Choose your information product topic and type with care.

EBooks and videos aren’t the only information products! I created a list and cheat sheet of 45 types of info-products that includes links to sites to learn how to create that particular product, but there are more than just the 45 listed on the cheat sheet. So instead of talking about “writing” I’ll be talking about creating content.

Choosing Your Information Product Topic

Some topics are never in danger of being outdated. Others are definitely stale but only because they haven’t been presented as a different type of product. How can you know that the topic you are thinking of creating content about is a good one? And, will be a fresh, interesting experience for your customers? Let’s tackle this with a systematic approach.

Start with making a list. Do this on your computer, tablet, or with pen and paper. Personally, I start my list or ‘brain dump’ on Notepad++ (a text editor for Windows). Sometimes I’ll pick up a pen and do a simple mindmap on a legal pad. Either way, I start.

• Make a list of all of the different things that you are interested in and know something about.
• Make a list of the things you are interested again, but don’t know very much about.

With your list in hand (or on the computer screen) do some research to find out –

• Whether or not people have been looking for information on the subject recently.
• Whether or not people that have been searching for this information would be willing to pay for it, and able to pay the price you think your finished information product would be worth.
• Whether or not the demand for this information has already been met by how many eBooks and courses containing this subject are already on the market.

Ideally, the topic you’re thinking of creating content about will meet all three of the above criteria. If it doesn’t, you may need to pick another topic that does.

But wait – maybe this is an opportunity to use the same content and present it in a different way. Remember, information products aren’t just eBooks and videos.

Choosing Your Information Product Type

Writing is required for most information products. But, the end product doesn’t need to be in text. That’s proven by courses and videos currently being the most popular means of consuming content.

Remember, an information product is created to educate and teach. So it makes sense that courses and videos are so popular today. And yet, there are so many different ways the same information can be presented.

I’m not talking about repurposing here. Repurposing means you share your content online in other areas, with its original form intact either on your website or media channel. You might tweak it a bit, shorten it up or add an image to match the other platforms you share it on, but you’ve not changed it into a different product. I’m actually talking about transforming your content into a different product altogether.

For example, let’s say you have a blog.

On that blog, you have a number of posts in one category. For this example, let’s say you have 12 blog posts in the Leadership category.

Pull all of those blog posts out and into a separate folder or file on your computer and read through them. The way they’re currently written, it could be very easy to transform them into an eBook. Each post is a chapter, change the title slightly so it makes sense as a chapter heading, add one or two sub-heading as a way to break up the paragraphs, add page numbers at the bottom, create a table of contents, add an About the Author page, a Copyright page, possibly a Resources page at the end. Create an image for the cover.

Now, save as a pdf and you have an ebook. Use the formatting guide from Amazon Kindle and you can upload it as a Kindle book.

What if you took that same content and transformed it into an infographic? You would pull only the most important pieces of information, bullet point them on a list, then find images to match each bullet point.

What if you took that same content and transformed it into a comic strip? You would change up the content so it could be “spoken” by two characters, create characters and have them discuss the content in their cartoon world.

Are you seeing the possibilities here?

Is your brain going crazy with ideas?

No?

Not a problem. I created a list of 45 ways you can transform content into an information product and you can get your copy here >>>45 Ways To Transform Content Cheat Sheet<<<

And, each way listed has at least 1 link to a website that will show you how to create that particular product. Yes, there’s a link to a site that will show you how to create a comic strip, and one that will show you how to create a quality eBook.

Now it’s time for you to take action, list your ideas, do a bit of research, and create your information product.