Creating Your Own Product vs Affiliate Marketing

I want to talk to you about the value of creating your own product versus affiliate marketing.

Oftentimes, people want to create, sell and launch their own product, in the form of an e-book, online training program, course, software, online membership website, physical product, etc.

They have incredible aspirations to create something that they can share with the world, and that’s great.

However, I always ask people, “Are you ready to do this?” Because there is actually a sequence that is more important to master before you create and launch your own product.

Most people that launch their product fail because they have nobody to launch it to, whether that’s a list, followers, subscribers, customers, etc.

They think that, if they build and market a product, that people will come, but this is the wrong mentality to have.

The most important thing to do before you create a product is that to build a brand and have social media presence in a specific niche, which will attract people to you.

Watch the video below:

(Click here to watch on YouTube)

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CLICK HERE to discover my Affiliate Marketing Blueprint that made me millions!

The best way to build your brand is through creating content. This could be in the form of articles on a blog, social media content, podcast, etc. Once you’ve attracted people to you and have an online following, then you want to survey people and figure out their needs, desires and challenges.

When you decide to create a product, don’t think about yourself. Rather, create a product that solves people’s problems or that provides a missing piece in the market. You need to understand that the secret to business and success is to add massive value to others.

Before you launch product you need to ask yourself these questions: Who am I going to launch this product to? How do I know what people want?

A lot of people do the reverse. They launch first and then try to figure out the answer to these questions. Big mistake. You need to do your research and create a product that is targeted to a specific group of people. I’m sharing this knowledge with you because I made this mistake.  I launched a dating e-book and I didnt create it based on what others wanted, and not surprisingly, it failed.  I learned my lesson.

Before I create any product, I eliminate all the risks. I always start with affiliate marketing.  I attract people first, and then I find a product or service that I can promote as an affiliate to my audience, and see whether or not they buy it and benefit from it. Affiliate marketing allows you to test different markets and promoting different products to your list before you launch your own product.

Creating and launching a product is a journey, a process. Here is the sequence that I suggest you take:

1. Get traffic
2. Promote a product/service through affiliate marketing
3. Survey people
4. Launch your product

Video transcript

Hey, everyone!  Stefan here from ProjectLifeMastery.com. In this video, I want to talk to you about creating your own product. Oftentimes, a lot of people come to me and they say, “Stefan, I want to create, launch and sell my own product.  I want to create and launch my own eBook, my own online training program, my own online course, my own software, my own online membership website, physical product, or a book”, or whatever it might be.

They have these incredible aspirations and desires to create and launch their own products. Oftentimes, when people come to me for that, I always say to them, “Hold on just for one minute. Are you ready to create and launch your own product?” They don't realize that there's actually a sequence and a stage that is more important to master before you create and launch your own product.  Most people that create and launch their own products fail massively because, #1, they are launching a product, but they have nobody to launch it to.

They don't have a list, like a demographic, followers, subscribers, customers, somebody that they can launch to. They just think, “Okay, I'm going to create a product and if I build it, then they will come”.  That's always the worst way of doing things, that's why so many people fail. They think, “Okay, if I create a product and then I market it, than I am going to make a lot of money”, but it's actually the other way around.

Attract people first

I believe the first step, the most important step before you even create the product, is that you need to build a brand, a blog, a Youtube channel, some form of social media presence, whatever it is, in a specific niche.  First, you need to attract people.  The best way to build your online brand, and to attract people to it, is through creating content by doing more for other people than anyone else.  You need to create high quality, amazing content.

Whether that's written articles on a blog, whether that's Youtube videos, social media content, a podcast, whatever it is, create quality content. What that does, is that attracts people to you. That's always the first step. Once you've attracted people to you, you have an online following, then you want to survey them. You want to learn about them, you want to find out their desires, their needs, their problems, and their challenges.

You don't create a product for you. A lot of people think, “I just want to create a product for myself and because I like it, everyone else is going to like it”.  That's always the mentality of failure. That's always the mentality of somebody that doesn't succeed in business because they are only thinking about themselves. They are building their brand around themselves, instead of understanding that the secret to business and success is to add value to others.

You have to fall more in love with your customers, your followers, and your subscribers, than your own business and products. If you can do that, and you are able to identify the needs, desires, and problems of others, than you can create a product to help solve that problem.  That is the whole purpose. You create a product to help solve people’s problems, a missing piece in the market, or a need or desire that other people have.

When people say to me, “Well, I want to create and launch my own product,” I always say, “Who are you going to launch it to?” Number one, you're going to launch it to nobody, and you are going to have it fail. Number two, how do you even know what this product is going to entail? How do you even know what people want? If you're just guessing, then that's the worst way of doing it. If you actually attract people first, and survey them, they will tell you exactly what they want.  You will see their recurring problem, then you can go ahead and create a product to meet that need, and then you have people to launch it to. A lot of people do it in reverse. They want to launch the product first, but they don't realize that they are not launching it to anyone. They don't realize that the most important part is actually attracting people first.  I want to give you an example.  I'm sharing this because I made this mistake. I'm not pointing the finger.

I made this mistake when I first started

I thought, “Okay, I'm going to create a dating ebook”.  That's the business that I was into at the time.  I thought, “I'm going to create a dating ebook and I'm going to have it be based all around me and my story and what I think people want”.  When I launched this ebook, because I didn't have people to launch it to.  Number one, I didn't create it based on what people wanted, I created it based on what I wanted and what I thought people wanted. It ended up failing. The very first product I ever created online was this dating ebook. I spent a year writing it, by the way, so I learned my lesson.

You always want to mitigate your risk whenever you launch product.  A lot of people fail because they are taking such a big risk and it's costly. It takes a lot of time and money to create a product.  To spend months creating something, and then to have it flop and fail is not the smart way of doing things. That's why you want to make sure that you do the research first and that you are creating a product that's targeted to a specific audience.

The better way to launch a product, and this is what I always do before I even create any product, is that I always want to eliminate all the risk. Again, it takes a lot of time and money to create and launch your own product.  I don't want to fail.  I start with affiliate marketing. I attract people first, then I find a product or a service that I can promote as an affiliate to my audience and see whether or not they buy it, benefit from it, and whether they want it.

I did that with Kindle publishing before I even created my Kindle course.  First, I tested it out to my market.  I was able to see that there was a demand there. I could see that people were actually willing to buy it.  They weren't just saying that they were willing to buy it, but they were actually putting their money where their mouth was and investing their money to purchase as an affiliate, and I was able to earn money from that.

Eliminate the risk

Then I realized, “Hey, I'm earning money as an affiliate.  I've proven there's a market and a demand.  People are actually interested in this product.  Ive surveyed my audience, I've built the audience, and now it makes sense to create the product”. Now, when I create the product, I'm guaranteed that it's going to be a successful launch because I've eliminated the risk.

I've tested it out as an affiliate in this market and I've already tested it out by surveying people as well.  They tell me what they want, and then I custom-tailored the product to them. This is exactly what I did with Affiliate Marketing Mastery. When I created and launched the Affiliate Marketing Mastery course, I didn't guess.  I shared other affiliate courses that I have already personally benefited from, and that I made money from. I was able to see the numbers, that there was actually a market, and a demand.

I created a free course that you guys are familiar with at productlifemastery.com/freecourse. I was able to see out of the seven business models that I utilize, which one was the one that a lot of people are interested in. Affiliate Marketing, that video that I have is a really common one. I created free content, I did a survey to people and I found exactly what they wanted in this course. Then I went and I took all that information, all the hundreds of responses that I got, and then I created the course based on what people wanted.

When I launched Affiliate Marketing Mastery, it took me a few months to create it, a lot of money, a lot of time, a whole team. When I launched it, it was a huge success.  Hundreds of people joined the program because I had built a list.  I had listened to my audience, I had done the testing, and I mitigated the risk. That's the smart way of doing it. Whenever you think, “Okay, I want to create and launch my own product,” I say, “Hold on, there is a phase and a process you want to go through before that”. 

A great thing when you do affiliate marketing

If you promote the product, it doesn't sell and it fails, that's not a big deal, because you didn't create it.  You didn't have to take the risk. You are just an affiliate and you can easily promote something else. Oftentimes, people who want to get started, even selling on Amazon or even Kindle books, awesome, but you still need to market your Amazon product.  You still need to market your Kindle books. You still need to drive traffic, promote and market your products.

In some cases it can make sense, instead of starting an Amazon product, investing hundreds of thousands of dollars to take the risk and launch the product, create the logo, labelling and the packaging, and doing the customer support, which can be a month to a few months. Instead, you can actually be an affiliate for an Amazon product, or an affiliate for a Kindle book.

Maybe you can find another Amazon product in that market or another Kindle book in that market and build the blog and the Youtube channel.  Attract people first. Join Amazon associates, which is Amazon's affiliate program, which is free to sign up for. Get an affiliate link, promote that product on Amazon and then once you've proven that it's selling, and that people are buying it, then you can go ahead and create the product yourself, private label it, and invest all the money and the time. Now you've proven that your audience is actually interested in buying that.

Again, it's always about mitigating the risk and that's why affiliate marketing is so great because it allows you to test different markets.  I can test promoting different products to my list, and I can see if there's a demand. For example, I use a mini trampoline, a rebounder. Many of you guys follow me on Snapchat and see that. Let's say just as an example, not that I would, but let's say that I share it.  I'm promoting it, I'm using it every day, it benefits my life.

Let's say that I tested it out as an affiliate, I promoted a mini trampoline, a rebounder. I noticed a lot of people are interested in that, and they are buying through my link.  Then I can actually say, “Okay, wow, I made a certain amount of money, I've tested it, there's a market, there's a demand here, people are interested in it. I can go ahead and create my own mini trampoline and create my own product, because I know there's a demand. Now, I can profit even more from it”.

Only do it when you are ready for it

That's why you use affiliate marketing.  Affiliate marketing is a great way to complement things in a different way before you take that step and that risk to create and launch your own product. I understand that you want to create and launch your own product if you are watching this. My advice is only to do it when you are ready for it because creating and launching your product is a process. I don't think anybody should just create and launch their own product, because to do it, is a journey.

There's a lot of learning involved, there's a lot of technical aspects, it cost money to do it yourself or to have people do it for you, and put everything together.  You have to be an expert, you have to be an authority, you have to deal with the customer support. There's a lot that goes into creating and launching your own product. That's why I believe you want to start with getting traffic first, affiliate marketing next. Once you are ready, you can survey people, then create and launch your own product. I understand there are many ways of doing it. There are ways you can start with an Amazon product, you can start with a Kindle book, you can start with a blog.

Really, you've got to do everything. You can't ignore getting the traffic and building the list, but that's always the more important part. That's the real asset in your business. The real asset and the real value is your list and your brand, because then you can always promote other products.  Products always change and evolve. Because you have an audience, you'll always be able to launch and promote other products to them as well.

Conclusion

Hopefully this video helps you understand where you are at, where you should start, and that it makes sense to you.  I'm a big believer in building the brand because that's what has allowed me to get to where I'm at today. I've done multiple ways online and that's the biggest asset that I have for my business, that I want you to have as well. If you want to learn more about how to build that, I've got a free course at affiliatemarketingmastery.com.

Click the link in the description, head on over there. You guys can put in your email address, and you will get the free videos that I have that explain my online brand, how to use affiliate marketing, and the power of it. Of course, I've got my online course, Affiliate Marketing Mastery, that's available as well. That has really already changed a lot of peoples lives. People are loving it so far, and I'm always improving it and making it better.

If you have the desire to create your own product, understand there's a sequence for it.  Building that brand, that list, the following, the traffic.  I believe that's always the more important part because it gives you the ability to promote additional products and services. As the market changes, and as the world changes, you can always meet their needs and solve their problems. That's really the biggest asset, it's not the product itself.

Thank you for watching. Again, check out the free course, click the link in the description. Like this video, if you guys enjoyed it.  I appreciate all the love and the support that you give. Leave a comment, I'd love to hear what you guys think and subscribe for more videos. That's it for this video!  Take care.