10 Ways to Create The Content For Your Digital Product

5 Ways to Create Your Own Content

1. Find problems your product can solve. People with problems or in some kind of pain are most eager to pay for a solution. Pain could be physical, emotional, or financial.

• Write a list of problems you have had and have solved

• Health – eg medical problems
• Fitness and appearance
• Money – saving, making and investing it
• Career
• Children & Parenting
• Pets
• Dating & Relationships
• Household – cooking, clutter clearing, saving time on chores, cleaning

• How did you solve them? Describe this in your product.
• If you don’t know what your target market’s problems are, run a page asking a question on a topic as Daniel did for his Dog Whisperers book.

1. 2. Write what you know

• List everything you know you have expertise in – for example what you do for your main income, but also what you know you’re good at in other areas of your life. Any one of these could be the subject of your product.
• Write a list of things anyone has ever said you’re good at it. This helps get around the problem of “unconscious competence” – there are lots of things that we are so naturally good at that we don’t even consider them a talent. These are things you find easy but other people might not. It might be flirting, giving good speeches, cooking quick healthy meals or saving money on holiday. Take one of these things and teach someone who doesn’t find it easy. Write in your product what you taught this person (or record yourself teaching them).
• You don’t have to be an expert – you just have to know a bit more than the person you’re helping. Start by helping beginners – for example with using computers/the web. See the example of my Internet Cheat Sheet.
• The best content is techniques that you’ve tried and know work for you. Keep note of these things. “Make your life a laboratory”.

1. 3. Brainstorm

• Hold a brainstorming session with some friends to come up with topics or to come up with the content for the product. Remember that when brainstorming, anything goes. Write every idea down and evaluate them later.
• Use mindmapping to brainstorm on your own – see below
• Try writing non-stop for 10-20 minutes about your topic. Or record yourself speaking for 10 minutes or more – just say everything you can think of that someone should know about this topic.

1. 4. Answer questions

• Run a teleclass. This is a teleconference call which you invite others interested in your topic to attend. Use conference bridge line like freeconferencecall.com which can also record your call for free. Speak for 20-30 minutes then allow the callers to ask you questions. Get the whole recording transcribed at idictate.com (approximately 1.25 cents per word for 1 speaker)
• “We’re much more intelligent speaking to other people than sitting on our own” says Barbara Sher, author of 7 books. Also what we say when answering people’s questions always comes across more naturally (and therefore more readable) than what we try to come up with on our own.
• You can also go onto bulletin boards on a topic you know about and start answering questions there. Or invite people to email you for advice and store all your replies.

1. 5. Discover your life’s message

• What did you miss out on as a child? Even with the best parents in the world, we all will still have experienced some lack as we grew up. This means that we will have learned as an adult how to make up for it.
• What would you have wanted someone to tell you back then?
• This is the message you are most passionate to give to others. Think of Robert Kiyosaki who has made a fortune from describing what his father didn’t teach him about money – but his “other father” did – in his series of “Rich Dad Poor Dad” books.

And remember – people like “How Tos”, not just a bunch of ideas. If you can make it a step by step course, even better. Also try to offer quick results for the problem you’re solving.

5 Ways To Use Other People To Create Your Content

1. Ideally choose something that will not only be popular but you would like to learn more about yourself (possibly a problem you currently have)
2. 2. Use experts

• Interview an expert – they will likely do this for free if you can promote something of theirs that your customer may be interested in buying. Get the interview transcribed at idictate.com or similar.

• Interview multiple experts. Example of Daniel’s property-habits.com. Also, author Barbara Sher tells a story of how a man who was sick of moles ruining his lawn, went and spoke to all his neighbours whose lawns looked perfect and asked them how they kept the moles away. Everyone had different techniques that they used and he wrote them all down. He then put them into a book and sold it!

1. Hire an expert writer once you’ve identified a problem to solve. Find one at:

• Elance.com
• Or try getfriday.com or brickworkanalyst.com in India

1. 4. Repurpose content available elsewhere

• Take general principles and apply them to your specific niche.

If you know about sales and work in a field like accountancy, create a sales product for accountants. Or take sales training ideas available on the Internet and customise it to your niche. A lot of people find it difficult to translate generic information to their situation and would much rather buy a product tailored to them.

• Take content available in the States and Anglicise it (or convert it for wherever your market is). British people sometimes find the tone of American experts difficult to learn from. Cultural differences can make Brits reluctant to accept otherwise excellent advice on topics like business success or sales and marketing. You can take content available freely on the Internet and translate it for your local culture. For non English speaking countries, you can also translate to your local dialect. Obviously, you should not be breaking copyright but there is plenty of free advice available if you look for it.

1. 5. Use Public Domain content

• There is content available on the Internet that is no longer under copyright due to its age. Some of these things are repurposed as digital products. One you will see quite often is Claude Hopkin’s “Scientific Advertising” which is considered a classic for this current age of adwords despite being published in 1923!
• Other sources include wikipedia.org, ehow.com and squidoo.com (check reuse rights on each)