|
|
May 23, 2003 ( http://www.infoproductcreator.com) jeff@infoproductcreator.com Subscribe via Email by Clicking Here Subscribe via Web: http://www.infoproductcreator.com/ezine1.html
Update From Jeff Hello again everyone, thanks for reading this issue. How is your information product coming? Do you have an idea that you are confident about taking to market? Many of you who have been with me for a while, loyal and supportive, will know that I forever harp on how important it is to develop your own information product. It doesn't have to be a masterpiece. It doesn't have to be an eBook - it could be a 15-20 page Special Report, a series of interviews, a taped telephone interview, a 50-page eBook, a newsletter. Point is - do SOMETHING original. Something that YOU own and can leverage for additional sales in the future.... Oh yes and... It better be something that people want - BADLY. Today's feature article let's you in on a technique that I - and I know many others - use to find golden product ideas. You'll learn a new way to scan discussion forums, find product opportunities and how to use them to your personal advantage. There's also a terrific excerpt from a recent interview I ran with Yanik Silver - he's a tough guy to track down these days! Be sure to send me an email with updates on your information product projects - it's great hearing from many of you each week, sometimes I can even help! Jeff jeff@infoproductcreator.com How To Find Golden Product Ideas On Discussion ForumsCopyright 2003 - Jeff Smith Let's me start off with a wild guess! You either think discussion boards are a bleeping waste of time - because so many of them are full of junk, or ....you think of discussion boards as a method of getting your questions answered. What you probably HAVE NOT done is mine them for golden nuggets that you can quickly and easily turn into high profit products. Software, eBooks, special reports, services, it doesn't matter. You can find intriguing product ideas everyday on the better discussion forums... Here's how. First, let's start with how you find super profitable product ideas, then I'll give you some forums I bet you've never heard of before. So how do you find product ideas in the maze of discussions and opinions on the board? 1. Learn to scan your favorites daily Pick at least 6 of the best quality, highest traffic discussion boards in your area of interest. We'll give you some options below. Make it part of your daily MO (Mode of Operation) to capture potentially hot ideas using the techniques below. 2. Look for "Idea Triggers" These include questions "How Do I", "Where can I find...", "Does anyone know where...", "Wanted..." Idea Triggers may also be statements of frustration or disapproval like "I wish there was a way to...", "It would be so much easier if...", "I can't believe I had to..." It's quite rare for any single question or statement to have only been made once on popular forums - chances are you will often stumble on similar questions or desires. 3. Pattern Watch Think of yourself as a detective Joe Friday. You want to learn the sometimes hidden desires and motivations of your buyers. A common detective technique is to look for patterns of behavior. Find a few questions and search forum archives over a 3-6 month period to see how many others have asked similar questions. It's incredible when you see how similar we all are with our wants. 4. Look for Hot Spots on Discussion Forums Another technique is to search for the posts with the most responses - many forums have this as an archived search, if not, you can easily scan to see the threads with the most responses and views. Again, this will help you quickly focus in on pockets of high emotional demand - exactly what you want as a product developer/marketer. 5. Go fishing - post inquiry questions You may have posted specific questions on boards before to answer a very urgent or focused question you may have. But - how about posting questions about a certain topic to see if you can generate idea triggers. You'll see the big names in any industry doing this once in a while. They typically keep a low profile, then come out of the woodwork to ask the group a question about a certain topic. They are fishing, looking for a school of fish within their market - then when they find something, they'll set the hook with the perfect bait to capture that group's attention, not to mention their wallets. 6. Start your own discussion forum While won't happen overnight, there have been many examples of forums ramping up on high demand subjects in as little as 30-days. Running your own forum lets you test markets, build your online brand, provide an endless source of product ideas and a test bed for your new concepts and products. 5 Free Forums You Need To Be Watching! Here are a sampling of the forums I keep a regular watch on - and have used to build new market understanding as well as several profitable product and marketing ideas: http://www.ablake.net/forum/ http://www.gethighforums.com/ http://www.sitepointforums.com/ http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/ http://www.wilsonweb.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi/ 2 Membership Forums I Couldn't Live Without It's inevitable, as forum owners strive to keep their forums valuable and attractive to the big, successful names in their industry - they move to a paid membership model. Here's 2 that I've found incredibly valuable: http://www.infoproductcreator.com/part/net.html http://www.infoproductcreator.com/part/myers/ The internet is LOADED with high quality discussion forums on a variety of topics. You should be using this to discover and test your product ideas. Make it part of your daily routine, before you know it, it will become a habit and you will be all the richer for it. AUTHOR'S NOTE: Use This Article With Your Affiliate Link! Please feel free to use this article in it's entirety in your online or offline publication - the only requirement is that you use the following resource box following your article: (Note, sign up for our affiliate program at: http://www.infoproductcreator.com/affiliateinfo.html and substitute your own affiliate link into the resource box): Jeff Smith is an online marketing expert and author of the highly recommended Ultimate Information Entrepreneur's Success Package. Discover exactly how to quickly create one hot selling infoproduct after another. Building your own Infoproduct Empire is easy with the Success Package. See it here:
Yanik Silver - Yanik Silver's Product Development Secrets Special Interview Excerpt Today You've all no doubt of Yanik Silver - if not, come on out of the cave and spend some time with us up here! He's built himself a nice little online business that manages to bring him in a very high 6-figure income - all in less than 3-years online. In discussions and emails I've exchanged with Yanik - he has always talked about the importance of having your own high-demand products. Sure, selling affiliate products is a great strategy for getting started or adding to your monthly paycheck, but the real money is in creating and selling your own infoproducts. Trouble is, less than 5% of infoproducts ever make any "Real" profit. Some of that comes down to testing, in this segment Yanik discusses his testing techniques for a few of the more successful products he's released. Enjoy! If you've missed some of our past POWER Interviews with the experts, then you'll want to hear what Joe Vitale, Yanik Silver, Marc Goldman, Damon Zahariades, Willie Crawford and many others are doing to create, and grow their own Infoproduct Empires. Check out our archives right here... http://www.infoproductcreator.com/ezine1.html Now, for this week's interview excerpt! Jeff [Question] Okay, great. And how do you test your ideas, let's talk a little about testing your ideas. How important do you feel testing the ideas first or, you know, do you just hit the market and that's the test. Or are there techniques that you use to test your products or your ideas first? Yanik [Answer] There are a couple of things that we do. We survey customers. We have a survey that goes out, for instance, when people buy Instant Sales Letters, I think about two weeks later or 18 days later, and it's a whole bunch of different things that's a survey about what they like, what they didn't like. Jeff [Question] Right Yanik [Answer] And it's also a survey of, you know, rank these additional products in order of 1 to 5 on what you think would be most useful for you. And then there's also a place where they can give us feedback, for instance, when collecting testimonials there. Jeff [Question] That's a great tip. Yanik [Answer] So that's one way. I don't really have a very scientific way of doing it. It's really just work it into the marketplace as much as I can. When people email me, reading my emails, that's important. So they'll tell you what they're looking for, what they didn't like. You know, like for instance, with Instant Sales Letters, ==> http://www.infoproductcreator.com/part/ysales.html we never had a section on MLM or business opportunity type stuff. And a lot of people kept calling or emailing us and saying, you know, I'm in this business, do you have this for me. Jeff [Question] I see. Yanik [Answer] And I rarely say no. Jeff [Question] Right (Laughs) Yanik [Answer] … I would feature it on the newsletter selling our product. Yeah, that's really the best way that I found. We've also done, where we will release it out to our list and you could see right away, if it's something pretty hot or not. Jeff [Question] Right, right. I guess that's one of the main points as well. By getting your product out there, relatively quickly and not trying to make it perfect, you'll start to get the feedback that may lead to improvements that really skyrocket your sales, or at least your next product. Yanik [Answer] Right, absolutely. EDITOR'S NOTE anik started with Instant Sales Letters, priced it quite low, sold it with resell rights in order to get mass market penetration for his very first infoproduct. He then built quickly on that success following up with additional products his affiliates and his customer list demanded.... "33 Days to Online Profits:" http://www.infoproductcreator.com/part/33days.html "Copywriting Seminar in a box": http://www.infoproductcreator.com/part/ycopy.html and many, many others... You can use the same model - get your first information product out there, establish a viral marketing campaign and quickly develop additional products for your niche market.
** Are You Crazy! That's what I said to Patric when he emailed me about his latest eBook where he shares the absolute best success quotes, articles and stories from huge names such as Brian Tracey, Anthony Robbins, Napolean Hill, Bob Proctor, and many others. The thing is - HE'S GIVING IT AWAY!! I told him...man, you should be selling this - it's an incredible value. Even better, he let's you sign up for fr^^ updates inside this great resource. Download it now - there's no charge and I know you will thank me (and Patric of course) forever about this one! Download it here... http://www.infoproductcreator.com/download/success.pdf ** Let This Graphics Design Guru Skyrocket Your Online Results" I looked for days and tried out many options for getting my latest eBook covers, banners, ezine cover and order button customized for my site at: http://www.infoproductcreator.com/hypnotic.html Along came Ovi Dodger to the rescue - and man did he produce some killer graphics...all in less than 24-hours. He's a master and a super guy to deal with. When they are done professionally, graphics will improve the sales on your site - so give Ovi a try... http://www.infoproductcreator.com/part/absolutecovers/ **Global Internet Traffic Report Imagine the traffic reporter that has to put these statistics together! Get an instant glance at worldwide internet traffic, performance and congestion readings - it's really quite cool! http://www.internettrafficreport.com/main.htm Have a great weekend. Let me know if I can do anything to help with your project. mailto:jeff@infoproductcreator.com Jeff Smith http://www.infoproductcreator.com ATTENTION: There is only one way that you could be receiving this ezine, that is you, or someone using your email address, subscribed. There is no other way of being added to this list. We do not make this list, or your address, available to ANY other companies or individuals. We value your privacy. Although we work hard to make sure that all of the information in the Profit Secrets newsletter is accurately and genuine as possible, neither the publisher, nor the editor assume any responsibility for the accuracy or otherwise of the information presented. By reading this information, the Information Product Profit Secrets reader assumes all responsibility for an inaccuracies or other risks associated with the information within this newsletter. Jeff Smith Editor Online Marketing Secrets Revealed webmaster@inf oproductcreator.com http://www.infoprod uctcreator.com |