What to sell online in 2008
By Dwain Jeworski
Every week, we get dozens of emails asking the exact same question: "Help! What should I sell online?"
Now, at IMC we're not going to tell you exactly what product you should sell to make great money on the Internet.
(After all, if we told the
thousands of you who read this blog to start selling "Product X," then you'd be facing quite a lot of competition, wouldn't you???)
But what we
will do is tell you exactly what TYPE of product you should be selling, if you want to reap the greatest profits from all your online efforts.
And that type of product is...?
INFORMATION.
Yes, you read that right. Information is by far the most profitable kind of product you can sell online.
Why?
Think about it for a moment... What do the vast majority of Internet users go online to search for?
That's right.
Information. Which means that by selling highly sought-after information on your website, you're giving people exactly what they're looking for!
And that's a recipe for online success.
Here are some more reasons why information is the best type of product to sell on the Internet...
When you sell "hard" products that require physical delivery, you have to deal with the cost and hassle of manufacturing, stocking, and packaging -- not to mention shipping your product. And all those things take a serious bite out of your profit margin.
However, when you sell information -- in the form of an electronic "eBook," for example -- once you've created your master copy, you can make countless duplications of it, at NO additional cost. Your manufacturing, stocking, and packaging expenses are non-existent!
And because you can deliver your electronic eBook instantly to your customers, your shipping costs are zero, as well.
That means
your profit margin is 100%!
Your customers will be especially attracted by the promise of instant gratification. They won't have to wait days (or even weeks!) for their product to arrive -- it'll get downloaded to their desktop in just a minute or two, which means they can start accessing that information right away.
And once your website is up and running, you can automate your entire business so it takes just an hour or two a week to run! You can set up your order form and "shopping cart" system to automatically process the order, put the money in your bank account, and electronically deliver your product to the customer. It's the perfect "hands-free" business!
... And you don't even have to be a writer!
To create a best-selling eBook, you don't even have to be a professional writer! You can hire someone else to do the writing for you. Simply tell them what topics you want your eBook to cover, and then let them go to it.
(A great place to hire writers who won't charge you an arm and a leg is
www.elance.com.)
Or, if you're just starting out and don't have any extra money to invest in product development, you could create an "interview compilation" book. All you have to do is interview various leaders in your industry then type up the interviews and put them all together in your eBook.
For example, if you want to sell a book on how to house-train a puppy, interview three or four well-known dog trainers in your area. Then type up the transcripts of the interviews and put them together in an eBook.
You could even consider compiling articles written by other people that focus on a particular topic of interest to your customers. Maybe there are already a bunch of articles online that talk in detail about the different ways to house-train a puppy.
All you have to do is get permission from the original authors to reuse their content, put all the articles together into an eBook, and ta-da! You've got a product on your hands.
How do you get permission from the authors?
Simply explain to them that your eBook will provide great publicity for them and let them know you are planning to widely distribute the final product. Make sure they understand they'll receive full credit for their work and that their contact information will be made available to readers (along with mention of other products and services they might offer).
Once you have compiled all of the contributors' work, you should have a highly valuable publication on your hands. And you didn't have to write any of it yourself!
The FASTEST way to be making good money online
You can write a profit-generating eBook -- and build the site to sell it -- in as little as 2-3 weeks. There's no faster way to make a solid income selling your very own product online.
And once your site is up and running, you can get feedback from your visitors and customers and start testing new ways to sell to them, so you can perfect your product and your sales process so it's making maximum profits in the minimum amount of time.
But that's not all... Once your eBook business is truly booming, you can start adding more products on to the back end, which you can then sell to your customers and boost your profits still higher!
So that's my best possible answer to the never-ending question of, "What do I sell online?"
If you have ever experienced any challenges -- or successes! -- setting up a site that sells an eBook, go to our blog and leave us a comment telling us about them.
Click on:
http://blog.marketingtips.com/wp/ebook-success/featured-articles
... And leave us your comment at the end of the article.
We're eager to hear your stories!
Note: Dwain Jeworski is IMC's VP of Marketing. 
I figure there is no better way to start the New Year, than by rolling out one of the most powerful business-building systems the Internet community has ever seen.
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