Product Creation: Avoid this 5 mistakes to increase information product sales.

Have you ever created an information product- say a home study or membership program, an e-book or online workshop that didn’t sell? I have. Are you surprised?

You see when I first decided to add information products to my business years ago I made the same rookie mistakes I see many small and solo business owners making today. Yet abandoning the idea was not an option since creating information products is still the best way to sell your knowledge and expertise to a large audience and create multiple streams of income that don’t involve selling your time at an hourly rate.

I learned from my mistakes and with the help of some awesome mentors I ended up creating multiple home study and membership programs that are highly successful. And I’ve helped many clients do the same. So I’d like to share the mistakes you need to avoid if you don’t want to struggle like I did years ago.

Mistake #1: Deciding what people want without knowing what they want.

So many people have a wonderful idea and immediately get to work creating an information product based on that idea. They decide it’s what people need. The problem is that clients buy what they want, not what they need. Sometimes they don’t even know what they need. To discover what they really want a little simple keyword and competitor research can go a long way and save you a ton of time, frustration and lost sales.

Mistake #2: No proven marketing system

Even if you have the best home study course or e-book ever written, if no one knows about it you’ll have no sales and nothing could be more discouraging after all the hard work you put in.

You need to have all of your marketing materials written, your e-mail marketing and affiliate programs in place, and your traffic generation system automated as much as possible before you start selling. Once I developed these systems, selling my products became so much easier and regularly produces a steady stream of leads and sales.

Mistake #3 Not having a sales page that converts buyers

Imagine that you’ve finally finished your product, you’ve got your marketing system in place and you can see that you’re getting people to your sales page—but only a few are buying. Writing curiosity-building or benefit-laden headlines and powerful content that includes clear results buyers can expect from your product, legitimate testimonials and an ironclad guarantee will go a long way toward improving your sales conversion. Including video will make a big difference because you can show visitors how and why you’re passionate about your product.

Mistake #4 Not giving more value than the price implies

People tend to buy online when they really want a solution to a problem and they see your product as that solution. By adding more components to your product, such as worksheets, audios, videos or checklists and by adding bonuses the perceived value goes beyond the price you’re charging. And of course your price has to be right in terms of what the buyer perceives the value to be. If the price is perceived as too high you won’t get many sales. If it’s too low, your product may be perceived as inferior. Do some research to find the pricing on similar products to give you a benchmark.

Mistake #5 Not even starting because you’re afraid it’s too hard

You can create an information product in anywhere from one week to 60 days, tops. And it can produce ongoing sales for months or years. Plus it can build your expert status and be the foundation for other programs. In other words you can leverage the content you create and use it in other types of programs and services. So not creating one actually ends up being harder because it keeps you stuck selling your time hour by hour and it keeps you at survival level.