Creating your own product, especially a digital product, can be one of the best ways of using resources you already have within your business. But if you’ve never done it before, the very idea of product creation can be intimidating.
Just thinking about creating a new product raises so many questions. What kind of product could you create? How would you make it? How would you sell it?
These are questions that made me stumble when I was starting out.
I’ve spent more than 30 years creating new products for all sorts of companies. I’ve written and designed everything from print books to craft kits. But way back when I was starting out, I was completely overwhelmed by the process of product creation. It seemed so complex and confusing!
But with luck and persistence, and a whole lot of help from more experienced writers and designers, I learned that there were basic steps to the process of creating a product.
I also learned that if I took the first steps, one by one, and actually worked on them, instead of just reading about them, I was soon fully involved in creating a product!
These are the baby steps my mentors taught me to follow in planning the creation of a product:
1.Define your target. Know exactly whom it is you want to sell to.
2.Research your target. What age are they? Where do they live? What sort of products are they already buying? What is their average expendable income?
3.Make a list of items they are already known to purchase and enjoy.
4.Make a list of ways you could improve some of these products, perhaps by adding features, making it easier to use, simplifying it or explaining it better.
5.Make a list of resources you have available to you, ranging from your own personal experience and knowledge, to personal contacts you can call on, suppliers you know of, and anyone and anything else that may be valuable to you when you’re working on a product for this target market.
6.Considering the resources you have available, choose ONE item from the list of ways you could improve an already-existing product. Commit yourself to focusing all your attention on working out that one, single product idea.
Look around the room you’re in right now. Everything you see before you, every book and paper and pen, the computer you’re using, the chair you’re sitting on, the clothes you’re wearing, everything is a product that began with these first steps.
By gathering pertinent information, brainstorming a number of product ideas and then committing to the ONE idea you have the time, the resources and the personal interest to develop, you’ve already completed the most important steps on the path to creating your own product.
Remember, using material and resources you’ve already created for your business is a great way to make your first product. If you’ve written a white paper or report, given a speech or taught a class, you already have the content you need for an ebook, a workbook, even a class presented as an audio or video!
If you want to spread your creative wings and make products to market on the web, my book, "Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High-Profit Products"will inspire you to be your most creative, successful self by showing you just some of the many ways I use the internet to make creative cash.
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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine, http://www.theinternetwizards.com and The Internet Wizards Blog at to teach self-employed people and small businesses owners how to leverage the internet for advertising, marketing and promoting their business. To stay in touch with her, type your name and email into the subscriber box in the upper right corner of this page.
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