September 01, 2006

A Trip Down History Lane

My very first information product for the Internet marketing niche was published in March 2000.

It was 141 pages long, and I offered it for sale at first at $5.95 - and my biggest fear was no one would buy it, or worse, not like it and refund!

Today, it sells for $67 - and while revamping my website today, I quickly went through it to see just what I could learn from hindsight with 6 extra years of experience. It was a revealing exercise.

The late Corey Rudl was my 'remote mentor' during those years. I devoured his free ezine, and made copious notes from his wonderful lessons. The biggest one, just as valid today as then, is to create HIGH QUALITY, TIMELESS information products.

As I looked through Ezine Launch, the only things that are not valid today are the resource links included within the ebook (many of the sites and services are no longer around) and a missing section on the implications of CAN-SPAM legislation. Even way back then, I had advocated a double-opt in approach, and mentioned things like Privacy policies that today are required by law!

Most of the sections are absolutely golden even today, and apply just as much to the 'changed' online environment as they did during the 'Wild West' Web days.

The product over-delivered at $5.95. It over-delivers at $67. And the content is something that would save a beginner to ezine publishing literally dozens of hours of learning. There are templates for welcoming new subscribers and thanking leaving subscribers - and it was years later that I found most top IM courses include such templates, which add value to the lessons in the course.

There is a section about content, which in basic principles remains the same - but current technology (blogging, RSS feeds and auto-syndication tools) make it a snap to execute.

The chapter about strategy setting is something I hardly ever see in any IM course - except the very best ones, like the recent 'Pure Adsense Gold' by Michael Green, or Jay Abraham's more expensive ones (where the first assignment is to answer TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY probing questions about your business!)

In short, I'm both satisfied with - and proud of - my very first creation for this niche, and wish everything that followed could have sustained that extremely high standard.

Surprisingly, though, in terms of sales, this has NOT been my best-seller or biggest earner! Or should I be surprised?! ;)

Anyway, the point I'm trying to get at, in a roundabout way, is this:

Are you creating info-products you can be proud of authoring - next year, and even ten years from now?

Corey Rudl built a multi-million dollar empire from his foundational course. My own voyage into the exciting fields of ezine marketing and then niche marketing were sparked off by the success of Ezine Launch. I hope yours will take off too - but built on the foundation of a solid, high-quality info-product, tool or service.

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