The concept of dropshipping is quite simple: You list an item for sale, then when someone buys it you place an order with the dropshipping company and have it sent to the customer directly.
As you can see, dropshipping cuts out seller handling. You can sell a wide range of stocks and not have to store it anywhere yourself. It also means no trips to the post office, and eliminates the problem of having bought goods that nobody wants. You only buy the goods when they've been sold.
While all this sounds perfect, the reality can sometimes be quite different. For a start, dropshipping companies can sometimes be unreliable. If the customer doesn't receive their order, or it's not as described, guess who will get the blame? You will! Even though it may not be your fault.
Another potential problem with dropshipping is the higher prices charged by the suppliers. While a dropshipping fee of a couple of dollars may not seem like much, it can dramatically eat into your profit margins. Remember that eBay buyers demand low prices from you.
There is also the issue of not being able to answer customer questions so easily. If you don't have the product right in front of you to see, how can you accurately answer a question someone is asking?
Also think about customer returns. How easy will it be to return an item to the dropshipper if someone requests a refund from you? How will communication with the dropshipper work?
So having looked at both sides of the coin, can dropshipping work on eBay? The answer to that is YES it can, BUT the key is to seek out a reliable supplier. If you're sure that a dropshipping company is reliable and will offer a suitable level of customer satisfaction while providing a good profit margin, then go for it.
Dropshipping could be the ideal setup for an eBay business. Just be careful of the rogue companies out there, and make sure you plan out the operation and consider every eventuality. Many new eBay sellers hear fascinating stories about how "thousands of people are getting rich selling products they don't have to see, store, or even pay for..." Sound familiar? Well if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is.
So you might be starting to think that I don't believe in the existence of good and reliable dropshippers. Well, you couldn't be further from the truth. I would like to suggest you put a new spin on dropshipping. Did you ever play the game "6 Degrees Of Kevin Bacon?" It's the one where you start with any actor and you have to link him to other co-stars until you reach a movie that the actor Kevin Bacon was in... well what in the world does that have to do with dropshipping you must be wondering?
No matter who you are, I'm sure you know somebody who knows somebody else and etc. until you reach a point where you might just a have a friend who would be interested in helping you out. Use your connections to your advantage and always try to deal with people you trust. You would be surprised to find that you might just know someone in your own network of family, friends, and local neighborhood shops who is not quite as eBay savvy as you - and would love to provide you with dropshipping services if you would help them setup an eBay campaign. This is just one suggestion on how to find a reliable dropshipper that you can actually depend on... I can't find a dropshipper for you, but I can help you think outside of the box. Give these techniques a test drive and you might just surprise yourself.
Friday, December 26, 2008
How to Make Money with Drop shipper
Monday, December 8, 2008
Advertising Your Business Opportunity
An Advertising business opportunity on the Internet is just exploding with possibilities. This is one of the most profitable endeavors available in the field of Internet advertising. If you have advertising experience and know even the basics of Internet, you have potential to start your own advertising business on the Internet.
There are many areas of the Internet that need to be learned before starting your advertising business opportunity. Multi level marketing, or MLM, is one way of generating advertising and sales at the same time. MLM is a system that allows someone to collect commissions on their own sales as well as on people they recruit under them. This used to be known as pyramid schemes.
MLM has become very popular with product sales, helping the organization build wealth by paying commissions on multiple levels. The concept from an advertising point of view is great, the more motivation you have to recruit people to sell your product, the more your product is out there on the market. Some examples of companies that use MLM are nutritional product lines, make up product lines, and home decoration lines.
Multi level marketing has been around for years and not likely to go away anytime soon. Focus needs to be clear however on what the drive is for the company. If your focus is only on recruiting people to recruit more people, then your product sales are going to suffer. When your product sales suffer, your business as a whole suffers and then no one wants to be a part of the industry. Keep your focus when dealing with MLM with your advertising business opportunity.
Ezines are another emerging way to get a product or service out to the public. Ezines, or electronic magazines, are usually specialized to a certain areas of interest. This is very much like conventional magazines. However, advertising in ezines is low-cost and even occasionally free. Another advertising business opportunity that is wide open.
Ezines in themselves will need advertising to get their word out. A perfectly written ezine does no one any good if no one knows that it is out there to be seen. Finding an audience for your ezine may be easier than you think. Make sure when going into ezines that you know your material and that the writing is concise and accurate.
SEO, or search engine optimization, is a proven method of advertising on the Internet and a field, which is very much in demand at this time. SEO is a system of writing web content that uses specific key words and phrases that will pull the page up when that keyword or phrase is typed into any of the search engines. Knowing how to effectively use keywords to get a site recognized is critical for small businesses on the web.
When you open a search engine such as 'Yahoo!' or 'Google', and type in the phrase Internet advertising, you will get a list of results. Those results are formulated by the words Internet and advertising. Sites that have those two words incorporated consistently throughout the site will come up on the list. These lists are in order by the most hit on sites at the top of this list. Of course, that is where you want your advertising business opportunity clients to be.
Educating yourself on these concepts and a few more will allow you to start marketing your Internet advertising business. Becoming an Internet business advertising consultant to companies who are looking to expand their presence on the web is a first step in building your reputation and presence in this field.
You must have a well-written profile centered on your Internet advertising experience and an up to date resume'. Businesses today are being inundated with new, and sometimes bogus, advertising opportunities and you need to stand out above all those other offers. Keep your presence, online and in the field, professional at all times and make sure you can deliver what you promise. With those things in mind, you should be successful.
Friday, December 5, 2008
How to Make Money On Ebay with Your Old Stuff
So you have a bunch of stuff lying around the house and garage that you do not use anymore. If you figure there is some value to what you own and do not need anymore, there is a good chance you can get rid of it on ebay. Many people question what would be the best items to sell online in auction, they want to get the best dollar for their items. One of the biggest roadblocks for people is that they just do not know what to sell.
Finding an item to sell on ebay that will make you a quick killing is not an easy task to say the least, fact is it's a rare thing. The idea or notion of a get rich quick item of scheme on ebay is a fable for most, not to say that it has not happened just not very often. One of the easiest ways of building a system is to canvass the neighborhood and offer to sell their old stuff that they no longer want. This will not make you rich, yet it will set up a particular area for people to view auction able commodities in your name. This will give you an open door to return business. When you do this you can ask for percentage, and fees that come with the whole ebay account business. This will give you income for doing nothing but peddling other people's stuff. Any money make through this method can be put into product of your own, to be sold on ebay as well.
Ebay also has trading assistants on hand to help you move your product if you wish. These assistants will sell your product for a fee, this eases your situation and you will still turn profit. These assistants have great tools at their disposal including marketing strategies, and templates for selling. Clearly the easiest thing to sell once you have decided to go it on your own is something you are familiar with. Having some knowledge on the product makes it easier to set an appropriate price and sales strategy. If you know nothing about car parts, you obviously cannot give an honest and informative description on the items. The entire object of successful business is to entertain the masses that have an interest in what you have. There are people out there that have similar interests as you, finding the items that will help them are always a good idea.
Knowing the product allows you to stay a step ahead of the competition, this will give you the traffic you need to be a successful ebay seller in the long run. This is a great way to generate income while on a part time basis, or start a full time career.