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!

###

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.

Tweet This Post

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I’ve been a product creator for more than 30 years, but I’ve only used the internet as a marketing tool for last three years. And only in the last three years, as a digital product creator and publisher have I had complete control over what I make, where I sell and how much I earn.

Before I came to the internet, there was only one place for me to sell my product ideas. That was to big businesses that were capable of producing and marketing them. If I wanted to write a magazine article or a book, I had to find a publisher that would purchase it and print it. If I wanted to create a craft kit, I had to find a craft company that would manufacture and market it.

-Here’s a fact–most big business pay very little for creative work. In one instance, I was paid only $50-yes, fifty U.S. dollars– for an emergency rush job done overnight for Tandy Leather, one of the best-known manufacturers of leather kits and supplies in the world.

Someone from Tandy called me one morning and said, ‘We’re in a pickle. One of our largest craft retailers is reducing the floor space we’re allowed. We have just 72 hours to cut our store display in half.  If I send you, overnight, a box of the supplies we’ll be allowed to sell, can you come up with 2 designs for take-aways and get them back to me within 24 hours?"

A take-away is a pad of printed instructions for one simple craft projects. The paper pad is attached to the display shelf in a craft store. People can tear off a sheet of instructions for the craft project and take it away with them, for free.

The idea, of course, is that they’ll see the free craft pattern, notice the supplies to make it are right at hand, and buy them so they can go home and make the project. Take-aways are very important in the craft industry. They generate a lot of sales. In just 72 hours, there would be no take-aways enticing customers at one of the largest retailers in the U.S.  to buy Tandy leather—unless I came up with some great ideas fast!

I hadn’t designed for Tandy before and I was curious why they were calling me. "Our regular designers haven’ come up with any ideas. One of them suggested I call you. She said you’re a wiz at making something out of nothing fast."

I asked what they were willing to pay. "Well, this is a toughie," said my caller. "All I have in the budget is $50. I know that’s almost an insult, but it’s all I’ve got to work with. But if you can turn this around me fast, I’ll certainly use you again–and make up the low pay on your next job!"

I swallowed hard and took the job, because I knew that having Tandy Leather on my designer’s resume would be good for my business. And I wanted that future better-paying job!

I worked around the clock to create 2 designs, make up picture-perfect samples to be photographed, write and illustrate the instructions and send it all back by overnight delivery.  And then, exhausted, I slept for two days.

Tandy was happy with my work. And I was happy to get little more than the chance to show a new client what I could do. But I never got that half-promised, better paying job.

If Tandy called me today and offered me ten times what they paid for those two take-aways, I’d have to stifle my laughter as I declined. With the internet at my command, I’m no longer dependent on big companies. I have the ability to make and market all kinds of creative work, all by myself. My ability to create and my ability to earn are unlimited!

Thirty years ago I could never have dreamed that the world would open up and offer this much opportunity to creative people. Today I take it for granted that there is simply no limit to what I can dream and what I can do.

My wish for you is that you discover this for yourself, not only because making and marketing your own products is a good way to make money. But because unleashing your own creative abilities– to write, to design, to photograph, to illustrate, to entertain, to educate–is the best way to create a joyful and fulfilled life… a life truly unlimited! 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 Magazine for people, especially self-employed people,  that want to  expand their creativity, make their own products and market on the internet! To stay in touch with her, use the subscribe form in the upper right corner.

Tweet This Post

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

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.

###

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?"

###

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!

Tweet This Post

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

"I know you can’t believe that….I always hear "Squidooo your product…do a campaign" but on what??? What is a product??? something I sell? And how would I find that out? I have a brain, a desire, I am a total people person….but I am stumped!! Product, product…what product?? Help!!"

Kati, the reason I’m slapping my head and making Homer Simpson sounds is because I should have addressed this question long ago.  It’s the same question I asked when I first started reading internet marketing material. "What is a product?" And keep in mind, at the time I was working as a freelance product designer and developer!

I was creating all sorts of things, from books for print publishers to craft kits for manufacturers. I was designing boxes, doing photography for magazine ads, writing books and magazine articles. I was a product-creation-machine! But when it came to the world of internet marketing and all those emails and sales pages telling me, "The real money is in owning your own product!" I got totally confused.

What did they mean when they used the word "product"? It was clear they didn’t use that word the way I did. In my line of work, a product was a piece of hard goods that could be manufactured, boxed and shipped. It was sold wholesale and then retail. And it took a team of talented professional people to get it made and marketed. It was a PRODUCT.

But everything I read from internet marketing gurus referred to people "slapping a product together in two hours" and making millions overnight. They talked about people with no experience in book publishing  "knocking out an ebook in four hours" and then "throwing up a web site" to instantly make $100,000.Meanwhile, I was freelancing for small print publishers who’d be very happy to make $10,000 off a single title.

If there was one thing I knew, it was product design and development and no part of that process involved slapping things together, throwing them up and knocking them out. So surely, surely there was some definition of "product" that was used in the world of internet marketing that I simply did not grasp. And that left me struggling with the question, "What is a product?"

I answered my question by buying an ebook. And that first purchase left me speechless. After making payment, I was sent to a web page where I downloaded a simple pdf file which, when printed, was a "report" all of 8 pages long. Four of those pages were filler, like a disclaimer and ads for other "products."

I was flabbergasted. Was this what all those internt marketing experts meant when they said "product"? I couldn’t believe it.

eSo I bought more books. They were all crap. Then I bought some audios. The sound quality was so bad I couldn’t understand half of what was being said. At the time, I was in production on a television commercial, struggling with thousands of dollars worth of gear to produce broadcast-worthy audio, and here were people "slapping together and kicking out" what they called an "audio product" with no concern whatsoever for quality controls.

And they dared to call what they were making "products."

I found it insulting ….and also mystifying. It took me a long time to bridge the gap between those two very different worlds and put them into perspective. Here’s what I came to understand:

Most everything that is sold can be assigned to one of two categories: goods or services.

Services are things that people do for one another, like cleaning houses, trimming trees, making cabinets and providing medical care.

Goods are things like apples, tools, birdcages and books. Goods are "products." An apple is a product produced by an apple farmer. A rotary saw is a product produced by a manufacturer. A book is a product produced by a publishing house.

An ebook is a product. There are profound differences between ebooks, their quality and value, depending on who produced them. An ebook may be produced by someone who comes to it with vast experience in writing and publishing, or it may be produced by someone with no related experience.

These differences do not mitigate the fact that an ebook, any ebook, is a product.

Other examples of products often sold by internet marketers include audio products, such as recording a conversation between experts on a topic, and video products, such as recording a seminar. But internet marketers are not the end all and be all of the world of ecommerce. Step outside their corner of the web and you’ll find a vast universe of people selling all sorts of goods, all sorts of products.

In my own business, I create products ranging from hard goods like t-shirts, mugs and clocks to digital products like ebooks and videos.

I still create box designs for products like DVDs. I create these designs in an image editor and deliver them to a printer by email. In my hands, they are an entirely digital product.  But once the printer receives the files, he prints my designs on paper or cardboard. In his hands, they are a physical product.

I have a product– an ebook in pdf format titled Tapping Into Trends– that contains examples of more than 50 products I make and sell across the internet, both as hard goods and digital goods. It explains where I get the idea for a product and where I sell it. If you’re creative and have artistic skills or writing skills you can do the same. Then you’ll be a product developer just like me. Because a product, after all, is just something people make and sell.

###

Bonnie Boots is the publisher of The Internet Wizards Magazine where she brings together decades of experience in writing, product design and marketing. Register for a subscription in the upper right-hand corner to explore the magic of making stuff and marketing it on the internet.

If you want to spread your creative wings and make stuff to market on the web, her 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.

Tweet This Post

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.