Rights

The basic steps:

1. Find an interesting product with rights that you can control.

You can create the product yourself (a book, video, song, formula, etc.). But it will probably be easier to find an existing product and acquire the rights.

Search the Internet for websites that are old and haven't been updated recently. What you're looking for is a great information product that hasn't been promoted for a while. You can also search manufacturer listings for physical products. Another way to find good physical products is to check inventor chat rooms and sites.

2. Make the deal for the rights.

When you find an interesting product that has potential, approach the owner of the product with a proposal to acquire his rights.

There are essentially two ways to obtain the rights to a product. The simplest is to offer to purchase the rights outright. Once you've paid for them, you own them, free and clear.

If you don't want to shell out the money up front, you can option the rights. In other words, you can agree to buy the rights at a later time for an agreed-upon price. What this means is that if, for example, you option the distribution rights for a patented invention for $5,000 and then sell those same rights to a manufacturer for $100,000... you've just made a killing!

3. Monetize the rights.

Once you've got the rights to a great product, decide how you want to make money with it. You could sell the product directly to the public. Or you could sell your rights to another company that would then market it. (That's what I did with the supplement deal I told you about.)

To find a company that you might be able to interest in your product, you've got to do some research. Create a list of a dozen prospects, and contact them. If you're not afraid of personal selling, simply pick up a phone and make some calls. But if you prefer, you can create a sales letter and send it out. Either way, it's helpful to do a little investigating first to get the names of the people in those companies who are in charge of considering new products. (Those are the people you address your sales letters to or ask for when you call.)

How you structure your deals with those folks depends on the way you negotiate them. You might want to sell your rights outright - or you may prefer to go for profit-sharing.

Either way... you can't lose.