Part 2 of 3: Product marketing - What type of internet marketer are you? (or how to choose your online business model)

Continuing my three part guide on how to choose your online business model, in part two I’m covering reasons to be a product marketer (or merchant). You’ll remember, one of the questions I asked my friend was, “How important is keeping all the money to you?”

Hopefully, you can answer that with a resounding very. And there are many reasons why you should seriously consider this business model. Let’s go.

Part 2 of 3: Product marketing

The best part

I love the idea that you create a digital product, market it to as many affiliates as you can, they market it to everybody else in the digital world and you keep the majority of the money… which keeps rolling in even after you’ve forgotten about creating the product in the first place! Wow. Although this example is a little extreme, if you do it right, your experience as a product marketer should be something along those lines.

Everyone talks about the money being in the list. This is true. And if you have your own product, you’ve guessed it… everyone has to buy from you! Now that’s setting the foundation for creating a huge list. And even if you paid out more in commissions that you kept, you’ve got the list – which you can sell to again and again and again. If this is beginning to sound like too much of a good thing… remember, it is! This, in my humble opinion, is the holy grail of internet marketing. It requires work, but can be achieved like anything else related to having your own business.

Also, as your name recognition spreads, an increasingly greater percentage of people will buy your products because you are now recognized as an expert in your particular field. This is serious credibility on legs! And it also means people with very big lists will be interested in working with you as you’ve built a following and, most importantly, can be trusted to deliver quality.

It also stands to reason that the better your product, the more people will buy it. Ergo, the more money you’ll make. Product quality, therefore, should be your motto; especially if you want people to continue buying the same product way, way into the future. This is the beginning of multiple, passive income streams because, so far, all we’ve talked about is based on just one of your products. One! So imagine the hive of affiliate activity you’ll create and hordes of customers you’ll attract if you crank out a whole line of products. Are you impressed? You should be.

Importantly, making it easy for affiliates to sell your product guarantees passive income. Why? Because when you create all the marketing materials necessary for an affiliate to promote your product, pay a generous commission, provide solid technical support and offer a really good product, he or she will choose yours over your competition’s every time. And that’s the key.

The downside

Some people may point at how long it takes to create and launch your own product as a downside. The truth about this is, although time needs to be invested in a quality product… you only need to do this once. After the product has been created, marketing materials developed, the product site launched and affiliates start joining, you’ll find… there’s not a great deal left to do. So this downside is actually false. And as long as you produce a digital product (which 99% of merchants do) you have no inventory, no quality control and no storage costs. Isn’t this a great position to be?!  :o)

Product marketing pros and cons

Pros

• You keep all the money!

• Affiliates do all your work for you

• You make residual income by selling the same product almost indefinitely

• Increases your credibility as an market expert

• Builds a huge list

• Creates your own brand

• Provides rapid business expansion

• Attracts joint-venture opportunities

Cons

• Time necessary for product research and creation

• Affiliate management (nix that, use ClickBank or a similar program!)

• Sales costs (you’d pay this anyway, irrespective of your type of product or how you sold it)

In conclusion… OK, OK, I’m sold! If you’re prepared to apply the extra research and planning necessary to creating your own products, this is where your time spent really pays for itself. Bravo.