Get into the Information Products Business!Written by Robert Brents
Selling information products is second-biggest business on Internet (selling software is first). Writing How-To manuals is one of easiest and most profitable ways of creating and selling information products on Internet.There are two principal ways people come into How-To manual business. The first way is that you have an idea for a how-to manual, you sit down and write it, then try to sell it. The second way is that you have a problem, you go looking for a solution, and you either don't find one and decide to solve it yourself then write a how-to manual to share what you've learned with others who may be having same problem, or else you find information about your problem, but it is so badly written or so confusing or doesn't really solve your problem that you say to yourself, "I could do better than that!" So you sit down and write a how-to manual. Whichever way you arrive at front door of how-to manual business, understand that almost certainly you have ability to put down on paper (on into electronic form with a word processing program, or dictate into a tape recorder) your experience or knowledge. And that experience or knowledge can be of benefit to other people. Potentially a LOT of other people. A lot of other people who want and need what you know so much that they are willing to pay for your manual. And pay handsomely. Let me tell you something right away, based on my years of experience in this business: you do not need a college degree in English to write how-to manuals! You just need an idea, a plan, and persistence to see it through to completion. I have been writing, publishing, marketing and promoting my manuals for over seven years. I got started because of a problem I had that there didn't seem to be any good, clear, simple written solutions for. So I did my homework -- it turned out everything I needed to know to solve problem what already out there, just in scattered bits and pieces -- put ideas together in a logical order, wrote it all up in my style, using my own words, and voila! I had a how-to manual.
| | Practical Information Products for the InternetWritten by Robert Brents
I have been in training business for over twelve years. As I began writing how-to manuals, I naturally began offering seminars on how to write how-to manuals. And I still do. But I've found that by putting what I've learned about this subject into print and marketing this manual, I've been able to reach out and help many more people than I ever could through seminars alone.Practical. Above all else, writing, publishing, marketing and promoting your how-to manuals is practical. Information products are some of easiest things to create and market (especially over Internet!) How-to manuals are a consistently profitable market. Never mind if there are already twenty- eleven things in print on your topic. If you have something new to say on subject, or some new way to say it, you have a unique product that may fulfill needs of others. Portable. One of things I love most about this business is that it’s portable. You can write, publish, market and promote your how-to manuals from virtually anywhere. I've written how-to manuals while traveling almost full-time delivering my seminars and training courses. When my wife takes early retirement in a few years, she wants to move from large city we now live in on West Coast to a small town in northern New Mexico. No matter, I can still do my business from wherever we settle next. Your Spin. This business really has no limits! As I said above, even if there are many other publications on a topic you want to write your how-to manual about, don't fret! Put your unique stamp on topic and/or market it in a new way, and you'll find plenty of buyers. Do you think Dr. Wayne Dyer was first person to write a self-help book? Absolutely not! But way he wrote "Your Erroneous Zones" reached people, many of whom had never read a self-help book in their lives, in a way that made him a best-selling author!
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