My Beginner’s Guide to Electronic Product Development

Introduction

The Internet is an elephant, so to speak. So how do you eat an elephant? One would say one piece at a time. Every internet guru has their own views on how to be successful on the internet or online, but like anything else in life, there is no perfect way or one size fits all. Some say content is king. Some say start with a list. Some say start with 100% automation. Content, list, and automation are important, but what about the person who’s just starting out and can’t tell their left from their right? I think a beginner should start with a product to prove its credibility and then move on to building a list and at the same time gradually working to automate their website to run on autopilot.

A word of caution about starting a product

Having said that it is better to start with a product, I think it is appropriate to include this rating saying that at higher levels, you can sell a product that you have not yet developed to your list or followers, but as a beginner, you may not be able to employ that strategy. At its most basic, it involves telling your followers that you have a product that will be out in, say, 90 days or 180 days and any of them that you buy in advance would get it 30 or 20 percent off. Some may decide to buy and then use the cash to develop the product. This strategy is for well-known “brands” like Peter Diamandis, Brendon Burchard, Tim Ferriss and Tony Robbins, to name just four.

How to develop your first product

This presentation focuses on how you can develop your first product. The truth is, in Internet businesses, you don’t have to wait until you have a perfect product. Just get started and keep improving along the way. If you compare cars or any product made in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s and 2000s, you will notice that they keep getting better in terms of design, elegance, and performance, to name just three things. That should be your goal. Get started and keep improving day after day.

In this presentation, the focus is entirely on electronic products (eProducts), not on the sale of physical products online, which is known as e-commerce. I assume you are already an expert operating in six dimensions as an author, trainer, speaker, coach, consultant, seminar leader and now you are targeting the seventh dimension, information marketing. If you don’t consider yourself an expert, don’t worry too much, we’ll come back to that and the scales will fall out of your eyes. Even if you’re not operating in either dimension yet, let’s say you’re just an employee, don’t worry, this presentation will open your eyes to the possibilities that lie ahead. Instant Income book author Janet Switzer listed over 52 electronic products that one can develop in her Maverick Program, but we will limit ourselves to the simplest products as this is a beginner’s program.

Understanding or knowing what products to develop, the demand for those products, and how to position them are beyond the scope of this presentation. Also, marketing, selling, and launching your product are outside the scope of this presentation. With those preliminaries covered, let’s dive deeper into your product development journey.

Products suitable for electronic copies

The main products that you can easily convert to electronic format are:

• Books

• Music

• Courses (seminars) – These are generally known as “Procedural Products”.

• Speeches

• Results of the investigation

The 7 Most Lucrative “How To Make Products” Areas In The Expert Industry

According to Brendon Burchard, in his book The Expert Messenger, the seven most lucrative product areas are:

1. Motivational tips

2. Leadership tips

3. Financial advice

4. Business advice

5. Marketing advice

6. Advice on relationships

7. Spiritual advice

Electronic product formats

The main formats are:

• PDF

• E-pub

• Mobi

• Audio (MP3)

• Videos (MP4)

Sites to charge your electronic products

After you have created or created your product, the next thing to do is launch it. You can launch your products through a combination of channels, including:

• Their website

• Third party websites

• Youtube

• Vimeo

• Stitcher

• iTunes

• SoundCloud

• CD Baby

• To your List through an electronic marketing platform, for example Mailchimp.

The various product formats in detail

Let’s now look at the product formats one at a time in a little more detail.

PDF (portable document format)

One of the easiest ways to get into business online as an expert is to start with a training course, workshop, seminar, or book. Your particular book can and will open doors, especially if you can write a New York Times best seller. For a beginner, that may be over the top, so let’s start with a good book or a well thought out course. Once your book or course is done (this also applies to seminars and workshops), you save it in Word or PowerPoint and convert it to PDF. PDF (Portable Document Format) is a special format developed by Adobe and can be purchased online or better yet purchase the CD and install it on your laptop. Once converted to PDF, no one can modify or modify your product and you can upload it to your website and start selling. Sounds so simple? Yes! Technology makes things simple. Anyone with a laptop or smartphone can buy your product and start enjoying it right away. Most new generation laptops and smartphones have a pre-installed PDF reader or you can simply download an application that allows you to read the PDF document.

E-Pub

E-Pub (ePub) is short for electronic publication and is an e-book file format that can be read by most devices, including iPads, Android smartphones, tablets, computers, or e-readers. Converting your book to e-Pub requires special software, which an average business center can help you achieve. If you can’t find a business center near you to convert your book to epub, you can do so online through a company called Allzone.

Mobi

Mobi is especially peculiar to Amazon Kindle, as it is the only format that Kindle uses. As of 2011, some analysts projected that within five years there would be more than 53 million Kindles worldwide, so if you want one of your Kindle users to buy your book, you have no choice but to have it in Mobi format. . But there is good news. Amazon doesn’t even require you to convert your book to Mobi before uploading it to Amazon. You can upload it to Amazon in Word format and Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) will automatically convert it to Mobi for you.

MP4 and MP3

Only a few years ago we were using what was then known as CD (compact disc) before the mp3 format was introduced, which is an audio encoding format for digital audio. The mp3 (or MP3) format can store huge amounts of sound so you don’t need hundreds of CDs like you used to. Your finished work can be converted to mp3 very easily for listening using digital devices, including smartphones, iPads, and laptops. Don’t worry about how to do this, as an average sound or video editor would handle the technicalities and help you upload your product to Stitcher, SoundCloud, or CD Baby. Editing is inexpensive at only $ 5 for an hour-long episode depending on the publisher and the fee keeps dropping as more and more people master the art of video editing.

Videos

Videos are what makes the Internet work. Video attracts more than any other medium, so it is imperative that you learn how to make videos. And the good news is that it is not as complex as you imagine. You don’t even need technical skills. Direct-to-camera video is what is done with a regular camera or camcorder. Camera is highly recommended compared to camcorder, not only because cameras are generally smaller and cheaper, but because they develop less heat compared to camcorders. Initially, you may need to rent the camera, but over time, you may decide to purchase your own. The most popular type of camera is Canon, but you can also make videos with your smartphone, however, there is a slight drawback as you may not be able to edit or get audio or MP3 from a smartphone, so having a camera has advantages.

The other type of video is the one you make with software. For Windows computers, use software called Camtasia and for Apple computers, use what’s called screenflow. To get started, you need to pre-install camtasia (or screenflow if you’re using Mac) on your computer. Let’s focus on Windows computers, since that’s the one I use. Having installed camtasia on your computer, the other processes are pretty straightforward. First prepare your PowerPoint presentation. When your slides are ready, you put on the headset and plug in the voice converter or adapter and turn on the camtasia. Once camtasia is on, you start speaking, and when you finish with one slide, move on to the next until the presentation is over. Once your presentation is ready, you save what you have done to edit and saw that your video is ready and you can upload it to your website, YouTube or Vimeo. Editing is inexpensive and not something to worry about as an average business center can handle it for you.

There is still a third way to produce videos. This is different from the camtasia video we just described. In this case, there are companies that specialize in helping you make videos by providing you with ready-made templates. One of them, which I use, is a company called Animoto. What you do is sign up for Animoto and they give you the architecture to make a complete video with background music. Simply register with the company and once you log in, follow the simple instructions to prepare a video.

Animoto has both free and paid versions of the service. The paid version starts at about $ 96 per year. You don’t need any skills to make a video. The website provides all the necessary headings such as the video description, that you fill in and upload the images and provide a description of your video and violate, your video is ready. In the low-end free and paid versions, the company’s logo, Animoto, will appear on your video, but in the premium versions, nothing appears so that no one knows you used Animoto. For the very high-end versions, you can even personalize by putting your name or your company name and logo on the video. For the free version, you will be provided a maximum of 6 placeholders for just 1 minute of video and no more. If you want longer videos, you should go for the paid versions.

Conclution

A journey of a thousand miles as the saying goes begins with one step. Savvy Internet or online businesses sound and seem difficult when you have no one to guide you and show you the way. The quickest way to reduce your learning curve is to get a coach and you will be up and running in no time. In our Expert Empire program we guide you through how to develop electronic products.