Establish Your Uniqueness!

Look, creating products is not that difficult, as I’m sure you’re aware of by now. But if you really want to make good money in this business and establish yourself as a respected expert, you have to be unique! This is so important that it’s worth repeating several times.

Come up with a unique product or service, or as mentioned earlier, a unique twist/angle to an existing product. (Of course, the latter is much easier and quicker to do.)

If you’re in a highly competitive niche, take existing ideas and products and find ways to improve on them considerably.

Look for an area within your field/niche that needs attention but isn’t getting any. Look for ‘holes’ in your niche.

What are the main problems and frustrations of customers that other marketers and business owners aren’t addressing?

Look for something that’s highly needed but not being addressed by others. Do surveys, visit message boards and forums, etc.

Target a sub-niche (a smaller niche within a large niche) that isn’t overflowing with competition, or one that isn’t being addressed yet.

Example: When I first got into online marketing, the ’spam’ laws were just beginning to come about. Marketers were just starting to get away from sending unsolicited email because they didn’t want to get in trouble. The online business was changing. New marketers were tip-toeing around the issue. They either got in trouble for sending unsolicited email, or were too afraid to even approach email marketing in fear of being labeled a ’spammer.’

I noticed the area that needed attention: permission email marketing. Email marketing was the easiest and cheapest way to build a business. But people were too afraid to use it. They needed a step-by-step guide to using email marketing the ‘right way’ - using opt-in methods so they wouldn’t get in trouble.

So, that’s what I wrote about. And, that’s the book that put me on the map… Email Marketing Strategies Revealed! was born.

Find out what’s missing from your market and fill that need!  Study your market. Find the holes, and then find a way to fill them.

If you don’t think you have the skills needed, find someone who does and market that person’s assets!

Example: think of celebrity agents. They don’t have the acting/dancing/singing skills themselves. But it doesn’t matter because they go out and find the talent, then they sell that talent!

A really powerful way to come up with unique ideas is to study other businesses that are NOT related to your market. If you’re in the online marketing field, look at the real estate business, the plumbing business or any other non-related business. If you look closely, with an open mind, you will find many creative and unique ideas that you can bring back to your own business and surprise your market! They will think you’re a creative genius!

Don’t hold back when you’re trying to come up with new and creative ideas. Let your brain take off - freely and unhindered. Think back to when you were 8 years old. Get back in touch with that “nothing is impossible” energy that children possess. That can be your greatest ally in business.

Every now and then I’ll come up with a completely original product idea, but usually it’s just stuff I see happening around me. I look at what’s already selling, what’s already (or is starting to become) popular.
I use my creativity to put new twists to existing “winning” ideas. That’s the shortest route to success!

By giving it a twist, it sort of becomes a unique product. Just learn to pay attention. Keep one ear on the ground. Notice what’s getting the most shelf space in bookstores. Visit discussion groups in your niche. Get on mailing lists, etc.

In short, get out there and hang out among your customers and competitors (either online, offline, or both.) Do that and you’ll never run out of ideas to write about.

However, I’d strongly recommend that you give your product idea a little “twist.”  Make it unique in some way so that it’s not the same ol’ product that everyone else is selling.

That little twist can make your product stand out and sell very well.

Here’s an example from the past…

When I first started my ‘Secret Collection’ of ebooks several years ago, no one was selling it the way I was. People were selling individual reports, on various niche subjects, but you rarely saw anyone put it together the way I had.

And there was a reason no one was doing it. It was difficult to group those products together and still maintain a “theme.”  I’m talking about subjects like online investigation, self defense, credit tips, beating speeding tickets, UFO’s, etc. None of these products had anything to do with each other.

Well, I decided to use the “secrets” theme. My main selling point (and headline) was.. “Discover Secrets You’re Not Supposed To Know About!”

And, in the package, I revealed online investigative secrets, self defense secrets, credit secrets, UFO secrets… and so on. Suddenly, all these products - on different subjects that normally could not be grouped together -  worked very well as a “package.”

My uniqueness in this case was the way I “packaged” the products, and of course the “secrets” hook that I used. The moment I gave it a “theme” it was a hit.

I got the “package/membership site” idea from Tom Hua’s “Free To Sell” package back in 2001. So it wasn’t an original idea. (Like I said, pay attention to the top marketers and you’ll get lots of ideas.)

But, I gave it a twist that was original. At least for the online crowd.

So… you don’t have to be an inventive genius to have a hot product. Just watch for what’s selling. Then, focus on solving problems, on providing solutions, on creating value for others, on making your product better than what’s already out there, and you’ll do fine.

Power Tip: Here’s another major reason for coming up with a unique product. Not only will the customers love your product (since they’re always after what’s “new” and “hot,” a unique product will also get other businesses in your field/niche interested in working with you.

Nothing can build your business faster than joint venturing (partnering) with other successful businesses. And nothing will get other businesses to want to partner with you more than a unique product that really solves the problem of your target market.

The Process

As soon as I get an idea for an ebook that gets me excited, I write it down. (Keep a pen and pad, or tape recorder, with you at all times.)

Then, I transfer it into a 14” by 17” sketch pad. It’s a drawing pad i.e. it contains blank sheets of paper, without ruled lines.

I designate at least one sheet to my new idea. And, then I just go crazy on it. The secret I’ve discovered is to forget about logic, linear thinking or organization. Just let go and pour out whatever is inside you at that moment.

In other words, my mind is usually going in 10 different directions when I scribble on the pad. One minute I’m writing a brief table of contents on one section of the page. The next minute, I’m writing a killer headline that just came to me, for that product. Pretty soon this large 14” x 17” page is filled up with scribbles, notes, gems that I brainstormed.

Everything that I can think of (relating to this product) gets recorded on this pad (table of contents, ads and salesletter titbits, cover design, formatting, etc.)

I also let the idea simmer in the back of my head for a few days (and nights) and each time I get bits and pieces of insight, I make a note of them all.

(It’s very important to let your mind relax and roam freely, in a limitless manner. That’s when some awesome ideas can come to you. After you’ve given your brain a goal to focus on, sleep on the idea and let your brain really go to work on it, unhindered.)

Ken Mathie
An Easy Way To Create A Popular Auto-Run CD Product For Family, Fun Or Profit - And All It Takes Is Just Two Hours more information click here

Creating Products In A Few Hours!

Creating products is so easy, all you have to do is break away from the limitations of the ’standard’ way of creating products.  In other words, you don’t have to do all the work yourself!

In fact, if you get a little creative, you won’t have to do any of the work! You don’t even have to know a thing about the subject that you’d like to create a product on.

The tips and strategies provided below will definitely get your brain firing on overtime.

Interview An Expert

The fastest and easiest way to come up with a high-value product is to interview an expert on the subject which you want to write about. You would entice the expert by reminding him of the free publicity he/she would get from your promoting the interview. The more well-known the expert is, the more marketable the finished product will be.

You can also interview several experts and compile all the interviews into one product, in order to cover different angles and strategies on one subject.

Or, you could pick a general subject, break that up into sub-sections and then interview an expert for each sub-section. For example, if you’re creating a product on ‘Internet Business

Success,’ you could interview an expert on product creation, another on copywriting, and another on marketing strategies, and so on.

Your interview can include a set of specific questions, or just one question that requires a detailed answer.

You could also ask the expert to offer you a step-by-step plan that readers would be able to follow to get to their goal. (The easier you make it on the reader, the more likely will he be to buy your product.)

There are various formats you could choose to conduct and publish the interviews. You could simply send the questions to them via email and publish the answers into a report or ebook format. You could also choose to meet the expert one-on-one and record the interview, or you could conduct the interview over the phone and record it that way.

If you choose to record the interviews, your product package could then contain the audios as well as the typed up transcripts. Your pricing would also vary depending on which formats of your products you provide.

Heck, you could even video tape the interview and sell copies of the recorded video.

Record Your Own Tips and Advice

If you’re an expert in a subject yourself, you could get a friend or partner to ask you preset questions and record/transcribe those.

You could also do a (free or paid) tele-seminar, record that and turn that into an instant product. Offer it as downloadable audios, an actual CD, or just the typed up transcripts.

A similar strategy can be used on live seminars. You can either video tape the seminar, make a audio recording of it, or both. You could just as easily invite other experts to join you in the seminar and turn that into an instant product.

Of course, these days, you can also do a webcast i.e. a seminar via the Internet, record that and turn that into a product.

Turn Existing Content Into Products

You can just as easily contact a bunch of experts and ask them to submit their best articles or reports on a particular subject. Then, compile them into a larger report or even an ebook.

Each expert gets to include their web links at the end of their content so they get free publicity from the submission.

You could further get instant exposure for your newly created product by giving all the experts who participated the first chance at selling the product to their own customers. (You can also use this strategy with interviews.)

The same idea can be used to borrow/reprint sections of ebooks, audios, or even existing videos. Contact the author and ask for permission to reprint the content in exchange for free publicity.

If you want to create a product for the ‘copywriting’ crowd, you could contact several copywriting experts and ask them to submit a sales letters that they wrote for one of their products. You could compile all the submitted letters into one mega collection of “proven salesletters.”

You got an instant product!

You could take this idea further and ask each expert to break the letter apart and explain the specific techniques they used to create the letter. That added information could easily double or triple the value of your ‘proven salesletters’ package.

Our next post we’ll discuss:
Update/Republish Existing Information
Co-Create A Product
Help Finish Incomplete Projects

Ken Mathie
200+ Untold Work from Home Business Plans and Ideas