How to List on Amazon

If you want to use Amazon which I highly recommend there's an unlimited amount of items you can list for free.  When I started I just started listing every item my dropshipper had available.  I did a search on Amazon for the item I wanted to list and after finding this item I first checked my competitor's prices and determined if it would be worth my while to list.  Most of the time it was.  Even if I wasn't the lowest price I still listed just in case someone wanted to buy from me based on my location which was CA (where my dropshipper was located).  I determined the lowest possible price I should list the item at.  Normally I just listed at 120%-125% or higher of my dropshipper's price plus estimated shipping costs.  Most of the time I just did a quick calculation in my head and went with it.  I never take a loss so my price would always make me a profit.  I normally won't list an item unless I can make about a 10% profit margin or $5.  Even though sales only take a few minutes to process I didn't want a lot of small profit margins on sales.  Some of the items I sell are refurbished and returns can happen which could cut into my profits.

When I was list the item I just go through the necessary steps (item condition, condition note, Price, Quantity and shipping options).  Currently Amazon lists the low price within these steps so I can see how my price compares.  For listing condition I just put a brief description and copied the same for most items.  For example: "Brand New, Factory Sealed, Ships Fast using Fed Ex w/ tracking number!!  Shipping will take 2 to 4 days to arrive."  I have a few different condition notes that I use depending on the item I was selling.  For quantity I normally put in about 7-9 items.  I don't want to put in too many but I don't want to just put in one.  You need to be careful because dropshippers can run out of stock.  There have been times I've received orders for seven of the same item in one order.  My dropshipper only had 3 in stock so I had the unfortuneate duty to inform the customer and refund either for the items not shipped or the entire order.  Losing out on the sale was hard to take.  If you only list one item then you will need to relist when it sells.  This is extra time you don't want to spend.

I just spend a Saturday listing as many items as I could and the sales started flowing in.  It was amazing making so much money.  It felt like a cash machine.  I'll go over many other topics later including checking inventory with your dropshipper, what to do after a sale, keeping records, etc.

For Dropshippers and Suppliers: 

http://www.salehoo.com/learn-more?aff=legend14

Here's some great information on how to become an Ebay powerseller in 90 days.  I was a powerseller and the benefits are outstanding (save 20% on fees, etc): Click Here!

To open your own store using the free trial:  Start Online Business Today

How to Create an Online Store

An online store provides a seller with several features that are not provided through sites like eBay; expenses for creating and managing an online store are less than the expenses for selling through a third party site. When selling through a third party site, the owner must pay an expense to sell items and pay a fee for every product sold. In contrast, an online store would only require the purchase of a domain name and flat monthly fee. Some sites, such as SaleHoo.com, provide a fast way to build an online store and direct traffic flow to the products being sold.

How to Create an Online Store

There are several methods for creating an online store; the two most common methods are building one from scratch or purchasing a hosting service. Building one from scratch requires knowledge of web design and html programming language; it also requires registering a domain name and the software for the checkout function. Regardless of how the online store is built, it must have safety features and security that consumers trust in order for purchases to be conducted.

Some hosting services provide the security required for an online store as part of the store package; for example, SaleHoo stores provide Secure Payment Processing and symbols to show the customers that one's store is secured and safe for making purchases. The previously mentioned example site also provides a constructed store template that is easily customized to fit one's online store preferences, further explained in later sections.

Creating an Online Store from Scratch

Building an online store from the ground up begins with registering a domain name, which may be anything one chooses but should be relevant to the online store or company. After registering a domain name, one may purchase software to build an online store or write the code for the store manually. Payment options must be programmed for the customers use, as well as providing security for any financial transactions and consumer's personal information. A shipping method must also be setup with one of the major shipping companies for consumer's to receive purchased products reliably.

The advantage of building an online store from scratch is the level of control one has over the site, and the full access to the sites source code for modifying the site. On the flipside, it requires an extensive amount of knowledge in programming and designing websites to build a good online sight. This inspired the creation of hosting services that provide an online store template, which allows for people without any knowledge of building web sites to create an online store.

Hosting Service for your Online Store

Hosting services supply a means for one to build and manage an online store in just a few minutes, where building one from scratch would take days. An example of one of these hosting services is SaleHoo Stores. Through SaleHoo stores there are approximately twenty templates for a variety of online store designs, which may be further customized by the one building the website. The hosting service places the products one is selling on the website with an appealing style, as well as provides enhanced navigation of the online store.

The website is designed with a layout that may easily be navigated by potential consumers, and the Bread Crumb style menu prevents consumers from losing track of where they are on the site. In addition to the design aspects, SaleHoo provides search engine optimization through Google; there is also something known as SaleHoo Traffic Training that may be purchased in order to learn how to drive an increased amount of traffic to one's online store. 

For those already selling on eBay, TurboLister will import one's listings and post them to the online store automatically. This particular hosting service only requires a monthly fee, which remains the same unless the subscription plan is upgraded. Other hosting services available vary in monthly rates, availability of templates and specific features to aid one in selling products. The goal of the hosting service is to provide people with no experience in web design with a way to sell products online, without any of the charges or fees required for third party selling sites. 

Visit http://www.salehoo.com/stores?aff=legend14 to learn how to create an online store with SaleHoo Stores

Or you can try this pre-stocked store free for 7 days: Start Online Business Today

Selling Online Using Dropshipping #2

I spent six years selling various products on Amazon, Ebay, Half, and Craigslist.  I can say my favorite place to sell was on Amazon.  You can list as many products as you want and it doesn't cost any money.  There's no expiration and you can sell multiples of the same item so you don't need to relist every time it sells.  All payments are taken care of by Amazon and you can withdraw your sales directly into your bank account once per day.  The busy season is obviously before Christmas.  Usually mid November to late December.  $1K profits in one day isn't uncommon during this time.  Other times of the year you should be able to make $500 to $1,000 per month working about one hour a day.  Most of the work comes at the beginning when you have to list all the products you want to sell.  You can do this manually item by item or you can use a program to list multiple items at once.  Steps to take:

*Find a Dropshipper or Two and sign up (usually you get a free trial period of 30 or 60 days)
*Sign up for Seller Account on Amazon.com and Ebay.com
*Start Listing Items - Make sure you understand the fee structure and list the item so you will make a profit.  I try to get at least 10% profit margin.  But you need to position your price so you are the lowest or one of the lowest prices compared to your competitors (other sellers) - You need to build up feedback so your profit margin may suffer at first.  But don't take a loss on a sale. 
* When Sales come in, order the item from your dropshipper the same day, you can copy and paste your customer's name and address directly into the shipping address.  Make sure you use a credit card that offers points or rewards because this is another huge benefit.  The more you spend the more rewards you get!  I never had to pay to go out to eat because I redeemed points for gift cards through my credit card reward program!
* Email the customer to thank them for the order, provide the tracking number of the shipment and ask for positive feedback

I'll go over some important customer service tips later.  Have a great day everyone.  Here are a few of the sites I've used within my business.  Check them out and sign up for the free trial if you are interested.  If you would rather open your own store I've posted that link here as well.  You'll have a running store immediately and you just need to send people to it.  You really don't have to do anything else, the company takes care of processing orders, sending out items, handling returns, etc.  I love this concept and it doesn't hurt to try it out using the free trial!

For Dropshippers and Suppliers:  http://www.salehoo.com/learn-more?aff=legend14

Here's some great information on how to become an Ebay powerseller in 90 days.  I was a powerseller and the benefits are outstanding (save 20% on fees, etc): Click Here!

To open your own store:  Start Online Business Today

Jon

Hello,

This is my first blog and I'm excited to share a little of what I have learned selling stuff online over the past six years.  I no longer sell but for anyone looking to make some extra money I would strongly suggest getting started.  I'm sure many people think selling stuff means having to buy items to sell, hold inventory, make the sale, package up the item and ship.  However, over my many years of selling I never actually had to hold any inventory and I never had to package the items or go to the post office and ship. 

Its called Dropshipping! 

Its really simple, you find a company willing to sell you products and ship the items directly to your customers after you sell the item.  It works like this - you find a dropshipping company that offers many products that you can sell on Amazon or Ebay and once you sell the item, you order it from the dropshipping company and they ship the item directly to your customer!  You normally pay a small fee for the service ($1-$3) plus shipping but you save a lot of time because you don't have to handle any of the product.  You set your price so you make a profit after the cost of the item, dropshipping fee and shipping.  It only takes a few minutes to order the product online and the droppshipping company does the rest.  There's a lot more that goes into it (emailing the customer with tracking info, asking for positive feedback, handling returns and complaints) but today I'm just giving you a brief description of how it works.  Its pretty easy to make an extra $1,000 a month if you select the right products to sell and use the right dropshipping company.  Here's a few companies I have used. 

http://www.salehoo.com/learn-more?aff=legend14
http://www.megagoods.com