Just thinking about creating a new product raises so many questions. What kind of product could you create? How would you make it? How would you sell it?

These are questions that made me stumble when I was starting out.

I’ve spent more than 30 years creating new products for all sorts of companies. I’ve written and designed everything from print books to craft kits. But way back when I was starting out, I was completely overwhelmed by the process of product creation. It seemed so complex and confusing!

But with luck and persistence, and a whole lot of help from more experienced writers and designers, I learned that there were basic steps to the process of creating a product.

I also learned that if I took the first steps, one by one, and actually worked on them, instead of just reading  about them, I was soon fully involved in creating a product!

These are the baby steps my mentors taught me to follow in planning the creation of a product:

1.Define your target. Know exactly whom it is you want to sell to.

2.Research your target. What age are they? Where do they live? What sort of products are they already buying? What is their average expendable income?

3.Make a list of items they are already known to purchase and enjoy.

4.Make a list of ways you could improve some of these products, perhaps by adding features, making it easier to use, simplifying it or explaining it better.

5.Make a list of resources you have available to you, ranging from your own personal experience and knowledge, to personal contacts you can call on, suppliers you know of, and anyone and anything else that may be valuable to you when you’re working on a product for this target market.

6.Considering the resources you have available, choose ONE item from the list of ways you could improve an already-existing product. Commit yourself to focusing all your attention on working out that one, single product idea.

Look around the room you’re in right now. Everything you see before you, every book and paper and pen, the computer you’re using, the chair you’re sitting on, the clothes you’re wearing, everything  is a product that began with these first steps.

By gathering pertinent information, brainstorming a number of product ideas and then committing to the ONE idea you have the time, the resources and the personal interest to develop, you’ve already completed the most important steps on the path to creating your own product.

Remember, using material and resources you’ve already created for your business is a great way to make your first product. If you’ve written a white paper or report, given a speech or taught a class, you already have the content you need for an ebook, a workbook, even a class presented as an audio or video!

If you want to spread your creative wings and make products to market on the web, my book, "Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High-Profit Products"will inspire you to be your most creative, successful  self by showing you just some of the many ways I use the internet to make creative cash.

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  Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine, http://www.theinternetwizards.com and The Internet Wizards Blog at to teach self-employed people and small businesses owners how to leverage the internet for advertising, marketing and promoting their business. To stay in touch with her, type your name and email into the subscriber box in the upper right corner of this page.

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It’s boilerplate advice in internet marketing to say that there are three steps to product creation: find a market, find a common problem in that target market, create a product that offers a solution to that problem. Bingo. Boffo sales.

That’s fine advice, as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go far enough for people who are bubbling over with creativity. That advice is far too passive for creative people. And dare I say, it borders on boring.

Creative people aren’t good at linear, connect the dots thinking. Creative people are driven by inspiration and imagination. When a new idea possesses them, they feel compelled t to engage in the act of creation. So they write or paint or photograph or video and –gasp!—they do it all without doing their market research first.

That’s O.K. Because the fact is, the world needs creative people to see things in fresh ways and to create things for the sheer joy of creation.

Those creations, made joyfully, playfully, go out into the world and inspire us to dig deeper, reach higher inside ourselves. They remind us that laughing, singing, dancing and feeling deeply are much more important to our sense of aliveness than making the car payment or carrying the newest cell phone.

Products created after careful research have a place in the market. But only a place. There is a great deal of room left over for products created out of inspiration.

“The market” is multifaceted, nearly unlimited and truly insatiable. I can say, with some certainty, that if you are inspired to make it, there’s a market for it somewhere. Case in point—two recent publications aimed at a market termed “bizarro genre literature.”

The first is Shatnerquake by Jeff Burk, whose vision is a world populated by every character William Shatner ever played in movies and TV comes to life and tried to kill the actor.

The second is Pride And Prejudice And Zombies by Seth-Grahame Smith, in which Jane Austin’s feisty character Elizabeth Bennet stalks zombies while flirting with the arrogant Mr. Darcy.

Bizzaro literature, indeed! People don’t write books like this after careful market research. They write books like this because a wild idea grabs them by the throat, forcing them to skip breakfast and dinner so they’ll have more time to write.

And after they have written, they go looking for people somewhere that will want what they have created. They go looking, in marketing lingo, for a “target market.” And because the internet has connected us all, they can, if they’re industrious, find it.

So consider the advice of internet marketers who know that doing some research first is a good way to approach product creation. But don’t let it deter you from following your own imagination. Because out on the internet, there truly is a market for whatever you’re inspired to make.

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine for people that want to be more creative, make their own products and market on the internet. Join her by typing your email address into the magic box in the upper right corner and –POOF!–you’ll be on her mailing list! Related article by Bonnie Boots: Shatnerquake–Proof Positive That On The Internet, You Can Sell Anything Now, of course, you’re dying to read those books! Click the covers to see them at Amazon…. Shatnerquake Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: The Classic Regency Romance – Now with Ultraviolent Zombie Mayhem!

Here’s some fun from Archie McFee, the wackiest toy store in the world. They have both Jane Austin and Flesh-eating Zombie action figures Imagine the fun of reading the book AND acting it out with your own set of action figures. Soon, everyone will be inviting you to entertain at parties! See the Glow-in-the-dark Flesh Eating Zombies Play Set here and see the Jane Austin action Figure here. If you want to spread your creative wings and make stuff to market on the web, my book, "Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High-Profit Products" will inspire you to be your most creative, successful  self by showing you just some of the many ways I use the internet to make creative cash.

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Can you imagine jumping out of bed in the morning because you can’t wait to get to work?

 If you want the kind of exciting work I do, you need my book, Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High-Profit Products. In it, I explain the exact techniques and strategies I’ve used for many years to tap into current trends and create products that sell to eager buyers.

My name is Bonnie Boots.As a professional writer and designer I spent years creating products for big publishers and corporations, and now, as a digital publisher, I create them for my own business.

There’s a system I use to crank out an endless stream of profitable products, products I know will sell the minute I put the finishing touches on them.

My system has always been my secret "ace in the hole." It’s the system I rely on to get work whenever I need it, to make money whenever I want it. And up until now I’ve never told it to anyone.

Are YOU Ready To LEARN MY SECRET?

If you are, then you need to  CLICK HERE RIGHT NOW  to read about the system I developed for anticipating trends and quickly create products that capitalize on those trends…before the competition.

This is a system you can learn and duplicate to build your own success as a product creator and marketer.

It took me years to develop the system I’ve used for years to earn my living as a writer, a designer and now a digital publisher.

• I taught myself to spot trends, because that way I could predict what people would want to buy.
• I taught myself to always set a target  to sell to. That way, right from the start, I’d know who my customer was going to be and I’d create the product to suit them. And when my product was finished, I knew exactly where to go to sell it.
• I taught myself to work fast by knowing my own skills and resources and making the best use of them.

 In short, I turned myself into a product-producing machine that turns out new products to sell to eager buyers not just once in a while, but any time I want!

  "TAPPING INTO TRENDS TO CREATE AN ENDLESS STREAM OF HIGH-PROFIT PRODUCTS"

CLICK HERE NOW TO LEARN HOW THIS BOOK

• Teaches you my system for making and marketing your own products.
• Teaches you exactly where to go to spot trends and how to pick the trend you will capitalize on.
• Gives you a complete list of all the kinds of products you can make working on your home computer.
• Teaches you exactly where you can go to find a huge audience of eager buyers for certain types of digital products.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

• Teaches you exactly where to go to get started making hard goods like T-shirts, calendars and mugs–for free!

I’ve pulled together everything I know and everything you need to know and do–to make it easy! CLICK HERE NOW to learn the full story!

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I do believe one of the stumbling blocks people run up against is this—that most of the information on the topic of product creation is written by and for “internet marketers.” That is, it’s written by people that only make products that teach internet marketing. And it’s sold to people that can’t think of anything to make except more products teaching internet marketing.

The proliferation of this type of material can make it seem that all you can make and sell are ebooks, audios and software on internet marketing.

But the truth is that the internet makes it possible to make and sell an almost unlimited number of products. There are literally no limits! And great ideas for products you can make and sell are always at hand.

This week, on my local news channel, I saw a couple from a neighboring county showing off a product they developed that was inspired by swine flu. Steve and Cristie Aaron, the parents of triplets, were worried that the attention their triplets attract –along with the inevitable cheek pinching and handholding—could pass on swine flu germs to their babies. But they found themselves reluctant to ask people, out loud, not to touch the tots.

Their idea—a sign that said it for them. They developed and produced a waterproof tag that says, “Wash Hands Before Touching Baby.”

The business, Hands Off Baby, sells through their own web site (http://www.handsoffbaby.com/index.html ) as well as through the gift shops of two dozen hospitals.

The development of this product didn’t require any complex keyword research with expensive software. All it required was the realization that the solution to the Aaron’s problem could be the solution to many people’s problems. In other words, they followed the dictum of good business—identify a problem and sell a solution.

Their great ideas was right at hand—and that hand was potentially harmful to their babies. Rather than just worry, they took action.

There are many businesses that make it possible to produce and market your own physical products entirely on the internet. And there are many target markets, from anxious parents to pet owners to hobbiests, that share your problems and would buy your solution. I introduce many of these businesses in my book,  "Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High-Profit Products"" It will inspire you to be your most creative, successful self  by showing you just some of the many ways I use the internet to make creative cash.

Visit http://www.tapintotrends.com to learn how you can get started Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High Profit Products!

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine for people, especially small business owners,  that want to create their own products and market on the internet. To join in her adventures, add your email address to the subscriber box in the upper right corner.

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Blogs that collect and correlate information can be a great resource for product makers. Such a blog can often point you toward a topic or market you wouldn’t otherwise think of. By watching these posts, you can end up with ideas for new products and all sorts of resources to get you started.

Here’s an example of what I mean. The blog Boing Boing, which calls itself “a directory of wonderful things,” sends out a constant stream of weird, wild and wonderful news items. And then it bundles those posts with related posts from around the web, like this:

“BBG dedicated a series of posts to explore various aspects, gear, and ideas specific "climbing." Here’s what went down:• We examined three types of artificial rock climbing walls. • Want to climb a tree, like, for real? Here’s the pro gear you need. • Want to climb a mountain instead? Go for this gear. • HOWTO: overcome common climbing phobias. • We tested an ultra-light pack stove from Primus. • We revisited the DIY ice mountain constructed in Alaska. • What’s the best food to take on a climbing/camping expedition? We tried to find out. • We reviewed three pairs of climbing shoes. Which ones ruled? Also at BBG:(The original post is here: http://www.boingboing.net/2009/07/29/recently-at-bbg-6.html )

A quick trip to Google shows that there’s quite a large audience for advice and information on rock climbing, and Boing Boing’s post points out all sorts of relevant topics and chapters for a guidebook.

I’m not a rock climber, more of a fence sitter, so I’d never have thought of this market on my own. But seeing this blog post at Boing Boing inspired some creative thinking. It made me stop, at least for a moment, and think about how easy it would be to pull together a guidebook complete with product reviews and interviews with experts.

When you’re really focused on creating your own products, creative product ideas are everywhere!

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine for people that want to be more creative, make their own products and market on the internet. Type your email address into the subscribe box in the upper right of this page to join for FREE! If you’re a writer, self-employed professional, small business owner or otherwise have specialized knowledge, you already have the basis of a great internet business. Join me and begin the adventure!

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The sales copy on the web site says, "The Sonogram Photo Cuff Links feature your very own bun in the oven. Send us your own sonogram photos and become a cuff link designer instantly."

"Up to 2 different images can be used. This is a truly unique gift and amazingly personal. There is no better way to surprise a first time Dad or to show off that you are a proud to-be parent."

You can see it here:http://www.cufflinks.com/sonogram-photo-screen-cufflinks.html

What a wonderful idea! Especially because a creative person could take it in all sorts of directions to make their own products.

With the manufacture-on-demand services listed in my book "Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High Profit Products," you could make custom t-shirts with sonograms, custom tote bags, porcelain tiles or plates for display and so much more! You could even enhance the sonograms by adding colors or messages as I did in the illustration for this article.

Because each item is a truly one-of-a-kind creation made personally for the baby’s family, you can set the price higher than you would for a design available to anyone. And because the human race is always adding new members, there is always a demand for personal baby items, even in a tight economy.

How would you sell sonogram-imprinted products?

By putting up a one-page web site or blog and promoting it with AdSense or other pay-per-click advertising, by posting in forums frequented by expectant parents or any of the other methods mentioned in my book. Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High Profit Productsteaches my system for researching trends, creating products that reflect those trends and selling them on the internet. The number of things you can make through online services and sell through internet marketing is truly unlimited.

And once you get started, you’ll see product ideas are everywhere—even in sonograms!

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine for people, especially small business owners, that want to be more creative, make their own products and market on the internet. To join her adventures, add your email to the subscriber box in the upper right hand corner of this page.

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To me, the phrase "digital publisher" encompasses much of what I do within my business. I create and publish articles and books and blogs and web sites. I make and publish videos and animations.

These things exist in digital format. That is, they’re not printed on paper or transferred to video tape. They exist only as electric signals travelling from computer to computer across the internet.  They are digital. I am, therefore, a digital publisher.

But a title is only useful if it conveys information, and the phrase "digital publisher" clearly does not communicate to most people. I have therefore crowned myself with the new title, "Maker of Stuff," and when people ask me what I do, I say, "I make stuff and market on the internet."

My new title lets me add in some of the things I do that are non-digital. Now I say, "I make digital products like ebooks and I also make hard goods like T-shirts, and I sell them all on the internet."

That’s turned into my "elevator speech,"  the 30-second introduction I pull out when I only have  seconds to explain who I am and what I do. And that 30-second introduction turned into an ebook that explains how I use digital publishing and manufacture-in-demand services to make and sell all sorts of stuff–and how you can do it, too.

The need to market that book inspired me to make the video shown below that introduces me as a maker of stuff. And because I’m using all the sorts of simple ( but powerful and secret) ways to make simple videos and use them to drive traffic, I thought, "Hey, I bet other people would like to know how I do this!"

And that thought has turned into a new product, one I’m

I’m working on now. I think that’s a perfect example of how applying creative thinking to a problem —in my case, the problem of how to introduce myself —can lead to all sorts of unexpected ideas and products.

Visit http://www.tapintotrends.com to learn how you can get started Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High Profit Products!

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine for people , especially small business owners,that want to make stuff and market on the internet. To join in her adventures, add your email address to the subscriber box in the upper right corner.

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I’m always saddened by how many of them are trying to sell the dream that you can make millions by making crap. They often advise people to create digital products by "slapping together" anything you can get rights to. The word "quality" does not seem to be in their vocabulary.

I won’t dispute that many of these newsletter writers are making money by making crap. I just think trying to get rich by avoiding real work and making crap is the primary reason the world economy is in the toilet.

I just finished reading an interview in Salon magazine with travel guru Rick Steves that puts it pointedly when it quotes him saying, "A headline today, "Americans lose 18 percent of their wealth." Well, no, it wasn’t real wealth, it was a bubble. You’re down 18 percent? You’re not. It shouldn’t have been up there in the first place. So get over it. Shut up. Go to work, produce stuff that has value. I really think the days are gone, I hope, when people can rearrange the furniture and get rich on it. You got to produce something."

Rick Steves has been making things of value for years. His travel guides and shows give real value to his viewers and readers. As a byproduct, Steves has gotten rich doing work. Work he loves, but still work.

Some people say work is a four-letter word. "Work" is not a four-letter word in my studio. It’s a holy mantra. Work is what I live for. It’s where I find meaning and fulfillment and happiness. When I wake up in the morning, my fingers are itching to go to work. And when I go to sleep at night, my dreams are about working.

I’m a maker of stuff. That’s been my primary means of making a living for three decades. Making good stuff is work. It’s often hard. Frequently frustrating. It is never, ever boring. And it is always in demand.

Spending the precious hours of your life making crap is an insult to your own creative spirit and your Creator.

And in this economy, it’s downright self-destructive. People can make crap and get away with it when the economy is fat. But when it gets thin, buyers  start taking a second and third look at where they spend their dollars. And you’d better be offering something of real value.

Bottom line–the world doesn’t need more crap. It needs more people waking up their gray matter, stretching their creative muscles and getting to work making things of real value.

My book, shown her, shows step-by-step how I create and sell a wide variety of products, both hard goods and digital goods. The book has real value, especially for creative, intelligent people that don’t think work is a four-letter word.

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If you want to spread your creative wings and make stuff to market on the web, my book, "Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High-Profit Products" will inspire you to be your most creative, successful  self by showing you just some of the many ways I use the internet to make creative cash.

Update: Here’s another article I wrote about my struggle to understand why so much of the stuff sold by internet marketers has little or no real value. It’s titled "What Is A Product?"

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Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards Magazine and this companion The Internet Wizards Blog to teach self-employed people and small businesses owners how to leverage the internet for advertising, marketing and promoting their business. To stay in touch with her, type your name and email into the subscriber box in the upper right corner of this page. You’ll be glad you did!

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It was thrilling to see possibly the greatest cover band ever assembled paying tribute to the art of singer/songwriter Stevie Wonder–all under the watchful gaze of George Washington’s formal portrait.

I almost typed "Little" Stevie Wonder, because that’s what he was called when he first appeared on the music scene at the age of 12, a small, black, blind boy playing huge riffs on a harmonica.

When Stevie Wonder was  "Little," being black was not cool in a lot of communities. Some people would have let that stop them from even trying to accomplish anything.

And when Stevie Wonder was  "Little," you seldom saw blind people out in the world. People with blindness, like people with other handicaps, were mostly hidden away. Some people would have let that stop them from even trying to accomplish anything.

As the assembled stars played and sang his songs, Stevie Wonder tapped in rhythm, clearly enjoying the performance of his music right along with the audience.  In that, I believe, lies the secret of why being black and blind in a bigoted world didn’t stop him. It’s this—

Stevie Wonder does what he loves. Always did. Always will. Stevie Wonder didn’t calculate his career and his success. He simply opened up his heart and let his creative spirit fly free.

I work every day with people who want to accomplish something on the internet. All of them are intelligent, talented and creative. Many of them are disabled by a terrible handicap–an overdose of internet marketing information. Too often, they’ve taken to heart advice that simply should not be applied to them. That misplaced advice can cripple creativity.

Recently, I’ve been encouraging a friend to take his expertise in living off the grid and put it online. He ’s been countering my advice by saying "But I’ve done the keyword research and I don’t find many people searching for living off the grid."

Watching the concert tonight, I wondered what would have happened to Stevie Wonder if he’d done keyword research. What if he’d discovered that no one was searching Google for "little blind boys playing harmonica"? Would he have gone on to be a dishwasher? A shoeshine boy?

What would happen to his music if he did keyword research before he wrote a song? Would "I Just Called To Say I Love Yahoo" be a huge hit? Would "That’s What MySpace Friends Are For" have won a Grammy? My guess is no

. I don’t want creative, intelligent and talented people cutting short their dreams and ideas because of marketing concepts like "keyword research."  I want them to follow Stevie Wonder’s example and soar to whatever heights their creativity can take them no matter what the "internet marketers" are proclaiming.

Internet marketing is a huge subject. It covers professionals working at Manhattan advertising agencies just as it covers high-school dropouts trying to make money in affiliate sales. Not everything written about internet marketing will apply equally to these two.

Not everything written about internet marketing will apply to you.

There are always people to whom the so-called rules do not apply. The rules generally do not apply to people inspired enough, creative enough and brave enough to let their own nature define their destiny.

The rule "If you’re black, get back" did not apply to toe-tapping Stevie Wonder. The rule "Only perfect people can be supermodels" did not apply to gap-toothed Lauren Hutton. The rule "Men make careers. Women make beds," did not apply to Martha Stewart. These people didn’t break the rules purely for the sake of breaking them. They broke the rules because rules do not apply to people who let their light shine. Put on your favorite Stevie Wonder record and think about that.

Stevie Wonder – The Definitive Collection

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If you want to spread your creative wings and make stuff to market on the web, my book, "Tapping Into Trends To Create An Endless Stream Of High-Profit Products" will inspire you to be your most creative, successful  self by showing you just some of the many ways I use the internet to make creative cash. Bonnie Boots publishes The Internet Wizards for people who want to discover their passion, make their own products and market on the internet.

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