* Tangible goods,

* Intangibles,

* Electronically deliverable information,

* Services,

* Referrals, and

* Advertising

Tangible Goods

If you plan to sell tangible goods, have them drop-shipped by a third-party provider – so you won’t need to have a storefront or warehouse and employees (Ugh!). Re-think your business plan. Take your business off the street. Doing so will vastly improve your profit margins, better serve your customers, and free up a lot of cash.

Intangibles

Intangibles are an important category, the most common examples being insurance and travel reservations. Intangibles aren’t really “things” – you cannot put them in a wheelbarrow – yet people buy them all the time. Intangibles are very profitable – so you should expect stiff competition.

E-Goods

The next category is electronically deliverable information. This category includes e-books, e-courses, software, subscriptions, etc. In this instance, make sure they are good ones. If you over-deliver on quality or your customers won’t come away feeling dissatisfied and angry. They will not return – but they can, and will, think of ways to hurt your business.

Services

When it comes to selling services online, think it through. Offer your prospective customers goods and services that can be delivered instantly, or that other people deliver. Instead of thinking of your business as one for which you are always trying to get more work, think in terms of having a business at which you do less and less work – until you have more cashflow than you need AND all the free time you could want.

Referrals

As for referrals, you will need to find service providers looking for more work. I know a man who sold his services sealing asphalt driveways. Now his website drop-ships asphalt-sealing tools and supplies and he is paid for referrals for such services that others provide. He made a small fortune in this way and now lives in a beach house on the Caribbean island of Anguilla.

Advertising

Still another very profitable category to sell online is advertising space on your website. There are several ways to do this – some highly desirable – some less so. Google Adsense might be profitable options for you.

Website Structure

Sales messages, generally referred to as “landing” pages, should always be on Tier 3 – two clicks away from your home page (Tier 1) and one click away from your hub pages (Tier 2). Search engines prefer this structure, and your human visitors will appreciate it. This methodology works vastly better than any of the alternatives. Use Text Links To get your site visitors from your pre-selling (Tier 2) pages to your Tier 3 sales messages, use “contextual links” – text links embedded in your pre-selling informative content.

If you are (as you should) providing relevant high quality information on your Tier 2 pages, then those visitors who actually want what you sell will be almost compelled to follow your text link – if only to get that extra tidbit of valuable information that the link might provide. Selling online is very profitable. I wish you the best.

Step 1 – Choosing the Shopping Cart

Begin by researching which shopping cart is provided by your hosting company. While using the shopping cart provided by the hosting company is the easiest route, keep in mind that this product serves a wide audience and may not do exactly what you would like it to do. For example, most canned shopping cart applications allow you to customize your storefront using templates; however, you may be limited to the photos or color choices defined within a particular template. Some shopping carts allow you to write custom cascading style sheets (CSS) code, but, CSS is limited to color and font choices only. On the plus side, the shopping cart provided by the hosting company will get you going much faster.

Going the custom route can be beneficial if you have particular needs that cannot be met with a canned application. Several options are available: open source, shareware and fully licensed products. To establish a custom shopping cart, you have to understand the scripting language to be used and have the ability to set up the shopping cart on the platform where your site is hosted.

When making a decision regarding which custom option to use, keep in mind the tech support available to you. With open source and shareware tools, you may have to wait for a while to get an answer to your question.

Step 2 – Set up your Merchant Account

This portion of the process takes the longest time – sometimes up to two or three weeks. Make sure that the merchant account that you set up works with the shopping cart you are selecting and can be hosted on the same platform as your website. The three major categories of merchant accounts that can be created are:

Standard Merchant Account – Using this account, you will be able to sell regular products, such as books, shoes or electronics.

Specialty Merchant Account – This account is created for merchants that sell computer software, flowers or training materials.

International Merchant – If you intend to sell your products internationally, then you will need this merchant account.

Your banker can arrange a meeting with a representative who will explain the fee structure and terms and conditions for setting up a merchant account.

Step 3 – Payment Gateway

Usually, when you set up a merchant account, your payment gateway will be set up automatically as well. In the case where the merchant account is not compatible with the shopping cart, you might have to set up the payment gateway manually. This process often involves a conference call between the payment gateway representative, the merchant account representative, and the technical person who is helping you program the shopping cart.

Step 4 – Set-up SSL

Once you set up your shopping cart, you need to add a secured socket layer (SSL) certificate to the portion of the site that houses the shopping cart. For example, you may place your shopping cart under the sub-domain as follows
shop.domainname.com

Most people won’t buy from your site unless you have the SSL installed. SSL prevents hackers from stealing your customers’ personal information, including credit card numbers. Typically, a SSL certificate is issued for a year and is location-specific, meaning you can’t move the certificate from one domain to another. Therefore, you should not to change the location of the shopping cart once you have applied the SSL certificate because you will have to purchase a new certificate for the new location.

Step 5 – Refund Policy, Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions

Before bank representatives approve merchant accounts they often request that the site states your refund policy, privacy policy and terms and conditions. If you don’t offer a refund, this policy should be clearly stated on your site.

This article described the steps necessary for setting up a successful shopping cart installation. In Part II of this article, we’ll delve into the details of setting up the shopping cart to attract buyers and entice them to buy from you.

Resources

Visit http://www.cxtgroup.com/shopping-cart.html to see a graphical view of the steps involved and learn to learn about the shopping carts. If you would like to discuss your particular needs in setting up a shopping cart, call us today toll-free at 877-439-2539 for a FREE 1-hour consultation.

WHAT CAN YOU SELL ONLINE:

You can sell almost anything online from a comic book to a care, however as with anything in life there are boundaries. It is important that you remain aware of the legislation that applies to your country in terms of the limitations that may apply. Online auction sites may have some of their own restrictions that are applied for very valid reasons. Some of the items that you may not be able to list are stolen or illegally imported goods, banned, pirated or counterfeit goods of any nature, including software, movies, music, clothing, replica watches or any item that would infringe on copyright or trademark laws and goods and services that are by natured deemed to be harmful or dangerous, to persons or property either directly or indirectly are not allowed to be listed for sale on bidorbuy.

SETTING UP SHOP:

Here are some basic guidelines that you can follow in preparation before “opening your shop doors” (virtually speaking of course).

1. Find your niche market: Make a list of the areas that you are familiar with (consider for instance if you have some knowledge and interest in precious stones or a hobby in stamp collecting). Prepare a list of a few items in these niche markets that you have identified, that you believe could make a good profit selling online. You can of course make some money selling everyday goods online however you will increase your chances of success if you focus on a particular niche market.

2. Identify what sells: Visit the complete sales or winners sections to see what types of items are being sold successfully online within your niche market or category. Similarly, take a look at the list of most popular items to see what sort of items receive the most visits and interest.

3. You have a winner: After you have considered all of the above you should have a clear indication of one or two products that stand out as potential money spinners. If this is the case then you have found your niche and are ready to start selling. If after doing all the research and you still don’t feel that there is anything on your list that will generate much profit for you, then go back to step one and consider an alternative niche.

4. Add your price tag: You will certainly agree that the price is an important factor for any buyer’s decision to buy your item. Keep the following in mind when determining your price: Set an appropriate price, not one which you would not pay for the item; Do your research. Compare prices of your itmes to other products that are being advertised online; Refer to the completed sales section to see what other sellers have sold similar items for. Ensure that you have considered all the costs related to the sale in advance. Consider the ease of acquiring those products. Are they hard to find? Do you have to import them? Are there shipping costs that should be factored in? What would it cost you to get your hands on it before you can sell it? Now place a ‘cost price’ next to the item. Only once you have considered all the costs involved, then you can decide what the price of the item would be and if it would be market related.

5. List your items: Once you have been registered as a seller you can start listing your items for sale. The way in which you list your items can either make or break your business. Your product should be a valuable solution to a problem that is troubling your customers. Yes, you are selling benefits and features which you should avidly and honestly describe, but when broken into smaller parts your product provides an answer to your customer’s question. Sell your product in the light of the solutions in which it provides. Your item description is more than just a description. Follow some basic guidelines such as a title that clearly describes your offering, but that is smart, to the point and appealing. Describe your offering accurately and in as much detail as possible by including information such as dimensions, weight, standard and additional features, condition, warranties, guarantees and all other strong selling points. When taking photos of your items take care of the simple details; pay attention to the background, size and quality. Be transparent about the costs to ship the items and be clear about the payment options available.

6. Expand your business: If you were fortunate enough to have established a niche and you start to see some profits coming in, then you should look at ways in which you can expand your business by selling other related products or services. Remember to cross-reference your other related items on your auction listings.

Now that you have a better understanding of what is involved in selling online you have probably recognised that it is much easier than you may have thought it would be to sell online.