Information product pro’s:
Small if any startup cost – If you have technical skills or writing skill you can create an e-book or small software very easy and sell it. If you lack both skills, you can hire a programmer or a writer and pay them for their work and sell the product.
Easy to produce – after all, information product is only a copy of a file. After you have the first copy, reproducing it is easy.
Easy to sale – the process of selling an information product can be totally automatic. All you need to do is set up the selling site, setup a few auto responders and market your product. Of course, from time to time you will need to handle some customer related issues manually; however most of the process can work without human interference.
No inventory – as mentioned earlier, all you are selling is an electronic copy of an existing product, hence there is no need to worry about inventory management.
No shipping – the customer can download his copy of your product online. This method is beneficial for both sides. The customer is getting his product immediately without shipping fees and it saves you the daily trip to the post office.
Ease of creating an affiliate program – one of the most important advantages of an information product is the ease of creating an affiliate program. Once your product is finished and your site is set up, all you need to worry about is marketing of your product. Why not getting some help in promoting? Creating an affiliate program is next logic step. Other site owner can sell your product or provide traffic your way in exchange for a fee. You will be surprise how much traffic, sales, and revenue other site can produce for you if you give them an appropriate incentive. Remember, your hard work is already finished. Why not let someone else worry about selling while you have time to create another product? Once your new product is finished, you can create another affiliate program and create an additional stream of income.
Information product cons:
As explained earlier, there are many pros for selling an information product. As result, many entrepreneurs are already out there and the amount of e-books and other information products is huge. You will need to work very hard to be noticed. This is, of course, another reason for creating an affiliate program that will provide a good incentive for affiliates. You will be surprise to discover what affiliates can do for the right incentive.
In addition, some people will always prefer a hard copy over a virtual copy. A real book is easier to carry and usually perceived as “more serious”. If you are creating an e-book it is not that hard to transfer it to a real book and sell it in both formats.
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