How to Start Up a Business Selling Your Product From the Web
You can start a business selling your product from the Web and earn a living doing so, but before you can become a success, you have to build the business, promote it and earn your customers' trust.
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Things You'll Need
- Marketing plan
- Digital postal scale
- eBay seller account
- Website
- Domain name
- Paypal account
Instructions
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Write a marketing plan. It's essential that your plan includes the following: what product you plan to sell, an overview of the product, your target audience (people who would be interested in your product), discounts and/or freebies you plan to offer, list of websites, online publications and blogs you plan to advertise on (consider your target audience when creating this list), your monthly advertising budget and product pricing information.
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2
Invest in a digital scale for weighing packages. If you plan to sell a product that has to be shipped to customers, then you'll need to weigh them so you'll be able to charge the exact shipping. If you start charging shipping that's too high, customers will shop with someone who charges fair shipping rates.
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3
Sign up for an eBay seller account at eBay.com. Click "register" and fill out the form. When choosing your eBay user ID, you could enter your company's name (the name you'll be doing business under), but don't put .com or .net or any other URL after the name, because this is against eBay's policy.
After you register for a free eBay account, follow eBay's instructions to list your product for sale. Although using eBay is not a requirement for selling a product online, it's recommended because it will help you gain additional sales and customers.
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Build a website. If you're not a website design expert and want to avoid the extra expense of hiring one, consider investing in Web design software. Site Spinner is a great and affordable Web design software.
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Obtain a domain name and find a place that will host your website. Host Gator will host your website for a low monthly fee and will include a free domain name.
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6
Register for a PayPal account, so potential customers will be able to order the product you're selling. PayPal offers three types of business accounts: Website Payments Standard, Website Payments Pro and Payflow Payment Gateway. Click on "Business," and then "Products and Services" to find these three types of accounts. Read about each account and choose the one that's right for you. If you plan to accept orders via your website, phone, mail and fax, then the best account for you would be the Website Payments Pro.
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Start a blog with advice relevant to the product you'll be selling. This will show your customers you have expertise.
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Begin advertising your product to the websites, online publications and blogs that you listed in your marketing plan.
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9
Build on your relationships. Because potential customers are not doing business with you face to face, you have to earn their trust. To do this, you must be honest and keep your word. For example, if you offer a guarantee and the customer wishes to take advantage of it, honor that guarantee.
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Contact online radio show hosts. Let the hosts of online radio shows know you'd like to be considered as a guest. Mention a little about yourself, the topic you wish to discuss (make sure it's relevant to your product) and tell them about the product you're selling.
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Start a newsletter. Include contests, specials, freebies and upcoming sales. Collect names and email addresses by placing a form on your website.
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Sign up for social networking accounts. On each account, build a network of people you believe would be interested in your product, current customers and businesses. After you've build your network, share your contests, specials, freebies and business advice.
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Tips & Warnings
Track your advertising. Make a list of the websites, online publications and blogs that gave you a return on investment. Refer to this list each month, canceling advertising on the sites that didn't work out well for you.
To track your advertising, refer to your website's stats and include this question on your order form: How were you referred to this site?.
When building your website, consider learning more about search engine optimization (SEO) first. You'll need to make your website search engine--friendly to gain traffic. No traffic means no sales, so it's very important that you learn SEO or hire someone with SEO experience.
Be careful not to exceed your monthly marketing budget. In the beginning, just advertise on a few of the sites.
