But What If You Can't Create Your Own Product?

by Willie Crawford

The real money IS in creating and marketing your own products. You don't have to be on-line long before that truth begins to sink in. It's no different than off-line really. The off-line manufacturers earn substantially more than their sales representatives. On-line, when you create your own product, you become a manufacturer. Your affiliates are commissioned sales representatives.

But don't rush into creating your own products too quickly. Creating a poor products is worse than not creating you own products at all. Word will soon spread about your shoddy products, you will spend a lot of time and resources promoting the products and sales just won't materialize. Information, including information about the quality of your products spreads very fast on-line. So create products that will merit good press.

While you are waiting to create that great product what do you do? While you are waiting for that great idea to hit you like a bolt of lightening, what do you do for income? You market appropriate affiliate products. Marketing appropriate affiliate products really can earn you a nice, steady income - one high enough to live off of.

The whole key to succeeding at selling affiliate products, while ideas for your own product ferment, is a very simple formula. It is presenting the right product, to the right audience, in the right fashion. Get any one of these parts of the formula wrong and you're wasting your time! So let's look briefly at each part of the formula.

The products you choose to promote is a personal choice but one you need to give a lot of thought. You should promote products that you really like, believe in, and enjoy offering to others. You should feel that the products are so good that you are doing your customers a big favor by making them aware of the products. You should believe in the products so much that you consider it a dis-service not to tell you customers about them. If you don't sincerely feel this way about the products that you promote then it's time to change your product mix!

The products that you choose to promote should also pay a decent commission. It's very difficult to recoup your promotional costs on a product only paying a few dollars commission. There are best-selling affiliate product that pay hundreds of dollars in commission per sale. Why not market the high end products if you can. Also look for products that pay residual income. Affiliate program where customers that you send to the company is considered "your customers" are also highly recommended.

The products have to be right for your target audience. Listen to, or survey your subscribers and website visitors to confirm what products they want. Listen in on discussion boards to see what problems they are trying to resolve. Really listen to what they are saying in emails to you. They will often tell you what products they really want. All you need to do then is locate these product and make your audience aware of them. If you cannot locate these product anywhere, you may have discovered what product you need to create ;-)

The final part of the formula is presenting the product in the right fashion. Sometimes that means sending a personal recommendation or solo mailing. Sometimes that means running ads in ezines frequently enough to work. Don't forget that you need to run an ad many times before many of your prospects even become consciously aware of your product. You can run the same ad 10 times, and then have a slew of customers notice your product on the 11th time. The key is being in front of your customer when they are ready to make a purchase.

You also present your products to your audience in private one on one email, or in your signature file. For "high ticket" items, this is a big source of sales for me.

The parts of your formula are integrated. That's because your relationship with your customers also enter the formula. It is a constantly shifting situations but with some constants. Certain principles governing human nature never change. To fully understand them you should begin studying advertising psychology and copywriting. You written communication is what your prospects are going to see. It makes sense to learn to create the best-written communications possible.

You probably should plan on producing your own products or services if you're serious about being in business for yourself on the internet. You should also makes sure that your products are of the highest quality. While waiting for that great product idea, offer only the highest quality affiliate products. There are thousands of affiliate products you can market to earn a nice income, don't waste time marketing the garbage. Long-term, when you begin marketing your own products, you will already have a reputation for providing real value to your customers. This will jump-start sales of your own products.