My Method of Choosing Products

I advertise and sell a number of products. I thought I'd write about how I choose products to advertise.

If you sell on Amazon, you can advertise something and if someone buys anything, you get the commission. So you can get commission on things that you don't directly advertise. This in turn gives you ideas of what people are actually buying.

I used to sell a lot of books, and if you write an article about Kindle books and then sell a book for 99c, you can get 4-8 cents in commission. But if you write an article about products that sell for $100, you can get $4-$8 commission and you have done the same amount of work for a larger commission.

I have been advertising products that sell for between $50 and $200, but recently I've been aiming for the $100 to $200 price range.

So, if I sell something on Amazon that I didn't advertise and it's between $100 and $200, then I write an article about it and advertise it more. If this leads to more sales, then I might eventually make a webpage with many of those type of products. If I'm going to the effort of making a website, then each individual item needs to sell for over $100.

Why do I cap it at $200? The reason is that if a product is worth more than $200 the buyer will often do more research before buying. Amazon only has a 24 hour tracker, so the buyer really needs to click directly from my site and then buy something. I don't get commission if he looks at lots of sites before deciding to buy.

I use Pinterest for market research too. I will often pin a variety of something (eg shoes or clothes) to see which one is repinned the most. Then that item becomes the most advertised on my site.

Electronics do not follow the usual patterns. If people are looking for electronics they are often looking for more specialized knowledge which I don't feel I can give them. Therefore, I really stay away from electronics because it is a more specialized market. Often the commission is capped at 4% because the profit margins are too narrow, although near Christmas is the time that many people will buy electronics, so it's still worth while writing about them from time to time.

I do write articles about electronics occasionally, and do get sales. But as far as big screen TVs and printers go, I have yet to sell my first one.