Tags: Affiliate Marketing, Researching an entry-level product
Researching an entry-level product
There are three basic categories of entry-level affiliate product:
• Hard goods (sporting goods, furniture, electronics, cell phones, clothing,
magazine subscriptions, toys, videos, pet supplies, etc.)
• Digital goods (anything that can be delivered via immediate download -
ebooks, software, web hosting, autoresponders, etc.)
• Services (credit repair, check cashing, loans, debt consolidation,
consulting, coaching, etc.)
Choosing the right entry-level product can take quite a bit of effort, especially if you are interested in selling information products delivered in digital format (ebooks, special reports, e-courses, etc.). This is because the quality of information products, particularly ebooks, is extremely uneven. And QUALITY must be your highest priority when choosing an entry-level product! You must also be able to pinpoint appropriate products or services to upsell to the people who buy the entry-level product. This means that while you search for an entry-level product, you must also think about your target market - WHO will
buy this product, WHY, and the potential DOLLAR VALUE of each customer.
Of course, if you happen to discover an excellent entry-level product, build a web site for it, and find that it sells extremely well, it’s not a total disaster if you don’t happen to upsell any of those customers! Far from it. You’ve probably created what is known as a successful affiliate mini-site. If that happens, congratulations! Sites like this can be wonderful little cash cows, producing income month after month for many years.
But since the big money is in your upsells - those high ticket follow up sales - you should always be thinking ahead. The good news is that there are hundreds -perhaps thousands - of ways to create exciting upsells, even for the most basic entry-level products. All it takes it a little imagination. Here is the process I use for researching and choosing an entry-level product:
First, think about WHO is actively buying high ticket items online.
If you begin by thinking about your CUSTOMER, you’ll save yourself a lot of hassles with dead-end products. The more savvy you become about who you’re selling to, the more likely you are to succeed.
So I always begin my product research by thinking about customers. The most critical question I ask myself is: Who is likely to spend hundreds of dollars ON A SINGLE TRANSACTION online?
That’s right. Even though my entry-level product is going to be a fairly low-cost item, I need to target customers who will not be afraid of my upsells! Of course, not every person in this “target market” will buy my upsells. But the potential has to be there.
I believe this is where many “niche marketing” projects fail. Just because people are searching a particular keyword online, it doesn’t mean that they are ready to spend money on products related to that keyword. They might be satisfying their curiosity, looking for free information, or researching a term paper! (If the whole “keyword” thing doesn’t make sense to you, hang on, we’ll be talking about that in Step X.)
Second, appeal to the customer base with the HIGHEST consumer potential.
For example, does it make sense to choose an entry-level product that appeals to high school kids? Let’s consider it on the basis of their consumer potential - how likely they are to purchase your backend products. What are the odds of your average teenager having $500 or more to spend on an upsell? Hmmm, probably pretty small. Take it from me, a teenager who has the discipline to hold on to $500 is probably saving that money for a car!
It might make better sense to look for products that appeal to affluent parents of teenagers. On a consumer potential basis, those affluent parents are a much better bet. So what are those affluent parents interested in? What are they concerned about? ALL parents worry about their children. And parents of teenagers have hundreds of things to worry about!
Third, look for creative spins on your target market’s problem.
It’s with the mindset of this worried, affluent parent of a teenager in mind that I would start to research products. I would do some Google searches. I wouldn’t necessarily search on “worried parents of teenagers.” I’d start by looking at some
sites oriented towards teens, families, and fun. Then I’d go to one of my favorite affiliate program providers to check out their affiliate merchants, looking around for products related to teenagers and families and fun.
Now wait -why don’t I try to find some self-help books for parents of teenagers with problems? Because my logic, imagination, and overall “gut feeling” tells me that these affluent parents of teenagers are not necessarily going to be searching online for “how do I talk to my teenager about sex?”
No, something tells me these busy, stressed, fast track parents are people with more money than time. They don’t want more therapy or advice. They want to take some sort of positive, uplifting action with their teenager. So instead of focusing on self-help products that emphasize PROBLEMS, I’m going to look for activity-oriented products that emphasize FUN.
Fourth, brainstorm backwards from your upsells!
So as I look around at possible products, I notice that the sale of sporting goods online is extremely popular. Specialty affiliate merchants like REI offer hundreds of outdoors products in all price ranges. They even offer occasional incentives to affiliates like me. And it’s clear from looking at the size of an average sale that their customers are not just ordering one pair of hiking socks for $10.
They also buy hiking boots, clothing, foul weather gear, tents, kayaks…
I wonder, could outdoor activities be a FUN solution for those affluent parents of teenagers? Skiing, hiking, mountain biking, kayaking, etc. are the sort of activities less likely to result in friction, tension, and all the other potential time bombs so common to parent-teenager relations. If I can find a simple, low-risk entry-level product that appeals to these parents, I can eventually upsell them on everything from snowshoes to luxury tents to family vacations.
Of course, I haven’t actually found the entry-level product - yet. But now I’ve gotten into the mindset of these parents. Now I know where my upsells will come from. So my search is limited only by my imagination and the marketplace.
I now know that I want to hook these parents in and eventually upsell them on outdoor family activities and related products and services. At this point I make a list of as many potential entry-level products as I can. Since I haven’t actually researched this “niche market” or these products, I have no idea whether the following possibilities are real. Maybe one of YOU will pick up this idea and run
with it!
Possible Entry-Level Products For Affluent Parents Of Teenagers:
• Books on outdoor family vacations
• Books on “extreme” outdoor sports
• Magazines like “Outdoors” or “Backpacker”
• Sports/outdoors related gifts for their teenager (a new snowboard, a gift
certificate for hiking boots, etc.)
• How-to DVDs on hiking, backpacking, kayaking, etc.
• Electronics for outdoor adventurers (handheld GPS, satellite phones, etc.)
Of course, this list is just a start. As you research possible products, be open to other ideas, including ways to narrow your target market. For example, maybe this outdoor sports idea would appeal even MORE to affluent FATHERS of teenage BOYS. Or affluent MOTHERS of teenage GIRLS.
Summary of how to research an entry-level product
• Look for a market that is actively buying high-ticket items online.
• Focus on a segment of customers with high consumer potential.
• Look for a creative spin on solving problems within that market.
• Work backwards form the upsells to your first, entry-level offer.
