Product creation is something a lot of people fight shy of. But it can be as simple as creating a PDF report that your customers can download – maybe in exchange for their email address so that you can keep in touch with them – or it can be as complicated as you want. Or pretty much any point inbetween.
Creating a PDF Product
My favourite place to start with product creation is with a PDF.
It’s quick and easy to do. All you need to do is type out the information in your word processor and then export it in PDF format. Most modern word processors can do this or, if not, a program like Libre Office (which is free) makes the process simple.
Most people seem to find the writing part of the report the scariest.
The thought of writing thousands of words means that lots of people put this off. Sometimes forever.
But there are some easy ways to get over this fundamental part of product creation:
Tips and tricks are a great place to start. Most businesses can think of 7 bullet point tips – it’s often a kind of subtle “knocking copy” where the implication is that some of your competitors cut some or all of the corners you’re talking about.
Once you’ve got your list of tips (and an odd number like 5 or 7 seems to work well) then all you need to do is write a page or so on each one.
Hey presto, you’ve just created a product!
If the thought of even typing out a few pages fills you with dread then speak your words instead and get them transcribed.
You’ve almost certainly got a microphone built into your computer – that’s good enough for this purpose. If you haven’t got a sound recording program (Mac users will have, Windows it seems to be pot luck) then Audacity is free and good quality.
Once the file is recorded, pay someone at Fiverr to transcribe it for you. Check the reviews but you can get transcription done there for under $1 (about 60p) a minute.
Depending on how fast you speak, you’ll probably get around 20 pages an hour. So speaking for about half an hour turn into a decent length short report.
Once the transcript comes back, the hard part is reading and checking it. But it’s a lot quicker than typing away and means that your PDF product will be created in next to no time.
Use Fiverr again for a cover graphic for your report.
Creating a bigger product
The process for creating a bigger product isn’t actually much different from creating a short report.
Start by deciding what you want to create.
A tutorial can be good and doesn’t have to take forever to create.
Make an outline of what you want to cover. Then flesh out each section with upwards of 10 bullet points that you’ll cover.
So long as you know your subject, this is quite easy.
My preference on bigger products is to use screen capture. That’s how I did my course on How to Publish a Book on Kindle. It’s a series of short (usually under 5 minute) screen captures with me talking over them.
I used Camtasia Studio to do this but if you’re able to keep the videos down to below 5 minutes then it’s baby brother Jing is worth a look.
I like making this kind of video because it doesn’t involve having a video camera or lights. I just put on my Plantronics headset and babble away.
Well, to be more accurate, I actually type out roughly what I’m going to say, print it out and then refer to it as I speak. So it covers what is needed but doesn’t come out in a monotone drawl.
When you do this way of product creation, it takes around 3 – 4 times the length of the finished product to create. So if you’re producing a 2 hour product like my Kindle course then it will take you around 8 hours to create.
If it’s your first attempt at product creation, allow a bit longer while you get the hang of things. But even then, you should get it completed in no more than a couple of weekends with plenty of time to spare.
The advantage of doing this kind of product creation is that it happens fast enough that you don’t get distracted. So you actually complete the project – or at least, stand more chance of doing so.
The other advantage is that it can be delivered online. So there’s no production cost until you actually sell something.
My Kindle course is distributed on Udemy. They take care of hosting the videos, taking the money and ensuring only people who’ve paid get access to the course.
They take a commission for doing this but it’s the easiest way I’ve found – you don’t need a website or anything technical to create your product this way. All you need to do is create it and then promote it. All the technical stuff is taken care of by someone else.
If you want to create a physical product, the process is similar. The main difference is that it ends up on paper – usually in a large folder – and maybe CDs and DVDs.
If you’d like more help with product creation, check out my guide here.