Dirty Little Secrets 3 - The Rule
May 6, 2008
In the third part of this series on writing an ebook or information product, I think it is important to mention “the rule”. And if you’re serious about writing an information product, this is the one rule you should never break. And it’s a simple one: Never ever write an information product that doesn’t work.
If you are promoting a “how to guide” it has to do what it says on the packet. And it should work for anyone who is willing to put your advice into practise. This may seem like common sense, but not everyone follows the rule, which is why there’s so many crummy information products on the Internet.
If There’s So Much Crap Out There, Why Do People Buy Electronic Information Products?
Despite the crap - there’s also some good info products. And they’re often far more up to date than what you’d find in a real book, simply because of the length of time that it takes to get a traditionally published book on the shelves.
Also, you can keep an information product shorter and give the reader only the information they’re actually looking for.
For example, in The Dirty Little Secrets Of An Informer, I explained how I wrote and sold a guide on how to save money on niche travel. The guide showed specific ways to save hundreds of dollars on hotel rooms within Walt Disney World (Disney owned property).
It was short but there was a huge market for the information. And it worked - I’d tested every single method myself. But just in case the information failed for anyone who bought it, I included a guarantee which entitled readers to their money back.
So How Do You Know That Other People Will Like What Your Product?
This is tough part. Just because you think your information product is great and it really worked for you, doesn’t mean that other people are going to like it. So you need to test it before you try to sell it to the masses. You could send it out to those who have websites in your niche, or ask friends or family to read it. I don’t recommend doing this - they may tell you it’s good so they don’t hurt your feelings. You really need to test it on people who would be willing to buy it.
To test the product mentioned above, I sold a handful of copies on Ebay and another auction site. And I didn’t wait for buyers to leave feedback, I emailed them straight after the transaction to ensure they were happy with the product and remind them that there was a money back guarantee. Their positive feedback gave me the confidence to market my product to a wider audience.
If The Product Is Short - Will People Actually Want It?
They will, so long as you tell them how short the product is up front and exactly what it will do for them. My product saved readers hundreds of dollars and they seemed happy enough with that. I could have padded it out with lots of additional information, but they weren’t buying it for extra info, they were buying it to save money. Besides, I gave additional info away for free to help me sell the product. If you’d like to know how to do this, click here to subscribe in a reader (it’s free), so you don’t miss the next article in this series.
If you’re interested in writing and selling an ebook or information product, check out The Dirty Little Secrets of an Informer and Dirty Little Secrets 2 - The Investigation also.
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10 Responses to “Dirty Little Secrets 3 - The Rule”
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Excellent article. As an author over over 20 ebooks myself, another Golden Rule I always follow is, make it as user-friendly as possible by including active links for the sites to which you refer (I remember when Adobe didn’t actively hyperlink URLs when it created PDF files - agony).
Point and click works far better than “read and then manually type out the URL”. Technology has come a long way.
Enjoy,
Barbara
Barbara Ling’s last blog post..Dumber Than Dirt - Tell me you do NOT do the following to your customers.
Great stuff as usual, Cath. “And it should work for anyone who is willing to put your advice into practise” got me thinking.
Sometimes my fears about creating products or posts are that I won’t have all the answers. But an ebook or a post doesn’t have to be about every possible answer. Just about how to get it done and one method of doing so that really works. Numerous PF gurus have their own methods of getting people out of debt. Almost all of them work, but sometimes the differences are paralyzing. But since they work, people just need to pick the one that they feel most comfortable with and go for it.
Hmm…this may be inspiration for a post too. Thanks!
Hi Barbara - Thanks. That is a great point. It’s far easier if you can click through as opposed to just typing. 20 ebooks is an impressive amount by the way.
Hi Mrs M - I hope it helped. I know you will have some excellent personal finance info to share. And it will be far easier if you just focus on the one thing. I wasted quite a bit of time earlier this year and wrote 30,000 words of info before I realised that it would be far better broken down into seperate chunks. Sometimes it’s easy to forget what worked before.
Cath, I love the idea of testing on eBay. I’m working on an informational product (more of a slideshow presentation than eBook) and like the idea of testing on eBay to get real feedback.
When someone actually pays for it, I think the feedback would be more accurate than if you give someone a free copy.
Thanks for this series!
Hi Catherine,
This is becoming a powerful series. It’s like a free e-book on how to write an e-book.
I like how you stressed the importance of testing “it”, prior to releasing it to the public. I think that’s so important. Sell one bad product, and soon your reputation will become damaged.
I also agree that e-books can be more up-to-date than traditional books. Depending on the topic, instant access to the information is vital.
I’m enjoying this great series. It’s credible, as you’ve done it, and were successful.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Barbara Swafford’s last blog post..NBOTW Will Set You On Fire
Cath,
Testing on eBay is a great idea. With their masses, you can easily find out if there is demand for what you consider as a great product to sell.
Shilpan
Shilpan | successsoul.com’s last blog post..Another Guest Post: 6 Ways to Attract Negative Vibes and Responses
Hi Sterling - it sounds interesting. I’m looking forward to reading it. Ebay really worked for my testing and another auction site - qxl, or something like that - don’t know if it’s still around. Main thing is to choose the right category, where people are looking for what you’re offering and so it will stand out.
Hi Barbara- the testing is really important - the downside to electronic products is that you don’t have an agent or an editor to tell you whether it’s any good.
The main thing to remember is that not everyone will like it - you just want the general consensus. I had two people, in all the time I sold it that didn’t like it - they gave me their reasons and it seemed they hadn’t understood what they were buying, so I just refunded them.
Hi Shilpan - I only did a small test on auction sites. But ebay is so huge now, that if there was a big demand on there, it might even be worth continuing to use it as a place to market your product after you’ve done the test.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Dirty Little Secrets 3 - The Rule
Hi Cath,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and experience! I’m always looking for ways to improve myself and I’m glad to have found your blog. Thank you for sharing with us.
Cheers,
Roy
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