As an author, when you create information products that compliment the subject matter of your books, you have an opportunity to sell those products to readers or use them for marketing purposes to attract new readers for your books, plus extra income.
Information products can be offered in a variety of formats:
Ebooks – Thanks to the influx of digital readers, ebooks are hotter than ever. You can make an ebook available through your website as a simple PDF document, plus have it formatted for Kindle, Nook, iPad, etc. One distribution option is http://Smashwords.com, which is a cost-effective way to convert and distribute ebooks.
Workbooks – One of my favorite information product options for authors is a workbook. Create a companion guide that you sell either as a physical book or as a digital download.
Special Reports – Shorter than an ebook, a report is typically two or more pages on a specific topic that would be hard to find elsewhere, delivered in PDF format.
Audio Recordings – Audio recordings should be delivered in MP3 format. You can record using conference call technology such as http://freeconference.com or http://instantteleseminar.com. Other recording options include software your purchase or a service such as http://AudioAcrobat.com.
Video Recordings – Due to bandwidth and space requirements, videos delivered digitally should be shorter in length or hosted on another server (either a private server or a site like http://YouTube.com) for easier viewing.
Everything Else – An information product is basically any kind of information that you can package and deliver to buyers. You could develop white papers, transcripts of recordings, booklets, databases, formatted spreadsheets, worksheets, templates or training programs, or card decks. You can also choose to bundle any combination of the products mentioned here.
When it comes to information products, it’s important the content meet a need for your audience. You can sell your products for additional revenue or give them away as incentives to attract new readers for your books.
Are you getting some ideas yet? Watch for my next post on how to create and launch your information products!
Hi Stephanie,
I like that you added links in your post as examples to illustrate what tools people can use when putting together the different informational products. That helps quite a bit!
Thanks.
Thank you, Cathy!
Stephanie, Thanks again for the wonderful information. Just an aside, I went to retweet your blog and Tweet would not let me because of too many letters. Basically, I had to change the word “and” to the & sign and cut Information to Info. Either way, I will be using your information to create new products. Thank you!
Thanks, Brad! I tend to write long titles so appreciate you taking time to shorten that one to fit in the tweet! : )