Here’s a way to get a valuable product in exchange for just a little bit of your time: Interview an expert and sell the text, audio or video product! Or better yet, you can create a series of interviews with experts that you can sell as a home study course (therefore commanding anywhere from $50 to $500 for the finished product).
Tip: You can do this with online experts, offline experts… or both!
If you’re interviewing someone locally, just get yourself a digital voice recorder and meet the person for about an hour. If you’re doing it with someone who doesn’t live near you, you can record your telephone conversation using recording equipment you pick up at an electronics store. Otherwise, use a service like e-teleconferencing.com, which records the calls and sends you a downloadable MP3 file.
If you have a voice recording, you can edit it using Audacity, which is a free audio-editing software. Ideally, you should also hire a transcriptionist (try elance.com) to turn your audio interview into a text product. That way you can offer the audio product, the transcripts or both to your customers.
Let me give you a few examples of experts you can interview and the types of products you can create:
- Interview your local veterinarian about how to keep your dog healthy and happy, including basic “maintenance” such as cleaning the ears, trimming the toe nails and inspecting the dog for fleas, ticks or other harmful pests.
- Interview a home improvement expert on video – and include demonstrations – to show how to do simple projects like retiling a floor.
- Interview a car dealer (or former car dealer) to reveal “secrets your car dealer doesn’t want you to know.” This interview would teach listeners how to save money on their next car deal by avoiding unnecessary fees and negotiating with the dealer.
As mentioned, you can also interview a series of experts to create a larger product (with a higher perceived value).
There are two ways to do this:
1. Ask experts with different areas of expertise to do an interview (or write an article) on that specific area of expertise.
Example #1: Let’s say you’re creating an online marketing product about traffic-generation. You could interview one person about pay per click marketing, interview another person about attracting affiliates and joint venture partners, interview still another person about search engine optimization… and so on.
Example #2: Let’s say you’re creating a product about training a dog. You could interview one dog expert on how to teach a dog to sit, ask another expert about teaching a dog not to jump on people and ask still another expert how to reduce separation anxiety.
Example #3: You’re creating a product about how to save for retirement. You could interview one expert about creating a budget, interview another expert about reducing debt and interview still another expert about how to invest money.
Bottom line: When you’re finished with your interviews, you’ll have a complete course with different “chapters” on related topics.
2. The second way to create a product with multiple experts is to choose experts who have slightly different viewpoints and ask them the SAME question.
Example #1: Let’s suppose you’re creating a weight-loss product. You could ask ONE question, such as, “What’s the quickest yet safest way to lose ten pounds?” Then you could recruit a variety of experts to answer the question, such as a bodybuilder, a low-carb expert, a nutritionist, an herbalist and so on.
Example #2: Another example: You’re creating a product about online marketing. You could ask a dozen or so online marketers the best way for a beginning marketer to get started online with a $100 budget.
Example #3: Final example: You’re creating a product about easing back pain. You could ask a series of experts the best way to take care of a sore back. Your experts might include a chiropractor, an acupuncturist, a doctor, a physical therapist and similar professionals.
Here are a few tips to help you land these interviews:
Keep it short and easy. Most experts will happily agree to the interview, provided you don’t take too much of their time. As such, make sure that your interview lasts from 30 to 45 minutes, one hour tops.
- Answer “WIIFM.” Most people you talk to will be flattered by your request for an interview. Nonetheless, you need to answer the question, “what’s in it for me?” In most cases, you’re offering your interviewee exposure and publicity. That means you should let your guest expert pitch his or her products and services at the end of the interview.
- Prepare your guest. If you’re doing an audio interview, you should give your guest some indication of what types of questions you’ll ask. You don’t want to create a “scripted” interview (as that will sound unnatural). However, your guest will be more relaxed if he at least knows the general topics you might cover.
- Double dip. Finally, the point of doing these interviews is to create a product you can sell. However, if you’re doing an audio interview, then keep in mind that many people in your niche would be happy to pay for live access to a teleseminar. And that means you can sell the live call as well as the recordings!
