Has anyone any ideas of virtual products that can be sold online on work related sites?
I know some sites sell books but im not keen on Amazon and i dont want to set up affiliate type pay per click advertising.
What i would like is something low cost that site visitors might think is usefull and buy it online - like a virtual book, or a profile test of some kind or even a game they have to pay to use or something that can be set up that takes regular income
I get involved in a number of UK work related sites and attract high visitor numbers, i cant but feel that out of every 10,000 visitors i should be able to get at least one to buy something and play the numbers game - ie more people to the site the more that buy
Firstly, what would the visitors to your site find valuable? If it's information, you could sell ebooks, audio recordings / teleseminars / webinars, video demonstrations, directories, knowledge bases, interactive courses, etc.
It sounds like you already have a few ideas for things to sell. Whatever you do decide to sell it has to be something that your visitors will be willing to pay for. For example if you sell games it would probably need to be more than simple solitaire games since those can be found for free in so many place. Similarly for e-books and profile tests. Give me a reason why i should buy and you have a better chance of selling to me.
As far as your numbers are concerned I think you can do better than selling 1 in 10,000. In fact you'll probably have to if you want to earn a regular income. If you can provide something that you can convince people to buy you should be shooting for more like 1 in 100 or even better.
What kinds of things would you be able to create to sell?
Are you looking to create your own product or be an affiliate for someone else's product? I can see what you mean about Amazon - they don't pay all that well per book and tend to "keep" the customer... but there are other programs where you can sell another's product without completely losing the customer.
I prefer own product or white label where its part of own site but would consider affiliate schemes as long as its viable. What i cant do is have loads of outbound links from the sites to third party sites (unless i do them in Java box) to ensue i dont lose search engine rankings
Im not to concerned regarding the customer to be honest. I can drive a high level of new customers each day and those registered that opt in can be sent details of products / premium services etc by email (if i had some to sell) aswell to further boost sales
Im not convinced with Amazon because i may just as well run pay per click adverts - Also im not convinced regular book sales on a job site would be that effective anyway and as you say the margins from amazon are poor in any event.
Bottom line is, im looking to maximise income from visitors and would like to continue working at building traffic levels higher and would be happy to do this if i thought more customers equated to more income. Currrently it doesnt. I could have 2 million visitors a month and unless i can make money from them its pointless
If you have any ideas please reply or sticky me, i would be interested to hear from you
Being that it's a job site I would sell premium listings, resume services and statistical data...Needless to say you are probably generating loads of data on these users habits and such, that information is gold to potential advertisers looking to reach your market. The more data you have the more you can demand for its worth.
I do have something in mind that *might* help - but it's a month or so away from completion (anyway I'll send you a PM). I would also suggest taking a look at what the big job search sites offer - monster.com, careerbuilder.com, hotjobs.com, seek.com.au (innovative Australian site), vault.com, etc. Is there anything that they sell, that you could develop and sell (only better of course !)?
Sounds interesting. send private email and i will forward my business contact details. Im involved in a number of UK Sites job/work/careers related subject matter.
Rich
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