Capitalize on the unlimited Sales Potential of the web Today!
I
started buying and selling collectibles on the internet in 1995 as
a part time venture,today its how I make my living!! If you are interested in setting up a selling operation on the Internet, be it selling antiques and collectibles, new merchandise or a unique product that you have access to, here are some of the pitfalls I encountered when I got started and how you can avoid them.
There are a lot of really good sources of information and guidelines that
are free or very low cost but they all require one very important item,
Your Sincere Effort!
Without your time and determination all the information and resources in the world are worthless. Starting your own business be it on line or in your home town is time consuming and like everything else in life you get out what you put into it. If you are looking for a no effort instant income solution don't waste your time here because I have yet to find any program that does not require Time, Determination and the willingness to Succeed.
"Get Rich Quick" scams are all over the internet so be careful and remember that old adage,
"If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is".
The Basics:
You need something to sell, And
You need a place to sell it, web site, on-line auction or a setup online storefront.
Lets start with "What to Sell". I buy and sell antiques and collectibles which I purchase from thrift stores, estate sales etc. It started out as a hobby and now it is a full time career for me. I enjoy shopping for others and thats basically what it is, I know what collectors want and I find it for them. If you are knowledgeable in another consumer product you can market that line of goods, clothing, books, stamps and coins, whatever.
Do you know what the number one saleable product of all time is.... TaDa! "Information".
Thats right plain and simple Information. Think about it, we are constantly seeking information, we watch and read the news, we buy books, take higher eductaion courses, we are online reading tutorials :-)
I don't care who you are or where you come from, you know something that other folks would pay to know about. Good Grief I know a lady who makes darn good money on the internet selling her family recipe for chocolate cake!
There are thousands of businesses who will pay you to sell their products, they call it Affiliate Programs, we'll get into those later on.
Another example, I retired from the home improvement business after 30 years now I get paid very good money as a consultant, I also have a "How To" information web site for home owners
"Als Homeimprovement Center" where the advice is free but people pay me to put their ads on my web site pages.
By now you get the idea, find a product or sell some information that you have and other people want.
Lets move on now to the next phase, "where to sell it"
Option #1: You can sell thru the on-line auctions which I cover in great detail in my tutorial
"Getting Started in Auctions". This is a lot of fun and you can make some very good money selling items you buy from yard sales, the junk in your garage and friends and neighbors will pay you to sell their junk!
Option #2:
You can sell thru setup storefronts provided by others. They provide you with a hosted storefront, shopping cart, merchant account and see to it that your store is promoted to the search engines. These services average about $50 per month and up.
Option #3: Your get your own web hosting, your own domain and set up your own web site. A lot more work, not as expensive, your own unique domain name and you have full control over what you sell, how much you sell and how you sell it.
Before we get into the web sites and ready made storefronts I suggest you signup for a free 5 part email course on marketing. After floundering around on the net for a year or so I ran into Dale Miller and his offer of a free course on internet marketing. By the time I finished part 2 of the course I knew more than I had learned in all those thousands of hours I had spent reading advice from others and also from the very expensive "Golden Opportunity" program that I bought. Yes its true, in a moment of weakness and frustration, after trying and failing over and over I fell for the hype. I still have that course and it is for sale at a drastically reduced price!
Dale Miller is a self made millionaire who has an outlook on life that is quite down to earth and his approach to marketing is quite blunt and to the point. His methods are proven, easy to apply and make a lot of sense. His advice and guidance was the turning point of my entire marketing strategy and the success of not only my auction business but also my other business ventures.
This is the only recommendation of this type that you will see on my entire web site even though I get paid to put up other ads, try the free course, you will see what I mean.
THE SUCCESS ARSENAL
At this point you can decide which route you want to take.
The easiest and more expensive of the options are the ready made,
Storefront Services.
With these services you simply send them the photos of your items, fill in the blanks with descriptions, prices etc and they process the orders for you for a predetermined fee.
Option #2: You setup your own web site with your name, design it as you wish and provide your own merchant account, shopping cart etc. The biggest advantage to this approach is even though it is a lot more work, you have complete control over how your site looks, what you offer and also a much better chance of being listed with the search engines. With a storefront you are grouped in with the providers submission to the search engines and the odds of your store showing up are pretty slim.
The color of the page headings will help determine what section of the site you are in.
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