Building an info product business

[Rainmaker]

I've been a consultant for 10 years, but I've grown increasingly frustrated with the lack of recurring revenue. About two years ago, I created a blog and started running ads on it. Once I built up ownership of a niche, I published an ebook. It started selling well (IMHO), so I published another. Now I am at the point where I think my market would respond well to a course.

What's the best way to develop a course? Audio CDs/podcasts? Audio interviews with me? Interactive CBT? I don't want to stick with the ebook format alone this time. I was thinking that audio works well, so that people can listen in their car or on their iPods.

Can anyone point me to examples of great courses? (Not from a university.) Thanks.

[shanerbock]

I would suggest that you use audio, but you should have materials to go along with it... such as a worksheet with an outline of the course with a few questions, etc... and have the students fill in blanks, and choose answers during the course. Just point out where you are occassionally on the outline and give the answers so they can take that information with them without having to listen to the whole course again. It doesnt have to be elaborate, but just a little something to go with it.

I dont know what you mean examples of courses... do you mean you are looking for someone to model? If so, how about:
http://tonyrobbins.com/
http://www.mindperk.com/Tracy.htm Brian Tracy has quite a few on this page
http://www.mindperk.com/Brown.htm Less Brown has a few here
just search for audio seminars...

You should also consider holding teleseminars... You can use http://www.freeconferencecall.com/ for this teleseminar... and you can even record it for free... and then SELL it over and over again.

You may also look to Alex Mandossian for some advice and tools on holding teleseminars, creating audio content, and also creating video content. Just visit this site (http://www.teleseminarsecrets.com/)... or do a google search for Alex Mandossian (http://www.google.com/search?q=Alex+Mandossian).

Hope this helps!

Make it a great day!
Shane

[shanerbock]

OH, and I forgot to ask... what are you teaching?

Would you mind sharing the URL? I may have some marketing ideas for you depending on the niche. If you don't want to share publicly, you could always send a PM.

Make it a great day!
Shane

[webgal]

If it's just for the car mostly, audio is good. But I'm visual. So most of the time I want something visual. I sort of used eBook software to create a frameset tutorial. So it's not really an eBook but it's in eBook software. I looked into tutorial software for online courses and it was super expensive. $10k was the cheapest I found.

[shanerbock]

If it's just for the car mostly, audio is good. But I'm visual. So most of the time I want something visual. I sort of used eBook software to create a frameset tutorial. So it's not really an eBook but it's in eBook software. I looked into tutorial software for online courses and it was super expensive. $10k was the cheapest I found.

Hi Anne, and Rainmaker,

You might want to check out Moodle (http://moodle.org/)... its opensource and FREE!

I have not yet tried it myself, but seems promising and at least worth a look.

Shane

[Rainmaker]

Thanks. Do people really want to buy teleseminars and conference calls. It seems that those would be less valuable than a course. Am I missing something?

Some great ideas above, by the way.

I hear Captivate is a good course development tool, but I'm interested in audio at this point.

[Stallion]

You'd be surprised how many people would pay for a conference call, as long as there is demand for your information, people will buy it.

The idea of conference calls sounds good. Charge a $100/hr, and make them pay for the first hour. You could be on the beach in Thailand taking these calls.

[webgal]

I think I did check out moodle. But I think I'll look it over again. Thanks.

[shanerbock]

Thanks. Do people really want to buy teleseminars and conference calls. It seems that those would be less valuable than a course. Am I missing something?

Some great ideas above, by the way.

I hear Captivate is a good course development tool, but I'm interested in audio at this point.

Yes, many, many people are out there selling teleseminars. I hope to have my own soon too... mostly because I really enjoy speaking and conversation more than I like writing.

I think the ones that are most successful in getting sales are those that have weekly calls, or something like that. Not just one call, but a series... a complete course that runs for a few weeks or months.

Watch some of the Alex Mandossian videos (just search for Alex Mandossian teleseminar) and you will probably get excited...

As he put is, "Do you have a mouth? can you talk? Do you know something that you could teach other people?.... Then you have a business!".

Shane

[Rainmaker]

Thanks. I had thought about doing teleseminars before, but it hadn't occurred to me to tape them. I teach at the university level, so a seminar would not be a big leap.

Do most teleseminars include interaction from the audience during the call? Or just at the end?

[shanerbock]

Most of the teleseminars I have attended have had no interaction until the very end... and even then, most of the time the questions came in through a moderator who chats with the participants or recieves them in email beforehand.

I really think this depends on the size of your group. less than 25 or so would probably be manageable to open up the lines completely... however, more than that would be pretty hard I think. Most of the teleconference providers have a mode called Q&A... not sure exactly how it works on most of them, but it helps manage this process I think.

[MariaG]

You might want to take a look at Teaching Sells (http://teachingsells.com/). It's a course on how to create courses! Brian Clark from Copyblogger is one of the leads on this project. He has a great reputation in the blogging world.

[webgal]

I am a copywriter and a friend of mine is an English Professor. I know that designing online courses might be a good way to go. You don't have to be there. Not a piece of cake to develop but I would think that in your environment you might have access to the software.