In the same way that we have now established that there are many, many different ways of deciding what the subject matter for your infoproduct should be, there are also lots of ways for finding ‘content’ for it too.

Content is basically the ‘stuff’ that you are going to fill your infoproduct with.

It could be materials that you write yourself, or articles and other written information that you collect together whilst researching.

It could be video or audio materials that you create or find.

Whatever the content that you are going to fill your infoproduct with is, it has to come from somewhere!

This is the question that I am just about to address, and answer for you.

However, because the majority of this article is primarily concerned with working online, let me just give you one small hint or reminder before moving on.

Offline Content Research

Believe it or not, not all of the information in the world is available online. Indeed, given the sheer weight and depth of learning and education over the centuries, it is almost certain that there will never come a time when everything is available online.

So, there are thousands and thousands of content research materials that you can access offline, if you are willing to take the time and trouble to do so.

For example, old-fashioned libraries, those big buildings filled with books that less and less people seem to frequent nowadays, are absolute treasure stores of priceless information.

Even magazines and daily newspapers sometimes carry stories and articles that you can use in any infoproduct that you might be creating.

Now, a valid question here might be, given that there is so much available online, why should I bother looking any further?

And the answer is, because no-one else is doing so!

What is available online generally only skims the depths of the knowledge that is widely and freely available in the real world.

Thus, by using offline resources as well, you are giving yourself a significantly higher chance of producing an infoproduct of significantly higher quality, something that is perhaps even genuinely unique.

So, if you have the time and/or the inclination, there is a huge world of content out there that you simply cannot access from your computer.

Online Content Searching

There are literally dozens of ways that you can search all over the internet for content materials for your infoproduct.

Here are a few of the key places that you should be looking:

Search Engines – Armed with your keywords, you can start by heading over to the big search engines like Google, to see what a key word related search will turn up.

Depending on exactly what key word or phrase you are using, such a ‘broad’ search will often generate millions of results, which might not always be that helpful.

There are a couple of things that you can do that should help to filter some of these extraneous results out, so that what is left is perhaps going to be more helpful to you.

Firstly, if you are using a two or perhaps even three word key phrase as the basis of your search, add quotation marks to the phrase before you search it.

So, if I were searching on the phrase hot cross buns, I would type in “hot cross buns”.

This would return an ‘exact phrase’ match, and any search results that only matched one or two words would be filtered.

Perhaps you have some other search requirements that are dictated by the product that you plan to create.

Maybe, for example, your product will only be marketable in the USA, and therefore, it might make sense that all of the content was derived from US sources too.

In that case, use the ‘Advanced Search’ feature of the Google search engine (you will find something very similar at Yahoo, MSN and all other search engines too).

Another trick that you can use when searching Google is adding the search string phrase “allinurl:” before your search term.

So, again, using this search string with the phrase hot cross buns, I would type as follows:

This action reduces a total of 742000 Google searches down to an infinitely more manageable 1740, all of which are supertargeted to exactly what I am looking for.

Article Directories – There are hundreds of article directory sites, places where authors will submit their works for publication as a way of generating visitors and back links for their websites. These directories are therefore great places to find lots of source articles with which to work. The two that are best known and most widely used are EzineArticles and GoArticles.

There are essentially two options that you have open to you working with the materials that you find on these sites.

The first option is that you can download the articles as they are and use them as-is, but if you do so, you must include the original authors resource box (that is, the box at the foot of the article that contains their personal information and website address).

If you do not do so, than that’s called plagiarism, and a very serious breach of internet marketing protocol, if not actually against the law!

Option two is that you collect together a bunch of these articles, read them through a few times and then re-write them in your own words. This way, you do not include anyone else’s details in your infoproduct (which just invites people to leave!) and the content is yours, written in your own words.

For me, there can be little doubt that, if you have the time and the ability, option two is always the best way to go.

Ezine or Newsletter Directories – Like article directories, many people submit their written works to ezine and newsletter publishers, so that they can include them in the next edition of their journal that they email out to their list members.

Video Sites – If possible, do not focus your research efforts entirely upon the written word. That is what most other internet marketers who are searching for content are going to do too, so try to think a little bit differently, if possible

For example, the leading video sites like YouTube and Google Video are rich sources of ideas, although they may not actually provide content materials that you can ‘lift’ directly, as article and ezine directories might.

Use these ideas to spin off your own content materials, whether you choose to create written materials or decide to be a little more adventurous by making your own videos

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