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<\/p>\nBecoming a product creator wasn’t on the top of my to do list when I decided to learn about internet marketing. I’d read so many websites about how you can market other people’s products that I figured it was something to look at down the line.<\/p>\n
Of course, as I’ve been learning more, I realized quickly that creating and selling my own products is going to get me to my goals much faster than marketing someone else’s stuff.<\/p>\n
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll still market as an affiliate. I can’t think of a faster way to offer so many different types of products than to offer other people’s products too. And while I don’t have to spend as much time creating those products, it does take me quite a bit of time to do the research about the products and the product creators before adding them to my list.<\/p>\n
I like to make sure that the people and products I promote are in line with my own ethics and views and that what they do fits well with my plans. It would suck spending time to build a trustworthy brand, only to have it get screwed up by associating with scammy marketers or bad products!<\/p>\n
Does that mean I’ll always be right about the ones I choose to promote? No. But you can bet that if I find out later that the product or creator wasn’t what I originally thought they were, that I’ll let my customers and subscribers know ASAP and stop promoting them!<\/p>\n
Ok, so there’s the rant for the day. Ethical product creators good. Scammy product creators bad.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Back on topic… Putting the product creation puzzle pieces together…<\/p>\n
I’m currently working on getting my first product online so that I can market it. Once the marketing is set up for that one, I’ll continue working on what I think will be one of my first signature line products. I’ve started on the first part so we’ll see where it goes (or doesn’t go) from there. I’m doing it for an upcoming product creation challenge that I’m participating in so I’ll know more later.<\/p>\n
Since I’ve spent so much time working on ideas and educating myself about which avenues of internet marketing I like, I really hadn’t thought of everything it takes in the way of knowledge and tools to go from an idea to marketing the end product, so I’d like to share what I’ve learned so you have some things to think about as you go through the process yourself.<\/p>\n
1 – Membership Sites<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n I always thought that membership sites were for after you’d become an established entrepreneur. I recently came across a very successful online marketer who appears to have his ethics in tact, who says that it’s never too early. Membership sites can be set up as free sites, as partial paid content sites, or as full paid content sites. So if you’re considering having a membership site down the road, there’s no reason not to learn to set them up from the start.<\/p>\n In my eyes, it’s one less learning curve I would have had in front of me if I had thought about them that way earlier on.<\/p>\n 2 – Sales Pages<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n There’s not a product in the world that I’m going to create that isn’t going to require a sales page.<\/p>\n Yes, you can certainly start out with a sales page that’s pretty much done for you from a technical standpoint. After all, that’s why we’ve always loved sites like Squidoo and Hub Pages right… add content and go.<\/p>\n But I want to know how to do those pretty one page, matches my main site (or at least my product cover) type pages that really make an impression. \u00a0I’m sure I can and will eventually outsource them, but I don’t like to outsource something that I haven’t done. And at a minimum, I want to know what makes one convert better than another. Otherwise, how will you know whether your VA really knows?<\/p>\n And who knows? You may find out that you like it enough to add it as a personal service you can offer to others!<\/p>\n 3 – Product Creation<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Obviously this is the primary reason I started looking at all this stuff to begin with. There are products I’ve bought that really “wow” me and there are many more that are just so-so. I want to quickly learn as much as I can about creating “wow” products.<\/p>\n There’s a certain art and science combination to product creation I think and while the left-hander part of my brain has a vague idea of the artistic side, the other side knows I better know a bit more than just that if I want to make a living at it.<\/p>\n I would definitely recommend digging out a few of those products sitting on your hard drive and start taking mental notes… or written would be better… about the little things you like and dislike about how they’re put together and presented. That way you’ll have a head start on your own products!<\/p>\n 4 – List Building<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n When you run an online business, you’re going to be working with companies who also make THEIR decisions about how their business is run (Google, Squidoo, Facebook, & YouTube just to name a few).<\/p>\n By building lists, you’ll be creating relationships with your customers, other product creators, affiliates, and other list builders. There’s no better way to build a long-term stable income online than having a way to contact people interested in what you have to say and offer.<\/p>\n Having a list will allow other companies to make their changes without completely wiping out your business and income. And that’s going to let you sleep more sound!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 5 – Your Own Affiliate Program<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n This is another area that you’re going to have to make some decisions about. I used to think the only decision was whether to have one or not have one. But there’s more to it than that.<\/p>\n First of all, as far as that choice goes, why would you NOT have one?! Why would you want to be the only person marketing your products?<\/p>\n I can tell you that for me, whenever I find a product that I like well enough to spend my money on, especially online, I go looking to see if they have an affiliate program. If I like what I bought, I’m going to tell people about it as I find people looking for something similar. And it’s kinda cool when you can make money just by talking about what you’re going to be talking about anyway!<\/p>\n And yes, I realize that not every online shopper even knows what an affiliate program is or how it works. That’s why you’ll also set up an affiliate page to explain what it is. But let’s say that only one out of every 10 people who purchase a product from you are like I am. That’s one more person who will be telling others about your stuff!<\/p>\n 6 – Shopping Carts<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n If you’re selling products, you’ve got to have a way to get them to your customers. And whether you sell physical products or virtual information products, you are NOT going to want to be available 24\/7 to immediately ship or send the products that get ordered.<\/p>\n But wouldn’t it be great if you had a system that could be there to do it while you’re not? That way you can actually sleep, eat, play, and have a life while keeping your customers, no matter where they are around the world, happy!<\/p>\n 7 – Advertising<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n Having a great product or an awesome website is great, but not if people can’t find you or don’t know about you. Advertising, done the right way, can make a huge difference to your bottom line.<\/p>\n But where do you market? Who do you offer your products to? Should you pay for advertising? Are there free places to advertise that work? Or should you just depend on SEO, backlinks, and free Google rankings?<\/p>\n Those are the questions that will drive you nuts when you start looking into them. There are hundreds if not thousands of companies that are begging for your advertising dollars. As a business owner, you want to be sure that you’re getting the best bang for your buck. The bottom line is that the less money you spend on business expenses, the more money you’re going to have for playing, traveling, sending your kids to school, or whatever your own financial goals include!<\/p>\n So now what?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n During the past few weeks while I’ve been getting everything else set up, I’d bookmarked several places, products, & people that I wanted to check out in regards to those areas.<\/span><\/p>\n This past weekend\u2026 I went on a shopping spree & ended up with a ton of Shiny New Objects<\/strong><\/span><\/a>!<\/p>\n So, I’m going to put together a list of what I found and I’ll get that out in my next post.<\/p>\n Your Turn:\u00a0Have you created any of your own products or plan to? Do you eventually want to create membership sites? I’d love to hear your feedback.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Subscribe to my list so you won’t miss out on any of my subscriber-only specials! And be sure to include your links in the comments below. I use CommentLuv<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>to link to your blog so you can build automatic backlinks that Google will love!<\/em><\/p>\n