Before the internet came along, in order to create and sell your own information products, you needed deep pockets for advertising in print media and direct mail campaigns, together with a fulfillment house / staff for processing orders and posting out your products.

With the internet you have many more options for creating and distributing products. You can make them digital or physical, you can create software or ebooks, and even create audio or video products using only your computer.

Before you get started though, you need to make several decisions so that your product becomes a success. Ask yourself these questions, and use your answers to create a successful product.

1. What will be the topic of your products?

Is there a specific topic you are an expert in? Do you have a hobby you've been very successful at and can share your knowledge? Is there a topic you are passionate about?

Regardless of what your skill is, chances are there's probably a market for it. The first step in getting started is to do a little research and determin the exact demand for your chosen product. You can search for your topic in the search engines. Look for forums, social networking sites, and other sites that offer products similiar to the ones you want to create. If you find sites like these, you have a market. If you don't find any competition raise an eyebrow and ask yourself why not?

2. What format will you use to create your products?

Although writing is one of the easiest ways to communicate your information to others, writing a book isn't the only way to create an information product. broadband internet and audio / video becoming ever more popular, you have the option of creating different types of products to meet the needs of your audience. You can also create strictly digital products that can be downloaded from your website.

3. What tools will you need to create your products?

If you plan to write books or ebooks, you'll a word processing program, as well as a program to create PDFs. (like www.pdf995.com) A PDF is a universal format that can be distributed to anyone and read on any type of computer. If you plan to self publish your manuscript as a book, you'll need to convert your document to PDF before publishing.

With video and audio, you'll either need a video camera, or some type of software on your computer to create your audios and videos. You can do a search at any of the freeware websites to find software for creating your projects in these formats. I have also reviewed many of these on my site.

4. How will you distribute your products?

Once you know what format you will create your product in, you'll need to decide how to distribute it. This means taking orders, as well as processing payments. The secret here is to automate every aspect of the order, payment, and distribution process so your products are available 24/7. It will also save you a lot of time, and you can use your time to market your products. The companies like clickbank, paypal and others like kunaki can help you here.

5. How will you market your products?

The type of product you sell can largely determine how you will market your product. Will you create a website to send your traffic to? Do you plan to pay for traffic, as in pay per clicks? Articles and press releases are a great way to get the word out about your business and drive traffic. You can also advertise your business using classified ads, as well as share your knowledge on forums and social network sites.

There are many ways to market your business that will get you the traffic to sell your products. Create your marketing plan before you create your products and then launch as soon as you are ready to begin distributing your products. Then you will more quickly see success.