torin tawny: What To Sell? Starter's Series Part II

Sell or Find We discussed finding a niche a few days ago. As soon as you?ve found a niche market in your area of interest, the next step is to create or find a product or service to sell. It is pretty obvious that when you are deciding what you?re going to sell online, you can choose from two strategies ? create or find ? or choose both?

Creating a Product or Service

Selling Existing Products and Services

While I believe that creating your own product or service gives most small businesses the best chance at success, it does takes a bit longer. Let?s do a broad-spectrum review of each of our options.
Creating Your Own Product or Service

I prefer the creating products strategy since it gives me complete control over exactly what I sell and how much profit it yields.

I typically market information and services. I create my products and services based upon knowledge and research.? Using my laptop and mostly free software, I then shape them into many different marketable formats including print books, eBooks, software, member sites, and advertising services.

If you have information to share, or have the ability to research and gather information on a niche topic (and we all have that ability!), you can earn money using this model. For centuries, people have been making money providing information and related products and services, and this reality will continue forever.

It all boils down to helping people save time and money.? You provide a product or service that allows them the option to avoid learning something the hard way ? through research of their own. Essentially, you do the research, or share what you already know, and sell the help people need. The bigger the need for your specialized information or services, the higher prices you can demand.

When you consider an online global audience, you can create and sell just about anything. If there is a market for it, you can build your business around it.

For instance, let?s say I was really into healthy eating. If I wanted to make a living in that niche, the first step I would take would be to find out exactly what healthy eating enthusiasts are searching for. As we did in determining our niche, I would use the Google Keyword Research tool. Do they want to learn how to prepare new dishes? Do they want to know the best places to eat out in a healthy way? Maybe they would be interested in training videos?that?show them how to prepare recipes? ?Perhaps they are interested in healthy eating for kids? Or, are they concerned about the cost? How about an eBook on Eating Healthy on a Budget. I think you get the idea. You find a niche that interests you, see what people are searching for and fill the need.

Now let?s consider an approach for those of you who do not have the time or inclination to create, or may want to do both?

Selling Existing Products and Services

It is also possible to earn money online selling existing products and services. There are two ways to do this.? You can acquire the rights to a product, or you can promote products and services as an affiliate.

I?ll touch briefly on resale rights first. As you search the Internet you?ll see many products, especially in the Internet marketing niche, being sold with resale rights. While this can be a profitable model, you might consider that if you go this route, you will be competing against all the other people who also bought those rights. That can create a competition problem if there are thousands of others selling the same thing.? First and foremost, you must be a better marketer.

I?ve watched many marketers get caught up in a price war when selling products they bought resale rights to. And when savvy customers realize that they are about to buy a product that is a resale item, they tend to shop the web for the merchant with lowest price. That can be detrimental for your sales volume and profit.

Personally, I believe the best way to utilize resale rights products is to include them in your existing product line ? a method to expand your offerings and provide depth. You certainly don?t want to put all your eggs in the resale rights basket. Marketing only products that others are marketing as well, can give your business identity problems, as well as profit margin issues.

In that connection, consider with me that affiliate marketing may present more versatility and profit in the long run. So let?s see?

Affiliate marketing is simply promoting existing products or services on a commission only basis. Each time you make a sale you earn a commission. There are affiliate programs in just about any niche you can imagine. Whatever niche you plan to develop your business around, you?ll more than likely be able to find affiliate programs you can join.

I know personally how profitable this model can be. You see, in addition to selling my own products and services, I often promote products as an affiliate. Each month I receive checks, these affiliate checks are from merchants paying me commissions on sales I made for them.

As with anything, there are advantages and disadvantages to affiliate marketing.

Advantages:

You save time and money since all the product creation has already been done by the merchant.
There is no need to worry about payment processing or order fulfillment since the merchant handles those aspects.

Disadvantages:

You give up control and profit when using this strategy since you do not own the products.
You cannot open your own affiliate program and use the massive power of affiliates, since you do not own the product.

If you want to give this affiliate business model a try, you should start by deciding what niche interests you most?sound familiar? Affiliate marketing is done best when you focus on one niche at a time. There are affiliate programs in just about any niche imaginable, so start with something you are familiar with will make it fun and less stressful.

Some might suggest otherwise, but I would submit that whether you choose to create your own products, or sell affiliate products, you still need a web presence!?Only with a real web presence can you grow a list of prospects, follow up with them on auto-pilot, build relationships and make sales. Stay tuned for more on that?.

You can find a number of recommendations throughout our blog on tools and vendors.? For now, here?s a?short list of some of the web-based services I have used and recommend. Particularly when I started, I relied on many of these services to help grow my business?

Web Hosting
HostGator:?Inexpensive web hosting with great tech support and a website builder.

Web Design
Kompozer: An easy to use WYSIWYG (Stands for What You See Is What You Get) web design program that?s 100% free.
XSitePro:?A more robust site building tool that?s very easy to use.
WordPress: A free, Web-based software program that anyone can use to build and maintain a website or blog.

Automation
AWeber: The web?s most respected and reliable autoresponder service
GetResponse: Some would prefer this over AWeber
WebBusinessWizard: My private label 1shoppingcart.com site, takes orders, follow-ups up with prospects and customers, builds your opt-in lists,?handles affiliate programs, etc.
Alertra: Website uptime monitoring alerts you via email or phone if your site?goes down
iDrive: Free web-based backups of all your important files

E-Commerce

Paypal: Perhaps the easiest way to accept credit cards online, be sure to offer this option to your customers.
ClickBank: Order processing plus access to a built-in affiliate network.
Paydotcom: Affiliate Marketing integrated with your PayPal account.
JVZoo: Instant Commission Platform for Sellers and Affiliates
DigiResults: Affiliate and Vendor platform

A few more tools you can use to save time and money?

Gmail: Google?s free and simple email?tool for day to day email activities
Google Keyword Tool: A great tool for researching different niches
Google Analytics: Free statistics for your website
Elance: Outsource?just about?any web business?work inexpensively

And guess what?? Some (but not all) of the above are affiliate links!

Precisely.

Jerry Duling is a Marketing and Business Consultant, Professional Speaker, and Social Media advisor. Jerry shows businesses how to use Social Media to build their brand, generate leads and close sales. Jerry also provides individual resources for the Internet Entrepreneur. Connect with Jerry on Google+.