Start My Own Online Business

So, you’ve developed your idea and also done some market research…your next Must Have is a product or service. Now, you may have thought that the last few sections of this eCourse were about picking a product but they weren’t.

What you have done up to this point is to, 1) Pick an idea (niche market) for your online business. That is you should have an idea of whether you want to offer a product or service in a particular niche, such as health and wellness, fitness, relationship advice, or what have you. And, 2) considered what markets were hot in that idea area that you chose (micro-niche markets).

After you have considered both of these concepts, its now time to choose a product or service to market in your particular micro-niche. While you may have settled on a market such as “training Great Danes”, you may have several products or services to choose from. This dilemma will initially be addressed by your choice of distribution channels because the product and/services options may be limited depending on if you are going to market services or products, and if you are going to use email, article or PPC marketing.

So, how do you pick a product to promote or sell? When you are picking products or services, have a list of them to choose from.

Ask yourself  these questions:

“What is my focus?”
“Does it actually deliver good value for money?”
“Is there enough demand to make me a profit?”
“Is there more than one product in the product line?” (This is important because you might want to follow up the initial sale with a related product)

If you are marketing affiliate products, you will also want to ask other questions also:
“Is the merchant whose product you’re promoting reputable?”
“What is the return policy and the return rate?”
“How does the merchant’s support or customer service department perform?”

When you are picking a product, you will have better success if the product is popular, solves a prominent problem, and is a good value. If you think about your prospective customer for a moment, you will realize that they are 1) More likely to buy something that has a brand name, 2) Something that solves their problem (even if the problem is vanity), and 3) Appears to have a fair price. And that’s across the board with any market, product, or service.

Below are more suggestions to help you understand how to pick a good product or service to promote.

If you decide to promote affiliate products then you could get a “Top Seller List” from your affiliate manager. All you have to do is ask the affiliate manager for a list of top‐selling products. They should be more than happy to help you get your business off the ground. In fact, this is one of the fastest ways for you to start making money with your promotions. If you can get a list of the top 10-50 products in your chosen market that are performing well, then you will have more than enough products to choose from.

Another tactic that you can take advantage of as an affiliate partner is to ask for advanced notice of upcoming product releases. If you are able to get this info ahead of time then you can have your marketing and advertising campaigns up and running before anyone else. If you can get in good with your manager then they can actually do a lot to help you develop your business.

One more way to get a good idea of what type of product you want to promote is to actually become a customer. A product is a easier to promote if you know first hand what it does and how it performs. You can also offer your customers a lot more practical support if they have any questions for you. Also, thinking down the road, if you are a customer, you will also know first hand what other products would compliment your primary product. And then, voila!, you have your second product to promote.

Once you narrow your options down with the product then you can actually start thinking about a concrete web presence.

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