All of us have a story within… and it is through your years of experience that you may have a kind of expertise, knowledge or know-how that others may want to know about. These can be information that you may wish to share or it may even be something that may benefit others so that they can learn from what you have gone through. We often share these with our friends, family members or close associates but have you not considered that maybe we can actually convert this information into a format or product that we can sell and make some money from? For example, you may have worked for many years in a certain industry or in certain type of work and have built up your expertise in the area. At work, sometimes you train new colleagues or your protégé, coaching them on the work process, mistakes to avoid, how best to get the work done, etc. There may be others out there in the market place who is keen to leverage from your expertise in the area, or who are keen to engage your services to coach or train them.

What are your potential sources of information
You will be surprised at how or where you can get your sources of information. Ideally these information can be derived from your own learning, work or life experience. Or information  can be gleaned from your own passions, hobbies, interests, or talents. When you have such passion or interest in a subject matter, you tend to collect and compile information on these hobbies or talents of yours, consciously or unconsciously. At times, you may not realise the high pile of information that you have collected over the years, whether physically or mentally. Dig for them and you will be surprised! Your amount of knowledge on these areas can be of great interest to other people with similar interest or passion. 

Even if you do not have the above information to share, you may have heard of some interesting stories, or dreamt of some crazy ideas, or have knowledge of some information that are not available publicly. Remember these may not necessarily be your own information but can be derived from somebody’s expertise, experience or knowledge.

So can you be an infopreneur and make some money from it?
That brings us to how you can make money from using this information. This is what we term as “infopreneurship”. Infopreneurs can be business person who collects information from several sources, and combines it into novel ways to serve the readers’ needs and making some money from it in the process.

According to H. Skip Weitzen (author of the book ‘Infopreneur’), he describes an infopreneur as  “a person who gathers, organizes, and disseminates information as a business venture or as a value-added service.”

So it is basically “information” + entrepreneurs” = infopreneurs; or in simple terms, information marketing.

Will People Buy?
People will want to pay for expert advice. People will want to pay for a good story or idea. People will want to pay for information and knowledge and people want to pay to learn from others. It can all start with a good idea or a core expertise. What do you know that people do not. Even if you do not have a core expertise, if you know what the market needs, you can find the information to feed market needs and fill the gaps. You can look for undermarketed experts and take his or her idea to the market place.
Basically as infopreneur…you need to also put on the “entrepreneur” hat and think what sells! Once you have decided what core information or expertise, or what the market needs…crack the codes! Test and test until you know how and what irresistible baits to use to make the sale. 

I hope to share more information on infopreneurship in my next article….and in the meantime, if you have any comments, experience as infopreneurs or any advice, please do share with us….

Cheers

Shum