What is your single biggest complaint with the typical info product?

Me too!!!!!!!!! And, I also hate the hyped up wording and overstuffed sales pages, they just make my head swim, I like direct, WHAT, WHY, WHEN AND WHO, HOW MUCH and WHAT FOR, period.

Bingo!

The average IM writer is either too lazy to spell everything out, or else is out of touch with exactly how "newbie" the average newbie really is.

The huge majority of people who want to join this field aren't only IM-inexperienced. They're full-on tech-newbies. They need hand holding, and they need things spelled out.

They need, in short, SYSTEMS. Systems with every last detail addressed, and all the doubts and concerns addressed.

It seems counterintuitive, but I would rather face a step by step system LOADED with blatant affiliate links (so long as the IM'er told me up front they were affiliate links), and concrete instructions to use EXACTLY such-and-such a hosting company...such-and-such a hosting plan...such-and-such a domain...etc.

It's too easy to get overwhelmed by the endless choices and waste one's IM life looking for an objective truth that doesn't exist. Give me YOUR subjective guru truth, tell me why, and let's move forward from there.

A few ebooks' writers try to cover a wide range of aspects of their field rather than focusing on a single aspect and presenting important details about it. Someone, I've forgotten who, aptly described this as writing a 101.

Everytime I'm tempted to write a 101, I stop and review my material.

My very first attempt was indeed a 101 that never got to see the light of day. It should have been a regular hardcover book instead of an ebook.

My biggest complaint is useless or repetitive filler - content stuck in just to bulk up the product.

Marcia Yudkin

If you can't explain it in one ebook for everyone, then perhaps the next best thing is to start with the beginners. While you're making sales from that, start writing the ebook for the intermediates...then sell that to the beginners since you'll have a list of previous customers. They should naturally be ready to move on, and if the first ebook was good, many should buy. Then work on the advanced ebook.

At the end you'll have one ebook for beginners, another for intermediate users, and another for advanced users. All can be sold separately, plus you can sell them as a bundle for a higher price.

Not having step by step details on how to do what you are talking about. If you say "put up a website", then explain all of the steps that you need to put up a website. Give details and examples.

Daniel, that's my biggest as well. I held back at first because I did't want to lead the discussion in any certain direction. And I still don't want to. But from the posts so far, I now know I'm not alone in my thinking. Thanks again to all!
Pat

Depends if the affiliate links actually link to a resource that could complement the product nicely or help boost productivity...
but yes generally affiliate links are a big turn-off

Exactly, I think people should learn to hype their own results within boundaries.

For example, if you can get an article to get 1,000 views, hype it in a way that you don't have to lie, more often than none you'll get people who don't know how and could do with those 1,000 views rather than 100.

Maybe another product exist with someone who achieved more but they found yours, use your numbers to your advantage but don't lie.

In the guide you could state, that your results are by far not its full potential and that they could use your technique and scale it up, or certain thing could be better improved.

Honesty really is the best policy, you can hype within its boundaries but don't put out pure lies.

Jay.

People will tell you they don't want hype - but then when you split test facts and figures vs hype to those same people, the hyped-up copy wins every time. (That's what my tests have shown.)

People say one thing, but often do another. So asking what people like/don't like might be a starting point, but make results of TESTING your ending point.

Jay Jennings

More about hype/fluff/filler...

> I don't need your entire biography from the time you started on solid food until launch day. If you need to establish credentials, either do it before I buy or keep it short (1 page or less).

> If you want me to have a catalog of every product you ever put out, as well as affiliate links to every program you ever signed up for, include a catalog in the download package. The content for your book should not start on page 30.

> I'm not buying your product for a history lesson. I don't really need to know the origin of the Internet, the history of the web browser, etc. That stuff might be interesting, but it belongs in a textbook.

> DO NOT use a faded cover image as the background for every page. I know what the cover looks like, it was on the cover. Putting that graphic behind the text gives me a headache, which isn't good for your future sales opportunities.

> Case studies should actually be case studies. Problem, action steps, results. Not a disguised testimonial for the next product in the funnel.

> Never lie to me. Period. Full stop.

For a lot of people, it's leaving out details. For me, it's adding too much detail, on the assumption that I'm either very new or incapable of/unwilling to do a little simple research on side topics.

Example: I was sent a report recently on using one of the social networking sites. It included pages, with screenshots, of how to create an account at the site. I'm certain some people liked that. I found it a complete waste of my time.

Does that mean it shouldn't have been included? No. It means the report should have been labeled as being for very new people to the net, or that it should have had an action summary that outlined the overall process, rather than detailing the minutiae.

Similarly, most of the peeves people have listed here are matters of personal preference or experience. Daniel said, "Every 60 page pdf I've ever downloaded could've been explained in a few paragraphs." While that's true for many products, it's only true for those products for some people. Specifically, people with enough experience to translate those paragraphs into usable steps.

If Daniel has that level of experience, that's a valid concern - for him. It is not a useful approach for developers, though, as it rules out everyone who doesn't have that experience. If you do, and you get details out of those 60 pages that make you money, your time is not wasted.

Greg said, "I also don't like reading material that is rehashed garbage from years past." Lots of people parrot that line, but almost none of them ever say what they mean by it. It's a catchall complaint. It's also usually horse droppings.

Example: I wrote what was, as far as I know, the very first ebook on building a subscriber list. There were testimonials in the sales copy from Marlon Sanders, Allen Says, Jim Daniels and Mark Joyner, a couple of whom commented on how there were techniques in it that they had never seen. I regularly got emails from people telling me the whole thing was just "rehashed crap" that they had read in books by... get ready for it... Marlon Sanders, Allen Says, Jim Daniels and Mark Joyner.

Sometimes you read things in a book that have been taught elsewhere and that you already knew. Most experienced people understand this, and look for the new stuff. There are always those, however, who see something that looks vaguely like something they think they understood from having read something that kind of sounded similar somewhere else, and scream that the whole thing is rehashed.

Of course, there are also things some people legitimately already knew. That doesn't make it crap. Just something that others might not have known. One of my recent products tells people, right in the salesletter, that it's based on a simple and already well-known process. I described the process outline in the copy.

Had I not done that, I'm sure I would have gotten the "rehashed crap" line from idiots who ignored the stuff I added that I've never seen anyone else do. I would still have gotten the comments from people who finally got their first products created and made their first online money as a result of following the instructions.

There is a constant flow of new people coming into any market. Some of them are starting from zero. For them, it's not rehashed crap. It's solid gold basics.

The phrase "rehashed crap" (or 'garbage') is just that... rehashed crap. It's repeated verbatim by people who don't know or are unwilling to say what they really mean. And I can tell you that, with 99% certainty, a person who uses it participates in one of a very few discussion forums centered around online marketing.

Some things are just outright nasty. For instance, large fonts and big margins that are used to plump up the page count are a problem, IF the page count is part of the sales pitch. "This massive XYZ page manual..."

"Proof of income" is another. Much of that nonsense is made up, and all of it is meaningless.

Yet another: Selling systems that require people to do things that are inherently risky without telling them about the risks.

For the most part, though, this is really a matter of personal preference. Ignore that stuff. Look at what will give the most benefit to the largest number of customers, and create that product. Tailor your sales copy to those people who the product was designed for. And ignore the rest.


Paul

When it doesn't live up to the promises on the sales page. It's not about avoiding hype, it's about making sure you describe your product accurately. If someone promises to teach me how to set up a WordPress blog, and all his product really does is explain what WordPress is and why it's the bee's knees, then offers a token fluff chapter that skims over the process of setting up a blog... well, I'll probably be annoyed.

On a related note: Normally I buy an information product in the hopes of learning skills I can start using immediately, such as how to write compelling content or do keyword research. If I read this thing only to discover that the methods can only be put to use by buying an expensive piece of software, I get ticked off.

However, this isn't the same as encouraging your readers to buy a tool that will make their lives easier, or telling them to do basic things that cost money by default (such as registering a domain or setting up a list). I mostly mean setting up the expectation that you're going to teach your reader a real SKILL, such as writing articles faster, when in fact the whole strategy depends on hiring other writers or buying software to do it for you.

Other things that rub me wrong:

* Typos and grammatical errors. I can excuse it here and there, but when the whole eBook or report is littered with this stuff, it makes me feel like the author just doesn't give a flying fig.

* Fluff. The eBook rambles on and on without conveying anything of value. Where's the beef?

* Incoherent and disorganized. Unless you have the rare talent of producing a smashing first draft, the eBook/report should be edited and polished up before it goes live.

If I gave you or anyone else the impression that I have a big ego and
am sure whatever I do is going to be a smashing success, I am sorry.
Truly I am. Rest assured that is not where I'm coming from at all.

I know I'm asking a tough question here. It's not with malicious intent.
I truly want to write something useful. I really don't know if I can do
it well. All I'm saying is, I want to try. And I want some feedback first
so as to tick off as few people as possible while at the same time provide
as much value as possible. You points are well taken. I do tend to think
that skills can be developed over time. Just because someone has never
done something does not automatically disqualify them, does it?
Sure hope not, there would be no innovation if that were the case.
Thank you,
Pat

Simple: process replaced by platitudes.

A lot of info products consists of empty inspirational rhetoric (think and grow rich! follow The Secret! think positive! never give up! push on!) instead of a meaningful, step-by-step process that can be executed.

On that note, if the system you are selling is a meaningful, step-by-step process that can be executed repeatedly for consistent gains, why are you selling it?

I have yet to meet one successful trader who would be happy to share their trading approach with the outside world at large (perhaps a select few apprentices, but never the entire world). So it is with "make money" info products.

And outside the IM niche, why would I ever buy a lose weight / gain confidence / get any girl you want e-book from someone who probably has no experience with either and who likely had the whole product outsourced to a ghostwriter who produced it by rehasing 25 different EZA articles? Why not buy a Kindle e-book that at least has been reviewed in the media?

The worst thing about most Ebooks is that the writer usually doesnt put much effort into how his product looks. they often add no images or anything and dont bother to wrap text around images. It ends up that the whole product looks like someone wrote it in wordpad printed it out and stapled it together. Very unprofessional if you ask me.