Creating A New Product

Creating a new product by interviewing others
and selling it online.Back in July, I wrote 20 Scam-Free Ways to Make Money Online, which has since become my most popular post. It is an honest look at various ways that you can make money online, from quick ways to make a few extra bucks to entire businesses that can be started from your home.

Instead of posting affiliate links and hoping to gain a few dollars, I instead asked you for your feedback. And feedback poured in — from the 48 comments on the post, to email after email and Tweet after Tweet.

I wanted to know which of the 20 ways you wanted to hear more about. You told me.

Now, you get to find out why I asked!

Creating A New Product, Step 1: Market Research

Delivering pure content and then asking for feedback is a great way to do market research. The people who respond are engaged, and they are actively looking for more information on a particular subject. Given a reasonable price, many of them turn into buyers.

I have wanted to create a product for budding Internet business owners for a while. I am currently actively developing and beta testing a product about how to create a profitable blog, but it’s not ready for release yet.

In reading your comments and exchanging emails with you, I realized that many of you are interested in quickly creating and selling an online product to solve a problem that others have. Yet, you aren’t quite familiar with how to choose a niche, create a product, and sell it online.

I looked around for quite a while for a product that I could promote that would teach you how to quickly create a product and sell it online, but I couldn’t find one. Then I started looking back at my own experience.

About a year ago, I recorded several interviews and sold them online. I did this mainly as an experiment. I didn’t sell them on this blog; instead, I promoted them on another site.

The first interview I sold on that site generated over $800 in sales in two days.

It was then that I knew I was on to something…and the entire process is exactly what I’d like to teach you.

Creating A New Product, Step 2: Decide What Your Product Will Be

You can create an ebook, a physical product, or hundreds of other permutations, but I chose to simply sell the audio interview with a transcript and a quick how-to guide.

Why interviews? Simple: they are the easiest and quickest way to create a product. Interviews can also be used as the basis of many products, from a monthly membership site to an ebook to a physically-delivered audio CD.

Any question you can think of that you would pay to answer would make a great interview product. How to fix your own home appliances — interview those who fix them professionally. How to start your own business at home — interview those who have done it. Which vitamins and supplements actually work — interview those who have written books in that industry. All of those examples, along with millions more, are waiting for someone to create a product around.

If you can save someone money (huge right now), make them money, or make them happier, you likely have an interesting product on your hands.

The great thing is, not only are these interview products easy to create, but they’re easy to sell. Most of them will sell in the $7-8 range. If you can save someone $20 a month with the information gleaned from an interview, would they pay you $8? Sure! What about if you can make them money? Or help them make their life better? Heck, I know from personal experience I’d pay $8 to listen to a few interviews on what to do when you first get diagnosed with Celiac disease.

Creating A New Product, Step 3: Actually Create the Product!

In my upcoming product, I will show you exactly how to go through each step of creating your product, from figuring out what problem you want to solve to finding people to interview to the right questions to ask. I will show you the email I send out that gets 80% or more of the people I ask for an interview to say “Yes”, and how you can tweak it for your own benefit. I’ll give you some webpage templates to get started and show you how to get your website up and running and what to say. And finally, I will recommend several ways you can promote your product to get immediate sales.

Does it work? Well, I made $800 in two days using these exact methods. But that’s not really the best part. The best part is that you have a product that you can sell over and over again. You can make money while you sleep and not have to worry about fulfillment (yes, I will show you how to automate this!) And you will be able to help other people solve an issue they have.

Since this is an online business blog, I decided to do something really special and unique. I will be showing you, week by week, exactly how I create my new product. I’ll start with the mind map and spend time walking you through my new product with videos. As I create the product, you will gain a better understanding of how to create and sell your own information product.

Creating A New Product, Step 4: Sell Your Product

I plan to give you an opportunity to try out my new product, with a DVD shipped to your door plus online access, for under $10. Sound cool?

I haven’t told you the best part yet, though. I’m holding what is possibly the coolest contest I’ve ever held on my website. I am giving you an opportunity to name my product! If I select your product name, I will send you a free copy of the product and give you credit for the name (with a link back to your website.)

More on all of that soon…

Starting next week, I will be posting at least once a week on how the product creation is coming along. I’ll also ask you to participate — from naming the product to helping me flesh out ideas.

An Example of An Interview Product I Created

The first “inside” piece of the product I want to show you is an interview I did with branding expert Ben Mack. If you’re interested in creating your own product, you don’t want to skip this interview.

I sold this interview online and made several hundred dollars within a week. This is a great example of a product that solves two problems many bloggers and online entrepreneurs have — how to make money and stand out from the crowd. Ben Mack sold an ebook — a simple PDF — for $197, and made over $40,000 with it, and in this interview, I grill him on exactly how he did it!

Don’t miss your chance — download this complete interview and how-to guide for free!

Stay tuned for more free videos and behind-the-scenes looks over the next few weeks as I unveil my complete guide to creating your own product and posting it online for sale!

Recommended Reading:

• Download my complete interview with Ben Mack for free! If you are tired of writing hundreds of articles and/or blog posts just to scrape together pennies, this is a must-have interview.