaking to be a presenter at ETR's 2008 Info-Marketing Bootcamp. He - along with 11 other business-building and marketing experts - will reveal a proven technique that can help you make at least $100,000 in 2009. Learn the details here.
For expert insights into the world of direct marketing, be sure to sign up for Bob's free monthly newsletter, The Direct Response Letter. Do so today and get over $100 in free bonuses.]
Do You Need to Start Out Small ?
If you don’t have an Internet business yet, or if your company is smaller than $1 million, then you need something different… something that lets you start off small.
One man I know turned $10 into over $500,000. How’s that for starting small!
Let me show you how you could get a similar Internet income stream running for almost nothing.
Is Your Ego Bigger Than Your Skill Set?
I hired “Inga” early in her career. Because I knew she was a rising superstar, I spent a great deal of time mentoring her as well as introducing her to other people in the industry.
When she was ready to move on, I recommended her to an industry legend who was starting a new business. He hired her and she excelled there as well.
But then she left that position to start her own little consulting company. And the “buzz” in the industry has been that she is not always delivering assignments on time and is getting increasingly harder to deal with.
We hadn’t communicated since she went off on her own. Then, about a month ago, I received an e-mail from her.
She asked if we could have lunch so she could pick my brain regarding her consulting business. Because we both have busy schedules, we had to set the date for three weeks down the road.
Two days before our scheduled lunch, I e-mailed her to say I was looking forward to seeing her and to confirm the time and place.
I was shocked by her response. She had forgotten all about it. She said she was too busy, and asked if we could please meet the following day instead.
I couldn’t make it the following day. And I was understandably miffed, because I’d had to re-schedule several appointments to free up the day and time we’d originally set. As I tried to explain this to her, I felt suddenly sad. Here was someone whose ego had surpassed her talent.
Whether you are working in a corporate environment or on your own, you should always be building relationships. Relationships with your customers, your competitors, and certainly with your current and previous mentors. If you take these people for granted… and start putting yourself ahead of them… you’ll be burning valuable bridges. And doing that leads to the demise of any business.
[Ed. Note: I'm sure YOU wouldn't turn down the chance to get business-building advice from MaryEllen Tribby. In fact, you can have the chance this November at ETR's 2008 Info Marketing Bootcamp. And MaryEllen's not the only superstar mentor who can help your income skyrocket. 12 of the world's best and brightest marketers have agreed to ETR's Internet Ultimatum. What does that mean for you and your future wealth?]
Why Nuts Do NOT Make You Fat
I’m a huge fan of eating raw nuts for health and weight loss. But every time I recommend them, folks ask me, “Won’t all the calories and fat in nuts make me gain weight?”
The answer may surprise you. Research not only indicates that nuts are a rich source of nutrients and cardiovascular health protection, but also that eating nuts at least twice a week can put you at a lower risk for weight gain.
Recently, scientists from Purdue University did a thorough review of all the studies on nut intake and weight loss. Some of the studies found an inverse relationship between nut intake and body mass index (BMI). And others found that increasing nut intake did not cause weight gain.
It appears that nuts – which contain a lot of fiber – have an appetite-suppressing effect. And when your appetite is suppressed, that obviously makes it easier to stick to a diet. Nuts might also have poor bioaccessibility, meaning that not all of their calories are absorbed.
So nuts are fine if you want to lose weight. I highly recommend them to everyone on my fat-loss programs, and I believe it is just one of the reasons my clients get such great results.
[Ed. Note: The first step to losing weight is eating right. And snacking on nuts can be a good way to stay lean and keep your stomach full. You can also slim down by eating healthy meals. But they don't have to be boring. For delicious and healthy recipes, check out ETR's free natural health e-letter.
The second step to losing weight is exercise. You can build muscle and burn fat with fitness expert Craig Ballantyne's Turbulence Training program]
It’s Fun to Know: A Number Trick to Amaze Your Friends
Say to your friend, “Pick two numbers, both of them less than 10.”
Then say, “Choose either one of those numbers and multiply it by 5.”
Then, “Add 7.”
Then, “Multiply the result by 2.”
Then, “Add that number to the other number that you picked initially.”
Finally, you ask, “What’s your answer?”
Knowing that, you can now tell your friend the two numbers he originally chose, and also the one he started with and multiplied by 5.
Here’s how: From your friend’s final result, you subtract 14. That gives you a two-digit number made up of the two numbers your friend initially selected. The left-hand digit is the number he started with and multiplied by 5.
(Source: angelfire.com)
== Highly Recommended ==
The Best Feeling in the World
Accomplishing a simple goal can have powerful, long-lasting results…
Once you finally learn to play the trumpet, or start a business, or get promoted to CEO, or get your pre-baby body back…
You’ll notice that people start treating you differently. They’ll respect you more. They’ll compliment you. They might even try to imitate your success.
And the way you’ll feel about yourself is unparalleled. You’ll have new confidence. New happiness. Some new stress, perhaps. But new pride in yourself and your abilities.
Achieving a goal you’ve had for years… There’s nothing quite like it.
It’s time for you to feel proud of yourself.
Word to the Wise: Self-Effacing
“Self-effacing” (self ih-FAY-sing) – means not drawing attention to oneself.
Example (as used by Paul Berman in The New York Times): “[Norman Mailer's] Miami and the Siege of Chicago has just been republished with an admirably self-effacing preface by Frank Rich.”
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
This article was very helpful. I have been struggling to put together information products and I always felt something was not quite right. Now I know.
To have a high worth product, I MUST CONCENTRATE ON THE HOW-TO. I am currently working on an information product and I have just “seen” how to do it. I am sure it would be great now. Thanks for the information. I can understand why my mentor Dr Sunny Obazu-Ojeagbase recommended this ETR.
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!