How to Know If Your Product Is in Demand (Before You Promote It!)

Have you ever created an information product, promoted it through Facebook Ads or AdWords, and then been sorely disappointed in sales?

Or maybe you've found the perfect affiliate product to promote in your niche, spent days setting up squeeze pages and ads, and then been surprised when it turns out it's just not in demand after all...

Or how about that great new product that you've ordered in to your store, that you're convinced is going to fly off the shelves - And now months later, here they sit, collecting dust.

Ya, that's no fun.

Fortunately, there IS a way to avoid these nasty situations, or at the very least, to minimize the chance of them happening to you. The key is researching the demand BEFORE you:

Create a new product Order in a new product, or Promote a new product

Here's how.

1. If you already have a following (subscribers, customers, followers, fans, etc.), use Survey Monkey to ask questions like:

What product(s) are missing in this niche? What features would they like to see in a new product? What problems do they have that need solving? What price would they be willing to pay? What other similar products do they know about? What is lacking in those products?

2. Check AdWords. See what people are currently paying for keywords directly related to your product. If they're paying big bucks or if there are many people buying them; that's a pretty good indication they are selling product.

3. Check if similar products are already selling on affiliate networks like ClickBank. If they are, check to see how high their gravity is: Gravity is determined by the number of affiliates and how much they've been paid, so a high gravity number means a product is selling well.

4. If the product has already been created, create a squeeze page and drive a small amount of traffic to it (e.g. around 500 people). See how well it converts. If it's not converting, tweak your squeeze page. If it's still not converting, it may be time to try another product.

5. If the product hasn't already been created, create a squeeze page and drive traffic to it. Have an opt-in form to notify people of product release, or you can even pre-sell the product. If you don't get enough interest, you don't even need to waste time creating the product.

6. Visit online discussion forums in your niche to find out:

What problems need solving? What similar products are already on the market? What complaints do people have about those products? What could you do better than the competition?

7. Research keywords directly related to your product. If keywords related to your product have high traffic volumes (don't worry too much about competition levels for now), there's a good chance people would buy the product.

There's nothing worse than spending tons of time, effort and money on creating and/or promoting a product that ends up not selling. Make sure you do your research and you can avoid at least some of the risk associated with promoting a product.

What do you sell? Did you research the demand before you brought it to market and/or started promoting it? Or did you just luck out? I'd love to hear your story!

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