Do you want to make money online without having to rely on advertising revenue? Are you tired of promoting other people’s products and do you wish you could sell your own instead? Then why not go ahead and do it? Selling your own information products is one of the best ways to make money online.

Let’s take a look at why selling information products can be a better option for making money online than others you have available to you. Then we’ll look at a few examples of information products to give you ideas to get started.

Why Information Products Are a Great Way to Make Money Online

There’s nothing “wrong” with making money online through other methods — paid blogging, ad revenue, and promoting affiliate products for example. But selling your own information products does offer some advantages.

For example, when you sell your own information products you have full control. You essentially decide how much you can make. You choose the perfect target market. You create a product that meets a need of theirs. You control the price. You control the marketing copy which leads to conversions (unlike third party ad copy or affiliate product branding). And when you have control, you have the ability to adapt to a changing market to more effectively manage and improve your revenue stream. You can even set up your own affiliate program and have others sell your products for you!

5 Examples of Information Products

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Knowing those advantages, do you want to make money online with your own information products? If you already have a product in mind, that’s great. But if you don’t (or you just want to try something different), here are a few types of information products you might consider.

  1. E-books — E-books are probably the most common type of information product sold. They can be short or long. They can cover any niche you like. They can be sold or given away as marketing tools. They can be sold on your own site or through third party sites. You can release traditional .pdf e-books for computer reading or you can release files for newer e-readers. The options are pretty much endless.
  2. Software / Apps — Are you a developer rather than a writer? Then consider creating a piece of software or a mobile app to sell.
  3. Membership Sites — Another option is to offer paid access to a members-only area on your website. For example, you might offer a video tutorial collection, a private specialized community, or advanced content there. You might even use e-books, apps, and other types of information products as bonuses for paid members to encourage sign-ups.
  4. E-courses — If you have strong credentials in a niche where tutorials are popular, you could create product-style e-courses. Unlike live e-courses which are service-style, you would create a course that users could access and complete on their own time. You lose the live interaction, but you increase the mileage of the course because you can sell access to a unlimited number of people over time. This could be set up like a membership site, through an autoresponder, or even as a one-time download of the course materials.
  5. Downloads — You can turn just about any kind of downloadable product into an information product you can sell. Not a writer? Not a programmer? Not interested in educating people? Just find something that works for your own audience. For example, a designer might sell premium WordPress themes or other design templates. Someone who offers business consulting services might sell downloads of business worksheets or templates. You’re only limited by your audience and your imagination.

So there you have it. You can make money online with information products no matter what your niche or industry is. And if you want to, you can take it even further with information services too — live e-courses or webinars, online conferences, etc.

What kinds of information products do you sell? What kind would you like to? Share your experiences and suggestions in the comments below?