I must be going through my Australian phase. Anyway, today is the
first of a two-part series on drop shipping on the Internet.
It is well written and a fun read. Chris Malta, the author of this
informative and fun series, has done a great job with this article.
I hope that you enjoy it.
You want to own a drop ship Internet business. You want to sell lots
of fancy, shiny new things to people all over the world. You're going
to set up a virtual store full of great products. The makers of those
products are going to ship them directly to your customers with YOUR
business name on them. You'll never have to buy even a dollar's worth
of inventory. No employees, no warehouse, no shipping department to
pay for. Your customers will shower you with Visa purchases, and your
suppliers will send the products directly to your customers. You'll
get rich, and spend the rest of your working life administering your
booming business via your laptop computer from a poolside lounge
chair on the terrace behind your sprawling beach house...oh, um,
sorry, that's MY dream...
Dreams are good things to have. They motivate you, drive you forward,
give you reason to hope for a better future, and they also tease
you mercilessly. The reality is that it takes a lot of work to
succeed in selling on the Internet. It can, however, be done. If you
know where the products are.
Drop shipping is a simple concept. As I said above, it works like this:
- You build an Internet site with a Shopping Cart and a
Merchant Account (so you can accept Visa, Mastercard, etc).
- You post lots of wonderful products for sale on your site.
- You buy the products from a drop-shipper for a dollar, and
sell them to your customers for a dollar fifty.
- The drop shipper you buy from sends the products directly to
your customers. You never touch the inventory.
- You keep the fifty cents. Pure profit.
Sounds great, huh? Ok, so where do you find the products you want to
sell, from a distributor who is willing to drop ship them?
|
|
|
|
Try a FREE DEMO at http://www.webcriteria.com/wp
and see how WebCriteria will help you convert
browsers to buyers, keep visitors coming
back, and improve the overall customer experience
on your site. WebCriteria objectively compares
your site with your competitors and specifies
improvements for site effectiveness! |
|
|
|
|
|
Click
for More info about ads
|
First Instinct
If you have a quality web site, chances are you're already
being linked to and don't even realize it. That's a great
starting point however, you must build on that by finding
targeted web sites that may be interested in exchanging links
with you. A targeted web site will have similar content to
yours, but will not be in competition. A good way to find
these web sites is to visit a Search Engine and type in one
of your keywords. Visit some of the top ranking sites and
gather information such as, the owner's name, email address
and a little bit about the web site. Contact the owner
personally and discuss a link exchange with them. Mention the
owner's name, web site and what you liked about his site. In
addition, tell him why you think a link exchange will benefit
both of you and a little bit about your web site.
My first instinct was simple: Hit the search engines, and search for
"Drop Ship". So, I did just that. Yahoo returned about 60 gazillion
hits touting the ever-popular "American Drop Shipper's Directory".
Can't go wrong there, I thought, so I happily zapped my twelve bucks
over the Net to one of the countless resellers of that popular book.
I stood patiently next to my mailbox for a couple of weeks, waiting
for my shiny new hardbound copy of the book that would make me rich.
When it finally showed up, I almost gave it to my son, thinking it
was a copy of his elementary school newsletter. In short, it was
nearly useless. Those listings that had phone numbers, I called.
Some of them didn't know what I was talking about. Some of them were
willing to drop ship, but I didn't think I was going to make a
fortune selling fake vomit and dribble glasses on the 'Net. The rest
of them wanted me to mail money to a PO box, and they would send me
information on how they were going to make me rich. Sigh.
Part 2 will be published tomorrow...
Excellent AVI and Streaming Media Editing Software
Techsmith.com
DO YOU KNOW HOW YOUR SITE MEASURES UP TO THE COMPETITION?
Webcriteria.com
We at the Editorial Team would like to thank all our readers for reading WebProNews.
We hope you find this information useful.
Peter Thiruselvam
Editor
The WebProNews Team
Expert in your field? We're looking for ARTICLES on web site design and
development, promotion, positioning, and e-commerce. Articles
should be in the 700 to 800 word range and include a 2 line
promotion of the author's site. Send submissions to: Pete@WebProNews
