Make More Money From Your Ideas

"My question is how to work out whether it would be worth putting all the time and effort into creating a particular product. I work within a fairly small target market, and have no idea whether or not they would bother to buy or read the sorts of things I am thinking of producing. They are busy people and tend to put all their time into money-making activities and their reading is mostly in their specialist area. I know you will say I need to do some research, but I am not even sure how to start this - what questions to ask. People can say that they would buy certain things or that they have certain problems but still they might not actually buy."

The good thing about people who spend all their time in money-making activities is that they are interested in making money! So, in some ways, it's easier to convince them to buy your stuff than to convince other people.

The real question is whether you have something of enough value to them.

I've fallen into the trap of writing e-books that I thought the market would buy, only to find that they are not interested.

So my suggestion is to write a brief but high-value e-book and offer it to them free, but get their name and e-mail address in return. If they take up the free offer, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will buy, but at least you have some idea that you're on the right track. But if you find that they don't even take up your free offer, it's an early warning signal!

What should go in your e-book? Stuff that's of high value to the reader, but also promotes yourself and your services. This is exactly the thinking behind my own free e-book, so download that as an example.

Labels: market research, providing value