My response to these folks is simple.. Don't spend a penny on product development until you've tested the market. In fact, don't develop anything until you know what your customers really want.

Here's my proven approach to validating an idea that you think might have potential..

1. Consider your idea in terms of benefits. List every single way that you think your target market would benefit from your product.

2. Choose what you believe to be the top three benefits and write a single headline for each of your three primary benefits. Then turn that headline into a question.

3. Set up three landing pages each with the headline and a short survey with a maximum of five questions. My "Survey Cash Machine" script (Free for Premium Members) was designed for product surveys.

Your questions should be designed to discover if the respondent would be willing to buy the product, the format in which the product should be provided and the price that they would be willing to pay.

4. Set up a split test with AdTestPro (Free for Premium Members) or a similar script to deliver the three pages and then use a Pay Per Click service such as Adwords to drive targeted traffic to your landing page.

5. After they have completed the survey, ask them to opt-in to an early bird notification list to qualify for a special pre-launch discount.

6. After they have confirmed their subscription, send them to a relevant One-Time-Offer. If you don't have an OTO, send them to a presell page for a competitive product through your affiliate link.

7. When you have enough data, analyse the results to uncover the features and benefits that your target audience are willing to pay for. Then create your product to that specification. (Don't get carried away and over-engineer the solution - stick to what your potential customers have asked for)

Important: This is the point of no return. Do not under any circumstances go ahead with any product development unless and until you know with absolute certainty that there's a real demand for a product and that people will be willing to spend cash for it. Remember, you job is to solve people's problems and deliver the solutions to those problems as benefits.

8. Before you launch your product to the public, set up basic pre-launch sales copy with a conditional offer. Notify your survey list that they can get a discount on condition that they test/use the product and give you a review and/or a testimonial.

9. Bring your sales copy up to standard, add your testimonials and launch your product.

By following the above strategy, you won't need to create your product until you already know the exact features that it should include, precisely how it should be positioned and you'll have a small list to kick start your initial launch.

By monetising the back end of your survey, you'll also generate profits even before you create your product.  And, if your survey demonstrates that your product is a no-go, you'll probably at least break even on your PPC costs.

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Step 1

Research your niche by searching for your keyword phrase plus the term "Frequently Asked Questions" or "FAQ" and this should reveal exactly what we need: the most frequently asked questions. Another source of questions are forums and it can be a good idea to start with the FAQ search and then validate those questions by seeing what the most topical questions on the forums are right now.

Step 2

Open EzineAticles.com in your browser and see who the top authors are in your niche market. Don't just look at the number of articles in isolation, look at the number of times those articles have been viewed too. Authors whose articles get high viewing numbers are clearly honing in on the right topics. Compile a list of at least 5 article writers, but ideally you are looking for ten people to respond.

Step 3

Contact everyone on your list of article writers, explain that you have selected them because of their expertise in this subject. Tell them you are putting together a free report consisting of exclusive articles from the experts in the niche and you'd really appreciate a contribution from them. Allocate a specific question from your list that you would like them to respond to. Explain that their article will include a resource box in which they can include a link to their site and that they will also get rights to distribute the report as a contributor.

Step 4

Collate the all the articles, including one that your write yourself, and create your report in your preferred wordprocessor. (I use OpenOffice because it has an in-built PDF engine) Be sure to give your report a catchy title, include an introduction, a table of contents and a "rights" statement.

Step 5

Create your PDF and distribute it to all the contributors. Be sure to tell them the benefits of distributing the report to their list. If all contributors give the report maximum distribution, then everyone will benefit from the resulting traffic when readers click the resource box links. Of course your links will have prominence on the title page and in the footer on each page.

And, there you have it a quick and easy method of creating a product.