Bill Myers

One of the most successful strategies employed by the major product development companies (including the movie, TV and music business) is that of riding the coat tails of success.

The strategy goes like this. Wait for someone else to come out with a product that proves to be commercially successful. Then create a product that either is similar, related to, on in some way supports the successful product, and let the success of the first product create a demand for your own product.

For example, eBay.com is perhaps the biggest true success of the internet boom. They have 30 million plus users - and more joining every day. So it shouldn't be a surprise that a book showing how to use eBay would be a success.

In fact the book "Starting an eBay Business for Dummies" is the 2nd highest ranking book in the Small Business category on Amazon, and the 219th highest sales ranking of all books on Amazon.

Clearly a case of one product riding the coat tails of another to success.

You could probably do the same thing. Find a successful product, and then create your own product which either enhances or provides support for the first product. To learn more about this, read the 'Riding The Coat Tails Of Success' article on our site to see additional examples and several product ideas.