Archive for September, 2009

How To Use Ebay To Gather Tons Of Quality Traffic
By: Matt O’Connor
The major bugbear of any webmaster is that no matter how stylish, how well written or how downright beautiful their site is – it all counts for nothing unless you have traffic.

There are many articles (just like this one) that can describe the varying ways of getting eager visitors to gaze upon the marvels of your site.

You could use reciprocal links to get visitors from other websites – although there is talk that the value of these is slowly diminishing.

You could write articles to get back links to your site – write a particularly good one and you’ll be surprised how many times it gets duplicated over the net, all the while with your website address in the author bio!

There are other avenues to explore such as viral e-books, forum signatures and so on, but what if you could harness the power of a site that already has billions of visitors?

Heard of ebay? Thought so, you’re probably already a buyer or seller on there. But it’s time to start seeing auction listings as something other than a way to sell off unwanted tat.

I’ll let you know what I do and then you can adjust the method to suit your own needs.

I have a newsletter which I publish at least once a month – I struggled for a long time with how to get subscribers whilst also selling a lot of e-books on ebay. Then it hit me – time to combine the two!

Now, it’s a great idea to include links to your site within the ebook, providing you’ve written it yourself obviously. The buyer will read the book and hopefully click on the link to whichever of your sites you’ve chosen. You could even have them sign up to your newsletter before they can receive the book.

On ebay however, you’re going to get a lot of visitors who read your auction and decide not to buy for whatever reason. You may only sell 4 or 5 books per one hundred visitors.

This is where the “about me” page comes in to play. Make the most of this underused tool!

Ebay gives you the opportunity to write a quick description about yourself, your interests and a list of your feedback. Use this space to give yourself a short bio and then a link to your latest website. Be careful though – ebay doesn’t allow direct links to sales pages. Instead link to your newsletter course, a page on one of your content sites or anywhere that doesn’t obviously look like you’re taking sales away from ebay.

The killer tip is to include a link to your about me page on your auction listing. I usually place a short paragraph above and below my listing pointing out the benefits of my free newsletter.

It helps also to make the product you’re selling compatible with what you are offering through the “backend” of ebay. Don’t sell a mint condition Barbie doll and then put in an advertisment for your bonsai gardening auto-responder course for example.

I tend to offer a resell rights ebook or (preferably) a short guide I have written myself about one aspect of Internet Marketing.

That way you will no only get sales for your listed product (provided you do your listing in the correct manner, but that’s a whole other article) but also subscribers or visitors and therefore future sales for your off-ebay business.

Give it a try and use some of eBay’s billion dollar power for yourself!

Author Bio
Matt O’Connor is owner of www.the-complete-guide.com. Join the newsletter now and get your FREE guide to flooding your website with traffic.

Article Source: http://www.ArticleGeek.com – Free Website Content

In this article you will find some of the most frequently asked questions answers about drop shipping. Check them out to get a brief description on drop shipping.

Q – What is the meaning of the word Drop Shipping?

A – Drop shipping essentially means that you conduct a trading business without maintaining any stock. You only forward the order placed by your online customer to your drop shipper who in fact, stocks that item and also ships it to your customer.

Q – What do I need to start this business?

A – A computer with an Internet connection, one or more drop ship wholesaler and a way to advertise the drop shipping stock under your company name like eBay or your own Website. Also get the necessary permits and license to run your business from the concerned authorities.

Q – How and when do I start making money?

A – You will have to add your profit margin to the rate of the product, which your drop shipper has quoted, before you advertise that product on the Internet.

Once you have accepted your customer order and collected the payment, you will have to forward that order and also make your payment to your drop shipper. The difference in your drop shipping rate and the rate at which you have sold the product is your profit margin. You start making money from your first order itself.

Q- How do I know what rate to quote for the product?

A- You can check out similar products being offered on the Internet. Then compare that rate with the rate offered by your drop shipper. You can then quote a rate based on this information.

Q- What do I do once I get an online order from my customer?

A- You accept the order and collect the payment from your customer via credit card or PayPal and then forward that order to your drop shipper, who in turn will arrange to ship that product to the address provided by the customer.

Q- How do I get hold of a drop shipper?

A- You can find them over the Internet or through sites related to eBay. You might have to become a member and pay a membership fee to get access to that list.

Once you get a list, then you can check out the drop shipping products line-up online. Choose a drop shipper who can also be contacted over the phone 24/7. Check out his reputation by contacting the manufacturer directly.

Q- What are the plus points in drop shipping?

A- You do not have to maintain any inventory. You also do not have to worry about dispatching your goods. The initial investment, overheads and the overall risk factor are very less.

Q- What are the minus points in drop shipping?

A- Your margins are limited since you have to quote on the rate that your drop shipper quotes to you. Your reputation could be damaged in case your drop shipper does not deliver on time or delivers products of bad or doubtful quality.

So, check out these facts before you decide to drop anchor at the drop shipping port.

Paul Marshall your online guide helping you to make money online for more on dropshipping visit http://www.your-freeinfo.com

Drop shipping is ‘a type of retailing where the retailer does not keep goods in stock, but instead passes the customer’s order and shipment details to the wholesaler, who then dispatches the goods to the customer directly.’ [Source: Wikipedia] The retailer then keeps the difference between the wholesale price and the retail price. If you’re planning to start an online retail business, drop shipping may be just the option for you.

Let’s review the process of drop shipping, and analyze the advantages that the drop shipping business model has over the others.

No Upfront Payment

First of all, you do not need to pay upfront for a stock of products before you can start selling. With drop shipping, you can simply get into business by displaying the products you want to sell on your website, before you’ve actually purchased any of the goods. After you’ve received your order via the internet, you can then forward the order to the drop shipper, usually through email, who will then deliver the products to your customer(s).

In essence, this is the reverse process of normal retailers. You actually ‘sell high’ first before ‘buying low’. Since you’re not making a huge upfront down-payment for your products, you’re not bearing any risk at all. There isn’t a risk of purchasing thousands of units of a product, and realizing that you’re not able to sell them because the consumer demand is insufficient.

Thus, by not needing to make an upfront payment to stock products, you’re benefiting in two ways. One, the drop shipper bears all the risk for you. If the products are not in-demand, it’s the drop shipper who is potentially making a loss, not you. Second, your startup costs are extremely low. All you need to invest in your drop shipping business is an initial deposit or down-payment, to demonstrate your commitment to the drop shipper, and also ongoing web hosting fees and advertising fees. This is a huge difference from retailers who have to invest on a fortune to purchase huge stocks of goods to get into business.

Product Delivery Taken Care Of

The second feature of drop shippers is that they take care of the products delivery and shipment for you. This is highly advantageous if you’re just starting out in business because you can focus all your time and efforts on marketing your business, instead of worrying about order fulfillment or delivery.

Order fulfillment can be a very tedious and time-consuming process if your monthly orders number in the hundreds or thousands. You need to spend tremendous amounts of time keeping track of your inventory, packaging the products and shipping them to your customers individually. On the other hand, if a drop shipper takes care of product fulfillment for you, you’re automating the process of shipping the products, and you can focus on your core competency – marketing your business to bring in more customers. This is another great advantage of using drop shipping as your business model.

No Need For Warehousing

Since you do not need to purchase a huge inventory of stocks from the drop shipper, there’s no need for warehousing costs as well.

This is highly advantageous if you consider this opposite scenario: If you rely on the usual wholesaling business model instead of drop shipping, you need a location to store your products after purchasing your initial stock. Depending on the space you need, your monthly warehouse rental costs can cut into your profit margin significantly. You may even be operating your business at a loss. Why not let the drop shipper stock the products at their warehouse until your customer makes a purchase instead?

Flexibility Of Product Catalogue

With drop shipping, you have the choice of promoting any number of products you want on your website catalogue. Since you do not need to make upfront capital investments, you have the flexibility of promoting as many products as you want, as long as the products are all related to the category of products you sell.

However, it’s essential to strike a balance between the range of products you have, and the ‘product focus’ of your business. Your business should focus on a single category of products – you cannot be a supplier of everything to everyone, like Wal-Mart. Be sure to include only the products you think are related to your core ‘product focus’, and avoid promoting too many unrelated products on your web catalogue.

No Minimum Quantity Restriction

The last advantage of drop shipping is that most drop shippers do not impose a minimum quantity order. When your customers place orders at your website, you can forward your orders to your drop shipper one-by-one. Most drop shippers do not have a problem with that. Thus, drop shipping is very beneficial for your business because it offers the greatest flexibility.

In conclusion, drop shipping is definitely an option you want to consider if you’re planning to start an online retail business without all the hassles of inventory and product delivery. If you evaluate the above advantages carefully, you’ll realize that drop shipping is undoubtedly a viable option for the small-business retailer. Large retailers, on the other hand, will have enough resources like capital to use the wholesaling model for their business.

Ray Yee is the founder of Dropshipperscentral, a website that provides a wealth of informative articles, guides and resources on everything you’ll need to know about setting up a Drop Ship Business and marketing it. Click here for the Drop Ship Directory from http://www.dropshipperscentral.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ray_Yee

In these times of economic crises, a lot of people are seeking out alternate ways to make a living, and with the rising number of people who are unemployed, more of them are getting interested in online business opportunities.

Every now and then you encounter new Internet marketing tools for online business, tools that will influence your web traffic, page impressions and online revenue in one way or another. Your success in online marketing depends on how you utilize these marketing tools for your benefit, and by implementing them before the masses do can have a bearing over your success or failure. Since an online business can be very rewarding if done correctly, it is vitally important to always be on top of the latest trends. You should always try and watch the latest updates and news about what is happening in the Internet industry today.

You may need to take some steps into unfamiliar territory to improve your profits using new technologies, and in the current financial climate it is not the time to be letting down your guard, especially if you are a full-time marketer like myself. You can never relax when there is the possibility of putting your only source of income at risk by using out of date systems, especially when you can learn the latest online innovations easily and at a small cost. Keeping yourself up to date using the latest techniques, and with a little hard work and perseverance thrown in, you can still have great success in your online marketing career, now more than ever.

As new techniques are being introduced all the time, you should never close your mind to them by thinking you know all there is to know about making money online, because you probably do not. You should try not to follow the pack like most people do, this usually results in the use of a very blinkered old fashioned approach to making money online, and because things move very fast on the Internet, you will soon get left behind and your business will fail. Embrace the changes as the way of doing business online evolves, no one knows how long a currently successful income-generating process will maintain its effectiveness, so you should always be ready to switch to a better one, and keep one step ahead of the pack.

Google, Yahoo, MSN (Bing.com) and other search engines have allowed online business to boom, with Google and its pay per click system regarded as the most powerful online business marketing tool in terms of earning money. Every online marketer should investigate Google because most web visitors come from the Google search engine. Moreover, the Google AdWords program helps many new online businesses get off to a good start, AdSense has also been key in generating revenues for many business projects and even personal websites. Google’s PPC program enables site and blog owners to earn money by presenting ads from their servers that are relevant to the content and the topics on the site or blog.

As the Internet industry continues to grow and expand, you cannot simply rely on Google’s AdSense money making ads and links for all your income, you must look for other ways that offer income generating opportunities too. You may have the benefits of Google AdSense now, but how long it will work for you?

Investing time and effort in just one online moneymaking system is too risky, being open to the most up to date marketing tools will increase your sales, and using them ahead of other less Internet savvy people will make sure you earn more money before the competition catches on to it.

John Osgood writes about and teaches people how to make money online for a minimal cost. John maintains the strict policy of building a relationship and not “HAMMERING” his subscribers with constant email offers!

His 5-day e-course for anyone who wants to make money using free tools can be downloaded here: Head over to http://www.onehourdayjob.com to get your FREE copy now!

There also many other resources for anyone looking to make money online, including Podcasts and a blog which you can check out by going to: http://www.onehourdayjob.com/blog

Yours, John Osgood!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Osgood

The drop ship store catalogue can still be found and used here…Drop Ship Order Store
If you are just starting in the retail gift business and don’t have the money or the space to keep stocks of gift ideas from a Gift wholesaler, you may be interested in the sales method known as ”drop shipping.” This sales method allows you to open your own gift shop without the cash outlay of using a gift wholesaler, and without the stock of gifts, and without the risk. Here is an introduction of how our services can help you earn a substantial income right from the comfort of your home selling gifts. Companies on the Internet use all types of different pricing structures and drop shippers are no different. You may want to offer free shipping or you could pass the shipping cost to your customers it’s your choice. You can sell at the maximum retail price or run a special offers Drop shippers give you with the opportunity to start your own business but don’t tell you how to run your business.
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You place your gift ideas for sale on the online auctions, your E-Commerce website, Gift catalogue, or any where you can generate sales.
Once a customer picks the gift they want and you receive a sale, you take payment for the gifts from your customer for the retail price of the gifts, including all shipping and handling fees. You can choose to accept cheques, postal orders, credit cards, Pay Pal, or whatever payment method you would like.
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Once you have taken your order and received payment. Send the order to us, either by Web site shopping cart, Email, Fax or phone. Along with the drop ship cost of the item. Payment can be made by Credit or debit card, Pay pal, Cash (by special delivery) and Postal Order. You can also pay by cheque but this will delay the dispatch of goods. We recommend using the web site shopping cart, …Drop Ship Order Store
When you place your order you will only pay the wholesale price of the gifts plus postage and packing. I.e. Crystal owl Cost £2.64, postage and packing £1.71, Insurance £0.75 (optional). Total cost £5.10 Retail £7.99 plus post, packing & insurance. £2.95 Total receipts £10.94. £10.94 less £5.10 = £5.84 Profit
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uk-dropshipers.co.uk will upon receipt of your drop ship order. Begin to process it immediately and send the order direct to your customer with your return address on the label. All drop ship orders ship within 24 hours from confirmation of payment. (not including weekends or bank holidays)

The customer will assume the gifts came from you and will not be aware that uk-dropshipers.co.uk was involved in the transaction.
Our whole gift range is available for you to use. All pictures and descriptions can be copied directly off our website.
Our whole product range is available on our website.
Unlike many other drop shipping companies there are no upfront fees it is totally free to set up an account with UK-Dropshipers.co.uk
if you need assistance or have a special request we are only an email away
Drop shipping summery
you retail the gift item at the retail price of your choice.
You sell the product to any customer you want.
You collect your payment from your customer.
You call, e-mail, and fax the order to us.
We bill you using your preferred payment method
we send the gifts directly to your customer.