the biggest information sellers - what Frank Kern mentions in his new Video

[DonTino]

Ok since everyone seemed to have watched Frank Kerns new video 'Infomillionaire' and in my opinion he makes a good point that we are in the 'Information age' I think it would be a great idea to get all the big fishes in that area into one list just to see and make it more clear to what actually is possible by simple selling "just information". Internet and none internet related.

I think it could give some of us some great ideas and inspire most of us at working harder at their products.


I'll start it out with Micrososft - Frank Kern already mentioned it in his video, all they do is sell a way present, rearrange and work with information.

Any kind of Book Publisher - Books were most likely one of the first way to distribute the same information over and over again - and it still works, despite the internet, what would this world be without books.

Journalists - all they do is gather information and write about it

Not to forget - The media like TV, newspaper

Well new information is created everyday since this world does not seem to stop evolving, so our basic product "information" will newer run out. That's good, isnt' it?

INTERNET RELATED

The internet is simply the same old product "information" presented with a new twist like Allen says

Google - they started simple with the information of search results and 'simple links' to websites that they just knew how to present and make usable for everyone.

Yahoo - similair as Google started with nothing but a "Link Direcotry" back in the days like 10 years ago or so

The Warrior Forum - Allen's place, what are we doing here, what am I doing here? Sharing information. If you'd know how much Allen really makes here everyday you'd know how wealthy you can get simply by presenting information in the right way. Just see how many WSO are added new everyday and you can get a fraction of the idea of how much he makes with this "information portal"

Anybody has any more of those, I'd really like to see them. Gets my mind going like crazy in a very positive way.

Tino

[DonTino]

No one knows any big information sellers or infomillionaires? Common you guys and gals can do better than that

Tino

[Meanna Blog]

eban pagan?

[DonTino]

Never heard of eban pagan before looking it at google right now - care to elaborate a bit?

Tino

[derrickp]

Considered a guru, mastermind behind Double Your Dating(from clickback, hope I got the name right). I don't know him or have ever bought anything by him, just what little information I have picked up scanning the forums over the years.

Someone obviously can give you more (or more correct) information

[John Henderson]

Hi Tino,

I also like to think about this stuff. It seems to me that the most amazingly profitable companies in this world are those who deal in only two commodities: information and money.

At first, you might think that a book publisher falls into this category -- after all, they sell information in return for money -- but their business model relies upon more than information and money: paper, printing presses, human operators, physical storage space, delivery trucks, bookstores, etc.

Internet businesses cut out all of the 'middlemen', requiring only cheap computers/networks to create, store, replicate, deliver and take payment for electronic information. And they do all of this 24 hours/day. No wonder eBay, Google and iTunes make so much money.

I think it's the ultimate business. Just amazing.

John.

[tomw]

Originally Posted by John Henderson

At first, you might think that a book publisher falls into this category -- after all, they sell information in return for money -- but their business model relies upon more than information and money: paper, printing presses, human operators, physical storage space, delivery trucks, bookstores, etc.

I'm not trying to get on your case John, but if you are going to draw a comparison, look at it from the macro perspective as the OP did.

Therefore, the book publisher can rightly be consider an information broker.

Thomas

[John Henderson]

Hey, no problems Tom. I'm still daydreaming about the elegant, frictionless efficiency of internet business...

(I also like super-insulated houses with solar arrays on the roof -- no bills, no middlemen, no taxation. Just the householder and his unlimited supply of electricity/hot water )

[tomw]

Originally Posted by John Henderson

Hey, no problems Tom. I'm still daydreaming about the elegant, frictionless efficiency of internet business...

Wow! That's a surprisingly elegant, frictionless and efficient sentence from a "smoggie!"



Thomas

[John Henderson]

ROTFL!!! Thank you, Tom. That made my evening.

P.S. I'm relocating to West Sussex on the 29th of this month...

[DonTino]

Originally Posted by derrickp

Considered a guru, mastermind behind Double Your Dating(from clickback, hope I got the name right). I don't know him or have ever bought anything by him, just what little information I have picked up scanning the forums over the years.

Someone obviously can give you more (or more correct) information

thanks for the info - found him on wikipedia also

[ExRat]

Hi John,

It seems to me that the most amazingly profitable companies in this world are those who deal in only two commodities: information and money

I don't disagree, but I can't help but add to the list -

Traffic IE eyeballs, which ties in with, or is encompassed by - advertising.

And if I think of my own personal favourite (the google adwords business model) then I guess that could also fall loosely under 'information' and possibly 'money'.

If push came to shove, I'd rather be in the advertising business than the information business - providing a venue for sellers to showcase their (information) products. Who could resist a business with no refunds, no product/inventory and so much demand that customers are willing to put their business at the mercy of secret, constantly changing algos?

I've also come across many who claim that 'licensing' is the most amazingly profitable business, in comparison to the work involved - pure positioning. Again, this model allows one to position themselves between the (information) product producer and the consumer.

[robocallaghan]

The best business is where you buy low and sell high - I think that covers most info businesses ;-)

Rob.

[MaskedMarketer]

No one mentioned Agora?

Eben is small time compared to Agora.

Originally Posted by ExRat

Traffic IE eyeballs, which ties in with, or is encompassed by - advertising.

I've also come across many who claim that 'licensing' is the most amazingly profitable business, in comparison to the work involved - pure positioning. Again, this model allows one to position themselves between the (information) product producer and the consumer.

Agree that advertising is a great business to be in. there will always be businesses and they iwll need to advertise.

And I also agree about the lisencing. I worked for a company and the would lisence there name out to multiple companies selling information.

Each company would do tens of millions in sales. He would take 80% of profits . And he did this as a side thing, lol.

[DonTino]

Originally Posted by ExRat

Hi John,

I don't disagree, but I can't help but add to the list -

Traffic IE eyeballs, which ties in with, or is encompassed by - advertising.

And if I think of my own personal favourite (the google adwords business model) then I guess that could also fall loosely under 'information' and possibly 'money'.

If push came to shove, I'd rather be in the advertising business than the information business - providing a venue for sellers to showcase their (information) products. Who could resist a business with no refunds, no product/inventory and so much demand that customers are willing to put their business at the mercy of secret, constantly changing algos?

I've also come across many who claim that 'licensing' is the most amazingly profitable business, in comparison to the work involved - pure positioning. Again, this model allows one to position themselves between the (information) product producer and the consumer.

Great point Roger never thought about it before. It's one reason why Google makes that much money.

Tino

[DonTino]

Originally Posted by MaskedMarketer

No one mentioned Agora?

Eben is small time compared to Agora.

Another one I don't know and can't find infos on except for some old greece city.

Tino

[lakshaybehl]

Originally Posted by DonTino

Never heard of eban pagan before looking it at google right now - care to elaborate a bit?

Tino

he's david de angelo from double your dating .com... sorry ive just one hand at the moment, so i cant capitalize...

[DonTino]

Originally Posted by lakshaybehl

he's david de angelo from double your dating .com... sorry ive just one hand at the moment, so i cant capitalize...

LOL no problem about the capitalizing, what happened to your other hand?

Yep got that info about david de angelo by now.

Tino

[lakshaybehl]

Originally Posted by DonTino

LOL no problem about the capitalizing, what happened to your other hand?

Yep got that info about david de angelo by now.

Tino

OK... Finally Now I have both my hands back in place working like always...

Actually I spilled over a mug of hot chocolate and was multitasking...

1. Getting scolded
2. Licking chocolate from my hand
3. Typing away to glory as others looked at me ridiculously... no ridoculously.

But hey! this David De Angelo guy is one heck of a marketer... he got me juiced up and I purchased a lot from him... That was when no one had even heard of Eban Pegan.

-Lakshay

[MaskedMarketer]

Originally Posted by lakshaybehl

But hey! this David De Angelo guy is one heck of a marketer... he got me juiced up and I purchased a lot from him... That was when no one had even heard of Eban Pegan.

-Lakshay

Eben is a good marketer.

He's and Expert and an Expert Communicator.

[dbarnum]

We have eBay with not only Internet related items but all types, in CD, DVD, print and other formats, ever evolving....excellent resource for products, services, info community areas, affiliate and other programs for us.

[digitalproductreporter]

Originally Posted by DonTino

No one knows any big information sellers or infomillionaires? Common you guys and gals can do better than that

Tino

I think the "infomillionaire" is just a summary/copy/influenced by this amazing book by an amazing marketer

Unleashing The IdeaVirus Ebook Free Download | Digital Product Reporter

sound familiar? quoting the ebook

"the currency of our future is ideas"

"if you can get people to accept and embrace and adore and cherish your ideas, you win. You win financially, you gain power and you change the world in which we live."

"Fact is, the first 100 years of our country’s history were about who could build the biggest, most efficient farm. And the second century focused on the race to build factories. Welcome to the third century, folks. The third century is about ideas."

"In the old days, we used to sneer at this and call it a fad. Today, everything from presidential politics to music to dentistry is driven by fads—and success belongs to marketers who embrace this fact."

and on and on.....

other examples are facebook, myspace, hotmail, cnn, or start here

English - Alexa Top 100Sites

aside: I also think much of the infomillionair psychology is influenced by/ripped from tony robbins "unleash the power within" and others.

[John Rogers]

One of my favorites is Melvin Powers of Wilshire Book Co. The succes of Psycho-Cybernetics is largely due to Powers buying the rights to publish it in paperback when it wasn't selling as a hardcover.

He really is a pioneer of doing in mail order what many here are trying to duplicate on the internet.

Melvin Powers Wilshire Book Company – About Melvin Powers

John

[MaskedMarketer]

Originally Posted by digitalproductreporter

"the currency of our future is ideas"

This is certainly true. The problem is most people are spreading the same ideas and hardly anything original out there.

Another good book to complimaent the one you recommend is

Amazon.com: A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers...

Originally Posted by digitalproductreporter

aside: I also think much of the infomillionair psychology is influenced by/ripped from tony robbins "unleash the power within" and others.

Nothing wrong with that. Who did Anthony Robbins rip his NAC brand from? NLP.... and who did Richard Bandler and John Grinder rip off?

Its just successful modelling...

[Loren Woirhaye]

Originally Posted by MaskedMarketer

This is certainly true. The problem is most people are spreading the same ideas and hardly anything original out there.

You hit the nail on the head. It is mostly about repackaging into a format people
will pay more money for. A certain IM guru launched a very costly seminar
last year with some nice videos with seemingly very inventive ideas that
must have required A LOT OF THOUGHT for him to put together and develop.

Not if you've read Geoff Ayling's "Rapid Response Advertising" - the launch
was largely a repackaging of some core concepts from that book... at 2000 times
the price. Very clever. I'm not saying the seminar didn't have additional value
or that people didn't go and have fun getting drunk together, just that you could
have just read some key source books and got a lot of the same info.

People will pay BIG money to avoid reading books or doing their own research.
Once you get on the other side of it and you've absorbed the core source
material on a topic (like real estate investing) you could just repackage it
in seminar format and make a lot of money teaching information a focused
person could learn at the library.

You can get very rich if you find the right information at the right time,
repackage it as a seminar or multimedia product, and tell people what
they could read for themselves.

It seems in the IM world NLP is making a comeback as a sort of "holy grail"
of persuasive salesmanship. All I can say is that NLP is interesting stuff
and it is a theoretical model and it's just a little wise to educate
yourself regarding the phychiatric community's view of it. That doesn't
change the saleability of the "technology", but it brings into question
it's validity as a solution. (as one NLP teacher wrote "If NLP is so fabulous
where's my Ferrari?" - to address the fact that some of the people study it
in order to get rich and happy and after years and years find themselves broke
and neurotic).

People will buy what they want to hear. There is still a loyal marching
army who adore "The Secret" like a new-age bible. There is big money
in telling folks that the real way to get rich is to WISH for it rather than
get smart, read, develop plans and implement them.

I may come off as opinionated here. I just read a lot. I read both sides
of the issues. As an info-marketer it's in my best interest to know
who is pulling strings and how it is done.

[John Henderson]

Originally Posted by Loren Woirhaye

People will pay BIG money to avoid reading books. You can get very rich if you find the right information at the right time, repackage it as a seminar or multimedia product, and tell people what they could read for themselves.

This is pretty much my plan Loren, so it's reassuring to read your vote of confidence...

[Jason Profit]

I will have to second that Melvin Powers mention. If you have never heard of Melvin Powers then you must study up on him. He truly laid out the plans many are hoping for on the net as far as info sales. His book on mail order is pure gold... as is psychocybernetics. Everyone should read both of those books. I can remember listening to a free hour long audio cassette tape interview with Melvin about mail order riches when I was 18. Killer free content concept for back then.

There are many well known info marketers. How about That "free government money" guy... Matthew Lesko. He has been around for years.

Then there is Carlton Sheets and his no money down real estate courses. He has been marketing info for ages on TV and other outlets.

Can't forget about the "make money watching TV" guy. You may have seen his ads in magazines and such with the little cowboy head "I made $20k watching the news". Ken Roberts is his name and he is credited with introducing more people to commodities trading than any other person. His info course and commodities chart service has been in swing for 2 decades or so.

Eben Pagan has been mentioned already but he deserves second mention. His IM info and his dating info are both fantastic examples of what info sales can accomplish.

Another guy that Eben knows is Ross Jeffries. He sells a dating course that predates Ebens stuff.

Who else comes to mind... Here is an odd one... Uri Geller. The spoon bending guy you ask? Yes! Info sales? YES! What would you call getting paid a million dollars to locate oil on a map with your pendulum? No I am not kidding... and it happened more than once because it works. His biography is free at his website.... along with gobs of other exclusive free content. Which helps sell books... and videos... and art. Oh yeah and Jewelry on QVC...lol

Even more crazy... Peter Popoff. The holy rolin' pastor that was busted using radios to recieve info from "God"... who turned out to be his wife reading prayer cards over the radio. Even though he was down for years after that... he is now back to making millions and millions. I won't disclose his methods... nor suggest anyone "model" his biz. lol

Info sales is everywhere and has been since way before the internet. With todays markets sure, you have to offer more than just text. It is very true that people would prefer not to read and will pay nicely to have content provided to them via video or audio. Still info sales none the less.

[TracyNeedham]

John Reese
Rich Schefren
the Stompernet Guys
Jeff Walker
Dan Kennedy
Ali Brown

...seems like there's a million of them!

Seems like I should add Amazon too. They made it possible to sell books the big chains weren't interested in picking up--esp. from smaller publishing houses and self-publishing.

Tracy

[Jeff Walker]

No one mentioned Agora?

Eben is small time compared to Agora.

No, Eben is definitely NOT small-time compared to Agora.

Eben's a buddy of mine, and I also know the Agora folks. Agora has an amazing business. But trust me, Eben is playing very close to the top of the food chain in the infomarketing biz.

Yes, there's a crazy amount of money to be made selling information... I started with nothing and with no knowledge, and I've sold many millions of dollars of information. But it seems like much of this thread is focused on the people who are selling information about marketing (and infomarketing).

There's also a TON of money to be made selling info about other stuff (ie, all kinds of niches). I spent almost ten years selling info about the stock market... and I made more money there than I could have ever dreamed. Eben started off selling dating advice - millions of dollars of dating advice... and he's still selling a ton of it.

Bottom line - there are all kinds of people making all kinds of crazy money in all kinds of crazy niches.

- Jeff

[Chris Kent]

Eben Pagan made over 20 million dollars before he even started doing IM. I respect him far more than other gurus who may be receiving nearly all their money from IM - almost like incest to me.

[Christopher R Everson]

Wouldn't any kind of Broker just be selling information really?

Like a stock broker, just selling you his stock knowledge and picks for a price, per hour?

Same with legal advice. They aren't creating somthing for you (other than a case etc), it's just the same information you can learn, albeit a lot of it.

[tj]

Your forgot the biggest partner in the business: The government of each country in the world.

Timo

[Keith Kogane]

A lot of people don't realize that the music and movie industries are also information businesses, just the purpose of the info is entertainment. The key to their businesses (as well as that of Microsoft and other software giants) is overcoming the tendency of information to spread freely. They make billions by controlling the MEDIUM and not the message.

But the music industry is caving in now, because the items they use to control distribution are now less efficient than the free means available on the internet. These business call that kind of IP theft "Piracy", but it's simply a matter of them no longer being able to control the flow of the information.

With this in mind, look at where the profit centers for these companies are now. Microsoft fights for control of how you use the internet (control of medium, not the message). Music still sees profit centers in live concerts and physical merchandising. Movies still see profits in ticket sales for theaters.

Notice the live, physical elements involved with their profits, and consider how that fits into what you can do to make a LOT of money with information. It's about presentation, it's about real events, it's about framing the info in such a way to make it experiential instead of archival. It's not a book on a shelf. It's a guy on stage talking to you.

Anyway, food for thought.

P.S. I know the above is a gross oversimplification, please don't think I'm starting an argument or discussion - I'm just talking out loud as I think.

P.P.S. - Jeff Walker's big innovation with PLF, imho, is in taking the traditional digital info-product business and turning it into an EVENT through time-specific marketing. What is a launch besides a chance to watch a master marketer at work? Is that really all that different than watching a guy play a guitar on stage? I don't think it is.

[Jeff Walker]

P.P.S. - Jeff Walker's big innovation with PLF, imho, is in taking the traditional digital info-product business and turning it into an EVENT through time-specific marketing. What is a launch besides a chance to watch a master marketer at work? Is that really all that different than watching a guy play a guitar on stage? I don't think it is.

I wish I could play guitar 1/100th as well as I can launch products.


- Jeff