| How To Develop Killer Online Products! By Simon Grabowski With more than 6 billion dollars of online revenue being produced in 1999 alone, the
chance of e-commerce and global sales is now remarked as a definite reality. To put it bluntly, the Internet is producing a heck of a lot of profits for many Internet Marketers worldwide. Take the situations of two such marketers - publishers of this newsletter: Lee Benson and Simon Grabowski (For those of you who don't know, that's us!) Both of us live in Europe, a continent known for it's high phone charges and it's sense of conservative human morality. Unlike the USA, many people take the "It won't work" approach to lots of things in life, and so the talk of producing hundreds of thousands of dollars of profits online every year would tickle anyone's skeptical side. However, despite the dull, non-entrepreneurial environment that we're forced to live in, we are two people who manage to collectively earn a gross profit of hundreds of thousands of dollars EVERY year online. Allow me to add that we both: * Work from home, which is both flexible and needless to say, comfortable. * Have no need to travel to work at inhumane hours, facing the challenge of daily traffic jams and the 9-5 rat-race atmosphere that so many of us are sucked into. * Have no bosses - that's right, no need to suck up to anyone in the effort to invoke a pay rise or to be told what to do and when to do it. This means we're not working to contribute to anyone else's success but our own. * Produce thousands of dollars of online profits, by simply using a home computer and having the 'right' website and sales system in place. I could go on and on, the benefits are endless. We know that, and you probably know that. The point of this article is to set your life in line with these benefits so you CAN and WILL start living like this. It's about HOW you need to start. So How Can You Achieve This With The Internet? Unfortunately for a lot of people seeking Internet riches, the talk of money clouds their vision to see the TRUE reason why E-commerce is now producing billions of dollars online every year. It's all about the customer. They want QUALITY products or services, and they're willing to pay good money to receive those products. So if the customer WANTS good products or services, why do people continue to promote rubbish? Quite simply, because they don't CARE. The talk of the 'quick buck' is their only goal, and that's all they'll consider... Not only is this a completely stupid move, but it's also the quickest path to failure. Your clever sales letter may initially dupe your customer into spending their hard-earned dollars, but you can bet your life you'll end up paying in lost credibility and returns. What I'm about to show you is the simple 5-step approach to achieving online success by producing your OWN products or services. Dump those zillion-and-one worthless affiliate programs, and develop your own solid program. If you're serious about creating an impact on the 'net, then this is the only way to go. The benefits are amazing. Don't get me wrong, a LOT of money is being produced with affiliate programs. But to be honest if you're ONLY promoting an affiliate program, you're not really owning your own business. To me, affiliate programs are great side-line income produces, but I'd never rely on them to produce my primary income. Are You Ready? Good, Then Let's Begin .... Step 1 - Defining Your Product I'm constantly asked the reoccurring question of 'what sells online'. To be honest, there is no one single answer to this question. However, the question of 'what sells BEST online' can be defined more easily. Quite simply, information-rich products or services are the HOTTEST online sellers. Let's consider someone famous who you could easily associate with. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft has a company that's built on information-rich products. Their biggest money-earner is software, which is just data. Nothing more than information, a collection of binary digits that forms a program. Microsoft earned over 19 billion dollars this year selling software. See the potential here? But it's not just software that sells like hot cakes. The old saying that 'knowledge is power' is becoming more and more believable, because it's knowledge and information that sells so well on the Internet. If you have the *information* to create a solution to someone's problem, and there's a HIGH demand for this type of info, then Hey Presto. You've struck gold. You've found the PERFECT product to sell. Why? Let's find out... Step 2 - Creating A Product With A HIGH Profit Margin The Internet is making more millionaires than any other invention in history. Never before has it been so possible for the average person to go international and to earn excessive amounts of money selling products and services online. And why? Because virtually ALL of the overheard and production costs are eliminated with many online products. You can get your own website set-up and complete for less than $250 a year, and ready to start creating online sales from customers WORLDWIDE. Compare that to the costs of an offline shop, and you'll see why the Internet is being favored. In the real-world you have to pay for land rental fees (which can be hundreds of thousands of dollars), hiring staff and staff training, interior decorating, product inventory and much, much more. On the Internet however, none of these costs need exist. You can create a powerful website for free using your home computer, and get your own domain name and website setup for a few hundred bucks a year. With this in mind, why should your production costs be any different? You can create an information-rich product from home that provides valuable information, and produce and replicate the SAME informational products at no extra cost. It's only data, and data costs nothing to produce. However, that doesn't mean people aren't willing to pay BIG money for valuable information. For instance, if you sold a 10 page book that told people how to earn $2000 with the stock exchange, then chances are an investor would be willing to pay $500+ for that valuable information. It's the quality that counts, not the quantity. Even if your product takes only 10 minutes to reproduce and no-cost, your customer will still pay BIG for valuable information. Have you noticed the amount of Internet Marketing courses being advertised at the minute? And why do you think that is? Simply because a LOT of people want to know how to successfully sell on the Internet, and the people who can teach them that will earn a lot of money (and are doing). And this is exactly what you should be aiming to do. Create a product based on your own expertise and offer that advice for a fee. Step 3 - Automation Is The Key To Success "The Secrets To Internet Marketing Success. Order NOW and you can be reading our POWERFUL marketing course within 30 seconds." What do you think of the statement above? Better still, what do you think a customer would think of the above statement? People are impatient creatures. When they want things, they want them NOW. Not tomorrow, not next week, but now. And if you can give them that information NOW, you're already half-way toward making the sale. Automation is the key to success with any online business. If you sell an information product, then why not offer an IMMEDIATE download for your customer as soon as they've ordered the product? Not only will this satisfy your customer a great deal (They get INSTANT access to the info they're eager to read) but it'll save you a lot of hassle too. Your website is a VERY powerful selling machine. If you have the right knowledge, you can automate the process of virtually every business task. For instance, once a customer fills out their payment information, you can create an online ordering system that: * Automatically verifies the customers' credit card information. Once accepted, the payment is immediately added to your account and a thank you screen is presented to your customer. * Automatically emails the customer thanking them for their order, and gives them information on how to download your online product. And you have no intervention with this process. The money that the customer spent is yours, without ANY inventory/overhead costs whatsoever. Plus your customer gets INSTANT access to your quality product, and you're both happy. Therefore, your product margin can be HUGE. Whether you make 1 or 101 sales per day, your costs stay the same. Making 10 sales per day with a product that you charge $49 for would make you $490 every day - with NO production costs. Step 4 - Encourage Repeat Sales If your customer is happy with their purchase, chances are they'll buy more from you in the future. Therefore, starting your own customer announcement list is a smart and worthwhile move. If you have a database of 250 happy customers who trust you for the quality of your products, then making monthly or bi-monthly announcements to them for further quality products that you sell could result in a high response rate. Keep track of your customers and contact them regularly to keep tabs on their progress and to find out how your product is helping them. If you show that you care, chances are that they'll be comfortable making future purchases with you so the process of convincing needn't exist. Step 5 - Niche Markets Are The Biggest Money Earners Niche markets are smaller, specialized fields of people looking for particular things. There seems to be a rule on the Internet that shows a definite trend toward niche markets. Quite simply, if you target specific people, you're almost guaranteed to earn more money than someone who offers general services. Think about it. If you're wanting to hire an accountant for your new travel agency, would you go to a general accounting firm or would you find an accountant that specializes in offering services to travel agents? The latter, right? So this is a positive indication of how you should target your market. Try and offer information-rich products to people with specific problems and needs. Not only does niche marketing attract more targeted, specific people, but your website and sales literature will speak to the prospect in a more personal way. By Way Of Contrast : Some Examples Looking for inspiration to create your own online products? Well if the above explanations haven't tickled your creativity, here are some specifics: * Downloadable, Electronic Information Books .This is my personal favorite. If you can create an informational product that teaches people to: 'Earn An Extra $2500 With Their Website By Implementing 5 Little-Known, And Secretive Strategies' or 'Lose 10 lbs of Fat In 10 Days, And Pack-On Slabs of Solid Muscle' or anything else that fits into your line of expertise, then chances are there will be bunch of people who are interested in what you have to say. By offering this information as an IMMEDIATE download once the customer has paid, you: * Eliminate all production and delivery costs * Lose no money if the customer requests a refund * Have the chance to target repeat purchases Open your eyes and see the potential. * Online Automated Services Who said that you only have to sell products? You can offer great AUTOMATED services as well that include all of the benefits previously mentioned. Take a look at http://GetResponse.com for an example of an automated online service. We earn thousands of dollars each month offering this online service which requires NO extra work on our part. Software Available For Download This is possibly the hardest route to take, unless of course you're a professional computer programmer. Remember, electronic books and informational products require NO skill to produce. You can purchase e-book production software that turns informational products into downloadable program files. However, if you have the ability to offer software, then this is another GREAT product to sell. After all, the Internet is just purely data. Happy Marketing! Written by Simon Grabowski. | 
