Monday, February 9, 2009

My Internet Business Review: Where To Sell On The Internet

By Trisha Frauenhofer

Starting a venue for sales on the internet can be a daunting experience if you're just looking at technical requirements. You need a server, a certificate, a merchant services vendor, tested and trusted security and on top of that, you need something to sell! Putting all the pieces together can be a lot of work.

The first option is eBay. It is a widely known site and there are endless possibilities to selling here. It is also something that you can stop or start anytime. If you decide you don't like it, you haven't invested a lot of money and time into a web page of your own.

eBay is the second most widely known sales site on the Internet, after Amazon.com. It has millions of visitors each and every day, and uses the "auction" mechanism to keep people coming back. From the perspective of someone selling products on the internet, it has an easy setup procedure, and you can start or stop at any time. If you don't like it, you haven't sunk a lot of money into it to get it running.

First thing to do is decide what you are going to sell. If you haven't decided what you want to sell, here are a few options that are highly recommended in my internet business Review. One option is to purchase things wholesale and then sell them at a higher price on an auction. To do well at this, you will need to find the best supplier for what you want to sell and make sure you know what your niche is.

My internet business reviews Etsy as a similar site to eBay, but it focuses on handmade things. Etsy charges smaller listing fees than eBay does, but has a smaller clientele. That said, Etsy's clientele is looking for handmade things, and it has a comparable set of options for setting your own custom web shop. Etsy has a few more search options than eBay does, like a color search wheel, even a geolocator. The aim for Etsy is to be the online equivalent of a crafts fair.

eBay is more labor intensive than Amazon, but the percentages that they take out are less. eBay has moderately high listing fees, so keep that in mind when planning your sales patterns. eBay is the ideal forum for selling things you buy locally, or retailing something you buy at wholesale. By the time you've outgrown an eBay shop, you'll be well set on setting up your own eCommerce site.

The third option is to sell information or services. If you like to do research on particular subjects, you can put it together in the form of eBooks, magazines, pamphlets, advertising, or software. This saves people much time and money by not having to do research. If you can initially invest some time the profits will come. These options are highly recommended in my internet business Review.

Another website option to consider is called Etsy. It is very similar to an eBay store except it is for handmade items. There are also more personalization options. Etsy also charges much less for listings than eBay. If you have things you are making, Etsy is for sure the place. There are over 5,000 people with stores and even more who just shop. Etsy has wonderful options for people to find your products. Amongst other cool features, Etsy has a color search wheel, a new shop highlight, and a geolocator. They also allow you to put several tags on your items so people can find them better. Once you have pictures and descriptions written out you should save them in a word type program on your computer. That way when you run out of products, you can list more later with ease. Etsy is a fun and popular place to be for handmade items. - 16651

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