Okay, seriously, guys...

Bit of a rant, here.

I have spoken to seven people on Skype in the last 24 hours who were at that wonderful stage of IM where you know enough to be dangerous.

All of them seem to think I am somehow the go-to guy for advice on running a WSO. I don't get that. I ran one WSO. One. It wasn't even a product; it was a discount on writing services. Not exactly rocket surgery, you know?

But here are all these people with all their ideas on how to make their millions running a WSO, and they want to know what I think. And I keep telling them the same things.

So to save time, I'm going to lay out everything I know about running a WSO - or, indeed, selling any info product - right here. Because honestly, I am in the middle of creating a product, and if I have to spend hours and hours talking to half a dozen people about WSOs... I'm not going to get much done on it.

So here we go, okay? Four simple rules.

1. Sell something you know.
2. Sell something you know.
3. Sell something you know.
4. Sell something you know.

That may look like it's just one rule, but emphasis makes all the difference, so I'll elaborate.

1. Sell something you know. Not something you heard somewhere, or read on a forum, or thought up while you were drinking tequila last night. That's where you get your idea. It is NOT ENOUGH. You have to test. You have to experiment. You have to get real experience with what you're putting in your WSO.

2. Sell something you know. Not something everybody knows, or something somebody else knows. I've had four people tell me their great wonderful plan is to buy a WSO and rewrite it. That's more than half. If you don't bring anything new to the table, WTF are you doing? Everybody who wanted that WSO probably already bought it. You need something new, something fresh, something that they didn't get in the last WSO they bought.

3. Sell something you know. Not just stuff. Don't make a "garbage dump" WSO where you take a whole bunch of random thoughts and throw them together. Have a unifying theme. Provide a process. Provide a pattern. Provide options. You need to give people something that actually has a purpose, and gets them somewhere.

4. Sell something you know. I don't mean sticking a price tag on it. I mean providing all that wonderful positioning and placement and promotion that demonstrates you actually know this thing you've got on your WSO. Here's a great idea: when you're in the forum posting, why don't you post in threads about the same subject? Answer questions. Give people good advice. Let them see that you're at least somewhat knowledgeable on the subject. And have some actual success stories. That's a plural, stories, not just one. If you sold one website, you are not qualified to write a WSO on flipping websites.

I mean, come on, people. This stuff is not hard. It's not new. All you have to do to make an info product people want to buy is sell something you know.

There. That's what I know. Now... can I get back to my own stuff?