Authors Often Offer the Resale Rights to Their Work. Should You Add Those Items to Your Product Line? It All Depends...
By Dennis Hessler
There are lots of publishing gurus out there who produce wonderful tomes on how to sell something (information products, newsletters, websites, survivalist equipment) and then after a few months or years, they stop selling the product and offer rights to the rest of us. And usually, these right ain't cheap, either.
Am I saying this is a bad idea?
No, if your expectations are reasonable. And if the price is reasonable. Otherwise, you're headed into trouble.
But here's the first question you should ask: Why did he stop selling the product (and don't let him convince you he wants to share his profits with the masses--PL-EEEEZE!).
He stopped selling because he feels he's wrung most of the profits out and wants to make a good killing on resale rights while he still can. Sometimes he'll tell you he's just tired (tired?) of selling the product and wants to move on to something else.
Here's a key phrase to remember. Let the Profits Run.
And this is what it means. If you've got a product--and I don't care if it's an information product or a claw hammer--and you're making money with it, don't stop selling. Why would you? Because you're bored? It's been a long time since I've been bored making money.
When I used to run ads in magazines, it would cost me thousands each month and I would complain about the cost but if I made $1,500 on every thousand I spent or even $1,250, why would I stop? The same thing applies to direct mail. That's really expensive. It cost me about 50 cents per letter in addition to the cost of renting the list. So if I spend $2,500 for a test mailing of 5,000 names and I gross $3,800 with a net of $500 after expenses, what would you do?
I'd do another test of 10,000 names from the same list. This time I'd net $1,000 plus I have lots more names I can sell other stuff to. As long as you're making money--even a little money--you're in business. You're bringing in cash. The business is growing.
I actually had a guy call me once complaining that on his first ad in a national magazine, he had only netted $3,600 the first month. He was complaining! The guy had a gold mine and didn't know it. If you're netting $3,600 or $2,000 or even $500, you've got a little moneymaker. Let the Profits Run. Start offering related products to the same buyers. Start offering the same product to an expanded list of buyers.
The point is, if you're making money with a product, why would you stop selling it and offer the rights to somebody else? You wouldn't. But if you wanted to "cash out" and move on to greener pastures, you might.
So you buy the rights, run a few ads and discover that not only is the well dry, but there are lots of other people standing around trying to sell the same thing. The point here is that everybody else who has purchased rights to resell the product is trying to sell to the same target audience using the same techniques (the ones they learned about in the publisher/guru's own products) and none of them are doing very well. Even if it is a good product.
So am I saying buying rights to products is always a bad idea? No, I'm not saying that, either. If you get exclusive rights to a good product (that you know is selling well) at a reasonable price, then you might have something. Of course, you probably won't see these offers falling from trees outside your back door.
You'll have to go after them. If you sense a "buzz" for a particular product, see if you can become a distributor or affiliate selling the product yourself with no risk on your part. Once you know the product sells, you might want to consider seeking rights to sell it exclusively.
Do you see why this is a good idea? You already know it's a moneymaker. You're the only person who will be selling it and you can negotiate a price for the rights. Is it easy? No, but it happens all the time.
And it could happen for you if you're careful--and smart.
Dennis Hessler is an international trade consultant and publisher. He recently published an ebook about lessons he's learned over the years about how to sell through the mail and over the Internet. It's called "39 Myths About How to Make Money Selling Information Products or How I Break All the Rules and Make Thousands Every Month." For information, contact Dennis at:
Spyglass Point Productions P.O. Box 13141 Pensacola, FL 32591 U.S.A. Phone: 850-438-5527 Email: Dennis@spyglasspoint.com Internet: www.spyglasspoint.com/myths
Previous Index
Idea Help
Next
