A couple of months ago I starting preparing my first information product – How to Achieve Your Dreams The Tomato Way. I documented it’s production in a series of posts How to Write Your Ebook.

As this is not I the only information product that I intend to offer on this site, I kept a note of the things that went well and the things that didn’t go so well.

Here’s what I learnt from my first product Launch:

Time

Or more importantly planning.  When starting a product launch, start with the launch date and work backwards noting  all of  the tasks that you need to complete before you can launch your product.

So, for example to sell the product the following needs to happen:

5. product to be uploaded to the shopping cart system (Ejunkie)
4. create the product file
3. write the sales page and have it set for publishing
2. edit the finished product – check for errors
1. have images created for your product cover

etc. etc.  You get the idea.

Basically by working backwards from the very last task you need to do, you can estimate how much time you will need to take to complete your information product. You can then draw up a time table for yourself so that you know exactly what you need to do and by when. This will keep you on track and save any burning of the midnight oil in the days before the launch.

If you’re familiar with Murphy’s Law (basically anything that can go wrong, will go wrong) and apply it to your product launch, you will encounter all sorts of problems to dislodge you from your carefully created plan. So therefore, expect that problems will come your way and build a contingency in to your launch.

When I did my first launch a problem occurred with uploading media files into WordPress and it nearly cost me being able to launch on the due date.

The lesson I learnt from this was to build a week between completing the product and going live with it – because you never know what may go wrong!

Turn it into an event

Not all of the people visiting your site on launch day will be interested in buying your product. Sad, I know, but it’s life. So whatever is going on on your site you don’t want to alienate these visitors. So why not make the launch interesting for them, so that these  visitors will enjoy reading (or watching videos) about the launch which will engage them -  you can do this by turning the launch into an event.

For example on Tuesday (20th July) I’m launching My Product Launch Checklist, not only will this by my 200th post but it will also be the 41st Anniversary of the Moon Landings – is there an event you could tie your launch to, so that you could make it more exciting and interesting?

Create a buzz

In the weeks leading up to your launch talk about it everywhere you can. Twitter, Facebook, other blogs, your blogs, write to your email list and tell them it’s coming and how you’re making it special.

So a few months before your launch start building your email list. If you haven’t got an email provider I, like a lot of other bloggers use Aweber it’s a great tool for managing the distribution of emails. Go and check it out.   Get as many people signed up to the list as you can, maybe by offering a free report or a free ebook.

Then keep your readers updated with what you’re doing and what your plans are for your product launch. You could even offer a discount to your list as a ‘thank you’ for being signed up.

The point is that you need to create a buzz, increase your guest posting and be everywhere.

If you create a sufficient buzz there’s going to be no need to spend a single penny on advertising, which means that you’ll get to retain more of the proceeds from the sale of your product.

Don’t do it all yourself

Nowadays you don’t need to do everything yourself. Leverage other people’s lists and visitors by encouraging others to become affiliates of your proudcts.  Ok, you’ll have to pay them a commission, but better to have 7o% of something than 100% of nothing.

Shopping cart systems such as Ejunkie allow you to set up affiliate programmes and produce mass payment files for you to import into PayPal to make payments to your affiliates -  meaning that it’s straightforward for you to manage.

If you’re planning a launch for your product or service, take the stress out of the Launch with the Product Launch Guide. You can get your copy here, tomorrow.