One of the problems these days is there’s just so much information about almost anything you can think of out there, and contrary to popular belief the average reader is becoming pretty discerning and will very soon realise if the information they have been given is not up to scratch, or if its not what they want they’ll tell you very graphically by either returning the product demanding a refund or if it’s a series not buying ever again.
Make Sure There’s “Demand” for your product
I’ll give you an example; I’m involved in a publishing company. Now consumer publishing is hugely competitive with whatever subject you care to think of being catered for by numerous magazines, both on & off line.
Now a few years ago now we launched a magazine having done considerable market research in to the MPV (multi purpose vehicle market) sales of these types of vehicles were starting to be significant here in the UK. We launched the title and to be honest it bombed, and quickly – then we realised something – although people drive MPVs they don’t think of them in that way so we changed the title to 4×4 and wow what a change.
What I’m trying to get at is make sure whatever product whether it be your own or an affiliate product make sure it is correctly targeted, make sure you understand what people are searching for and deliver on that requirement because if you get it wrong you’ll not only not sell a lot but your refunds will start to add up
So please bear in mind my experiences when you’re looking at products to sell. My advice is before you ‘go to market’ especially with your own product ask about, check online in the forums & online newsletters to make sure what you are producing & selling is what people what, need and are asking for – don’t get blinkered over this. Anyway here we go with some brief information over affiliate marketing and information products
Affiliate Marketing
Another way to make money with your site is obviously affiliate marketing. For those of you reading this and just starting out this means joining an affiliate program. You advertise your affiliate’s products on your site, and when one of your visitors goes to their site and buys, you get a cut of the value of the sale. Affiliate programs keep records of every transaction and pay you out accordingly.
The percentage of the sale that you get can be pretty significant. With PPC, you’ll see small gains made over a long period of time. Affiliate marketing will get you pretty worthwhile commission sales because some affiliate programs offer commissions 50%, 60% and more of the order value. It all depends on their pricing scheme. If affiliate marketing is a way you choose to precede check out at sites like Click bank.
Sell Information Products
The last 10 years have seen a huge increase in people buying E-books and other online products. E-books aim to offer useful information, and many target the ‘how to’ area of niches. The major difference is that they are digital products, available to download and not hard copy books. While just a few years ago people were wary of buying digital products that didn’t exist in any physical form, these days it’s the norm.
You can create an E-book, a video series, audio files or any other medium that you want. Choose a topic that helps people with some problem related to your niche. With the easy technology these days that we have for info product creation, it takes little technical know-how and almost no money.
On your site or through your newsletter or opt-in list, you can sell your information product to your customers. This is a great way to create a passive stream of income. Once you’ve got the product created, the whole system can be automated, so there’s nothing you have to do.
The Internet is always changing. To stay competitive online, you need to keep current and utilize every method available. These are just a few ways that you can turn traffic into cash on your website. Do let us know how you get on; we’d love to hear your comments, until then ….
Tony Phelps
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