So How To Find Top Selling Products To Sell?

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Originally Posted by MichaelRoss

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

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.

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

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.