Or mall, or hardware store, or electronics shop, or sports store, etc. etc.
Why would people go online to buy something they can easily get on their regular weekly shopping trip?
Unless you can offer something truly unique -- such as a lower price or a hard-to-find product -- you'll find it tough to compete with the convenience and the lack of shipping costs those offline alternatives offer.
Rule #2: Don't sell a "time-sensitive" product!
If you try to sell something people need RIGHT AWAY, you're going to have a hard time convincing them to wait a few days for it to be shipped to them.
For example, if you do proper keyword research you'll see that thousands of people do searches every month on the keyword, "cure sore throat fast."
But here's the challenge: If someone wants to cure a sore throat fast, do you think they're going to wait for you to ship a herbal remedy? No! They're looking for immediate results. And once their cold has gone, their desire to buy any kind of cough remedy will vanish along with it.
Rule #3: Don't enter a market with a massive amount of competition!
If there's already a huge number of savvy marketers selling to your intended market, you should probably choose a different market.
Take world-famous online "shopping mall" Amazon.com, for example. They're one of the hugest online vendors out there. If you decide to start your own catalog site selling a general selection of books, or music, or DVDs, how will you ever be able to compete with an industry giant like Amazon?
Unless you figure out a way to offer a lower price (doubtful) or cater to a very specific niche Amazon hasn't yet tapped (difficult), you're going to have a hard time getting your business off the ground.
Nothing is impossible... but the more competitive a market, the more time and money it will cost for you to become successful.
If these rules seem ridiculously obvious, then I apologize for wasting your time. But I had to mention them. Every day, I see budding entrepreneurs break these rules and spend weeks... months... and even years working extremely hard for minuscule results.
And it frustrates me, because I know it didn't have to be that way.
If you want to learn how to find hot products that people are absolutely GUARANTEED to buy -- before you even start selling them! -- you can discover the formula that teaches you exactly how to do it in Step One of my best-selling course, "The Insider Secrets To Marketing Your Business On The Internet."
If you're just getting started online, you cannot afford to choose the wrong product! That's why we dedicated a full 5 lessons in our course to showing you how to choose the right product. You can let us hold your hand and walk you step-by-step through this entire scientific process.
Or you can base your business on guesswork and hope for the best... but I hope you'll take my advice instead. :-)
