From Idea to Info Product in 30 Days or Less
There is a wide array of business models anyone can choose to pursue as an online entrepreneur. Some people weigh their decision of which direction to go based on the speed with which they can earn money.
When they start analyzing the info product creation possibility, they often mistakenly believe it takes months (or even longer) to create and launch a product of their own. But the truth is, this is not only one of the fastest routes to earnings, but a very lucrative option due to the fact that you have an army of affiliates supporting you.
Info product development is not only easy, but you can do it in a very short amount of time. As you gain experience, you might get to a point where you can brainstorm, create and launch a product in 24 hours, as many seasoned vendors are capable of doing.
However, it’s typically something that marketers do in about a month or less, so below, you’re going to see how that process unfolds. You might adjust the tasks based on how much time you have to devote to the process and if your skills are at a point where you can easily do more than what’s listed.
Day 1: Conduct a Deep Dive Into Your Niche Topic
If you're going to be launching information products, you have to know what information needs to be discussed about your niche. With Internet marketing, some people select a niche based on profitability, even if they may not know the topic very well.
Others may assume they know a topic fairly well, but they only know it from their own perspective and not from that of a general audience. On the very first day, you want to take a deep dive into your niche topic to see what all needs to be taught to the audience.
For example, if you decided to write an info product for the golf niche, you might be thinking of it from your own perspective as someone who needs help eliminating a slice from their swing.
However, what you may not know is that many individuals suffer from a mental interruption that can transform into a physical problem known as the yips. If you hadn't done your research, and you didn't suffer from this common issue for golfers, you wouldn't know that it's a topic your audience is looking for.
Therefore, whether you know your topic inside and out or not, you want to spend the day digging into it from all angles. As you uncover new issues, you can add them to your list of future info products that you hope to develop for your entire line.
Day 2: Perform a Target Audience Analysis
Just as you need to look at the topic from different perspectives, you also need to do the same with your target audience. You may think you know all there is to understand about who will be buying your products, but there's always more underneath the surface.
The first thing you want to do is define your basic target audience. It might be something very specific, such as women over 40 who need to lose weight. Or it could be parents who are hoping to potty train their toddler.
But you're not just looking for demographics when you're engaging in this particular day’s task. You're also looking for what their needs are. For example, the parent helping to train their toddler to use the potty is not just doing it because it's time, but because they are experiencing frustration and having to keep their child in pull-ups or diapers.
There may even be an issue where they are unable to put them in a daycare facility until they are potty trained. Unless you spend some time looking at the needs, wants, and problems of your target audience, you won't know how to slanted and present it to your prospective buyers.
Day 3: Engage in Some Competitive Research
Today, you're going to take a look at what the competition has been doing in your niche so that you can gain some information to use to your advantage. Sometimes, when you're conducting research about competitors’ products, you will discover something that you hadn't realized you needed to do in your own launch process.
Other times, you'll spot some sort of inadequacies with your competitor’s products, and you'll know that you can step up and serve your audience in a way that is currently missing from the marketplace.
Using the potty training example, you may discover that no one else is currently using some sort of incentive based option where the child has something similar to a chore sheet, where they earn points and can claim some sort of prize for doing what their parents ask.
Day 4: Go Through the Idea Generation Process
On day four, you are going to begin brainstorming a bunch of ideas or your own info product. Using all of the information you have gathered on days 1-3, you should be able to create a list of possible slants for your product that will do well with your demographic.
Remember that you also want to tap into your own expertise because you will be the leader conveying this information to your audience. Take time to map out many different ideas, and even combine some of the approaches.
For example, in golf, you might be able to create a product about eliminating the yips to improve your short game. Be sure to take an approach with your list that allows you to go broad or narrow with your product slants until you feel like you find the best one to start with.
Day 5: Evaluate and Validate Your Final Idea
Today, you need to make a decision about which one you want to start with and see if there is going to be a high enough demand in the marketplace for that topic. This is a day where you will be researching to see what kind of interest there is in that topic.
But you will also be validating your choice by looking at the profit potential for your chosen idea. At this time, make sure that your info product slant is in line with what your target audience wants, and if it's not, return to the process of day two to find out who would be most likely to purchase the product you have decided on so that you can ensure that it meets with the right style and tone for those readers.
Day 6: Outline Your Info Product Completely
On day six, you want to take your idea and flesh it out in full so that you have a complete outline to work from. This is going to help you quicken the process of info product development significantly.
Start with a basic outline to ensure that you are covering everything that needs to be covered in this one info product. Then, take your primary outline and outline each of the subheadings or chapters within it, making sure that there's no overlap in topics that will make it seem repetitive.
Day 7: Make Decisions and Plans for Your Media Approach
Most people create info products that are eBooks. These are easy to download and consume, but they’re not your only option. You may want to create a video course instead.
In fact, some marketers even deliver courses as a drip-fed email series, with a new lesson being delivered as promised, once a day. Consider both your slant and the intended audience when making your decision.
For example, some people may not prefer watching videos. But if you’re teaching people how to install a WordPress blog, it may help to see the steps in action as someone else is going through them.
You also have the ability to create a hybrid info product. You can have something like a “how to create a niche blog” info product, but the exact part about installation and set up might be a video while the rest (such as strategy and content) is in text.
Day 8: Begin the Content Creation Process
Today, the fun begins! It's the day you will actually start creating your content for your info product. From this day on, you will be working on the product until it is complete as you do other tasks in the mean time.
You don't want to focus so much on the length of your info product as you do on the inherent value it provides to your readers. There have been five page reports that are packed with more value than some 100 page info products.
Your goal should be to make sure that you are teaching what you promised to teach in a comprehensive manner so that everyone can follow along and implement your instructions themselves.
Go through and follow your outline that you previously created as your guide or blueprint to the process. Make sure you are not plagiarizing anyone else or even simply stealing their ideas to use as your own, because those who are interested in this topic will likely have already purchased from those other marketers and they're looking for a unique perspective from you.
Day 9: Make Brand Design Decisions for Your Product
Today, as you continue working on your info product, you want to make some branding design decisions about how it will be represented in the marketplace. You're going to need some sort of eCover or info product graphic representation.
You want to think in terms of what type of concept do you want it to convey, what color palette you want to use, and even how you want the typography to appear in your branding.
If you are well versed in graphic design, you may want to create these elements yourself. But if you only know how to put together an amateur version of a mock up, you can take that and hand it off to a professional freelance graphic designer to create your branding elements for you.
Day 10: Decide on an Upsell for Your Funnel to Maximize Earnings
On day 10, even though you're still working on the main product, you want to make some decisions about an upsell that can go in your funnel. Some people have time to do more than one upsell.
As the months and years go on, you can take existing products from your line and use those as one or more of your upsell offers. But if you are brand new and don't have anything to choose from, you'll have to make them from scratch.
Keep in mind that many affiliates are going to be looking for a funnel of upsells so that they can increase their earnings. Many of them don't like to promote product launches that only have a low ticket front end item.
Day 11: Get Your Pricing Strategy in Place
Today, continue working on your info product development, but make sure you have your pricing decisions ironed out. If you have a front end and one or more upsells, you'll need to have the pricing decided for each level.
When you are bringing affiliates on board, they're going to be looking at the pricing structure to see if it is worth promoting when they are getting 50% of the sale. If you price things too low, such as $7.00, you'll either want to have a significant funnel of upsells to make up for it or give the affiliates 100% of the commission for the front end sales that they make.
Pricing for info products can range from $7 to $97 or more. Usually, they are launched anywhere from $17 to $47 for the front end and it grows exponentially as the customer goes through the funnel of offers.
Day 12: Make Sure Your Payment Processors Are Set Up for a Launch
If you're new to selling products online, you may have to go through the process of getting your payment processor set up. Most people use tools like PayPal and Stripe to sell their info products.
This gives the customer options when they are checking out. However, you may not be new to the entire process and already have those in place. You may want to contact them to let them know you could have a surge in sales coming up.
This is especially helpful if you have never really used your payment processors very much to date, and you plan to recruit many affiliates who will send a lot of sales. The last thing you want is to have your account shut down because of suspicious activity if too much money comes in all at once.
Day 13: Write and Design Your Sales Page(s)
On this day, even if you don't have your info product finished yet, you know what's going to go in it. So you can go ahead and begin writing and designing your sales page. If you aren't adept at writing sales copy, go ahead and look at some examples of effective copy online so that you can learn how it's done, without copying it.
You can follow the principles in AIDA – Attention, Interest, Desire, Action. This helps you walk the reader through the buying decision process by grabbing their attention with a solid headline, using storyline and bulletpoint benefits to create interest, using persuasion to create desire, and scarcity with a call to action at the end.
At this time, if you want to, you can create your own sales page graphics to match your product or outsource it to someone else to do for you. You want the entire page to flow seamlessly.
Day 14: List Your Main Product and Upsell on a Platform of Your Choice
Today, even if you don't have your info product finished in full, you can go ahead and get set up on whatever platform you plan to sell it on. Some people like to sell through their own platform and affiliate program, such as using Thrivecart or AMember.
Others like to use a third party platform such as ClickBank, Warrior Plus, or JVZoo where there is a built-in base of affiliates who can find and request to promote your product for you.
Whichever platform you decide to work with, you need to learn how the system works. For example, on Warrior Plus, you will create a product for each item in your funnel and then connect them with a single offer.
Day 15: Create a Joint Venture Page for Affiliates
Today, you'll be creating your joint venture (JV) page. This is a page where affiliates can go to learn all of the details about your upcoming launch and click on a link that will take them to whatever platform you are listing it on so that they can get their own unique affiliate link.
Your joint venture page will be the place where they have access to the dates and times of your launch, details about how the funnel unfolds, such as their price points and commissions, and what's in each part of the funnel.
You can also put a demo or snippet of your info product so that they can see the quality of it. You also want to have a way for affiliates to reach out and contact you in case they have a question or if they need a review copy.
Day 16: Add Promotional Materials to the Affiliate Toolbox
Today, you can work on enticing affiliates to sign up with some ready made promo materials that you can include on your JV page. This is often known as affiliate toolbox, and it typically includes things like banners and swipe file emails.
Sometimes, affiliates will go the extra mile and give people some bonus material that they can use to give their list. These can include anything from a checklist to a cheat sheet or short report.
When you are creating your swipe file emails, you might have more than one for people to choose from. For example, they may want one for each day of the launch, and they may want some that are short teasers and others that are long and detailed.
Day 17: Set Up a Contest for Your Affiliates Who Promote
On this day, you’re Going to make a decision about hosting a contest for your launch. It’s up to you and not everyone does it, but those who do have a contest may see more engagement from affiliates.
The contest doesn’t have to deliver huge amounts of money. But you can offer anything from $100-$1,500 for first place and have 2nd-5th or even more if you wish. Make sure you have limitations set.
You don’t know how many sales will come in and your goal is to earn money and build a list from the launch. You don’t want to be unable to pay winnings, so make sure you have limits on the number sold in order to win the prize levels.
Then, whenever sales start coming in, set aside prizes first before taking and spending any of the additional revenue generated from your product launch. That way you’ll be able to pay the winners immediately when the sale ends.
Day 18: Decide on Some Strategic Built-In Bonuses
This isn’t mandatory, but it’s a nice touch for both consumers to notice and affiliates to point out to their prospective buyers. Having built-in bonuses is something that gives added value to your launch.
Whenever the buyer reaches the end of your sales page, if they’re teetering on the edge of buying, a built-in bonus or two can send them over the edge in making a purchasing decision in your favor.
These can be things you have a right to resell, such as resell PLR (private label rights) products – or tools that you’ve purchased with the ability to resell or gift to others, too. You might even create a checklist or cheat sheet to pair with the product.
Day 19: Create a Few Custom Bonuses for Top Tier Affiliates
From a strategic standpoint, you need to court the top tier affiliates with some added incentive. You don’t want to wait and hope people sign on to promote your launch. Instead, you need to identify the top players in your niche and reach out to them.
One way to get them onboard is to create a custom bonus that other affiliates won’t have. These don’t have to be massive, but a free short report can go the extra mile in helping you bring someone onboard who appreciates the effort you’ve gone to in order to provide added value for their buyers.
Day 20: Evaluate the Finished Product for Quality and Consistency
You should be wrapping up the process of creating your info product at this time. Today, you need to go through it and look for things like quality and consistency. Look at it through the eyes of your buyers.
You can run it through a tool like Grammarly to check for problems with typos or spelling. You may also want to check for a consistent tone – especially if you outsourced any part of it.
Some marketers like to proofread it or have an online tool read the product outline to ensure that it makes sense. You may find areas that you need to expand upon in order for them to have the kind of clarity you want to give your buyers.
Day 21: Recruit Affiliates for Your Upcoming Launch
Today you’re going to take your JV page, your product and bonuses and get to work recruiting the right people for your launch. Notice the emphasis on right people? That’s because you don’t want the wrong affiliates promoting for you.
If you cast too wide of a net and ask anyone and everyone to promote, if their list isn’t a good fit, conversions will be very low. That means when affiliates look up your product, they’ll see those low conversions and not want to waste a promotion on it – even if their list is a good fit!
When you approach the best affiliates, offer the review copy without them having to ask for it. Tell them why you think it’s a good match for their list. Give some details about the product and launch and share a link to the JV page.
For those who you really want to join the launch, send the exclusive bonuses you creates for them to use and make sure they know it’s not being done for others. If you want to offer any other perks, like a bump in commission or a spot for a banner on your download page, you can do that.
Day 22: Create the Upsell Item for Your Launch Funnel
Today, you're going to create the upsell item(s) for your launch panel. This may be something you can get done in a day. However, if you're doing another complete product, you may need to take several days in order to finish it up.
The key to having a successful funnel of upsells is to look at what will complement your original front end product. For example, if you are teaching people how to set up a blog for Internet marketing, one of your upsells might be a course about how to write blog content.
Or, it could be a done for you bundle of readymade content that they can use with private label rights so that they can edit it and use it as their own creation. Some people even like to put a service in their upsell offer, such as the service to install WordPress and publish the content for them.
Day 23: Start a Pre-Launch Buzz for Your Product
Now, you are approximately a week away from your launch, so you want to start building a buzz that gets people ready for it. You want them to start setting aside money for it, and asking affiliates if they will be promoting it and if so, if they have a bonus.
This is something consumers often do ahead of time, engaging in a little bit of bonus shopping so that they know who they want to buy from on launch day. It also helps get more affiliates onboard, whenever people come to them asking if they'll be promoting something because they can be guaranteed of a sale.
You can create a buzz for your launch by emailing your list, by giving affiliates a script that helps them build a buzz for the launch, and by posting to your blog as well as on social media platforms.
Day 24: Connect Your Buying Process to Your Autoresponder
On day 24, you're going to make sure you have your platform where you are selling your product connected to your email autoresponder system. If you are using Warrior Plus, for example, you can do this in the product area for your front end.
You will choose which autoresponder system you use, and then from there which list you want to add these individuals to. This is perfect if you are segmenting your list so that you can cater to their needs later.
It's very important that you do this step because you will be able to build an instant list of buyers simply by allowing affiliates to send their subscribers to your offer, and converting them into sales.
Day 25: Write the Welcome Email to Retain New Customers as Subscribers
Today, go ahead and write the welcome email that new buyers will see whenever they are opting into your list. These are not people who went to a landing page with a free lead magnet, but rather those who purchased your product.
Therefore, you want some sort of welcome email that reemphasizes the value that they're going to receive in your product. You can also incentivize them to remain on your list rather than unsubscribe immediately after they get their download by using some sort of unexpected bonus or promise to provide value in some other way in the coming days.
Day 26: Conduct a Test of the System to Ensure Everything Works Properly
When everything is set up on the platform that you are using as well as with your autoresponder system, you want to run a test purchase to see if everything is connected properly.
On most platforms, they have a system in place for you to be able to set the price to $0.01 as you go through the process. You'll be going to the sales letter and clicking on the buy button, making sure that your payment processor works properly and that you are delivered to the download page for to the platform’s download area.
You also want to make sure that you are sent a confirmation email asking if you want to join the list after the purchase. Make sure that every step is in working order, including being able to download the product and open it easily.
Day 27: Set Up a Customer Service Process for Problems and Questions
Before everything is completed, you want to have a system in place for providing customer service to your buyers. Some people like to have a help desk where tickets are opened and the vendor then sorts through them in order of priority.
You want to make sure you have more than one system operational, whether that means they can contact you direct via email or contact form on your site, or message you on a social media platform.
You don’t want a form of communication to fail where they then find themselves unable to reach you because that can result in negative feedback just because your systems weren’t functioning.
Day 28: Launch Your Product to Your Audience and Communicate with Affiliates
You are now ready to launch your product on day 28. On launch day, you want to hype up your product launch on social media as well as on your blog and to your list. But you also want to communicate with affiliate to keep them pumped up about the launch as well.
Make sure you announce the night before as well as the morning of the launch and when it comes to affiliates, keep them informed about the leaderboard status if you have a contest going.
Many people like to be tagged and praised for their performance as an affiliate on social media, because it makes them look good with other vendors who will then provide them with perks and opportunities to promote that others won't get.
Day 29: Consider Your Ability to Scale Your Info Product Business
With your launch underway, you're going to spend day 29 looking at how you can scale this business into something more. You have to think of what your next info product topic will be.
You may find that you want to add on a different topic, a related niche, or even a different business model. This will happen as you become more comfortable with the niche topic and the launch process.
For example, you may find that many people are willing to pay a high ticket coaching fee if you will give them one-on-one advice or even in a small group setting. This would be adding on a different business model to scale your profits from the original info product.
But you may find that your audience is giving you feedback that they want a topic that is complementary to the one that you just launched. Anything that can be tied in together easily would be a good companion product to go with in the future.
Day 30: Promote the Upsell to Those Who Only Purchased the Front End
You want to take time after the beginning of the launch process to keep the momentum going. Because you have segmented your list, you should be able to contact anyone who simply purchased the front end product and present them with the opportunity to buy the upsell.
In fact, if you have a list of subscribers who may or may not have purchased your product at all, you can still promote the benefits of getting the upsell, while linking to the front end product first.
It's time now to implement a post launch marketing strategy that will serve you well in continuing with your business success. At this time, you want to make an announcement about your next, upcoming launch.
This gives consumers something to look forward to and it gives your affiliate something to plan for, especially if they had good success in the first launch. They may want to work on a bonus that can help them get even more sales, which will increase your profits.
When the launch is complete, you want to make sure that you immediately pay your affiliates who have won money in your prize contest. You also want to take time to go over any feedback that you received from your buyers and affiliates to make sure everything ran smoothly and if not, to be able to fix it in the future.
Take a look at your analytics to see where people dropped off of your page, if you had the ability to use retargeting for cart abandonment, and other elements that could help you make decisions with your upcoming launches.
It doesn't take much to create and launch an info product, if you have the steps laid out in front of you, as you do above. As you go through the process more than once, you will be able to continue as a leading info product vendor in your niche.
Don't be scared to develop your own process where are these steps unfold in a different order. Each individual marketer has their own personal preferences for the order in which things are done, and you may come up with different tasks that slightly deviate from what's been laid out for you.
The only thing you don’t want to do is lose momentum and find yourself hesitating to do it again because right now, all eyes are on you with customers and affiliates eagerly awaiting your next product announcement.