Not an Expert? The 5 Best Information Publishing Options That Leverage What You Do Know

"I don't feel right charging more than I already do," my sister told me once. "Ninety percent of what I tell clients is just common sense."

I looked at my sister in amazement. She's a real estate attorney. She graduated from law school, passed the bar exam in two states and had been practicing law for almost 20 years. She'd guided me through the process of buying a house for the first time, which involved many steps unfamiliar to me that were far from common sense.

This incident, which stayed in my mind for a long time, illustrates the degree to which so many of us pooh-pooh what we know. If you think you're not an expert and therefore have nothing to create a product about, my first advice is to take another think. People look for - and pay for - beginner information as much as they do for advanced information.

You Know More Than You Think You Know

Whether you're a dog trainer, a bookkeeper or a caretaker for the elderly, if people have been paying you for a service, you undoubtedly know more than they do. The same is true if you have any sort of hobby, whether it's collecting old recipes, mountain climbing or raising money for your church. You know more than someone who's interested in the hobby and just starting out in it.

Here are five information formats that leverage what you know.

1. How to get started. Many people get overwhelmed when beginning any kind of project or endeavor. What are the first five steps people need to take to train their puppy? What are five things people need to know to find old recipes efficiently?

2. Fundamental do's and don'ts. Undoubtedly you've observed clients or other people doing what you do completely wrongly. Imagine having to train a stand-in for yourself, someone clueless who would have to take over when your back was turned. What are the most basic warnings and guidelines you can pass along to that person? You might end up with Twenty Things Never to Do When Asking Church Members for Money or Before You Start Mountain Climbing: The Top 7 Safety Do's and Don'ts.

3. How to purchase a certain product or service. This might involve tips on how best to hire someone who does what you do or advice on how to equip oneself for a hobby. Inject some emotion into your title, and you have a winner of an information product, such as How to Hire an Honest Bookkeeper, How to Find a Home Health Aide Who Has Your Senior Family Member's Best Interest at Heart or Buying the Seven Essential Safety Tools for Mountain Climbing.

4. Steps for solving a common problem. Here the value in what you know is the sequence of steps to take. If people do things in the wrong order, chaos results - or worse. For example, they need to define the church fundraising goal in motivational terms before they make a single phone call. Your information product could provide a recommended timeline for easy reference, with all the steps in the proper order.

5. Quality checklist. You may already have some sort of checklist on hand, something you created for your own use or compiled from a zillion different sources. This could be helpful for your peers or for customers. When I looked up "caregiver checklist" on Google, I found products ranging in price from $14.95 to $199. Take your basic checklist, explain each item on it, and voila, you have a product!