The Irony of Information Overload

When it comes to Internet marketing, there are a number of woeful ironies. None is worse than the irony of informational overload.

Whenever someone asks for advice from seasoned Internet marketers, they will almost always get a reply that goes something like this “first, develop an information base through self-education; then, take action and continue to stay abreast with new developments.”

Digital Media Marketing

This is excellent advice, but unfortunately, many people fail in the self-education phase. They attempt to take in too much too fast – and are unable to analyze any of it well enough to actually put it into practice.

This is also apparent in non-IM niches. Many people who simply receive too many information products will often stop reading them altogether. Even though they could benefit greatly from the information, they have developed a negative connotation that prevents them from considering it.

This is important to keep in mind when attempting up-sales or building a membership site. If your primary audience is people actually reading the products (not selling them), then you need to make sure that you don't include too much information or too many products. The end result will be ironic if you do: members will download everything available (which they already perceived to be too much) and then they'll unsubscribe because they simply have no use for more layers of information.

One way in which you can work around information overload is to offer “levels” of membership. This means that someone can cut the price of membership by simply receiving one e-book per month. Similarly, someone else, who has decided to resell your products, can increase his membership to receive 10 e-books per month. This maximizes your revenue, prevents information overload – and subsequently decreases your rate of attrition.

Always keep the customer or subscriber in mind. If you're marketing to the wrong audience, you may end up dishing out a serious information overload to unsuspecting subscribers. The end result will be a major and unnecessary loss in revenues.