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My Internet Business Basics: Selling To Where Online

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Written by Trisha Frauenhofer

Friday, 16 May 2008

by TrishaFrauenhofer

Before you start your own site, selling things, it's worth your while to take a look at the established selling services out there. They can be a good place to "get your feet wet" as it were, and start selling things before investing a lot of time and effort into your own site. A lot of businesses never "graduate past them", and you shouldn't feel obligated to do so with your business.

There are two my internet business sales options we're going to review - eBay (which you've probably heard of) and Etsy. Both give a venue for you to sell to qualified buyers, and both have their ins and outs, including ways to automate product loading. Understand that we're not endorsing either of them - just providing a conduit of information for you to make an informed decision from.

The easiest one to get into, assuming you have a means of generating graphics, is Caf Press. You upload your artwork, set up the shop, and select what products it'll be on, ranging from tee shirts, to coffee mugs, to calendars - even intimate apparel. (Yes, we have seen "Just Do IT?" thongs) The flip side is that Caf Press charges a pretty premium; they handle all the manufacturing for you, so you don't have to cover inventory. So you're not making much per sale unless you can command a premium. Still, if you're an artist and lazy, they're a good way to make some money off of your artwork.

eBay offers several options, including having your own eCommerce store, or even a custom auction site. You can personalize it to suit your own business, and there's a lot of flexibility in setting the sale price, descriptions and pictures, even shipping options. eBay's primary strength is the user community; everything on eBay has been tested repeatedly, and there's extensive documentation that's very good to work from. Do avoid any service that offers to "list things for you" on eBay. It's easy enough to figure out how to do it on your own.

Once you figure out what you want to buy, make sure it is selling and check out the competition. You can research similar products that are on eBay and read the customer reviews. These customer reviews are also another advantage to using eBay as a precursor to your own webpage. You can later state your rating and quote some customer reviews that you received from eBay.

So, now that you've picked a sales venue, what next? First, save any item descriptions for things you'll regularly have in stock in a text file or word processing file. It allows you to cut and paste whenever a new item shows up. Next is to figure out what you're going to sell - the most common choice is to buy items at wholesale (or as remaindered goods) and sell lots on eBay. You'll need to do some research to find a supplier (and a good price) and to research what your sales niche is.

Checking out the sales niche means checking out the competition. Unless it's a really popular item (like, say, an iPhone), you're going to want to narrowcast your sales items. Always search for the item you intend to sell and look for other people selling the same thing or similar items. Watch how their auctions and sales options run.

A variation on buy wholesale and sell direct is to find something that's locally available and sell it for more money on eBay nationwide. This is a surprisingly effective avenue for all kinds of things, from rubber floor mats for automobiles to satellite dishes. Look for something that's being liquidated locally and work from there.

About the Author:

Please visit My Internet Business to discover additional methods to increase clicks to your sites. Trisha Frauenhofer is an online marketing expert who enjoys sharing her most powerful online secrets.

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