Internet Rant: Do This, and Your Next Product WILL Fail

If you are having trouble reading this email, please click here   Publisher's Pick: How You Could Make a Zero Downside $3,120 a Month Why You Need to Fail Fast   By David Cross "Do you promise to keep this idea to yourself?" Roger had known me for a few months now. We'd had lunch a couple of times and he'd asked me a little about marketing and Internet marketing which he was interested in for his new business. He now revealed his idea. The product is broadly connected with year-round leisure activities. He explained his plans to manufacture a new line of products, then take it to local stores and possibly some of the large companies in the area to see if they'd be interested in selling it. Roger had spent about three months researching the product, competition, and manufacturing and admitted he did not really know much about marketing. The product is also quite far removed from what he currently does (he is a surveyor). He did have a good idea, no doubt. But I can practically guarantee that he won't make a dime. Although his product is not something anyone's presented to me before, Roger's situation is not unique. Many new business people put themselves in the unenviable position of making something and then trying to sell it. I've heard dozens of so-called "great" product ideas and how much they cost to produce and how much the initial production run costs (normally somewhere between $2,000 to $10,000 though I've heard as high as $50,000...for an initial production run). And although some thought has gone into selling this garage-full of new widgets once they're made, I find that in almost every case, the entrepreneur in question has no idea whether people will actually buy it. The conversation normally goes something like this... "But wait!" the entrepreneur says, "Of course I have to make something before I can sell it?! Duh!!" "But how do you know that anyone will buy it?" I say. "Oh, they will. This product is unique. There's almost nothing like it out there. This is such a good idea and people will buy it. People need this." Listen, it's normal to invest time and mental and emotional energy in your new product. But you need to proceed with caution: Whenever emotion takes hold, at least a modicum of logic exits stage left. And when emotion gets wrapped up in business, you are almost certainly doomed to failure. In fact, one of the best ways to ENSURE that your product will fail is to spend time and money on producing it before you determine whether there's a market for it. If this is your situation… or even if you truly believe that your product doesn't fit this mold and that you've really come up with the best thing since sliced bread, read on... I could save you time, money and headaches. Get Exactly What You Need to Start Raking in Bundles of Cold, Hard Affiliate Cash... The folks at Early to Rise have been very busy lately, making some very handsome payouts... Affiliate A got a check for a whopping $719,671.34... We cut Affiliate B a check for $574,833.19... Affiliate C made 'just' $139,764 from working with us... Affiliate D got a nice fat check for $174,879.13... We happily wrote out a check to Affiliate E for $153,743.39... And then there was Affiliate F, who got an incredible $756,902.60 from working with us! Now, in just 8 hours, you can learn all the dominating online strategies that have earned millions for Early to Rise's affiliates... and discover how you could do it too. PLUS: You don't need any previous knowledge or training… and you don't have to read 10 gigabytes worth of e-books! Click here to find out if you're eligible to receive an invitation to a very private, very intensive event that could have a profound effect on your financial future. How to Put the Horse Before the Cart Experienced marketers like to limit their up-front risk. And you can do the same by testing whether people will buy your product before you make it. I'm not talking about surveys because they won't tell you anything. Asking if someone would buy something is very different than offering it for sale and seeing whether they are prepared to get their credit card out and pay for it. What I suggested to Roger is what I propose you do, too, if you are in a similar situation. Run some paid (Pay Per Click) advertising on Google as if you had the product and see if anyone buys it. You can research suitable keywords at Google AdWords, create your ad, set a bid amount per keyword, and create a simple landing page to take orders. You don't need a domain name. You can use Paypal or Google Checkout services if you don't yet have credit card processing capabilities. Plus, Paypal offers a free shopping cart you can use that's quite simple to set up for a small number of products. What you're putting in place here is the same (or absolute closest to) what you will have if you actually had gone and made the product: a complete advertising, sales, and fulfillment system but without the same level of risk. Your pay-per-click ad and landing page should direct prospective customers to place an order for your product as if you already had it. The only difference between having a product line all set and testing without a product is in the final step of checkout. You have some choices about how to proceed once a prospective customer has clicked through to buy your product. 1. You cannot normally charge a credit card until you have a product in stock and ready to ship. So you can set up an order page as normal, but on the confirmation page, you can inform people that their card was not charged. You might say that the product is currently not in stock, but that you'll be in touch to fulfill their order. You could offer free shipping if appropriate or a free upgrade to expedited shipping as an incentive to get them to leave their information. 2. On the page where a customer would normally enter her credit card information, you can say that you are out of stock, manufacturing new stock, etc., and simply take their non-credit card details - phone number, name, address, e-mail address. You can offer an incentive (like free shipping or an upgrade to expedited shipping) for people to leave their details. 3. Instead of sending prospects to an order page, simply ask them to pre-register by giving their contact information. In exchange, you'll send them details about when the product is ready. Though this method is less akin to mimicking an actual sale, it is still better than a survey. If you find there's good demand for your product you could start manufacturing a small amount of product, fulfill your existing orders, and continue your ad campaign. If the response is less than you need or want, you can adapt your ad or your landing/sales page and test again. If you find that after some advertising and testing on Google in this way that no "orders" come in, and especially if you are getting a decent number of clicks from your ads, then it's time to revisit whether you should go ahead with your product launch. Is it the right price? You could do some price testing in your ad. But normally price is not the main consideration for someone. Have you explained the unique benefits of your product? Sometimes you can go to great lengths to explain what a product does rather than what the benefit is to your customer. But if you've run some tests and still your product doesn't shift, you should head back to the drawing board. You may feel disappointed but I assure you that you will feel less dejected than if you'd spent a few thousand on creating a product which is now gathering dust in your garage. Clearly, you have to balance your advertising spend. There's no logic in spending your budget on advertising only to find that you have no way to pay for your product. But manufacturing a product without a sale is a real risk. Approaching your next product launch and sale like a professional marketer - by generating sales and customers first - will help you test and build your business with minimal risk. Rate this article: or leave us a comment   The Perfect Home Business Literally in YOUR Pocket I've just examined one of the cleverest home business opportunities to cross my desk in a long, long time. But first a little warning... You're about to read a headline that you will find hard to swallow (it actually does the product a discredit because of this fact in my opinion). But here's the thing; it just so happens that this system really does do what it says in the headline without any sneaky "ifs" or "buts." What's particularly refreshing is that it's a good old-fashioned, "non-techie" home business opportunity but with all the boring/difficult parts taken out. Intrigued? You should be. This one really works. It'll bring a smile to your face with its clever simplicity. Anyway, I'll let you see for yourself. Please read on here... Inside Today's Rant The Professional Marketer's Low-Risk Product Launch Strategy How You Can Learn All the Dominating Online Strategies That Have Earned Millions for Early to Rise's Affiliates A Good Old-Fashioned, "Non-Techie" Home Business Opportunity   Rant Recommends Important: If You've Lost $$$ From Your IRA or 401(K) I won't trust Wall Street with the $63 in my wallet, much less my IRA, 401(k), and savings! That's why 1000s of Americans are moving cash to much smarter positions "off Wall Street." One investment of just $1,000 could become a year's salary in just a few weeks - and repeat over and over. Another offers the chance to gain year-in and year-out returns of 65% with 99.77% certainty - even today. Find out how to recoup 100% of your recession losses by the end of 2009.   Rant Recommends     Rant Recommends     You are receiving this e-mail as a part of your subscription to Internet Rant. Nothing in this e-mail should be considered personalized financial advice. Although our employees may answer your general customer service questions, they are not licensed under securities laws to address your particular financial situation. No communication by our employees to you should be deemed as personalized financial advice. We expressly forbid our writers from having a financial interest in any security recommended to our readers. All of our employees and agents must wait 24 hours after on-line publication or 72 hours after the mailing of printed-only publication prior to following an initial recommendation.. Any financial recommendations in this letter should be made only after consulting with your financial advisor and only after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company. _____ Have a question for David Cross? Send it to InternetRant@ETRFeedback.com. _____ To unsubscribe from Early to Rise and any associated external offers, Click here To contact us, please visit... http://www.supportatetr.com/helpdesk To cancel or for any other subscription issues, write us at: Order Processing Center Attn: Customer Service PO Box 7835 Delray Beach, Florida 33482