Commerce Guide

Archived Posts from this Category

April 29, 2008: 11:47 am: adminCommerce Guide

Selling on ebay? Find a reliable wholesaler. For free.

If you want to make money selling on ebay, you should look at finding yourself a wholesaler in the field you are selling in. A wholesaler is the ‘bridge’ between the manufacturer and the retailer. Quite often the manufacturer doesn’t want to deal with individual retailers because of they may only sell hundreds of their product, whereas the wholesaler can sell thousands. Because of this, they only mark up their prices probably around 15%.

Wholesalers have only recently found the power of the internet, with more and more are shifting from having just an online prescence to having a full e-commerce site. And that’s good news for the retailer.

Due to the nature of the wholesaler, they won’t deal with end consumers, and only deal with ‘traders’, but that doesn’t mean they won’t deal with you. Provided you are going to be buying in bulk, in general the wholesaler will sell to you. Being a trader simply means you’re not going to keep the products you buy. If you’re selling on ebay as a hobby that still means you’re a trader. You don’t need to set up a company, the same way you don’t need to when you sell at car boot sales.

So now you know what a wholesaler is, how do you go about finding one. Buy a wholesaler list from ebay, right? Wrong! Those lists may contain thousands of companies, but accurate are they? In my experience, not very. Out of interest I bought a list, and 90% of the wholesalers listed aren’t in the country you’re interested in. Very few had websites, and some just had mobile phone numbers as the contact, which were not in service. Don’t waste your money. They are out of date as soon as they are put on the cd, or in the PDF.

You have a couple of options. The simplest is to pick up the Yellow Pages (or visit Yell.com). You’ll be suprised how many there are on your doorstep. Just pay them a visit explaining that you’re starting to sell online. Some do require letterheads etc, but many don’t. All it takes is a visit to find out.

The other way is to visit a trader directory website. There are a few on the net, but most of them require you to pay to see the wholesalers listed. I think this is backwards. It’s like asking you to pay every month for the use of the Yellow Pages. The right way to do it is to have free access, but if any payment is required, it should be from the advertiser. There is another benefit to the advertiser/wholesaler too, and that’s their page ranking. Search engines look at how many other sites are linking to their site, and more specifically, sites that are related (by theme/topic etc) to each other. Having similar sites linking will improve the page ranking of those sites, which will make them appear higher in search engines. But I digress.

When you find a wholesaler, visit his site. If he’s in the UK, he needs to have a contact name, address and number on their site (as required by section 4 of the Business Names Act, 1985). If they are a registered company, their company number needs to be visible also. You can use this to check how long the company has been in business and their registered address. Give them a call and have a chat. If they’re legit then they’ll welcome the call and quite happily answer any questions.

Check the terms and conditions. Because they sell in bulk, there may be a minimum order quantity for individual items, or a minumum order value. This can be as little as £50 or as much as £1000.

You may need to register to see the wholesale prices. This shouldn’t pose a problem. Once you’ve got the prices, compare them to similar items on ebay to see what kinds of profit you can make. I’ve found prices for the same item can vary quite dramatically between wholesalers. This is because wholesalers get discounts from the manufacturer depending on the amount they can sell. The more they sell, the bigger the discount.

Build up a good relationship with them if possible. Some online wholesalers are very friendly and offer what feels like a personal service. If you are regular, they may provide an even higher level of service.

About the author:
Michael Mason runs a successful online wholesalers, and has just launched TheTraderHub.com, a free to use wholesaler directory aiming to put ebayers and other online traders in touch with wholesalers and dropshippers. If you’re a wholesaler you can register your company with us, and if you don’t have a website, advertise your products on our site.

Comments Off
April 24, 2008: 10:11 am: adminCommerce Guide

Finding The Right Reseller Plan

Thinking of being part of the growing website hosting industry? There are a variety of entry-level reseller solutions that offer different benefits to different types of user. Two common ones are briefly discussed here.

The website hosting industry continues to grow, despite the well-known “dot com bust” at the turn of the century. Though there is far less venture capital flowing into the hosting market, the demand for websites has not abated. As internet access spreads the number of potential website owners grows. Offering website hosting allows entrepreneurs the ability to tap into this market. A quick search will reveal thousands of potential website hosting companies, and it’s a sure bet most these companies, are, in fact, resellers of another company’s hosting services. To one degree or another, most hosting companies are resellers at some level. Even large companies may be leasing their datacenter space or servers from a separate provider. This article will examine 2 types of entry-level reseller plans, which will be designated “fixed” and “flexible”. Each type has benefits according to the kind of reselling in which a potential customer wishes to engage.

Fixed Reseller Plans

Fixed reseller plans provide a single, discrete selection of “products” for the reseller to offer. The reseller is given access to a set of plans with predetermined resources, such as disk space and monthly transfer, and features. Instead of receiving a single “chunk” of disk space to divide as they choose, fixed plans are sold “a la carte” to the reseller and have their own discrete resources. These plans are provided to the reseller at a steep discount. The reseller marks up the price for sale to their customers. Responsibility for technical support falls directly on the reseller, and is generally the reason the original hosting service provides the discount. This is an important consideration for prospective resellers.

When plans are resold, the customers essentially belong to the reseller and become their responsibility. A reseller’s customers will be calling them for technical support, not the originating hosting company. Resellers should be able to contact the hosting company’s technical support directly if need be. Resellers should be sure their hosting company provides detailed support materials on their website that will allow them to answer most general questions and provide basic troubleshooting if the need arises. The reseller’s provider should have some form of 24/7 live support available if the online support materials are not enough to solve a customer’s problems.

Fixed reseller plans are ideal for resellers who are new to the business or just starting out and do not have a great deal of customers lined up. They are generally easier to administer and troubleshoot, as the plans are maintained by the parent hosting company, not the reseller. Fixed reseller systems should provide more automation in billing and upgrading as well. The downside to fixed plans is primarily economical. As business grows, profits will always remain a percentage of the fee charged by the reseller’s host. There is also a danger the reseller host will be slow in updating plans and prices to move with the current market. Without the ability to custom tailor plans, a reseller is at the mercy of their host.

Flexible Reseller Plans

Flexible reseller plans allow resellers to create and price their own plans. Their resources are made available from a single, large pool out of which each plan they add will deduct space and transfer. For instance, a flexible reseller plan may provide a total of 50 Gb of disk space, and each customer a reseller adds deducts from that 50 Gb total. The disk allotment can be in the form of a virtual private sever partition, or even an entire dedicated server. Flexible reseller plans give the reseller ultimate control over how their plans are created in terms of disk space, transfer and price. This allows the reseller the opportunity to maximize profits as their company grows. One key similarity between fixed and flexible plans is the reseller’s Responsibility for technical support. Resellers looking for a flexible plan should keep in mind the advice about tech support provided above.

Flexible plans are more suited to larger resellers with more technical expertise. The trade off in terms of profit will be felt in the complexity of the management systems running flexible plans. Instead of simply choosing a pre-set plan and adding it, the reseller will be responsible for setting up their own plans, providing a billing solution, and creating an ordering system for their customers. The primary question a potential reseller must ask is whether the trade-off in automation is worth the potential increase in profits. Sever management software is generally not simple and intuitive and many flexible solutions require the reseller become proficient with it before they can add customers. Those willing to put in the time and effort have the opportunity to reap much larger rewards.

Conclusions

Fixed and flexible reseller plans suit different needs. Simple and straightforward, the fixed reseller plan appeals to the entry level reseller without a great deal of clients. Flexible reseller plans are best suited to tech savvy resellers who can understand complex server management software. Both types usually require the reseller provide their clients’ technical support. Choose reseller providers who offer strong online support materials and 24/7 live support. Such materials and services will help the reseller better serve their own customers. Happy customers are long term, profitable customers.

About the Author:

Mr. Lester has served for 4 years as the webmaster for ApolloHosting.com and previously worked in the IT industry an additional 5 years, acquiring knowledge of hosting, design, and search engine optimization. Apollo Hosting provides website hosting, ecommerce hosting, vps hosting, and web design services to a wide range of customers.

Established in 1999, Apollo prides itself on the highest levels of customer support.

Note: These articles are provided for general interest and content purposes only, and should not be construed as “support” materials. Apollo Hosting does not guarantee the information contained within. All articles are free to reprint so long as they remain unchanged, the “About the Author” section remains, all hyperlinks are preserved, and the rel=”nofollow” tag is not added to the hyperlinks.

Comments Off
April 1, 2008: 1:24 pm: adminCommerce Guide

How to Create a Money Magnet Ecommerce Web Site

If you’ve been online for more than a day you’ve probably
heard some “guru” somewhere recommend that you create a
Money Magnet Web Site - a site that is highly automated and
helps you make money 24 hours a day. While that might
*sound* great, what they often forget to tell you is HOW to
do that.

Well, I’m going to tell you right now, in this article!

First, what IS a Money Magnet Web Site? A Money Magnet Web
Site can be defined as one that is equipped with an
integrated suite of both e-commerce and internet marketing
tools in a fashion that will allow you to be the most
profitable with the least amount of effort.

Most e-commerce systems are equipped with the following
essentials:

- A shopping cart.
- Acceptance and processing of credit cards.
- A maintenance system that allows you to add/change products.
- An order-rerieval system that enables you to fulfill orders.

However, what most of them are lacking are marketing tools.
There are several marketing strategies that are essential in the
creation of a successful e-commerce web site:

- Email marketing (broadcasting) of prospects/customers
- Effective use of autoresponders (generate automatic email
messages)
- Online Newsletter
- Online Form / Survey to capture your prospect’s email address
- Electronic Product Delivery (if you sold a digital product)
- Advertisement (Ad) Tracking
- Back End Sales
- Affiliate program

Now, if you had a system that would support the integration of
ALL of these marketing tools in addition to the necessary
e-commerce essentials, then you would have a Money Magnet Web
Site. After all, it has been shown that it often takes 7 or
more ad exposures before prospective customers actually make a
purchase. Consider the following scenario:

A prospect clicks on an advertisement in an online magazine.
This action increments a counter for this particular ad to
help you determine how well it’s working. They don’t decide
to buy as of yet but join your newsletter. They are now
considered a prospect. You begin to send them a monthly
email newsletter. Additionally, an autoresponder kicks in
to thank them for joining the newsletter as well as
scheduling them to get email twice a month for the next 90
days reiterating your product benefits and inviting them to
purchase.

Upon sending them one of your “juicy” offers that they
couldn’t refuse, they finally purchase. They will
automatically be removed from your prospect list and added
to your customer list.

Based on the particular product or service they’ve
purchased, they will receive a series of emails every two
weeks for the next 6 months offering complementary products.
This will be the engine that will drive your back end sales
and keep your customers coming back to your web site.

Being able to play out a scenario such as this using one
integrated system would be pretty impressive don’t you think?
The internet big boys do this with expensive e-commerce platform
suites produced by vendors such as IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.
Having your system automatically perform these follow up tasks
frees you up to spend more time on your business, your health
or your family!

=====> What can you do to obtain a money magnet web site?

Fortunately, there are ways that you can automate your website
in much the same way that the big boys do. The best and most
cost-effective way would be to sign up with one of the handful
of Application Service Providers available on the internet which
provide a shopping cart integrated with a full suite of
marketing tools. Normally, the shopping cart and tools are very
flexible and can be incorporated into any website.

=====> Are there any other ways to automate your business besides
working with a total solution provider?

You can accomplish some level of automation without an
integrated shopping cart system, however, it will require manual
intervention and of course it would be incomplete. I believe
that the most important asset of your e-commerce business is
your email lists. Therefore, concentrate on the implementation
of a good autoresponder/list server system to “enhance” your
present e-commerce website. There are several good ones on the
market. Look for providers that allow you to:

- Create multiple lists.
- Add prospects via a web form, email, or manually through a
management console.
- Send out an unlimited number of autoresponder messages.
- Send out an unlimited number of email broadcasts.
- Set up and distribute a newsletter.

When setting up your autoresponder system, create one list for
your “prospects” and another one for your “customers”. Now,
here’s where you come in: when a person orders your product,
you will have to perform the extra task of logging into your
autoresponder system and manually remove them from the prospect
list and add them to the customer list. This action will then
trigger your customer autoresponder series of messages to be sent.

Remember, the key to building a successful e-commerce web site is
to automate your marketing engine as much as possible and drive
your prospects and customers back to your web site. This will
certainly create a money magnet e-commerce web site for you!

Izzy Camacho is an accomplished software developer with approximately 20 years of experience.
He has a degree in computer science from a distinguished university. For the last several years he has been involved in the creation of web site applications for corporate America.
To learn more about website automation, visit Izzy Camacho at
http://www.internet-marketing-made-easy.com.

Comments Off
March 29, 2008: 1:18 am: adminCommerce Guide

More Orders, More Payments - The 3 Key Revenue Sources That Exploded My Monthly Income

Back when I first started making money online over ten years ago, the Amazon.com affiliate program was pretty much the only game in town. Aspiring entrepreneurs like me would gamely drive traffic to the world’s biggest bookstore with dollar signs in our eyes. Send us a book buyer, Amazon said, and we’ll send you a check - brilliant!

Fast-forward a decade and suddenly Amazon is just one more program in a vast sea of revenue sharing opportunities. Merchants and vendors worldwide now offer affiliate programs for just about every conceivable product or service category. The choices - and the risks - are many.

New affiliate marketers often succumb to ‘opportunity fever’ and frantically start joining every ‘hot’ new program they discover. With so many offers of easy money and fat affiliate commissions, who wouldn’t want to jump at every opportunity that comes along? Unfortunately, this misguided business ’strategy’ is also a classic recipe for failure.

My advice - and a strategy that has served me very well through the years - is to get tough from the outset and avoid this temptation with a vengeance. Instead, focus intently on only a handful of proven revenue sources that will both support and enhance your the overall content and theme of your blog or website and you’re likely to achieve far better results.

As you launch your online marketing career or even as you create that new blog or website, try following the brilliant strategy Dave Purves’ uses for his ‘Dave’s Cool Little Website’ product and focus on three key revenue producing partners - Adsense, ClickBank, and eBay.

Adsense - Since it’s launch in 2003, Google’s Adsense program has been one of the hottest topics in the Internet marketing universe. By including a snippet of code on your website, Google is able to automatically display advertisements on your pages, paying you real money when your visitors click.

Through Google’s smart ‘contextual advertising’ technology, the ads that your visitors see are actually targeted to the theme of the content on your pages, making the ads both relevant and appealing to your visitors - and potentially more profitable for you!

ClickBank - Information marketing is hotter than ever and in my opinion nobody does it better than ClickBank. Once you sign on as a ClickBank affiliate, you’ll be able to quickly and easily market any of the digital products offered through ClickBank’s vast digital marketplace.

With over 10,000 digital product vendors offering affiliate commissions that range from 1% all the way up to a whopping 75%, you’re almost certain to find the perfect e-book or digital product or service to profitably compliment the theme of your website.

eBay - You know that eBay is all about buying and selling. But did you know that eBay also has a very popular affiliate program? Managed through Commission Junction, eBay affiliates are able to display auction items from any category live on their websites. When people click-through and buy, eBay affiliates make real money.

There’s literally something for everybody on eBay and that makes this affiliate program a particularly powerful revenue generating tool for even the most unusual website or blog topic.

Although I’ve used variations of this strategy for many years with different degrees of success, the ‘Dave’s Cool Little Website’ hybrid marketing technique has proven to be an incredible moneymaker and I recommend it highly. Get tough, get focused and get to work building your profitable online business. Good luck!

Richie Carey is an affiliate marketer, web developer and e-commerce consultant and has been helping people make money online since 1996. You can learn more about building a profitable online business by visiting Richie’s website at: www.careyinternet.com/

Comments Off
March 24, 2008: 4:15 am: adminCommerce Guide

Advantages of Offering a Dental Benefits Plan to Employees (Part 2 of 3)

Important factors while finalizing on a Dental Insurance Plan

An employee has to ask himself the following before he finalizes
on a plan:

Would the employees like to retain the freedom of choosing their
own dentists?

Will the mode of treatment be determined by the patient and the
dentist?

What type of routine and preventive dental care is covered? Does
the plan cover braces, oral surgery, crowns and bridges, root
canals and treatment of periodontal diseases?

Will the plan cover all diagnostic, preventive and emergency
services? Including preventive services viz. sealants & fluoride
treatments, which might result in financial savings to the
patient in future? Does it provide for full-mouth x-rays?

What forms of major dental care is covered? Does the plan cover
implants, dentures, or treatment for temporomandibular disorders?

Does the plan allow for specialist referrals? If so, has the
dentist be limited to “the” list of specialists to choose form?

Does the plan provide for emergencies? What are the provisions
made for emergency care when the patient is on tour?

What percentage of monthly premiums goes into actual care and
not to administration?

Dental Insurance benefit coverage should be taken into
consideration but should not be the deciding factor in choosing
the treatment.

Dental Insurance Plan Models

There are numerous dental plans available. Basically they are of
two kinds: Managed care and Fee-for-service.

Managed care dental plans are restricted forms of dental
insurance which aim at reducing costs and payouts. They tend to
restrict the coverage by limiting the access to care by
restrictions (by predefining dentist, specialist, hospital or
treatments in form of lists) and restricting level, type and
frequency of treatment (usually in form of clauses in the
coverage policy).

Fee-for-service dental plans have a freedom of choice options
where one can choose their own dentist and the fee is paid as
fixed by the dentist.

Comments Off
March 22, 2008: 12:01 am: adminCommerce Guide

Free Marketing Article Tips Have Contributed Enormously To The Success Of Many Affiliates

Free marketing article tips have had a huge impact in the lives of many affiliates involved in various affiliate programs.

Affiliates are the most successful group amongst online entrepreneurs although few are willing to go public about what they earn or the amazing free marketing article tips that they are using to earn those hefty six figure commission checks.

But there is one major stumbling block that affiliates who have not discovered free marketing article tips face today. And that is how to advertise their programs or how to generate enough sales leads. To be successful in any online venture a person needs numerous leads on an ongoing basis, that way they will have a chance of turning as many of them as possible into actual sales. Free marketing article tips have enabled many affiliates to generate qualified leads rather effectively.

The more prosperous affiliates have always used pay-per-click ads. The effectiveness of these ads is being eroded daily by the increasing number of fraudsters and scum artists who have invaded pay-per-click ads in droves. This has meant that out of the total click-throughs a person receives and has to pay for, an increasingly horrifying percentage are generated by fraudsters who have no intention of buying anything from the advertised web site.

That has left free marketing article tips as an increasingly attractive and more viable option.

Get more information now to help you grow your traffic overnight using articles. See my articles marketing blog or get my high value email newsletter on the same subject, send a blank Email Now to get it Free. This is a limited time offer.

Comments Off