Summary: Find out what it means to be an infopreneur, and what information products can do to help you grow your business.

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As an entrepreneur, you may earn your living in any number of ways – most likely selling a service, products, or some combination of the two. Something many entrepreneurs don’t ever consider is becoming an “infopreneur.” Yet becoming an infopreneur can lead to more exposure for the primary business and even more direct income (sometimes even in a relatively passive revenue stream.

What is an Infopreneur?

An infopreneur is someone who sells informational products. This may be their sole business, or something done “on the side” in addition to running a more traditional small business.

What are Informational Products?

So what kinds of things can you do to go from entrepreneur to infopreneur? Here are few common options:

• Write a book.
• Write an e-book.
• Create an informational website (often monetized by ad revenues). This can be a static site set up once, or a regularly-updated blog.
• Offer seminars or webinars (more technically a service, but they still fall under the tools of infopreneurs).
• Offer classes or e-courses.

Why Become an Infopreneur?

1. Any entrepreneur can do it. It’s all about sharing your expertise. Even if you’re uncomfortable with the idea of writing a book or creating another informational product, you can always outsource things to a ghostwriter, programmer, etc. working closely with them.
2. Info products and services lead to exposure. They don’t only get your name out there, but they’re all excellent vehicles for more directly promoting your business. They can lead to more media interviews, and even more customers or clients for your business.
3. Most, if not all, informational products can be monetized directly, giving you an extra income stream. This is optional of course – you may find there’s more marketing value in offering information for free, to build that exposure and generate more business (more true for those selling high-ticket products and services).

Summary: Save time, money, and even the environment by holding virtual meetings with online meeting software or webinar applications.

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Technology can be a wonderful thing for the small business owner, can’t it? It saves us time, allows us to work more productively, and can save us money. It can also help your small business go green.

One type of green business technology used increasingly is virtual meeting or webinar applications. Sure, you could always just pick up a phone or send an email rather than making a physical appointment for a meeting, but sometimes even a conference call just won’t cut it. You may need to do an all-out presentation with more interaction. Online meeting and webinar applications let you do that.

So how do virtual meetings help the environment?

• You’re not driving or flying to get to meetings.
• You can avoid distributing print materials to save paper.
• You don’t end up with waste often associated with face-to-face meetings and conferences (from water to food containers if you order out or have it catered, depending on the type of meeting).

So be a little bit more green the next time a colleague or clients wants to conference with you, and find a way to do it virtually.