I’ve been at this for years, and have become very successful in my Internet business. But let’s face it, folks. If I knew what was going to sell well on the Internet tomorrow, next week, or next month, I wouldn’t be writing this article. I would have retired and purchased a small private island by now. In the retail business, whether you are online, in a physical store in the local mall, or at a roadside stand, it makes no difference; choosing the products you are going to sell is always the hardest part of getting started.

I can’t whip out a crystal ball and tell you what to sell. However, I can tell you about the biggest mistakes that I see new Home-based Internet businesspersons making, all the time.

Too many people are fixated on four things:

• Selling only products they like.
• Selling only products they know a lot about.
• Selling only products they think are “Cool” or “Sexy”.
• Selling only products they think “The Hottest Products on the Internet”.

I get four basic emails from people who are stuck in this rut, and I can pretty much tell that right off the bat, by the way the email begins.
An Email from a person who only thinks they can sell what they like starts something like this:

“Dude, I’m like, a Sk8ter, and I need to find a Wholesale Supplier for, like, Sk8tboards + wheels + stuff”.

The first problem this person is going to run into (aside from the fact that he needs to learn how to write a business email!) is a problem for all four types of people here. There may not be a Wholesale Supplier for the products they want, that will work with a Home-based Internet Business. We’ll talk more about that in a few minutes, though.

The second problem is “tunnel vision”. This person may actually find a Wholesale Supplier for “sk8tboards + wheels + stuff”. If he does, great. However, someone who has such a narrow vision of the Internet Marketplace will never branch out and fulfill his own potential in that Marketplace.

Say he does find the Wholesale Supplier he’s looking for, and opens a store. Because of the narrow vision that led him there, he’s likely to stick with that store, and that store alone. He’ll make some money, but unless he gets really lucky, he won’t make a really good income out of it. He’ll piddle along selling “sk8tboard” stuff forever, when he could have done so much more.

What he needs to do is broaden his scope. If he’s interested in “sk8ting”, wonderful. But instead of focusing on just that, he should explore selling all kinds of sporting goods.

Sam Walton, the revered Founder of Wal-Mart, was once a starting quarterback on his High School football team in Columbia, Missouri. He also liked to play basketball. Can you imagine what would have happened if Sam Walton never tried to sell anything besides football and basketball equipment? There would probably be a pretty big store in the US selling just footballs and basketballs today, because Walton was a very good retailer. But it never would have grown to the size and scope of Wal-Mart today if Sam had allowed tunnel vision to crowd his overall view.

It’s okay for our “sk8ter” buddy here to open an Internet store or run Auctions that sell skateboard equipment. Niche marketing is a good thing. But in his overall business, he should look for other products with which to eventually run other Online Stores or Auctions as well. One store leads to two, two lead to four, and so on. Never get stuck limiting your entire business to just one type of product!

An Email from a person who only thinks they can sell what they know about goes like this:

“Hey there;

I’ve been riding horses all my life, and I own a small stable where I teach riding. I’m opening an Internet Store where I’m going to sell all kinds of stuff that other riders will want to buy. I’ve got to find a Wholesale Supplier for saddles and Western Wear and such”.

Again, this person’s first problem is going to be that he may not find a Wholesale Supplier of the products he knows so well, that’s willing to work with Home-based Internet Businesses. But, we’ll get to that in a bit.

His second problem is similar to the first person’s problem, but not exactly the same. This person isn’t fixated on selling only what he likes; he’s just a little bit scared of having to learn about something new. He’s obviously going where he feels safe.  That’s okay, but let’s remember what I’ve mentioned twice so far: he may not find a Wholesale Supplier for the products he likes. Genuine Wholesale Supplier do not grow on trees, folks, and most of those who are out there do not want to work with Home-based Businesses. There isn’t one available to you for every possible type of product. It’s very important to keep that in mind when you start out!

So, what does this person need to do? He needs to understand that being in business is about learning new things every day. New ways to market, new software to get used to, simpler ways to do his monthly books, etc., etc., etc. Learning new products is just as critical. Again, never limit your business to just one type of product.  You don’t have to like what you sell. You just need to make money selling it!

An Email from a person who only thinks they can sell what’s “Cool” goes like this:

“Hi;

I’m looking for a Wholesale Supplier of electronics, like MP3 Players, Plasma TVs and such. Please tell me where to find them.”

A request for Wholesale Supplier of electronics is a dead giveaway. Almost everybody who starts a Home-based Internet Business wants to sell electronics at first. It’s the Cool, Sexy market, and even if you never sell anything, you can show your friends your site and say, ‘Dude, I can get you an Xlent deal on the hottest new stuff!

Electronics, like any other Cool or Sexy market on the Internet, is not the place for most people to start. That market is absolutely flooded with other people who already had the same idea, and the profit margins have plummeted. Why? Too many inexperienced Internet sellers. They start price wars, figuring they’re going to clean up by undercutting everyone else’s prices by a little bit. Problem is, the second guy comes along and undercuts the first one a bit. Then the third person comes along and undercuts the second. And so on.

Pretty soon all you have left are tens of thousands of people trying to sell electronics for pennies more than what they pay for them, just to advertise a slightly better price than their competition.

Not good.

The person who wants to sell Cool and Sexy stuff needs to understand that they are not out here to look Cool or Sexy. They’re here to make money. Four Slice Toasters and Propane Camp Stoves aren’t sexy, but they sell and their markets are not overcrowded, and that’s what the goal is.

Finally, an email from a person who thinks they need to sell only the Hottest Products on the Internet goes like this:

“Hello;

Can you tell me were I can find out what the Top Selling Products on eBay are? I want to know what everyone else is selling and get in on it.”

BAD IDEA!

Look at it this way. If you were in a giant field filled with nothing but concession stands selling Salted Peanuts, what’s the smartest thing you could do? Set up yet another Salted Peanuts stand, or set up a Lemonade Stand?

I’d sell Lemonade, wouldn’t you? )

In our business, we look at the Lists of Top Selling Products on the Internet, too. Then we run the other way as fast as we can. We don’t want to be just another face in the crowd selling the same thing as everyone else. We want to think about products that may be complementary to the Hottest Sellers, that not many other people are selling.

If everyone and their Grandmothers are selling Salted Peanuts, we want to be the ones selling Lemonade. )

One of my favorites was his T-Shirt that read: “If You Can’t Dazzle ‘em with Brilliance, Baffle ‘em with Bull****” (You can probably fill in the blanks quite easily!)

There are a tremendous number of web sites selling Information on the Internet who are doing just that. Completely lacking in anything even remotely resembling brilliance, they are spending a great deal of effort, and seriously taxing their few active brain cells, in order to Baffle you into buying sub-standard Information Products.

We are in the business of providing Product Sourcing information to Home-based Internet Businesses. We publish The Drop Ship Source Directory, a Directory of brand name Wholesale Supplier who are willing to Drop Ship those products directly to your customer from the warehouse, one at a time, at wholesale. It’s an excellent way to do business without spending a ton of money on stocking an inventory. We also publish The Light Bulk Wholesale Directory; a Directory of genuine Wholesale Suppliers who are willing to sell small bulk quantities of products to Home-based Internet Businesses at larger bulk quantity wholesale prices. We’ve worked very hard for years to provide absolutely honest and complete information.

However, there are other information providers in this business who are either too lazy to do the time-consuming research this business requires, or are just outright scam artists looking to cheat you out of your money.

They have a wide range of methods they use to Baffle you into buying from them, but one of the most obvious is Free Gifts.

Now, we have to be careful here, because there are two kinds of Free Gifts.

1.)     Free Gifts given to you before the sale are usually a good thing. We do that ourselves; we offer a very comprehensive Free EBook that gives you a tremendous amount of FREE information on starting your Internet Business. We give you that for free, no questions asked, no personal information required, and you never have to buy anything from us. THAT kind of Free Gift is OK, because it really is Free!

2.)     Free Gifts that are promised after the sale are the thing to watch out for. They are designed to make the offer look so attractive to you that you simply cannot turn it down. They are, in fact, given to you because the main informational product itself is so lousy that it’s creators feel that they have to suck you in with after-the-sale freebies, or they’ll never sell anything to you at all. However, in order to get all these Free Gifts, you have to buy something first.

Here’s how these scam artists work:

They pitch their junk Informational Product to you with all kinds of wonderful promises, telling you that you’re going to make incredible amounts of money very quickly.

That in itself is not true! NOBODY makes incredible amounts of money quickly on the Internet. In the real world, it takes time, patience, and work!

THEN they tell you that if you order their information, they will include “$750 Worth of Bonus Free Gifts!” with your order, or some such ridiculous statement. They tell you that you will get Marketing Information, Email Generation Software, Important Articles and Reports, Expensive EBooks, Bonus Wholesale Guides, etc., etc., for FREE, after you buy their product.

Freebies that you only get AFTER the sale are there for two reasons:

• They make you think you’re getting much more that you are paying for, when in truth you are not; you can pick up that stuff for free without buying anything. All that Free Stuff is just that; it’s FREE, it’s garbage, and you can find it all over the Internet for nothing, without having to pay a cent for anybody’s products. The scam artists certainly do not pay for it; why should you?
• They are a distraction. The scam artists are counting on the very good probability that you will spend so much time with, and get so caught up in all that extra free stuff that you will forget that the original product you paid for is junk, and you’ll never bother to ask for a refund!

So Beware of Informational Web Sites offering Free Gifts after the sale, folks. There is a reason for it, and it’s not a good one!

Maybe they should also offer a T-Shirt with those “gifts”…I know a guy who can suggest a good one…

Here’s how it works.

Let’s say ABC Manufacturers makes a product called Mom’s Ankle Wax. We’ll say that Mom’s Ankle Wax has been around for years. It’s a very well known brand name product. It will without a doubt give you the shiniest ankles on your block, and everybody wants some.

ABC Manufacturers makes Mom’s Ankle Wax, but they don’t sell it directly to the public. They’re a manufacturing operation. They’re far too busy melting paraffin and waxing test ankles to go around building stores all over the place. They need distributors; companies who will take their product and distribute it to the places that will sell it.

For years, ABC Manufacturers has sold Mom’s Ankle Wax to a company called DEF Distributors. The founder of DEF Distributors knew Mom herself, back in the old days when she made her Ankle Wax by hand, out in the turkey barn.

Today, DEF Distributors buys Mom’s Ankle Wax by the truckload. They pay $5.00 a case for it, which is a very good price. It’s such a good price, it has it’s own name: the Manufacturer’s Wholesale Price.

However, DEF Distributors does not sell it to the general public either. They are a distributor. They distribute Mom’s Ankle Wax.

DEF Distributors works with a chain of retail stores called Wax R Us. This place was founded by a retail business visionary who saw the incredible potential of Mom’s Ankle Wax a long time ago. Today there are Wax R Us retail stores on every street corner in every major city in the country. Wax R Us buys truckloads of Mom’s Ankle Wax from DEF Distributors for $10.00 a case.

So, DEF Distributors makes $5.00 on every case of Mom’s Ankle Wax they sell to Wax R Us retail stores. This makes DEF Distributors very happy.

Cases and cases of Mom’s Ankle Wax arrive in the stockrooms of Wax R Us stores everywhere. The Wax R Us employees open those cases, and pull 12 cans of Mom’s Ankle Wax out of each case. With their pricing guns, they stick a price of $4.50 on each and every can.

Wax R Us stores make a total of $44.00 on each case of Mom’s Ankle Wax. (12 cans x 4.50 per can = 54.00, minus the 10.00 they paid for the case = 44.00).

Wax R Us is even happier than DEF Distributors.

However, the happiest people of all are the people who can stroll into Wax R Us and purchase a can of Mom’s Ankle Wax for only $4.50. They think this is a great price, and they’re walking around with the shiniest ankles in town.

Well, that’s it…basic product distribution. The manufacturer sells to the distributor, the distributor sells to the retailer, and the retailer sells to the end user (the customer). The manufacturer, the distributor and the retailer all make money because the customer is willing to spend money for the product.

Drop Shipping has been around for a long time, too. Probably as long as mail order catalogs; maybe longer. If you want to use a buzzword to impress a corporate type, call it “second party addressing”.

Above, we talked about the manufacturer-distributor-retailer relationship. When you use drop shipping to sell products on the Internet, (or anywhere else), YOU become the RETAILER in that relationship.

It should be noted here, if only to keep the Punctuation Police happy, that if you use the method of drop shipping in your business, YOU are not the “drop shipper”. The company(s) who supply the products to your customers for you is the drop shipper. YOU become a “Stockless Retailer”.

Here’s how drop shipping works.

1.)   You open an Internet Store, with a shopping cart and the ability to accept credit cards.

2.)   You find a distributor who is willing to drop ship the products you want to sell. The best place on the Internet for this is WorldWide Brands.  This website, the Drop Ship Source Directory and Light Bulk Wholesale Directory are recognized as the best sources for legitimate Wholesale Suppliers on the Internet.

3.)   You establish an account as a retailer with the Wholesale Supplier you choose.

4.)   You receive images and descriptions of the products you want to sell from the Wholesale Supplier and post them on your Internet Store.

5.)   A customer surfs into your Internet Store, and falls in love with a product that you have priced at, say, $80. They purchase the item with their credit card. Your Store charges their credit card $80 plus your shipping fee.

6.)   You turn around and email the order to your Wholesale Supplier, along with the customer’s name and address.

7.)   The Wholesale Supplier sends the product directly to your customer, with YOUR Store’s name on the package.

8.)   The Wholesale Supplier charges you the wholesale price of, say, $45.00, plus shipping.

9.)   Your customer gets a cool product from your store shipped to their door, and they tell all their friends about you, and you make even more money.

There you have it. You just made a $35.00 profit on one item. You didn’t have to buy a whole bunch of the product and keep it in your warehouse, hoping you would sell it. You didn’t have to pay to have it shipped to you, and then pay to ship it to your customer. All you did was send an email to your Wholesale Supplier.

That’s the drop shipping process in a nutshell!

You can dropship articles with or without a website. If you decide to run without a website you can list the dropship articles on Ebay. You pay a small fee to ebay, sell the products and the dropshipper does the rest.

You can decide to create a website on any topic that you like. There are a lot of free web sites out there in addition to the low cost ones. After you have designed your website you can then feature articles or links to the items that you would like to sell. Your job is promotion.

Another option is to open an Ebay storefront. Or you can find a reputable company which has gathered together a number of products for dropshipping, and you can purchase a storefront with them, they will then dropship the products you carry on your storefront as they sell. If you decide to go with a company, do your research and read every word of the fine print and contract. There are a lot of disreputable companies out there that mess up things for the reputable ones.

My choice was a simple one. When the chance to open a store where the products magically moved themselves from point A to point B presented itself to me I jumped at the opportunity. I now operate 3 storefronts, my theory is that there is safety in numbers and what the heck, costs are low because I do not have to actually purchase the stock that I sell.

My advice to anyone entering this new field is simple. Costs of doing business on the web are very low compared to the costs of opening the standard business. So your start up costs will not be high; they can range anywhere from a few dollars to a few thousand. Figure out what you are willing to invest and be prepared to work just as hard at an online business as you would at your standard retail store. Then jump in with both your hands clasped in a prayer. What can you lose? What can you gain?

About the Author:

Many sellers on eBay deal in wholesale products and business. This means they don’t actually own or have in their possession the product that is listed for sale. When a bidder places the winning bid on such a product, the eBay seller places an order for that product with his or her dropshipper (or distributor) and has the item shipped directly to you from their location. This is called “dropshipping”.

Can you do it? You bet. All you need to know is the difference between a consumer (the buyer), various wholesalers (where you can buy bulk items for much less than they are offered for sale in a retail store) and the option for dropshipping (or mailing directly to your customer and not to you). In many cases, you and the buyer can save money on shipping by having items delivered directly to the winning bidder. In this case, the delivery is also called a “drop” or a “dropship” order, this is one of the advantages of being an ebay wholesaler.

Look at it this way. If you could ship products directly to a person’s home faster and more efficiently, wouldn’t you want to take advantage of such a method? Of course you would. That’s why dropshippers make more money on their products. They’ve cut out the middle step in the shipping process.

To learn how to ship products this way, type “dropshipping” into your online browser search bar. You’ll find all the information, explanations and descriptions of terminology that you need. Now that you have that figured out, click onto eBay, register and create an account, and ship your own products to happy and satisfied customers.

Keep in mind that when using eBay or similar auction sites that your rating and reviews are going to be a key to your success. When buying or selling merchandise, know your product and how it works. Be ready and able to answer questions from potential bidders and buyers. Just because you’re a drop shipper and have access to multiple sources or a single source for your product doesn’t mean your responsibility stops there.

Engaging in an online auction business means that you must take responsibility and be a good provider. Offer guides about the products you’re selling, or a directory or catalog that browsers can download from your eBay storefront or site. Whether your products are gifts, tools, collectibles or clothing, let your customers know that you are ready, willing and available to answer any questions and address concerns regarding their shipment.

You can make a profitable income as an eBay wholesaler, but only if you’re serious about providing excellent product and superb customer service. Take your job seriously and strive for customer satisfaction and you’ll be well on your way to eBay success. Sean Watson is an internet marketer who has put together the website www.buywholesale4ebay.com and hopes that this article Become an eBay Wholesaler can help other internet entrepreneurs with any general questions they may have about eBay or any other online auctions as well.

People write and say, “I’d rather go right to the Manufacturer and buy from them. Why should I go through a Wholesale Supplier?

One gentleman wrote to us yesterday and said, “I buy things online (as a consumer) directly from Sony all the time. Why shouldn’t I be able to buy directly from Sony at wholesale (as a Retailer)?”

This has to do with a common misconception about manufacturers, folks. Most people are (understandably) of the opinion that a manufacturer would jump at the chance to sell their products to you and me (online Retailers) at wholesale. You’d think they would see it as a way to sell more products.

Well, that’s not the way it works, for many good reasons. To the gentleman who asked about Sony, yes, it DOES seem like he’s buying products directly from Sony as a consumer, when he goes to their web site. However, that’s actually something of an illusion.

You see, manufacturers have their hands quite full just manufacturing their products. That’s a very full-time business just in itself.

Let’s try a little role-playing here. Let’s say that you have invented a revolutionary new Eyebrow Plucker. This little machine is really cool. You set it for the shape you want your eyebrows to be, slap it on your forehead, and press a button. Your invention does all the plucking for both eyebrows at once, and your eyebrows are instantly plucked to the shape you want. Of course, it’s a little painful, and one of the settings still leaves your eyebrows looking as if you’re suffering from a bit of constipation, but you’re working those problems out. You rent a small building, and start manufacturing your new Eyebrow Plucker.

In order to do that, you have to go through the lengthy legal process of Patenting your invention. Then you have to find suppliers of raw blocks of surgical-grade steel. You have to buy and set up machines that will form and stamp out the parts of your Eyebrow Plucker. You have to set up the logistics of creating and manufacturing the circuit board that goes into it. You have to create an assembly line process, work out quality control, and then create some plastic Test Foreheads that you can test your invention on before boxing each one up. But wait! You can’t box them up without going to a graphic artist who’s going to create a logo for you, then build the color screening that will be printed on your boxes. Of course, you need the boxes too, so you have to contact a Packaging Expert who will design your box and internal packaging, then have a box manufacturer die-cut the custom boxes and packaging for you.

That’s just a small sample. There are a hundred other details a manufacturer must work out in order to create a product and turn it out on an assembly line, ready to sell.

One night, you’re coming home tired and frustrated from working so hard on your manufacturing process. You have a bruise on the right side of your forehead, and half your right eyebrow is missing. As you get out of the car, you run into your neighbor, Mike. Mike wonders why you look so bedraggled. You tell him about your invention, and all the work you’re doing to manufacture the product. Then you tell him that you’re even more worried about how to get the product to your potential consumers.

Mike’s face lights up, and he says, “Hey, I own a Wholesale Supply company. I sell manufactured products to thousands of large chain stores all across the country. I can buy your Eyebrow Pluckers from you in large quantities, and distribute them for you, and you won’t have to worry about that part of it at all!”

At this point, you can answer Mike in one of two ways:

Answer Number One:

“Gee, Mike, I don’t know. I think I’d rather spend years trying to create business relationships with thousands of retail stores. Then I’d like to pay for another warehouse where I can store my product, and lease trucks or contract with a freight company in order to deliver the product. I’d also just love to pay a fortune for warehouse employees, a sales force, a sales office, and basically spend a great deal of time re-inventing everything that you’ve already had set up and running for years, in your wholesale distribution business!”

Answer Number Two:

“Hey, Mike, that sounds great! You already have the warehouses, the delivery mechanisms, the sales force and contacts with thousands of retail stores. I can simply sell my product to you by the truckload, and you can sell it to the world. I can concentrate on my manufacturing operation, and leave the wholesale distribution headaches to you. I think we have a deal!”

Do you see where we’re going here? Product manufacturers have enough to do without re-inventing an entire Wholesale Distribution system that already exists. Manufacturers would have to be crazy to want to take on that kind of additional load! They can sell their products, in huge quantities, to existing Wholesale Distributors, and never have to worry about the distribution process at all.

That’s why you will probably never buy directly from a manufacturer. If you ever do, it will most likely be from a very small company that either does not make enough product, or is too small in the marketplace, to attract the attention of existing Wholesale Distributors.

Wholesale Suppliers are the place everybody buys from, folks; even the big guys.

I said earlier that the person who wrote to me about buying consumer goods directly from Sony was seeing an illusion. That’s true. It’s a harmless illusion, though, and isn’t meant to fool anybody on purpose. When he goes to an official Sony web site and buys consumer goods “directly from Sony”, that’s not really what he’s doing. He’s buying from an existing wholesale/retail supply company that Sony either happens to own, or has a contract with. That’s why they can use Sony’s name. It’s a completely separate operation from the “manufacturer”. This wholesale/retail operation will be a separate “unit” of the Sony Corp. It will have it’s own offices, staff, and delivery system, probably very far away from Sony’s manufacturing facilities.

So, why can’t you go directly to a manufacturer and buy wholesale products to sell on the Internet? Because it’s just not cost-effective for a manufacturer to even want to do that.

About the Author: Chris Malta, Worldwide Brands, Inc.

Chris Malta is a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. He has worked with computer Systems for 19 years. He’s been involved in eCommerce systems, networking and site design for more than 8 years. He’s taught college-level computer courses in Western NY. He founded Worldwide Brands, Inc., creators of The Drop Ship Source Directory, The Light Bulk Wholesale Directory and The Market Research Wizard. Chris’s Business Articles and other materials have been published in several languages all around the world.

• dropship wholesaler has min purchase requirements
• they will dropship the stock to the specified place and it is your headache where to store the stuff
• you are likely to be left with some stock as it is hardly possible you will succeed to sell every item even at minimum prices
• you should take care of the fulfillment process. So, you should find a source of packaging materials and time to pack and dispatch the parcels
• as a rule, dropship wholesaler needs your Tax ID
• dropship wholesaler will charge you in advance – you should have some funds available to invest them into the stock

What is the conclusion? The choice is up to you. If you are a beginner, I would recommend to start with retail dropship when the products are stored and dispatched by a third party. Your margin might be lower, but so are your risks. You are free to run tests – try this product, try that product, test this dropshipper, test that dropshipper. No financial investments, no surplus stock in your garage. At this time you get valuable experience of e-commerce: what products to sell, where to search for the suppliers, how to promote the products online, how to accept payments, get the idea about HTML and other programming languages. In this way you will be prepared to move to the next level.

Wholesale drop ship is a proper way to follow when you have experience of conducting online business and of dealing with this very category of product, regular customers and ideas what to do with the surplus stock, some time to take care of the order fulfillment. In that case you feel more protected, you know what to do and how to do it.

What should you check with a dropship company you are planning to work with:

• Dropship company reliability: How long are they on the market? What others say about this company (check forums or just make your own search using Google or any other search engine)? Also make a research of the dropship company prices: you want to be competitive on the market.
• Availability in stock: you should be aware of the availability of products you offer to customers. Customer support is your responsibility and you do not want to disappoint customers and refund the money for non-delivery. Added to that, your reputation can be ruined within a few weeks if you fail to meet the customers expectations. So, dropship company should supply you with or place online regularly updated list of products in stock.
• Product descriptions and pictures: to effectively present products on your website/ auctions you need detailed description and pictures of high quality. Does the dropship company take care of this?
• Return policy: what are the terms for returns? You should expect the company to accept returns within a reasonable time if it is their fault.
• Customer support: customers buy products from you, not dropship company. So, you should be prepared to deal and efficiently resolve any issues that may appear in the process of your dropship business: refunds, returns, back orders ad etc.
• Shipping labels, terms and rates: how are products dropshipped? Some companies allow you to post them your own shipping labels with your name on them so that a customer is sure that the product is purchased directly from you and not from some third party. You should also check what shipping methods are offered by this dropship companies, do they provide tracking information? The more shipping methods are ffered the better: you customers will have a choice and it is always a plus.
• Minimum volume required: some dropship companies can require you to buy a min volume of products to dropship: wholesale dropship. It is up to you to deal or not with this kind of companies. They may attract you by lower prices – they can afford it as wholesale does not take that much time and resources as retail dropship. But if you accept their terms you should be ready to stock some products in your garage, take care of order fulfillment and may be faced with the problem of surplus products that you would be unable to sell at minimum prices.

Free dropship programs should be your target. You are going to become a sales manager for the company, spend your valuable time on this project and along with that you should pay for this privilege. It does not make much sense.

Fee based dropship programs are good if you have good references about the company that offers the program. It means you are sure your investments will pay off. Also, it is a good idea to get some experience of working with free dropship programs at the start. The company that offer a fee based dropship program should give you a chance to have a look at their product range otherwise you might get disappointed when you spend your money for the stuff that is available via free dropship programs.

So, the choice is yours. If you are certain to get an access to some really great products at great wholesale prices – no doubt, this dropship program is worth some reasonable set-up fee. Otherwise, set relations with some free dropship company and start your dropship business today – it takes time to promote one’s website nowadays, especially with Google. You need great products, but you also need time and skills to drive traffic to your website to close the sales.

Free dropship programs is the choice of those who are on tight budget and of those who just begins their dropship business. Free does not mean of poor quality. Companies are highly motivated to hire as many talented webmasters and sales people as possible. They get profit from each dropship sale, otherwise they would terminate their program long time ago. They are interested to make their dropship program easy to use and monitor. As a result, most dropship programs remain free and welcome all new members who join them.

TrueDropshippers.com has increased their product database by 15% over the last couple of months. We are constantly adding to our database with quality products from trusted dropshippers.

Got a product in mind? We most likely can help you. Having a proble finding a product? No problem, we have over 150,000 products to choose from. Find the product you are looking for easily and effectively using our True Drop Ship information.

So what exactly is True Dropshipper information?

1. Our Recommended Dropshippers List: Includes full bio of dropshipper, direct contact information, proof of warehouse, product samples and prices.

2. Our Dropshippers Directory: Includes 1000s of companies with their contact information stating they are dropshippers.

3. Our Dropshippers Feed: Live import data feed that’s updated on a weekly basis. The data feed includes photos, prices and product descriptions.

4. Retail Price List: Information to retailers products at a retailers price.

5. Affiliate Program: You are automatically an affiliate once you become a member earning a 20% commission rate of True Dropshippers.

For only $49.95 a year you will get a membership with Truedropshippers.com Take a look at some of our product samples. We have many products to choose from, thanks to our quality dropshippers.

For more information, a list of our product samples, photos, descriptions and prices, visit us at www.truedropshippers.com or call 920-968-7600

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So what exactly are the benefits of purchasing a Ready to Go Website?

1. Have your site up and running within 24 hours.

2. These Web Sites may have some traffic coming to it already.

3. Same GREAT Services as with our other web sites

4. Quick, Fast and Easy to get started before the Holiday Season.

5. The domain name is already chosen for you. You must keep the existing domain name, however you can point other domain names to it.

6. You’ll get a Merchant Account for $29.95 to accept Visa, MC and Discover

7. Free Software and Product Updates as long as we host your web site.

8. Easy access to True Dropshippers and selling products online. Starting your own ecommerce business has never been easier!

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Deopshipping is the opportunity for a home based business, using the internet and even ebay.com, this article will give you 7 basic steps to finding dropship and wholesale sources and starting your own home dropship business from the internet.

1. Step 1, finding your niche. You’ve probably heard of this phrase if you’ve studied internet marketing at all. A niche is a specialty or subject that you will focus on when deciding what products to offer your customers.

Choose something you know alot about as you may have a better idea of the pricing and value of products that you are familiar with. You may also know what your customers are willing to pay for products and what the customers look for in different products.

2. Find Dropship suppliers. This may take some time and research on your own. If you’re very luck you may find a local wholesale supplier willing to dropship products for you to your customers. Another choice is to consult a dropship wholesale directory to find the type of products you want to offer within your niche.

3. List items on Ebay.com. This is an important shep even if you want to sell items via a website only. Because ebay.com is a great place to find out what the demand for a product is and how high a price customers are willing to pay for an item.

You could use ebay.com to sell products monthly as well and email customers about your website
should you choose to build one.

4. Build your e-commerce website. If you need help with this you may want to learn html on your own rather than hire a webmaster for thousands of dollars. There are plenty of free information websites that will teach you about html. Just google html.

5. Build a list of contacts/customers. The real value of a customer can be drasticially if they become a repeat customer. Think about it, the most expensive part of your business will be getting new customers, so you might as well get as much value out of each one as possible.

You do this by getting the customer to subscribe to your newsletter, or to give you their email address so you can tell them about new produts or specials. Offering them something of value for free many times will convince them to subscribe.

6. Upsell your contacts. This is easy, use the list of customers you have gathered to offer specials, deals, or inform them of new products. Or simply send them tips and information about the niche you have chosen.

7. Expand your product base. If you add new products to your items customers are more likely to return to the website to see a new item. Especially if it’s a hot new item just coming out on the market, so keep your eyes open for new product development within your niche.

About the Author

Consult the dropship wholesale directory at: http://www.freewebsuccess.info/dropship-wholesale to find products to sell on ebay.com or on your own e-commerce website.

Q – What is the meaning of the word Drop Shipping?
A – Drop shipping essentially means that you conduct a trading business without maintaining any stock. You only forward the order placed by your online customer to your drop shipper who in fact, stocks that item and also ships it to your customer.

Q – What do I need to start this business?
A – A computer with an Internet connection, one or more drop ship wholesaler and a way to advertise the drop shipping stock under your company name like eBay or your own Website. Also get the necessary permits and license to run your business from the concerned authorities.

Q – How and when do I start making money?
A – You will have to add your profit margin to the rate of the product, which your drop shipper has quoted, before you advertise that product on the Internet.

Once you have accepted your customer order and collected the payment, you will have to forward that order and also make your payment to your drop shipper. The difference in your drop shipping rate and the rate at which you have sold the product is your profit margin. You start making money from your first order itself.

Q- How do I know what rate to quote for the product?
A- You can check out
similar products being offered on the Internet. Then compare that rate with the rate offered by your drop shipper. You can then quote a rate based on this information.

Q- What do I do once I get an online order from my customer?
A- You accept the order and collect the payment from your customer via credit card or PayPal and then forward that order to your drop shipper, who in turn will arrange to ship that product to the address provided by the customer.

Q- How do I get hold of a drop shipper?
A- You can find them over the Internet or through sites related to eBay. You might have to become a member and pay a membership fee to get access to that list.

Once you get a list, then you can check out the drop shipping products line-up online. Choose a drop shipper who can also be contacted over the phone 24/7. Check out his reputation by contacting the manufacturer directly.

Q- What are the plus points in drop shipping?
A- You do not have to maintain any inventory. You also do not have to worry about dispatching your goods. The initial investment, overheads and the overall risk factor are very less.

Q- What are the minus points in drop shipping?
A- Your margins are limited since you have to quote on the rate that your drop shipper quotes to you. Your reputation could be damaged in case your drop shipper does not deliver on time or delivers products of bad or doubtful quality.

So, check out these facts before you decide to drop anchor at the drop shipping port.

Read through to get a detailed picture on how the drop ship system works.

Firstly, you generate and undertake purchase orders and you scoop the profit out of the sales price. After which you pass on the order and the wholesale cost to the drop shipper. The factory in charge of releasing or shipping ships the products directly to the customer. Thus this reflects the fact you don’t have to incur any kind of inventory cost. The drop ship system has the ability to bring substantial profits compared to what affiliate programs could possibly bring you.

Drop shipping
is not something new, it has been around for quite some time now and it is believed to be , a virgin un-tapped storehouse of profits for today’s internet marketer. It’s one of the easiest ways to make a good amount of money online. It is also the least expensive way.

If you decide to get in to the system of drop ship then you can always take help of the online directories which will give you the important contact information for drop shippers of over a million of products and brands. The legitimate drop ship sources will demand that you should have a tax reseller number. It is also known as a social security number. If you are from outside of the united states, you might want to look in to a partnership with an american citizen. This will make things a lot easier and you will be able to find the best possible deals.

You must be very cautious as well and know the details about the manufacturers before making any firm decisions. Avoid those who ask for a fee to become a drop ship dealer or even asks you to become a member. This system offers the maximum flexibility and cost savings. Thus it is indeed an informational product that involves such low investments yet brings you huge profits.

But to benefit fully you must get a few things right. For starters, you must pick products that will sell or you will be disappointed. It sounds so obvious doesn’t it? But you may be surprised how many people launch businesses on the back of what they think will sell and not what customers are asking for. And you do not want too much competition. You need a product that people are searching for but not one where you are competing with too many merchants.

Here are some tips for finding products that will make money.

Step One: Find Whats Hot

You must find out what products people are searching for online. But when you find a hot product, don’t stop at a broad category, for example “computers”, is too wide and too competitive. “Laptop Accessories” is a better alternative.

There are many resources you can use to give you product ideas. Check out eBay Pulse, which will show you the 10 most popular searches on eBay as well as other useful information. Use the drop-down menu at the top of the page to research the different categories.

Another great resource is the top searches section popular shopping websites. Some provide the top 100 searches in each category.

Use these sites and others to build a list of sub- categories to take on to the next stage.

Step Two: Find Niche Keywords

Keywords
are the single words or short phrases people type into search engines. Researching keywords can tell you whether the products chosen in Step 1 above will be likely to make money.

You need to find keywords that are searched on frequently but do not turn up many search engine results. When you find such a keyword you will know there is a demand for the product but that not many websites are supplying it. If you stared selling that product you would have low competition.

Go back to the list of sub-categories you noted down and type a few words and phrases related to the products into a search engine like Yahoo or Google. Putting quotation marks (eg “laptop accessories”). around your keyword will give more accurate figures. If you get millions of results, you must either dig down and find a smaller niche (eg “laptop bags for women”) or abandon the plan. Forget sub-categories that are too competitive and note the products that don’t have huge competition.

When you have a short-list of ideas, you can use a keyword tool, such as the Google Adwords Keyword Tool or Overture to help you. Wordtracker is another free option.

These tools can tell you how often a specific keyword or phrase is searched for in a given month, and also give lists of related searches. The figures won’t be exact but you will get a feel for your product idea and whether demand for it is high. For example, if one of your keyword phrases only receives 12 searches in a month, you can safely conclude there is little demand.

What next?

When you have found your ideal product the next step is to find a drop ship merchant to supply and handle it for you.