What Products Still Sell During This Recession?
Copyright 2009 by Willie Crawford
In a recent Twitter discussion on products I sell, I was
asked, “but what if none of your products sell?”
The real question that I was being asked there was,
“What products still sell now?”
Regardless of economic conditions, some products will
always sell. In fact, many millionaires are made during
ever major recession or depression. It’s just a matter
of figuring out what your market wants and offering it
to them.
I have notice a downturn in sales of many of the
products that I market, but have also noticed an increase
in sales of some of my products.
In the “Internet marketing niche” where I often operate,
I’ve notice that many customers have tighten their belts,
and that lower priced items are the only one moving really
briskly for me. So, I’ve offered a lot more inexpensive
items, using my standard marketing methods such as
article marketing, video marketing, marketing via social
media, blogging, and using ezine editorials. Those items
are selling well.
I do still manage to sell a good number of big ticket
items, but here is the key… The items that sell best are
the items that address a real PAIN that my market is
already aware of.
If they are not already aware of the pain, and already
looking for the solution, it’s a harder job selling many
products (solutions) under any economic conditions.
Having to educate your customer as to the fact that 1)
they have a problem, 2) you have the solution, 3) what
your product does and why it’s the ideal solution, is
an uphill battle.
When you think of real pain, think of the teenagers
battling acne, as they are in their prime dating years.
They will do almost ANYTHING to keep those pimples at
bay.
Transfer that concept to my niche of Internet marketing,
and what are some of the obviously painful problems.
Several that immediately come to mind are:
- Lack of sufficient website traffic
- Lack of enough motivated joint venture partners to do
a large product launch
- Lack of enough time to do everything required to
operate an Internet business
- Locating product that actually sell
- Writing effective web copy
- Motivating and training affiliates
- Choosing a profitable niche – one where customers
are still making lots of purchases
If you frequent my blog, you’ll notice that I address many
of these issues in my blog posts, and in the products that
I review/offer. That’s because I instinctively notice these
problems and seek out solutions. That is why I am still
making lots of sales despite this recession.
To give you a few more specific examples:
1) I address the topic of choosing a niche that’s still
profitable by pointing out that the market of teaching
ecommerce to, and consulting with offline businesses, is
HUGE. Offline businesses have marketing budgets, and if
you show them that you can deliver measurable results,
they will spend their dollars with you.
I market products that teach Internet marketers how to
conduct 1-day seminars in their cities, and earn $10,000
or more in a day by teaching ecommerce to local offline
businesses. You can see the package that I offer, one that
sells well at: http://TeachingEcommerceToLocalBusinesses.com
2) Many Internet marketers now realize that a membership
site is the perfect model for setting up some residual
income. Yet, many of them are intimidated by the
software and processes needed to run these sites. So, I
market an easy-to-install, and very inexpensive script
for running membership sites. I also give away a report on
how to run a profitable membership site.
This script sells like hotcakes!
I even generously include master resale rights with the
script package, all for less than $20. This is an
absolutely irresistible deal, and so my Paypal account
is constantly “singing” 
You can check out that set-up at:
http://WillieCrawford.com/SMS/
3) To address the problem of motivating and training
affiliates, I do two things. First, I offer a free
course that trains struggling affiliate marketers. This
course is the entry into my funnel where, as I train
affiliate marketers, I also recruit some of them as
affiliates for my products.
That is a win-win proposition. I actually share tactics
and techniques that have worked amazingly well for me
in selling affiliate product in my free course. The
affiliate that I teach this to begin to experience more
success, and delivering tremendous value first turns many
of them into my loyal affiliates.
You can see how I offer my free affiliate training at:
http://WillieCrawford.com/FreeAffiliateTraining/
While many people struggle to grow their lists, and to
recruit new affiliates, I average 200 new signups a DAY.
By the way, if you’d like to set up a similar system,
you can begin with the “affiliate training program in a
box” at: http://WillieCrawford.com/TrainYourAffiliates/
Notice that I just addressed another problem. Many
new product owners, who have never run an affiliate
program before, don’t have the time or energy to put
together an affiliate training program. Yet, if they don’t
train their affiliates, they will make very few sales.
Most new affiliates simply don’t know HOW to make sales.
I addressed that painful and obvious problem by offering
an affiliate training program in a box. All they need
to do is upload it to their autoresponders, and upload
a few videos (supplemental training) to their servers,
and they are all set.
Getting back to the question of what still sells. You
absolutely must sell something the market wants and is
already looking for.
You must sell something that solves an obvious and very
painful problem. Do that, and you WILL continue to make
brisk sales regardless of economic conditions.
——————————————
Willie Crawford is an internationally-acclaimed speaker,
author, seminar and radio show host, and leading Internet
marketing expert. When not out fishing in the Gulf of Mexico,
Willie can be found sharing his 12 years of online marketing
experience with members of The Internet Marketing Inner Circle.
Join them at: http://TheInternetMarketingInnerCircle.com