Information Products To Sell

Isn’t it perfect when you have a full queue of orders to fulfill? The problem, of course, is that you can only work so many hours a day (24 to be exact, if you manage to find some way to avoid the need for eating and sleeping).

Wouldn’t it be great if you could find a way to supplement your freelance income without having to squeeze extra hours into your work day? Well, that’s exactly what you can do with this list of 4 information products to sell as a freelancer.

What is an Information Product?

An information product is exactly what it sounds like: something you sell to provide customers with information. They are a perfect way to add income without increasing work hours because once you put in the initial effort to create the product, you have to spend little to no time delivering the product to buyers.

The oldest information product known to history is probably the book. People have purchased books for centuries in order to learn from experts who are wiser than they are.

Of course, the costs of publishing, printing, and distribution make traditional books an unrealistic information product for many entrepreneurs—especially freelancers. The good news is that the digital age has provided endless opportunities for you to create information products to sell with very few startup costs.

What Goes In My Information Product?

Obviously, if you’re going to be selling information products, you need to decide what sort of information you are going to put in them.

The answer is pretty broad: anything that you know more about than your customer.  

For example, if you are an expert SEO freelancer, you might create a product that teaches small business owners how to perform their own on-page SEO audit. If you’re a writer, you could sell information about how to write persuasive sales copy. And if you’re a graphic designer, you could sell templates for high converting banner ad designs.

And, of course, if you’re an experienced freelancer of any sort, you could always sell information products aimed at newbies to the profession: 10 Mistakes I Made My First Year of Freelancing or How To Land Your First Clients  for example.

The possibilities are endless, and if you spend a little time brainstorming, you’ll probably come up with more than enough topics to cover.

4 Ideas For Information Products To Sell

Now that you understand what an information product is and what can go into yours, here are 4 different types that you can create.

E-books

E-books are probably the most common information product. You may have even purchased or downloaded a few yourself.

The most standard format for an e-book is a PDF. Pretty much anyone can open a PDF for free, so you will rarely need to handle technical issues with your buyers. They are also pretty easy to create on your own, or cheap to outsource if you want to save a little time.

Important Considerations for E-Books

• Layout matters. Make your e-book easy to read by dividing it into clear sections, avoiding large blocks of text, and including helpful images.
• Add value. Be sure that your e-book actually provides helpful information from your firsthand experience. You don’t want buyers to feel like they’ve been swindled.

Online Courses

An online course generally consists of video lessons to provide over-the-shoulder tutorials on how to do something. For example, a freelance web designer might create a course showing new affiliate bloggers how to create their first WordPress site.

Online courses tend to have a higher perceived value than e-books, which means you can probably charge more for them. On the other hand, they also require a little more effort on your part in terms of setup.

Important Considerations for Online Courses

• Invest in good recording equipment. If your audio or video doesn’t work right, customers are going to be frustrated. You want to give them a solid, easy viewing experience so they’ll know that your services will be high quality too.
• Consider closed captioning. It is an easy way to make your online course so much more helpful and accessible to everyone.

Templates

Templates are basically tools to help your customers perform some task on their own that they can’t normally do with their own skill set. For example, a freelancer who specializes in social media marketing could sell image templates that are properly sized for all of the most popular social platforms.

Templates are great because they could easily lead to further sales of your normal services. The client buys the template and then realizes that some of the work is just too far over their heads. So they hire you to do it for them.

Important Considerations for Templates

• Provide instructions. Odds are good that your buyer doesn’t know what they are doing. So be sure to provide step-by-step instructions for how they can use your templates if it’s not clearly self-explanatory.
• Provide examples. In addition to the templates, be sure to include examples of what the final product that buyers will be creating
  looks like.

Memberships

By “membership”, we’re talking about granting clients access to private masterminds, Facebook groups, or other circles where they get direct access to you, as well as other members of the group.

Memberships aren’t quite as passive as traditional information products because they require you to actively participate in the group. However, they can become a recurring source of revenue if you charge a monthly fee. Furthermore, private membership groups create a sense of loyalty in your customers, which means they’ll be more likely to hire you for other services.

Important Considerations for Memberships

• Promise and deliver. Be up front about the level of interaction your members should expect from you. If you promise to respond to their questions within 24 hours, for example, make sure you stick to that as strictly as possible.
• Be personable. Memberships are the perfect way to build brand loyalty, so show your members your human side and connect with them personally and professionally.

You’ve Got So Much to Teach the World

One of the most satisfying parts about selling information products (beyond the extra income), is knowing that you’re making a change in someone else’s life. You’re teaching them new skills, offering shortcuts to save them time and money, or just sharing your wisdom and experience with them.

So figure out what information products to sell, invest your time and energy into making them awesome, then reap the benefits of teaching the world something new.