Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Search Engine Marketing - What is Social Marketing?

By Terry Stanfield

Social marketing is a new form of advertising that is just starting to become popular. Often social marketing is a favorite of small businesses because it is virtually free although in order to use it to drive traffic to a website the company still needs to use traditional search engine marketing and search engine optimization techniques. It is build around the idea of link strategies and using personal networking to drive website traffic. Before the widespread use of social networking sites social marketing really wasn't a viable option for most mainstream businesses but now the popularity of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook has made social networking and social marketing very popular. Link strategies that are often used in social marketing involve creating free accounts on these popular social networking sites and then using search engine marketing techniques to increase traffic and network with others who interested in the same topics or with customers. Using search engine optimization to create search engine marketing content on your social networking profile pages can help get your profile listed in search engine results pages and you can use search engine marketing articles to help gain readers and friends across the net.

This type of marketing isn't just limited to using sites like MySpace and Facebook. You can use search engine marketing and search engine optimization to socially market your blog as well. Many companies these days prefer having blogs to having traditional websites because blogs are much more accessible to people and make people feel like they have a personal connection with the company. Blogging is hugely popular. Many popular blog sites are free so you can set up a free blog to be the front page of your web page and you can put links throughout the blog that lead to other pages on your web page so that your readers can find your other search engine marketing articles and information or buy your products. The best link strategies for blogs involve taking the time to form alliances with other bloggers. Blogging networks have huge followings and many times if you join a blog network or go to the blogs of people who share your interest or sell complementary products you can leave comments on that person's blog that link back to your own site.

Even though that type of advertising can be a little time consuming it's a great way to use search engine marketing to reach your target audience for free. Blogging communities also usually link to one another's blogs which means that you can use your networking contacts to help you publicize your website. Social marketing can be tricky though because it's more than just using search engine marketing, link strategies and SEO. There are a lot of social networking etiquette rules that need to be observed and if you don't follow protocol you could be ostracized. When you're using social networking you should never just post links to your website on other people's blogs, that's considered spamming. Take the time to read other blogs and leave relevant comments. Usually then you will be allowed to post a link to your own website.

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Overnight Cash Gifting Secrets of a Successful Home Business

By Ron Fara

Owning and running a home based business can be one of the most fulfilling things in your life. I have run and managed my own business since 1994. I spent countless years in the corporate world 9 to 5 jobs, and I can tell you that running your own home based business will help you achieve your financial goals a lot faster and easier. Overnight Cash Gifting is one home based business that I have reveiwed to meet the 7 Secret Goals.

Making the decision to run your own home based business is one of the best decisions you can make in your career. If you are going to invest, who better to invest in then yourself. The 7 secrets will help you identify the based home based business like Overnight Cash Gifting.

1) A Home based office is one requirement. To succeed at a home based business you need to create an area you can focus on your work only and nothing else. The time you work should be only work time, not family time or T.V. time.

2) Goal setting allows you to dream big. Set you goals at twice what you think you can achieve. Visualize where you want to be financially and enjoy the journey.

3) Marketing is the key. Every successful business needs to identify their perfect customer. Spend time on finding who they are. Fish where the fish are. Find your ideal clients by focusing on their needs.

4) We all have the same 24 hours a Day. Make good use of your time by focusing your efforts on activities that will get your results. Delegate the lower tasks.

5) Network with other like minded people. One of the fastest ways to grow any business is to promote Joint ventures with people who can introduce you to your best clients. I'll never forget one of my first joint ventures that resulted in a 6 figure income in 90 days, the feeling and financial rewards are what make owning your own business exciting.

6) Look the part. If you want to be treated professionally, act like a professional. Set up a separate bank account for your business. Have a dedicated phone line and fax line for business. Outsource the creation of your marketing materials so your business has that high tech look.

7) Computer Automation is the wave of the future. It is possible to contact thousands of people each month for a very low cost. The more people you contact the better your chance of acquiring new clients.

The 7 Secrets that will help you promote and succeed in the home based business system will be something you should use daily and make your dreams come true.

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Seven Business Names - Ideas For A Name That Lasts A Lifetime

By Linda P. Morton

The right business name ideas help you to get your business name right the first time.

Seven business names ideas that will help you get it right the first time include:

Business Names: Idea 1 - Create numerous name options.

Business Names: Idea 2 - Choose a name that expresses what your business does.

Business Names: Idea 3 - Choose a name that enables your business to grow in different directions.

Business Names: Idea 4 - Be certain that the name relates positively to your target market.

Business Names: Idea 5 - Conduct trademark research.

Business Names: Idea 6 - Research your target market.

Business Names: Idea 7 - Consider the connotations and sound of the words for each option.

Business Names: Idea 1 - Create Numerous Name Options

You can't have too many business name options. Ideas won't all withstand the elimination process. So list as many as possible in a brainstorming fashion. Get ideas everywhere, but list at least ten business names ideas.

Business Names: Idea 2 - Choose A Name That Expresses What Your Business Does

Unless you are fortunate enough for your name to truly represent what your business does, or to be a well-known celebrity within your industry, don't name your business after yourself.

If your last name is "Smooth" and you've discovered an herbal mixture that smooths wrinkled skin, then go ahead and use your last name in your business name. But you probably wouldn't want to if your own a construction business.

Business Names: Idea 3 - Select A Name That Allows Expansion Of Your Business.

Just because you start your business with a specific product doesn't mean that you won't expand into different product lines. Your name should be broad enough to cover your business as it grows.

To demonstrate what I mean, my first business name limited my business. It was Sulton Books. "Sulton" didn't add anything positive to the business name, and "Books" pigeon holed it into just books.

I ended up having to rename my business, partially because of the terrorist attacks in Sept. 2001. I needed to rid my business of the negative connotation of "Sulton." I took that opportunity to select a name, "Best Books Plus" that enhanced the business with a more positive connotation and a greater ability for expansion.

Business Names: Idea 4 - Be Certain That The Name Relates Positively To Your Target Market

Consider how each business name idea will impress target market members. This requires knowing as much as possible about your target market members so you can select a final name that they will like.

Still don't select a name that is so specific to your target market that you can't expand into new markets later. You don't want to have to rename your business in order to expand it in anyway.

Business Names: Idea 5 - Determine If Any Name Options Are Taken

You need research to assure that none of your business name ideas are already taken.

Go to the United States Patent and Trademark Office site. You can search your business name ideas to determine if any are already trademarked by another business. Delete all business name ideas that are part of a trademark to avoid potential legal expenses and an almost certain judgment that you rename your business.

Business Names: Idea 6 - Query Your Target Market

It's time to try your name options on members of your target market. Get as many as you can to tell you which name options they like best and what comes to mind with each option.

And don't forget to get their reactions to your product. You can get additional business name ideas from their reactions.

Business Names: Idea 7 - Know The Sounds And Meanings For Each Name Option

A good business name will create a positive image of your business. It also sounds good.

You also need to know the connotation of each word for the culture of your target market. A positive name in one culture can be negative in another.

Avoid mistakes like that of the American car company. When naming a model "Nova," no one checked to see what the name means in different languages. In one country, it means "no go." That meaning wasn't good for sales.

Summary

By using these seven business name ideas, you will never have to pick another name for your business.

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Search Engine Marketing: What SEO services do I need

By Terry Stanfield

Are you confused by all the talk about SEO services and how you need to make your website search engine optimized in order to increase the amount of web traffic that your web site gets? It can be confusing at first to know what SEO services are all about and what SEO services you need to implement some search engine marketing into your website and to increase your ranking on the search engine results pages. If you have never worked with a consultant before you'll find that working with a qualified consultant is the best way to make sure your website is 100% search engine optimized.

SEO services are more than just writing search engine optimized content. An experienced consultant can change your website and increase your web site hits almost over night. SEO services range in price but how can you put a price on success? You should be willing to pay for experience when you're hiring a consultant because the right services can make your business successful or take an already successful business to the next level. If you don't know what SEO services you need the best thing to do is to have a consultation with an SEO expert. Show them your website and ask for a written proposal documenting all the services that you need to increase the traffic to your website and to make sure that your site ranks higher in the search engine results pages. Be willing to pay the SEO consultant for the consultation but many will offer new clients a free consultation so you might not need to pay anything. Once you have a better idea of what services you need you can plan a budget for the project of overhauling your website and making it more search engine optimized.

Not sure that you need any SEO services? Well search engine optimization and search engine marketing are more than just buzzwords. These days the Internet is overflowing with millions of websites and blogs. The only way to make sure that your site gets noticed and gets traffic is to use search engine optimization and search engine marketing. If the cost of SEO services or hiring an SEO consultant seems high think of the cost in terms of advertising. Every business needs to advertise. Would you rather spend your advertising budget on proven SEO methods that are almost sure to drive more traffic to your site and to reach your target market or would your rather spend your advertising budget on an a blanket internet ad campaign that might not bring in any web traffic at all? Spending the money to hire an experienced SEO consultant to provide SEO services is well worth the cost. Your website will only be successful if you are bringing in daily web traffic and getting an SEO overhaul for your web site is the best way to bring in that traffic. When you see your daily website traffic double or even triple after hiring an SEO consultant you'll be glad you spent the extra money.

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Tuesday, April 29, 2008

How To Online Marketing For Building Your Home Based business

By Stephen Meyer

In order to build your home based business you will need to market it both online and offline. Here I will discuss marketing it online and what can produce the greatest benefit with the least cost. While there are many ways to promote your home based business through free advertising not all of those ways will be productive. Sometimes what looks to be the most productive way is actually the least productive?

Free FFA Pages

These sites are known as FFA pages and often have members in the millions. They look very exciting because you can blast your advertisement to millions of people with one click. They make it easy to submit your site.

The submission form has a top box for your "Headline" a second box for your text and a third box for the URL of the site you are promoting. They ask for your name and email address but your email address is not published in your advertisement. It is though given to the other members of the FFA site to use for advertising their product. You can expect to get hundreds and thousands of emails from site members all promoting what they have to offer. If you use these sites use an email address that is not your main email, gmail and others are good for this.

The problem I see with this type of advertising comes from my own behavior when receiving the hundreds of emails. I often just highlight as many emails as possible and delete them all very quickly. I don't bother trying to read them because of the sheer numbers I receive. I am sure most members do the same thing. Also, I track all my advertisements using specific URLs and I have not once had a response even when sending many advertisements. In my opinion it is a waste of time.

Free Traffic Exchanges

To me these sites are actually fun to use. You start out by having a certain number of free advertising credits given to you when you join. To gain more credits you simply click on advertisements placed by site members, usually hundreds of them. You are put on a timer and must wait 10-20 seconds between clicks. The credits you gain can be from 1 credit to 5 per click. The key to using these is the page you are promoting. Many people will advertise their main sales page or their personal website. That will often be the least productive site to use. Because members are clicking for credits your page has to be easy to read quickly. The best page to use is a "Lead capture" page or a Splash page. The benefits of your program and what it will do for the reader must be main function. Using a sign up form is a must so you can capture the prospects name and email address, Requiring to much information will cause them to leave quickly. These sites can be productive but spending hours to click for credits can be a waste of truly productive time.

Using Articles For Site Promotion

The effects of writing just one article will be seen for years to come. When you submit your article to one of the major article sites that article will be made available for publishing on thousands of sites. With time your article will appear on hundreds of web sites all with a back link pointing to your web page. It is not a quick way to promote your home based business but it is the surest way to build your business for the long term. Not only does it promote your business through backlinks it can also build your reputation as the go to person on your subject. This will build not only your reputation but your site visitors as well. Because an article can be published years after it was written it have a long term affect.

While it may seem hard to write an article or seem like you must have a lot of skills in reality it is very simple. If you can carry on a conversation about a subject or send out emails or personal letters you can write an article. You want your articles to be full of factual information that is useful for your audience but technical writing skills are not necessary. It is best to simply write your article in your own words with your own personality reflected. Simply write about subjects you know and submitting it to some of the larger Article Directories is by far the most affective way to build a long term stable and profitable business.

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Does Your Passion and Hobby Really Matter?

By Kim and Charles Petty

Does your passion or your hobby matter? Well, it most certainly matters to you and unless you have a passion or hobby that nobody else in the world has ever heard of, there are probably plenty of other people who share your passion or hobby and may even more into it than you are.

Being deeply involved in a hobby or passion is the stuff that successful niche marketing is made of. Most really successful niche marketers have turned what the care about the most into successful businesses. The reason for their success is their passion about the theme of their websites.

Creating a successful niche marketing site takes a lot of time and a lot more dedication. Unless you are passionate about the subject, it is hard to stay focused on it long enough to make it a success. So passion and dedication are your two biggest assets. You must be willing to put in long hours and be willing to accept the fact that it will be quite some time before you start realizing a profiteven a modest one. Keeping on keeping on is the only way you will ever be successful at niche marketing.

You can establish a money-making niche marketing website with the theme about the very things that you love the most. If you can correctly define your niche, make certain that people are willing to pay for the product or service that you are selling, and locate that specific audience; there is no reason why you can't build a niche marketing site that is all about your greatest passion or the hobby that you most enjoy. Imagine that! Being able to make money and do what you love doing at the same time. It doesn't get any better than that!

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Increase Web Site Traffic - How to with paid search advertising

By Terry Stanfield

If you've tried to increase web site traffic with search engine marketing and search engine optimization but you still aren't seeing the kind of web site traffic that you want to have it might be time to consider investing in some web advertising. There are different options when it comes to web advertising but the styles of web advertising used the most by businesses is and paid search advertising. Paid search advertising is a good option if you've already tried search engine marketing and search engine optimization because your site is already well set up for paid search advertising. Paid search advertising is paying to make sure that a link to your site and a description of site is placed at the very top of a search engine results page.

This is a smart move because studies have shown that people who are searching for a site will usually click on any one of the first five links at the top of the search engine results page and then they will stop. Consumers almost never click through to the second page of search engine results after doing a search. So paying to make sure that your site is at the top of the search engine results page can be a very effective way to drive traffic to your website. Figuring out how to manage your paid search advertising can be a little difficult if you're not used to how web advertising works so you're better off hiring a paid search management company to oversee your paid search advertising. When you're setting up a paid search to increase web site traffic the keywords and key phrases that you choose need to be chosen carefully. A qualified paid search management company can help you set up your paid search to maximize the time and effort you've already put into using search engine marketing and search engine optimization on your website to increase website traffic.

Using paid search to increase web site traffic can be a very cost effective way to get the most of your search engine marketing. Essentially paid search web advertising is just giving your search engine marketing a boost and making sure that people see a link to your site before all your competitors. If your website deals with a popular topic then using paid search web advertising is really like insurance that your site make it onto the first page of the search engine results page.

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Increase Web Site Traffic - Discover How with Video Marketing

By Terry Stanfield

Have you thought about using internet video marketing to increase web site traffic? Internet video marketing is a very trendy form of web advertising right now and many companies are using a combination of search engine optimization and internet video marketing to increase traffic and increase their customer base. These days customers want more than just a slick ad. If you want to draw customers to your website the best way is to combine some web advertising with a fun and informational internet video marketing campaign. You should still use search engine optimization on your site to makes sure that your site gets shown on the front page of the search engine results pages and you might want consider buying some paid search web advertising too but once you have lured customers onto your site pitch your product with some new internet video marketing.

Information videos are a big hit on the web, so post a short information video about your product or show someone using your product or you can even post someone giving a video review of your product. With sites out there like YouTube you don't even have to host the video on your site. Using YouTube is a fabulous and free way to start an Internet video marketing campaign that can be more effective than any other type of web advertising to increase web site traffic because YouTube videos are so easy to share with people. If you post a funny or unique video related to your product the people who see that video and like it can instantly post it on their own websites or their profiles on sites like Facebook and MySpace that are seen by millions of people everyday. They can also email it to friends and family and submit it to sites like Digg or Current where thousands more people will see it.

Internet video marketing can increase your web site traffic almost instantly once you post the right video. The best part of video marketing is that except for the cost of producing the video it's all free. You can increase your web site traffic by thousands all for the cost of the video. And some videos are so low tech they can be made with a small digital camera or even a camera phone. Using an Internet video marketing campaign along with search engine optimization and search engine marketing is the best way to advertise your website and increase your web site traffic. Forget about expensive web advertising that doesn't work.

You can use the free social networking and marketing tools on the Internet to increase web site traffic and take your business to the next level and double or triple the number of hits that you get on your website everyday. A few words of caution though - when you're producing internet videos don't make them too high tech or over produced. Keep in mind that some people will be viewing the video on a slow internet connection. Make a video that will load quickly and play fast so that people can view it even if they don't have a high speed Internet connection or offer two versions of the video with one optimized for high speed connections and one optimized for slower connections.

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Search Engine Marketing - You still need HTML Meta Tags

By Terry Stanfield

If you start to panic when you see "HTML" and think that using HTML Meta tags is something that will be too difficult for you don't panic. Using these tags is a big part of search engine marketing and is very important when it comes to using search engine optimization to help your website get more traffic. These tags are words, usually the same keywords or key phrases that you are using throughout your website in an effort to use search engine marketing and search engine optimization to increase the number of people who find your website.

The difference between Meta tags and the keywords and key phrases scattered throughout the rest of your website is that the these tags are tucked into the HTML coding of your site. No one that visits your site will see these keywords or key phrases. The tags are put into the HTML code of the website so that the spiders or bots that the search engines send out will find your website. The spiders that the search engines use to index and rank web pages will find those tags by following a long series of other words and phrases on other websites. Using Meta tags is important to search engine marketing and search engine optimization. Some search engines will assign a rank to a website based on how many times the keywords or key phrases appear and also where the keywords and key phrases appear on a website. So it's important to put them at the top of your website so that search engine bots will rank your site higher than other sites.

Even if you are not experienced at creating HTML code or working with HTML code you can put Meta tags for search engine marketing and search engine optimization purposes on your website by yourself. Instead of looking at the normal view of your website you need to look at the source code. Once you are in the source code you can enter in the HTML Meta keywords and key phrases that you want to use. If you are using a website design software the software will usually prompt you to enter some tags and then you can just input the same keywords or key phrases that you have used on the rest of the site.

Search engine marketing and search engine optimization are really the best way to drive traffic to your website so even if you don't know that much about HTML or don't feel comfortable with HTML it's important that you learn how to use these tags because having the keywords and key phrases that are featured on your site as Meta tags can bring in a lot of traffic for your website. The best ways to make your website so popular with consumers that it starts to make a lot of money for you is to use tried and true methods like proper placement of HTML Meta tags, search engine optimization on the website and search engine marketing tools to increase your rank on search engine results pages.

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Where to Get the Latest Marketing News

By bittu

Few will dispute the importance of an organization staying up to date with market development. In fact, no analytical business tool can question the value of monitoring business trends and other relevant information. The internet can be a valuable tool in keeping up to date, and using the internet to get the latest marketing news can broadly be divided into three different categories, each with its own benefits and drawbacks.

The most obvious way to get marketing news is to use an online search engine to search for relevant news articles and press releases. Also, web pages that hold the most relevant information may not appear early in search results, either because the search engine deems that the popularity of other less relevant pages means they should appear first, or because the relevant website has not optimized its site for search engines. While using a search engine is free, it can prove to be time consuming, requiring the use of several ones to find relevant information, and can therefore be impractical for an organization to do on a day to day basis.

An organization may therefore prefer to use media monitoring companies to provide them with relevant marketing news. Traditionally this has been done by browsing newspapers and journals and listening to the radio, cutting out print articles and sending them to the client. Media monitoring companies, as the name implies, constantly monitors news for their clients through various forms of media.

While this is a good way to get information, media monitoring companies charge for their services and may not be financially feasible for all organizations Most of these can provide clients with regular reports about what is being said about their companies, as well as their competitors and industry trends, all of course, depending on the client's needs..However, since the turn of the millennium, more media has become available online, and a number of companies specialize in monitoring media that is digitally delivered.

Some of the information, like press releases and articles, tend to be available at no cost, while industry reports may be available for a fee. The best marketing news website for an organization depends on the organization's industry and the quality of the information available on the website. A compromise could be to find a relevant site specializing in marketing news. These can offer relevant press releases and articles as well as industry reports. Indeed, using a search engine to find the appropriate marketing news site can be time better spent than using it to look for news articles themselves.

Nevertheless, ensuring organization is receiving relevant marketing news is imperative to ensure the organization is making informed strategic decisions. So ultimately, the optimal way for an organization to get marketing news depends on an organization's needs, time constraints and budget.

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The Effect of Testimonials in Powerful Marketing Plans

By Jason Pearson

Finding people to write sincere and glowing reviews of your business can be challenging. The results, though, are often undeniably profitable. Using genuine testimonials on your website is one way to build your image as a reputable company and expand your clientele at the same time.

First and foremost, you must reassure consumers that what they see listed on your website are not false testimonials generated by someone in your marketing department. It could be disastrous to your credibility as an online merchant and business owner in general if you publish fake claims about your products. Savvy buyers are quick to realize that companies who need to fabricate information about their services are not genuine or trustworthy.

Getting customers to write testimonials is the first step. To do this, offer several opportunities for customer feedback throughout the buying process and in various forms. They will almost always let you know if something went wrong with their purchase, and every so often, someone will be so pleased that they will share their gratitude with you also.

To persuade current clients to fill in the survey, give them a coupon for their next purchase or even a free item. This would be the most straightforward way to approach people to review products for you. There is an extra air of authenticity to this method because they chose your products all on their own.

Another way to find people to write testimonials in their own words is to use an opt-in email list. The subscribers to your emails can be offered a free sample of your work, whatever it may be. The only condition would be that they provide their feedback in return.

Advertise that you are seeking both good and bad feedback. People love making their opinions known. They also like having input on new products and are more likely to recommend this product to others and be repeat customers.

To avoid outright lying in your sales letters yet still compete with those who do, rely on your rock solid business practices and your high quality product to generate testimonials for you. It is often an unbudgeted expense and many new business owners are dismayed at having to put out even more money in giveaways to generate a buzz. But it's worth it to your reputation and longevity as a supplier.

Using testimonials is a great way to polish the image of your business. Trusting that your honest business practices and high quality service will lead you to success can be difficult. It is only a matter of time before others recognize your strengths and pass this information along to others.

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Increase Web Site Traffic - How with SEO

By Terry Stanfield

Do you need to find a way to increase web site traffic? Have you used any search engine optimization on your website? Before you do any expensive web advertising or build an expensive new site try using some simple search engine optimization on your website to increase your web site traffic. Search engine optimization is the best way to increase web site traffic and increase your position on the search engine results pages. Getting into a higher place on the search engine results pages means more hits to your website and more customers.

In order to get your site high up on that search engine results page and increase web site traffic you need to use search engine optimization on your website. Search engine optimization can often be more effective than web advertising for increasing website traffic. Now you're probably wondering how you can practically implement search engine optimization on your site to increase web site traffic. There are two ways that you increase the search engine optimization on your site.

If you have an existing site that has a lot of good content on it already you can have that content rewritten to add in some search engine optimized keywords and key phrases or you can write all new content and completely change the content that you have on the site. Even if you already have a lot of content on the site sometimes it's a good idea to put in all new search engine optimized content just to freshen up the site a little and draw new visitor. You can write the search engine optimized content yourself or you can hire writers that are experienced in creating search engine marketing and search engine optimized content to increase web site traffic. Hiring a professional SEO copy writer is a good idea if you want to see an immediate increase in web site traffic because a professional copy writer will be able to create content for your site very quickly.

When you're trying to build a website that is competitive in your market and will draw a lot of web traffic from the very beginning it's a good idea to hire professional SEO writers who can make sure that the content on your site will get it listed on the high in search engine. If your site doesn't make it on the first page of the SERP chances are good that you won't see any increase in web traffic. Your site needs to be on the first page of the SERP in order to increase web site traffic.

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Simplify Your eBay Business With Dropshipping

If your dream is to make a full time living from your eBay business, it's quite possible to make that dream come true. You don't even need a product to sell. Many people have started their own businesses based on eBay, without needing a lot of start-up capital. Drop shippers make it possible to offer a wide selection of stock in your eBay store, without the need to carry inventory.

All you need to do is create an auction and sell the product. You pass the customer's details on to the drop shipper. The drop shipping company packages, labels, and ships the product on your behalf. They'll even use your company logo and information. The customer has no idea that you didn't send the product yourself.

You'll need to build a relationship with more than one drop shipping company if you want to be successful. Most companies require that you start off paying for your customer's orders before they are shipped. For the fastest service, it's best to pay for the products with a credit card. Once you have established a solid business relationship, your drop shipper will fulfill your orders and bill you for them later.

Be sure when you set up your eBay auctions that your reserve price is more than your cost from the drop shipper. Obviously, you need to earn a profit. A markup of aroud 10% should work, but it depends on the item you're selling. Do some research to find out the selling prioce for similar items in other auctions, and on other sites.

Once you have established a relationship with your drop shipper, there is basically no financial risk. You sell the product before you pay the drop shipper.

Learn more about creating an eBay business

Monday, April 28, 2008

Start a Drop Shipping Business Today

There are thousands of ways to start a home-based business. If you decide to sell physical products, you'll need to overcome the challenge of not having enough space for your inventory. The drop shipping business model eliminates the need to store products. Instead of products being shipped to you, and then from you to the customer, they are shipped directly to the customer on your behalf.

Drop shipping is simply a method of retail merchandising which removes the need for merchants to buy and stock the products they sell. There is an arrangement between the supplier and the seller. The seller displays the product in a mail-order catalog or on a website without having the item in stock.

Quite simply, the seller advertises the product at a price which is higher than his cost. The difference between the seller's price and the supplier's price is the seller's profit.

When a customer purchases a product, the seller contacts the supplier and places an order. The product is then shipped directly to the customer's mailing address.

In other words, the seller promotes the products and the supplier fulfils the orders.

Many marketers make the mistake of promoting a product which they think will sell, only to lose money because they haven't researched the market thoroughly.

The wonderful thing about the Internet is that there are multi-million dollar corporations which make their market research easily available. All you need to know is where to look.

You can get plenty of niche ideas for products to sell, for free, from eBay.

It's easy to establish supply and demand for a product with an effective keyword tool. Go to http://tools.seobook.com/keyword-tools/seobook/ and type in a keyword. The tool will show you the demand, and give you a list of alternative keyword suggestions. There are also direct links to many other search tools, with your keyword already filled in. Scroll down to the bottom of the keyword listings to see links to blogs, directories, news services and many more.

One of the search tools you'll find (on the right hand side of the page) is Google's Traffic Estimator, which show you how much people are paying to advertise with your keyword. If there are no paid advertisements, there may not be enough of a market.

Under 'Classifieds, Products and Reviews' after the keyword listing you'll find a link to eBay Pulse which shows you what's selling on eBay at the moment. You can drill down into categories and subcategories to find what's selling in your niche.

Reliable drop shipping suppliers are, of course, essential to this business. Here are some things to look for:

1. What shipping methods do they use?
2. Do they charge a handling fee for each item?
3. How do they handle returns?
4. What is their track record?

Finding drop shippers is easy - just go to Google and type in "drop shipping" + the product name.

Drop shipping is a terrific business model if you don't want the hassle of storing inventory and dealing with fulfilment. You need to identify a hot market and decide on a reliable drop shipper before you start your drop shipping business.

Find out more about running a dropshipping business