Creating Your Own Products

Obviously this could be a topic for one book alone however let me go through the basics for you. Now there are many people who would say contract this section out, however if this is going to be your business, I would suggest you at least make a few products yourself so you can work out the process and then you wont get ripped off later on as you will know what it is really worth.

We will mainly look at digital products in this section. You have a number of choices here. You can easily create Ebooks, however you may want to also look at creating some screen captures to show how to do things and they have a higher perceived value. You could also look at creating some software and it is not really as hard as you think. 

Audio Interviews

An easy and cost effective way to make a product is to simply interview someone in the field that you want to create a product. For example if you wanted to create a product on dog training then go and interview a dog trainer. You can then get the audio transcribed and add some details etc to the text and you have a product with audio.

Resale Rights

Here is a product I bought which has been doing quite well. Very simple concept. Provide a whole range of videos that the person can watch and learn from. Add resale rights and you have a limited life high selling product. There are also plenty of ebooks with source code that will allow you to change the whole product. This can be a great base for a range of products.

Bundling

Once you get a good range of products you can then start to bundle them together and sell for a reduced price but create a better turnover. I even created a new site for my different bundles. http://www.msispecialoffer.com

Memberships Free and Paid

Memberships require a little more work, however if you charge you can build a nice residual income. Free membership sites are great for building lists and creating community with your members.

 What we have to look at is how you want to present your product

EBooks

Ebooks are simply one of the best online business ideas that exist today. You can create an eBook for next to nothing and sell it for almost 100% profit! Which is much better than the 10% - 25% profit offered by most traditional business and much better than the small percentages that authors are offered by traditional publishing houses. Also for the first time anyone who is dedicated enough to write an eBook can get published without all the barriers of the traditional publishing route. After analyzing the data from the last couple of years regarding Ebooks sales, you will quickly realize that the growth within the eBook industry is enormous. We’re looking at close to a 50% increases in Ebooks sales this quarter compared with that of the same quarter last year! These figures help prove that the best time to start writing or distributing your eBook is NOW!

The goal of The Netwriting Masters Course is to help you write better so that you can sell more! It shows you how to use the right words with the right process... how to pull targeted visitors into your site, PREsell them... then, and only then, sell. Click to read your free version PDF.

The hardest part of writing an e-book is starting. And there are two reasons most people don’t start:

1. They don't know how to begin
2. They don't know what to do

The key secret in writing is to go around and gather all the information about your topic. Once gathered you can then start to compile it all in some sort of order. Once you have done that you will find the ideas and content start to take shape. What I usually do at this stage is start to put it all together in a word processor. 

I then open up another document and start to summarise what I have and if I find a great sentence or comment I will reference it. You will notice in this program I have used articles and information from others and referenced their work.

You can also find a lot of information etc in the public domain. Many people have resurrected old manuscripts and built a business around them. 

One of the best products around to help you with your writing skills is a product called Make Your Knowledge Sell. I bought this book quiet a while ago and it has been a great investment.

Here's a taste of what you can expect from MYKS!:

Pulling Profitable Ideas... From Thin Air
Six detailed Idea-Generating Exercises for identifying subject matter in your own knowledge and the world you move in everyday.

How To Package Your Pearls
Should you publish a manual, a booklet, e-book, video, audio tape, newsletter, conduct seminars, or what? Learn the best format for you and your target market, and how to package your knowledge like a pro!

Put Some Meat on Them Bones!
Time-efficient ways to research your topic, fill out your own knowledge and become the expert in your field.

How to Turbo-Boost Your Output
Methods and tools to make you more productive.

Name That Infoproduct...
Your Title Can Make or Break You!

From First to Final Draft...
How to polish it till it shines, and important elements that are often overlooked.

Fending Off the Info-Bandits
What you need to know about copyright protection and handling competition.

Preparing to Sell and Ship
How to build a bundle that sells!... Distribution smarts... We've included a special section on how to process orders, clear credit cards, and ship your product -- all automatically. Zero effort. Maximum sales.

If you want to make money from writing eBooks, or simply increase your professional prestige by being a published author, find out more about Ken's book.

Read more about Make Your Knowledge Sell!

People write and sell eBooks about a whole range of subjects (and make a lot of money doing it!)

- photography
- travel
- music
- cooking
- raising teenagers
- grooming pets
- collecting
- home repair & car repair
- small business
- pets
- How to ........

The list is almost endless.

Editing Your eBook

Writing the book is just the first act. The second act is polishing your text by editing it for clarity and style. A few things to consider:

• Use 1.5 spacing between lines of text
• Keep paragraphs to 4 sentences or less if you can
• Try to include charts, graphs and pleasing graphics to break up text
• Make sure you check spelling and grammar
• Create a cover/title page, table of contents
• Ensure that you have your chapters set up in a logical sequence
• Consider including an index and bibliography (if you reference other sources)

Compiling your eBook in either PDF or EXE will depend on the audience and content style. I suggest you may like to just create your first book in your word processor and make it a free one to get some traffic to your site. We have some free PDF creators in the software section.

NB: Always add some graphics and nice bars and headings to your book. Go the extra mile and make it not only good information and content but also good eye candy. You will be amazed at how this will make your product stand out from all the money seekers who add nothing to their products.

How To Videos or Audios

Another great way to create products is to make screen captures of existing products like software. We will show you how to do this in another section however if you know how to use a piece of software like Front Page, Adobe products, Macromedia or even some accounting software etc. There are so many different opportunities in this area as it is relatively new.

Another great way to develop a product is to interview the top people in a certain area. For example if you are doing a book or product about how to Grow Roses then you could interview a florist on how to make them last longer, a grower, a nursery etc. You could even make them audios for download.

Software

Developing software is another way to have some of your own products. There are a lot of businesses online like Elance or Rent-a-Coder that will do this for you or you could post your project at a local university or college.

I have a coder in India that could also do some for you if they are the right type. Just contact me for his email.

I hope this has given you some good ideas to get you started. There are plenty of resources online to help you with every aspect. By the time you have gone through this workshop you should have a lot better idea of how to put it all together.

Niche Market What is it? How do you find one?

I'd get into online business but - I don't have a product! Is it really that difficult to find a product? It's comparatively easy to find products to market on an affiliate basis, which means you get a commission, a percentage of each sale you've referred. But identifying a product to sell on your own is another matter entirely. There's a lot of competition out there. How do you go about finding the "right" product? How do you find your niche? This page explores the concept of niche marketing and the process of finding your own niche market. Several excerpts are presented for purposes of study and personal use; these have been culled from various sources and are fully referenced in accord with fair use. Tools and techniques are examined in sufficient depth, it is hoped, to facilitate successful search for one's particular niche. What, precisely, is a "niche market"? A "niche", according to Webster's, is a place or position suitable or appropriate for a person or thing: to find one's niche in the business world. A colleague of mine recently told me, for example, that his daughter had "found her niche" as a programmer. She is well paid and respected for work she loves to do. His daughter is fortunate in that respect. Not all of us find the right fit. Even if we experience it at some level, that sense of one's niche is not always easy to recognize. We'll look at the significance of that in a moment but next, let's consider the concept of a niche market. In a frequently reprinted article entitled Target Marketing Strategy – Find Your Own Niche Market, Bob Leduc tells us that [a] niche market is a narrowly defined group that includes all of the following: Individuals in the group have the same specialized interests and needs. They have a strong desire for what you offer. You have (or you can create) a compelling reason for prospects in the group to do business with you instead of with someone else. You can easily reach individual prospects within the group. The group is large enough to produce the volume of business you need. The group is small enough that your competition is likely to overlook it. Helen Salamakha and Val Danilchuk, of the Niche Marketing Research Center, provide a simple definition of niche market or the basically synonymous term, market niche: Market niche is your place in the market, your target audience. [more] Jan Norman, author of What No One Ever Tells You About Starting Your Own Business, provides a useful image of the niche market. In an article entitled Build Your Business On A Niche Market, Jan writes that ...[f]inding a niche is especially important in highly competitive fields, such as printing, and in industries dominated by large, well-known corporations, such as retailing. Think of your market as a tree. You’ll get bruised trying to make your home on the same branch as the 800-pound gorilla, but there are plenty of other branches on which you can live fat and happy. [more] Identifying the Niche Market Large Scale, Small Scale In highly competitive industries, businesses may use their existing client base to identify niche interests, then narrow their marketing efforts and reduce costs while focusing on those interests, dramatically expanding sales by supplying the identified demand. On a smaller scale, regarding the individual entrepreneur, most writers suggest a preliminary assessment of personal interests and expertise as the predicate to identifying your market niche. Once you know what interests you and what you're good at, they suggest that you search for a product in that area - one for which there is significant demand but limited supply. The Search... We still have the problem of finding this niche market - identifying a product with significant demand and short supply. Salamakha and Danilchuk, of Niche Marketing Research Center, suggest that certain things sell best, including information, computer software, and personal services. We might find a niche in those markets, but how do we go about that? Where do we start? Bob McElwain, author of Your Path To Success, describes relaxed and intuitively stimulating approach in his article entitled Get the Basics Right. "Sit back in a comfy chair," he writes, "with the brew of your choice in hand." ... Answer the following questions just as quickly as you can. Don't give any one of them much thought. Just grab a note pad and pencil. Then scribble as rapidly as you can. What Kinds Of People Do You Like To Be Around? Go ahead. Describe them briefly on paper. Why does this matter? Because you're going to spend a lot of time with your customers, directly or indirectly. You have a much better chance of enjoying this time if you spend it with people you like. Conversely, working with those you dislike isn't going to make it. What Do These People Want Or Need? Again, just make hasty notes. What kinds of things would they buy from you? Later, get serious about this. Check out websites where these people hang out. Read the newsletters they like. Follow the forums in which they participate. In time, you'll pick up on ideas about products they want. Hopefully you'll discover one or two difficult to find. Ideal candidates for products to offer. More important, you'll discover more about exactly who these people are. And what makes them tick. What Interests You? Remember, we're just brainstorming here. Quickly jot down areas of interest to you. If there's an area you don't know much about, ask yourself if you'd like to find out more about it. If so, it goes on your list. ...While the above is oversimplified, it is a great way to get started. There's no fun in working with people you would rather not be around. There's no profit in offering products people don't want. And you'll go nuts trying to keep up in an area that's of no interest to you. But with an area of interest (niche), a group of people you enjoy being around (your target), and products these people want, you have a great start... [Emphasis added.] [more] Here's another angle of attack - a bit of lateral thinking: I recently bought a best-selling eBook entitled The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay, by Jim Cockrum. The strategy he describes in 50 pages is perfectly legal, accords with eBay policies in every respect but involves a creative interpretation of those policies that can result in much greater profit. Central to his approach is a simple idea that can be applied to your search for a marketing niche: People who are shopping for ________________ might also be interested in (and possibly willing to pay for) instant information on ___________________. Burn that sentence into your mind. Filling in the blanks might help you generate an eBook for a niche market you can reach indirectly from your "about me" page at eBay.

The Initial Business Idea and Unique Selling Proposition (USP) In Guarantee yourself success by finding a good market niche and a proper product, Salamakha and Danilchuk write that your "initial business idea", which consists of "your product, your target market niche, and your unique selling proposition (USP)", strongly influences the success of your business. The product must be of value to your customers, the market niche must be of reasonable size and easy to reach, and your USP, "the heart of your business idea", must connect your product with your audience. According to Michael Gray, CPA, "[t]he USP very clearly answers the question, "Why should I do business with you instead of your competitors?". It must precisely address the needs of your target audience. Your capacity to formulate your USP will depend on your ability to apprehend customer need and respond to it with conviction and integrity. Be very careful not to promise more than you can deliver. Let's look at the importance of the USP in greater depth. Consider the following observations by Jay Abraham, author of Getting Everything You Can Out Of All You've Got. In a comprehensive article entitled How To Create A Unique Selling Proposition, Jay writes that ...[m]ost business owners don't have a USP, only a "me too," rudderless, nondescript, unappealing business that feeds solely upon the sheer momentum of the marketplace. There's nothing unique; there's nothing distinct. They promise no great value, benefit, or service - just "buy from us" for no justifiable, rational reason... Would you want to patronize a firm that's just "there," with no unique benefit, no incredible prices or selection, no especially comforting counsel, service or guarantee? Or would you prefer a firm that offers you the broadest selection in the country? Or one with every item marked up less than half the margin other competitors charge? Or one that sells the "Rolls Royce" of the industry's products? Can you see what an appealing difference the USP makes in establishing a company's perceived image or posture to the customer? It's ludicrous to operate any business without carefully crafting a clear, strong, appealing USP into the very fabric of the daily existence of that business. The point is to focus on the one niche, need or gap that is most sorely lacking, provided you can keep the promise you make... Above everything else, never, ever lose track of the fact that USP is all about the customer or the client. It is not about me, you, the company or the profession. Don't make the mistake of aggrandizing your business. Instead, help your customer or client do some aggrandizing. [full article] About Jay Abraham, founder and CEO of Abraham Group, Inc., Los Angeles, California.