We writers hear almost daily about magazine markets drying up, publisher advances plummeting, and online content paying paltry amounts. Anyone focused solely on what is going on in the traditional publishing industry might think there are no opportunities left. They would be wrong. In fact, there are plenty of opportunities to generate an income from writing, just not in the way that it has been before.
For the past few years, with the rise of e-readers and e-books, and increased reliance on the internet for information, demand for information products has been steadily rising. What are information products? They are tools for sharing how-to, service-oriented information that are sold online. The information itself can be formatted or packaged in a number of ways, including:
- E-book
- Special report
- Booklet
- Podcast
- Video tutorial
- Teleseminar
- Online course
- Membership site
This list is not exhaustive, but it should give you a sense of the breadth of product formats now available to writers who want to package and sell what they know. Writers have the added advantage of being able to pull from content they have previously created for clients, but still own.
The biggest challenge information entrepreneurs have is generating, or writing, the content to be packaged and sold. In that regard, writers have a huge advantage. Yet not enough know about this new publishing opportunity.
While the writing may be second nature, the delivery mechanism for information products may be unfamiliar to writers. Instead of selling written documents to editors and clients, writers now need to adjust to selling to consumers via the internet. They need to research what it is that people what to know, and then create a product that gives them exactly what they’re seeking, for a fee. This requires a heavier reliance on technology and online tools.
Some of the resources necessary to start creating and selling information products include:
- A WordPress-based website. WordPress is now the de facto standard and is easy to update as needed.
- A web host. Companies charge by the month or year to provide space for your website on the internet.
- A unique domain name. If you’re a parenting expert who specializes in child dental issues, you might buy a URL like toddlerteeth.com or nomorethumbsucking.com.
- A mailing list system. Building a mailing list of people interested in your topic is critical for your success.
- A shopping cart system. This is what enables you to collect money from customers and deliver what they have bought.
- A payment mechanism. Paypal is the most common, but there are others now available to which you can link your website.
By setting up a website dedicated to your particular information product(s), attracting visitors through the use of a freebie, and obtaining their name and email address, you have identified people interested in information products in this topic area. Now you simply need to sell them what you have created.
As a follow-on to our successful ASJA panel on creating and selling profitable information products, Sandra Beckwith and I have created 10 Steps to Creating Your First Information Product, a free guide that will help you get started. Download it at www.informationproductsforwriters.com.