Fast Start Information Products

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Writing articles can be one of the most effective ways of promoting yourself and your business, establishing yourself as THE expert in your industry, and even generating more revenue. This happens when you start to use articles as Information Products and create a strategy around exactly how to use them (see this Special Report on the most effective ways to use your articles).

Using articles as Info Products in this way has proved to be successful time and time again. This is also one of the easiest, most affordable ways to market your business, yet many people hesitate because they think they can’t write or they don’t know what to write. In my opinion, if you can talk about your business, what you do and how you help people, then you can write about it. If you’ve been hesitant to start writing, here are some tips that might help.

Get someone to write for you
There are many writers out there and it although this can be an expensive option, it certainly doesn’t have to be. You can find writers at elance.com. You submit the project and they will bid on it. You get the opportunity to review work that they’ve done before and each time someone on e-lance does a project for someone their work is rated. You can also look for writer forums or groups, such as LinkedIn for a writer to work with. The most important thing is that you’re clear about what you want them to do for you. For example, do you want them to research the topic and then write it? This will be the most expensive option, since it will take more time. Ideally, you would tell them what you want the article(s) to be about and provide all the information that they need.

One method that I have used that works well is to ask for someone who can take an audio file of a tele-seminar, interview or presentation that I’ve done, listen to it and then create articles from it. This is a very effective way to get several articles from something that you’ve already done. You’re providing them with the information that they need to write the articles and it’s a great way of leveraging your time and expertise. Not all writers will want to work in this way, so it’s important to find someone who would enjoy doing it. You also want to find someone who has an interest in your subject – that makes it easier for them to write about it.

Get help with editing
This is another strategy that I used for years before I became more confident in my writing ability. I would simply write what I wanted to say – like doing a ‘brain dump’ really. I would put it all down and then hand it over to a professional writer and she would write the article for me based on what I’d written. Getting someone to edit for you works well, particularly when you are submitting articles to publications because you really want them to read well and be grammatically correct. Some people specialize in editing and some writers will do editing as well as writing. Again, search on sites like elance or ask in the forums or writer’s groups about how to find the best person for you to work with.

Use what you already do
You probably already have lots of things you’ve already done that you can resurrect and turn into articles. If you’ve put together a presentation or educational program or if you’ve ever been interviewed, for example. You could even take your brochure that describes your products and services and create articles from that. Just look around to see what you already have that you can turn into articles.

Finding content
If you’re still having trouble knowing what to write about, it can be a good idea to find out what others are talking or writing about related to your topic. Do a search for forums and groups related to a specific topic and then subscribe to the RSS Feeds. Also, give Google Reader a try, if you haven’t already. With Google Reader you can enter subjects that you’re interested in, such as Vegetable Gardening or Cat Behavior and Google Reader will collect information for you to look at on those subjects. It’s very easy to use and organizes everything very nicely so it can be very quick for you to go in and find things of interest. Seeing what others are writing and talking about may spark some ideas of your own. One word of warning – never, ever take someone else’s content and claim that it is your own. What you can do, if you see something you like is to quote and reference somebody else’s work (making sure you provide full information about who wrote it, and even a link to their article) and write your thoughts about it – add your spin to it.

You could even write about a book that you’ve read, or a seminar that you went to or a presentation that you heard, and what you got out of it, how you applied the information you learned, etc. Just be sure that if you’re talking about somebody else’s work that you reference that person and their work.

One method I like to use that works very well for me is to post a question in groups or on forums. I tell people that I’m writing an article and ask how they feel or what they think about a certain thing. I always get some fabulous responses – but you must make sure that you’re genuinely interested in hearing other people’s thoughts and opinions and then thank them for responding and use their input. If you want to use someone’s name be sure to ask them first. Not everyone wants to be directly quoted.

It’s always a good idea to get someone to review your articles once you’ve written them. They may pick up errors that you don’t see. I used to be very hesitant about writing but now I actually really enjoy it and where before I used to think I needed someone to write my articles for me, now I write them myself. I’m sure that a professional writer will find grammatical errors and I know that from that perspective my articles are not perfect. But I get far more feedback from articles I’ve written myself – and that’s because when you write it yourself, it comes from the heart, and people feel that.

Most articles only need to be 300 – 500 words – that’s not a lot. As you can see, I have trouble keeping to that limit! What you do want to do is ensure that you provide valuable information in your articles. Don’t just write fluff. Give people something that they can use, and make it easy, keep the language simple – particularly if yours is a subject that may be difficult for some to understand.

If you would like more information, help and guidance on creating Information Products, go to Fast Start Information Products and sign up for more helpful tips.

Technorati Tags: Article Marketing, Articles, Info Products, Information Products

People don’t often think of articles as being information products, but that’s exactly how I think of them. An information product is educational information that you can use to promote your business and/or generate income. You can do both of those with articles, and so I do think of them in the same category as information products (info products).

Most people write an article and use it once. That’s such a waste. There are so many ways you can leverage each article that you write. Here I’ll address just a few of the ways that you can do that.

First of all, why are you writing the article? People usually write an article for one reason. Perhaps you’ve written it for your newsletter or blog, or perhaps you’re marketing your business by doing article marketing – submitting articles to ezine directories, which is a very effective strategy. But don’t just leave it at that. Think about other ways that you can leverage your articles. Here are a few to consider:

Make printed copies of your article
If your article has been published somewhere, you can make copies of it within the publication. You can mail copies of the article to your customers and prospects with a note – “thought you might like to see this” or something like that. You’re not trying to sell anything, just sending out information and keeping in touch and they will appreciate you for it. You can also take copies with you to meetings, networking events, conferences that you attend. As you’re talking with people you can ask if they’d like a copy of your article. I’m sure most of them will. Again, you’re offering useful information without trying to sell anything so people will appreciate that.

Do you do workshops, classes or presentations? If so, take copies of your article with you. If you give a handout at your workshop or presentation, attach a copy of the article to it, or simply have it available for attendees to pick up as they leave. Either way, you’re getting your information out to more and more people. There is a high possibility that some of these people will make copies of your article themselves and pass them on to others – this is great. It’s exactly what you want. Your information is being passed to more and more people.

If your articles contain valuable information that people can really use, they will hang on to them. I’ve had people come to my events with folders full of every article I’ve ever written and every postcard I’ve ever sent – they keep them because I include information that is of use. Things that they can implement right away. People hang on to those for years and they start to look forward to anything new that I send. These people don’t just have an interest in what you do – they become your raving fans.
 
Always make sure your contact information is on your article, even if you have to stick a label on it with that information before you make copies.

If your article hasn’t appeared in a print publication that you can photocopy, then simply print out copies from your printer (making sure your contact information is on it).

On-line Marketing with Articles
If you are using the strategy of marketing on-line by submitting to various ezines or posting on other people’s blogs one issue that can come up is the issue of duplicate content. Whilst you can submit the same article to several ezine directories, if you’re going to be submitting to other people’s blogs or mini-blog sites and putting it on your web site and in your newsletter, etc., you might want to think of having several versions of the same article. You can be saying the same thing, but just saying it in a different way. The articles don’t have to be dramatically different, just different enough to avoid the issue of having exactly the same article, word for word, appearing in many different places.

Submit on-line Articles to Local Publications
If you’ve written an article for your newsletter or blog, or for article marketing, you might also want to consider submitting it to local print publications. They won’t always print articles that you send to them, but if your articles are good, with valuable content, they might. It’s definitely worth a try. I’ve had a lot of success with this in the past and have had major local newspapers feature my entire article, with photographs as well. This is great publicity and doesn’t cost you anything. It may even prompt them to contact you to do a follow-up article themselves, or ask you to be a regular contributor. Definitely worth a try.

These are just a few suggestions for making maximum use of your articles and turning them into info products that really work for you. For more detailed information on these and other must-have tips, with resource information, you’ll find a Special Report available at http://www.FastStartInformationProducts.com/Resources.htm

Many people have plenty of ideas for their business, but what they may lack is the knowledge or the connections to make those ideas happen. That’s where Karen Hoffman comes in. She started her business as The Idea Coach to help people develop and ignite their ideas.

Karen has a passion for business and an incredible talent for networking and connecting people. She was awarded the Business Connector of the Year Award by E-Women Network in 2007 in recognition of that talent.

In the course of working with her clients, Karen often comes up with ideas for things that need to be developed that will help not just the client that she is working with at the time, but other business owners as well. She has a gift for identifying what’s needed and making it happen.

For example, when working with various organizations helping them to put on events she was often in the position of having to look for speakers. She came up with the idea of creating a web site that would be a database of speakers and experts, so that anyone looking for a speaker for an event or an expert to speak on a certain topic could search the database to find the person that they needed. Out of that City of Experts was born.

As well as helping business owners to grow and develop their businesses, bring in more clients, create more money, and ignite their ideas, Karen also believes that it’s important for people to enjoy what they do. Energy is important to her and she wants business owners to feel less of the stress of running their own business and more of the joy of running their own business.

Karen is a big believer in the Law of Attraction and the need to surround yourself with positive people and have positive energy yourself. She has the ability to see possibilities in any situation and has in fact been called ‘The Queen of Possibilities’.

This was a fascinating interview and if you own your own business you’ll want to listen to the entire audio at www.TheIdeaCoach.com (scroll down to the bottom to see the link). Karen has so much to share I think you’ll come away with some new ideas and perspectives yourself.

We can help you create your own audio information products easily and quickly. Go to FastStartInformationProducts to find out how.