HOT INFOPRODUCTS

Finding the Ideal Match for Your Online Pursuits

Today we’re going to talk about the importance of doing a self-assessment before you venture into an online entrepreneurial role. A self-assessment is when you do a no-nonsense examination of your strengths, weaknesses, wants and needs.

Right now there are many men and women entering this career with a cookie cutter approach. They read a successful guru’s take on a particular business and believe if they simply copy what he did step-by-step, they’re going to have the same level of success. And it doesn’t quite work like that.

Info marketing isn’t some business where you’re flinging toppings on a pizza or standing in an assembly line putting a part on something coming down a conveyor belt.

This is the type of business where you mold it into what suits your innermost personal and professional desires. There aren’t many businesses where you can make it whatever you want it to be. Most jobs have a job description laid out for you and you either follow the plan or follow your pink slip right out the door!

So if you have this self-assessment done ahead of time, you’ll be able to easily bypass any opportunities that aren’t right for you personally. And we all know how convincing some of that sales copy can be – they make it sound so easy, so inviting. Then you buy the guide, get started and realize you’re not happy at ALL.

If you fail to conduct a self-assessment ahead of time then you’ll be taking the long route to success. You’ll get involved in niches and business plans that won’t work for you. You’ll waste time, money and energy and get nothing in return – and I want to help you avoid that trap.

The Problem with Copycatting

So let’s talk about the problem with copycatting these self-made success stories. There are two main issues I have with it:

Their system may not interest you.

For example: Pay Per Click marketing makes a lot of people a lot of money – but it’s just something I don’t like, period. It doesn’t provide any creative outlet for me. It’s 100% short sales copy and conversion formulas and personally, I’d prefer to do something else with my time.

There are many products touting specific niche markets, too. What if I don’t WANT to promote the same niche the expert is teaching? If his results and “proof” are based on his efforts in the health niche, will yours be different using the same system to promote a craft niche? Maybe – maybe not!

The second issue I have with copycatting another marketer is that his system may not match your strengths. He might show you a simple 30-minute system where he sets up a quick squeeze page with 5 bullet points and 2 headlines and earns $6,235 a month.

Now you go try to replicate that only you suck at copywriting. So your simple squeeze page doesn’t convert into sign-ups and your sales get stuck at a tiny fraction of what Mr. Guru said you’d rake in.

It’s MUCH better to learn about info marketing and take the parts that match your strengths and that you love doing and create the perfect formula for your OWN success. No two people in the Internet marketing arena will have the exact same business on every level.

Some of you may choose different niches. Some may launch a membership site while others will promote eBooks as an affiliate. Many might love promoting their info product via a blog, while some despise blogging and stick to social networking sites.

This is a perk, so I want you to embrace it and learn how to harness your talents to create a formidable business of your own making.

How to Find What Interests You

So let’s tackle the part of the self-assessment that determines what interests you. This part is two-fold. First, you have to see what niche interests you. Many tend to have a hard time with this because they believe they have to get into the “make money niche” to succeed.

Not true – I know many people who love to cook who are in the cooking niche (including my own Baby Boomer Mom). There are some who love crafts like knitting who have thriving online businesses. Don’t box yourself into a niche you don’t like!

So first, ask yourself what type of niche you want to target. Are you a problem solver? Are you the kind of person who likes to share his or her own solutions with your friends and family to make their lives easier?

An example of this might be a mom who wants to help other moms learn how to handle being the parent of a colicky newborn because she’s been there, done that and survived with a solution to share.

Or do you like to enrich the lives of others in some way like helping people learn how to plan the perfect vacation or find true love in life? You don’t have to tackle problems that are depressing – they can be fun problems like, “where to vacation with kids in tow” or anything you feel others would want to know!

You have to also make sure you can stick with it. Early on, I made the mistake of wasting several months writing a book on how to have an eco-friendly funeral. It was a great topic but it depressed me, so I handed off all of my research, writing and websites to someone on my list for free – because I wanted someone else to do it justice. Now I always ask myself if it’s a sustainable project – if I can work in it for the long haul.

Next I want you to consider whether you want to pursue an interest where you already have expertise in the area or if you love the process of learning something new and then sharing it. I hate the advice, “write what you know.”

Yes, that works in many cases. I know info product creation and I can teach it well. But there are many topics you might be interested in but not be an expert in – and that’s okay – you can still go after that niche if you want to!

One year I wrote 12 eBooks on how to name your baby. I’ll admit that all 3 of my kids are named after TV or movie stars – Scarlett after Scarlett O‘Hara, Dylan after a 90210 character, and Shawn after John Wayne in The Quiet Man.  So my expertise in baby naming was very limited unless the mom happened to be a TV junkie like me!

But I was fascinated with how people named their babies and when a client hired me for this massive project I was thrilled. I thought it was so neat how he came up with the various specific topics for his eBooks such as:

·    Baby Naming Ceremonies
·    Naming Your Baby After Your Ancestors
·    100 Dos and Don’ts for Naming Your Baby
·    Global Baby Naming Rituals
·    Secret Meanings Behind Your Baby’s Name

I didn’t know about global baby naming rituals, but it was very interesting researching this stuff! I divided it into regions – Europe, Africa, North America, Asia and so on. To me, the research phase is one of the most rewarding parts of this career!

My point is – don’t worry if you aren’t an expert. You can become one easily. Get your library card out, use the Internet, and go to bookstores to educate yourself before you tackle your niche marHow to Assess Your Strengths

First let me say this – there’s no degree you can earn for being an Internet marketer in colleges yet for the most part. This is a do it yourself industry, so if you lack something in your educational background, it won’t impede your success unless you’re unwilling to learn something new.

Doing a strength assessment will help you determine what methods you want to use to build your online business. So ask yourself these 4 questions to begin with:

1.) Do you write well? I’m not talking about textbook professor writing – I’m asking you to size up your writing abilities on these factors: you can organize your thoughts logically, you can get your point across like you’re writing an email to a friend, and you can either spell correctly or will take the time to proofread your content before marketing it.

If you have all of these qualities, then you can tackle info product creation and promotion without having to rely on freelance service professionals.

2.) Do you feel confident leading others? Some people want to stay completely behind the curtain – operating behind the scenes without direct contact with their customers. Others love to interact with people.

You need to find out if you’ll be willing to be out in public with your niche and be reachable by your demographic. You don’t want to run a membership site if you’re too timid to rub elbows with your members.

For those who like to stay in their shell, affiliate marketing might be a good option because your living is made solely on the promotion of another person’s expertise. Any problems or questions that arise are directed to the product owner, not you.

3.) Are you a strong communicator? Not everyone is – some people don’t feel comfortable in the role of conveying a message – even those who are so-called experts in their field.

You might build your business with a Joint Venture as the foundation – you as the content producer and expert and another person as the figurehead who delivers your ideas to the masses.

4.) Are you good with technology?  Boy I’ll admit it – I’m not! Once I learn how to do something, I’m fine – but if it even looks difficult I become an ostrich, stick my head in the sand and wait for someone to rescue me.

I know my strengths – product creation, leadership and communication. I know my biggest weakness, too – technology. So if someone comes along and says, “Use Yahoo Pipes to make X amount of money in your niche,” I’m probably going to look for an alternative money stream because it’s so difficult for me to understand.

You don’t want to be pressured into following a business model that makes you stressed – it eliminates the perks of this job! At the same time, you have to be willing to move outside of your comfort zone and TRY when it’s necessary.

For example – I was always horribly intimidated by FTP. I wanted to log into my cPanel through my hosting account and upload each file individually. It took forever. Then my mentor taught me step by step how to use FTP – and it became as easy as “drag and drop” when I wanted to get files from point A to point Z

Interests + Strengths = Success!

If you do a self-assessment and begin to understand what direction you should take (as well as avoid) online, you’ll have 4 wonderful things happen as a result:

1.) You’ll be more personally fulfilled. Professionally, it’s a given – when you’re doing something you have control over and love, you have a satisfying career. But this spills over into your personal life as well because your job doesn’t become a chore – it’s a welcomed challenge.

2.) You’ll be able to contribute to your niche.  Most people feel great when they know they’ve made a difference. Whether you helped a family name their baby or helped a struggling dieter finally lose those last 20 pounds, you’ll wake up every day knowing you changed someone’s life for the better! You educated, you informed, and you led people to where they wanted to be.

3.) You’ll be more productive.  When I have a project I’m not interested into or that doesn’t embrace my strengths, I procrastinate. I don’t want to face it because it’s so harrowing. I avoid it until I’m forced to work on it. If you choose something you’re good at that also interests you, you’ll be very productive and this translates into #4 –

4.) You’ll make more money!  You don’t make money in this industry if you won’t work. You have to create products, build a list, generate content, improve conversion rates, and so on. Productivity allows you to make more money than those who feel chained to a boring, difficult online business opportunit

Self Assessment Worksheet

First, think about what skills you have for an Internet Marketing career. For example, can you write well? You only have to write on an 8th grade level to be proficient for the World Wide Web.

Are you good at research? You could compile the data and get a huge discount from a ghostwriter if you give them all the information upfront. Think of at least 3 skills you have for an online career and make a note of it.

Next, consider your weaknesses. I’m a bona fide tech dummy. I am also a procrastinator. Your list of weaknesses is something you can write down to remind you of what you need to work on.

This is your improvement list. I had to force myself to learn how to make video and audio and upload things to servers. It all seemed so harrowing to me until I took time to learn and practice.

Then I want you to think of at least 2 times in the past that you were successful with something in your career. It can be something as simple as your boss complimenting a report or the first time you landed a big client.

And lastly, assess how much time you can spend uninterrupted each day for your online business. As a stay at home mom with 3 kids, I get interrupted all the time, so I would have to tally up the minutes I actually get to work straight for my total.

End Notes:

Most people don’t ever take the time to analyze themselves and their desires before they start trying to make money online. They just hit the ground running and get lost in the process. This is going to help you stay focused.

Whenever you start to get sidetracked, come back to this lesson and make sure that whatever opportunity is presented to you – that it’s aligned with your strengths, goals, and interests.

Whether you choose to create an ebook yourself, or hire someone else to write your ebook or program your software, you will still need certain tools to put your product together.  If you are writing an ebook, you will need to consider what format you deliver it in.  There are a few different standards out there.

Many ebooks come delivered in a compiled version.  What this means is that you create the ebook by putting each chapter onto its own html page.  You then place all of the pages in a single folder on your server.  Then, select one of the many ebook compiler programs and use it to compile the ebook.

In selecting the software that you choose to use as your compiler, decide whether you want to make your book brandable or not.  A brandable book is one where you allow your reader to either pass the book out for free, or one where you provide your reader with some form of redistribution rights.

To encourage the reader to redistribute your ebook, you allow the reader to include his or her own name and usually URL in the ebook.  If you would really like someone to work at redistribution, consider including brandable affiliate links as well.  These are things that you should carefully plan out when putting your ebook together.

Another format you can use for your ebook is the Adobe PDF format.  There is no need to purchase an expensive Adobe product to do this.  You can obtain a great little tool free of charge.  It is called PDF 995 and its companion product, PDFEdit 995.  You can get it at:

http://www.pdf995.com (make sure you get both downloads!)

This is the tool that I use.  Here’s how it works.  Download all of the separate components to PDF995.  Then, install them on your computer.  Once they are installed, open up your ebook in whatever program you used to create it (usually Word or WordPad).  Next, select “Print”.  Hit the print button.  This will cause a new window to open, prompting you for a file name.  Select a name for your ebook file and hit Save.  If you are using the free version of PDF995, a small ad window will open.  Don’t worry – this only happens when CREATING a PDF file ,.. your readers will never see the ad.

Immediately after you have printed the file, you will need to open PDFEdit995.  Again, you will see a short ad upon open.  Once inside, this is where you can add features to the last file that you printed.  You can do things like add page numbers, make hyperlinks clickable, add comments, add bookmarks, etc.

The PDF995 suite of tools is very useful in creating info products.  The price is certainly right as well!  I would recommend using PDF995 for all of your ebooks.  You can even make brandable PDF files with a little tool called Easy PDF.

You should also be aware that you should NOT use DOC (Word) files when distributing an ebook.  This is to protect the security of your work.  (The only time that you would want to distribute an ebook in DOC format is if you were transferring private label rights to your purchaser.)

You want to make it as difficult as possible for your reader to steal your valuable, intellectual property.  You’ve put a lot of time and effort into your info product.  It would be a shame to have it stolen.  The harder you make it for someone to steal from you, the less it will happen.  In fact, you should even consider disabling the right click function in your PDF document as well.  This doesn’t prevent people from copying the text, it just makes it more difficult.

The infoproduct business can be one of the fastest and easiest ways to make  a living online.

People are hungry for information on every topic imaginable. It does not matter what your passion may be, someone out there shares your interest.

Everyone wants information!

These same people are more than willing to pay money for the information if it will help them save time, make more money, improve their love life, live healthier and longer and the list goes on.

If you can save people time, benefit them in some way, or help them emotionally you may have your next customer.

On the internet, there is a lot of money that can be made by selling information to
people.  The information can be in the form of articles, reports and ebooks.  An ebook is nothing more than a
book in a digital format.

The important part of having an ebook as opposed to a hard copy book is that the
ebook can save the reader even more time than the hard book.  This is because
the ebook can incorporate audio, video, and hyperlinks to additional, pertinent
information.

Anyone that has made money on the internet did so by selling information in one format or another.

Create the next hot infoproduct and start getting your piece of the information product pie.

Trying to decide what hot infoproduct to create can be overwhelming. There are so many choices that you may find your self wandering aimlessly searching for the right idea that will help you achieve online success. The internet can cause you to suffer from information overload if you do not take a step back and narrow your search. The first step in creating a infoproduct is to choose a topic that you are passionate about. When you are passionate about something it will be easier to narrow your search, you will have a working knowledge of the topic, and the time you invest will not seem like work. Take the time to look deep inside and find your passion if you want to create a great infoproduct and achieve your dreams…

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