As with the other two, we will take a look at direct sales, how it works, what it costs, and how to use it for the biggest return. Then, I’ll rate it, and tell you why I scored it that way. Here is the list of ratings, just in case you’ve forgotten:

Business for the Hobbyist
Good but Not Great
Opportunity for Financial Freedom

Direct Sales
As I said above, Direct Sales is often misunderstood. When the average entrepreneur hears the words “direct sales”, they may envision a used car salesman pursuing customers across the parking lot with slick words and a wet handshake.

Let me just say, that is not direct sales. Direct sales has its roots with Zig Ziglar, an honest, hard working guy, who lifted himself up out of poverty by building great relationships with customers and selling directly to them without a storefront.

How it Works: Direct sales has changed a lot since the Internet was created. While direct sales used to mean “cold calling” (calling on strangers without an invitation), and soliciting friends and family – today’s direct sales entrepreneurs have it a lot easier. They rely on their Web site to attract and “pre-qualify” customers – and much of it is automated.

They only contact the potential customer “directly” if and when the client asks to be contacted.

Time and Money Investment: With any direct sales company worth its salt, there will be up front investment. Depending on the company, it could be as little a $1K or as much as $2K or $25K. You’ll also need to invest in marketing and Web site creation (which is no different than eBay and Affiliate Marketing).

The big difference is in what you get in return.

A good direct sales company will take care of all the “busy work” (shipping, product development and support) so you are free to focus on making money!

How to Best Use It: Direct is made to work with a “Sales Funnel” (if you haven’t already learned about the sales funnel, read what I have here, and then read more). It is the fastest, most sure-fire way I’ve found for an entrepreneur to make big profits, while reducing the amount of time and effort she puts into selling. The sales funnel is a simple system that relies on outstanding products and return customers. And here’s why it works so well for direct sales.

Direct Sales is about creating relationships. Before a customer buys, they have received free tips and advice from the direct sales site. They have very likely signed up for an e-mail newsletter that keeps them informed and connected to the direct sales entrepreneur. And they’ve probably exchanged e-mails or phone calls.

Then the customer buys an outstanding product that is WORTH MUCH MORE than the money he spent. And the relationship continues.

Here’s the key. When the customer wants another outstanding product or amazing experience, he will turn to his direct sales pal. And because this particular entrepreneur has a sales funnel (a complete product line where the products get bigger and the product experiences get richer), the customer will buy from that familiar person. And KEEP BUYING from her.

Rating: Opportunity for Financial Freedom
The reason Direct Sales earns the “Opportunity for Financial Freedom” rating is because it is custom made to work with a sales funnel. And once a customer starts buying products within the sales funnel, the amount of time and money you, as the entrepreneur, spend gets smaller and smaller – while the profits get larger and larger.

Choose your Direct Sales company wisely. Make sure there is a sales funnel in place (chalk full of marvelous products). Learn how to market it. And you can work as little as 20-25 hours a week – with an earning potential of multiple 5 figures every month!

As mentioned, trade leads are the modern tools on how consumers can get connected and interact with different leather backpack sellers. As you know, leather backpacks are no ordinary products so you would practically realize that it is hard to find good and reliable leather backpack sellers. Trade leads are designed to make that search easier. Through trade leads, leather backpack sellers and their products are listed and enumerated in an orderly manner so that retrieval and access by almost all kinds of online consumers would be facilitated easily and more conveniently. Trade leads also function as an intermediary between consumers and leather backpack sellers. That means trade leads can act to refer or give information to where consumers could reach and personally contact backpack sellers for purchase transactions and other possible activities.

Meanwhile, online, there are just so many popular Websites that have been widely known to be able to facilitate transactions between consumers and leather backpack sellers. Some of those sites are even online auctioneers and shopping sites that instantly facilitate actual purchase transactions. Global online shoppers are usually logging in to these sites especially of they are finding and buying items from the most reliable and trusted leather backpack sellers.

Amazon.com is probably the most popular online shopping store for leather backpacks aside form the equally popular competitor eBay stores. Amazon and eBay function like normal online shopping stores where consumers could buy items online. Payments are made electronically using credit card accounts and the items transacted are delivered right to the doorstep of the consumers. Through the years, many people have greatly been persuaded and attracted to the convenient shipment arrangements in such online stores, especially during Amazon and eBay’s initial years, when deliveries are charged free or at least are imposed significant discounts.

Luggage.com is a specialty online shopping center for leather backpack goods, which are almost always considered rare finds in the market. Leather backpack sellers are almost all connected to Luggage.com because they know consumers would have the site on the top of their heads if they are aiming to buy any type of leather goods. WilsonsLeather.com also specializes for any leather goods, specifically leather backpacks. Big or small leather backpacks and even purses, WilsonsLeather.com would always be reliable for online transactions of such merchandise.

Other popular leather backpack sellers online include Leather Goods Connection, AmeriLeather and LeatherTree. Consumers would surely find looking at and buying leather backpacks easier and more convenient.

The best way to find a good shopping cart for your website is to conduct research to determine available products and services in the market. This will allow you to make an informed decision by making a comparison of product functionality and features. Before purchasing an ecommerce shopping cart there are several aspects to consider. For example, what products and services are you offering to your target market? Will you be offering soft goods (downloadable products) or hard goods (physical products)? Do you want to use a free shopping cart, purchase shopping cart software to install on your own server, or purchase hosted shopping cart software provided by an application service provider (ASP)? If your budget does not include purchasing shopping cart software, there are a number of free online shopping carts available. The best way to find these free shopping carts is to conduct a search for “free shopping carts” on your favorite search engine. On the other hand, if your budget allows you to purchase software or services, you must first determine your needs.

Weather you are scouring the market for a free shopping cart or plan to purchase shopping cart software, the best way to find a shopping cart after you determine your needs is to develop a list of criteria to compare shopping cart features. These features may include the following:

Hosting Server: Is the shopping cart compatible with your website host? What servers support the software? Windows, UNIX or Linux servers?

Pricing: What is the monthly price? Is there a set up fee? Is there an application fee?

Merchant Account / Payment Gateway: What merchant accounts and payment gateways integrate with the shopping cart?

Payment options: What payment options will you accept? What payment options does the shopping cart accept? Does the shopping cart accept different currencies? Does the shopping cart accept multiple forms of payments such as e-checks, credit cards, money orders, etc?

Security: Does the shopping cart support SSL (secure socket layer) with 128-bit encryption?

Database integration: Will you need a shopping cart that integrates with popular commercial databases such as MS Access,MySQL or SQL server to store and retrieve data?

Shipping costs and taxes: What shipping methods will you use? Does the software calculate shipping cost and taxes based on consumer location? Does the shopping cart retrieve shipping methods

Believe it or not, you can do that even if you have a regular job. You only need a little bit of time to work things out in a day and the rest could be spent on your regular job. Moreover, if you already have a stable online shop, you just have to spend at least two to three hours a day. If you are just starting, you might have to spend your free time and even your weekends and this is just for starters.

Before you go ahead and start selling online, you have to decide what you want to sell. There is good news about this. The internet can reach virtually anyone in the world and somewhere, someone wants or needs the product that you are selling. If you offer a good price, you will be able to get a good sale easily. However, there is also bad news about this. While you are thinking of a product to sell, somewhere, someone has already thought of it.

A concrete example involves cat products. If you are thinking of selling cat food or products online you will be facing not only thousands but millions of competitor’s world wide. If you are just starting a website, you are virtually invisible compared to the big companies.

So how do you succeed in selling online? If you want to be really big on the internet, you have to start small and differentiate yourself. In your cat food business, you do not just sell cat food but sell something really different and unique. Instead of selling general cat food, sell specific types of food such as all veggies or all meat. When clients want something really different, they will go to great lengths to find it online. If you are already familiar with SEO (search engine optimization) you will understand what it means to be different. To keep it simple, there are people who search for the word with the keywords “cat food” in the search engines. It is virtually impossible to be in the top ten in order to get your site noticed. So you have to come up with something unique such as “vegetable food for cats”.

Instead of competing with millions of cat food manufacturers, create something so different, there is virtually no competition. This way, you can be first in the search engines and there will be many visitors to your site. With the increasing number of visitors, you will be able to sell more. Who knows, you might become so successful, you can quit your regular job and live an easy life of selling online.

Check it out for yourself. If you look at 9 out of 10 website home pages, what do you see?

Online variations of the standard sales or cold-calling script: “We are … and we do …”

Why is this a problem? Because these sites are offering their solutions long before visitors can have any sense that they are being understood, and long before they feel any sense of trust in what they’re seeing.

Visitors come to sites because they have a problem in mind and are looking for answers.

It’s easier than you might think to solve the problems of one-way communication, impersonality, and lack of trust.

All you have to do is put yourself in the position of your site visitor, articulate their specific issues or problems, and gently offer solutions that they can choose without feeling as if they are being “sold.”

Here are some simple ways you can warm up your site so you get as close as you can to a natural two-way dialogue:

* Remember the “Written Word” module from the Self-Study Program?

Beware of over-using “I” or “We” on your home page or at the beginning of your written message.

For example, rather than immediately pushing your product as the first thing visitors see on your home page, use language that addresses problems you know you can solve.

State those problems, and you’ll find that your visitors are drawn more deeply into your site.

* Create a clear path through your site that lets visitors make their own decisions about what’s best for them.

* Give your visitors a taste of your solutions so they can feel that you can actually solve their problems or issues. Downloads, “test drives” and other “free samples” give visitors the live experience of your solution and make them feel more comfortable with it.

* Last, and maybe most importantly: I’m always surprised by how few website owners seem to actually want to communicate with the potential customers who visit their website. But…have you ever gone to a site to order a product or service and ended up calling the toll-free number instead? Have you ever thought about why you did that? Maybe it was because you could ask questions of the live person who took your order, and this increased your sense of trust.

So…make yourself available to site visitors by having a Live Chat or Push To Talk button (see below) on your website.

Talk directly with visitors to your site as they enter the virtual world that you’ve created for them.

There’s nothing better than a two-way dialogue to humanize the online experience.

I enjoy it so much when visitors click on my Live Chat or Push To talk button,

and we establish that all-important personal connection.

Try it on your site. You’ll love talking to your website visitors because you’ll be able to help them solve their problems.