Produce Your Own Products to Sell Online

Physical products: If you wish to sell physical products online then there are various factors to consider such as; 1. How you will deliver them to your customers? 2. Will you carry the stock yourself? 3. How will you pay for your stock? Keeping Stock: Holding large quantities of stock is always a problem with cost and space. If you are or have ever been in a retail trade you will know what a pain it can be. You can ease that pain by only carrying stock that turns over quickly or by using a method known as drop shipping. Many retailers end up with items that don't shift and often it is better to sell them on at a reduced price or even at a loss if necessary to free up the space for the items that do sell. When selling physical items if possible stick with small ones that take up less space and are cheaper to post to the customer. Drop Shipping: This can help solve your cash flow problems. Some suppliers will offer a service called drop shipping. This is ideal for anyone who does not have space for physical stock. Also it means you do not have the cost of holding the stock yourself.You can use suppliers who offer this service for any online or retail business and it works well, take the customers order and payment and simply pass on the order details to the suppliers who then post the item directly to the customer. The suppliers will often bill you monthly so the money is in the bank long before the bill becomes due. This is a great service for online selling as you can have a huge range of products listed on your website without having to physically stock them all. Finding Suppliers: If you are new to the world of trading then you probably wonder where all the businesses out there find products they sell to you. Some will be manufacturing their own products and selling them direct to the customer but most buy from wholesalers. Wholesalers exist for just about every type of product we buy, they are the middlemen. They purchase the products in large quantities from the manufacturers and sell them on in smaller quantities to the retail shops or traders. You can find wholesalers online or by contacting trade associations connected to the type of products you want to purchase. Another way of finding them is to attend a trade exhibition; these are often free to attend and are also a great way of finding out more information on your chosen subject. Most wholesalers will have a minimum monthly spend requirement but often it is not very high and with most you can sign up with them just by placing a reasonably sized first order.You can also find lists of suppliers in trade directories; again you will need to contact the trade association in your chosen field. So it does not matter what your chosen products are from electrical goods to fishing equipment, there are thousands of possibilities. You just need to decide what type of product you want to sell. Below I have covered how you can produce your own products that are very well suited for online selling and where you may find others to purchase. Non-physical products: This covers a wide area of products or services but generally speaking I am talking about downloadable products here. Ebooks; or information books are by far the most suitable products to sell online, they are available immediately to the customer in most cases and can be sold through fully automated systems. Whatever business you are in you should be selling information products online and they are not difficult to find or create as I would recommend you do a search on "Google" or another search engine for "ebooks with resale rights" and you will be surprised just how many people are selling or even giving away ebooks for you to sell on. Software; You can also often find software packages for sale or free that offer re-sale rights, but this will depend on availability in your chosen "niche". A good way of insuring success is to refine your chosen "subject" or "niche", the more specialised your chosen niche the better your chances of success as there will be less competition. You also need to make sure that the chosen niche has enough interest though. Writing your own ebook: Some people are put off by the thought of having to write their own ebook, you may think it is not something you can do but actually it is not difficult at all. If you have knowledge of a subject then you can write your own ebook. Everyone knows about a subject be it a hobby or what you do for a living, and this should be your first choice of subject to write about. Approach the writing of it as if you are talking to a close friend or colleague and explaining it to them. This should help get you started even if you just write down a few notes at first you can expand the piece later. Often the easiest way to get started is to simply start writing and the words will begin to flow naturally. With the wonderful world of computers available to us these days you don't need to worry about spelling or grammar as programmes such as Microsoft word can take care of that for you. If you really can't face doing it yourself though there are alternatives. You may have a relative or friend who enjoys writing and for most people you just need to offer them the incentive of earning a little extra money. There are also websites to be found that are full of people who will write for you for a fee. You may also want to take a look at some of the article sites were you can find articles on practically any subject. These sites offer copyright free articles so long as you do not edit the work and include a link to the author's own site. When producing your own ebooks you can write them using Microsoft word or similar and then you will need to purchase a pdf writer to save your work and produce the ebook. There are some free versions of pdf creators available to download, again just do a search on Google or another search engine and you will find them. Delivering your products: If the products you are going to be marketing and selling online are heavy, "lets say over 2 kilos" you will need to find a cost effective way of getting the items to your customers. Many couriers offer discounts for large quantities of parcels and if you are signing up to them for the first time I would advise over estimating the quantities to get a better rate. Normally couriers will review your account after 12 months so then you will have the opportunity to switch to another carrier if you have not reached your target. Small items are less of a problem as you can use the normal postal service. One thing I have found is that if possible; do not charge extra for the postage. Customers like to get a bargain and covering your postal costs in with the item means you can advertise the fact the item is post fr.e.e. You may have to add the postage cost to the item but you can still advertise it as POST F.EE so long as you make it clear somewhere on your web-site that postage cost is included in the item total. For example discount an item and then you could state on your we-site; *FREE Postage to the UK* Then at the bottom of the page state; (*postage cost is included in the item price). With ebooks and other downloadable products you do not need to send out anything of course, although it is worth considering offering your customers a CD version. We all like to receive things through the post from time to time so this can be a good selling point to offer a download or the product on CD as an alternative. Of course the postage cost is very low for sending this type of product which makes them ideal for online sales. Competition: The most important part of Internet marketing or indeed when marketing any business is to understand your competition. In order to be successful you must do your homework first, understanding if the market exists and how big it is for your chosen product or service is vital. I would say though do not be put off by the fact there are already lots of other people or businesses offering the same products or service as you. If this is the case you simply need to stand out by being better at marketing than they are, or offering something that your competitors do not. To get you started looking at your potential market Google have a useful tool you can use for gauging how popular a specific subject is. If the results show the subject to be very pop ular you may find it useful to further refine your subject to find a niche that plenty of people search for but one that does not have too much competition for you. Remember there are hundreds of thousands of people going online everyday for the first time and each one is a potential new customer. So the market online is huge and if you pick the right product and then market the product professionally you can't fail. Having a well designed and professional looking web-site is essential for selling successfully on-line. Help with creating products:. If your chosen niche has a club or association connected with it in some way, you can use them in a variety of ways. They will be able to provide you with the information you need to create your products and you may be able to gain access to their members. Also this is a fantastic way to build a potential customer base and if you are not permitted actual members contact information you can still advertise your products through them. Summary: It may be that you are already in business and so your products or services are already defined by the factors listed here. You should then think about ways of changing your business to suit your online sales. To succeed in almost every type of business today it is essential to have an online presence of some kind either to drive customers to your physical business or to sell your products or services directly from your on-line website. Most importantly of all you should enjoy your marketing and I hope that I have given you the inspiration to move forward and of course succeed. © Gordon Bloomfield 2010 [http://www.moneymakingbusinessonline.net/] Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Gordon_Bloomfield/498277 Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4214346