Create More Products - Some Simple Advice Hardly Anyone Follows

I do some private mentoring on how to break into the IM product creation business, and I wanted to pass on something that I tell my clients...

You know the biggest "mistake" I see in IM in terms of info products? Actually, there are two of them:

1. Trying to cover way too much ground in one product.
2. Too much about theory and not enough about specific, step-by-step actions.

#1 seems counter-intuitive, but if you think about it from a customer's standpoint it makes more sense. Customers want something they can easily digest. They will get overwhelmed if you hand them a 300-page monster full of everything you can possibly think of. Know what I mean? Small chunks of tightly focused information leave more of your customers feeling satisfied and that they can do what you've laid out.

#2 is, I think, probably easier for all of us to grasp. Some amount of concept/theory explanation is necessary in most IM info products, but a lot of creators overdo this big-time. Your buyers want actionable information a lot more than they want the theories behind it all.

Of course, you have to price accordingly, but this comes down to what your long-term goals are (or should be). What will you do if you give it all up in one big product? Where will you go next? These are questions you must answer before you post your first WSO.

So, the 'win-win' answer here - where both you and your customers walk away happy - is to break things down to manageable chunks in each product. For example, I'm working on a keyword product right now. I've spent 2-3 days now just outlining what I want to cover and what I can leave out. I don't mean leaving out important steps or details that my customers will need to implement what I'm teaching! Please don't misunderstand me here on that point. I just mean figuring out what must be included to get my readers from A to Z in the shortest possible path and without a lot of spreading out into tangents they don't need. It's harder than it sounds, but you can definitely learn how to do this.

So, by the time I'm done I'll have an info product with a nice, tight focus. I'm only trying to accomplish one big goal in it. Not a bunch of stuff.

Here's why this is such a good thing for everyone (win-win)...

You (the product creator) now have somewhere to go in your next product. You didn't give everything away in a full system and essentially put yourself in the corner with no exit. Your buyer wins because they get a really focused, useful tutorial with simple steps to follow. They know going in that you're going to show them vital things about just one (or at most two) critical things they need to know how to do to make money.

I pay close attention to the feedback I get from my buyers. I can tell you without any doubt that when you follow this method you get more happy customers. They don't feel overwhelmed. They feel confident and empowered when they finish that they can actually do what you just taught them. All because you took the time to keep things tightly focused and gave them everything in a very step-by-step fashion. Trust me, buyers CRAVE that! Give it to them and you'll win a customer for life.

And of course, as I mentioned, you win too because now you have some material left for your next product. You didn't shoot your wad in one big monster product. And best of all, all those buyers of your first product will look forward to everything else you put out.

See? Everybody wins!

Hope that helps a bit if you've been struggling with creating products or wondering what the best approach is.

John