George talks about how to make passive, residual income so you can become a time millionaire and travel travel full-time in your motorhome…
You can find out more about my Time Millionaire system by clicking here.
Yes, we rented our house out while we were away, but that only paid for the mortgage. We had no money in stocks or bonds. So, how did we spend money for 18 months during the trip, and return home £20,783 richer?
Did we rob a bank?
Nope.
Did a family member die and leave us the money?
Heck, no.
We created information products before we left on our trip.
I stumbled across this thing called infopreneuring way back in 2003, when I was an eBay Powerseller, selling antique reproductions, from my garage. Within a listing for a very large oil painting of the Battle Of Trafalgar, I snuck in a link to another eBay listings for a short eBook I created called “The Battle Of Trafalgar In Pictures”.
The 200th anniversary of the battle was in 2005, so I figured there might be some interest in the eBook, especially as it was advertised within a listing for an expensive oil painting of the battle. I knew that every person clicking into look at the oil painting had to be a Battle Of Trafalgar fan, and they weren’t short of cash, so out of the 2000 people viewing it, maybe one or two would be curious enough to spend a measly £9 on the eBook.
I was wrong!
12 people purchased my £9 twenty-three page eBook within the 7-day listing.
That was more profit than I made on the oil painting, and from that day on my life has never been the same. I was in effect financially free, at least in my mind, from that moment onwards.
It only took me one day locked up in my bedroom to create the eBook. I found some appropriate images and text online, being careful not to plagiarize, and pasted them into a Word document. I found a tool online that converted Word docs into PDFs, and voila, my first eBook has been effortlessly morphed into reality.
Within the eBay listing for the eBook, I wrote a short description of it and included an image I found online of the Battle Of Trafalgar as the listing’s featured image, and I then totally forgot about having listed it on eBay.
On the very first day of the auction, my computer made a “ping” sound which meant an eBay sale had been made. I was used to the sound because I had been selling antique reproductions on eBay for a few years, but I didn’t have any antique reproduction auctions ending, so I figured it must be a bug. I looked at my computer and saw that my 23 page eBook had just been purchased by someone with Trafalgar in their eBay name. Someone had just given me £9, minus eBay’s fees, for something that I had created within 5 hours from essentially thin air.
I sat back in my chair, wide-eyed, and in shock.
7 days later the “Buy It Now” auction ended and 12 souls from Planet Earth had purchased my little eBook.
I had made £108 in sales. The eBay fees for the 12 sales were approximately £15. That left a profit margin of £93.
Amazing!
The profit margin on the Trafalgar oil painting that sold for £560 was £90. I made £3 more on a PDF document than I did on an enormous, gilt-framed, stunning looking oil painting. That might not sound so impressive, but to an eBay seller used to having to travel vast distances across the UK to source products, buy them, get them back to his dusty garage, store them, sell them, package them, and post them, it was a transcendent experience.
And not one of the eBay buyers left me negative feedback, which once the unexpected shock of the sales had died down a bit, I was certain would happen. Any negative feedback would all but kill my eBay business. In fact, a few of them left glowing positive feedback.
That was the start of my new life as an information product creator, or what I prefer to call myself: “creator of autopilot money machines”. I felt that each information product I created was a machine that made me money on autopilot.
Fast forward 12.5 years to March 12th, 2015. It was the last day of our 18-month epic adventure around the UK in a motorhome, but instead of having no money and desperately needing to find a job, I had made £20,783.
Each day on our trip, I made money. Someone somewhere on Planet Earth would buy one of my info-products. That info-product would be automatically delivered to their email Inbox. So, unless the person wasn’t happy, which was rare, I didn’t have to do a thing. I had set up info-products that made me money while I slept, and while I drove the motorhome, and while I was on top of mountains, and while I was drinking cups of tea while watching the sun setting.
I’m not a genius.
I’m not even smart. I’m not even average smart. Actually, if I’m completely honest, I’m a bit of a dummy.
My better half is a Shakespearean actress and can remember thousands of lines for a play. I can barely remember 10 lines when she drags me into one of the plays for a bit part, but I am a good action taker when an opportunity comes my way.
And that’s all there is to it, really.
You need to take action and follow a very simple plan. The more complex you make the plan, the more chances you have of giving up. Complexity is your enemy. Simplicity is your friend.
Oki doki, with the intro over, it’s time for the all-important steps…
If you stumble across an idea for an information product (e.g. an online course), set up a site using something like Wix.com.
It’s worth spending a bit of time brainstorming names for the domain name. When I have an idea for a site I always make my better half a cup of tea, and just as she’s getting settled onto the couch, I pull out my notepad and pen and ask her something like:
“I’m setting up a membership site which will have an online booking system for yoga and pilates teachers. Here are the names I’ve come up with so far.”
And she will always come up with a better name.
When I asked her the question, within 10 minutes she said: “How about BookOm“?
Perfect! It just felt right. It made me tingle a little, and that’s always my “Yes” signal.
If you can get a bit of help from someone or someones with the name, and you lock onto a name that rocks your boat, it’ll be a huge inspiration for you.
You don’t have to get a Wix.com site. It’s just the easiest method for beginners. I use WordPress and the Elementor page builder plugin.
Set up a short sales page on your new site.
Here is a crash course in writing sales copy. The good news is that the sales page doesn’t have to be perfect to make you money. Make sure you create the sales page before you start creating the information product.
Whatever you do, do not create the product first!
That is the mistake that almost everyone makes, and it’s a fatal mistake to make. You will significantly reduce the odds of making money from an information product if you get seduced into creating the information product first.
My top 7 sales page tips
- Use a website template, as I did with BookOm.org.
- Keep the sales page simple; don’t spend days perfecting it.
- Get the sales page up and live within two hours max
- During the next 8 months spend a little bit of time improving the sales page.
- Have “Coming Soon” text where the “Buy Now” button will go.
- When the product is completed, change the “Coming Soon” text to a “Buy Now” button.
- Use WooCommerce to take payments on the sales page.
Sit down at your computer or laptop, and don’t get up again for 30 days!
Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but only just. When I launch a new information product, I spend 6 to 8 hours per day just writing as many blog posts as I can.
The reason for this is to get clicks on Google in 8 months time!
Yes, I did say 8 months.
It takes a new website 8 months for blog posts to gain good traction in Google.
My information product formula is not a get rich quick scheme. It’s a get rich slowly and work your ass off for 30 days scheme. I call it my “30 days and forget” formula. I work 6 to 8 hours a day blogging like a mad thing, and then do nothing for 8 months. It’s like planting a sunflower seed in your garden, forgetting about it, and then months later marvelling at its beauty.
You don’t need to be writing blog posts manically for 8 months, you just need to do it for 30 days. Do as much as you can. If you have a full-time job, you may only have 2 to 3 hours a day spare to write posts. That’s okay. If, however, you’re not willing to put in some serious time for 30 days, then I suggest you find another money-making game to play because this isn’t for you.
If you’re still reading this, and already have an idea for your information product, it’s time to stop reading, and start blogging.
Every second counts!
Every second that you’re not blogging in the next 30 days is a wasted second. Again, I know that sounds ridiculous, but it’s the mindset that you need to have. If you find yourself reading the news on your iPhone, you’ll find yourself putting the phone down, and picking your laptop up to write another post.
Call To Action
At the bottom of each of your posts provide a link to your information product sales page.
After you’ve written a blog post that has been of value to someone, they are at their most receptive to buy. I’ve just spent the past four days writing one epic blog post to help promote my new online yoga and pilates booking system. The post is called 17 Types Of Yoga: Which Yoga Teacher Training Is Best?. It is essentially 17 small posts in one post. Google loves posts with lots of content in a blog post, which is exactly what I’m giving them here.
At the end of that post, you’ll see a classic Call To Action (CTA) in the footer which says:
“Get Your BookOm Today: The industry-best booking software for Yoga and Pilates teachers and studios”.
And next to that text is a large “Start Now” button. I recommend that you also have some kind of CTA at the bottom of all your posts.
There are lots of information products you can create. Below are the most common ones.
Top 10 Types Of Information Products
- Templates
- Ebooks
- Membership sites (if they don’t require regular new content)
- Software
- Apps
- Online courses
- Recorded webinars
- Cheatsheets
- Reports and analysis
- Live event recordings
Make Money While You Sleep
To be classified as an information product, it must be able to make money while you sleep!
That means coaching, mentorship, and live events, aren’t information products. If, however, you record the live event and sell it as a digital product, that is an information product.
You can find out more about my Autopilot Money Machine system here.
