How do you find out what your target market wants? There are several ways to get this information and use it to help you create an offering that will solve your niche's problems and make a profit for you at the same time.



The best way is to do your research. The most critical research to do is to join the conversations that your market is having:

Here are two ways to do this:

1. Simple: Ask them! Ask your prospects a simple, open-ended question, like "What's your biggest challenge with building your business online?" or "What's the one thing you'd like to learn more about that relates to balancing your work and family life?" Tailor the question to your niche and use the information you receive to help spark ideas for new products and services.

2. Almost as Simple: Do a simple survey that asks 1-10 questions using a survey tool like Zoomerang or Survey Monkey. This allows you to ask more specific questions to elicit more specific responses. Doing a survey like this really helps you to NOT waste your time creating offerings your target market simply doesn't want.

Once you've figure out what your niche's problems are, you can create or find the solutions to solve those problems. Your solution can be packaged in a variety of ways: an ecourse, a PDF manual, an ebook, an audio download and/or CD, group programs, teleseminars, e-manuals, etc.

3-Step Process to Creating Products:

Here's a very simple process to follow to create a product to add to you funnel quickly:

1. Do a free or paid live class on your product

Once you've done your research and you've chosen a topic your target market is interested in knowing more about, offer a 1-hour teleclass on that topic. Cover three points and offer your solutions. Most important is to make sure you record the teleseminar, as this is what leads to a product for you.

As you're designing your outline for the class, do so in a way that creates notes for your participant. (If you're a member of my Coaching Cafe, you know that I give very detailed class notes, so you know what I mean by this).

As the end of your live teleclass, you'll have the recording and notes to then...

2. Package it virtually.

Now you have the audio recording and notes to offer as a bundled product and...

3. Package it into a tangible product.

You can then take it up a notch and turn it into a physical product and offer it that way as another income stream for you.

And here are some of my other favorite tips for simple product creation:

- If you don't have a list or access to a list, you can offer a free class on a topic and then charge people for the product down the road, or afterwards.

- Another option is to have someone interview you on your topic to create your product. You can offer the questions along with the interviewee's questions. This is a good strategy if you don't think you can get enough people on a call.

- You can record any live classes or workshops you're holding as well, and re-package those presentations virtually or tangibly.

- Try to record everything so you always have the option to offer it at some level down the road.

- Promote your teleclass to your list, via colleagues who are willing to spread the word (especially if it's free) and at teleclass listing services.

- Promote on the discussion lists and groups that you're a part of, promote it there with permission and on the appropriate day.

- Pricing: If this is a new process for you, if you're offering your topic for the first time and sort of feeling out your market, go with the lower end. If you're putting together a 90-minute class with lots of comprehensive step-by-step information, charge more.

- When it comes to creating your big-ticket item, they can be created from all these little products along the way. So, if you were creating a product a month or every other month, that gives you 6-12 products at the end of the year that can be packaged together into your big ticket item.