Seven Reasons Why New Products Fail

Writen by Bob Cannon

The most optimistic success rate I have run across for new product ideas is about 3%. In other words, 97% of product ideas never successfully enter the market. There are lots of reasons for this low level of performance, but there is a consistency around a few common mistakes that routinely present themselves with inventors and new product marketers. These are not the only reasons, but if you can avoid these mistakes, you can greatly improve your chances for success.

The Product: The single biggest shortcoming in new product introductions is not fully understanding the product, its usage and the target market. A dead give away to this problem is when I ask inventors to define the target market and they tell me, "Everybody." If your target market is everybody, you are doomed to failure. It is like shooting a gun at a bull's eye. You will most likely never hit the bull's eye if you are aiming at the whole target.

The Opportunity: One of the most difficult questions to answer in preparing a new product for market is defining the opportunity. Sadly, there is not enough information available about most product categories and if you have something that is entirely new, there are no reference points, but this is critical information for the decision- makers you will be dealing with. You must have some verifiable estimate for the potential of this product.

The Channels: With most products, there are going to be intermediate steps between you and the end user of your product. What Channel or Channels will you choose? What are their expectations? Can you provide what they require? What do they require? Are there any trends that could affect your successful launch?

Your Circumstances: There are usually three factors that each inventor / marketer must understand about themselves before they go to market. Do you know what those 3 factors are and what options are available to best match your circumstances?

Research: Many people think they are marketing their new product idea or invention. The truth is you are also marketing actionable information and knowledge, but where do you go to get that information and knowledge? Once you do get it, how do you put it together?

The Fuzzy Front End: The people you are trying to sell your new product or invention to have a perspective that is different than yours. Do you understand their perspective and can you provide answers to their questions both asked and unasked?

Your Offering: Successful new product introductions require more than just the product. If we all just bought products, we would all be driving the same make and model of automobile. People don't just buy products, they buy features and benefits and image and status. How are you going to package your product for success?

These are examples of just a few of the issues that we talk about at our new website http://www.marketingnewproduct.com. We have even developed a collaborative consulting product call the Quickie Market Analysis to help inventors, and new product marketers avoid these pitfalls.

It doesn't really matter where you are in the process of introducing your product. The Quickie Market Analysis will pick you up where you stumbled and move you toward success. Visit the U.S. Hardware /Hardlines Resource Center to learn more.

Copyright Bob Cannon/the Cannon Advantage, 2005. All rights reserved.

Bob Cannon helps inventors, imagineers, importers and manufacturers successfully introduce new products to the Hardware / Hardlines Marketplace. Check out his blog at http: http://www.takingaim.blogspot.com Bob can be reached at (216) 408-9495 or mailto: bob@marketingnewproduct.com

This article courtesy of http://www.marketingnewproduct.com You may freely reprint this article on your website or in your newsletter provided this courtesy notice and the author name and URL remain intact.

Learn The Five Key Steps To Getting Free Publicity For Your Internet Site And Products

Writen by Dianne Beiermann

1) Website Focus

Make sure your site is focused on a specific category of products. I cannot stress this enough. The editors will often check to see if your site features products that are in the same category as your product press release. This is one of the key ways you can get free publicity for your products. Because when you send out a press release on a new product, the editors will check your site to make sure that you offer similar products. Once they see that you offer a wide range of products in this same category, you will greatly improve your chances for getting free publicity for your products and website.

2) Target the right magazines for your products

I have talked to many people who are tempted to send out their press releases to every magazine available. I strongly advise against doing this. It is simply not effective and can even upset the editors when you send them information unrelated to their audience. It also reduces your chances of getting in the magazines if you are sending out press releases to every magazine category. The key is to stick with the most targeted magazines for your products and only email them with your product announcements.

3) Be consistent and patient while emailing the editors

It is very important to be consistent when you email the editors. Try to introduce a new product on a monthly to bi-monthly basis to the editors of the magazines. If you do it on a consistent basis before you know it, one of your products could be picked up in one of the magazines. It is also important to be patient with the process. You may not here anything for a few months and then all of a sudden you will find out that a magazine picked up your press release and is running it. On average it takes print magazines a month to three months to print your press release. For online magazines you could have your press release picked up within days or weeks. That is why it is important to target both.

4) Be prompt to an editor's request

Be prepared when the editors contact you. Many times an editor will want to contact you and ask some basic questions about your company. Another reason they might contact you would be to include your product in their next issue. When this happens the editor will ask you for a 300 dpi photo of your product to be e-mailed to them so they can put it in the magazine. Through the years of doing e-mail press releases, I have learned to contact my suppliers before I send out a press release and ask them for a 300 dpi photo. I keep the photo(s) on file in a computer file folder marked "editor's photos." They are easy to retrieve, and since I already requested the picture ahead of time, I can just retrieve it from my file and send it to the editor within minutes of the request.

5) Follow up with a thank you note whenever you receive free publicity

Whenever you receive free publicity send a thank you note to that editor to let them know how much you appreciate the write up. This is also a good opportunity to let them know how the ad is working for you. The editors love to hear about the success you are having with their magazine. To find out more about getting free publicity for your products and site visit www.productpressrelease.com

Dianne Beiermann is a results-driven internet marketer and online business owner. Dianne Beiermann is one of the leading experts in press release marketing for online businesses. Productpressrelease.com specializes in assisting individuals and businesses with obtaining free publicity for their products and website. You can visit their site at: http://www.submityourrelease.com

Home Based Business The Cheap And Nasty Way

Writen by Stephen Brennan

Today I read an article about 'Splogs' by Jim Hedger of StepForth Placement Inc., which prompted me to pen this article so I imagine the credit for its conception, should go to him.

Splogs are websites that are principally conceived and built for the purpose of 'earning' (and I use the term loosely) revenue through such programs as Google Adsense™. These websites do not exist to sell anything, instruct in any way or even to inform, although they probably do in some instances because of the amount of information they contain. They are simply websites with no purpose or value in real terms except for the amount of information about a specific subject, which is found to be in many cases, stolen from other websites. The content is stolen either manually or by using 'bots'. The latter method makes it possible to produce hundreds of pages of content with little effort.

As a result, Jim points out, millions of these Splogs have appeared over a relatively short time.

Jim's article talks about how the theft of this information can sometimes adversely affect the owners of the stolen material and other websites who have reprinted it with permission. My intention is not to repeat Jim's article, so you can read about these aspects yourself at: Splogs + Scraping + AdSense = Fraud.

To my surprise and a little anger, it turns out that many of these websites are created using the free hosting and free blog software offered by most of the major search engines!

I've always advised, in person, when contacted by email and in my writings that first thing ANY serious home business or online businessperson should do is GET A DOMAIN and HOSTING. These can be found for as little as $4-95 per year (domain) and $1-99 per month (hosting), with more facilities than your average Newbie could want. These figures are hardly 'bank-breakers', in fact, if a budding home business person doesn't have the $10-91 (or even less) that it would cost to get started for a quarterly period, they obviously have other, more important things they should consider using that money on.

I may be criticized for this remark however, in my opinion, I believe the free website and blogging services supplied by any entity should be reserved only for 'Personal' websites, like those which families or individuals use to post about their hobbies, likes, loves and interests. They shouldn't be available for any online 'business' purpose at all. That, of course, would include banning Adsense and such programs from being added to them. I actually imagine that's what they were probably initially intended for anyway.

Anyone who has a serious desire to earn income of any description through the Internet should be doing so from his or her own bonafide domain. I acknowledge that I have no right to declare what should and should not be contained in other's websites however, when the propensity is there for harm to be done to other websites and their owners through theft, I will have my say.

Needless to say, as the subject of these 'Splogs' has become 'hot' recently and obviously, reports of webmasters being adversely affected have been made, Google has actually gone so far as to ask website owners to report sites, which appear to be 'Splogs'. This is definitely a move in the right direction, in so far as something is being done at least to discourage the practice and root out this type of website.

With Google™ indexing something like 34 billion websites, there is a lot of rubbish around and much of it is making the Search Engine results a bit of a mess. These days, when simply entering an everyday keyword or phrase for search, I generally find that half of the top ten results are rubbish, rather than good examples of the kind of website I would like to find.

The practice of 'Splogging' for Adsense and similar programs is, in itself, a bastardization of home business but to achieve it through theft of other's content and to present it using free facilities is really another of those nasty practices we really don't need on the Internet.

The 2005 Edition of Steve Brennan's popular ebook title 'The Affiliate Guide Book' is available now. He runs RAISE - Rheumatoid Arthritis Information Support and Education and also operates a number of Affiliate wesbites including Cheapest Viagra Online-Plus

Affiliate Internet Marketing Tips

Writen by Juste Gnimavo

Affiliate Internet Marketing is not a game, it's a real business. The right way to make quickly and easily full time income if:

- You avoid the biggest mistake most affiliates make when marketing online,
- You work smarter, you're patient and use the right Affiliate Internet Marketing tools,
- You understand how to market online and make a success plan that will allow you to realize your financial goals,
- You follow the truly advice gived by expert affiliate' marketers...

To start your Affiliate Internet Marketing Business today and earn the money you expect to make, follow these simple steps:

Affiliate Internet Marketing Tip #1: Find your right market

When starting an Affiliate Internet Marketing Business, most people decide FIRST to choose the products to promote and after months, ask themselves why they didn't make money. It's one of the biggest mistakes you must avoid. The First step when starting your affiliate business online, is to FIND your TARGET MARKET.

Your target audience is some people who're looking for something, the right way to resolve their problems or to satisfy their needs. If you find your right market, you'll realize your financial goals. There are many places to search your target market: Google, ebay, amazon, groups, forum etc...

Going to the various discussion boards and reading the kind of questions that are out there. Subscribe to newspapers, magazines. Find and collect questions asking for help about one specific topic. if you could find an answer for the questions asked by people, you've got a market.

Join forums and spend some time looking around, posting introductory messages and reading what the other members have to say. Reply to some posts. Then when you're ready to start talking about your product, you'll have a more receptive audience.

Affiliate Internet Marketing Tip #2: Get the right products that resolve your target market problems.

After finding your target audience, it's now the time to select carefully the products to promote. The products you decide to promote must response of you target market' needs. There are thousands of affiliate programs on the net. Use the search engines to find them. For example, if you want to promote online dating product, you can type on the search bar of any search engine " online dating affiliate program". So for any affiliate program you're looking for type "keyword + affiliate program".

Affiliate Internet Marketing Tip #3: Get the right domain name, web hosting and profesionnal autoresponder.

Build a website around the products you select to promote. You can have a domain name at less $8. Point your domain name to your website. Your domain name must give a perfect idea of the business you're running. For example, if your target market is people who are looking for ultimate way to lost weight, your domain name can be: www.weight-lost.com or www.WeightLostSecrets.com

Build highly opt-in list by creating landing pages to collect your visitors name and e-mail adresses. When people visit at the first time your website, most of them won't purchase your products. So you'll use your autoresponder to follow up them. Don't forget to upload to your website the required legal documents (privacy policy, earnings disclaimers, etc...) to protect your business.

Affiliate Internet Marketing Tip #4: Get Quality Traffic to your new website.

The most efficient Affiliate Internet Marketing Strategies are: Article marketing, Pay Per Click marketing, Blogs, RSS, Ezines, Forum, Press Releases, Search engines, Viral Report etc... I recommend you to Test. TEST TEST and TEST. Find what work and what doesn't for your business. If you start with Pay Per Click marketing, write killer ads to convince your visitors to buy your affiliate product.

But if you want to start with search engine marketing, optimize each page for different keywords. Build search engine friendly sitemap. A sitemap guides your visitors to the particular pages of your website they have a point of interest in. With it they would save time following links. Find potential partners to link to in order to have a good PR.

Affiliate Internet Marketing Tip #5: Take Action Today

Most affiliates talk about starting a business, working hours they want to work, taking vacations. However, they never make the most important step, and that's getting started. Take action today. Start searching your target audience. Invest the necessary time and money into your Affiliate Internet Marketing Business and you'll realise your financial affiliate' goals.

Juste A. Gnimavo an Affiliate Internet Marketer reveals Breakthrough Affiliate Internet Marketing Tips to earn $100,000 per year. Visit his website: http://increaseyourmonthlyincome.com to run successfully your Business.

Carpenters Build Strong Foundations

Writen by Doug Channell

Carpenters Build Strong Foundations!

Carpenters…as do builders of Affiliate Marketing programs…realize the importance of a strong foundation!

Whether you are building a house or a work from home, Internet Affiliate Marketing business…the strength of the underlying foundation provides strength to the remainder of the project.

The foundation is what holds everything up!

The Foundation:

• Must itself, be based upon Rock!

• Must be Strong!

• Must be Effective!

• Must exhibit Integrity and Non-compromise!

The Foundation of an Internet Affiliate Marketing program encompasses the initial web site construction. From domain name selection and registration to the original look and feel of the Home Page…

…to the effective usage of keywords in the construction of informational content pages… to the creative and eye pleasing formatting of pictures, images, white space, and headlines…

…to the offering of valuable information and related search opportunities via links to complementary web sites…to the offering of e-books, newsletters and e-zines…

The Foundation must be all that and More!

Current research reflects the notion that web site visitors decide in .58 seconds whether they will remain on the page, or click to another…that's literally the blink of an eye!

That's how much time your web site has to make a "good" first impression!

.58 seconds…that's 58 one hundredths of a second…gone almost as quickly as you can read it from the screen!

First impressions are Everything…and you can't get them back…they don't come with second chances….bam!…and they're gone!

That illuminates the importance of a strong, effective foundation!

Carpenters know it…Affiliate Marketers know it!

Doug Channell is the founder of http://www.Alpha-Affiliate.com that answers questions related to Affiliate Marketing and derived benefits!

Learn how, with minimal computer skills, you can build and Implement your own web site that can Evolve into an income earning, work from home, web business!