Beginner’s Guide To Info Marketing
Thinking to start an information marketing business?
Have you ever wondered what is information marketing and how other people actually build a business around it? You’re interested to jump in but you don’t know much about it in the first place. In this article, you will learn how selling information for profit can be a lucrative online opportunity for you even if you are a beginner.
What is information marketing?
Information marketing is a term that has been around for many years. Information marketing is a business model that uses information as a primary source to generate income by selling that information itself or monetizing it in other ways.
There are a lot of business models. In fact, there are a lot of ways to make money online. In fact, let’s take a step further by saying there are a lot of GOOD business models out there and a lot of GOOD ways to make money online.
New opportunities come along every day and again, many of those are good opportunities. Now, this could be a big problem because it could be a challenge to stay focused on one business model and see it through to success.
Many aspiring online marketers have a hard time getting started because there are so many choices and routes to take. When they do actually get started, they quickly get side-tracked.
A common mistake that most people do is abandoning their half-baked business and jumping from one business to another one because they see someone over there making more or easier money.
So you need to commit to one business and see it through before jumping into another one.
So it is important to start your online journey by having the right mindset and acknowledging that there are countless online business opportunities out there.
What are the forms of information marketing?
(a) It does not have to be online
Information marketing business does not inherently have to be online. In a sense, traditional offline publishing is a form of information marketing. Newspapers are information marketing – what are they selling? Well, information! Books are another form of information marketing.
(b) It could be in the form of education
There are also areas where information marketing crosses over to another form of education. You may choose to take a course, a seminar, or a webinar in the offline world and the product that is being sold is information. Often the main benefit that is being pitched in an online course is knowledge.
(b) It CAN be online
Information marketing online is the business of selling information on the internet. It is important to understand that a website on its own is not a business. You may a have website that provides information but it is not a business until you monetize it.
What is the aim of information marketing?
Information is a pretty broad term, so we need to narrow that down to specific types such as:
- Answering questions that people are searching for
- Solving a problem
- Information that helps someone
- Teaching someone something useful
- Information that attracts and appeals to a certain audience.
- Information that people are willing to pay
There are many more ways to describe the information we are marketing but this gives you the general idea for now.
In a nutshell, we can say that this is not random information, these are specific content that people are searching for.
Is information marketing similar to niche marketing?
Information marketing is niche marketing. This is beyond any doubt because information marketing is targeted to a certain audience also known as a niche.
On the flip side, niche marketing is not always information marketing because niche marketing can be physical products or services targeted to a niche but information marketing is always niche marketing.
From pets, and parenting to passive income, there’s no limit of niche that can be used for information marketing.
How do you make money with information marketing?
One of the main ways to make money with information marketing is through the sale of information products. A classic example of an information product would be a non-fiction book.
Since the focus is to build a business on the Internet, the focus on making money would be on digital products that can be delivered through the Internet. Type of digital product would include:
- Ebooks
- Audios
- Videos
- Interviews
- Home study courses
- Workshops
- Webinars
- Email courses
- Digital newsletters
- Whitepapers
- Articles
- The information which is integrated with the software
- Membership websites
Having your own product is a key factor for long-term success. There are online businesses that do not require you to have your own product but in general, creating and owning your own digital asset opens the opportunity for you to build a long-term business.
Top 3 benefits of starting an information marketing business?
(1) Low-Cost Entry
One of the great things about information marketing is that products can be created for low cost or even zero cost. It is a relatively easy business to get into. Virtually anyone who can read and write is capable of creating an information product.
(2) High-Profit Margin
Since the cost of the digital product can be kept so low, you can have very high-profit margins right away. One of the reasons why such a high percentage of small businesses fail is it is difficult to get into the early startup years of investing in the business with no return and then gradually breaking even into profit after several years. That’s another reason why this particular business model is ideal for many people.
(3) Easy To Start
The barrier to entry is relatively low and the amount of time to see profit is relatively short.
8 ways to generate INCOME with information marketing?
There are several ways to generate income as an information marketer. In addition to selling information in the format of a product, income can be made as a result of giving away information for free. Here are 8 popular ways to monetize your information.
- Publish articles or blog content with contextual ads
- Authority websites
- Affiliate marketing
- List building
- Lead generation
- Service
- Coaching Program
- The Big Sale
(1) Publish Articles or Blog Content With Contextual Ads
You can publish a blog post or articles around a certain niche on your website. That’s content which means information that you are giving away for free. Visitors come to your website to consume that content. Now, alongside that content or better yet, integrated with it, you can have a contextual advertisement that generates income when visitors click on them.
This article by millennial money reveals how much money can a successful blogger make and how blogs are monetized.
(2) Authority Websites
Now, you may have heard of the term authority websites as a business model. Authority website is basically a website that contains a large amount of content surrounding a particular niche and it becomes a trusted authority on that niche on the internet.
(3) Affiliate Marketing
Most people who build authority websites concentrate on free traffic by leveraging on search engine optimization by combining the creation of valuable content and applying backlink strategies. Their efforts go into getting that free traffic and then monetizing it by getting paid when that traffic clicks on advertisements or makes purchases through affiliate links.
Affiliate marketing is another business model that can be integrated with information marketing. Although affiliate marketing can be done as a stand-alone business model without having a product of your own, I do not recommend that for most people.
Affiliate marketers who just do affiliate marketing are basically traffic middlemen. You can potentially make a lot of money as an affiliate but you’re not necessarily building equity in this business.
The information marketing business model allows you to build online equity, your brand as well as create multiple streams of income which can include affiliate marketing.
(4) List Building
Another way to monetize free information is through list building. You can build a list of subscribers who opt-in to your list to get more free information. That list can then be monetized in many different ways.
(5) Lead Generation
In addition to building your own list, you can also monetize the business by generating leads for other businesses.
For example: Let’s say you decide to build an authority site around the topic of caring for trees in your yard. You can have a lead generation page where people can enter their information if they want more help on how to care for their trees. There are companies such as trimming services that are willing to pay for those leads.
If you happen to own your own tree trimming service then you can utilize the leads for yourself. You can information to attract potential clients and then sell them your service.
(6) Coaching Program
A coaching program is another great way to monetize this business. Essentially the coaching itself is like a type of information product but if you’re actually doing the coaching then it is also a service.
(6) The Big Sale
One more form of monetization is the BIG Sale. You are creating an asset that can be sold. You can sell a profitable website or your entire niche business as an exit strategy.
Conclusion
It is important to be aware of the countless good opportunities out there and new ones will cross your path each day. What you can do is to be mindful to avoid every single opportunity that comes your way and distracts you from getting your real work done. Be sure to have an understanding of what ‘information marketing’ is all about and the ways you can turn it into a real business. What type of info product is your favorite? Leave a comment below!
