That Sells (Part 1)
Whether you are thinking of creating a product or you have created products and are still looking to create more, this brief guide is for you. Just like any other process, it becomes a lot easier when you have a step-by-step plan to follow.
A plan will help you to come up with a product that people will appreciate and happily purchase.
However, we will not cover niche selection as we assume that you have already selected a hungry market for your product. We believe that you can find a lot of information about the process of niche selection with a Google search. Our main focus today is to help you create the best product possible and to help you make the most sales as well as improve your credibility.
To help you relate, we are going to use an eBook as our product in this tutorial. However, the steps involved in making any information product are quite similar.
Here are the important steps to creating a unique and marketable product.
Preparing to Create Your Product
1. Narrow Your Focus
When creating your product, one of the most difficult steps is figuring out what you will create. Most starters fall into the trap of making a product that covers everything about the topic. This leads to the creation of a generic product that doesn’t suit anyone. This is the biggest failure that face most startups, which you should avoid.
That’s why you need to narrow your focus to a very specific product that fulfills the needs of a specific group of people. For instance, instead of how to make money online, which is just too broad, you can narrow down to how to earn money through affiliate marketing.
You could even narrow this further to something like, How to earn money through Amazon affiliate marketing. Now, that will attract very specific customers that are willing to learn how to make money through the Amazon affiliate program and this will make your product highly marketable.
Being too specific will not narrow your market; it will make your book very marketable to both startups and gurus in Amazon affiliate marketing.
2. Position yourself as an expert
The moment you start creating a new product or think about creating a new product, your mind may try to convince you that you are not an expert or you aren?t good enough. You may not be the best expert in your area of specialization, but to your target audience, you are the best.
There may be people who know the topic better than you, but that should never scare you. Even if they are 20 times better than you, you are the expert to your audience. Now you just need to convince them that you know what you are doing.
So, how do you position yourself as an expert, One thing you need to do to boost your knowledge and confidence is to do research. Find out the basics of your field and the advanced skills you need to have so as to fill all the gaps. You need to know more than 97 percent of your target audience.
You don?t need to be among the top ten foremost experts in your field to create a product on it; you just need to be more knowledgeable than most of your audience and be willing to research so as to find the figures, facts, and information you don?t already have.
All this information can be accessed online, which makes your research a lot easier. One thing you need to do is to be keen on your sources; look for credible sources so as to avoid giving false info to your customers.
3. Make an Investment
With the knowledge of the product you want to create in mind, the next step is to take a giant step forward. At this point, you need to take your time to improve your product; so plan to invest most of your efforts into this.
Your motive should be to create an exhaustive guide that covers everything your audience would want to know about that specific field. Therefore, you need to come with a summary of the topics to cover to avoid confusion and getting stalled when creating your product.
Your summary should have chapter headings, topics, and subtopics. If you have videos and pictures to include, make sure to note where you will include them. If you find the order of your chapters not making sense or flowing, you can alter the outline until they make sense. The more effort you put in coming up with a flowing summary, the simpler your entire process will be for you.
Here is a simple outline maker tool that will help you out;
http://www.crlsresearchguide.org/NewOutlineMaker/NewOutlineMakerInput.aspx
If you find yourself getting stuck in coming up with a good summary of the topics and subtopics, just start writing. You already know the product to cover, and all that is needed is to get it down in writing and compile all the chapters in it to make it attractive. Keep rearranging and adding more information until you are completely satisfied.
4. View your product with the eyes of a potential customer
Now that you are through with writing and the compilation of your information product, you need to look at your book with the mind of a potential customer looking for your product. This will help you identify what you missed and what you need to remove.
After this, visit Amazon and find books on your niche. Study their table of contents and look for things that you may have left out.
Fill in these gaps and expand on the sections that need to be expanded. In this step, you are fine tuning your outline so that when you release your product to the market, it will be one of the best guides in your niche.
Keep in mind that this should be your unique product. Therefore, don?t think that you can pick a book on Amazon that has relevant chapters and include the same in your eBook. You need to use your discretion to create a unique product that takes a distinctive approach.
5. Stand out
The internet is full of information products. So, what differentiates your product from the rest, What makes it unique, This is the big question you should be asking yourself when creating a product.
The first answer to this question is that your product should be unique if you have created it from scratch. If you do so, it will be different from the rest because no one else has a mind like yours in the entire universe.
If you want to be one-of-a-kind, your product should convey your distinctness. Your style, your message, and your purpose should come out clearly in your product; whether it is in a video, audio, or written format. Avoid sounding like everyone else, but above all personalize your content so as not to look like a robot.
The best way to personalize your guide is to imagine you are explaining your topic to your friend on a one-on-one basis. You should maintain the same tone you would have used when talking to your friend. If you are funny, then be funny. If you are dramatic, then be dramatic. Whatever character you are in real life, is the same character you should use in creating your product.
Another way you can make your product unique is through its design; your hook, your approach, and your unique selling proposition should reflect who you are. The design should stand out from the rest of the info products.
If we refer back to the previous example we had given when talking about making money online through Amazon affiliate program, your angle in this setting should be how to start from scratch, without any knowledge of affiliates, to becoming a pro in this field.
Choosing your angle is important if you want your product to stand out from the rest and to get the attention that it deserves; therefore spend considerable time coming up with a unique angle.
In this process, also ensure that you are giving your product your unique brand.
6. Pick your time and stick to it
At this juncture, you might be assuming that the challenging part of the product creation process is over since you have everything set, and your product is practically available now. However, you still have a long way to go.
You need to set a specific time when you will work on the remaining part of your product. Sometimes, a good start gives us a false sense of security, and we can tend to relax. At times we keep postponing; maybe I?ll work on editing later today, which becomes tomorrow, which becomes next week, and then maybe never.
That?s why it is important to pick a date and make a schedule on the things you should do. Above all, try to stick to your schedule and avoid distractions sduring this time. Plan your time in advance and tell yourself that. You can also write it down so as to put more emphasis on it.
Inform your family that you won?t be available during that time. And when its time, record your video, write your chapters or do whatever you had scheduled to do.
