Most lists of info product ideas are guesses. Reddit gives you something better: people asking, in their own words, how to do a thing they're stuck on. When the same question shows up again and again, you may have a course, guide or template waiting to be written.
But a repeated question is not a business yet. This article shows how to collect questions, group them, check how often they come up, test whether anyone would pay, and pick the right format before you create anything.
Why repeated questions beat idea lists
An idea list tells you what someone else thinks might sell. A Reddit thread shows you what a real person is stuck on today.
The pattern to look for is simple: the same how-do-I question, asked by different people, in different weeks, in the same kind of community. One post is an anecdote. Ten posts phrased differently, all circling the same task, is a topic.
Info products fit this well because the product is the answer. You are not building software. You are packaging a method, a set of decisions or a reusable file so people skip the trial and error.
Step 1: Collect questions where people are doing the work
General subreddits are noisy. Professional and hobbyist communities, where people are trying to get work done, are better. SaasNiche's own guide to finding ideas on Reddit makes a similar point about professional communities and suggests examples like r/plumbing for plumbers or r/videography for creative tools.
Then search for question-shaped language. The same guide suggests phrases such as:
- "Is there a better way to..."
- "Why is this so hard..."
- "I would pay for..."
Add your own for info products: "how do I," "what's the process for," "does anyone have a template," "where do I start." Those last two are especially useful. Someone asking for a template is telling you the format they want.
Save each thread in a spreadsheet with the link, date, subreddit, the exact wording and how many people replied with "same here."
Step 2: Group questions by the job underneath
People phrase the same problem many ways. "How do I onboard a new hire?" and "Where do I put all our product docs?" can be the same underlying job.
Read your saved threads and write one line for each: what is this person trying to get done? Then cluster the lines. You will usually end up with a handful of clusters and a long tail of one-offs. Ignore the long tail for now.
A good cluster has three traits:
- It is a specific task, not a broad topic ("set up a client intake process," not "business").
- The people asking have something at stake, like time, money, a deadline or a career step.
- The answers in the comments are scattered, partial or contradictory.
Step 3: Check frequency before you trust a thread
Frequency is where most idea hunting falls apart. A single viral complaint feels like demand, but it may be a one-time event.
Run three simple checks:
- Distinct threads. Count how many separate posts ask about the same job, not how many comments one post got.
- Distinct people. Make sure it isn't one person posting in several subreddits.
- Spread over time. Use Reddit search sorted by new, then by top for the year. A question that appears across several months is more likely chronic than a news-driven spike.
If you find a cluster in only one thread, park it. If it appears repeatedly, move on to the next test.
If you'd rather not do this by hand, SaasNiche scores each pain point 0–100 for intensity, frequency and willingness to pay, and shows the verbatim quotes behind the score. The product-manager page, for example, lists a pain point about onboarding new team members that is backed by 4 posts. That is the kind of repeat evidence you want, whether you gather it yourself or not.
Step 4: Look for willingness to pay
Asking a question is free. Paying for an answer is not. Your job is to find signs that the asker would spend money to make the problem go away.
Strong signals:
- They mention paying for a tool, tutorial, freelancer or consultant already.
- They describe hours lost on the task, especially every week or every client.
- A mistake costs them money or credibility.
- They say outright that they would pay.
- They work in a role where the company, not the individual, covers the cost.
Weak signals:
- Students or hobbyists asking out of curiosity.
- Questions where the top comment fully answers it in two lines.
- Threads where people want it free and complain about anything paid.
The second weak signal matters for info products in particular. If a short comment settles the question, nobody needs a course. You are looking for questions where the answer is long, has steps, or depends on judgment.
Also check what already exists. Search for courses, templates and guides on the topic. Competition is not bad news. It can show people already pay. But if every existing option gets the same complaint in the comments, that is your angle.
Step 5: Match the question to a format
The wording of the question usually points to the right product.
Template or toolkit
Choose this when the question is about a recurring task people do over and over. The signals are phrases like "every time," "each client," or "I keep rebuilding this." Examples: a checklist, spreadsheet, document outline or workflow map.
Guide
Choose this for a one-time decision or process with a clear start and finish. "How do I switch to X?" or "What do I need to do before Y?" fits here. A guide can be short and priced low.
Course
Choose this when the person needs to build a skill over time. Signs include "where do I start," a long list of follow-up questions in the thread, or people at different experience levels asking about the same subject. Courses take the most effort, so earn that choice with strong frequency and payment signals.
A useful rule: start with the smallest format that solves the problem. A template can grow into a guide, and a guide can grow into a course. It rarely works the other way around.
Three worked examples
These examples come from threads on SaasNiche's pages. Reddit users posted them, and the info product angles are my own readings, not claims about demand.
Onboarding people into a product
A user on r/ProductManagement wrote: "no single place that tells you how the product works".
The job underneath is explaining a product to new team members. A possible info product is a product onboarding doc template with sections for how the product works, key decisions and glossary. The next step would be to check whether other threads ask for the same thing and whether the askers are managers with budget.
Scattered feature requests
Another user described: "I get feature requests through discord, 2 forums, direct email, conversations, YouTube comments..."
This one is more of a tooling problem, and a software product could be one answer. But an info product could also work: a feature request intake and triage template, plus a short guide on running the process by hand. That is a cheaper test than building an app. If buyers love it and keep asking for automation, you have learned something useful about the software idea too.
A career question with no clear answer
A user asked: "After 10 years working in product management, I don't understand what it takes to become a "successful" PM"
This suggests a guide on career progression. The catch is willingness to pay. Career questions are common, but many askers want free advice, so you would need stronger signals, such as people mentioning coaches or paid programs, before writing anything.
Notice how the three examples differ. The first is a clear template candidate. The second could become a template or software. The third needs more evidence. That sorting is the point of the checks above.
Step 6: Test before you create
Before you write a single page, run a small test.
Talk to the askers. Send a short, polite message to a few people who posted the question. Say what you're exploring, ask about their experience, and don't pitch. Ask what they tried, what it cost and what a good answer would look like. Respect each subreddit's rules about self-promotion and messaging.
Outline in public. Share a one-page outline or sample section in the relevant thread, where the rules allow it, and see who asks for the full version.
Pre-sell or collect emails. A simple landing page with the promise, the format and a price or waitlist tells you more than another week of research. If nobody signs up after the right people see it, rethink the idea.
Use their words. The phrases people use in threads are the phrases that belong in your title and sales page. They already describe the problem better than you can.
A simple scorecard
Here is a rough rubric you can keep in a spreadsheet. It is a working tool, not a formula from any study.
- Frequency: how many distinct threads and people asked in the last several months?
- Pain: is something at stake, like time, money or a deadline?
- Payment: any signal of money already spent or willingly offered?
- Gap: are the existing free answers incomplete or scattered?
- Fit: can a template, guide or course actually solve it, or does it need software?
Rate each from 1 to 5. A cluster with high frequency and payment scores but a weak gap is crowded. A cluster with a strong gap but low frequency is a niche that may be too small. You want balance, then a real conversation to confirm.
Start with one cluster
Pick one community you understand, collect 20 or so questions, and run a single cluster through the scorecard this week. You will learn more from that than from any list of ideas.
If you want a head start on the research, SaasNiche lets you browse Reddit pain points by profession, with scores and verbatim quotes, and its AI solution generator can suggest info product ideas alongside SaaS and productized service ones. Browse the professions and see which repeated questions show up in your niche.
FAQ
How many times does a question need to appear before it's worth turning into an info product?
There is no official number. What matters more is that the questions come from different people, in separate threads, over a period of months. A handful of independent threads with real stakes is a better sign than one popular post with hundreds of comments.
What if the top comment already answers the question?
Then a free answer exists, and a paid product has to offer something extra: a complete process, ready-to-use files, examples or time saved. If a two-line reply fully solves the problem, it's usually not a good info product topic.
Should I start with a course, a guide or a template?
Start with the smallest format that solves the problem. Recurring tasks suit templates, one-time processes suit guides, and skills that take time to build suit courses. Smaller formats are faster to make and test, and you can expand them if people respond.
Is it okay to message people who posted questions on Reddit?
Often yes, if you keep it short, honest and non-promotional, and follow the rules of the subreddit and Reddit itself. Ask about their experience rather than selling. If a community bans unsolicited messages or self-promotion, don't do it there.
How do I know if people will pay for the answer?
Look for evidence in their own words: past spending on tools or help, hours lost on the task, costly mistakes, or direct statements like "I would pay for...". The strongest test is still asking for a commitment, such as a pre-order or a waitlist signup, from the right audience.