Product Launches {how to get it out the door}

A couple weeks ago, I sat down and had a good look at my business plan for 2010. I’ve got a lot of ideas for ways to move my business and to develop new products. {Doesn’t that seem to be a trend right now?} My concern is that with a surge of new clients in the past few months, how would I have the time to create my new products and launch them in a way that was going to earn me the most amount of money.

Last year, I started reading everything I could on how to create products and get them launched without too much fuss. The good news is that I’ve started to develop a process that’s not only going to help me, but once it’s finessed a little more, it’ll also be a package that you can buy for your own launch.

Sweet.

So back to the reading and learning I did. I wanted to pass along some good tips on what I picked up during my rounds.

• Develop a style that will allow you to reuse your product in different ways to create more streams of income.  This isn’t one of those wacky schemes that those fly-by-night marketing companies use.  It’s a really solid way to build new content without having to actually build a new product.  Packaging it in a new way or adding some new bonus material, or even updating it with new pertinent information is a great way to re-launch your book or product.
• Use your sphere of influence {affiliates} to help you get the word out about your product.  Unless you have tens of thousands of readers, you’re likely going to need the assistance of affiliates to really spread your launch cycle out.
• Use a mind-map to create your process.  Generally I don’t find mind mapping very effective for me unless I’m trying to wrap my head around a concept. {I really don’t have anything against it – it’s just not how I think}  Mind mapping worked wonders while I tried to figure out how to put together a product launch.  You can use a free online service like Mindmeister, or you could grab your kid’s big pad of drawing paper like I did and start drawing circles and arrows.
• If you want to try to control things that are seemingly uncontrollable, name pages.  Some things just seem familiar to our brains (why do you think stores sell things for $49.95 instead of $50.00).  Numbers like 24, 30, and 72 are familiar to our brains.  Use them in whatever way you can – cost, number of pages, or whatever else you can think of.
• Become acquainted with Mr. Murphy.  He has this quaint little law that tells me that whatever can go wrong, will.  Consider what may go wrong and be sure to have a plan B.

If you have your own tips to include or you’d like to share your {un}successful product launch add them in the comments below.