"Infopreneurship": roots, evolution, and revolution.

Lahm, Robert J., Jr. ; Stowe, Charles R.B.

INTRODUCTION

Harold F. Weitzen registered a trademark for "Infopreneur" (H. Weitzen, 1984), indicating its first use in commerce was as of January 31, 1984. According to the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) Trademark Electronic Search System's (TESS) records, the business endeavor with which such usage was attributed was "newsletters dealing with computerized information processing." A definition given in Wikipedia defines an infopreneur as one who is "generally considered an entrepreneur who makes money selling information on the Internet" ("Infopreneur," 2010a). However, the authors of this paper propose a broader definition--not restricted to the use of the Internet--might better reflect the entirety of the construct, acknowledging fully its roots, evolution, and a more recent revolution in "infopreneurship" as it has been further enabled by technological developments. For instance, BusinessDictionary.com, with attribution to Weitzen (H. S. Weitzen & Genda, 1991), suggested a description as follows:

Information entrepreneur. Business person who collects information from several sources, and combines it into novel ways to serve the readers' needs. The term is a registered trademark belonging to H. Skip Weitzen (author of the book 'Infopreneur') who describes an infopreneur as "a person who gathers, organizes, and disseminates information as a business venture or as a value-added service." ("Infopreneur," 2010b)

Prior to the rise of the Internet, infopreneurship--though not named as such in those times--was practiced by individuals who used different mediums to carry the information they packaged into products such as printed reports, typically delivered by U.S. mail. The reputation of the business of "mail order" generally, has often been less than sterling. Further, mail order may be seen as a means of marketing and delivery. We differentiate delivery from the products themselves, which include all manner of goods and services (such as from retail catalog merchants). The National Mail Order Association's (NMOA) Website offers a museum page, with a link to a sales letter that was originally published in the November, 1941 issue of Mail Order Journal. Paul Muchnick, the organization's founder observed: "For a long time mail selling has been associated with all kinds of unethical, shady and plainly dishonest practices. Not for unjustified reasons did the expression 'Oh, that's some kind of mail order racket!' originate and flourish as a by-word among mail order buyers of all kinds" (Muchnick, 1941).

In short, prior to the advent of the Internet, which has revolutionized the information products industry, infopreneurs "sold their information in other mediums such as audio tapes, audio CDs, CD-ROMs, videos, talk shows, and conferences" ("Infopreneur," 2010a) and mail order was a primary means of delivery for physical goods distribution. We also find it intriguing that if one accepts the definition cited above for information entrepreneurship, that one so engaged is "a person who gathers, organizes, and disseminates information ... as a value-added service [emphasis added]," then it also holds that such a process bears a striking resemblance to numerous instructional programs delivered in academic venues (starting with earlier correspondence courses and in present-day form this would apply to numerous online training and education programs). During the era of the Internet, proprietary, for-profit institutions have aggressively used the Internet both for promoting and delivery educational courses, programs and even accredited academic degrees.

The Internet (Bender, 2006; "Nearly Half of Americans Are Frequent Internet Users," 2009) has fundamentally changed the business of infopreneurship. Physical goods, such as printed reports, manuals, CD's and videos are increasingly being replaced by digital downloads and other Web-based products. In other arenas, such as the music industry, the same evolutionary path--replacing physical goods with downloads--has resulted in a similar, profound shift (Fox, 2004). Finally, the emergence of the "entrepreneurial blogosphere" (Lahm, 2006) has hastened the rate of acceleration relative to changes in the information products industry (Chandler, 2006; Chew, 2006; Vengadasalam; H. S. Weitzen & Genda, 1991) at large.

REVIEW OF EXISTING LITERATURE ON INFOPRENEURSHIP

We have conducted a series of searches in the academic literature which revealed that scholarly study of "infopreneurship" (and key word variants, such as "infopreneur") as a variable under study in entrepreneurial research has been minimal to none. We conducted a search of peer-reviewed journals using databases which included ProQuest's ABI/INFORM, and Business Source Premier. None of those engines produced any scholarly articles from the keyword "infopreneurship."

The search engine Academic Search Premier revealed one result in a journal that is oriented toward the academic discipline of librarianship. In subsequent searches, we observed a few instances in which the discipline of librarianship advocated that library practitioners and researchers should be familiar with the entrepreneurial aspects of information. We found one dissertation discussing the "ethical questions which apply to the "professional actions of the information professional" (Britz, 1997), including librarians. J-STOR provided one hit, a librarianship article written with Britz as a co-author, and we noted this individual's previous association with the aforementioned dissertation.

Given the paucity of search results overall and especially those lacking in the entrepreneurship discipline with which we as researchers are primarily concerned, we found the that the inclusion of infopreneurship in the literature of librarianship--while at the same time the term lacked acknowledgement in the literature of entrepreneurship--was ironic (although we acknowledge satisfaction in uncovering an area that merited further investigation in our primary discipline). For example, an article entitled "Survival Strategies for Health Information Professionals (HIP) in Nigeria'" in the Journal of Hospital Librarianship observed:

There is no limit on the type of information that could be sold. It could be a story or information to assist someone to succeed in business or a favourite cake recipe of a friend's wife. Infopreneurship can be undertaken on-line or off-line. The difference between them is in the format of delivery of the information products. Online transactions involve delivery of products electronically such as software, e-books, video files and audio files while in offline, only printed materials or real objects are involved. (Oduwole & Onatola, 2008)

We further expanded our search to LexisNexis Academic and found a smattering of search results (only nine); three of these were book reviews for Weitzen's (now 14 year-old book), Infopreneurs: Online and Global (H. S. Weitzen & Parkhill, 1996). One of the nine was a 1988 article that had appeared in The Washington Post, which although quite old was at least relevant to our search efforts regarding the history of infopreneurs. That Post article was entitled, "Informational Entrepreneurship." Again Weitzen's name appeared (in the article) as the man who had "coined" the word "infopreneur" and was about to release his book one month hence from the time the article was published (Oldenburg, 1988). The electronic search engine Communication & Mass Media Complete resulted in no hits.

After demonstrating a dearth of scholarly research on infopreneurship regardless of discipline, we found that the preponderance of results from our broader searches appeared to be typically associated with aspects of mainstream publishing. However, the mainstream publishing industry and studies about that industry revealed to us an apparent disconnect between entrepreneurial information selling (infopreneurship) and traditional publishing. We would cite eBooks as an example. Numerous readers are being marketing, and mainstream publishers and booksellers are acknowledging a substantial growth trend and adoption rate (Agnese, 2010a; "Epublishing, ecommerce emerge," 2000); yet, the thousands of Websites on the Internet operated by sole entrepreneur-infopreneurs do not seem to be factored into industry studies (and it may understandably be difficult to do so). In effect, as suggested by the following passage, infopreneurs seem to be "flying under the radar" of the mainstream publishing industry:

Some people produce information products as a primary or secondary source of revenue for their business or themselves as individuals. Others use it as a complimentary offering that in some way adds value to their core offerings. Others use information products as marketing tools that serves to generate interest in their company or products and services. Still others create information products to increase their own personal visibility and credibility. ("Breakthrough Infopreneurship," 2006)

Subsequent search results derived from the use of Internet search engines revealed to us that while entrepreneurship scholars have not as yet acknowledged infopreneurship, there is indeed a large practitioner-based industry, albeit one that is ill-defined through formal research. Finally, the breadth of uses outlined in the quoted passage above suggests significant efforts to unraveling the topic of infopreneurship will be required of us and on the part of future researchers, thereby establishing a need for this present exploratory paper and our primary methodology: a broad review of activity in the practitioner community.

INFOPRENEURSHIP AS A PUBLISHING PLATFORM

Because infopreneurship is based on creating (or aggregating) a body of content, it also has interesting implications relative to traditional publishing (Gilliam & Benton, 2006; Radosh, 2004). The use of the Internet as a primary means for promoting, transaction processing, and delivery of digital and physical goods has changed the landscape of information entrepreneurship, and the traditional book publishing industry has been seriously impacted by infopreneurs.

For example, Gettman, a former speechwriter, Montessori school director and technology consultant was appalled by the costs of traditional publishing, according to an article in Forbes magazine (Morais & Post, 1998). Gettman teamed up in 1995 with Christopher Macann, a philosophy professor at the University of Bordeaux to form On Line Originals. Their business model was designed to avoid the costs of traditional publishers by mitigating printing costs, inventory costs, and what they viewed as outlandish advances. Funded with approximately $10,000, mostly for computer equipment, the pair enlisted a graphics designer and set about publishing virtual books by quality writers who may have been rejected by the mainstream houses. By offering authors 50% royalty on a $7 download price of their inventory, they were able to secure lots of manuscripts from authors whose works had been rejected by conventional publishers. This business model has been replicated by hundreds if not thousands of online publishers ("Online Publishers' Association," 2010). The impact of these infopreneurs has also had a disruptive impact on mainstream publishers by slicing through the traditional publication industry processes that have involved agents, publishers, distribution channels, and retailers (Agnese, 2010c; Brynko, 2005; "The International Conference on Information and Infopreneurship," 2007).

Entrepreneurial firms like Lulu.com have emerged to serve authors who want to be published. In March 2010, Lulu.com issued a prospectus related to their Initial Public Offering revealing that the number of units sold over the past three years rose 47% to 2.6 million (of which 2.3 million were printed books). The company generates its revenue from charging authors for its fees and services ($100 to $16,000 per title), plus it takes a percentage as commission for each title sold. Since its inception, Lulu has had more than one million titles for sale on its site and adds 20,000 titles per month (Milliot, 2010; O'Hara, 2008). Other major online publishers include Cafepress.com, Xlibris.com, Author House and iUniverse.

The impact of the Internet has touched the traditional textbook publishers (Agnese, 2010b). Cengage, McGraw Hill, and Pearson are the three largest university textbook publishers, and they now offer Websites to enhance their hardback textbooks. They also offer students the opportunity to either access an eBook or purchase access to specific chapters. This is in addition to restricted access sites supporting particular texts with ancillaries (videos, quiz and test sites, and additional materials). The editorial costs of developing a textbook plus the costs of a variety of supplements for both student and instructor use, typically require a substantial investment in up-front capital (Agnese, 2010b). Some colleges have used self-publishing to stimulate students into writing. Champlain College offers a course that requires students to publish their efforts on Lulu.com. (Spain, 2010)

The changes in the publishing industry are the subject of Tim O'Reilly's Tools of Change Conference held annually in New York (Paxhia, 2009). The conference features change agents like the president of Lulu.com and technology companies displaying the latest in print on demand (POD) technology. At the most recent conference, Jason Epstein displayed his company's Expresso Book Machine which is capable of operating at 20 pages per minute at a cost of $.0l per page. Xerox Corporation offers larger publishers its "Book Factory," which combines a high speed copy machine with a bindery to produce perfect-bound books ("Xerox Docu-printers," 2010).

It was not until fairly recently that conventional bookstores started carrying music along with some inventory of movies. However, Amazon.com, AllRomanceEBooks.com and their related OmniLit.com (and many other purveyors of "knowledge" products) routinely offer their customers traditional printed books, videos, and music which may be delivered or downloaded directly to the customer's computer.

SELLING "SHOVELS TO PROSPECTORS"

Just as in the days of the California Gold Rush, there are some Web-based entrepreneurs who seek their fortunes by selling information that they have created (which address a virtually endless range of subjects). However, there is also a group which makes their fortunes through "selling the shovels to prospectors" by concentrating their efforts on a plethora of "how to make money on the Internet" products (Chandler, 2006; Dawes, 2004). Both groups serve their audiences by utilizing the Internet as their platform for marketing, for displaying their products or services, taking orders and for delivering through downloads e-books, pamphlets or videos.

For some infopreneurs, their business involves creating their own content and reselling those products, while others use a different model: that of creating a Website with the explicit hope that their readers will "click" on advertisements and make a purchase which results in a commission. The concept of earning a commission from a visitor to a blog or Website is referred to as "passive" income. Those who market "how to make money on the Internet products" actively promote their informational products as answering the question of how to earn "around the-clock" (MacMillan, 2008).

These infopreneurs promote the concept that the Internet being open 24-7-365 on a global basis provides an opportunity to develop a site that becomes a revenue generator while you sleep. The open-for-business-24-hours feature of the Internet has its advantages for the vendors whose stores are open to a global market and have no issues related to time zones. However, there is another side of this reality for bloggers who feel compelled to frequently monitor and update their sites. Some commentators have described the Internet as having created a new sweatshop: home (Richtel, 2008).

An example of an entrepreneurial firm that fits the infopreneurship description is AllRomanceEBooks.com, which has grown from 2,000 titles to 3,000 from their start in 2006 to 2009. Barb Perfetti and Lori James started a second site called OmniLit.com. Unlike stores that have walls separating them, the two digital entrepreneurs allow customers to shop at both sites with one shopping cart (Reid, 2009).

OPPORTUNITY AND DISRUPTION DUE TO DIGITAL DELIVERY TECHNOLOGIES

The Internet and the ability to download music have proven to be a major disrupter for the music industry. Some musicians are now creating their own music and posting it on the Internet for sale thereby completely stepping away from the standard music industry of agents, distributors and retailers (Fox, 2004). Similarly, some authors are creating novels, how-to instruction eBooks, audio and video productions, as well as other works of non-fiction to sell exclusively through the Internet. Amazon.com accommodates these self-published authors by offering to sell their products via their own personalized Associates Store on the Web.

The impact of these infopreneurs has also had a disruptive impact by slicing through the traditional publication industry that involves agents, publishers, distribution channels, and retailers. To accommodate these authors, entrepreneurial firms like Lulu.com have emerged to serve authors who want to be published.

However, substantial new businesses have arisen to facilitate the exchange of digital goods. One of the earliest is Clickbank.com. Facilitated by Clickbank's exchange marketplace, authors provide digital goods, sample sales copy (or a site to which end-user purchases should be directed) using special links provided by Clickbank. They may also set an affiliate commission rate paid to other Clickbank users who might (re)sell their products. When a transaction occurs, Clickbank processes the sale, takes its fee, and divides the author's portion and the selling affiliate's portion accordingly. There is even an organization devoted to on line publishers founded in 2001 called the Online Publishers Association ("The Story of Blogger," 2010).

INFOPRENEURSHIP: A TOOL FOR BOOTSTRAPPING

The business of infopreneurship has a number of appealing benefits. Relative to product development, the use of information products is an extremely inexpensive (Chandler, 2006; H. S. Weitzen & Genda, 1991). Individuals who may possess acquired knowledge (perhaps in pursuit of a serious hobby), expertise on any subject, or posses research skills (Dawes, 2004) may easily create new information products from scratch. "The classification of infopreneur has created a new style of business on the Internet, which allows anybody with a computer and an Internet connection to start a businesses [sic] by publishing information that may appeal to a specific market" ("Infopreneur," 2010a).

Beyond this and relative to distribution, one of the interesting features of the Internet as a distribution platform for information products is its relatively low cost barriers (Lahm, 2006). Domain names are available for less than $10 a year, Internet connections are available for less than $30 a month, hosting is less than $5 a month, and computer systems are available for a few hundred dollars (not to mention that bloggers have used public computers to create and run Websites).

Once a prospective buyer has arrived at a site, there are numerous strategies for monetizing the site. One is to use Google's AdSense, which gives Google permission to automatically post advertisements based on the reader's interest. If the viewer decides to click on the advertisement (either a textual link or a graphic), the owner of that Website earns a small commission on sales (or a click fee). Dozens of other matchmaking services have arisen (as an entire industry) to couple those who have Websites (publishers) with those who have advertising messages which they would like to have displayed on the publishers' sites.

A more sophisticated approach is to build a mailing list with potential customers by promoting "opting-in" to give their permission to receive future emails. Should the receiver later wish to "opt-out," he or she may do so using a special link in emails that are sent ("FTC: Consumers Receiving Less Spam," 2006). Another approach to building an email subscriber list involves using a banner advertisement or other special effect. As an example, an offer of something "free" might be presented with a pop-up (or pop-under) panel dimming the user's screen until a response is given. The prospect is thereby invited to submit his or her email address in exchange for the free offer. Once the viewer either dismisses the panel or accepts the sign-up form for future emails, his or her screen comes back to life.

The underlying strategy is to offer enough "free" information or other benefits to build trust and entice the reader to want more, and to eventually make a purchase. The infopreneur's next step is to devise emails with interesting topics and persuasive text full of enticing language; newer Website approaches may use audio introductions or short video advertisements with testimonials to induce the viewer to make a purchase.

Other strategies include offering RSS feeds to viewers. Atom and RSS are created using the XML (Extensible Markup Language) data format for publishing information feeds. The blogger or electronic vendor uses this tool to tip-off readers when new content is available. Since RSS is a built-in feature of widely established blogging software platforms (such as WordPress), blogs, news channels, auctions, and Podcasts use RSS feeds to maintain contact with their subscribers or readers (Tebbutt, 2007). From a commercial standpoint, the RSS feeds are yet another means of maintaining presence in front of a target market.

Hence, infopreneurship, as a business, is suitable for bootstrappers (Hyatt & Mamis, 1997; Lahm, 2005; Worrell, 2002), as it represents technologically leveraged, yet low cost startup opportunity "to individuals who have little or no collateral, little or no cash, little or no entrepreneurial experience, little or no training, and little or no choice but to pursue an entrepreneurial dream without the benefit of resources which would ordinarily be nice to have" (Lahm, 2005).

THE COMMON CHALLENGE: MARKETING

There is one common challenge facing those who aspire to profit with information products--over the Internet or otherwise--and that is marketing. Simply building a Website is not enough. The World Wide Web has literally billions of Web pages. The problem for infopreneurs is how to get individuals or businesses to visit their Web site (Lahm, 2007; Levinson, 2005).

In the early days of the Web, infopreneurs and other vendors would use programs to randomly create emails or they would try to purchase email lists from either legitimate compilers (or from hackers). However, the passage of the CAN-SPAM Act was an attempt to trim down the use of unsolicited emails by Internet marketers. While there is some dispute as to its effectiveness (Blackshaw & Nazzaro, 2004), the penalties and exposure to civil litigation has definitely discouraged legitimate firms from the use of unsolicited spam mail. Some critics argue that the CAN-SPAM Act is still not satisfactory (Arora, 2006; Grimes, 2007; Soma, Singer, & Hurd, 2008). "First, because the Act is limited to commercial spam, it allows other types of spam, including political spam, to invade recipients' privacy interests. Second, the Act does not reduce the amount of spam to a sufficient degree" (Fleming, 2005). Despite criticism about a lack of effectiveness, according to a report issued by the Federal Trade Commission, the law and its enforcement efforts have seriously reduced the amount of spam (Bender, 2006).

None the less, the issue of how to get traffic to a site is absolutely critical to building a successful Web-based company. The competition for placement on search engines is intense. Using conventional advertising to promote a Website is well above most infopreneurs' financial resources.

Given the predominance of the use of search engines such as Google.com, Yahoo.com, Ask.com and others, the current strategy for marketing has been to optimize search engine positions. The term search engine optimization (SEO) describes one of the techniques that infopreneurs can use to acquire viewers or prospective customers. How to achieve a "high" position on a search is the subject of many Websites and informational products aimed at prospective infopreneurs ("Major Search Engines and Directories," 2007).

CONCLUSION

As this paper suggests, "infopreneurship" is especially relevant to those whose disciplines may include entrepreneurship (and entrepreneurial marketing). Most compelling to information entrepreneurship practitioners perhaps, is the fact that products typically consist of aggregated information or are developed based upon a creator's own familiarity with a subject matter, for little or no cost. Infopreneurs also have a variety business models that allow them to acquire written material from authors for virtually no upfront costs, and the Internet provides a world wide 24-7-365 marketplace with very low barriers for entry. The present generation of infopreneurs has caused a serious disruptive impact on the music, publishing, advertising and film industries, while also being associated with new businesses such as advertiser and Web-publisher intermediaries.

To be successful, infopreneurs must keep abreast of constant innovations in both hardware and software (or outsource, which many tend to do). New hardware such as the development of smart phones (Barbierri, 2010; "Smartphone Futures," 2010) and new eBook readers (Hane, 2009) provides additional platforms for transferring information. However, changing technologies also require continuous evolution of business models and strategic adjustments to satisfy an insatiable demand for information and entertainment. New software that creates social media sites, new marketing techniques and an ever expanding market bode well for merchants of information who are able to analyze the landscape for opportunities.

Not only has the Internet invigorated this new class of infopreneurs, but it has also empowered individuals to challenge traditional mass media as sources of news, information, and opinions. Blogging has democratized mass media by empowering the public at large to serve as news gatherer-reporters, analysts, and critics, while a revolution in the information products industry is having ripple-effects in the shadow of the mainstream publishing, music and film industries. Given the vibrancy of activity in the practical community, infopreneurship has emerged as an important subset of entrepreneurship.

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Robert J. Lahm, Jr., Western Carolina University

Charles R. B. Stowe, Lander University