The Only 5 Things You Can Sell

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'The Only 5 Things You Can Sell'
by Palyn Peterson

So, you want to start an internet store do you? What is it
are you going to sell? This really is the first thing to
tackle, because without any products your store will fail,
guaranteed. All jokes aside, let me share some insight on
broad this topic.

First, do you have anything to offer that you can make?
Crafts, exotic bird houses, jewelry, doll houses? Most people
will answer "No" to this one, but that is ok! Lots of
options are still available. In fact, most online stores do
not create their own products.

Affiliate programs are another great choice. An affiliate
program is when a company gives you commission to sell their
products. You direct customers to their website, and that is
it. You don't manage inventory, the sale or shipping. Some
companies may provide web space and site creation support,
but be careful about going that route -- they may want to
charge you setup fees and maybe a membership fee. If the
affiliate program is worth it, it will most likely be free.
Here are other points to pay attention to:

1. How much commission you will receive with each sale. 5%-
10% is on the low side. Try to stick with companies that
will pay you 20%-35%. I've even come across some affiliate
programs that pay as much as 50%.
2. Read the affiliate agreement. Some companies state you
can only sell their products on your website, and no one
else's. If this works for you, great. If not, be sure to
read the agreement and make sure this is not the case.
3. What the pay out amounts are. Know how much you need to
make before a check is cut and mailed to you.
4. Do you receive support? Many companies offer their
affiliates marketing material to help sell products. This
could include website content, pictures, banners, cut-and-
paste emails, and classified ads.

Some people pull in many thousands of dollars a month with
affiliate programs, they can work, but remember to be
careful! There are many wolves in sheep clothing just
waiting to take your setup fee and monthly payments just to
leave you without support and no sales. If affiliate
programs interest you, there are a number of good affiliate
program directories. Here are a few:

1. www.affiliatesdirectory.com
2. www.associateprograms.com
3. www.affiliatematch.com

Next, a very popular and incredibly practical choice is drop
shipping. Drop shipping is when a wholesale distributor
maintains the product inventory, you create a store selling
those products and take customer's orders at retail prices.
You then turn around and send the customer's order to the
wholesale distributor who ships the products to your
customer, often with your company name on the package.

The customer receives their products not knowing that you
are running the business with no inventory and from the
comfort of your home. And no inventory means you only spend
money when you are making money. In other words, you only
spend money buying products at wholesale when you are just
going to turn around and charge retail price to a customer.
How great is that? This is one of the most popular methods
of running a retail business on the internet, and for good
reason!

The great majority of wholesale distributors will ask you
for your TAX ID number when creating an account. Your TAX ID
number can be found on your sales tax license if you have
one, or usually your social security number will suffice if
you do not have a license. For free information on getting a
sales tax license, visit this page:
www.futureinternetmarketing.com/inetlaw/inetlaw.htm.

When searching for wholesale distributors, be careful
because there are a lot of companies out there that will
drop ship products and claim to be wholesale distributors
when they really aren't! They will take your order just to
turn around and order from the real wholesaler. This should
spell L-O-S-S to you. What's happening is that you are
buying the product at a price marked up from the actual
wholesale price, and then you'll need to mark it up even
further when selling it to your customer. There is a big
slice of the profit pie that you aren't getting!

Most distributors that offer thousands of different products
in a number of different categories are usually that type of
operation. Also, if the distributor wants to charge you a
subscription fee, that should set an alarm off in your head.
Occasionally the wholesale distributor will charge a per-
drop-ship fee, and maybe have a minimum order requirement
(either in quantity or dollar amount). A FEW (and I say
few) legit wholesale distributors will charge a setup fee
(one wholesale distributor I worked required that the first
order be $200 or more), but I have NEVER come across a legit
wholesale distributor that charges a subscription fee.

If you are having trouble deciding what products to sell,
try this: go shopping! Don't actually buy anything (if you
don't want to, at least), just look around and see what
products interest you.

Do you see a site that you think you could do better? Are
you a sports fan? Sell sports equipment or memorabilia! Do
you enjoy pool? Sell billiard supplies! Enjoy gardening, or
interior decorating? Sell products for those!

A word of advice though, the computer component market is
crammed. You will have more competition there than with most
other products.

Information products are a fabulous option as well. Not only
can they easily be created by you, they are even easier to
distribute because they can simply be emailed to your
customers.

Can you fix cars? Write a maintenance tips manual. Write an
eBook on saving money around the household. Write a manual
on how to negotiate with car dealers. Maybe you know how to
make the cue ball jump across a pool table over what would
have been an obstacle. I sure don't, and I wouldn't mind
finding out!

Basically, the question is "What do you know?" Don't
underestimate yourself either! A great way to get started
is to use the mind-map technique. This technique allows you
to jot down ideas that relate to a core idea and build a
skeleton of subjects that are all associated with each
other. After only a short time doing this, you should have
more than enough subjects to piece together a good eBook.
For more information on mind- maps, visit these resources:

1. www.peterussell.com/mindmaps/mindmap.html
2. www.shared-visions.com/explore/literature/mindmap.htm
3. www.tsd.jcu.edu.au/netshare/learn/mindmap/howto.html

If you look long enough, or are just plain lucky, you will
eventually come across someone selling the complete rights
to a product. You can buy it from them and resell it for as
much as you want, as often as you want, and retain 100% of
the profits. These deals are few and far between, and can
usually cost quite a bit. But do keep your eyes open for
them, it may be just what you are looking for.

Hopefully a number of product ideas have sparked as you were
reading this article. As you can see, there are a lot of
very good options available to you. Review all of them and
choose the best one, or ones, for your business situation.

Copyright © 2003 by Palyn Peterson
palyn@futureinternetmarketing.com

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