The easiest sustainable way to get more and more people to give you their money over and over again is to give them what THEY want. People enjoy spending a lot of money on their interests and hobbies because it gives them satisfaction. They spend 10 times more money on what they WANT, than on what they NEED. If you sell them what they want, you can make 10 times what you can make by selling them what they need. So sell what people want (not what they need).

Always, always, ALWAYS find your market FIRST, BEFORE you find the product. Find the market first, then get a product to satisfy that market’s wants. Don’t decide on a product then try to find someone to sell it to. Give the market what it wants, not what you want to sell it. Success depends on finding the right market, not finding the right product.

Not grasping this FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT is why many businesses fail. They have a “great” product but no one wants it, or at least no one wants it at the price they have to charge to make a profit. You’re in business to make money. You make money by helping people get what THEY want.

But how do you know what people in your chosen market want?

You can find out what people want by visiting online forums and groups where people in your niche discuss issues that are relevant to them. To find these forums and groups, go to http://www.google.com and enter keywords that are relevant to your niche in the search term box, but click on Groups on the menu at the top left of the page. Or go to http://groups.google.com/ and browse for groups in your niche.

You must RESEARCH, RESEARCH, RESEARCH. This is VERY easy to do on eBay. The more you research your market, the easier it will be to come up with an appropriate product that fulfils their wants and write an appropriately worded listing that appeals to them. Think about what your niche are like/what they want and address their wants in your sales copy.

Did you know that eBay actually provides you with a list of hungry buyers desperate to buy items on eBay and tells you EXACTLY what it is that they want to buy?

Its called the “Want It Now” category. Buyers who can’t find what they are looking for on eBay (or can’t be bothered to look!) can post a listing saying what they are looking for. You can go to the Want It Now home page and find Want It Now posts from buyers by browsing through categories or searching with keywords. If you have something that meets their needs, you can click on the Respond button at the top of their post and enter the item number of your listing that you want the buyer to see.

As I stated above, you need to find the market FIRST – BEFORE you find a product. eBay’s Want It Now section does that for you. You can search the Want It Now section to find niche markets whose wants aren’t being met. You are looking for an item that has recurring posts (so it’s in demand) and has few or no responses from sellers (so there is little or no competition). Once you’ve identified an untapped market, you can source a product that satisfies that market.

Martyn Boaden

This post is based on an extract taken from The Lazy Way To Wealth On eBay