Sell Product and Service Online
Should I Sell a Product or Service Online?
One of the first things you will have to decide
when setting up an Internet business is whether you want to sell a product or
a service, both of which have their advantages and disadvantages.
Products:
- Advantage: unlimited income potential because you are not
constrained by time, the way you are with a service (the more product you sell
the more income you make - especially when you are automated).
- Disadvantage: requires stocking and shipping (or drop-shipping
from a supplier).
- Disadvantage: generally requires you filling large amounts
of orders to make a reasonable living, unless you have a product with a very high
profit margin.
Services:
- Advantage: it is easier to make a profit quickly because the
entire price of a service is paid to you (except for any overhead).
- Advantage: services can generate a great residual income because
the client may want to hire your services again and again.
- Disadvantage: you are limited to a modest income because you
can provide only so many services each day (unless you hire employees to perform
services for clients).
In my opinion, selling a product online has, by far seen
the biggest profit potential in the long run. Once you get a successful product,
you can automate the system and move on to new products that will generate multiple
streams of income.
If you need immediate cash flow, providing a service is the
fastest way to produce instant income... but it will never pay off as big, in
the long run, as selling a product with a high profit margin.
If you sell a service, think about how you can transform it
into a product. One of the best examples I can think of is regarding the people
who submit websites to search engines. Because the competition got so fierce and
their business began to suffer, some wrote and sold reports revealing how search
engines work and tricks for getting sites listed higher etc. The reports were
priced at $20 -$100, and the entrepreneurs in our example found new markets to
tap.
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