Your domain name is the address where people can find your online business website.  You can pick whatever domain name you wish (as long as it hasn’t already been taken by somebody else), but it’s not a decision you should make lightly.  Your domain name is one of your most powerful marketing tools.  It’s the first ambassador of your business, the first words that people associate with your company, so it needs to be strong and evocative.  It’s also the tool people use to find your website so it needs to be clear and easy to remember.

5 Tips For Choosing Your Domain Name:

1. Mimic the name of your online business as closely as possible.

If your business is called “Bamboo Heaven”, your domain name should probably be “www.bambooheaven.com”.  Make sure you always choose a .com address – this is the most common suffix, and the one that people will default to.  If you want to be really thorough you can purchase all the domain names for www.bambooheaven (.com, .ca, .net, etc,) and redirect so they all feed into your website.

2. Consider an adjective or noun for your address.

You may not be able to use your company’s name if that domain name is already taken or your company’s name would make for a long and confusing address (”Aunty Ida’s Notions ‘N Things”, for instance).  In this case, you might want to try a descriptor name like “www.sewing.com” or “www.embroidery.com”.  Most of these will probably already be taken, but you might get lucky.  The benefit of a name like this is how short, easy to spell, and evocative it is.  However, it doesn’t promote your online business‘ name.

3. Avoid domain names that are only acronyms.

They’re not descriptive, not memorable, and they have no keywords in them.  It’s probably better to have a somewhat long name “www.brandonmarshallconsulting.com” than the totally non-descript “www.bmc.com”.

4. Don’t use dashes or symbols in your domain name.

You may be tempted to do something like “www.brandon-marshallconsulting.com” simply because it’s available, but that will be hard for people to remember.  Also, if there’s already a domain name so similar to yours that you have to add dashes, consider how many of your would-be visitors are going to end up at that other site.  If your company name actually does have a dash or symbol in it, make sure you register both domain names, (”www.walmart.com” and “www.wal-mart.com”) to cover all your bases.

5. Do a test run.

Tell your friends and family your online business name and ask them to guess what they would expect your domain name to be.  Try giving someone your domain name over the phone and see how difficult it is for them to copy/spell.  If people are misspelling your domain name in one or two common ways, consider registering those names and feeding them into your site as well.

All these contingencies may seem unecessarily circumspect, but you can’t calculate how much business could be lost by a bad domain name.  Your domain name is a roadmap and a billboard all in one – so make sure you pick the best name possible.

internet marketing, website design / help

Last week I was talking to someone who makes a couple hundred dollars a week buying jewelry off Bidz.com and reselling it on eBay.  He mostly buys rings, though on occasion he’ll get earrings or necklaces.  He marks the price up by a modest margin, say $10-50 per item, and resell the items in 3 day auctions.  I tend to focus on eBay in these blogs, as that is the most common online sales venue, but there are certainly other websites you can use to buy and sell products, including Bidz, Etsy, and Craigslist.  Like my friend, you can purchase products off these sites and resell them on eBay, but as with any super-retail sales, you have to be very careful.

Bidz is often touted as a place to buy products at wholesale or clearance prices (mostly jewelry, but also some watches, sunglasses, and art/knick knacks).  After hearing my friend’s success story I checked the message boards and forums and Bidz has definitely gotten mixed reviews.  The biggest complaint is the quality of the product.  I read stories of soft metal, loose stones, off-colors, etc.  Other users were completely happy with what arrived in the mail, though a few mentioned that the supposed original price of the product was inflated.  The second-most prevalent complaint was that returns are a hassle and re-stocking fees are charged regardless of the reason for the return.

If you want to try buying and selling from Bidz I recommend two things:

1. Have the products shipped to you first so you can check the quality.

When purchasing the cheaper jewelry, my friend usually buys 10 or 20 different rings and resells only 8-15 of them, trashing the rest.  The rings are inexpensive enough that he can still make a profit selling the remainder.  He does this so he doesn’t get a lousy rating on eBay or have to deal with a bunch of returns.

2. Be prepared to lose money on some sales.

When buying and selling super-retail, you always run the risk of taking a loss on a particular product.  Hopefully this is balanced by all the sales you make money on.  With a site like Bidz, you may not be able to return products that are sent back to you – you might just have to eat the cost of those.

I usually recommend setting up an account with a dropshipper or wholesaler over selling super-retail, but if you do decide to go the latter route with a site like Bidz, make sure your customer service doesn’t suffer.  Making a couple hundred dollars isn’t worth trashy your rating on eBay.

make money online, selling products online

I recently received a question about selling items on eBay via Auction-Style vs. using the “Buy It Now” feature.  People tend to get confused about when they should use the Buy it Now option, and when they should stick to a simple auction.

First, A definition of Auction-Style and Buy It Now:

Auction-Style:

Auction-style is the most common way to sell items on eBay.  You set a base bid, say ninety-nine cents, and potential buyers submit their bids over that amount.  The bidding goes on for a set period of time, (you can specify any period from 1-7 days), and whoever has the highest bid submitted at the end of the auction “wins” the item.  The highest bidder is obligated to buy the item, but if they back out or fail to pay you can submit a “Second Chance Offer” to other bidders, offering to sell them the item instead.  Your base bid can be as low or high as you like: if you set it too low, you risk having your item sell for much less than its value.  If you set it too high, you might not have any interest, and you will have to pay eBay a percentage of the reserve price.

Buy It Now:

Buy It Now is a feature that you can add to an Auction-Style listing.  Buy it Now allows bidders to purchase your product immediately for a set price without waiting for the auction to close or competing with the other bidders.  The Buy It Now price must be at least 10% higher than your starting price.  You can only sell one item per listing when using this feature.  It is visible only for a limited time, until someone bids on your item or your reserve price is met; then it disappears and bidding continues as usual.  It also causes your listings to appear when people search through the Buy It Now Only listings.  The downside of the Buy It Now feature is that it effectively puts a cap on how much your item will sell for.

When should you use the Buy It Now feature?

Regular Auction-Style is best way to sell items with a high demand, low availability, or variable price.  For instance, if you had a rare signed Beatles album, you would want to use regular Auction-Style so the bidding could go sky-high.  With a collector’s item or other rarity, you really have no idea how much some people would be willing to pay for it, so you don’t want to put any limit on that (other than a minimum limit – your reserve price).  Other items like jewelry tend to have variable prices, so you wouldn’t necessarily want to to use the Buy It Now feature.  Other products, however, almost always sell for a certain price.  For instance, if you’re selling an iPod Touch, there are a lot of iPod Touches on eBay and they all sell for around the same price.  Using the Buy It Now feature might help you to sell the iPod faster.  Simply put, Buy It Now is a good way to sell a product quickly when you already know what it is likely to sell for.

Note on Fixed Price Listings:

The other way to use the Buy It Now feature is with a Fixed Price listing.  A Fixed Price listing is one with no bidding: the price is set, and buyers can purchase your product immediately for that price.  With a Fixed Price Listing, the Buy It Now button is always visible, and again your posting is visible when people search the Buy It Now Only listings.  With a Fixed Price Listing, you can sell more than one item on a single listing, and you can list multiple items with variations.  You can also add the “Selling With Best Offer” feature where people can submit their offers for your approval.

If you want to use the Fixed Price/Buy It Now option, you have to meet certain feedback requirements (a minimum feedback score of 10 to sell a single item, 30 to sell multiple items – plus you must be a member for 14 days or more).  If you are ID verified and list PayPal as a payment option, the feedback score requirements are 5 and 15 respectively.

eBay

On Saturday eBay suffered from what some are calling a “glitch” and others a “disastrous meltdown of epic proportions” (well, maybe it’s just me using the latter phrase).  EBay’s search engine went on the fritz, effectively making listings invisible to many eBay visitors Saturday and Sunday morning.  As a result, many listings went all day without bids and some listings with low starting bids were snapped up for a fraction of their usual selling price.  EBay blames the 33% increase over last year’s holiday posts, but is penitent enough to promise that sellers will be compensated somehow.  Thus, if you posted an item on Saturday and lost your shirt due to search engine malfunction, stay tuned for news of how eBay will make it up to you.

eBay, news

Wholesale Match is releasing an information packet that will explain everything you need to know about dropshipping.  This packet will detail exactly how to use dropshippers to make money selling products online without carrying an inventory.  If you are interested in receiving this free informational packet please email support@wholesalematch.com.

news

Wholesale Match is diving into social media, establishing a presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  Our purpose is twofold: first, to improve communication with our members, and second, to continue to educate people about selling products online.  Through Facebook we hope to establish a community where our members can connect with dropshippers and wholesalers and share business tips with other e-commerce entrepreneurs.  We plan to use Twitter to Tweet hot deals on products.  Finally, on YouTube we will provide educational videos to help people sell products from personal websites and on eBay.

Wholesale Match is committed to online business education.  Many people enter the e-commerce world unprepared, and waste time and money trying to establish an online business.  We hope that our social media campaign will provide the knowledge, skills, and connections to help people run successful online businesses.

We encourage our members to use all Wholesale Match resources, including those we will post on social media outlets.  As we add new features on these sites, we will post updates in the news section of the Wholesale Match website.

If you have any suggestions for educational videos you would like to see, products you would like us to find for the Daily Deals, or any other information you would like us to include in our social media campaign, please post your comments below or email them to support@wholesalematch.com.  We welcome your feedback.

Education, internet marketing

To help Wholesale Match members sell the $200 A Day products on eBay, I’m going to be making regular posts like the one from last week where I’ll show examples of products that can be sold for a generous profit margin on eBay.  Last week we looked at an emerald and diamond ring.  This week, I’ve got two potential products in mind: a Lowepro messenger-style laptop bag, and the first season of The Prisoner on Blu Ray DVD.

Step 1:

The first thing I do is click on the $200 In A Day button and select “Products” from the drop-down menu.  I scroll down the list of products and choose two that looked good to me.  Basically what I look for is products that have been significantly marked down (the messenger bag was 80% off its original list price), and I also like free shipping since that’s something that helps your listings move on eBay.  I only choose sellers who don’t have a problem with shipping to an address other than the one on the credit card.

Step 2:

Once I have my potential products in mind, the Lowepro Messenger Factor M 14″ Laptop Bag and the The Prisoner: The Complete Series on BluRay DVD, I open up my eBay account and do an advanced search on both products.  I check the completed listings, and determine that Lowepro messenger-style laptop bags are selling for about $30-40, and The Prisoner on BluRay sold for $49.99.  Make sure that you are checking only new products, or refurbished, or used, depending on what your potential product is.

I can buy the Lowepro bag for $12 after a $48 instant discount, with free shipping.  I can get The Prisoner for $40 after a $60 instant discount with free shipping.  That should provide me with approximately $18-28 profit on the bag, and $10 profit on the DVD set.  Maybe I’ll get a little more, or a little less.  For my two products, I should make around $35.  That’s not a ton of money, but I’ll probably spend less than an hour finding, posting, and selling the products.  For me, $35 an hour is a decent wage.  Maybe you expect to make more, in which case you’ll probably want to look at slightly more expensive products.  I like to minimize my risk, and I think these two products are quite safe.

Step 3:

Before I post these products I’m going to do one more thing – follow the links to the retail websites selling the products, copy all pertinent information including the URL, coupon codes, etc., and call or email the retailer to ensure there are plenty of messenger bags and DVDs in stock, and the price isn’t going to jump up in the next couple of days.  Once I’ve covered all my bases, I’m ready to sell my products on eBay.

eBay, make money online

Wholesale Match is not the only database of dropship and wholesale suppliers, but we like to think of the other guys as MacDonald’s while we are Le Caille.  After all, any burger will get you full, but a real meal satisfies the soul.  We like to satisfy the soul.  Thus, while Joe Shmoe will give you a login password and set you loose on his database, we run a full-service operation: educational articles, a full-time support line if you have any questions about dropshipping, website design, SEO, or what you should buy your Aunt Mildred for her birthday, eBay resources, and finally our Research Team.  The Research Team exists for the sole purpose of doing the research for you.  If you are looking for suppliers for hockey sticks, Christmas ornaments, bowling balls, or anything else, simply submit a Research Request to our Research Team and they will provide you with an extensive list of dropshippers, wholesalers, and/or affiliates in 1-3 business days.

photo credit: Duchamp
photo credit: gbrunett

The following are answers to some FAQs about Research Requests:

How do I submit a Research Request?

Simply login to the Wholesale Match website at www.wholesalematch.com, click on the “Suppliers” button, and then scroll down the page.  On the lower left-hand side you’ll see a button that says “Can’t Find What You’re Looking For?  Submit A Research Request.”  Click that button and the submission form will pop up.

Why not just search the database myself?

You are more than welcome to do that, but you will probably want to also submit a Research Request for the following reasons: First, we’re better at searching than you are.  We’re familiar with the suppliers in our database and we know the best suppliers for your specific product.  Second, we have access to more suppliers.  While we update our database regularly, we find dozens of new suppliers each week and may have located a new one for the product you’re looking for.  Third, if there is a paucity of suppliers for the product you’re looking for, we will search until we find more.

Are there any guidelines when submitting Research Requests?

While Wholesale Match customers have unlimited Research Requests, we generally ask that you limit your requests to five products at a time so we can allocate our resources fairly.  Once we email you a list of suppliers, you are welcome to submit a request for five more products.  We are often able to return Research Requests within 1 business day or even a few hours, depending on the products requested.

How do I get the best results from my Research Request?

The more clear you are, the better.  You are welcome to ask for specific brand names or styles or types of products, though of course you will get more results if your category is still reasonably broad.  You can specify if you don’t want international suppliers, if you are open to wholesalers as well as dropshippers, and so on and so forth.  If there is any confusion about your Research Request, you can always call our customer service line to clarify.

Your time is valuable, and the Wholesale Match Research Team will save you countless hours searching for suppliers.  If you have not already taken advantage of their services, I urge you to do so.  If you have submitted a Research Request in the past, I would recommend doing so again, as they may have found additional suppliers for your products in the meantime.

dropshipping, finding suppliers, wholesale

EBay was recently flooded by hundreds of XBoxes which are banned from connecting to XBox Live as they’ve been hacked in the past.  As a result, sellers dropshipping electronics on eBay can expect more detailed questions from buyers, and may want to preempt concerns by highlighting the legit status of their gaming systems or other electronics in their eBay post.  Buyers will want to purchase with caution, and pay by PayPal so they can issue a chargeback if their system doesn’t function as expected.

news

With the advent of Windows 7, most PC users have to update their system, something that you’ve surely done in the past and will inevitably have to do again in the future.  With all the software, browser, and operating system updates that are continually being released, it’s not unusual to find yourself falling behind, especially if you’re not one of those techie geeks who watches Mac Rumors religiously or could tell me Bill Gate’s favorite breakfast cereal.  You may not see the necessity of staying on top of computer updates, and in fact, you may not see how this topic relates to online business or dropshipping at all.  But a simple software update could have a far greater impact on your online business than you imagine.  In the e-business world, the march of technology has a butterfly effect: each change creates a ripple that grows larger and larger as it spreads through the virtual realm.

Why are computer updates important? If you’re not using the most current versions of software like Microsoft Word and browsers like Mozilla Firefox and Internet Explorer, you don’t know what you might be missing.  If you send an outdated Word file, the recipient likely won’t be able to open it.  The supplier you emailed or the customer you’re communicating with may well drop the conversation entirely rather than struggle to open the file or ask you to send it again.  If your browser is outdated, you probably won’t be able to view most graphics and videos properly, and you may not be able to visit some sites at all.  Staying on the current edge of technological updates is important for convenience, communication, and professionalism in the online business world.

How can you stay up to date? Most systems have an option to continually search for and download updates.  Also, it’s a good idea to have a techie clean up your computer regularly, checking for viruses, making sure everything is current, streamlining your system to run more efficiently.

Other things to consider: Other common problems we encounter in e-business communication are spam filters set so tightly that legitimate business emails can’t squeak thorough, and firewalls so intense that a customer can’t log into the Wholesale Match website or other sites that require passwords.  You want to protect your computer, but you also want to make sure you’re not locking out valid communication.  To avoid the virus paranoia you could always do what I did and switch to a Mac

dropshipping, online business