Last year, you FINALLY finished that ebook you'd been "planning" for years. You wrote a quick website, added some order links, told a few people about it, and amazingly, people started buying your ebook. You had successfully entered the realm of the information marketer.
Now let's look at how you can step into the big league, and at a minimum, quadruple your profits this year.
First, let's examine your backend. No, not that backend... but the products and services you offer your subscribers after they've made the initial purchase. This is actually something you should've flowed out even BEFORE you wrote your ebook. Your system should automatically offer other related goods and services to your customers. The hardest part of the whole process is making that first sale. After that, if you offer your customers what they want, they will continue to buy from you.
For the backend you have two options that you should consider. If you haven't developed any additional products of your own, then you should offer your customers related affiliate products. This is often the best option for many marketers because all you have to do is the promoting. All of the order fulfillment, delivery, and customer service "headaches" are handled by someone else. Just locate high quality products that are a perfect match for your customers, make them aware of the products, and cash affiliate checks.
Your second option is to develop more of your own products. This isn't as hard as it first seems. When you wrote that ebook, you probably did a lot of research. Turn the research that you did for the ebook into other similar products. The secret... is just capitalizing on the fact that people have different preferred methods of digesting information.
Some people prefer print books, some prefer audio, some prefer video, and others prefer workshops (experiential). If you fail to offer your information in all of those formats you're leaving money on the table because you're ignoring entire segments of the market which often only buys information in their preferred format. Ebook buyers may insist upon that format because it's generally cheaper, and they can get instant downloads.
Sometimes, the different formats are a natural product progression. It's a way of offering more and more comprehensive versions of your basic product. Different customers will be ready for different levels of product. They will buy different products as their first purchase. Some will even buy ALL of your products!
Assuming your ebook is more than a compilation of affiliate links thinly disguised as an ebook, you should already have the core information for a full line of products. You offer the different products at a range of prices because your customers also have different price sensitivities. Here is the progression:
- Offer the ebook - perhaps priced below $50. Think of that ebook as a lead generator. It's bringing in highly qualified leads and helping you to build a list of people who have demonstrated a willingness to pay to solve their problems.
- Perhaps turn the ebook into a print book. Having an actual print book separates you from those who only have an ebook since most ebook authors don't have enough confidence in their work to actually have it printed up. You can use a print-on-demand publisher if you don't want to have hundreds, or thousands, of copies printed up at first. Here's the print-on-demand publisher that I recommend:
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=146382
Although a print book is a step up from an ebook, a print book often doesn't command a much higher price. This is because people are conditioned (by the bookstores) to pay a certain price for a book. In order to get much more than that price, you have to conclusively demonstrate that your book contains unusual or hard to find information. Still, an actual printed book is an important credential.
- Offer audio in the form of MP3, audiocassettes, and audio CDs. The physically delivered forms will command a higher price than the digitally downloaded version so offer both. Offer the MP3 for those who want instant gratification. To create your audio, all you need to do is set up a teleconference where you discuss, or expand upon, the material in the ebook. You can also invite other experts on the topic to join you to generate a product - for all the "experts" involved to market. Record the teleconference and have it converted into the various audio formats.
You can market attendance to the teleseminar itself as a separate product. That way, you're getting paid to produce a product. NEVER conduct a teleseminar without recording it. The information shared in these events are pure gold nuggets that people will happily pay for. Even if the recording isn't something you want to sell, it can make a nice bonus to offer with another product.
For an added value product you could have the recorded teleseminar transcribed. Offer the printed or PDF transcript as a bonus with the recordings, or offer it as an upsell.
- Conduct live workshops on the topic of your ebook. Use the chapters to develop an outline and to create PowerPoint slides to use. Record the workshop and produce videotapes and DVD's to offer your market.
- Package any combination of audiotapes, audio CDs, DVD's and videotapes with a workbook comprised of your notes, transcripts, or the text of your ebook, and call this a course. This course will easily sell for $197 to prices over $1000 depending upon how you position it in the marketplace.
- Offer your content through a membership site focused on your niche. Charge for access on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis. With a membership site you will need to continuously add content or make changes to keep it from getting stale. To see how I've set up a successful membership site, check out: http://TheRealSecrets.com
As you can see, the content of that simple ebook can easily be turned into a product worth over $1000. Most ebook authors will stop with just the ebook though.
Most ebook authors will never offer their customers upsells at the order form! However, since you'll have a complete line of products, you WILL offer the person, initially interested in buying just the ebook, the more expensive forms of the product. Many of them will upgrade right at the point of purchase. That's why fast food restaurants offer to "super-size