Note that this post is strictly for creating/writing an informational product. If you have a software idea, for example, you can always partner with a programmer and I’ll talk more about joint ventures in the coming weeks, but right now let’s stick to the informational product.
How to Create a Product
One of the nice things about making an informational product is that you can make one literally without spending a dime just as I did. I used a freeware program called Open Office which is the free open source equivalent of Microsoft Word.
You likely have Word already installed on your computer if you have Windows, that’ll work, too. Once the eBook has been typed up in full, you can export it to a PDF format which is the standard for eBooks, even the premium ones like we’re going to be making.
How to Name A Product
You’ll need a catchy and informative title for your product. My title “How to Write a Song – The ‘No BS’ Songwriter’s Bible” is straightforward with a small twist while explaining exactly what you’ll find within the book. The title conveys that it’s obviously a book which will teach you how to write a song, but then I add the “No BS” bit to grab your attention.
For more tips on how to come up with a snappy title, check out my post on how to write a great title.
How to Create a Product
Rather than repeat myself, I’ll direct you to a relevant post I wrote awhile back entitled How to Write an eBook. In that post I offer a number of tips and shortcuts which you can use to make your eBook quickly and effectively.
Include a hyperlink style table of contents for easy navigation and mix in a few images and photos to break up the monotony of text. (see my post on royalty free images for commercial use for information on where you can get images to use for free).
A Word About Affiliate Links
Also, if there are any opportunities to include affiliate links in your eBook to other services or products which might help your reader further and consequently earn you even more money, I recommend that rather than including your affiliate link in the eBook itself, use a free plugin like Pretty Link to make a vanity link on your own site which redirects to that affiliate link, then include that vanity link in the eBook in place of the affiliate link.
This gives you control over the link on your own site which is important because if that affiliate link ever changes on your end or the merchant’s end, you won’t be able to change it in your book which has already been distributed to your customer.
Using the vanity link on your own site, you can switch out the link info from your site and that change will automatically be reflected when someone clicks on the link in the eBook. This also means that you don’t need to update your eBook and reupload it on whatever affiliate network you’re selling it through every time the actual link changes; so using vanity links for most all of your links which you include covers you in case a URL ever changes for any reason or if you simply want to change the link/affiliate link destination yourself.
Outsourcing Vs. DIY
Ideally you have experience in the niche which your product targets and relates to, otherwise you’ll have a lot of research or outsourcing to do. The problem is that even if you outsource it or research it yourself, you likely won’t know whether or not to trust your research sources or outsourced worker’s ability to write in this niche.
The more involved you are in the creation of your product, the better primed you’ll be to handle write the sales page content, handle customer support or how outsourced help handles customer support, and the better the quality will generally be, as well.
Low Quality = High Refunds
Remember that generally there will be refunds no matter what affiliate network or method you’re selling through and no matter how good your sales page is – if the quality is not present in the product itself you’ll have a problem here. Ultimately the best way to really cut down on refunds is to make your product as of high quality and satisfaction to your future customers as possible when you’re creating it.