What to sell on the Internet?

By Nowshade Kabir
Posted Monday, September 13, 2004

The phenomenal growth of ecommerce lures more and more people to dream about starting an online business. The question that bothers many and restrains them from realizing their dream is what to sell on the Internet. If you have spent sometime on the Internet trying to figure out what product or service you should choose to sell online, you must have noticed that people are selling every conceivable product and service over the Internet. Contrary to popular belief, even big ticket items are also selling on the Internet very well. But, nevertheless, it is not very easy for a newbie to find a product rather quickly and start marketing online.

If you are having difficulty in finding a good tangible product to market on the Internet or afraid to manage all the hassles of shipping and handling you may seriously consider selling information online.

According to data, most people browse through the Internet in search of some sorts of information that they require. Survey conducted by Neilsen Media Research shows that Books and Information Category tops the highest selling product and service on the Internet with a significant margin in comparison to other categories. This makes information a natural productfor sale on the Internet. Information sells online in the formats of e-books, articles, reports, data, whitepapers etc. If you have expertise in any specific field, you may consider selling your ideas in one of the mentioned format. Check out Clickbank’s marketplace to get a good idea what people are selling. You will be truly amazed by the scope of ideas!

Although, information is the most sought after product on the Internet; that does not mean it is an easy-to-sell product. For one thing – there are tons of free information available on the Internet, and the second is people on the Internet are not very willing to pay for information. This is the reason why you have to be very careful in choosing the right product to market online.

People will buy your information product, if it is:

- A particular knowledge that they crave
- It makes their life easier, i.e. saves time
- It teaches them some subject that they would like to learn.

Which are the products that fall in these categories?

Expert advises, tips and ideas in a niche field:

Body building tips, dieting secrets, dating ideas, stock trading secrets, Internet marketing ideas are examples of this category.

Trend forecasts:

Businesses spend fortunes to have a better understanding of specific trends. If you have enough expertise to predict a trend of a specific field, i.e. high technology, stock market, Internet, etc., you may have a comfortable living by selling newsletter and whitepapers. The hard part is: you have to prove that you are really an expert in this field.

Courses:

Thanks to Internet, more and more people are willing to learn different subjects from the comfort of their work and home. If you have enough knowledge of a particular subject, create an online course and market it through Internet.

Surveys and data:

Business bases on various marketing, demographic, sales and other data. You may collect those data from various sources and by conducting your own online surveys. This also requires enough knowledge of a specific business field and their requirement.

Research and Analysis:

People are often ready to pay for research and analysis information of their fields because, in general, this saves their own time. That is why subscription based stocks and other research websites are thriving on the Internet.

There are number of other reasons why you should consider selling information on the Internet.

Audience size

Millions of people from all over the world are browsing through the Internet in any given time. Your information product can be exposed to a very large number of prospective buyers in no time.

Easy to develop

Information products like reports and e-books are fairly easy to create. All you need is – the knowledge of the field, a little determination and enough time to spend on it.

Low cost and low over head

You can create and market a report for less than US $100. You can take advantage of numbers of free marketing tools available on the Internet. You can even keep your overhead low by doing things all by yourself.

You can start part time

This is one business you can start from shoestring and spending only couple of hours a day. You can keep your job until you feel comfortable with the earning you generate through your online endeavor.

Conduct business from anywhere

The best thing about this business is you can do it from anywhere. You are no longer confined to a specific geographical region. While developing your information product keep in mind the following aspects:

- Does this product satisfy a need or does it solve a problem?
- Is their enough value in it?
- Is it a better product than others available on the Internet?
- Is this product easy to market to your chosen market segment?

The last question is very important as the sheer size of Internet makes it virtually impossible to focus on it as a whole. You must segment your market as clearly and as specifically as possible to become a successful Internet marketer.

Once you finished developing your product, initially, try selling your product through a marketplace similar to Clickbank. This will allow you to setup your online business fairly quick. You will not need a merchant account of your own and you can build your affiliate program with an ease.

About the author
Nowshade Kabir is the founder, primary developer and present CEO of Rusbiz.com. He has Ph. D. degree in Information Technology. Dr. Kabir has over 12 years of experience in International Trade and has worked as an advisor to several government projects. You can contact him at mailto:nowshade@rusbiz.com, (http://www.rusbiz.com) , (http://ezine.rusbiz.com)