So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?
 

In Michael Ross' thread-- "WANTED: Your Participation - The info in this post could make you money" Michael posed the question to me about how I would go about finding top selling products to sell myself or possibly even "tweak" a little and sell as my own product.

Before I get into some of the steps I would take to uncover top-selling products I'm greatly interested in how some of you would go about identifying top-selling products.

So "spill your guts" and then I'll spill mine -- how would you go about finding products that have some potential to make you some money?

Please consider this a brainstorming session-- there are no "bad" answers!

Here's one method
 

Michael,

Thanks for ASKing.

As I mentioned already, but consider it better placed in this thread, one method is for finding a product which sells (it might not be top selling, but does sell) is ...

1: Do a Google Search for something. For example, "How to repair rust".

2: Save a copy of the Google Ads in a Text File. In this case there is Only 1 ad which reads...

Repair & Prevent Rust Now
Stop Rust For 10 Years, Guaranteed.
No Prep, Easy To Apply & Maintain!
www.RustBullet.com

Note: A Search for Rust Repair got three ads on the side...

eBay Rust Repair
Make money, sell your Rust Repair
Compare Offers, Get Our Best Deal
www.eBay.com.au

Zero Rust for rust repair
Corrosion Coating, rust protection
barrier at the steel surface level.
www.zero-rust.com

Easy Quick & Inexpensive
Treat-Stop-Prevent Rust & Corrosion
for tough safe & lasting protection
www.floodaustralia.net

3. In two month's time do the same search. In fact, it's wise to save the Search itself - copy the location bar - and then paste that back-in two months down the track. If you see the same ads from the same company you Know they are either Making Money (people are buying their stuff) - or - they are insane and are spending money to get Brand Awareness without the matching sales (something the Big Boys do but the small guy generally will not do).

If you assume they are making money you have identified a Viable Market. A Market and often a Product people are buying.

4: Check out their website for Finer Details - how they market it on the web, do they do email as well, bonus items, etc. Even BUY their product as Additional Competitive Research.

This should not only find you a Viable Product but also show you Part of How it is marketed. And I say Part because you will only be aware of the small marketing methods you have seen. They may also use Offline methods you aren't aware of.

There are Other Methods, but let's see what others share to see if those other methods are revealed.

Michael Ross

Re: So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?
 

Thanks Michael for asking.

I tend to follow what Bill Myers et al teach:

1. First find the crowd.
2. Then find / create what products they want.

Finding the Crowd:

* Through magazines (consumer as well as trade related)
* Workshops and seminars and trade shows
* SRDS and rental list services
* Online Groups
* eBay

Then just research - either online or offline - to see what these crowds are buying.

Re: So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?
 

Ankesh,

Thanks for the Two Step.

Would you Expand on your answer please.

HOW do you Find A Crowd in a magazine or online groups?

HOW do you Research to find what they are buying?

Michael Ross

Re: So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?
 

Thanks Michael for asking "How."

Btw - I do agree with you that because not many people write "how" to do things - readers don't follow through. But I think that makes a good barrier. It will get rid of people who make excuses.

Anyways, back to your questions.

>HOW do you Find A Crowd in a magazine or online groups?

I dont find crowds "in" magazines and online groups. The magazines and online groups themselves represent a crowd. If there is no crowd, there will be no magazine.

For further research, just ask the magazine or the online group owner to send you more information about their readers / visitors because you are thinking of advertising with them. (The industry term is demographics.)

Most magazines will send you a very glossy rate card that has their number of readers. Assume its inflated.

Many online groups may not have anything like that available. But you can see the action happening on the websites - the number of posts per week, the number of regular posters, the number of new posters.

>HOW do you Research to find what they are buying?

Just as you do. By reading and following ads or "wishlists".

* On Google (how many ads are there for the keyword)
* Other websites like ebay, clickbank etc
* Top lists - like amazon, New York Times etc
* How many ads are there in the magazine
* What kind of ads are those
* Have they been running for a long time

* On forums, I try to see if a question is being asked again and again.

I use a number of tools / techniques / questions / criteria. But I don't rely on just one of them to make my decision. And there is no formula that tells me tool A is worth 20% and tool B is worth 15%. Its more a feeling after going through a lot of information.

I would love to know if someone has a more scientific process.

You're doing it bassackwards ...
 

Sellers are everywhere for everything and anything.

Concentrate on finding the buyers.

One Hundred buyers are worth far more than One Thousand sellers.

Jim

Re: So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?
 

I started within my market (promotional advertising represents an estimated $18 Billion market in the US annually. Up over 3 Billion in the last decade, so some very nice growth for people looking to start or expand in this field.) and look for ways to find what the hot products art.

In my field it's as simple as picking up the 4 or 5 industry magazines and attending some of the national or regional expos and table-top shows. I prefer the half-day shows that visit my region, allowing me to get current info without the expense in time and money for the 3 to 5 day national expos.

The reps setting up at the table-top shows increase their earnings by driving more sales to the company(ies) they promote. They may be either employees or contractors, but either way, they need to increase sales for their market. The easiest way to do that is to direct the individual salespeople to the products in their lines that are flying out the door.

In many cases, they will even bring extra samples to give to the salespeople to help them get more sales.

At the same time, I also pick up additional sales techniques that can apply to other products, so it's definitely a good exchange of my time for increased sales in the near future.

I realize my response is specifically related to my industry, but any sales professional on online marketer can use the same idea to learn what is hot within their product lines. Dig deeper in the industry expos and magazines targeted to their field to discover hot products.

Dennis Bevers

Re: So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?
 

Hi Michael,

Thank you for starting what should be a great thread.

Here are two ways I use Ebay to find what people want NOW. When you go to the main page on Ebay and you look down the left side you will see “Want it Now”. Click on that. You will be taken to a page with categories. Click on any category and you will get a list of what people are looking for right now. In real time.

Now what I do is bring these listing back to an excel spreadsheet and let my computer do a key word search. That will give me a listing of how many times the words appear. Yes you will get a lot of keywords like “the”, “and” and so forth. But you will also find the keywords like model # of hot items, brand names of wanted products, ebooks that are wanted, etc. When you have a count of 10 or 20 of the same item you know it is HOT right now.

The other way I use Ebay is to use the listings on the left hand side. Pick a category and go down the left hand side to where it has a check box and says listings. Under that there are boxes with drop down choices. The default on the first box is “ending within” and under that is a number of hours selections. I pick the “started within” choice and set the hours to 12. Then the boxes under that ask for the min number of bids and the max number of bids. I set the min at 5 bids and the max can be any big number like 100. When you click on “show items” only the items that received at least 5 bids in the first 12 hours of that auction will come up.

If an item has 5 bids in the first 12 hours of the auction being placed you know this is a HOT item. I just did a search in the music category and under CDs and got one item that had 6 bids in the first 12 hours.

http://makemoneyalert.com/Ebay.htm

These are two of the up to the minute ways to find HOT items that are also FREE ways.

Best of success,

Skip Rosell

Quick Cash Concepts

Re: So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?
 

Hi Michael,

Thanks for asking.

The methods would vary depending my starting point and or my objectives.

While Hot Selling Products are nice...They are still just Indicators of a "Potential Market"

So my ultimate objective would be to find a hot Industry with many profitable players;COMPETITION.

Here is the "Starting Point" continuum as I see it.

Starting Point:

1. Braintorm/Get Ideas
2. Find: Hot Ads...which Leads to "potentially"
3. Hot Products/Services...which Lead to "potentially"
4. Hot Players/Businesses...which Lead to Other "potential"
Players in a market (Competition)


IF I am able to determine there are MORE than ONE profitable players in a market then you have a better chance of being successful.

THE MORE COMPETITION THE BETTER

THEN I would spy on the TOP 5 or 10 to determine the who, what, when where, why, and how's of their marketing.

O.K all that said. I would 1st go to EBAY, because I find that it is one of the most Transparent ways to do market research.

You can determine to the penny the last 30 days TOTAL SALES volume for a market. Real buyers and Real Sellers.

Let's use Michael Ross's example of "rust repair"

I would use his PPC method as a quick start. (sidenote: keyword elite would automate a lot of that process)

However, my preference would be to go to EBAY since THAT is where the buyers and sellers are.

My Objective: Find PLAYERs that are or have made money in the last 30 days

So looking at my "continuum" from above:

1. Brainstorm/Get Idea:

Rust Repair!

2. Find HOT Ads/Listings: Manual Method

At this stage we are doing a QUICK "eyeball" of any number that shows in GREEN which denotes a sale.

a. go to www.ebay.com
b. enter "rust repair" (no quotations)
result: only 19 ads are currently listing
c. Check box labled "completed listings"
d. Click "Show Items" button
e. Login to your ebay account
f. Eyeball and count the number of Green: Red numbers

RESULTS:

58 completed listings (29 (Green)/58 listing successful 50%)

I want to get more specific data about the Ads, the Hot Products and the players so I'll bring out the heavy duty research software from www.hammertap.com in this market[/i].

2b. Find HOT ADS automatically: LEVERAGE SOFTWARE

a. Load up my "spy software" (hammertap.com)
b. Click on product search
c. Enter "rust repair"
d. Click on "show detailed listings" icon

RESULTS:

Headline Number #1

BODYWORK RUST REPAIR AUTO BODY SHEET METAL

Headline Number #2

Dishwasher Rack Repair Kit -repair rust

RESULT:

Headline #1 is repeated 4 times.
Headline #2 is repeated 5 times.

This means that our software has automatically checked the completed items and the 2 headlines are the ONLY ones that have been REPEATED more than 3 times each. We KNOW for certain that these are HOT ADS.

3. Hot Products/Services

a. Of the two repeated Ad, look and read each auction to determine
the product or service

Result:

We can see that Headline #1 is advertising a GUIDE ie. Information Product
We can also see that Headline #2 is advertising a physical product. Some kind of vinyl touch up paint.

4. HOT PLAYERS/BUSINESSES

We now can SPY on each of the Players that have these HOT ADS

Let's just stick with the dishwasher headline.

a. We go back to our hammertap software
b. Click on "Seller Search"
c. Enter the name of the seller (ebay userid)

Results:

We see that this seller has a 100% success rate across 18 different auctions
and has grossed $106.84 cents in the last 30 days selling his dishwashing kit thing at an average sale point of $5.74

So for this Player he is targeting a very,very slim segment of the rust market.

Who woulda thought!

Now YOU can go and SPY on HEADLINE number one and determine how much
money he has made selling his INFOPRODUCT! :->

Conclusion:

So using this methodology and the spy software we know that there is about $200 worth of volume per month. There are only really 2 players. Each targeting two different segments. One has an info product that he sells repeatedly. The other sells a physical product.

So Is this market viable? Sure! You just have to determine what YOUR OWN criteria for viability are!

As usual Thanks for reading and thanks to everybody that has contributed to this so far.:)

Duane Adolph

P.S

Using this EXACT same method, I "Spyed" a fellow Sowpubber making money with his OWN info product recently :->

"HE" is a player but I ain't Tellin who :->

P.S
www.hammertap.com has a 10 day free trial

I like your perspective on "competitors"...
 

As I get older and have suffered the bumps & bruises of trying to develop products for markets that didn't have much in the way of competition I've come to appreciate the advantages of being in a market that has many competitors.

AND I'll say right now that I think if you want to make big money as an entrepreneur it's going to be in a more mature market with at least several competitors in it-- trying to make money from some of these incredibly narrow niches that don't have many competitors is just too difficult IMO.

Hey if you want to create an ebook for people interested in basket weaving, that have one arm and live in the state of George go for it if you just want something to do-- but if you want to make money I'd drop it like a hot potato. The fact is I read a lot of posts on several marketing/business opportunity boards where that's exactly the opportunity newbies are looking for because they're scared to death of competition.

The fact is that many profitable niches are filled with competitors that do not know how to market and this is where you can really make some good money.

Great post Duane!

Re: So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?
 

Here's my usual take on Things which can be incorporated into Everyone else's ideas...

Works Great on Competitive Intelligence... :)

Competitive Intelligence - Get Smart!

(A few years back but some good points)
http://www.fastcompany.com/online/14/intelligence.html

Make sure you have a good understanding of Keyword research...

Here's a Free Keyword Research Guide and a good place to start...
http://learn.wordtracker.com/workspa...arch-guide.pdf

Learn to read Multiple news sites Using Niche keywords & phrases...

Keep your Eyes open for Trends, New Products, Fresh and re-worked business ideas etc. etc... :)

Great Mega news resource...
http://www.drudgereport.com/

Some Excellent mostly Free info and amazing Spy tools... ;)
http://www.associateprograms.com/art...titor-research
http://googspy.com/
http://www.spyfu.com/

Once you've perfected the above Find & Use the Best Search tools and methods...
http://www.turboscout.com/
http://www.google.com/help/basics.html
http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en
http://www.google.com/alerts
http://www.google.com/sponsoredlinks

Phil

Here's some more...
 

Michael,

Thanks for starting this thread.

I'll add another Method for finding something to sell - someone to sell to. I wrote a Work and sent it to Dien back in 2001, after we chatted about something on the phone. It's a work I've not released, but now. Anyway. Let me quote a few things from that work...

===

"Okay, here's the basis of getting to your financial dreams...

Find an income stream and go stand in it.

That's it. Simple, isn't.

See, you've got to realize that money flows. It flows from one person to another person. Usually it flows from someone who wants/needs somethig to someone who can fulfill that want/need.

When a lot of people want/need the same something a lot of money flows. And just like a stream, many small trickles add up to be a torrent.

What you have to do is identify a stream of money that's already flowing and go and stand in it.

...

identify a possible business to get into is to pick a general market you know spends money. Then think about what they spend money on.

E.g. The market is, Dentists. Now list everything you think a Dentist needs to spend money on to stay in business. Your list might look like this...

Drills
Drill Repairs
Work Chairs
Sinks
Mouthwash
Office Cleaning
Bibs
Delivery

So that one market, Dentists, has many little streams of money radiating out. You pick one with repeat sales and stand in it.

...

Write down a list of as many businesses as you can think of. Then break down that list ..., the sublist should contain items you think the business spends money on to stay in business.

===

I wrote the above in 2001. But note that Richard Branson takes this idea to the extreme.

Whatever YOU spend money on is also a Market. Branson realised His Business spent money on things. So he created businesses that provided the items his other business spent money on.

Some music companies in Aust realised they all delivered to the same music stores. So they joined forces to create a Delivery Company that would deliver their music, instead of each of them Paying to have a different company deliver it. They then let other people know this company existed and it now makes a profit in its own right.

Next...

Yellow Pages. Following on from what you mentioned in reply to Duane... slowly flip through it and you will see the largest sections - most ads. Hints to being the largest markets. Join them, or do the Breakdown as I mention above and provide the items you know they buy.

Michael Ross

Here is my first one...
 

I'll randomly post methods that I consider to be very effective when it comes to "uncovering" top-selling products that can be either sold by you or maybe even "knocked off" and improved upon giving you your very own product thus potentially creating a "toll-position" for yourself.

Obviously it's easier to sell someone else's product first then as you become more familiar with the product and the market you're serving you can as turn it "up a notch!" Everyone's goal should be to have their own product at some point for a myriad of reasons that I can get more into at a future date...

But right now it's just about uncovering methods to "find" products that you could consider selling yourself.

Hey, we all know that most products out there aren't going to make you money by being a reseller. You need to think "80/20". You need a method or methods of finding those top 20% of the items that are representing 80% of the sales.

Trust me... you'll work five-times as hard trying to selling a product that really no one wants than you will selling something that there already is demand for. I've been there I know!

I read the posts on this site and others from people lamenting the fact they can't seem to sell anything or enough of anything to make a reasonable amount of money.

And I don't care how good of a marketer you are if you're stuck with a product no one wants you'll die broke...

It was Eugene Swartz who said, "Copywriters can not create demand for a product-- the demand HAS TO ALREADY EXIST!" Now sometimes the prospect doesn't KNOW they need that product and that's where good copywriting and a well done marketing plan come into play but the fact remains that the demand has to be there already in some manner. Even the great copywriters fail (quite often) when it comes to trying to sell a product that there is little or no demand for. Don't fall into that trap and don't fall "in love" with your product. Which is another problem I see exposed on many of these posts that start with, "How can I sell more of xyz. I get a lot of traffic to my site and no one buys." HELLO!

Listen buddy that's the world telling you that you've got a "dog" of a product. Do what needs to be done and dump it! Life's too short. Focus on selling stuff people want. And use your copywriting skills to "out-sell" the competition. I have found that to be a much easier way of making money rather than trying to sell snow to Eskimos!

Anyway here's my first method of uncovering top-selling products...

Many, many websites that sell a variety of products all on one site (think of a web-based catalog if you will) will tell you EXACTLY what their top-sellers are! What do I mean by this? Easy! "Top-10" or "Top-sellers" lists that many websites offer to the people visiting. Geez I see these all the top on all sorts of websites selling all sorts of products. Talk about making your job easy!

And I don't think this is a "How to split the atom" revelation but you show me a multi-product site where each product has to "share" space with other products and I would just about guarantee that if you built a site around this one product that you'll sell more of that one product.

Here are the simple steps:
1. Find a site with products that interest you that also has a "Top 10" or a "Top Seller's" list.
2. Take the top seller and find a source for it.
3. Build a website dedicated to this one product. A site that includes dynamite sales copy and wonderful content to help get you natural SE rankings.

It's that simple.

And as stated earlier in this post you could sell the product of awhile and then after you've gained some confidence you could then "tweak" it a bit and create your own product.

Great Stuff... The Halbert Technique
 

Michael,

Thanks for showing us the Simple Method. GREAT stuff!!!

It reminds me of Halbert and Info products...

Look at the NON-Fiction best seller list. If there is a book which is top for many weeks, then it means the Topic is HOT. So what you do is... get out half a dozen books from the library on the same topic, read them all, summarise and paraphrase the information using Your Own Words, and create your own Special Report.

For added value, Read the report onto some tapes and sell it as a Report & Audio Package Deal.

Michael Ross

Here's another way...
 

And another one...

We can Thank the Search Engine Overture for this one.

1: Go to their Keyword Selector / Suggestion Tool. http://inventory.overture.com/d/sear...ry/suggestion/

2: Enter the Word / Phrase you are thinking of and click the Arrow Icon

3: Read the results to find out how many Times that word or word combo was searched on Overture.

Using the above I see Rust Repair was searched for 638 times the last Month but that there were also some different Versions of the search like Rust Repair Panel, Auto Body Rust Repair and so on.

If I then go to Overture and do a Search, on the page that comes up in the top right corner is a link "View Advertisers' Max Bids". When clicked on it Used to show how much Per Click each advertiser was spending. But just double checking it now, when Clicked a pop up tells you the service is Gone - either a glitch or truly gone.

Anyway. The Keyword Tool is one way of finding which terms are searched on more than others, in comparison to each other. Say if you have a few different terms you want to compare.

Michael Ross

A Quick Word On The SRDS
 

Ankesh,

Thanks for mentioning the SRDS.

A few words about using them...

While it is great for finding what people bought, and thus letting you know a market Does exist, the catch is, almost always you cannot market a similar product to the same people.

E.g. You see a list of people who bought a Special Interest Video on Great Bicycle Tracks of New York. You Think, based on this knowledge, that you'll rent the list and sell them a Part 2 version of the same, or slightly different version of Family Bicycle Tracks. The Problem is, Your Product is Similar to what was sold and so the original seller will not allow you to rent their list.

E.g. 2. My Celtic Jewelry catalog will not be allowed to be mailed to a list of buyers of any jewelry - be it Mexican Jewelry, General Jewelry, Hand Crafter Jewelry and so on.

So even though the SRDS let me in on something of value I cannot market my Similar Product to the same people.

Michael Ross

A Twist On This Technique... Halbert + J. Gordon
 

Aloha Michael,

I think the Halbert method you just outlined yields consistent results. You might not hit a homerun with the product, but you almost always hit a double or triple, and move players around the bases.

I like to add a little something that I learned from J. Gordon on one of his tapes. I visit WalMart and Target, and walk down the book aisle.

Every book there is guaranteed to be a bestseller, because the vendor that brings in the product has to pay RENT for the shelf-space and guarantee a certain number of sales.

Nothing languishes -- so if I see it there time and time again, I know there is a huge demand.

Although Walmart and Target are not everywhere yet, their website have books listed. And Walmart lists their 50 top-sellers which is convenient!

A third twist to put on this is to outsource the main part of the product creation. Hiring someone in the Philippines or India is cheap, cheap, cheap!

Aloha,

Jason Cain

Re: So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?
 

Thanks for this Michael...

[ E.g. You see a list of people who bought a Special Interest Video on Great Bicycle Tracks of New York. You Think, based on this knowledge, that you'll rent the list and sell them a Part 2 version of the same, or slightly different version of Family Bicycle Tracks. The Problem is, Your Product is Similar to what was sold and so the original seller will not allow you to rent their list.]

One has to be creative on this....given the above example we know that these people are probably outdoors people, believe in healthy exercise, interested in health and fitness,etc.

One creates a product around one of these areas of interest, rents the list, offers the product for free with such great copy they can't resist but only after becoming a free member of the site you have built for it.

Then once they are members of your site you add another section to the site, and then you can create your "new" product for the bicycle track list that are now your members.

C.

Yes, But What About This . . .
 

If my memory serves me correctly, for a given list the SRDS will tell you the number of units sold, the average price of a sale, and how the sales were generated (i.e., direct mail, TV advertising, etc.). If it were possible to research and find the actual advertising that the markerter used to get those sales, perhaps one could successfully emulate their marketing campaign. At least it seems that having that information would increase your chances of success. One could also get on the other marketer's mailing list if their campaign is still active.

Just a thought.

BTW, Michael, I thought of you when I heard this: "Guns kill people like knives spread peanut butter on bread".

---- Hugh

Some More Ideas...
 

Ankesh,

Thanks for Touching on magazines.

Here's a couple of ways mags can be used.

Ads: You briefly mentioned this. But there is More Depth to it.

Bill Myers used Ads as a way to Figure Out if something related to the product advertised was viable. And in his case it was newsletters. That is, if he saw a consistently run ad he figured you could write a Newsletter based on the product sold.

In his case it was a Greenhouse. And so he started the Greenhouse Gardeners Journal. The idea being, the product (Greenhouses) has a following as proven by the longevity of the ads which sold them. And those who bought the product would Want Additional Information to Help them with their product. Problem solving, tips, etc.

As the subscriber base would be rather niche, then advertising could be accepted from companies who wanted to target that niche.

He ran Workshops to teach these concepts to people. All attendees started newsletters - but - as far as I know, None were able to keep one going for any length of time. Bill blamed this on Bad Topic Choice, and not his advice which was followed to come up with the topic.

His advice might have some validity for creating a single product or small product range to Ride Along with the advertised product. But being able to create a newsletter around it is more difficult - not impossible, but difficult, and your success would be more due to happenstance than good management.

Going back to the Greenhouse... A book on Making The Most Of Your Greenhouse would have been a better product to create. Less time and effort needed. And could be done using the Halbert Technique I mentioned elsewhere in the thread.

Of course, Bill's Market Identification Technique is mentioned by Jim in one of his reports - Mailorder, maybe - but with the advice to Still tread lightly. Because not all ad running means the product is selling.

Another point to be Aware of is, running ads do not tell you much about the State of the publication - Paid Subscribers, Bought Circulation not just Distributed Circulation, ad so on. Just because a publication is being published does not mean its readership is not Declining.

Articles: Generally speaking, people buy magazines for the Content and not the ads - even if they do enjoy Looking at the ads. The content (articles inside) is Often advertised on the front page by use of headers. To entice Newsstand Browsers to pick up the magazine and buy it. Because I'd imagine that the hardest thing with magazines, as with books, is getting the customer to pick up the items off the shelf in the first place. Which is why Time is spent on the Front Cover Teasers.

The idea then is, create a product based around the Main Articles within the publication - people read the publication because of the articles and are interested in those topics, so maybe they would like Additional Stuff (information or goods) on those same topics.

This is Close to the Ebay idea of...

People who are shopping on ebay for _______, might also be interested in (and be willing to pay for) Instant Information on _________.

E.g. People who are shopping on ebay for silk flowers might be interested in (and be willing to pay for) instant information on how to make a flower arrangement.

That Same Approach could be used with any Product advertised. However, this doesn't mean you have found a Good product To Sell - as this thread is leaning towards - but how to find something people might have an interest in and be willing to spend money on. They BUY the mag because of the Articles (in a sense they are buying the articles) and so it could stand to reason those readers might also be willing to buy more articles or information.

Any Examples pop into your head when you think of the Sentence above "people who are shopping on ebay for..."??

Michael Ross

Power Seller Inside Info & Free Auction Software
 

Jason,

Thanks for the idea.

Would you mind Expanding on How you'd use this Gained Knowledge of Huge Demand? Or are you thinking along the lines of what MW suggested - a website based around just one product, with a Competitive Advantage of bonus items, bigger purchase options options, faster delivery, etc.

Your mention of Outsourcing reminds me of something Dick Smith said - which I mentioned a few weeks ago... find the best from around the world and copy them.

Harv T Eker also said, find what's working over there and bring it over here. It will get here anyway, due to creep, but by brining it over you beat the Lag Time.

But the trick is, Finding what is Selling.

Books are tied up with publishers. Although, Bulk Lots can be purchased from the Licensed Distributors. Such as one of the Large distributors down in Oz has one simple request... at least $200 worth of books must be bought (that's $200 worth at wholesale prices). But you will be competing with all other book sellers that people already feel comfortable doing business with.

Re Copying... After searching ebay, clicking Related Items and following that kind of see/click/see/click line, I stumbled upon something interesting...

Two Power Sellers in Australia selling the Same product. Only two of them. One sells with Buy It Now, the other sells via Auction. Without naming them outright and using like-wise names, one is called Vidshanty and the other is Discshanty.

The interesting thing is, the Auctions almost always reach the same Buy It Now price and go no higher (sometimes being only a few cents under). Which tells me, those who Bid also know of the Buy It Now seller. Both sellers, of this one particular item (and they both sell a range of items), make a sale during the Listing Life. Though I feel the Auction guy is limiting himself by only selling one at a time.

Further research reveals one of them is an Actual Store. They do shop front sales as well as a Large Mailorder Operation in addition to their Ebay side. And they keep their ebay side Separate from their store/mailorder side - you cannot call them and get the cheaper ebay prices, for example.

I don't know much about the other seller, yet.

What I found most interesting was the Product Sold and how one seller had obviously copied the Name of the other seller. The second half of the name was such a quirky word its use had to be deliberate.

I've been watching these two sellers for the past week and a half. The Buy It Now Seller sold 4 units at his last listing while the Auction Seller sold 1 unit. The Buy It Now Seller offers Lower Shipping as his edge.

The Auction Seller also offers a Two Unit deal. Again, the price of his Auctions stops just short - or right on the price - of buying two units from the Buy It Now Seller.

And they both use Auctiva http://www.auctiva.com Free Auction Software.

Michael Ross

Re: So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?
 

Finding "Hot" products is easy for me. The promotional advertising industry puts on several major shows in cities such as Dallas, Orlando, Las Vegas, Chicago, etc. In addition, there are 5 major travelling expos that hit the biggest markets in every region.

I attend 5 to 6 of the travelling shows each year, and let the factory reps put their top products in my hand. Being able to examine the items, checking out the features, and advantages over the competition, is much easier than trying to pick the products from pictures in a catalog.

In July, I'll be flying to Chicago to attend one of those major shows - Over 1000 suppliers will be there, and I'll only have about 8 hours to glean as much info as I can. I've already attended the Southern Showcase, Advantages Roadshow, NSA Showcase, & SAGE Showcase, so I can skip a lot of the suppliers I've already visited with this year.

The suppliers are actually picking up what is hot retail, and then determining which process is the best for adding a company's name, logo, etc. So what is big in retail in 2006, is likely to be "Hot" in my business this year.

Dennis Bevers

Hot Products from the 25 Year Buying Cycle
 

Dennis,

Thanks for revealing what is hot in retail last year is good for you this year.

Reminds me of another concept (Joe Karbo?)...

Items that were Hot around 25 years ago will make a comback for many years before dropping off again. Due to people wanting to buy items related to their childhood.

E.g. I recall Bionic Man Dolls. I recently heard of a guy who bought one on ebay for $600 because: he'd always wanted one when he was little but his parents had never bought him one, so now that he was older and able to fund his own purchases, he bought one.

This Technique seem to be more in line with childhood items. But not All childhood items. Do you due before jumpin in.

It would mean, look for things that sold well back around 1982-ish. And stuff that sold well round 1990-ish will be coming into Demand in a few years time. I also recall an old Sowpub post/thread about this cycle.

Michael Ross

Re: Hot Products from the 25 Year Buying Cycle
 

Hi Michael,

I love this topic... Probably because I'm a nostalgic kinda guy... :)

Anyhow, here are a few earlier threads that deal with this, for those who haven't seen them... Or for those who read them 17 or 25 years ago, and wanted to re-live them! ;)

By the way, I had an Evel Knievel doll (plus motorbike) when I was a kid. Of course, my Evel Knievel doll would jump over my toy cars. Man, that was pretty cool! I had a Six Million Dollar Man doll too... His "bionic eye" was amazing at the time... Though looking back, it was just a lens stuck in his head (the same kind you get through those door peep-holes)... So instead of a peep-hole in a door, it was a peep-hole stuck in a doll's head. I guess if you can put a peep-hole in a doll's head and call it a "bionic eye" - well, that's pretty good marketing!

"You might want to think about this...."
http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthre...=4440#poststop

"Fads tend to revive every 17 years or so.... What was hot 17 years ago?"
http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthre...11631#poststop

"Take A Trip Down Memory Lane... Do You Remember These 37 Strange Fads?"
http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthre...15047#poststop

Cheers, Dien

Re: Hot Products from the 25 Year Buying Cycle
 

Cicadas were hot around here 17 years ago, and they should be back any day now...

Using MLM's To Your Product Development Advantage...
 

Michael Ross touched upon using MLM's to "find" top-selling products. I second Michael's terrific point-- that is a great place to cultivate products to sell.

MLM oriented products offer some terrific advantages:
1. The usually have some sort of exclusivity about them-- so a person can not usually find them in a retail store.
2. They usually have a "fat" profit margin, which means if you "knocked them off" you would be able to under-cut the MLM and still provide a terrific profit margin for yourself.
3. MLM's put a lot of time into creating sales literature for their products, which gives you a head start in creating sales literature for your own product based on the MLM's product.
4. A top-selling MLM product usually has some recognition within the market so you can use that to help sell your "knock-off" product.

Here is a brief plan on how to use MLM's to start your own business and help you create your own products:
1. Research MLM's with product lines that interest you.
2. Find out what their top selling product is.
3. Join the MLM.
4. Build a website specifically around that product.
5. Gain some sales and experience selling that product-- forget about recruiting. Focus on starting your businesses, fine tuning your infrastructure and building a customer list.
6. Research how to "knock-off" the MLM's top-selling product.
7. Start selling your own product.

Everything is NOT as it appears on the surface on Ebay
 

Hi Michael,

Here's a real secret tactic that I have used, quietly on ebay that may help you in Analyzing the 2 players in the auction market. I just wanted to comment also on 2 statement that you made

"Though I feel the Auction guy is limiting himself by only selling one at a time."

The "Auction Guy" may just be selling more items per auction than the Buy it now guy but "invisibily. More later.

"I've been watching these two sellers for the past week and a half. The Buy It Now Seller sold 4 units at his last listing while the Auction Seller sold 1 unit. The Buy It Now Seller offers Lower Shipping as his edge."

The Auction guy may be selling MORE THAN 4 units per auction listing. But on the surface just looking at Ebay's closed items, you would never know.

Here's how he may be doing it.

Ebay has a feature called "2nd Chance Offer" (At least when I used this technique a little while ago they did). This feature allows you to make an offer to ALL of the people that bid on your auction but did not WIN.

What I would do is send the Offer to ALL bids that were still profitable to me.

When you make a sale with these 2nd Chance Offers, I noticed that these profitable sales DID NOT Show up in my closed items on ebay.

YEAH!!

Thus I was able to make MULTIPLE PROFITABLE SALES, but my Competition or any "Prying Eyes" would think that I only made ONE sale :->

There was a boxing movie where the underdog beat the big bad guy with the same strategy. I am forgetting the name of the movie, but he beat the badguy and said.

"Makem' Think You are Weak when you are Strong"

While My Competition may have been playing the game and using the # of units sold as their key Metric and focus.

I was PLAYING THE GAME DIFFERENTLY.

I was focusing on maximizing my Total Profit Per Listing

Actually in hindsight, that was NOT my only focus.

I was actually measuring down to the Avg Profit Per Visitor to my auctions as well as some other metrics.

But I digress.

So in your example Michael, the Auction Guy "May" Be doing better than what you can "See" just on Ebay.

The lower shipping price of his competition may only appear to be an edge. We would have to look at the 2 metrics I described above to know for sure.

Something to keep in mind when you are "Eyeballing" the competition for profitability on Ebay :->

Action Step: (Thanks Ankesh)

- Place a bid on the Auction Guy and strive to be the 2nd or 3rd bidder
- Did he send you a Second Chance Offer at end of auction close?
- How many others did he send an Offer to?

Duane Adolph

Excellent 7 Steps! How's This Twist? A Note On Knockoffs
 

Michael,

Thanks for those 7 Steps. That's Ingenius in its simplicity. Excellent!!

I'm wondering - and Duane, might like to chime in on this - how you'd go to Combine a couple of things.

The 7 steps work for a MLM product. That's cool (more than cool, but you know what I mean). How could they go applied to Top Sellers found on ebay?

For example: Following another breadcrumb trail and seeing what Other Items a seller has, I found a seller who is doing a nice Little business selling... Retractable Clotheslines - 6 line and 4 line.

His Completed show 8 listings with 5 sales and a gross of $368 for the last 10 days. (This is Australia ebay.)

So using the 7 Steps you'd Source a Retractable Clothesline, become a reseller and build a website specifically around that one product. And then, instead of competing on ebay - which you could do in addition - is run some classified ads offering these clotheslines via mailorder - buy over the phone or visit the website.

RETRACTABLE CLOTHESLINES. 4 or 6 line. Cheap cheap.
Visit www.retractableclotheslines.com or call 555-5555

(BTW, the above domain is for sale for $1,650. Looks like a DomainName Speculator bought it.)

A Domain bought through Doteasy http://www.doteasy.com would cost you $25 for the name and a year's hosting!. No CGI, but if you accept Paypal and use an outside free email bot like maybe FreeAutoBot http://freeautobot.com then you don't need CGI, right?

I found a guy on Ebay who sells Makita parts - drills without batteries, batteries without drills, chargers by themselves and so on. If you combine the items - drill, two batteries and a charger - so they make the same as the Kit you get from a harddware store, you are better off buying from the hardware store. But you cannot buy the separate items from most hardware stores.

His last 50 feedbacks - which covers around 8 to 10 days of sales - shows a gross of over $13,000 in sales. I don't know the markup on those items. But even if all he got was 20% he's doing $2,600 net for those sales. Probably closer to $4,000. Interesting. Parts Supplies.

Anyway. Mike... Duane... any Thoughts on that Twist.

Also, I'm thinking, a MLM that CURES a problem would be a Better Seller than a MLM Preventative. Like - and I'm spitball'n as I don't know if MLM sells these - a Cure for Tinea or would sell better than Tinea Prevention Cream.

Your thoughts on that?

A note about getting MLM Product KnockOffs made - most MLMs are Consumable. So if you are getting them made OS, make sure the ingredients used can be brought into your country without too much hassle. This is especially true with anything with a chemical in it - and has CAS Number - and Herbs.

E.g. Australia has some CAS Numbers which can be brought in in unrestricted amounts. Others can only be brought in in X Tonnes (at maybe a tenth of a gram or less per item, that still allows a lot of idividual SKUs). Others need a permit to bring in. And some are outright banned. You will NOT be allowed to bring an item in unless all CAS numbers have been checked against the NICNAS register.

With herbs, to stop Blight, no Oranges or products with Orange peel can be brought in - unless treated upon arrival by Customs. Who will charge $52.50 (I think the current fee is) per treatment - regardless of the size to be treated (one small packet of herbs or a whole pallet load).

So check the ingrediets list Before you have something made OS and then brought into the country. Otherwise you could be in for a nasty $$$ surprise cost which might blow your $ per SKU out of the Profitability Zone.

Michael Ross

Re: So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?
 

You made some very good points Michael and asked some excellent questions...

First things first.

Yes, of course the "7-Steps" I talked about could be applied to a variety of businesses:

MLM
Ebay
Catalog/Mail Order
Retail

The steps are the same:
1. Research product lines (within the specific "selling sector") that interest you.
2. Find out what their top selling product is.
3. Become a reseller of that product.
4. Build a website specifically around that product.
5. Gain some sales and experience selling that product-- forget about recruiting. Focus on starting your businesses, fine tuning your infrastructure and building a customer list.
6. Research how to "knock-off" that top-selling product.
7. Start selling your own product.

Michael, I know you know this as do many people that study how things are sold, but the fact is most businesses are much better selling their product(s) in one medium than their are in other mediums.

For example take your eBay power sellers... without researching it myself I'm guessing these folks are doing nothing offline. I would doubt their websites outside the eBay world are "world-beaters". Sure these "power-sellers" may be cleaning up on eBay but are their websites optimized most effectively for search-engines? Do they spend a lot of time adding new and interesting content? Do they have good sales copy? Are they utilizing Adwords, Yahoo and MSN ppc? Are they pursuing joint-venture agreements with other site owners? Do they have an affiliate program?

I just think it's darned difficult to be great in all of these areas-- there are always openings for smart competitors... and I haven't even talked about offline opportunities, which most online ecommerce/eBay sites avoid like the plague.

I right there with you on the "cure" vs. "prevention" thing-- "cure" is a much easier sell. After studying several MLM's it appears to me that these companies do much better with their "cure" products-- I mean that just makes sense.

But regardless Michael it's all about finding and selling "top-selling" products-- products that are already being searched for by consumers so we do not have to "create" a market for our product, which we all know is super-expensive to do.

Heck Michael if it's a "prevention" product that's a top-seller so be it.

Did you ever read Gary Bencivenga's "Bullet" about "Fuzzy Dice"? Great read, here's the link... http://bencivengabullets.com/bullets.asp?id=16.

Here's the part that I think is absolutely critical to understand and master if someone desires a successful ecommerce-based business:

"Let's say, for example, that you sell car accessories. Now, you could create a website, and a series of Google and banner ads, trumpeting your product line, "Car Accessories."

Logical enough, right? It's what most companies do. Trouble is, people don't go online searching for "a product line." Almost nobody searches for "Car Accessories." That's way too broad. When I typed those words into my search bar, I got more than 49 million results! If I were a thorough shopper and wanted to check out each of these vendors for just 20 seconds apiece, I'd have to sit at my computer 24/7 for the next 31 years (without a single bathroom break)!

More than 49,000,000 advertisers are offering their wares under "car accessories," yet almost nobody searches for "car accessories."

But people do go online searching for a single product.

For example, they go online searching for "Fuzzy Dice" (you know, those tacky, spongy dice that dangle gaudily from the rearview mirror).

Or they'll search specifically for "Leather Steering Wheel Covers." Or "Car Stereo Subwoofers." Or "Mercedes Replacement Hood Ornaments," etc.

Since that's how people search, that's how you should sell—with a mini website devoted exclusively to Fuzzy Dice. Or another devoted to Leather Steering Wheel Covers. Or another offering Car Stereo Subwoofers, or Replacement Hood Ornaments, etc.

Sell the way your prospects buy—with a rifle shot like "Fuzzy Dice," not a shotgun like "Car Accessories." Like the wise old salesman said, intercept your hot prospects where they are looking for someone like you!"


As I said in an earlier post within this thread a "single-item" website should kick the living stink out of "multi-item" website when it comes down to selling that product!

Finally, YES I love consumable products. As we all know selling someone repeatedly is up to 15x easier than selling someone a product once and never seeing them again.

Re: So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?
 

Where do you find products Here is a small list:

Trade Shows
Seminars
Classified ads
Old patents
Ask Friends
Public Domain works (disney used this method)
Exclusive rights
TV
Radio
Your own product

My wife just called I have to pick up my daughter. Go to my ezines I wrote about this subject in one of the ezines.

Re: Excellent 7 Steps! How's This Twist? A Note On Knockoffs
 

Hi Michael,

Michael W's 7 steps are so clear, simple and powerful aren't they ?

And Yes as was already stated by Michael W. the 7 steps can be tweaked for Ebay. But you MUST take a better business approach than the other players in the market. Again Michael W.'s reply goes into the How to.

A real Example:

I believe Internet Guru Tom Bell found a hot selling product on ebay. The product was those cellphone booster things that were HOT waaaaay back.

He found this top seller on ebay. And DID exactly what Michael W stated in his reply to you. Which was OUTSOLD everybody. He went off of ebay as well and used the CPA networks to drive traffic to his offer. He made millions.

It STARTED with EBAY pointing him to the Hot market.

O.K all that said let's relook at those 7 steps for a second.

=============
1. Research product lines (within the specific "selling sector") that interest you.
2. Find out what their top selling product is.
3. Become a reseller of that product.
4. Build a website specifically around that product.
5. Gain some sales and experience selling that product-- forget about recruiting. Focus on starting your businesses, fine tuning your infrastructure and building a customer list.
6. Research how to "knock-off" that top-selling product.
7. Start selling your own product.
==============

One critical thing I would look at BEFORE becoming a reseller is the TOTAL SALES and the TOTAL # of Competitors in the marketplace on ebay.

Basically I wanna know how BIG this Pie really is and how many other people want a piece of it. Let's just keep the focus on Ebay for a second.

For Example:

I had found a Hot Niche On Ebay.

"Hot" meaning there was a high volume of sales and also a high closing ratio.

Instead of just selling the TOP SELLING product in that arena like everyone else I found a COMPLIMENTARY product which was NOT being offered to the market. My product sold like gangbusters (always wanted write that :-> ).

I was able to BEAT the total sales of the TOP Selling product in this niche.
YEEAH for me!

BUT! Big BUT!

It only sold for a little while, because the competition came in FAST and FURIOUS and basically just copied my product. My slice of the pie got THIN really quickly.

It was a fun little experiment I was doing and learned a lot.

So bringing this back to the 7 steps. Specifically step #3 becoming a reseller.

Just be aware that IF you do become a reseller and you ONLY Market on Ebay, the results may not necessarily be as juicy as the original player that you were spying on because you are now sharing the same pie.

So If becoming a reseller, your gameplan should be to expand the Marketing Universe and you DON't have to leave ebay.

Here's a tip: When looking at your competitors look specifically at the Different Categories they advertise in AND the number of visitors they get.
You will see a MULTITUDE of traffic options AND you will also see that most players will only market in ONE category.

Duane Adolph