Kais Khadhraoui — June 4, 2020 Product creation is one of the cheapest and quickest ways to build a legitimate online business.
Many online business opportunities are short term, but your own branded products enable you to develop an audience that become repeat buyers.
Your own product also allows you to tap into the power of larger platforms and affiliates, so you aren’t completely responsible for promotion.
While you can produce your own physical products, the development costs can be too high for many new entrepreneurs.
However, there are plenty of alternative options you can take, with the following seven ideas covering the major bases–they are proven to work whether your goal is to be a location independent entrepreneur, or a Silicon Valley hotshot.
1. Private Label
Private label products allow you to create your own brand while avoiding the complicated product creation phase.
A private label manufacturer will create various products and allow you to add your branding to it.
While other companies can sell the same product, your branding and marketing can differentiate you from them.
For many already active in the online space, you will have noticed a major uptick in courses and groups touting the Fulfillment by Amazon opportunity, it is legitimate and introduced many to the concept of private label but the space has become cut throat in recent years as Amazon has updated their terms and more and more suppliers from China are jumping into the Amazon channel directly.
Where to get started:
- Fulfillment By Amazon
- Import Dojo
- Alibaba
- Global Sources
- ThomasNet
- The Amazing Seller Podcast
- FBA Allstars Podcast
- E-Commerce Gladiator: Story of Building an Amazon FBA Company To Sale
2. Dropshipping
Dropshipping is similar to the private label service, but you don’t rebrand the product.
This type of selling works well within an eCommerce site, with your store becoming the brand that features various niche products. When an order is placed, your role is to contact the warehouse for the product to get shipped.
Where to get started:
3. Digital Product
Creating a digital product is one of the easiest ways to enter a market. Digital products are purchased and delivered online, but you can usually adapt them into physical goods if they are successful.
A common example is an online course or tutorial, with people eager to learn about a variety of topics, including business, finance, fitness, pet care, and sports.
Creating a Kindle ebook is another possibility, but you may need to develop a series of books to make any real money.
Where to get started:
4. Membership Site
An alternative to the digital product is a membership site.
Membership sites will bring in recurring income, but you will need to create new content on a regular basis.
While it might involve a lot of content creation, a membership site can bring in fairly consistent income from a user base.
Memberships work well in such niches as business, finance, and fitness, wherein customers are always looking for new ideas and assistance.
Where to get started:
- The Membership Guys Podcast
- Smart Passive Income Podcast
- 7 Membership Sites that Make $ 100K+ Per Year
- How To Create A 6 Figure Membership Site Step By Step
5. Apps
Creating an app is easier than some people anticipate, particularly if you have a unique idea.
When you aren’t proficient with coding, outsourcing the work might be your best option.
There is strong demand for interesting, creative, and quirky apps, with mobile games being popular too.
A successful app allows you to leverage the huge numbers of Apple and Google users who are actively searching for new downloads on their stores.
Where to get started:
- Top 10 Podcasts for App Developers
- App Empire: Make Money, Have a Life, and Let Technology Work for You
- iBuildApp
- Complete Guide to Making Apps
6. Service
A product doesn’t always have to be physical or digital goods; services are incredibly popular online.
For example, Internet marketers are always looking for SEO specialists, web designers, and coders, so you can create a service that caters to these people.
For the most success, aim to automate or outsource as much of the work as possible so you to focus on running the business rather than doing other time-consuming work.
Where to get started:
7. Templates and Plugins
Just as there are popular marketplaces for apps, templates and plugins also have sites full of eager buyers.
Website templates for platforms like WordPress and Joomla allow you to make use of the huge number of users, while many people purchase a number of different plugins to make their life easier.
Your template or plugin does not even have to be particularly original, but it must be of great quality and marketed well.
Where to get started:
- WPcast
- WPRoundTable
- WordPress Plugin Development Cookbook: Create powerful plugins to extend the world’s most popular CMS, 2nd Edition
- The Complete Guide to Building Premium WordPress Theme
- WordPress Plugin Development
- Learn to Create WordPress Themes
Conclusion
Each of the first seven product types can work for you, with the possibility of using more than one in many niches.
While, when you are more advanced (with marketing) and have some real physical world product ideas, the crowdfunding route can also be a viable option.
While there are positives and negatives to each of the product creation methods, there are countless examples of entrepreneurs building businesses based on the ideas.
Here’s all you have to focus on to get started today:
- Choose your preferred product type,
- Find a unique selling point,
- Start promoting right away.
This article originally appeared on Fulfillment Bridge and has been republished with permission.
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