Making money online his a huge topic on the web, and it is easy to be sold on business ideas that may seem very simple and easy. There is plenty of money to be made online, it is a market place as solid as any other but it takes a very delicate approach and correct planning to do it right. The tools that are at an entrepreneurs finger tips are vast on the internet. A good plan put together can jumpstart your idea. I think it’s fair to say that:
- The idea of bringing in income online is not out of reach for any given individual.
- It will take a great deal of dedication, and synchronization. (synergy, hint hint)
- Consistency and steady input are important ingredients for success.
So let’s break that down. The idea that anyone can gain some extra income, possibly a replacement income for your full time job..is not out of reach for anyone. It truly is not. It may cost certain individuals more to start, depending on the channel you take and the skill set you have. So what are your options – what is it that I’m babbling about? The idea here is that you want to get some cash flow going. Here are some things you may be thinking about..
- You want to create an online store, and drop ship items from different wholesalers to your customers. Great idea. You can do this with different services that exist. More on that in a minute.
- You have your own product, or have your own venue that you wish to move online and sell your product or others products.
- You don’t have a store or product at all, but you want to get your opinions out there and make a name for yourself. Doing so will create opportunities for you that were not there previously.
We will start with option one, as it has a few extra steps that you will need to take care of. First things first, who will be the supplier? Places like Salehoo and Doba will sign you up and setup the drop ship for you, through other wholesalers. They are great resources, especially if you are looking to push things on eBay, or Amazon. They won’t need a Tax ID from you either – so there is no startup cost. But there has to be a downside, right? Of course, it’d be too good to be true if there wasn’t. Everyone has access to these sites. It’s very hard to have any competitive advantage over other people’s prices. Upon logging into to the sites that will setup drop ships from wholesalers for your customers you will very quickly see what little margin there is to be made off of the products from them. The equation is simple, you aren’t buying the product directly from the source in bulk, so your getting taxed to much by the middleman (in case the sites like Doba and Salehoo). I don’t want to bad mouth these services, however it is important to know that this is where your consistency comes into play, and your dedication. With those factors included, the possibility of making money online is very real with these tools. So how?
Now that you have products at your fingertips (or had them previously like option 2 from above) you need a platform for them. To setup an online store front, it takes very little knowledge of the technical skills involved. We will go with an average user, who may be web savvy but not have any technical experience building websites or apps. You’ll want a shopping cart setup, where you can add your products and manage them. The descriptions, the pricing, and of course come along with a pretty format that looks appealing to the buyer. There are open source shopping carts like osCommerce or ZenCart that will allow you to put the framework together and customize it to your needs. Both products have a loyal following and plenty of free support to go along with it. Great products, but maybe this is beyond the scope of your knowledge. Webhosts will commonly give you an opportunity to set these up free of charge, as well as paid options. GoDaddy and 1&1 are some that come to the top of my head. The issue with some of these carts is that they can look very generic. Luckily they will usually all let you add themes that can make the site very snazzy, and unique. Depending on what you want to spend (but again assuming you can’t create the theme for free on your own) you can find templates on the web ranging from $140 to $2000, some with the option to own it exclusively. It’s important to remember that I am not tied to any of the mentioned services or providers, and recommend you research the best solution for your exact needs and shop around. There are deals to be found out there for everything. That is why planning this out is so important.
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