Selling Information: Competing In A World Where Information Is Free

As a nonfiction author, I understand how challenging it can be to sell quality content in a world where so much information is freely available online. In today's guest post, author and book marketing expert Tony Eldridge shares some valuable insights into how authors can be successful at generating revenue from their expertise.

If you are like millions of other people, you have dreams of selling your knowledge by wrapping it in an e-book or other consumable format. You read about people making tens of thousands of dollars doing this, and some even making more. But for many, the stark reality is a lot different from the dreams they had.

I had the privileged of speaking with the owner of a ten year old company that had sales into the seven figures per year by selling information like this. She has amassed a huge library of products that are just as applicable and helpful today as they were when they were raking in millions. But today, she is contemplating releasing the information for free to newsletter subscribers. Why? All the information contained in her products is now available for free on the Internet by many people who teach the same lessons.

It's true that we live in an age where instant information is available at the fingertips of a seeker. It used to be that free information was of a lesser quality than paid information, but that is generally no longer the case. You can find good, quality free answers to most of your questions just by spending a little time on the search engines.

So, what does this mean for the people who create information for public consumption? Are the days of selling information long gone? How do you compete in a world where the person next to you gives the same answers for free?

Sure enough, good, quality free information has cut into the old business model of selling information for profit, but it doesn't mean that you can not still be successful at it. Consider these points:

• Marketing Can Help - If you adopt a good, robust marketing plan (including social media and non-social media activities) then you will most definitely reach people looking for the information you offer. Of course, this should be no surprise. This is the whole purpose of traditional marketing. The difference to remember is that today's consumer is becoming more savvy when it comes to finding useful information and may be less susceptible to traditional marketing messages.


• Some People Want It Now - You may find success selling your information when you find the people who want answers now. They may have the ability to search on their own, but would rather pay to get it now if they think you can offer it now. Also, some people may be getting frustrated because they have been looking for answers and haven't found what they are looking for. These people will be more likely to buy when they finally find a resource promising the answers they are looking for. The problem here is that your message needs to strike them while they are in this buying mode. They can be exposed to the same message at any other time and not be ready to buy.


• Unique Knowledge Can Carry A Premium - Are you providing knowledge that can be found nowhere else? If so, then you may be able to charge a premium for it. Just remember that unique knowledge that is good knowledge will not be unique long. A soon as people learn it, you will soon see it enter the net as free information. And with the net being global, free information is distributed instantly around the world. Unique today can become yesterday's news overnight - literally.


• Trust Is Worth Something - If you constantly give the best information to people who are following you, you build up trust. That can translate into the ability to sell information that is readily available for free. Most people do not mind paying a fair price for good, trusted and valuable information. Once they find a guru who consistently gives them this information, it is easier for them to pay a premium to get it from the guru. But even a great amount of trust will not guarantee that people will always buy from you what they can find for free. In fact, good, free information is often what makes an expert a guru.


• Delivery Can Make A Difference - There are many ways to package good information. You can create an e-book or a video. You can disseminate information on a telecast or via live presentation. Generally, the more interactive the delivery, the more of a premium you can place on the information. Then, it's not just the information people are paying for, but access to you. And the more personal the delivery, they higher the premium. You should be able to charge more for a one-on-one consultation than you would for a webinar.


• Clarity Of Presentation - Let's face it, some people have the skills to present information in a way that makes it easy for people to learn while others do not. All you have to do is pick up a cumbersome technical manual written by an engineer to see that. If you have the gift to make things easy to understand then you may find more people migrating to you when they need answers.

There are other considerations of how to compete in a world where so much is offered for free, but here is what I take away: information is just that. It's a commodity that is just as valuable if it comes from your lips or from a website created by a high school student. Sorry if that bruises anyone's ego, but it's the truth.

Information is just information. Period. Where we have the ability to stand apart from the crowd is not in the information being delivered, but in the deliverer themselves. People will often pay because someone is good at packaging, they are trusted, they make the information easy to understand and they make themselves available.

Even with all this, however, we still need to be aware that we truly live in a different world than we lived in just five and ten years ago. For good or bad, information, good quality information, is available for free at the click of a mouse. The lightning has been let out of the bottle and will never be contained again. As soon as we understand this paradigm, we can start to adapt our offerings in light of this reality. And the most creative and innovative of us will find out how to profit in this paradigm. We always have.

Book marketing expert Tony Eldridge is author of Conducting Effective Twitter Contests and the action/adventure novel, The Samson Effect. For more book marketing tips, follow @TonyEldridge on Twitter and visit his excellent book marketing blog.

Comments

[MaAnna Stephenson]

Fantastic info from Tony on how to compete in the age of information over-availability. As he suggested, I find that establishing myself as a trusted source of easy-to-use info helps set me apart from other sources.

[Aggie Villanueva]

Tony, you said a mouthful! I agree with you and MaAnna about the trust. That is vital, and only spending time with people can gain that trust...caring enough to spend that time to convey what they need to know. That's the only way we get to know what they need to know.

[ZimblerMiller]

Tony --

As always, you have provided a well-written and well-reasoned informative blog post.

Social media can play a large role in helping to establish trust in someone's information. While free information is easily available, it is not always clear whose free information to trust (especially when reading conflicting opinions).

Whether using free or paid information, we have to trust that the information is accurate before we act on it.

[Dana Lynn Smith]

Thanks MaAnna, Aggie and Phyllis for your insightful comments.