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  • Importing Basics - What You Need To Know To Get Started - You’re Already Importing — Why Not Get the Benefits? Everyone knows there are great deals to be found overseas — items that can be picked up for a fraction of the cost. But what you may not have considered is that almost everything you’re buying domestically has already been imported. You’re just paying a mark-up cost to whomever did the actual importing for you. For retail newcomers, there’s nothing wrong with that. But for the established businessperson, importing directly can save a lot of money.
  • "An Effective Trick To Help You Not Take Things Personally!" [Reflections Of A Middle-Aged Man] - I think it would be fair to say that we all have a tendency to take things personally. It's just that some of us have a greater tendency than others to do so. And, when it happens, some of us are better able to deal with it within ourselves than others. Taking things personally is never healthy in any relationship: employer-employee, friend-friend, husband-wife, partner-partner, parent-child, . . . for a number of reasons. One main such reason is that, if you do take things personally, then your feelings will continually be at the mercy of others - whether they attacked you personally or not.
  • Designing Your Web Store: The Building Blocks Of An Ecommerce Site - 4 Things Your Web Site Should Accomplish In building a successful E-Biz, every bit as important as choosing the right products is creating an appealing and user-friendly web site. Your web site acts as your online store, and just like a physical store, it needs to be set up in a way that makes customers want to stay and buy.
  • 3 Tips For Choosing A Payment Gateway: Collecting Money Online - As a consumer, when you check out of your local convenience store, you swipe your credit card through a point-of-sale device, and your gas, coffee, and donut are paid. But what if you are the retailer and your business is online?
  • Shopping Smart: Using Technology To Simplify Market Research - Every time you’re out - at the mall or in a store - you see ideas for great products you can sell through your e-business. But before you decide whether a product is worth pursuing, you have to determine if you can compete with it. That requires performing some market research to understand what the market will bear.
  • Defying Trends In Inflation For Consumer Electronics - Consumer electronics is an industry that has long been associated with inflated prices. The latest and greatest in digital cameras, camcorders, media players, and even spy gear will set anyone back a pretty penny. But where there is a will, there is a way.
  • Why Buy? How To Write Sales Copy That Sells - Sending the Right Message Online sales are not all together that different from brick-and-mortar sales. The bottom line is that you are still trying to convert shoppers into buyers. So while it’s great to have great products, if your sales copy is ineffective, you will find yourself unable to move them. So what should sales copy look like?
  • Stages Of Conversion - Increasing Your Conversion Rates - Every web site owner wants to convert more traffic. But what is conversion exactly, and how is it measured? In eCommerce, conversion is often defined as the percentage of web site visitors that purchase something respective to the total number of visitors — in other words, how many people that actually visit your site actually buy something! But this is a narrow definition and can be limiting for the entrepreneur, because purchase conversions are actually made up of a succession of lesser conversions.
  • Giving Something Back: Online Charity For Your E-Biz - ECommerce and charity don’t often cross paths; but when they do, they form a powerful connection. Virtual charity malls, like http://BuyForCharity.com and http://Benevolink.com, were designed to enable your Internet customers to give to causes they value, without spending any extra money. When your E-Biz joins a mall, your buyers make the purchases that they would normally make, and your store donates a percentage from every sale to your shopper’s charity-of-choice. The Basics Some charity malls will let your E-Biz participate at no cost. Others are free if your store is recommended by a member, but charge a slotting fee for you to join unsolicited. However, ePhilanthropy pioneer Robert Grosshandler, founder of online charity mall http://iGive.com, finds that, even with paid memberships, merchants tend to return year after year.

  • Tips For Finding And Getting Good Deals At Garage Sales - When eBay first started, garage sales were most sellers’ main source for finding products. And though product sourcing has come a long way, garage sales still provide a wide range of quality goods at rock-bottom prices. Rules of the Game According to Terry Gibbs, founder of http://IWantCollectibles.com, “Garage sales are a numbers game. You always have to be looking.” The trick to successful garage sale hunting is persistence. You’ve just got to keep getting out, going back, and being constantly on the look-out for new products to sell. 1. Get an early start. You’re competing with all the other shoppers for the best finds. Most garage sales start fairly early in the morning, so if you wait until the afternoon, you’ll be picking through the leftovers. 2. Hit as many garage sales as possible.
  • Marketing With RSS Feeds - Creating A Direct Link To Your Customers - What’s an RSS feed? Due to the overwhelming amount of spam on the Internet, many users are turning from traditional newsletter subscriptions to RSS feeds to get their information. RSS is Really Simple Syndication. Besides connecting you directly to your customers, feeds are advantageous for several reasons: • They update automatically. Anytime you publish a new article or blog, your readers receive it with no effort on their part, or yours. • They're delivered direct.
  • Product Sourcing Using Trade Publications - Getting Inside Information - If you’re an online retailer — or any type of retailer — there’s probably no better reading material for you than industry publications.
  • Branding Your E-Biz - Creating A Name Your Customers Trust - If you want customers to spend money with you online, you have to make them feel confident they’re dealing with a legitimate business. They’re giving you their personal information, as well as their credit card number. If your web site sends a clear message that you run your business from your home, they may not feel comfortable entrusting you with that kind of info. That’s why it’s important to create a brand your customers recognize and trust. What’s a Brand? Your brand is what differentiates you from every other E-Biz out there: • A brand is a set of expectations you create in your customers’ minds, in regards to your business.
  • 3 Tips For Every Woman Starting A Home Based Business - Challenges To Expect, Keys To Succeed - More and more women today work from home, and even more want to. Some are single moms or widows who need to earn a living. Others just want a little extra income or a sense of independence. Particularly for women, starting a home business presents a unique set of challenges. Lesley Spencer, founder and president of Home Based Working Moms ( http://HBWM.com ), suggests three steps to help ensure success: 1. Consider Your Options The first obstacle in starting a business is figuring out which one’s right for you.
  • Promoting Yourself On EBay - Tips From A PowerSeller - One key to selling successfully on eBay is getting people to your listings. If no one sees what you’re selling, no one’s going to buy it. But even once they get there, if they don’t like what they see, they won’t stay around and bid.
  • 3 Tools For Product Sourcing On EBay - Using Seller Central - You may have already discovered that selling on eBay can be fun and profitable. But after you’ve cleared out your garage and attic, and auctioned off everything your husband owns, where can you go to get new product ideas?
  • Tax Tips For EBay Sellers - Turning Personal Expenses Into Business Expenses - Few people realize that starting a side-business on eBay is actually a great way to save money on your taxes. The trick is to make sure you’re putting all the additional expenses you incur against your additional income. Running an E-Biz allows you to take numerous deductions that can add up to a lot of savings. Deduct Your Home Office By definition, if you’re an eBay seller, you have a home office.
  • Forecasting Buying Trends Based On Past Sales: 5 Questions To Help You Get Started - Do you underestimate the power of tracking your sales? According to Lisa Suttora, founder of http://WhatDoISell.com, online retailers can learn a lot from those figures. Says Suttora, "When it comes to figuring out what inventory to sell in the upcoming season, you need to start by looking at your sales from seasons past. The numbers tell the story." As your eBusiness moves forward, tracking this data helps you avoid repeating mistakes and enables you to make well informed product sourcing decisions. History Lessons As you look at your sales history, there are five specific questions you should be asking, to gain a proper perspective on your sourcing position: 1. What patterns did I see in my business during the previous season? Identify the defining characteristics of your best selling items.
  • Getting Googly - A Quick Introduction To Google AdWords - You've most likely seen Google AdWords, even if you don’t realize it. It’s that list of sponsored links that runs down the right side of your computer screen when you Google a word.
  • 4 Strategies For Seasonal Selling - Planning For Retail Cycles - Every product has a natural life cycle and a season where it sells best. Some early buyers come at the beginning of the cycle, and then the mass of buyers come. Prices peak and retailers begin running out of stock. Sales slow, and trickle down to a few last-minute shoppers. As an online seller, it’s critical you prepare for the natural retail cycles you'll experience throughout the year. With some simple strategies, you can make the most of the opportunities presented by the changing seasons: 1. Keep the Flow Going The way to maintain sales volume is to be ready for the next selling season. Phase in your new seasonal items for early shoppers while your other product line sales are winding down.
  • How To Select Your Product Line: Researching Your Market - Make Fact-Based Decisions Choosing what products you’ll sell is one of the most important decisions you’ll make regarding your E-Biz. If you choose your product line based on personal preferences or hot-item lists, you’re gambling with your business. There may not be a market for your particular tastes or the market may be saturated. And by the time an item reaches a hot-list, the supply has met or exceeded the demand. That’s why you need to base all your decisions on your market research. Gather information about specific products, not just overall market data. You want to know exactly what the demand and competition is for your particular item.
  • Search Engine Marketing - Gaining Exposure Through Sponsored Ads - No matter how great your products or how well-designed your web site, if no one ever sees them, you’ll never sell anything. That's why you have to let people know you’re there.
  • Internet Seminars: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly - Finding Quality Seminars and Avoiding Scams Internet seminars can be a valuable tool for your E-Biz: they give you opportunities to network and meet new contacts in your industry. You can learn a lot about how to improve your business and run it more efficiently.
  • One Man’s Trash… Could Be Your Treasure - 3 Rules Of Thrifty Product Sourcing - Thrift shops and consignment stores can be excellent sources for your product inventory — they always have fresh items to pick through and you can find some great pieces for rock-bottom prices. • Consignment stores, are commission-based. People bring in products for the store to sell on commission — what doesn’t sell is returned to the owner. • Thrift stores are often ‘not for profit’ and get most of their goods via donations.
  • Selecting And Changing Your Product Lines - What Should I Sell Now? - Product Sales Tracking Everyone’s constantly after new products to sell, but it’s just as crucial to recognize how your current products are selling. In order to know your best business move, you need to ask the right questions: What’s selling? Why is it selling? When does it sell best?
  • How To Make Your Family And Friends Your Investors - Minimizing The Risks Of Personal Loans - Most people don’t realize that over half the businesses in America are financed by money from family and friends. The truth is that everyone relies on their circles when they have nowhere else to go. Someone with mediocre credit may have a difficult time getting a start-up loan from a bank, but Mom and Dad will always help out if they can. Weighing the Pros and Cons There are inherent risks and advantages to getting a private loan over a bank loan: Risks: • Not clarifying both parties’ expectations. If you don’t have a clear repayment plan and stick to it, it’s very easy to get behind or to never set the money aside to pay off the lump sum. • Relationships can be damaged when money gets involved.
  • What’s Affiliate Marketing?... Forming Marketing Partnerships - Affiliate marketing is advertising for someone else in exchange for a cut of the sales you generate. You’re sharing your traffic for a price. It’s a great way to capitalize on the traffic your web site’s already producing. An Affiliate's Perspective If you run a small, home-based E-Biz, you can join an affiliate program and get paid to share your traffic with another merchant. You’ll want to look for sites that tie in with yours — things your customer base will be interested in. Choose sites whose products are complementary to yours without overlapping.
  • Knowledge Is Power - Using eBay Market Research - New eBay retailers are often overwhelmed with all the choices they have to make — what to sell, what to charge, how to list an item. Thankfully, there are numerous tools available to answer those questions. EBay sold the data on every sale they’ve ever made to various companies. Those companies, in turn, created tools to interpret that data and spot trends and patterns in it.
  • Shopping With Uncle Sam - A Breakdown Of Government Auctions - A Retailer’s Bargain Paradise? You've probably heard about the amazing deals you can find at government auctions — the planes, trains, and automobiles your uncle's neighbor’s cousin picked up for a song. But how true are these stories? Are government auctions really a good source for purchasing products for resale?
  • 3 Things Search Engines Want To See - Using Links The Engines Will Like - Search engine companies are constantly changing their algorithms to keep their results up-to-date. Optimization used to be the primary factor search engines used to determine a web site’s ranking.
  • 4 Rules For New Entrepreneurs - Practical Tips For Starting Right - It’s a great time to be an entrepreneur — in the last decade, technology has leveled the playing field and propelled an entrepreneurial revolution. As an entrepreneur, you now have more access to information that enables you to make more intelligent choices more quickly. You have an advantage over big businesses in that you’re lighter, more flexible, and faster on your feet. You can target new markets more quickly, and you can turn on a dime.
  • Learning From History: 5 Common eBay Mistakes - Errors in Judgment Certain mistakes are common among eBay sellers, even those with experience. But avoiding them can result in higher close rates and better final prices. Lynn Dralle, of http://TheQueenOfAuctions.com, shares the five top mistakes she sees eBay sellers make: 1. Writing a Bad Title. Look at the keywords other sellers are using for similar items, and use every relevant keyword you can—make the most of your 55 characters!
  • What’s A Blog And Why Should I Have One? - Using Blogs To Generate Business - Most everyone on the Internet has, at some point, run across blogs. Blogs are simply Internet journals, recording whatever happens to be on a writer’s mind at a given moment. Typically written in an informal tone, blogs read as though the writer is having a friendly conversation with their readers. Though blogs have exploded in popularity, few online retailers understand that blogging can be a very effective way to drive sales for their e-businesses. Getting Started The easiest way to start a blog is with a free commercial service, like http://Blogger.com or http://BlogSpot.com. All you have to do is set up an account and start blogging. To create a blog that sits on your web site, you can go to http://SixApart.com and choose from several software options.
  • The New Face Of Advertising - Drawing Customers To Your Site With Interactive Marketing - What is Interactive Marketing? You’re most likely familiar with the popular pay-per-click advertisements that many E-Biz owners employ — you may even use them yourself. They can be a very effective tool for driving traffic to your web site.
  • 4 Things You Should Know Before Starting An E-Biz - Advice from a Genius Renowned E-Biz author Sydney Johnston created the now-famous Auction Genius courses ( http://Auction-Genius-Course.com ) to aid people wanting to create their own e-businesses. She shares some important tips for anyone looking to learn the online retail industry: Tip 1 — Start Small.
  • Hot Stuff! Helping Yourself To EBay's Research - Slow Burn Many people turn to hot lists to make product sourcing decisions. These lists are designed to tell sellers what buyers want at the moment. The problem is most of these lists are static, so they quickly become obsolete. When a hot list comes out, everyone jumps on board and quickly floods the market with those items, leaving little room for competition. Both product sourcing and market research are dynamic in nature. The difference between a hot list that’s going to burn you and a hot list that can put you ahead of the retailing curve is whether or not that list is being continually updated with new research data.
  • Tradeshow Sourcing: When The Show’s Over - Following Up with Suppliers For the online retailer, tradeshows are a fantastic way to locate product sources. You can easily fill up a suitcase with the materials you collect from different wholesalers at a show. But having supplier information is only a start — your next step is determining which suppliers you want to use and then beginning to develop relationships with them. Ask the Right Questions When you talk to a supplier, you should already be familiar with their products. Before you even start contacting the suppliers you met, do your market research and determine which products you really want to pursue. There are really only two types of information you should be looking for when you call a supplier: 1.Pricing info. They’re not going to publish their wholesale prices online where the general public can see them, so you'll have to ask for price quotes.
  • Legal And Tax Strategies For The Online Retailer - Protecting Yourself And Your Assets - When you open an E-Biz, it’s important you remember that it really is a business and approach it as you would any other business. Don’t just jump in and start selling. Consider all the legal issues — your responsibilities and the risks you’re assuming — in order to safe-guard your investments. Do I Need to Charge Taxes Online? If you’re running an Internet company, it’s your responsibility to keep current on tax laws that affect you. As a retailer, you’re obligated to know the laws regarding both the collection and payment of state sales taxes. According to CPA Jim Reed, of Teton Tax ( http://www.tetontax.com ), “The collection of sales tax for items sold over the Internet is only required if the business has a physical presence in that state.
  • 5 Benefits Of Using Feeds - How Feeds Can Help Your E-Biz - What’s a Feed? Feeds are a way of sharing content. When you make material from your web site, like articles and blogs, available for publishing on other sites, you have to provide them with a code that lets them post those things. There are different kinds of code — XML, RSS, Atom, etc. — but essentially, they’re all just different ways of accessing a feed. According to Internet expert Sydney Johnston, of http://Auction-Genius-Course.com, “The great thing about a feed is everybody wins.” The article writer gains exposure, the reader learns about something valuable or interesting, and the online seller gets an endless source of pertinent content for their web site. What Can a Feed Do for My Online Business? Feeds are useful in a number of different ways: • They Eliminate Spam Filters. They’re 100% opt-in, so readers can subscribe and unsubscribe at will.
  • Building Your Line-up: 5 Product Types Every Seller Should Carry - Too often, e-tailers think only in terms of carrying individual products. But according to Lisa Suttora, of http://WhatDoISell.com, “If you’re in the mindset of selling one product to one person, you’re thinking about making a one-time sale, not about building a business.
  • Sourcing Customer Returns - Buying Retail Returns At Wholesale Prices - Retail overstocks and customer returns can be an excellent product source — as long as you understand what to expect when purchasing this kind of merchandise. A Mixed Bag of Goods Typically, returns are sold as pallets of assorted, dissimilar items — you’ll find everything from snow boots to toy cars to staplers. Most likely, you’ll also find some damaged goods among a pallet’s wares. A portion of these items were returned because the customer damaged them, or they didn’t work in the first place. In spite of the damages, many sellers feel they can make a profit.
  • Choose Wisely: How To A Pick Profitable Product Line - If you’re like most new online sellers, the problem with selecting the right product line-up for your web site isn’t a lack of choices. The problem is you have so many choices you don’t know how to start narrowing them down. The key, according to Vinnie Busnelli, General Manager for http://USellCorp.com, is to base your product decisions on facts, not emotions.
  • What Your Traffic’s Telling You - 4 Things Web Analytics Can Teach You - Brick-and-mortar stores often change displays, move goods around, and put impulse items beside checkouts. The reason behind these changes is they’re analyzing customer traffic and studying behavioral patterns to understand how consumers shop. As an online retailer, you need to study your customer traffic as well, in order to increase sales. Listen: Your Customers Are Talking There are a number of web traffic analytics companies, such as http://OneStat.com and http://StatCounter.com, that analyze your customers’ shopping patterns. They follow your customers’ clicks to and through your web pages and provide you with valuable info on how your customers experience your web site: 1. You see which keywords bring you, not only the most hits, but also the highest conversion rates.
  • Tradeshows The Right Way - How To Get The Most Out Of Going - For online retailers, trade shows are an incredible opportunity to source goods, connect with wholesalers and manufacturers, and expand their product lines. But there's a right way and a wrong way to attend tradeshows.
  • In The Know: Market Research And Your Bottom Line - You probably realize that you need to do research before deciding what to sell on eBay — knowing your market lets you pick a profitable product line-up and avoid expensive mistakes. But you may not realize that if you stop there, you’re missing out on a lot of potential sales!
  • Our Town — Sourcing Products Locally - Get Creative with Community Resources If you’ve ever picked up a trinket for $4 at a yard sale and sold it for $65 on eBay, you know how exciting translating your treasure hunts into cash can be. But yard sales are not your only local source of goodies. Dennis Hester of http://MillionDollarDeals.com has built a successful online business using local providers almost exclusively. Flea markets, antique stores, auction sales, craft shops — Hester attends them all. One particularly useful — and unusual — avenue he urges E-Biz retailers to try is calling trucking companies, and asking where they get rid of their OSD (over, short, and damaged) merchandise. Explains Hester, “Trucking companies sometimes get caught with a lot of merchandise.
  • Increasing Your Profits Through Buying Groups - Strength In Numbers - Why Join a Buying Group? Because wholesalers give pricing breaks to customers who buy in large volumes, small businesses are at a disadvantage. They usually can’t afford to purchase in huge quantities like the larger vendors.
  • EBay Drop-Off Centers: Selling For Someone Else - EBay has moved offline. Several companies, like Snappy Auctions and I Sold It On EBay, offer sellers franchises for brick-and-mortar eBay stores. These drop-off spots take customer items, evaluate, photograph, and list them online, collect the payments, and ship the items to their buyers. In other words, they do all the work — for a percentage of the selling price, of course. Beginner Strategies If you’ve contemplated jumping on the bandwagon and opening a physical drop-off location, fellow store-owner and eBay University instructor, Christopher Spencer has some advice for you: • Location is key. Get a good broker to help you identify convenient retail sites.
  • How EBay PowerSellers Source Products - A PowerSeller Shares His Secrets - If you want to know how to succeed at something, it’s a good idea to talk to someone who already has. Renowned eBay PowerSeller Skip McGrath offers some helpful insights on how you can find product sources for your online business. Once you’ve determined what you’re selling — where do you go to get the goods? Sourcing with a Pro According to McGrath, one of the best sources for products is local distributors because they’re easy to find. Go to http://smartpages.com and you can search by type.
  • What Should I Sell Online? - Ideas For Choosing Product Lines - What NOT to Sell Everyone who starts an E-Biz faces the question: What do I sell? And most everyone seems to make two classic mistakes in the beginning: 1. They try to sell what everyone else is selling — DVDs, electronics, designer clothing.

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