For many would-be affiliates the question “What product should I sell online?” is one of the first to spring to mind. There are literally millions of products being sold online every day so how do you get your bite of the pie and which products would produce the most success for you personally? Let’s start with how you are going to promote your product, since that will help determine which product would be best for you to promote.
How to sell a product online
There are several ways to promote other people’s products online. Many affiliate marketers (see what is affiliate marketing) begin with product reviews. Knowing something about the item you are selling is a good start because you can intelligently write about it and give an honest product review. Start with an item you have recently bought from the internet and write a review on a blog post or website about it. Give as much detail as possible. Link to your item through an affiliate link. You link is then tracked so when you sell an item through your link you receive an affiliate commission.
- Product reviews
- Adverts linking directly to the product
- Information websites
- List building and offering value relating to your product
Find a market niche
To sell you product you will need to create content around the topic of your product. This is why beginning with the how might be a better way of deciding on a product than simply looking at popular selling products. You need to place yourself between the customer and the product some how. You do this by giving information to your potential customers and building relationships.
What are you about?Â
Figuring out your interests, likes and preferences can help you choose a good product (or products) to sell online. If you have no interest in a product you will find it harder to sell over the long term. If you have any hobbies or interests which you like to talk about, think about products within your niche which you can find on the internet. Search for “‘your niche’ affiliate program” on Google to find related products to your specific interests.
Use Amazon best sellers
You can find the best selling items on Amazon at Amazon best sellers. However, just because it is the best seller doesn’t mean you will be able to sell it. The market will be much more competitive for these items and unless you already have a high ranking blog or website in the niche of your item, you may be better looking elsewhere.
Start with your interests
I have written blogs on many topics but the topics which I knew nothing about or had no interest in soon fell by the wayside. I couldn’t sustain my interest in writing about things which didn’t interest me. I had a website about mushrooms which used to rank near the top of Google. It has since fallen away because there was only so many articles I could write about mushrooms – when to harvest them and the different kinds of mushrooms. There are many more gardening fans out there who could do it indefinitely and I simply couldn’t compete with them. The website has since fallen into Google obscurity.
The good thing about the internet is that you can sell almost anything and you can find products in almost any niche. If you need to learn about how to sell online you can follow this training course for some more information. Selling products online is not just about finding products that sell. You also need to continually create content or advertising around those products (or both) in order to create a steady flow of sales and commissions.
One of my early successes online came from a sale from a review. I had bought some software for website building and decided to write a review on it. I made a sale within a week of writing it! It was only a small commission but at the time it was a huge breakthrough. I had proved that I could sell something by simply writing an article! I didn’t sell any after that through that article and it was a ‘flash in the pan’ at the time. However, it taught me that I needed to sell multiple items at that price in order to make a sustainable income from the internet. I since learned that high ticket commissions were the way forwards! I only needed to sell one or two of these in order to build an income from the internet, rather than several hundred of the smaller value items.
Sell items you actually like yourself
It is much easier to sell items you actually like and believe in yourself, than to sell items you don’t care about. Think about what you have recently bought from the internet. You can probably sell the same item through an affiliate program simply by creating an honest review of the product.
Follow your passion
If you are passionate about something then use this as motivation to build a website or blog around the subject. Creating value is the key to success online. Build something which people want. A good example of this is moneysavingexpert.com. This is a site which offers genuine help and advice for people to save money. But it is also an affiliate site. How can you create a value like this to help people, while also selling affiliate products through your site?
What do you love?
I love the idea of creating a long term sustainable income from my laptop. It gives me goosebumps when I think of being completely financially free but also being free from a job or an employer. I also want to help other people see the potential of the internet to do this and help them to do it. Finding what you love is the best way to choose what products to sell online.
If you are looking for a community of people who want to help each other achieve success in their internet businesses you can get a free video series by following this link.