What are the benefits to operating a home-based business marketing digital products?

1.) The first benefit is low overhead. If you were to own your own physical bookstore, there would be a tremendous amount of overhead you would have to worry about.

With a traditional business there are significant costs and investments required to keep that business operating. You typically have to have a lot of customers just to cover your monthly expenses, much less make a significant profit. A PDF ebooks business can put you in profit mode with a relatively small amount of customers.

A digital products business doesn’t have anywhere near that type of overhead. You can operate the business out of your own house with no inventory and no employees. The reason why you don’t need any inventory is because your products are digital, and they are located on the Internet. Therefore, they don’t have to be stored in your house.

2.) Another benefit to operating a digital ebook publishing business is the high profit margins that are associated with that type of business. When you offer a product online, the large majority of your expense associated with that product is in the initial creation process. You may invest either time in producing the product yourself or money in hiring people to produce the product for you.

Once your final product is created your main investment required to get your business up and running is in how you market your products. However, even in the marketing of your products there are many ways you can do this for free. By doing this for free you literally have zero costs associated with selling the product.

How do these lack of expenses affect potential profits in this type of real home business? Assuming you made a $500 investment in product creation, this will give you enough money to hire someone to write an ebook for you in some markets. Once you made this investment, you now have a finished product that you can take to the market.

3.) The next step is to promote your business, which you can do by using free marketing strategies like article marketing, social network marketing and so on. You set a price point of $47 for your product. With this price point it only takes 11 sales to make your money back. Any other sale after that is full profit for your business since you have no other costs ongoing.

As the owner of your own ebook publishing business you have a business that is truly portable. You can operate your business anywhere in the world as long as you have access to a computer as well as Internet access

In fact you don’t even need to have a telephone anymore for your business. There are programs available that allow you to turn your computer with an internet connection into a telephone using Voice Over IP technology. You truly have a business that you can run from anywhere in the world.

Selling pdf ebooks online can literally be a dream business for you. You can follow these steps to start an internet business and begin seeing profits this week!!

_______________________

Copyright Stephen Beck, 2010

You have permission to reprint this article as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck can show you online business set up steps and how to make your first $1000 on the internet.  Pick up a FREE link to his webinar replay, where Stephen shows you everything you should do: http://www.YourOnlineBasics.com/go.html.

The funnel concept is a great way to visualize your business when you sell your knowledge over the internet. Understanding how it works is some of the best business start up advice anyone ever gave me.

What I want you to do is to get in your mind a picture of a huge funnel. This funnel should have a wide opening at the top and a small opening at the bottom. Entering the top of the funnel is easy because of its large width. However, emerging from the bottom of the funnel is more difficult. This is because of how narrow and thin the bottom end of the funnel is.

This funnel is exactly how the process of building a business works. It is easy to sell your knowledge if you are offering it for free in a report. It becomes a little more difficult when you charge $10 for information. It becomes even more difficult if you are charging $37 or $67 for additional information. This is why you need to have multiple products in your ebook business.

Why do you want to set your business up to sell your knowledge like this? You do so because at the top of your funnel is where you are going to have the most amount of people. As you continue to move through the funnel you are going to have fewer and fewer people. Generally speaking, more people will buy your $10 eBook than your $500 home study course. This is because when you charge more, it requires a higher level of commitment.

As you offer these products, you have to do more to make your customers feel comfortable. The marketing process that you use to give away a free report is not necessarily going to be as effective if you are marketing a $200 coaching program. People need to feel confident that your product can help them and that it will be worth the investment. Otherwise, they will hesitate and you will not make the sale. However, if you do a good job at this, not only will they buy, but they will promote for you also.

This is the power behind the funnel philosophy. When you first get started in selling information, you typically only care about having one product to sell. You just want to make that first sale. However, those who understand the whole view know they need many products with many price points. They also understand that they want more complicated products that serve their customers as they grow.

By focusing your efforts on providing value, you will build up the level of trust that your customers are willing to invest in you. Your product portfolio funnel should illustrate this goal by including escalating values of products with escalating price points. Now you should not expect to have this trust coming out of the gate. However, you do want to have a goal to shoot for and build towards because it is absolutely essential if you want to build a big business and sell your knowledge.

______________________________

Copyright Stephen  Beck, 2010

You have permission to reprint this article as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck can teach you online business set up steps and how to make your first $1000 on the internet.  Pick up a FREE link to his webinar replay where Stephen shows you everything you should do: http://www.YourOnlineBasics.com/go.html.

While some people believe free eliminates demand for paid, I have found the opposite to be true, especially in situations where the free product fails to cover as much depth as the paid product. You should be excited when you see a free product because that shows there is interest in your target market.

Keep in mind that there are several topics that you can locate information on at no cost. The challenge is that it would take a significant amount of time to locate the information. Convenience is worth spending money on. It is more convenient to find information in one location. The average person does not want to search on a bunch of websites and put the information together. They want it right now and in your home internet business you can provide it to them.

Think about all the situations where people spend money to save time. Think about all the situations where people pay more for higher quality, especially if the quality of the free products is low. This is exactly what you are doing when you create a product to sell on the internet.

Ideally you want to offer a free mini-course to build a list of prospective customers prior to launching your ebook for sale. Prospective customers that like your mini course trust you and are more willing to spend money with you. People place a greater deal of value on something that costs them money. Money creates value. If you are able to provide the best information in one place, you will have demand even if there are alternative free sources out there.

__________

Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck shows families how to make money on the internet. Check out Stephen’s 3 free videos at http://www.8weekstoprofiits.com so your family can start right now.

One payment company that you can use for digital info products is Clickbank. While it only handles digital products, it is great for newcomers to the industry. Another reason why Clickbank works well is because they handle the transaction on your behalf. It is not even necessary for you to see the credit card information for your customer. The only negative is that you cannot use them for physical products even if they support a digital product.

What happens if you want to sell information products that are in physical format? You have two options, either option #1 where you provide the physical product as a bonus to the digital item or option #2 where you use a different payment processing company to handle the physical product.

If you want a payment processing company that handles both types, look at 1ShoppingCart. It comes with the ability to receive payment for both physical and digital products. The only disadvantage is you will have to pay for this service in the form of a monthly service fee. Therefore, you will need to look at your revenue generated per month and see if it makes sense financially.

As an alternative, you can also use PayPal or MouseECommerce. PayPal is free to use. They allow you to sell digital and physical products but if you are selling both, you should use Clickbank to handle the digital and PayPal for the physical version. Here is how the process to sell information products would work. Let us say that you have a product that consists of an electronic book and an audio CD that matches up well with the content in the book. What you would do is let your customer buy your ebook through Clickbank and then offer the audio CD on the download page of the ebook using PayPal.

These are some examples of the way to handle transactions for your products. 1ShoppingCart is your best option if you have a steady stream of sales and make enough to cover the monthly fee. If you are just starting out, the best option for you would be to use Clickbank to handle the digital product sales and PayPal for physical product sales when you sell information products.

__________

Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck teaches people how to start their own coaching business. Read more free articles by Stephen at www.squidoo.com so you can start today.

Do you want more clients? Then save this date – June 30.

June 30 is the day my friend Bernadette Doyle starts her TWO-PART Teleseminar Series ‘7 Secrets to Attracting All the Clients You Want’ – and I’ve made special arrangements for you to attend as my guest!

Kerry & I had the pleasure of speaking at Bernadette’s semminar in Ireland. Let me say it was one of the best seminars with the most content and implementation where I’ve ever been a speaker.

In a hurry? Click here to register

Let’s face it, there’s a lot of conflicting advice out there about what it REALLY takes to attract new clients and grow a successful business. And it’s all getting so confusing!

But Bernadette can help, because for over 13 years she’s been helping people to win new business and get new clients. Bernadette told me recently that the rules of the game are changing and the things that USED to work to get clients are no longer working.

Has this been happening to you?

• you’re ‘doing all the right things’ – but still not getting the consistent, paying business you want
• finding it harder to get commitment from clients
• losing former clients, yet struggling to replace them
• more and more people telling you ‘I can’t afford it’
• you get great feedback, but STILL don’t have enough clients

Sound familiar?

You’re not alone. And I know you are wondering… What still works? What doesn’t work? What should I do now? What should I stop doing? What do I need to KNOW right now to change all this?

Bernadette can help you.

Starting June 30, she’s offering this two-part teleseminar series on what it REALLY takes to GET NEW CLIENTS NOW (yes, she’s got so much to share with you on this topic she can’t fit it into one call!)

And this is YOUR invitation to join Bernadette as my special VIP guest. We want you to be one of the first to hear her ground breaking insights on what’s REALLY working RIGHT NOW to get new clients.

Whether you are an established business owner or just starting out, you are going to discover what is working right now for Bernadette, her clients and her 7-figure colleagues.

You can get all the details and reserve YOUR spot by clicking the link below.

=> Click for details and to register

I want to help YOU attract all the clients you want, so make sure to join Bernadette on this special complimentary teleseminar series. I’ll be on the calls myself.

As a result of this, you need to make sure that everything you do to market and promote your business has this thought process in mind. You want to have a number of lower priced products at the beginning of your funnel. You might sell a few eBooks here or there on different topics related to your niche. These will lead to middle priced training programs in the hundreds of dollar ranges. Eventually you will have a few higher priced products in the thousands of dollars as a price point.

When creating these products, you can actually create one product and make it three separate products because they are in different formats. You can have a physical book as a product, an eBook as a product and an audio CD as a completely separate product. I do this and all three sell very well for me.

An important part of your eBook business funnel is your email newsletter. This is the key to unlocking success in a real online business. The reason why is because your newsletter is your primary method of building rapport and increasing the trust level between you and your customers. Without it, it is difficult, if not impossible to move people through your funnel.

The other thing my marketing funnel does is it eventually allows me a platform of communication for my ultimate mission. My ultimate mission is to proclaim the name of Jesus Christ to everyone that I meet. By teaching families how to create an income from real home business opportunities, this allows them a vehicle for God to be a blessing in their lives. If it also allows me to make money in the process, that is just great as well!

Have you ever seen a funnel before? If so, you know that it has a large opening at the top and a small opening at the bottom. You can fit a lot of items into the top of the funnel. However, only a small amount of items can fit into the bottom of the funnel. This is because the bottom is tighter and has a limited amount of space available.

When you are running a real online business your product portfolio should look the exact same way. At the top of your portfolio should be free offers that people can obtain with no strings attached. A perfect example is a free article you write on a blog. As you continue on through your portfolio, you should require more but offer better value. You might offer a free report in exchange for an email address. You then offer a $10 report, a $50 book, a $100 training program and so on.

By having a number of products at different price points, you give your customers high quality information that they can use. What this does is build trust in you and makes them more willing to spend even more money with you. As they progress through your marketing funnel, it becomes more difficult because the price point creates more friction and hesitance. A higher price point requires a deeper level of commitment.

As a result, it is important that you take the time to build confidence in you in the mind of your customers. You need to demonstrate to them through your marketing process when you sell your knowledge that you care about them and not just their money. The key to these online business opportunities is to build trust in the mind of your customers. This will help them to understand your message and they eventually become promoters of your message, which is how you find affiliates.

This is exactly how the funnel works in your internet marketing business. As you begin your real online business, your main focus is to find something to sell. If you can do that, you know you can make money. That being said, the business owners who recognize this process will make more money and will have more customers doing higher value transactions with them because of this. As the needs of their customer, they are able to meet those needs.

By focusing your efforts on providing value, you will build up the level of trust that your customers are willing to invest in you. Your product portfolio funnel should illustrate this by including escalating values of products with escalating price points. Now you should not expect to have this coming out of the gate. However, you do want to have this as something that you can shoot for and build towards, because it is absolutely essential if you want to build a big business when you sell your knowledge.

1. Write down everything you need to do
In order to manage your time you must identify what you need to do each day. You do not need to jot down the stuff you can delegate, just the stuff you have to do personally. Make sure you have access to it so you can constantly refer to it. Do not worry if you are not able to get everything done, you can always add it to tomorrows list.

By making a list and tracking your progress, you will get more done. List the most important to-do items first and prioritize accordingly. Just the act of doing this will make you more productive and if the unexpected occurs, you would have at least taken care of a lot of the high priority tasks.

2. Checking email can waste a lot of your time.
 One of the biggest mistakes you can make when you promote home-based business opportunities is checking email constantly. Constant email checking often results in hours of wasted time a day. You should have a designated time throughout the day that you check email, ideally after you complete some of your more important activities during the day.

One common misconception is that email is not distracting if you do not reply, only check. This is not true because even if you only read, it still takes some of your mindshare away from other activities that are more productive for building your business.

3. Do not Waste Time Surfing the Internet.
Monitoring your web surfing time can be a challenge. Many times you do not even realize how many hours you spend on non-productive web surfing activity. If the home-based business opportunities that you promote are your primary income, you may have to spend a significant amount of time on the computer. However, that does not mean you have to spend that time surfing the net. Instead, it should be spent working on activities that promote and develop your business.

4. The phone can waste a lot of time during the day. 
Depending on what type of home based business opportunities you are promoting, you may have to spend a lot of time on the phone. However, there is a difference between productive calls and unproductive calls. You should screen your incoming calls either through a personal assistant or a voice mail so you are not wasting your time. When you are working on your most important activities, avoid answering the phone during those times. Instead use that time to generate business by developing content and driving traffic to your web site.

Take some time to evaluate how you spend your day. Look at the time you spend on email, on the phone and surfing the internet. Apply some of these suggestions so you can improve your time management ability. 

______________________

Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck shows families how to sell their knowledge to increase their customer base. Read more of his free articles at http://www.squidoo.com/ebooks-3. 

As an eBook creator you know the amount of work that goes into putting the final product together. That being said, your efforts are worthless if you do not do a good job at learning how to sell information.

Sales are everything in your selling information products business. Who cares if you have a fancy web site if youre fail to earn money at home? The key to maximizing profit is to make sure your eBooks include the following components:

1. Title Page and Copyright Information
This is where you introduce your eBook to those who have purchased it. A good title page should be properly formatted in an easy to read fashion. You do not have to be fancy but it does need to have the name of your eBook as well as any copyright information to protect your efforts.

2. The Body 
This is the “meat” of your eBook so to speak. This is what people pay for so it is imperative that you spend the time necessary to provide your readers with the value they expect in the body. Otherwise your eBook business will fail.

3. Clickable Links
Clickable links are one of the best ways to make even more money than you may have made from the initial sale. You can include links to other related products that you might offer for sale. You can also include affiliate links to products you will earn a commission on. Whatever software you use to create the eBook should provide directions on how to make your links clickable.

4. Resource Box
The resource box allows you to brand yourself along with making additional money as well. In your resource box, you should include information about yourself and your company. Make sure you include resources that the niche you are serving with your eBook would be interested in. Otherwise, you will not get the results you are looking for.

5. Free Bonuses
Everyone loves getting something for free and this is where free bonuses come in play. In fact, if you do a good job with bonuses, there are some buyers who will purchase your eBook just for the bonus alone. Make sure you let your prospective buyers know how much the bonus is worth so that they can know what a great deal they are getting.

By focusing in and including these five areas you will master how to sell information. These five features of your eBook drive the overall sales process and ensure that you maximize your ability to make money on the internet. Neglecting them limits the amount of success you can have.

_____________________

Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any changes and include the bio below.

Stephen Beck teaches entrepreneurs how to increase their home-based business opportunities. Go grab his 3 free videos at http://www.8weekstoprofits.com so you can start now. 

In the ebook publishing business there are 4 profit points that have the biggest impact on how much money you are going to make. By identifying what these profit points are and what you can do to improve them, you will unlock the key to identifying how to make more money selling pdf ebooks.

The process for how to create an ebook is the first profit point. The key to this process is to identify the costs associated with it and how to decrease these costs. The costs are either financial costs if you spend money to get your pdf ebooks created or time costs if you write ebooks yourself.

So how do you generate more online profits in this area? You do it by identifying ways you can write an ebook quicker. One way you can do this is to leverage private label rights products. By editing these products instead of creating your own from scratch you produce pdf ebooks faster.

Profit point two is the process for how you get your ebook to the customer. The only delivery mechanism with zero costs is if you deliver your pdf ebooks electronically. Any other method has costs associated with it and the way to increase your profits is to find ways to reduce these costs.

The third profit point is the way you generate traffic to your web site so that people know your ebook exists. Web site traffic is king and if nobody knows about your web site, nobody will buy from you. Therefore you want to figure out what is the most cost efficient way to promote your pdf ebooks.

To increase your profits from your traffic generation techniques, look for strategies that allow you to generate traffic faster, generate a larger amount of traffic for the amount of work you put in or generate traffic at a lower cost. Looking at all of these elements in your web site traffic process reduces your cost and thus increases your online profits.

The fourth and final profit point is your marketing sales copy. These are the words and the format of the web page where you offer your pdf ebooks for sale. This is very important because if it is not formatted properly it will dramatically hamper your sales.

While there are a lot of areas that you can focus on to improve the overall profitability of your web site, the fastest strategy is to look at your headline. The reason why is because the headline determines whether the visitor continues to read or clicks to another web site. By testing different headlines you can determine the best headline to use for your visitors.

Now that you know the 4 profit points to generating online profits you now have the information that you need to make more money from your ebook publishing business. Its now up to you to take this information, apply it and use it to help you make more pdf ebook sales at the highest price possible for the lowest cost possible.

————
Copyright Stephen Beck, 2009
You have permission to reprint this article, as long as you don’t make any
changes and include the bio below.
————

Stephen Beck teaches families how to start a real home business. Go grab Stephen’s 3 free videos at http://www.8weekstoprofits.com so families can start today.