Why create information products?

If you're a professional speaker, thought leader or expert, there are four key benefits to creating products.

New Income Streams

The first - and most obvious - benefit is that it creates new income streams for you, especially if you can bundle them together with existing products and services.

Message, Not Method

Your expertise is what matters, not the way that you get it out into the world. Your products are just another way of getting your message out into the world.

Multiple Formats

As a presenter, you focus on your main mode of delivery - a keynote presentation, or coaching skills, or facilitation processes. But what about the people who don’t come to your keynote? If they can’t hear you in a conference setting, how are they going to get your message? When you go to a networking function, you might wow someone by talking to them for five minutes but what do you do afterwards? Do you send them a business card or do you send them your book? If you’re about to go into a sales meeting to sell your first serve, what do you have as backup that you can offer them as collateral material?

Positioning

Finally, remember that products don’t always have to be sold. I get a lot of leverage from giving books to key clients, publishing a newsletter free of charge, and sending e-books to people as bonuses as part of my loyalty program.

So just remember the products you’re creating don’t have to be only for selling. You can get leverage from them in lots of other ways.

Is the one or two day training course dead?

Somebody recently asked this question on LinkedIn:

"Is the one or two day training course dead? In a time-poor world i wonder if all training from now on, will be either online and/or in say two hour (face to face) bite size chunks?"

I'm a big fan of blended learning, with a combination of face-to-face and on-line; group and individual; synchronous and asynchronous; video, audio and text; interactive and passive; and so on.

So in general, I agree with the idea of moving away from long training sessions. After all, they were probably only originally designed that way for convenience and logistics, not for maximising the educational benefit.

However, there are situations where the extended training session is exactly what you need - for example, the 2-3 day "boot camp" where you eliminate all other distractions and focus on one practical, well-defined task for that time - e.g. constructing a business plan, designing a training program, building a presentation, facilitating a strategic leadership summit. These are examples where the long focussed session is an advantage - a key advantage - not a drawback.

How do you choose a SEO company?

One of my clients, a professional speaker, asked me this question recently:

"I have been emailed by this company [url here] re their services. What's your view on these types of companies? What questions would you recommend I ask to ascertain whether these sorts of services are worth the money?"

I reckon SEO is still worthwhile, though it's just one of the things to do, and becoming less and less important.

I reckon you should ask these questions:

1. What other professional speakers [insert your own industry here] have you worked with?
2. Are clients really looking for speakers using Google?
3. What is the best kind of qualified traffic you’ll get me?
4. What conversion metrics do you use to measure success?

And ... most importantly ... What about the fact that people are using Google less to search by topics?

The person I refer clients to when it comes to SEO is Ed Keay-Smith of www.adwordsmarketing.com.

True happiness comes from recurring income, not passive income

One of the biggest misunderstandings about Tim Ferriss' book "The Four-Hour Work Week" is that it's about creating an automated business so you only have to work four hours a week; and then you can goof off the rest of the time.

Not true!

It's actually about doing what you love, so that what seems like work only takes a few hours a week.

True happiness in business comes from recurring income, not passive income. The difference? Passive income is making money in your sleep, which - I agree - is difficult. Recurring income, on the other hand, is where you have a bunch of loyal followers who want to be part of your network, you consistently deliver great value to them, and they're happy to pay you a subscription for it.

My rental properties bring me passive income. My membership site brings me recurring income. I have to work at the latter, but it's work I love, so it's by far the more fulfilling.

Structure Your Writing Using the 4MAT System

When you're writing to present information, it's tempting to jump right in and start presenting your facts and information. However, that doesn't engage the reader. Unless they are very interested in your topic, it's unlikely that facts alone will keep them reading.

Instead, use the "4MAT system", based on research by Bernice McCarthy into different learning styles, to present your material in a more engaging way. Some professional speakers, trainers and seminar presenters learn this system as a way of presenting their material. It applies equally well to writing.

The 4MAT System breaks down your writing into five steps:

1. Point - You state your main point or purpose in one sentence.
2. Why - Tell the reader why they should read on (in other words, describe the benefits of your writing)
3. What - Tell them the main points
4. How - Describe a process for putting your ideas into action
5. What Next - Tell them the specific action steps

It's called the "4MAT System" because of the four main questions you ask (Why? What? How? What Next ...?). I've added "Point" to the start of the list because it's useful to state your main point before launching into the other steps.