Don’t Be Afraid To Spread Your Wings
(And a seemingly irrelevant story)

Often, I’ve been asked this question: what is the best way to earn a living on the internet?

My answer has always been consistent: create and sell your own product.

But every time I am asked such a query, and every time I am reminded by the same because of some online discussion I read in various web pages, I remember a story that has become familiar to me, one which best describes why an online marketer should strive to build and market his very own digital product.

Care to hear that story?

The Tale Of The Eagle Who Thought It Was A Chicken

I read a parable somewhere about a farmer who found a young eagle sprawled on the ground, with a broken wing that may have been caused by the fall from the treetop where its nest may have rested.

The farmer took the young eagle and brought it to his poultry house, where it lived with the chickens. The young eagle was fed with chicken pellets and worms.

The eagle’s wing healed soon enough, which made the farmer happy.

But years went by and the farmer’s joy turned into befuddlement. The eagle, you see, never learned how to fly. It’ll spread its wings from time to time, bend its legs as if its raring for its first majestic flight, only to retreat back to its makeshift nest, as if it was afraid to embrace its destiny.

The farmer came to the conclusion that the eagle – who was housed with the chickens – started to believe it was a chicken. It was fed with everything it needed. It didn’t have to hunt. There was no need for it to take into the air and learn how to prey on sustenance.

But does this mean that the eagle will never learn how to fly?

With a heavy heart, the farmer set the eagle free, with the hope that it’ll soon learn to be what it was always meant to be.

One early morning a couple of weeks later, the farmer heard a loud screech that jolted him out of bed. He opened his window and looked at the direction where the sound came from.

And he saw a majestic bird, with its wings spread in all their glory, soaring through the morning air with mesmerizing grace. In an instance, it swooped down past the trees, towards the ground, in a motion of beautiful fury.

“Alas,” the farmer said with a smile, “the eagle learned how to spread its wings and fulfill its destiny.”

What The *#@% Does This Have To Do With Internet Marketing?

There are no concrete numbers, given the wide spectrum of participants involved with internet marketing, but one popular business forum conducted a survey entitled “How Do You Make Money Online,” and here are the results:

* Almost 23% of the respondents said that they sell goods at online auctions like eBay;
* Almost 21% of the respondents said that they are involved with PPC programs like Google AdSense;
* Almost 9% of the respondents said that they are involved with affiliate marketing;
* A little over 4% of the respondents said that they sell their own digital products on the internet;
* The rest cite other means of earning money in the virtual world.

The statistics above tell us the popular methods of earning income online. However, these numbers do not reveal the most profitable online endeavors today. In another survey from the same forum where members were asked “What Has Been The Most Profitable Online Moneymaking Venture For You,” the following results were gathered:

* Selling your own product – 24%
* eBay – 18%
* AdSense – 17%
* Affiliate marketing – 17%
* Others – 24%

Clearly, more people earn more money by selling their own product. This comes as no surprise. Having your own digital product means the following:

* You can sell the same and keep all the profit. You won’t to pay any royalties to anyone. Every single cent you will earn, you will get to keep.

* You have full control over its destiny. You can prolong its market life by limiting the selling rights to yourself. Or you can increase it selling price by offering resale, master resale or even private label rights to the said product. It’s up to you. You’ll be the boss. You’ll plot the success of your product.

* You’ll have more leverage when dealing with potential joint venture (JV) partners. With JVs, the question is always this: what can a prospective partner bring to the table? With your own product, you can rest assured that you will bring something exclusive and valuable to the dance.

* You’ll have more to play with when devising your unique selling proposition (USP). Are you an affiliate of a big ticket package? You will be competing with hundreds – if not thousands – of other affiliates for the same market. How can you distinguish yourself from them? Throw in your own product as a bonus, and you’ll be offering that very market with something that the other affiliates won’t be able to provide.

Selling your own product is the best way to earn a living online. You have full control. You keep all the earnings. And you have more options to play with when dealing with various propositions in the business.

But If Selling One’s Own Product Is So Lucrative, How Come Only A Few People Are Doing It?

The survey above showed that only 4% of online businessmen sell their own digital products. Why such a low number? There are many reasons for this.

* People think that it’s difficult to create their very own product to sell.
* People think that selling their own product entails a lot of risks.
* People think that no one will buy anything that they’ll create.
* People think that selling their own digital product is a complex process.
* People think that they have limited knowledge when it comes to creating and selling their own product.

What is common about these reasons?

Indeed, it’s the word “think.” People “think” this, people “think” that. But people tend to come up with the worst possible thought.

How many times have you doubted yourself? How many times have you thought to yourself that you can’t possibly do what needs to be done? How many times have you been overcome by the thought of failure?

How many times have you proven yourself wrong?

The prospect of creating, and ultimately selling, your own digital product is a case of action yielding to fears.

Online businessmen know that they’ll earn more by creating and selling their own products, but they think that doing so will make them susceptible to more dangers, economic and otherwise.

Additionally, just like the eagle who thought it was a chicken because it lived with chickens, most people stay away from the idea of creating and selling their own product because they were always taught to become affiliates, PPC-enrolled webmasters, eBay sellers and the likes. Most “gurus” teach them these techniques. They mature in this industry thinking that these are the only surefire methods of earning some cash in the World Wide Web.

As a result, they fail to explore the best option of them all.

They fail to spread their wings.

The Secret Of Online Millionaires

Mile Filsaime, Frank Kern, Yanik Silver, John Reese…

All of them are internet marketing superstars. All of them are verified internet marketing millionaires. What do they share in common?

They all sell their own products.

The secret to online millions is not really a secret. It’s an open secret at best, one which is quite obvious but many fail to acknowledge.

Selling your own product is the key to opening the gates to online riches.

You can earn a lot by being an affiliate, but what if the affiliate program closes shop? You can earn a lot by being an AdSense-enrolled webmaster, but what if Google suddenly suspends your account? You can earn a lot by selling physical product at eBay, but what if the national economy turns against you?

Selling your own product, on the other hand, will keep you in the driver’s seat. You can make the adjustments needed. You can decide on the choices which are best for your business. Your success won’t be contingent on anyone else but you.

Creating Your Own Product Is E-A-S-Y!

Creating your own digital product can be summarized in 3 simple steps:

1. Find a hungry market;
2. Discover what they are hungry for;
3. Know what you can do to satisfy their hunger

Find a hungry market involves inspiration and research… both of which are easy. You just have to keep an open mind about the things you encounter everyday… while reading the dailies for example, or while watching the news, or while driving your sister to your parents’ place. It may be something that interests you, or something you wish there were products for.

Once you find a subject matter, say “diabetes,” you just have to check if there’s a demand for the same. Go to any online word-tracking tool, like www.nichebot.com , www.wordtracker.com , or www.digitalpoint.com and type in the term you came up with. A list of related terms will appear, together with numbers pertaining to how many times a term is searched for. Your goal is to find related terms which have many searches, but only have few web pages catering to them.

Once you discover a hungry market, it’s time to determine their needs and how you can solve them.

In creating digital products, bear in mind that you will be creating solutions. Solutions, of course, are answers to certain problems.

In the online world, solutions can be categorized into two groups:

1. Information products, such as eBooks, e-courses and special reports, which will provide answers to questions that are bugging people’s minds; and
2. Software programs, which will help people do what they want to do.

If you can write, create information products. If you can’t write, you can always hire a ghostwriter from freelance websites like www.rentacoder.com , www.elance.com and www.scriptlance.com .

If you have appropriate programming knowledge, create software programs. If you don’t have such knowledge, you can hire a programmer from any of the freelance sites mentioned above.

Once you have your digital product, it’s just a matter of packaging it for your target market. Studies show that by using an eCover (for information products) or an eBox (for software programs) increases the number of purchases, because prospects will be given something seemingly tangible that they can relate to.

Selling Your Own Product Is E-A-S-I-E-R!

Once you have your own digital product all polished up, it’s time to sell the same. All you need is a sales page.

Internet marketing, you see, is a sales page-driven industry. One of the biggest limitations of online commerce is the fact that businessmen are, more or less, confined to the written word in conveying their business messages. To persuade prospects to buy, they need an excellent sales page that will deliver a “hard-to-refuse” sales pitch.

The art of writing a compelling sales page is called copywriting. There are many copywriting courses out there which you can avail of so that you can learn how to write your own sales page. Or you can hire a professional copywriter for this purpose.

Your sales page should have its own domain. It is imperative that you buy a domain! Don’t rely on free ones because they will just make your business look amateurish, what with their endless pop-ups, and with your actual domain being a mere extension of their own URL.

Buy your own domain. If you want people to spend on your product, you must show them that you’re willing to spend for them as well.

Your sales page should have an order button which your prospects can click once they decide to accept your offer. This order button should take them to an order processing page where they can pay. Once they pay, they can be redirected to a Thank You page, which you will also make, where they can download the product they purchased. If you wish to be paid via PayPal, this shouldn’t be a problem at all.

In a nutshell… you just need a sales page, an order processing mechanism, and a Thank You page.

Indeed, it’s that easy!

All you have to do afterwards is to drive traffic to your sales page, and this is where internet marketing comes to play!

Spread Your Wings And Fly To The Promised Land

If you still don’t have your own digital product, chances are, you’re one of the 96% of online businessmen who are afraid to give it a shot.

But let me ask you this…

What are you afraid to lose?

Now compare this to what you stand to gain.

You will realize that your fears are unfounded. You will discover that the only way you can earn fantastic online income is by creating – and selling – your own product.

Then, you will be able to spread your wings.

And you will be able to fly and reach your dreams.

Not surprisingly, my product Super Successful Secrets takes you by the hand through the creation of your own websites so you can be the one in control of your profits.