I live near a small town with an old town square and a single main street (which is actually not called Main Street). There are shops that line the street that have been there for 80+ years. Well, the shops haven’t been, but the buildings have been. The shops come and go. Recently a new shop opened which sells toys – stuffed animals, games, books. Cute store.
Internet marketing is a lot like buying a shop on Main Street. I could buy or rent a building, renovate it, have the greatest shelving, even the greatest checkout software. But if I don’t stock the store, what’s the point? Our marketing business is the same way…we must have products and services to sell.
There are lots of options for products:
- You can make your own (like an ebook, software, or even a physical product)
- You can sell someone else’s product and get a commission (you are called an affiliate)
- You can license a product to sell as your own
There are other things to consider as well, such as delivery, support, and your time. The most difficult of these products is to make your own (time consuming and you have to figure out delivery, marketing, and support). The easiest of these products is to sell items as an affiliate. All you have to worry about is the advertising, everything else is taken care of by the creator of the product.
It seems to me that the best option is to license a product to sell (all the work is done for you except setting up a website, sales funnel, and driving traffic to it). The reason you’d want to set up your own website with sales funnel is to grow a list of interested buyers. They may not need that particular product, but they might need something else you can offer them.
So, bottom line, it shakes out like this: Make your own (like a lemonade stand), Sell someone else’s product (like working at WalMart), or Sell a licensed product (like owning a franchise like a McDonalds). What do you think is best?
