Information, Information…

It’s old hat to say it, but since this ebook is about one means of using the power of information, I need to say it anyway – we live in an information age! The information age has been loosely defined as beginning when the movement of information became faster than physical movement. Of course, although the telephone and telegraph signaled the end of the industrial age, it wasn’t until the last 20 or so years of the 20th century that the ability to store, move and process vast amounts of information began to assume the importance we know today.

It’s not what you know…

The explosion of the information age has rendered obsolete the old saying, “It’s now what you know, but who you know.” Now it is more correct to say, “It’s not what you know, but whether you know how to get the information you need.” After all, the human brain can only hold so much information. The information age hasn’t expanded that capability of the mind to absorb facts or to use the facts and figures it holds. Instead, the information age could be considered to be about three things:

1. Knowing where to go to get the information you need
2. Possessing the skills to access the information
3. Knowing how to use information in your personal and business life

Beside the fact that knowing how to access and use information sources is becoming increasingly important to most jobs, people are willing to pay for good money to get the information they need and want. Entire companies are built around simply handling, massaging and delivering information.

Example number one…

If there was any question whether information knowledge and skills is valuable, look at the case of Google. Coming literally out of nowhere, within a few years Google has become a corporate giant, purely based on the ability to search and distribute information. The number of different types of information that Google has spread its business into is staggering. (One small example - the free Google Desktop search utility puts Microsoft’s built-in search function thoroughly to shame when it comes to looking for something on your computer. I wouldn’t be without it!) It makes you wonder why no one else thought of doing all these things before. But

Google should be an inspiration to all of us. They have simply grasped the vast potential of information and its uses and applied it with more thoroughness and ingenuity than anyone before them. They may have started with the simple idea of performing Internet searches in a new and more efficient way, but they now see themselves as information manipulators, and their horizon appears endless.

But I’m no Google, you are saying. No, but you don’t have to be a Google to be able to profit handsomely from savvy use of information. As we will see, there is a vast array of information available at not cost, just waiting for you to use as an ingredient in a product. What that product is depends on your own creativity and ingenuity (remember Google?).

Found on the Sidewalk

Perhaps you don’t appreciate it yet, but the most exciting thing about public domain content is that you have at your fingertips information that you don’t need to pay someone else for. What company do you know of that gets its raw materials at no cost? Other than the blood bank, where most of its blood is donated, I don’t know of any. It’s somewhat like finding money on the sidewalk. You don’t have to pick it up, but why wouldn’t you?

It helps your appreciation for the value of public domain content if you have had to pay to get good, original material written. Sure, you can get junk written for very little cost, but you will find what you paid for it being reflected in what people will pay you for it! Some information products may sell for a while simply on the basis of clever marketing, but if you want a product to continue to produce sales for years to come, you will want to build good content into your product, and that will cost you some money. If you have an excellent, innovative idea that you are confident will sell well, it may be worth it to pay a good writer to create your information product. But we want to show you how you can find and profitably use information that will cost you nothing.

Put Your Money Elsewhere…

A big secondary benefit of getting your free public domain information is that you can use what you might have spent for the basic content in an effective marketing campaign. As we noted earlier, poor content can only take you so far, despite the best marketing. That’s because the word gets around. This applies to some degree both positively and negatively. But in general, poor information products die without a lot of fanfare. Good information products that are found valuable by their purchasers, on the other hand, will produce positive recommendations and burgeoning sales. That’s the best marketing tactic in the world – creating a good, valuable product in the first place. But generally, it costs something to get the word out to interested buyers in the first place, even if your offering subsequently goes ballistic simply from word of mouth. The good news is that you haven’t blown a wad on getting the product, leaving nothing to promote it.

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