Information products or downloadable products are easy to sell in terms of efforts. You create your information product once and you can sell it non-stop without having to worry about running out of it. With your website on autopilot, you never have to worry about shipping the product either.
Now, a lot of newbies start their online venture by selling downloadable products. So, why should established bloggers do the same thing?
Well, the main reason is obvious: To make money online
However, as compared to a start-up, established bloggers don’t face much hassle. It’s much, much easier for bloggers to sell downloads online than newbies. Before we discuss the benefits that bloggers have, let’s first talk about established bloggers.
Established Blogger:
You may wonder, “Hey, What is the definition of an Established Blogger?”
I say, it depends. When you start your blog, you begin with a plan. Well, not every start-up may have a solid plan, but it’s good to have a goal in front of you to keep yourself motivated.
For example: Your goal may be to have 1,000 subscribers in 3 months. This will keep you on track in terms of writing new posts and promoting your blog. Once you achieve this goal and have a significant number of loyal subscribers, then you may consider yourself an established blogger.
But…What Can You Sell?
You may wonder again, “Hey, but what kind of information products will I be able to sell?”
I say, you know it already. See, people have subscribed to your blog and they visit your blog often, right? Why do they come to your blog? Well, to learn something new. So, you know your market, you know their needs and problems that they are facing and, thus, you can write an ebook or create a video or audio product that can resolve their problems. It’s that simple!
But, of course, realistically speaking, when you will begin to do brainstorming, it won’t seem so easy. So, take your time, understand your market and then create beneficial information products accordingly.
Benefits that Established Bloggers Have:
Having said that, let’s now explore in detail that what benefits established bloggers have over start-ups and how it is 100 times easier for them to sell information products to make money online easily and virtually effortlessly.
Already Have a Niche:
Established bloggers already have a niche. Start-ups have to first discover a niche and their needs. Established bloggers don’t have to go through this tiring process, because ‘finding a niche market’ is the key to success and all successful internet marketers and bloggers know that. Thus, established bloggers have already found their market.
Already Have Visitors:
As discussed above, if you have achieved your goal and if you have the desired number of visitors or subscribers, then you are an established blogger. Thus, unlike newbies and start-ups, established bloggers don’t have to worry about bringing the most targeted visitors to their blog or website. This part has already been taken care of as well.
Already Have Proven Their Expertise:
When people visit your blog again and again, it shows that they have faith in your knowledge and expertise. Thus, it becomes easier for established bloggers to sell information products to their visitors, because of the trust they have managed to build already. This is something a newbie has to strive for a lot.
So…Where Do You See Yourself?
You have wondered a lot. Let me wonder now: “If you have a blog, do you consider yourself to be an established blogger?”
If you are not an established blogger, then you have two things to do. First, establish your blog with quality content and visitors. Secondly, at the same time, start brainstorming that what sort of information product will be beneficial for your market.
If you are an established blogger, it’s about time you create a powerful information product to sell online.
Don’t rush! The idea of making money online with mere information is highly appealing, but you must come up with a strong product to succeed on the World Wide Web.
Image Credit: NotionsCapital
23 comments
If the bloggers really recommend/sell useful things, it would be great for long term. Don’t just see the commission % but also see the usefulness to your fans.
To ensure that you are perceived as trustworthy, you always should recommend useful products. Also, if you are creating your own product, then it must be good. Otherwise, it won’t take long before you ruin your credibility.
“So…Where Do You See Yourself?”
I wonder about this. Our visitors come only when they need to buy a home, of which is only every 5-10 years. Your article today makes me think about how I might capture this type of audience.
As I mentioned in the article that when you will start brainstorming, it won’t seem so easy.
just adding five more cents here, I would say if you have built a Niche and your personal credibility over them, then you can pitch anything you want, it doesn’t mean that you will start selling crap to you niches, just win their trust by giving them useful information via your blog or link sharing on social media. Only start selling when you think that you have won their 25% trust or you feels that they all know you by person or by your profession.
I would say here this is such a great article and you can apply these guidelines for any kind of online business.
Thanks a lot for your feedback and kind words Ben. I appreciate it.
Hi Shaukat
In the beginning; don’t look at after the highest commission; Try to get so high quality of the products you can, something you know is very good. Write about it; answer the comments with all information you can give, positive and negative. This is way do you build up a sell trust.
Thanks for your feedback. You are right. However, the thing is that established bloggers have an edge over newbies. Both newbies and bloggers can sell info products after building trust, but the point behind my post is that it’s much easier for established bloggers.
your are right about that. There are many people out there that have a wealth of knowledge and aren’t doing anything with it.
An established blogger certainly has many things he or she can do with that power, selling information products is definitely one avenue, but in my opinion it can be a tricky one. If you product really useful information then yeah in the long run it will only get stronger, but if you provide bad information it’s definitely gonna hurt in the long run.
Till then,
Jean
True. This is why ‘brainstorming’ is vital.
Thanks a lot for your input.
Established bloggers have a much quicker route to success in selling informational products that newbies do. The content and everything else is there waiting to be used. It’s just a matter of making it happen. Great post.
In fact, info products are very easy to make and distribute. If you know your niche and audience well then you can always come up with ideas for products that they need or want. And if you’re short of ideas then just ask, ask your readers what they need help or what they need more information about. This works very well for coming up with product ideas.
There is a really good point here that I think is worth emphasizing: ASK YOUR READERS. It is so easy to do, and highly effective, yet often overlooked. Another great way is to browse forums relating to your niche, see what the common problems or questions relate to, and then find or develop an information product to address the need. It’s not exactly guaranteed, but the likelihood of wasting your time developing some that won’t sell is reduced considerably.
Yeah, I made the mistake a few times of producing products that no one was particularly interested in. I take a lot more care these days to ensure there is actually a demand for a product, otherwise there’s little point in doing it.
Having an established website means that you have the readers trust so they will buy what ever you have to offer because they know you know what you are doing and will provide valuable information to them.
That’s a good point. Trust is the key. If people trust you they will buy from you, and blogs are great for building trust.
Good post. Finding the niche is definitely the hardest part and getting increasingly harder by the day as the competition steps up more. There’s a bit of luck involved also, to strike when the iron is hot, in case of some niches.
i believe every step must be based on extensive research , going for something without any hope can be dangerous
Yes, I learnt from that mistake the hard way!
Write unique content on niche topic and brainstorming are not easy task, you have proper planning for that.
Whenever any blogger recommends anything … their commentators started to tell that how much you are making from this offer and all.
Really affiliate marketing change the way we think.
If you are well know and established, other people could learn a lot from you and it isn’t that difficult to have an ebook written.