Internet Marketing with Josh SpauldingMaking Money through Ethical Internet Marketing.

Finding Ebook / Product Ideas isn’t as Hard as you Think!

I’ve been pretty quiet for the past 2 weeks. The last time I published any content here or to my list was nearly 2 weeks ago, when I publicly addressed a major issue I was having with the email marketing service I use, which was finally handled in a very professional way by the CEO of the company.

No, I haven’t been pouting over that issue for the past two weeks I’ve been busy looking at homes and organizing the development of 3 different Internet Marketing related products. Ironically, much of the money I make from my products will be paying for the home that I’m about to buy.

So today I sat here at my desk trying to come up with a good blog post for you and I realized this is a great time to talk about what it is that has enabled me to provide for my family in the way that I do, with a nice car and home in a great school district/area, next to a huge, beautiful lake… and everything else that comes along with this lifestyle.

So what is it? PRODUCTS! Ebooks, scripts, software etc. Of course I use my “Info-Product Success Formula” and have for several years now, but what it all comes down to is developing good products that help people and finding good products from others to promote as an affiliate while my own products are being developed.

Now that just sounds fine and dandy, but of course talking and doing are two different things. That’s exactly why I laid my info-product guide out, step-by-step and packaged it for you. But for many people their biggest road block and motivation killer hits before they even begin…

If you’re not a “Guru” how do you come up with good product ideas?

That’s the question many people have. It’s the question I had in the beginning too. Here is my answer: Don’t try so hard. I know you’ve been told and you’ve heard in forums and on blogs that your product needs to be unique and special. Bull! I’ve sold hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of ebooks, scripts and software and I’m telling you right now, that’s not true.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying anything will sell. Here’s what I’m getting at. As long as your product will either solve a problem or make something easier for others, it will sell. I’ll give you a great example:

The first ebook I ever wrote was “Article Marketing Domination.” “AMD” (it has obviously been updated several times since first released.) When I first wrote that ebook I asked someone who shall remain nameless, what he thought of it. This is someone who is still to this day considered by many to be a “guru.” This “guru” told me there’s no way it will sell. He told me it doesn’t “change” anything… there isn’t a need. It’s nothing special. I’ve lost track of how much money that ebook has generated in sales, but I know it’s closing in on 6-figures.

So why did this “guru” say that and why was he wrong?

He said that because “AMD” was very simply an article marketing guide. It shows people how to effectively market with articles from A to Z. I learned the right way and it was working for me, so I wrote a guide teaching exactly how to do it. It didn’t change anything I suppose. It didn’t/doesn’t contain “Ground-Breaking” info. It didn’t/doesn’t contain any super top secret info that will generate millions of dollars for you. But you know what it does contain? It contains accurate, proven, solid, real-world advice that someone who doesn’t really know what they’re doing with their article marketing campaign can take and benefit from a great deal.

He was wrong, and everyone else who gives the same advice are wrong, because more and more people, especially Internet Marketers, are learning to sift through the hyped up “secret squirrel” high-priced garbage to find the down-to-earth, SOLID, real-world products that will truly help them build a solid business.

So now when I’m thinking of product ideas I brainstorm a list of problems and obstacles that I face in my own business. I then think of potential ways in which I can fix them. Some will be so easily fixed that they will not make a good product. Others will be too difficult and/or expensive to fix. But there are always some that fall in between. Those are the the money makers.

Once I find my money makers, I DON’T worry about whether or not my solution is already out there on the market because I obviously haven’t found it if it is and if I haven’t found it then I know there are alot of other people who haven’t either!

Do you think when I released “AMD” it was the only article marketing guide on the market? Heck no. There were hundreds, if not thousands.

All that matters is your product is genuinely helpful to some sort demographic.

So if you’re one of the many who are stuck on the whole product idea thing, stop worrying and start developing! It MAY NOT be a winner, but as Wayne Gretzky once said “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” and if you have a product idea that you’re confident will help people, chances are it’s going to sell!

If you want a solid, real-world, proven system to profit from electronic products (ebooks, scripts, software etc.) and you haven’t already, grab a copy of my very popular “Info-Product Success Formula.”

But whether you use my formula or another, don’t make your own product idea’s brick walls on your path to success. If your idea(s) truly helps people stop wondering, worrying and thinking about it and take action on it!

img credit: Sean Dreilinger

Getresponse bug fixed

-edit- this issue has been resolved.

About 5 years ago when I started my online business I took the advice of a friend and signed up with GetResponse, an email marketing service. Since then I’ve had several problems, but most have been minor, so I sucked it up and drove on, as they say in the Army. They do get my emails in my clients inboxes (hopefully all of them, but there’s no way of knowing for sure.)

So there have been no major issues, just several minor issues. That was until a few weeks ago!

GetResponse allows it’s customers to track [...] Continue Reading…

Internet Marketing – 7 Tips for staying Organized, Motivated & Focused

Several months back I sent out a survey to my list with several different questions. The survey was a huge success with thousands of answers. One of those questions was very general “In one sentence, what is the #1 thing you need help with.” Many of the responses were exactly what I expected. Things like “traffic, building links and SEO” but surprisingly, many people left answers like “organization, motivation and staying focused.”

Obviously organization, motivation and staying focuses are important, but I had no idea so many people struggled with these issues. Well, the good news is that I [...] Continue Reading…

Understanding Social Media Marketing

I’ve gone over certain aspects of social media in several different posts over the years, but as far as I know I’ve never done an “all-in-one” type of post, explaining the differences that exist with Social Media and the different ways you can leverage them.

Social Media is growing like no media has ever grown before. MySpace was one of the first mass social platforms, then Facebook, Twitter and the list goes on and on. As Internet Marketers Social Media is a relatively new, HUGE market and opportunity, but it’s far from a secret!

There are millions of sites dedicated [...] Continue Reading…

How I Make Money Giving away Free Stuff

About a year and half ago I wrote a blog post outlining how I make money with free reports. I go over the basics of how I do it in that post, but since then my strategies have evolved and I’m making MUCH more money with my freebies.

So instead of editing that post, I decided to write a new one for you.

What I’m about to explain to you is actually one part of my overall Info-Product Success Formula, the exact formula that I’ve been using for years to make hundreds of thousands of dollars. But, the free report [...] Continue Reading…

Should you Build links to your Article Directory Articles?

This is a question I received today from a customer of my Article Marketing Ebook and a question I’ve been receiving on a weekly basis for years. Amazingly enough, I believe this is the first time I’ve answered the question publicly, other than maybe in a few post comments here and there.

The answer to the question is 98% of the time, no. And 2% of the time, yes.

Many people believe that if they build links to the articles that they’ve submitted to article directories, those articles will then receive more authority, causing them to rank higher and drive even [...] Continue Reading…

Website Flipping 101 – 10 Steps to Quick VRE Cash

This is a guest post by a friend, former student and successful “Site Flipper,” Michelle Adams. Michelle has been flipping Virtual Real Estate (VRE) for a while now with a great deal of success. If I were looking to get into that business model, Michelle is who I would take advice from on the subject.

If you’re like most people who are keen to make money online you’ve more than likely been focusing on methods that will generate passive income: income where you do the work once and get paid over and over again. Passive income is arguably the best [...] Continue Reading…

WordPress: How to Remove the Sidebar from a Single Page

You may come upon the situation where you need/want to remove the sidebar for one particular page on a WordPress bog. There are many situations where this may happen. In one case, if you use Google Custom Search (within Adsense) for your blog search and you want the search results to match your blog (highly recommended) the minimum width for the results page is 795 set by Google. That means, with most themes, the ads on the right in the search results are going to overlap your sidebar.

So, here is the solution:

WARNING: Always make a backup of any file [...] Continue Reading…

Internet Marketing Tax Deductions

It’s the last day of 2009, which means tax season is just around the corner. That is a good thing for some and a bad thing for others. Whether it’s good or bad for you, one thing’s for sure, you NEED to be sure you claim all of your yearly business expenses!!

(NOTE: I am not a certified financial adviser of any kind! Always consult with a CPA or some sort of finance professional before putting any advice I provide into action.)

Hopefully you kept track of your incoming and outgoing for the entire year. I know I DIDN’T my first [...] Continue Reading…

How to Make more Money with Adsense

As we’re coming up on a new year (at the time of writing) many of us start thinking about goals for the new year. I’ve never been one to sit down and write out all of my goals, although I probably should, but I do try to set them and keep them in mind throughout the year.

One of those goals is to bring my Adsense income back up to where it was a couple years ago. At one point I was earning a few thousand dollars a month via Adsense. Since then I have shifted my business model to [...] Continue Reading…