Passion to Profits: How to Start a Profitable Online Business That You Love by Ron - HTML preview

Chapter 12

Creating Your Products

Imagine that you have an idea for a product that you THINK people would be interested in. You put a lot of time and money developing your product and then you proudly offer it for sale… and no one buys it.

This happens more often than you think. So how do you know what people would buy? One of the many advantages of running an online business is that you can test ideas quickly and cheaply (or free).

That’s one of the advantages of building an email list. If you have enough people who are on your list and have been interested in what you have been writing about or presenting on you site; through a series of questions you can find out what problems they have or information they want that you can provide and they would be willing to pay for.

Then you can start with small, easy to produce products until you are sure you have items people are willing to pay for and are of a high quality.

Example – On your “Health and Nutrition for New Moms” site you do a survey and find out that your community is very interested in learning how to prepare quick, easy and cheap nutritious meals that they can prepare in advance. So you put together an eBook that you offer for $9.95 and it sells like hotcakes.

You then produce YouTube videos showing in detail how to prepare these types of meals and people can’t get enough.

You then put together an 8 week course complete with training videos, menus, tips and hints.

You allow your products/services to grow AFTER you know what your potential customers are interested in.

Remember -

The 6 key areas that are the easiest to monetize:

1. Making or saving money

2. Increasing health

3. Relationships

4. Saving time or convenience

5. Pets

6. Hobbies

Here is what sells the best/quickest:

• A product with a specific solution. (One problem – one solution)
• A product that offers a step-by-step process.
• A product that delivers rapid results.

These are not the only things that sell … just the best and quickest.

 Here are some of your product choices:

• eBook
• Physical book or guide
• Audio or video guide
• CD or DVD
• Teleseminar
• Webinar
• Group or personal coaching
• Online training course
• Affiliate product (Someone else’s product)

Which product or services you choose will depend on several factors; including your target market and what you feel comfortable delivering.

 Test the interest in your product before you produce it on a larger scale.

• Survey your audience: Using a service such as www.surveymonkey.com You can ask your audience what they want; what they are struggling with; what problems do they want solved. And then go about meeting those needs and solving those problems for them.
• Offer a ‘basic’ version or ‘trial’ offer first.
• Offer an inexpensive eBook or guide to test the waters.
• Offer a 4 week teleconference before a full scale course.
• Offer a ‘pilot’ coaching program first.

Learn from each ‘trial run’ and keep improving until you have a first class in– demand product or service.

 Keep in mind that people will pay for solutions but not necessarily pay  for what you are passionate about.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

You are passionate about meditation but not a lot of people are signing up for your services.

However, people will pay to learn how to lower their blood pressure without medication and improve their health. People will also pay to be able to sleep better. Both of which can be accomplished through meditation. Don’t assume people automatically make that connection.

Plus a big part of being profitable is knowing where and how to reach your target audience. So if you are targeting people with high blood pressure or sleeping problems you will be able to find them and create compelling headlines that speak directly to the problem that you can help them solve. Thus making your passion more profitable.

Here’s another example:

Let’s say you are passionate about helping others increase their self-esteem and confidence. You begin selling a program/book about the topic but sales are weak. That’s because you have not identified a clear solution to someone’s problem.

But what if you advertised: “Do you have trouble meeting new people because you are shy? I will teach you how to find your soul mate in less than 3 months”. That is a specific solution to a problem people will pay for. And you are doing the same thing, helping others increase their self-esteem and confidence. Something you are passionate about.

These are just two of many examples that I could give you. The point is; if you want to monetize your passion, you have to ask yourself, what specific problem can you help someone solve? Sometimes it’s just a matter of reframing your passion.

Here are some technology tools that can help you create products:

• Audio products: Record instructions and save as an MP3 file. You can  also interview experts in your field as part of your offerings.  www.audacity.com  (free service)
• Video products: Record ‘how to’ instructions with your phone, camera  or iPad.

 www.youtube.com  (free service)

 www.wistia.com or www.vimeo.com  (paid services)

• Screen capture instruction: www.screencast-o-matic.com (basic is free) or www.camtasia.com (paid service)
• Online courses:

 www.udemy.com  free online teaching platform) or www.ruzuku.com

• Teleseminars:

 www.freeconferencecall.com (Up to 150 attendees. Can record)

• Webinars:

www.anymeeting.com (Free for up to 200 attendees. Screen share.

Record) or www.gotowebinar.com (paid service) This is the one I use.

• Affiliate products:

www.clickbank.com They have thousands of products to sell and earn commissions. Find products that would be of interest to your audience; set up an affiliate link on your website (clickbank will show you how); and earn a commission on every product that’s sold. (Usually 50%)