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Information Marketing: The Mistakes I Made Creating My First Info-Product

Guest post by: Michele Pariza Wacek

Article Overview: Bet you never heard of my first information product. That's because it was a complete and utter failure. Read on to hear the story and how you can learn from my mistakes.

Information Marketing: The Mistakes I Made Creating My First Info-Product

My first information product was an ebook called "Got Ideas? Unleash Your Creativity and Make More Money."

Bet you didn't know that, did you? That's because it was a complete flop.

Yes, my first foray into the wonderful world of info-marketing was pretty much a train wreck.

So why I am talking about it now? Because I realized the other day the lessons I learned were invaluable and my failures could help you become a success.

So sit back, grab a cup of coffee and let me share the story of my first info-product. It was about six years ago (2004). This was my beginning of my 2-year "transition" period, where I transformed my business from freelance copywriter with 80% of my business coming from local businesses to entrepreneur/business owner with a national and international client base and having the resources and team to help my clients on a much bigger scale.

Needless to say this was a nerve-wracking time, filled with ups and downs and LOTS of "learning opportunities." One of those "learning opportunities" came in the form of my first ebook.

When I first decided to make this transition from freelance copywriter to entrepreneur/biz owner, I did what many of you either are doing or have done -- invest A LOT of time, money and energy learning stuff. And one of the things I learned was I should be selling an info-product.

Well, I'm a writer, right? I could write an ebook.

At the same time, I was also in the middle of a rebranding (remember, I was making a transition so everything was changing). Since creativity is one of my passions, I had decided to combine creativity and marketing/copywriting and have that become the foundation of my business. This would be perfect I thought. No one else is doing it, I could be the only one, and I'll kick this whole thing off by writing a book about it.

So I spent MONTHS writing this book. I put aside HOURS of my time every day writing it. It ended up being 144 pages of solid content. I finally finished it that summer, put up a (pretty bad) sales letter and waited for all the money to come rolling in.

Needless to say, that never happened.

I did sell a handful of them. Maybe a dozen or two. Not nearly the amount I had assumed I'd sell.

Now, I wasn't exactly discouraged after this but it was a shock. Like being dunked in the ice cold water of reality. It caused me to do a heck of lot more research into how to successfully sell online. I didn't take my failure personally -- rather I instead decided to use my failures as a jumping off point that would help me turn my next product into a success.

However, I know a lot of you DO venture into these murky waters, end up with a failure on your hands and become so discouraged you never sell anything online again. I don't want that for you. You see, EVERYONE who has ever sold anything online has had a lemon or two (or ten or a hundred). It doesn't mean the process doesn't work (it does) it just means you need to know the pitfalls to avoid so you end up with a success and not a failure.

So what mistakes did I make? Well, let me tell you, I made a bunch and I'm going to share those with you soon. But one mistake I did NOT make was having a bad product. Like many of you who are struggling selling a product, your product is fabulous. The flaws are in the other parts of the process and that's why you're not seeing the success you deserve.

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Article Tags: business success strategy, Business success tips, infoproducts, information marketing, information products, online marketing strategies, small business marketing strategy, strategic internet marketing



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