How Does One Know What Sells?

Where Do You Get Sales Figures?

[chuckiepoo]

Suppose you want to find out what items sell the best?
Or which items have so-so sales (less competition).
Where could you get info like that?

[MrSpeed]

It usually comes down to experience or trial and error. There are many reasons why someone buys from the web. This in turn will dictate which items are likely to sell better. My guess at what does best are items you can not get at Walmart or are much lower priced on the web or maybe the web has a better selection.

Some people have great luck in areas which have little competition but may not be one of the traditional hot spots of affiliate marketing.

For specific programs contact the affiliate manager and ask them what sells the best.

[chuckiepoo]

MrSpeed

Those are very practical ways of looking at it. Thanks!

[wrgvt]

Keep in mind that what sells today may not sell tomorrow. Most new products have a bell-shaped curve for sales volume around their release date. You get a run up of pre-orders before it's general release and big slew of orders once it's available, and then it trails off. Of course, once it's generating a lot of sales, lots of affiliates jump in trying to sell it too. Just as sales are starting to level off, you have a ton of people trying to sell the same thing.

You often hear whining from affiliates who found an item with a nice sales volume around a product's release date and then claim the merchant's reports must be wrong or they're being ripped off in some fashion because their sales falls off. A combination of being on the down side of that bell curve and more competition for the same item is often the answer they refuse to acknowledge. Then there's always the possibility that a new version had made the one they're selling obsolete too.

The bottom line is to know your products, know your market, and know your competition. It takes a lot of work, trail and error, and perseverance to make good money from affiliate marketing.

[chuckiepoo]

wrgvt,
An excellent answer! Thanks!

[top5jamaica]

to know what sells just check your junk mail .. somewhere buried in there is a diamond or two that can be exploited using legitimate techniques.

that aside .. either knowing the product/industry .. or trial and error and lots of use of the overture inventory tool and wordddtrackkerr.

[chuckiepoo]

top5Jamaica,
Interesting answer.
Lately I've been skipping over Overture. I just go directly to Google, conjure up some keywords and look at the number of results.
Thanks!

[Essex_boy]

If im interested in a certain product range I find a shop that sells it.

Go speak with a sales assistant, tell 'em youve got buy for <product target audience> theyll give you some idea if its selling or not and how well.

[webmastertexas]

My most reliable sales have been from an online etailer that sells movies (not Amazon, they're waaaaaaaay below the radar). I get a quarterly report from them, telling me what sold, etc. From this I've found that the trend, if you can call it that, is basically whatever's newest sells the most. I know, not very scientific, but I always sell more new products than old ones -- or in my case, more new releases.

[Rosalind]

My most reliable sales have been from an online etailer that sells movies (not Amazon, they're waaaaaaaay below the radar). I get a quarterly report from them, telling me what sold, etc. From this I've found that the trend, if you can call it that, is basically whatever's newest sells the most.

Movies are definitely a fairly time-sensitive product. But reading that comment made me realise the obvious: not much isn't. Even perennial items like school clothes have a season when you can sell most of them. And most things in our houses become obsolete or go out of fashion to a fairly strict timetable.

[wellzy]

I sell a wide variety of merchandise and each seems to have their own season. It is mostly trial and error to see what converts best. Even my product pages that are out of season get updated weekly or monthly.

There is one season where they all sell well...Christmas season ;)

wellzy