That's right, grab your favorite computer chair, get out your laptop and start writing. I would probably write for at least five straight days (taking time out for meals, of course) and just get it all out on paper.
Then, after you have created your masterpiece, you should probably print up about four....no wait....five thousand copies and start selling them, because everyone, and I mean everyone will want to buy your info course called,
"How to Raise and Race Gerbils in Your Bathtub for Fun and Profit!"
If Ed Wood were alive, he'd shake his head in amazement at your incredible accomplishment. (He was very easy to impress, at least that's the way he was portrayed in the movie.)
Unfortunately, this process is WRONGO- BONGO!
You missed a very important step and that step is: FIRST, FIND A MARKET AND TEST IT BEFORE YOU WASTE ANY TIME WRITING A COURSE NO ONE WILL PROBABLY WANT!
Think about it, if you create a product that has no appeal for anyone, you won't make a sale no matter how well written your sales letter is. As a famous marketer once said, "If you want to sell hamburgers what's the first and most important thing you need? A starving crowd!"
I love watching Shark Tank. I never miss an episode and when reruns come on I watch the episodes again. I don't believe that I am actually learning anything, but I love the show. It always amazes me that a person will invest $500,000+ in creating a product, only to find out that there is no market for it.
"I decided to craft clothing out of discarded apple peels." she says.
"I put $249,000 into this business." she says.
" I have $40 in sales" she says.
"For that reason, I'm out." they said.
So,the first step in creating any product, whether it's an information product or something else is finding a market for it.
OK, Ellis, how exactly are we going to find out what there is a market for? Well, there are several different ways and they all require that dirty four - lettered word we all hate: WORK. What type of work? Research work, that's what kind of work. There are a variety of methods you can use, but these are the one's I would recommend.
1. Mailing List Websites - Used to be you could go to the SRDS (Standard Rate and Data Service) to look up periodicals and what magazines that are popular to find out what topics people buying and in what geographical area. It also used to be that you could find the SRDS in public libraries, but good luck finding one, or at least one in the library that isn't outdated.
The SRDS has an online service but it is very expensive. Your best bet is to go to one of the many online direct mail list companies to look at how many people are buying magazines and other items under different categories. Here are a few I would recommend:
Mailing List Finder - Loads of categories to drill into and see what people are buying and how many people have responded to different topics.
2. Google Trends - With Google Trends you can take a look at what people are interested in over time by looking at search volumes that this search engine has aggregated.
3. Google Adwords Keyword Research - AKA Google Keyword Planner - This is probably the best way to poke around and check to see what's hot and what's not. By plugging in key words t will tell you exactly what ads people have been clicking on so that you will have a good idea if YOUR idea is good enough to sell. It's free but you have to get an account with Google's email system to use it.
4. Pew Internet - This site freely gives out all sorts of demographic information a marketer might use to find a hot niche to sell to or a product to create. The downside of this site is that it could take you a while to find the data you are looking for.
5. Clickbank Market Place - Clickbank is the premiere digital information marketing site on the Internet. You can create an info product, then market it by getting and paying affiliates to sell your info product for you. However, you can also go there and peruse the products made by other marketers. The people that made these products have more than likely done the market research for you, so you should be able to at least find a category that is suitable. However, don't forget that if there are tons of people marketing a particular subject, then you will probably have a lot of competition in that field. On the other hand, if there is low competition, then that subject may not be in too high of a demand.
6. Amazon - You can use Amazon to see what people are reading. Chances are, if people are buying books on a particular subject, then there is probably a market for that subject. In the search field on the left, click the drop down menu until you see "books" and then select it. Next, we would click search and then on the right hand side you should see a list of resources. Scroll down until you see "Department" and under that will be all sorts of categories for books. You can explore these all you want and drill down into all sorts of categories. TIP: When you find a book or a set of books in a niche you are interested in, take a look at the comments made by people. If there are a lot of good, well written comments on that book then there is apparently a lot of interest in that subject, otherwise why would anyone want to write that much about it?
7. Articles Base - You can peruse through bazillions of articles on this site and even take a look at the most read articles to see what hot topics there are.
There are a lot of other ways to do market research, but these are seven of the cheapest ways I found to look around and get ideas. You could also do cheap online surveys, or create a free report to advertise on the Internet and then build a website for people download it from. If you get a good response, chances are you have a winner.
Mark “Elmo” Ellis is a freelance writer, able to write compelling direct mail pieces, video scripts, brochures, and website copy that will grab the attention of your readers, reel them in, and get them to increase your bottom line.
If you want to learn more about how to write and use ad copy in your business, please click the link below and I’ll send you a free report on how to write more effective copy for your business.
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