Hey guys,

I'm developing real-world marketing product with a friend and I'm wondering the best way to make this available to people.

The product will consist of software, a printed guide, and videos to tie everything together - and additional backend products and services will be offered.

My initial thought was that a physical product would have more value and wouldn't be too much trouble to produce and ship - but I'd also like to recruit some affiliates to help market this - so now I'm thinking maybe a digital product offered through Clickbank is the way to go?

It would be nice to automate and simplify the fulfillment process as much as possible, but then I think it would be too easy for people to pass this around to others without paying for it.

I'd love to hear from those of you that are actively selling any info products - and if you've ever bought info products before - do you prefer physical products or ones delivered immediately as a pdf or membership type website?

Thanks for taking time to share your thoughts on this!

Steve

I know people who sell info products, they might have an instant download AND send a CD out in the mail.

I've heard this cuts down on returns and credit card charge-backs.

I just remembered, I've bought stuff like this before (info products and got a CD) and I had to enter a code to authorize it. Someone could not pass this around.

Marlon Sanders does this with his stuff.

I bought a product from him a few years ago "the amazing formula that sells products like crazy". A code came with the CD.


Not sure if this has any info on doing this?
Info-Product Dashboard

We have a member of our Mastermind Coaching group who surveyed his potential buyers. He's got a 'name' in his niche so the response was pretty good. He thought for sure they'd want physical product. They overwhelmingly wanted instant digital downloads.

Its the whole Jeff Walker, Product Launch Formula, ask your prospects what they want, create it, then sell them what they told you they wanted.

So, bottom line, can you ask them what they want?

What has worked for us is both digital and physical, as well as adding a longer term bonus that reduces refunds whether that be a forum, bonus online video every month, things like that.

Clickbank offers a hybrid delivery option; you can sell a physical product along with the digital product. There are restrictions, however. From their terms of service:

You may also offer shipped delivery of printed media (books, CD's, and DVD's) as a courtesy to qualified customers (e.g., US and Canada only), provided the shipped media is clearly complementary and not essential to the operation of the originally downloaded digital product. The complementary nature of the shipped media must be clearly explained to the customer.

As a buyer, I often prefer receiving a physical product instead of an instant download. As a seller, I've used the hybrid approach and have also sold just physical products. Physical products give you the option of using eBay and also help make the transaction more personal.

--Anita

Steve,

Try PayDot.com. I like it better than ClickBank. You can sell digital products, subscriptions, and physical products through PayDot.com. I think it offers better services and is more "marketer friendly" than ClickBank. You get paid instantly, the accounts are free, and there are other options that are more attractive than ClickBank. Check it out and compare PayDot.com with other online marketplaces.

I hope this helps.

Deb

Hi Rave.I'll like to say that whichever option you choose to take,there will always be people that will want to pass your stuff along to others either through the file sharing sites or by burning copies for their friends.But should you because of this decide to fold your hands and do nothing?Of course not!Here's what I will say-like someone else said before,find out which format your potential customers would like the product to be in and give it to them.You can do this by conducting a survey through surveymonkey dot com,or through a form hosted on your website.From this,you'll know what to do next.I personally prefer digital products since they can be downloaded instantly but if you can provide the 2 for a little more,so much the better.You could call the digital product $X.97 and at the point where she wants to pay ,you could tell her that for just $XX more,she could have the physical product as well.Then you tell her about the consumption matrix (you know what this is) and this will whet her appetite the more.Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the great comments and links to check out and certainly agree that it's important to find out what people prefer to buy and sell that to them.

Personally I like the instant gratification of digital products myself, but it's no real trouble to offer both versions to folks and give them a simple choice to make.

Thanks again!

Steve

Steve,

For several years, I sold my information products in physical form only (CDs, DVDs and printed manuals). Then I tested offering downloadable versions only. From my experience, here are the advantages and dis-advantages of both delivery methods:

Physical Products

Advantages: Higher perceived value, higher price points, some customers will only buy physical products

Disadvantages: higher costs, more time invested to produce, package and ship products, occasional issues with packages delayed or lost in transit, inability to offer instant gratification or instant issue resolution

Downloadable Products

Advantages: instant customer gratification (they have the product within minutes of purchase), ability to respond to and resolve customer issues rapidly, significantly lower costs to deliver products, ability to serve customers globally (without shipping delays, hassles or expense)

Disadvantages: In general, lower price points

The main reason I wanted to move away from offering physical products was the hassle factor. I did all CD and DVD duplication in-house to keep costs as low as possible. Creating product, manually processing orders and shipping were tasks I no longer wanted to do. By digitizing all of my info products and turning them into instantly downloadable products reduced my time operating the business dramatically.

I toyed with the idea of offering both physical and downloadable versions of my products, but decided to move forward with the downloadable option only, entirely for my convenience and time savings. As long as you don't mind manually processing and shipping orders, it would definitely make most sense to test both delivery options and see which one produces best results in terms of total revenue less product, shipping and return costs.

The biggest surprise when I went 100% downloadable was the return rate. My return rate in 7 years of selling info products on line was always very low, less than 1%. When I went to the download model, my returns stayed the same: right at 1%. Considering how easy it would be for someone to purchase and keep a download, and then ask for their money back, I thought returns would spike. But they didn't. We offer a 30 day money back guarantee on all products, for any reason or no reason at all. The low return rate tells me people are happy with our products, and the value they receive is more than the money they spent.

Hope this is helpful to you.

Great first post Nigel.

I would add that another physical product advantage is that you can sell them on-site like at trade shows, seminars / bootcamps, etc. Can't really go to club meeting and hold up a URL and convince people it's worth something.

The other thing I'd suggest when it comes to returns is that if you're only getting 1% returns then maybe your price is too low or you're not selling hard enough (to get more people on the fence). Only you would know that info. A test may be a good idea.

I personally like returns to be little higher than that because it tells me I'm pushing hard. Of course if you're in a niche then returns can actually be 0% if done correctly. Here's a tip, let them know everyone in the niche will know they returned it. Shame is powerful.

Cheers