Common Mistakes Made When Creating an Information Product

When people purchase information products, it is not because they couldn’t get the information somewhere else for free; in fact, they most likely can. With Google as our guide, the internet is full of billions of websites that offer information at no cost. The problem with this, however, is the number of websites that must be searched through and advertisements dodged in order to find good, solid information.


I have been helping clients,’ (lets refer to them as “experts” in their field) design and market information products for over 10 years. For the most part, they are confused and unsure of how to build a successful, marketable product. Along the way, I guide them through the process and help them avoid making mistakes however, depending on where they are in the process here are the most common mistakes I see:

1) “Experts” worry too much about incomplete content.

If you refuse to start building the product look and components before every “i” is dotted and “t” is crossed, you’ll never get your product to the marketplace. As an expert, you may be constantly tweaking and updating your system or information. Remember “Good is good enough”, Bill Glazer of GKIC will tell you.

The content is indeed the most important thing because that is what is being purchased, but there are also other parts of the project that need to be addressed. As you develop more and more product content, you can continue to add-on to your product and provide it to your clients in the form of updates or continuity. In the beginning, put together as many of your most valuable points so that you are providing the best information to the customer. As time goes on, you can add to it. Remember customer is getting value.

2) Experts don’t put enough energy into marketing because they are too wrapped up in the product.

If a potential customer doesn’t know your information product exists, how can they possibly buy it? Your product may have great information enclosed, but no one will know that if you don’t diligently market it. Your marketing plan need to include a compelling sales letter, a webpage and blog. In addition, you can try marketing techniques from article marketing to internet marketing – just make sure you’re marketing the product!

Tony Robbins, who sells information products related to personal growth development, is a great example of how to build a strong marketing campaign. His website is clean, respectable, and well made. The overall impression presented is of trustworthiness in he way he displays himself and his products.

3) Experts worry too much about the inside and try to perfect the appearance.

Buyers of information are more interested in the content contained inside the product than the appearance – they aren’t paying for pretty graphics or syntax. You could be spending this time increasing awareness about the existence of your product or adding even more useful information. Certainly, make sure the product is readable and organized nicely, but it is not necessary to struggle over the font or other visual elements.

An important note about the appearance of the product is that you must match the cover image or logo with the title name. If the image you use to represent your product and the title of the product don’t match, there will be a huge disconnect and your product will immediately lose validity (and sales).

If you take a look at Paul Meyers’ products including 24 Keys That Bring Complete Success and A Fortune to Share, you’ll notice that both attached images are simple but also reflect what is inside. 24 Keys That Bring Complete Success’s cover has a person holding a key with a label attached that says “Complete Success”. The cover is clever yet easy too look at.

4) No additional marketing and sales information is included within the information product.

If the customer gained a lot of useful knowledge, likes the style of your information product, or wants to know more, make it easy for them. Include a pamphlet or some sort of marketing/sales information for your other information products inside all of the packages. You might miss out on a quality sale if you don’t let the customer know that you have other guidance to offer them.

Say you have as many products as Bill Glazer and Dan Kennedy – if you didn’t include additional marketing information, you could be missing out on a few thousand dollars in sales just through that one buyer!

5) No free sample/free report (with real & true information!) is offered for potential buyers.

Most people don’t like to buy products blind; they like to know what they are purchasing. On your sales letter or other marketing materials, be sure you offer a free sample of your information product. For example, you could always give chapter one away free or offer a free report. If the customer likes chapter one, they will be much more willing to come back and purchase the rest of your information. Think about it – if you hadn’t given away the free sample, they probably wouldn’t have purchased it anyway so you’re not losing a sale.

No matter what kind of freebie you decide to offer interested customers, make sure it is reflective of what they will get when they purchase the product. For example, on Zig Ziglar’s website, he offers free MP3’s and other downloads of books he has written as a free preview of his work. He also writes a newsletter with free information that he then sends out to people who sign up.

I’ve mentioned many famous and highly successful information marketers. They’ve made their money this way for a reason; most likely because they’re good at what they do and have information marketing down to a science. To make your knowledge profitable, all you have to do is follow their recipes for success and you’ll certainly, with time, reach their level of notoriety as well.

How to Create an Information Product: Knowledge is Power ... Now Package It!

Everyone is an expert on something. You may not realize it or acknowledge it, but you are quite familiar with some service, activity, or product. Whether you are a horse trainer who has won multiple competitions or a customer service agent at the local phone company, you have knowledge that others don’t have and surprisingly, you can make big bucks off of selling this information. 

An information product simply has the definition of being any product that ends in the form of information. Basically, you’re selling knowledge you’ve gained through experience so others who don’t want to spend time going through the trenches can learn from your realizations or mistakes.

On average, you can make 1 sale for everyone 100 visitors to your information product’s website. If your product sells for $100 and you make at least five sales a day (equal to about 500 visitors to your website), you can make around $15000 a month.

So you’re thinking, why would people buy an information product when they could just use Google and get the information for free? It’s simple – using Google and searching through all of the websites is a time-consuming task and it’s hard to sort the good information from the bad – not mentioning all the advertisements you’ll have to dodge to get to any information at all. People are willing to pay because it provides them good, valid information that takes them no time at all to find – they can just read it and go to work with their newfound knowledge.

As co-founder of a marketing company and purchaser of many information products myself (Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Dan Kennedy,  Bill Glazer), I have been helping experts design and market their information products for over 10 years to great success and high profits. Here are some tips to helping make your product successful as well:

You can begin with as little as a CD of information, a transcript, or as much as a book. If you have a CD, first create a transcript of the CD and from the transcript, edit it down to your key points. If you have a book, you also need to edit it down to the key points. If the customer only wants certain particles of information from your product, don’t make them wade through everything else (remember – they’re buying your product to save time!). Also, a CD of just the key points should be created as well.

Once you have completed the key points CDs and have your information transcribed in some way, shape or form, create a workbook for the buyer. This way, they have benchmarks to make sure they really understand the information you’re trying to teach them and they know how much more information they need to consume before they’re ready to go.

While you’re creating the aforementioned parts of your information product, you must create a compelling title and subtitle to attract customers to your information product at all. If you don’t have a compelling title, they won’t be as interested in your product. Along with your compelling title and subtitle, you need to have a complimentary image or logo. The title and image must match and look nice when placed together.

This title and image will be used as the face of your company so make sure they are reflective of your product. You will apply the same title and image to all of your products including the CD, transcripts, key points guide, workbook, and anything else you’re including with your product.

Next, write and edit your biography; your information becomes more valid if you have extensive experience. People want to know where this knowledge came from and the different experiences you have had that may impact your outlook. Include your other information products in your biography because if this one is good, they’ll want to purchase your others as well.

Once you are done developing the title, logo, biography, and internal product, you’ll need to create other graphics to advertise your company. For example, take pictures of all of your products and arrange them together to graphically show customers everything they will be receiving when they purchase your information product. This image will be useful for catalogs, banner advertisements, a web store, a flyer, or an Amazon.com sale page.

When you have created your information product and have all of the images in place, don’t forget to market it! No one will buy it if they don’t know it exists – and this is one of the biggest mistakes I see. There are multiple other mistakes that are easily made and can hinder the success of any information product; please read my other article on the most common mistakes made when developing an information product to make sure you’re not making the same mistakes!