The first question everyone asks when they initially think about starting an online business is a the most natural one, "What do I sell?" Sometimes that is followed by, "Where do I find it?" The third question is usually, "OK. I know what and where, now how do I go about doing it?"
#1 What do I sell online?
Tangible and Intangible Goods, just like you would offline.
#2 Where do I find it?
Look around you, the options are endless.
The answer to all three questions is actually as simple or as complicated as you want to make it. The following list contains a few practical suggestions to jump-start your thoughts on the matter.
Physical Goods:
~ Artwork and Handcrafted Items The internet is the perfect venue for unique items because the range of your audience is worldwide, and they can generally be inexpensively reached. Think of it this way. If you have just one customer per square mile locally, then a single permanent advertisement in the form of a web page posted online, exponentially expands the square mileage you can reach with your single advertisement and therefore the number of potential customers you have.
This same principle applies to almost every item that you can think of to sell online.
~ Yardsale, Flea Market and Auction finds The same analogy applies to scavenged items. Antique, vintage and unique items will, of course, always do better, since invariably there will be a collector out there somewhere who needs what you are selling because of the rarity of those items within their local marketplace.
Everyday items also do well in this category, if they have a everyday desirable value such a fine condition second hand designer or children's clothing, car parts, Legos, comic books and books, for example.
~The same items sold in your brick and mortar store or business ~Discounted and remaindered items from your local warehouse shop ~Items from a wholesaler that supplies brick and mortar shops Unless it is an everyday, ordinary item that can be purchased locally most anywhere in the world, you can generally find a market for it online. And, even the ordinary can find the right market if you can heavily discount it or sell it in the right bulk quantity.
~Items from the proverbial magical Dropshippers list ~Items purchased in bulk from importers and wholesalers If you want to get into this, think twice...and then think twice again. There are hundreds of people out there willing to sell you Ebooks containing secret Dropshipper's lists. The majority of them are probably not worth the paper they are electronically written on.
~Practical items that everyone needs, sold in bulk or discounted Unless you have a product that you are the importer, originator, or creator of chances are good that you will not be able to compete in this market. The large manufacturers have long since discovered the secondary market available to them via an online catalog.
~Eclectic items that collectors and others may want or need If you have access to, or live near the source of anything unique, you can almost always find a market for it online. Local rocks, minerals and gems, dirt with known, new or historically "touted" specific mineral properties, plants, seeds, pine cones, herbs, naturally occurring aberrations such as driftwood, vines, and interestingly shaped fungus, dried gourds, natural fabrics, even something as simple as homemade preserves or rags for rugs. Look around you and what makes the area where you live and work unique. Chances are excellent that you can find something that will sell online. Just be sure to check the Import and Export laws to make sure your product can be legally sold and shipped across State, National or International borders as required.
Intangible Goods:
~ Intangibles online products and as services Advertising services, virtual assistant, writing, art, word and film editing, copywriting, the possibilities are almost endless because if you have a creative or other skill whose final product lends itself to being able to be transferred back and forth electronically, you have cut your overhead to almost nothing. My original custom web design business was built almost entirely on this premise, and its current incarnation expands on that theme. Over the years I have had more customers that I have never met live and in person, than those I have actually shaken hands with.
~Software, Ebooks, domain names, custom or Biz in a Box websites This is an entire theme unto itself, so please see my article:
How To Build A Business Out of Thin Air or Using Online Wholesalers To Build Your Online Business
# 3 Now that I know what and where, how do I get started?
That is the easiest one of all to answer.
You just do it. You start with a little research. Then you purchase your first Domain Name, then you add Hosting, and then you put up a blog, or a custom or a Biz in a Box website of your very own to advertise your product, and finally you promote, promote, promote.
So to summarize:
In today's world most everyone begins with the premise that the Internet is the perfect advertising venue for the small or upstart business because it levels the playing field in a way that no other advertising medium ever has in the past.
Truer words were never spoken.
Your Online Business-Multiple Streams of Income and Where To Get Them - To learn more about this author, visit Teresa Bohannon's Website.
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Teresa Bohannon
(Visit Teresa's Website)
Teresa Thomas Bohannon is a web designer,
hosting & domain provider & internet
marketing consultant. Teresa founded Spun Silk Web Design
in December of 1995 as one of the first
free standing female owned web design
firms in the country. Teresa is also the
founder the LadyWeb Family of
Informational & Educational Websites,
created to help women and men who dreamed
of starting their own businesses to find
their way inexpensively through the
available maze of website options, domain
and hosting providers, and software
solutions. Teresa's latest venture is
the MyLadyWeb
Self-Installing AdSense & Affiliate
Websites, a simplified turnkey option for
beginning online entrepreneurs.
Teresa is a published author of short
stories and holds an MA in history. She
also works full time as the Human Resource
Administrator for a non-profit political
subdivision of the State of Tennessee.
Teresa's personal cause, is revitalizing
literacy by renewing the dying tradition
of spending quality time reading "with"
children.
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