Many of us get trapped in the process of creating e-books. We look at them as a single product, a book just like you would find on the shelf at Barnes and Noble, a book that has a price ceiling that the customer is willing to spend.
Now, for just a second, think of a college course or a seminar. Would you ever dream of only spending $19 to take a college class, or to be taught by a famous marketer at a seminar?
Nope, you would probably go into it assuming that you are going to shell out some money. You had a pre-conceived value in your mind about how much you needed to spend.
Well, your customers feel the same way. They put a much higher mental price tag on systems and courses than they do on a simple e-book. Yes, e-books are easier and quicker to create, but in this article I am going to show you how to create a very valuable course without having to put in too much additional effort.
Here’s what you do:
-
Create the E-book just like you would normally- Find a hungy niche that is willing to buy what you want to sell. Solve a problem that you customer wants solved RIGHT NOW.
-
Record that book in audio format- Now you are offering an additional way that the customer can digest the product without having to read the actual text.
-
Create training videos for the product- Sometime you can do this right alongside the audio, or create entirely separate videos that supplement the book.
-
Develop checklists and forms- These can be very valuable additions to a course. People love checklists, where they can use them to make sure that they are following a system step-by-step.
- Include VALUABLE bonus material- This is not just stuff that the customer can dig up somewhere else, but stuff that can only be found with your course. Many times, if an infopreneur does it correctly, the customer may purchase the product just so they can get the bonus material.
By taking your e-book as a base and building the rest of a course around it, you can quickly increase the value of your product and have a system that the customer completely expects to pay much more money to obtain.
Of course your product will have to live up to your customers’ expectations, but if you can deliver on what you promised in your sales copy, you could have a winner. Think BIG from the beginning of your e-book journey and you will be rewarded BIG in the end.
What about you? What are some ways that you use to enhance the value of your e-book or services? Have you ever created a course from something that started out as just a small report and grew into a large product? Let’s get the discussion started below…
Until next week,
-Joshua Black
Joshua Black is the creator of the Underdog Millionaire Blog. Having started over a dozen small businesses of his own in the last 15 years, he is small business consultant, copywriter, information marketer and permanent student of small business. He is also the creator of the Ultimate Information Product Report. You can also sign up for the daily Underdog Millionaire small business Tip Sheet and not only will you get a wealth of small business, marketing, and sales information, but you will also receive 5 FREE success books (including Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich). Click here to sign up.
FREE 20/7 Report
FREE WordPress Training Videos
Hey Joshu,
Wow… Awesome tips man. I never though of including check list and bonus material.
Thanks for sharing this great Post. Awesome tips man. Retweeted !!
~Dev
Dev | Technshare´s last [type] ..Are You Selling Yourself Short And Eventually Your Blog Too
Thanks Dev.
Yep, It’s the little things that make a product into a large package.
-Joshua Black
Hi Joshua,
I like the idea of going in before writing the ebook and seeing what other ways that you can add value to solve people’s problems. I’ve been noticing more and more offers where they have a standard product (i.e. just the ebook) but for a higher price you can get the audio version plus the ebook, and for an even higher price you can get the video format and the audio and the ebook version. So, bundling can meet any one’s price point. Great advice here.
Karen
Karen´s last [type] ..Small Ways To Make A Big Difference
Absolutely, these are called ‘upsells’ and are often used to make the cheaper products appear better value. When any someone trades up the seller generates a much higher return because the additional production costs are negligble.
For instance my wife and I have just been out for coffee and I ordered a large coffee and my wife had a smaller one. The difference in cost was just 50cents, yet the additional costs of prouducing the larger are negligible and so the additional revenue is nearly all pure profit.
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..Don’t rely on the CV
Wow,
When I saw the title I knew I had to read this. I must say a few things here.
1. The article you’ve written here definitely delivers much more than expected from the title itself.
2. If you do all of these things all from just the info you have in your ebook and create a course of such, I think you’ve done something amazing that people will absolutely take a look more into.
Good article.
Eric´s last [type] ..Hello world!
Awsome post and ideas Josh.
gets us thinking outside the square a bit and means that you only need to sell 1 course for every 11 e-books that you would normally sell.
Cheers,
Schmidty
Exactly Schmidty,
It takes almost as much work to sell an inexpensive book as it does a whole course.
-Joshua Black
Great article as always, Josh, but I’m kind of mystified as to the notion of bonus materials that might trump the whole package. What’s a good example of this?
Noel´s last [type] ..WHAT WOULD YOU MOST LIKE TO LEARN ABOUT
Noel,
The bonus thing is always in the eye of the customer. One of your bonuses might be something that the person has been looking for a long time. That has happened to me.
That is why you have to offer a variety of things. This will help you gain interest from a wide variety of customers.
-Joshua Black
Great post Joshua. I’m going to be launching an ebook soon about writing an eBook – I will definitely include some of these things you suggest as upsells for the product.
Great tips!
Matthew Needham´s last [type] ..Don’t rely on the CV
#5 made me smile, oh how true.
I’ve seen many “launches” in my time online. More often then not the bonuses are plentiful but total crap. (5k in bonuses for a $50 book; really?) lol
Every once in a while though, you catch that something out of the corner of your eye that presses the, holy crap! button and you just have to purchase.
Dennis Edell | Direct Sales Marketing´s last [type] ..Last Post and Current To-Do List
Dennis! The “holy crap button” I love it! You’re right. The bonus has got to really be worth it to the customer. I think that over-inflated bonus material is slowly becoming a thing of the past as more saavy internet marketers join the scene.
-Joshua Black
The Underdog Millionaire
T.I.P Team Member
Joshua Black | The Underdog Millionaire´s last [type] ..Happy 1st Birthday Underdog Millionaire Blog-A Year in Re-Cap
Quite slowly, but yes you can see some difference.
Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketimg´s last [type] ..Last Post and Current To-Do List
Got to agree with Dennis and the ‘bonuses’.
Most I have ever seen are really rubbish and just not worth adding.
In fact, I’ve been put off by some bonuses…thinking if that’s the bonus…the actual product must be rubbish as well.
Andrew
Andrew @ Blogging Guide´s last [type] ..Subscribers Magnet Gave Me A 205 Increase In Opt-ins
See, NOW we’re talkin!
Video production is very easy. In fact, I’d say start top down so do your video first, rip the audio, transcribe the text into ebook!
The checklists and such are a great addition.
I’d also like to add that you could even do things like private forums and mastermind groups or you could do private coaching for a select few.
Think BIIIIIG!
Murlu´s last [type] ..Creating A Cult Following Behind Your Brand
Love this idea! You’ll hit every type of customer and learner, while giving them ways to interact with and revisit the lessons for maximum effectiveness. Great idea Joshua
Jillian´s last [type] ..Traffic Report – July 2010