The quest to identify the perfect product to sell is a common one, often accompanied by queries such as, "Can I profit from selling this unique item I found?" or "How can I create multiple income streams?" or "What's the quickest way to start?" or "Will following the plan in this book guarantee success?" The truth is, without a functional website, it's challenging to make substantial profits or build multiple income streams. Time is also a crucial factor; without it, starting a business, easy or otherwise, is impossible.
The last question is the most difficult to answer. If someone purchases a book and reads it, assuming it offers a sound strategy, can they expect to succeed by following the suggested plan? Possibly, but there's a crucial point often overlooked. Infoproducts that explain how to succeed online are usually sold with the implication that they simplify the path to success. But is that really the case?
A bit of common sense quickly provides a definitive answer. Firstly, if succeeding online was easy, everyone would do it. Secondly, there's a significant difference between understanding an idea and implementing it.
Take, for example, Joe Robson's book, "Make Your Words Sell." (Read my review here). It offers the best approach I've seen to creating compelling ad copy for the web. Despite reading it four times, taking extensive notes, and attempting to follow Joe's methods on several pages, I still haven't mastered it. And I didn't expect to do so quickly.
Consider this analogy: if you excelled in Geometry in high school, does that mean you're equipped to teach the subject? Not necessarily. It only means you have the essential tools to continue studying mathematics. Similarly, no book, teacher, or consultant can provide the experience required to build a successful online business. You'll need to understand the contents of many books and internalize all the quality input you can get to effectively implement what you've learned.
Those who ask such questions are approaching the issue from the wrong angle. As I've stated elsewhere, the first question should be, "Who do I want to sell to?" Once you've answered this, the task is to find where they congregate online and engage with them. While interacting with people you enjoy, continue searching for a product that meets their needs.
Simply putting up some banners or a sales pitch won't work, regardless of how great the benefits of the product being offered are. You need core content that attracts visitors, interests search engines, and appeals to potential link swap partners. Without this, there's little that can be done. Even advertising is likely to fail.
This is still not the best question, as several other factors need to be considered. The most important one is what product can you sell most effectively with your site. However, while searching for potential products, consider the following:
There are far too many people trying to sell all sorts of stuff to those new to the web. Unless you can come up with a brilliant plan bound to work, you are competing with thousands of others, many far more experienced than you are.
On the other hand, there is significant profit in selling infoproducts that provide specialized information in a field in which you excel. Most successful sites can significantly boost their bottom line by producing and selling one or more.
Focus closely on a small target. With a newsletter, and later a site, develop core content that establishes you as the expert in your niche and draws visitors. Then, as possible, introduce a line of related products including items repeatedly purchased. Further, continue to produce and sell your own infoproducts.
The above simplifies the challenge of building a successful business. To fully understand the paragraph above will require a good deal of effort and time. It's not easy. Only those fascinated by and committed to the task will discover the rewards of building a successful online business.
Never, Ever Release Any Of Your Rights To Anyone
One of the grandest scams on the Web, which goes largelyunnoticed, is for a web-based bookseller or publisher to requiresome rights to your work in exchange for the service to beprovided. Many demand the electronic rights, for example.
How Well Do You Know Your Perfect Customer?
Your Perfect Customer is real only in your mind. He or sheis the one individual most representative of your target. Theone to whom you always speak one-on-one in your newsletter andon your site.
Does Search Engine Traffic Matter?
The short answer is, "Sure." And it likely always will.But the amount of free traffic search engines now deliver tomany small online businesses doesn't amount to much. And whatthere is of it continues to decline in importance. Pay-for-submission models are rapidly eliminating free options.
