Steps to Sell Information Products Online

By Angela Wills
Creating your online presence is about establishing yourself as an expert in your niche. Releasing information products is a great way to offer up your knowledge and make money at the same time.
Here are some of the steps you’ll want to take in creating your first information product.
Step 1 – Create the Product
You can create an ebook, special report, physical book, mp3, video or any combination of these products. There’s nothing to say that you can’t hire a Ghostwriter to do the writing and proof reading for you.
This product can be as long or as short as you like but just make sure it’s information that people are really in need of and it delivers high value to their lives or problem.
Have someone go through your finished product to proof read (or view/listen) it.
Step 2 – Set up The Salespage
Of course you’ll need a place to sell your new product from. Though you don’t technically need a new domain for this it’s always a good idea to have a domain specific to the product because it looks more professional and can make it easier to find.
If you don’t have experience creating websites or writing content that makes sales, then this would be another great place to outsource these tasks to get it done.
Step 3 – Set up an Affiliate Program
Though an affiliate program isn’t an absolute necessity, it’s a great idea to set it up from the start to really leverage your new product and create more sales.
There are so many strategies you can get into for finding great affiliates and I’ll have to leave that for another article. Getting a few key players helping you promote a new product can make a big impact on its release.
Decide on a commission to pay your affiliates. For my first product, which sold for $19.97, I decided to offer 50% commission to my affiliates. You’ll want to offer an attractive commission to your potential affiliates so they see it’s worth their time to promote your product.
Step 4 – Get a Graphic
Having a graphical representation of your product really does make it look more professional. If you can’t afford to spend the money right away to get a great graphic done, don’t try to do one yourself unless you know what you are doing. It’s better to have no graphic at all then a poorly designed one.
Step 5 – Start Promoting Your Product
The ways to promote your information product are pretty-much endless. Here are a few ideas to get started:
* Add a short ad in your email signatures.
* Change your forum signatures to draw people to your new product.
* Make a special offer on a forum in your niche that allows such a thing.
* Make an announcement to you list that you have a new product available.
* Post about your product on your blog.
* Search out and contact people who are authorities in the topic your product addresses and ask them if they would be interested in becoming an affiliate.
* Do teleseminars or online conferences on your topic.
* Keep your affiliates motivated by providing them with resources on how to promote your products.
It’s important that you get out there and start making things happen, don’t just wait for your product to start selling like hotcakes because that likely won’t happen unless you are already well known for the information you put out there.