Are you in control of your online destiny?
Are you content with sitting back and being someone elses
affiliate forever? If you are then read no further my friend,
this ones not for you. But if you are not satisfied with
promoting products and services owned by others as the sole
means of generating revenue from your online business then you
are going to love this article. To really succeed online you
must be in control of a product or service, you must be the
owner of a product or service that is in high demand. If you are
open to the idea of mastering your destiny, I will show you how
to turn an idea into a goldmine and give you the blueprints for
following through on this plan. If you are scared to create your
own products, don't be. You have limitless potential to turn
your ideas into bankable and credible products that can give you
the freedom that you desire (at least I assume you desire
freedom, if not then substitute income, free time, ego massage,
whatever you like). When you consider creating a product, you
must understand one very important point: Sell people what they
want, not what they need!!! Read that again if you have to.
People don't buy what they need, they buy what they want. How
many times have your needs gone unmet because you bought
something you wanted instead? With that said, how do you know
what products your audience wants? Ask them! You need to
implement some market research to determine the kinds of
products your audience is interested in. Surveys and web polls
are the easiest tools to use to gather the data you need to
understand the wants of your target market. Set up a survey or
poll on your site or in your newsletter, offer your market
different options and ideas, query them for their opinions. When
you have received anywhere from 50 to 100 responses you are
ready to do some work and find out what the majority of your
respondents want to buy and then you create it! That is
important point number 2: Don't create your product UNTIL you
know your market wants it. Once you know your product is wanted,
you need to decide what format to create it in. You can write an
information product and put it in ebook format. This is quite a
popular option but don't overlook some of the many ways your
product can be created: Many people have used audio to create
fantastic information products. This also adds to the perceived
value of such products. Perceived value is how much people think
your product is worth based on the contents of the product.
Statistics show that if a product contains audiotapes and
videotapes it can sell for a much higher price than a manual
because people perceive that it is more valuable. Whether this
is true or not is really a moot point, the fact remains that
people will pay a higher price for such products. This is
important point #3: People will pay a higher price if they
perceive one product is more valuable than another (ie an
information report may sell for $19.95 while a report, 2 videos
and 4 cdroms can sell for close to 300 dollars). To create and
deliver audio products on the internet, you could utilize tools
available to you online to create downloadable audio files that
your customers could access instantly. There is a tool known as
Real Audio which has not been used to it's full potential yet.
You could use this tool available from www.real.com and offer
your audio information immediately so that when customers buy
your product, they can instantly access it. This is key, and the
future of product development and delivery on the web will be
centered around digital fulfillment of information products.
When your customers can "hear" the information that they seek in
minutes instead of days or weeks, this will cause a serious
sales explosion for you. That is important point number 4: The
faster you can deliver your product into the hands of your
customer the better your chances of making the sale. Another
tool that has been used to avoid writing and assist in creating
greater perceived value is video. For many years, great product
developers have used video to demonstrate "How To" information
and to offer more visual and audio cues to their customers.
Translated to the web, you can also use Real Video (the
counterpart to Real Audio) or Vivo Player to transfer your video
content to the net. The concept remains the same, you find a
want, you create the product and then you offer instantaneous
access over the web. Your target market will eat this up. Try to
be different from what your competition is selling. If everyone
is selling ebooks on how to market on the net, it is going to be
very difficult for you to compete. However, if you can use some
of the tools above (or others such as Macromedia Flash) to
demonstrate EXACTLY HOW TO do what everyone else is just talking
about, then you stand a greater chance of being noticed and
getting the sale! Now that you have your own product to sell,
you can start your own affiliate program and market your product
using the power of other people. I am not saying to give up on
affiliate programs by any means, they can be an excellent
revenue source for your business, but the real money comes from
controlling a product. When you control the product, you control
your destiny.