Creating Products

When I first started my business, most speakers, trainers, consultants and thought leaders delivered one-off face-to-face programs – keynotes, training courses, coaching sessions or facilitated meetings. A few – the smart few – complemented their programs with electronic products, but they were in the minority.

Now it's the other way around. Clients and audiences expect more than just a keynote, just a training workshop or just a coaching session. It's fast becoming the norm that you'll send your audience a pre-event survey before your keynote, or offer a follow-up webinar to your training course, or provide password-protected resources for your coaching clients. If you don't offer this form of "e-learning", you'll fall behind other competitors who do offer this and more.

Why e-learning is not just an option, but a necessity.

There are five key reasons why you should be adding e-learning options to your business now – not just because they're attractive, but because they're now essential:

Clients expect more. In the past, you could be a "hit and run" presenter, who waltzes in, delivers a keynote, acknowledges the standing ovation, and leaves. That's no longer an option. Clients expect you to deliver more – much more – than just your standard face-to-face time with them. If you don't deliver it, they'll find somebody else who will.
The world is flat. In Thomas Friedman's book of this name, he talks about the rising middle class throughout the world. These are the people who can create and deliver the same value you deliver, but do it faster, cheaper and more effectively with e-learning.
The tools are accessible. Even amateurs can create blogs, YouTube videos, on-line forums, even entire e-learning sites. Yes, they are amateurs, and some of their products are amateurish. But your clients don't necessarily see it that way. Rather, they see other people offering e-learning technology, and wonder why you don't.
Your speaking fee is insignificant. You know how you're always struggling to get clients to accept your fee? In fact, your fee is insignificant when compared with the cost of the lost productivity of their people who attend your events. E-learning allows them to learn from their office desks – and sometimes even their homes. This productivity gain is worth many times more than what they pay you.
You won't be seen as serious. When I first started showing clients how to use e-learning technology, 12 years ago, it was a significant point of difference and a strong selling point. Now it's significant if you don't offer it – and a strong point against you.

The eGurus Community

If you're a member of the eGurus Community, there's a section of the eGurus Vault with resources about e-learning and creating information products. Start with the slide deck on that page, which gives you an overview of the process.

If you're not an eGurus member, find out about membership at www.eGurus.info.

Consulting: E-Learning Program

Many speakers and trainers want to deliver their material on-line, but don't know how to do it effectively. It's not enough to just turn a training program into an on-line course or a keynote presentation into a webinar. You must get your strategy right, and create a program that delivers material in a variety of ways to match different learning styles and audience needs. This three-month program helps you identify your most important e-learning products, and shows you how to roll them out to create a high-quality e-learning program.

Webinar Recording: Your E-Learning Strategy

E-Book: Other People's Expertise

Content is still king. Being an expert doesn't mean you have to create everything in your area of expertise. It means you can provide relevant, meaningful content in your area of expertise – even if you didn't create the content yourself. By tapping into high-quality content freely available on-line, you can add value to your material and enhance your credibility.

Assessment: Product Evaluation Questionnaire

Will your new product idea succeed? There's no way to know for sure until you try it in the market with real live customers. However, there are things you can do beforehand to assess its likelihood of success. I've created this free questionnaire to help you evaluate any new product, service or niche market. Rate yourself on 15 criteria, and get a score in three separate areas to help you determine what areas require more work.

Articles

Webinar Recording: Flip the Classroom

The most common way of doing workshops, training, seminars and even conference presentations is by gathering your participants together and presenting to them. But that’s SO 20th-century now (In fact, it’s 19th-century!), especially for adult learners. Modern audiences and clients expect so much more now, and it goes beyond just adding online components to your workshops. Many schools, universities and other educators are increasingly adopting a new approach called “Flipping the Classroom”, and we presenters should be using it as well. In this webinar, I’ll introduce you to this idea, and show you how to use it to add value to your clients, increase your fees, and improve long-term learning.

Webinar Recording: How to Make a Bundle From Your Products

Don’t just create a single information product – such as a book, a video or an MP3 file. Always create a bundle of related products, so your customers get more value and you increase your sales (and profits!). In this webinar, I’ll show you how to turn a single product into a more valuable product bundle, and also explain how to promote them to your existing clients so you can boost sales and profits.

Webinar Recording: Content Rules

Many eGurus and thought leaders don't know how to leverage their ideas into multiple formats easily. When you see how easy it is, you'll be able to quickly expand your Internet footprint without a lot of extra effort.

Webinar Recording: Your Online Products Strategy for 2013

Deliver more value, create a greater impact, and boost your profits by creating information products to expand your speaking, training, coaching and consulting offerings. In this webinar, I’ll help you build your strategy for 2013, so you can choose the right products for your market, and create a realistic plan for creating them.

Webinar Recording: Will It Sell?

Will your new product idea succeed? There’s no way to know for sure until you try it in the market with real live customers. However, there are things you can do beforehand to assess its likelihood of success. In this webinar, I’ll take you through a process to evaluate your products to find the most profitable opportunities.

Webinar Recording: Create Products Fast

If you’re an expert, you’re probably sitting on a gold mine of potential information products you can create quickly and at low cost. In this webinar, I’ll show you how to turn books into webinars, workshop handouts into on-line courses, PowerPoint slide shows into marketing material, and more.

Webinar Recording: Eight Ways to Create Compelling Online Experiences

It’s no longer good enough to sell just products or services. Products can be outsourced to China and services can be outsourced to India, but nobody can duplicate the experiences you create for your customers and clients. This is especially true for online experiences, because your clients are just one click away from going somewhere else if they don’t like the experience. In this webinar, I’ll show you eight easy ways to create better online experiences around your products and services.

Webinar Recording: Twice the Profit, Half the Work

Most experts – whether they are a professional speaker, trainer, coach, consultant or adviser – are leaving money on the table whenever they speak. This means you don’t get paid what you’re worth, you have to work harder than you need to, and you don’t have enough time, energy and money for the most important people in your life. In this webinar, I’ll show you how to find hidden sources of income in every presentation, so you can make more money with hardly any extra effort.