Hello again
Today we want to talk about your product. This is the second crucial part of your business if you want to make big money as a direct marketer. Again, if you dont get this right, your business simply wont succeed.
Your product
Last time we talked about your target market. This is your most important decision. Having decided on your target market, deciding what products you want to offer them is a bit easier.
Finding products depends entirely on your market. If your target market is people who love Agatha Christy, then you need products about Agatha Christy.
Here are some things you can think about selling to your target market: - Books by Agatha Christy
- Books about Agatha Christy
- Copies of reviews of her books
- Subscriptions to your Agatha Christy newsletter
- Paid subscriptions to the Members Only section of your Agatha Christy website
- Ebooks about her written by you
- Reprints of newspaper and magazine articles about her
- Copies of interviews with her (Keep in mind that all the people I know who make it big in this business work to the highest standards of openness, honesty and ethical practices. Never, ever pirate, steal or plagiarise the work of others. When we talk about copies or reprints, we are talking about material you are authorized or licenced to sell.)
- You can probably think of a few more
If your target market is people interested in the direct marketing of information products, here are some things you can think about offering them: - Books, ebooks, CDs, DVDs, video tapes and audio tapes with reprint licenses
- Domain names and websites for resale
- Seminars and workshops
- Personal coaching and mentoring
- Software for automating management of their lists, autoresponders, mail management systems, visitor tracking and website design
- Turnkey business packages
- Paid subscriptions to your newsletter
- Paid subscriptions to the Members Only section of your website
- You can probably think of a few more
You should have the idea by now. Think about your target market and ask yourself what they would be interested in buying from you (now you can probably see the importance of being very focussed about your particular market).
The next big question is where you can find products. Again, it depends on your market, but basically there are three sources. You can: - Create them yourself
- Buy them
- Pay somebody to create them for you
Creating products yourself can be rewarding. If you have a talent for writing articles, designing software, organizing and running seminars, creating how-to DVDs or managing discussion groups, this is a good starting point.
There are bags of public domain (not copyright free to be reproduced) information on the Internet that you can paste into books or articles you are writing. Others in the business who are interested in making their names known are often prepared to write articles for you, sometimes for free (assuming you give them proper credit). A troll of the Internet will give you lots of ideas.
Whatever your market, there are products you can buy to resell. Again, a troll of the Internet, particularly ebay and people with websites offering products of interest to you are likely sources.
Finally, you can pay somebody to create products for you. This is one probably best left until you have a little experience in the business. The upside is that when you pay somebody to create a unique product for you, you own it and it can make you a pile of money.
The downside is that a good product will probably cost you more money than you can afford right now. Its not unusual for somebody to pay 10,000 for, say, a software package, that over time will earn them 2,000,000 or more. Not bad!
So, your assignment for today is to sit down, once again, with your A4 pad and make a long, long list of possible products for your market. Now its starting to be fun. I shall have a great deal more to say about products in later articles.
Thats all for this time. See you soon.
Next time we shall talk about the next most important things you must do first to build a profitable direct marketing business. This is your list.
Thanks for listening
William Rice-Johnston
Copyright 2006 Mary Rice-Johnston & Golden Goose Direct. All rights reserved. |
