There are many different ways to make money online, but for Internet marketers two of the most popular are to sell other people's products for a commission (affiliate marketing) or to create products of your own to sell.
Many people steer clear of creating their own products because they think it is difficult or complicated, but the truth is that anyone can do it - and you don't even need to buy any software to help you!
Information marketing is about packaging up information that people are looking for - answers to questions they may have, solutions to problems, strategies or business plans - and making easily downloadable ebooks out of them.
If that sounds technical to you, think again! All you need is a free program called Open Office.
Open Office is an office suite - a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation tool and so on, that rivals Microsoft's Office in features and performance, but which is available for anyone to download for free.
It is quite a big download and may take a bit of time, but it is well worth the wait.
For the creation of information products, the only part of the suite that you'll need is the word processor, which looks and performs almost exactly the same as Word.
In this word processor you can put your ideas down on virtual paper and then format them to look pretty.
Don't think that you necessarily need to write something massive - an ebook can have anything from about 20 pages up - barely more than 5000 words and a few pictures.
If you can't write that much though, don't worry. Smaller ebooks can be released as 'special reports' and can be anything from a single page up! It is the information you provide that is important, not necessarily the number of words or pages you write.
When you have finished writing your ebook, and have saved it safely to a file on your computer, the Open Office word processor then has another clever trick up its sleeve. At the click of a button it will turn your book into a PDF that is ready for you to sell.
It is much better to sell a PDF file that a word processed document because the former cannot be changed or easily copied by the reader, while a regular .doc file is open to all kinds of abuse.
If you prefer speaking to writing, why not consider creating an audio product?
Another free piece of software you can download is Audacity, which, if you have a microphone (or headset) will let you record and edit audio files with ease.
Many people like to listen to audio while commuting or exercising, so there is a ready market for an information product in this format.
Where to get the information to sell?
Once you know the questions people need answers to, researching the answers is the fun part. Google will allow you to find information on almost anything and your job as an information product producer is to do in-depth research and to package it up into a unique, easy-to-read solution.
This isn't plagiarism if you paraphrase and rewrite the information you find - it is research. However, don't take all your information from one source as that could get you into trouble if you don't rewrite it sufficiently well.
Why would people pay good money for information that they could get themselves for free? After all, if you can research it, so could they. The answer is that you are providing a valuable service. Not everyone has the time or the inclination to spend hours researching. They may not have the skills to do so.
An ebook can be downloaded cheaply, easily and almost instantly, so it is a very attractive proposition for many people. Price it right and they will be beating your door down!
Creating your own products is, in the long run, a better business model that selling other people's wares as an affiliate.
For one thing, you get to keep all the money on the sales that you personally make, but for another, you can start to attract affiliates to sell for you. Yes, you may have to pay them 50% or even 75% of the purchase price in commission, but each sale they make is one you would not have been able to make on your own.
And so even 25% of the price is free money for you. And there is no limit to how many affiliates you can have.
Creating your own digital information products to sell online is a great way to make money and is entirely under your own control. If sales of one of your products starts to fall, there is no restriction on you bringing out more - until eventually you'll have your own stable of products bringing you in a very nice regular income.
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