Many people feel like they’re gambling when they choose a a PLR product to sell. After all, there is no cut-and-dried formula for finding a topic and a product that people are sure to buy.

Many people feel like they’re gambling when they choose a a PLR product to sell. After all, there is no cut-and-dried formula for finding a topic and a product that people are sure to buy.
One of the biggest barriers to information product creation is the perceived lack of time. After all, you’re already busy running your business and living your life. So what are the chances you can carve out the time you need to create a series of Information Products?
It all comes down to rethinking the Information Product Creation process. With the five tips presented here, you will start to see how busy entrepreneurs just like you are cranking out products daily.
1. Determine the scope of the project. This is typically where most people become overwhelmed. For example, someone told them they need to create a “big ticket” item, encompassing a comprehensive “system” that they will be known for.
While that may be your long-term goal, you can’t start there. Instead, determine which ONE piece you are going to create. Make it an hour-long project. Something like a one-hour interview. Or a one-hour tutorial. That’s enough to sell as a stand-alone product.
It’s a way for you to start sharing your information with the world. It will not only help you learn the sales and marketing processes, but it will be building your reputation so that your next product already has a ready-made audience.
And in the process, you’ve already saved a lot of time and hassle by not feeling like you have to conquer the world in your first information product.
2. Make it simple. You have a preferred production style. It may be writing. It may be audio or you might prefer video. But choose ONE primary method of production for this product.
By choosing ONE tool to learn and use for this project, you’ve now reduced your learning curve and the time needed to master a new production tool. You can always add more formats later. But for now, stick to just one production method.
3. Build it into your day. When you’re working with information all the time, you’re already doing some of the things you want to include in your product.
Keep a list of the topics you want to use in your product or in marketing your product. Refer to it often throughout the day. Then look for opportunities to produce that content.
For example, if you are answering a client question, take a few extra minutes and turn that answer into an article. Or record the answer and have it transcribed as a section of your ebook.
It didn’t cost you any extra time and you’ll be that much closer to your goal of finishing and selling your product.
4. Repurpose your content. Just as you can turn an answer into an article or record and transcribe it for an ebook, you can repurpose almost all of your content.
Before you do anything in your normal work day, ask yourself “how ELSE can I use this information?”
Consider your members’ site. You can add content to that easily in the form of FAQs – at the same time you’re answering questions. You can add a bonus interview – taken from the same interview you’re including in your product. Or vice versa, taking an interview from your members’ site and using it as part of your product.
When you don’t have to dedicate “separate” time for creating membership content, you’ll find you have more time for product creation. And when you look at each content item as a flexible piece, you will quickly find you are producing more content than you know what to do with!
5. Use templates and checklists. One of the biggest deterrents to easy information product development is the time it takes you to get ready, get the tools together, and figure out what steps to take.
Once you have your tools and steps, record the process in writing. Sure, you can use video to record what you’re doing. But it’s hard to refer back to video.
Instead, jot down each step as you do it and create a procedure or checklist from your steps. As you repeat the process, use your checklist and make any corrections. By your third time through the process you’ll have a refined procedure that you can follow six months from now – without having to reinvent your system!
Likewise, once you have a method for doing something, turn it into a template. For example, by using the same slide design for all of the slides in a series, you save the time of redesigning from scratch each time. Plus it “brands” the slides as all belonging to the same product.
When you start using these five tips, you’ll quickly see that you DO have time to create an entire line of information products!
Dr. Jeanette Cates shares tips and how-to’s in her comprehensive video-based course on how to DesignYourOnlineCourse.com
If you are new to product development, it may be helpful to have an easy-to-follow blueprint to get started with. Here’s the step-by-step to your first product.
1. Decide on the topic for your product. It’s probably something you wish you had had when you first started in your current area of expertise.
2. Break the topic down into three parts. These three parts should be approximately the same size. And they are likely sequential – steps 1, 2, and 3.
3. Choose the easiest way for you to communicate – in writing or in speech. If in writing, then write the instructions for topic one. Then write on topic two. And write on topic three.
The idea is for you to use the same production mode to create the three parts to your product. So your written product will most likely be three reports, one for each step in the sequence.
[tbpspa]On the other hand if you prefer to talk, then you’ll want to record your audio. You can use a microphone and audio recording program as one option. Or you can call a free conference line and record it that way. Either way will work.
Again, when you are recording the audio, you want to talk about step 1. Stop the recording. Talk about step 2. Stop the recording. And talk about step 3.
4. Whichever way you did not choose to start with, use that one now as you produce exactly the same three steps – but with this new production method. So if you wrote your first version of the producct, this time record it. And vice versa.
5. Finally, put the content onto slides and record a video of you talking about the content as you show the slides. You can either re-record it, or you can use the same audio you recorded the first time and just add the slides to the video.
You now have a finished product – 3 parts, in three different formats. Not only are you able to meet the needs of your audience, but you’ve also learned three production modes.
Most importantly when you repeat each production mode three times in a row, you are much more likely to remember how to do it the next time you need it, rather than having to relearn it.
So remember the 3 x 3 Product Development method and you’ll have that product created in no time!
Need more help in designing your content? You’ll want to take Jeanette’s Design Your Online Course.
Author’s Note: I wrote the original article for this in 2006. While the concept remains the same, some of the prices may have changed. Most likely they have increased!
One of the most valued things in business is Information. Big businesses pay a lot for the right information at the right time. They rely upon experts to provide this information. They hire trainers, consultants, speakers, and data miners – all to be sure they have the right information when they need it.
But something happens when it involves an online business. Suddenly information becomes a commodity in the minds of most people. But just because there is a lot of information doesn’t mean that it’s all equally valuable.
For example, if you’re involved with Internet Marketing you’ve probably settled into a comfortable rut of “free” teleseminars and webinars. After all, they’re used to promote products, services, and events.
So it may be a jolt to find out that the rest of the world isn’t doing them free. In fact, they are charging handsomely for them!
Take for example, SoundView Executive Summaries – the company that sends out the executive summaries of books for those of us too busy to read the full book. I just looked at one of their teleseminars. Keep in mind it’s a 90-minute audio conference with a best-selling author. Their prices:
Audio Conference & CD Recording – $258.00
Audio Conference only – $199.00
CD Recording only – $199.00
Now if that doesn’t make you sit up and take notice I don’t know what will!
And consider – they are not going to open up the line for your individual questions – and I’ll bet they didn’t even offer an ASK campaign for your questions prior to the call.
And that’s not the only one! I get regular notices from The Competitive Advantage.net. Here are their prices for a 90-minute audio conference:
Audio Conference Only – $159
Audio Conference & CD Combo – $209 (plus $20 CD shipping)
CD Only – $159 (plus $20 shipping)
Yikes! Now count how many people were on your last teleseminar. How much money did you lose by offering it as a “complimentary” teleseminar?
Can you charge those prices? It depends on your market and your topic.
If you market to CEOs, conventional business managers and sales professionals, you generally can charge well for the information you provide. Not only do they have the money to pay for it, but they recognize the value of good content – and regularly invest in their professional development.
On the other hand, if you market to those seeking to start a home business or a second income, they may not be able or willing to pay those prices. Traditionally, these markets are very cost-conscious.
Then let’s consider the topic – your content. If your primary purpose in offering the teleseminar is to teach a topic, then you should charge for it. If you don’t put a value on your information, no one else will either. However, if your primary purpose of a teleseminar is to sell a product, service or event, then you generally don’t charge.
Could that change in the future? I think so. The quality of the information provided on preview teleseminars, for example, leading to a seminar is extremely valuable. Why not charge a small fee – to weed out those who have no intention of registering for the event? After all, either you need to sell a ticket to the event or you need to charge for the content.
The same should be true of a product or service. If you’re offering a valuable amount of information, at least charge $10-20 to indicate the value and to reimburse you for the expenses and time of a teleseminar. In 90 minutes you will easily reveal that amount of information – and probably more!
The trend starts here. If each of us who provides quality content in our (previously) complimentary teleseminars or webinars starts to charge a small fee, the trend will catch on.
So ask yourself: What is my information worth?
I wanted to outline an example of using PLR (Private Label Rights) articles for blog posts. This is EXACTLY what I did and how I did it – so that you can see what you can do with this type of bundle.
Recently I sent a notice to my subscribers about a guest blog post bundle.
As you know, I rarely promote anything I don’t use myself. So I had already purchased the bundle before I sent the notice.
I have now uploaded all of my summer blog posts – which were all written by “Amy Sommers”. In fact, you can meet Amy in today’s blog post.
I uploaded them with the plugin that came with the bundle. And I used the WordPress-ready versions, since the images are already placed in that version of the zip file. I mostly followed the instructions, but I found I could upload the plugin directly from within WordPress, so that saved me some time.
I also loaded them to appear every 168 hours (once a week, on Wednesdays), and set them to come in as drafts.
I edited the introductory article, but left most of the content for the other posts alone.
I did go back and shorten the permalinks for each of the articles and added the Featured Image (a part of my theme). Plus I changed the schedule and order somewhat so that all of the articles will appear before Labor Day.
Finally, I wrote a short email about each of the posts and pre-scheduled them to go out to my main list every Wednesday, shortly after the article appears.
The outcomes from this project? There are actually several.
1) I have at least one blog post that will appear weekly for the next 10 weeks. That will bring the search engines over to my blog, even if I don’t get around to writing anything.
2) Because I’m using the Yet Another Related Posts Plugin there is a list of up to 5 related articles that appear beneath each of these posts. Naturally my hope is that visitors will take the time to also read some of the related posts.
3) Many of the guest blog posts lend themselves to recommendations of my own products. So as I have time, I’ll add short ads for my products into those blog posts. (I have another cool plugin that does THAT!)
4) It broke the ice. Frankly I’ve never done much guest blogging, either as a writer or a host, because in my head it was “hard.” Not sure why, but I had that crazy idea. I now see how easy it is! So I’ll definitely be doing more of this – even with real people! (grinning)
5) While I could have stopped at just uploading and scheduling the blog posts, I went ahead and did a little more. I wrote an email promoting each of the posts and pre-scheduled them to go out to my main list.
Total time it took me was about two hours. Naturally I could do this over several weeks, since the articles are coming out once a week. But I followed this principle:
Group similar tasks for more efficiency.
That’s just one of the principles I teach in my course at Overcome Information Overload
I hope you found this helpful. I think it’s fun (and educational) to watch what other marketers do and how they do it. We’re all on this path together!
Do you have a hard drive full of PLR articles, just sitting there collecting dust? We all do!
So let’s get them out, dust them off, and start profiting from them! Here are three easy steps to get you started. And best of all, two of the three steps don’t even require that you rewrite the PLR. Let’s watch the video…
Jeanette’s Note: This is a guest blog post from Nicole Dean. She’s one of my favorite sources of PLR (Private Label Rights) content and a true expert in her field. I know you’ll enjoy this article.
Recently, in an interview, I was asked this question:
“Can you explode any misconceptions that stop people from using PLR content?” Read More→
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