What Am I Going to Sell?

Two questions that loom large in many new online seller’s minds are (1) What niche am I going to tackle, and (2) What can I possibly sell to make money in my niche?

To be honest, those two questions should never be real difficult.  Why?  There are thousands and thousands of profitable niches to choose from and the number of products and services someone might sell within those niches are probably endless.

When I hear these questions being asked, I always almost automatically assume the challenge for the seller is not that there aren’t enough good alternatives already in the marketplace … the challenge is with the seller making up his mind to focus on one thing and get going.

Niche selection is not a difficult thing.  People purchase products and services in every conceivable industry and marketplace.  No doubt there are some “dry” niches where the money doesn’t flow; but those are not numerous and they can be avoided by completing market research and understanding where the demand lies in an industry.

The greater challenge you have is not in niche selection but rather in how you are going to monetize your effort.

As I see it, the challenge is in putting together a full selling system (could be a funnel but doesn’t have to be that solely).

Gather an audience of like-minded people.  Begin to nurture them and establish a relationship.  Let them experience your expertise and authority in the niche.  Produce content that can be used to both attract new prospects and also for nourishing your subscribers.  Ask your email list participants what they would like to see from you!  If you’ve done a good job of market research you will already have a good idea of the types of products you can offer with success … but engaging your audience will confirm if you are on the right track.  In addition, it will plant a seed in the audience’s mind that you are someone that listens to and responds to the needs of his followers.

Many new online sellers complain that they can’t create a product to sell.  They fear that their own creation “won’t be good enough” or that there are already plenty of good product alternatives in the marketplace.

Sellers need to adopt a different mindset.  Instead of focusing on negative thoughts, it’s much more productive to think of your own product as being better, or an improvement, or a new approach to what the competition is selling.  And even if you don’t have confidence in your own ability to create a product … there are always ways to get products created. Here are just a few:

1. Do it yourself. IMO, this is the best alternative. Open you mind to the possibilities – physical products, video products, audio products, and lots of other formats.

2. Interview professionals in the niche and sell their advice or teaching.

3. Create a newsletter, a magazine, even just a helpful email service in the niche.

4. Go to your audience and get them to contribute their stories, experiences, expertise in the niche, etc – compile what you get and sell it.

5. Hire ghostwriters, free lancers, etc – let them interview you on your expertise and have them compile the product.

6. Use PLR (only top quality) or public domain material. I know there is a treasure trove of public domain information and images on most every subject imaginable.

7. Partner with other niche experts. Let them do the advising and teaching (if you don’t like that part of it) and you do the compiling and marketing.

8. License niche material. This is very powerful. I sell a bunch of courses and ebooks I have licensed. I paid a fee to become a license holder and I keep 100% of everything I make on the material. Usually I pay for the license within the first 2 or 3 sales of the material.

9. Sell physical goods if you can find the right demand and suppliers.

10. Create a membership site and feed your audience with any combinations of the above strategies.

Don’t be fooled into thinking there is any limit to what you can create. Do all of the above if you want to. Hire others to help you if you need to. But get something (actually multiple things over time) to sell to your audience that is your own.

OK, there are lots of other ways to come up with things to sell – but I hope you get the point here of what I’m saying – I hope. You’ve got to sell something to make money and that is where I think many would-be online business owners get stuck.

Don’t give up – just keep at it and do whatever you can to start some income flowing – I guarantee you will like the niches you’re in a whole lot better if you begin the income streams flowing.

To your online business success,

Steve Browne

www.SteveBrowneDirect.com