One of the critical moments of an entrepreneur comes when one has to choose the business model to follow or which are the related business models to be connected to produce more profit. Whether you have an Internet Business or not, today you have the opportunity to increase your visibility with an Information Business.
I have been doing this for over 10 years during which I not only developed 4 Business Online based on my experiences and passions, but I also created more than 50 niche business with my partners and my clients.
Even today, people are so confused about the topic “Information Business” and today I want to solve this problem once and for all and give you the information you need to understand if it can be a viable route for you.
What the heck is an Information Business?
First of all a bit of clarity.
Here the problem starts from the name that people give to this business.
Some call it “Information Marketing”, others “Information Business” others “sale of digital information products” others still “sale of infoproduct” not to mention those who enclose everything in “Content Marketing”.
One thing is certain everyone attributes a name to it as he pleases, for example I have always liked to call it InfoBusiness, in my opinion the most suitable and that can immediately convey the concept of what it really is.
An Information Business is simply a business based on sharing your experiences and passions, gained over time in a certain area.
In the world there is always someone who needs certain information, certain paths that only an expert knows how to set.
Well these “educational” products have taken hold over the past 12 years in a crazy way, bringing people training to be pocket-sized and accessible for anyone from anywhere.
In the end there is nothing new … years ago DVD courses were very popular and could be purchased on newsstands by subscription as well as the construction of a ship or a dinosaur skeleton. Remember?
The concept in the end is that, the only substantial variable is that usually we prefer to share educational material in digital format, therefore without creating any physical product and making it accessible via the internet.
Nowadays the creation of digital information products is widespread and from some time portals like Udemy (which obtained 80 million dollars from investors since May 2014) were born where you can share your knowledge by selling video courses.
Unfortunately, it was difficult to adapt to this change, I was still receiving questions like “When you send me the course?” “But today it seems that people have understood the concept of digital and the benefits of studying comfortably in front of the PC.”
The creation of a digital information product is very simple, we have the most common formats such as eBooks (pdf files) or video courses (mp4 videos) to create complete mind map courses, interactive quizzes, summary checklists, audio courses and much more.
The educational material is purchased by credit card (receive payment via PayPal) and immediately after the customer accesses the course by downloading the files on the PC or accessing a private area of the site.
6 sensational advantages of an Information Business
Even if it seems exaggerated, having an Information Business means being free.
Internet is information. An InfoBusiness is high-level information. Information is freedom. And freedom scares the media, the main tools that governments and politics use to gain control.
Whether you are a new entrepreneur in search of his way or a mature salesman looking for new opportunities to connect to his primary business, an InfoBusiness can bring advantages that unfortunately it is not easy to assimilate.
1) Multiply yourself
If you are a consultant and a professional, it is easy to understand this concept. Your income is derived from selling your services, whether they are paid by the hour or finished work, in the end, you are paid for the time you spend to produce something.
If you stop, no one pays you.
And as you well know, even if you have employees, your presence is irreplaceable.
With an InfoBusiness, you create a product once and you’re done. Even if it takes time to create that product, you can sell it to many people even for years, without further work.
This is why an InfoBusiness is unique. Because it allows you to make money like no other business is able to do today.
And then, the information needed to create a training course is already inside your brain! You don’t need to pay other experts or spend money to fill the warehouse.
An Information Business allows you to take what you already have, to have it exploited and combined with the internet, to make it available 24/7, 365 days a year, even if you’re sleeping or you’re on vacation.
The best way to multiply yourself.
2) Recurring customers
The teachers (Info Marketer) are highly esteemed. This happens because human nature is so thankful when someone gives us useful information. Even if you don’t realize it, you too are strongly inclined to value someone who shares important information, think again.
People are like that, they give immense value even unconsciously to information.
And on the internet when you get this estimate, this gratitude, you have practically won!
People will continue to buy your infoproduct and in the event that your business is another, there is no better way to show people how good you are at what you do, advice and quotes will flaunt like never before.
In a nutshell, whether you are focusing exclusively on selling digital information products or supporting your primary business, your course clients will be very keen on continuing to use you.
3) Few breaks, more free time
One of the most beautiful things about an information business is that it can be 100% automated.
Moreover, nobody will ask you to “physically” see your product, to explain it to yourself or to engage as if it were a normal consultation, in a nutshell less breakages than …
And do we want to talk about the workplace? You can safely work from anywhere you want, from the beach from the mountain chalet, lying on the couch, everywhere!
All this not only gives you more free time, but allows you to focus on what needs to be done to produce more profit.
4) Act alone
An Infobusiness, also thanks to its automation, needs very little staff to get it started and run. You don’t need x employees to launch your InfoBusiness, indeed. Most info marketers work alone and hire freelancers for technical jobs or other jobs that take more time.
And I personally know many info marketers who work alone or have only one employee and who also earn 1 million dollars a year.
Many have chosen to learn to do a little bit of everything, I myself have started like this, without even investing in designers and engineers, but as you can imagine, it takes more time to do everything by yourself, even if it’s absolutely possible.
5) Paltry investment
An Infobusiness requires a low investment to start.
It doesn’t ask you to rent a nice office, to hire a secretary, to invest in a certain amount of goods and above all he doesn’t ask you to have a certain type of education or degree (in most cases).
You just need your skills and your experience, a hosting plus the domain for 50 dollars or if you want ready meals, a couple of thousands of dollars to get you an ultra-professional website and of course a small fee for your autoresponder.
However the road you want to take the biggest investment will represent the time (or money) that you will have to use to gain visibility on the web but … myself, in the last 5 years, I have invested less than it would take to open a franchised shop (with all the unknowns involved) and believe me, I don’t mean only economically.
A business that requires low investment means little risk and today I challenge anyone to find a business that requires as little risk as InfoBusiness.
6) Pure profit
If you sell a video course for 100 dollars, you just have to take away the taxes, the rest is pure profit.
If you still don’t know, there are companies nowadays (e.g. Apple) that have to invest 4/5 of the turnover to go on.
For a small entrepreneur this is very risky. A single month would be enough to close the cabin. An InfoBusiness instead brings pure profit and no, you can’t calculate the four money you spend on a hosting, it would be pathetic.
Furthermore, the potential of an InfoBusiness is unlimited.
There are cases where an Info marketer becomes a multi-millionaire, but I don’t think this is so common that in itself is already a niche …
Apart from the millionaires, I have an endless list of living around the world, selling infoproducts and earning 50 to 300 thousand dollars a year.
Put the “get rich right away”
This is an article that talks about the advantages of an InfoBusiness so it is normal to get up to here and see everything rosy but please do not do like the classic that as soon as the law of people working online think of fraud or people of little value.
If a person has 30 years of experience, he is a reliable person, but if this same person starts selling the same experience on the internet, he becomes a scammer.
I wonder: From what twisted mind can such a thought ever come out?
No need to create an InfoBusiness to scam people, everyone can do it, it’s very easy. And if a non-competent person proposes himself as an expert, it is not a problem, natural selection also takes place on the internet!
The hard part is achieving success and showing people that you are the professional you are. From my point of view, it is easy to take out your wallet and open a small shop. Simple right?
But the music changes if we have to give the best of ourselves to give value to an audience, if we have to show that we have the necessary experience to teach others.
And you believe one that this job has been doing for a while, it is priceless to be able to work from home or anywhere you want and have the technology that works for you 24 out of 24. This is worth any effort.
If you have reached a certain point in your career where, for some reason you are not satisfied with what you have collected (if you have collected), then you should seriously consider creating your own InfoBusiness.
5 steps to start your Information Business NOW
I’ve already written a lot but I don’t want to leave you in the most beautiful bello.
I want to share with you a series of steps to follow in order to start immediately with your InfoBusiness, although of course you will have to go deeper into the topic, each step will require some work on its own but you can certainly take this guide as a reference point.
1) Analyze the market (and find the niche)
Whatever your skills, there may not be enough market to create an entire business.
I am of the opinion that any information can be shared and sold on the web, there will always be someone who will appreciate our work but the problem is precisely the number of these people who will be interested in our experience.
If, on the other hand, your market is enormous (as often happens), it will be necessary to better analyze the topics and find a niche that will give us the chance to succeed in a more specific and more hungry field of information (specific).
The first thing to do is obviously to do some research, use SEMrush (in the free version), the Google keyword planner, BuzzSumo, Topsy and Amazon to understand how many people search the net and sell “stuff” around a certain market or niche.
With this data in hand, it will be easier to understand if you have a good market to serve.
It is not easy to give estimates of which numbers are good or not but to make you better understand how to evaluate a niche, if a series of keywords are searched 2000 times a month, we are talking about a micro-niche and it will be almost a gamble to create a business around such a small market.
At the same time, however, it could be a gold mine because the smaller the market, the easier it will be to gain visibility and, consequently, it will be easier to sell a certain product.
Once you have the data in hand, the next step will be the search for potential competitors and consequently, the study of his moves to better understand how to act in the market.
2) Identify the problem or need
The preliminary phase is not over yet. After understanding if the market is interesting enough to investigate, we need to identify a problem or a need.
This is a fundamental step, even if you are the most experienced expert in the world no one will want to buy your infoproducts if they do not solve a certain problem or do not satisfy a specific need.
The good news is that we often already know the answer. If we have experienced the market in other ways or managed to find a specific request for a problem in the first step, we are on horseback, this step is practically solved.
If not, let us rely on Yahoo Answers or Quora to understand what the users’ questions are and consequently their needs and problems.
If you find nothing in these two places, it’s time to turn to Facebook.
Create a SurveyMonkey survey and create a Facebook Ads campaign on your specific target. Spending less than 50 dollars you will have all the answers you need.
3) Create your product
Good! You have identified the market or the niche, you have managed to point to a problem or a need and now … all that remains is to give light to your work!
First you need to create a mind map of the course, in order to organize it in different modules (chapters) and sections. To do this use Xmind.
Then proceed with writing your eBook or recording your video course.
If you don’t know how to record videos, use Power Point and Camtasia.
Once ready (it certainly doesn’t happen overnight) analyze your work and decide which parts to give to the public.
You have to do this for two reasons …
- To prove who you are and what you have a say in the matter
- To collect subscribers and start an email marketing strategy
Making these extracts free will serve to whet people’s curiosity and get closer to your brand.
4) Create your site + Landing page
As mentioned before, there are parts of an InfoBusiness that could be really difficult to overcome, some patiently study and study before launching their own InfoBusiness.
This fourth step represents an obstacle for many. If you don’t know how to create a professional website and don’t want to go crazy with a thousand left and right tutorials, you might consider going to an agency to commission the work.
Otherwise, don’t worry, it’s certainly not a walk but you don’t even have to become an engineer to build your own site.
With WordPress, you have the possibility to create a site in a few hours, without investing a penny except for a few dollars for hosting and domain.
With WordPress, you can create super professional sites, very current and above all easy to navigate.
Most marketers know WordPress as its own pockets because it is the easiest tool to learn and with a wide choice of features such as OptimizePress, an additional application to build your Landing Pages and your Squeeze Pages.
If you want a quick and practical solution to learn how to start your blog and bring it to success, take a look at this page.
Today “creating a site” means little or nothing.
What you need is …
- 4 pages (homepage, page who they are, contacts and blog)
- A landing page
- A squeeze page (integrated with your autoresponder)
All the rest, for your beginning, is superfluous.
5) Show who you are
At this point, you only have to promote your business.
Your goal? Become a benchmark in the market.
How you do it?!?
First, roll up your sleeves. If you think you’ve worked hard until step 4, prepare yourself because you haven’t seen anything yet.
The place where you have to spend most of your time is the blog. Write, write, write!
Don’t think about the results and go ahead with blinkers towards creating as much content as you can to pull out of the hat.
Many may advise you to use Pay per Click, but for those who are starting out, this is not the ideal place to sell digital products.
If you are not known, if you do not already have some success behind you, you will hardly get a return on investment, without thinking that PPCs are complex enough tools to understand to spend less than you earn.
And let’s not forget that if you create an Information Business, we work in information, and what could be better than promoting it with the same information?
There may be innovative fashions and software that work for a while, but good content will never go out of fashion , let’s never forget that the internet is information.
Create as many articles as you can and if you feel like it, start posting short videos even on YouTube. If you are constant, you will see that you will begin to receive a large number of visitors in just a few weeks.
Conclusions
Finally, I want you to keep two important concepts in mind before starting your new adventure.
Do the research you feel is appropriate about what I will tell you shortly, you have no idea how important it is:
- Whoever manages to create a successful InfoBusiness is just one type of person: the one who creates content (have you ever heard the phrase “content is the king”?).
- If you create content, there is no escape, sooner or later you will be able to create a profitable Online Business. I would dare to say mathematician.
- YOU are the best marketing expert.
Indeed, there is no “Internet Marketing expert” and there is no one strategy that definitely works better than another does.
What exists are market tests, where each strategy impacts and works differently.
So as your InfoBusiness grows, experiment (!) Because it’s the only way to know the right answers, the answers you need to grow more and more and create your online empire.
If you have doubts or questions to post to me even in the comments! I know very well that it is not easy and there are so many unknowns in your head, so come forward, the necessary push could come from your comment.