Thousands of on-line business owners are creating products that just don’t sell. That’s right…don’t sell.
This is how you can follow them:
1. Decide to create your product based on what you like instead of what the customers needs
2. Do no research and create something that you THINK will sell
3. Don’t check the market for demand
4. Choose a subject which you don’t know anything about
5. Choose a subject that you are not passionate about
6. Make it appeal to a tiny niche
7. Make a sub-standard product
8. Think ‘that will do’
9. Price the product too high
10. Price the product too low
11. Give the product a crappy title
12. Give the product a great title…which doesn’t reflect what it is at all
13. Just take what’s already available and try to reproduce it cheaper
14. Don’t bother coming up with new ideas
15. Do everything yourself even if you don’t have the skills, to save money
16. Don’t get any feedback or testimonials
17. Create the product in the format that is not right for the niche
18. Have a badly designed product cover
19. Don’t protect the finished product
20. Take months and months to create the product
Of course, we all want to create products that do sell.
If you want a step-by-step guide that shows you the ‘how to’ then check out my brand new e-guide:
Create Your Own Best-Selling Product In Under 7 Days
Andrew is a website builder and helps small businesses with their on-line presence…so they can grow their customer list and increase sales. That’s it! That’s what we do each and every day.
Been guilty of creating a product first and checking the market second. Everytime I do this, everytime I fail. Nothing worse than spending precious time and resources on a project only to find out that only a handful of people want your product. Find a hungry market first
Steene
I think we all have made that mistake. We get excited and blinkered at the same time!
Andrew
Now that’s a checklist, very well said my friend. 😉
Thanks, Dennis.
Any that jump out for you or you have experienced?
Andrew
I’ve seen products fail due to a number of the points above, usually a combination…creating something they like, no research , etc..
I haven’t created anything yet, but I will certainly keep the checklist close. 😉
Dennis
What plans do you have to create something?
Andrew
A couple ebooks actually Andrew, they fit together kinda like a series.
Hi Andrew,
Great ideas! You really sum up everything. And hopefully, all the entrepreneurs out there will pay attention to these so that they will succeed even they are still amateur. 🙂
Thanks, raverture.
Andrew
Do you really think having the price too low will hinder a product’s performance? The rest I agree with but that one . . . people love good deals.
Yes I do, Glynis. I’ve experienced it myself. Please see my reply to Corinne above.
Andrew
Very funny stuff Andrew! I wish I was still in charge of a marketing team, I’d post it on the wall. Wait, maybe I don’t wish I was still in charge of a marketing team…..
Kathy
I hope you don’t wish for that…don’t they say you often get what you wish for?
Andrew
P.S. Whoever ‘they’ are!
Well, sometimes it is hard to know what people want. Sometimes there is a gap in the market. I guess I think there are ways to check by creating something small – a blog post on the topic or something. Which is maybe what you think too.
I think it is a great list.
Evan
There is a lot of research which you can do to determine what people want.
We cover it in our e-guide.
Andrew
Andrew,
I think,the human nature is like extracting negative points from positive one.
People show positive list of action! And the reader check what if we don’t follow this and what if we don’t follow that?
You did the opposite! And made us realize what are we doing right now and why not keep it doing!
Cheers!:)
I think I have been guilty of doing many of those things. Doing some research to find out what your market needs and will pay is quite useful.
Bruce,
I think we all have been guilty…hence the e-guide.
Andrew
Great list Andrew. My problem is I do all or most of what is needed, but then I think, “will this really sale?” I am learning though to have more faith in myself. Many thanks to you.
I have decide that you only fail if you don’t try.
Thank you for the wonderful reminders to keep me on the right track.
Blessing,
Debbie
Debbie
That comes back to having confidence in yourself and your product.
If you do all what is needed you should have not problems in selling.
Andrew
Its so true, its like when you read a guide to how to make money blogging, people always say you should start with something your passionate about and move from there, rubbish, start with your market research and decide what is popular. From there you can move on and develop something people actually want.
Danika
I sort of agree with you but I do believe both are need to have a successful on-line business…passion in the subject AND research.
Andrew
I kind of have to agree with Danika here. The things I’m totally passionate about would never make me money in a million years, and it seems that I’m such a do-it-yourselfer, the things I love appeal only to other DIY’ers and surprise, surprise, they already know how to find the info they need! =) So I think I need to go back to the drawing board on this one.
Delena
Delena
As I say to Danika, I think you need both passion and the research to make it on-line.
Andrew
Corinne
I’ve been there.
I created a product and tried to sell it for $2.99. I sold hardly any. I put the price up to $9.99 and sold loads more!
If too cheap, people will perceive the product is rubbish.
Andrew
In the first place who’d want to create a content that won’t sell? but we never know what demands the unpredictable nature of the market will bring. It was a pleasure to read a post of great importance and will definitely try to explore more. All the twenty points stressed in the post completely makes sense, I should also say that readers will benefit a lot from such an informative post.
Robert
No-one WANTS to create a product that doesn’t sell but many do as they fall into one (or many) of the points mentioned.
Andrew
Very clever Andrew! Reverse psychology 😉
On a serious note, it is very interesting the point which you mentioned about the value of the product, if the price is too low then no one will buy your product. But as soon as you raised the price you sold a whole bunch! I guess that they’re just not very good at finding bargains? 🙂
Mike
I really believe that some people think if its cheap…it’s no good.
How many people would buy a £90 pair of trainers rather than a pair for £30…just because they THINK the dearer ones are better?
I think most would (assuming they could afford it…or sometimes even if they can’t!).
Andrew
This is one of the paradoxes of pricing. People equate price and value.
The trick though is that if people then feel the value wasn’t justified by the price they paid (entirely voluntarily) they then get angry with the seller.
Evan,
Agreed!
First thing to do is create a high quality product. Not a ‘that will do’ product but a high quality one.
Second thing…get the price right. This is hard…you have to test things out. Try different prices and see what sells best.
Andrew
Ouch! I was reading through your list and going “Oh, did that!…Oh, I definitely do that!”
Great list. Of course, those were the beginner mistakes that I have been doing, but you are right on the spot about everything you said.
It’s like most people just think about what they do best and try to sell it no matter the fact that nobody needs that.