A big mistake that internet marketers make is to focus on what they believe will sell rather than what they really want to sell. The fact is, you can sell just about any product online and be successful. The trick is in the marketing, not the product.
Wouldn’t you rather have a business that made you money and that you enjoyed instead of a business that made money but you didn’t enjoy? You have to bear in mind that you will be doing this for a long time. If you go about your internet marketing strategy the right way, you can make just as much money from selling cake decorating books as you can from marketing any other product.
The problem with the ‘big ticket’ items is competition. If you’ve joined an affiliate program and are selling software, for instance, you already have a lot of competition right there within that particular program, not to mention all the other competitors. You are going to have to put a lot of time, effort and money just into getting noticed online.
If you like decorating cakes, however, you’re going to have far less competition. You can join a book publisher’s affiliate site and sell their books about decorating cakes. Better yet, you can write your own and all the profits will go to you. You can self-publish the print edition of the book and offer it as an eBook. In your book, you can give step-by-step instructions on how to decorate cake. There are millions of people who would love that information and be willing to pay for it.
The next step is to make your website stand out from the rest. Make it something that people will want to stay at and browse. Make it inspiring, so that your visitors will think, ‘I want to learn how to do that.’ Offer a free newsletter that includes cake decorating tips and other interesting news. Don’t give them too many tips in your newsletter, though. The idea is to pique their interest and get them to buy your book, not to give it all away in your newsletters.
You will be surprised by how much you can expand your site and draw more customers. For example, once you have established a reputation, you can make arrangements with large bakeries in major cities and get commissions on referrals. You may even want to start a new website devoted to wedding cakes.
If you’re a grease monkey or a sports fan, cake decorating may not be your passion. The idea is to think about what you are good at and passionate about. Then you need to find a way to market your passion.