kathyvabuk: How to Pick a Niche and Turn That Into an Info Product

Everyone has a message, a life story, or a body of knowledge that is valuable and useful to others. Once you identify what yours is, that message and knowledge can be monetized as an info product.

People are often overwhelmed by the idea of creating an info product, but as former mortgage broker and digital information business expert, Susan Lassiter Lyons would tell you, it is far from an unattainable goal. She speaks from experience, having gone from mortgage broker to online mogul in relatively short order. Many people, just like her (and you), create information products such as e-books, CDs, DVDs, workbooks, seminars, and other programs to add value to their target audience every day.

Marci Shimoff is a former stress management consultant who wrote the book ?Happy For No Reason?. Now she offers audio courses, teleseminars, and a home study course on? how to be happy.

Gary Vaynerchuck worked at his parent?s liquor store in New Jersey and is a self-taught wine expert. He went on to start WineLibrary.tv, an online wine webseries, and WineLibrary.com to sell wine online. Now he is a sought-after expert in social media and teaches companies how to build their brands online.

Ben Ford is a retired engineer who now sells e-books on how to build solar panels and wind farms. His sales generate more than $30,000 a week!

Susan Lassiter-Lyons was a former mortgage broker who closed her business in November 2008 after the ?Mortgage Meltdown?. She launched her digital information business and real estate investing blog in January 2009 based around her expertise in real estate investing and hit six figures in July 2009. ?She didn?t stop there ? now she?s well into the seven figures.

Let their stories bear witness that you don?t have to be well-known in order to market a successful info product. Third party online marketplaces like ClickBank.com make it easy for you.

ClickBank offers more than 50,000 digital products covering topics as diverse as how to manage menopause, how to get rock-hard abs, and how to build a solar panel! All these products have TWO things in common:

They are sold and delivered online
They are created by regular people just like you and me

How to Identify Your Expertise

Begin by taking an inventory of your knowledge:

-????????? What do people always ask you about?

-????????? What have you studied extensively?

-????????? Most Importantly: What do you love to do?

Once you?ve identified your specific message or body of knowledge that you wish to focus on, start brainstorming particularly pressing questions about that topic you can address in your info product.

As a useful info product hack, go to answers.yahoo.com and type your topic in the search bar. Each of the top questions that come up can be a chapter in your e-book! Write it in a Word doc and save as a PDF and there you have it! The first draft of your e-book.

Once you start getting fancy, have a designer format it and add graphics. If you don?t have easy access to a designer, use a freelance network like Elance.com or oDesk.com to help you find one.

With that product you will want to implement Susan?s three-step framework to really grow it into a profitable online business.

Remember, when creating an info product, identifying your expertise is the first and most crucial step. Choosing a topic that you aren?t passionate about will inevitably result in failure. Pick something you love to do and that you won?t mind putting some elbow grease into. Once you find that perfect topic, it will just flow ? I promise!

About the author...

Stephan Spencer ? who has written 1 posts on ShoeMoney.com.

Stephan Spencer is author of Google Power Search (O'Reilly 2011) and co-author of The Art of SEO, now in its 2nd Edition (O'Reilly 2012). In 1999, Stephan founded leading SEO firm, Netconcepts and has been heavy into the science of SEO since then. In 2010, Netconcepts was acquired by software/services agency Covario. Stephan is also the inventor of the automated pay-for-performance natural search technology platform GravityStream (re-branded as RIO SEO Website Optimizer). He contributes to a vast array of publications, including The Huffington Post, Practical Ecommerce, MarketingProfs.com, Search Engine Land and Multichannel Merchant. Stephan regularly presents at industry events, including Shop.org, Internet Retailer and SMX, about SEO and other online marketing topics. He is on the advisory board of CrowdGather and holds an M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.