creating a product without first blogging

Branding yourself, networking, building your list of affiliates, email etc...

Makes life a lot easier when launching a product.

No reason you couldn't try both at the same time.

Pushing a product as an unknown is not impossible.

It really depends on how you project yourself and your product.

Your ability to generate leads and close sales.

Of course you can! In fact, these BIG product creators don't even have their own blog...

That being said, you still need to build JV pages, contest etc.

Walexy007,

First of all, I won't blindly advise you to stay away from IM solely based on a ridiculous assumption that you probably won't know anything significant about the IM niche just because you posted this thread. Why?

=>> You didn't mention anything about your IM product, aside that it's in the IM niche. Your Clickbank product may very well be something that's relevant to IM product buyers, such as a digital info product that teaches effective ways to create an animated 3D video for an affiliate website using freeware applications, or a helpdesk plug-in for Majento ecommerce websites, etc.

Anyway, back to your question:

You can always run a trial to see if it's worth your resources, before you invest more of your resources into your venture. Here's a sample test that you can try:

Create a "teaser" product =>> This should be attention-grabbing, enticing, impressive, compelling and beneficial for your target buyers. This "teaser" product should also nicely introduce your expertise to your target buyers and also effectively entice your target buyers to look at your main product (your paid product);

Post this "teaser" product as a free or ridiculously inexpensive downloadable offer =>> This is in order to get the emails of your target buyers;

Set up follow-up emails =>> These should provide your subscribers (target buyers who download your "teaser" product) with supplemental info, advice, tips and so on;

Set a decent trial advertising budget that won't make you end up in a complete state of poverty =>> This is for running a test advertising campaign for your "teaser" product across relevant online and offline portals where your target buyers spend time in. These can be Facebook PPC / PPM ads, Twitter ads, Google / Bing search and display PPC ads, private ad banner placements in relevant heavily trafficked niche sites / blogs / forums, advertorial placements in online and offline niche magazines with decent subscription bases consisting of your target buyers, etc.;

NOTE: Your ad materials and advertorial content should of course be attention-grabbing, enticing, impressive and compelling; and

Once you get a decent number of subscribers and as soon as you think and feel that your subscribers have been warmed up enough to consider you as a friendly niche expert =>> Send your subscribers an email broadcast that recommends your main product and highlights the primary benefits they can get from your main product...

That's it. If you get a decently responsive subscriber base with a significant number of buyers (of your main product), then you can continue providing them with beneficial info, advice, tips and excellent recommendations, which can be your own products or your affiliate products, and you can invest more in advertising so as to get more subscribers...

Setting out in IM-related niches is the single most common mistake that beginning marketers make, and the single commonest reason for their failures.

Why would you want to sell a product teaching people how to do something of which you yourself have no successful experience?

Your plan to become a ClickBank vendor is no more realistic than your plan to become an Amazon affiliate. Or your concept of niche-selection.

They're all based on fundamentally mistaken impressions and beliefs because you lack knowledge and experience. I mention this not to criticise you, at all, but simply to prompt you to realise that "selling IM-related advice" is very far indeed from being a "natural fit" for you. Just as many of us were, when we started, you're "all over the place".

There's no shame in it. I was, too, when I started, but don't compound it by making the commonest mistakes and trying to do something for which you're singularly ill-equipped, because that will just cause you further delays and (in this instance) without even teaching you very much!

You need to start by learning, and identifying clearly the skills you want to acquire.

.