Presenting How-To
Information
Let's say you have the know-how to create a how-to-product of your own or, if not, that are
ready to invest in a resale product, with master resale or private label rights. In short, you have some how-to
information, you can do what you want with it and now need to think about how to present it.
There are various
ways you can do it. You can put together an e-report, e-book or e-course, depending on how much material you have.
This might initially be a word.doc which you can then convert easily to a PDF file. You can find a good 'PDF
Convertor' by using Google.com or Yahoo.com to search for one. You will see lots of free and low-cost, easy-to-use
programs that enable you to convert any file into a PDF format. A PDF format looks glossy and professional and can
be downloaded easily by any customer who has Adobe Acrobat.
You don't have to
simply present information in a written format to be downloaded and read. You might, as examples, add an audio
product to what you are offering. Let's say you have an e-book on share investing. You could put together a series
of additional, and perhaps more timely, questions and answers and turn this into an interview which you could offer
as an extra MP3 file. You can Google.com and Yahoo.com for free programs you can download to help you to do
this.
You could then
use this MP3 file on a website, either yours or an affiliate site, to promote the e-book and then add it into the
package as a download. It all helps to increase the perceived value of the product. Instead of, say, £37 for the
basic e-book, you can now price at £47 because of the extra MP3 material. Increasingly, the most popular and
profitable how-to products come in a variety of formats - an e-book, an MP3 audio, an audio CD and so
on.
You'll find that,
as you become more successful and build a database of your own customers, that you can actually sell the same basic
information in a variety of ways – maybe as a big, 10-part e-course initially and then as separate in-depth
e-reports and again on MP3 formats for those who prefer to listen rather than read. You could even do a DVD version
if you want! You can also offer back-up services such as email updates which might deliver more timely
material.
How-To
Products That Work
Successful how-to
products sold online have key criteria in common. One is a price that reflects the value of the information, not
the price of producing the nitty-gritty product. If someone is going to make £10,000+ from a high-value e-book on
forex (foreign exchange) trading, they'd expect to pay perhaps £200+ rather than £19.99!
It is always
tricky to know exactly what to charge and many entrepreneurs Google.com and Yahoo.com to see what similar products
are selling for online. Some then pitch at a slightly lower price. Sometimes, this can work. Other times, a cheaper
product is perceived to be inferior because of its price. Others pitch at a higher price.
Again, this can
sometimes work as the product will be perceived to be of higher value. But it can mean that some buyers will simply
go for a cheaper product of a similar type. You really need to test various price points, offering at, say, £34.99
or lower to one list and £39.95 or higher to another, to see which generates the highest net income for
you.
Buyers love
freebies – although they are more often than not called 'bonuses' which sound rather more business-like. The more
bonuses you can include, the better the take-up rate of your offer. Bonuses make you seem generous and the
customers feel special. It also helps increase the perceived value of the product and makes the customer feel they
are getting value for money.
If you offer an
e-book, you might want to have three bonus e-reports to go with it. These should relate closely to the main
product. If you were writing about overseas property investing, you might do extra, in-depth four page reports on
the current hottest markets; Germany, Morocco and Turkey as examples.
This can be a
good way to keep the whole product fresh and timely and more attractive. The basic product can stay largely
unchanged but you can update those free reports every three to six months. And, in due course, you might also find
you can sell them separately as well. Of course, there are all sorts of freebies – you might offer a free trial
membership to a paid-for website, where you take a commission on every new member!
You should also
give your customers a strong guarantee. What you are doing here is to make the customer feel there is no risk in
trying this product. As an example, you could offer a 30 day money back guarantee to your customers. But add to
that though to make sure the would-be buyer really knows they are not going to be taking any risks at all. If you
can eliminate the risks for them, they are much more likely to give the product a go!
Tell your
potential buyers that, even if they return the main product, they can still keep all of the bonuses. Surprisingly,
the take-up of this guarantee tends to be minimal. Of course, there will always be one or two customers who do
follow through but these tend to be the ones who would have asked for their money back anyway. For everyone else,
it is an encouragement to buy – and the extra number of people who do buy will far exceed the handful of refunds
you have to give
All for today, see you tomorrow with more advice
on selling how-to products and turning this idea into a proper, full-time business.
Product
Stories
People love to hear stories and they don't get to hear enough of them. We recently heard
about some architectural reclamation yards that go out of their way to get the story behind what they have for sale
– where the building was, how old it was, what it looked like, who lived and worked there etc? It helps to bring
the product to life.
If you were an antique dealer, wouldn't you do the same thing? But they rarely do. Even second hand car dealers
know the power of such stories, as evidenced by the apocryphal "little gem owned by a vicars wife who only took it
out on Sunday afternoons'.
Are there stories you can build around the origins of your product or service. If there are, you could make them
all the more saleable and appealing.
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