7 Steps to Finding a Great Product to Promote
When someone starts out online, they can be overwhelmed by the volume of products and programs they find. It gets even worse once they decide to try their hand at making money online.
Long gone are the days when you could just put up a site, add a few ads, and send out some emails. Yes, that did exist, but not for long and now quite some time ago.
Today, despite the fact that you'll be told, time and time again, that it's easy to put up a product online and make a killing...the majority of products and programs out there do not live up to the promise
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1. Find something you're interested in.
This seems very basic, but you are going to be spending time and effort on your online business, so if it's something that you're interested in and enjoy, it will make the task much easier. Also, if you're interested in it, chances are that others will be too.
Make a list of at least five to ten subjects/items/ideas for things that you would enjoy working and marketing with.
2. Is there a market/demand for each item?
You're looking for something for which there is a ready made demand. Too many people make the mistake of thinking that they can create a demand for their product. That takes a lot of time, effort and money. Satisfying an already existing demand is much easier.
A good tool to find out how many people are looking online for something is by using Google's 'Keyword Planner' that has an entire suite of features that will help you identify a keyword’s growing (or shrinking) popularity.
Broaden your search by using other Search engines, like Bing and Yahoo, to get a wider picture. Do not forget offline research too. Ads in magazines for example, are a good indicator of demand. Time spent on research now is never wasted.
By now your list should have shrunk somewhat, as you have discarded items with less interest than others.
3. Competition
You also need to take a look at the competition you will be up against in your field. Do not make the mistake of thinking too much competition means no room for you.
On the contrary, it means there is a big market and if you can find a way of making your item/product/service just that little bit different, you can still do very well, even with competition.
But you need to know what your competition is, in order to be able to compete.
Again Google can help. How many websites are there?
Take a look at the top ten or so websites for your given item/product. Are their products the same as yours? How well are they doing? Could you make your website or product better, different or more attractive?
4. Finding a product to promote
If you intend selling a product you've produced yourself, the next steps will not apply. However, many people begin by promoting products as a Clickbank affiliate marketer.
Clickbank is extremely popular and attracts high numbers of affiliates selling its products.
There is still, however, plenty of earnings to be made if you research the products, and their commission structure, for the ones which will provide the best return for the effort required to promote it.
5. Check the commission payment
Promoting other peoples products is only worthwhile if you are being paid enough to do it. You will have some costs involved, so the commission has to be worth your time and effort.
Check the percent of the sales price they offer to pay you when you generate a sale. A general guide is to expect 50% to 75% for downloadable digital products like ebooks, videos, memberships or software, and 15% to 20% for physical products that have to be shipped. A larger company with multiple products may include volume bonuses or incentives for introducing other marketers to the firm.
6. Do they provide any Affiliate resources?
A good company will provide affiliates with a website, and marketing tools such as pre-written emails, ads, banners and possibly CDs, fliers, business cards. Do they provide any training or other marketing information, or support for their affiliates?
7. Refunds/Complaints
This last step is still an extremely important one. You need to know that the company/product has a good reputation and sells well. While the offer may look great, there is no point in you putting your efforts into something that has a large returns rate, for example.
If the item is sold through Clickbank, their statistics show a refund rate. Another good way to check is by doing a search on Google. Put in the company name, and it quite often brings up both complaints and recommendations. It's worth verifying that these are generated by private individuals.
You can be fairly confident you have found a good product, service, or company if it/they have passed all the above. It's now up to you to make your offer just that little bit different...more tempting and irresistible than the competition, and you should be on to a winner.
