| Evaluating Your e-Business Idea
It is also important to mention
at this time that because we call this an Internet Business,
the word Internet does not cancel out the word business. I
have coached a lot of people over the years and the impression
is that an Internet business is a get rich quick
opportunity. Nothing is further from the truth. Yes a
very small minority of people have done extremely well in a
very short time as in many industries but they are exceptions
to the rule. They usually came in with big data bases of
people and lots of previous experience.
After speaking to most all of
the successful people in this industry they have all agreed it
takes time and effort. The biggest difference is you do not
have to mortgage your house or take out big loans to get
started.
So lets look at how to research
your possible
product. There are two basic principles in developing a
product.
General
Purpose VS Niche Vs Affiliate
1. Affiliate
- I have put in a whole section on affiliates and you will
see me mention them often. From a research position it would
be good to try and sell some proven products first, like this
book, some of my multimedia products or find some other
products you like.
You see not
everyone is good at Internet Marketing just like not everyone
is good at accounts or being a mechanic and affiliate programs
let you have a go first with little or no experience to see if
you are any good.
2. General
Purpose - These are products that have a wide appeal. Let
me explain!
I created MP3 Sound Stream for a very specific
purpose however once I released it, I started to see over time
that specific niche areas were adopting it as a solution for
their business or service.
I created MP3soundstrem.com
simply as a viable alternative to real audio or windows media
for my clients. Over time I started to notice churches using
the product to stream sermons and music so I created a separate
niche site targeting that audience. I then noticed radio
stations using it to archive their shows so I built another
niche site targeting those customers. Same product and support
but targeting different niches.
Churches (http://www.christianstreamingaudio.com)
, radio
stations, schools etc.
This is an
important concept as I am still selling the same product and
do not have to go through the process of making a new product
and support etc for each new site. I get economies of scale. I
call this a drill up - drill down strategy. Once you find
your product try and drill up to see how wide an audience you
can reach then see if you can drill down into multiple areas.
3. Niche
Products - This is probably easier for the beginner as you
simply create your product for a very specific niche. It may
be an eBook on "how to profit from Scrapbooking" or
how to teach your parrot to speak and maybe "Who
Else Wants to Learn the Secrets of Having The Happiest,
Healthiest Iguana That Lives Three Times As Long ? " ( I
gather they die easily)
Scrap booking is a
huge market niche however no one had gone into how to make
money from scrap booking. A good friend of mine saw this and
so developed how to profit from scrapbooking. Do you get the idea. Its not so much
that you have to come up with a brand new product but more how
to look at different products from a unique slant.
There are so many
niche products out there that you can dominate using what you
will learn in this training course.
Using the Overture
Keyword tool you can actually do a lot of your research to
find these niches. You are looking for search terms that rank
about twenty or thirty thousand searches. To high and it will
be too hard a market, to low and there are not enough people
looking. Single words are usually researchers so you are
looking for key terms rather than single words.
Q: I have a great idea for an amazing new online product. There is nothing like it on the market and no competition that I can find. I think it will be a huge success, and so does everyone I tell about the idea. I'm willing to bet the farm on this one. What do you think my chances of success are?
A: I never make odds on the success of "amazing new products"--online or off--because more often than not, the only thing amazing is the way the product is totally ignored by the buying public.
In my own business there have been times when we've come up with what
we thought was an amazing product or software -- a product so amazing, in fact, that we just knew that all of humankind would sit up and take notice, then line up to write us checks. After
many hours work and dollars spent developing the product then finally bringing it to market, we were amazed to find that the only people who thought the software was amazing was us.
We made humankind yawn. Quite an amazing accomplishment.
It worries me that you say there is nothing like your idea on the market.
While you may think that is a good thing, it might actually mean that there is no market for your product. The same holds true for a lack of competition. A total lack of competition might mean that there is no demand for such a product.
I remember one of my clients
finding a great niche for a certain product however the main
consumers were teenagers so as an Internet based product where
they would need a Credit Card, it was a complete failure.
Rarely does a product come along that revolutionizes an industry. Rarer still does a product create a new industry on its own.
So how can you tell if your amazing new product really is worth gambling on?
The truth is, you can never be 100 percent certain that your idea will sell.
No matter how enamoured you are of it or how much your friends rave about it, the success of a new idea depends on numerous factors, many of which are beyond your control.
Just a few of the factors that can affect the success of a new product include:
The viability of the product idea: Is this really a valid product idea that has the potential to generate revenue or just an epiphany that would be best forgotten?
The people behind the idea: The right team can make all the difference.
The resources required to take the product from the drawing board to
the consumer: Do you have the perseverance, the knowledge, the contacts, the capital and a hundred other things required to take your idea from drawing board to delivery?
The demand for such a product in the marketplace: Will this product fill a need or satisfy an itch?
The competition: Is the market already crowded with competitors? If so, what will it take to move your product ahead of the pack?
Before you invest too much time and money into your idea, do a little research to determine if it's an idea worth gambling on. Research the market for similar products. Again, if there are no similar products on the market, that might mean there is no market for that product. If there truly is nothing exactly like your product, research similar products that fill a similar void in the consumer's life. Learn all you can about such products: pricing, market share, track record and so on.
Research the competition, too. Again, if there is no competition, there may not be a market for a product like yours. If there is competition, research the competition fully (little guys and big guys) to help determine if you can realistically compete for market share.
Identify your target customer and ask them for an honest evaluation of the idea and its marketability. Avoid friends and family, as they usually just tell you what you want to hear. If your target customer is a 35-year-old woman, pitch your idea to every 35-year-old woman you meet and gauge their responses. (Just don't break any stalking laws in the name of market research.)
The best advice I can give you when it comes to amazing new product ideas is, it's best to follow your head and not your heart. It's a lesson that took me years to learn. If I had a nickel for every amazing new product I've invested in, I'd go play a few hands of poker.
In the traditional world this
would cost you a small fortune to do however this is where the
Internet has taken this whole process to a new level. You can
do all your research for free.
So go off and find similar web
sites, use the overture tool, hit the news stands and
libraries and do your research.
Now that you have seen the
power of these tool lets do an exercise. Go to the overture
search tool which will open in a new window and type in
podcast.
As you will see this is a great niche area so lets see if
people actually spend money on this service so the next thing to
search for is if there other sites available. You can go
to Amazon and
also Google to see what the podcasting community is like. I
also look to see if there are any articles available and other
Ebooks or products available. Another place to look is on eBay
to see what they are selling for a niche.
Alexa is also a good place to
have a look at different markets. I
also look to see if it is a broad area or very specific
because I want to be able to produce one product and then
drill it down into different areas. Ok
then after we have done the research we find that it is a very
big field and even some of the major companies have articles
and resources. So we could think that this is a bloated market
however, as a friend of mine realised, there is very little in all
the resources that talk about making money from podcasting.
Also as a lot of people are doing it there will be even more
wanting to. I also found
that Apple IPod and related product sales over the last 12
months have been some of the highest in the marketplace. Don't
just look in the general arena but go as wide as you can to
research your product potential. I also found
that people are doing conferences on podcasting so this is an
area for later scrutiny. So in the future you could also run
seminars or become a speaker on this topic This is why I
harp so much about picking fields you are willing to make into
a business because if it grows then a whole range of
possibilities will arise and if your not interested in that
area then you will miss out on the big bucks. So
it is up to you now to go and research your products. Other
great places to get ideas and also research are news agencies,
libraries, newspapers, bookshops. There are so many untapped fields on
the net you should be able to find some great niches. Market
Research Page Another
great way to test your market is to run a market survey page.
These are simple one page files where you ask a question and
people give you feedback. You can use this to rate the market.
You will be able to do this after you have learnt how to
build a web page as it is a little complicated to start with.
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