The Knowledge Economy
Knowledge is very powerful. It is the single most important asset the country owns at the moment. It differentiates the UK from most other trading nations. The majority of businesses in the UK are selling knowledge (services). The Internet has allowed us to sell this globally online with information products. Whilst there is an abundance of free information online it doesn’t mean that people aren’t prepared to pay for information that they consider worth while knowing, in a format that makes it easy for them to assimilate.
People want to buy solutions to the problems they think they have. If your knowledge, skills and expertise can solve their problems then people will be willing to pay you for that information. To produce an information product all you need is an idea that adds value for your customer, some time and a computer.
Indeed every time you answer a question that a potential client has asked you are offering up your expertise. If you can capture this and turn it into a downloadable item, whether that be a video, audio, or PDF you are well on the way to offering an item with a high profit margin.
You could look at designing something that will demonstrate your expertise, to get speaker bookings, to generate website traffic, improve e-newsletter numbers or very simply to make money and get paid for the same piece of work many times over. You might chose any number of the following formats; insider information, news bulletins, how to tips, lists, templates, learn from case studies and examples, expert interviews, reviews, beginners guides. The best thing about offering information products is that they can sell over the internet 24/7 and if they are downloadable they are completely a residual income stream.
The above post has been created from and following a terrific presentation by Anne Orchard of Families Facing Cancer. For more information about Anne http://www.cancerfalloutzone.wordpress.com/
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Laura McHarrie @ The Hidden Edge 
Great article Laura
I’ve written numerous information products before and still sell them from my travel site. I get people from all over the world buying my products. However my advice is this.
Make sure your target audiance is of sufficient numbers to make it worth your while
Everything you provide must be supported with hard evidence i.e. “it will save you money” won’t cut it without the specific evidence to demonstrate how much will be saved.
On another note, that last paragraph you’ve written, “..the time is right to outsource. How it might benefit their company, and what they need to know to select the perfect provider?”
You must have been watching me because I’m currently writing a piece on that very topic extolling the business benefits for outsourcing.. funny that…
Russell
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Knowledge is indeed powerful, I agree; when given to the wrong people can be pretty useless, though. thanks for sharing these thought-provoking inputs.
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