Click. The sound that my mouse made when launching a new article pack (product) for my business: PLRArticlesNow.com. I put together WordPress PLR Articles, a highly requested product.
Rather than write about the usual, I wanted to share a bit of what goes behind the scenes into putting together a niche product.
Note: I wanted to bring something different than what I had planned for you today. This post may not apply to everyone but I’m sure you’ll still get some great info for the long run when you’re working on your own online business and offering information-based products online.
The Spark of an Idea
I had a talk with my customers and subscribers of PLRArticlesNow.com and discovered that many were requesting a WordPress PLR pack. I did a quick search using the Google Keyword Tool to discover that this particular topic was pulling in quite a few queries every month yet not many PLR providers had a product for the market.
Ding ding ding!
I immediately got started on putting together ten PLR articles for this upcoming pack.
You see, there’s no better way to bring a product to your market than being told, directly, by your customers. Instead of guessing what to create, listen to the market and get to work. You skip over the annoying process of dead-end product creation; you jump straight to success.
Putting Things Together
Not sure if I want to share it to this detail but I put together my PLR packages to maximize the ease-of-use for my customers. I use Word 2007 which means things save as DOCX; I can’t assume that everyone is running Word 2007 so I’ve setup a workflow where I create Word 97-2003 documents along with TEXT files where everyone can view and use their articles.
Special note: I highly recommend, when creating products, which you always leave open options for people that may not necessarily have the latest wiz-bang software. You may be releasing a PDF eBook but have you considered that someone may not have a PDF reader? Link to an open source reader just in case … see what I’m saying?
Readying for Launch and All that Jazz
No real point of having this pic but I figure you'd need something to look at - stop reading this ...
Information products. The key, here, is information.
Know what that means? No need for shelf space. No need for packaging. No need for having a warehouse. I can’t begin to tell you how simple digital distribution is compared to physical products (having worked at an eCommerce company for a few years).
So, this begs the question: what goes into getting things ready for launch?
Despite what a lot of bloggers tell you, not much. The two main elements, from what I’ve found, is packaging your product for distribution and then creating a gateway for people to buy it.
The good thing is that WordPress and other online platforms allow for these gateways if you integrate them with processors like Paypal or Google Checkout. If you’ve got money, sport a subscription to something like 1ShoppingCart or E-Junkie.
What you’re mainly doing is putting everything into a zip file and then setting up your site to automatically handle the payment processes. I’ve found that EasyFileShop does wonders for digital distribution – and it’s a free WP plugin!
I put the pack into a blog post which I use for my product pages, wrote the copy that follows pretty much every other product page (because eCommerce doesn’t need to be dramatically different) and then made sure everything checked out – such as the graphics.
All Eyes on the Product
Now here’s something that’s a bit “the emperor wears no clothes”; I’m writing this blog post to share what goes on behind a simple niche product launch but I’m also leveraging my online assets to bring awareness to the launch.
This approach is done by just about anyone with websites. Hell, look at the Tuts+ network and you will see that every time they launch a new blog, you’re bound to read a blog post on every one of their blogs that shares the recent launch. It’s smart.
This facilitates two things: It gives me something to write about and gives me a bit of SEO juice for the product page. See what’s going on here?
Of course, my intent is to give you information and if you read between the lines, with this post, you’ll notice methods that work to your advantage when you have multiple web assets like a blog AND a business site.
Also, I sent an email out to my PLRArticlesNow subscribers – see the power of the list in this situation? You’re not just alerting people about a new blog post, you’re using it as a newsletter for product releases; it’s what you’d be doing when working for an eCommerce website.
A Few Words …
I don’t mean to make things sound so simple but the reality is that product launches are pretty much the same as putting together blog posts but you’re doing a lot more information.
Here are the two processes, compared:
- Blog Post Idea > Create Blog Post > Publish > Promote
- Product Idea > Create Product > Publish > Promote
The real difference, here, is that you’re putting in about 10x the amount of work for your product than a blog post but the same rules apply. That’s one of the big things I try to teach here on Murlu, it’s the idea behind ‘Business Beyond Blogging’. You already have the skill set to create this kind of workflow, you just need to adjust it toward product creation.
With that in mind, let me know if you’ve learned anything from this post or if you’re working on something of your own. I’m sure we all would love to hear each other’s product launch workflow.
Murray,
Love the point you made in the end.
“Blog Post Idea > Create Blog Post > Publish > Promote
Product Idea > Create Product > Publish > Promote”
Creating a product really isn’t any different from successfully creating a simple blog post at it’s most basic. The only difference is scale.
To do a “product” right, ever step has to be scaled up tenfold. with promotion likely getting even a big chunk of scale up.
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I also like your point about using existing infrastructure to promote. Like you said that is the great thing about lists (and having more than 1 site) When you have infrastructure just “talking” about a product is going to generate a certain amount of “buzz”
…and of course from SEO POV a few links here and there never HURT.
I was just about to comment on the processes point as well, but you beat me to it Steve.
I like this layout:
“Blog Post Idea > Create Blog Post > Publish > Promote
Product Idea > Create Product > Publish > Promote”
It shows you how simple the process is. A four step process, no need to over-think it. Unfortunately simple doesn’t always mean easy
.
I love that, Eugene.
People think that ‘simple’ means ‘easy’ but it’s really quite different.
To many people, a ‘simple’ math problem could be absolute hell for others but the path to getting the answer would be the same – it all depends on how much you’re willing to work on the problem – this goes for products too. There are people that will nail it every time and it becomes more and more ‘simple’ compared to someone that’s still sitting around with a thumb up their ass – ya know?
You can certainly attest to that Steve.
Pretty much every information product takes on the same form of a blog post. There will always be moments where you’re doing research, compiling the data, getting it packaged and sending it out to the market. The difference, in the mindset, is that people get worked up because all of a sudden it changed from ‘post’ to ‘product’ – it messes with people.
However, if you break things down, it’s really just a ton of blog posts put together (or video, of course). Break things up throughout the month and things WILL get done. Plus, you get a bit of motivation because you’ll be earning a revenue in the end of the work rather than a couple tweets.
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You’re really creating a ‘mini-net’; I’m amazed that people don’t do this more often because every normal business taps into their networks. An ecommerce company will mail their existing customers, put up banners on the front page, run ads and more – they tap into everything because it’s going to pull in revenue. No reason to have a completely soft launch (unless you’re still in development) – go big!
Great post, Murray. I miss your regular content, so I’m hoping you keep up the recent post pace.
I like the way that you’ve taken something seemingly complex and boiled it down to a very simple process. As you and others have pointed out already, this doesn’t mean it’s easy, but it’s enough to keep you motivated to continue.
Maybe you’ve written about this before (and I know many others have), but I’d love to read a “getting things done” post. It doesn’t need to be about a specific project or product you’re working on, but I’d like to see a “nuts and bolts” view of how you focus and manage to cross things off your to-do list. Everyone has their own strategy that works for them, and I’m always interested in reading about it.
Anyway, keep it up man, hope all is well.
- Eric
Thanks Eric!
Actually, you’re reading my mind. I was just thinking about doing some kind of post that breaks down my entire day. Not sure if that’s something that people want to read entirely but I think it shows a bit of what goes behind the scenes and how much time I need to put into what I do in order to get things done. I’m not the most disciplined but there may be areas where people can ‘lift’ some of my workflow to use in their own businesses and projects
I always wondered how people can create a product. What steps do you need to take in creating the product. Lets say I have an idea, but how can I create it? I don’t have a factory and I’m not an product engineer…
Do you mean a physical product or information?
Information, it’s really just about getting your ideas down onto paper in a very structured manner (or video, audio) and then the packaging.
In terms of physical products, you have to go through the process of patenting, filing papers for safety (MSDS sheets and more) and then finding a company that could create draft designs of your product before it goes into production. I’m not entirely proficient in this area since most of the physical products I’ve worked with have been basically created through a hobby fashion – using what’s around – but you could check to see if you can sell through Etsy or maybe Amazon. A site like World Wide Brands is really great for finding all kinds of businesses but it does require a membership.