How To Make Money on the Internet Without Creating Your Own
Product
Writing a book is an effort that not everyone takes pleasure in.
Creating software takes special skills and patience. If you
can't write and can't program, does it mean you can't start an
online business? Absolutely not.
Luckily, there is a wonderful thing called Reprint Rights. You
don't have to write a word - just purchase the resell rights to
someone else's work and start an instant business.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What are Reprint Rights?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I first learned about reprint rights from Ken Evoy's "Make
Your Knowledge Sell" and thought, "what an amazing concept!" You
don't have to know how to write, or spend months creating a
quality product. You can just buy the rights to it and keep 100%
of the profits, without paying any royalties or reporting your
sales figures to anyone.
Compared to any other business, launching an information selling
company has a very low start up cost. The key is to choose a
product that fits your interests, is of high quality and in
demand. The rest will be up to your desire to succeed and
persistence.
If you already have a product to sell, find a product with
reprint rights that would make a good bonus, addition, or a
back-end for your business. For example, if you are selling a
$10 report about successful golf playing, a good back-end
product could be titled "Advanced Techniques of the World's Best
Golf Players" priced at $50 or higher (forgive me if I am way
off - I know nothing about golf ;-).
You could also work backwards - first find a good product you
want to purchase the rights to, then write a report that would
serve as an introduction/sales letter to it. Then give it away
or sell it at a low price. That's what I did with my "First
Business Web Site in 10 days!". After I finished writing it, I
created a short version of this book (and turned a 120 pages
manual into a small 15-page book) and started giving it away on
my web site under a different title ("The Absolute Beginner's
Guide To Starting a Web Site").
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How to make money with a product you purchased the rights to
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many people buy rights to a product but never do anything to
make it a success. You MUST treat it as your own product to make
it profitable.
- First, choose a quality product (purchase a copy for yourself
first to review) that fits into your interests, or your existing
web site theme
- Make sure you are absolutely impressed with it so you could
write a great ad copy (though many products already come with a
sample sales copy)
- Create a simple web site using an easy-to-use web editor
- Find a way to take payments online (many people use
inexpensive services of ClickBank, iBill, and OrderButton)
- Promote it (subscribe to free marketing e-zines and experiment
to find the most effective ways to advertise it)
While you don't have to create a product (what a great
shortcut!) you still have to promote it to sell. There is plenty
of free publications and forums on the Internet that can teach
you how to do it, if you can devote 1-2 hours each day until the
desired level of income is reached.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Buying cheap rights vrs.
Expensive ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first time I purchased resell rights, I could only afford a
$49.95 package. The deal looked great! I was getting over 25
books to own and resell as my own. Only a few weeks later did I
realize that everyone and their dog are selling the same books.
The products were still great and if you purchase them for the
sake of learning business and online marketing, it's a bargain.
After purchasing this package I sold it to at least 10 happy
customers, thus making $450.00 on a $49.95 investment.
To build a successful business reselling these books, though,
would be very difficult since hundreds of other people are
selling it on their web sites.
Yes, $49.95 is very affordable to anyone who wants to start an
online business. But the cheaper the reprint rights are, the
more people are able to afford them, thus you will have more
competitors selling the same product. So if you find the price
is a bit steep, think of the advantages: not every average "joe"
who might not even be serious about business will purchase these
rights. And if you do, you will have only a few competitors and
your marketing efforts will pay off much better.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Where to find products
with reprint rights ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many authors, especially new ones, have never thought of
offering resell rights to their products. If you find a product
that you like and want to resell, contact the author and make
him or her an offer. Make sure it is a high quality product that
you would want to purchase for yourself. For example, I was
contacted several times by my past customers who so much liked
my products that they wanted to own the rights to it. This is a
great indicator that you will succeed selling this product: you
read it, you liked it, you know it, you can write a great sales
copy to sell it from your heart.
One other good way to find reprint rights to quality products is
by going to a Search Engine and typing a word or a phrase on a
subject you want to focus on. When browsing through results,
pick out web sites that sell a product you are interested in AND
have low traffic. Use Alexa (free from alexa.com) to find out
each site's traffic rating, which is a good indicator of how the
site is doing. Webmasters of low traffic sites might sell
reprint rights to their products cheaper than any popular site.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Important questions to ask before purchasing reprint rights
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am not going to call myself an expert on reprint rights. But
after selling almost a dozen rights to three of my products, I
learned a lot about the subject. Here are the questions you
should ask before you decide on a product to purchase:
1. How many other people will be allowed to sell this product?
In other words, will there be a limit to how many resell rights
are available? A standard number for information products is 20
resellers. More than that might create market saturation and too
much competition between the resellers. Also, every marketing
strategy that you implement might be "borrowed" by your
competitors and hurt your sales.
2. How many copies of this product have been sold? The answer
will simply tell you if this product has been popular and
selling well. While it is difficult to say what number of sold
copies will qualify a product as "popular", remember that even
if it is a brand new product (e.g. my oldest book is only 7
months old) it can still be a winner. The author may be just
entering the arena and is not known on the Internet yet, or
hasn't been putting enough effort to create steady sales. For
example, as soon as I was done with my 1st product, I
immediately started creating my 2nd one which turned in fact to
be two more new products - I know, tell me I need to focus :-) -
so I didn't have time to get out and actively promote my 1st
book.
3. Are you allowed to modify the product and/or reproduce it in
a different format? Most e-books are made into an executable
(EXE) or an Acrobat Reader (PDF) file format. But if you want to
put this product on a CD, or publish it as a hard copy, you
might need a special permission from the author first. Ask if
you are limited to a certain format or are you free to make it
into anything you wish.
4. Can you sell the reprint rights to this book? Many products
out there include the right to resell the rights. In other
words, you pay $49.95 for a book, then turn around and sell this
book to someone else. That someone else can do the same thing,
and so on. As you understand, this technique will reach market
saturation very fast (the rights are affordable and you can
resell them, too).
But many products of high quality do not include the right to
resell the rights. You need to purchase such rights, called
Master Reprint Rights, separately at a higher price. While it is
not affordable to everyone, it certainly limits the number of
resellers to only the serious ones.
5. Will the author/seller offer you technical and marketing
support? Make sure the person you purchase the rights from will
keep in touch with you and help you get started with the
product. It doesn't mean creating a web site for you and writing
your ad copy. Simply being there in case a question or a problem
arises is all you need. Especially so if you purchased the
rights from the author: after all, he or she knows this product
the best and is the only one who can answer all the questions
that you (or your customers) might have.
Once you purchase the rights to a product, get right to it.
Don't waste any time setting up your web site and starting to
sell it. And if you are fast enough, you might make your first
sale within hours after purchasing the rights.