Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Critical Steps to Online Success--Step 3--You need a Product to sell

Before you gear up for an online campaign to market
something on the web, it's a good idea to have a specific
product in mind.

There are many factors you will need to make decisions
about before you get started. First you will want to find a
supplier for your product or create a product of your own.
Then you will need to package it attractively, market it
effectively, attract potential customers to view and decide
to purchase your product, transact the sale online and
finally collect payment before you deliver it to your
customers.

To achieve this online you will need to have your own e-
commerce website with shopping cart capability so you can
complete your transactions on-line.

Here are some ideas to get you started!

If you are marketing a physical product then you will have
to source it, store it, package it and ship it--or arrange
for someone else to do that for you. And don't forget that
a lot of your transaction price goes toward the actual
manufacture, purchase and shipping of the product you wish
to sell.

The cost of supplying a physical product will cut quite
deeply into your profit margins. Let's say your list is
comfortable buying a $20 product from you. If you mark your
product up too high you become uncompetitive. For a
physical product your cost might be $12 (or 40%) say and
your profit is $8 per sale.

With a digital product your cost is usually very close to
zero so your profit on the transaction is $20 (or 100%)…you
make much more this way

If you have an extraordinarily unique physical product and
you know that you can sell it easily then that is the way
for you to go.

Otherwise I would suggest you either buy or create a
digital product. Digital products are usually easier to
work with, are low cost if you create them yourself and can
be delivered over the web. Digital products can be books,
courses, services (like a dating service) or "how-to"
websites, videos, audio recordings etc. that are delivered
in digital format over the web. They are also sold in the
form of CD's, DVD's etc and can be quite profitable in this
format but you have the issues around manufacture, storage
and delivery that we discussed earlier.

A "how-to" product such as a book or online learning
program would seem to have the best market these days for
someone starting out. You either write it yourself or find
free product on the net that has passed out of copyright.

People are hungry for knowledge and if they think you can
provide it for them they will buy your product.

You can remove a lot of the hassle of shipping and
handling and payment by getting involved with a popular
product as an affiliate marketer. This is probably the
easiest way to get your feet wet. It's low cost and most of
the promo work has already been done. I've covered this
quite extensively in a couple of earlier articles…you can
find them if you just google Jim Keayes Affiliate Products.
You might find something there that will be useful.

For now can start by visiting the web sites for Commission
Junction (CJ) and Clickbank, joining their sites (it's
free) and browsing the merchant offerings.

Learn the "3 Surefire Ways to make Money Online"

http://homebasedbusinessontheweb.com/cap/


Jim Keayes is an expert Internet Marketer. He teaches people
to be successful online.

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