Plan To Succeed With Information Product Creation: Why You Need To Split Your Process Up

One of the keys to succeeding in information product creation is to break the process up into discrete steps. This frequently isn’t an instinctive reaction for the typical information marketer. Especially on the internet where small sized learning products are the norm.

However, it is extremely important to your ultimate success. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if you don’t do this you probably won’t succeed… even when you are starting out let alone as you move forward.

Your product creation system should do this for you if only to help you to understand the overall task.

But why?

In this article, I’m going to ignore chunking and focus on the practical aspects. That’s not to say that chunking isn’t important. It is. It’s important to understanding and to learning the process. But while you can use the same chunks as you move forward, long term your focus needs to be on the operation of the system not the understanding of it. Unless of course you are constantly training new people!

So why is chunking important to long term use of the product creation process? (Yes, I know systems design uses a different term for this process but I’m not teaching you systems design. So I’m going to use the word learning content designers use.)

The first reason that having individual discrete tasks is important is one of schedule estimation. Frequently it is very difficult to estimate how long the total task of creating a product will take. After all, the size and type of the products matters as does the number of products in your product funnel. And those are just the most obvious elements. However, estimating a discrete task is often much easier. The total can then be estimated as the total of the discrete tasks.

Secondly, scheduling a large task can be problematic. However, by segmenting the task into a number of discrete tasks, you gain a much greater flexibility in scheduling. Not only that but as your business begins to add people you are able to schedule multiple people to the product creation.

Finally, segmenting a large task into smaller discrete tasks allows you to have much better control over the product creation. This affects two different areas — status and quality.

By segmenting your process into discrete tasks you are able to schedule and record the progress at much more detailed level. As a result you are more in control of the status of the product creation. You know what everyone is doing. When they should complete it. And how much it should cost. You also know exactly what has been done.

You also improve your overall quality. Instead of waiting until everything is done you can check quality as you go. This allows you to immediate react to low quality products without absorbing their costs. This means that you have less rework and your rework costs less. And if the product is not going to meet its quality requirement you will know about it in time to stop the development, change the requirement or fix the product.

Information Product Creation: Never Compete on Price Because There Is Only One You

Information product creation requires extensive preparation, no matter which niche you work within and you want to make sure that your information product has a successful launch. That probably sounds scary and intimidating but here’s the thing: this is a one time effort and it will pay off in a foundation that is strong enough to get your ideal clients to invest in your high-end programs and services without the perils of a traditional funnel. This article will teach you a few of the things that you need to remember if you’d like to invest in yourself and start on the information product creation path using your unique talents and abilities. Remember that you never have to worry about anyone ripping off your ideas because if you understand how to properly position yourself around your story.

Understand Both Strengths and Weaknesses: It is good to have an impartial view of your own strengths and weaknesses when lay the foundation of selling yourself within the information product creation process. It helps you figure out where you are, what you lack and how to move forward so that you get as much growth as possible. It is more than important, it is urgent if you want to create fast success for yourself to have personal positive reinforcement and deep belief to provide yourself the support you need so that you can get over your own limitations to ensure that your information product is as valuable as it can be.

You also need to know exactly who your competition is so you can study them and use their methods to help you improve your own standings. Down recreate the wheel, but understand the wheel and position yourself going uphill from the competition. Check out which kinds of opportunities you’ve already got and try to figure out how best to use them while taking care to remember your strengths and weaknesses. This is a great way to figure out where you stand against your competition which helps you figure out how best to grow.

Launch on Time: No matter what, even if you haven’t officially announced your “launch date” you should launch the site when you’ve said you would. This will force you to stick to your goal and actually work on it. Thinking that “I’ll launch it when I think it’s ready to launch” will only hinder your efforts. You’ve got a responsibility that you need to live up to with your launch, and you can’t move back on that one. If you get close to your launch date and you are getting hung up on your self limiting beliefs in your information product creation, don’t worry this about getting it out there and not perfection. As long as it is usable you should launch it. Launching on time is the professional thing to do and it is more important than creating a “wow” effect in your site visitors. You can always update/upgrade your website when you have to, so there shouldn’t be any issue with that.

Analyze Your Own Concept: If you want to make your information product creation successful you need to understand how good your concept is: is it really going to work for your chosen audience or would something else be better? You already know about your competition; how does your concept measure up? If you haven’t come up with your own idea and are trying to work with someone else’s concept, do some more work on your own before your launch. People want original ideas because they’ve seen too many other me-too websites already.

Test Your Concept Before You Commit To The Information Product Creation Process: One of the biggest failures people have with information product creation is not testing an idea before putting a lot of effort into producing an information product. PPC to a small 5 page site with a landing page is a great way to test an offer before you even produce it. If people will sign up to get it, you can be sure that you can create an information product that will target eliminating the pain of your target market. The small amount of money will be invaluable in using crowd sourcing to direct the final outline of the information product creation process.

You’ll have lots of hurdles to clear after the launch of your information product and the only way to truly take care of them is to follow the advice in this article to work smarter. Plenty of people work hard, but it is the ones who work smarter who make real money online with the information product creation business model.

Home Based Business Versus a Corporate Gig, Why Choose?

Although there are glimmers of light with regards to the economic conditions that have caused financial hardship for so many, there still exists the need for most people to ‘make more money’ and find a way to do it while already holding down at least one full time job. Working in some existing corporate structure in the capacity of management, labor, or skilled trade, and balancing the demands of family, community, and life in general, the demand for earning more money is great but resources are few and far between when it comes to increasing one’s personal wealth. Let’s be honest, most individuals do not work a second, or third job, unless it depends on their survival, because the 24 hours in a day are packed with existing work and family demands, but far too many folks lie on the brink of losing their homes, deteriorating health, and emotional frustration due to the rising cost of living, and the decreased capability of their buying power, or plain cash in general.I submit that one of the best ways to add additional capital and income for anyone who is employed by any kind of corporate structure is to start and build a home based business. There are three key reasons why a home based business is more important than ever before and why you need to start one soon, or revive the one that is collecting dust:· Plan B: As long as you are employed by someone else, for all practical purposes you are employed as long as your services are deemed valuable; meaning you are helping to make money for the company or are perceived as adding value in some sort of way. The minute that you are ‘perceived’ as not contributing to the bottom line by whatever definition is given, you become expendable. This does not have to happen in a one off manner, but we have all heard about entire divisions, or even companies being terminated because they did not fit with the ‘strategic direction’ in which the company was moving. Regardless of loyalty, seniority, or even contribution, the economic conditions of this decade have been relentless in delivering pink slips to both knowing and unknowing individuals. Through May of 2012 there had been 6769 mass layoffs in the US (reported by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics). The definition of a mass layoff is when 50 people or more file unemployment due to efforts taken by an employer.On the flip side, sometimes peace of mind and your mental state are the driving forces to create separation from a toxic work environment. Keeping one’s sanity and emotional well-being intact may necessitate the separation from an employer. Passive or active separation is not the point; the point is that loss of income and in some cases benefits can be a gut wrenching experience that can only be made better by the replacement of lost income. Knowing that there is an alternative stream of income, like a home based business, that can be leveraged when a ‘traditional’ job goes away is the kind of peace of mind that truly is ‘priceless’.· Doing more with less is not sustainable: The days of surplus and bigger is better are over for many. Although we are forced in our corporate work environments to ‘do more with less’ translating that to home makes for additional stress and a feeling like we live to work, instead of living to do the kind of work we want. Inflation has decreased somewhat over the last year, but anyone who has gone grocery shopping, car shopping, or just to the movies can tell you that everything costs more money. Educational costs are up, medical costs are up, and it just seems as though it takes more money to do everything in life. Because employers can and have held salaries flat and in some cases decreased wages, the need for additional sources of revenue are great in order to make ends meet. Time is our greatest resource. It cannot be controlled, at least not today and the decisions that we make with the time that we have, has a direct correlation to our quality of life. Home based businesses give individuals the greatest degree of flexibility when it comes to earning additional revenue because of the flexibility to work the business around existing work and family demands. There is no sign of relief or regression when it comes to the cost of living; therefore increasing the household capacity for revenue is a responsibility that everyone must make. Managing the cost side of the equation is just as important, but you can only cut but so much. Unfortunately, even the best managed 401K, IRA, pension, savings program, investments, and Social Security (if it is around) may not be enough in and of itself to sustain you in old age (especially if a major illness occurs). A home based business can provide the necessary income, and in many cases a residual income that can mean the difference between living the good life in retirement and having to work the rest of your life.· The tax benefits cannot be ignored: It has been said that keeping more of the money that you make in your pocket is one of the most important keys to achieving financial success. To that end, far too many people do not take advantage of the tax benefits that a home based business can afford, thereby saving thousands of dollars each year on their tax bills. Deductions such as writing off mileage expense, writing off the cost of maintaining a home office, employing one’s children and/or spouse, buying new equipment, and setting up a self-employed retirement fund, just to name a few, are all potential money saving exemptions that a home based business could afford you come tax time. Major corporations spend millions, even billions of dollars each year retaining the best tax talent and resources to preserve as much of their earnings as possible, why not you? If done right with the proper advice and counsel, perfectly legal means can be taken each year to keep more of your hard earned money in your pocket. Mobile software used on your smart phone can make the process of tracking tax deductions very easy and efficient, not to mention making the tax filing experience a lot less painful. Taxes are inevitable, but leveraging a home based business can preserve your wealth and create a legitimate way to aid your financial freedom.Ultimately, having a corporate gig and a home based business is the best of both worlds, or at least until your home based business becomes successful enough that you can do it full time. You do have to be smart though with regards to drawing the line between your corporate work and your home based business. While on the clock and utilizing corporate assets, refrain from conducting work for your home based business and vice versa. There are way too many tools and resources to stay productive with your home based business during your corporate work hours to jeopardize a corporate gig and benefits by doing something stupid. Auto responders, virtual assistants, hands free devices leveraged during commute times, can give your home based business the look and feel of being full-time when you are not. The key to burning the candle at both ends is to give yourself options so that you can make decisions on your own time frame when you want. Empower yourself today with a home based business so that you can have financial freedom tomorrow to live the life you want and deserve.