Smart Internet marketers know that buying master resale rights is a shortcut to getting products on the market. But did you know that Bill Gates and the Microsoft empire were built from purchasing master resale rights
Thats right - the richest man in the world bought the rights to DOS, the operating system that began the Microsoft empire.
There are 5 important lessons Bill Gates could teach you about master resale rights.
1. Find a hungry market with a burning need and fill it.
Bill Gates read about the Altair 8800 computer in Popular Science in 1975. Realizing Altair needed a simple programming language to make the computer popular, Gates sold a version of BASIC to Altair before it was even written. Then Gates worked night and day with Paul Allen and Monte Davidoff to develop it. Microsoft was born.
In 1980, IBM created the desktop PC - but they didnt have an operating system. Gates saw a burning need waiting to be filled, and learned a new lesson:
2. You dont have to create a product to fill a need if you can buy the master resale rights instead.
IBM approached Bill Gates to create an operating system for the PC. Gates initially recommended they contact Digital Research to purchase their CP/M operating system. But those negotiations failed, and IBM came back to Bill Gates.
Gates learned that Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products had developed a clone of CP/M called QDOS. Microsoft bought the rights for just $56,000.
Of course you dont have to invest $56,000 to get rights worth selling. Often you can buy master resale rights for $100, $50, even $10 or $20. You can even join resale rights membership sites and get thousands of dollars worth of products for a small monthly fee. Sometimes you can even find master resale rights products for free!
Why so cheap Sometimes the products arent very good, but often theyre great products that werent marketed well. Not seeing the opportunity, people sell their work for almost nothing.
Smart marketers know that sometimes you can just rename a product or change the marketing and have a hit. This is where Bill Gates could teach us the third lesson:
3. Repackage or rebrand, change the marketing approach, and build your own brand.
QDOS stood for Quick and Dirty Operating System. IBM might have bought it even with a name like that, but being a savvy marketer, Gates decided to rebrand it. He dubbed it PC-DOS, for PC Disk Operating System. He targeted it squarely at IBM - and they bought it, big time.
When PC clones hit the market, Gates saw another hungry market with a burning need. Microsoft quickly rebranded DOS, dubbing it MS-DOS for Microsoft Disk Operating System, thus building the Microsoft brand at the same time. The rest is history.
Resale rights products are often widely available. If you do the same thing as everyone else, why should someone buy the product from you But if you take the time to repackage or rebrand the resale rights where permitted, you will have a unique product you can market to a hungry audience with a burning need. Because the next lesson we can learn from Bill Gates is:
4. Just because someone else didnt become a billionaire with the master resale rights for a product doesnt mean you cant. Use your brain and figure out how to do things better.
Success in any business is often as dependent on intelligence, motivation, and marketing as it is on the product itself.
Others created the BASIC programming language, but Bill Gates repackaged it and sold it to Altair. Digital Research had a perfect operating system for the PC, but they missed out. Tim Paterson created the DOS operating system that would run every PC in the world. But he sold it to Microsoft for $56,000. Bill Gates is now worth an estimated $51 billion. Forbes magazine says he is the richest man in the world.
Realizing he had a hungry market with a burning need, Gates saw opportunities that others missed, took products that were relative failures, and built a multi-billion dollar empire.
Not everyone is Bill Gates, but dont you think we all have opportunities that we either take or miss And dont you think we sometimes settle for less than we could have
That brings us to the final lesson that Bill Gates could teach you about master resale rights:
5. Dont sell your life for almost nothing.
Bill Gates took opportunities that others had and did something with them. Do you think Bill Gates would ever sell the master resale rights to all of the Microsoft products for $10
Of course not! Yet you will often see people selling master resale rights to great products for less than youd spend for dinner! They dont realize they are selling their life for almost nothing.
You cant go far on the Internet without someone promising you that you can make a million dollars by selling their product. Do you realize how many $10 products you would have to sell every day to make a million dollars a year 274! Each and every day, 365 days a year. Wouldnt it be easier to sell 27.4 copies of a product every day for $100 each Or a $30 monthly membership to a site 8 times a day
Youre not going to see Microsoft selling the next version of Windows for $10 each, and you shouldnt sell yourself short either.
Dont drop your price. Build your marketing skills instead. Find a hungry market with a burning need. Fill it by creating your own repackaged, rebranded product from other peoples master resale rights products. Use your brain and figure out how to do it better. Dont sell your life for nothing. Charge a higher price and make it worth it to people. Fulfill their need and youll have no shortage of business.
Copyright 2006 Mike Adams
Mike Adams has been marketing on the Internet since the early 1990s. His latest project is Gigantic Resale Rights.com. As part of the launch of Gigantic Resale Rights.com, Mike is offering our readers several free resale rights packages. You can get yours at:
Before we get to Viral Marketing 202 Ill give you the basics for Viral Marketing 101.
Now that we all know the basics of viral marketing we can begin.
I recently asked my subscribers if they were doing some form of viral marketing and the results were dismal. There were so few votes that I immediately thought no one was doing it and they were afraid to admit it.
Then I offered a fantastic sale and offered a viral product as the bonus just for checking out the sales page. Imagine my surprise when the offered branding option for this viral product outsold the sale product.
The results of this sale told me that my subscribers are doing viral marketing but ... not as effectively as they could.
Since you didnt get the product from my last sale, EZ Download Page Generator, or maybe you have it but havent had time to read the manual yet let me tell you that theres a lot more to viral marketing than just branding an eBook or a site and giving it away. Inserting your links into something and then giving it away is the simplest form of viral marketing.
Without going into all the gory details that are included in the manual purchased by my lucky subscribers, I will tell you that to use viral marketing to its full extent, you have to combine it with up-sales, bonuses, eCourses and everything else related to internet marketing.
Example:
When I offered my last sale I also offered a bonus just for visiting the sales site. The bonus was my branded copy of a viral product that site visitors could give away. Of course I offered an up-sell to those who wanted the bonus - the chance to brand it themselves. By offering a bonus for visiting the sales page I was able to get my branded copy to many and start my viral marketing. By using an up-sell I was able make a few sales from those who wanted to give it away with their links included. (Viral marketing and money - great combination!)
I also included a bonus to those who purchased the product. Again, this bonus was a branded viral product with give away rights. The branding rights for this product are also available but they dont have to be purchased. Instead, the branding rights come as an free affiliate tool. If the receiver doesnt join the affiliate program and just gives away the eBook I again have some viral marketing in place.
If the receiver joins the affiliate program they get free branding rights to the bonus. Why would I want someone to sign up for a affiliate program and have the same viral tool I have Simple, this is a members only affiliate program. That means they have to become a paid member to become an affiliate and I get part of their monthly membership dues.
The product bonus has the potential for viral marketing and residual income - another good combination.
This example from my last sale is still a simple form of viral marketing but it is much more effective that just offering a free e-book or promoting a free viral marketing site. To get a complete description of how to use viral marketing to its full extent you need to read the manual included withEZ Download Page Generator. The manual alone is worth the price and the tool works great.
Now heres a question for you.
Do you know what very important element was left out of my sales example Ill give you a clue. Its something you should be doing in all your marketing.
Now your wondering, if its so important why didnt I do it
I didnt tell my readers in this article. I made them wait a week for the answer.
About the Author:
Susan Carroll owner of has formed a global community of online business people through her weekly newsletter.
To get the answer to Whats The 1 Thing You Should Be Doing In All Your Marketing visit her site
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