What's The Best Product To Sell Online?
I wish I had a dime for every time I've been asked, "Tim, what's
the best product to sell online?" I also wish I had a nickel for
every blank stare I received when I answered: "That's simple:
information." I'd have enough money to finance another startup
or two.
As more and more entrepreneurs move to the Internet seeking
their fortunes, "What's the best product to sell online," has
become the number one business question of the decade.
The next question is always: "Why information?" Again, the
answer is simple: because no other type of product is easier to
create, faster to bring to market, easier to distribute, and
potentially more profitable.
Many info products net as much as 75% to 95% profit on the
initial sale after all costs have been deducted. And residual
sales to established customers can offer 100% profit.
Informational products come in many forms. An info product can
be a digital book (e-book" is the accepted term), a digital
report or white paper, a piece of software, a website, a
newsletter, etc. Any product that is informational or
informative in nature can be considered an info product.
Here's why information is the best product to sell online:
Fast to create, fast to market Forget a product development
cycle that is years in the making. Forget an intense design and
costly manufacturing process. I have literally created info
products in as little as two hours and had them generating
revenue shortly thereafter. If you have an appealing topic and a
computer, you have all the tools you need to create an info
product.
No inventory to stock Forget filling your garage with boxes of
cheap watches and cases of mega vitamins that you will never
sell. When you sell information there is no inventory to stock.
Your product is digital (I like to call it electronic air) and
requires no space in your garage, just a little space on your
computer. One of my most successful info products is a 30kb
e-book that requires almost no space at all.
Low startup costs When you sell information you can literally
create a product for next to nothing. If your product is an
e-book the only investment required will be in the time it takes
to put words to digital paper. If you become an affiliate
marketer of someone else's info product your investment can be
zero.
You can automate the sales and delivery process. Thanks to
internet technology you can sell info products 24 hours a day, 7
days a week, and never lift a finger. In fact, you don't even
have to be awake or at home to make money with an info product.
I know many successful info entrepreneurs who are getting rich
despite the fact that they work as little as an hour a day.
They check the website and their email, then go play golf or
hang with the kids for the rest of the day. You can completely
automate the sales and delivery process so your website does
everything for you.
An automated website can give a potential customer your sales
pitch, take the order and process the payment, deliver the
product by email, and even follow up in a few days to make sure
the customer is satisfied and offer to sell them additional
products.
You can offer immediate access or delivery Online consumers are
an inpatient lot. They want things NOW! These are people who
stand in front of the microwave impatiently tapping their foot
and frowning at their watch. Selling information is the best way
to give your customers immediate satisfaction. As mentioned
earlier, an automated website can process the order and payment,
then immediately email the download link for the product to your
customer.
There's no shipping and handling One of the things I never liked
about selling hard goods was the manual process of taking the
order, running the credit card, placing the order with a
dropshipper or filling the order of my stock. I hated finding a
box and packing peanuts and printing the label and taping it all
up and lugging it to the post office. Every minute I spent
filling orders was time that I was not being compensated for,
therefore, my profit grew less and less with every minute spent
on shipping and handling. Informational products require no
shipping and handling. Most are delivered by email. In the time
it takes you to click your mouse, you can deliver an info
product.
What if you don't have your own info product to sell? This is
one of the most appealing aspects of selling information. If you
don't have an info product, creating or finding one is much
easier than you think.