Making the Sale: How to Choose What to Sell

If you have never been in sales before, and you want to make money by writing online, then I strongly recommend that you follow the steps in this post until you get very comfortable with the process of selling.

New sales people do the best job selling something that they wholeheartedly believe in.  This is because they feel completely comfortable recommending an item that they know very well, and can describe easily.

Choosing to sell the right product or service is extremely important to your success in making money from selling online.

If you follow these steps, you will be able to find plenty of items to write about and sell online:

1. Take one week for this project.  You can do this as you go about your daily routine.  The first thing you need is a pencil and paper, and the second is your thinking brain.
2. Keep your paper and pencil with you as you go about your daily routine.  One an hour or so, look up from what you are doing and observe your surroundings.  Write down anything you see that you like, admire, or that impresses you.  Start with tangible items like your computer, your ballpoint pen, your skirt, the wallpaper in that room, then you can move on to intangible, your boss’s leadership, your child’s ingenuity.  This is just a note taking process.  Jot down these items for about 5 minutes, then go on with your day.
3. By the end of the week, you should have a pretty comprehensive list.  The next step is to organize your list into categories.  Spend about an hour organizing your list at the end of the week.  Categories can be anything, from toys to leadership ideas.
4. You have created a categorized list of items that you are extremely familiar with in your day to day routine.  This is where you should start to choose items to write about and sell.  From your categories, pick the category that brings a smile to your face, and that you would enjoy talking about to your friends.
5. After you have chosen your category, you should pick 10 items from your category list that you can talk about.  Pick items that you can describe easily, you know what they look like, feel like, and how to use them.
6. Start with item #1 on this new list, and for that item, write down a 10 sentence description, 5 things you love about this item, 5 things that could be improve, how you use the item in your life, and why you think someone else would like it. Now you have the basis for a review or product description.  This is something that you already know about, and have feelings about.
7. Write a 5 paragraph page about your chosen item #1.  Take the information that you have written down, and put your voice into it.  Pretend you are talking to one of your friends in person, and talk about your product.  Do you think your friend would be interested in checking out this item from your recommendation?

As you begin to work on items that you can recommend, move through your categories from most familiar to least familiar.  As you get used to the process, it will become easier to recommend items that you are less comfortable with.  You may never feel comfortable writing about items that you don’t use, but think of all the items that you DO use.  You will not run out of things to write about.