Create Your First Product in 5-Days or Less

Jan 17, 2010

By Jimmy Krug.

By the time 1987 had arrived, I’d already spent thousands of dollars on product creation courses, books, videos, etc.  I felt like a guy trying to teach himself how to swim before actually getting into the water.  Without a physical instructor standing beside me, I kept thinking, “I’ve gotta get this right the first time, because there’s no one here to pull me out in case I start sinking!”  That’s the way I was approaching product creation!

I was more worried about getting things wrong that I was applying myself in an attempt to get them right.  Instead of focusing on what I needed to do, all I was thinking about was all the advice I’d heard about what “not to do.”

Needless to say, I was doing a lot of reading but very little “doing” and ultimately… I was going absolutely nowhere.

The truth of the matter is, I didn’t want to fail.  Beneath all the perfectionism and all the wanting to having everything just right was the gnawing feeling that my product would be a failure.  I dreaded the outcome of having family and friends being the bulk of my audience.  I thought of all the miserable MLM experiences I had in my early 20’s and didn’t want a repeat of that with the product creation business.

It was “Ready-Aim-…” without the fire.

Finally, I arrived at the point where I realized there wasn’t anything else I could possibly learn until I actually pulled the trigger and put my knowledge into practice for the first time.

Three days later, my first information product (Car Buying Secrets) was finished and the rest became history.  My mailing list grew in record time and I had crossed the threshold from dreamer to “doer.”

Was my product perfect?  Absolutely not.  There’s no such thing as a perfect product or a perfect “anything,” for that matter.  The booklet included as many secrets as I could squeeze into a 32-page booklet.  There could have been more, but I was writing a booklet, not a book.

How did I complete my first booklet in such a short period of time?  I broke everything down into a simple outline that made sense to me.  If you’ve never written your own publication before, I suggest starting with a simple, special report-type of publication.  Stick with the basics.  It’s just like anything else.  The more you do it; the easier it becomes.  It will eventually become second nature to you.  For years, I attempted to take what I called “the cerebral approach,” analyzing every aspect of what I was doing.

As a result, I did little to nothing.  Finally, I decided to take the “roll-up your sleeves” approach.  With a simple report, I suggest you stay with no more than three main thoughts or focal points.

Let’s say you’re going to write a report called – “S.E.O. Underground.”  Sounds snappy, doesn’t it?  Maybe we could come up with a better title, but that’s the one we’re going with for now.  Next, we want to come up with three main thoughts or topics that we’ll include in this report.  I’ll list three below, right off the top of my head.

1. Keywords and Phrases
2. How to write search engine friendly content
3. A winning S.E.O. formula anyone can use immediately

Okay, we now have three main ideas we can write about.  I like the sequence, so I’ll leave it just as it is.  Under or next to each main thought, we can write sub-thoughts or ideas to expound upon the main thought.  For example -

1. Keywords and Phrases (different Google tools you can use to insure you’re picking the best words and phrases for your web site, coding your html made easy, how to make your pictures and graphics search engine friendly)
2. How to write search engine friendly content (keys to creating great content, where to include key phrases in your content, how often you need to update your content)
3. A winning S.E.O. formula anyone can use immediately (how to create entire web sites with WordPress, how to create direct marketing sales letters with WordPress, how to set up an autoresponder system with WordPress, the must-have plugins that will power your new site)

There we go.  It took less than ten minutes for me to create the above outline.  Of course, if you don’t know what you’re talking about, you need to choose a different topic!   With the above outline, I can easily create a 30-50 page information product.  I’d probably include several screen shots as well because when it comes to technical tutorials, a picture’s often worth a thousand words!  Create the entire product, then go back and edit.  Then, go back and edit again.  If at all possible, get another set of eyes besides your own to review what you’ve written.  If you’re like me, you think faster than you write and you will make some mistakes.

If you can’t find an editor, read your copy slowly and out loud.  Your mind will be able to catch more of the details your eyes will often miss.

Once you’ve completed the process, you’re ready for the next step – bringing your product to the masses.  Depending upon your individual skills and strengths, you may need some help in product design, web site layout, getting ranked with Google, etc.  Online Marketers like Jim Straw, David Breth and I have been selling products online for a long time. Over a decade.  We’re not just “selling shovels” for people looking to strike gold in the “Internet Hills.”  We own and operate real businesses and companies in the “real world.” Each of us offers a variety of tools that fit just about every budget. These tools can help make a tough job a lot easier if you’re getting bogged down in a particular area.  And if we don’t have what you’re looking for, we’d be happy to send you in the right direction.

In my own case, I create systems for each area of my business to keep from bogging down in any one particular area.  I’m suggesting that you test the waters by creating shorter products first.  You can do this with any particular subject matter.  Most people aren’t interested in reading hundreds of pages these days, anyway.  They would rather read several “bite-sized” publications as opposed to one giant tome when it comes to non-fiction.  They can print a shorter publication out on an inkjet or laser printer fairly inexpensively – using both sides of the paper.

When it comes to education vs application, sometimes the best advice you can give a person can be summed up by the popular Nike advertising slogan – “Just Do It!”  Once you do, then you can go back, fire up the intellect… and make the appropriate adjustments.

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Online Mentor Magazine – January 2010