A lot of people take the plunge of creating and selling an ebook, a video tutorial or investing on a software development and fail. Why? Most of them fail to recognize the importance of careful planning. Sure, you may be armed with a brilliant idea, bursting with passion and equipped with unquestionable expertise, but without careful planning, you may just be setting yourself up for failure.
Of course, in any type of venture, no matter how small or inexpensive, you want to ensure you meet your goal and be successful. In the case of selling information products, one of the critical factors that can make or break your business is in the selection of topic/niche to pursue.
Why is this important? The worldwide web is accessed by millions of people, in various ages, backgrounds, interests, problems, ethnic orientation, etc. You want to make sure that the type of information product you are selling gets the attention of the target audience you want to attract.
Instead of trying to cater to everyone, take time to identify your target audience. For example, you are planning to sell a how-to ebook on cooking. Sure, there is a market for this, but what specific segment of society you want to appeal to?
If you are planning to target Asian working mothers, you can start studying that specific target market and identify their specific needs or problems. You may want to offer 5-minute breakfast recipes for Asian Moms or Low Calorie Asian Dinner Ideas. With a targeted approach, you will be able to provide more in-depth information and increase the chances of making conversions.
Determining What Topics to Pursue
So how do you decide what topics best appeal to your target market and which one will you be most effective in? Here are some factors to take into account:
1. Something You Are Expert In Or Passionate About
Aside from the motivation of generating income, you should also take into consideration your personal passions in order to come up with an information product that sells. It must be something that you believe in, which you are eager to share or confident to sell an idea which you believe will present real value or solution to your target audience.
If making money is your motivating factor, you may run the risk of selling information that does not offer real value at the expense of your buyers. Take time to identify what your interests are, what topics do you consider yourself an expert in or something that you can truly identify with?
2. Research Topics That Are Popular In the Market
If you have already identified what topic you want to focus on, you will need to drive down and identify a specific issue/problem that most people in your target market can identify with. So aside from taking into account your personal passions, you should also take time to study what best appeals to your target audience – the same ones you will be selling your information product to. This will help you ensure that the information product you want to create actually has a defined market for it and not merely take on a hit and miss approach.
For example, if you are a mother yourself and you are truly passionate about parenting and helping working mothers juggle work and family life as well as setting aside time to nurture oneself, study on that particular market. What are the common, prevailing woes?
What issues do they usually deal with? You may want to focus on instilling discipline among toddlers in this modern world or maybe a potty training guide.
3. Spend Time In Forums And Social Media Sites
In order to best appeal to your target audience, you need to get intimate – take time to study who these people are, what are their common problems, what do they usually spend on, what is their average monthly income, how do they spend their leisure time, etc.
So how do you exactly achieve this important information without conducting an extensive survey? Make good use of social media sites and forums. Facebook and Twitter have search functions that you can use to filter search results. You can also determine what specific age bracket you want to target.
By hearing the questions and learning what they are talking about straight from your target audience, you will be able to come up with an effective content strategy that can best appeal to that specific niche.
Twitter Search Function
With almost everyone on Twitter these days, it’s the perfect place to study your target market. Using the search function, key in the topic you want to work on and include a question mark sign in your search. For example “yoga”, this will generate a result tweets with questions users posted about yoga. This will help you have a ‘pulse’ on the current interests/concerns.
Since most Facebook users use privacy restrictions, you can conduct a study on the Fan pages of your competitors or top industry providers of products or services that are relevant to the information product you plan on working on. Try to come up with top 3 competitor fan pages that have the most number of “likes” and take time to read interactions.
Forums
Forums offer a wealth of information. Find one that is specifically created for the market you want to target. For example, you can find forums on working mothers through a simple Google search. Spend time reading what the members are talking about, what concerns and problems aired and advices sought.
Information products go beyond delivering relevant information. To be really effective, you need to deliver real value. By taking time to study your market and what are the common concerns, you will be able to outline your content that will best address the problems and appeal to your target audience.
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