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Creating a New Product: A 9 Step ‘How To’

By admin | October 5, 2007| Popularity: 59% | 525 Views

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So now that we’ve established how important it is to make use of outsourcing let’s look at how easy the product creation process is.

Obviously, if you don’t have your own product then you can’t leverage the power of amassing your own Affiliate network.

Obviously, if you don’t have your own information product, you’re never going to make any mammoth sales. But it’s difficult for the majority of people to get over this hurdle and actually create their own product.

I wasn’t shocked to discover why most people fail in this lucrative market.

Many would have guessed lousy marketing, a poor quality product, inability to set up a merchant account, or a number of other reasons. It turns out that while those are important, they aren’t what really stop people from being successful.

So what does? What REALLY is the number one
reason why so many people fail? Quite simply, it’s:

The failure to ever create their information product


Traditional route:
You choose a niche
You research the market
You buy several “top” products
You research some more
The you sit down to do up your outline
You draft it in pieces here and there as you alternate between wearing each of the many hats you need to wear to carry out each of the other tasks it takes to run your online empire ;-)
Net result it becomes a distraction that takes away your focus from your core business - which of course is to be a marketer - not a writer or product developer.

Here’s how I would go about creating a full product:

1. I will go through the best books, courses, reports, websites, blogs, etc with a highlighter in hand and mark out the pieces that are of most relevance and importance TO ME. If it’s important to me then chances are others will find it relevant too. If going through audios or videos then mark down the time points when important parts are discussed.

2. Break my findings (the source materials) down into 3 bundles. Usually I will have a bit of overlap between these.

3. Write up my own notes on the subject (if I have some ideas) and prepare a project brief that outlines the way I’d like the project to be completed. (This can be as detailed as you want but I’ve found for most cases “less is more” and nowadays I just try to give a big picture overview. The more scope you give the writer, particularly if they’re any good, the more creative and original the finished piece will be.

4. Advertise on Elance that I’m looking for reputable writers with experience on the subject. Generally I leave the budget open (price undeclared). Why? Gives a wider sample of applicants and allows me get a feel for the average price and availability of different skills levels / relevant experience.

5. Review applicants, check feedback score, select a shortlist of 3 providers - sometimes I will include one of those daft looking but very cheap applicants from India or somewhere similar. Why? No not because I’m cheap but because sometimes the language barrier and cultural differences will give a whole new slant on the material that could be useful when trying to come up with an original angle and maybe even a USP. Hey if you get nothing useful back it shouldn’t have created too much of a dent in your budget ;-) plus occasionally you’ll find someone that can do really high quality work at a price that’s unbeatable too.

6. Assign and send each of them a different “bundle” from the originals I chose in Step 1 and first ask that they do a short report on the material to allow me judge their ability and suitability. Assuming they have a good feedback score (with decent enough earnings) then I agree a price for this. If they’re new then they should be prepared to do this “without an agreed price” to prove themselves and build up a reputation.

7. Alternatively if the projects not that big or too important I skip the reports step above and just get started with the full thing.

8. When I get back the different versions I then go through these once again with a highlighter to pick out the parts I find most appealing and useful. Then as I’m piecing it back together I can then add my own creative twist to the work. (If I haven’t time or it’s not that important to me then give it back to one of my Elance crew to piece it back together and give that polished finish)

9. Get some graphics created - cover, banners, etc and have the Sales Letter and other support sales materials drafted - again utilizing outsource partners.

Bare in mind that all of the steps above are not always necessary. Maybe I’m just doing a written report, case study, video walk-through, auto responder series, etc and there’s not that much need to create a first class offering. Also, once you’ve been through a few projects you’ll already have found a few good people that you’ll contact straight away with your new projects.

Why not just select 1 person?

Remember that Bruce Willis movie “Armageddon”? Well it turns out that Nasa always builds in duplicate. They’ve found that the cost of building two units at the same time is not that much greater than building just one and if something goes wrong with the first they’ve got a spare to fall back on. ;-)

I’ve found that in the product creation process it’s really helpful to get a few different takes on the subject. Sure it costs me a bit extra but compared to the quality I get back this is marginal and the profits should greatly overshadow it anyway.

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One Response to “Creating a New Product: A 9 Step ‘How To’”

  1. don Says:
    October 10th, 2007 at 11:54 am

    Get post

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