Part SEVEN of the 10 Ways to Make Money Online Series
The 7th method that Jimmy D. Brown suggests for making money online is that you turn your digital info products into physical products. You’ll find this on pages 21-22 in your PDF.
If you missed the post in this series on creating your own info products, you'll find that here.
Jimmy offers three reasons you may want to consider creating physical products:
1) They carry a higher perceived value.
2) Result in fewer refunds.
3) Position you as an expert and elevate your status within the niche.
Example: A small ebook package that you charge $100 for could easily become a $500 home study course. The actual printing cost ends up being just a few dollars per book... and you get the pocket the rest as pure profit!
Pros and Cons
There are actually a number of reasons you may want to turn your digital products into physical products. For starters, targeting your market offline with a mail order type campaign could prove to be very profitable.
If you plan to speak at industry events, you'll want to offer a physical version of your info-product for sale. Even if you just attend conferences and meet-ups, sharing a copy of your book or a well-done CD will really get people's attention.
All that aside, keep in mind that people get into the info-product business online because it's easy. While you still have customer support & service to manage, there is no cost incurred in replacing digital products due to "lost shipment" (ie lost download link) and the overall risk is much lower.
Even if you use POD - or Print on Demand - services, lowering your upfront investment, you have the added task of dealing with shipping issues and damaged goods etc. These things ultimately affect your reputation - not the company that prints your product or fulfills your orders. I think we've all seen a few good examples of this in the IM industry over the last couple of years.
For those that prefer to keep the production in-house, it could easily become a full-time job. And if you are in a US state that has sales tax, you'll need to register and collect that sales tax on orders shipped within your state. Ideally you'll take the first option and use a POD or fulfillment company that will handle all of that for you.
Pricing & Format
Your info products can easily be formatted as hardcopy books, workbooks, home study courses, DVD or CD quality audio/video courses. Your first task is to look at the various options and choose the format that works best for your product.
Rosalind Gardner, for example, sells a paperback version of The Super Affiliate Handbook on Amazon.com for $53.10, or a digital version on her website that you can download for $47. (see my sneak peek post into Rosalind Gardner's affiliate accounts)
It's rare to pay $50+ for a paperback book, but it would be hard to sell the digital version for $47 if the paperwork were available at normal book rates. Does it sell at that price? Amazon.com states that 30% of the viewers buy, and it is listed as a bestseller in it's category.
John Reese originally sold the Traffic Secrets Home Study Course for $997.00. He sold Traffic Secrets 2.0 for only $397.
Lately we're seeing the top internet marketers move to lower price points, and working more toward a long-term continuity model. Even John Reese has recently released Opportunity.com, which is only $39.95/month.
The best way to choose your price point, whether your product is digital or physical, is to research similar products in your market that are selling well. Look at the price points of those products and price your producing comparatively.
Resources
Jimmy mentions a few resources in his guide for your printing and fulfillment needs: Lulu.com, CafePress.com and Disk.com. Another popular company to use is Kunaki.com.
If you know of similar resources for creating CDs, DVDs, or printing your info-products professionally please share them in the comments section below.
Best,
p.s. If you're interested in self-publishing, my absolute favorite book on the topic is The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Tom & Marilyn Ross. I have the 3rd Edition, but I linked you to the newer 4th Edition on Amazon.com. A great resource if you'd like to self-publish a book on your topic!
About Lynn Terry
Lynne are the levels of mark up that you talk about real or percieved?
Hi Matt,
Can you get more specific? Are you referring to the prices I quoted on products towards the end, or where I quoted Jimmy D Brown from the PDF file more towards the beginning? Sorry - not sure I understand your question 🙂
I've used CafePress, but their base cost is pretty high, so can't see where you could really make much profit on selling that way - it would make the retail price pretty high. I do intend to turn some digital products into physical and plan to use Kunaki.com, as their prices are very reasonable.
I have the capability to print CD/DVDs here with my computer, but it's not practical to do that for more than the master copy really - for mass production, I'm using Kunaki. So it goes back to - just because I technically *can* doesn't mean I should, better & cheaper (and a time saver!) to leave it to the professionals. 😉
Lynn,
Your post has certainly got me thinking. I currently sell an e-book and never really thought about making it into a paperback. I've only had about 5 inquiries from customers in the past two years about whether a paperback version was available.
I can see now how a physical version at a higher cost might encourage more people to buy the e-book version instead (with a MUCH higher profit margin! 🙂 )
-David
Lulu.com is a great option for that. You can see my review here with the details:
http://www.clicknewz.com/791/self-publishing-made-easy/
It's definitely easy to use!
Lynn,
Take a look at http://www.48hrbooks.com for publishing on demand. Great rates for low volume numbers but they don't do print on demand. Depending on the application, you can get 100 books for less than $250.
Lynn, I know this is an old article, but I just wanted to ask about refunds. How, or what, is the best way to handle refunds with physical info-products? Im concerned that its going to be a nuisance having customers return goods, in order to get their money back. Also, what about payment plans? If Im charging a customer $497 for my physical product, and allowing them to pay it off in 3 installments, how can I prevent them making the first payment, getting the product, then filing for a refund, not making the last 2 payments, then keeping the product???