In my last post “The Best Way To Use Youtube With WordPress“, I mentioned that Covert Video Press is our all time best selling WordPress product.
But how do you create a best selling product?
Should you sell products that people need? The answer might surprise you. And that’s because the answer is “not always.”
You see, lots of beginning marketers start out by creating products that people need. But here’s the thing: Needing a product and WANTING a product are not the same thing. If you’re creating products that people need but don’t want, you’ll go bankrupt trying to persuade your prospects that they should want your product.
Instead, start by figuring out what your prospects want. (If they also need the product, that’s even better).
Let me show you what I mean…
What does a male college student need? He needs to get good grades. He needs to attend class. He needs to start getting higher grades on his exams.
But not every college student wants those things. There’s a group of college students who want to play sports and party. Going to class and getting good grades sit low on their priority list (probably somewhere near “cleaning their dorm”).
And that means that if you try to sell something that this group needs, like a “How to Get Straight A’s” book, you’ll fail. Miserably… because they don’t want it.
If you want to make money, you have to figure out what this group wants. You have to figure out what they’re already buying. And then you have to create something a little better.
For example, maybe this particular niche market devours books about drinking games. Or maybe this group wants to know how to go on a cheap spring break vacation to party spots like Cancun. Or who knows, perhaps this group wants to know how to get washboard abs so they can look great on the beach during spring break.
See what I mean? Bottom line is this: If you give people what they want (even if you don’t think they need it), you’ll find the money. And if you give people products they both want and need, you’ll do even better.
And now for the million-dollar question…
How do you find out what people want?
Some experts suggest that you survey your market. You ask them. But you know what? While surveys can give you some interesting insights and ideas you’d never have thought about before, surveys can also be biased. Just because someone says they would buy a certain type of product doesn’t mean they actually would buy it if the opportunity arose.
So here’s what you do instead…
Find out what your market is ALREADY buying. Now you don’t have to guess whether the survey is accurate. You don’t have to predict what your market would do in “real life.” You find out for sure by seeing where your market already spends their money.
If you’re selling information products (like ebooks), then you can start by:
* Finding out what’s selling on Clickbank and JVZoo
* Finding out what kinds of books your market is buying on Amazon.com.
* Finding out what the top websites in your niche are selling and advertising. (Just search for your main keywords in Google and see what your competitors are selling/promoting.)
It’s that easy.
Now, just knowing you need to create a product that your market wants isn’t going to automatically put profits in your pocket. You also need to figure out what kind of product you should create. And you need to learn the secrets of creating hot products, fast.
You can learn about these issues and more by claiming your free Product Profits Club Silver membership (normally $27.00). You’ll save time and money once you know these product creation secrets! Just Use This Special Link For Free Access!
There is another approach, Soren. And that is to educate the market that what they “want” is what they truly need. That, to me, is the ultimate challenge. And I admit, 9.99 times out of 10 this approach leads to failure. It requires tremendous patience. And I am the first to admit, it is a foolish approach. 12 years ago I started a website that asked the questions, “What are you going to do when… you go to the grocery store and the shelves are bare? You flip the light switch and nothing happens?”, etc. The site floundered for 10 years, just like the cartoon above. Nowadays, of course, there is definitely a thriving “survivalist” niche. But “civilization” is held together by the slenderest of threads. And those fundamental needs of survival and independence are still no where on the radar of more than 1 or 2% of the marketplace. It is frustrating. Especially since I want to build relationships with customers where there is mutual RESPECT. And for me, that means helping (and respecting) those that want the “straight A’s”, not the party animals. So there I am, with a “lemonade stand” amid tumbleweeds in a ghost town. I understand if my objective is to make money I must appeal to the “wants” of the marketplace. I understand it as a fact. Please understand I don’t mean this as a judgement on others, but for me to take the approach of appealing to the masses for money and giving into their “wants” is, in a word, cynical. There’s nothing wrong with that. It just is. My taking that approach would simply make me feel cynical. I sometimes think that marketing, next to politics, is the most cynical of professions. So the question is: Is that what I “WANT”? And the answer is, “no”. But it is, as hard as it is for me to admit, most likely what I “need”.
Educating the public is very very expensive. You’ll go broke before you can complete that job.
I believe that there is more to the eye than just knowing what your market wants. Whilst this is obviously an important factor in your product choosing strategy, you also have to work out how to create a product that you believe that your market wants.
This brings about a lot of research into a niche that you may not know a lot about, so it is actually you who has to learn all about it in order to create the right product, then teach what you have learned to your new students.
Whilst I agree with you 100%, it is much easier to find a niche based on the needs of your target market than what they may want. As in your example, you easily know that many students will need to improve their grades, but it is much harder to extract what a high percentage of these people actually want, unless you can group them into something more collective – otherwise you have to guess that they want to party, or play sport, or have slumber parties, etc. This is not as scientific.
Thanks for a good article. t brings up a few good points, some of which I have outlined.
Barry