Internet marketing provides truly diverse avenues for creating products using various multimedia formats. These products can effectively demonstrate solutions to people’s problems and help them achieve their desired lifestyles. Despite the vast array of product formats available, experienced internet marketers have found seven to be consistently safe and reliable for online sales.
Ebooks, Manuals, and Newsletters
These are the foundational “digital book” information products that have been the basis of many successful internet marketing ventures. They offer numerous advantages: ease and low cost of production, simple and free delivery (automatable and instantaneous via autoresponders upon payment), and straightforward editing and updating for new information. If writing an ebook yourself isn’t appealing, you can outsource the writing and production to authors on platforms like Elance and vWorker.
Digital information products can be easily created using basic word processors like Word. However, this carries the risk of formatting issues during transmission to customers, potentially resulting in a less-than-professional final product. A much better approach is to convert your Word document to a Portable Document Format (PDF) using software such as Adobe Acrobat or its free alternatives. This will preserve the document’s appearance and formatting. While dedicated ebook creation software exists, for many, a well-formatted PDF suffices perfectly.
Newsletters stand out as excellent internet marketing products due to their relatively simple production process combined with a recurring revenue model. We will delve deeper into newsletters in future discussions.
To maximize the value of your ebooks, include links back to your website and consider adding relevant affiliate links. Upsell offers can also be strategically incorporated. While ebooks are a classic information product, they are merely the starting point in today’s landscape.
Audios / MP3s and Podcasts
Audio products are not only easy to produce but also possess a high perceived value. In their simplest form, they can be narrations of written content recorded using basic digital recording software (like Audacity) on your computer.
An audio product can simply be you speaking into a microphone. Expanding on this, recording an interview with an expert on the audio’s subject requires minimal additional effort. You can even conduct and record telephone interviews, simplifying the process further as you and the expert don’t need to be in the same physical location or even the same time zone.
Videos / DVDs
The internet is clearly shifting from text-based content towards video. Video products are highly effective as high-perceived-value offerings and as powerful tools for driving traffic to your website. Videos can be streamed on your website (e.g., using Flash), distributed as physical DVDs, or offered as MPEG downloads from your site.
Producing videos requires slightly more equipment than audios, but a significant capital investment isn’t necessary initially. A simple camcorder will suffice for your first videos, and you can even utilize your computer’s webcam.
Webinars
Technology has made it remarkably easy to offer webinars to your subscribers and potential customers, either for free or as paid products. You might choose to offer free webinar access to promote a specific offer during the event. Alternatively, you can charge a fee if you plan to deliver a substantial amount of valuable content, particularly if the event includes contributions from recognized experts in the field (which could certainly be you!).
If you are charging for your webinar, it’s a good practice to provide attendees with a recording of the event. You could even offer a physical CD recording as an upsell for an additional charge.
Subscription (Membership) Websites
Subscription or membership websites are among the most effective products you can create. They represent an evolution of the newsletter or online magazine, offering content to a paying, restricted audience through various media formats. Membership sites are inexpensive to operate yet offer considerable potential for recurring income and automated cash flow. Building a site that fosters a sense of community among your members will also cultivate a very loyal customer base for any future products you develop or curate.
The core of a membership site is the provision of valuable information and resources exclusively to your paid subscribers – content not made available to the general public. You can offer different membership tiers and increase subscription fees as you expand the content and resources on your site. Membership websites offer excellent economics as the operational costs don’t increase proportionally with the number of members.
Workshops and Seminars
Workshops and seminars are a natural progression from webinars, offering higher value, provided you have the confidence and expertise to justify charging fees at economically viable levels. They can significantly enhance your reputation, and involving other experts in the field can further increase the appeal of your events.