Why a Niche Can Help You Sell More Information Products

Before you begin selling information products online, you want to make sure you’re targeting a niche that will be profitable for you in the short and long-term. A niche is just a fancy term for your "target audience."

Some niches, as you’ll discover, aren’t as profitable as others. You need to look at your audience and see if they’re willing (and able) to spend money for the solutions they’re seeking.

For instance, executives are often willing to invest significant sums in their career development tools, like LinkedIn, or their resume. Many of them also understand the value of having third parties advise them in matters of personal advancement and career.

But another niche, such as new college graduates, might not be willing to pay $67 for an information product showing them how to get their first job. Sometimes it depends on the solution itself. Targeting this same niche of college students, you may find that their parents are willing to make an investment in their kids, paying $197 for them to take a three-session program on finding a job.

One good place to find your niche is with online groups and forums. LinkedIn is a great place to conduct research. Search their Groups offerings and find a couple that target the niche you're interested in.

You’re not just looking for a broad group of people to cater to – you’re looking for those with a lot of problems. When you start creating your information products, you’ll want to build an empire of products that all focus on the same niche, allowing you to market to existing, loyal customers who buy from you time and time again.

Sometimes, you’ll find one large niche and then realize you need to build your information product line around a more targeted, narrow niche of people. For instance, take college students. Instead of targeting all college students, pick one major -- for example, engineering students. You can help them with creating a resume for an internship, landing an internship, creating their online presence (and online reputation management), networking their way to their first real job, and negotiating their first salary.

Just remember that an information product is not really a product at all — it’s a solution, so it needs to be marketed as something that will improve lives. You're not teaching them how to get an internship — you're giving them skills to land their first paying, productive job.

Mining Your Own Virtual Goldmine

When you have information that other people want, you have a virtual goldmine at your fingertips. Information products line the shelves at bookstores nationwide in the non-fiction section, but they're also online 24/7/365, catering to the needs of millions of jobseekers who are hungry for advice and insight at all hours of the day -- and night!

As a seller of non-fiction information products in the careers industry, you can build an empire of profits targeting a single niche of jobseekers (for example, moms returning to the workplace, or IT professionals). Or, branch out and offer solutions to a multitude of people who need guidance (anyone who is looking to ask their boss for a raise).

While the traditional print publishing industry only gives authors a small portion of the proceeds after subtracting agent and publishing house fees, if you sell information products online, you’ll get to charge more and keep almost 100% of the profits for yourself.

Typically, a non-fiction book at Barnes and Noble would cost the consumer an average of $9.95 to $29.95. But when you’re selling information products ready for instant download online, you get to price it higher, because the selling point usually begins at $37 and rises up to $97 or even more.

Plus, your overhead costs are low. There's no printing costs, shipping, storage, or shelf placement fees. There's only the cost for the shopping cart (I use Payloadz for instant sale and delivery), transaction costs (Payloadz ties into my PayPal account), and maybe a website domain and hosting for the sales page for the product (although that's not necessary).

Why are jobseekers downloading information products? This is the age of high-tech development. Your readers may be sitting in an airport, accessing your ebook from their laptop.

They want information now, not the next business day. If they need to practice their interviewing skills before a job interview the next day, they can't drive to the bookstore at midnight to get a self-help book — but they can log onto their computer and download your Interview Success Guide, putting your advice into action in mere minutes. 

Another reason information products are hot commodities online is because they often come with money-back guarantees, giving the consumer added trust.

If you create information products for sale yourself, then you want to make sure you produce top-quality deliverables and urge your readers near the end to start taking action with what they’ve learned to keep refund requests low and demand for your products high.

Done right, it's like having your own personal goldmine that you can tap anytime you want!

Congratulations to the 2013 TORI Award Winners!

Career Directors International has just announced the winners of the 2013 TORI (Toast of the Resume Industry) Awards!

Winners include:

Best International Resume 1st Place - Kimberly Mohiuddin, Movin' On Up Resumes 2nd Place - Brenda Bernstein, The Essay Expert LLC 3rd Place - Cheryl L. Simpson, Executive Resume Rescue Best New Graduate Resume 1st Place - Victoria McLean, City CV Ltd. 2nd Place - Michelle Riklan, Riklan Resources 3rd Place - Laura Smith-Proulx, An Expert Resume Best Creative Resume 1st Place - Michelle Lopez, One2One Resumes 2nd Place - Rosa Vargas, Career Steering 3rd Place - Miriam Cha, Metro Resumes Best Re-entry Resume 1st Place - Sandra Ingemansen, Résumé Strategies 2nd Place - Gayle Howard, Top Margin Career Marketing 3rd Place - Christine Robinson, Professional Designs Writing Service Best Information Technology Resume 1st Place - Laura Smith-Proulx, An Expert Resume 2nd Place - Maureen McCann, ProMotion Career Solutions 3rd Place - Diane Murphy Goldstein, MG Resume & Coaching Services Best Executive Resume 1st Place - Cheryl L. Simpson, Executive Resume Rescue   2nd Place - Sandra Ingemansen, Résumé Strategies 3rd Place - Amy L. Adler, Five Strengths Career Transition Experts Best Sales Resume 1st Place - Laura Smith-Proulx, An Expert Resume 2nd Place - Kimberly Mohiuddin, Movin' On Up Resumes 3rd Place - Tom Albano, All Star Career Services Best Healthcare/Medical Resume 1st Place - Kimberly Mohiuddin, Movin' On Up Resumes 2nd Place - Ann Baehr, Best Resumes of New York 3rd Place - Laura Smith-Proulx, An Expert Resume Best Cover Letter 1st Place - Donald Burns, Donald Burns' Career Defense 2nd Place - Sandra Ingemansen, Résumé Strategies 3rd Place - Michelle Lopez, One2One Resumes

2013 TORI JUDGES & AWARD DIRECTOR    Special thanks to CDI's Director of Awards for coordinating the TORIs this year: Robin Schlinger, Robin's Resumes® Special thanks to 2013 judges for their hard work this year:  Barb Poole, Hire Imaging, LLC Darlene Dassy, Dynamic Résumé Solutions   Laura Labovich, Aspire! Empower! Career Strategy Group Susan Guarneri, AssessmentGoddess.com   Audrey Prenzel, Resume Resources Marty Weitzman - Gilbert Resumes Jennifer Hay - IT Resume Service Jeri Hird Dutcher - Workwrite Grant Cooper - CareerPro of New Orleans / Strategic Resumes Kimberley Bethke - Surcorp Resume Solutions Norine Dagliano - ekm Inspirations

Don't Steal Your Graphics

You wouldn't dream of walking into a store, picking up an item, and walking out without paying. Yet people do this every day with online content -- especially graphics. But using images you "find" online is not only stealing, but you could potentially be sued by the owner of the content.

In yesterday's blog post, I recommended Fotolia.com, a website where you can purchase photos, illustrations, cartoons, graphics, and even videos. Depending on what you want to use the graphic or photo for, the cost can be as little as $1 per illustration.

In contrast, if you "borrow" a graphic online without paying for its use (or making sure you have the rights to use the photo), you can be sued for thousands -- even tens of thousands -- of dollars.

Don't think it can happen to you? It happened to my brother-in-law, who is a web designer. He received a demand letter from Getty Images for $1000 because Getty Images had discovered a graphic on the previous version of a website he was working on that they did not show as being licensed to the website's owner. (The illustration in question was on the client's old website; he was revamping the website for the client, but he was the one who received the letter.)

Graphics and Plagiarism
How many times have you heard someone say that, "since it was on the Internet, it's public domain, so I can use it?" I suspect a lot. Well, in case you didn't know, this is not true. Even if some images are available for free online, they are free with limits. It's important to read the fine print to ensure that you don't inadvertently plagiarize someone else's work. In some cases, even when you pay for an image you can still commit a violation if you use it for an other-than-intended purpose.

Graphics and images help make your website, blogs, and other online content stand out. In fact, if you choose images that match the content, it can even make the content more understandable. This is especially true when creating infographics. But, you cannot just take the graphics from any website and use them for any purpose without permission. 

Read the Fine PrintWhen you download a graphic from any place online, whether free or paid, read the fine print. It is likely that much of what you buy or get free on the net cannot be used for producing a "logo" without buying a higher level of rights to the image. When using free images, some sites say that you cannot use it on any product for profit.

Fair Use
There are some exceptions to the basic copyright and plagiarism rules called fair use. Essentially, it's okay to use someone else's work if you transform it enough to make it original. The definition of transformative though, varies with different courts. Or, you simply use the idea of the image to create your own unique image.

For instance, maybe you like a black and white portrait of a baby where the colors pink are highlighted? Then you use that idea to do a family portrait. Or if you are commenting on and reporting on a story and use the image to report on the story, that is fair use.

One thing to remember is that words can be plagiarized but images cannot be. However, you can infringe on someone's copyright when you use images without permission or outside the parameters of legal use described in the fine print of purchased images. Also, there are always exceptions to everything. Be very clear on the differences before you use any image. 

Save yourself the hassle -- and time and money -- by making sure the images you use are properly licensed.