How to Make Money

Three Kinds of Information Products to Make Money With

In the previous post, I wrote about why being an infopreneur is a good way to make money. An infopreneur makes money with information products that have many advantages over physical products.

But what information products can an infopreneur sell? Here I want to discuss three popular kinds of information product you can make money with. Here they are:

1. Content-oriented web site

Perhaps the most popular kind of information product is content-oriented web site. It’s a web site which main purpose is to provide content for the visitors. Some examples of content-oriented web site are news sites, portals, and blogs. Blogs, especially, have become increasingly popular due to the fact that it’s easy to create. It is estimated that there are tens of thousands of new blogs every day.

There are many ways to make money with content-oriented web site. Advertising is the main option if you just start. Later you can use other monetization methods such as affiliate marketing and membership site.

2. E-book

As its name suggests, an e-book is a book in electronic form. Here you cover a topic in great detail and sell the information to people who can then download and print the e-book. Since an e-book is in electronic form, you don’t need to print or ship the book when people buy it. Everything can be done automatically which means that you can earn passive income once you’ve written  it.

3. Audio or video program

If you want to use multimedia for your information product, creating an audio or video program is the way to go.  Since they are richer than an e-book, you can sell it for higher price. To deliver the product, you can use physical CD/DVDs or you can use a web site.

***

Of the three kinds of information product, which one should we choose when we start out? While you can start with any of them you feel comfortable with, I think most people should start with a web site. It allows you to build an audience to whom you can then sell the other kinds of information product.

Being an Infopreneur: A Good Way to Make Money

Have you ever heard the term infopreneur? If you haven’t, that’s fine because the term is still not widely known. In fact, while I’m writing this article the term is marked as a spelling error in my editor.

But make no mistake: being an infopreneur is a good way to make money, especially in the 21st century. It’s currently my favorite way to make money.  I will go more into that, but first let’s see what Wikipedia says about infopreneur:

Infopreneur is a person whose primary business is gathering and selling electronic information. This term is a neologism portmanteau derived from the words “information” and “entrepreneur”. An infopreneur is generally considered an entrepreneur who makes money selling information on the Internet. They use existing data and target an audience.

So essentially infopreneurs are entrepreneurs whose products are information products. Information products here could be e-books, books, articles, teleseminars, audio or video programs, and more.

If you look around, there are actually many infopreneurs around you. Many bloggers are infopreneurs because they make money from their blogs which provide information. Many people who sell e-books through their web sites are also infopreneurs. So are those who create membership sites which teach people specific knowledge or skills.

But why being an infopreneur? Why not just being an entrepreneur? Of course, different person has different situation so being an entrepreneur might be a better choice for you. But there are many advantages of being an infopreneur. Those advantages come from the advantages information products have. Here are some of them:

• You can start with little money. In many cases, you just need a domain name and a hosting account to start your business. This  costs less than $100. In fact, you can start for free if you use a free blogging platform like Blogger.
• Information products can be sold worldwide easily. With physical products, you need to think about how to package and ship the products to your customers. But information products can be delivered via the Internet without shipping costs. This way you can have the whole world as your potential customers.
• Information products can make money even when you sleep. Your web site acts as a store that opens 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. Since all the sales process are done online, you don’t need to be physically present. You can continue to make money when you sleep.
• Information products have little or no variable costs. This is especially true for digital products. With digital products, you just need to invest in the production costs. Once the product is done, you can sell it multiple times without any additional costs.

As you can see, information products have a lot of advantages. They give you a lot of leverage for your time and money. That’s why being an infopreneur is a good way to make money.

Four Characteristics of Making Money in the 21st Century

What are the differences between making money in the 21st century and the 20th century? Knowing the differences is important to help you find the right strategies to make money. It helps you identify potential pitfalls while at the same time recognize opportunities.

In my opinion, here are four important characteristics of making money in the 21st century:

1. Every individual can be his or her own company. This characteristic makes the 21st century different. Thanks to the Internet, everyone now has the whole world as his or her potential customers. Individuals now have global reach just like multinational companies. You can create your products or services at your home and have someone thousands of miles away as your customer.

2. Specialists thrive. The connected world of the 21st century allows someone with a specialized skill to thrive. In the 20th century, when someone could only reach locally, the specialists might not be able to reach enough people who need his or her services. The situation now changes because the specialist can reach anyone around the world. He or she now has enough potential customers to make a living.

3. Competition knows no boundaries. This is the negative side of being in a connected world. In the 20th century, you needed to worry only about local competition. But now someone thousands of miles away could also compete with you. Because of that, it’s important that you to excel in what you do. While you have immense opportunities in front of you, you also have strong competition waiting for you.

4. Personal branding is important. Since everyone can be his or her own company, personal branding plays an important role in the 21st century. Your personal brand gives a reason for people to come to you. If your brand is strong, people will remember you when they need your services and they will come to you.

You might have other characteristics not mentioned here, but these four characteristics are significant in the 21st century. By being aware of them, you can take advantage of the opportunities while avoiding the pitfalls.

The Essence of Making Money

What does it mean to make money? People often talk about making money, but what does it actually mean? Answering this question is important to give us a strong foundation to build upon. We need to know the essence of making money before talking about its specific aspects and methods.

Steve Pavlina has a good take on this topic in his book Personal Development for Smart People. This is what he says about what money is:

Money is essentially social credit. It’s an IOU from society, enabling you to extract a certain amount of social value whenever you spend it. The more money you have, the more society owes you, and the more value you can extract.

This is a good explanation. But how do we earn money? Again, from Steve Pavlina:

The money you earn is society’s way of saying: “In exchange for your valued contribution, you are hereby granted the right to extract equivalent value from society at a time of your choosing.”

So, if you want to make money, you must make contribution to the society. The more valuable your contribution is, the more money you will make.

Of course, people can make money without contributing to the society. For example, people can steal someone else’s money. Or they can cheat the systems. But, because they extract value from the society without contributing, the society will be against them. They won’t be able to make money for long that way. The only sustainable way to make money is by providing value.

There is one important thing to remember: the one who determines the value of your contribution is the society and not you. You may say that you’ve contributed something very valuable but the society may have a different opinion and the society is always right. So you need to know what the market wants.

And one more thing, you can’t fulfill everything that the market wants. Your capacity to provide solution is limited. You need to find the intersection between what you can provide and what the society wants. The bigger the intersection is, the more opportunities you have to make money.

Introducing How to Make Money ²⁰²

Money isn’t everything, but there is no doubt that it’s an important part of our lives. After all, you need money to buy your needs and pay your bills. To some extend, money can indeed buy happiness. That’s why it’s essential that we manage money matters well.

One part of the money equation is making money. You need to earn before you can spend or invest and How to Make Money ²⁰² focuses on this part of the equation. In particular, this site focuses on making money in the 21st century.

There are some characteristics in the 21st century that change the way people make money. The most significant of them is the prominent role of the Internet. To effectively make money in the 21st century, you need to use the opportunities presented by the Internet while also recognizing the challenges. Furthermore, the Internet itself is fertile soil to make money so making money online will have significant portion of this site. We will also discuss other aspects of making money to give you the complete picture.

Starting this site is exciting for me and I hope you will find this site useful.