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Here is Part Four of my series on how to quickly and easily create an information product.

Part One showed you how to get ready to create your audio product.
Part Two detailed how to produce and package the recording.
Part Three showed you ways to sell your audio product online.
Part Four will give you ideas to market your new product, including pricing.

Let’s start by talking about pricing. The biggest factor in choosing the optimal price is what your customers see as the value of your product. What does your audio program do for them?

Some product creators determine the price as a multiple of the cost of producing the product. Although you need to be certain that your pricing will cover all of your costs of production, simply multiplying the cost by 5, 8, 10 or some other number is not an effective way to set a price.

One place to start is by looking at how other, comparable products are priced. Your product may not be competing with mainstream products, such as a music CDs, so look at the products that are closest to yours. I see informational CDs in niche markets selling for anywhere from $10 to $97. How important is this information to your customers? How difficult would it be to get the information any other way? Keep in mind that you are not only competing with other audio programs, but with books, seminars and other ways customers can get the information you offer.

You might want to start with a price such as $19 or $27, but it may be possible to charge more. You may even make more sales at a high price than a low one. Test different price points to see what works best with your audience. Also, 7s and 9s work well in prices, so think about $47 or $49 rather than $50.

If you offer your audio program both as a download and on CD, you may wish to charge more for the CD. That reflects the fact that not only does it cost more to package and ship the CD, it takes more time, too. And that time costs, whether it is the cost of a fulfillment service, your assistant’s time or (most of all) your time. You may also wish to charge shipping and handling for the CDs.

Also make sure your pricing will accommodate selling your product through others, who will expect a discount or commission. For example, if you sell on Amazon Advantage, they get 55% of the sale price and you get 45%. Affiliates may expect 20 - 50%, as will many retailers. Even when you sell directly to customers, do not forget to account for the cost of advertising or other marketing programs. And always remember to include other costs of doing business such as credit card fees and overhead (e.g., web site costs).

In Part Three, we talked about selling your audio program from your own web site as well as Amazon.com, eBay, and FreeIQ. When you sell at your own site, you may want to have an affiliate program in place. Offering to pay commissions to those who refer sales to you can increase your sales tremendously; however, there is a cost to having an affiliate program. In addition to the commissions themselves, you must have a method in place to track sales coming from each affiliate. My shopping cart has an affiliate module built in, or you can use one of many scripts or programs available for affiliate programs.

In Part Three you also learned about PayLoadz. If you are selling downloadable products, they handle the download and also offer an affiliate program so you can pay commissions to those who refer sales. A similar, and better-known, option is ClickBank. ClickBank charges a set-up fee and includes somewhat higher fees than PayLoadz, and they do not handle setting up a secure download page, so you will have to do that. However, their affiliate network is larger and if your product starts to sell, it may attract the attention of these affiliates and that can drive even greater sales.

Do not overlook ways to sell your product offline. In order to do this, you will need to have a physical product, such as a CD, rather than a download. Although your CDs should be attractively packaged and professional no matter how you sell them, appearance is especially important for offline sales. The saying may be that you can’t judge a book by its cover, but people make judgments based on appearance all the time. Your product has to make a good first impression in order to make sales.

One of the best places to sell your audio program is at the back of the room when you make a speech or present a class or workshop. The audience has just heard what a great speaker you are, so they will want to take some of that experience home with them. Offer something special to encourage them to buy right then. That might mean a discount, autographing the CD or package, or a bonus such as a booklet or other product free.

Look for others in your field who might want to buy your CD in quantity, perhaps to bundle with other products. A minimum purchase might be 10 to 25 units, and a typical discount would be in the 25 - 40% range.

Keep watching for other opportunities to sell your product. And then, get started on your next product. It might be another audio program, or a book or booklet, or . . . the possibilities are endless.

Want to get more great ideas for fast and easy ways to turn what you know into cash, with step-by-step instructions on creating profitable products and more? Get my Cash Content Formula program. You will find hundreds of ways to make money with books, booklets and other printed products, ebooks, audio programs, image products, blogging, video and much, much more. You also get lots of bonuses, including monthly coaching calls.