Today you will learn how you can earn money by providing great content via digital information products in 4-steps.
- How you can turn almost any information into a product
- Why info products make the most money
- Best info product ideas
- How to choose what product you should create and sell
Are you ready to learn how to begin and expand an info business fast?
Let’s get started.
How Do You Make A Product Out Of Information?
First things first.
What are information products, really?
In short, information products (also known as info products) are products that contain any form of ...
- Intellectual property
- Knowledge or know-how
- Educational material
While that is the definition, the important key is this:
Whatever product you offer needs to solve a problem.
Information products can encompass a vast range of content, including video courses, audios, ebooks, a membership site, etc.
The best information products help people transform their lives to go from where they are to where they want to be.
You can learn more about these transformations and how each of the different types of products connect in this video.
You'll see examples of the above categories and much more next.
Here's why offering information products is a terrific business model and why they are one of the most profitable products ever.
Why Selling Info-Products Is a Great Online Model
I've been in the information product business full time since 2010.
And it's absolutely one of the best online business ideas you can use to build your business.
The costs of producing an info product are very low compared to a retail storefront. If you operate a physical storefront, expenses can run high for ...
- Renting or leasing the storefront
- Managing and purchasing inventory
- Hiring and taking care of employees
An online information business, on the other hand, uses software tools, energy, and knowledge to create information products and market them.
Because there is a very low cost to doing business according to this model, your margins will be higher.
Not only is working with information products a very lucrative business model, but you can make money operating this kind of business anywhere in the world ...
You just need a laptop and an Internet connection and you're in business, literally.
Once you start to gain momentum, working with digital information products is also one of the best ways to earn recurring revenues.
There's nothing like watching an information product model bring in money while you're enjoying a free schedule and investing in the things that truly matter in your life.
Now, one great thing about these top info product ideas is that all of them fit together … kind of like online business Lego-building.
They're also interchangeable.
The same content you create and use for one information product can fit into multiple places.
What does this mean for you?
More monetization opportunities for the same content and digital product you are creating.
So, without further ado, let's get started with the top information product ideas.
Idea #1 - Templates
Utilizing this kind of info product is really a no-brainer.
Once you get started, you'll realize that you do not really need to create anything new ... you just need to tap into something you already have.
Think about what you are already producing in your business that you can potentially sell.
For me, one thing I have produced a lot of in my business is emails.
Over the past several years, I've sent over 600 emails to people on my list.
That's a bunch of free information.
If you’ve ever used email messages in your online marketing, you know that it provides extremely helpful content.
Let’s say that you chose to use those messages as an information product ... you could hypothetically go through those emails and templatize them in categories such as:
- Headline templates that worked really well
- Intros that had the highest clicks
- Calls to action that had the best conversion rates
- Stories that got the most feedback
Ultimately, these digital products would be marketed as email marketing templates.
Anyone could then learn how to do email marketing by following simple copy-and-paste templates. They would just need to fill in the blank and send out those emails ... done!
Product Template Options
What about you?
What existing content can you repurpose to create an informational product that solves a specific problem?
The idea of email marketing templates can take people one step at a time, from being intimidated by email marketing to being a competent email marketer.
In other words, this product would be solving a problem.
Other info product template ideas include:
- Pinterest pin templates
- YouTube thumbnail templates
- Photoshop templates
- Canva templates
- Landing page templates
You could even start selling standard operating processes (SOPs) as templates. If you've got a business model or if you run an agency, all your SOPs could be bundled into a marketable info product.
You can sell products like this or offer them for free to build your list and garner another email address (or hundred).
When you find the people interested in this kind of product, you'll know who to target when you launch into your next information product.
Idea #2 - eBooks
When you're selling information products such as an ebook, you have a couple of options.
You need to decide which is the best one for you.
- You could sell your ebook on Kindle, or
- You can sell it on your own site.
The advantage of selling an ebook on Kindle is that you open yourself up to the Amazon marketplace and the biggest search engine around.
The benefit of selling an ebook on your own is that you earn higher margins.
On Kindle, the highest profit margin you can get is a 70% margin.
When you sell it on your own, your margins are going to be closer to 95 to 98%. But you have to bring your own audience.
A Few Ebook Ideas
Now, using the email idea referred to earlier, another way to use marketing emails would be to go through the best marketing tip emails and put them into book form with a title such as:
"101 timeless marketing tips"
You could easily take emails you have previously sent out and use each type of email as a chapter.
With a little bit of editing and formatting, you would have an ebook to sell from the same emails you’re already (theoretically) selling as templates.
Your material doesn't have to be from emails, though.
Blog posts are another terrific source of information.
If you are a blogger and have written a blog post series on a certain topic, you can compile them together and ... done!
You have a ready-made ebook.
To reiterate, people want the kind of information product that provides them with real value.
If you can start to offer them this value by selling information products, you will see how the idea begins to work like a business-building Lego set.
They start coming together and don't take much extra work if you have the basic building blocks.
Idea #3 - A Workshop
Hosting an online workshop is a terrific way to connect with people in your target audience.
The great thing about this type of information product is that you can choose between a wide range of formats.
- You can go with a one-hour workshop.
- You can teach an afternoon workshop.
- Or you could create a multi-day workshop.
The difference between these basically involves how much information you plan to provide.
With a one-hour workshop, you'll offer an overview.
On the other hand, you'll need to delve more deeply into a specific topic if you want to create a multi-day event.
Returning to the idea of using email marketing content as a foundation for this product, let's take a look at how easy it would be to do this.
You could ...
- Teach about the best methods of email marketing
- Explain details of how you have created an email marketing plan
- Offer information about the ins and outs of growing an email list
How to Plan an Information Workshop
You can host a workshop and deliver it via Zoom or another video conferencing medium.
You also have the choice to create a workshop via YouTube live, but leave it as an unlisted video.
(In other words, people can't find it on YouTube search, but you deliver that unlisted video to those who sign up for your workshop.)
A great thing about hosting an online workshop is that you can see in advance if there's a demand for this kind of product.
The steps would look something like this:
- You make a sales page with a checkout button.
- Send information on this out to your email list.
- Promote it on YouTube.
If nobody signs up for it, at least you didn't waste time creating something that people didn't go for.
If a lot of people sign up for it, you've got another way to make money online while doing very little work.
All you really need to do is schedule a date and a time for the online workshop.
As you create this kind of information product, you have a great way to start testing out the teaching module before building an even bigger course (covered later in this article).
This intermediary step can help you determine whether your target audience really does want and value that info product you're thinking about creating.
Afterward, you also have the option of repackaging your workshop and selling it as a one-time offer (OTO) or a one-click upsell.
Idea #4 - Audios
In marketing audio as an information product, there are different ways you can go about this.
High-level audio products include product types such as music or a guided hypnosis session.
Practitioners and creators can produce these audios and sell them online directly.
But these are not the only kinds of info products you can market online.
For instance, you can sell the audio of a workshop recording.
You can easily take the audio version of some lesson or coaching that you've already produced, and make money online by selling that as an independent information product.
Make the Product Fit Your Business Model
If it fits your business model, you can create audios and provide your listeners with the option of booking a one-on-one session with you.
This can work well if you are trying to sell valuable coaching or mentoring services.
People might be seeking after what you have to offer, but they want to know your teaching style or expertise before booking a session.
By making audios available for purchase, you satisfy that need and have another avenue for earning passive money.
Idea #5 - Online Courses
As far as information product ideas go, online courses are some of the most popular types you'll find.
Online courses are a terrific way to bring in passive income while utilizing material you already have.
You can use pre-recorded modules and lessons and offer the material live via an online course.
It might look something like this:
- Every Monday for eight weeks you deliver a module.
- Every Friday you do a video Q&A via Zoom that goes along with the module.
At the end of the eight-week period, you would also have some great material to then offer the product as an on-demand course.
Going about it in this way would put you in a position to be able to sell it before you create it.
It allows you to get a clear understanding of whether people value this type of information product as a "problem and solution" enough to actually purchase it.
When you sell founder-level access to your online course and then deliver it in real-time, many people really go for these kinds of info products.
Gain Free Experience by Offering Courses in Real-Time
The other benefit you would get by delivering your courses in this way is that it gives you the opportunity to improve upon your information in "real-time."
In other words, you will come to understand very quickly ...
- What your beta group of users is having trouble with
- What they're confused about
- And what you need to create next
So, when you get that feedback during your Friday Q&A, you can adjust your information for the following Monday and address those things that came up.
You have the opportunity to improve the product and make it as high quality as possible.
Once you have it down, you can just package that product up and sell it online as an on-demand course.
Of course, you can also save time by creating an on-demand course from the get-go, whenever possible, try to sell it before creating it.
You want that data point that people are actually going to buy it.
Otherwise, you might waste months creating products that no one wants to buy.
That's obviously a huge time suck, which would keep you from doing more testing to find those best selling business “Lego” blocks.
Idea #6 - A Membership Site
Now the great thing about membership sites is that you can group all kinds of information products together.
For instance, you can ...
- Offer several online workshops
- Post a new workshop every month
- Have templates on your membership site
- Make your online courses available
- Sell your ebooks
With membership sites, you offer access to a perpetual vault of past content as well as ongoing content that you will need to create and post on a continuing basis.
Let's use the hypnosis business as an example.
Someone could offer a hypnosis membership where subscribers get two new hypnosis video or audio sessions every single month.
Plus, they get free access to all the old hypnosis sessions.
For someone who loves hypnosis and wants to continue to program their subconscious mind in a positive way, that would be a wonderful offer for them.
They would love to purchase this kind of info product.
Coaching and Mentorship Membership Site
Another approach to membership sites would be to put out online courses, but also leverage a group coaching type model.
For example, my membership program at contentandconversion.com provides members with access to me as a coach and mentor of selling information products.
- Members in the membership program get to ask me questions in a forum.
- I go live once per week on Zoom and they can ask questions on the Zoom calls.
The goal is to help members remove roadblocks they face in selling products online, affiliate marketing, etc.
The whole membership runs on the frame of coaching people who are hoping to improve their income stream and people who are providing information products online.
This is yet another of those products you can sell first and deliver afterward.
You can also take all of these other info product building blocks you've created and group them together in some way to make them useful for your subscription members.
Idea #7 - Virtual Event
Last but not least in our list of the best information product ideas is hosting a virtual event.
A virtual event differs from the workshop model in that it is often a multi-speaker type event.
One of the cool things about a virtual event is that you have the option of delivering it live for free in order to get opt-ins.
Then you can sell the recordings later as a series of video courses.
This creates a scenario where your opt-in and upsell are all baked into the cake. In other words, you need to build one product, yet you can create an entire sales funnel around it.
That's a very good model, but there are other ways to make this work. For instance, you can:
- Sell access to the multi-day event via your social media channels and website.
- Offer a VIP ticket where people who join live can get access to Q&As after the session.
- Then, after the virtual event is over, you can repackage that and sell it.
If you've done many of these virtual events, you have the option to create a program on your membership sites that contains these sessions.
Or you have the option to create an ebook with the best ideas from the virtual event.
Again, you can always mix and match how you create and market these products.
All you need to do is get started!
Once you gain momentum, you've got it made.
How to Decide What InfoProducts to Sell
Because you can use the same material for most (if not all) of these methods:
- Templates
- eBooks
- Workshops
- Audios
- Online Courses
- Membership Sites
- Virtual Events
Once you get started, you’ll discover how easy it is to build a money-making model for your information business.
The most straightforward way to determine what products you want to create is to begin drafting outlines of potential information product ideas.
There is an exact framework that you should follow, and it is called the “from and to” framework, made famous by the epic marketer Frank Kern.
If you are unfamiliar with this framework, you can click here and check out this blog post (and video) on How to Create and Sell Information Products.
Closing - Take It One Step At a Time
The information you provide might come via a video or a course that offers a six-step program, but the key is that the product provides value and answers the question, "What's in it for me?"
If you help people solve problems they're facing, truly help people transform their lives, you're going to win no matter what product you are actually selling.
You can always start with one or two of these info product ideas and then branch out further, continuing to build your business one block at a time.
Once you've found that information niche, recurring income, location freedom, and a lifestyle that is hard to pull off any other way is what follows.