Embracing Change in a work from home environment-Archived Episode-Part 4
Supplying products via the Internet
As we produce work that becomes pure poetry, we impact and influence our teammates, we wow our suppliers, we inspire customers and strangers. And we lead our industry.
Robin S. Sharma
Data or digital products are the Internet-age term which implies to the publication of data-rich material on the web. This material may take any form, but broadly when we speak about data products we're talking about eBooks, e-zines, videos, audio-books and the like. Generally, this is material that people may download and store on their hard disk drive and withdraw it afterwards according to their convenience.
Using Data
There are two ways in which you're able to get into the digital merchandise business:
You might produce the data content yourself or outsource it to someone so that you have your own merchandise to distribute. You might promote another person’s merchandise on your site or blog. Either way, you're producing and selling informative material that interested customers would buy. You can create what is called an “informational product” out of your learned knowledge and sign up with a digital provider to sell downloads like, Ejunkie.com, Getdpd.com, or Payhip.com. Some of these online providers are free (they get a percentage of your sales) or paid on a monthly or yearly subscription.
One great way to sell and market your products is through affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is a way to have other people sell your products for a percentage of commission sales. You can get them to promote your product through social media, their blog or website, or through video or podcasting. In cases like these you may not need have to own your own website or blog because the affiliates would have the platform and outlets necessary to market and promote your products. This is a great way to start an online venture especially if you have limited funds. Its also a great way to start if you rally don’t want to get bogged down with having to maintain a website or blog.
If you sell your own merchandise there are a lot more advantages. Number one, people associate you with somebody who's an authority on the subject matter. You become believable and you build a long lasting reputation in the process. This will ensure that your additional products get a niche for themselves too. Owning and producing your own products does not mean that you have to create them all yourself. You can outsource your creative work and pay an additional cost to get them produced. Get the most you can out of producing your very own informational products. Create value and offer value to your customers and build yourself a well liked reputation in the process. Having an online presence can whether you start or already have one might be the next option to take your brand and your business to the next level.
The value of your education
Never undervalue your knowledge and expertise. Your knowledge that you’ve obtained overtime is as invaluable as the day you learned it. Never take for granted the time spent and the investment made in educating yourself and creating a livelihood for your business. Time now has proven that what you’ve learned over time was not wasted its now priceless gold!
Another way to use digital to your advantage is by selling and promoting it on a membership platform where customers for a monthly fee download each month your premium products. This type of business model is not easy to start but the residual income earned from this endeavor can pay off more than your bills. For example, if you were to have 5000 monthly subscribers at a fee of $5,99 per month you will have by the end of each month if they don’t cancel, $29,950 and $359,400 per year respectively. That sounds nice huh? With this model you can sell videos, pdfs or eBooks, and audio files.
You can also decide to become a reseller of goods. By a reseller I mean the selling of goods that are not your own. You are selling branded and non branded merchandise from a source and reselling those products for a profit to you. You are purchasing the product at wholesale and in turn selling that product for a profit that is suitable for the market and for you. For example, I resell goods from a global publisher and I mark up the products that I want to sell and for a profit I mark up the percentage that suits me and the market I am targeting. I decide to sell based on what I am passionate for and not necessarily what the market demands. You have to decide for yourself do you want to sell on profit or solely on passion or both.
Here a few more choices that you can choose from:
Naturally, it's understood that the sort of services that have a demand on the internet are services that you are able to supply online. These are by and large services related to site building and promoting. The following services are much desired:-
Material creation
Blog management
SEO
Site creation
Social networking services
Virtual Assistants
Proofreading and editing
Marketplace selling
The drawback here is that you must spend time. You have to be at your desktop most of the time as you interact with others. This all depends on the industry your in so all rules don’t necessarily apply. Take a look at your smart phone. That tool is one of your greatest assets when it comes to an Internet business. You can engage with clients globally via text or email and get business done any time of day. No restrictions.
Networking or community engagement is another way to establish a network of people and jointly market your merchandise or service. With a network or group you can gain the attention of many like minded individuals who are very interested in what you have to offer.
Enjoy!
Annette
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