Today we have a fantastic guest post by Greg Rowllett. For those of you that have been following along for some time, I did an interview with Greg back in 2009. Since then, he’s been up to all kinds of new stuff. He’s found some amazing ways to increase his brand by using products and create more personal freedom by sharing knowledge with others. Find out the best tips to Create Online Products to Have More Freedom.
Online business models are a dime a dozen.
You can…
- Be an affiliate
- Create an eCommerce store
- Dropship products
- Build a brand to promote your coaching or consulting
- Get paid to blog about products
- Get massive traffic and get paid for advertising
- Create your own products
- And the list goes on and on
Online Business Models
Some of the business models listed above are short-term wins, something to do to create some income, but ultimately not something to build a long-term business out of.
Affiliate products come and go, advertising rates change and blogging, SEO and social media will continue to evolve and profiting off of them will change over time.
The model that I enjoy talking about and helping others with, is through the creation of your own informational products. For many of you reading Brooke’s site, you are looking to create opportunities in your life. Not only to provide value to others but to create a lifestyle that revolves around seeing the world, creating experiences and moments and looking back at a fulfilling life.
Creating Online Products to Have More Freedom
Adding products into your online marketing approach can help you achieve those things. For one, they can be sold and scaled far beyond coaching and consulting.
Face it, you only have the same 24 hours in a day that I do, and even if you took on clients for 20 of those hours. That is really the highest volume you can intake (and let’s not forget that you probably won’t be having the fun and fulfillment out of life in this model).
With products you create a framework and a system that allows your business to grow and thrive. This happens even when you are not present. Think about an eBook. Someone comes to your site, sees the eBook and purchases it. Then they are sent the PDF file through email or a thank you page.
What work did you have to do at the time of the sale? You got it, none. That transaction could have happened at 9 in the morning or 11 at night and the system takes care of everything. And this can happen 1 or 1,000 times every day. It really won’t affect the way you live your life (but never sacrifice customer support).
Obstacles In Product Creation
So this all sounds nice, and you see others with this same type of approach. But you are facing many internal obstacles towards creating your own products and that is keeping you from taking action. Well, it’s time to break those barriers right now!
Let’s go through a few that you might be facing.
Lack Of Expertise Or Knowledge To Create A Product
This is very common among those just getting started in the online world. They feel as if they need to catch up, or they only see money being made in the “how to make money online” market. This couldn’t be farther from the truth.
We are all good at something and a fine piece of advice is that you don’t have to be a 10 to teach a 1. You only have to be a 2.
Make a Product, Even if You Never Have
I come from a background in the music marketing niche. We have created products to help musicians build their brands online and create businesses to sustain a musician lifestyle. Others in this niche are the how to play guitar niche. These teachers are not the next coming of Jimmi Hendrix, but they are great at expressing the knowledge they have to others that have less knowledge.
Your goal is to be a teacher to someone that wants to be led. I’m sure there are many things that you help your friends and social groups out with on a daily basis. Start taking note of them and see how you can apply that to a product that helps everyone.
Will People Actually Pay For This, Can’t They Just Google It?
This is a HUGE obstacle for many people when it comes to creating how-to and information based products. Let’s face it, there are hundreds, if not thousands of blogs on nearly every topic online. The amount of information available is sooo immense they have created a term for this called “paralysis of analysis“.
Here’s the little secret about this. People are lazier than you think. But not in a bad way. It’s because we all want to save time, energy and effort. Why go through millions of blog posts to see if something works when I can pay someone $50 for information that is proven to get results?
People Pay for Proven Results
And that is the golden answer as to why information products are so popular (and the fact that the authors enjoy high margins).
Your goal as a product creator is to do a few things:
- Find an audience where you have a solution to their problem (I want to play guitar to write a song for my girlfriend, etc)
- Provide a system that solves a problem for the customer (I have a 4-week course that will help you write your first girlfriend loving song)
- Create trust and rapport with the customer that shows you CAN solve their problem (social proof, sales letter, testimonials)
- Follow through on that value and solution (create a killer product)
But Doesn’t Creating A Value Driven Product Seem Like Hard Work?
Well, let’s be honest here. It is not a walk in the park, but it also doesn’t have to be rocket science either. Let’s put it into perspective and help you create your first product in the following steps.
The first is to determine the marketplace you can provide a solution for. Check.
Next you need to figure out a way to systematize the results. This is typically done through creating modules, chapters, weekly trainings or sections to your product.
Just like this blog post is broken down into subheadlines, your product needs to do the same. This is called creating a framework. Check out a few highly successful books and educational courses below:
- The 7 Habits Of Highly Successful People (7 habits, 7 lessons, seems fair enough)
- The 4 Hour Workweek (a framework teaching you how to make better use of your time)
- Product Launch Formula (highly successful Internet Marketing product created around an 8 week program to help you launch a product)
- Even Brooke has a free eBook and followup multi part eCourse that helps you get closer to breaking free
How can you position your own frame work to create a successful product and give your marketplace the desired results?
Once you have this pinpointed you can start looking into:
- The format of your materials (eBook, audio, video, live, DVD, CD, etc)
- Your sales sequence (pre-launch, sales page, sales copy)
- The price range for your products (start by looking at competitors)
- The technology (payment processors, data collection, content delivery, affiliates)
- The marketing and promotion (you do want to sell your product, right?)
Now, Get To Work
In order to break free from whatever is holding you back, you cannot let things get in the way of creating your ideal lifestyle. Building a product is a lot of work, but it’s a heck of a lot of fun when you see people getting results from it (and your bank account growing). Let’s not make this sound easy and push button, becait’s its not. But once you set it up, overcome adversity and find something where you can truly add value into, it can be the income driving factor that finally allows you to escape and create the experiences you want for your life.
What barriers are stopping you from creating your first project?
Let’s talk and help each other out in the comments below.
This post was written by Greg Rollett from Radically Ambitious, an Internet Marketing and Lifestyle Creation company.
