Even if you are not internet savvy, there are plenty of tools and resources available to help start your own internet store.
Basically, you have 4 options.
1.You can set up and maintain a web site (using GoDaddy - see banner on links page) and then buy/sell your own inventory and be responsible for of taking orders, shipping, and making returns. Dealing with inventory presents a lot of the same concerns that a traditional business has - physical warehousing, transportation, insurance, employees and so forth. This option simply uses the web for announcing and advertising a business. It does not set you free.
2. Your marketplace can showcase and sell other companies' products. This means you receive commissions on the sales but never have to handle the product (shipping or returns). This is affiliate marketing set up as an online store (see affiliate page). You can use links, and banner ads provided by the company whose products you want to sell to submit orders. You have been set free .
The easiest place to start is through the 2 Zero Gimmicks stores: http://www.homebasedwebbizstore.com and the Zero Gimmicks Store (the link can be found on the bottom of the Getting Started page). Between the 2, you can purchase all the tools you need to launch your internet online store business. This http://www.homebasedwebbizstore.com offers resources and tools for starting internet businesses - but there are loads of other categories so that you may set up the type of store that fits your passion. There are products for Health and Fitness, Business to Business, Home and Family, Computers and Internet and Marketing. It uses Clickbank - a highly regarded affiliate network that facilitates making customer payments and commissions to store owners. You just open an account, set up a store using the vendors that deal with clickbank, and work to get traffic to your site. You will be surprised how easy it is to set up. The real work comes in driving traffic to it. Zero Gimmicks has resources to help you with that.
3. If you your store purchase both the product and the right to resell, instead of getting a percentage of the sale, you get 100% of the sale. This is called reselling and is commonly used to sell ebooks. Some ebooks are given away free with the rights to resell, as an incentive to sign up for a newsletter. The newsletter in turn is used to provide more content rich information to your visitors/customers and can update them on new products you have to sell as well as provide them with reviews of your current offerings.
4. Selling another company's product for them but having them handle the shipping and returns aspects is called dropshipping. You set this up by contacting a manufacturer directly or a distributor at a tradeshow or a dropshipping exchange such as Doba (see link on Getting Started page) and ask them if they will dropship. All the online doodad, knickknack stores are doing this. In order to stand out from these, it is adviseable to contact manufacturers of more unique products. A manufacturer may ask you to deal with their distributor. When you are just starting out, you are more likely to develop relationships with smaller manufacturers or drop shipping exchanges. Once you find a dropshipper, you will need to find out a number of things:
What is the wholesale cost to you? Is that the same for everyone?
What is their return policy? Do they put tracking numbers on their orders (this will facilitate your ability to answer customers inquiries)? What guarantees do they offer?
Here is a summary on dropshipping by one of the biggest and most reliable of dropshippers (Doba). They offer a Free 7 Day Trial of their services (see Doba link on Getting Started page).
Drop Shipping Basics
How does drop shipping work?
Drop shipping is the shipping of merchandise from a supplier directly to a retailer's customer. Meaning, you—the retailer—can ship to your customers directly from the suppliers' warehouses. This process minimizes the risk to you because you do not need to buy the product until it has sold. Suppliers take care of the warehousing, packaging, and shipping of products, saving you a great deal of money.
How does a drop shipping source benefit you?
Become a retailer without needing to invest large amounts of money.
Start a business with very little risk.
No inventory to buy or pay for upfront—if the product doesn't sell, you never have to buy it.
No packaging materials and shipping labels. No shipping account.
No product returns.
Purchase products at wholesale pricing and set your own retail prices.
The product selling process
1. Find products you'd like to sell from our Product Catalog.
2. List those products on your web site or auction (you can use the descriptions and images on our site).
3. After the product sells collect your money from the buyer.
4. Place the product order through Doba after you've been paid. The difference between what you charged and the costs is your PROFIT to keep.
5. The product is shipped directly to your customer.
6. Sell again. Profit again.
Exploring the benefits of a Drop Ship Wholesaler
Whether you're just getting started in the retail business or are running an established business, a drop ship service offers several benefits, including the following:
Drop ship setup fees are minimal.
Your supplier stores and manages inventory.
Your supplier packs and ships products directly to your customers.
You pay your supplier only after your customer pays you.
You can test the market with little or no risk.
You can focus more time and resources on dollar-productive activities, such as marketing, advertising, and product research, rather than on inventory management, packing, and shipping.
With a drop ship provider, you boost profits in several ways—cut costs, increase sales, save time, and reduce risk, and you can do it all with less manpower.
Assessing the Drop Ship Drawbacks
Although many retailers find that drop ship services provide them with an excellent product sourcing solution, it is by no means a perfect solution. Drop shipping comes with several drawbacks, including the following:
You lose some control over shipping times, packaging processes, and package branding.
Your supplier may run out of a hot-selling product.
Drop fees may increase your expenses. (A drop-fee is a handling fee charged per shipped order.)
You can't take advantage of bulk discounts.
Another great source for information about dropshipping (and other internet business concerns) is the Internet Marketing Center. Derek Gehl, current CEO, sends out a free newsletter and tutorials that are loaded with valuable content. You will find them at: http://www.homebasedwebbizstore.com .The late Corey Rudl was the founder of IMC. Corey Rudl was an original and hugely successful web marketer.
More Considerations:
When you are a reseller you must get the rights to resell it.
Before setting a product on your web page, for resale, (such as an e-book that you have received for free or purchased), check out the agreement. Most likely, you only are being given the rights to sell it. You do not have the rights to give it to someone else to sell unless it is spelled out in the agreement that you do.
An affiliate agreement entitles you to gain commissions from the sale - you are not reselling.
Buying and Reselling Ebooks- How great it is to be able to download a book and have it immediately at your disposal. A lot of really very informative Ebooks are available for very low cost due to the fact that there is no product to handle or ship. Plenty of ebooks are given away for free (as well as the resale rights) as an incentive to join a subscriber list. A lot of "How To" succeed in e-business (without really trying) are for sale for wide range of prices. This is where the buyer needs to beware. Some are extremely well written and are from reputable authors. Others are thrown together and are well constructed gimmicks to get your money.
It is hard for the novice to distinguish the good from the gimmicks because most ebooks are advertised using very long sales letters written to create an urgency to act or buy now. One tipoff that there is probably little or no content is when the promise is too good to be true. Novices should look for evidence of author credibility.
Some of the links on the Getting Started page of Zero Gimmicks, connect to long sales letter pages. The links to these have been included because the products found there are worthwhile and the authors are well known and credible.
Particularly recomended is Rosalind Gardner's "The Super Affiliates Handbook". Gardner states: "That there are no "Secrets". Her book and newsletter debunks hype. She does have a medium length sales letter but no doubt about it, her ebook can and should be purchased - it is dynamite. She thoroughly covers the topic of resellers. Some of the things she will help you get going are:
- Beefing up your Computer Skills
- Learning Internet Marketing basics Building a Web Site
- Finding and Getting Tools, Software and Content for your site
- and more
You can find her Super Affiliate ebook featured in the: http://www.homebasedwebizstore.com for more information about setting up this business model.
RECAP - you must always make sure you have received the rights to resell an ebook or ezine. If you buy a copy or obtain a free copy from the author, it does not mean you have the right to copy it or republish it. You must get permission.
Other major considerations for your Web Store
about generating TRAFFIC, TRAFFIC, TRAFFIC.
1. Use Lots of Appropriate Keywords
Go to Google's Adword keyword tool. It is designed for pay per click advertisers, but anyone can use it for free. Just plug in your keyword or keyword phrases and it will tell you the degree to which those words are searched and the cost per click. It offers you different methods of looking at the data. Other helpful places are: www.wordtracker.com , www.inventory.overture.com , www.goodkeywords.com .
The Alexa toolbar site information button will help you to evaluate other sites that have content similar to the one that you want to produce. Check out what key words they are using.
It is very important for the keywords that you choose to be as niche specific as possible. This means you want to use popularly searched words that have a specific quality about them. This will help the search engines to find you. For example, if your site just uses the keyword, finance - you will be one in millions. But if you narrow your topic to the specific niche of baby boomer financing retirement - you become more distinguished (note: that still may be too broad for that particular topic). Proper keyword usage is one of the most important tools for getting traffic. It is worth buying products that can help you in this department.
2. Product Reviews
Providing your store visitor with some product reviews is extremely important for generating traffic. You will also convert more visitors into customers when you take the time to explain the benefits/features of the vitamins, clothing, books etc. that you intend to sell instead of having visitors click instantly through to a a store page. It will help to develop customer trust and loyalty. The Home Based Web Biz Store is an easy to set up store and does not have a lot of space dedicated toward writing reviews. That is why linking it to this web site and the blog is so important.
3. Pay Per Click
Pay per click ads are option but try them only with a cap on what you will spend - because it can become very expensive. Just because your ad is clicked on doesn't mean it will convert the visitor into a paying customer (and you must still must pay for the click).
4. Placing Links to Your Website on Other Websites
This is a free way to get traffic. Work out an agreement to place a reciprocal link on your site.
5. Web Site Analysis
GoDaddy offers great tools that can help you analyze your web traffic and optimize your web site so that the search engines find you.
6. Offline
Of course, you must not forget offline methods for getting traffic. Check out the links on the Getting Started page.
For More Information: Visit the www.zero-gimmicks.com blog and post your comments. Use the sign up button below to subscribe to Zero Gimmicks Newsletter to receive interesting articles and updates.
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