How to Create Your Own Mail Order Items

Create hot-selling mail order items.

Creating mail order items that are easy to ship by mail, lend themselves to repeat orders and are not readily available in stores will not necessarily make you a success in the mail order business. However, you can create great-selling items by thoroughly studying your chosen market and knowing what your customers are thinking and what they will buy.



Choose a market that you love. Read articles, ads and classifieds in the leading magazines and websites that cater to your market. Learn your customer's needs, wants and interests and product ideas will come to you.

Instructions

1. Choose a market to sell your item in based on things or activities that you love and are passionate about. If you are a golf nut, you should think about selling golf related products to other golfers. Golf equipment, instruction, lessons, apparel and travel are all aspects of the golf marketplace for which you could create mail order items.

2. Know your market thoroughly. Gather a list of the leading magazines that cater to your chosen market. Purchase the current issues and any recent back issues you can find. Read the articles, noting the products that are discussed. You will find that items fall into one of three categories: merchandise, information or services. If your market is golfers, an ad for golf clubs would be considered merchandise. A listing for golf instruction books is information. An offer for private in-person golf lessons is a service. These products are the magazine reader's (your prospective customers) interests.

   Scour the magazine ads and classified advertisements as well. At this point you should begin to compose a mental or written list of potential hot-selling products within your market.

   Add to your market knowledge base by reading articles and advertisements on magazine formatted websites related to your market.

3. Create a written list of products that are of interest to prospective customers derived from your magazine and advertisement research. Once again, if golfers are your market, the latest golf equipment (golf balls, clubs, bags and shoes) would likely be on your list of merchandise. Golf instructional CDs and DVDs would be listed as information, and in-person lessons from a local golf pro would fall into the service category.

4. Compose a written list of prospective customers that you would like to sell to such as doctors, lawyers, business owners,seniors or women. Adapt any of the commonplace items on your product list to the special interests and desires of those on your list of prospective customers. Then create a unique mail order item(s) targeted to them.

   For example, how about creating golf balls with a medical logo imprinted on them for mail order sale to doctors. A golf ball is a common golf item, but a golf ball with medical logo on it targeted for mail order sale to doctors is unique and very sellable. Try to imagine being a doctor who loves golf. Would you buy these golf balls?

   Other examples might be golf bags for women with their astrological sign featured on it, or live online golf lessons via webcam to senior golfers. The possibilities are limitless!

Tips & Warnings

• Create items that are unique and exciting.

• Create items that you would want to buy.

References

• Start your own mail order business: Entrepreneur.com