Anatomy of an Information Product Launch

As most of you know I’m in the middle of launching Blog Mastermind, a mentoring program to teach people how to earn a full time income from blogging part time.

Over the next two weeks I’ll be taking you through the final stages of pre-launch (if you decide to take part) and finally opening the doors on the program.

This week I’m releasing a special report on making money from blogs (more on this soon) and also inviting people to become my partners and help spread the word about Blog Mastermind as an affiliate (look for this today or tomorrow).

I’ll release all the details to Entrepreneurs-Journey.com, however if you want to be part of the first group of people to know anything about Blog Mastermind and join my partners affiliate program so you can earn commissions, you have to be on the early notification list, which you can sign up for here:

Big Lessons Learned

If you have followed my blog for a while you might remember I made my first intentions to create some form of information product to sell online way back in January 2006.

Throughout 2006 I worked on my first product and related information resources, decided to switch gears and release a different product and then, a few months ago at the start of 2007, decided to finally commit to releasing something, and that something is Blog Mastermind. I feel very confident in Blog Mastermind because I know it meets a need and it’s a need I feel capable, through experience, of satisfying. This product is definitely going to see the light of day, which is very exciting for me.

Since I made the decision to focus on the release of the mentoring program I’ve devoted most of my working hours to it. So far it’s been a huge learning experience and I’ll no doubt write a lot more about the process of launching my first information product, so you can learn from my mistakes and successes.

Before I go back to work on Blog Mastermind, I thought I’d pass on a couple of key points for anyone out there considering releasing a product online and doing some form of launch process. Here are some of the big lessons I’ve learned…

Product Launch Tips

1. Build a team around you

One of the main reasons I’ve been slow at releasing anything to market is that in the past I’ve done nearly everything myself. Worse still, I’ve taken on more and more new projects, buying blogs and websites, thus increasing my workload.

When I decided to take the release of an information product seriously I immediately broadcast my intentions to find people to fill some key roles. I also recruited people to handle other projects so I wouldn’t be distracted when something not related to my product needed attention. The immediate impact of this was some cost – I do have to pay people – but the time and headspace gained make it well worthwhile.

2. Marketing is more time consuming than product creation

In the business world we live in today you have to work harder at marketing your product than actually producing the product. Marketing is something I enjoy, but let’s just say I’d prefer to wave a magic wand and have one thousand eager clients ready to go who I could spend all my time satisfying, rather than having to split my time between marketing in order to attract new clients and also producing the content to satisfy clients.

This is just something you have to accept as a business owner. Your primary role is marketing. Yes you do have to deliver a great product too, but it doesn’t matter how good the product is if no one knows about it.

3. Technology never works exactly how you want it to

As much as I love the Internet, it never works exactly how I want it to. Nick, my programmer, who has been working with me to get the membership and affiliate system working (we are using Butterfly Marketing) has been receiving a never ending stream of emails from me as we slowly tweak everything so it functions and looks how I want it to.

Unfortunately there are some things that will never be exactly how I want them to be so I have to “settle” for imperfection – and yes, there’s another lesson for you entrepreneurs out there – throw away your perfectionist hat or you will never release anything.

4. Focus on your core skill and allow others to do what they are good at

My main role with the release of Blog Mastermind thus far has obviously been project management, but I’m also responsible for most of the content. As a result I’m usually the main bottleneck. What has been nice about the process is that I’ve been able to sit down and just type content, record audio and video without worrying about anything else. I tell other people that the system has to do this or something has to look like that and they make it happen – and a lot quicker than if I tried to be responsible for everything.

5. Take time off

Jeff Walker mentions this in his Product Launch Formula. You have to take time off, get some exercise and definitely do not spend all your time in front of the computer. This part has been really easy for me, I’m well versed at mixing productive time with off-time because I know my body can only handle so many hours in front of the computer and I have always had the luxury of leaving whenever I want to. The lesson here is that it’s okay and in fact a VERY good thing to give yourself permission not to care about your product or your launch for a while. It will still be there when you power back up the computer.

That’s it for now and stay tuned folks, I have some exciting things coming in the next few days!

Yaro Starak
Product Launching