Most every Internet business owner I talk to everyday has the same goal – increase sales, make more money and grow their business.  What I do notice is most of them are missing a huge opportunity to increase sales through building up their email database.

For most businesses the customer base is the life blood.  If you are not doing anything to increase your customer base (even if they have not bought from you) then you are missing out on so many potential sales.  I am talking about offering something free on your website, like signing up for a chance to win something.  These “opt in” offers in many cases can double if not triple the number of emails that you can market to.

You need to make sure you are using some sort of opt in program (and make them double opt in) to make sure it is legit so you can market to them without worry about breaking spam laws.

Lets say you ran something like this for a few weeks and increased your database list from 100 to 300.  That is 200 more people you can send an email to about some new product, or some new special you got going on.

This is a really quick tip, but I wanted to make sure that all of my readers are doing everything they can to increase their user (email) database.  This will also help you down the road (if you are looking to sell your business) to make more money.

internet marketing, online business internet, internet business owner, wholesale

I want to share a marketing tip with everyone this morning that can help with improving search engine rankings, but benefit the people who are using your site.  I am talking about creating unique content pages for your niche products (and keywords).

The benefit to creating content pages on your website (and give more information) is the increase in traffic you will obtain from search engines because of how easy it is to rank for niche keywords.  Often times people are so focused on going after the “big keywords” that they forget about the little niche ones that will bring such an increase in traffic.

I have talked before about selling mattresses online, and some of the unique keywords that people are using to search for mattresses.  For example when you think of buying a mattresses you normally do not think of mattresses that can be bought for RV’s, campers, boats etc.  What if you create content pages for each of these kind of product niches – like an rv mattress (as example) because it would be easy for these sites to rank for such a unique keyword, but the main benefit is that the site is creating amazing information for the target traffic that is looking for it.  It will increase your traffic, conversion rate and sales!

Just remember that most of the time if you are using content to describe products that has been supplied to you by your dropshipper, there are many other people that have access to the same information and are using the same descriptions.  You need to set your site content apart by doing more then the competition.  You do not want the search engines to think your site is full of duplicate content (for which they will not rank you as well).

In conclusion, if you are making efforts like this little tip to improve the information on your site you will see an increase in traffic, conversion and sales.

internet marketing, online business, website design / help niche products, search engine rankings, wholesale

The most important thing I can do if you are struggling with finding suppliers, is to encourage you to not give up.  If you have not looked into our main product over on the main site, then my first advice would be to gain access to our premium product sourcing membership.  Right now at The Shipper we are offering a 7 day FREE trial for full access to our complete list of dropshippers.  The reason I want you to gain access to our membership is because members can take advantage of our product research team who will find products for you, if you just tell them what you are wanting to sell.  If you eventually do end up paying for a membership and we can’t help you, or find the products that you are looking for there is no risk.  You will get all of your money back, and that is a promise.  We are tired of all of the dropshipping lists out there online that are worthless and nothing more then a scam.  The Shipper is different, and once you are a member you will notice the difference if you have been burned before by other dropshipping directory companies.

Here are some ideas I wanted to share with you that may help you find the dropshippers you are looking for if you are not wanting to gain access to The Shipper.

• Find out the manufacturers name, and go online to Google and find contact information such as email, phone number, address.  Do anything you can to get a hold of them and ask them to give you a list of their distributors, or dropshipper companies.
• Go to EXPOS and Product Trade Shows.  Usually at these events you can find products, and set up relationships on the spot!  These are good because you are making a personal connection.
• The best connection is the family connection.  Ask around in your family and you might be surprised to find out who has access to what.
• Go and visit the warehouses or manufacturers of the products you are looking to offer and see if you can set up some kind of relationship, or if they will give you a list of the distributors that you may be able to talk into dropshipping.

These ideas I mention above can be time consuming and they do require you to get out of your comfort zone and talk to people, but can be rewarding and pay off in the long run.  Of course I suggest gaining access to our product sourcing membership because that is the easiest option for you to find almost any product you want.  If you are hesitant to pay for our service, our customer support would be glad to talk to you (free of charge) and give you a 30 minute product sourcing phone consultation to explore all of your dropshipping options.

dropshippers, finding suppliers, product research, selling products online dropshipping, find products, google, product sourcing, wholesale

Just wanted to give a little reminder post today about creating and updating your specials page.  Fathers Day is just around the corner, and many people are getting online and looking at what options they have when it comes to finding the perfect gift for good ole Dad.  I wanted to take this opportunity to remind any dropshipping business owners, or clients of mine to make sure and add in a “Fathers Day Special” to your website.  You still have plenty of time to take advantage of the Fathers Day shoppers so don’t worry about being to late.

Another good reminder is making sure you actually have a specials page, and then even more important – making sure its updated.  You don’t want someone to find your specials page in July with a Valentine special.  That will lose you credibility on your website faster then anything!

Fathers Day specials don’t have to be anything to crazy, so even offering something like 5-10% off on all orders from now until Fathers Day would be ok.  Bottom line here is to remember to do something.  People are looking for deals during the holidays, and that is what we need to give them.

If you are wanting to find more information about setting up a dropshipping business The Shipper is offering a FREE 7 day trial of our premium product sourcing membership and dropshipping educational members only area.

online business, selling products online dropshipping, product sourcing, wholesale

Internet business in general, not even talking specifically about a dropshipping business can be a roller coaster ride for sure.  I can’t tell you how many times I have been asked by clients how come some weeks are really good for sales and some weeks it seems like their business has dropped off the face of the earth?  With brand new dropshipping businesses I see this happening a lot and there are several factors to consider that I want you to understand:

1. Search Engine Changes – Lets say you have been implementing a keyword strategic SEO plan on your website for several months and you have been experiencing good rankings, traffic and making sales.  What you need to understand with search engines is that they change often, and your rankings can change often.  If you have played by the “white hat” rules of search engine optimization your site more then likely will be back up on top in a few days or a week if it disappeared.  When the search engines go through algorithm changes you can see a flux in traffic and rankings, but like I said if you are doing everything you can to play by the rules of the search engines, your rankings will come back.  Even dropping from a top 3 spot to a bottom 3 spot could change your sales drastically.
2. The Seasons – Here are a couple examples; 1.) Lets say you own a camping goods dropshipping site and its getting close to Winter, and all of your product specials are still things like canoes, tents and summer related products that could have a huge impact on sales from one week to the next.  2.)  What is going on in the world?  I normally see a drop in sales the two weeks leading to taxes being due.  Once tax season is over I usually see a bigger spike in sales the even the previous months?  Why?  It is probably obvious, but people are not as afraid of money and they are ready to spend again.  Bonus example 3.)  I usually see a slow down in sales starting mid first quarter, why?  Probably because people are starting to see their credit card statements and the damage that was done during the Christmas season.  These are all normal things and need to be taken into consideration when doing business online.

You can slow down the negative effect if you just take some time to identify what specials are currently on your site, what seasons you can take advantage of (for example starting a month ago people should have been having memorial days specials), and hint, hint starting to think about a 4th of July or Fathers Day specials on their site.  Doing these simple things will help the sales on your site be more consistent.

So don’t me wrong though, you will have highs and lows in business and sales, but if you are doing everything you can to combat them (as mentioned above) and stick with it (your dropshipping business) for years to come, you will get to a point where you are able to handle the slower weeks and realize it will pass.  Most of your competition will give up because of these kind of things, and that is good news for you, if you are sticking with it!

If you are looking to get into a dropshipping business, or currently own one, and are looking for a premium product sourcing solution – The Shipper is currently offering a FREE 7 day full trial of our premium product sourcing membership.

dropshipping, make money online, online business, selling products online christmas, dropshipping, dropshipping site, internet, product sourcing, search engine optimization, wholesale

Something I have been using for about two years now on all of my eCommerce sites is an answering service called My Answering.

What is an answering service anyway?

Lets say its just your running the business solo (not unlike most Internet business owners) – How would you like to have a sales team, customer service team, a team to man the phones 24-7, and pretty much the appearance of a whole team that does everything?  How does that sound?  Oh yea, and you still can go at your business solo, and do not have to hire employees.  You can accomplish this with a business answering service, and that is exactly what I am talking about with My Answering.

I can’t tell you how good it feels to be on vacation in Hawaii and know that I will not be missing one sale because My Answering team is taking care of everything for me.  What I have found out too, is there is a lot of people that will call the number at the wee hours of the morning just to see if there really is someone there, and if the business is legit.  This helps add to the legitimacy of your Internet business.  People feel much safer ordering online when they know they can always get a hold of someone.

I have also found out that with My Answering there are some people that do like ordering online because they fear they will do it wrong so they have the people at My Answering just place the order for them.  If they are on another site that does not have this feature of My Answering the other site will lose the sale.

So, if you are running a dropshipping business and are looking for additional ways to make money on your site then My Answering phone service can really help out.  If you are looking to get started with a dropshipping Internet business then right now is the perfect time to take advantage of our premium product sourcing membership for a full 7 day free trial!

online business dropshipping, dropshipping site, internet, internet business owner, product sourcing, wholesale

if you are new to Internet business (or business in general) then you are very new to the whole idea of setting up a corporation, tax benefits when you incorporate or what exactly setting up a corporation will do for you.  There are many sources out there that are willing to give you ideas like the IRS, also companies like The Tax Club offering tax services where they will teach you tax secrets, as well as do everything from setting up the corporation for you, AND do your taxes.

The bottom line is you need to contact a professional service in this matter.  You do not need to set it to chance by having your moms uncle that did it 10 years ago for a business that failed.  It needs to be someone that is up to date with all of the ever changing laws in the tax world.

Most people that I deal with are willing to work with a Tax Professional, but they just do not know where to turn.  It is probably the most important step when setting up your business, so I want to make sure you do it correctly.  I have seen to many businesses fail because of poor structure.  I have also seen many businesses waste money because they did not know all of the benefits of setting up a business correctly.

The Tax Club, or other tax service related representatives will answer any and all of your questions
on tax savings and relevant tax schemes that will benefit your dropshipping business.  If you are looking for even more additional information on employment and Internet business taxes you can check out the Employment Development Department. It would also be in your businesses best interest to get advice on choosing a tax Return Preparer as well as – request a visit from the Government representative for your tax problems and needs.

Taking all of these steps when setting up a dropshipping business will put you so many steps ahead of the competition and will give you the edge you need to succeed.  If you are unfamiliar with dropshipping, or how a dropshipping business works The Shipper is offering a FREE 7 day trial of our premium product sourcing membership.  Join today!

home based business, online business dropshipping, internet, product sourcing, wholesale

I talk to a lot of people who are doing business online everyday (no surprise given my industry).  Come to think about it, almost every single one of my conversations are with Internet business owners and 90% of them ask me the same question;  “Would you please take a look at my website, and give me any ideas on how to improve it?”  Besides helping business owners find products to dropship, I own my own business online and have been where these people are.  I love to help in every area that I can, or have time for.

I have narrowed down what I think are the top 6 ideas to improving a dropshipping website -

1. Site Structure – Make sure your site loads fast, and that the code is clean.  If you built the website yourself, or had someone else build it, did you make sure (you or) they used CSS, and that it validates.  When using CSS you make sure that everything on the site is uniform.  The font size, style of font, colors used etc.  You will lose more customers then you realize by having a site that looks like it was designed by a 6th grader in a computer class.  I know you have seen them.  Text that is a rainbow of colors.  First paragraph green, second paragraph red, next yellow and so on (just repeat any color you can think of and you get the point).  Creating a site like this is very unprofessional and you will not be taken serious.
2. Images, graphics and banners – Make sure that you are using the cleanest looking, fastest loading and most optimized images you can.  There are several programs out there that will help you optimize your images for the web.  You may even have some software on your computer and not even know it.  Most programs like Photo Shop, or Paint Shop Pro (even the basic operating system photo programs) have image optimization programs that can help speed up the load time and clarity of the photo.  The more images that can help describe the product you are selling, the better.  Remember the saying that a picture is worth a thousand words.
3. Site Navigation – If your potential customers can’t browse through your site easily, or feel they are lost, you will lose them 80% of the time from my experience and website analytics tracking.  I try to follow the “3 click rule”, meaning that it will not take people more then 3 clicks to get to your shopping cart.  Also make sure you add an html site map and a universal search engine site map so the search engines can know about the pages you are offering and when they are updated.  Doing this will help you have the freshest content from your site on the search engines.
4. Amazing Unique Keyword Rich Content – The more information you can provide the better.  People get on search engines to look for what?  Information.  If you are not providing information that is at the very least better then your competition, then you might as well give up.  For example, if you are working with a supplier, and so are 1000 other people, how many of those people do you think are just copy and pasting the product descriptions and not doing anything they can to make it their own using the keywords they want to target?  Most of those people are not doing anything to make their content better (from my experience) so even just changing things around a little and making the content better by being more descriptive and using more keywords will put you ahead of the competition 100%.
5. Make Me Feel Safe – If you do not have any kind of SSL certificate, BBL logo, or “hacker safe” logo on your site, then you need to research these out and do whatever you can to get at least one of these added to your site where visitors can clearly see.  With all of the talk going on about identity theft people are very weary these days about giving credit card info online.  So, anything you can do to help people feel safer on your site (even a little bit) will help increase sales.
6. Contact Info -  People are curious by nature, and the thing that runs through my mind more then anything when I am visiting a site is – “Who is the person behind this?”  I want to know that I can talk to a human if needed and that someone will be there to actually answer my email or return my call.  Make sure you have a phone number where people can contact you, email address and mailing address.  When people know they can contact you they feel safer and will be less hesitant to purchase from you.

I have blogged a lot about these topics in the past, but i wanted to do a new post and talk about what I believe are the most important things you can be doing right now to improve how things are going on your website.  These are not hard or costly steps, but will take some time and planning.  If you get started implementing them now it will pay off in the long run.

If you are looking to get started in a dropshipping business then check out The Shipper and our FREE 7 day trial of our premium product sourcing membership.

dropshipping, online business, website design / help dropshipping, find products, internet, internet business owner, product sourcing, shopping cart, wholesale

Giving a bigger then normal discount for a “huge order” could pay off huge long term for your business if done right.  Many times when getting started with an online business, I see owners hesitant to offer discounts because they are wanting to make as much profit as possible because of all the money that have spent to build the business up to this point.  If you are stingy with your profit margin it could mean loss potential revenue as well as long term customers.

Let me explain – I was working on a huge deal selling a large number of products to a government agency.  I have never sold any products to a government agency, let alone as many of these products as they wanted.  I know that these kind of agencies bid out (or at least do a lot of shopping around), so when I come back with a quote I needed to be on top of my game and give them the best possible price because I only get one chance to close the deal.  I thought about the long term potential of locking up an amazing client, and what they could do for me in the long run.  There are lots more government agencies that could use the same product, and if I do everything to make the agency happy I am selling the product to, they will talk (and potentially recommend).

So the bottom line here is if you normally make $100 profit per item/product, and you have a potential order of hundreds or thousands, drop the price to $25/sale (or something significant) to make sure and seal the deal because the repeat business could be amazing, and the referrals will come in like you never thought possible.

In conclusion, I feel that by offering a 75% discount on my products will give me more business long term, by repeat business from the other agencies that hear about this “amazing deal” from my company.  This is business that I would probably not have anyway if I did not offer such a great price, so it is a win win for everyone involved!

pricing and profits, selling products online wholesale

Every one (at least the ones that I talk with) doing business online (or business in general) is always looking for ways to increase sales and conversion rate.  I have talked in the past about web site analytics and what they can do to help you better understand what visitors are doing inside your website, but this tip today is much simpler.

If you ever get an email from a customer to call you back, or if you get a phone call from a customer really interested in your product do everything you can to close the sale while you are on the line with them.  Something that has helped me increase my conversion rate with phone conversations 80% is offering a 5% discount if they order that day.  I already offer free shipping on most of my products, so they know they are saving money on shipping, and an additional 5% is more then likely to push them over the edge and make a purchase from you.   I often tell them if they buy from me, and refer another person I will give that person a 5% discount, as well as “kick them back” 5% for the referral.  Doing business this way is a “win win” for both sides.  Don’t look at it like you are losing 5, or 10%, think about it as money you would have lost if you didn’t do everything you could to close the sale.

Yes, this is a simple idea but how many of you are making offers like this when you are chatting with your customers?  If you make sure to go the extra mile for them, they will eventually buy from you.  At least 80% of the time from what I have seen.

With a dropshipping business we have a special opportunity to make more money on sales because we are not running a warehouse, and do not have to worry about those expenses, or shipping expenses.  We have the ability to give discounts that will make the consumer happy and still put money in our wallet.

In conclusion, a simple discount offered to a person on the fence about buying or not could push them into your database as a customer!  If you are wanting to find products to sell online through a dropshipper, wholesaler or manufacturer let The Shipper help out, while taking advantage of our 7 day free trial of our product sourcing membership.

internet marketing, pricing and profits, selling products online dropshipping, find products, free shipping, product sourcing, wholesale