Article -The Hardest Two Questions (How To Choose What To Market In Your Own Internet-based Business)

THE HARDEST TWO QUESTIONS NEW CUSTOMERS ASK

A big part of my day is spent answering email. This IS something I enjoy despite much of it being SPAM. I enjoy answering the mail because some of it is from people asking for advice. Sort of makes me feel important;-) Seriously - I like helping new-to-the-net. Here's a secret - help them get off to a good start and many of them later become not just your customers - but your repeat customers.

Many newbies seem to be asking the same two questions lately:

(1) Can you really make money in this business? and

(2) What products do you recommend?

Both of these questions show a lot of trust and both are hard to answer for that reason. It's sort of like selling your used car to a friend - you know that it doesn't have any problems and is a good buy, but you worry about problems that may crop up later.

In answering the first question - the answer is obviously YES. However, I know that many individuals operating businesses on the internet never break even. That's despite many marketing tools being less expensive on the net. I know this because I periodically hear from discouraged acquaintances - many deciding to hang it up. Yet - I also know and see proof of many people making a very comfortable living marketing on the net. The difference is product and presentation! You have to have the right products and services - products and services that are really needed by your segment of the market. The other part is you need to point out why these products and services fill a real need with good advertising.

Advertising is not convincing people to buy something they know they don't need, it's getting them to recognize - and emotionally commit to act on filling - one of their needs. The most important part of your first customer contact whether it's classified ads, ezine articles, free for all pages, salesletters, or search engine listings is HEADLINES. That's what first catches the customers attention and convinces him that this is something that might fills a need. If the headline fails to grab the passing customer, nothing else really matters. That's the subject of another article though.

Just acknowledge that you must present your offer properly. That means well written ads and well designed, professional lookingwebsites. I post a lot of articles on my site to help my readersor visitors out in this area. In fact - I have over 110 articles by a wide variety of authors that I have posted. These articles are all related to internet marketing. This help is totally free- in an effort to help get visitors off to a good start or to help them figure out how to correct a problem. So the how-to is out there, you only have to read, study, and apply. Those who have figured out the system and met with some success are happy to share what they have learned. They do this because helping you helps them in the long-term. You recognize the name and you remember who gave you good advice when you were looking for a product or service. Keep this in mind because it's another business secret. You build trust by showing that you really care. Without that trust you will not make many substantial sales. It's those sales that you make to your repeat customers that bring tha elusive success.

Answering the second question seems to be a little harder for me and should be for you too. When you recommend any product or service you are putting your reputation on the line. That also means any future contact you have with the customer will be filtered through memories of this early contact. So I personally refuse to recommend any product or service that I have any doubt about. For the web hosting service I offer I even go as far as to offer to refund the setup fee new customers pay - even six months later if they are dissatisfied with their service. I can make this guarantee because I use this firm to host my web site and know beyond any doubt the level of service my customers can expect. Therein lies another key - if you use the product or service you are selling, you know whether or not you offer the customer a genuine value. When you really know and use your products it's much easier to be sincere in your marketing efforts. Many MLM firms focus on this very point, so they require you to buy their products to qualify for any commission. This is good business although it can serve an ulterior motive - it also guarantees a certain volume of business for the parent company. But - I presume you wouldn't buy the product unless you really liked it, so you will only stick with and market quality products - longterm. Buying a product just so you can qualify to convince someone else to buy it is faulty thinking. It's like investing in a money-losing tax shelter so that you will have less income to pay taxes on!

All this means that you should really investigate a product or service before offering it to your customers. What do other resellers, and what do customers have to say about the product. If it's a good product, there should be testimonials available. If it's an expensive or involved product - the merchant should be willing to give you the name and address of other buyers! Look at the product or service you are considering offering and ask yourself if you would really want it sold to you. If not, don't offer it to your customers. It will only hurt your reputation and image in the longterm. You need to remember that a satisfied customer may tell a friend, but a dissatisfied customer is guaranteed to tell many more. There are some excellent products and services out there for resellers. If you can come up with a quality product or service of your own, this would guarantee you an even better probability of success and a better profit margin.

After finding the product or service you are convinced will give your customers a good value, present it properly. That generally means avoiding all of the exaggerated claims you see scattered in about every ezine out there. People can generally see through these and are turned off by them - although deep down inside we all want to believe that there is a way to make $10,000 a day with no work (some secret that everybody else seems to know but that we just haven't discovered yet). Appeal to emotion in your ads to get good response but don't exaggerate. You want credibility and your customers do see through the exaggerations.

My bottom line to these two questions that I find hard to answer is (1) Yes you can make money with the right quality, needed, products and services, and (2) I recommend products that I use, know and believe in. Do the same thing and you will excel in this business.
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Willie Crawford

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