If you had to start over again: information product or physical products?

By physical products, do you mean products you package and post yourself, or selling physical products as an affiliate?

Both that's a tough question. Info products pay a lot more generally speaking but a lot of physical products sell better. Why spread yourself thin do both. Never put all your eggs in one basket!

For me, I would stick with affiliate marketing, info or physical as long as I stay the middleman between the company and the buyer. I didn't like that much being the company shipping physical products for 15 years, it wasn't my thing. I wasn't as happy. I personally prefer what most hate, the selling aspect aka The Art of Selling.... and I been darn good at it for about 20 years now!

This is dependent on your ambitions and personal taste. What would make You Happy?!

Bernard

As it's been mentioned already...why not do both? You can build sites that promote both physical products and informational products at the same time. You dont have to limit yourself to one approach or one offer. If your site relates well to multiple types of offers then there is no reason why you cant offer multiple types of products (both physical and informational).

I would also sell both, but not to diversify. Both type of products would be related to the same niche, of course.

I would sell the digital information products on the front end, and those would educate customers on the benefits of the physical back end product.

Why not create a physical information product? In today's day and age it's so easy and you can use a print-on-demand feature so you won't get stuck with 1,000's of copies in your garage.

My vote is physical information products.

I'd do both. Well, I've done both. Successfully (and
still do).

I would never do eCommerce. It's just not my thing
and I'm not a big fan of doing a lot of volume. I like
doing big value for big profits (high end/high-ticket).

But, yes I enjoy doing big-ticket physical products
and digital -- although, when selling high-end pro-
docts I found it's best to SHIP it physically.

It's something unsettling about paying over $1000+
to get it *digitally* sent to you.

If it's under $1000, I don't mind selling digital, over
that and I sell it physical.

But selling is selling. Doesn't matter what format it
comes in.

Deciding WHICH format to sell would be the least of
my concerns assuming you're a little new to doing
this type of thing.

I'd always go with digital products because they pay more and also is less "maintenance". It all depend son how you handle it and what your end goal is. If you have a local business, having an online store is an added advantage

If I could do it all over again, I'd start building membership sites from Day 1.

I've done both physical and digital... I much prefer physical products.

Tsnyder

I have been doing retail for so long, it just comes natural. We do high volume at Christmas time. It's like weathering a hurricane every year but Christmas is when you make all your money for the year. I have some other service related businesses too. This helps break things up and makes it more tolerable. I'm intentionally not growing my retail business too aggressively because it would require even more warehouse space and I don't want to move again. I'm actively growing my service businesses and hope to stay just where I am for a long time. We've got a nice office. It's 5 minutes from my home in a nice part of town. I don't have to travel a lot, which is good because I came off the road as a musician to settle down so I don't want to grow a business that requires a lot of traveling.

The main point I want to make is that the grass is always greener. Generally people doing retail wish they were doing wholesale. People doing wholesale wish they could make the higher margins of retail. IM'ers that move information products wish they were moving physical products. Those moving physical products often wish they were doing just information. You see where I'm going with this? The important thing to know is that much of the time, the person on the other side has just as many headaches and challenges that you do, but in a different way.

So I'm not saying don't think of smarter ways of doing business, but I am saying to remember that it's not always as rosy as you think on the other side of the fence.

i am making money from physical products....because it is need to people......

Info products are definitely the way I would go if starting over. It took me almost a year to realize how effective that is for me to make money

3) Neither. In 1986, it was a violation of the NSFNET AUP to use the internet for commercial purposes, and there was no such thing as a web site anyway.

Which is why I physically went to people's houses and did actual work on their computers.

But in all seriousness, the first products I ever sold were physical products, using Don Lapre's "tiny classified ads" system, and I hated it. I would not do that again unless someone else was handling fulfillment.

And even with someone else handling fulfillment, I'm selling a physical product which makes sales and use tax an issue.

By selling information products, I am providing a service which means I don't have to charge sales tax (consult an attorney of your own before deciding this legal scenario is applicable to you and your business), and I also don't have to mess with shipping or delivery or anything.

So yeah, I'd stick to the infoproducts.

3) neither.

I'd stick to digital, information products for sure ... but knowing what I know now, I wouldn't have to go through all the split-testing of squeeze pages I've done, in four different niches, to decide not to use them: I'd know just to put my prominently incentivised opt-ins near the top of all my home pages, build slightly smaller lists as a result but make more long-term income from them, right from the start: I wouldn't make the mistake of assuming that building bigger lists necessarily leads to more long-term income, because I'd understand that some different people opt in to landing page opt-ins, who won't opt in to squeeze pages.

We sell a physical product and take care of the packaging, shipping etc. No hired help. If I was to start over I'd do it like that again. I think selling one type of item with a few variations on it works well for us. We control all aspects of our business.

I would do both.

Infact I woudl do what I am doing now, make my physical product complement my digital product and put them in a funnel to run through when someone joings my list.

Simple really.

Go for both. Sell physical products but develop information products around them. Ahh!! did I just tell you the big secret?

No... it's all about action. Find a market that you like and then attack it from a variety of angles.

I do not like burning, printing and sending out dvds, its too time consuming - Im going with vervante to get it all done automatically, wish I had done this years ago

Physical products are the way to go. If you have a good product that consumers want, you have a continuous turn over. Beside a day job, I personally sell hardcore and punk vinyl records and the market is only getting bigger each year and my sales have increased by over 400% in two years. I could quit my job but I keep it for the healthcare for my family and other benefits like 401K, stock options, etc.

With information products, especially internet related, nothing stays fresh very long and you're constantly having to rethink your product and marketing strategies. I got tired of IM because of all the time wasted working around Google, PPC, marketing etc... Felt like I was just spinning my wheels until I started doing retail.

If I could rewind and start all over again I wouldn't think twice about diving straight into product creation and list building. It suits my skill set down to the ground. Not that I regret all those years 'messing around' in the IM wilderness. I wouldn't be me without it.

C

I'd probably go straight to creating an ecommerce website, or a product of my own.

As many have said, I would serve the sales role (middleman) between the consumer and the retailer/product provider. I have done ecommerce and fullfillment and all the hassles that go with it is a pain.