Willie Crawford's Marketing Insights

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October 12, 2007

How To Guarantee Your Product's Success Before Your Even Start!

How To Guarantee Your Product's Success Before Your Even Start!
Copyright 2007 by Willie Crawford

Today, I'd like to teach you an easy method of researching
a product or project idea BEFORE you invest a lot of time
and other resources in it.

Over the past 11 years I've been shown over 100 products
that "seemed like a great idea," but when they were offered
to the market, the customers weren't interested. In a few
cases the "marketing" was just bad, but in more cases,
the product was simply something that the market didn't
want.

There are, of course, more research tools available than
you could ever learn to use. So, today, I'm actually going
to focus your attention on just two... and they'll both
be free.

First, I'd like to introduce you to Google Alerts! You'll
find this handy, free service offered by Google.com at:
http://www.google.com/alerts

Note that Google does own the trademarks to all of the terms
mentioned in this article that uses their name :-)

Google Alerts allow you to subscribe to free notifications
of when Google discovers new occurrences of a target phrase
anywhere on the Internet. You can specify what types of
databases Google provides you with updates from. As you'll
see when visiting the site, it's fairly self-explanatory.

I have dozens of these set up. I have it set up so that...
once a day, I get an email summary of new alerts for:

- Target keyword phrases
- Target URLs
- Target product titles
- Discussion forums on a topic
- My name and my company name
- My key competitors
- Unique phrases that I created for various purpose

... You get the idea.

The second free tool that I use is online forums specific
to my topic of interest. These are forums where people
discuss your topic or niche. There are hundreds of
thousands of them scattered across the Internet, and you
CAN find one on almost any topic.

When that brilliant product idea comes to you, the first thing
that you want to ask is, "Is this something that the market
really wants?"

You also want to know, "Is this something that already exists,
and if it does, can I still market something similar?"

The final question you want to answer if you're contemplating
getting rich with your idea is, "Is this something that the
market is willing to pay for?"

The first objection many people will offer when reading this
article is that they don't know where to find discussion
forums in their niche. To them, I say... "Google Alerts!"

Simply set up some alerts for phrases that include the terms:

- "online forums" + your keywords
- "discussion boards" + your keywords
- "forum" + your keywords
- "online community" + your keywords

In a day or two, Google will be so kind as to start EMAILING
YOU links to some of these forums. What could be easier.
Just go over, register for the forums if required, and then
listen to the discussion.

You're listening to see if your product idea will solve a
problem that this group of people PAINFULLY want to solve.

You're listening to see if there is a glaringly obvious
problem, other than the one your were already thinking about,
that you can offer the perfect solution to.

If you don't see discussion that answers your question, then
consider posting the question. Explain that you are doing
research for a possible product. Perhaps even ask them to
visit your site and take a survey.

A living example of how I recently did this AND the
resulting product follows. Study my example, and you'll
see that you really can confirm that your product is badly
wanted by the marketplace before you write the first word
of an ebook, or the first line of code for a program.

I'll give you an example from Internet marketing since
that is the niche that many readers of this article will
be from.

I began by visiting the very popular Internet Marketing
Warriors discussion forum. I had an idea that the market
was growing tired of products that promised a fortune
overnight but that offered techniques many people found
daunting.

I suspected that many people in the "Internet marketing
niche" were having very little success, and would be
completely ecstatic if they could earn even $100 per day.

So I posted the rhetorical question, "Would You Be 'Happy'
With $100 Per Day?" That thread generate over 4700 views,
and over 170 responses. The responses overwhelmingly confirmed
my suspicions. It confirmed that most people would not
only be thrilled with $100 per day ($3000 per month) but
that they were anxious for instructions on HOW to
accomplish this seemingly-daunting task.

You can read that thread, and feel the strong emotion here:
http://warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=184530

I mention the strong emotion because if you understand
sales, you know that people buy on emotion, and then
justify with logic. So, you do need to provide a solution
to a problem that people really REALIZE that they have on
a deep emotional level... if you want a best-seller.

After verifying that people wanted this product, and
even letting them tell me what the product should feel
like, I then felt confident in creating and marketing
such a product. I knew beyond any doubt that if I offered
this product in the right way, that it WOULD sell.

I have used the technique above in numerous niches. I'm
currently working on a similar "exercise" in the very
competitive cooking niche. I'm doing it by addressing
one of the biggest challenges faced by marketers in that
niche. More on that in another article though :-)

After I had verified the demand for the product in my
example above... the product on "How To Make $100 Per
Day Online"... I then had to determine the best method
for creating this product.

Realizing that there are literally dozens of easy,
viable methods of earning that amount, working just one
or two hour per day, I also realized that writing
something based upon just my own experiences would be
too limiting. I AM involved in a lot of online niches,
and do far more things than I probably should be doing.

However, to get a wider variety of experiences, I turned
to the best "brain-pool" that I could think of. I went
to the members of my inner circle private memberships
site at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com

I posted the suggestion on our private forum that this
was an idea with proven demand, and suggested that we
write this ebook as a group.

Instantly, I had lots of people who were actually
earning that much, or more, coming forward and offering
to do a chapter. Others, who didn't feel qualified to
write a chapter, offered to do things such as
proofreading, or helping with graphics or programming.

The community at The Internet Marketing Inner Circle
WROTE the ebook, producing what many are already
calling "The Internet Marketing Product Of The Year!"
One even called it, "The Internet Marketing Product
Of The Decade." That may be a stretch, but it clearly
filled a very real need. It solved a glaring problem.

You can see the result of my research and our teamwork
at: http://TheInternetCouncil.org

I'll close by revealing one other BIG secret. One of
several reasons why I was willing to suggest my idea
as a group project was that I knew that having more
people involved would create a sense of ownership. I
knew that getting more people involved in creating the
product all but eliminated any risk in creating the
product.

We could even say that the thread on the Warrior Forum
reduced the risk by 95%. By saying on the forum that
they would be happy with $100 per day, and that they
were looking for a plan to accomplish this, created a
deep psychological connection between those posters, and the
success of the project. Since the product filled a
need that they publicly stated that they wanted SOLVED,
they would be inconsistent if they didn't accept the
solution when offered.

I don't need to pack too many lessons into this article.
I think that I have demonstrated, with a living example,
that you can guarantee the success of your product before
you even start! Now you just need to do it!

----------------------------------

Willie Crawford has been teaching others uncomplicated methods
of building successful online businesses since 1996. Today, he
does most of his teaching inside an exclusive membership site
filled with other experts dedicated to uncovering the truth
about how to succeed online. Join Willie and dozens of other
"old-timers" at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com

Posted by Willie Crawford at October 12, 2007 12:01 PM

Comments

Posted by: badfun at October 12, 2007 05:27 PM

Posted by: Joseph Ratliff at October 13, 2007 08:02 PM

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