I've been in business on-line since 1997 and I have only purchased 1 set of reprint rights that I marketed. I have gotten rights to lots of products as a bonus or had them given to me. Get reprint rights to right product and you're set to generate a steady income stream for a long time. Buy wrong reprint rights and you're just out of your time and money.

When considering buying reprint rights to a product, most important factor is demand for product. If nobody wants product, everything else is irrelevant. So I personally will only consider reprint rights for a product I would consider buying in first place.

A little acknowledged FACT is reason reprint rights are often offered for products is because owner isn't making any money on product itself. Offering reprint rights for many products actually decrease their value in mind of potential buyers. Therefore, if a product is selling briskly at retail, it would usually be unwise to offer reprint rights. Consider this when looking for products to buy reprint rights to.

Another reason reprint rights are often offered for a product is because product's creator wants to benefit from viral effect. He is willing to forgo a large upfront profit to benefit from backend sales or publicity. These are generally products that contain links back to person selling them embedded within product. If product is nothing more than a bunch of affiliate links then these links need to be brandable to make reprint rights to that product a potentially worthwhile investment.

What does make a great product to buy reprint rights to? I recently conducted a tele-seminar on using pay-per-click search engines. The tele-seminar was very profitable and generated a product I could resell. Shortly after that experience I confirmed that there were a lot of people who would buy an info product on how to conduct tele-seminars and regular seminars. So I considered writing such a product based upon my experiences.

When looking at marketing your own services you should thoroughly examine, brainstorm, and tear apart several critical issues. These issues are:

- What services are you qualified to offer - Will offering this service provide a good return on your investment of time and money - Is this service suitable for leveraging by offering through an affiliate program - Is there sufficient market for this service to offer a steady stream of customers long term - Can you develop a line of back-end products to increase revenue stream from offering this service

Let's briefly look at these issues.

Most of us possess some unique talent that we can use to create a service and earn an income from sharing this talent with others. Talents that come to mind immediately are web design, graphic design, copywriting, programming, data entry, script writing or installation, legal research, website optimization, website promotion, diet counseling, fitness coaching, personal coaching and counseling, proofreading services, ghost writing services, and too many other possibilities to list here.

All of these services can be and are marketed successfully over internet. Develop a reputation for delivering quality in any of these areas and you will get a steady stream of customers.

When looking at what service you might offer as your own "product" also consider services that allow you to leverage yourself more. To do this I generally think of services that can be provided semi-automatically and delivered in an almost endless quantity. The distinction between product and service may get a little blurred here but that's ok. What are "services" that might fall within this category:

- Pay for subscriber/lead services - Pay for website traffic/visitor services - Website submission or promotion services - Website monitoring services - Website translation services - Website hosting services (very competitive) - Remote script hosting services - Custom content provider services - Article writing or distribution services - List management services - Providing custom diet plans - Providing custom fitness plans - Personal financial management services

... you get idea. Think of services that you can generate and provide with aid of software so that you really do have an unlimited supply. Look at how you can improve on existing services or come up with totally new services. Realize that if you don't design your service properly you severely limit its growth potential and potential to offer back-end or add-on products or services.

I recommend services where there is less competition due to difficulty in delivering service. Difficulty in product delivery as a barrier-to-entry is a good thing. It means it will be longer before someone encroaches on your market. This allows you to perhaps price differently at first and harvest "monopoly profits." Sorry - my economics training is slipping through :-)

Many services are so generic that it's difficult to distinguish your service in mind of your potential customers. This makes your service a commodity and many customers will buy largely based on price. Web hosting is a commodity service that immediately comes to mind. To many customers, one web host is just same as all others. If you can distinguish your generic product in mind of your potential customer by becoming known for superior quality or customer service then you no longer offer a commodity. However, that takes a lot of very hard work and time. If you can offer a service FIRST or where there are fewer competitors then your task is easier.