Whenever people are trying to think up ways to make money, they almost inevitably think about products where they can dominate their market, or where they can have the best stand alone product. While this approach works from time to time, this way of thinking usually takes a lot of work, and time to execute. Not to mention, there is oftentimes much competition to go up against in order to get your product to a profitable position in the marketplace. Instead of thinking about what product to create that can be successful all by itself, why not think about a product that can be successful because it complements another product?

A complementery product is one that adds value to another product. You can also think of it as a product that goes along with another product to complete it. The complementary product can even exist as an added bonus. Please note, this is not to be confused with compliment which means to praise or to congratulate. A really good way to narrow down the term is to say that a complementary product is a product that was CREATED to add value to another product. The purpose of the existance of a complementary product is to add value. An enhancer is a product that adds value to another product, but can also have value as a stand alone product. In order to better explain this notion, let's take a look at a quick example.

As the saying goes, "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!". Of course, some of them are screaming because they ate the ice cream too fast, or are lactose intolerant. For many, eating ice cream by itself is a great experience, but it could be complemented by other products such as chocolate sauce, or strawberry toppings. Here is the thing. For the most part, the majority of people would not eat strawberry topping, or chocolate sauce by itself. These products are eaten WITH something else. Unlike cake which might be consumed with almost any flavor of ice cream, or even by itself. When thinking up complementary product ideas here are a few guidelines:

- In order to obtain a list of products to be complemented, think of popular, and well known products that many people utilize, and where people have a great need or desire to make the use of the product better (ex: grilled foods,ice cream, cake, and so on.). You might even check the major search engines for hot trends, and add the keywords that you uncover to your list.

- From the brainstormed list of products to be complemented, narrow your list down to 10 products you feel are the most popular, or the most used.

- Using the list of 10 products, brainstorm characteristics of the product where value could be added by adding another separate product without changing the complemented product itself.

- From the new formulated characteristics list, think of products you could produce that could add greater value to the complemented products.

- Chose 2 to 5 products that you could really focus your energies on, and that would be most profitable (money earned vs expenses) and figure out ways to make that complementary product.

During the brainstorming seasons, be sure not to stifle your ideas. Let your imagination run wild. You could be pleasantly surprised by the product ideas you can come up with. Once you have finished brainstorming, you can always go back, and fine tune your mode of thinking, and narrow down your list to the ideas that are the most practical. And keep an open mind. Formulating complementary product ideas might prove a most profitable endeavor, indeed.