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I think I'm going to try something like this. I've always felt dirty when entertaining ideas of information marketing 'businesses', but if it works, it works. I

I think I'm going to try something like this. I've always felt dirty when entertaining ideas of information marketing 'businesses', but if it works, it works. I'll see if I can do it all with outsourcing (minus the actual site), so, outsource the marketing copy, the product design, the customer service, the order fulfillment (or automate it), the marketing/selling. It looks like the only trick is to A: automate it, B: get a targeted, under served niche, and C: get a good marketing copy made and an affiliate system. It will be an interesting experiment. I'll report back after I'm making > $10k/month and living in Fiji.

tocomment 18y ago
How will you choose a subject?
- deleted 18y ago
  [deleted]
- dkokelley 18y ago
  I might chose something I have a little experience in, or just something so targeted that it has to work. I'll probably end up where experience and focus meet. Or... I could turn to the wonderful HN community for ideas. Any takers?
  - cubicle67 18y ago
    "How to generate over $400k in revenue each year", only $299
  - delano 18y ago
    I'd like to know how to grow my own almonds.
  - ftse 18y ago
    Parrots and Oil Painting... niche markets that couldn't be further from web 2.0. The majority of the population with high levels of disposable income, and the will to spend it (soccer moms, retirees, busy non-geek professionals etc) are not catered for. It is a massive, untapped market.
  - tocomment 18y ago
    I'm considering doing one too. Maybe we should team up? (email me if interested.). Here are a few ideas I have so far. What does HN think? 1. Growing Avocado trees 2. Raising Geese 3. Understanding statistics 4. Something with the Arduino
    - dkokelley 18y ago
      Actually, understanding statistics is something I might be good at teaching. Maybe we could focus it even more than that. Maybe it should be "how to pass college statistics," or "statistics for scorekeepers."
      - tocomment 18y ago
        I'm slightly competent in statistics but I've always wanted a deep, intuitive understanding of it. So I can just hear a problem and say something like "oh, just do a t-test". So I figured as long as I spent all that time gaining that level of knowledge I might as well write an ebook :-) Passing college statistics might not be catchy enough. It has to be "sleazier" like how statistics can help you in every area of your life ... somehow.
petercooper 18y ago
(This isn't entirely directed at you, but is more for general consumption. Just picking up on a feeling I got from your post, though.) You seem, to me, to feel that this is primarily a dirty sort of business. It's not (even though there are dirty players) and it's becoming a lot less dirty all the time, since people are becoming smarter at what to buy and not. If you have specialized knowledge and can help people solve a problem or learn something they really want to learn, you can honestly and sincerely produce a product, an e-book, a real book, a video course - whatever - and sell it for a profit. Nothing dirty about that, and the more sincere you are nowadays, the better you'll do. The "information" business is no more dirty than any other business. Do the majority of sysadmins do it other than for the money? (No) Do the majority of journalists write pro bono on the side? (Nah) Selling information is no dirtier than selling your time and, heck, I've seen just as many passionate and decent people in the info game than elsewhere. Oh, and don't outsource the "marketing copy." It's your personal voice and the personal connection your potential customers will feel for you that will "sell" your product. You don't want to be wasting time "convincing" people to buy - you want to seem authoritative enough and so trustworthy that people are begging to see more of what you have. P.S. You might enjoy looking into something called the "underachiever method." It'll provide one of the best ways to establish what it is you should be producing. It was a course once upon a time but you can get all the core ideas for free with a bit of Googling :)
- thinkzig 18y ago
  I Googled a bit and the "underachiever method" seems to be 1.) Pick niche 2.) Put up survey finding out what questions people most want answered in niche. 3.) Use Adwords to bring people to survey. 4.) After you've collected results, write eBook that answers questions most asked. 5.) Sell eBook 6.) Profit!!! :) Do you have experience with this method, Peter? Does this actually work? It seems that the recommended sample size of the survey I saw (50-100 responses) would be too small. Also, how could you be sure that just because people say they want answers to these problems that they'd be willing to pay to get them? I'm fascinated by this whole info-marketing thing in that I can't believe it actually works yet a lot of folks seem to be doing it profitably. I'd be interested in any insight you have on this.
josefresco 18y ago
The 'trick' is not automation, the niche, good copy, a good affiliate system or a kick ass site design. It's traffic, and the 'trick' to traffic is incoming links. All these sites for sale rely on a webmaster who can understand and temporarily exploit Google's ranking algorithm. Without that you'll have a great site that no one goes to (and makes almost no money as a result)

tocomment 18y ago

How will you choose a subject?

deleted 18y ago
[deleted]
dkokelley 18y ago
I might chose something I have a little experience in, or just something so targeted that it has to work. I'll probably end up where experience and focus meet. Or... I could turn to the wonderful HN community for ideas. Any takers?
- cubicle67 18y ago
  "How to generate over $400k in revenue each year", only $299
- delano 18y ago
  I'd like to know how to grow my own almonds.
- ftse 18y ago
  Parrots and Oil Painting... niche markets that couldn't be further from web 2.0. The majority of the population with high levels of disposable income, and the will to spend it (soccer moms, retirees, busy non-geek professionals etc) are not catered for. It is a massive, untapped market.
- tocomment 18y ago
  I'm considering doing one too. Maybe we should team up? (email me if interested.). Here are a few ideas I have so far. What does HN think? 1. Growing Avocado trees 2. Raising Geese 3. Understanding statistics 4. Something with the Arduino
  - dkokelley 18y ago
    Actually, understanding statistics is something I might be good at teaching. Maybe we could focus it even more than that. Maybe it should be "how to pass college statistics," or "statistics for scorekeepers."
    - tocomment 18y ago
      I'm slightly competent in statistics but I've always wanted a deep, intuitive understanding of it. So I can just hear a problem and say something like "oh, just do a t-test". So I figured as long as I spent all that time gaining that level of knowledge I might as well write an ebook :-) Passing college statistics might not be catchy enough. It has to be "sleazier" like how statistics can help you in every area of your life ... somehow.

petercooper 18y ago

(This isn't entirely directed at you, but is more for general consumption. Just picking up on a feeling I got from your post, though.) You seem, to me, to feel that this is primarily a dirty sort of business. It's not (even though there are dirty players) and it's becoming a lot less dirty all the time, since people are becoming smarter at what to buy and not. If you have specialized knowledge and can help people solve a problem or learn something they really want to learn, you can honestly and sincerely produce a product, an e-book, a real book, a video course - whatever - and sell it for a profit. Nothing dirty about that, and the more sincere you are nowadays, the better you'll do. The "information" business is no more dirty than any other business. Do the majority of sysadmins do it other than for the money? (No) Do the majority of journalists write pro bono on the side? (Nah) Selling information is no dirtier than selling your time and, heck, I've seen just as many passionate and decent people in the info game than elsewhere. Oh, and don't outsource the "marketing copy." It's your personal voice and the personal connection your potential customers will feel for you that will "sell" your product. You don't want to be wasting time "convincing" people to buy - you want to seem authoritative enough and so trustworthy that people are begging to see more of what you have. P.S. You might enjoy looking into something called the "underachiever method." It'll provide one of the best ways to establish what it is you should be producing. It was a course once upon a time but you can get all the core ideas for free with a bit of Googling :)

thinkzig 18y ago
I Googled a bit and the "underachiever method" seems to be 1.) Pick niche 2.) Put up survey finding out what questions people most want answered in niche. 3.) Use Adwords to bring people to survey. 4.) After you've collected results, write eBook that answers questions most asked. 5.) Sell eBook 6.) Profit!!! :) Do you have experience with this method, Peter? Does this actually work? It seems that the recommended sample size of the survey I saw (50-100 responses) would be too small. Also, how could you be sure that just because people say they want answers to these problems that they'd be willing to pay to get them? I'm fascinated by this whole info-marketing thing in that I can't believe it actually works yet a lot of folks seem to be doing it profitably. I'd be interested in any insight you have on this.

josefresco 18y ago

The 'trick' is not automation, the niche, good copy, a good affiliate system or a kick ass site design. It's traffic, and the 'trick' to traffic is incoming links. All these sites for sale rely on a webmaster who can understand and temporarily exploit Google's ranking algorithm. Without that you'll have a great site that no one goes to (and makes almost no money as a result)