Product Creation – A Proven Path to Online Success

The web is filled with tips, tricks, secrets, shortcuts and so-called “formulas” to making it big, to creating a killer secondary income source that will allow you to retire and sip Mai Tais on the beach.

But the vast majority of these self-proclaimed miracle income sources are small beans compared to what I want to discuss today.

Product Creation.

As an online marketer, nothing can match the profit potential of a well-crafted and properly monetized information product marketed toward your target audience. Forget affiliate marketing. Forget CPA or PLR. It’s all about building a brand and letting other people drive traffic to your product site.

Three Key Benefits to Product Creation.

There are literally dozens of reasons why product creation is such a sound investment of your time and money but I’m going to focus on three that I think thoroughly sum up just how much you can get out of it.

1. Build a List of Active Buyers – List building is one of the most essential components of Internet marketing, but giving stuff away will only attract so many people who will one day spend money on what you are selling.

   An active list of buying leads, those people who have already spent money on a product (your product), is much more profitable. By selling products, you create such a list and can sell to them again and again in the future.

2. Create JV Partnerships and Get Traffic – With every successful product launch, you grow your network of partners and create connections that allow you to launch your next product faster.

   JV partners and affiliates can promote anything if they like what you create and you show high conversion rates.

3. Invest in a Brand that Relies on Quality and Word of Mouth, not Google – Affiliate marketing is great because you don’t have to put your name on the line and the investments are smaller, but there is a bigger risk – the wrath of Google. A flip of the switch in Mountain View can kill an affiliate site overnight.

   An info product can build over time and will never be harmed by an outside force. Build a quality product and a network of affiliates to promote it and it will always sell well.

Can you seriously imagine having this kind of results with an affiliate site selling products on Amazon or through ClickBank? Not without a boat load of work and even still, you’re in Google’s back pocket the entire time.

Knocking Off the Gurus with a Killer Product.

I’ve had this conversation often enough to know what you’re thinking – if it’s so easy, why isn’t everyone doing it?

It is easy – at least in terms of what you should focus on – but at the same time it requires an immense amount of patience and a heavy investment of time and money.

Because in order to succeed you have to think long term and that means quality. It means careful planning. It means researching what your audience wants and then creating a product that matches those needs. It means building relationships with people and even giving away a fair amount of value to your lists to build those relationships.

Which would you rather have – one product that sells 1,000 units or a stream of products that sell 500 units every single time? The latter is your path to sustainable, recurring income and it requires a dedication to quality and value provided to your readers.

Building the Perfect Info Product.

Product development happens in 4 stages. Stage one is understanding not only what people want but what they need.

The people who are most successful on sites like ClickBank or the Warrior Forum are those that identify an urgent need and fill it in a way that is unique and offers exceptional quality.

This applies to any niche, not just Internet marketing. I’ve seen products on how to build chicken coops, how to play games on Facebook and how to get live TV on a Nintendo Wii – these products fulfilled needs in creative and high quality ways. Find your own unique path to fulfilling those kinds of needs.

Stage two is developing an idea that is unique and filled with personality. Too many people go on ClickBank, find the highest selling product and do a copy-paste job on it. You need to do more. Find a way to create something unique, original and beyond what those other products do. More importantly inject your personality into the product.

Stage three is to set realistic deadlines and work on your product constantly. Expecting to get a product done in 2 weeks is a sure way to either give up early or produce a less than stellar product. So, layout a clear plan and follow it carefully over the course of several weeks.

Finally, in stage four, be ready to promote your product. The product itself is important and will help you build your audience, but it will only work if you create a strong following through careful promotion.

Find JV partners, build an audience and start generating a list. Don’t expect miracles on your first product, but don’t plan for failure either.

Product quality is paramount, but success depends almost entirely on your ability to reach a large audience through good marketing and trusted partners.

Please share your opinion or experience with product creation by leaving a comment below.

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