By Terry Dean

Here are two of the mistakes which have cost me thousands of dollars in profits...

1. I Bought Reprint Rights to a Product Nobody Wanted

I spent $2,277 for reprint rights to a product nobody wanted. I had my ezine list then and I marketed the product for $397 to my list. NOBODY bought it. So I dropped the price to $197 and only sold 2...ever. So the product brought in $394 total from a $2,277 investment.

That's not too hot. It was a great product though with a good sales letter. It had sold thousands of copies in the past. It just wouldn't sell to my list or my web site visitors.

My mistake was in purchasing something without knowing I had a group of customers who would want to buy it. It had only been sold through direct mail. I didn't want to be involved in direct mail at all since I run an Internet business. Direct mail buyers liked it.

Online ones didn't.

It was this experience that taught me just having a great product and a great sales letter isn't enough. You have to know what your customers want to buy. For example, copywriting products are VITAL to your success...but do you know what?

It is 100% easier to sell a product on traffic building than copywriting. That's sad...because the copywriting is what creates millionaires.

People buy what they want, not what they should buy or what they need. That's a lesson everyone of us needs to learn. You can't force customers to do what they need to do. You only can find out what they want and sell it to them.

How can you make sure not to make this mistake? Don't buy reprint rights to a product until you know HOW it's being sold...and that it is a successful product being sold that way. If you plan to sell something online, then you need to get rights to a product selling online...right now. You don't want a product that has only been sold through publicity, direct mail, or conference speaking.

I made the same mistake another time by paying $1,500 for resale rights to a product that was sold through seminars. I thought it would convert well to online selling. It didn't, and I wasn't able to sell a single copy online. So I actually made this same mistake twice.

I made it for a direct mail product and for a conference product. Neither one had been tested for online selling...and I became the test dummy...or should I just say dummy?

If it's being sold by other methods, but not online, then it may be extremely risky to try to convert it to an online selling item. Different markets respond differently to products.

2. I Joined and Promoted a Business Opportunity Without Looking

When you have a big list, virtually any product targeted to the wants of your customers will be profitable. Just because it's profitable doesn't always mean you should promote it though.

I once promoted a network marketing company without doing my research only to find out later it was a bunch of garbage. They didn't have good products and weren't really worth the web site they owned. I made money, but I hurt my credibility. It wasn't worth it.

Just because someone "big" endorses it also doesn't mean it's good.

Just because they pay high commissions doesn't mean it's good.

Just because they have 20 testimonials doesn't mean it's good.

Are you beginning to see a trend here? The only really good way to know if something is worth promoting is to get in and examine it for yourself. Either purchase a copy for yourself or ask for a review copy (if you have a large list).

Go through all of it...and decide if it is really valuable. Is it something you'd be proud to have your name on? If it isn't, then you shouldn't be promoting it.

Is there too much hype going on about it? Does everyone say it's the end of the world and that this is the greatest, best, most wonderful thing ever invented on the face of the earth? Give me a break. Hype is another big warning sign. If "everybody" is doing it, then it scares me to death to be involved...because "everybody" is usually wrong.

Finally, does it give a full money back guarantee? If not, then I couldn't promote it with all integrity and honestly.

I'm sometimes shocked by the crap being recommended by even some well known people. They obviously never even looked at the product they're promoting. Someone came along and made them a good affiliate offer...and away they go.

I made that mistake before. It won't be happening again. A lot of times this happens because everyone jumps on the bandwagon. One person promotes it and everybody else wants to jump on it before everyone's seen it. That's no excuse for not examining it closely first. I'd rather lose a couple of quick sales than recommend something I'll regret later.