Have you created your own product? - Here's why you SHOULD

Being an affiliate marketer is wonderful. You get to sit back and relax as you earn commissions for the sales you refer. You don’t have to fulfill any orders, and you make money without lifting a finger after you get your affiliate marketing funnel set up. It’s a wonderful life, and you might not want to change a thing. However, if you want to make even more money online, you might want to consider creating your own product as well!

The reasons for this are simple. When you are the product owner or creator, you have all of the control. You set the price, quality, and all other aspects of the product. Most importantly, YOU are now the one who can have affiliates.

Instead of only getting a percentage of the money based on your individual marketing efforts, you now to get to sit back and relax as affiliates work for you. The difference here is that you do the work to initially create the product (or get it created for you through a ghostwriter). Then, you set up digital delivery and your affiliate program, and sit back as others earn money for you!

There are other reasons you might want to create your own product as well. In a previous lesson, the importance of becoming an expert in your niche was stressed. When your name is on a product (usually speaking about a digital, downloadable product), then you will definitely be seen as an authority. Self-publishing on the web is very easy to do, and it’s impressive to many people!

The first thing you’re going to have to do is examine your market. If you’ve been an affiliate in a certain niche for a while, the chances are good that you already have a lot of data to pull from. You know exactly what the people in this niche need and want! All you need to do is create a product that stands out from the rest — something the people in your niche will clamor to get their hands on.

You can either create the product yourself (remember the information about repurposing your content? This works well for a base for your own product!) or hire someone to create it for you. What you choose to do will come down to whether you enjoy writing or creating or you would rather pay the money to have someone else do it. You also have to think about the time you have to dedicate to creating the product.

In addition to writing a product (such as an ebook), you can create products in other formats instead. An example might be a video product, an e-course, or an audio product. You can even create a mixture of these to make something of incredibly high value.

Do not be scared or intimidated to create your own product! It is a logical next step for someone who has found a certain affiliate promotion or niche to be successful. As a product owner, you are truly in control of your own business, which is a wonderful place to be.

image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36894712@N04/3540043003/