Online Success Coaching » Info Products

Are You an Information Marketer or a Fulfillment House?

Jeanette — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:43:04 +0000

Congratulations, you’re an information marketer. Maybe you’ve just developed your first product or maybe you’re an old pro who’s been at it for a while.

If you’re approaching your business the correct way you’re continually building your own information products empire in your area of expertise.

That means you’re producing books or manuals, or audio and video- based training materials. Maybe it’s CDs or DVDs. Doesn’t matter. The important thing is you’ve got a number of products you can promote via you speaking engagements, through your website, by joint venturing, or by any other number of methods.

Now let’s ask the tough question. If you’re having any degree of success you may now be wearing all of these hats (and more):

public speaker
marketer of your speaking services
information product developer
shipping clerk
CD or tape duplicator
binder assembler
customer service manager
order taker
travel planner
delivery person

So you’ve got to ask yourself which of these hats should you be wearing? Where should you be applying your time and efforts to maximize your business?

When you’re first starting out you probably should do it all yourself. You need to have an understanding of what is involved in producing and delivering your products to your customers.

But if your business is growing you’ll quickly find out that too much of your time is being spent on the mundane tasks – copying binders (or running to Kinko’s), duplicating CDs and labeling them, packaging things together, putting products in boxes, running down to the post office or UPS, etc. Which means you’re not spending your time where you get the biggest bang for your buck – sales, marketing, product creation and, for some, public speaking.

When is the right time to outsource your duplication and fulfillment requirements? Ultimately, you’ll have to decide when that time is for yourself. But what do you value your time at? $100 per hour, $200 per hour, more? Then how long does it make sense for you to be spending your time doing $10 or $20 per hour tasks? If you’re spending an hour per day running products to the post office that’s an hour you’re not investing in your real bread and butter. And what is your opportunity cost?

When you’re spending time working in your business rather than working on your business then opportunities will slip by without you even noticing them. There is a time when outsourcing your product duplication and fulfillment requirements makes sense – both from a time management and a financial standpoint. When is that time right for you?

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Trying to do your own product fulfillment is Mistake #3 in Bret Ridgway’s course
“The 50 Biggest Mistakes I See Information Marketers Make.” How many of the mistakes are you making and what’s it costing you? Pick up your FREE Information Product Launch Checklist.

Open Call Delay

Jeanette — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 15:44:30 +0000

It was quite a call – and it’s taken me a week to get it posted. Here’s the story.

We spent 2 hours talking and covered a LOT of ground. It wasn’t until we finished that I realized I had forgotten ONE critical step – I forgot to hit the record button!

Luckily I had recorded the audio separately. So I waited till it processed then downloaded it and put it into my video editor. “No problem,” I thought. I’ll just add a few slides and some short demo segments to recreate what we did on the call and we’ll be set.

SIX HOURS later – it was finished.Then I left it to process while I got some much-needed sleep.

Next morning, after more than an hour of uploading the file, I realized it was just too big to work well. And I would need to split it into smaller files.

Of course, that was also the day before the First Store Site Webinar – and I flat out ran out of processing time on the computer.

Fast forward a week. I’m calmer and have had a little more sleep. The file has been split into 20 smaller files and well, everything is working well.

I learned two important lessons I want to share with you:

1. Hit the Record Button!

2. If you have the audio and just need to add the video, it is MUCH faster to just listen to the audio and redo the video in one continuous movie than it is to recreate it in pieces. I could have been finished in 2 hours instead of 6 if I had thought of that!

Enjoy the movie!

Online Success Explained

Jeanette — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 23:58:19 +0000

This ever popular program is available as a complimentary audio and handout. If you’ve ever wondered “where do I start?” this is a good place for you. Visit Online Success Explained to pick up the handout and audio.