How To Make Money on the Internet
Without Creating Your Own Product
by Milana Nastetskaya
WORD COUNT: 1,607
WRAP: 65 characters
PUBLISHING: May be published
free of charge with the
resource box intact.
Writing a book is an effort that
not everyone takes pleasure
in. Creating software takes special
skills and patience. If
you can't write and can't program,
does it mean you can't
start an online business? Absolutely
not.
Luckily, there is a wonderful thing
called Reprint Rights.
You don't have to write a word -
just purchase the resell
rights to someone else's work and
start an instant business.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What are Reprint Rights?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I first learned about reprint rights from Ken Evoy's "Make
Your Knowledge Sell" and thought,
"what an amazing concept!"
You don't have to know how to write,
or spend months creating
a quality product. You can just
buy the rights to it and keep
100% of the profits, without paying
any royalties or
reporting your sales figures to
anyone.
Compared to any other business, launching
an information
selling company has a very low start
up cost. The key is to
choose a product that fits your
interests, is of high quality
and in demand. The rest will
be up to your desire to succeed
and persistence.
If you already have a product to
sell, find a product with
reprint rights that would make a
good bonus, addition,
or a back-end for your business.
For example, if you are
selling a $10 report about successful
golf playing, a good
back-end product could be titled
"Advanced Techniques of the
World's Best Golf Players" priced
at $50 or higher (forgive
me if I am way off - I know nothing
about golf ;-).
You could also work backwards - first
find a good product you
want to purchase the rights to,
then write a report that would
serve as an introduction/sales letter
to it. Then give it
away or sell it at a low price.
That's what I did with my
"First Business Web Site in 10 days!".
After I finished
writing it, I created a short version
of this book (and turned
a 120 pages manual into a small
15-page book) and started
giving it away on my web site under
a different title ("The
Absolute Beginner's Guide To Starting
a Web Site").
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How to make money with a product
you purchased the rights to
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many people buy rights to a product
but never do anything to
make it a success. You MUST treat
it as your own product to
make it profitable.
- First, choose a quality product
(purchase a copy for yourself
first to review) that fits into
your interests, or your
existing web site theme
- Make sure you are absolutely impressed
with it so you could
write a great ad copy (though many
products already come with a
sample sales copy)
- Create a simple web site using
an easy-to-use web editor
- Find a way to take payments online
(many people use
inexpensive services of ClickBank,
iBill, and OrderButton)
- Promote it (subscribe to free marketing
e-zines and
experiment to find the most effective
ways to advertise it)
While you don't have to create a
product (what a great
shortcut!) you still have to promote
it to sell. There is
plenty of free publications and
forums on the Internet that
can teach you how to do it, if you
can devote 1-2 hours each
day until the desired level of income
is reached.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Buying cheap rights vrs. Expensive
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first time I purchased resell
rights, I could only afford
a $49.95 package. The deal looked
great! I was getting over
25 books to own and resell as my
own. Only a few weeks later
did I realize that everyone and
their dog are selling the same
books. The products were still great
and if you purchase them
for the sake of learning business
and online marketing, it's
a bargain. After purchasing this
package I sold it to at least
10 happy customers, thus making
$450.00 on a $49.95 investment.
To build a successful business reselling
these books, though,
would be very difficult since hundreds
of other people are
selling it on their web sites.
Yes, $49.95 is very affordable to
anyone who wants to start
an online business. But the
cheaper the reprint rights are,
the more people are able to afford
them, thus you will have
more competitors selling the same
product. So if you find the
price is a bit steep, think of the
advantages: not every
average "joe" who might not even
be serious about business
will purchase these rights. And
if you do, you will have only a
few competitors and your marketing
efforts will pay off much
better.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Where to find products with reprint
rights
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Many authors, especially new ones,
have never thought of
offering resell rights to their
products. If you find a product
that you like and want to resell,
contact the author and make
him or her an offer. Make sure it
is a high quality product
that you would want to purchase
for yourself. For example, I
was contacted several times by my
past customers who so much
liked my products that they wanted
to own the rights to it.
This is a great indicator that you
will succeed selling this
product: you read it, you liked
it, you know it, you can write
a great sales copy to sell it from
your heart.
One other good way to find reprint
rights to quality products
is by going to a Search Engine and
typing a word or a phrase
on a subject you want to focus on.
When browsing through
results, pick out web sites that
sell a product you are
interested in AND have low traffic.
Use Alexa (free from
alexa.com) to find out each site's
traffic rating, which is a
good indicator of how the site is
doing. Webmasters of low
traffic sites might sell reprint
rights to their products
cheaper than any popular site.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Important questions to ask before
purchasing reprint rights
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I am not going to call myself an
expert on reprint rights. But
after selling almost a dozen rights
to three of my products, I
learned a lot about the subject.
Here are the questions you
should ask before you decide on
a product to purchase:
1. How many other people will be
allowed to sell this product?
In other words, will there be a
limit to how many resell
rights are available? A standard
number for information
products is 20 resellers. More than
that might create market
saturation and too much competition
between the resellers.
Also, every marketing strategy that
you implement might be
"borrowed" by your competitors and
hurt your sales.
2. How many copies of this product
have been sold?
The answer will simply tell you
if this product has been
popular and selling well. While
it is difficult to say what
number of sold copies will qualify
a product as "popular",
remember that even if it is a brand
new product (e.g. my
oldest book is only 7 months old)
it can still be a winner.
The author may be just entering
the arena and is not known on
the Internet yet, or hasn't been
putting enough effort to
create steady sales. For example,
as soon as I was done with
my 1st product, I immediately started
creating my 2nd one
which turned in fact to be two more
new products - I know,
tell me I need to focus :-) - so
I didn't have time to get
out and actively promote my 1st
book.
3. Are you allowed to modify the
product and/or reproduce it
in a different format? Most
e-books are made into an
executable (EXE) or an Acrobat Reader
(PDF) file format. But
if you want to put this product
on a CD, or publish it as a
hard copy, you might need a special
permission from the author
first. Ask if you are limited to
a certain format or are you
free to make it into anything you
wish.
4. Can you sell the reprint rights
to this book?
Many products out there include
the right to resell the rights.
In other words, you pay $49.95 for
a book, then turn around
and sell this book to someone else.
That someone else can do
the same thing, and so on. As you
understand, this technique
will reach market saturation very
fast (the rights are
affordable and you can resell them,
too).
But many products of high quality
do not include the right to
resell the rights. You need to purchase
such rights, called
Master Reprint Rights, separately
at a higher price. While it
is not affordable to everyone, it
certainly limits the number
of resellers to only the serious
ones.
5. Will the author/seller offer you
technical and marketing
support? Make sure the person you
purchase the rights from
will keep in touch with you and
help you get started with
the product. It doesn't mean creating
a web site for you and
writing your ad copy. Simply being
there in case a question or
a problem arises is all you need.
Especially so if you
purchased the rights from the author:
after all, he or she
knows this product the best and
is the only one who can answer
all the questions that you (or your
customers) might have.
Once you purchase the rights to a
product, get right to it.
Don't waste any time setting up
your web site and starting to
sell it. And if you are fast enough,
you might make your first
sale within hours after purchasing
the rights.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Milana Nastetskaya is a full-time
web developer and the
author of 3 books: "Create Your
First Business Web Site
in 10 days!", "65 Instant Web Answers!"
and "How To Install
and Troubleshoot CGI scripts".
http://www.helpingfoot.com/REPRINT_RIGHTS
-----------------------------------------------------------