Product Designer/Manufacturer

Many scrapbooking products were designed by scrapbook enthusiasts, who saw the need for a product and filled it. Product designers can either license their idea to a larger manufacturer or take the plunge and start their own company!

Success stories abound in this industry about people who went from an idea to a multi-product corporation. And if you're the next success story, prepare for profits! Of course, going it alone also means an investment of time and money, so be sure you have both before starting your company.

What types of qualities does a product designer need? Above all, creativity is the best thing you can offer. Perhaps you've come up with an excellent new die cut. How about inventing a new pair of decorative scissors? When you're a product designer, literally anything is possible.

You need to find a niche that hasn't been filled. Then do product research. See if your idea is feasible and what kind of investment you'll need to make in order to bring it to reality. Use the library or Internet to locate information about your product. While conducting your research, you'll notice that products with a good reputation or success story are easily located. That's because companies who've had success with a product are not afraid to boast about it.

Rely on your experience. All great success stories begin with a person that has knowledge or a great interest in the product they're selling. Is the product interesting to you? Will you use it on a continuing basis? What is the life expectancy of the product? Do you know people that are familiar with the product?

Contact a scrapbook supplier and tell them about your idea. See if they think it has marketable potential. A word of caution here - don't be too specific about your new idea. You don't want to risk someone "honing in" on your new invention.

However, an informed opinion about the product's potential in the marketplace and value is possible after you have gathered all the information possible. All you really need to know now is if there is a real need for this product in the marketplace so do not rush into making a decision prior to bringing all of your tools to bear analyzing the item.

Scrapbooking "Expert"

Scrapbook enthusiasts who get published in the major magazines and idea books sometimes develop a "fan club" of other scrapbookers. That fame can sometimes be translated into connections with manufacturers to teach nationally or design products, retailers as "celebrity" guests, and other industry opportunities. So go ahead, submit your pages!

This is akin to being a freelance writer. If you think you've created an especially beautiful page, send a picture to a scrapbooking magazine. If they publish it, you've made it! If they don't, keep trying.

Start out by subscribing to at least four of the major scrapbooking magazines. Some to consider would be:

• Creating Keepsakes
• Memory Makers
• Simple Scrapbooks
• Paper Kuts
• Paper Crafts
• Your Creative Spirit
• Scrapbooks Etc.

When submitting your pages, you have two options. You can scan your layout and submit it through e-mail or you can make a color copy and send it through "snail mail". If you make copies to send, your costs can add up, especially if you're submitting to multiple magazines. Email might be your best option,

With each layout submission, you'll need to include your name, address, phone number, email, and supply list. The supply list is important, as magazines will not publish your layout without one. If you're working on a layout you think you'll want to submit, keep track of what supplies you use and the manufacturer of each one. Be as detailed as you can!

You can submit the same layout to every magazine, but be aware that when one magazine publishes your layout, other magazines won't use the same one. If you decide to submit, it's also a good idea to take those layouts off of the popular Web sites, such as ScrapJazz.com.

Magazines typically keep layouts on file and will ask for them when the need arises for a layout like yours. You might be contacted months down the line, so try and be patient. Sometimes the magazines will say what types of layouts they're looking for in advance. Check the magazines and their Web sites. Remember that most magazines are working on issues that won't be out for months, so your Kwanzaa page may be accepted in the summer.

Just do it! I've heard from so many scrapbookers that they haven't been published, but they "haven't submitted as much as they should." Write it on your To-Do list! Schedule a time to submit your layouts on a regular basis. It may seem elusive, but consider that the magazines need to fill space with as many excellent layouts as they can. So keep submitting!

If you are going to be published, the excitement will be great the day you get the call! Be ready for some down time while you wait for the issue to come out, and then it's excitement time again! You'll usually get your layout back when the next issue of the magazine is published.

If more than one magazine chooses to publish a layout, you'll need to tell the other magazines that unfortunately, another magazine contacted you first.

Some magazines pay with product and others with cash. But the opportunity to put "published designer" after your name is priceless! Good luck!

Set up your own website and publish your amazing pages on there. Offer up complete instructions on how people can re-create those pages for a small fee. Then watch your sales soar!

Once you've established a "name" by being published, you can approach manufacturers (or they might approach you first!) about teaching for them at national conventions and trade shows. That "name" might also unlock the door to getting your own product ideas and designs licensed to a large manufacturer.

HOBBY CRAFTS
Besides the numerous professional products, Punto Accessori also makes it possible for haberdasher's and crafts lovers to create jewelry on their own. In fact, more than 700 items are available in convenient pouches bearing our logo and containing small amounts. Give free reign to your imagination and make your own personal jewelry accessory. You can choose only the best components and metal findings for jewelry or show off your own ethnic jewelry creations which are all the rage. The materials that can be used range from the classic metal components for jewelry to glass, from shell to wood, from semi-precious stones to bone.

You can decide whether to make classic bead jewelry or create jewelry like none that has ever been seen before, perhaps in mother-of-pearl. On the site you will find everything you need, you only add your imagination. Moreover, if you get your friends involved, you could place orders for amounts that let you make the most of the advantages Punto Accessori offers: check out the table of discounts!!

For those who wish to set up a special area for these products in their haberdashery shop, contact us for vertical display cases for the pouches or table stands for the spools of chain. So what are you waiting for? Creating your own jewelry accessories has never been this easy.

GLUES
In any production sector, having the right tools is essential to achieving the best results. Punto Accessori has selected the best glues, produced by the best manufacturers, to offer you only the best. For gluing any type of fabric we recommend Bison Textile; for gluing anything else, whether it be accessories for leather goods, shoes or anything else, you can count on Uhu Plus.

SETTINGS
A fundamental metal finding for jewelry, the setting is the base used to work up the accessory. They come in brass and zamak, with or without prongs, and range from the classical to the most extravagant shapes. They are extremely useful in producing accessories for shoes, leather goods or clothing. Settings are a key element for jewelry making.

CHAINS
The jewelry-making chain is a balance between esthetic beauty, processing technique and production quality. The broad sector for such items ranges from the smallest chains, wires and links to mesh sheets, from brass to steel or aluminum, with beads or with strass. They come in so many shapes that some chains, fit with a normal necklace clasp, can easily become a simple, trendy belt or a complete jewelry accessory.

METAL FINDINGS
One of the largest sections on the entire site, metal findings for jewelry-making are fundamental components for creating jewelry and much more. The numerous sections range from the lynchpins of the trade such as earring wires and backings, necklace clasps and end pieces, brooches, key chains, rods, wires and filigree; in other words the building blocks of jewelry-making materials. If you want to create any accessory for shoes, clothing or leather goods in general, this is your starting point.

PARTS IN PLASTIC AND ABS
This section presents the classical items such as plastic beads, the pioneer of the first bead jewelry, or cameos and plastic cabochons, and other more complex parts that take on a new role in compositions using glass beads or sequins. ABS is a separate chapter. This material is quite in vogue today since it maintains its shape and offers the benefits of plastic but, like metals, it can be given a galvanized color effect.

LACQUERED PARTS
Highly unusual parts, ideal for ethnic jewelry, the Chinese lacquers can be divided into 2 basic categories. The black lacquers set particular ornamental decorations on a dark glossy, refined background; the red lacquers are used in relief, again set on a dark background to create contrasting parts that are of undisputed effect.

RESINS
This section is dedicated to items made completely of resins or which are simply resin-coated. They offer an alternative idea for jewelry accessories that are different from the usual. Creating is easy: all you need is jewelry wire, some resin item, a necklace clasp and voilà.

NATURAL MATERIALS
More than 1100 items of natural origin such as: bone, horn, wood, semi-precious stones, semi natural elements, bark, trimmings and glass. From the materials to the widest range of shapes, a splendid variety to wear nature and create ethnic or semi-precious stone jewelry and have a custom-designed jewelry accessory.

SHELLS
A category specially dedicated to the world of shells. The numerous items start with the simple shapes found in nature and move on to the most complex, sophisticated applications. We propose shells, set on jewelry wire, as natural trim for particular applications such as furniture. Simple items made of other materials are skillfully covered with shell work to become precious parts for jewelry accessories or leather goods and clothing.

Murrina glass:
This is the largest section of the entire site, offering 3000 different items of murrina glass, all of our manufacture. Creating glass jewelry has never been easier. The items range from solid color to the "millefiori" murrina glass, always created on a copper base, and on to the classical transparent, baseless glass "mini-bricks" that impart significant light-color effects.

GLASS
A wide range of parts for creating glass jewelry that ranges from classic beads, whether smooth or cut glass, to multicolor compositions, pendants and sequins. Ideal for decorating and enhancing clothing or leather goods or for creating true and proper jewelry accessories.

HANDBAGS ACCESSORIES
A selection of exclusive items for handbags including, handles, mirrors or metal terminal pieces. The category, destined not only for leather goods suppliers but also others, offers handles in wood, bamboo, bone, covered with shell or enameled, to give the accessory a final design effect or a discrete touch of class.

SEMI-WORKED PARTS
This category covers items that have already been worked and which can be used 'as is' or as components for more complex jewelry accessories. The section with enamels and strass is quite sophisticated, turning common jewelry materials into truly original accessories.

As true with any collectors, a good album is going to be your pride and joy. Knowing this, we should have a quality stamp collecting album for our collection. Depending on your personal tastes there is a wide range of options available to you and I'd like to talk a little bit about these.

The biggest factor you should consider when purchasing an album for your stamp collection is functionality. After all, you want to protect them as best you can to insure they remain in exceptional quality. If you have ever collected baseball or football cards as a kid, or maybe you still are a kid , having a sturdy cover and binding as well as durable sleeves are very important.

I remember when I first started collecting stamps and cards as a child; I kept my stash in an old cigar box my grandfather gave me. I thought it was the coolest thing, and all of my friends raved about it when I brought my stamp collection out. As time went on the box got worn and filled up so that I could no longer close the lid.

So after saving my money I purchased a handsome leather bound stamp collecting album and began filling it with my treasures. Today I have several, but I will never forget the first one I had. If any of this sounds familiar to you or you are fresh at collecting, imagine the memories you can make for you and pass along to your children.

Needless to say my stamp collecting album has preserved my hard work and patience that I have endured to get the treasures I have today. Many stores have options available for novices and experts alike.

The Royal Worcester factory was founded in 1751 and is the only porcelain factory established in the mid-18th century that has been in continuous production until the present day. The founders were Dr John Wall, a doctor of medicine and William Davies, an apothecary. They started with soft-past porcelain functional wares, particularly tea services. Their soft-paste porcelain had a unique property that made them famous around the world - it could withstand hot liquid. This meant that their teapots and cups could have hot tea poured into them without cracking. Early pieces were in the Chinese style, sometimes using blue and white on shapes copied from English silver.


The first Worcester figurine was made in 1757 - 'Cupid at Vulcan's Forge', which is thought to be modelled by Chelsea modeller John Toulouse. Worcester excels in figurines to this day. During the 1760s and 1770s Worcester porcelain was influenced by Meissen with colours such as the very deep blue being introduced. By this time some of Worcester's porcelain was being painted in London under their London agent, Thomas Flight, who took over the business with his sons John and Joseph, when Dr John walled died in 1776. They were later joined by Martin Barr and the factory went under the name Flight and Barr, and other combinations of the names until 1840.


During the Regency period Royal Worcester porcelain looked lavish and colourful and exhibited some wonderful gilding and painting. During this time Flight and Barr merged with the 'Chamberlain factory and the 'Grainger' factory, who were both originally rivals of Worcester. In 1862 the 'Worcester Royal Porcelain Co' was established and wares were to become known as 'Royal Worcester'.


In the mid 19th century 'Parian' was introduced and made a huge difference to their production. Parian is a durable material with a high feldspar content and is perfect for detailed modelling. This meant that figures could be produced with the finest of detail and quality. The material is also perfect for gilding and enamelling, which meant that pieces could be produced with lavish detail.


Worcester continued to keep up with the fashionable trends during the Victorian period. They excelled in 'pierced' porcelain and reproduced ivory images in porcelain. Figurines were very popular at this time and the majority of the work was being done by modellers such as Charles Toft and James Hadley.


During the 20th century Worcester had fierce competition from Royal Doulton and as figurines were hugely popular Worcester and Doulton fought for market share. Worcester produced a range of animals, starting with a tortoise in 1910. It was modelled by George Evans and was a massive success. This encouraged Worcester to produce further animals which included birds, fish, a rabbit and a mouse, which were being produced until the 1950s.


During the early 20th century Worcester artists specialised in hand painting. This was put onto vases, urns, and traditional tea and coffee services and they are highly collectable. The pieces by the Stinton family and Harry Davies are some of England's finest porcelain of all time and Highland cattle and fruit are particularly famous subjects.


During the first World War Worcester produced figurines similar to those made in Germany in previous years. They also tried a cheaper production of figurines in a high-fired earthenware instead of 'Parian' ware, although this was not successful. The company tried to branch out in a new direction by making items such as Toby Jugs and ashtrays, although Worcester did not excel at this.


Going back to their roots Worcester had ninety new figurines modelled, to keep pace with Doulton. New modellers were brought in from London and the next few years were profitable. The most notable of these new modellers was Freda Doughty, whose contribution to the success of Royal Worcester figurines has been unrivalled since.


Worcester are still going strong and their output is varied, including tableware, giftware and the special 'Prestige' range. Current ranges include 'Nine lives character cats' which is widely available. As with all Royal Worcester, each piece is made by hand and skilfully painted by artists. Prices are between £15 - £25. A new Noddy set has recently been launched, including favourite characters from the book, Noddy, Big Ears, Mr Plod and Tessie Bear are all in the collection. Each figure is £25, while the whole set can be had for the bargain price of £100. Worcester also do a giftware range for children, consisting of bowls, mugs and plates as well as gift sets in a tin, with prices starting from £10.


A very popular range from Worcester is the Cicely Mary Barker flower fairy range, the famous images from Barker have been put onto plates and dishes and there are also twelve wall plates to collect, each featuring a different flower fairy from Cicely Mary Barker's collection.


Worcester try to keep ahead of the competition by constantly introducing modern lines. Currently a Lawrence Llewelyn Bowen design range of mugs is available and Jamie Oliver tableware is also very popular. This does not mean that Royal Worcester neglect the traditional. Currently, in the Prestige range, Clive Christian is behind a lavish and sophisticated service. This is described as being 'rendered in raised gold on a cream ground with rich burnished gold, accentuating the whiteness of the fine bone china'.


The company still produce the old pattern, such as the fruit and highland cattle. These works are inspired by John and Harry Stinton and are produced in enamels in the same way they were 100 years ago. Royal Worcester have been at the forefront of the ceramics industry for over 250 years and still produce innovative and original pieces that entice buyers of tableware, giftware and collectors' markets.

Woodworking is an interesting hobby with a lot of potential. Once you learn and master the basics of this craft, the possibilities are endless. Combine this experience with teaching your kids, and you have something truly special. Not only could you instill in your children a deep appreciation for the craft of woodworking, you can also incorporate many lessons and learning skills without your child knowing it! Woodworking can help kids with their eye-hand coordination, dexterity, problem solving, and measuring skills. Woodworking can also teach a child how to take an abstract idea and make it real through careful planning from start to finish. However, before you put those grand designs in motion, cover a few basics first.

One of the very first lessons your child will learn is that mommy or daddy’s tools are not toys. The kids need to know that if they are going to be working in the woodshop, there are rules that everyone - even you - have to follow. Saws are sharp, hammers hurt, nails or screws left on the floor can cause a fall or other injury, and in the woodshop, everyone has to be careful and pay close attention. When working in the woodshop, teach your child that he or she should wear safety glasses at all times. Above all, never leave your child to work unsupervised.

Keep in mind that you want to start slowly. You wouldn’t want to begin by teaching your four year old how to use a rotary saw. Instead, give your younger child small jobs. A good task would be helping sand a plank of wood to prepare it for staining, or letting him or her draw a measurement while you hold the ruler and point out where the line should begin and end.

Start with the most basic tools and techniques and build on them one by one. A child’s first project might be something as simple as making a set of shelves or a small bookcase.

Teach your child about the different types of wood, what trees produce that wood and the properties of each. Tell them why you would use oak instead of pine for a certain project. Show your child that there is more to woodworking than cutting and nailing boards together. Wood can be bent, carved, burnt, painted, glued, or stained to make many different and beautiful things. You can point out kitchen cabinets, furniture in the living room, a guitar in the corner, or the picture frame hanging on the wall as examples of wood’s versatility.

For those of you who have children under four years old, you can still get them acquainted with tools. Many toys resemble the kinds of tools daddy uses in the workshop. You can get a toddler-sized workbench with a set of tools safe for tiny hands, or toy versions of little power tools that your child can pretend to operate. Whatever the child’s age, you can find a way to spark an interest in woodworking that will last a lifetime.

Most advertising executives and their sales forces will have all sorts of statistics why radio is better than cable television advertising or why cable advertising is better than radio. And each set of statistics is rather convincing indeed.

Yet they contradict each other completely, but why? Well simple really you see the radio advertising sales people want you to put your advertising budget, all of it with them, while the Cable TV advertising executives are dead set on capturing your advertising dollar to their firm.

No doubt they are competing media and often the same company owns both and will either try to give you an advertising marketing mix or attempt to fill up whatever slots of whichever media needs to be filled up that week, month, season or year? Great and that makes sense for them, but what about your business.

You must make sure you get maximum bang for your buck and you cannot spend all your money on Cable Ads or Radio, I mean you have lots of other expenses too right? Sure, what about employees and rent on your location? If you spend all your money on advertising, you will be out of business or have no employees to help all these new clients who will be supposedly flooding in right?

The truth about these two forms of advertising is both are quite good depending on the type of business you operate, drive times and costs of radio slots and the peak political ad seasons for evening programming, which are often costly but those ads do pull. Perhaps your business sells hobby crafts to women who may be home during the soap opera time of day? Well cable is really cheap during the week on those times.

What if you business caters to security professionals, such as gun sales? Well after midnight radio gets rather cheap too. You must take a good hard look at your business and what is available and what will pull in your clientele, Consider all this in 2006.

Making jewelry is an interesting craft to pursue, and when beginning any new hobby or craft, it is often best to start slow and allow yourself a chance to grow into it at your own pace. The old saw recommending that one learns to walk before they run is applicable in a number of crafts. Any new craft projects which are too difficult or involved and become frustrating are soon dropped or left behind. Perhaps the simplest and easiest way to get involved with jewelry making and the world of jewelry arts is in the field of bead stringing. For the most part, bead stringing involves working with a variety of pre-made beads which are polished and ready to use with the holes already drilled so that they are ready for use. Stringing of beads typically involves running a thin metal wire or nylon filament string through the holes in the beads to assemble a necklace, bracelet or anklet. The piece is finished by adding some sort of clasp piece at each end which allows the loop to be opened and worn.

This simple craft of bead stringing has become tremendously popular, and bead stores offering a huge variety of materials have sprung up all across the United States. The stores offer hobbyists interested in the art of bead stringing virtually everything they could possibly need in the practice of their craft. These types of stores are found in most larger cities as well as mail order businesses based on providing service through the Internet. While there are some exceptions, most of the materials are comparatively inexpensive. The affordability and ease with which one can take up this hobby has made it literally assessable to everyone. The beautiful products which can be so easily created are what have made this craft so explosively popular.

Beads are available in natural materials that range from inexpensive to very valuable beads made of precious materials such as high-quality natural Emerald. A variety of metals are available from shiny but inexpensive chrome through copper and silver to 14 karat gold. A large number of inexpensive man-made materials, such as glass or painted ceramic are also available. Various objects, including crystals, seashells, coins or other items can be used in the center of a necklace or bracelet as a focus piece. The vast number of potentials and possibilities are dizzying.

This indescribable variety allows the bead stringing hobbyist to create an infinite number of patterns and associations in the jewelry crafts with which they create their works of art. All that is really needed is an eye for design and some patience to assemble the beautiful jewelry piece envisioned in the design stage.

In the last decade, literally thousands of folks have gotten into one aspect of bead stringing or another. For many of these folks it is become more than just a simple hobby or craft, but an artistic passion. For some it is even become a significant business opportunity as they are able to sell some of the beautiful pieces which they produce. If you are interested in starting a jewelry related craft, bead stringing may well be the very best place to get started.

Snowmen children crafts are fabulous fun for kids to make. They can be used as decorations or given as gifts.

Willie brought a wonderful craft idea home from school when she was a youngster, and we still enjoy making those glitter snowman globes today! Here's how:

* Get a baby food jar or small Mason jar.
* Glue a small plastic snowman to the inside of the jar with waterproof glue.
* Let it dry.
* Fill the jar with water.
* Add colorful glitter.
* Grate a bit of plastic and use the shavings for snow.
* Put the lid back on the jar.
* Melt some wax or use a hot glue gun to seal the lid.

We vary this craft by using different figures inside the jars and a variety of glitter colors!

For the younger kiddos, snowmen children crafts might include making doily snow people, which can be used as window or refrigerator decorations. You'll need one large doily for the body and two small doilies for the head and arms of the snowman.

Cut one of the small doilies in half to use as arms. Glue these items to colored construction paper and include buttons and wiggly eyes (or cutout paper for eyes, buttons, and nose).

With a paperclip, construction paper, and goodies for the nose and eyes, you can make a cute snowman children's craft into a necklace or ornament. There are many ways to create a snowman!

When crisp weather arrives, it's always a good idea to bring out your snowmen children crafts ideas. They can be enjoyed all winter, or given as gifts to very special relatives and friends.

When you have information that other people want, you have a virtual goldmine at your fingertips. Information products line the shelves at bookstores nationwide in the non-fiction section, but they’re permeating the online market and catering to the needs of millions of online consumers hungry for advice and insight at all hours of the night.

As a seller of non-fiction information products, you can build an empire of profits targeting a single niche of consumers. Or, branch out and offer solutions to a multitude of people who need guidance.

While the print publishing industry only gives authors a small portion of the proceeds after agent and publishing house fees, if you sell information products on the ‘net, you’ll get to charge more and keep almost 100% of the profits for yourself.

Typically, a non-fiction book at Barnes and Noble would cost the consumer an average of $9.95 to $29.95. But when you’re selling information products ready for instant download on the ‘net, you get to price it higher, because the selling point usually begins at $37 and rises all the way to the top at a $97 price point.

Plus, your overhead costs are low. Even if you outsource the creation of your information product, you’re still able to recoup the investment after a short period of sales.

Why are consumers rapidly downloading information products? This is the age of high-tech development. Your readers may be sitting in an airport, accessing your eBook from their laptop.

They want information now, not the next business day. If their child is up sick crying from colic at 3:30 in the morning, a mom can’t drive to a bookstore to get a self-help book – but she can log onto her personal computer and download your eBook, putting your advice into action within mere minutes.

Another reason information products are hot commodities online is because they often come with ironclad money-back guarantees, giving the consumer an added spoonful of trust.

If you create info products for sale yourself, then you want to make sure you produce top-quality deliverables and urge your readers near the end to start taking action with what they’ve learned to keep refund requests low and demand for your products high.

Having a hobby is great. It fulfills your life in more ways than one – giving you pleasure and relaxing your mind and body. But did you know it’s also possible to earn money from the things you enjoy?

Millions of people all around the world are making money from their hobbies. It might be something quirky like taking metal garbage and creating beautiful works of art from it, or something tame like writing non-fiction.

Virtually any hobby can be turned into a money-making idea. How you start churning profits can be accidental or on purpose. Perhaps you’ve knitted a beautiful scarf and co-workers are now asking you to knit them one. That’s accidental profiting.

There’s another way to set out on your quest for money from your hobbies – starting a business on the side! Not everyone can afford to quit their day job and start doing their hobby for a living.

Most often, it starts out as a side job and gradually builds into a full-time profit machine. You need to take a pro-active approach to your wealth-building. Start brainstorming ways you can make money form your hobby.

If you enjoy crafts, you could sell the finished crafts, sell the materials and instructions to help others make the craft, or even sell an eBook on how to enjoy and master the craft itself.

You might even launch a newsletter where subscribers pay to access new up-to-date information about a particular craft, like a craft-of-the-week hobby alert! The possibilities are endless.

Or if sports are your hobby, you can monetize it on or off the Net. You might want to give golf lessons or write a short eBook about shaving 6 points off of your short game. Or maybe you can sell baseball cards on eBay and build a profitable business that way.

Almost any hobby can be profitable for you – including collecting items like stamps, dolls, and antiques, traveling to different places, arts and crafts, and even technology.

You can even start a simple blog detailing your hobby and put ads on it using Google AdSense. That way, whenever anyone visits your blog and clicks on an ad, you get paid for it! Start evaluating how you can turn your hobby into a business today, and implement a plan to make those dreams come true.

When you start selling information products on the Net for profit, you may be thinking you’ll set out to create multiple items for many different niches. But you really need to take an approach that leverages the lists you’ll be building whenever anyone purchases one of your products.

For example, let's say you choose to cater to a niche of fellow Internet marketers. You start off creating an information product on Finding Your Niche. What you want to do next is develop a backend product that accompanies or complements the first product.

This way, when your second information product is ready, you can announce it to your list of existing customers and if they found value in your first product, chances are they’ll be buying from you again.

Have you ever heard the saying, "There’s gold in the list?" This is often said in reference to the many marketers who have built multi-million dollar empires selling their information products to the same people, not necessarily more customers.

You want to extend the lifetime value of each customer that you get. Even if it only costs you a $0.05 click-through to get a paying customer, it’s much better to make a $10,000 lifetime profit from him than a one-time sale of $47.

You want to create a good backend strategy for your information products based on what it is your customers need. Find ways of picking their brains without letting them know it’s solely for product creation purposes.

People love to give their opinions, so when you contact your list and ask for their input, you stand to gain some amazing insight into what it is that your market is seeking. While your follow up information products are being created, either by yourself or an outsourced service provider, make sure you continue delivering free valuable information to your existing customers.

You don’t always want to hit them up with a sales pitch. If their names are added to your autoresponder, then periodically drip pieces of helpful information to them that they don’t have to pay to gain access to.

When they see that you’re working in their best interest, then they won’t mind spending money with you again and helping you profit from your information product empire for years to come. All you have to do is find out what they need and then over-deliver with your solutions.