If you have specialty information or a passion for a topic, information marketing may be the perfect business model for you.
Most bloggers are in the business of information marketing and don’t even realize it. They share information on a variety of topics, but, profiting from it is another matter.
With a change in mindset and some effort, you can turn your blog into a profitable business by becoming an infopreneur.
What Is an Online Infopreneur?
An online infopreneur is someone who makes a living selling information. Now, we aren’t talking about a police snitch or insider training type of information selling.
More and more people are turning to the Internet first when researching a topic. People with specialized knowledge can profit from it with a little marketing and Internet savvy.
Someone with expertise in training birds could create training manuals, videos and courses on how to train your pet bird. The information could range from beginner tricks like getting on your finger to advanced tricks like how to train your parrot to play dead.
Find Your Interests and Passions
An online infopreneur’s first job is to determine what their passions are and if there’s a market for it. Begin by making a list of the topics you’re knowledgeable in or passionate about.
Put everything down that comes to mind at first. Your first topic may not be a winner, but if you let the stream of consciousness flow that idea may lead to another that may lead to the winner.
Research your ideas
Head to your favorite search engine and type in some of your ideas. Check Google Keyword Planner and enter some of search topics people may look for related to your topic. Is someone already doing it? Is there a demand for it?
Continuing with the bird training scenario, perhaps that infopreneur began with a passion for birds. He found during the research process that many people were struggling with their exotic birds.
They were biting and screaming and being a general nuisance. This infopreneur also noticed there were not a lot of other businesses providing information specifically for training exotic birds . In short, there was a good demand for the information but not much supply.
This is the perfect opportunity to create an information marketing business.
Niche down
Your second step is to continuing researching and narrowing to find profitable niches. A niche is a specialty topic. It can also be a demographic like teen bird trainers or bird training in the desert south-west. Or it can be a skill level – beginner bird training, for example.
This is the step many beginning bloggers skip. Food, fashion, mom, travel are huge genres. But, to be truly profitable you need to “niche down”.
“Food” can become “whole food recipes for working moms”
“Fashion” can become “work day fashions for women over 40”
“Mom” can become “stay at home moms of children under 5”
Create your information products
Once you’ve chosen a niche, it’s time to create your information products: blog posts, reports, digital downloads, how to videos.
You will start by cultivating an audience with free information, then work into monetization. This can take the form of an ebook, an online course or a video series, but can also include advertising, sponsored posts, affiliate links and online stores.
Shifting your perspective from a “blogger” to an “infopreneur” can help you to monetize your blog and turn it into a lucrative business opportunity.