This is part 2 of a multi-part series on how to create a profitable info product. Be sure to read part 1 which outlines niche selection.
The products I’ve created have earned about $25k in profit in the past six months which is an average of over $4,000 per month. I’m currently working on creating more info products in a variety of markets and I’m sharing what I’ve learned from my past experience so that you too can make a profitable info product. Now that you’ve figured out which niche to create your product in let’s discuss how to actually create the product.
Table Of Contents
How To Actually Create The Product
If you’re struggling to come up with what content to create for your product then you might want to go back and read part 1. It’s much easier to create a product in an area where you have expert subject knowledge. If you can come up with some rough ideas on what you want to include in your content then what I’ve found works well for me is to start with an outline.
Create An Outline
It may remind you of a 4th grade writing assignment but I’ve found creating an outline was one of the easiest ways for me to get a rough idea of the content I wanted to create for my product and actually get started working. It’s difficult to look at an idea like a course to teach people how to make money with Amazon Associates and just start creating content. So this is the exact outline I created for Niche Profit Course and it’s very close to how the final product turned out:
Niche Profit Course First Outline:
Basic Knowledge
How To Find A Good Niche
How to Set Up An Income Generating Blog
How To Write Content For Your Blog
How To Make Money
How to Build Links And Get Traffic
Live Mini Site Case Studies
Live Authority Site Case Studies
After completing that outline I ended up including a few other videos on outsourcing site creation and how to buy domain names aftermarket because those were things I was doing more of and that I thought would help out others so I included them in a separate section of Niche Profit Course. Then by using this outline I was able to have each section of the product separate and clearly defined, so it became a lot less daunting to create the content as opposed to just trying to create a product based on the core purpose of the site – how to make money with Amazon’s affiliate program.
What Format Is Best For Your Customer? Video, Text, Audio, Combination?
With two of my info products I choose to display my information through a combination of video and text. I did this because in both cases I believed it would be easier for customers to learn from someone that literally walked them through the steps of a specific process I was trying to teach.
For example, with Niche Profit Course I showcase a few of my live income generating mini websites and authority websites. Rather than simply telling customers the URL’s I wanted to do a video walkthrough of each website and explain how much money they make, why they make the money that they make and some tips that people could apply to building their own niche sites.
Likewise, with Become A Pro Gamer, it would have been impossible for me to teach someone how to get better at Halo without me providing live examples of games I’ve played highlighting specific game play tactics. So in both products the choice of using a combination of video and text was obvious; however, the product you develop may not need to use video depending on the complexity of the information being shared.
Pick a format that is best for your customer not what is easiest for you to create.
I’ve already written a guide on how to set up a membership site so you can look at that to determine how to manage payment methods and protect the content in a members only area; however, there are some programs you may need to actually create your own content.
Recommended Content Creation Programs:
Video Creation: Camtasia Studio
Camtasia Studio allows you to record your voice and computer screen while you walk through a Powerpoint presentation or show off features of a website. Simply put it’s one of the best programs for recording and editing on screen video and audio.
Free Trial Option Available (Full price is $299)
Alternative: Jing Pro $14.95 Yearly – This program is made by the same company that does Camtasia Studio; however, there is one drawback in that it only allows you to record up to 5 minutes of video.
PDF Creation: Adobe Acrobat
I also generally include readable PDF’s in my info products in addition to the video because people learn in different ways and it’s an easy step to write a document in MS Word and convert it into an Acrobat PDF document.
Full price is $299 for Acrobat Standard
Alternative: CutePDF or Open Office PDF Export (Thanks Shaun and Jason)
Closing Thoughts:
If you’ve been able to get someone to pay for your product you don’t want them to ask for a refund because your product doesn’t live up to it’s marketing, so be absolutely certain to create quality content that lives up to your marketing message. Now as much as I’d love to say that creating the best content will guarantee your success and turn your product into a profitable venture – it’s not that easy. In the next part of this on going series I’m going to discuss the toughest part of creating a profitable info product – how to sell it.
Be sure to subscribe to my blog if you want to read the next update in this ongoing series teaching you how to make a profitable info product.
Great tips to create a product and start making some good money online! Thanks again!
There is a program called CutePDF – which ‘prints’ any document to a PDF. So, create it in Word, Notepad++, whatever… then you print out the PDF to a file on your PC. It is free too.
I’ve used Cute PDF too and it works really well.
Sweet thanks for the suggestion (updating article now)
Good stuff.
I know I’ve used Word to create PDF’s or is there a difference in the background with word vs. adobe
I’ve used Word as well but I just assumed that it was only working that way because I had Adobe Acrobat Pro installed… maybe it’s functionality built into any license of Word?
Hey Chris,
You asked for reader suggestions re PDF – I use a PDF printer plugin in my word processor. It gives a whole range of security options or just plain PDF output. I edit the material in the word processor and then “print” it to PDF when done.
Cheers, Michael
PS. Great post series by the way. I am in the middle of a 10 step post series on a similar topic.
Hey Michael,
I’ll check it out and thanks for the mention on the PDF
Until I had Word 2007, I was using OpenOffice to go from Word Processing to PDF. It was a bit clunkier than Word but it’s free.
Also, I use the FoxIt PDF reader instead of Adobe.
I have a request Chris, can you make a post on how to monetize a forum?
I find it so much easier to monetize a blog than a forum. I have a vbulletin forum with very high traffic yet it makes almost nothing for me.
Perhaps thoughts on adsense on forums, monthly membership charged to either members or for advertisers to have a reserved section (like abestweb), private ads, auto-linking to affiliate offers inside posts, CPM, etc.
Do you think that might make for an interesting post?
I think if you use Open Office (free to download), there is a facility to export your document as a PDF
Thanks for the suggestion!
I use PDFCreator – it works with almost any Windows program. Not sure about Mac users.
Michael
Hello and thanks for your Post,
‘I have – besides a few other blogs (that I do Affiliate Marketing on) – also a special Blog about the Writing Lifestyle….,’
On that Blog I am aiming on building a Relationship
with an Audience that has an interest in Writing (and Making Money Online)
and by providing them with useful information. It is also my aim to grow them into possible future Customers for a Membership Site and/or for example things like (Paid) Consulting.
�First providing them with all kinds
of Free Help, Resources and Answers
to Questions�
What making Profitable Info Products is concerned, I would like their feedback to Inspire me to � besides the tiny little (almost free) ebook I already (pre) sell on that blog � get inspiration for possible other Special Products for them. My most recent Post on that blog is a Post about Writing Goals, asking my Readers for their Feedback and how I can Help them.
‘So everybody reading this feel free to write your feedback
or ask questions by writing Your Comments’
It goes without saying that you are also welcome on any of my other Blogs like for example my – Home Business Lifestyle � Blog where you can discover a somewhat similar approach.
All the Best,
To your Happy � Making Money Online � Inspiration,
HP
I think with your site the most logical thing you could sell would be a course on writing (since that’s what your blog is about), but one thing I would suggest though is to ditch the blogspot blog and get yourself a true .com URL 😀
[…] In reality, I probably wouldn’t make enough money for it to be worth it.� For example, Chris Guthrie recently revealed that he has made about $25k in the past 6 months from his latest training course.� I would expect […]
Great info. Im just building my first product. I have all the content next is to get it all downladable. Cheers, Nick, South of France
Awesome post Chris! I’m also currently in the process of creating various video infoproducts in niche business fields. How many products are you seeking to create each year?
I have a few more planned but I’m not doing them in the online business niche though.