Selling E-goods

From Theresa Coffey, TNT Editor...

If you can digitize it, you can sell it. Selling e-books, digital photo collections, MP3s, clip art, e-sounds, cartoons/art/illustrations, or software takes the Internet beyond a communications medium.

When you sell e-goods, the Net becomes a frictionless, automated distribution channel. No products to handle. No boxes to pack. No courier to ship.

It's e-commerce at its most efficient!

But like anything in life, it all begins with the right approach. Most small businesses fail because of poor process. They prepare to sell and collect money, before they have built content to deliver what their PRE-customers really want... information.

The "standard approach" used by the 99% of e-tailers who fail (even though they may have great products and beautiful sites) is...

• Create e-product.
  
  
• Create site to sell e-product.
  
  
• Add sales and fulfillment solution.
  
  
• Die due to lack of traffic.

Here is what you need to do in order to join the 1% of smart e-merchants who succeed on the Net...

STEP 1) Create a great product that is of value to your targeted market. That can take some work. So start early. Perhaps an e-book (the site serves as the PREseller for the premium information in your e-book). Or maybe software or MP3s -- whatever excites you... and your clientele!

STEP 2) Realize, right from Day 1 of product development that your e-product will be an extension of your Theme-Based Content Site. It's all about delivering the content that your target market seeks, PREselling them, and then (and only then) converting traffic into sales.

For the full discussion on this critical offline-to-online mindshift, click here.

STEP 3) Follow the SBI! process as outlined in the Action Guide and the online help.

The right approach is based on the understanding that creating Valuable Content (i.e. Information) comes before Traffic which comes before Monetization (i.e., Collecting the Money).

Michael Boyter, from Wasilla, Alaska, is a great case study to check out. On his successful SBI! site (familyhistoryproducts.com), he creates excellent content about genealogy/family autobiographies and sells an e-book called Memorygrabber. Michael also monetizes his high volume of targeted traffic via...

1) AdSense -- Google AdSense ads contribute a healthy monthly stipend.

2) Affiliate income -- By referring visitors to non-competing merchants with affiliate programs, profits are boosted even more.

3) Joint ventures -- Michael leverages his site's high traffic by selling related products created by others, merchants who are either offline or who are online but don't have the volume of traffic that SBI! and familyhistoryproducts.com have built.

Take-home lesson?

Collecting payment and delivering an e-product in an automated way will not be the difficult parts of your online business. There are literally hundreds of services doing this. And SBI! is compatible with most of the leading plug-n-play services... it's as easy as copying-and-pasting a bit of HTML. Visit the SBI! Resources HQ for more information.

The key is to build high volumes of targeted visitors, and then PREsell them your own products, and others you represent. It's simple really -- follow the SBI! process as outlined in the Action Guide and you will succeed.

"Sell" what people want and search for, on the Net... information. This is the foundation of your business, no matter what you plan to sell on the Net. Obviously, the information provided on your Theme-Based Content Site should be tightly related and lead naturally into the sale of your e-good.

While e-goods may be your primary monetization model, additional revenues can be added via Google AdSense, affiliate income, services, etc. See the other monetization articles in the TNT HQ for more possibilities that might "fit" your situation.

Selling an e-good can be highly profitable, easily automated and low-risk. Blend in other monetization models and you can build a strong, diversified and growing online business.