Introduction
This just as the name suggests, selling information!. This can really be a very profitable business. Well it costs a little money to start but the rewards are very encouraging.
What its all about
Lets dream a little(Literarily) , what if you find a way of solving a problem for a lot of people? then you put it in a book and advertise it. How many responses do you think you would get?
That is the foundation of this type of business - you give people information of exactly what they want. That was the easy part.
How do you know what people want?
This is the hard part. This part actually accounts for 80% of your success in this business. I have written an article on this subject. It will help you brainstorm. Click here to read it.
Similarly, people also search for what they want on the internet. There are a few tools available to help you. Try the Google Adwords keyword tool or Wordtracker for free or Keyword Elite for a little fee. The Paid tool makes it extremely easy for you to accurately amass a large number or hot keywords.
Generally, there must be something you know very well that most people don't(Invent or learn one if their is none).
Gather the Information
Now that you know what people want, get the information about it. You could research on the subject, attend seminars and trainings or even learn about it. Keep you eyes and ears open, buy related magazines etc. The information you want may just be as easy as talking to your neighbor!
Package the Information
There are many ways of delivering your information. You could put them in CDs, DVDs, electronic books, hard copy paper books, Magazines, Membership Websites, Workshops etc.
Now from experience, do yourself a favor, go with the ebook for now. The hassles are far less when compared to the others.
How do you write and ebook?
There are different formats but the easiest is the Portable Document Format(PDF). This is as simple as writing and typing out your information in form of a book and converting it to PDF. There are different software available for this. Download this one free. Now your ebook must not be as long as 200 pages (of course that would be appreciated) but the focus of an ebook is to go straight to the point on any issue. Don't forget that. So it could be as short as 5 pages!.
Selling your ebook
This is where you make money. If you are in Nigeria, the most effective form of advertising for your ebook is on the Newspapers. The logic is simple, people who buy Newspapers, are the type of people who would buy and read your ebook. Facebook is really catching on but the challenge with that is you need to create a webpage where people who clicked on your advert would be sent to.
You now pray that your page would be convincing enough for people to take action, like buying your ebook etc. This is risky if you are not good at writing webpage sales letters.
After deciding how you want to go about that, you now have to write your advert. Don't start writing- wait!, its not that easy. Please go to http://www.adcopywriting.com and spend at least 1hr on that site to learn how to write sales letters and adverts. The site is very straight to the point and interesting. My first advert got me more than 600 responses in one day!.
The most popular Newspapers in Nigeria are This Day, The Punch and The Guardian. Don't mind my advertising them, its true.
Also, the bigger the advert, the more effective it is but to get things started , keep your budget to NGN20,000.
Lets go with the Punch. Visit them, design and get your advert running.
One more thing, for people to check out your advert and respond effectively, you have to sound too good to be true. Yes, ridiculously interesting but NOT MISLEADING or PLAIN LIES at the same time. You need to practice a lot to get this right. You don't want to get 100 people paying for a "bigger bank account" while you end up giving them "a list of banks in Nigeria". This will land you in Jail.
Setting up your Selling System
What to Put in your Advert
Because of space, you may not be able to write much in your advert so I suggest you use an autoresponder. Use only the most important words in your advert. There are various autoresponders available. Please see my 5 day Tutorial on How to Setup and Use an Autoresponder Effectively.
The Autoresponder is simply a service that responds by an email automatically to customer request for information. In your autoresponder, you have to create a letter, describing your product and how it will solve your customer's problems and most importantly, it must describe how your customer can order(your bank details and how to notify you of payment) and get the ebook(by email or by download).
How to Receive your payment
Get a bank account. If you can't get a corporate account, use your personal account. People like to trust people with "faces" - they like to associate your face to your product. If you are outside Nigeria and your product is international, you could use a Paypal account
How to Deliver your Product
Since we are selling an ebook, the easiest way to deliver your ebook, is by attaching it to an email and saving it in your draft messages. Once you receive a payment notification, you just go to your email and send the email to the customer.
Conclusion
This is a business you can start with ease. In Nigeria today and all over the world, so many people are looking for the way out of the financial crisis, so many people that lost their jobs and business need answers that work. why don't you provide this information?
If you are not in Nigeria, you can modify this to what what works in your country but the concept is still the same whether you sell cars or information about cars.
