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When it comes to making money online, there’s a misperception that everything revolves around products and services. Whether this is through our own products, dropshipping (what is a dropshipping business?), or providing an important service such as writing, graphic designing, or SEO consulting. However, this just isn’t true and there’s a third option that often gets forgotten; selling information.
Today, we’re going to show you what it means to start this type of business, the options you have available, and how to sell information online. Along with useful tips, by the end, you should have a better idea of how it all works!
What Information Can I Sell?
In truth, the answer to this question is almost limitless because you can attempt to sell absolutely anything. From eBooks to courses, newsletters to lessons, the topics you can cover are wide and varied. If you know what information you’re aiming to sell, we recommend skipping ahead to the ‘Option 1: Going it Alone’ section. If you don’t, keep reading.
If you’re researching this business opportunity with no real idea of what niche you wish to enter, we recommend sitting down with a notebook and pen. Remember, there are many others attempting to sell information online so you can only attempt to enter a niche if you have the knowledge required, have something unique to offer, or are willing to research heavily.
Examples – Normally, people are willing to pay for information when it’s something they can’t obtain easily from a search engine. If you’re charging people for information they can find within five seconds on Google, you aren’t going to get very far because you aren’t providing a useful service. Therefore, it needs to be certain skills or advice that go above and beyond what’s normally available.
For example, we often see ‘Guides’ to different topics whether this is:
- Learning A Language,
- Singing,
- Playing An Instrument,
- Dancing,
- Losing Weight,
- Building Muscle,
- Taking Photographs,
- Starting On A Certain Diet, etc.
Whether in the form of an eBook, course, or just a simple guide, information on these topics can be found online but people pay for the advice, opinions, and knowledge from somebody who is either an expert or has been through the same process.
When creating and selling information in this way, you’re answering a question like:
- How should I play the ‘E’ chord on a guitar?
- How do I balance work/personal life when attempting to lose weight?
- What are the best foods to eat when building muscle?
- Which SEO techniques are the most effective?
- Which social media platforms deserve my attention the most this year?
Once you have your area of expertise, you then need to know how to sell information online.
Option 1: Going It Alone
In the market today, there are some superb websites that allow you to build informational products and sell them directly to your audience. However, we’re first going to discuss the option of going it alone. Can you compile your information into a great product before then releasing it to the world? In short, yes. However, it will be difficult and you’ll need to do a lot of the groundwork yourself.
For most people, they start their own website and use the blog feature to gain interest. Over time, techniques such as:
- Blogging,
- Utilizing Keywords,
- Guest Blogging,
- Running Competitions, and
- Using Social Media Will Increase Awareness Of Your Brand.
If you run a mailing list and start to see regular visitors, you can begin to take advantage of this audience.
For example, let’s use the ‘losing weight’ niche and say you have a special technique that allowed you or somebody you know to lose large amounts of weight. On your blog, you can introduce the basics of the technique while also discussing the industry in general. As you add character and personality to your blog posts, people will return for
this because it makes you unique. As soon as the time is right, the eBook or course you’ve created can be advertised and people will be interested.
If you don’t want to go through the process of building your own website, there could be an opportunity to use the success of other blogs and websites. If you see a health and fitness blogger with no products, you might be able to show them your informational product and see if they’d be willing to partner with you. This way, you gain access to their audience; even though you might need to offer them a percentage of the success.
Option 2: Utilizing A Third-Party Website
As mentioned previously, going it alone will be tough work and it’ll be months before you see enough visitors to make money from selling information. Therefore, when people ask how to sell information online, we normally recommend a hosting website. Unlike the ‘hosting’ with which you may be familiar, we mean a website that specializes in selling information.
First and foremost, we’ll suggest ClickBank because they sell digital products all over the world. Not only do the world’s best industry experts come here to sell their digital products, but over 200 million people also visit to invest in guides, eBooks, courses, and the like. With a number of different categories, you can choose your niche as you
upload so you find your audience from games, languages, education, business/investing, art/entertainment, sports, travel, parenting/families, software/services, and many more.
With over 17 years of experience, ClickBank handles the front and back-end sections of your business so all you have to worry about is producing the best content possible while interacting with your customers. Not only will they help you to get set up, but they also advise on growth within the market and provide support whenever it’s required.
Away from ClickBank, there are several others including Udemy which is known for educating people through the power of online courses. Although this will require more of an investment in both time and money, because designing a course is more intensive than other forms of compiling information, it’ll be worth it once you earn a percentage of every sale. If you get off on the right foot and attract great reviews, it won’t be long before you’re making good money.
With a simple Google Search, you can find more but pay attention to the following factors;
- The percentage you receive for each sale
- Any promotional tools to get your information out into the world
- The support you receive after getting started
- The number of visitors the websites receives each month
- The categories available
- Any restrictions in terms of length, word count, topics, etc
Conclusion
If you wanted to know how to sell information online, we hope to have provided everything you need here today. If you have a talent or bank of knowledge in which people will be interested, there are now opportunities to make money and help those who are asking the questions. Whether you choose to go it alone or go through a third-party website, work hard and be determined and there’s no reason why success won’t come.
I hope you enjoyed this post and if you have any questions about how to sell information online or want to leave your own personal experience, leave a comment below.
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Very interesting read and very informative, too. I was under the impression that Clickbank is an affiliate network like many others. Thank you for introducing this line of business, which I was not very well versed with.
Cheers
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
ClickBank is an affiliate network to connect affiliate marketers with merchants.