Is There Too Much Competition in Internet Information Marketing?
Does the idea of selling information products on the Internet appeal to you?
It does to GL, one of my subscribers. But she is hesitating about whether to even start.
GL is worried that there are already more than enough people hawking e-books, DVDs, and courses on the Internet.
“Isn’t the Internet already overcrowded with a million info marketers selling look-alike products on everything from dating to real estate?” GL asked me the other week. “Aren’t I getting into the game too late to carve out a piece of the Internet profit pie for myself?”
Fair questions.
Yes, you are getting into the game a little later than some of your peers.
But so what?
The old saying — better late than never — is true.
And, in fact, there is still a huge opportunity to make your fortune online.
Newbie Internet marketers despair that there is too much competition on the Web — and, therefore, no room for them. What they do not understand is that the information business is not competitive in the way most other businesses are.
A consumer shops and makes a decision to buy, say, a certain model washing machine when her old machine breaks down (as my wife did a few weeks ago). If the consumer chooses your brand — or buys from your store — you have her money. And all the other wash machine manufacturers and retailers have lost that chance to sell to her.
After all, she needs only one washing machine. And new machines typically last at least 10 years.
With information products, it is a bit different. It’s more like the video game market than the appliance market.
Kids don’t buy and play one video game. They buy game after game. They are video game junkies. And they’ll spend a small fortune feeding their “habit.”
It’s the same with buyers of information products.
They are “information junkies.” They buy many “how to” products — e-books … DVDs … tele-seminars … and e-courses — on their favorite topics.
That means they will buy your info products in addition to your competitions’ — not instead of.
The first thing you should do if you are thinking of selling info products online is to Google your subject.
If no one else is selling info products on the same subject, you have no competition.
But that’s bad. It probably means others have tried and found no demand.
On the other hand, when you Google some subjects, it seems like there is an almost infinite number of sources for information … and you despair of being able to break through the clutter.
The way to do it is to narrow your focus. Find a niche within that broad topic — a subtopic (a) that people want to study and (b) about which there is a scarcity of good content.
For instance, “Make money on the Internet” is an overcrowded topic — one I would not recommend going into. But there is plenty of room for niche products centered around making money on the Internet.
I saw one recently about how to market on Facebook. If you are an Internet marketer, doesn’t that sound like something you should learn?
Let’s say you come up with a narrow niche topic that doesn’t appear to be overcrowded. Use a free keyword research and discovery tool like www.spacky.com to make sure Internet users are searching for that information. Check keyword phrases related to your topic (e.g., “marketing on Facebook”). Then see how many people are searching those keywords on Google.
Once you’ve determined that there’s a market for your niche topic, you can go ahead and develop an info product to sell.
And don’t let the idea of creating your own info product intimidate you.
It’s not all that hard. Trust me.
P.S. It takes only a few simple steps to create your own information products from scratch. And with the help of my Internet Cash Generator program, you can learn to effectively market and sell those products — using the same tactics and techniques I use in my own part-time $25,000-a-month Internet business.