Ten steps to internet business success – step 7. In these 10 steps you will learn a reliable and repeatable system for making money online. This is not a GRQ scheme. You will need to take action. You will need to do a reasonable amount of work over several weeks. If you’re prepared for that, read on.

If you haven’t already, read step 1, step 2, step 3, step 4, step 5, step 6 first.

The approach  …  identify a real problem lots of people are experiencing right now then find a quality solution you can sell them. Research supply and demand figures as well existing solutions then apply a series of steps to begin promoting the product to your target market.

The previous 6 steps were:

Step 1: Have a clear vision of what you want to achieve and by when

Step 2: Identify a real human need that many people have regularly

Step 3: Search for existing solutions/cures/helpful advice

Step 4: Measure the demand for solutions to this need

Step 5: Perform a reality check

Step 6: Do some serious research

Internet Business Success in 10 Steps (step 7)

7. Prepare the solution to the problem – the product. You now have some great information about the problem, a profile of the people affected, one or more solutions – the products – and the reasons why people would be prepared to buy these solutions.

If you have the experience, resources and know-how it is best to create your own product or offer your own services. That way you have control over every aspect of the product life-cycle, the profits and most importantly, the customers who will trust you with their email address and/or credit card details. You can do this with a combination of text, audio and/or video content depending on the format that would best suit your target market.

If this option is not available for you, the next best choice is to become an affiliate for one or more products or services that solve your selected problem. You act as an agent for someone who has already created a solution to the problem your visitors have. It is a simpler way to get started and although you don’t get to keep all of the profit, you also didn’t have to spend time creating it and the sales page, etc.

Your product ideally will be text in the form of an electronic book (e-book), audio course, one or more videos or some combination of these. E-books now are often supplemented with an audio or video recording. Here are some pointers on putting together your own product.

If you’re a bit anxious about the idea of creating your own product, go back to step 6 and review your research. Did you do any interviews or read stories about people who developed their own solution or a way out of the problem (see 3rd last dot point of step 6)? If so, you probably have enough credible information to put together your own e-book that can definitely help others overcome or minimize their problem.

Read this blog post about creating your own e-book. You can sign up to get a free e-book template and half the work is already done.

If you go along the affiliate path – which is probably the best path when starting out – then promote a product you have actually tried yourself, or has been tried by someone you have interviewed (step 6). The confidence you have from first-hand knowledge will shine through in what you write in step 8 (link goes live 2 days after this post).

Alternatively, select a quality product that you would be prepared to buy yourself if you were also suffering from the problem you’ve chosen to address. On this point, all products on Clickbank have a refund period of around 8 weeks. There is no risk to you to buy the product you plan to promote as you can request a refund if it is low quality AND if it really is a low quality product you really do want to find out before you invest a lot of time and effort into promoting it.

Whatever you do, DO NOT promote a product that you would not be prepared to touch yourself or that looks the least bit dodgy. You owe it to yourself, your ongoing credibility and the lives of the people you will touch to sell only quality products.

Before proceeding to the next step, decide if you are going to create your own product or promote an existing product as an affiliate. If you are going along the affiliate path, be sure to check out the affiliate tools provided by the product vendor. Sign up as an affiliate via the Clickbank product page. It is vital that you know as much as you can about the product you are promoting.

If you are intending to create your own product, be sure to sign up for blog notifications as I will be releasing this series as a downloadable ebook that contains a heap of extra resources and links to assist with creating your own product.

Go to step 8 of 10 steps to building an online business
(link goes live 2 days after date of this post)

Over to you. What do you think of the series so far? Share your thoughts below and help others at the same time.

Related posts:

1. 10 Steps to Internet Business Success (Step 6 – Conduct research)
2. 10 Steps to Internet Business Success (Step 3 – Identify solutions)
3. 10 Steps to Internet Business Success (Step 5 – Reality check)