Ok, I Have a Product-Now What?

You believed that the whispering dude from the movie Field of Dreams was speaking directly to you. “If you build it, they will come”. You wrote, coded, or designed your own product. You created a killer web site and your “Buy Here” button is just ready to take a beating.

So, now here you are staring at your stats, checking on your PayPal account once every 5 minutes. Nothing. “Just give it a few minutes”, you think to yourself…after all, the whispering dude was speaking to me.

Ok, perhaps I am exaggerating a smidge here…but have you felt something like this before? Have you been in a position where you had a product you thought was going to crush the market and you opened your “doors” to an avalanche of nothing?

No sweat kid. You won’t have been the first. And even if you haven’t been in this position before, if you have a product you want to take to market there are some things you need to do to get traffic and sales. We’re going to discuss a few here.

The first thing you should have done is prepared your opt-in list for the upcoming release weeks in advance. These are already folks that you have a relationship with and by communicating with them over the course of several weeks you will build a “buzz” around your product.

Now don’t go emailing them every time you fix a typo but keep them in the loop on major milestones and points of interest.

When it comes time to flip the switch these good customers will come calling. Even if your list is relatively small by most standards, you can leverage the folks that have already said, “Hey, I trust you and look forward to what you have to say”.

Another critical component is to let other people carry you on their backs a little. Doesn’t sound all that enjoyable for them but when you throw a little money their way it makes a difference. You NEED your own affiliate program. By offering folks a percentage of your profits for selling your product you will increase your chances of success dramatically.

If you’re cringing about parting with a piece of the action think about it like this…”What’s better”? 50% of 100 sales or 100% of zero sales? I think you get the gist. And setting up an affiliate program is so easy these days…not like it used to be. There are scripts and software for those die hard do it yourselfers or you can go the subscription route and pay monthly for a provider to host your program for you.

So we agree that having affiliates is a great way to boost traffic and sales. Now let’s take this affiliate concept up about ten notches. Add Super Affiliates and or JV Partners into your arsenal. Supers/JV’s are going to be folks with decent to gargantuan sized lists. To make this palatable to these folks you’re going to have to dig a little deeper into your pocket by offering a larger percentage of the gate.

If you’re short sighted that may sound unappealing, but if your Super/JV partners have massive lists they can make you more money in days (even after their take) then you could have made alone in months. If you don’t have the confidence to approach the Big Boys for this kind of thing then go after many folks with lists of 10-20 thousand opt-ins. Get 10 of those and you have 100-200 thousand targeted prospects getting an eyeful of your product.

Just an FYI on the Big Boys though. If you have a product that is worthwhile don’t be afraid to contact them and make a proposal. These folks are real people just like anyone else and many of them are extremely open to opportunities. It is amazing what you can accomplish in this arena if you actually ask.

There are certainly more ways to ensure you aren’t experiencing zero salesitis after you released your latest and greatest, but these simple strategies will get you a terrific jumpstart.

Prepare your list with enticing emails before you ever launch, set up an affiliate program, and kick it up even further by enlisting the aid of folks with large lists, and rather than worry about getting sales, you’ll find yourself looking for an accountant to prepare for next year’s tax season.

John Hostler, aka the Internet Renegade, has been marketing successfully both online and off for 6 years. He released his widely anticipated book on the subject of Internet Marketing on 02-01-06. To find out more about John or his newest release check out http://www.internetrenegade.com

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