If you have a powerful message, you’ll want to expand your reach by creating products as well as by being the keynote speaker.  After all, noteveryone will remember every word you said on the platform.

That’s why a book, a DVD or a program for participants to take home can help to reinforce your main message.

These days, we all have the tools to do this fairly easily. This means that many others are creating products and not all of them are worthwhile. So make sure your product contains serious content rather than just fluff and that way, you’ll guarantee yourself not only repeat sales but repeat speaking engagements.  It’s so important to provide real value to your buyers.

While I don’t recommend pitching from the platform during a paid speaking engagement, some speakers do make it a condition of their agreement to be allowed to sell their materials at the back of the room. They hire someone to handle the orders and make a discrete pitch during their speech.

Others pre sell their books or DVD’s in bulk at a discount to the meeting planner who’s hired them. Still others put on events open to the public and sell their programs and products there.

The products you can create are only limited by your imagination. What would you yourself buy?  When you have the answer to that question, you have the concept of the product you’ll find easiest to sell.  Some of the possibilities are DVD’s, books, e-books, online programs, manuals and so on.

You’ll note that it will be the most successful people in your audience who will purchase the products.

You need to have a merchant credit card account which is fairly easy to set up. Talk to your bank about this. As long as you keep the dollar number low, you should be approved quickly. Merchants would go out of business if they could no longer depend on the impulse buy. You need to take advantage of that impulse as well.  It will significantly increase your income.

If you sell from your website, you’ll need to have e-commerce set up there.

From something as simple as a recorded phone call, you can have MP3 and CD’s made and packaged on demand at the website www.kunaki.com and later sell them to your audience.

For some speakers, product sales represent a major part of their income.  What products will you create? How will you position and sell them? Who will benefit from them?

Start with something simple and once that’s become successful, move on to a higher priced product or program.

It’s great insurance for a rainy day!