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What Writers Must Know About Creating and Selling Information Products

By Jo Ann LeQuang

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 21Oct2007 Word count: 749 Viewed: 376 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

There was a time when most information was generic, that is, written to appeal to the widest possible audience. Writers might get advice on how to write, not necessarily how to market an article to an online site. Parents got information on rearing their children, not coping with autism.

The Internet changed a lot of things in our culture, including creating a flurry of interest in very narrow topics. Visit the web and you can find out how to market your article on video games to a gaming website or how to talk to your child’s teacher about his recently diagnosed Asperger’s syndrome.

TV brought the rise of broadcasting, but the Internet introduced the concept of narrow-casting, that is, fine-tuning information to very small but highly specific audiences.

So what does that mean for an enterprising writer? It means that expertise and writing projects that once would have been roundly rejected can now not only find utility and purpose, they can actually be sold.

Here’s how it works.

I am assuming that you have particular expertise in a variety of things. Whether it’s catching feral cats, raising orchids, deep-frying turkey, paying down credit card debt, opening a daycare center, or explaining how pacemakers work, most of us can’t get through life without acquiring some very in-depth knowledge about some very narrow subjects.

If you can’t think of what you might know in-depth consider your education, your jobs, your friends, your hobbies, and projects you’ve been involved with through your family, friends, and clubs.

Don’t worry if this information is too obscure or too off-the-beaten path. Just start to accumulate a list.

If you’re a writer, you’re also likely to be an able researcher, so you can fill in gaps in your knowledge of fly fishing or recommending cures for snoring. You can even get expertise in a whole new area by talking to experts and conducting your own online research.

In the Internet world, each of these subjects is called a niche. Many niches are actively sought by Internet denizens who are out trolling constantly for information.

Take celebrity sites. There are always legions of Internet people seeking the latest news on Britney Spears. Now elevate your sites a little. There are also people eager to get new quilting patterns, learn to speak Portuguese, find a great vacation getaway in Italy, or write a killer resume.

Each of those is a niche. As a writer, you can develop what are called information products to serve that niche. For example, take the niche of job seekers. An electronic book or e-book on resume writing might appeal to them. You could also write about unusual job search tactics, acing a job interview, dressing for job interviews, and finding jobs that aren’t advertised.

In other words, every niche has lots and lots of potential information products. And don’t dismiss physical products and more traditional services. Staying in the job search niche, you could sell physical products (resume-writing software, briefcases, calendars, expensive pens or other “accessories” for the job interview) or services (resume writing, job placement).

While all of these are interesting and many of them are viable enough to be profitable (if done correctly), no area is as lucrative as information marketing. You create an information product which you can sell (electronically or as a physical product) on a niche topic.

What kind of products can you sell? E-books are popular; these are downloadable manuscripts. With today’s digital printing technology, you can also publish and sell a physical book almost as easily. (Ironically, e-books tend to have a higher profit margin and sell for more money.) You can sell audios, such as interviews with experts. You can sell videos, which are particularly useful on how-to subjects like how to knit or how to transform your home computer into a sound studio.

Internet marketers have known about niche marketing for a while but the biggest stumbling block for many of them is not the marketplace or the ideas or finding customers. It’s the writing!

That’s why writers have a great advantage. Internet marketing can be learned (there are many great resources) but writing is a much harder skill to master. A writer who can identify quality niches and create products can become a very successful Internet marketer by applying writing skills to a whole new arena.

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