Looking for the best way to sell information products online?
With the eLearning market projected to reach nearly $400bn by 2026, now is the perfect time to get in on the action and start selling your own information products.
Whether you’re an educator, content creator, instructional designer, or small business owner, information products such as online courses can be an excellent way to generate revenue and reach your audience.
The best part is, with the right tools and a little know-how, you can have your own online course up and running in no time!
In this article, we’ll show you how to create, sell, and distribute your info products with ease. From choosing the right platform and setting up your courses to pricing and selling your products, we have got you covered.
Get ready to dive into the world of online course creation and start selling your information products!
| In a hurry? Here’s a TL;DR version of the article for you. Context: The eLearning industry is set to grow exponentially, reaching $400bn by 2026. This is creating exciting and lucrative opportunities for edupreneurs who have unique ideas and are keen to sell information products, like online courses. Solution: Online courses are one of the most popular forms of information products, and there are various platforms available for creating and selling courses. However, WordPress is one of the best options if you want full control over your business and products. It is a powerful, flexible, and user-friendly platform that provides the tools and features you need to create, sell, and distribute your information products with ease. Along with the flexibility of WordPress, you need the powerful features and student-friendly functionality of a Learning Management System (LMS) like Sensei, a WordPress LMS plugin that makes it easy to create and sell online courses on your website. With Sensei Pro and its deep WooCommerce integration, you’ll have all the tools and resources you need to set up, sell, and market your information products and start generating revenue with ease! |
What Are Information Products?
Information products are a type of product that specifically deal with the sharing of information and knowledge with customers. This includes ebooks, online courses, webinars, podcasts, PDFs, emails, reports, journals, and more.
The primary purpose of information products is to:
- Provide value to customers by offering a wealth of information that can help them learn new skills, solve problems, and make informed decisions
- Share your expertise, experience, and knowledge with the world
- Establish yourself as an authority in your industry and build a sustainable business at the same time
However, in today’s world, where there is a constant flood of information, customers are more discerning about what information they choose to consume. As a result of this, many more web users take credibility seriously and are looking for high-quality information from trusted sources. This makes it important to sell authentic information products created with expertise.
How to Start Selling Information Products (in 6 Steps)
Now that you know what information products are and why they are valuable, it’s time to dive into the process of selling them.
We’ll be breaking down the process into manageable steps, from creating the product to setting up your online platform, pricing your product, and marketing it to your target audience, to help you get your info products up and running in no time.
1. Find Your Niche
Starting your journey to sell information products online begins with finding your niche. Choosing the right niche is crucial as it sets the foundation for the success of your info products. Your niche should ideally be something about which you are both knowledgeable and passionate. This will make it easier to present yourself as an authority in your chosen field.
Having a strong and credible reputation in your niche makes it easier for your information products to be discovered by potential customers through search engines, which will consequently help to increase your sales.
Here are some tips to think about while choosing a niche:
- Think about what topics you are particularly interested in and knowledgeable about.
- Pick something that aligns with your personal interests and expertise.
- Identify topics that can not only sell but also provide value to your customers.
Niche options are virtually endless, ranging from fitness and lifestyle to finance, self-improvement, languages, relationships, art, music, and beyond. Choose wisely!
2. Choose Your Format and Platform
Choosing the right format and platform for your information products is the second step in the process of building a successful business. As a digital entrepreneur, it’s essential to understand the strengths and weaknesses of different formats and choose one that aligns with your niche, target audience, and overall goals.
In the information product industry, online courses have become a popular choice for many entrepreneurs and subject matter experts, and for good reason!
According to a study by Oberlo, 57.8% of internet users consume educational and tutorial content on a regular basis every week.
For online course creators, this is an exciting opportunity to create engaging, interactive content that appeals to a broad range of customers. Besides, online courses offer many benefits over other forms of info products.
- They’re a fantastic source of passive income, as once they’re created, they can continue to make money online for you over time.
- Unlike physical products like seminars or consulting services, online courses can be created around your schedule, giving you more flexibility and control over your work.
- With an online course, you can reach a wider audience and provide a learning experience that is self-paced and convenient for your students.
If you do go down the route of creating and selling online courses, you’ll need to choose the right platform.
There are many online course platforms in the market that empower you to create educational content, including closed platforms like Udemy, Teachable, and Thinkific as well as more flexible solutions like WordPress. As we’ll see below, we recommend WordPress as the best platform for online course creators. However, when making a decision you need to consider your budget, the level of customization you require, and the audience you are trying to reach.
Whatever platform you choose, make sure it aligns with your goals and provides the necessary tools to help you succeed in your information product business.
3. Set Your Pricing
Setting the right price for your information product is crucial in attracting the right audience and maximizing profits. It’s a delicate balance between offering affordability for your customers and generating a reasonable return on investment for yourself.
When pricing your online course, it’s important to consider factors such as:
- the value you’re providing to your customers,
- the competition in the market, and
- your target audience
Overpricing your course can deter potential students and affect your credibility, while underpricing may not generate enough revenue to justify the time and resources you’ve invested.
Don’t worry too much over this part though. Pricing is not a one-time decision and can be adjusted as needed. Experiment with various price points and use different pricing strategies to determine what price works best for your course.
4. Create Your WordPress Website
As we discussed before, WordPress is a powerful, yet highly flexible, platform that can help you design and sell online courses. Popular and cost-effective, WordPress has become the de facto choice for many course creators for delivering info products. Here’s why:
- Cost-effectiveness: A business model like Teachable or Thinkific has cumulative costs with monthly fees and transaction fees on each sale. With WordPress, you only pay for the hosting and the premium themes and plugins you use, unlike paying for a generic solution that is laden with functionalities you don’t need.
- Ownership: With WordPress, you own all your content, which lets you create information products on any topic you like, and keep all the revenue you generate. You may still owe fees to payment gateways, but that’s about it.
- Ease of setup: While setting up a website can seem daunting, WordPress has a relatively low learning curve, thanks to its modern themes with well-designed libraries of templates that are ready to use. Besides, if you need additional functionality for your site, there’s likely a plugin that can do it for you!
When you decide to sell courses through WordPress, you need a plugin that helps you create these courses. Sensei is a leading WordPress LMS plugin that enables you to create, manage and sell online courses directly from your WordPress website. There are various plans available for Sensei, but we recommend Sensei Pro.
With over 10,000+ active installs, Sensei is an excellent choice to quickly create engaging online courses, lessons, and quizzes in WordPress. Here’s a brief overview of some of the plugin’s best features:
Tight integration with WooCommerce: Sensei Pro has deep integration with WooCommerce which lets you tap into the entire gamut of must-have eCommerce features, like subscriptions, payments, memberships, affiliates, coupons, and much more.
- Powerful course-creation features: Sensei Pro includes a variety of features that make course creation a breeze, such as the ability to schedule lessons and drip content, grade students using a variety of quiz types (including timed quizzes, multiple choice, and open questions), and teach students in groups and cohorts.
- Sensei Blocks: Sensei Pro is designed the ‘WordPress’ way. Instead of making you adapt to a whole new user interface, Sensei Pro gives you access to Sensei Blocks, which are multimedia elements that you can add to your lessons (or anywhere on your site) to make your lessons more engaging.
- Seamless video content support: Sensei Pro is ideal for course creators who want to build a video course, thanks to its integration with VideoPress.
With Sensei Pro, you can create a truly engaging, dynamic course, making it a great alternative to selling PDFs or other written formats.
5. Launch and Sell Your Products
Sensei’s tight integration with WooCommerce lets you easily sell your course as a product. The main benefit here is that only the user who has purchased the course has access to its content.
Here’s a brief overview of how you can link your course to a WooCommerce product.
- Install and activate WooCommerce on your website
- Select the course you want to sell
- Navigate to the sidebar Course > Pricing > Create Product
- Add the name, price, and description for the product
- Click on ‘Create Product’ after adding all the details and ‘Update’ to save the course
Once this is done, the standard ‘Take Course’ call-to-action button should change to a ‘Purchase Course’ button.
6. Market Your Information Products
It’s not enough to simply create and launch a new product, you need to actively promote it in order to reach your target audience and drive sales. The digital marketplace is highly competitive, and there is a multitude of product ideas available online, making it essential to differentiate yourself and stand out from the crowd.
Here are some of the methods and techniques you can use to market your info products. effectively and grow your business.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
The best way to grow your organic traffic is by optimizing your LMS site for SEO. By writing blog posts and articles that are optimized for relevant keywords, you can increase your website’s visibility in search engines and attract potential customers who are actively searching for information products in your niche.
For example, if you have an online course on dog training, you can develop a content marketing strategy around blog posts that target keywords such as “dog training tips”, “how to train your dog”, and so on.
Strong social media presence
Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn are great places to connect with your target audience, share your products, and build your brand. Start engaging with your followers to create a community around your digital products, increase your visibility, and reach a wider audience.
For instance, if you have a course on fashion design, you can create an Instagram account that showcases your products, fashion tips, and behind-the-scenes content to start meaningful conversations among your students/followers.
Affiliate marketing
Partnering with affiliates who have a large following in your niche can help you reach a wider audience and drive more sales. You’ll need to pay a commission for every sale made through an affiliate, but the investment could be worth it if it results in a significant increase in sales and exposure for your products.
Let’s say you have set up a membership site teaching advanced photography techniques. To promote your course, you can partner with popular photography blogs or websites to show how the course offers value to your audience.
Building a brand
Showcase your expertise, knowledge, and experience in the field to establish a strong personal brand and connect with potential customers on a deeper level. This can be through guest appearances on YouTube channels, podcast apps, email marketing, or other platforms where you can discuss your products and share your insights with subscribers.
You can use a combination of all these marketing strategies, or focus on a few that work best for you, depending on your niche and type of online course. Experiment, innovate, and decide how you can position your online business to stand out from your competitors.
Create and Sell Information Products with WordPress and Sensei Pro
The market for information products is constantly growing as people seek trusted sources for valuable knowledge and skills. Selling info products, especially online courses, can offer a great opportunity for passive income.
WordPress and Sensei Pro is the perfect combination to create and sell information products, specifically online courses.
With its extensive course-creation features and tight integration with WooCommerce, Sensei Pro allows you to create, manage, and sell your information products with ease. From scheduling lessons, grading students, adding multimedia elements, to selling courses as products, Sensei Pro has everything you need to succeed in the world of online education.
Get Sensei Pro to kickstart your journey of creating and selling beautiful information products!
