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If you haven't been hiding under a rock and if you have been exposed to the Internet, it is highly likely that you have come across the term "Information Marketing".

What I've found though that it often gets confused with "Internet Marketing" which is not the same at all. Internet marketing is really marketing your information  or physical product online. Where I think the confusion stems from really is that a lot of information products get marketed and sold online.

A good way of making and remembering the distinction is to realise that the internet is a marketing media, just like a newspaper, television or radio.

It may well be that you've never heard the term "information marketing" however, it is not a new concept at all. I guess rather than explaining to you what it is in theory, Here's a list of items that are information products;

• Books
• Magazines
• Workbooks
• DVD's
• Audio recordings
• etc

So you may start getting a feeling for what we're talking about.  

Information marketing at its core really is sharing information with a group of people interested in the same topics.

 Just pay attention on how many people are buying books on personal development, money making strategies, diets etc.

What the book author is truly doing is sharing his or her experience with the wider public for them to take advantage of what the author went through.

Look out for my next blog entry, I'll be going into more detail on why the Information Marketing game is such a lucrative business to be in.

In case you've got any questions, you can contact us by emailing to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , we're more than happy to give you some pointers.

As promised in my last blog, in this entry I will explore some of the main reasons why it is widely thought that being in the Information Marketing game is the best thing in the world.

This may or may not be a question you've ever asked yourself. However, to become an information marketer has many advantages.

Referring to my last blog entry, I've given you some ideas of what to produce to be an information marketer.

Remember I've listed books, magazines and a few more things. Lets assume for a moment that you've written a book or have regularly contributed to articles in industry magazines such as for example share trading, property investment etc, you're considered, and rightfully so as an expert in your chosen field.

However, we also know that there's not that much money to be made out of books sales. If you do a good job in launching your book, and you don't have to go to the extent of the Harry Potter book promoters, the interest will at some stage wain, unless you really keep marketing your book and add some new information to it. This is why many authors still have thousands of books in their garages waiting to be sold.  And as the average profit for a book retailing $30-$40 is $3, you need to sell a lot of books!

The common consensus is that a book as well as articles in magazines are a very good way of building yourself up as an expert in your field, but they're not that lucrative. Just think about how much you pay for a book or an industry magazine.

We do have clients who've decided to use their books as "business cards" rather than having them sit in the garage and take up space for years.

This approach might seem a foreign concept to you but consider this. Do you stand out more by giving away your normal business card or will people remember you for "ever" if you've received a personally signed book? Well I guess the answer to this question is clear.

So if you have written a book, there are at least 20 ways on what other products can be produces out of this material.

Here's a short list of what I can think of the top of my head:

• Audio recording (very popular these days with all the MP3 players available)
• Workbook
• Teleseminar
• Coaching programs
• etc

Not only can you sell the same or very similar and improved content via different media. More so, you can put different price tags on the spin off products.

Let me give you a couple of examples. A book traditionally sells for say $20 - 40 per piece. However audio recordings can be sold up to double the book price.

If you're teaching the books content as a teleseminar, you can charge say $497 for 8 sessions of say an hour. You then record these seminars and spin off more product.

The coaching program will give you even more leverage, since you can coach your clients either as a group session life or over the phone, or for even a higher price tag, you can coach your clients one on one.

I hope you can start to see where your book could take you and how your lifestyle can change, and what's more how much more you can help people out there if you spin products off your book, white paper or blueprint.

In case your struggling to get started, please drop an email to: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , we're happy to point you in the right direction.

The best chance of being successful in any business, is to find as some people call it, a hungry crowd. The late Gary Halbert referred to this as a "starving crowd" when he asked his seminar attendees on what would make a restaurant owner successful.

This is exactly what you as an information marketer need to do.

First and foremost, you need to find out what your target markets pains and sufferings are. What challenges, problems are they experiencing and what keeps them awake at night as Mal Emery, Australia's greatest emotional direct response marketer would call it.

Find out who's aggravated by the problems they're experience, because all of us are driven by two things pain or pleasure. So if you can proof to your prospect that your information product is a solution to their problem, the chances of sales are increased.

I'll give you a couple of examples.

Lets just assume for a moment, that you've grown your business over the years only by word of mouth. You're a master at getting referrals from your clients, and you have developed a system.

I would hazard a guess that any number of people would be very interested in listening to you if you were offering a say 2 hour seminar for say $25 per attendee.

You really only need to make sure you're covering your hard cost.

At the end of the seminar you put a couple of offers to your prospects.

For example:

Offer 1) free downloadable ebook outlining all the steps of the formula

Offer 2) monthly e-newsletter at $10 per month, loaded with invaluable information on how to generate more leads for your business

Offer 3) fortnightly teleseminar over say 8 weeks for $497 per person.

You might be surprised, that if you're seminar is packed with good, valuable information, and proof of what can be achieved by following your "recipe" how many people will sign up.

However, be aware that you need to do your research first.

In case you need some pointers as to how you can get started, send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , we're happy help.

Just recently I read a very interesting study on how creating an income has changed over the last 150 years or so.

The first major change took place in the late 1800's when the changeover from the agricultural economy to the industrial based economy took place. Many people had to adapt to these changes and it did not come easy to all of them. 

In fact this change hit millions of people quite hard and many had to move to the cities and this move changed their entire lifestyle. 

Look at what happens now; technology is not quite ruling but an incredibly important part of our lives. 

The transition we're experiencing is that we're moving from the industrial and service based economy to an information and knowledge based economy. 

With the arrival of technology as well as the internet, it is so much easier and faster to spread the information and valuable knowledge can be shared and improved. 

The biggest advantage of this information or knowledge based change is that it is not just accessible to the brightest and most privileged in society. Realistically anybody who has access to a computer and the internet, and it doesn't have to the fastest internet connection on the planet, can generate additional income streams in a short time. 

Nevertheless we do have to rethink and use different strategies to be able to generate an income in the information marketing business. 

However the amount of freedom this new way of earning a living is giving so many of us truly is amazing and staggering. 

You now have the freedom to live the lifestyle you've always dreamed of. You can spend more time with yourself, your friends and your family and you can work on what you truly enjoy. 

This not only results in a happier and healthier life, but also puts a lot more money into your bank account. 

Now if you're not driven by money, and many people aren't consider this. 

Money for many people is still considered the root of all evil. I'm not here to challenge your beliefs, however as one of my mentors would be saying, there are many ways to be right. 

What money and access to enough, what ever your considering enough to be gives us is choice. You can support causes you believe in, you can send your children to a school of your choice, you have enough money to insure yourself adequately, you choose the suburb and the house you and your family lives in. This is the freedom and the choice that money and the steady flow of it provide you with - nothing more nothing less. 

After all how would you feel if you could generate enough income to be able to live life on your own terms? 

In case you're struggling with this, just start thinking about what the ideal life would look like and start writing a list.

Need help in getting started, we're here to help send an email to rashid.kotwal@revealedresources, we'll make sure you'll get onto the right track.

What are the opportunities for Information marketers using the internet?

I do think, and please don't take any offence, but if you haven't heard about the multiple ways of generating a substantial income on the Internet, then you would have been hiding behind a rock.

I'm sure you would have asked yourself the question "how could I get onto the bandwagon" while there still is time.

Don't despair, the Internet as a market place is huge. Did you know that the internet is attracting billions of dollars in advertising, and that the sales on the net are going through the roof?  

I would hazard a guess, but this is just the start, and some of the statistics around would support my claim.

Seventeen billion dollars annually are spent on advertising in the US alone, and only a small part of this amount is spent on advertising on the net. However in 2005 the advertising on the internet jumped 51.3 %, which was double of what experts expected. Google's advertising revenue went up 65 % in 2006 to $2.53 billion.

The window of opportunity is wide open for everyone, because the growth potential still is significant. There is a growth prediction of 150% or $10 billion over the next five years or so. I do think that these statistics show very clearly that it not too late at all. However, as always, get on to it rather sooner than later,  it will not get easier as the gap will close at some stage.

Thanks to the invention of the World Wide Web, everybody gets an equal chance. As mentioned in one of my earlier blog entries, all you need to have is a computer and internet access. This is the "hardware" you need. Obviously it does help if you can type and have some knowledge that's of interest to the wider community.

The key to your success online as well as offline truly is not your knowledge alone, much more important, and this has always been the case, is how you market your product.

Don't make the mistake to assume that what you know is of interest to everybody and start producing product that can cost you a fortune.

Before you go and spend all your hard earned money, do survey the market, do ask people what they would like so see in a product, how much they would like to pay for the services/products you want to offer your market place.

I know of too many people who went out there and under or overestimated what the real demand in the market place.

Just like one of my mentors keeps repeating "you are not your market and give people what they want not what you think they need"

If you keep those two things in mind I can't see any reason why you wouldn't be successful in your online business.  

Need a bit of a push to get started, send us an an email, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , we're more than happy to point you in the right direction.

Now you may have come across the definition "The Business of Selling Paper and Ink" before, yes Robert Skrob, one of the co authors of the book "The Official Get Rich Guide To Information Marketing" describes the selling of Information in this way.

Buy his book, it's fantastic, very well written and easy to understand. You can get it on amazon.com just click on the link above.

However, let's get a more involved into what it means to make money with paper, ink and more.

What Robert Skrob means with the paper and ink business is if you write a book that contains your knowledge. The book, which can also be called the "packaging" is of no great value, think about it. Each book looks very similar it's got a front and back cover, and some pages with words between them. Yes, I agree, some covers are more valuable than others, but that's about it.

The value with a book or any other bound form of words is the information it delivers to the reader. You see INFORMATION is the operative word. Again, why is it that books are still so popular? They do contain information we think we want and need, that is why we're buying them.

The same applies for movies, tapes, seminars, workshops and more. We do attend these events with the hope and often expectation that we learn something that we haven't heard before, that the authority figure on stage is teaching and or sharing information with us we need to feel better, earn more money, etc. And now doubt, we often enough come out of these events having gained some significant insights that can make a difference.

So what are these people really doing? Well, I suggest they teach and share with us experiences, discoveries, and insights that they think are valuable to the wider community. And in addition to they're talks, they often sell product.

These products can be books (ink on paper) tapes, DVD's the recording of the event or even coaching to make sure you're improving at a faster rate, and achieve your goals before everybody else.

If you would like to become an information or knowledge marketer, I suggest you start thinking about a couple of things.

1. what am I good at?
2. where do I have a lot of experience?
3. what am I passionate about?

If you're struggling to answer these questions ask some of your friends and family members. We often underestimate what we know on a topic. Listen very carefully as to what they have to say, and how they're coming to their conclusions. This is your first step in market research. (remember I mentioned in my last blog entry that research is really important to your business)

After having found answers to the above questions, start looking around what information on these topics you've collected over the years. You may be surprised as to how much you've collected over the years and how easily it can be categorised

Need some help to get started on the right track, send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , we're more than happy to give you some pointers.

Right now I'm sitting in one of the quarterly marketing seminar organised by my mentor Mal Emery.

One of the main focuses of today is guess what - Information Marketing!

This in fact is triggering this article. I thought I'd share with you what we've covered on the topic today.

The first thing we covered are the 8 advantages of building and running an Information Marketing Business.

With Mal's permission I'm going to list them for you.

8 Advantages of Information Marketing

Advantage 1 - Not a lot of manual labour is involved to build the business

I know this sounds great, and belief me, it is true. Since the whole business is build around your knowledge, it is not a matter of building it up from scratch. It is a matter of structuring the knowledge you have acquired over the years. Be it in your field of professional expertise or a hobby you have spend your spare time with doesn't really matter. All that matters that your information is of value and structured logically.

Advantage 2 - Build a million dollar business with few staff

Since you've put the knowledge you have gathered over so many years and you have found the segment within the market place that is interested and willing to buy what you've got to sell - you're pretty much set. All you need to do is put  a multiple step marketing system into place  and this can be run by yourself or one or two employees, especially when you're using technology to support your efforts. (Drop us a line if you need more information on what technology you need to get started. You may be surprised that you've got it all already; you may just need a little bit of help on how to use it efficiently. We're more than happy to help you along.)

Advantage 3 - Low capital - low inventory

Every business owner would have to like this. The lower the upfront financial investment the better the chances for a business to take of fast.

The real advantage is that you don't have a lot of inventory that eats up your capital. You pretty much produce what you need on demand.

In the beginning you can print the manuals yourself. You burn the DVD's at home; this is how you control your production cost best.

As you're business grows steadily you can start to outsource the production. This will give you the space to improve on your marketing and other business growth activities.

Advantage 4 - extremely low start up cost

All you need to have is a computer, an internet connection, names, email addresses and a bit of time and a bit of a plan. The first email you send to your database (the people you're sending the emails to) should inform them what your plan is and what is in it for them to stay on, what they can learn and if possible how much money they can make. A word of warning, don't  sell too often, start providing valuable information first. Put offers to buy out not more often than say every 3 - 4 months.

Advantage 5 - Buyers buy repeatedly

One thing to be aware of is that people are hungry for information. This is one reason the internet has become so popular. You probably find that what ever you're looking for, your first step is to logon to one of the search engines out there. Now whilst this is fantastic, sometimes it gets quite overwhelming. Too much information not structured is available and can confuse us badly. We don't know where to start. Have you had this experience yourself?

Exactly here lies your chance. If you structure your information logically and strategically structured and above all, market it consistently, you'll find that buyers will come back over and over again. You're creating a loyal following and a reliable database.

Advantage 6 - not a lot of individual time with your best clients

I don't suggest that you shouldn't be looking after your clients. Nothing could be farther from the truth. I've been in the tourism industry for more than 20 years, and in these days you had not much option but physically keep in touch with your clients. This meant that you had to send letters make phone calls and obviously provide exceptional service for your client to come back. However, what today's technology gives the entrepreneur is the efficiency of a fully automated ways of keeping in touch with your clients regularly and consistently. You write your marketing pieces ones and you can use them over and over again. How much better can it get. There are ways of contacting your clients over the phone, without you having to call them personally, and all your client still thing and feel looked after. And yes they are, because you do keep in touch with them regularly.

Advantage 7 - very formulaic and very predictive

This in my opinion is a very important point. We're making a really important point here. If something can be based on formula and predictiveness you're pretty much sorted. One of the biggest challenges for business owners and entrepreneurs is to create a regular stream of income. What information products are giving you is the safety and security of a regular and growing income. Since everything in the information marketing is based on formulas. One of the biggest advantages of following a formula, system or if you like a recipe you can predict the outcome.

Advantage 8 - no unique experiences or knowledge

Now this might stretch your mind a little. Don't think you need any specialist knowledge to get started. All you need to know where to get the information, valuable information from. It sometimes is actually much better not to know too much about a topic. Knowing a lot about a topic can be quite deceiving. We can loose track of what is important to a beginner for instance, because we're so far ahead of them. The gap has grown too wide. This can be more of a challenge than anything else.

You don't need  unique experiences or knowledge - although it helps, but anybody can start.

Need to know a bit more, send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , we're happy to give you some pointers.

Mistake 1 - People build the product first

This is probably the biggest and most common mistake people make when going into business. And therefore this certainly applies to all the information marketer out there as well. The risk you're taking by developing the product first, and not doing any research is that you can go broke, or loose a lot of money. 

Mistake 2 - Poor research

Not doing proper and sound research is WRONG. I'm sorry if you feel that I'm screaming at you. But I do want to be as clear as I can possibly be. It may seem to you that this is painful and time consuming. It can be but it doesn't have to be. There are online tool you can use. Generally their good and some of them offer free services. Drop me a line and I'll point you in the right direction.  If online is scary, pick up the phone and ask your clients directly. You can do it yourself but our experience has shown that if you have the surveys conducted by a third party, you get better and more honest results. Statistics show very clearly that surveys conducted by a third party are more valuable.

Mistake 3 - Poor economics

Most businesses fail because of bad mathematics and psychology. In every business or sales interaction as well as your marketing approach, you need to be clear on what the expectations of your audience is and make sure you're product or services are fulfilling them.

As to economics this in fact just is another word for mathematics. It should be clear to all business owners that a tight grip on the numbers is crucial for the success of any business.

Mistake 4 - Being a pioneer - steal and distribute

Being a pioneer in everything is really dangerous. It may well be that your product or service you've invented is something the market place should buy because it is so good. However, the danger with this is that the people are not yet ready and educated enough to believe you, therefore they will not buy. Being a pioneer means that you have to educate your market as to the value, benefits your service/product is providing. This can be a very expensive exercise indeed.

When I talk about stealing, I don't mean cut and paste what other people in the field have put together with hard work. Not only is it unfair but often times illegal, which opens up another whole set of issues. So don't go there.

Mistake 5 - not getting the product out there fast enough

Whilst it is important to provide good customer service and a product or service that works and produces what has been promised, don't get stopped by wanting to be perfect. Perfectionism is not something that can be achieved in one attempt. So be very careful here, wanting the perfect product or service can send you broke faster than you may think. Sometimes the right decision to make is based on close enough is good enough or in other words follow the 80/20 rule.

Mistake 6 - being stuck with the old ways

Times and changes are moving very fast these days. The introduction of Information Technology a number of years ago, this is not likely to stop. Quite the opposite, things will move even faster in the near future.

On one hand this is a real challenge for many of us, however, where there is a "threat" there always is an opportunity. It still amazes me how many people don't consider going online with their products or services. This is the biggest market place in the whole wide world - if you don't take advantage of it you risk to be put out of business real fast.

Mistake 7 - working hard versus working smart

This is the real key to achieving financial independence. I don't think it is a specific amount I'm looking at here. No it is what each and everyone of us thinks financial independence is for them.

 We all know we can work hard because we have been there, however, I would hazard a guess that most of you would have had thoughts along the lines "if I only could do xyz smarter, it would save me time and money". This is exactly what I'm talking about. By all means do what you do best, but do take a helicopter view say every three months or so and have a look at what in the process could be improved e.g stream lined, what you could teach someone else rather than you spending hours on end doing it. One of the best things you can do is get yourself a mentor.

Want to get started but you're feeling stuck, send and eimail to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it he's more than happy to give you some pointers.

The most profitable thing you'll ever do for your business is to understand and ethically exploit the marginal net worth of a client.

Marginal net worth is defined as the:

Total aggregate profit of an average customer over the lifetime of his patronage including residual sales minus all advertising, marketing and fulfilment expenses. 

Example:

• New customer brings average profit of $75 on the first sale.
• He repurchases three more times a year, with an average reorder amount of $300 on which you make $150 gross profit.
• With an average patronage of 2 years, every new customer is worth $975. Calculated by: $75 initial profit + (3 additional purchases worth $150) x 2 years of being a customer. 

If a customer is worth $975, and it costs you $30 to land him, each $30 you spend is worth $975.

You can now increase your ad budget to land more $30 cost customers. 

You could theoretically spend $975 to bring in a customer and still break even! 

If you have enough capital you could justify spending 100% of the first sale's profit since every $75 you spend means $900 over the next two years.

Calculating marginal net worth in your business 

Step One: Determine certain figures for your own business. If you're new - make a projection.

• What is your 'average' sale? (Add total dollar sales for a year and divide that by the total number of sales transactions you completed or expect to complete.)
•  
• How many times a year does an 'average' customer buy from you? (Take your total number of sales transactions for a year and divide it by the total number of customers.)
•  
• For how many years does an average customer buy from you? (Remember, 20% of the population moves every year, so this is typically less than 5 years, depending upon the nature of your business.)
•  
• How many people does your average customer tell about you? (A major factor.) The most common average is between 3-12, but guess.
•  
• What percentage of these people actually become your customers? (Usually between 20% and 70%.)

Fill in the blanks below (using the numbers you calculated in Step 1, to find out precisely what each customer is actually worth to you right now. 

1. Average Sale = _____________________
   
   
2. Number of Sales per year per customer = _____________________
   
   
3. Number of Years customer buys from you = _____________________
   
   
4. Number of Referrals from customer = _____________________
   
   
5. % of Referrals who become customers = _____________________
   
   
6. Gross Sales per year per customer (A x B) = _____________________
   
   
7. Gross Sales over life of customer (F x C) = _____________________
   
   
8. Referrals who become customers (D x E) = _____________________
   
   
9. Gross Sales from referrals (G x H) = _____________________
   
   
10. TOTAL VALUE of Satisfied Customer (G + I) = _____________________

Perpetual, Cross and Up Selling  

Calculating the marginal net worth is worthless if you don't back end sell to your customers. 

A customer can come back on his own accord, or you can actively solicit more business (which is sensible). 

Steps to up selling:

Up-sell or resell right at the point of purchase or immediately after the sale.

If you can get them to add on another synergistic product or service immediately, you will dramatically increase your profit.  Amazon.com does this extremely well - "Customers who have bought blank, have also bought blank..."

• Experiment with add-on products or services.
  
  
• Offer a package deal of related items at a discount if bought immediately.
  
  
• Upgrade a sale by cutting $100 off the higher price if they upgrade now.
  
  
• Contact the customer right after the purchase to see how they like their choice and offer them a deal on a related product or service.  As many as one out of three customers may take you up on it.
  
  
• Set up deals with related businesses and take a percentage of the profit.
  
  
  

Perpetual Selling

If you have a consumable or repeat sale product or service set up a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual contact strategy, based on testing. 

Let's say you have a product or service that needs to be purchased four times a year.  Every quarter you could send out a letter in which you acknowledge their importance as a preferred and valued customer. 

Use the letter to inform first, rather than sell.  Give them some useful information that would be of interest to them, and make them a preferential offer - a better price or special combination not available to new customers.

Up Selling

This is an easiest sale you're likely to make.  Car dealers are masters at it.  After you've "bought" the car, you buy bumper guards, headlight protectors... etc., etc.

If you're not quite sure as to how to apply the above, please drop us an email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . we're more than happy give you some pointers.

Positioning is knowing exactly what you're marketing and selling and who you're selling it to.