Is This the World’s Most Profitable Business?
I’m an entrepreneur, and I’ve been involved in at least a dozen profitable enterprises over the years. But the business I’ve been in for the last five years is by far the best.
Let me give you an idea of just how powerful this business is. After the costs of creating and selling my products, I am still able to bring in a 95 percent profit. What’s more, this business has proven to be successful… even in a struggling economy. (In 2008, though the economy was crumbling, mine continued to bring in about $12,000 a month.)
I want you to imagine a business where you wake up in the morning, log onto the Internet, and find out how much money you made overnight. That’s my reality… and it can be yours, too.
Many Internet marketing giants are big fans of this business. Michael Masterson, MaryEllen Tribby, Clayton Makepeace, Bob Bly, Dan Kennedy… I could go on and on.
And this business could be perfect for you – especially these days, when start-up money is tight. You can get it up and running with a few dollars, in your spare time, in the back bedroom of your house.
Then, you watch the money pour in.
What is this amazing business?
Information publishing.
If you’re a regular reader of ETR, this should come as no surprise to you. Michael Masterson and the ETR team have been talking about the benefits of information publishing for years.
One of the best things about this business is that you can sell a wide variety of products. I currently market an instructional ballroom dancing DVD… a half-dozen instructional exercise videos… audio courses on subjects like earning money with public speaking and producing your own videos… and written courses on skills like mastering the art of persuasion.
The most common media for information publishing are:
- Video/DVD
- Audio CD
- Printed Text Courses
- E-books
I’ve used all of them and have found them all to be profitable.
Another thing about information publishing is that you can make sales via direct mail, e-mail marketing, or virtually any marketing channel you want to use.
By far the biggest benefit of information publishing is that it costs very little to produce and distribute your products. For example, my instructional ballroom dance DVD sells well at $49 plus shipping and handling. Even in the small wholesale quantities I usually order… maybe a few hundred at a time… the DVDs cost me $2.50 each. Since the shipping and handling charges cover the cost of postage and packaging, this leaves me with a profit of $46.50 – or a margin of 94.8 percent.
The best news is that although this is an extremely lucrative deal for me, my customers are also very happy with it. That’s because they receive a DVD with instructions for four different dances, which they would otherwise expect to pay about $20 each for. So they’re getting $80 worth of video instruction for close to half of the normal market price.
That’s the magic of information publishing: The value is in the information… not in the physical product.
If you want to get into information publishing, here are the basic steps:
• Choose a Marketable Subject
Your choices are almost limitless. I recommend exploring niche subjects so that you don’t have to compete against the biggest players. But make sure your niche isn’t so obscure that there won’t be a market for your products. For example, a video course on how to win at blackjack might have a big enough market of potential buyers to make you significant money. But a course on the best techniques for observing the North American spotted owl probably won’t attract enough customers to keep your business profitable.
• Select Your Medium
You want to choose the medium that will deliver the most effective presentation of your subject matter at a cost that will allow for profitability.
If I decide to hire an “A” list actor and a whole production crew and rent out a casino to film a slick video on how to win at blackjack, my initial expenditure would make it hard to recapture my investment and make a profit… no matter how high my profit margins are. A better medium for a subject like this might be a printed text course with some photos or an e-book.
In the case of my ballroom dancing product, the medium of video offers such a clear advantage that I really had to go with it. But I was able to produce the video for under $1,000, so I was still able to make a healthy profit.
• Identify Your Marketing Strategies
Marketing an information product on the Internet with a website is a great way to do it. But there are many other options. You can take advantage of all the other forms of direct marketing, including direct mail and telemarketing. Additionally, you might consider wholesaling your product to retailers, distributors, or anyone else who might be able to move it for you.
Bottom line: If you’re looking to start a profitable business with unlimited growth potential, huge profit margins, and very reasonable start-up costs, I know of nothing better than information publishing.
One of the easiest ways to start an info-publishing business is to do it online. Here are a few resources to help you get started:
• You don’t need to know much about computers or the Internet to build a business online. In his article “Overcoming the Technical Learning Curve,” Derek Gehl reveals all the technical knowledge you need to get your business up and running.
• Michael Masterson spoke with successful info-marketer Brad Antin about how to start an info-publishing business. Discover Brad’s best advice here.
• Exactly what kind of info-publishing business can you start? Dan Kennedy explores some of the narrow but profitable areas that could make you money in his article “Riches in Niches.”
• For a quick and easy way to get inexpensive traffic to your website, read Alexis Siemon’s article “Fast and Cheap Banner Testing with Google AdWords.”
• You don’t need an e-mail list of millions to start making money as an info-publisher. Learn how to monetize a small list of readers in Brian Edmondson’s article “Making Money with a Small, Responsive List.”
These are just a few of the articles on how to start and grow an info-publishing business that you can find in the ETR archives. Do a quick search on our home page – www.EarlytoRise.com – and you’ll find a wealth of information.
[Ed Note: Entrepreneurial expert Paul Lawrence has created a program that reveals how anyone can get started in the information publishing business with limited capital. For more information, follow this link.]Paul Lawrence
Paul Lawrence is an entrepreneur who has made his living starting and running a series of profitable businesses. One day while cleaning his mother's pool for a few extra bucks, it dawned on Paul that he could perhaps start his own pool cleaning business. He carefully employed all the marketing techniques that he had learned in school and designed his first flyer. Immediately the business took off and within a week, Paul had his own little business. He quickly expanded, hired employees and then eventually sold it some relatives who made well over $250,000 in the next year before they eventually sold it for a six figure profit. After finishing college, Paul did a brief stint in a management program for a national rental company, but he quickly realized that he was much happier running his own show. Paul left the rental company and launched one of the most financially successful independent ballroom dance instruction companies in the state of Florida where he received quite a bit of media attention for his revolutionary business practices that included front page features in the Life Style section of the Sun Sentinel, features in the Miami Herald, Boca News, Center Stage Entertainment and many others. With that business running profitably, Paul started several other businesses either individually or as partnerships that included a million dollar video production company, a mortgage brokerage, a home maintenance business, several mail order companies, a business consulting service among others.With a love of movies, Paul began to work at breaking into Hollywood as a screenwriter where he's beaten the odds by becoming a produced writer. He is a credited writer for the film CRUEL WORLD, starring Jaime Presley and Eddie Furlong and has signed a development deal for a national television series with one of the world's largest producers of television and films among his half a dozen sales and options of movie scripts he wrote. Paul is the creator of the Quick & Easy Microbusiness program.