1. Product Choice and Research

You may already have a product that you  promote, or you may still be looking for the ideal product. You may even be a seasoned marketer in your traditional off-line business and be looking at adjusting your product approach to have success in online network marketing.
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On the other hand, you may be considering online network marketing as a business option that you want to explore and you are not yet sure which product to choose to bring you the best results. 

This will help you in making your choice.

Products can be anything, from a physical product that is shipped to the client, an electronic information product or even training in a specific field. ​

Seven discussion points that will help you understand product choice.

​1. Relate to your product
It is better to do something from your heart than it is to only do it for money. Therefore, if you are keen on camping and outdoor living, it will be best to promote related niche products. Opposed to that, someone who loves cooking and baking will do better in promoting recipes and food preparing techniques than promoting camping gear. Bottom line is, it is easier to become engaged into something you understand and are passionate about than to be out in the cold with a niche because your research showed that it has a sizeable market potential.

Once you made your decision about a product, get to know your product inside out. It may happen that prospective clients contact you and ask you questions about your product. If you for instance found a digital product in an online store and you are promoting it as an affiliate, always purchase and sample it yourself to familiarize you with it. You don’t want to experience a red-face situation when prospects start to enquire about finer details of the product and you don’t know the answers to their questions.

2. Product Solution
People browse the internet daily in search for information. The art of effective marketing is to be able to slot your product offer in front of them as the solution that they’ve been looking for. Should you therefore write an e-book, a blog post or an advert, always keep in mind to choose a product that can be tailor made to present it as a possible solution to whatever your reader might be looking for.

Presenting your product offer as a solution will have a far larger impact on a reader than telling someone that they need to buy something. People don’t like to be told, they rather like to discover. Therefore sales pages that are created in a “salesy “ way are not doing well. Sales pages that explain a situation, highlight a specific issue and then offer a product as part of the solution are doing very well. It is important though that the content of the page that is building up to the product presented must be well researched and of good quality.​

3. Market Size & Research
It is important to have a sizable audience. It is best to cater for a market, who is English speaking and has access to online purchase infrastructure and payment options. 

The Tier 1, English speaking countries offers huge potential. This includes the following countries:
Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States of America.

Research popular niches by delving a bit to determine what people are searching for. By doing this, you will be able to find specific issues that people would like to find answers for. All this can be learned by scouting around on Google and even Facebook groups that are specific for a certain subject. 

Google Trends is an extremely valuable research tool. Here below is diagram of a very broad comparison that I did in Google Trends for searches in the USA. Once you have chosen a niche like for instance Beauty, you can narrow  the search trends down within that niche to find a topic that you can present as a solution in that specific niche.

It is interesting to note how high the searches for Weight Loss, Retirement and even Beauty is compared to for instance Forex, which is promoted all over social media (at the time of writing). 

The conclusion can be drawn that the Weight Loss, Retirement and Beauty niches will have large scale-able marketing potential.

Another research platform where many answers to questions can be found and where you can ask questions yourself, is Quora.com. 
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 4. Physical versus Digital
As with all businesses and products, supply and demand dictates price acceptability and market penetration possibilities. Make sure that there is a user demand for the product and that the pricing is within industry parameters.

I will always try and stay clear from products where I have to handle inventory. I prefer not to get involved in storage, shipping, product returns etc. It is a far better option to trade as an affiliate marketer where your supplier is handling the inventory, shipping and customer support etc. and you can focus on the marketing of the product.  Many affiliate marketers start off by promoting products from Amazon.com. Amazon is one of the largest retail stores with a wide international presence. As an example, I promoted products from Amazon, which is based in Seattle, Washington, to clients in different states of the USA, while I am residing in South Africa. It was all made possible, because Amazon deals with the storage, shipping and returns of products. An ideal way to promote Amazon products, is by writing product reviews on a few similar products in a specific niche.

If shipping is required for the product, make sure that shipping is available to your target market and consider shipping cost and import duties that might be imposed if applicable. It may be that shipping and duties push the pricing of the products beyond affordability compared to competing products in your target market.

Physical products are however not my preference.
My preference is rather to promote digital products like training courses, business and marketing aids, information sheets, combined with motivational and marketing content.  In digital format, it is by far the easiest way to get products over to customers as there is no need for shipping logistics and accompanying costs.
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​5. Multilevel Marketing (MLM)
Approach the products of Multilevel Marketing (MLM) programs with an open mind. Try and figure out if the affiliate commission offered by the business is in a healthy ratio when compared to the sale of a product and product pricing. There is a false perception that all MLM businesses are Ponzi or pyramid schemes. Although this is not always true, the frequent up-spring of Ponzi schemes, taking subscribers on a roller coaster ride and then implode, is unfortunately a reality. 

If you have established that a product of value is rendered, it is rather likely that the MLM program will be legit as well. 
…. But take heed. All shiny objects are not gold.

There is one crucial question that you need to answer very honestly to yourself and that is:
Is it a useful and quality product which has value and would you have purchased it as a standalone product if it wasn’t attached to the MLM program or system? 
If you can’t answer “Yes” on this, don’t waste your time any further on such a product.

Don’t promote a product only because of the income potential that the system promises from building a down-line. Rather evaluate the substance and quality of the product and use that as the criteria for your decision. 

A proper designed MLM program will include an effective marketing plan. This may include a referral system that follow up on your leads sent to it, or it may be a tutorial series available that can be shared. 

There are some excellent Multilevel Marketing companies out there, but choose wisely. On the counter side, some MLM offers are nothing but Ponzi schemes.  If it seems that the "system" is the product, chances are very good that the system will eventually collapse.
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​6. Read Product Reviews 
Look online for business and product reviews which may assist you in making your product decision. Be very careful though. It has become the practice of many in the industry to create negative review posts on various businesses / products and by doing that, they try to promote their own offer as a better alternative. I have seen many business reviews, toning a rather good business as second to the business that the writer actually wants to promote. This is plain unethical. The value of reviews of businesses and products are troubled by this practice. 
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7. All that shine is not gold
Other “review” reports that make my hair raise are the snapshots of affiliates’ earnings. When a member’s rapid earnings are demonstrated as the criteria to convince new recruits to join a business, it is most likely that it is a get rich quick scheme, with the tail end of money losses on the implode of the scheme. 

The substance and value of products should be what is attracting purchasers. I will much rather sell a real physical gold coin to anyone than selling a crypto mining opportunity from a company who only has a web domain and no physical business address. I will always be prepared to post a picture of myself next to anything that I promote.

I have seen many MLM marketers running with a product and promote the daylight out of it, just to post a “I’m so sorry about this .. but trust me on that….” message a couple of months later. This is an example of what is giving the industry a bad reputation.

Don’t make the mistake to promote easy selling products which are full of bling but empty in real value. It will implode and it will take your online reputation with it. It is not worth it. You will find that it takes time to establish trust in the market. It’s not worth blowing it all on a shiny object.

Always ask yourself if you are prepared to be associated as a person with the products that you promote.
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 Summary and what to do:
1. Best is to be able to relate to the product/s that you promote and make sure that you familiarize yourself with it.
2. Choose a product that you can present  as the solution that people may be looking for.
3. Research niches and choose a product that can be presented to a large audience.
4. Consider physical products versus digital products. 
5. Be careful when you evaluate products of multilevel marketing systems. 
6. Product reviews can be very helpful, but keep an open mind when reading it.
7. Make 100% sure about the value of the product that you are promoting. Stay away from 'bling"

I trust that this tutorial will assist you in choosing the right product which is also right for you and your niche market.

I am helping ordinary people in South Africa to become business entrepreneurs so they can be financially free without the need to worry about losing fixed employment or to fear retirement.
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