Make money: sell your expertise online02 February 2005
As more businesses move to the Internet to make or increase their fortunes, the biggest business question of recent times has been 'what should I sell online?'
For an increasing number of businesses the answer is simple: information. Nothing is easier to create, faster to sell or easy to distribute - and crucially, selling information can be very profitable.
Information products can come in many shapes and sizes, from digital books (e-books) to reports, software, websites or newsletters. Essentially, anything that's informative or educational can be considered an info-product.
Low start-up costs
When you sell information, the start-up costs are next to nothing. The only cost is the time it takes you to produce your product.
Easy to create
If you have an appealing, marketable topic and a computer, you could create your product in next to no time.
No inventory
When you sell information, there's no inventory to stock. Your product is digital and therefore needs no storage space (apart from the minimal storage on your computer).
Customers get immediate access
Selling information is the best way to give your customers immediate satisfaction - with no handling or delivery headaches. If you have an automated buying process on your website, the site can process the order and payment and immediately email or download the product to your customer.
What information should you sell online?
The nature of business means you will specialise in one or more core areas. By writing informative guides or reports on your area of expertise, you are offering your customers access to knowledge that would otherwise be beyond their grasp.
Information selling could be the core of your business, or just an occasional sideline.
You could begin by offering free information to a core of your regular customers or contacts. This is a good way to introduce users to your product - and they are then more likely to buy your information in the future.
If you already have a website set up for selling online, you could start right away. If you don't have a website capable of handling online transactions, read our articles below on how to get started.
