Getting your product into the hands of the consumers

Okay! So, in our previous articles we've figured out how to market for free, how to fabricate our product for free (assuming it needs fabrication of course - if its a downloadable medium you can likely skip that last part) and now we're onto getting it into the hands of those who've paid for it.

Distribution of "The Widget".

Again, if you have a digital service, you can look up how to establish auto responders through the use of list building - which is beyond the scope of this particular article (we're more dealing with physical objects fabricated from ideas at this point)

So, how are you going to get this product into stores, onto websites, and ultimately, into the homes or businesses of their end-user's?

Well, where do your users shop already? Start there. If you don't know, ask your list (see free marketing section). They probably will buy from you, so you can also sell it right from your blog.

But, let's say you need to branch out, and have the product distributed. Could you use drop shipping? (the process of using a warehouse which will store your products, and ship the products for you - so that all you have to do is send them an email... which is also a process that can be automated through your shopping cart software.

So, let's assume you need an actual physical storefront. No problem, you have all these pre-orders set up from phase 1, so, you simply let the storage facility/store know that you'd like to give them 100,000 units, of which you can guarantee 60,000 units will sell within the first day. Not a bad deal for most places.


Bonus:
Sometimes you'll need revenue collection / billing.

Most shopping carts (See above) will have basic billing. If not, simply add a paypal option to your website, and it'll take care of all your credit card transactions etc.

So: Go to the library and grab a piece of paper and a free pencil, and design your idea.

Then, follow that blog to the letter. Get all your ducks in a row, and launch.

Sensei Ono, Shinka Martial Arts
How could you best encourage a blogger to blog?

Creating something from nothing, with nothing

Production of the "widget". For illustrative purposes, your product'll be The Widget.

In the previous articles, we figured out how to market the widget for free. To add on to the previous thought, you'd also want to acquire affiliates or commission based sales people and add that to your arsenal of awesome.

Now, we need to make these "widgets"

So, who can we help? Is there a manufacturing company that needs work somewhere on the planet? My guess is yes. So, you contact them, let them know that you've got a whole bunch of pre-orders from all your marketing done for this unit, and simply need it made.

Once its made, you'll have the entire purchase price to pay for the units, and you only need a short run to start. However, you're going to do a big run after that, and you promise (in writing) to use them to create the bigger run.

So, they cut you a deal, and work off the premise of future payment or a percentage of future profits, and, with the right timing, everyone wins and you still haven't spent a dime.

Now, we'll still need to solve:
Distribution of the widget.
& Possibly revenue collection for said widget.

Sensei Ono, Shinka Martial Arts

How could you best encourage a blogger to blog?

A billion dollar empire built on a post-it note and a phone call

So, in the previous article, we ascertained that a billion dollar corporation would be required to make our "widget empire".

Or, we could do it for free, if you prefer. Time to maximize our leverage. Remember, money doesn't take money to be made, it takes creativity and strategy.

Plus, the desire to help people. So let's get started:

Marketing the widget

Ask yourself this question: Who needs your widget? Write a blog describing your life's work, and how its made, without giving out your secrets. Create a widget following, and let people know that you're thinking of launching this widget product, and ask them if they're interested.

Want some free market research? Ask them what they'd be willing to pay for such a product. People will even help you with the designs and offer ideas of their own on how to improve it!

Next, ask yourself who would benefit from this widget being sold. What if you partnered up and offered exclusive sales rights to people, and sold those rights for free advertising, or for the money required to pay for the advertising?

An average person can usually sell the distributorship rights or sales rights for a product in particular regions for thousands and thousands of dollars per area (15k is average). This is, of course, assuming you have a great product.

Next, we have
Production of the widget
Distribution of the widget.
& Possibly revenue collection for said widget.

Read on!
How could you best encourage a blogger to blog?

Money for nothing and your skills for free

So, you want lots of money and don't want to do any of the work?

Yeah, you can do that.

A lot of people will immediately come back with the ol' catchphrase: "Money doesn't grow on trees!" or, "it takes money to make money!"

Neither, as it turns out, is true. Money does grow on trees, you just need to know what seeds to plant. And, it actually only takes creativity and some strategy to make money. Sorry to burst the illusions, feel free to reject those statements and come back another time :)

Now, is there work? Sure.

There's always research and time up front, but, as far as actually contributing to anything, all you really need, is a good idea.

Let me give you an example:

Say you have an idea for a new kind of widget. (why is it always a widget?)

Now, in order to make money you would need:
1) Marketing of said widget
2) Production of said widget
3) Distribution of said widget.
4) Possibly revenue collection for said widget.

So, let's say marketing consists of making a colorful graphic, and a $1,000,000 ad campaign explaining the benefits of widget use. The production requires $1,000,000 up front for the initial molds, and first batch. Now, to distribute these items, you're looking at creating a nation-wide distributorship which costs about a billion dollars, and...

What? You don't have that much capital on hand?

Okay then, let's leverage it for free, shall we?

Read on...
How could you best encourage a blogger to blog?