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.

Keep on Winning

Regards

Jim

About the Author

Do you want to learn more about how I do it? I have just completed my brand new guide to Internet Marketing Success.

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Download it free here: http://homebasedbusinessontheweb.com/cap/

Jim Keayes is an expert Internet Marketer with many years of successful experience.