The Information Marketing Primer For Helping and Healing Solo-Professionals - Part 5 - Free Audio

By this point in the series, I hope you recognize the importance of creating an Information Marketing business as an addition to your practice or as a means to generate income should you decide to cut back on your direct service hours.

Up to this point, we have covered: identifying your target audience for your information products, the importance of having an Internet presence and writing your first information product - your Free or Special Report. 

As I said in the last installment, you may have a definite preference in terms of writing or speaking, so I am going to offer a second alternative for delivering your free report content - in audio format as a teleclass. But, remember, it's important to offer your customers the options of audio and written formats as they do have strong preferences of how they prefer to consume their content. 

A teleclass is just what it sounds like...a class you offer over the telephone. You will need to have a free telephone bridge (conference) line to record this. To find one, type in "free telephone conference lines" and you will find many of these kinds of lines available. I regularly use Free Conference Pro and No-Cost Conference, but as I said, there are many good ones (that are free) to choose from.  

There are, of course, also paid conference line companies as well. Once you get into some serious information marketing and are recording teleseminars you will charge for, then you will probably want to get a paid conference line service as they do have live help available to assist you if something goes wrong. There is often a significant difference in the quality of the recording with the paid services. In this category, I have used Black & White Communications. 

Ask at least one friend to join you on this call (most conference lines need more than one participant to open the conference). This will also give you the added bonus of moral support. Once you register with the bridge (or conference) line company, they will give you your call-in conference number and a participant pass code; there is usually always a moderator code provided too which, of course, you will be using as the moderator. Your friend can use just the Participant code.  

The bridge line company will also give you a series of codes for recording, muting and unmuting, etc. Make sure to mute your friend when you are ready to begin...these lines pick up a lot of background noise. Make sure that your environment is quiet too as the sounds in your environment will be picked up on the recording. Do not forget to use the code for recording (you will also have to enter it when you wish to stop recording). You don't want to get to the end of speaking and realize you were never recording in the first place! (No matter how many times I have done this, I always keep the sheet with all the codes for the conference call right in front of me as I get ready to record - it's a good reminder).

Once you are finished recording, the bridge line company will provide you with a link to the recording of the call. Most of the time, you get those immediately after signing off of the call. Turn this recording over to your webmaster to upload for you. The link to this recording will go into the email that will be sent to your prospect once they have signed up for your free report and you have captured their name and email address. 

An important note...DO NOT just read your written report into a phone...it will come across just this way. The best way to do this call is to write out your opening and closing and use bullet point for everything in-between. Try to have only 3 to 5 main points. Sound natural and unless you are speaking of something very grave, try to put a smile into your voice. You have to emote and project more than you think. Don't worry, everyone sounds timid on their first try. You'll improve as time goes on. 

Once again, here is the formula for creating content, but this time it will be spoken. 

• State the problem or the source of pain for your targeted reader
• Add some real-life examples of this problem or pain - make it more real in their minds. 
• Explain why this is happening or what the causes are or what is the theory behind this problem 
• Explain why what your readers have been doing to date hasn't been working 
• Provide your solution without going into the "How"
• Then give them the next step 

You can make this teleclass an hour or less. If you go longer, remember that you can only fit 80 minutes of audio on a CD, so if you should you decide to make hard copies of the teleclass, aim for an hour and fifteen minutes maximum. (I'll get into that in more detail when we get to the installment on Teleseminars)

Content - The Lifeblood Of ALL Business Online! Part 1 (of 4)

What Is “Content?” - Two Different Online Business Models.

Generally, anyone who has a venture that is “doing business” online will operate in a manner that will fall into one of two categories

First option is that they will be involved in some kind of “virtual” business, in which all (or almost all) transactions, advertising and so on will take place online. As is often advertised as an asset of such a business, there will be no physical office or shop premises, no inventory to store or deliver and so on.

Indeed, and probably most confusingly, there sometimes appears to be a lack of “product” at all!

This is quite common where, for example, the “product” is some kind of online marketing system, which is marketed and sold online using, well, itself!

In other words, you are sold a marketing system by a marketing system (thus proving that it works!) and then you sell the very same system to someone else, and so on.

It’s a bit of a cliché, but nevertheless true, that things change online very quickly. If you or I have an idea, we can have it out there in the online marketplace tomorrow, if we choose to do so.

Thus, although it can seem odd to buy something as intangible as a marketing system, it can still be of great value, as it has the potential to bring the latest and newest ideas to your PC in an instant.

Informational products represent another example of almost totally intangible products that nevertheless sell well on the internet. Examples might be a “how to” website on, let’s say, crochet or whitewater rafting or website design or the best way of making a chocolate cake. All are totally intangible, but still in huge demand, which means that they are very profitable as well!

More information about the simplest method of creating such products for profit can be found at my site [http://www.hiddentrafficgenerator.com/short.html].

Still with it? Good!

Now, the other type of business will be a “real world” business that probably sells a real tangible product, something that you can touch, smell, see. It could be widgets, Jumbo jets, hairnets, submarines, whatever and the business in question has probably used the power of the net to expand the original localized marketing efforts to go world wide.

They still market “offline” locally and their online efforts are an adjunct to these efforts, not a replacement.

This very broad sweep would probably cover 95% of business that takes place on or through the internet every day.

Yet, even coming from two such widely separated poles, both models of business rely on content to be, or not to be, successful.

So, what exactly is content?

Content – A Definition (or two!)

As suggested by this title, there’s effectively two different ways that you could define “content”.

One way would be to try to establish exactly what it is, so let’s try that first.

Content is “stuff”! It’s the “stuff” that you see every day on the internet…

Now, clearly that’s not really a great deal of help.

It’s an indication rather than a definition.

Trouble is that, in these terms, it’s not at all easy to establish anything that is anywhere concise enough to be a definition, so let’s move on to definition method two, which is in fact a good deal more helpful.

This is, what does “content” do, and, as we shall see, the answer to this goes a long way to clearing up the ambiguity created by our “stuff” definition.

Content is whatever you have on your website that gives your visitor or customer the information that they are looking or when they come to our site.

So, it can be factual information, like a product description, a catalogue or pricing information for the Jumbo jet that you are selling.

It can be less factual and more of an opinion, such as a learned discourse of where mankind is going over the next 500 years.

It can be an article such as this one, part factual and part opinion.

Nor is “content” only written, and increasingly, online audio and video are becoming ever more prominent on the net.

To summarize, content is whatever information you have on your website about your business and products, in whatever form this information takes.

Content is what makes visitors come to your site, it is what drives “traffic” to your homepage. In turn, content and the driven traffic it creates is what makes your business money, it is the engine behind every single cent of profit that you earn online.

Which makes content kind of important, I am sure you will agree…..

Coming in part 2, where to find and how to create great content.

Ebook Creator - Build Your Information Marketing Business Fast

There's never been a better time to be a writer. There are unlimited opportunities for skilled writers online, and building an information marketing business by writing ebooks is a great opportunity.

Let's see how you can get your eBook empire started fast.

1. Get a Free Education at the Outsourcing Sites

Writing and selling your own ebooks can be intimidating. One of the easiest ways to get an education in how it all works, is on the outsourcing sites. By writing for others, you learn what makes a professionally created eBook and you get paid to learn.

If you don't already have an account at an outsourcing site, create one today and start bidding on eBook writing projects.

2. Sell Your Expertise, You're an Expert on Something

Once you've completed at least three eBook projects for other people, you're ready to create your own ebooks and sell them.

Ready? Start by choosing a topic on which people need information.

Perhaps you already have a topic that you know will be a success, if you don't have a topic, think about your own experiences and what you are an expert on. Everyone's an expert on something.

Once you've chosen a topic, write a project brief (a "brief" is just a description) exactly as you'd find on one of the outsourcing sites.

Your project brief is essential even if you're working for yourself. You will find your project will change as you work on it, and having the brief in front of you keeps you on track.

Give yourself a deadline. Without a deadline your project could go on forever.

3. Once You've Completed Your First Ebook, Work on Another

As soon as you've completed the first project, get started on another one. You won't know how successful your first project will be for a while, so get started on another project right away.

Preferably, the topic for your second eBook should be related to the first. This gives you a chance to sell your second eBook to those people who purchased the first one.