Go where the money is!
If you are able to become successful without starting out by selecting your
market, then it is almost pure luck that you didn't fall flat on your face. That is
really how important it is to make this your absolute first step in creating your information goods.
Equally important is the idea of selecting the "right" market. Ordinarily, I am of
the opinion that there is no "right" way or "wrong" way, only "different" ways. The
same is true with opinions. Well, with selecting a market, there actually is a right
market and a wrong market. Select a wrong market, and you're actually worse off
that if you would have created an information goods without first locating a market. The
right market is one that has buyers ... and lots of them!
The market you select to create your information goods for must be hungry for
information AND they must be willing to pay almost any price to get that
information. By definition, a "market" is a group of people who come together for
a common purpose. People by nature tend to belong to groups as they feel most
comfortable associating with like minded people.
In order to achieve success with an information goods online, you'll need to find the
right group of like-minded people for your information goods. In other words, those
people who are buyers (not window shoppers) of information on a given topic.
Then, and only then, can you create a product tailored to their specific needs.
This will assure you of having people lining up to buy the information that you
provide to them.
Marketers, especially Internet Marketers trying to sell you products, talk about‘hot’ markets. Jimmy D. Brown calls it ‘burning needs’ (a mis-quote, I’m sure).
Whatever you want to name it, it makes sense to target products and markets
that have a heavy demand – lots of buyers. But that’s not all, is it?
Keep an eye out for the other side of the marketing equation – the supply side.
Wading into a highly competitive marketplace is risky if you’re starting your first
business. Find a market which still has room for more competition (the demand /
supply ratio is high) and where the market is large enough to be profitable
(targeting Ugandan farmers isn’t exactly a killer idea – targeting African farmers is
a better idea scale-wise, but then you run into purchasing power.)
In other words, pick a market where:
· The buyers are willing AND able
· The suppliers are not too great in number (Internet Marketing is inherently a
tough niche to enter precisely because every one tries to sell marketing
products)· The market is big enough to make a profit and expand in the future.
This is exactly what you learned to do earlier in this course. The same concept
applies whether you are creating an information goods from scratch or using other
people's products to create your own ... you must still do your research before
creating the product.
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