Did you know that Amazon.com - the one Internet business that everyone has heard of - despite a turnover in the billions of dollars, has yet to show a penny profit? (at the time of writing)

Now why do you suppose that is? Well there are probably many reasons, but the most likely one is that they attracted so much volume of trade on the Internet that all their profits went into expansion.

If you like, they were victims of their own success. They had to build new warehouses, new offices, employ more staff, contract distribution systems, and all the headaches involved in running a big business. But the margins on selling books barely support this kind of rapid expansion. Yes, they are dealing in information products, but (I would say) the wrong kind with which to make money.

Just think about running a business that involves tracking hundreds of thousands of individual products, all at different prices, from thousands of suppliers, and shipping them to millions of customers across the globe. Does that give you a headache? Me too!. There has to be a better way.

And guess what, there is!

My researches indicate that there is only ONE PRODUCT worth selling on the Internet if you want a quiet life.

Which means, if you want to run your own business, without employing people, without inventory or fancy offices, but still with the potential to make sacks of money 24 hours a day - including while you sleep - and only requiring a couple of hours a day (or less) of your time.

That product is INFORMATION. Why? Because delivering information is what the Internet was designed for, and it is still - and always will be - what it is best at. "Information" can include all sorts of things, but in essence it is - and will be for years to come - mainly composed of written words. More precisely, written English words, as the Internet is becoming the primary vehicle for the world dominance of the English language.

Whether that is a good thing or not, it does mean that if you can write decent English - and we are not talking Shakespeare here - just competent, reasonably grammatical and, above all, readable conversational English, you are more than halfway to getting started in the Information Business.

That's the only qualification you need.

Now I'm not saying that you can't sell information in French, Spanish or German - in fact there is probably a very good niche market for any of the other major world languages - but the really big markets of USA, UK, Australia, Canada and Europe all have English as either their first or second language, so if you want to be in the big money, you need to write in English.

Information, in digital form, can be sent in high volume, in a few seconds, to any place on earth with an Internet connection, virtually for free, needs no packaging and it arrives in as perfect condition as when it left. No other product - except possibly digital music - can compete.

It's other two big advantages are:

Really, for the purposes of making money on the Internet, nothing comes close.

"OK," you may be saying, "I can speak and write reasonable English. So how do I create information products to sell, and what do they look like?"

Well, I have a surprise for you. I am going to suggest that you don't sell your information products at all, but GIVE THEM AWAY.

"Oh no, this guy is nuts. He's telling me to give stuff away and I will make money!"

DON'T PANIC!

I really do know what I am talking about. Let me explain:

First, In order to sell something to somebody, you have to convince them it is worth at least what they are going to have to pay for it. That takes skill. That is why salespeople spend so much time learning how to do it. That's why they have schools of marketing. That's why writing advertisements is such an overpaid profession. That's why good salespeople are paid so much money: SELLING IS HARD WORK. Believe me, I've done it!

If you happen to be a great salesperson, or are willing to take the time to learn, then go ahead - SELL STUFF. If you turn out to be good at it, you can make big bucks. And if you don't, it's a hard, frustrating and stressful life. If you would rather work less, play more and probably earn more, there is another way. As I said, you GIVE STUFF AWAY.

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