2003-05-10
Sating a need for info

Ian Gillespie, Free Press News Columnist

The good news, says the woman, is we've got lots of options if we lose our job. The bad news is after we hear about those options, our brains will be buzzing so fast we won't be able to sleep tonight.

Or maybe that's good news, too.

Because according to Sarnia native Barbara Keddy, there's a bold new world out there, just itching to be tapped. And almost everyone, she says, is a faucet of knowledge that simply needs to be turned on and directed.

"I believe a whole new career is being born," says Keddy. "And that is what I call being an 'info-preneur.'"

Keddy should know what she's talking about.

After growing up in Sarnia and graduating from the journalism program at the University of Western Ontario, she worked with the Globe and Mail and CBC-TV's The National. And after moving to the United States, Keddy toiled as news director with Quantum Computer Services, a company that was the predecessor of America Online.

After stepping back from her career to raise her son, Keddy found she still had an abiding passion for information. She decided to couple it with the burgeoning commercialization of the Internet and get into the business of selling information online.

"People today are turning to the Internet in droves," says Keddy. "Millions of people every day are surfing the Internet, looking for information. And even though the information could, quite frankly, be found readily at the library or at other places for free, if it is packaged and conveniently available on the Internet, people will pay $20, $50, $100 or $500 to obtain the information and instantly download it.

"This is a very big market that I think is going to grow in importance."

Keddy admits that with pornography and hate sites, the Internet has its dark side. But she says there's a light side, too.

"Now that things have settled down, it's become apparent that the Internet is still a place where people turn to find information," she says.

"The big 'ah, ha!' is that people will pay for the information they're searching for."

The main reason people will pay, she says, is that we're suffering from "time famine." The food industry is dominated by fast food because people don't have time to regularly shop and prepare a meal. And the same rules, she says, apply to the information industry.

"If I'm able to pull together an information piece that delivers the how-to information someone is looking for at a very reasonable price that's instantly deliverable, people will buy it," says Keddy.

Keddy cites www.clickbank.com as proof. The Web site offers more than 10,000 downloadable products, including golf lessons, boxing tips, hypnosis lessons, recipes, diets, marriage counseling sessions, strategies for caring for individuals with Alzheimer's and tips on buying a used RV.

"There's almost nothing you couldn't package and sell on the Internet once you know how to do it," says Keddy. "Although it does take skill and it does take a tremendous understanding of marketing and sales. This isn't for the faint of heart."

That's where Keddy comes in. With her business, Be Great! Marketing, Keddy says she can help people turn their knowledge into cash.

"I believe that everybody has, inside of them right now, information about a product or a service or a hobby or a skill that can be packaged and sold on the Internet," she says.

She says people just have to play detective and ask themselves what it is they know -- and that others will pay to learn. A retired couple, for instance, might know a lot about caring for grandchildren. A motorcyclist might know many scenic routes in his area.

"There's literally an insatiable thirst for solid information," she says.

So go ahead. Think hard about what you know. And then sleep on it -- if you can.

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