How to Make Money As An Expert

Are you an expert? If so, you might be able to profit from
your expertise in a side business apart from your
everyday work. How? By selling products teaching other
people about your area of expertise.
You may have a hobby and find yourself answering
other people's questions about what you do in online
chat rooms. Or you may have developed great ways to
perform services in a particular business. You may be
able to package what you know into an information
product.
It might take the form of traditional books, audio
programs, videos or DVDs, magazines, newsletters,
ebooks, membership websites, teleseminars and
webinars, telecoaching programs, seminars and
conferences, and combinations of these. Businesspeople
and consumers alike need to learn about solutions to
problems they have in a convenient and useful format.
As a money-making business, the advantages can be
numerous. Consider the following:
You can leverage your knowledge.
Whether you're working for someone else or you're a
professional selling your services by the hour or by the
job, you are being paid for what you produce. The
moment you stop producing, you stop getting paid. By
creating your product one time, you provide that
business solution over and over again instead of
performing the service yourself each time.
Everything you need to create a new product is already
inside you -- the information, the secrets, the techniques,
the things you already know. You don't need dozens of
experts or newfangled distribution methods.
Related: How to Startup and Keep Your Day Job
Your products can double as marketing materials.
People say to me, "I'm already a consultant. If I create
an information product that explains my entire process,
won't people just do it themselves and stop hiring me to
do work for them?" Absolutely not.
People who buy your information products are much
more likely to hire you to perform services than other
customers. Being published shows the customer the
complexity of the services and the special ability you
have to perform them, and makes you the obvious
choice should the buyer need additional help with his
business or hobby.
You can work at home.
You won't necessarily need a brick-and-mortar location
for people to buy your products. This means you can
work at home with your computer in a closet or build
your information product on your kitchen table. As long
as you've got a way to create a product and distribute it,
you don't have to be in any particular location for people
to buy it.
You aren't likely to need employees .
The kind of work you may need help with isn't likely to
require full-time employees. You could pay independent
contractors to help maintain a customer database, ship
products, and handle customers' questions. You can
operate a business that makes well above $1 million a
year with little or no staff and have little operating
overhead.
You can start with little money.
You also don't need a lot of equipment, furniture or
computers. It doesn't require special licenses in most
cases, and it doesn't require a special education or
degrees. You will need to:
1. Identify a market of people who are excited
about the information you have
2. Create a product those people want, and
3. Offer it in a persuasive way.
Investing money in marketing when you are launching
increases revenue more quickly. You can take a stair-
step approach by investing a small amount in your first
campaign and reinvesting your revenues into the next.
Some people are earning million-dollar incomes by
selling teaching and training products. Each one started
out like you, with no products and no customers, and
they gave it a shot. This business is scalable -- you can
make it as small or as large as you want.
But don't think this kind of business require little or no
work. Just as you see entrepreneurs working hard in the
mall, in a retail store or restaurant, you should plan on
working hard on your business. It takes a small
investment, but the payoff can be huge -- if you stick
with it and continue to develop your business.