Copyright (c) 2006 Mark Silver
Heart Of Business
http://www.heartofb usiness.com/

Have you put off, or given up entirely, the idea of writing that
book, or creating a CD or DVD, for your business? Maybe you've
let that idea slip away because you thought your business wasn't
suited to it. I mean, what you do is so individual and personal,
or too complicated to explain, or so intuitive in nature, that it
can't be captured in a product. Or maybe you already sell a
product, and you can't imagine what a book or CD would possibly
do for your business.

These kinds of products- books, CDs, DVDs and their digital
downloadable equivalents: pdfs, mp3s, mpegs - are called
information products, 'info products' for short. And, if you
are putting off creating one, you are doing a disservice to all
the people who are waiting for you.

What's the purpose of having an info product?

Some people will tell you the purpose is to have 'multiple
streams of income' or to 'fill your business to overflowing. '
It's true, a good info product can create these kinds of
results.

But that's not why you create one. If you create it for that
reason, you are chasing the money, and you'll end up chasing
away your customers.

The purpose of an info product is to help the wallflowers.

A wallflower is that term used at dances and other social events
where someone who is feeling a little shy or awkward will take a
seat next to a wall, and plant themselves there, and never get
out on the dance floor.

In junior high I was painfully shy, and lived as a wallflower.
High school wasn't much better, but I was able to retreat into
punk rock and avoid the 'popular' high school scene.

Even today, as my 20th high school reunion approaches, I can find
myself in wallflower situations. I have better coping mechanisms,
but it's still painful.

How many wallflowers are in your business' dance hall?

People who are struggling with something are unsure of
themselves. They are upset, insecure, hesitant. They want to
dance the tango, but they don't want to look foolish and be
rejected.

Do you think it might be easier for those wallflowers if you met
them at their seat with a glass of punch, and talked with them
awhile, before you even asked them to dance?

A good information product doesn't recreate your business to
give the full dance-hall experience. It doesn't deliver the same
intimacy, or the same instruction, or the same in-depth support,
or the same results that your main products or services do.
That's not its job.

The job of a good information product is to help people dance
along off to the side, out of the spotlight. This will not only
help them get some of the results they need, but it will also get
them ready to get out on your dance floor and engage more deeply
with what will really help them: your main products and
services.

And, it's not a bad thing that info products can create a nice
flow of income for you as well.

Ready to deliver that glass of punch and create an info product?

Keys to Creating an Info Product

• * What seats are your wallflowers sitting in?

Identify the main hesitations of some of your reluctant
customers. Some common hesitations have to do with:

• Is this weird, or is it normal (do people like me do this?).
• Does it really work?
• Do you really know what you're doing?
• How does it work?

There are others, including ones specific to your business or
industry. Search your heart, and also ask your newest clients
what concerns they had before they purchased from you.

• * Where does your record skip?

With new clients or customers and in newly-started classes, you
give them explanations, key ideas, and foundational notions.
These notions may be new to your clients, but you've repeated
each of them 1000 times in different situations.

At a dance, if the record skips, maybe it's a DJ working the
grooves, or maybe it's just a bad scratch. (But you hear it
repeating the same line over and over.)

When you repeat yourself it's like a scratched record- and
you've just found a prime place to focus on a product. Stop the
skipping record, and turn it into a workbook, article, or
recorded audio product.

• Don't forget the how-to's.

In your info product, you want to teach them something, and
include instructions on how to actually do it. But, remember,
that this is a 'getting-ready / dance-along' product, and not
the dance itself.

This means that while you want your how-to's to be complete, and
you expect your reader or listener to apply them to some extent,
don't worry about trying to recreate the dance hall experience.
Because you can't.

Instead ask your heart to show you how much (or how little) they
really need to know to feel comfortable dancing. Lead them up to
the edge of the dance floor, maybe have them dance along to the
music a few steps off to the side. And, believe me, people can
get a lot out of dancing along off to the side.

Then, they'll be ready for the dance hall. And that's when
you'll find your dance card overflowing with new customers and
clients.

Go mix up that punch, and start serving out info products to all
of your wallflowers.

My very best to you and your business,

Mark Silver

------------ --------- --------- --------- --------- --------- -
Mark Silver is the author of Unveiling the Heart of Your
Business: How Money, Marketing and Sales can Deepen Your
Heart, Heal the World, and Still Add to Your Bottom Line.
He has helped hundreds of small business owners around
the globe succeed in business without losing their
hearts. Get three free chapters of the book online:
http://www.heartofb usiness.com

by Brian Hack

Keyword research is the basic skill or task that you must
master if you want to be at all successful in the business of
internet marketing. The essence of marketing is getting
customers to buy your product right? And what are the important
parts of that task?
 
Well first you have to have a product. Preferably this product
has some demand from the public that give it value. The public
then has to know that they have the need that your product can
remedy. Then they need to know about your product more than
they hear about your competitor's product. How your product is
the best that money can buy and all that yada yada. Because you
have a limited supply of resources you have to make the most of
your efforts which means that you try to target your marketing
to the people that are most likely to buy once they have heard
about it. On the internet things are a little bit different in
that the main way to get your product in front of people, i.e.
to get people to your sales page, is via the search engines.
This is where keyword research comes in.
 
Search engines are really the portal for the customer to the
internet whether that customer is after information only or to
buy a product. They type in a keyword into the search bar and
then based on the results will either refine the search further
or click through links to get to what he or she is looking for.
The general rule is that the higher the result is ranked by the
search engine the more hits that link is going to receive. And
since it makes sense the more traffic to a sales page the more
sales you are going to get you want your page's link to be as
high as it possibly can be on the search engine result page.
Once again this is done in large part with good keyword
research.
 
Keyword research is the first step in search engine
optimization. You see although the search engine's formula is
somewhat mysterious, it is not a secret that they base their
ranking on the relevance of the page's overall content as it
relates to the keyword that was searched. So it is first
important to find the most common thing that people type into
the search blank when they are looking to fill a need that your
product will fill.

About The Author: Having been in the internet marketing
industry since its inception Trever Dellinious knows all there
is to know about keyword research and loves to give advice to
the newbies. If you want to know more visit
http://www.beginkeywordresearch.info.

Market research is a crucial starting point for any business,
but it’s especially important for online businesses that seek
to target a particular niche market. The equation is pretty
simple: if the interest in your product is low, you won’t make
enough sales to keep afloat. The key to online success is to
plan ahead " seek out a ready and willing market that will buy
your product, before launching a marketing campaign.

The Internet offers the start-up business a lot of tools for
market research, so there’s no excuse for not taking advantage
of the available information. It gives you access to a wider
range of consumers than you would normally be able to reach.
Your target market doesn’t have to be defined by geographical
location " instead, you will likely be targeting a group of
people who share a similar interest.

Most online market research is conducted through three avenues:
the Web, email and newsgroups. The first is perfect for checking
out the competition (or lack thereof). It pays to be informed
about your potential market niche ahead of time, so you can
figure out if creating a new business in that area will be a
profitable venture, worth your time and initial investment.

Researching your competition is a good idea for two main
reasons. First of all, it’s important to find out if the market
you intend to target is over saturated. If too many other
businesses already offer the same product you want to sell, it
will be more difficult to successfully break in and rake in a
tidy profit. In addition, researching competitors can help you
focus your business on one specific aspect of a saturated
market that has yet to be adequately exploited. On the other
hand, if you discover that no one has come up with the same
brilliant idea as you, it’s a greater possibility that your
business will flourish.

Secondly, as the old adage says, know your enemy. Find out how
other businesses price their products, take note of the image
they convey and look at how their website is constructed. In
order to be competitive you need to have an edge that sets you
apart from the competition and makes you attractive to your
target market. But, first you must know what will give you that
edge.

After researching the competition, the next step is to create a
survey full of questions related to the companies already
selling in your potential market. The survey, of course, should
also include questions that relate to your own business.

So where do you find participants for your survey? There are
many places online where you can ask for opinions. If you
already have a website, post the survey on your site. Or, try
posting small notices in newsgroups and on discussion boards
related to your market area to elicit some responses.
Newsgroups are also a great place to get the inside scoop on
your potential customers. What are they talking about? What
products are they looking for and can’t seem to find? What do
they look for in a product? You can also ask questions, as long
as it doesn’t sound as if you’re trying to sell them something.

Ads posted on free online classified pages can also yield a
good amount of survey participants, as long as you offer an
incentive, such as a freebie, coupons, etc. Finally, you can
also send out the survey through email to prospects,
associates, and others who might be able to lend a hand.

Investigating Google search counts and popular keywords is
another method of online market research that specifically
looks for trends in what people want to buy through online
stores. The more you know about the customer, the better.

Whether you choose to carry out online market research on your
own or hire a company to do it for you, it is an essential step
that will lay the proper foundation for the future success of
your online business.

About The Author: This article was written by Adam Yax of
http://www.phoenixsynergy.com/. Phoenix Synergy can help bring
new revenue to your business by way of technical marketing
driven by market research. Contact Phoenix Synergy today and
request a free assessment. Reproductions of this article must
include a link pointing to http://www.phoenixsynergy.com/.

For anyone who has a way with words, freelance writing is one of
the great work from home professions.  It has long since been an
occupation which allowed people the freedom of choosing whether
they wanted to work in an office environment or in the comfort
of their own homes. 

The great thing about freelance writing as a work at home
business is the variety of options that the writers have to
choose from in respect of the kind of work they want to pursue.

If you consider the many types of publications that are around
you - everyday we are bombarded with the written word, and often
we don't even see it!  Someone has been paid to create those
words however and if you have some talent for writing, you could
do the same.  If you want to work from home, this could very
well be a dream come true for you.

You need to discover what your writing strengths and interests
are.  A writer who runs their own work from home writing
business usually falls into two categories - copywriting for
businesses, and articles for magazines.  These are two very
different disciplines but it is possible to build your home
business doing both if you don't want to choose between the two.

Copywriting is a business where you sell your writing services
to businesses and individuals who need them.  This can be very
financially rewarding, but article writing may be something that
gives you more pleasure. 

For both disciplines you will need to produce a portfolio and
learn how to promote your skills to catch the attention of
either the business sector or magazine editors.  If you decide
to pursue both avenues, you will need to create different
promotional material for each.  With magazine writing you will
need to learn the rules of submitting queries and developing
ideas, as well as keeping on top of current trends and knowing
the magazine markets. 

All businesses need copywriters and many of them are open to
being approached by freelancers, so you will need to learn not
only how to set out the various types of leaflets, newsletters
and advertisements, but also how to present your ideas face to
face with clients. 

As with all work at home businesses, freelance writers need to
organize their projects carefully so that they do not miss
deadlines - a writer is only as good as the reputation they
create by submitting good quality work on time, every time. 

Although it isn't always easy to get started as a paid writer,
there are many opportunities out there for good writers. So if
this is the kind of work at home business that attracts you, and
you feel you have the necessary skills, then it's certainly
something you should seriously consider.

================================================
Martin Boyd is the owner of a Work At Home Income Directory
dedicated to helping work at home income seekers to maximise
there income and find work from home opportunities.
http://www.theworkathomesuccessbusiness.com
================================================

Everyone has a hobby of some kind - most people have several.
There are people who collect stamps; people who make scrapbooks
or create graphic designs with their digital photos; people who
love horseback riding, hiking or bicycling. Maybe you do
something that you don't even know is considered a “hobby”.
Technically, anything that you engage in for fun that is
outside of your occupational activities is considered a hobby-
so chances are you have lots of hobbies!

Have you ever considered turning one of your hobbies into a
business? You may be surprised at how virtually any hobby can
be converted to profits, and without tremendous overhead or
ridiculously high start up costs. What's even better, you
aren't required to have a specific product to sell! In fact,
you can make your knowledge your product to sell.

If you participate regularly in some sort of hobby, you are
bound to know quite a bit about it. If you make scrapbooks of
your family and friends, then you probably have extensive
knowledge about where to get the best deals on your
scrapbooking supplies, and how to create special effects on
your photo album pages. Maybe you have magazines and websites
that you refer to all the time for inspiration. You have the
personal knowledge of what it took to get started in the hobby.
For example, scrapbooking requires that you have access to
supplies like paper, stickers, glue, photo albums and
scrapbooking tools. Someone who has just learned about
scrapbooking and thinks they want to start the hobby will need
to figure out what they need to get started. You could offer
this knowledge as your product to sell. Think people won't buy
it? Think again.

If you've ever used a search engine to look up information, you
know that it's time consuming to sort through all the data to
find exactly what you're looking for. Often, you're given tons
of information that doesn't seem all that reliable, and you
have to determine what you can use and what you need to avoid!
When you make your personal knowledge of a hobby your product
to sell- you're helping everyone who wants to find that
information without spending hours searching for it!

You do not need to have a physical product to sell in order to
make a profit. In fact, having an inventory or having to create
physical items from materials offers a lower profit margin than
selling information.

Information products are among the top items to sell for a
variety of reasons. They offer a low cost to get started,
meaning you start earning a profit after just a couple sales.
Informational products include eBooks, online courses or email
courses, software, audio files, web sites- basically anything
that can be downloaded from the internet. You aren't required
to have an inventory and you can set up your business model to
allow you to earn money by the work other people do for you.

So now, maybe you're thinking that this is all well and good-
but you still don't have a product to sell! You haven't written
an eBook, and maybe your writing skills leave little to be
desired. Creating online or email courses are time consuming,
and to create software you need special training. You can still
sell your knowledge. Create a “package” of items that someone
would need in order to get started in a particular hobby, and
promote it as the “everything you need to know” about starting
the hobby. Contact someone who has written an informative eBook
on the topic; find someone else who has made an online video or
radio show regarding it, and request permission to sell the
items in your package. If they have affiliate programs, you can
probably sign up for the affiliate programs and earn commission
that way. Include your list of great providers for supplies or
information that you refer to regularly, and anything else you
know a person needs in order to get started in the hobby. This
is a product to sell: selling your knowledge.

Once you've earned money from this type of information product
business, you can invest in the creation of your own products
if you want, or start offering more informational products that
allow you to sell your knowledge!

About The Author: Antonio Thornton started with $37 and turned
his "nerdy" computer hobby into a $500,000.00 per year
business. Get the free Hobby For Profit Audio and discover how
to turn your hobby into profit today!
http://www.hobby4profit.com/freeh4p

There are 2 main options for protecting your PDF file:
 
OPTION 1: Use Adobe Acrobat's basic protection.
 
Adobe Acrobat allows you to set basic protection for your PDF
document. This includes:
 
* allow/disable the ability to copy text of document
* allow/disable printing of file
* allow/disable changing document
* require password to open document (Yes their password
protection was broken a few years back, but it's still adequate
protection and will keep out most people.)
 
Ideally, to use this option you should use Adobe Acrobat,
however the high cost may put that out of reach of many.
Fortunately, there are MANY, MANY inexpensive PDF creators that
will allow you to also set some of these permissions.
 
Such as:
http://www.pdf995.com
http://www.pdffactory.com
http://www.deskpdf.com
 
There are also some standalone applications like:
http://www.verypdf.com/encryptpdf/index.htm
 
Overall, option 1 is what I call "static protection". Meaning,
once you choose the security and then distribute the file, you
cannot change the security for those files that are already
distributed. For example, you distribute a file to Client A in
December. In January, your relations with the client become
strained and you no longer want them to have access to your
file. Unfortunately, with static protection, you cannot change
their access permissions. It is already "set".
 
Though this option may allow you to prevent copying text within
the file, it does NOT prevent a user from copying the entire
file and redistributing it to others. Though it may allow you
to require a password to access the file, the password can be
easily passed around so anyone can have access. So it's not
entirely secure and easily circumvented. If protection of your
document is critical, you should boost protection using
additional mechanisms.
 
OPTION 2: Use a third party protection system.
 
This option includes systems that offer "real time" control
over your document. "Real time" means that you have the ability
to change or alter the document security after it has been
delivered to the end user. This is what I choose to focus on as
it provides the greatest amount of security and
post-distribution control.
 
Some just offer basic lock and unlock ability, while others go
into more extensive PDF settings that can be altered at any
point. Here are some things you should be looking for when
evaluating a PDF protection system.
 
1. Does the system offer complete protection?
 
This the first thing you should look at because if the
protection is not up to par, move on! You will never even get
to the other points.
 
When evaluating protection features, make sure you check each
feature out for yourself and don't always take the company's
word about protection. Many times I have seen companies
advertising certain protection features on their website, but
in testing, the product doesn't seem to do what is claimed. So,
always check first.
 
For PDF files, there are some basic areas that any adequate
system must protect against. In order to be totally protected,
the PDF security system you use MUST:
 
* Prevent saving a copy of file.
* Prevent emailing of file and exporting or extracting pages
from file
* Prevent copying of file from the TEMP folder
* Prevent copying file and text to the clipboard
* Prevent redistilling of the file
* Prevent unlimited, uncontrolled printing of file
* Prevent access to file without permission
* Watermark all printed pages
 
If any system that you look into does not cover these, I
recommend that you move on to something that does.
 
2. Can you afford it?
 
If the system passes the security test, the next thing you
should look at is the cost of the system. Is it within your
budget? Can you justify the price of this type of service? Do
you buy the entire system and run it on your server, or is it a
hosted service that charges you a monthly fee. There are pros
and cons of both.
 
If you run the system on your server then you will avoid
monthly fees, but these types of systems usually require
extensive programming and integration work which can increase
your overall costs and take weeks to months before you get up
and running.
 
If you choose a third party system that is hosted by another
company, you avoid the integration issue as most of these
services can get you up and running in minutes to hours.
 
3. Does the system offer auto-distribution?
 
Does it automatically deliver your document to your customers
and clients hands-free? If so, does it integrate with your
payment system and/or shopping cart?
 
4. Is the system flexible?
 
The next thing you should look at is the flexibility. Does it
allow you to tweak and modify the security options to fit your
unique requirements? The ability to customize things such as
program icons, customer download emails, thank you pages, etc.
makes a big difference.
 
5. Is there any customer support?
 
What kind of support and help will you receive when you
purchase the product or service? Is their any documentation of
all features and uses? What good is having the best system if
you don't know how to use it?
 
6. Is the Company reliable? Does it protect my data?
 
Is this company reliable? Do you feel that the the company will
shut down, thus leaving your documents inaccessible and/or
unprotected? Ask them what measures do they provide to ensure
that your information remains protected in this event? Do they
back up your data? If so, how often?
 
7. Can you demo the system?
 
Most companies offer a trial or demo period for free or a small
fee. You should always try the system out to see it "in
action".
Set it up to do exactly what you are looking for and see if it
works the way you need. Never sign up or purchase something
that you have not yet tested.
 
8. Other questions?
 
Those are the major criteria, of course there are other things
that you may want to consider such as:
 
* What is their cancellation/refund policy? Do they require a
contract or can you sign up for a month to month service?
 
* Does their system use Acrobat Reader or another PDF viewer?
If they use Acrobat Reader, do they have an Adobe DRM license
which is required for all Acrobat reader security systems?
 
* Does it allow you to contact your database of users/clients
 
* Can you export your user database
 
There is a lot to consider when deciding on a PDF protection
system. My advice is Do NOT rush into it. Because once you
choose a system and start distributing files using that system,
you are stuck with it.

About The Author: File Secure Pro is a document protection and
delivery system that allows users to securely distribute,
monitor and control usage of their intellectual property. learn
more at http://www.protectyourfile.com/ If you distribute
important information online, File Secure allows you to start
protecting your information within minutes.

Self-publishing didn't get the respect it deserved either
from the book industry or from the book-reading public for a
very long time. However, that has changed, thanks to books
like What Color Is Your Parachute and The Celestine
Prophecy. Of course, with the advent of ebook publishing the
tides have turned significantly so that now publishing your
own book is quite the accepted thing.

Publishing your own book, however, should be done only by
quality publishing companies and ebook publishing
companies.
There are many fly-by-night publishing companies out there
that only want to take an eager writer's money and give a
poor quality product in return. So if you're considering
self publishing your book, be sure you deal with publishing
companies with a record of excellence and high quality
books.

When publishing your own book, you also want to be sure you
have it professionally edited. Writers don't always make
good editors, especially when it comes to their own
writing.
You are likely just too close to your book to give it the
thorough, professional editing it would get from a large
publishing company. So when publishing your book, don't make
the amateur's mistake of doing a poor editing job on it.
Because, truly, editing makes all the difference in the
world.

You also want to think of marketing and promoting your
book.
Publishing your own book won't automatically mean it will
find it's way into reader's hands. You may want to hire a
book publicist or small marketing firm to help you design a
great marketing campaign. Just don't wait until after
publishing your book. Start thinking about this before you
have even began publishing. That way, when your book is hot
off the presses, you already have a plan in place for
getting it into readers' eager hands.

Try to avoid cost cutting while publishing your book. Keep a
check that the cover is well and efficiently designed. Make
sure the lay out of the pages inside are pleasant and put
some efforts to choose the best typeface for your book. All
these small things should be kept in mind to increase
popularity of your book among the readers. Be aware of the
fact that there are many other books too available in the
market, so your book should be competitive enough to make a
mark.

Joan Pulis is the administrator of href="http://www.appublishing.com">AP Publishing, Inc,
the place to find your publishing needs.
Find what you need at:
www.appublishing.com