By Monique Harris
Although there's
plenty of hype about making money online, the
one thing that
has sold - and will continue to sell in massive
quantities -
is information products.
At the Proctor
& Gamble Summit in the summer of 1998, Evan
Neufeld, practice
director of research firm Jupiter Communications,
declared that
the top reason why people are online is for the
information.
And how could it not be?
The Internets
history holds its roots in the distribution of
information,
when the original Net-heads, (government and
academic officials),
used it to exchange vital data amongst
one another.
Today those roots are constantly being fed by the
millions of
online citizens who exchange ideas and thoughts
on a continuous
millisecond-by-millisecond basis.
And when you
add to that mix over 300 million Web sites, 100,000+
discussion groups,
and thousands of online publications in
probably every
conceivable subject category, you can't help not
to see how the
words 'Internet' and 'information' become nearly
synonymous.
So as trainers,
we're in an ideal position to take advantage of
this neverending
need for brain food. Indeed, providing information
is our livelihood.
Here are three key methods that you can use to
increase your
income from this online infosales revolution:
1) Get your book listed in online bookstores.
There are literally
thousands of niche-based online bookstores, that
are always on
the look out for interesting titles. These include
independent
online bookstores - which are similar to a mail order
catalog, in
that they have no physical storefront - and affiliate
bookstores -
which sell books for the larger independents like
superstore Amazon.com.
As a matter of
fact, Amazon.com alone has well over 100,000 affiliate
bookstore owners,
also known as resellers, marketing titles for them.
One such storefront
is the Self Directed Work Team Bookstore at
(http://users.ids.net/~brim/bookstore.html).
Each title is
given a brief one-paragraph review, with a link for
people to order
directly from Amazon.com. Imagine if you could find
10 or 20 targeted
online bookstores like this to market your work.
You could easily
increase your income with very little work.
Many online bookstores
have submission guidelines listed on their
Web sites. If
not, you can either e-mail a request to whoever runs
the site, or
locate a physical address and send your review kit.
If you wish
to have Amazon.com affiliates sell your book, you must
first be listed
in the main Amazon database. There's a special section
for authors
and publishers on the site at (http://www.amazon.com).
2) Offer audio excerpts of your information product on your Web site.
This is a prime
venue for you to showcase your expertise, especially
if you sell
audio cassettes and/or provide speaking services. Using
RealAudio -
which is a software product that allows listeners to
hear your message
by simply clicking on a button - you can create
an audio file
that can be accessed directly from your Web site.
As long as the
company that hosts your Web site provides RealAudio
server space,
you can have a file set-up in as little as an hour
or two. You
can get more information about transforming your audio
files in RealAudio
format by visiting their Web site at
(http://www.realaudio.com).
3) Submit articles,
excerpted from your information product, to
targeted online
publications.
E-zines and Webzines,
(online newsletters), can reach anywhere from
a few hundred,
to several thousand readers around the world, who are
all interested
in the same particular topic. And although many zine
editors don't
pay for articles, they're almost always in need of fresh
content, and
they're often willing to give you a generous resource
box at the end
of your article which you can use to sell your
information
product. (I personally sell hundreds of dollars worth
of manuals this
way each month.)
The first thing
you'll need to do is locate a list of publications.
Try The Directory
of E-zines at (http://www.lifestylespub.com/cgi-
bin/ezines.cgi?10604),
or John Labovitz's E-zine List
(http://www.meer.net/~johnl/e-zine-list/).
When you find a few that
look appropriate,
subscribe to them so you can get a feel for what
the audience
wants.
Secondly, you'll
need to send a brief e-query to the editor that
explains who
you are, as well as a summary of the article. One of
my e-queries
even lists several different articles that the editor
can choose from.
If they're interested, they will contact you to
submit the piece.
Just make sure
at the end of your article you include some biographical
information,
your Web site and e-mail address, and details for ordering
your information
product. With five articles per month - (this can
be the same
article in five different publications) - you can easily
reach a larger
audience, and essentially receive free advertising.
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