I have been plying my trade online for just over three years now. And, it has amazed me just how well online sales and in particular, information product sales, have held up in these troubled times.

I recently read in the Telegraph (London - March 2009) that online sales were up 30% in 2008. Clearly this didn’t make headline news, it was buried away amongst the doom and gloom in a little paragraph at the bottom of the page.

Amazon continues to blaze a trail and had a record Christmas. A friend of mine works for a U.K fashion chain and told me that whilst the high street was down 8% online is blossoming with sales up 15%.

So, the message is clear…The recession is NOT happening online! If you want to ensure success you simply MUST take your business online.

And, when all is said and done, the online model offers you so many advantages over the traditional business model. The cost savings are enormous, no wonder everyone is scrambling to “get online”.

So, no matter what it is you do, you should be seriously thinking about how you can productise whatever it is and take it online!

Here are some questions to get the grey matter working…

1. What do you know about in detail that people would pay for?
2. What do you find easy that others find difficult?
3. What comes naturally to you?
4. What are you extremely good at?
5. What unique experiences do you have?
6. What do you know a lot about that could be turned into a product (think hobbies, career, clubs)
7. What do you get asked about a lot?
8. What do people come to you for help with?

Got your answers? O.K, now think…how can I turn that into an information product?

Now you must think “information product” here. You need something that can be turned into a CD, DVD, video download, online audio, Ebook or PDF report.

These are all cost effective delivery methods for information products, and they are all really easy to produce.

I have heard it said that you dilute value by not delivering personally - but I don’t believe that is true. In my opinion all you are doing is simply making your valuable information available to a much wider audience at a far better price than you could possibly offer 1 to 1. To me this is a “no-brainer”!

Incidentally, if you would like to see an example of this in action Bernadette Doyle is a really good place to look!

I got one of her courses recently and found out that she started out selling. She then went on to deliver sales training. She became an expert and sought after sales trainer. So much so that she couldn't keep up with demand.

So...what did she do?

Quite simply she productised her sales training into an information product and started selling a sales training manual. She had initiated her "information empire". Initially she didn't even sell online, but gradually she built her product line to include CD, DVD, Online Video, Tele Conferencing and Seminars.

So, if you are struggling to find a starting place, just look at what you do at the moment, it could be the easiest thing you ever do!

It is a really easy way to get your online “information product empire” up and running. You know it makes sense!

I’ll be the first to admit that there is a steep learning curve to getting started online. But, with a bit of commitment, in all honesty, it’s not that difficult. I am a technical “bone-head” so if I can do it, you can too!

If you’re stuck for your own ideas, then…find a PLR product and get it online!

Here’s an example of one I did earlier

Information Product Development

I put this product up in response to a lot of questions I got from my customers about information product development. I paid just a few dollars for the rights on this eBook.

I am a great believer that you should look to make any PLR product unique. So, with this product I put in quite a bit of work adding sections, adding some extra ideas and really putting extra value in the “how to” sections.

It took me about half a day to complete the “work” – 4 hours. (It’s not really work is it? It’s much more fun than sitting in an office for 8 hours a day then spending a couple of hours stuck in traffic getting home – unless that turns you on of course).

Then I put the site up live (you get a full website with sales copy for most PLR products, although to be fair, I didn't with this one) and I have an online business – how easy is that? This site took about three hours to write and build.

I’ll admit I have put some up where I haven't changed a thing!On the rare occassions I adopt this approach the entire process takes me less than an hour! You can do this!

And, if you don’t believe me, check out what the man who’s made $54 million online says about the subject. Download Armand Morin’s “An Obvious Truth” (it’s free) and see what he says about this subject! Armand is quite explicit about this and totally re-enforces everything I have said on this hub.

At the risk of being a bit tough on you here…you have NO excuses.

So, if you are prepared to put in a little effort, learn how to do this, you can build your own online success story!

As I said, the online world is simply not partaking in this “alleged” recession and you don’t need to either!

Build your own information product and start building YOUR online information empire - NOW!