I wanted to post about making money with a dropshipping business today (while you are sleeping) is something happened while I was out working in my yard this morning.  Ok, I wasn’t sleeping, but I was out working in my yard with my wife and watching one of my kids play when a couple pretty big orders came through the website (and a couple more phone calls which will probably turn into orders).

I have made money on my dropshipping sites while I have been sleeping through.  Also while I have been on vacation, in church, at weddings, at birthday parties … well I think you get the point.  With a dropshipping home based business you can be anywhere, doing anything, and still be making money.  If you had an off line store that you had to run could you be making sales while you were in Hawaii?  Oh wait, you probably would not be in Hawaii because you would be in the store running it!

The beauty of a dropshipping business online is that when you get the order online you do not have to be there.  If you have your shopping cart set up correctly then it will automatically notify the person that has ordered a confirmation with a time line of events.  Even if you are not there, or do not see the order for a few days it has all been taking care of by your shopping cart.  In the email that is sent out I generally tell the people the order will be processed in 7-14 days.  Most of the time its with in a couple of days (under promise and over deliver).  So even if you are on vacation for a week and get back to check orders you still have plenty of time to fulfill the order without making anyone angry!  Again, more joys of a dropshipping business!

I do make money almost everyday when I am sleeping, or eating, or doing something – and you can too!  It is a reality that is not far away.  Setting up a dropshipping business is not easy, nor a get rich quick scheme, but it can make you wealthy if done right!  There is a lot of work involved when it comes to setting up a online dropshipping business, but The Shipper is here to help you!  We can’t set up the business for you, but we can show you where to get incorporated, where to find products, how to sell products online, how to sell products on eBay, or anything else that you can think of.  We are your full service product sourcing site!

dropshipping, home based business, make money online, online business, selling products online dropshipping, dropshipping site, eBay, find products, making money, product sourcing, shopping cart, wholesale

What am I talking about?  I am talking about web analytics software.

What is web analytics?  Well lets find out what Omniture (a web site analytics company) says about it;

“Web analytics provides the foundation for effective online business and
marketing decisions through accurate measurement and analysis. Due to
the increasing strategic position of an organization’s Web channel, Web
analytics has moved beyond the once simple site usage and reporting
tools to the current state of scientifically employing actionable
information to optimize online business performance.”

There are so many different companies offering web analytics software out there; some free, some paid, some amazing and some pretty pathetic.  It is important for every Internet business to have analytics set up properly on their website. I am talking specifically today about the dropshipping business owners because most of them do not have a clue when it comes to web analytics, tracking statistics or anything related to tracking the visitors on their site.

Did you know that there are web analytic tools out there that will let the Internet business owner see the exact page the person is looking at, and interact right there with them in a chat to answer questions.  We live in an amazing time of technology!  These are amazing tools that will provide a much higher conversion then some Internet dropshipping business owner just hoping to make a sale, and never taking a look at what people are actually doing on their site.

Here are just a few things that Web Analytics can help you identify on your dropshipping website:

• Increase Conversion Rate (get instant updates with leads, time spent on pages, most pages viewed etc)
• Find your best converting keywords (and worst)
• Navigation (they help find the most profitable path visitors use through your website so you can capitalize more)
• Exit Pages – find out where your visitors are dropping off the most and learn why.
• Entry Pages – create better info on these pages to retain the visitor longer.

There are several different companies that offer website analytics software, but the only ones I have ever used or recommend are the following:

• Omniture (Paid, but most extensive analytics software on the web)
  
• Google Analytics (Free)
  
• Crazy Egg (heat map, and site overlay tracking)

The key, and bottom line with analytics software is to better understand the customers habits online, and to improve their conversion rate.  If you own an Internet dropshipping work at home business and want to improve your conversion rate, then you might want to see what kind of information your current analytics software is giving you.  If you don’t even know if your site has analytics, then hopefully I have given you something to think about.

internet marketing, online business, website design / help dropshipping, google, internet, internet business owner, web analytics, wholesale

People who make money in a home based business (online or off) have probably at some point in their professional career lost money in a business venture of some sort.  That is just a reality of business and how it work.  You have heard it before I know; “In order to make money you have to spend money”.  This is true too for Internet business and dropshipping businesses.

Some people are under the impression that making money online with an online business is virtually free, which could not be further from the truth!   You are setting up a real business with real business expenses such as – establishing a legal register business, even if you set up a simple partnership rather then incorporate it still is going to cost you money.  You will need to set up a business bank account, probably have need for a CPA, possibly a lawyer, website setup expenses (desinger, domain name and hosting) and of course, marketing.  You will have online marketing costs, as well as off line marketing costs.  If you truly want your business to succeed these are some of the expenses that you really can’t escape from.

Getting to the point of this post is the single biggest difference between the person that eventually makes money online, and the one that loses money and goes broke.  The one that is making money online has probably been where the one going broke is currently at, but he never gave up. I am not sure what the latest percentage is, but the last thing I read said that 80% of all businesses fail in the first year of operation.

So, the one making money today lost money yesterday, but when he got bucked of the horse (so to speak) he got back on the horse and understood business.  There is no true get rich quick business for real.  Business that is going to last takes time,money, and patience.   The main point I want my readers to take from this post is to not give up.  I am also not saying that just because this may be your first venture that you are going to fail.  You must never give up, and remember, those that are making money online right now are those people that never gave up and put every ounce of energy they possibly had into making their business successful.  You will get there with this dropshipping business, just remember that it does not happen over night!

home based business, make money online, online business, pricing and profits dropshipping, internet, making money, online marketing, wholesale

Anyone that has done a little competition research on Google, or a keyword suggestion tool might be a little overwhelmed at first.  The reality of Internet business though is that very few people running these (Internet businesses) actually know how to market their web site online, which eliminates 95% of the competition right from the start (in my opinion).

You may get a little worried when you Google something and find 25 million results come back, and you start to think; “How am I ever going to compete against 25 million people?”  Am I right?  I know it has crossed your mind at some point in time during the setting up of your Internet business in order to work from home.  Here is what you have to realize – Out of that 25 million, how many of those results are actually competition?  How many of those results are an article, or a paper somewhere and have your keyword in the content somewhere, and are showing up as a result just based on that?   Google is doing a pretty good job lately at serving us up a list of pretty relevant results on the top of the SERPs, and if you have a site that is actually selling something (and relevant content) then you will be above most of the 25 million worthless pages that come back as results.

Narrow down the competition by using the tools that Google freely gives away, and do an “allintitle” search for your keywords. If you go to Google and type in the search bar – allintitle:your keyword here …. (obviously typing in your keyword or phrase instead) you will get a list of sites that are using “your keyword here” in the title of their page.  You will notice how this dramatically reduces the number of websites that come back as results.  This is not a perfect number, but does give you a better idea of how many people you are actually going up against.  Now, you take that number and there is a very small percentage of people that actually know how to market their site online, and that is your true competition.  If you are a brand new site and have no Internet marketing experience, then I would suggest not going after a market niche that brings back more then 20k results when using the “allintitle”.  Remember, the lower the number (allintitle) the easier it is to obtain a higher ranking on the search engines.

I am involved in industries that one would think are highly competitive just through basic searches on Google, but when really taking a deep look into the competition there are usually 4-5 sites that I am going up against that really know what they are doing (and this is out of millions of results with the first Google Search).  Finding this information out helps me know (and could give others the courage) that I (or they) am not wasting my time, there is not to much people doing what I want to do, and that my Internet business actually has a chance to survive and thrive.

dropshipping, pricing and profits, product research, selling products online dropshipping, google, internet, internet marketing, new site, wholesale

Anyone that has been doing business online for any amount of time, or who has been involved in search engine optimization (or marketing online) in any form knows the importance of good content.  You will never get a site ranked without unique, creative, great and amazing keyword dense content – period.

So what do you do when you are into a business that hard to create good content for?  How many different ways can I describe this DVD player?  This is the problem that most new to Internet businesses find when it comes to the “setting up of the website” part of their business.

I do have some suggestions that could make ranking on the search engines easier for you based on the content alone on your site:

• Research the Competition (Competition Analysis)  I know it sounds elementary, but you want to see what the top players in your field are doing because you are not going to re-invent the wheel.  You are not going to copy (thats not what I am saying) but you are going to get good ideas as to what the top players in your area are doing.  This could give you some ideas to find topics you normally would not have thought about through information from your supplier.
• Resist the urge to copy and paste the product information from your suppliers site to yours.  If you do this, you have done what probably 100 other websites (you are going up against) has done and eventually someone is going to get hit with duplicate content issues when it comes to Google.  So rewrite you product descriptions using the keywords you have researched out and try to add a twist and a flavor that makes it yours.  We want the search engines to think that it is original so we don’t get hit with any kind of penalties.
• Using Article sites to see what people are talking about.  There are so many article submission sites out there, just do a Google search for “whatever product + article” and you will see a list of ideas and topics.  If I had a site selling Mattresses I can learn (from these article sites) that a lot of people are wondering the proper memory foam mattress care.  Then I can create a page talking about that adding great content and value to my site.  (see example)
• What are bloggers talking about when it comes to your products?  You can do a search on places like Google Blog Search or SERPH to find the “hot” topics in your field and stay up to date.
• Pay a free lance writer to do it for you!  You can find many affordable quality writers on places like elance.com, guru.com or getafreelancer.com.  I have had content written for me for as little as five dollars a page.  You give them keywords they need to focus on, and they can do the rest!

It really is not that hard to find interesting topics on almost anything if you put a little work into it.  It will make all of the difference in the world when it comes to your sites visibility on the search engines and how you do in business long term.  I just read a great article this morning talking about the better the content you have the better rankings you get on the search engines – especially Google.  Now, content alone will not do it for you, but its a good place to start and one of many of the most important pieces of the Internet marketing puzzle that people miss!

internet marketing, online business, website design / help google, internet, internet marketing, search engine optimization, wholesale

If you are an eCommerce dropshipping business owner and work with multiple suppliers, or are thinking about it, then this quick tip is for you.

I got this question the other day from a dropshipping business owner:

“If I am using multiple suppliers and someone one comes to the website and orders multiple products from different suppliers are they going to all get shipped from different places, and arrive at different times?  If so, is there any problems or potential risks I need to take into consideration when dealing with multiple suppliers on the same dropshipping eCommerce site?”

This really is a great question and I am surprised that more people are not asking it to be honest.  Here are a few dropshipping tips in order to answer this question:

• You should create an additional shipping information disclaimer on the website page that holds all of your “shipping information”.  I normally see this on terms of use pages, or policy pages.  However; I would suggest having a page that is called “shipping information” that outlines that the buyer “could receive packages from multiple sources”, and the “packages could arrive at different times”.  Doing this could eliminate useless and unwanted customer service calls.  I would also include this “additional shipping information” for them to read upon checkout, so its fresh in their mind, and the buyer does not “freak out” when they get what they think is their order – and its only 1/2 of it!  You do not want to risk returns because the shipping information you provided was not good enough.  On all of the websites that I have created (my own personal dropshipping businesses) I have gone to great lengths to provide almost to much information, and have received compliments from my customers that the information provided alone caused them to buy because they trusted what I was saying.
• Provide every single one of your suppliers with a packing slip with your domain name and logo on it.  Also include a “shipping sticker” that goes on the to package box so they are familiar with the package they are receiving!  When you are establishing the relationship with the supplier you should ask them if they have something like this set in place, and if they do not then ask them if they are willing to do this for you.  Most of them will be willing to do this for you, but if some will not then I would consider moving onto the next potential supplier.  Often times I see suppliers including their own packing slip,catalog and packaging sticker, and this could confuse the buyer and make them order from the supplier next time and not you!
• Providing examples of why this happens sometimes could set the buyer at ease too.  Most of the time when you order a computer online, you get the monitor one day, the CPU the next, and then some day later the printer.  This is because in many cases your computer was built in a different place then your monitor and printer are stored.  People don’t seem to have a problem when a major computer company does this.  If you are clear on your website, they will not have a problem with you doing it either!

The longer that I am in this business the more I am trying to help educated people that excellent customer service will save the sale every time.  It will even help make the sale too.  In many cases my customers have told me they went with me even though they found a cheaper price somewhere because of my customer support.  They knew if they ever had a problem they would be able to get a hold of me and my “excellent” customer service.  Make this priority number one with your drop ship home based business and you are on the road to success!

finding suppliers, home based business, online business, website design / help dropshipping, wholesale

I love working from home.  Working from home with a dropshipping business is probably one of the most rewarding jobs that there is.  Here’s why:

• More Family Time
• More Time to give to Charity
• More Freedom
• No Annoying Corporate Meetings
• More Travel Time
• You will make more money working for yourself then someone else
• Your financial future is not in the hands of Corporate America (who could go under, or sell on a moments notice)
• You set your own schedule
• You have no inventory to stock or maintain with a dropshipping business
• No Employees to worry about wasting your money

There are so many reasons why setting up a dropshipping business is the best work at home job.  If you are considering getting into a dropshipping business then I hope these are some reasons you will ponder.  If you are in the middle of setting up a dropshipping business then I hope these words will encourage you to keep moving on.   To me it really is about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness!   A dropshipping business can help you have all of this!

dropshipping, home based business, selling products online dropshipping, wholesale

If you are thinking about starting an Internet business that involves dropshippers, suppliers and selling products online then I want you to consider what I think are the 5 most important steps you must take to launch your business the right way.

1. Establish a Business Entity:  Even if you do not know what
   “product line” you are getting into, it is critical to establish a
   business name and receive a Tax ID in order to work with a
   dropshipper.  Most dropshippers will not work with you if are not a
   registered legal business entity of some sort.  If you establish a
   Corporation that is more general (general in name and not specific to
   the product line and website idea you have), then you can always
   establish your specific websites as “DBA’s” (or doing business as)
   under your main Corporation.
2. Product Line:  Think about getting into a product line you know something about.  I hate to put it like this – “find a niche“, but you really do need to find something that you are passionate about.  When you go to build the website including content, product descriptions, finding images and other elements you must have some knowledge to be believable to the potential customer.  They will be able to sniff it out from a mile away if you have no clue what you are doing or talking about.
3. Dropshipper:  Establish a good relationship with your dropshipper.  Make sure you
   don’t put all your eggs in the basket of the first dropshipper you
   find.  Take in to consideration what your pricing is and any rules they
   have, and compare that to other dropshippers you may have found.  Once
   you have this information then go to places like eBay, and do an
   advanced search for completed auctions and find out what some of your
   products are selling for.  You can also go to Google and other major
   search engines and type in keywords that would bring up the competition
   sites, and they you can get into their pricing and see what they are
   selling the products for (and compare that to what you have access
   to).  If it does not look good then you need to keep looking for
   another dropshipper, or consider another product line that you are
   interested in.
4. Extensive Analysis:  Proper keyword research and analysis including website competition analysis.  If you have no clue what the competition is doing then they are already many steps ahead of you.  You need to look over their sites with a fine tooth comb (as the saying goes) and find out things like; keywords they focus on, product pricing, navigation, site design, general information, page rank, how many pages do they have indexed on the engines, what is their cache date, how old is their domain name etc.. but those are some of the biggies that are a must to look into.
5. Website Hosting, Domain Name and Designer:  Once you have figured out what product line you are pursuing then there is no reason to wait on purchasing a hosting plan, domain name, and website designer.  Visit the link and find the top 4 web hosts I recommend.  It is best to find a keyword or phrase that best represents your site.  It will also be easier to rank for your name and that keyword phrase if it is included in your domain name.  A great place to research out domain names is Domains Bot.  Most people think that Go Daddy is the cheapest (or best) place to purchase a domain name, and they are a great place, but not the only place.  We offer domain names right here on The Shipper at a discounted price.  Once you have a web host plan and domain name you need to start thinking about the website design.  Most really good hosting plans offer free web building services, but you have to have some background in web design to really make them work for you.  There are places like Templates Box to find really great web site templates (designs) and there are open source (free) shopping cart systems out there like OSCommerce and Zen Cart that you can learn to customize.  If you do not want to tackle website design yourself then here are some free lance web sites that can build the entire website (from start to finish) for you:

• http://www.elance.com
• http://www.guru.com
• http://www.getafreelancer.com

I really hope this gives you some ideas, and a good start if you are looking to get into a dropshipping home business.  If you follow these steps it will make establishing your business so much easier and help you avoid some headaches and possible pitfalls.

internet marketing, online business, selling products online, website design / help dropshipping, eBay, google, internet, shopping cart, wholesale

I hear from people all the time who have lost a ton of money selling products online because they were scammed and received a fraudulent order.  Just today I heard a disturbing story about a person who was using a dropshipping company to sell products on eBay.  The person who bought the electronic (first hint that it could be fraud if its electronics and they want you to ship overseas) was asking for special request like “I want to buy this for a family member and ship it to Nigeria”.

Most that are new to dropshipping and Internet home based business are excited to get their first order and all they can think about is the profit.  They do everything they can to get the order processed properly (and fast to not make the buyer mad) and find out after then order has shipped that they credit card, or payment used was fraudulent and they see none of they money.  The problem is they have already bought the item from their dropshipper and shipped it out.  They are the ones that have lost, and are out of the money.  The dropshipper can’t do a thing about it, and you really are left with the bill.

I have seen some people taken for as much as $5000.00 in one transaction from shady deals like these.  I do not want that to happen to anyone who reads this article.  That is why I am writing about this not so pleasant “dark side” of dropshipping.

Here is my advice:

If you are doing business in the US, then make sure most of your first transactions are done in the US (so you can get a better understanding of the business you are in).  Do not be to quick to fulfill an order overseas without doing your homework.  I would call your merchant account company, or bank and ask them what are the proper steps to take in order to confirm an overseas payment.  If you ship out quick because you are “giddy and happy”, or because its your “first order” this is how those that run these scams operate – they feed on those kind of people that are so new and green to the industry.

Think first, and be smart about the transaction at hand.  If you do, you could end up saving yourself a lot of money and heart ache.  You do not want your first business transaction to be a bad experience.

dropshipping, finding suppliers, home based business, selling products online dropshipping, eBay, electronics, internet, wholesale

When you think of dropshipping products online and making money with a website the first thing that comes to peoples mind is dvd players, ipods, or anything really with electronics.  Other things that I have seen lately come into peoples thoughts are camping products (getting close to summer so its obvious), fishing products and general outdoor type items.

These are all great areas (and items) that you could make money on (if done right), there is no doubt about that.  BUT; What if you are the person that is thinking of a specialty item that is harder to find a dropshipper for, then what?

First of all do not hesitate to contact The Shipper and ask them to find a supplier (of any kind) an we will do our best to locate (and set up a relationship) with a dropshipper for you.  If you do not want to wait on us, then let me give you some ideas to setting up a relationship with a supplier that normally does not dropship (a specialty item).

Do not be afraid to pick up the phone and talk to the owners (or people in charge of setting up new accounts).  First of all let them know that you are setting up a legitimate home based business that will be marketed on places like Google, Yahoo and MSN, and that you will have top rankings, and soon be getting really good traffic to your website.  Help them get a better understanding of what you are going to be able to do for them online (if they are not there).  You may have to explain to them what dropshipping is and show them how it benefits you both.  Most of the time when I have contacted companies that have not normally been dropshippers, and explained to them what it is and everything, they fall in love with the idea.   Once you have them at this point, then make sure you establish the relationship with them right there.  Set up what your cost will be on there goods and how they will handle all sales, accounts etc.

Again, The Shipper will do everything in its power to help you set up a relationship with a supplier not on our list, but if you want to tackle it yourself then hopefully this gives you some ideas, and a direction to start.

finding suppliers, home based business, product research, selling products online dropshipping, electronics, google, making money, wholesale, yahoo