The Product Creation Blueprint

Product creation is the most important skill to master if you want to thrive online. Yes, you can be an affiliate but do you really think Ewen Chia, the World's #1 Super Affiliate, only sells other people's products?

In fact, at the World Internet Summit Singapore 2007, Ewen stressed the importance of product creation repeatedly.

Why is product creation important?

Simple. To thrive in the world of Internet Marketing, you have to brand yourself. Creating or having your own products gives you the right to call it yours, and in so doing branding yourself in that niche.

For instance, Ewen told us at the seminar that he would blast his name everywhere from Web Banners to special reports to establish himself as an expert in the readers' minds subconsciously.

What Products Do I Create?

The law is simple but profound; give them more of what they already want.

The most effective way that I have come across is to search on E-Bay, Amazon and other sites that show the existing customer spending patterns like Magazines.com.

No, I am not only looking for the best-sellers to know what content the customers want.

I am looking for:

1)Titles 

2)Cover Art

3)Reviews

The first two may seem trivial at first, but it is proven that the cover art compels while the titles sell not the content. Sure, a book may have good content but changing its title may increase sales by more than 200%.

Look for the top 20 Books in every niche and you will begin to see the pattern. The Best-sellers usually have some property in common – titles like "Getting Started", "30 Day Road Map", "…. In 1 Minute" or cover art that have no more than 3 colors. (It is a psychological thing.)

The most important thing here is to look for the reviews of the product. This is where the emotionally charged customers tell you exactly what they like or do not like in the product.

Again, give them more of what they want and less of what they do not.

If you decided on a Best-Seller from the recommended sites, it is almost guaranteed that there is a market for that product but just to be sure, validate your choice of product by searching for keywords in inventory.overture.com or freekeywords.wordtracker.com on that product.

What keywords do you type in? Sites like Amazon can help you – under the book cover, there is a link called "Statistically Improbable Phrases" which tells you what phrases people most passionate in the niche use.

How Do I Create My Own Product?

Now that you have found out what product you want to create, it is time to take some massive action.

There are ultimately three ways – Do-It-Yourself, buy, outsource.

D-I-Y

If you are passionate about your niche, write down a list of what you would like to know about the topic and the reviews from the first step. Write about what the customers want and you are 100% safe.

Another way is not to gather the information through research yourself but to ask the writers their opinions on topics – especially what the customers want to know. You can have that recorded in audio or transcribed and sold off as your main or bonus product.

Buy

Chances are, there are some books out there that already have what you are looking for, gathering dust due to poor marketing. Get in touch with the author and ask if you could buy the Rights to the book that will allow you to change its cover, title and if possible even the author's name.

Outsource

Lastly, you could pay a writer to get your information product done for you at sites like Elance.com. A good E-Book can be written for about US$500 but this is the most risky option as the content may not be satisfactory to you.

You can choose to edit it, but I find it rather difficult to edit something that I did not write. There will be gaps in style, tone and sometimes even quality but if you choose this option do read the testimonials of each author.

If you have read this far, you probably want to create your product soon, so do something towards the attainment of that goal now! Product creation is a long and winding task, but take it one day at a time and you will be fine.

Remember this though - the product is important but marketing is King