Gathering The Material You Need
Gathering material fora “how-to” product is straight forward, once you understand what you’re looking for.
Remembering the structure of your product assists you in getting what you must have. That structure has these
three parts:
(where pain or loss is concerned)
· conjuring up the prospect’s pain and reminding him how much he hurts (or how much he’ll lose if he does
lose what he’s trying to protect);
· giving him the exact steps he needs to remove the pain... or preserve himself from loss;
· giving him the necessary push to go out and get started.
(or, where achievement of a desired objective is concerned)
· conjuring up the desired objective, in the most persuasive and attractive way;
· giving him the exact steps he needs to achieve it;
· giving him the necessary push to go out and get started.
If you remember this structure, the process you follow to get your material
follows as a matter of course.
First Step: The General Outline For Your Info-Product
There are two ways of getting some place... either setting out aimlessly and hoping for the best. Or using a
road map. The second tends to make more sense. This is why in creating an info-product you need a clientcentered
outline. This outline makes clear exactly what you are trying to accomplish and exactly what modules
you need to complete to reach your objective.
The best “how-to” products follow this kind of general outline:
Client-centered introduction. This introduction lets the prospect know that he is in the right place, that what
follows is for him, establishes that you understand his situation and provides him with an overview of what he’ll
find in the product ... and the benefits he’ll get by using it. It also invites him to make contact with you if you
have other products and services he can benefit from, and gives him the necessary information so that he can do
so easily. This introduction (which 1 prefer in the form of a letter to the reader, for reasons I’ll shortly discuss),
though short, constitutes the first complete section of your product.
The second section is made up of direct how-to-do-it advice and information organized by “what next? “
thinking. That is, the first chapter deals with the first thing the prospect must do to achieve his objective. You
are the specialist, you know what he must do first; here’s where you tell him what that thing is and show him
exactly how to do it. Subsequent chapters follow in rigidly logical order ... one following the other as night
follows day. The second major section of any how-to product is composed of these logically developed chapters
each dealing with a necessary, but separate, series of logically connected steps the prospect must flow if he is to
get what he wants.
The third section of any info-product is made up of what I term the “marching orders.” This section reminds
the reader not only of what he wants to achieve but his current situation. It reminds him of what he has now
learned ... of what he now has available,. to help him achieve his objective ... and gives him a final, uplifting, and
motivational message to go out there and get started. This is also a good place again to invite the reader/prospect
to contact you for personal assistance, always providing you make such assistance available. (And, if not, why
not?)
The fourth section of your info-product may or may not be necessary depending on your subject. Here you
include necessary forms, samples, documents, technical specifications and such other material as is necessary for
the reader/prospect to achieve his objective and which fits more conveniently here than in the text, where it may
impede the reader.
The fifth section contains information about you and your other products and services. Whereas both the
introduction and conclusion (sections one and three above) contain an invitation for your reader to contact you,
this section contains the exact information the prospect needs about what you do and provide. The shrewd infoproduct
producer aims to establish a relationship with his reader. Once this relationship is established, it must
have somewhere to go; that’s why this section exists. Here you provide specific information about other
solutions you have available ... both the products and services you produce yourself... and those of other people
that are offered by you. Unlike our feebler info- brethren, we know the relationship doesn’t end with this
product. It’s something that is of mutual benefit for our prospect’s life ... and our own. We aim to develop that
relationship right now, when the prospect has our first problem-solving product in his hands and is grateful for
the help we’ve already given him.
